After signing an investment agreement with 20th Century Fox on behalf of Stanton Studio, Murphy's entire energy was transferred to the preparations for "Dark City". He went to New York with Gal Gadot and Helena Espora first, and signed a formal agreement with relevant parties in New York for outdoor shooting.

The locations of this film will be all in New York, and some special effects and interior scenes will continue to be filmed on the warehouse set next to Venice.

The warehouse set once again became Murphy's base camp for filming.

With the struggle between Cara Fais and Murphy, 20th Century Fox finally agreed to Murphy's IMA shooting plan. More than 60% of the film's lenses will be shot using IMA cameras. Due to Murphy's current status and the momentum of winning the Oscar for Best Director, IMA also attaches great importance to it. After the crew contacted the Los Angeles branch of IMA, they immediately made internal arrangements and quickly sent two huge and bulky IMA cameras.

The two IMA cameras were set up in the largest shooting area by Filey Rasher for debugging. They are truly big guys, and they are several times larger and sluggish than Hollywood's usual cameras. The increase in weight and volume means that the operation will be more cumbersome and inconvenient.

Standing next to an IMA camera, Murphy tried to operate it. After standing up, he said to Filey Raschel, "Some scenes we need to use the IMA camera to shoot are very impactful shots."

After walking around the IMA camera, Murphy said, "For example, in the scene where Chris Dane rides a motorcycle to chase, I need to show the first perspective with Chris Dane as the starting point!"

"The last time we tied the camera to the front of the car," Felix Raschel frowned, "but the effect is average, the impact is still not strong enough."

"Yeah!" Murphy nodded and suggested, "Fili, is it feasible to tie this big guy in front of the plane to take off?"

Filey Raschel thought carefully for a few seconds and said, "It's not easy to deal with. The IMA camera is too bulky and the nose of the plane needs to be specially modified."

Murphy immediately made the decision, "I rented a business jet from Gulfstream, so let me contact them to see if they can provide relevant services."

These are all problems that money can solve.

"Wait, Filey, Murphy, wait."

IMA company people have been paying attention to the two of them. Murphy and Felli Raschel's voices were not low, and they all fell into the ears of Tolby Martinez, the representative of IMA company stationed in the crew. The head of IMA company's crew quickly came over, "I think your proposal is too risky and may damage the equipment."

Murphy couldn't help but frown slightly, "Toby, if you want to show the advantages of IMA technology, you must build a good enough scene."

Thorby Martinez seemed to want to say something, Murphy didn't give him a chance at all, and said directly, "If the equipment is damaged, the crew will compensate at the price."

Thorby Martinez opened his mouth and finally closed it again. In front of Murphy, his weight was obviously not enough.

Besides, the IMA camera is very expensive, but not so expensive that a crew with an investment of $220 million cannot afford to lose.

Since I have rented the shooting equipment from IMA, Murphy will certainly not be polite when using it. IMA has always adhered to the principle of renting but not selling, otherwise there would not be so many troubles.

Afterwards, Murphy left the studio and went to find the representatives of Mercedes-Benz on the crew to discuss Chris Dane's special motorcycle and other matters.

There are always many similar problems that can be found in the early preparations. This is a stage of solving problems. The more problems you encounter at this stage, the less trouble you will encounter in the later shooting.

From equipment to props, from actors to costumes, from shooting plans to storyboard artwork, Murphy will participate in and review each preliminary preparation, and understand the progress of the entire preparation work.

Twentieth Century Fox also gave him the greatest support. Apart from the necessary financial problems, they basically delegated power to two producers, Carla Fiss and Gal Gadot.

After looking at the design artworks of Mercedes-Benz and exchanging opinions with the designer, Murphy went to the office where the fireworks group was located. This time he specially hired several persons in charge of a fireworks group to be researching the blasting plan.

Unlike previous films, Murphy plans to try out a large number of gunfights and explosion scenes during this filming, because to fit the style of the film, all explosions must be filmed on the spot, and cannot be as exaggerated and unlimited as the explosions created by Michael Bay.

“I think the explosives should be given up.”

Murphy and Michael Belz, the head of the fireworks group, discussed the most important explosion scene in the film, suggesting, “As the script says, try to use a few bullets and some gasoline to create the explosion.”

Michael Belz held his chest with one hand and raised his chin with the other. "If you use the model to shoot, there is some uncertainty in the gasoline explosion."

"We must use the model to shoot," Murphy said as concisely as possible. "The special effects team of Vita Studio is making models and will communicate with you later."

"Give me some time and let Vita Studio make more models." Michael Belz slowly frowned and then let go. "I need to do some experiments so that I can achieve the best results when shooting."

"There's another one." Murphy looked at Michael Belz and said seriously. "You can study how to completely blow up a large hospital."

Michael Beltz had read the script of the related explosion scene and immediately realized that Murphy wanted to shoot it in real time and asked, "You really want to blow up the hospital?"

"That's right." Murphy explained simply, "I have asked someone to look for where there is a suitable hospital that is about to be demolished, or a building similar to a hospital."

He really struggled to make the film's realistic style.

Then Murphy went to see the actors, mainly James Franco, whose role as a magician was crucial.

However, when he walked into a studio, Murphy saw James Franco, wearing a straight magician dress, looking through the script and thinking hard, but without disturbing him, he left directly.

Regarding his character script, James Franco was considering the idea of ​​the character Magician.

There is no doubt that the character set by Murphy puts the evil side of human nature into infinite size, and uses it to form a very distinctive set of logic, making the character of Magician extremely crazy and...stunning!

"There are also people who are perverted like Murphy..." James Franko couldn't help but shake his head, "Only by designing such a perverted and wonderful character."

Thinking of this, James Franco looked down at the script and started reading it again.

In this character script, the magician shows a kind of madness, madness without bottom lines and rules, and evil that reaches its peak.

And what is the evil that reaches the pinnacle? In the evil that reaches the pinnacle, evil is not a means, but an end. The evil that reaches the pinnacle is pure, and it is not for money, color, or for any other purpose. Creating evil and performing evil is itself the only pursuit.

The evil of the magician is such a pure evil, for nothing else. He just wants to create "higher taste evil" for this city. In James Franco's view, compared with the magician, even the crime of the anonymous in "The Seven Deadly Sins" is not considered "high taste evil" because there are too many additional objects outside of evil.

Even in some ways, the magician was actually an evil Puritan. In his eyes, crimes for money, power, sex or any other purpose were actually blasphemy against "evil", and evil was only pure in his hands.

In the hands of magicians, evil and chaos became a work of art. He exerted evil like painters and musicians compose music. Therefore, from beginning to end, no matter what the situation is, he maintained a sense of arrogance and compassion as an evil demon.

The magician's behavior in the script looks crazy and chaotic at first glance, but it is not difficult for James Franco to analyze that this character has fanatical thoughts to break through everyone's bottom line.

Faced with such a role, James Franco sometimes feels powerless and feels that his acting skills and state are unlikely to reach the level of a magician.

"It's really hard to successfully create this character!"

James Franco closed the script, stood up and walked a few steps, sighed, "Murphy, you dug such a big hole, just wait for me to jump inside!"

He stood there, thinking quietly for a while, knowing that he was going to do more preparations for this role.

Then, James Franco left the actor's rehearsal room, found Murphy who was staying in the director's office, and made a request directly.

"Murphy..." James Franco pulled down the chair and said to his friend opposite, "From tomorrow, I will not come to the crew again."

"Not coming to the crew?" Murphy asked curiously, "Why?"

"I think the magician is a very special character."

Speaking of the character to be portrayed in front of the camera, James Franco was not as serious as he had before, and was extremely serious. "I want to find a quiet, completely undisturbed environment and take some time to study this character."

Hearing this, Murphy couldn't help but look at James Franco. In Fulanlan's eyes, a kind of fanaticism that an actor meets a character he really likes.

Murphy thought for a moment, "That's OK."

"See you later."

James Franko stood up and wanted to say goodbye, but Murphy stopped him, "Wait, James."

"There's something else?" asked James Franko.
Chapter completed!