Millennium director

Huairou Film and Television Base, in the studio of "The Great Wall".

The crew of "The Great Wall" directly rented a large studio covering more than 3,000 square meters.

The studio, which is seven or eight meters high, has been completely transformed into the appearance of the "Great Wall". On the "Great Wall" section after section, countless soldiers in armor stood, fighting with special effects people wrapped in green cloth.

Among them, the most concerned by the camera are Wu Jing and Zhang Hanyu standing in the center.

They are the two male protagonists in "The Great Wall".

Zhang Hanyu is the palace commander of the Shadowless Army, which is a common official position in the Song Dynasty.

Wu Jing is the commander of the Tiger Army of the Shadowless Army, and the main role revolves around him.

As for Zhang Yi, Duan Yihong, Zhang Guoqiang and others, they are the commanders of the Bear Army, Eagle Army, and Leopard Army respectively. Together with the commander of the Crane Army played by Miao Pu, the five major commanders of the Shadowless Army are complete.

This new version of "The Great Wall" is basically about the Shadowless Army. The overall story structure is a very thorough war film, but it is a magical war film.

The classical army relies on various "super-realistic" machines to surround the Great Wall and resist invasion.

This is what Wu Yuan strongly suggested.

To be honest, when he watched "The Great Wall" in his previous life, the most impressive thing was the "transformable" Great Wall in the movie. Various mechanisms appeared from the walls of the Great Wall, and large war machines were fired into the monster army, which was very exciting.

To be honest, this should be the important selling point of "The Great Wall".

Just like the machine guns, cannons, and missile tanks in war movies, they are all things that can make the audience's blood boil and adrenaline soar.

But in the original version of "The Great Wall", this scene was just a flash of brilliance. I don't know whether it was due to cost constraints or the screenwriter's brain bubble. It was obvious that such a big scene could win the audience, but the main story line had to go through a small "stealing gunpowder" and "the rise of the female army", which was outrageous.

Wu Yuan didn't want to see such a plot in his life, and Zhang Yimou also took a step and planned to have a shocking military battle.

Facts have proved that this should not be due to cost constraints. Most of the war mechanisms on the Great Wall are real props that are actually made, and then supplemented with some post-production special effects, they can have the effect in the movie.

Even if more shots are devoted to this aspect, the cost will not soar too much, and it is still within a controllable range.

Standing in the corner of the studio, listening to the "boom" sound coming from the studio, Wu Yuan rubbed his chin, a little eager to try.

He has not made a war-themed movie yet.

"Riding the Wind" is also a war movie, and it is good to learn from Zhang Yimou now.

Just like that, after he waited for more than ten minutes, the crew finally started the intermission and rearranged the props on the set. Only then did Wu Yuan start to communicate with director Zhang Yimou.

"It's my first time to shoot this kind of special effects blockbuster. It's really a big challenge for me."

"No, Director Yimou, you have been exposed to movie special effects during the Olympics. In fact, if you master one skill, you can master everything."

"How is it? It's still fun to shoot this kind of war drama, but the personnel scheduling is a little complicated."

"It's really fun. There are very few opportunities to shoot such a big scene. The last time was when I was shooting "Curse of the Golden Flower."

"Director Yimou, you should shoot more movies with such big scenes. Now our country's audiences are more knowledgeable and love to watch this kind of special effects blockbuster. If we don't shoot, all the money will be earned by Hollywood."

"Look at those Marvel superhero movies. They often have a box office of hundreds of millions and are popular all over Asia."

"We can also give it a try!"

Not to mention, Wu Yuan really hopes that Zhang Yimou will try more special effects blockbusters. Among Chinese film directors, especially those who can shoot commercial films, Zhang Yimou is the only one who is well-known overseas, except Wu Yuan.

Although Zhang Yimou's fame overseas is mainly due to his art films, he is indeed a director who can make good commercial films.

It is not enough for Chinese-language films to go overseas and rely on Wu Yuan alone.

In particular, the Asian strategy that Guangying Times is planning needs more film directors who can succeed in Asia.

Among them, Zhang Yimou is definitely the best choice.

Instead of letting him degenerate to filming "Man Jiang Hong", it is better to train him to develop overseas and strive to become bigger and stronger!

In fact, Zhang Yimou has always been ambitious about the international market.

Since the "Hero" that year, Zhang Yimou has never given up on becoming an international director, hoping that his films can also be a great success abroad.

The original "The Great Wall" was Zhang Yimou's last attempt to impact the international market.

In order to impact the international market, especially to enter Hollywood, Zhang Yimou compromised a lot in the original "The Great Wall", introducing foreign screenwriters and foreign leading actors, hoping that the film can be more international and liked by global audiences. In short, he made a lot of efforts and compromises.

Unfortunately, this attempt failed in the end, which extinguished his ambition to enter Hollywood.

Since then, Zhang Yimou gave up the idea of ​​exporting his movies overseas and focused on making movies for Chinese people.

But in this life, Wu Yuan did not want Zhang Yimou to fail again.

Although the new version of "The Great Wall" by Light and Shadow Era has eliminated European and American elements, it does not mean that Light and Shadow Era has no interest in the Asian market.

"The Great Wall" itself is China's most famous and well-known business card in the world, and its international reputation is like the Egyptian pyramids.

Just with this title, "The Great Wall" has room to go overseas.

Unlike the ridiculous idea of ​​the original version targeting Hollywood, Light and Shadow Times intends to target Asia, especially the markets of East Asia and Southeast Asia.

The elements of "The Great Wall" itself are Chinese ancient costumes + monsters. These two elements are easy to understand in Asian countries and are full of the attraction of Chinese mysterious culture.

As long as the movie is well made, the focus is that the plot of the battle with the monster is exciting enough, it is possible to be a small hit in Asia.

Just like "Train to Busan" and "The Host".

After all, this movie does not involve any cultural background or historical story. It is a completely imaginary ancient Chinese world. The only symbol is the "Great Wall" that everyone knows.

"Director Yimou, this time our "The Great Wall" is aimed at the entire Asian market, you should be mentally prepared."

Wu Yuan rarely blinked at Zhang Yimou mischievously. It was in front of this senior that Wu Yuan could find a little bit of the ease of a junior.

Faced with Wu Yuan's "frivolity", Zhang Yimou pointed at him and shook his head with a smile.

"I came to visit the set today, but there is another important matter." After joking, Wu Yuan's face became serious and he started to talk about business: "I came to see Wu Jing."

"I also plan to use him as the male lead in my new movie."

"Wu Jing is really lucky. We two big directors take turns to serve him." (End of this chapter)