China Entertainment 1997

It has been almost a month since Cao Xuan came to the United States. Except for Zhang Chong and Zhu Jiang, he usually only meets foreigners. This time he finally met an acquaintance, and the conversation was quite interesting.

The same is true for Yuan Baye. He has been here longer than Cao Xuan. This time "The Matrix" plans to shoot two or three parts in a row. The workload is very heavy. The specific shooting period alone is more than a year.

Fortunately, Yuan Baye has an apprentice. He only needs to be responsible for the action design, and the on-site guidance of specific actions can be completed by the apprentice.

Therefore, except for some key scenes where Yuan Baye is in charge, he can take time to return to China to work on other projects.

The director hasn't come yet, so Yuan Baye took the time to ask Cao Xuan.

"You haven't lost your time yet, there's going to be a fight this time."

"no problem."

Cao Xuan nodded confidently. Starting from his debut film "Water Margin", "Little Li Fei Dao", "Swordsman" and even the following "Eternal Dragon Slayer", the fighting scenes he has filmed are considered to be the best among his generation, and the relevant training has been continuous. Didn't stop.

It can't be compared with those Kung Fu stars who are children's Kung Fu, but as an amateur, he can be regarded as a half-practitioner, at least as an actor.

If he were facing Cheng Long and Jet Li, Cao Xuan would not dare to make a fuss, but Keanu Reeves, who also became a monk on the way, is still very confident.

Master Yuan Ba ​​also knew a little bit about Cao Xuan's background, and felt a little relieved.

Cao Xuan played a guest role as the prophet's bodyguard in "The Matrix 2" and "The Matrix 3".

This character is set up as a Chinese man with high kung fu skills. He has two fighting scenes, not many scenes, but he is quite eye-catching.

It is said that the crew originally wanted to find Li Lianjie, but the salary could not be negotiated. There is also a theory that "The Matrix" wanted to copy his kung fu, and then simulate it with special effects and replace the action actors with virtual humans. Li Lianjie angrily refused after learning the truth. play.

Personally speaking, Cao Xuan believes that these American companies can do what comes next. After all, kung fu movies have been very popular in the past two years, but the leading actors are all Chinese. It is normal for the United States to want to take a share of the pie.

However, it is indeed difficult to achieve the effect of virtual actors from a technical perspective at this stage.

But it’s hard to say whether Chinese kung fu movies have been stolen from the United States.

After all, all Hollywood action movies of later generations have more or less the shadow of Chinese kung fu movies. No one knows whether this is the credit of the action director or whether it was really the result of video analysis.

And at this stage, when many people are not particularly familiar with computer special effects, it is normal for actors to have concerns.

After all, the Republic of China suffered great losses, and many killer moves were videotaped and spread abroad. Martial arts practitioners are still quite taboo about this.

Li Lianjie refused to act, so Yuan Baye from The Original Time approached Chang Wei, who even served as part of the action director.

Now, because Warner was negotiating a contract with Cao Xuan at the time, they took this out as a bargaining chip. The directors, the Wachowski sisters...well, they are still brothers now, so they asked Yuan Baye and learned that Cao Xuan had a foundation in kung fu. , and is very famous in Asia, the role was finally finalized.

These two brothers were so big-hearted that they asked Cao Xuan to prepare for a two-month schedule and also cooperate with martial arts training.

Cao Xuan took a look at the script. There were only a few scenes in total, and he made it clear directly that he was a guest star and not a supporting actor. He was only given half a month to film, so he could film it or not.

In fact, it doesn't matter that Cao Xuan has to make a guest appearance in "The Matrix", it's just a matter of sentiment, but the premise is that it doesn't affect his schedule.

There is a two-month schedule, let’s not talk about whether Cao Xuan has that much time. Even if he does, Cao Xuan is not cheap enough to leave a lot of work and go to the United States to be a supporting actor and cooperate with the crew for more than two months.

If Warner offers 10 million U.S. dollars, Cao Xuan didn't say it, and it's not impossible to consider it in half a year, but 500,000 U.S. dollars is only enough to buy him for 15 days.

Later, Warner Records came forward to coordinate and made it clear to the director brother that Cao Xuan was not an ordinary actor, and his schedule was not cheaper than that of these leading actors.

The two sides are mutually beneficial and each gets what they need, not Cao Xuanqiu's acting out.

So, under the arrangement of Warner Records, the two parties reached an agreement that Cao Xuan would finish filming in half a month, but he would definitely have to work overtime.

That's it for normal scenes. There are still several scenes that require special effects or even appear as background panels. Cao Xuan has to do some performances on the green screen.

………

Soon after, the crew started working, and the directors, the Wachowski brothers, the male lead Keanu Reeves, the female lead Carrie-Anne Moss, and other leading actors arrived.

Cao Xuan, a new actor, also introduced himself. Everyone was not indifferent, but not very enthusiastic. They said hello in a ceremonial manner and started filming.

The assistant director took Cao Xuan directly to change clothes and try on makeup. Then he would try out the tricks with Keanu Reeves in the afternoon and start test shooting if possible.

Yesterday's clothes were a double-breasted white coat on the upper body and black martial arts pants on the lower body. His shoes were not authentic mille-layer cloth shoes, so Cao Xuan found something roughly the same.

The costume designer brought him those small round sunglasses again, and Cao Xuan put them on. These small round sunglasses are difficult for ordinary people to hold up, and they look a bit sinister or calculating.

Cao Xuan has good looks and does not deliberately display other qualities. Wearing these glasses makes him look more mysterious and cold.

This is also consistent with the identity of the prophet's bodyguard. Depending on the setting, the identity of the prophet's bodyguard may not be that simple.

Many lines seem to indicate that he may be the previous savior of the male protagonist, but there is no specific explanation in the movie. It may be to sell off, or it may be that the audience has too many self-associations.

Cao Xuan changed his clothes and appeared, which made more people pay attention to him at the scene. At least the director brother took a few more glances at him, which made Cao Xuan feel scared.

These brothers turned around and turned into sisters. It’s scary...

Shortly after changing his costume, Cao Xuan officially started to compete with Keanu Reeves under the guidance of Master Ba, starting with easy things and then difficult ones.

I have seen a lot of Cao Xuan's routines and picked it up quickly. Keanu has also filmed two movies and has experience. The two of them were able to make tentative gestures in less than half an hour.

How should I put it, Keanu Reeves is an amateur after all, and Cao Xuan has starred opposite many real actors in the past, so it was easy for a half-hearted actor like him to take over the role.

As for Keanu Reeves, after filming the "Matrix" series for such a long time, the training teachers and martial arts instructors were all practitioners. He was beaten up, and other actors who didn't train as long as him were beaten up by him.

Only Cao Xuan was slightly more powerful than him, but still within his acceptable range.

This is a chance to meet a good talent and an opponent in chess. The dragon in the clouds meets the dragon in the wind, and the tiger ascending the mountain meets the tiger underground. The two sides go back and forth, and the "fight" is very enjoyable.

After the trick was completed, Keanu Reeves looked at Cao Xuan with admiration and his attitude became much more enthusiastic.

"Good job, man."

"No, I'm not okay at all."

Cao Xuan shook his head in frustration, Keanu Reeves was confused, and then Cao Xuan complained.

"A Chinese actor didn't crush foreigners in his performance. I feel a little sorry for Jack Cheng and Bruce Lee."

"Hahaha."

Keanu Reeves laughed: "If it were Jack Cheng, I wouldn't fight him."

"He's not that powerful, just avoid Furniture City."

All joking aside, but Cao Xuan is quite impressed by Keanu Reeves.

They have really worked hard in private, and their foundation is really not bad.

Putting aside those children's kung fu practitioners, that is, those like Cao Xuan who have gone through some systematic training to be able to suppress it, it may be "embarrassing" to replace him with a Chinese actor who has not filmed many fighting scenes.

As the saying goes, there is no acquaintance without fighting. After a few fight scenes, Cao Xuan and Keanu Reeves got a lot closer.

Most of Cao Xuan's scenes were with Keanu Reeves, and he was happy to have a good relationship to facilitate filming.

The two were of similar skill level, and they fought very smoothly. Once they had a tacit understanding, they quickly started filming. In less than a day, Cao Xuan took over the heavy fighting scenes, and then filmed the literary scenes.

If Cao Xuan was a little surprised by Keanu Reeves in the fighting scene, then it was Keanu Reeves' turn who was surprised when filming the literary scene.

Cao Xuan's facial expressions, emotional intensity, co-ordination, and fluent English line skills all surprised his co-star Keanu Reeves.

"Cao, I can't believe you are a singer."

"How many times have I told you, don't call me Cao? My profession is actor + singer. I am professional in acting."

"Okay, Cao."

Keanu Reeves has a bright smile, and after a few days of getting along, the two of them have become familiar with each other, especially since he learned the meaning of "Cao" from Yuan Baye, and he will never change his words.

Cao Xuan took a deep breath, held back, took out the prop gun and hit him twice, and gave Keanu Reeves the middle finger.

"Let's go, I have something to discuss with the producer."

"What are we talking about, more money or more drama?"

"Add a song!"

Cao Xuan left to change clothes, leaving Keanu Reeves looking confused.

Add a song? What song should I add?

Is it possible that Cao Xuan took over the soundtrack work, but didn’t he already have a team?

Half an hour later, Cao Xuan shook hands with the producer of "The Matrix 2": "Thank you for your trust. I will come up with a theme song that satisfies you."