Hollywood Domination Chapter 211: “Monroe” casting

Marxism teaches us that there is a universal connection between things... Well, Jenny will not recite the next words, but after all, she is a native oriental student who received a special education, and some words and phrases in political class are still left In my heart, and as time went on, it became more and more justified. Like the producers of "Monroe", she and Cesare originally thought that it would be difficult to build a high-level team. , but I didn't expect that thanks to the change of the crew of "Michael Clayton" and the leak of those performance materials, all this suddenly became extremely easy. Steven Soderbergh and Sidney Pollack All the super directors have expressed their interest in the project. With her current attention, it may not be difficult to build an Olympic-level filming team. And after the external difficulties dissipated, the only obstacle was nothing more than this: How should she choose people now that the choice is almost arbitrary? What kind of project did she want to make "Monroe" into?

Copying is not the answer—although I plan to use this material to shoot, it is only because after two thousand years, this is the only biographical film based on Monroe that has caused a splash. Jenny's evaluation of the quality of the original film Not high, "A Week with Monroe" has its advantages: it reproduces the style of the 1960s, and it captures the youthful thoughts of the young Colin, and the faint melancholy of the youth's youth, and the relationship between him and Monroe is also drawn. The handling is very poetic, very elegant, and there is a taste that everything is unspoken, but other than that, "Monroe" is too trivial and plain. Monroe was not involved, and Jenny was sometimes brought in by acting skills when watching, and sometimes suffered from embarrassment phobia, so in the end, the feeling of watching the movie was not good. It was too frivolous, the film failed to win the Oscar in the end, and Michelle was just a nomination for public relations. Jenny thought the result was quite fair.

Based on the analysis of her playing Monroe, Jenny thinks that the performance will not be a big problem, after all, she has a golden finger body protector, and another important role, Lawrence Oliver, she plans to continue to play Kenneth Branagh , this British theater and film prince is a representative of the classical school and the expressionist school. It can be compared with Jenny's experiential school. It shows that Monroe is incompatible with the British studio. There is still no answer. The last time is to find the original director, create a film close to the original quality, and rely on her own performance to win the nomination. The best is of course to adapt it according to her intention. Anyway, she fully invested in this film , the right to speak is close to full, and can be tailored, and you can choose whatever style you want. — but the question is exactly what style she wants.

Is it the original Painless? Dealing with Monroe's sleep disturbances and mental issues like a breeze? Like a teenager's dream? Or look at Monroe with the eyes of a teenager? Or should we drastically reduce Colin's role, focus on Monroe's dangerous life, and treat the whole film as a flashback before Monroe's complete depravity and chaos, making her chaos more embarrassing and more impactful? And then the tone of the whole film is darker?

This is actually the difficulty of the entire producer's work. It may not be a big deal for a skilled person to settle all the links, but such a choice must be encountered no matter how great the producer is-a good subject If you encounter a bad idea and find a wrong director, it may be a heart-wrenching and embarrassing failure. Every choice made by the producer is of great significance, especially for a greedy producer like Jenny. She said that she not only wants to be artistic, but also commercial. She not only wants to enhance her own performance space, but also wants to coordinate the performance of each role. She also hopes to finally produce a perfect work of art in all aspects. Rather than after careful consideration and calculation, businesses with advantages and disadvantages make money and win prizes. If you make a film with this mentality, you will have no choice. ——What's more terrible is that this kind of thinking and choice is destined to be her own business. Without an explanation, no one will understand the mental journey of her choice. Years of limited experience to complete the thinking and judgment of the transformation, as well as the selection of director candidates. Now that she has a better understanding of the film industry, she is no longer as ignorant and fearless as she was when she tried to adapt "The Devil Wears Prada". Like a child wielding a sledgehammer, it could lose control at any time.

Suppressing her restless thoughts, Jenny smiled sincerely at Arthur, and invited him to follow her thoughts, "I don't know if you have read the original work, Arthur, but the material of "Monroe" The two memoirs are a little too light for film adaptation, and the focus is more on the film industry style of the 1960s and Colin's inner world. However, Colin is not a very contradictory character, and I personally think that the film should do Appropriate adaptation makes Monroe's dreamy image in Colin's memory and reality-"

Jenny shrugged, "A life like a train tragedy, find a balance."

"Very interesting point of view," it can be seen that Arthur really agrees with Jenny's thinking, he showed a contemplative expression, "You want to dilute the traces of Colin himself and make him more of a symbol of the audience , Use his perspective to reveal Monroe’s life—to make his participation deeper, right?”

"It's true, I don't want to see the superficial aspects, I want to dig deeper, and put Monroe's struggles, her struggle with genetic mental illness-the mutual attraction between her and Arthur Miller It’s all about being unable to get along with each other.” Jenny said enthusiastically, this is indeed her sincere words, Monroe is the real person she empathizes with the most, she has some special feelings for her, and even Jenny feels that she understands her It is unique, and she doubts that there is anyone in the world who can understand Marilyn Monroe as well as she does, understand this lonely, frightened and broken soul behind the mask of a big star.

But—for the sake of the market, she can't show all of these in full, not even for the sake of artistry. After all, it is a documentary to present a person's life as it is, and the materials of an art film must be selected, beautified and cut. , and Monroe's real life may be too dark and chaotic for most people, Jenny continued to analyze thoughtfully, "But I don't want it to be too dark and real, I just choose one in the dream distortion and cruel reality. An appropriate entry point is like "Pan's Labyrinth", which can enter and exit. Of course, we can't directly ask Guillermo Toro to be the director. He is a bit too particular about form, and he is more suitable for commercial films. Fantasy theme, and I have never made a biopic..."

At the end, she was already sorting out her thoughts, but Arthur keenly grasped the information leaked from Jenny's words, "Ah, so you haven't chosen a director yet? Jennifer?"

"The script is still in the writing stage," Jenny didn't answer directly, but just mentioned, "It hasn't reached a level that satisfies me, so yes, we haven't been able to find a director on a large scale, and Sidney His health is not good, and Steven is busy with "Ocean's Thirteen", so I don't think he is suitable to direct "Monroe."

She did not disclose that she had initially talked with Soderbergh about some of her ideas, and the two did not agree. This kind of thing is usually a secret by default before the movie is released, so it is not good to talk about it casually.

"Big directors are generally not very good tempered." Arthur said, he quietly included himself-"Especially you have a strong desire to control this project, we'd better find a temper for you A good rising young director, this will make your communication smoother."

Generally speaking, producers rarely get involved so deeply in the production process, and the division of labor with the director is still very clear, but the film "Monroe" was established by Jenny herself, and any rights In her hands, she also paid for the money herself. She definitely hoped that the film would eventually be consistent with the effect she wanted, instead of handing over the book to the big directors for them to play with. Jenny smiled, and did not puncture Arthur's little thought: Compared with the United States, Britain has always been synonymous with high quality and low price. Directors and actors from the United Kingdom are generally more professional, good at communication and cherish opportunities, so she doesn't mind letting them Arthur stepped in to help her find some good directors. After all, what Arthur said is also reasonable. Directors with smaller coffee positions may have a higher degree of cooperation and a stronger spirit of service. Unlike a big director, I want to work with her more because of her acting skills. It is the director who shapes her and uses her, rather than the two of them working together.

"It's all possible to sit down and talk about it," she said, "Of course we can carry out several aspects at the same time, first determine the basic actors, such as Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh, and of course, the most important Colin Clark, Arthur, I need you to come up with the most suitable candidate, don't be perfunctory - I don't care about fame, I just want acting skills and character fit, he must play against me and not be at a disadvantage, of course, he His temperament has to match perfectly with the introverted young aristocratic boy, in short, when we start auditioning, I hope to see such a group of young people with potential, not those lackluster connections.”

"Of course." Arthur agreed without hesitation. He looked confident and twisted his beard with a smile, "I've already started to read the original book for the second time——I will definitely give you the most suitable one for Colin. , trust me, Jennifer."

In "A Week with Monroe", the most prominent roles are Monroe, Colin and Lawrence, and because of the different shooting time, Eddie Redmayne who originally played Colin may no longer be suitable After all, he is only 24 years old now, and he is still in the stage of just stepping into the show business circle, and his acting skills may be very different from a few years later. He may not be able to support the role of Colin in front of Jenny, unlike the role of Lawrence. Kenneth Branagh's acting skills have reached maturity, so it doesn't matter if he was a few years ago or a few years later. And Lucy, the costume assistant who had a relationship with Colin, may also need to recast because Emma Watson is still young. However, these changes in supporting roles will not affect much, the most important thing is The most important thing is the change of the script and the choice of the director.

The conversation with Arthur is just one of the many conversations Jenny has had this month. Next, she will meet with Jennifer Aniston to talk to her about the benefits of paying for the nomination out of her own pocket. "Old Friends Are Rich" will also have a certain positive impact. In addition, as an important producer of the "Michael Clayton" series, as the day when Lewis joins the group is approaching, she also has a lot of work to do...

Interspersed with dazzling social invitations, interspersed with completing the work of the producer, it is a very tiring thing. Jenny tried her best to maintain a grateful attitude: Fortunately, the "Avatar" project is still working hard In the process, she didn't come to participate, otherwise she would have more things and be busier. However, even so, Jenny was relieved when Lewis' plane landed at Lax Airport. She couldn't wait to hide in Karen's body and start a pure acting career again...