"I'm a police officer. ”

In the quiet office room, Heath Ledger muttered to himself, writing something on a notepad from time to time, he was dissecting the character "Chen Yongren (Billy)", because the specific background of the character and the length of undercover work had not yet been determined, etc., he didn't even know what the name was before, Wang Yang said: "What name do you like? It doesn't matter, okay, okay, Billy!" Billy has the meaning of "baton" in American English, which naturally alludes to the fact that "Billy" is actually a police officer.

Therefore, Heath can only vaguely feel some of the character's moods in different periods, which is enough for him to figure out some personality traits, favorite habits, etc., so as to create a "Billy" that belongs to him.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa—" Just as he was immersed in a sad and uncomfortable mood, suddenly the baby's cry came out of the monitor, and Matilda cried! Ledger couldn't help but touch his nose, and got up and walked away with love and annoyance, of course, his daughter was his heart, but not anyone from "Billy", what should he do? This can't be in the play! How do the other actors deal with these relationships? He frowned, did he want to leave them for a while, shut himself up, and isolate himself from the world?

"Horseshoe, what's wrong? Hehe! Daddy hugs ......"

Heath Ledger is known for his pickiness and casualness in his selection of plays, but because of his superb acting skills and popularity, he has always had no shortage of film appointments, and four movies were released last year. Now that he has a wife and daughter, he has become homesick and doesn't want to take on so many jobs, and now he only has two film contracts on hand, one is the American version of "Infernal Affairs", which will start filming in July this year, and the other is "The Dark Knight", which is expected to start filming at the beginning of the second season next year, and he will not take on other movies until these two movies are finished, which is enough.

is also full of dangers, Ledger almost missed the American version of "Infernal Affairs" due to schedule conflicts, and regretfully missed "Billy", but fortunately, he gave up the role of "Robbie" in "I'm Not There", which is also scheduled to start filming in July, and chose to join "Infernal Affairs".

"I'm Not There" is a musical biopic drama film that tells the life story of legendary singer Bob Dylan, publisher: Weinstein Pictures, director & screenwriter: Todd Hines, starring: Cate Blanchett, Christian Bale...... If this independent film is a masterpiece, the Weinstein brothers won't let it go unnoticed during awards season, and the genre is positioned like last year's "Walking with the Song," the year before last's "The Soul Singer," and so on.

Although "Robbie" is a supporting role, he probably has a chance to hit the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, which seems to be more tempting than the American version of "Infernal Affairs" filmed at the same time. Maybe most actors will bet on Magic Young, anyway, Heath Ledger, who has been looking forward to "Chen Yongren" for a long time, did not hesitate to throw himself into the arms of Magic Young, and "I'm Not There" can only say sorry. The main producer, Killer Films (a total of 8 companies), is not without complaints, and Weinstein Pictures also persuaded a few words, but it can be said that his arms can't twist his thighs, not to mention that Wang Yang's thighs are very thick.

Heath Ledger is the man of the Infernal Affairs, but he also has some other jobs, and recently he and his friend Ben Harper are interested in starting a record label and stepping into the music industry to find out. And whether it is Ledger or Harper, he most hopes to pull Magic Young into the gang, but his interest is not very great.

In fact, it's not that Wang Yang is not interested, it's really that the film work has tossed him so fast that he can't even sleep time! He absolutely does not allow himself to sacrifice his family time, and he is not willing to just invest money, he knows that once he joins any team, he will not be able to sit idly by, as if he has opened a Pandora's box, so this matter needs to be carefully considered. In addition, if he wants to partner in a music company, he feels that this "Big Three" lineup is a bit bad.

He is too busy and a rookie in the music industry; Ledger is obviously a ticket player, and he doesn't have much "business ability" with his temperament; Harper has experience and connections, but his management ability and vision are insufficient, and he just feels that he needs someone else.

Time is in a hurry, there is not much time to think about the music company, Wang Yang has been busy with the preparation of the two films, of course, he can't do everything himself, many affairs are assigned, and he will not serve as the first producer of the American version of "Infernal Affairs", he is less concerned about a lot of things, but the adaptation of the script must be taken care of anyway, and it is already imminent, at least the character setting and scene outline are listed to carry out substantive preparations.

How to adapt "Infernal Affairs"? This question makes Wang Yang a little headache, he doesn't want to disappoint the fans and audiences in Asia, nor does he want to disappoint the fans and audiences in Europe and the United States, but all this kind of adaptation from east to west must have the problem of conceptual differences, and he definitely needs to choose a camp or a closer camp.

The B version of The-Departed (literally translated as the dead) undoubtedly chooses the Western camp, and it seems to tell a story similar to "Infernal Affairs", but the style and buried themes are completely different, and the viewing experience and energy provided are also different, precisely because of the overall cultural differences, beliefs, and interpretations of good, evil, good and evil in the creative team of directors, screenwriters, actors, etc...... The difference in theme and style in turn leads to differences in the story and characters, such as the crucial point: time. In "Infernal Affairs", Chen Yongren and Liu Jianming have been undercover for almost ten years, which makes Chen Yongren more contaminated, and his words and deeds have long tended to be calm and reckless, even if he is in pain in his heart;

The two movies have their own characteristics and charming, if you have to set a ranking of likes, Wang Yang prefers "Infernal Affairs", because it gives more memorable and savorable emotions, whether it is characters or the relationship between characters; Black and white, their complex and contradictory inner world is also a bit superficial.

The evaluation response of "Infernal Affairs" in the United States can be said to be a "masterpiece", with 93%/93%/92% of the three indicators of Rotten Tomatoes, a box office of 132 million/289 million, and an Oscar for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Editing.

On the Asian side, it is very ordinary, it only received $1.03 million at the box office in Hong Kong, 1.21 million in Taiwan, 506,000 in Singapore, and Chinese mainland has not even introduced it, and most of the media and the public have a disdainful attitude towards it, thinking that it is just a boring bad movie. This is not difficult to understand, the vast majority of the audience watched with the mentality of ""Infernal Affairs" PK "Infernal Affairs", and as a result, they saw similar stories and American-style thinking and emotions, so ruining the masterpiece, it is strange that everyone has a good complexion.

Wang Yang understands that no matter what kind of shooting it is, it will inevitably be compared with the original, and it seems that one party will inevitably be disappointed, how to have both fish and bear's paws?

In the blink of an eye, he figured out that the way to get both fish and bear paws is to shoot according to his own ideas! He will consider the aesthetics of North American audiences, consider the aesthetics of Asian audiences, but will not be bound by them, this is a "non-traditional commercial film", and most importantly, what does he want to get in such a story of both undercover agents?

"Lonely. It was also loneliness, the loneliness of enduring different pains and torments, the loneliness that even death could not solve, Wang Yang knew that was what he wanted.

Another main reason why Wang Yang prefers "Infernal Affairs" is that the acting is fantastic! That group of talented old actors supports the whole movie, especially those four men, it's really wonderful! This is where "Infernal Affairs" has a gap, as a popular film that won the Oscar for Best Picture that year, in terms of acting awards, it only won one nomination for Best Supporting Actor (Mark Wahlberg), which can show that the actors' performances are not amazing.

It can't be called bad, or it can be called "well done" Leonardo DiCaprio (Chen Yongren) tightened his nerves so tight that he seemed to be erupting all the time, Matt Damon (Liu Jianming) was almost completely devoid of force, and if Leonardo's fire burned too strong, he was too weak, while Jack Nicholson (Han Chen) was a little too strong and his performance was very show-stealing, causing the fire to spiral out of control from the other end, and Martin Sheen (Officer Huang) barely made any impressions.

Now in addition to confirming the role of Chen Yongren's Heath Ledger, the cast list is still blank, Liu Jianming, Han Chen and Officer Huang will definitely appear, and there is no shortage of actors in the shortlist.

Although Matt Damon was allowed to participate in Liu Jianming's audition, Wang Yang felt that it would probably not be him, Martin Scorsese's directing ability is unquestionable, but Damon still showed a limited interpretation of this role, maybe Scorsese likes it, but Wang Yang doesn't like that style, unless during the audition, Damon has different performances that impress him, and Jake Gyllenhaal's audition inquiry was directly rejected; Michael Pitt is also in the audition list of "Liu Jianming", but how he performed will not be known later.

With only a few months to go, there wasn't that much time for the actors to brew slowly, and the filming was bound to be very intense, so he had to choose the kind of guy who had a heart for the role and was crazy enough to get into the play.

"I don't know the answer until I see the script. Previously, Jack Nicholson replied to the invitation to star, he was happy to clean up Heath Ledger, and he was quite interested in "Infernal Affairs". Wang Yang said to him, "You will see soon." The NBA topic in the conversation between the two became a large number, because Nicholson provoked and asked why he couldn't be seen at the Staples Center recently? Wang Yang naturally said that he was too busy, and it was more interesting to watch TV with the baby at home. Then he talked about whether the Lakers can make the playoffs, the upcoming All-Star Game, and which team will be the champion...... As a result, in the All-Star Game, the East staged a big comeback after trailing by 21 points, defeating the West 122-120, LeBron James, who scored 29 points, lifted his first MVP trophy, Tracy McGrady and MVP at home missed out, and Yao Ming continued to perform mediocrity.

"Flame and Huayi joined hands to establish Oriental Flame, and plans to launch a joint venture Chinese film in the next five years" - Sina Entertainment; "Flame Huayi founded Oriental Flame, and the flame Chinese film can be seen in five years" - Netease Entertainment; "Magic Yang said that directing Chinese films is not ruled out" - Tencent Entertainment...... Although it is not as eye-catching as the NBA All-Star Game news, this news has attracted a large number of clicks from movie fans!

It turned out that a few days ago, Flame Film and Beijing Huayi Brothers Media Group Company finalized a cooperation agreement to establish a new film and television production company "East-Flames", the company's headquarters will be located in Shanghai, and the first film project is expected to be completed and released in the next five years. It is understood that Flame Films will be responsible for the global distribution of EF films in the future, while Huayi Brothers will be responsible for the distribution in China.

"It's a great and exciting opportunity. Mark Slunt, CEO of Flame Group, said, "China's film market is developing rapidly, and every year has a different look, and we believe that in the next 10 years, it will become one of the most important film markets in the world, and probably the largest." He also said that Oriental Flame will create a Sino-US co-production with Chinese culture as the background of the story, and both Chinese and English films will have the opportunity to be put into production, which will be an unprecedented large-scale production in the mainland.

"We are very sure that after the Chinese story has been carefully crafted with high cost and high technology, it has a wide market in the world. In addition, he also hinted that EF will plan to bring some typical "Hollywood movies" to China, such as superheroes, youth schools, family comedies, etc., saying: "We believe that these films are quite dynamic everywhere, and Chinese audiences should have their own 'Youth' Musical." ”

"In fact, the two of us want to make a movie, mainly because we want to make a big production, at least more than 100 million US dollars......" Hu Ming, secretary of the board of directors of Huayi Brothers, also accepted an interview with reporters, talking about some detailed cooperation intentions, and she also revealed a surprising news, Wang Yang may direct EF's first Chinese film!

Wang Yang, who was interviewed by a Sina reporter over the phone, expressed a lot of elation, and when answering the question of "directing Chinese films", he smiled and said: "We can't rule out this possibility, we can't rule out any possibility, but for now, I need to make the two movies on my hand with all my might." ”

This is the reason why Chinese movie fans are disappointed, first of all, Flame did not say that EF's first film project must be a Chinese film, and most of them are English films for the world market, and then add a few popular Chinese actors to play supporting roles and the like, and then normal people can see that Wang Yang is saying kind words. However, Hu Ming has a good saying: "Twenty years ago it would have been impossible", in any case, this form of co-production is the first time in the history of China & Hollywood, at least a Chinese story! 100 million US dollars! history, fantasy, science fiction, there are enough reasons to look forward to it.

As for the Chinese version of "Youth Singing and Dance"? The most hardcore singing and dancing fans are frowning, and they all feel a little creepy when they think about it...... A Chinese live-action film with a production cost of $100 million? Not to mention 20 years ago, it would have been unimaginable five years ago! Even if "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" won a big victory. However, the facts are in front of us, the Chinese film market is growing day by day, and Flame Films has completed an important step in its layout in Asia faster and earlier than any other company.

Now no one knows, it's just that the flame and Huayi Brothers have caught up makes Hollywood studios feel a little uneasy, if the Chinese market really becomes so exaggerated in a few years, they will undoubtedly take a big step slower, and people's joint venture films have come out, so they are looking for partners to open a company?

Of course, we must hold on to some powerful Chinese company, otherwise it is very likely that it will be difficult to move an inch, and there will be no change in distribution resources! You must know that this kind of joint venture film has a huge power, breaking through the annual import quota, and the company opening in China and Huayi Brothers distribution is not considered to be imported, and there is no need to compete with other film companies.

In fact, the competition for 20 introduction places every year is very fierce, and it is rumored that many companies have secretly broken through the boundaries of ordinary lobbying, which also led to the final decision of Flame Films to participate in the investment of "Red Cliff". Wang Yang has been very faceless to Han Sanping's gang several times, and the right to speak about what movies to introduce is all in their hands, if there is any more unpleasantness, who will guarantee that FF still has a quota for introduction?

No matter how high the box office of Magic Yang is, if he is "blocked" and the plot is serious, his name will even disappear immediately, and he has to be treated with caution. However, the proportion of Flame Film's stake in "Red Cliff" is not high, only 10%, about 10 million US dollars, which is not a high risk.

It is only a shell company, Oriental Flame, which currently holds 80.1% of the shares, while Huayi holds 19.9%, and the two unanimously agreed to bring in another group of people from Hong Kong, one to share the risk, and the other to gain the support of the Hong Kong region.

There is no rush in these things, because obviously the market is not yet ripe, the time has not yet come, and the first project of Eastern Flame is still a blank. The flame movies on the other side of the world are in full swing, and Wang Yang is busy every day......

(To be continued)