In the elegant and quiet café, looking at the two dark-haired Asian men talking at the table not far away, Anderson was very disappointed, and he didn't want to waste the film to shoot secretly. He finally ushered in this opportunity, this time the exclusive tracking of Magic Yang came here, why didn't this big director meet with a girl, why is it an Asian man!

Even if that guy is a relative or friend of Miracle Young, such a photo is almost worthless, and it can only be sold for one or two hundred yuan at most, and the cost will not be recovered. But if it's someone other than Jessica, and there's some intimacy, that's great!

Anderson couldn't help but smile as he thought about it, but he still quietly held the camera and pressed it, and took a few photos, and a hundred pieces was better than zero pieces. The competition in the paparazzi industry is too fierce, Britney Spears has more than 30 and 40 peers who wait and follow her all year round every day, he doesn't go there to join in the fun, but chooses Wang Yang, a magical director who has super popularity among the young people.

Usually he doesn't have a movie in the hot period, it's okay, there are less than five competitors who follow him all year round, but as soon as he comes to the release period of his movie, the competitors will suddenly skyrocket, like this month came out to detonate the world's "District 9", his popularity soared again and again, and the number of competitors is also, and now it has risen to the peak of 15-20 people, the number of photos has increased several times, and the value has also dropped several times.

On the other hand, because he lives with Jessica, who is also very popular, there are nearly 10 people in the industry who circle around their homes every day, squatting in the public area in front of the door, and competing for their garbage cans and garbage heaps. Two days ago, Anderson had a fight with someone for a crumpled piece of paper, resulting in two stitches on his chin.

There were some messy and strange drawings on that paper, maybe they were drawn casually, maybe they were storyboards, and they were very rare, and they usually got paper that had been shredded by a shredder, and it was rare to have such paper balls. And the real value of that piece of paper is that it is full of scribbled girls' names! Amanda, Alva, Caroline, Erica, Jessica, Kate, Mathilde...... Who are they!?Who are the other girls except Jessica?!Although they don't know what the paper means, they both feel that they are close to an amazing secret, and that paper is probably worth a fortune.

I just didn't expect it to be this black-haired Asian man waiting for me. Anderson sighed in disappointment, what does it take to stand out in this industry?

"What I miss the most is not playing 21 at the table or making a lot of money. ”

Next to the clean round table, Ma Kaiwen took a sip of the coffee cup slowly, a flash of reminiscence flashed in his single-eyelid eyes, looked at Wang Yang opposite, and said: "What I miss most is the feeling and life of struggling together, being a part of the team, everyone is determined to move towards the same goal, full of loyalty and friendship for each other, it was really a beautiful time." ”

Wang Yang nodded with a smile, and suddenly remembered the life of filming "Ghost Shadow" at that time, he was the first time to be a director, Rachel was the first time to be a heroine, Zachary was the first time to be a hero, and Jessica and Joshua would also come to help, although sometimes they were unhelpful, determined, happy, and indomitable...... It's the feeling that Jeff Ma misses, right?

"So you don't have a contradiction?" he smiled and asked Ma Kaiwen: "Didn't you quarrel over the question of who is the big player and who is the card counter?

He reached out to Ben Mozrich early on to discuss and finalize the script several times, but he only reached out to Jeff Ma for an interview in recent days. Because he doesn't want the temperament and image of the character of "Jeff Ma" to be influenced too much by real people before it is set, which limits the personal charm of "Jeff Ma" on the big screen. This is not a biopic film like "When Happiness Knocks on the Door", this is a drama film about the MIT21 group.

Now that he feels that he is slowly taking control of the story and the protagonists, he can begin to fill in some of the details.

"No, no, no, none of these problems have happened. Ma Kaiwen laughed, his eyes narrowed, and said, "We are all selfless and smart. We know what's best for us and then we execute it, like a tight machine, otherwise you can't win 21 points. ”

He clenched his right hand weakly, rubbed his thumb and forefinger around his ear a few times, and said, "Card counting is a very teamwork game, like any team sport. He shrugged his shoulders again and said, "In fact, in theory, card counting can only increase the probability of winning by 3%, but this 3% is enough to make a big difference, so why do we need big players, we are very lucky and catch that 3%." But if you want to win, you need a mature championship team. ”

"Well, loyalty, friendship, team ......" Wang Yang nodded in understanding, noticing that his little gesture just now seemed to be not interesting, so he also rubbed his fingers a few times and asked, "Is this a gesture? What does it mean?"

Ma Kaiwen smiled innocently, rubbed his fingers and said, "Yes, this is one of the gestures that the card counter tells the big players that they can enter the game." Wang Yang asked suspiciously: "Are there many gestures with the same meaning?" Ma Kaiwen smiled and said Of course, he made a few postures in a row, patted the back of his head, and twisted his left hand on his neck as if he was tired...... "If you use the same signal all day, you're going to get caught right away," he explains. ”

He took off his glasses again and said with a smile: "We will also use props, such as taking off the glasses to wipe them and taking out a handkerchief to wipe the sweat...... These gestures are all changing, and sometimes the meaning of the previous week and the next week will be different. Seeing that Wang Yang was very emotional, his fingers rotated to his temples, and said with a smile: "We are all very easy to use here, even if there are a hundred gestures, we can distinguish them clearly." ”

Hearing him say this, Wang Yang couldn't help laughing, he thought that the reason why "Decisive 21 Points" makes people feel lame is because of this, right? Perhaps it was intended to be easy for the viewer to remember, and at the same time to make the big action easy to shoot, but the problem is that it also loses the sense of realism and high intelligence.

The reality is so cool, these are also the small details of the MIT team and the casino, and the detectives are smart, why don't they be recognized and caught? In addition to the disguise, the gesture changes in the monitor are also important reasons. And in "21 Points", the reason why the casino security boss caught them was precisely because he recognized the crappy gesture.

"Hey Jeff, I see, our art director will do some cool gestures, and code words. Wang Yang smiled and picked up the coffee cup and took a sip, mentioning the code words, thinking of something, he smiled: "Have you ever thought that you would speak quickly? You know your nickname 'Intel Chip', which is fast and precise and smart...... These have to be shown from the outside, and the speed of speech and response are good choices. ”

Ma Kaiwen nodded approvingly, and said, "Of course, I don't know how to make movies, but I am completely relieved to hand myself over to Magic Yang, haha!" He smiled and his eyes narrowed again, his eyebrows hung upside down, and said: "But in fact, I don't speak very quickly." ”

"Then why did you join this 21-point group? What was your mentality at that time?" Wang Yang asked another question, which is quite crucial, if the actor has no scholarship pressure, why did he join? What is the whole story for? He thought about it, and added: "What kind of mentality do you all have?"

"Mentality?" Ma Kaiwen frowned, thinking back to the situation back then, and said with a smile: "Interested, I just thought it was fun to join at first, and to test my ability." I heard them say, 'It's hard,' and then I thought, 'What's the big deal, I can do it.'" ’”

With a look of pride on his face, he continued, "And then I liked the team, and then we started winning, hundreds of thousands of dollars a night, which was really exciting, and let's keep going. Why not? It's what we're good at, it's just a job. He laughed happily and said, "This changes our lives, we can use our skills to earn money, and then use it to achieve our wishes." ”

"Like ProTrade, which I'm running now, you can trade players as virtual stocks, and their strength is the stock price, what could be more interesting than that?" Wang Yang suddenly covered his forehead and sighed: "Oh, Yao Ming can't go to our Bay Area, it's a pity." ”

Ma Kaiwen also nodded with deep sympathy when he heard this, and said excitedly: "According to my data analysis, Yao Ming can definitely play and maybe become a superstar." In addition to running a sports website, he is now a senior data specialist, serving as an advisor to the NBA's Portland Trail Blazers and the NFL's San Francisco 49ers. (In the '07 NBA draft, he had strongly recommended that the Trail Blazers, who were the top picks, pick Kevin Durant, and called Greg Oden useless.) But in the end, the Trail Blazers chose Audenthe Great, who was wildly praised at the time and would have been chosen by every team. As a result, the Trail Blazers ended dismally. ”

"So is my analysis. Wang Yangha smiled, and already had a general idea in his heart, the movie should be based on a game-based mentality, Jeff Ma is interested, stimulated by the eldest sister's words, and the whole MIT group is for money, but it is for playing money. If you ask them "why?", they will say "because we can." ”

The film should be cool and non-didactic, but it still has to have a correct mainstream value. So there has to be a premise that there is no crime in the whole story, so that the MIT team can end their careers in style and the audience will accept it, and at the same time, no matter what the mentality is, in the end, they still have to say, "Let's go back to normal life." ”

Speaking of the topic of mentality, Kevin Ma seems to have thought of this aspect, saying: "We have always emphasized that card counting is not a crime, it is just a behavior that is annoying to casinos. Casinos are not God, they don't have the right to take money out of people's hands, we can make their money in reverse!"

"Wow, that's a good line!" Wang Yang nodded his temples with a smile and said with a smile: "I wrote it down." Ma Kaiwen nodded and smiled, and said seriously: "Although everyone can learn card counting, I really hope that my story is not to let others drop out of school to play 21 points, I promised to adapt it into a novel, just to tell people that you can break the casino, you can do everything." But card counting is just a means to achieve wishes, don't waste your life. ”

"Jeff, don't worry. I'm going to make you guys really good and make the audience think it's something that smart people can do. Wang Yang smiled and said, "And smart people will not choose to drop out of school to play 21 o'clock." But he thought that after this movie came out, there would still be people scolding: "Do you know your influence among teenagers? You're teaching kids to gamble." ”

Ma Kaiwen then asked a question that had been circling in his mind for a long time, and said: "What ethnic actor will probably play me?" In fact, who will play him and what the content of the movie will be, he can't influence. Ben Mozridge's published book has made him a "public figure", and anyone who wants to make his biography and story does not need his consent, and he naturally has no say.

Wang Yang smiled without thinking and clenched his fists: "Jeff, Intel chips will only be Chinese." Ma Kaiwen suddenly smiled happily and said excitedly: "Cool, that's really cool! I don't want to see a Korean or Japanese to play me, that's ridiculous." ”

"That's not going to happen. Wang Yang said and took out a script from the backpack next to the chair, and suddenly found a very familiar white man sitting not far away, with a flat head and a big nose...... He's a paparazzi! But it doesn't matter. Wang Yang handed the script to Ma Kaiwen and said with a smile: "This is the script, Jeff, I need me to provide some more details." I've watched "Capture of Las Vegas" many times, but can you tell me about card counting yourself?"

He naturally didn't worry that Ma Kaiwen would leak the script or anything, so he didn't need to worry about it; and before the meeting, Ma Kaiwen readily agreed to serve as the consultant and guide of the crew, and he also needed the participation of this real "God of Gamblers" in the future publicity stage.

"Okay. Ma Kaiwen took the script and read it, in addition to the story content, there are some professional knowledge of card counting, etc., he looked at it for a while, pointed to a detail that needs to be filled in the blanks, "21 senior celebrities", and said: "Here, in fact, we have a 21 Hall of Fame (blackjack-hall-of-fame), the first member is the founder of our card counter, now 60-year-old Stanford Wang." ”

Seeing Wang Yang's stunned look, he shook his head and smiled: "No, he is not Chinese, this is a stage name, and his real name is John Ferguson." He is a Stanford graduate, and he thinks 'Wang' is very imposing. Stanford is particularly interested in Chinese culture, and you know that his publishing house calls it 'pi-yee'. and UCLA's Edward Thorpe, Harvard's Bill Kaplan......"

"Why didn't I know that 'Wang' was very imposing?" After he finished saying a long list of names, Wang Yang laughed, shrugged his shoulders and said, "I think 'Ge' has momentum." ”

Ma Kaiwen suddenly laughed, continued to read the script, and said: "There are many different ways to count cards used by card counters, this and what you write here are now the most popular high and low method (high-low), that is, 2-6 counts +1 point, 7-9 counts 0 points, 10 and flower cards count -1 point, and there is + on the table." 7 points, it's already a move, I personally use this in addition to the 10-count method, that is, to calculate how many 10-point cards (including jqk) are left in those cards on the table, a deck of cards is normally 4/13, the dealer has the advantage, but if the ratio of 10 reaches 1/3, you can play with him......"

Wang Yang couldn't help but sigh a little emotionally, cool! No wonder his name is Intel chip, no wonder he can make a qualitative change in the MIT group! While listening to Ma Kaiwen's explanation, Wang Yang took out a pen and recorded these keywords in a notebook, such cool and professional details, why can't you see them in "Decisive 21 Points"?

As night falls, the moonlight envelops the city of angels, and Beverly Hills is still drunk or quiet.

After chatting with Ma Kaiwen for almost a day, Wang Yang returned home satisfied, and the harvest of this day was very rich, he used to discuss with Ben Mozrich about the structure of the big story, the content of the scene, etc., while Ma Kaiwen provided professional details, after discussion, many lines and details or filled, or made slight changes, it will become very "flavor", or "temperament".

He understands that when many things are professional and esoteric, the audience can't understand them, and they think it's cooler. But there is a difference between "a small difference, a thousand miles", not to confuse them, or to seem to understand whether they understand or not, but to establish an impression and atmosphere in their minds, to make them feel "Wow, that's definitely what happened, professional!"

Then they still don't understand, but they will look up the information and will never forget this movie. Of course, some card-counting principles need to be understood by them, so that Jeff Ma and others will use it super strongly at the table, and the audience will feel the blood boiling.

"Who's Jeff-Ma? Who's Jeff-Ma?" Wang Yang hummed to an unknown tune, sat down on the sofa in the living room, and opened his laptop. After meeting the real Jeff Ma, he already has a textured image of the character, Jeff is definitely a competitive, talkative, proud "social" Chinese American, nothing modest, introverted, or shy.

Now it's time to start looking for roles in earnest! But in this place where there is a lack of opportunities, good Chinese actors are even harder to see than pandas, at least San Diego has high and white clouds, and Los Angeles is only a three-hour drive away!

Wang Yang leaned on the sofa and clicked on the webpage, and remembered Lin Yibin's "Hot Maji", an independent film with an investment of 1 million yuan has already been filmed and edited, and all productions have been completed.

The male lead of "Hot Maji" is played by Chinese New York actor Perry Shen, who has the usual Chinese face and tender style despite being 30 years old, and can play a college student. But Wang Yang eliminated him very early, firstly, because of insufficient acting skills, and secondly, because Perry's small eyes did not meet his requirements, small eyes should not be a label impression of Asians, Koreans' eyes are generally quite small, but Chinese are not. His eyes are big anyway.

"Who is Ma Kaiwen? Who is Ma Kaiwen?" Wang Yang hummed in Chinese again, browsing the Chinese website on the screen, looking at the Hong Kong and Taiwan Chinese male stars one by one. There seem to be so many actors in Hong Kong who come and go, and those with good appearance and good acting skills must be famous, so it is not difficult to find the information and pictures of those young candidates, and both of them are the first round of auditions, and they have passed the formal contact interview to see if they are suitable for acting skills and suitability.

Edison Chan is a 22-year-old Canadian who grew up in Vancouver...... Wang Yang glanced at the pictures on the screen for a few moments, then shook his head and closed the web page, Edison-Chen's ruffian face is very suitable for playing the underworld in Hong Kong films, but not for heroic high-achieving students. He browsed a few more, Yue Wenle is still too ruffian, Nicholas Xie is not mature enough and seems to be a little shorter, and Louis Koo has a good appearance and temperament, but he grew up in Hong Kong and does not have a deep sense of the culture here, so it is not a good choice.

"F4? What is Fantastic Four?" Wang Yang muttered suspiciously, as if he had heard of it on some web page before. He clicked on the information of this group and looked at it, and it turned out to mean four flowers, Wu Jianhao, a Chinese-American, who had received drama training in Hollywood, but his eyes were too small; Zhu Xiaotian, which is quite suitable for the honest temperament of the real Jeff Ma, but this is the big screen; Yan Chengxu and Zhou Yumin, the two young men, are very handsome, with the level of his figure and appearance.

Wang Yang laughed, but still clicked close, because none of them spoke English, no matter how good their acting skills were. He opened another person's profile at random, Wu Yanzu, Daniel Wu, born in 1974, 28 years old. He then looked at a few photos and materials of Wu Yanzu, and couldn't help but light up his eyes, and muttered, "Brother, maybe it's you?"

Born in San Francisco, he grew up in San Francisco, graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in architecture, and returned to Hong Kong in '97 to develop without any accent, cultural differences, or market recognition. He was tall and tough enough, handsome enough, and had a good high-profile temperament, and there were a few photographs with a satisfying touch of evil, and it seemed that all conditions were very suitable. Here it is said that he has been practicing martial arts since he was 11 years old...... "What kind of kung fu did you learn?" Wang Yang saw this sentence of learning kung fu and boxing since childhood, and his heart suddenly surged with a burst of wanting to fight, he has not fought with an opponent of the same level for a long time, which is actually as bad as not having ** for three years. He looked left and right at these pictures of Wu Yanzu, the blood that was going to fight kept rolling, and the more he looked at it, the more he felt that this guy was really good.

Wang Yang hummed, then picked up the mobile phone on the coffee table, dialed a number, and instructed: "Help me call CAA to contact Daniel Wu, yes, now he is developing in Hong Kong." I asked him if he would be interested in auditioning for one of my films, the leading actor. OK bye-bye. Putting down the phone, he continued to browse other male stars, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Ryukyu and Chinese, but he wanted pure Chinese; Wang Leehom, who grew up in the United States, has a good appearance and temperament, but he is a singer...... After searching for almost all the well-known male stars of the right age for a long time, Wang Yang didn't find another "very suitable" candidate, he took a breath and closed all the web pages, I hope Wu Yanzu's acting performance can also be suitable! Otherwise, he will lower his standards and become a fisherman. He waved his hands into fists a few times, and gritted his teeth with a snort: "Daniel, I can't wait to fight you!"

At this time, Danny ran over happily with his big tongue stretched out his big tongue and panted, Wang Yang was stunned for a moment, and said with a smile: "Hey, man, I'm calling Daniel, not you!" He touched its head and laughed softly: "Your mother will come back very late, maybe not, she wants to have a girls' night with Erin and Roland." Oh my God, we're left alone, woo......"

He smiled and slapped Danny hard, pushing it away and saying, "Go play by yourself, I still have to work." He picked up the script on the table and flipped through it, and gradually fell into the thought of another question.

Now the male protagonist has a good whereabouts, and who will play the other heroine in the movie, Detective Beverly Griffin? This female detective is smart, stubborn, and never gives up, although she is played by Jeff Ma and them, but she is the one who finally sends the MIT team to the blacklist, and it is difficult to say who is the winner in this cat-and-mouse game.

"Casinos don't make money in the sense of what they do; When you help a casino, you're helping an evil tyrant. If someone told her that, she would say, "I'm not interested in casinos, I'm interested in catching you guys." "She has her charm and is not a stupid foil to the MIT group and others. If the opponent is too bad, the audience will not be excited about how to tease her.

In reality, Beverly Griffin is an old and shrewd old lady, but also on the big screen she can't be like that, she has to be young. And there can be two options, one is a mature woman, and the other is a genius female detective who is about the same age as Jeff Ma and others, staging a genius vs genius show.

Wang Yang touched his chin and quickly analyzed it, and found that he still preferred the second option, but in this way, the requirements for actor candidates have increased all of a sudden, and there is naturally no need to say much about acting skills, and more importantly, it is necessary to have that temperament and persuasiveness, not everyone can consider herself a genius female detective on the big screen. So who is suitable among the actress friends he knows?

He shook his head, her temperament was not right, and her acting skills were not enough. The same goes for Anne Darren, Scarlett Johansson, Michelle Rodriguez...... They don't have that kind of temperament. But Zoe Deschanel, Anne Hathaway, and ...... He blinked, and the girl had an evil expression when filming "Ghost Record" faintly appeared in front of him.

Rachel...... Rachel McAdams, Rachel Anne McAdams ......"

(To be continued)