Millennium director

In the age of light and shadow, inside Wu Yuan's office.

Sitting across from Zhang Guorong, Wu Yuan was cleaning the tea set with smooth movements.

"Leslie, are you done with your acting career in Hong Kong?"

Wu Yuan used to call Zhang Guorong "Zhang Sheng", but as the relationship between the two became better and better, Zhang Guorong asked him not to be so unfamiliar and just call him Leslie.

His good friends and directors he has worked with such as Sunglasses King all call him this.

After all, Wu Yuan can't just call him "brother" every time. He is not from Hong Kong.

"I'm done." Zhang Guorong smiled with wrinkles on his face, "I returned to Hong Kong Island and released an album and held more than ten concerts. The fans were very happy, and I was very happy too."

He is 50 years old this year, and he is still able to sing and dance on stage. He is indeed a very dedicated model worker.

Wu Yuan also listened to the new album Zhang Guorong released last year. It was an album that had never appeared in his dreams.

The album was jointly created by Hong Kong Island's top music producers, composers, and lyricists. There are some songs that Wu Yuan had heard in his dreams, but they were not sung by Zhang Guorong.

For example, "The Best Losing Friend" and "Falling Flowers and Flowing Water" that were originally supposed to be Eason's were included in Zhang Guorong's new album "Goodbye Guorong". It is probably that he included these two songs first.

It can also be seen from the song collection style of this album that Zhang Guorong, who has entered his fifties, is indeed unable to continue singing and dancing fiercely.

The man who started the era of singing and dancing in Hong Kong is about to completely transform into a lyric singer.

"It seems that you are in a good mood recently." Wu Yuan said with emotion, looking at the smile on Zhang Guorong's face and the crow's feet at the corners of his eyes.

"Of course." Zhang Guorong said cheerfully: "I am in a very good state of mind now. My career as an actor has reached its peak, and I have won the Berlin Best Actor."

"My career as a singer has already reached its peak."

"Now I occasionally make cameos in movies, and release an album every two years to give back to my fans and friends. I don't know how easy it is!"

Zhang Guorong's role as Pang Yong in "Painted Skin" gave fans who were eagerly waiting for his performance a relief from the pain of lovesickness.

Also relying on Zhang Guorong's reputation, "Painted Skin" finally earned nearly 40 million Hong Kong dollars at the box office on Hong Kong Island!

"Now I just want to be a good director and make some movies that can stay in the hearts of the audience." Zhang Guorong said seriously.

Wu Yuan curled his lips. Compared with the person in front of him, Zhang Guorong seemed to be the one who cheated.

"Leslie, is there a new script?" Wu Yuan asked simply and neatly, not wanting to talk to him anymore.

"I have an idea." Zhang Guorong nodded and said seriously: "Director Wu, I have an immature idea and would like to ask for your opinion."

"you say."

"I want to make a Western movie about us Chinese people, but it should be more rock and roll, more intense, and more entertaining!"

"Western movie?" Wu Yuan frowned.

Western movies, also known as cowboy movies, were born in the United States.

According to the standards of western movies, this type of movie must have a rugged yet handsome cowboy wearing a wide-brimmed hat and carrying a revolver on his waist, who represents the righteous side, as well as an unscrupulous cowboy who represents evil. Gangster villain.

And the background will inevitably be the Great Gobi Desert in the American West. The sandy wilderness and desolate towns constitute the background features of western movies.

It's just that by now, this type of movie that reflects Americans' development of the West and dramatizes it and makes it epic has long since declined.

Hollywood doesn't make Western movies anymore, so why does Zhang Guorong have this idea?

"Yeah, a Western."

"That's what I think." Zhang Guorong talked about his thoughts. "In the 1930s, Japan invaded China and occupied the northeastern region of China and the adjacent Chahar Grassland."

"A large group of heavily armed Japanese officers obtained a treasure map related to a treasure hidden in Manchuria by the Qing Dynasty."

"It's just that it's not just the Japanese who are interested in this treasure map."

"Three bandits with different personalities, some good and some bad, are also eyeing this treasure map and plan to attack this group of Japanese officers and steal the treasure map."

"In the process, the three bandits never knew each other, and in the conflict between primitive violence and kindness, they reached an agreement."

"They are going to have a big train robbery on the northeastern plains!"

Wu Yuan frowned, this plot sounded very familiar.

The West, Cowboys, Treasure Map Heist, The Great Train Robbery.

"Isn't this "The Good, the Bad, and the Bad"?"

"The Good, the Bad, and the Bad" is an Italian western, but it is a classic in the history of American westerns.

This movie tells the story of three people who took advantage of the political chaos during the American Civil War to exploit each other and scheming, resulting in many interesting jokes and dramatic confrontations full of tension.

These three people represent good people, bad people and ugly people respectively.

"Yes, my source of inspiration is the classic "The Good, the Bad, the Bad, and the Bad"" Zhang Guorong admitted frankly. It was only after watching this classic old film in his free time recently that he came up with the idea of ​​making a Chinese version.

No one in China had ever made a western like this before, so Zhang Guorong wanted to give it a try.

Wu Yuan looked at him in silence, neither agreeing nor disagreeing, but thinking.

He remembered that South Korea also made a movie that paid tribute to "The Good, the Bad, the Bad, and the Bad," and even the title of the movie was a direct English translation of "The Good, the Bad, and the Bad," called "The Good, the Bad, and the Weird."

This movie did very well at the box office, winning the 2008 Korean movie box office championship, with a total of 7.02 million views.

Of course, in the three-acre area of ​​Korea, there is definitely no place where you can capture the majesty of the wilderness.

This movie was shot in places such as Dunhuang, Mongolia and Russia, and the main plot was shot in Jiayuguan and Dunhuang.

The Dunhuang wilderness early in the morning, the magnificent scenery such as the Gobi Canyon and the sunset over the long river were all captured in this movie.

Grass!

Korean guys can take pictures, but Zhang Guorong can’t?

Movies such as "The Cook, the Actor, the Scoundrel", "The Wire" and "The Golden Heist" all have the style and characteristics of American western movies, and they have also achieved good box office results in China.

This shows that Chinese audiences can actually eat this kind of Western movies. After all, Western movies are not mainly bloody and violent. Their core selling point is dramatic comedic conflicts.

"You can give it a try." Wu Yuan thought for a while and said calmly: "We can learn from "The Good and the Bad" in terms of character setting and story outline."

"The content of the story had to be completely reinvented."

"We will follow the typical commercial film model. We will design the highlight of the train robbery at the beginning to create a thrilling opening. We will capture the hearts of the fans first, and then move on to the character story."

"Add more action scenes. You guys know the best about Hong Kong movies. I really can't go to the family class and hire a few professionals."

"In terms of action scenes, we pay homage to the style of traditional comedy, but we don't want to overwhelm the show and don't let the action take away the limelight of the plot."

"As for the starring role."

"The three protagonists of The Good, the Bad, and the Bad are a good guy, a bad guy, and an ugly guy who is responsible for humor."

"The good guy can be played by Liu Ye, and the bad guy can be played by Teacher Xu Jinjiang or Zhou Zhaolong."

"It's best to deal with the ugly people. Didn't Andy Lau's Asian Rising Star Director project involve a mainland movie?"

"In Ning Hao's "Crazy Stone", there is an actor named Huang Bo. He has a very unique appearance and has a talent for comedy."

Wu Yuan completely adapted this movie to the casting template of "The Cook, the Actor, the Scoundrel".

In fact, the character setting of "The Cook, the Actor, the Scoundrel" was also based on "The Good, the Bad and the Bad", but this movie was not made into a western.

When Liu Ye, Zhang Hanyu, and Huang Bo came together, the chemical reaction was quite good.

Just considering that Zhang Guorong is a Hong Kong director after all, he still has to give a Hong Kong male lead role in the casting, so that he can compete for the Hong Kong Film Awards!

As a bad guy, you can choose any one of Hong Kong's biggest villains, Xu Jinjiang and Zhou Zhaolong.

The two of them are both respectful and intimidating, and they are perfect at playing bad guys.

"As for the name of the movie, it's called "Good Guys, Bad Guys, and Weird Guys." Since we all pay homage to "The Good, the Bad, and the Bad Guys," we can directly reflect it in the movie's title. There is no need to hide it."

"Let me tell the fans clearly that the inspiration and characters of this movie come from "The Good, the Bad, and the Bad"."

"Sincerity is the ultimate skill."

Zhang Guorong opened his mouth slightly and looked at Wu Yuan blankly.

How come this movie was decided in just a few sentences?

He just had thoughts and ideas and wanted to chat with Wu Yuan.

Why is it that after these few words, Wu Yuan is already casting?

"Director Wu." Zhang Guorong opened his mouth, trying to persuade him not to think so far ahead and finish the script first.

However, Wu Yuan interrupted him directly, "Leslie, this movie will probably be shot in Dunhuang, Jiayuguan, and Inner Mongolia, and the production cost may not be low."

"Eighty million should be enough for filming, right?"

"Excluding special effects, the actual shooting of "Painted Skin" only cost 70 to 80 million."

"That's enough." Zhang Guorong swallowed his saliva and quickly swallowed back the words that came to his lips.

It's better to be more relaxed. He likes Director Wu's cheerful and cheerful look.

"By the way, we can get China Film to do it together." Wu Yuan happily added: "Director Han is particularly interested in this kind of subject matter that has never been filmed in China."

"If he knew we were going to make a Western, he would definitely be willing to get involved."

"By the way, when the time comes, you will also have a cameo role in the movie, playing a Japanese officer?"

"This way we can get this movie to be released in South Korea!"

Wu Yuan is very familiar with the matter of exporting to domestic sales.

"Good Guys, Bad Guys, and Weird Guys" has been watched by more than 7 million people in South Korea. This market cannot be ignored!

He looked directly into Zhang Guorong's eyes with great solemnity.

"Korean audiences still like your face. "A Better Tomorrow" and "A Chinese Ghost Story" were very popular in Korea back then, and now you are still an Asian superstar in the eyes of Korean movie fans."

"This "Good Guys, Bad Guys, Weird Guys" must be exported to the Korean market!"

The good news is there are two more chapters.

The bad news is that my schedule is broken again, and I can finish two chapters in the early morning.