Once Upon a Time In Hollywood

Chapter 382 The Pirate Universe

"Uncharted Sea" is a game produced by Naughty Dog. On the 10th anniversary of 2017, the total sales volume of the series exceeded 41 million.

Although compared with "Give Him Love 5", the cumulative sales of "Uncharted" is not enough, but looking at the entire history of the game, there are not many people who have sold "Give Him Love 5". Just "Tetris" and "Minecraft"!

The others are all younger brothers!

Final Fantasy, which was born in 1987, sold only 130 million in the total series on the 10th anniversary of "Uncharted";

As of 2017, the total sales volume of more than a dozen "Tomb Raider" has only climbed to 58 million;

Being played by Ubisoft as a new product, the total sales volume of "Assassin's Creed" with 20 copies in 2017 was only 100 million.

In this way, the six "Uncharted Seas" in ten years can sell 41 million, which is already a very good result.

The whole series of "Uncharted" is actually about a guy named Nathan Drake exploring the secrets and treasures.

If you just look at the literal content, many people who have never played it may think that "Uncharted" is a copy of "Tomb Raider", because "Tomb Raider" is also about treasure hunting, but In fact, "Uncharted" has nothing to do with "Tomb Raider", or in other words, "Uncharted" is indeed suspected of plagiarism, but it is not "Tomb Raider" at all, but treasure hunting The ancestor of the adventure theme, "Raiders of the Lost Ark".

In terms of background setting, they all have the same three-stage structure.

refers to history, integrates religion, and writes legends.

The first three parts of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" are about Indiana Jones going to find the Ark of the Covenant, the Holy Stone of Ankara, and the Holy Grail.

The first three parts of "Uncharted" are about Nathan Drake going to find the Golden City, Shangri-La, and the City of a Thousand Pillars.

Whether it's Indiana Jones' goal, or Nathan Drake's direction, it's something that's been documented but never discovered, like the Ark of the Covenant, it's from the pages of the Bible' Exodus' is a sacred object of the Israeli nation, while the Golden City is the Inca civilization destroyed by the Spanish in the fifteenth century.

The Israeli nation really existed, and the Inca civilization also has traces to follow, but no matter whether it is the Ark of the Covenant or the Golden City, they are all legends that are only heard of in their names, and this combination of fiction and reality has already given the audience (players) Created a real sense of substitution.

After that, the three-stage camp setting, that is, 'hero + beauty + strong enemy'.

Both works are available.

The three major elements of action scenes, namely 'shootout + fighting + chase'.

They are highly consistent.

These similar elements make the two series very similar.

And if there are still people who question it at this time, saying that the similarity of elements does not involve plagiarism, then when the same character design as Indiana Jones appears on Nathan Drake, no matter how you wash it, it will not be cleared. .

Cynical and handsome appearance, sloppy personality, professional knowledge from nowhere, inexplicable sense of justice, and no matter what setbacks he experiences, he never grows or changes...

When these labels appear on two people at the same time, their biggest characteristic is that they have no characteristics.

Or in other words, this is the default factory setting for the Hollywood protagonists in Steven Spielberg commercials.

Because of this, when Kate proposed to Roland that he could create a new Indiana Jones by himself, what came to Roland's mind was Nathan Drake, who was very similar to it!

At the same time, after he knew that the success of "Uncharted Sea" had nothing to do with the content of the story, it was purely because of the unparalleled art scene and wonderful level design...

Letting Nathan Drake find the treasures of the pirate kings became a crazy idea in Roland's mind!

Since the Naughty Dog who made "The Last of Us 2" has no ability to tell stories, why should he stick to the plot of "Uncharted" and pursue the golden city of the Inca civilization? In pursuit of Marco Polo's lost relic Shangri-La? Looking for the city of a thousand pillars in Atlantis? Going to find Liberty, the utopia of One Piece Henry?

Wouldn't it be nice to go after the gift that the Aztecs used to bribe the Spanish colonist Hernando Coste to avoid massacres?

Wouldn't it be good to pursue the legacy of the nine pirate kings?

Are you going to sail the seven seas and spill all of Jack Sparrow's rum?

Start with "Pirates of the Caribbean" and directly pull up the game IP "Uncharted". Whenever Nathan Drake finds a treasure of the Pirate King, he can decide whether to make the life of the Pirate King into a Movie!

Find the legendary treasure in a game way!

Tell the life of the pirate kings in the way of movies!

In this way, not only can you avoid the embarrassment that the protagonist always wins when watching treasure hunting movies!

It can also avoid the boredom of constantly watching cutscenes when playing games!

Separate operation from viewing!

Let the real time and the historical point in parallel!

Create a pirate universe!

"Mua!" Thinking of this, Roland kissed Kate directly on the face.

"What are you doing?" Kate, who was suddenly attacked, looked confused.

"Thank you, you gave me a new inspiration." Roland said bluntly.

However, just as he was excited about his crazy idea, Kate rolled her eyes watching this situation.

"Come on, at your level, even a new inspiration will be bad.

What exactly are the four or five plots of "Pirates of the Caribbean" that you wrote before!

Without me modifying it for you, believe it or not, after showing it to others, you can make them laugh to death? "

Roland was delighted to hear the stinky farts, and perfunctorily admitted defeat: "Okay, Okay, I'm good at smelling, right?

You are amazing, you are amazing, without you, my life would be bleak! "

"Hehehe..." Although Roland was not sincere at all, Kate still smiled happily.

Because this is not a question of who is strong and who is weak, but a question of family status.

"So, what did you think of just now?"

After returning a kiss between her husband's lips, Kate, who was sitting sideways on Roland's lap, also turned her head.

After hearing his daughter-in-law's question, Roland, who had been sorting out the information in his head, didn't hide it. He put his arms around her waist with one hand, picked up a pen with the other hand, and wrote while talking, "Didn't you just now?" Say make an Indiana Jones?

This sentence gave me a lot of inspiration.

Because I think that Blizzard can create a sea treasure hunting game, and the target treasure is the legacy of the nine pirate kings, starting from the Aztec gold coins that Jack Sparrow searched for, showing the medieval pirate culture to the players In front of us, once a player is deeply interested in a certain big pirate, we can set customs clearance conditions and unlock movie shooting.

For example, we set a highest honor for the game called the Platinum Badge. As long as there are one million players to achieve it, the pirate autobiographical movie corresponding to that game will be put on the agenda.

Of course, this is just a preliminary idea, and the specific content has to be discussed with Mike and the others. However, before that, I have already thought about the protagonist of the treasure hunt game. I want to call him Nathan Drake. "

If it is said that Roland's game idea Kate didn't quite understand it, because she never thought it was fun to play games by clicking on the computer, but when Roland said the name Nathan Drake, she never From another angle, Get saw the horror of her husband, "Drake? Are you sure it's Drake?"

"Yes." Roland nodded, and wrote on the paper: "D-r-a-k-e, Drake."

"Wow! So his ancestor is Francis Drake?" Kate laughed.

"Eh? So you know Francis Drake?" Roland poked his head curiously, his neck stretched out as long as a wax goose, and he turned from Kate's shoulder, trying to peek at his wife's expression.

"Nonsense!" Kate rolled her eyes at her husband's naive behavior, "Francis Drake is the most famous pirate nobleman in Britain! He is the first sailor in British history to complete a circumnavigation of the world, and a confidant of Queen Elizabeth. He discovered the Drake Passage, the widest strait in the world, and his greatest achievement was defeating the Spanish Armada!"

That's right, in the settings of the "Uncharted" series, Nathan Drake is a descendant of the famous British privateer Francis Drake, so the first story of Nathan Drake will be the same as It is related to the city of gold that Lord Sir searched for.

And it is precisely because it is linked to famous figures in history that there are many stories that can be unfolded.

After Kate confirmed that her husband's thoughts were no different from her own guess, she said again: "If you use the name Drake, then the plot related to it can expand to the entire ocean!

As a guy who has sailed around the world, every continent has left his footprints. "

"Of course, the story constructed with this fan-shaped structure method is originally intended to describe a complete world."

"But what if the sales of the game are not good?"

"Which one are you talking about is bad?"

"Uh... what if it was bad in the first place?"

"It's not good at the beginning? Then we can stop the loss! Anyway, the movie is over."

"So if it was good at the beginning, after several generations of games, players are not interested because of the modular process?"

"Then let Nathan Drake retire, change the game mode that people are interested in, change the protagonist, and continue the treasure hunt."

"But what if the game has been tepid and can't meet the standards of making a movie?"

"That's okay! As long as we can successfully create the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series of movies, then we will be successful!"

Yes!

Although the concept is grand and the idea is beautiful, it doesn't mean that Roland will rush forward.

After all, cinematic universes are not that easy to make!

In Roland's previous life, there were only two truly successful ones, one from Star Wars and one from Marvel.

Besides, there is only Harry Potter who has the possibility of derivation and continuation.

Like Transformers, Middle-earth, Jurassic, they can only be regarded as series.

As for Universal's Dark Universe, Warner's Monster Universe and DC Extended Universe, those works are all like shit.

The most important thing in a universe is the world view. The criterion for its success is not a single individual, but a group image. Star Wars can produce Skywalker, Han Solo and the Dark Lord of the Sith, and Marvel can produce Iron Man, Spiderman , what about other works?

After the absence of Harry Potter, the magical world ushered in the most charming Grindelwald, but unfortunately, the rigorous plot made it impossible for passers-by, and turned away audiences who had never seen Harry Potter. outside;

Transformers are all attractive in combination, but when one is pulled, how many can afford the box office?

No one in Middle-earth can afford a single-player movie;

The same is true for the Jurassic, which can only be filmed according to the series;

The single-player mummy in the dark universe can't even carry the soup;

The monster universe is even simpler, the Japanese series is the Japanese series after all;

While DC…

never mind!

As long as Warner fights against each other infinitely, this thing cannot succeed!

In this case, as long as Roland plays the Jack Spyro card in his hand, the pirate series has surpassed the Dark Universe and the Monster Universe, and stands on the same starting line as Transformers, Middle-earth, and Jurassic!

And if we can find a second charismatic pirate captain through the game...

Only Harry Potter can compete with the pirate universe!

And when a second charismatic pirate captain takes hold on the big screen...

Chasing Marvel and Star Wars will no longer be a dream!

So, even if the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series is successful, it is only the beginning of a movie universe. How to connect all the single-player movies together is the most troublesome thing for creators.

In Marvel, Kevin Feige gathered the Avengers together by fighting monsters alone and upgrading in groups.

In the island universe conceived by Roland, using the linear pursuit mode of the game to discover a pirate and connect them who have no connection at all is an operation method that can be tried.

After all, pirates cannot fight monsters to upgrade.

And this kind of kneading with the game series will also cause a split in the movie.

For example, the nine pirates belong to the same worldview, but they don't meet each other.

This split has both advantages and disadvantages.

The advantage is that it will not be as deeply bundled as "Where are the Fantastic Beasts" and "Harry Potter", and it is very friendly to audiences who have not seen the previous work.

The disadvantage is that although they are in the same world view, the situation where the king does not see the king makes the audience who chased them from beginning to end less cordial.

However, regardless of good or bad, try it to know!

No one knows if the idea will work until you try it.

Of course, the reason why Roland has the courage to try is because he has too much background now.

After all, both the mature Marvel and the possible derivative Harry Potter are in his hands!

In this way, if this pirate universe born out of brainstorming comes to fruition, everyone will be happy!

And even if it doesn't work, he's a winner!

No way, who made him an era ahead of all his opponents!

He had a chance to try and make mistakes!

Others can only watch his taillights eat ashes!

Oh no...

No one else has a chance to watch his taillights eat ashes...

Because Star Wars is in the hands of George Lucas, Jurassic and Transformers are in the hands of Steven Spielberg, and Middle Earth and DC are still in the hands of Roland Allen!

The IPs that are the foundation of the universe are all in his backyard, and other guys compare?

Why!

How lonely!

Note: ①Although "Tomb Raider" made two movies and restarted one, its sales have not been impressive. And "Assassin's Creed" only reached 100 million sales in 2017, but now, the total sales volume has reached 1.3. Don't ask, it's "Origin" and "Odyssey"! ② "Uncharted" is the ocean version of "Raiders of the Lost Ark", and Naughty Dog has always been a stitch monster. When Naughty Dog was still a production company under Universal Pictures, they copied the set and structure of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" in "Crash Bandicoot", and when writing the character design for the protagonist of "Uncharted", they directly Just copied Indiana Jones' character design. So much so that when Sony gave the original Naughty Dog and their newly rewritten script to Mark Wahlberg who starred in the "Uncharted" movie last year, he directly stated to the media that when he was looking at the materials, he thought Sony had taken the wrong one. , gave him the script of Raiders of the Lost Ark. And he also directly stated that it is not that the styles are similar, but that the content of the works are very similar.