In Peng Yichen's plan, the roles of rural teachers, villagers, and children on the earth must all be played by Chinese actors.

As for the role of the carbon-based Federation, except for him as the supreme consul and Yu Jing as the battleship officer, all the other roles are played by Hollywood actors.

In this way, there must be several big names in the Hollywood cast to support the box office appeal of the whole film in the North American film market and the international film market.

This point, when he left the Star Flag Country, he explained it clearly to the producer sent by Hua Na's side, Bill Black.

Bill Black didn't disappoint him either, and before the movie started, the finalized Hollywood cast was not much different from what he hoped for.

Christopher Waltz, who just won the 82nd Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, quickly agreed to Blake's invitation to perform.

Peng Yichen once verbally invited him at the Oscar celebration party, and then producer Blake officially issued an invitation to his agent, and the other party immediately agreed to join the film with a salary of $8 million.

The Austrian actor with excellent acting skills is about to play the role of the flagship commander in the movie.

As for the role of the other senator, although there are not many scenes, it will play a key role in promoting the plot.

Peng Yichen asked Blake to ask for a famous black veteran actor in Hollywood, Morgan Freeman.

In this way, the film also satisfies the Hollywood film industry, and every film must have at least one "politically correct" law for black characters.

Morgan Freeman is clearly very happy with the $12 million salary and Peng Yichen, a young director who is now popular in Hollywood.

soon agreed to the invitation to star in this movie.

……

The last important role, that is, the captain of the battleship when the Supreme Consul was young, when he first served as the operator of the Star Destroyer.

Because Peng Yichen adapted the largest battle between the carbon-based federation and the silicon-based empire, that is, the battle of the second spiral arm of the galaxy, into an extremely important plot that occupies nearly one-third of the movie.

Therefore, the role of this captain is almost only a little less than that of the two absolute protagonists, the village teacher and the consul.

For the role of rural teacher, Peng Yichen has successfully invited China's top actor Chen Daoming to play.

When they were filming "Shocking Black Gold", they became very good friends.

This time for the role of a rural teacher, Peng Yichen immediately thought of him to play it.

Therefore, relative to the role of the captain of the battleship, Peng Yichen also very much hopes to invite a heavyweight actor from Hollywood to play.

Considering that this character is a benevolent elder, the archon played by Peng Yichen was given the initial teachings about life and war.

Therefore, Peng Yichen immediately thought of inviting one of his former idols, Tom Hanks, to play this role.

I remember when Peng Yichen met Sun Yizou for the first time, Sun Yizou once said that he was very similar to Tom Hanks.

They are the kind of people who are extremely religious to movies and extremely passionate about acting, but extremely resistant to social entertainment and commercial activities.

Unexpectedly, in just over five years, Peng Yichen has grown to the point where he can invite Tom Hanks to star in his own movie.

This made Peng Yichen's idea of asking Tom Hanks to star in his own movie even more enthusiastic.

Therefore, every time he contacted producer Blake, he would ask if he had successfully invited Tom Hanks to star in his film.

And among the good news from Blake this time, what he was most happy about was that Tom Hanks really agreed to take over the film.

It's just that his salary is very high, with a salary of 20 million and a 15% share of the gross profit of the movie box office.

To be honest, the asking price is not too high.

You know, Tom Hanks was a member of the first batch of 2000+10% clubs in Hollywood. (Actors with a single film salary of more than $20 million and a film box office revenue share of more than 10%)

What's even more terrifying is that as early as 94, when filming "Forrest Gump", his single film earned more than $70 million at one time

It can be said that the price that Tom Hanks asked Peng Yichen's crew for was already the friendship price given when he had just won 3 Oscars and the script of this movie was really good.

Apparently, Tom Hanks' agent is very smart, and he only needs $20 million in terms of salary.

This is basically the basic salary of Hollywood's top superstars now.

In terms of box office gross profit sharing, he is ruthless to 15%, but this is generally optimistic about the future of the film and willing to share the risk of film failure, which will not make Peng Yichen, a film investor, feel bored.

After all, the gross profit share of the box office of the movie needs to be paid only after the movie has benefited from its release.

It refers to the total box office of a film minus the revenue of the theater chain and the distributor, the income received by the producer, and then the entire profit from the production fee.

By asking for a share of the box office, Hollywood's top actors can still increase their income while reducing their own salaries.

For example, Robert Downey Jr., the actor of "Iron Man", chose not to increase the salary when filming the second part, but to increase the box office share ratio.

In the end, he relied on the movie "Iron Man 2" and earned $85 million, becoming the highest-paid Hollywood star that year.

Of course, actors who choose box office sharing also have to take a lot of big risks.

If the film loses money in the end, he can only get a relatively small salary.

The reason why film companies are willing to give these top stars a share of the box office is precisely because of this.

In the early stage, you can pay less to invite big-name stars, reduce the cost of film shooting, and reduce the risk of film investment.

If the movie makes money, everyone makes money together, and if it loses money, everyone shares the risk.

It's a win-win payment method that is very popular among Hollywood's top actors these days.

Moreover, the 15% box office share proposed by Tom Hanks is not too high.

Hollywood's top actors now ask for a share that fluctuates between 10-20%. When Tom Hanks starred in commercial films, he generally had to take a 20% cut.

Therefore, Tom Hanks and his agent, this time really did not ask for much, of course, not too little, just stuck on the baseline.

Tom Hanks finally agreed to such a price, because he knew Peng Yichen's new identity within Times Huana, and at the same time felt that this young director had unlimited potential in the future, so he gave this price that was neither high nor low.

Xiaoxiao sold a favor to Peng Yichen.

Of course, if Tom Hanks is not optimistic about this movie, he will not be able to risk his own income.

Tom Hanks confidently proposed to share the box office rather than the high remuneration.

It was he who saw Peng Yichen's movie, which had a high chance of making money.

When producer Blake told Peng Yichen about Tom Hanks' salary requirements, Peng Yichen thought for a while, and immediately replied to Blake on the other side of the ocean on the phone:

"Let his agent reduce the share a little: if he is the leading actor, then the 15% share is reasonable. But although his role is very heavy, it does not reach the level of a leading actor. Blake, you can tell the other person about this reason. A 15% box office share is too high, and I can only give them a maximum of 10% share. ”

Giving actors a share of the box office usually reduces the later box office revenue of the film production company.

But Peng Yichen knows that if you want to gain a foothold in Hollywood, you must respect other people's rules.

Box office sharing is the only way for top Hollywood actors to increase their income without increasing the investment pressure of film companies.

I have to accept this new way of working with actors.

Although this will reduce the later income, it can not pay too much to an actor like Tom Hanks in the early stage of film investment.

In this way, Peng Yichen can put more money into the production of special effects.

With more exciting audio-visual special effects, we can attract more audiences and fans to pay money.

So, it's really a win-win.

"Okay, I see. I'll be in touch with his agent tomorrow. Blake immediately agreed.

For more than two months, he and Peng Yichen had to contact almost every day.

Through continuous communication, he gradually changed his opinion of Peng Yichen.

This is a young man who has come up step by step on his own, and his knowledge and cognition of the crew and the film does not have to be worse than any Hollywood producer.

This is Blake's initial assessment of Peng Yichen.

As for Peng Yichen's directing ability, he will not make any comments now, and he will not be able to finally draw conclusions until the movie starts.

After the two ended this contact, they went to their own work again.

But the next night, Blake brought Peng Yichen a reply from Tom Hanks.

On the other end of the phone, Blake said with a smile: "If it was another director or other script, let Hanks play a supporting role, he would definitely not agree." However, since it is directed by Peng Yichen, then Hanks is willing to think about it.

What I've just paraphrased is the exact words of Tom Hanks' agent. The final price they gave was: a basic salary of 15 million, plus a 12% share, which cannot be less. ”

Tom Hanks lowered his salary by 5 million again, but he was only willing to reduce his share by 3%.

Being able to reduce the salary and share to this level, Peng Yichen is already very satisfied.

It can be seen that Tom Hanks is indeed very sincere in cooperating with him.

Therefore, Peng Yichen no longer expressed any objection to this price, and directly instructed Blake to sign with Tom Hanks's agent.

At this point, all the important roles of "The Country Teacher" have been determined.

As for the other actors, Peng Yichen completely delegated power to Blake and Sun Yizou, and found them in Huaxia and Xingqi Country respectively.

Tom Hanks' decision to join this film is a very important thing for Peng Yichen and this movie.

For him personally, he can finally play against his idol and show his acting skills.

For this movie, the addition of Tom Hanks is undoubtedly a shot in the arm.

As long as it is announced, it will give those in Hollywood who are not optimistic about this movie a hard slap.

It will be a big surprise to fans in North America and China.

As soon as he thought of this, Peng Yichen immediately called Blake and asked him to hold a start-up press conference in the Star Flag Country.

Then he took Hua Na's film crew and actors to Huaxia.

And Peng Yichen will also bring the staff and actors from Huaxia to hold a start-up press conference at the same time.

He wants to give this film from the beginning of filming, which has attracted the attention and expectations of the world.

……