Director’s Legend

The acquisition of Lucasfilm has to go through the review of the US antitrust organization, and the procedures will be very cumbersome. Therefore, after the press conference, Shao Shuaijun did not have a further conversation with Lucas. If the acquisition fails, the conversation will be a joke.

Li Xiuxiu, as the hostess, invited Lucas to have dinner together. There was no business discussion at the table. Lucas was more interested in Shao Shuaijun's movie "Night Watchman: Reflection", so Shao Shuaijun discussed his setting plan with Lucas. .

There are not many opportunities to communicate with legendary directors.

"Listen to your commentary, "Night Watchman: Reflection" completely subverts the plot of "Night Watchman", but it is more reasonable, and the concept has been sublimated a lot. As you can imagine, this is definitely an amazing modification!"

"George, do you think this modification will work?"

"Why not, I think it's a cool story, even though it tends to be dark. I've seen the imax version of "Nightman". The changes, combined with the impact of such a picture, will surprise the audience."

"Thank you." With Lucas' affirmation, Shao Shuaijun became more confident.

The next day, Shao Shuaijun returned to the crew again and spent three days shooting the last set of shots. Then, "Night Watchman: Reflection" was finished.

"Hi, everyone, this time the filming was very hard. To be honest, I don't know if this reconstructed plot will be recognized by the audience. But I want to say, thank you for your hard work in the past two months. Whether it is successful or not, We mustered up the courage to make up for the regrets of the year. This November is the time to test the results. No matter whether we can see each other again in the future, at least we are happier than most crews who can only get together once. Thank you. Let’s be together cheers!"

Bang Dang, the full champagne collided, and what was spilled was not wine. but laughter.

The filming of "Nighthawk: Reflection" is over. Shao Shuaijun finished editing the film and handed it over to Louis Renard to help supervise the post-production. Now that we have Golden Harvest d2, and will soon have ilm, the special effects of movies can be produced and sold on our own. Finish work on this. The filming of "The Avengers" is on the table.

In the case of cast assembly and crew preparation. Shao Shuaijun flew to India.

The crew of "Life of Pi" is holding casting activities in Mumbai, India. The casting event organized by Dream Chasing South Asia attracted tens of thousands of Indians to participate. Countless people come to sign up every day, and the number of people is unimaginable. There is no way, the three films released by Chasing Dream South Asia last year broke the Indian box office three times, and made several Indian superstars popular.

These Indians are full of expectations for this movie, and naturally want to be selected, and then become big stars once in a while.

The casting will be carried out for six months, and the suitable "pi" candidate in Li An's mind will be selected. At the same time, it is also very important to build filming bases in Hong Kong, Taiwan, the local governance of French India, and Magic City.

The world's largest fully automatic wave device tank will be built in Hong Kong to imitate the wind and waves at sea. The magnificent and mysterious floating island on the sea will be filmed in the Banyan Garden in Kenting, Taiwan. The city style will be photographed in Shanghai. Most importantly, the local governance of French India will be filmed for the pre-production shots of the film.

Shao Shuaijun did not participate in the casting, Li An is the director, he has his own ideas. Shao Shuaijun mainly went to French India to choose a suitable shooting location.

French India is the general term for the territories occupied by France in India in the past, which were later returned to India, and these places are still called French India. Because it has been ruled by France for a long time, the customs have been Frenchized, and many people still retain their French nationality and live a French life. In addition, it is close to the sea. The scenery and environment are just like France, which is very suitable for tourism and filming.

Local governance is a city, the most famous place in French India, with picturesque scenery.

With a few assistants, bodyguards, and photographers from the film crew, accompanied by the Indian staff of Chasing Dream South Asia, Shao Shuaijun wandered around the local government for a long time. In "Life of Pi", "pi" lived in the fictional Pondicherry Zoo in his childhood. There is no zoo in the local government. In the end, everyone decided to transform the local botanical garden into a zoo.

The local government is also very supportive of this filming, and specially opened the Viriannur Temple, which has a history of thousands of years, for the crew to shoot. All in all, this trip was very fruitful. We found 18 locations in the local governance and French India, and set up a studio in the Muslim Quarter.

When Li An came over from Mumbai, he was very satisfied with these scenes: "Director Shao, this place is really beautiful. I now feel that any place can be shot with a camera, and the shots are beautiful."

"It's fine if you're satisfied. You're in charge of the filming. I'll call the logistics for you. If you have any shortcomings, just tell me. If I'm not here, Sister Wang Wei will cooperate with you. Sister Wang and I are old friends and have collaborated on many movies. She does things strong ability."

Discussing the script with Li An for a few days, it seems that the time is coming to the end of February, and the 83rd Academy Awards ceremony will be held soon. However, Shao Shuaijun did not intend to participate in this awards ceremony, because the entire 2010 Summit Entertainment was noisy and achieved outstanding commercial achievements, but it was completely wiped out at the Oscars.

Only "Iron Man 2" and "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" were nominated for best visual effects, and they were still competitors. But these two films have little chance of winning, because Martin Scorsese's "Hugo" came out this year. Although Shao Shuaijun didn't like this director who despised China, he knew with his toes that "Hugo" won the award. is doomed.

Shao Shuaijun had no interest in sitting in the theater for half the night just to applaud others.

In terms of communication, Shao Shuaijun has always been a bit of a nonsense. He is unwilling to engage in messy things, such as the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences invited him to be an Oscar judge, but Shao Shuaijun refused. Let him be the guest of honor, but also refused. The reason is very simple, he has never won an Oscar, so he is embarrassed to go up!

Others squeezed their heads to go up. Shao Shuaijun was invited by others several times, but he refused to do it. Just like he never went to the Berlin Film Festival, Cannes Film Festival, or Venice Film Festival, he felt that he was far away from art, and it would be nice if he could make a movie and have fun, talking about art is too hypocritical.

When the Oscars were over, sure enough, "Hugo" won the best visual effects award.

In March, Shao Shuaijun left India and flew back to the United States, which also means that "The Avengers" has officially entered the filming state. certainly. In the collection of members of the Women's Federation (that is, the Avengers). Luis Renard and Gao Zhisheng, as the assistant directors of the crew, started to set up the studio first, while Shao Shuaijun went to Golden Harvest d2 studio in Florida. "Nighthawks: Reflections" is here for post-production.

He is going to spend two or three days. Solve the problems encountered in the production.

Just at this time. A piece of news from outside was spreading again and again.

"Breaking news! Summit Entertainment General Manager Mitchell Bruce appeared in Glendale, California, and met with DreamWorks Animation President Lewis Coleman. Summit Entertainment's fourth acquisition of the year surfaced. Acquisition of DreamWorks Animation Company, fully enter the animation film industry!" - "The Sun".

The "Sun", known as the most pervasive newspaper, disclosed the shocking news and accompanied it with a somewhat blurred photo. In the photo, the image of Mitchell and Coleman shaking hands in the parking lot can still be seen.

"Shao, I'm sorry, my whereabouts have been followed." Mitchell called Shao Shuaijun immediately.

Shao Shuaijun frowned: "It's not your fault, Mitchell. Now that this matter is known by the media, will it affect our acquisition of DreamWorks?"

"There will definitely be an impact. Walt Disney was also seeking to cooperate with DreamWorks before. I am worried that Disney will compete with us and participate in the acquisition."

"Cut the mess quickly, spend more money, don't be afraid to spend money, earn as much as you spend, we must not give up on animation movies. If the acquisition is really not possible, then make second-hand preparations now to acquire Armand Animation Company !"

"Well, I will hurry up and negotiate with DreamWorks, Shao, if possible, how about I invite you to have dinner with Katzenberg? You are the most eye-catching director and boss on the planet, you can ask him Outline a beautiful blueprint for the future, you rely on the Chinese market, which is much more useful than my words!"

"Hehe, forget it, I don't know how to negotiate."

"No need to negotiate, you just need to outline the prospect to Katzenberg, we are professional businessmen, what we say is too convincing, it will be different if you say it, you are the most discerning director in Hollywood! Just tell him to join the summit The prospects for entertainment are just fine."

"Then... I'll try, but don't have high expectations. Maybe I'll just talk too much with him." Shao Shuaijun was a little hesitant. What he hates most is dealing with people in a commercial way.

DreamWorks was originally just a studio, founded in 1994 by the great director Steven Spielberg, animation geek Jeffrey Katzenberg and music godfather David Geffen. In the 1990s, Hollywood was monopolized by major production companies. In order to pursue free creation, the three created DreamWorks with their dreams in mind.

With their talents and their respective charisma, DreamWorks has been built into a kingdom of dreams. At its peak, even the Big Six of Hollywood would shy away. However, it is difficult for independent film companies to reach the heights of the Big Six. Without the support of major entertainment groups, they cannot match their opponents in terms of financial resources and available entertainment resources.

Plus Jeffrey Katzenberg only liked animation, and David Geffen was tired of the risk of investing in movies. Finally, in 2004, DreamWorks split into DreamWorks Films and DreamWorks Animation. Spielberg is in charge of the film company, Katzenberg is in charge of the animation company, and David Geffen has announced that he will no longer intervene in DreamWorks affairs.

That same year, Katzenberg took DreamWorks Animation public.

The DreamWorks Film Company was first sold to Paramount by Spielberg, and left Paramount with "Transformers 2" in 2009, and fell into the arms of Walt Disney.

The kingdom of free movies established with dreams back then has finally collapsed due to various reasons.

And DreamWorks Animation, despite its ups and downs, is still the top three animation companies in Hollywood. Even if Disney annexed Pixar, DreamWorks still has not lost its reputation. Last year, "How to Train Your Dragon" produced a global box office of 495 million US dollars. "Super Villain" has a global box office of 320 million US dollars, and "Shrek 4" has even achieved a global box office of 750 million US dollars.

It can be called the boss of the animation industry.

Asking Shao Shuaijun to convince this boss in the animation industry, Shao Shuaijun thinks this is really a difficult job, he is more used to spending money on it, no nonsense. (to be continued..)