Millennium director

Most of the scenes of "The Embalmer" filmed in the capital were at the beginning of the movie.

That is to say, the male protagonist Lin Wu worked in a Peking Opera troupe, and then the troupe disbanded and fell into an embarrassing situation.

There is also the scene at the beginning where the male protagonist is interviewing for a new company, and his first job is to be a "corpse" model, and he is manipulated into filming a "teaching tape for morticians". Although the movie takes place in the protagonist's hometown, it was actually shot Still shot in Beijing.

Who said there was a suitable photo studio in Beijing?

These scenes are not heavy, and they are relatively light and humorous. Both the actors and the director felt that the filming process was very smooth, and the filming progress was also very smooth.

In just three to five days, this part of the plot was shot roughly, and the crew was preparing to move to Anshan in Northeast China.

Most of the next movie will be shot in Anshan.

Anshan is a very special city. It seems that many domestic literary and artistic film directors prefer this place and like to shoot scenes here.

Wu Yuan, who has personally conducted on-site inspections, has to admit that these directors have a professional vision.

The winter in Anshan is very beautiful, with mountains, water and woods. It is very suitable for the filming of aesthetic literary films, and the production is not inferior to RB's Winter Love Song movies.

Of course, this does not refer to the urban area of ​​Anshan.

This time, "The Embalmer" was filmed in Xiuyan County, Anshan. This is an ethnic minority autonomous county that retains many original features.

But just when the crew was about to transfer to Anshan, Jerry Bruckheimer, who flew from the other side of the ocean, arrived in the capital on the tail of Wu Yuan who was still in the capital and asked him to meet.

In any case, this was also a gold medal producer in Hollywood, so Wu Yuan had no choice but to let the crew go to Anshan first, while he stayed in the capital for an extra day.

Due to time constraints, Wu Yuan directly made an appointment with Jerry at the hotel where he was staying.

It was in the Huaiyang cuisine restaurant on the second floor of this five-star hotel that Wu Yuan met this well-known Hollywood producer.

Jerry Bruckheimer was born in 1945. He is 57 years old this year, but his blond hair is still thick and thick. He looks like he is only in his early forties and is very well maintained.

Of course, he is famous in Hollywood not because of his maintenance skills, but because he has produced many excellent movies.

"Pearl Harbor," which was just released this summer and was produced at the same time as "Juno," was produced by him and had a global box office of US$449 million.

In addition, he has also participated in the production of famous movies such as "The End of the World", "Black Hawk Down", "The Island", "Public Enemy" and "Thunderbolt".

Although Wu Yuan was not flattered that such a well-known producer came all the way to meet him, he still took it seriously.

The two met in the restaurant. After sitting down and chatting with each other for a few words, he curiously asked: "Jerry, I know that Michael Bay and you are very good partners, and didn't all of his "Pearl Harbor" It’s been released, is there nothing else to do next?”

If you want to talk about which director has the best relationship with Jerry Bruckheimer, it is definitely Explosion Bay at this stage.

Starting from Bombshell's second film "The End of the World", the two of them collaborated on two more films, "Wolf Girl Club" and "Pearl Harbor", and both achieved very good box office results.

Now that Jerry Bruckheimer has launched the "Pirates of the Caribbean" project, and his private company is also one of the producers, logically and logically, he should find Michael Bay as the director, so why not go to Wu Yuan, an outsider? ?

"Daniel, I don't want to hide it from you." Jerry took a sip of the coffee just brought by the waiter and said to Wu Yuan very sincerely: "Michael is indeed my first choice."

"In fact, when the script was written, Michael was the first person I contacted."

"But he didn't want to take on the film. The reason he gave me was that he didn't want to direct for the time being and wanted to make two documentaries for fun."

"Yes, he wants to be a documentary actor, not a director!"

"You know, he actually has nothing to pursue at the box office now. "Pearl Harbor" has just become a global hit, and he doesn't want to take on another commercial blockbuster at all."

"Even if it's to make a documentary, he thinks it's more interesting."

Regardless of whether Benny can make a good fantasy movie, as long as he is willing to take over "Pirates of the Caribbean", both Jerry and Disney will definitely be eager to do it. After all, his box office performance has been really good in the past two years.

It's a pity that they don't want to accept it!

After Jerry's careful explanation, Wu Yuan understood the current predicament of "Pirates of the Caribbean".

When Bangbei was unwilling to accept the film, Jerry contacted many Hollywood first-line directors, but was rejected by all of them.

Directors with good box-office numbers all have projects to work on. If they don't take on such soulless popcorn commercials, the director will just be a big tool man.

There is no box office and awards-oriented directors will look down on this kind of purely commercial film. Disney also dare not let such commercial blockbusters be made by literary and artistic directors for fear that they will not follow the script.

After this screening, only a group of second- and third-rate Hollywood directors could take over the "Pirates of the Caribbean" project.

Originally Jerry accepted the situation.

It’s not like Hollywood has no precedent of using small and medium-sized directors to make commercial series of movies!

As long as the director's level is up to standard, it's not impossible to make a purely commercial movie like this.

He also really found a young director who was good at shooting suspense atmosphere. He just wanted to make it cheap and easy to use. If it couldn't be done, he could use a few more assistant directors who were experienced in directing adventure films.

Don’t think Hollywood doesn’t understand this!

The fact that Guo Xiaosi had 4 to 6 unnamed assistant directors on the crew of "Tiny Times" was not his original creation, it was all leftover from Hollywood.

But this is a last resort choice.

When Wu Yuan burst onto the scene in North America with "Juno", Jerry had other ideas.

"Juno" is indeed just a low-budget movie. The scene only focuses on a small town and has no adventure elements at all. However, this movie has a global box office of US$200 million!

Even if we were to make a mascot, it would be better to find a director with a global box office of US$200 million than a director of the American version of "The Ring," right?

Commercial films operate differently from artistic films.

Commercial films are all about selling points!

The combination of a high-grossing director + well-known actors + handsome men and beautiful women is, at least to say, a top-notch match, which naturally attracts the attention of the audience.

At least on the surface, Wu Yuan joining the "Pirates of the Caribbean" project can make up for the shortcomings of the director's reputation for this movie!

Moreover, Wu Yuan is currently the one with the best value for money among Hollywood directors with a box office of over 100 million yuan!

He only has one movie in North America, and his net worth has not risen to the sky.

The worst result is to hire a mascot director, and the specific filming work of the crew will be controlled by several experienced assistant directors.

The director is indeed the soul of a movie, but in commercial movies created by the industrialization of Hollywood, the director is only one of the links, one of the tools, not the soul.

This is true for "Pirates of the Caribbean" and even more so for the subsequent Marvel series of movies.

During the conversation with Jerry, Wu Yuan also vaguely guessed his thoughts, and felt that what Jerry valued more than his directorship was his reputation as a "new North American box office director with a box office of 200 million."

But for this reputation, Jerry is really willing to spend money!

"Daniel, as long as you are willing to accept this movie, we can give you a director's fee of 8 million US dollars. This is not a small amount of money!"

"But you have to sign three film contracts in a row."

"Of course, we can sign a supplementary contract for the director's fees for the next two films!"

"If the global box office of the first film exceeds US$500 million, the subsequent director's fee can be increased to US$10 million!"

Spending eight million dollars on a mascot is definitely a high price.

Jerry believes that Wu Yuan's status as a "$200 million box office director" is worth $8 million. With his name alone, he can add more than $8 million to the box office of "Pirates of the Caribbean"!

Converted into RMB, it’s more than 6,000 and nearly 70 million!

However, Wu Yuan was not immediately moved. Instead, he looked at the other party with interest, reached out and tapped the table: "Do I have the right to edit?"

"No."

"Who is the biggest in the crew?"

"You are the biggest in the shooting, but you must shoot according to the script. We have professional storyboard artists who will even prepare storyboards."

"Ha." Wu Yuan sneered. What's the point of such a pure tool director? Even if he can earn 8 million US dollars from this trip, it's still very boring!

After thinking about it carefully, Wu Yuan thought of another thing and his eyes lit up: "Then I have another request. I want to bring someone into the group!"

Jerry frowned and suddenly felt that the Chinese director in front of him was a little confused about the situation.

How is it possible for Disney's commercial blockbuster to allow Chinese actors like Wu Yuansai to come in?

"Daniel, this is a fantasy story about Pirates of the Caribbean in the seventeenth century. In the background of this story, there is no room for Asian actors." Jerry shook his head and refused.

"No, you got me wrong."

Unexpectedly, Wu Yuan smiled and said with gleaming eyes: "I want to bring some crew members into the set."

"Not many, just about twenty, including photography assistants, lighting, sound recording, equipment workers, props, scenery, art directors, factory workers, location selectors, layout designers and other staff."

"Of course, they will serve as assistants and interns after joining the crew and will not interfere with the crew's normal filming."

"You know, the crew in China is not professional enough and there is a lot to learn. I also need a crew in China that I can use easily."

"I guess you wouldn't mind?"

Jerry's Adam's apple twitched and he swallowed, "Daniel, are you serious?"

In fact, for Wu Yuan himself, participating in such a large project is also a learning opportunity.

You can also borrow chickens to lay eggs, which is pretty good.

Please note that the original "Pirates of the Caribbean" is like this. Not only Pirates of the Caribbean, but also many Hollywood commercial IP movies, the director is a big tool person, acting as a series of crew members, and there are dedicated people in charge of scripts and storyboards. , editing and special effects are done by other people. The director only needs to be responsible for the on-site shooting. He only needs to be able to tell whether the actors are passing or not, and can shout "yes" or "pass". He is only responsible for the scene shooting. There is no need to worry about other things. This is what is called The industrialized assembly line makes the director's job easier, but it doesn't mean he can become a famous director.

I really am not making this up.

Just look at the director of "Wonder Woman."

A director like James Cameron can really handle everything on the crew, and every detail must go through his hands. But this is James, and he makes the movie by himself, so there is really no comparison.

By the way, Director Zack doesn't even have editing rights in "Justice League", let alone Wu Yuan