Chapter 41

"You have quite a lot of calls; you're worthy of being a hot male star right now."

"Eh, Christopher, don't tease me."

London, Kensington district.

In a high-end apartment, Xu Can was sitting on the sofa drinking afternoon tea.

He wasn't used to English black tea; Chinese tea was still better.

Opposite him were two middle-aged men with slightly similar appearances,

Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan!

The director of "Interstellar," "Inception," "The Dark Knight," "Tenet," and "Oppenheimer"!

Xu Can came here in response to Warner Bros.' invitation to talk about the "Batman" reboot movie.

"We have initially created the script for the trilogy. The first part is the origin of Batman, the second part is the confrontation between Batman and the Joker, and the third part refers to the comic 'The Dark Knight Rises'..."

The older brother, Jonathan Nolan, was relatively silent; it was basically Christopher Nolan who was speaking,

"Warner Bros.' meaning is to invite you to play Bruce Wayne. Xu, what is your opinion on these three works?"

It had already spread throughout the film industry that the success of "Spider-Man" was inseparable from Xu Can's attention.

Nolan valued Xu Can's suggestions very much.

Looking at the script in front of him, Xu Can elegantly picked up the black tea and took a quiet sip.

"I do have a bold idea, which might deviate from your original intention."

"It doesn't matter, feel free to bring it up; the script can be modified at any time." Nolan's attitude was very sincere.

"You also know that I founded my own company and invested in filming movies myself. So my main focus is still on my own works."

Xu Can smiled dashingly:

"I'm afraid I won't have the opportunity to star in all three parts of this trilogy, so I only want to star in one of them, and participate in the other two as a producer."

"Oh? What do you mean?" Nolan had a faint feeling that Xu Can seemed to intend not to take the usual path.

Sure enough, Xu Can's answer confirmed his thoughts!

"Batman doesn't actually have much of a challenge for acting skills, after all, most of the time he's wearing a mask."

"What I'm more interested in is the villain role in 'The Dark Knight'... the Joker!" ===== CHAPTER 77 =====

"Mr. Xu, this chat has been really inspiring. When the script creation is finished, you will also be considered a participant."

"The script was written by you; I at most made a suggestion."

"No, the concept you brought is the core of it, and the whole film is deeper, rather than a simple popcorn commercial film."

"Alright, I'm glad we can reach an agreement."

"This should be my honor. The specific filming date needs to be negotiated with Warner Bros... We will film the first part first, and then we will contact you in advance when the Joker appears."

"Hmm, no problem. Regarding the script, you can call me at any time. See you on set then."

"See you on set."

He chatted with the Nolan brothers for almost a whole day, from morning until dark.

Xu Can's ideas for "The Dark Knight" trilogy left the Nolan brothers in awe!

According to the original timeline, the first part, "Batman Begins," would have already been released by now.

However, due to the delay of comic book adaptations in the parallel world,

the brothers had only written the first draft of the script. Xu Can's suggestions made them suddenly enlightened, and they needed to modify the script again.

Once Warner Bros.' funds were in place, "The Dark Knight" trilogy could proceed with auditions, casting, and filming.

According to Nolan's plan, they wanted to imitate "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy and film all 3 parts at once.

Finally, according to the production date, they would be released year by year.

"Batman Begins" was expected to be scheduled for the end of 2007, and "The Dark Knight" to be released in 2008, just in time to catch up with the timeline of the previous life.

"Right, Xu, there is one last question. Do you have any suggestions for the candidate for Batman?"

Xu Can didn't answer directly, just looked at Nolan and smiled mysteriously:

"I believe you already have the answer, right? It's that person. Choosing him is correct; don't believe other people's suggestions."

Nolan stood at the door, looking at Xu Can's back, thoughtful.

Leaving Nolan's house, Xu Can was about to head to London Heathrow Airport and fly back to Los Santos.

The suggestion he just gave Nolan was exactly the original Batman actor, Christian Bale.

Warner Bros. executives and co-screenwriter David Goyer had wanted to suggest Jake Gyllenhaal,

who was the later "Mysterio," the male lead of "Brokeback Mountain," "Source Code," and "Nightcrawler."

Under Nolan's insistence, Warner Bros. finally gave up this possibility and deleted the role of the Riddler.

Since he chose to participate in "The Dark Knight" trilogy, Xu Can naturally wanted to do his best and help Nolan film a movie comparable to the original as much as possible.

If "John Wick" was a box office success, Xu Can also considered investing in "The Dark Knight."

This trilogy was a huge success in both reputation and box office; there was no reason not to get involved. It was simply picking up money for free!

Of course, the premise of everything was that "John Wick" was excellent enough.

……

Returning to Los Santos, Xu Can ran to the studio almost without stopping to supervise the post-production team in doing special effects and editing.

Most of the shots in this movie were filmed on location, without flashy action designs and whimsical scenes.

Everything pursued immersion as much as possible; all tactical actions could be used in actual combat, with every punch landing with impact, killing with one blow.

Such realistic combat formed a strong contrast with the absurdity of the entire worldview.

Therefore, the requirements for film editing were very high, and Xu Can had to watch it himself to be at ease.

Fortunately, the entire post-production team came from Columbia Pictures, which could be considered Hollywood's first-line standard.

Director David Leitch also had great potential; the sharp and calm editing made the film's tone above the level of the original film, and it had a unique innovation.

After Xu Can watched the original film, he was completely relieved.

He believed that the "John Wick" of the parallel world was by no means inferior to the original version!

If it followed the normal schedule, the film would be submitted for review at the end of February. There were too many bloody and violent scenes, so it should be R-rated if nothing unexpected happened.

If everything went smoothly, the movie would be scheduled for release in May or June!

……

During the time he was busy with post-production, Xu Can was also busy with two other things.

One of them was the cooperation with Marvel.

Xu Can had already reached a preliminary cooperation intention with Marvel President Kevin Feige and Marvel Entertainment President Perlmutter.

He would join the project development of Marvel's MCU as Marvel's Chief Operating Officer (COO).

In terms of status, Xu Can would be on the same level as Marvel President Kevin Feige, but he wouldn't be directly led by Perlmutter; he was more like a senior consultant outside the system, planning the subsequent movie universe plan together with Kevin Feige.

Marvel was now heavily in debt and had borrowed 500 million from the bank; the company's fate was gambled on the upcoming movies.

Xu Can was the only creator of a successful comic book adaptation movie; with his joining, it was much more stable.

As for Xu Can himself, he could only participate in it for the time being, trying to gain control as much as possible.

In his previous life, Marvel's market value exceeded 2 billion USD in 2004. In the parallel world, after the success of "Spider-Man," the market value was also gradually rising, estimated to be at least around 1 billion USD.

With his current net worth, he couldn't consider the acquisition for the time being; only large consortia could do it.

But Xu Can could use the box office revenue of "John Wick" to buy some Marvel stocks.

Marvel's stock price had been falling for years and was temporarily at a state of 9 USD, rising 15% at the beginning of this year.

When he had the money to acquire it, it should be stable at around 10 USD.

By the time "Iron Man" was released, it was expected to rise significantly, making a lot of money.

He didn't even have a system; it was difficult to conjure up billions to acquire Marvel out of thin air, so he could only take it step by step for the time being.

As for buying other stocks...

Jobs didn't return to Apple in the parallel world; even if Xu Can wanted to buy Apple stock, it would be useless.

The future was full of variables, and he didn't want to invest the box office money he had worked so hard to earn into stock market gambling. If he had this money, it was better to invest in a movie that was guaranteed to make money. ===== CHAPTER 78 =====