Chapter 60 Preliminary Planning of "Chicago"

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If you want to fully appreciate the song and dance movie "Chicago", you must carefully appreciate the sarcasm. The film completely sarcastically used a tone of praise, represented by Chicago in the 1920s, and the contents are applicable to today decades later.

There is a classic lyric in the film called "Murder can be an art", and the fun of the film can be summarized as "Shamelessness can be an art".

In fact, the earliest story creativity of "Chicago" was born in the 1920s.

The Chicago Tribune reporter Marini Wokkins got inspiration from two real murders in 1924. In those two cases, both women who committed intentional murder were acquitted and released.

Decades later, director Bob Fox bought out the copyright of Watkins' script and adapted it into the musical "Chicago". After it was released on Broadway in 1975, it won a huge success. In the same year, the most important Tony Awards in the drama industry, he won 11 awards nominations, but in the end he was surprisingly nothing, which was considered a shame to the Tony Awards by many people.

Fortunately, when "Chicago" was re-showed on Broadway in 1997, the Tony Award finally recognized its value and awarded it six awards. Unfortunately, Bob Foss passed away 10 years ago in 1987, and unfortunately he didn't see this scene.

Historically, the film version of "Chicago" was based on the musical "Chicago" as a template, but the exquisite conception and unique expression form of the film not only fully demonstrate the artistic charm of the film, but also retains the characteristics of singing and dancing narrative in the musical. Musicals and movies have their own different artistic characteristics and expression methods, and there is a certain difficulty in adapting. If you are too obsessed with the original musical template, then the strong theatrical nature of the musical will make the film version become a beautiful stage performance "video", and the artistic nature will be greatly reduced.

The film is so high that it is. The directors came up with a wonderful solution, which is to divide the narrative level and carrier of the film into two parts: "illusory" stage and "real" reality.

Specifically, part of the story is expressed in the form of song and dance on the stage, told by the people in the play; part of the story is expressed in the "real" Chicago, told by the camera. This idea not only naturally retains the wonderful song and dance of the original musical, but also gives full play to the advantages of telling real stories in the movie. The close connection between the two worlds of "illusion" and "reality" is completed by editing, and the use of cross-editing is extremely outstanding, natural, smooth and full of rhythm.

The song and dance part of the "Unreal" stage makes the movie version of "Chicago" unique, and the dance in it deeply shows the distorted humanity in the chaotic society of Chicago in the 1920s. Especially the "Prison Tango" scene, which is the core content, vividly presents the theme of the film to the audience.

In other words, the "singing and dancing" part is the illusion of the story, which is an imagination. It echoes reality. In terms of color processing, the "singing and dancing" part uses color film, while the "reality" part uses black and white film. With its superb editing level, the whole film looks beautiful and a perfect combination of storyline and artistic nature. No matter from which perspective, it is not accidental that this film can defeat excellent films such as "Everything and Moment" and win the Oscar for the best film in history.

In Ike's view, the movie "Chicago" is a new peak for musical and dance films, and it will not show any better musical and dance films than it in at least 10 years.

"Green, I'm going to plan a musical and dance film." In the office, Ike said to Green while drinking coffee.

"Oh? Song and dance film?" Green was stunned for a moment, "Well... are you just planning to invest in shooting, or..."

"I plan to direct it myself, this is my new movie in 2000," Ike said.

Green nodded. He did not show too much surprise because he was used to his old classmate's "crazy" - the one who can fire the cannon and do it as soon as he says.

"Songdance film...frankly speaking, it requires a strong professionalism, and this subject, well, yours, is really too declining. Now Hollywood almost forgets it." Green reminded.

"I am a professional problem in this situation...well...we invite the best musical director. As for the subject matter, I think it is mainly to see how the movie tells the story and the final editing effect." Ike said with a smile.

"Okay, you can do it after thinking about it." Green said with a smile. "Now no one in Hollywood can stop you from making movies. As long as you want, I think the eight major film companies are waving checks and asking you to make movies."

"Haha." Ike shook his head and smiled, "I want to confirm the script first. You want to help me with this."

"Of course, you write it, or..." Green said.

"That's right, do you have a Broadway opera "Chicago"?" Ike asked.

"Of course, it was a great musical drama. It was very popular in the 1970s. Do you want to bring this musical drama to the big screen?" Green asked.

"Yes, that's what I think. So... I want to buy the movie adaptation rights for this opera first." Ike said.

Green lowered his head and thought for a while, and said, "Well... the copyright of this script should be in the hands of Bob Foss. He has passed away. I think his family should have it."

Ike was silent for a while, and nodded and said, "Bob Foss lived in Washington in the last time he lived, and his daughter was there. You should contact this matter immediately. I don't think they will refuse our request. It is probably Bob Foss' wish to bring this script to the big screen. Besides, no one cares about this script now. If we buy it, the family can also get a fee."

"Okay." Green nodded, "I'll arrange it right away, I don't think the cost will be very expensive."

"Oh, by the way, to satisfy others, this is also a kind of respect for Bob Foss, do you understand?" Ike reminded.

"I should do it, just wait for my news here, um...you hurry up and think about other plans." Green said.

"OK" Ike made an "OK" gesture.

In fact, the script of the stage play "Chicago" has already told the story in detail, and the content does not need to be greatly modified. If the movie is divided into two parts, "virtual" and "reality", then the "virtual" part is already there, and the content of the real part is also a ready-made story. Historically, the screenwriters of Chicago were completed by Bob Foss, Bill Conton and several others. In other words, Bill Conton and several others completed it.

Now in this world, Ike considers the origin of completing this part. After all, this story is not difficult, and he also holds the title of Oscar for Best Screenplay winner.

His current screenwriter value has reached 82, and the original script "Suicide Trading" has long been put in the Screenwriter Association. Ike considered that Bill Conton could not be higher than the screenwriter value, so there would be no "disdain" punishment.

Thinking of this, Ike turned on the computer on his desk and began to draft some of the scripts for "Chicago".

The bell rang on the desk.

"Hey." Ike stared at the computer and picked it up.

"Boss, Line 5, real estate agent Falman Bob called," said Assistant Kalyn.

"Oh?" Ike frowned. Bob asked him to buy a new villa for him. Since Ike won a lot of money in the French World Cup, in addition to investing in "Rotten Tomatoes" and "Google", he recently asked the real estate agent to choose another villa around Los Angeles. "Okay, I'm."

Ike pressed Line 5. "Hello, I'm Ike."

"Oh, Ike, I'm very sorry, I'm disturbing you." Bob said very politely.

In fact, Ike has no impression of this real estate agent. After all, he chose the villa in Beverly Hills where he lives now. Ike did not live, which also won his trust in Bob.

"Don't be so polite, I'll just call you Falman." Ike said with a smile.

"Of course, it's my honor," Bob said.

"The house looks like?" Ike stopped his hand on the keyboard and asked.

"There is a very good villa in Arcadia. The interior area is 6,000 square feet (557 square meters), 6 rooms and 4 bathrooms. The design is very contemporary and has all the facilities. It is connected to the outdoor garden and the swimming pool covers a total of 20,000 square feet (1,858 square meters). Bob briefly introduced to Ike while sitting.

"The surrounding environment, um...safety?" Ike asked.

"You, Acadia City has the Santa Anita Park Racecourse in Los Angeles and the Los Angeles County Botanical Garden. And the villa area I mentioned is well-known for wild peacocks and is often called peacock gardens by many Chinese people. Even Acadia uses peacocks as the city emblem. The latest American "Business Week" selected the list of "The Most Suitable Cities for Raising Children in 1999". Acadia City has become one of the 15 selected cities in the United States." Bob introduced excitedly.

Ike listened quietly to Bob's introduction. To be honest, he admired these real estate agents. Their words were very tempting, especially for those who didn't care much about money with Ike. After hearing what he said, Ike was also moved.

"The most suitable city for raising children in 1999?" Ike thought silently. This was not because he wanted to raise children, but because he considered that a city that is most suitable for raising children, so its safety and comfort must not be. "Business Weekly" is a well-known magazine in the United States, with an objective circulation. One of the 15 cities he selected has a high credibility.

Moreover, Ike and Acadia are located at the foot of Mount San Gabriel, 21 kilometers northeast of downtown Los Angeles. The transportation is very convenient. In 1999, the population was about 40,000, of which 34 Chinese people accounted for.

This is also one of the reasons why Ike is more moved. There are many Chinese people, which means there must be delicious Chinese food there. He is now the vice president of the largest Chinese association in the United States, and the Chinese people there must be very welcome to him.

After hearing Ike for a long time, Bob continued to say, "There is another point that this villa is very suitable for the price. It is only half of the villa you have in Beverly Hills, $220w."

"Oh? That's so cheap?" Ike asked.

"Haha, the Acadia Municipal Government is encouraging investors like you to invest," Bob quipped.

"Let's do it this way, when I was me, I'll go see it with you. I don't like to drag it out. If it's right, well... I'll buy it directly as you said." Ike said.

"Oh, Ike is really honest and straightforward. Okay, please make sure, I'll pick you up." Bob said.

"Haha, OK." Ike said as he looked at the electronic clock on his desk, and then said, "Well...... it's 5 o'clock. I still have some work, so..."

"Oh, it doesn't matter, I'll follow yours," Bob said.

"That's it." Ike said and shut down. After that, he continued to step up the writing of the script.

As a song and dance movie, "Chicago" has its uniqueness, that is, it must have strong ability to control musical operas. This is not enough, and he has never even gotten involved. Therefore, he must find a senior musical and dance director to be his executive director, mainly responsible for choreographing the song and dance parts, and also find professional dance masters to train actors.

It is not easy for Ike to turn a good script into a good movie. He has to do a lot of meticulous work during this period. If he doesn't do it well, he will waste this subject and creativity.

Who should I find? Ike fell into thinking and had a few candidates in his mind, but Ike later wiped them out one by one. Pure choreography is easy to find, but pure choreography is not good at different stories and basic common sense in movies. Because watching live on "Broadway" is completely different from watching movies.

Suddenly he thought of someone, in order not to directly find out, what about the director of the historical version of "Chicago" Robert Marshall?

Robert Marshall is a pure Broadway drama industry. He is a top stage drama director, with an Emmy Award and experience. This is why Miramax invited him to direct "Chicago" in history.

Thinking of this, Ike smiled. Oh, it's really "far from the sky, near the sight" and Robert Marshall can help complete the script creation. But one regret is that in this world, he can only be the executive director of "Chicago". The director is Ike Lee.

Chapter 60 Preliminary Planning of "Chicago"
Chapter completed!