Chapter 402: A Choice Between Two

Chapter 402: Chapter 402: A Choice Between Two

Irene Coppola raised her eyebrows slightly upon hearing this, finally understanding the origin of the situation.

Scarlett was the lead actress in Sophia’s Lost in Translation.

After working together, they became close friends, often exchanging thoughts on script quality and film crew dynamics.

It was only natural that Scarlett would seek Sophia’s advice.

Before Irene Coppola could respond, Scarlett candidly laid her cards on the table, revealing the high-profile offer she had previously held.

"Actually, around the same time I received the offer for Transformers, DreamWorks officially sent me an offer for the lead actress role in The Island. It was a top-tier project, and the director was Michael Bay, the current darling of Hollywood commercial box office hits."

Scarlett said calmly, "I am not lacking in film offers at this stage. Having started as a child star with years of experience, scripts for lead actress roles in teen movies and action films from major studios are constantly coming my way. I could easily pick and choose. But after comparing the two scripts and the two creators, I directly turned down Michael Bay and firmly chose your Transformers."

"First, everyone in the industry knows that your reputation on set, your attitude toward actresses, and your inclusivity in respecting actors’ ideas are far superior to Michael Bay’s.

Michael Bay is extremely paranoid when filming; he prefers to objectify actresses, his lens only spotlighting their figures and appearances while ignoring the core of the characters. He is overbearing and dictatorial on set, almost never listening to actors’ suggestions for changes.

But you are willing to rewrite female character settings, elevate the status of female characters, and work with actors to develop roles. In the circle of actresses in the industry, your reputation is leagues ahead."

"Second is the difference in the scripts. The Island has the core of a formulaic blockbuster with thin themes. But the rewritten Transformers gives every character a growth arc, and Mikaela is the most outstanding commercial film lead actress in recent years, with value far exceeding that of a simple gimmick-filled blockbuster."

Irene Coppola listened quietly, but huge waves surged in her heart.

She, of course, knew the final outcome of The Island.

This action sci-fi film, directed by Michael Bay and fully produced by DreamWorks, had a massive promotional campaign.

With a production budget as high as $122 million, spending lavishly on special effects, location shoots, and artist salaries, DreamWorks originally intended to replicate Michael Bay’s past box office hits and securely reap the summer box office rewards.

However, after the film was officially released, its reputation completely collapsed, and negative reviews flooded the internet.

Industry critics and ordinary audiences unanimously criticized the film’s flaws: the clone awakening and human rights ethics set up in the beginning were very profound and full of atmosphere, but the film went completely off track in the middle.

The second half completely devolved into meaningless car chases, explosions, and formulaic gunfights, abandoning the ethical core.

The narrative pace was sluggish and long-winded, the subplots were messy and filled with filler, and the ending was sloppy.

It was a typical case of a strong start but a weak finish, wasting a top-tier original story concept.

The box office was even more disastrous.

With a production cost of $122 million, the global box office only reached $163 million.

According to the constant rule of the Hollywood industry, a theatrical film’s box office must reach three times the production cost for the studio to break even and make a profit.

After deducting cinema shares, publicity and marketing, and channel operation costs, this film directly caused DreamWorks a net loss of nearly $80 million.

In the previous life, it directly dragged down DreamWorks’ annual financial report, leading to large-scale personnel changes among senior management and becoming the most disastrous project failure for DreamWorks in recent years.

In other words, by actively choosing Transformers this time, Scarlett seemed to be giving up a top-tier director offer from Michael Bay, but in reality, she perfectly avoided a loss-making bad film, dodging a low-quality project that would have damaged her public appeal and dragged down her acting reputation.

Irene Coppola understood everything in her heart, but she could not bluntly spoil the future box office or the film’s reception, nor could she bluntly say, "It is fortunate you chose the right crew and avoided a big pit."

She could only compose her emotions, soften her expression, smile sincerely, and say in a firm and genuine tone, "I can only say that you, Scarlett, have a unique eye and can accurately distinguish between a good script and a formulaic project. This character suits you, and you suit this character."

Scarlett, having received the director’s approval, breathed a sigh of relief, her ambition becoming even more resolute.

"I will not let down this female character who rewrites the industry’s stereotypes."

The two smiled at each other, reaching a tacit understanding.

Sunlight spilled in from the corridor window, destined that in this lifetime, Scarlett’s acting career would completely avoid the mire and head toward a completely different, brilliant future.

Time moved into early June 2004.

Transformers, which had been in preparation for several months and was highly anticipated by all, officially held its opening ceremony at an outdoor film base in the suburbs of Los Angeles.

The entire crew was in place, and filming officially began.

Thanks to Paramount’s advance coordination with the Department of Defense for approval, the schedule for filming inside the Pentagon was reserved for mid-to-late July.

The main body of the early filming took place on suburban town roads, forest farms, and suburban residential areas near Los Angeles.

The venues were well-equipped, and the crew’s logistics were convenient, making it suitable for the early bonding scenes.

Combining the skills of the entire cast and the difficulty of the special effects filming, Irene Coppola finalized a shooting sequence.

She did not start filming in the order of the film’s plot but specifically adjusted the shooting schedule.

At the all-hands crew meeting on the first day of filming, Irene Coppola, in front of the production team, photography team, special effects directors, and the two leads, bluntly finalized the filming arrangements.

"The mecha scenes and the human-machine confrontation scenes without physical props in the entire film are the most difficult. The two leads, Chris and Scarlett, have almost zero experience in special effects blockbusters in their past acting resumes."

She opened the actors’ resumes and meticulously analyzed their shortcomings in front of everyone, with straightforward and objective logic.

"Chris has previously only participated in campus teen movies and niche adventure films, acting entirely with real people in real settings, and has never dealt with green screens, virtual modeling, or filming with non-existent props.

Scarlett started as a child star and has focused on drama and urban romance films, relying on real props and real scenes, and has never acted alongside virtual special effects characters.

Both are completely unfamiliar with Hollywood-grade non-physical acting and green screen empathy acting. Their on-the-spot reactions, emotional placement, and eye contact all need to be developed from scratch."

To avoid a large number of NGs later on that would slow down the schedule and waste production funds, Irene Coppola directly changed the shooting schedule, prioritizing the scenes of the first encounter between the human and the machine—the scenes with the lowest difficulty, the most delicate emotions, and the most everyday interactions—for the first week of filming.

The initial scenes only involved a small amount of interaction with simple mecha shadow outlines without physical props.

They did not require large-scale action fighting, only eye contact, emotional empathy, and fixed-point eye alignment.

This was most suitable for the two new leads to develop their rhythm for non-physical acting and adapt to the logic of green screen filming.

Hollywood’s special effects technology in 2004 was not yet mature.

Unlike the high-precision motion capture and virtual pre-visualization technology of later years, the crew at this stage only had solid-colored green screen backgrounds, simple mecha-scale humanoid standees, and staff holding mecha outline props to assist in acting.

Actors needed to rely entirely on their imagination, mentally visualizing tall metal mechas, alien monsters, and mechanical fighting scenes.

This placed extremely high demands on the actors’ sense of belief and was also the part where new-generation actors were most prone to failure and frequent NGs.