Chapter 345: Two Franchise Plans
Chapter 345: Two Franchise Plans
Because it was rarely cleaned, the study looked even messier. Books, drafts, folders, and various other items were piled everywhere across several desks, while the entire western wall was covered in draft papers.
As they walked down the spiral staircase, both Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow were immediately drawn to the walls filled with storyboard sketches and all kinds of draft materials.
“Eric, you made all of these?” After roughly examining the contents of the papers from south to north, Cameron finally asked in disbelief. The contents were simply too astonishing. Although most were storyboard sketches, there were also materials involving every aspect of film production. Cameron even spotted a large amount of material related to movie special effects.
Sensing the Camerons’ shock, Eric felt very satisfied.
Although their collaboration had already been confirmed, Eric could still tell that despite all his box office successes, Cameron still looked down on him somewhat. Cameron had even clearly treated him like a rich fool on Terminator 2.
Although Eric usually did not care much about other people’s opinions of him, if he wanted to maintain a long-term partnership with someone as arrogant and unruly as Cameron, demonstrating sufficient capability was absolutely necessary.
“These are my film plans for the next several years. Actually, I already started working on them occasionally while I was in New York. What you’re seeing are the results of all that work.”
Hearing Eric’s words, Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow once again turned their attention toward the walls covered with draft papers. Earlier, they had only glanced over them briefly. Now, Cameron finally began paying attention to the actual contents of the storyboard sketches.
Terrifying tornadoes lifting entire houses into the air.
A gigantic Tyrannosaurus rex chasing SUVs.
A tsunami hundreds of meters tall crashing toward New York City.
Washington, D.C., swallowed beneath a massive shadow…
The more Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow looked, the more shocked they became.
In this era, such imagery usually existed only in comics or novels. Yet now, Eric clearly intended to bring all of it to the big screen in live-action films.
Kathryn Bigelow remained relatively calm, but Cameron’s eyes already revealed undisguised fanaticism. He felt as though an entirely new era was about to begin.
After examining the storyboard sketches again, Cameron finally asked, “Eric, how are you planning to turn these concepts into films? I mean, do you already have a detailed feasibility plan?”
“Of course,” Eric explained. “Over roughly the next ten years, I plan to build two major franchises. Besides the Jurassic Park series adapted from the novel I published two years ago, there’s also going to be a disaster film franchise.”
“A disaster film franchise?” Cameron turned toward the sketches again.
Eric walked over beside Cameron and pointed at the drafts while explaining in detail.
“Yes. A disaster film franchise that will include at least five movies. Look here—this section is for a screenplay called Twister. It mainly tells the story of a group of fanatical scientists chasing and studying tornadoes.”
“And here is a concept about aliens invading Earth. The temporary title is Independence Day, though the name seems to involve another copyright issue, so I’m not sure whether I can secure it smoothly.”
“And over here is a concept about a comet striking Earth and humanity facing extinction. The screenplay is called Deep Impact.”
“Finally, this one is about global climate temperatures rapidly dropping and most of America becoming frozen over. I call it The Day After Tomorrow. The meaning is that we never know what might happen after tomorrow.”
Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow listened attentively to Eric’s explanation. After he finished speaking, Cameron reached out and touched the sketches on the wall while pondering for a long while before finally asking, “Eric, how exactly are you planning to achieve all this? Can current technology even do it?”
“Of course it can, as long as you’re willing to spend money,” Eric said confidently. “Actually, these two franchises involve what I imagine to be the two future development directions of special effects films. I’ve already discussed this several times with Stan and Ed. A few days ago, right after returning from New York, I even made a special trip to San Francisco specifically for these matters.”
Even with Cameron’s own madness, merely imagining Eric’s Jurassic Park franchise and disaster movie franchise still felt unbelievable.
As a technically oriented director, Cameron clearly understood the limits of current special effects technology. Therefore, he knew that although these films could certainly be produced by force if necessary, every single one of them would definitely cost astronomical amounts of money.
Even Kathryn Bigelow could not help thinking that the little guy in front of her seemed even crazier than her husband.
Cameron did not seem especially interested in the Jurassic Park franchise. Instead, he enthusiastically began discussing the production possibilities of the disaster film franchise with Eric.
“Eric, take this comparatively simpler special effects film Twister you mentioned for example. How exactly are you planning to realistically portray tornadoes on screen? As far as I know, even Industrial Light & Magic’s most advanced effects technology would have difficulty presenting tornadoes convincingly.”
Eric rummaged through his desk and pulled out a document, casually handing it to James Cameron.
Cameron glanced at the cover and looked somewhat surprised. These should have been extremely important materials to Eric. However, since Eric was handing them over willingly, Cameron did not act overly polite and directly opened the document. Kathryn Bigelow also curiously leaned toward her husband to read its contents.
The document before them was essentially a proposal commissioning a research team led by a famous physicist at Stanford University to develop a fluid simulation software system.
The purpose of the software was to simulate smoke, flowing water, violent winds, and similar effects on computers.
While the Camerons read through the document, Eric explained beside them:
“Professor Ron Fedkiw at Stanford has already confirmed the feasibility of this project. Preparations for development have already begun. In about half a year, the software should be ready for practical use.”
“At that point, tornadoes, tsunamis, explosion smoke, and similar scenes in the disaster films I mentioned can all be achieved through this software.”
“Also, Ed Catmull is currently organizing a research team in Los Angeles to develop a 3D modeling program. That software will be able to realize scenes such as collapsing buildings and destroyed cities.”
“And in addition, Ed Catmull will optimize Pixar’s existing rendering software, RenderMan, allowing it to adapt to rendering work for live-action films.”