Hollywood Lover

"These two candidates are very good. I am a little worried about Hua Tsai's acting skills. I think it might be better to let Wei Tsai play the role." Wu Yusen said that Wei Tsai was Tony Leung.

Zhang Dongcheng smiled noncommittally: "Now what I care about is not Hua Tsai or Wei Tsai, but my American version of the movie, who should play the leading role, and who should play the role of Liu Qingyun?"

"Haha, you're probably here to tease me, don't you want to meet Nicolas Cage and John Travolta? I bet they are the best partners on the silver screen this year!" Only then did John Woo come to his senses, This kid turned around for a long time, didn't he just want to know the phone numbers of these two people, really.

"Hehe, Mr. Wu was joking." Seeing that his narrow-mindedness was seen through, Zhang Dongcheng didn't hide it anymore, he just laughed.

The meeting with Wu Yusen was very pleasant. Not only did I see his directing skills, but also unexpectedly saw the combination of Nicolas Cage and John Travolta, which can be called the best screen rivalry in 1997, especially Nicolas Cage. The madness and hysteria when playing the villain, the helpless sadness and selflessness when playing the upright, the ever-changing and wonderful handsome face made Zhang Dongcheng's heart jump, and he made up his mind to pull him in to play the role of Andy Lau in the American version of Dark War corner.

Nicolas Cage (Nicolas Cage), born on January 7, 1964 in California, USA, is an American actor.

In 1982, 17-year-old Nicolas Cage entered the film industry and starred in the film "Open American University". In 1984, Cage starred in the movie "Birdman". In 1988, he starred in "Kiss of the Vampire". In 1992, he won the Palme d'Or at the 43rd Cannes Film Festival for his performance in the film "Wild at Heart". In 1996, he starred in the action film "Brave to Kill the Island", and won the Oscar for Best Actor that year for his role as an alcoholic in "Leaving Las Vegas". Then starred in action films such as "Face Changing" and "Prison in the Air".

Nicolas Cage is like a distinctive but erratic football player, with ups and downs. He has a habit of being terrific in one film and terrific in the next, and even sometimes fluctuates widely within the same film.

In fact, for most star actors, performances with such a huge difference in level should not exist. Because, they will always give a set of stable performances similar to their own characteristics within the safe range they know well. For example, George Clooney will always look the same on screen, no matter how weird his beard is. They rarely challenge their own limits, or in other words, rarely take the risk of failure.

But he, his performance, was unpredictable.

This unique appreciation made the young Cage quickly become famous in Hollywood. The reporters soon discovered that the stories outside Cage's lens were equally exciting.

When filming "Birdman" in 1984, in order to experience the pain of being injured in the Vietnam War, he pulled out a tooth without anesthesia; The next live cockroach. These anecdotes make the audience realize that Cage is also a crazy method actor.

After winning the Oscar for Best Actor, Nicholas was one of the members of the $20 million club, and the face-changing was so successful that even supporting actor John Travolta was worth $15 million.

On the heads of these two brothers, Zhang Dongcheng will spend about 35 million U.S. dollars, and the cost of this movie will not be less than 60 million U.S. dollars.

But the cost is a trivial matter. Zhang Dongcheng is most worried about the performance status of the Nicholas brothers. According to the above-mentioned New York Times, he always has a habit of acting very well in one movie and performing extremely poorly in the next movie. , in "Face Changing", his acting skills were well trained by Wu Yusen, and although "Prison in the Sky" is not a great acting skill, it can be regarded as mediocre, but I really don't want his slack to appear in his own movie .

Bad movie king Nicolas Cage, is it worth the gamble?

Taking out the phone and looking at the number stored in the phone, Zhang Dongcheng lit a cigar, and then called.

This call was naturally labeled as Nicolas Cage. Zhang Dongcheng wanted to have a talk with him in person to see how the hottest fried chicken in American film circles behaved.

"Beep, beep..." The phone was connected, and a hangover voice came: "I'm Nicholas, who is it?"

"Hello, Mr. Nicholas, I'm Zhang Dongcheng from Dongcheng Films..." Zhang Dongcheng cleared his throat, and then heard a voice with no interest on the other side.

"I'm sorry, if you invite me to make a movie, please find my agent. In addition, you don't have to find him, as long as you can afford 20 million dollars. I hang up."

With a snap, Nicholas hung up the phone without any explanation, while Zhang Dongcheng could only stare blankly at the microphone, not knowing what to do.

The director has always been above the actors, but this kind of thing also depends on the strength of the opponent.

A super big-name star like Nicholas can not give the director any face at all, and even some scenes, the director said no to reshoot, but once the big-name star's temper comes up, he won't shoot if he doesn't want to shoot, just pat his ass and leave of.

Nicholas's performance is up and down, and the directors can't see it? They just couldn't control him.

Members of the 20 million dollar club have already shed most of the constraints and become truly free and unrestrained guys in Hollywood.

Zhang Dongcheng has a very good temper, and Nicholas' behavior like this didn't make him angry, but he found it a little funny.

As long as you can afford 20 million US dollars, you don't even need to find a broker? On the other hand, that means that Nicholas can play a soliciting duck for only $20 million.

After thinking about it, putting Nicholas aside first, Zhang Dongcheng made a phone call with John Travolta, and this actor, who can be called an alternative Hollywood legend, gave Zhang Dongcheng the best answer.

The king of dancing in the 1970s was relegated to the sidelines in the 1980s, and made a comeback in the 1990s and became a box office superstar.

In 1978 he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor and was invited to lunch at the White House by President Carter. Open any newspaper of that period and you will find the name John Travolta. His large stills were used as the cover of the famous Time Magazine. "Forever John Travolta", this is not only his own, but also more people's expectations of him.

He successively starred in the films "Saturday Fever" and "Grease" which swept the world and set off a worldwide disco dance craze. When he was swaying wildly in a white suit in "Saturday Fever", he was worshiped as Marlon Brando.

However, since the 1980s, he made a series of wrong choices: he rejected the scripts "The Officer and the Gentleman" and "The Mermaid" written for him, and took on a batch of films that were not up to standard in terms of salary or artistic level. , his performance began to decline, and he was called "a fool who went to Hollywood by mistake" by Hollywood.

Although the box office of "Look Who's Talking" for three consecutive episodes during this period was not bad, but it coincided with the emergence of handsome men in Hollywood, and John Travolta could not obtain the status of an eye-catching actor after all. So he decided to retire, but at this time, "Pulp Fiction" was long overdue.

It's a mob hit man with long, loose hair, one earring, heroin, and all sorts of nasty things. Except for the wonderful dance with Uma Thurman in the film, there is no trace of John Travolta in the past. In May 1994, the Cannes Film Festival, which is known for recommending newcomers, promoted John Travolta, an old actor, to the newcomer's seat. For the second time in 17 years, John Travolta has been favored by the Oscars.

As the saying goes: eat a ditch, gain a wisdom. After a beautiful turnaround, John Travolta pursued the victory and starred in "The White Man's Burden" and "Short People", which described racial discrimination, as well as the action films "Broken Arrow" and "Face Changing" directed by John Woo. He rushed to the level of a first-class star again, only one step away from a super star.

On the phone, John Travor was very interested in Zhang Dongcheng's films, and the pleasant experience he had just had with Chinese director John Woo made him hope to do it again.

After reading the script, John Travor immediately decided to participate in the filming. He was completely moved by the novelty, novelty and tension of the script and the full salary of 12 million US dollars.

Fortunately, I didn't wait until the release of "Face Changing" to find him, and I saved a total of three million dollars! Zhang Dongcheng calculated the accounts happily in his heart, but asked Traver: "I also asked Nicholas just now, and I wanted you, the best opponents on the silver screen, to hit another home run, but Nicholas answered me. , but extremely short."

"Haha, you can worry about anyone in Hollywood, but you don't have to worry about Nicholas. This guy only cares about money. As long as you throw 20 million dollars in front of him, he will sign his name, and he won't even read the script!" Laver laughed loudly, answering Zhang Dongcheng's question.

"But, isn't he afraid of receiving bad movies and damaging his reputation?" Zhang Dongcheng asked strangely.

"This kid is all about enjoying life and doesn't have a high income. How can he maintain his extravagant life like an emperor? Director Smith, don't worry, bring 20 million to see him tomorrow, and then finish work in ten minutes. It's as simple as that." That's why I said you can worry about anyone in Hollywood, but don't worry about him!" Traver's words were decisive, and he was the best screen opponent, and he sold Nicholas completely.

Zhang Dongcheng didn't know until the next day that what Travor said was completely true.

When the two sides met, Nicholas didn't talk nonsense and didn't even read the script. He just swiped a pen and signed his name as soon as he saw the advance payment, completely treating the manager on the other side as nothing.