Millennium director

October 2014.

On a beautiful autumn day, the film "Riding the Wind" started shooting in Shanxi in a very high profile.

Yes, very high profile.

This is different from Wu Yuan's usual style in the past, but it is in line with its identity as a "tribute film".

As a 70th anniversary tribute film that China Film Group paid great attention to and even co-invested in, "Riding the Wind" was destined to be paid attention to by the industry from the beginning. There was even an administrative order from the top, and even the official media had to provide space for this film.

In this case, Wu Yuan certainly couldn't start shooting in a low profile. He had to hold a solemn press conference and take the leading actors to accept the reporters' bombardment of questions and interviews.

Fortunately, although he didn't like being interviewed, Wu Yuan's many years of directing career also allowed him to handle media interviews with ease.

Because it was a tribute film, the questions asked by the invited media were mostly more conventional, and they would not ask some sharp and irrelevant topics to the film. The overall atmosphere was quite comfortable.

During the entire press conference, the person who attracted the most media attention was not Wu Yuan, but the male lead of the movie, Wu Jing.

Wu Jing, who had just finished filming in the crew of "The Great Wall", joined the crew of "Riding the Wind" almost seamlessly.

It can be said that the media invited at the scene were the most interested in him.

Although he debuted for nearly 20 years, Wu Jing's fame has always been tepid.

In the 1990s, he mostly played important supporting roles in various martial arts dramas and was a thorough action star.

Later, after the millennium, Wu Jing went to Hong Kong Island to develop, and mostly acted in action movies, and could only play supporting roles.

After more than a decade of acting career, Wu Jing just barely had a place in the field of action stars, and could barely be regarded as a golden supporting role in action movies.

Later in 2012, he returned to the mainland to develop and starred in a military film "I am a Special Forces Soldier: The Blade Out of the Sheath", which was considered a successful return to the field of TV dramas, and it was rare for him to play the leading role.

Next, he made a desperate move, sold his house to raise money for the military-themed movie "Wolf Warrior" he directed and acted in. It was a big hit, with nearly 40 million yuan in box office on the first day of its release, setting a record for the first-day box office of Chinese military-themed movies, and the cumulative box office of the movie exceeded 500 million yuan.

At this point, Wu Jing has entered the upper class's sight and touched the threshold of a first-line actor, but because he was an action star in his early years and later worked on military themes, Wu Jing is still not very famous in the public eye, and he does not have a huge fan base.

Logically speaking, actors like him are unlikely to be paid attention to by various media, just like no one would report on his marriage and childbirth.

But this year, Wu Jing's luck turned, and he was spotted by Zhang Yimou and Wu Yuan, two of the top domestic directors, at the same time, and became the leading actor of their new movies.

Wow, Wu Jing, who was originally ignored, immediately became popular.

At the launch conference of "Riding the Wind", all kinds of media surrounded him, eager to dig up his mental journey over the past decade, and were full of curiosity about this actor who has become a hot commodity among domestic directors.

Wu Yuan was also inevitably asked about related topics.

"The reason why Director Zhang and I chose Wu Jing is naturally because he has the characteristics we want."

Wu Yuan faced the questions from reporters and talked freely.

"There are fewer and fewer tough-guy male actors in the current actor circle. Unconsciously, the aesthetic taste of Chinese movie fans has changed. Under the influence of Japanese and Korean idols, they prefer neutral actors."

"I don't want to comment on this phenomenon, but we have to face the fact that with the change of public aesthetic taste, excellent tough-guy actors in the circle are indeed very scarce."

"And my new movie and Director Zhang's new movie both need a group of tough-guy actors to play the heroic soldiers."

"So my "Riding the Wind" and Director Zhang's "The Great Wall" have a very high overlap in casting."

"Wu Jing, Zhang Hanyu, Zhang Yi, and Duan Yihong all joined my crew immediately after the filming of "The Great Wall" was completed."

"It's not that I don't want to find other actors, but there are only a group of tough-guy actors in China who can play soldiers well. There is no way."

"Wu Jing was chosen as the male lead, which is both accidental and inevitable."

Yes, the final casting of "Riding the Wind" is very similar to "The Great Wall", at least the male actors are almost the same team.

There is no way around it. There are only this group of military actors that can be used in China. What can we do?

Guangying Times originally had Zhu Yawen available, but after Zhu Yawen finished filming "Ready Player One", he took on "The Swordsman 2" and replaced Zhang Yi's role as Lu Wenzhao, the commander of the Zhenfu Division.

And Zhang Yi came to the crew of "Ride the Wind".

This is also a change caused by Wu Yuan's butterfly effect. Because Lu Yang became an actor in the second phase of Guangying Times' Young Director Support Program, "The Swordsman 1" appeared a year earlier.

And because Guangying Times was supportive enough, although "The Swordsman 1" did not make much money, the company also supported Lu Yang to shoot "The Swordsman 2" at the first time, which made this movie appear two years earlier.

Due to the conflict in schedules, the current situation has emerged.

However, Zhang Yi himself is still very satisfied. Can the supporting actor of "The Swordsman 2" and the supporting actor of "Ride the Wind" be of the same level?

"In short, I hope there will be more actors like Wu Jing in the entertainment industry. Military films, war films, and period films need such tough guys!"

Finally, the launch conference of "Riding the Wind" ended with these words from Wu Yuan.

That day, Wu Yuan's headline calling for more tough-guy actors in the entertainment industry became a front-page report in major mainstream entertainment media.

After seeing relevant reports, some people agree, some are dissatisfied, and even more are angry.

Now is the time when Korean pop idol groups are booming, and it is also the honeymoon period between China and South Korea. Korean oppas have captured tens of millions of girls in the country. These girls don’t care whether Wu Yuan is a great director or not. You are mocking our brother. "Mother", that won't work.

Many idol fans went to Wu Yuan's Weibo to scold him, saying that he bullied his own idol just because of his high status and had no idea how hardworking and masculine his idol was.

Unfortunately, Wu Yuan cannot see these comments at all. He almost never logs into his Weibo account.

After the crew of "Chengfeng" started filming, he had no time to pay attention to these public opinions on the Internet. He never relied on the evaluation of netizens or even relied on the comments of netizens to make a living, and he didn't care about these little kids who had not yet grown up. Those strange views of children.

But there was another thing that forced Wu Yuan, who was immersed in filming, to raise his head and pay attention.

"X-Men: Days of Future Past" is officially released in North America! (End of chapter)