Millennium director

The age of Hollywood superheroes is almost here.

"Iron Man" was the first work to start this era.

Starting from "Iron Man", Hollywood has been getting deeper and deeper into the road of big IP.

Whether it is the Marvel series or the DC series, the "Transformers" series, the "Fast and Furious" series, the rebooted "Star Trek", "Jurassic World", and various Disney princess movies, they are all shot with the same IP.

Apart from this, the only movies that can sell well in North America and even around the world are various animation movies.

Movies such as "Despicable Me", "Big Hero 6", "Zootopia", "The Secret Life of Pets", "Finding Nemo", etc.

The most exaggerated moment is that among the top ten movies at the North American box office in 2016, 6 were derivative movies from Marvel, DC and "Harry Potter", and 4 were Disney animated movies.

Original movies couldn't even break into the top ten, and were completely reduced to foils for various big IP movies.

Wu Yuan had no way to reverse this situation.

It can be said that the further back in time the timeline goes, the fewer original commercial blockbusters with outstanding box office results will appear in Hollywood. Only occasionally there will be a few small- and medium-cost dark horse movies with tens of millions of investments but a box office of 30 to 400 million.

Therefore, for Wu Yuan, if he wants to shoot some commercial blockbusters of his own in Hollywood, he has to do it as early as possible.

Otherwise, after a few years, he will have no choice but to make a superhero movie for Paramount, Disney, Universal and other companies.

Originally, he actually wanted to film "2012" before the release of the epoch-making 3D movie "Avatar" to give global audiences a little bit of the final special effects shock of the pre-2D movie era.

As a result, the plan could not keep up with the changes.

Compared with his career in North America, the "Gravity" project in China was obviously more important. Wu Yuan could only reluctantly give up "2012" and watched Roland Emmerich conceive the movie "2012". .

Now, he doesn't want to be delayed by New Line anymore and go to film another "Kings Agent" series.

Although the project "Kingsman" is also good, the global box office performance of more than 400 million US dollars is still not worthy of Wu Yuan.

Among the "Pirates of the Caribbean" trilogy, the first one with the worst box office, the global box office exceeded 700 million US dollars.

Being able to help New Line carry "Rush Hour 3" is already a big honor for Wu Yuan. If he is asked to carry "Kingsman" together, New Line's face will be too big.

Therefore, after reading the script of "Kingsman", Wu Yuan bluntly told New Line President Ellard that the script was fine and the crew could start preparations, but he would not be the director of the film.

Even if Elad said that as long as Wu Yuan is willing to take over, it can be restarted next year or even the year after that, Wu Yuan ignored it.

"Ellard, I already have filming plans in Hollywood next year. I may be cooperating with one of the Big Six. I really don't have time to film "Kingsman"."

"I believe that with Cheng Long joining the cast, this movie is already half successful."

"I can recommend a director to you, Matthew Vaughn. His films are very good and he is completely qualified to shoot this movie."

Matthew Vaughn is the director of the "Kingsman" series of movies.

In the downturn of spy movies, it is really not easy to make a movie that makes the audience remember the name.

Matthew Vaughn did it. He made the secret service film, which has always been heavy and dark, new and interesting.

Most importantly, his action scenes are shot very well.

Why is Cheng Long famous in Hollywood?

It's because he is good at fighting, and not only can he fight, he also teaches the foreign actors on the crew how to fight. He has a whole martial arts class to design excellent fighting scenes.

You know, in most Hollywood action movies, the actors are always fighting randomly when fighting in groups, just like street gangs fighting.

The kind of fight scenes that Chinese people think of as pleasing to the eye simply don't exist in Hollywood.

But the emergence of Matthew Vaughn broke this stereotype.

In "Kingsman" there is a 1v100 group fight scene involving the male protagonist in a church. It is a textbook action group scene.

The rotation of the camera, the smoothness of the movements, the overall control, and the use of various agent weapons are eye-opening.

This group of fight scenes was done in one go, neither exaggerated nor mediocre. The audience's adrenaline levels surged after watching it. After watching it, they will always remember this fight scene and the thrilling feeling while watching it.

More importantly, this fighting scene also captured Matthew Vaughn, or the characteristics of the "Kings Agent" series.

That is, while being able to punch hard and move smoothly, he is also elegant and elegant, which is in line with the setting of the "gentleman agent" in the movie who is a custom-made suit, wearing black-rimmed glasses, and holding a British gentleman's umbrella.

Wu Yuan sincerely felt that even if he was asked to film, he might not be able to film this scene well.

Because he doesn't understand what the so-called "English gentleman" is like, Cheng Long's Hong Kong martial arts team probably can't design such graceful and elegant fighting moves.

For him and Cheng Long to come together, it may be difficult to capture the unique style and essence of the "Kings Agent" series.

If the "Kingsman" series is to be successful, director Matthew Vaughn is still indispensable.

Although it is 6 years early, Matthew Vaughn's directorial style has basically taken shape now, and "Kick-Ass" two years later has a distinct personal style.

It would be more reliable to ask him to shoot this movie than Wu Yuan himself.

It's just that Elard doesn't know Matthew Vaughn.

He muttered the unfamiliar name several times and asked doubtfully: "Daniel, who is this Matthew Vaughn? I have no impression of him."

"A new director." Wu Yuan could only patiently introduce: "In August last year, the fantasy adventure movie "Stardust" directed by him was released and the box office was pretty good."

"This director is very talented, and his directing style is very suitable for "Kingsman"."

"We could sign him to be the director of the entire Kingsman franchise, just like I did on Pirates of the Caribbean."

"'Stardust'?" Elad frowned: "That movie produced by Paramount?"

"I understand." He sighed and glanced at Wu Yuan with some pity: "I will go back and consider your suggestion carefully."

"Seriously, Daniel, there's really no way you can take over Kingsman?"

Wu Yuan shook his head firmly.

In the end, Ellard adopted Wu Yuan's suggestion, gave up the idea of ​​seeking Wu Yuan's director, and began preparations for "Kings Agent".

The rights to this series are shared between Light Times and New Line Cinema, and the two companies will also jointly finance the filming.

New Line is not a top-notch company with deep pockets, and Guang Era has a character that saves money.

The production budget of "Kingsman 1" was only US$80 million, with the two companies each contributing US$40 million.

Well, the production cost is even more unworthy of Wu Yuan.

In Hollywood, would you be embarrassed to ask him to direct a movie that costs less than $100 million to produce?

After finishing the long-awaited "Ace Agent" project and finally letting it proceed normally, Wu Yuan's official business trip to the United States was almost settled.

Next, he only needs to wait until "Pirates of the Caribbean 3" is released in May, cooperate with the crew to do some release promotion, and go to theater activities, there will be no other official business.

But his trip to the United States is far from over.

Time came to late February in a blink of an eye.

After strolling around Chinatown in Los Angeles with Liu Yifei and her daughter, watching an interesting lion dance performance, and having an exotic Spring Festival, the release of Liu Yifei's two singles was also put on the agenda.

Wu Yuan was worried about his little girlfriend's career as a global star.

"Call Me Maybe" and "Good Time" are the singles Liu Yifei will release in North America this time. The MVs for both songs have been filmed and the sound sources are also ready.

Even for the song "Good Time", Wu Yuan invited Justin Timberlake to sing a duet with Liu Yifei.

Before Justin Bieber was famous, Justin Timberlake was the most famous Justin in the world.

In 1995, 14-year-old Justin Timberlake debuted with the boy singing group Superboy and became a popular singing and dancing idol in North America.

In 2002, Justin went solo and released his first solo album, which won him the Grammy Award for Best Pop Album and Best Pop Male Vocalist.

It is unceremonious to say that in the past five years, Justin Timberlake has been the most popular male singer in North America.

Just a few days ago, he won the Grammy Awards for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance and Best Dance Recording.

Logically speaking, it is impossible for a top North American male singer like Justin Timberlake to collaborate on a single with a pure newcomer like Liu Yifei.

When it comes to the movie industry, it's almost the same as Gong Li acting in a movie with a new male singer who has just crossed over into the industry, or supporting him.

But who is the current Justin Timberlake? He happens to want to develop into the film industry.

He is no longer satisfied with being a singer and dancer, but wants to cross over and become a film actor.

But he doesn't have any connections in the film industry. The relationship between singers and actors in North America is very clear, and there is almost no crossover between them. His career as an actor is extremely difficult.

In this case, Wu Yuan came forward to invite him to collaborate with Liu Yifei on a single. Obviously, it was an excellent opportunity for Justin Timberlake to get involved in the film industry.

So he agreed to this single collaboration without saying a word, just hoping that Wu Yuan would give him a hand and take him into the film industry.

Wu Yuan was also happy to do so.

Justin Timberlake crossed over to act in movies, and he did make some achievements.

He performed pretty well in "The Social Network" and "The Time Plan", but he still played the leading actor in "The Time Plan"!

Wu Yuan plans to make "Time Planning Bureau", a small-budget and high-reputation movie, after Time Time has finished its four movies, and the leading actor will be played by Justin Timberlake!

Knowing all this, Liu Yifei was so moved.

Her senior brother was willing to trade a leading actor in a movie for her single collaboration, which was really nice to her.