After a short thought, Matthew realized that Guillermo del Toro was preparing to open up a new genre of commercial movies. If there were King Kong and Godzilla in the movie monsters in the past, giant robots or machines driven by humans. A, it seems that he has never played a leading role in a Hollywood first-tier commercial production.

This kind of robot used to fight monsters is infinitely close to Gundam, not a fully humanoid Robocop or a Transformer with independent consciousness.

"Gilmore, is this an original work?" Matthew asked what he thought was the key.

"Yes, this is what I came up with by borrowing Japanese comics monsters and Gundam." Guillermo del Toro said directly, "It's not an adaptation, it's an original type."

Hearing this, Matthew still had a burning heart, and it cooled down at a fast speed.

Produce an original sci-fi commercial movie with a budget of $200 million! How big is the risk? Maybe the next Brad Pitt.

Christopher Nolan also plays original A-list productions, but how many Christopher Nolans are there in Hollywood?

Once he, who didn't pay attention to the Hollywood behind the scenes, knew who Christopher Nolan was, but he didn't recognize Guillermo del Toro.

Granted, he's worked with Guillermo del Toro and knows he's a talented and capable director, but an original film with a $200 million production budget is risky enough.

"Matthew..." Guillermo del Toro wanted to say something, but Matthew didn't answer, and continued to think about investment risks.

He didn't know the box office of "Pacific Rim", only that it was a popular download on the pirated website on the other side.

But the risk of originality reminded him of another thing. There are also many popular movies on the other side of the Pacific that are hitting the streets in North America. Especially, hitting the streets in North America often means that the entire Western market has poor returns.

The one I remember most clearly is undoubtedly the movie "Warcraft".

If this is a "Warcraft" type film, wouldn't he cry if he invested?

On the other side of the Pacific Ocean, only 25% of the box office is divided, and it is absolutely impossible to support the huge production budget of about 200 million US dollars.

Moreover, "Warcraft" is an adaptation of a movie, and the feelings of many game fans pay for it.

"Pacific Rim" is an original!

It's not that he has a prejudice against original movies, but that the whole of Hollywood has a prejudice against original big productions. Ask the executives of the six major companies, who would dare to easily set aside a budget of $200 million for an original movie?

With the success of "Inception", the media are saying that this is a victory for original movies, and Hollywood production companies will be interested in more original stories from directors or screenwriters that have been in the dust for a long time. Filmmakers are well aware that the downturn in Hollywood original films will not change because of this, and it will only become more and more declining. Sequels and adaptations are the mainstream of commercial production.

"Gilmore." Matthew said slowly, "A budget of around $200 million is not a small amount. I can't promise you now. I have to think about it carefully."

Even if "Pacific Rim" is a sequel to a blockbuster movie, he can't answer it without opening his mouth. What's the difference between that and a fool?

That's $200 million, not 200 million yen.

Guillermo del Toro was somewhat disappointed, but Matthew's words didn't mean it was a failure. He nodded immediately and said, "Okay, I hope we can work together again."

Matthew smiled, "Even if you don't cooperate with me, you still have no shortage of investors."

Guillermo del Toro heard this vaguely with a tactful refusal, said goodbye politely to Matthew, and left.

Matthew didn't give up completely. After all, Guillermo del Toro worked with him and was also a well-informed director, and then specifically asked Bella Anderson to do a targeted investigation.

When the memory of the past could not allow him to make a judgment, he had to rely on the ability and experience honed in Hollywood in this life.

Although no one can 100% determine success or failure before a movie is released, but with the development of Hollywood, senior people in the industry can always rely on years of experience and lessons from continuous success or failure to avoid some obvious pitfalls.

Matthew has worked hard in Hollywood for so many years, and he is not a fool himself. He still has the most basic vision and ability.

So, with the Bella Anderson investigation in front of him, Matthew didn't spend much time deciding to drop Guillermo del Toro's project.

Because Matthew found that things like Gundam have a very limited audience in North America.

This will directly bring about an objective situation that is difficult to change. No matter how great the special effects of this movie are in the future, the nature of mecha monsters is still a niche theme, and even Gundam Fighting Monsters is a quasi-Cult type.

Guillermo del Toro took this quasi-Cult theme as a mainstream blockbuster. It is expected to cost about 200 million US dollars. Will mainstream audiences buy it?

It's not hard to guess.

How can a movie with a serious Japanese animation have an audience base in North America? How many people in North America have seen these? Teenagers are afraid that they still watch more American comics.

Even if there are some Japanese comic fans, the group is not large.

If this film project invests 30 to 40 million US dollars or even 50 million to 60 million US dollars, these may not be a problem, but shooting at the scale of top production is really too risky.

This is not a question of whether bad films are bad or not. Are bad films still selling less in North America? Don't overestimate the quality of North American audiences.

The most important thing is the theme, and now the market has limited acceptance of this theme!

Not only North America, but the mecha monster Gao Damu has very few audiences in the Western movie market.

Matthew made such a judgment without further delay, and quickly replied to Guillermo del Toro directly, telling him that the liquidity was tight, and the schedule was not suitable, so he could neither invest nor star in "Pacific Rim".

This is also to let Guillermo del Toro not waste time with him and quickly find other investors.

Although there was no deal, Matthew wasn't dragging Guillermo del Toro, and the Mexican director was kind when he met him that day.

There are not a few directors or producers who are investors in Hollywood. At the beginning of the investment, they said that 80 million US dollars was enough, and then they started to prepare for the shooting. They said that they would need to invest an additional 50 million US dollars, otherwise it would not be completed. In the film, investors do not want to waste their initial investment, and they will continue to invest under normal circumstances.

The most typical of them are James Cameron and "Titanic". At first, the production cost of the King of the World's plan to the producer was only more than 100 million US dollars. After the filming entered the middle stage, he kidnapped 20th Century Fox, forcing the two Tenth Century Fox had to invest again and again.

In the words of a 20th Century Fox executive, James Cameron's pursuit of investment almost forced 20th Century Fox board members to sell their butts to raise money.

Twentieth Century Fox tried to replace James Cameron more than once, but no one dared to take responsibility for such a huge investment failure.

In this respect, Guillermo del Toro is a good director. He didn't tell Matthew that he could do it with tens of millions of dollars, but directly reported a budget of about 200 million dollars.

Of course, this project may also be successful, but Matthew makes judgments based on market conditions. Even if it is successful, "Pacific Rim" is unlikely to gain much.

Compared with the huge risk and financial pressure brought by the huge investment of 200 million US dollars, the possible returns are too low.

He'd rather invest in Zack Snyder and Warner Bros.' Superman: Man of Steel than keep such a large sum of money in mecha monsters.

Speaking of feelings, his robot feelings are Autobots and Decepticons, not Gundam.

Rejecting Guillermo del Toro, Matthew went to "The Hunger Games" and "Twilight City" and "Latent" to have a look. The former has already started filming, and the latter two are in full swing. Ready for promotion and release.

"Latent" will be released before Halloween, the most traditional and strongest time for horror films. During this time period, more than a dozen horror films have entered the theater successively. Who will become cannon fodder and who will be able to break through the siege of competitors? No way to know now.

However, basically one or two low-budget horror films are sold during Halloween every year, which is the main reason why many low-cost productions are crowded into the same schedule.

If it fails, the money lost is not much, and the disc and rental market outside the theater can also slowly recover.

Once successful, the profit is often several times or even higher than the investment.

Matthew saw an interesting title among Lurk's many potential competitors, Piranha 3D from Weinstein Pictures.

This movie is called the Big Mac of the Halloween schedule, because its production cost has reached as much as 24 million US dollars!

Few horror films in this year's Halloween season ~lightnovelpub.net~ cost more than $10 million to make.

In the same way, the high cost in exchange for a large-scale opening of theaters, fortunately, "Latent" was released a while earlier than this film.

Because the investment is too low, even with Warner Bros. as the distributor, "Latent" can only be drawn on a small scale, and after seeing the real response of the film, the distributors and theaters will invest more resources.

This is the safest way, and no one is willing to waste the resources in their hands.

Another upcoming film is "Twilight: Lunar Eclipse". This film will still be released on the Thanksgiving schedule. Compared with "Latent", this film, which has been a big seller for two consecutive previous works, is under more pressure. much smaller.

Everyone knows very well that the box office of "Twilight: Lunar Eclipse" is definitely not bad. The only question is whether the North American or global box office can surpass the previous work.

After checking the work of these three crews, Matthew came to the crew of "Special Forces 2: Total Counterattack" and began to participate in the final preparations for the film.