Millennium director

After returning to her home in Beijing, Liu Yifei officially began her pregnancy life.

Although the outside world was reporting the news of her winning the Berlin Film Queen, and the domestic release of "Cai Wenji" was scheduled for April.

But it is obvious that Liu Yifei will not be able to participate in the promotion of the film in the future.

"Cai Wenji" cannot be postponed. It must be released as soon as possible to get a wave of box office while the heat of winning the award has not dissipated.

Although it is said that the era of light and shadow did not expect to make money from this kind of art film, if an art film that can win an award still loses money in the end, it is really unreasonable.

At the Berlin International Film Festival, "Cai Wenji" had almost sold out its overseas copyright.

However, times have changed. When Wu Yuan sold the copyright of "The Night the Comet Came" for a few million US dollars, he made a profit of more than ten times.

But now "Cai Wenji" has won a more important award, but it has only sold the copyright for more than 3 million US dollars, which is equivalent to less than 20 million RMB.

This money is not even enough to cover the investment cost. Because it is a biographical film about a historical figure, even if Zhang Yimou has been very frugal in filming, the production cost of "Cai Wenji" still cost 60 million RMB, and Liu Yifei only received a low salary.

In this era of soaring prices, even for art films, it is becoming increasingly difficult to make a profit by selling copyrights after winning awards in Europe.

It is no wonder that Wang Xiaoshuai, Jia Zhangke and other sixth-generation directors who used to be disdainful of the domestic market and pretended to be noble, now can't help but "anger" on domestic social media every day that the domestic film market has been kidnapped by commercial films and that the aesthetics of this audience are not good enough.

It's not that this audience is really bad, but that this audience doesn't watch their art films, which makes them feel uncomfortable.

In comparison, Zhang Yimou's art films are the most popular in China. So far, the box office record holder for art films in the mainland is still Zhang Yimou's "Coming Home".

This time, "Cai Wenji" won the Berlin Film Festival. We don't expect the box office in the mainland to break the record of "Coming Home", but it should be no problem to have a box office of 300 to 400 million yuan, recover the investment cost, and make a small profit.

However, the subsequent film releases, publicity, and roadshows have nothing to do with Liu Yifei. She only needs to stay at home quietly to take care of the baby and wait for good news from her "comrades-in-arms".

On the other hand, Wu Yuan did not accompany Liu Yifei to take care of the baby.

After asking his mother-in-law to take care of his wife, Wu Yuan, who did what he said, immediately started the preparations for the movie "Bruce Lee".

The script of this movie has been ready for a long time. Wu Yuan wrote it several years ago, but he has always locked it in the drawer of his study.

He plans to shoot as soon as possible and complete the movie before the New Year, which can be regarded as completing his "obsession". Otherwise, when the epidemic comes, who knows when the movie will be delayed to be approved.

Let alone him, even Guangying Times, Wu Yuan had already instructed to stop the film investment work next year, temporarily focus on this year's film projects, and put energy on the production of variety shows next year.

Guangying Times' current work focus has been temporarily transferred to the music variety shows that cooperated with Guangying Kuaibo.

Li Xiaoping was particularly puzzled by Wu Yuan's decision, but because of Wu Yuan's theory of "film and television bubble", she could barely understand it and chose to wait and see for the time being.

That is why Guangying Times, which has few film projects at hand and only one film being promoted, "Glass Love", is very fast in preparing Wu Yuan's new film crew.

The veterans who have worked with Wu Yuan quickly returned to assemble. Some of them were even crew members who followed him since the "Departures" period. Later, they were busy with other film projects of the company and returned to Wu Yuan's crew this time.

Of course, the work of forming these crews is specifically responsible for the deputy director.

Wu Yuan is selecting actors for the movie "Bruce Lee".

In fact, there is no need to select. Among the current Chinese actors, there is only one person who is suitable to play "Bruce Lee", and that is Hong Kong actor Chen Guokun!

He can be said to be the only "Bruce Lee" actor designated by China.

In 1983, 7-year-old Chen Guokun accidentally saw the movie "Fist of Fury", and since then, Bruce Lee has entered Chen Guokun's life.

Because of his obsession with Bruce Lee, Chen Guokun often imitates Bruce Lee's every move and every move. He bought a book "Jie Kune Do Introduction".

When he was eleven or twelve years old, Chen Guokun realized that he was very similar to Bruce Lee, and people around him began to call him "Xiao Long" directly.

And the starting point of his acting career originated in 1995. In this year, Chen Guokun played Xiao Long in his first personal movie "Bad Boys Club", which was a role written according to Bruce Lee.

However, he did not have a smooth sailing after his debut, and he could only play small supporting roles in the circle.

2001 was a year that changed Chen Guokun's destiny.

Chen Guokun met Stephen Chow when he met his friends in a cafe. He was appreciated by Stephen Chow because he looked like Bruce Lee. He was officially signed to Stephen Chow's company and soon played the role of "Goalkeeper Brother Four" in the movie "Shaolin Soccer". He gradually became familiar to everyone.

After that, he starred in Stephen Chow's movie "Kung Fu". He played the Axe Gang leader Brother Chen in the movie. It can be regarded as his first classic role after getting rid of the "Bruce Lee" image.

Well, it is also the only one.

Because his acting career has been inseparable from the three words "Bruce Lee".

From the biographical TV series "The Legend of Bruce Lee" to the movie "Ip Man", he has been playing Bruce Lee. It can even be said that on the screen, he is Bruce Lee and Bruce Lee is him.

Just this year, he won the Best Supporting Actor at the 27th Huading Awards for his role as Bruce Lee who returned home to visit Ip Man in "Ip Man 4: The Finale". This is also the first time he has won a heavyweight actor award, and it is because of Bruce Lee.

There is no doubt that Wu Yuan must find him to play Bruce Lee in his film Bruce Lee, because he is the person who knows Bruce Lee best in the world, and may even know him better than Bruce Lee's children.

However, after confirming the actor of Bruce Lee, it does not mean that Wu Yuan can easily get the casting.

Because the background of this film is mainly set in North America and Hollywood, there will be a large number of white European and American characters in the film, including Bruce Lee's wife Linda Emery.

And these roles are obviously impossible to find people in China. Wu Yuan is not Guo Fan, who found a group of European and American extras in China and filmed "The Wandering Earth".

He had to go to Hollywood to find some truly well-known actors in the world, so that he could be worthy of this personal film created for Bruce Lee!

So, at the end of February, Wu Yuan flew to Los Angeles again in a low-key manner.

This is also the first time he has come to Hollywood, the world's film capital of luxury, after selling the Light Era. (End of this chapter)