The progress of his movie shooting was very slow, but Levi wasn't anxious. He knew that a large-scale special effects movie required meticulous work, so he remained patient.
In his spare time, aside from filming, he could also pay attention to other things in Hollywood, making life anything but boring.
This year's Oscars were similar to last year's. There were no particularly outstanding works. In the end, the winner was Brokeback Mountain, which was more innovative and bold in terms of subject matter. This movie, depicting homosexual themes, could be regarded as catering to the Oscars' taste, earning it awards.
Through this movie, Ang Lee became the first Asian person to win the Oscars for Best Director and Best Picture. If he could not win the Best Film at the same time, it always made people feel that something was missing.
In Levi's original memory, Ang Lee won the Best Director twice but failed to win the Best Film. It has to be said that it was a big regret. But now, compared with the original situation, it was much better.
Because the multi-threaded narrative structure had been used in The Three-Body Problem 1, although this year's Crash was also very popular, it was still similar to Babel Levi remembered a year later. Although it had good reviews, it did not get the award. After all, movies like this relied on novelty. Without novelty, the movie would be meaningless.
Oscar had obviously undergone some changes because of Levi, but Levi didn't think such changes were bad. At least, he thought Ang Lee's movie was very good, and he was very happy that Ang Lee won the award.
Compared with the Best Director Award, Seymour Hoffman and Reese Witherspoon won this year's Best Actor and Actress awards, so they lacked somewhat in star power, after all. Hoffman was not a top star and was slightly different from top stars in terms of audience appeal.
Such insufficient behavior even caused some ridicule in the media, and some media even made direct comments. "Instead of this, it would be better to give the best actor to King Kong and the best actress to Brokeback Mountain - that would at least be controversial enough..."
Of course, such evaluations could only be made in words. Giving the best actor to the orangutan and the best actress to the man. This kind of thing could not be done at the Oscars...
Apart from these awards, in terms of technical awards, Enigma Company once again won a bumper harvest. While X-Men 3 was a huge success at the box office, it also fully demonstrated its technological skills. It defeated its competitors, such as King Kong, directed by Peter Jackson, in terms of best sound editing, best sound effects, and best visual effects.
After putting aside the excellent script of The Lord of the Rings, although the film directed by Peter Jackson still had top-notch sound and light effects, it was not as good as the film's character creation and plot control. Inadequacies had also been revealed.
Although King Kong was a good commercial movie, it was completely suppressed by X-Men 3 in terms of box office and reputation. Even its special effects were not much better than X-Men 3. Therefore, Jackson could not beat Nolan in terms of fame in the competition.
Although Nolan had achieved great success in these technical awards, he had not achieved what people had said before. He was not able to win Oscars for his superhero movies, let alone awards; he didn't even get a nomination, although he had deeply explored the villains in superhero movies and started to put heroes and criminals on the same level.
He dug deeply at a high level, but his digging was still superficial - after all, this was a commercial film, and if it was too dark or too profound, it was not conducive to the film's box office. Since Nolan had considered the box office in this regard, there was no way to take into account the critical acclaim.
Commercial movies lacked innovation in shooting techniques. Although Nolan's narrative structure was very good, it was not enough to make people shine. Therefore, this movie was the same as The Dark Knight in Levi's memory. It received rave reviews from the audience but was not well received by professionals.
This result made many Nolan fans quite dissatisfied. They complained on the Internet, criticizing the old judges in the academy for not understanding movies at all and not knowing what a good movie was.
Although these things had nothing to do with Levi, the next thing was somewhat involved with Levi.
"Nolan said he does not want to continue filming the next sequel to X-Men. He believes that filming a trilogy is already good. If he continues filming, there will not be too many ideas and new ideas. So he hopes not to continue this series." Soon, Alexander brought Levi a piece of news that could not be called very good. "He said that he hopes to shoot some other things and, if possible, to continue cooperating with us."
Although Nolan's words were tactful, the meaning was actually very simple and direct: He is already famous now, so there is no need to waste time on superhero movies. He does not plan to continue this series but is going to make some other movies.
Levi is not surprised by this: any ambitious director would not be willing to devote all his energy to a superhero movie. Although this thing is very profitable, after all, the story belongs to others, and the thoughts belong to others. In the final analysis, it is not his own.
However, this series is very profitable, and Nolan's resignation came as a surprise to Levi. Levi is worried about whether the series can continue to make money if he leaves.
But Alexander was surprisingly supportive of Nolan's proposal to discontinue the series.
"I also think that this series should be restarted: although the movie's filming is good, the money spent is getting bigger and bigger. The movie actors are all too famous, and if you want them to perform, you need more and more expenses. The investment for the third part has already reached hundreds of millions. If we make a fourth part, we will be unable to bear it."
Compared with other movies, superhero movies have one of the biggest problems. The protagonist in the movie cannot be easily replaced. Superhero movies are essentially idol movies, and these idols cannot be replaced easily.
Therefore, after the success of the first part, when filming the sequel for the second part, these actors have to be used again, and these actors can grasp the conditions at the time of negotiations held with the film company.
Actors' net worth will change with the success and popularity of their movies.
In Levi's memory, after the filming of the Spider-Man trilogy was completed, it was simply stopped because he and the protagonist, Tobey Maguire, could not agree on the salary.
Iron Man is also an example. When Downey was filming the first film, his salary was only 500,000, but for the following two films, his salary increased directly to 50 million for the two films.
After making money, there are always people who want to share some of the money and those who are able to do so. Few people are merciful.
In X-Men, more than one star is used, and people like Hugh Jackman and Halle Berry are relatively easy to talk to. Their roles are relatively scattered, and their salaries have not increased much, but even so, they have still overwhelmed Alexander. If the price continues to rise, he will feel that filming this movie will not be very interesting anymore.
However, this series has just become so popular that it would be a pity not to use it anymore.
Therefore, Alexander proposed restarting the series: Levi had already told him about this idea. When filming X-Men 1, Levi had already thought of the possible situations he would face in the future and left a special tail. Now, it's time to make use of them and reshoot the previous parts.
Thus, the name of this series can still be used, and the actors can be replaced as a whole — such a shoot will have great cost savings.
A successful movie series is a cash cow; the key is how to use it.
The main part of the movie can no longer be shot. You can shoot spin-offs, but if you can't shoot spin-offs, you can shoot prequels — this is how the serialization of superhero movies works.
"That's okay..." Levi also felt brightened by this suggestion. "If that's the case, there will be some inconsistency in style, which is understandable."
"Then, remember to find me another director quickly. I am also planning to start filming this movie as soon as possible. If we are lucky, if X-Men can make hundreds of millions a year like Harry Potter, we will have a lot of income."
Alexander looked forward to this future very much. Levi smiled and agreed to him without breaking his fantasy.
"What to do with Nolan is a small problem. He wants to shoot other things." After confirming this matter, Alexander had some small problems. "It is said that he now has a script in his hand called Inception, and now other film companies have contacted him; what should we do?"
When a director trained by his own company becomes famous, it is naturally best for him to stay. However, Alexander is not sure whether Nolan's movies can make money and make profits.
Although his superhero movies are very profitable, it is questionable whether investing in other projects is still profitable. His new project is still a blockbuster, with an investment of more than 100 million. Such a movie is still an original movie, which always makes people feel a little uneasy.
However, he had already made such a request to Enigma Company. If he refused, it would be equivalent to pushing him to another company. Alexander also felt a little bit at a loss when the people his company had finally trained made money for other companies.
"Inception..." Levi was a little surprised by this. He originally thought that Nolan would come up with this movie later. After all, he had established enough reputation to film what he wanted to pursue. This is the path directors should take.
Even if this movie is what he wanted to make since he was a child, in Levi's opinion, it would be more appropriate to make a few more movies and consolidate his reputation before trying it.
But now it seems that because success came earlier and he gained more trust in Enigma Company, his pace has accelerated a lot.
Since he dared to propose this idea, Levi also wanted to see what kind of film he could make.
"Agree with him. I think we can give it a try." Levi agreed, "This is something he has been thinking about for a long time. I don't think there is any reason why it won't succeed."
*****
Thanks and kudos for my patreons
Marcelo Maia
Britanna
Mandy G
Scott DePaepe
Oluwatimileyin Olayemi
Herylle Ian Gloria
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