"The male lead in District 9 will be played by Robert Downey Jr. ”

When Flame Movies announced this latest development, in this hot summer vacation schedule, media fans suddenly had another thing to talk about. Anyone who knows who this guy is knows that Downey is tied to "drugs, trouble, and self-depravity." His drug addiction, which he can never quit, has turned him from a hot and popular star to a prisoner who makes fans regret and discourages producers.

And now Wonder Young has let Donnie, who has just been released from prison on parole, play the male lead? It is said that "District 9" will still be a special effects production? Unbelievable! The two are roommates in Lake Island Prison, which everyone has known for a long time, maybe they have made a deep friendship in prison and become friends in trouble...... But seriously, isn't Magic Young not afraid of getting into trouble?

Anyway, Wang Yang's fans are very worried about him, in addition to the filming of the movie, there are many female fans who are worried that their sunny and handsome idol will be taken bad by Robert Downey Jr., such as learning to drink and smoke heavily, and even take drugs...... On the fan site, female fans commented: "If Jan becomes like that, I will die of sadness!", "That is terrible!"

In an exclusive interview with the latest issue of "Variety" magazine, Wang Yang was also asked about "Donnie's drug addiction". In the meeting room of Variety magazine, looking at the beautiful brown-haired journalist Eve Smien opposite, he replied: "I'm not worried, I know Robert's determination to get rid of drugs, and I believe in him." What he needs most now is everyone's encouragement and forgiveness. We support him and then we see a whole new Robert Downey Jr. ”

After talking about some questions about the starring role, she naturally talked about the movie "District 9", Eve looked at Wang Yang with fiery eyes, she held the hanging hair in her ear, and asked in a seductive voice: "Amazing Yang, what kind of story is "District 9"?"

"Hmm, I can only say......" Wang Yang smiled lightly, and immediately understood in his heart that this woman wanted to use beauty tricks to get more exclusive information. But since the time when "Juno" chose the heroine, he auditioned thousands of young and beautiful girls, and the beauty trick was of no use to him, unless it was Jessica to perform. He took a sip of tea and said, "I can't reveal it for the time being." But now it's you asking, then ......"

In fact, this was originally intended to be said in this interview for pre-publicity. Looking at Eve, who looked expectant, he smiled and said, "This is an R-rated movie. As he spoke, he slapped his forehead in annoyance and laughed at himself, "It's over, it's over! ”

"Wow!R-class?" Eve's eyes widened excitedly, and as she recorded, she asked, "Are you sure? It's not a G-rated but an R-class?" You know that in everyone's impression, Wang Yang is sunshine, and there is no violence or pornography in his films...... There's not even a kissing shot, Amazing Young's R-rate? What's that?"

Wang Yang couldn't help laughing out loud, because he remembered that three years ago, the "everybody" said "That kid doesn't make horror movies, what's the joke!" He spread his hands and laughed: "I think they must have forgotten 'Ghost Record', I remember that someone said at the time, 'That kid is so gray!' Ha, when did I become sunny?"

Both of them laughed a few times, and he said seriously: "I also answered this question three years ago. I want to say that "Ghost Shadow" is not all of me, and neither are "Youth Musical", "When Happiness Knocks", and "Juno". For me, every movie is a new attempt, and every different story has a different way of expression, and this time I will also let everyone see another me, see a new Wang Yang. ”

Eve nodded, her eyes continuing to glow at him, and asked, "Can you tell me what kind of R-rated content it is, could it be drug use?" she asked, naturally because of Robert Downey Jr.

"No, I can say no. Wang Yang picked up the teacup, took a sip of clear and slightly sweet tea, and smiled: "It's just some violent pictures." ”

Eve saw her eyes light up again, and hurriedly recorded it, and asked in pursuit: "You revealed that "District 9" has special effects, and now you say that it is an R-rated and violent movie, can we understand that this is a commercial special effects blockbuster?" She described and laughed: "Full of bloody killings, and maybe booming explosions......"

"No, no, no, it can't be positioned as a commercial violence movie, and it should never be understood that way. Wang Yang interrupted her, pondered for a while, and then explained: "This movie may have many classifications, but I have to say that it is a drama! Whether it is violent scenes or beautiful special effects, it is all for the purpose of serving the plot of the movie and making the plot better." ”

He smiled and said, "Many people have said this, but I have to say it again, what is the most important thing in a movie? Story, story, story! Without this core, no matter how beautiful the special effects are, they are just piled up and meaningless." ”

After answering this question, the information to be revealed in Wang Yang's plan has been finished, so Eve's beauty plan will be completely invalid, but she is already very satisfied that she can get these information.

As soon as the latest issue of "Variety" hit the shelves, media fans who followed "District 9" felt stupid and couldn't guess what kind of movie "District 9" was......! Is it telling a story about beating up a paparazzi? It's a pseudo-documentary! But it has big-budget special effects, and it can't be positioned as a commercial film, but a drama...... High-budget cult-movies? Yahoo Movies makes this speculation. The so-called cult films, simply put, are films that ignore the mainstream market and go their own way, they often have strange themes, unique shooting techniques, very personal style, and are very controversial. Cult movies ignore the characteristics of the market and are doomed to not get much money, so they are usually made on a small budget, but this does not affect the birth of classics in the slightest.

Whether it is the United States, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Japan...... There are cult movies everywhere, and now the most famous "cult director" in Hollywood is undoubtedly Quentin Tarantino, the director of "Reservoir Dogs" and "Pulp Fiction", and David Fincher, the director of "The Seven Deadly Sins" and "Fight Club".

A review on Yahoo Movie Channel reads: "After three academic-style films, we did forget that Magic Young's 18-year-old debut, 'Ghost Shadow', was a cult movie of great significance." It has shown the way for DV films, created a new form of pseudo-documentary, and created a new way of publicity, 'viral marketing', from the film itself to the outside of the film, how cult is it?!"

And if you think about it, in fact, Miraculous Yang's cult heart has never stopped beating. "Youth Singing and Dancing Youth" was a campus song and dance film that no one dared to touch at that time, "Juno" was an unsuccessful teenage pregnancy theme, and only "When Happiness Knocks on the Door" is all academic. And in the future of this R-rated "District 9", Magical Young seems to want to come back, he says violence, he says it's not just business...... When he said it would be a pseudo-documentary, we should have guessed that it was probably a high-budget cult movie. ”

The editor of the final comment said expectantly: "Sunshine, warmth, warmth? put it away for the time being, maybe a weird cult director is the real magic Yang." ”

The claim of the cult movie has been supported by many fans, and as for the content of the movie, some fans speculated that "District 9" is a theme related to aliens, because the title of the film is very similar to a place, that is, the legendary government research base for aliens "Area 51";

In the bright and spacious study, Wang Yang sat at his desk, and the printer on the desk spit out pictures one after another, all of which were detailed alien design sketches...... Looking at the designs, he nodded with satisfaction from time to time.

This alien is not a simple beetle man, or shrimp man, its body structure is the same as that of earthlings, walking upright, without tails, very thin and ugly hands and feet, not smooth skin, but layers of insect shells, different shapes and colors, on the key head, they have long soft antennae on the top of their heads, the armor of their necks is taken from grasshoppers, and their noses also have shrimp tentacles...... They're all up to the mark, looking dirty and ugly, but they're cool compared to the aliens they've been before. When Wang Yang went on to see the image of Christopher Fowson and his son, he decided to choose this design, leaning on the chair, he said to himself: "What is the name of this alien race?"

However, compared to this small problem, there is a bigger problem at present, that is, these aliens are just 2D images on paper, and to convert them into 3D in the movie and complete the shooting of the whole movie, you naturally need the help of special effects companies.

Blue Sky Studios seems to be a ready-made choice, it has often participated in the production of some TV special effects in the past, and also has excellent animation special effects technology, such as CGI animation technology, radiation flux rendering technology, making models, bone and hair rigging, and so on. But the special effects team of District 9 couldn't choose the blue sky because there were two problems in front of them.

First, movie special effects are not equal to animation, some technologies are the same, but some are different, especially the part of the technology that is connected between animation and reality, why some special effects seem very fake, and some special effects are seamless, the difference lies here, and Blue Sky Studio does not have that part of the technology; Second, now Blue Sky's animators are busy with the final stage of the production of "Ice Age", and after the production of "Ice Age", "Ice Age 2" or other cartoons will start, they don't have time.

So "District 9" needs to find another special effects company, and the most famous company in this area is naturally the "traditional powerhouse" Industrial Light & Magic, which George Lucas founded in 1975 and then changed the term "special effects" with "Star Wars", which is extremely advanced and trend-setting, and arguably the top special effects company, as well as James Cameron and Stan Winston's digital field founded in 1990 and made a splash with "Titanic" in 1997.

The core technology in the digital field is Nuke, a digital compositing software that seamlessly combines CG models with real backgrounds, and it is almost the best in the industry in using the Houdini (movie special effects magician) software developed by Side Effects Software Company, including the development of dynamic plug-ins, implicit surface models of fluid particles, etc.

There are also Sony Images, ESC Studios, which is now doing special effects for "The Matrix 2", and SGI (Silicon Images), which has participated in movies such as "Toy Story", "Jurassic Park", etc., but it is not a movie special effects company, it is a company that produces high-performance computers, but its graphics processing system technology is very powerful, and even the United States Air Force and NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) are using it.

The special effects of a movie, unless you find a giant like Industrial Light & Magic, need to use many special effects companies, this one to deal with water waves, that one to deal with animals, this one to render, and that one to seamlessly combine...... In fact, many times a special effects blockbuster, even Industrial Light & Magic dare not say "I've got it all", and there are 3 other companies involved in "Planet Prequel 2", which is still in production; "The Matrix" has 7, and "The Lord of the Rings 1: The Lord of the Rings" released this Christmas schedule, in addition to Weta Studio, there are 8 companies involved in the production of special effects.

"District 9" will certainly not be an exception, but no matter how many companies are involved in the end, there is a company that does the leading work in the pre-filming, filming period, and post-production, and it is also the special effects team that follows the crew, and the Oscar for Best Visual Effects is also awarded to it, and it is the company that "District 9" needs right now.

Looking for industrial light and magic, looking for the digital field? Wang Yang had thought about this question for a long time, but he immediately realized that he didn't want to do that, he wanted to have a special effects company for himself and Flame Films. Maybe it's ambition, maybe it's ambition, but why not do it? How well he knows the importance of the future of special effects technology, and this future is not far away, and now is the stage of rapid development of digital technology, and the later it is to form a company, the harder it will be.

It seems that it is not difficult to set up a special effects company, there is no talent to recruit, no technology to buy, just like houdini and other special effects software, but in fact it is not so easy, the basic software can be bought, but how to use this software, how to develop it, these technologies are not available to buy, each company is relying on these exclusive technologies to survive, become a member of a blockbuster special effects production company.

And the developers of these technologies are generally not hired because they own their own companies, or partner with directors like Stan Winston and James Cameron, Richard Taylor and Peter Jackson.

But after all, Wang Yang has been in the film industry for too short a time, and he has not been in contact with these special effects masters before, so he thought about it and finally hit the head of Robert Zemeckis. Zemeckis isn't a master of special effects, but he's a pioneer in emoji capture technology and has a vast network of digital technology!

Just like his grandfather pulled Old Man Wu into the gang in order to get the family heirloom of Old Man Wu, Wang Yang also pulled Robert Zemeckis, a former idol and half-apprentice and half-friend today, into the gang, and his rhetoric included "throwing money to develop motion capture technology" and so on. This is not a sweet talk to be coaxed, the aliens of "District 9", especially the gestures of Christopher Fossen and his sons, need to use this technology, and the more advanced it is, the better.

However, Robert Zemeckis has been invited to partner in the company not once or twice, and he has a good relationship with Warner Bros. and Disney, and if he wants to play motion capture, he can find a large company to play 100 million or 200 million, so he is still considering Wang Yang's warm invitation.

It's just that Wang Yang thinks that whether Robert will agree to join the company or not, it will not affect his determination to set up a special effects company; even if Robert joins, the company will get resources in terms of connections, rather than direct technical support. But the company needs the technology! How can it be obtained?

In fact, there is still a feasible way, and this is what he is doing now, which is to inject capital into the acquisition of a good special effects company with talent and technology. Share the technology with Blue Sky Studios first, and then use the money to expand its scale, including buying the technical software it needs, recruiting enough staff and talent, and then making a name for itself with a movie.

And then it continues to produce special effects for the films of Flame Films, other companies, and at the same time continues to develop the technology, then it can embark on a healthy development path and slowly seek opportunities to become a large company.

Luckily, there are many, many small VFX companies that welcome capital injections, but unfortunately their core technology is not enough to quickly scale into a company capable of serving as the VFX team for District 9. Mark Snaunt is still looking for a suitable company, and his vision is no longer limited to the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and other countries have entered the list.

Looking at the alien design drawings one by one, Wang Yang fell into deep thought, it is really not easy to integrate a special effects company...... At this time, Danny, who was holding a tennis ball in his mouth, rushed in with great interest, and rubbed his head against his thigh, which obviously meant "play with me!" Wang Yang smiled, put down the design in his hand, got up and said, "Hey, man, I don't have time to play with you right now." ”

He walked over to the floor-to-ceiling window and pulled it open, took Danny's ball and threw it the lawn outside, and it ran away, looking at it with his hands around his chest, and chuckling softly, "You like to play games, don't you?"

Wang Yang frowned suddenly, and an idea that had been vaguely existing in his heart for a long time clearly surfaced, games! video games! This is an independent industry, and it is also a peripheral of movies, there are games adapted from these movies in the past, present, and future, although there are almost no blockbusters on both sides, but he thinks that digital technology is developing so fast, naturally not only the picture of the movie is improving, but the picture of the game will become more and more powerful.

When there are more and more commonalities between the two, when the gaming industry finds a way to adapt the movie, their relationship will become intimate, and the sales of DVDs and game discs will affect each other...... Maybe video games will become an important peripheral. Moreover, from a business point of view, film companies should not let go of any peripherals, because making more and less is making money, and this is also a way of publicity.

"Go!" Wang Yang thought as he tossed out the tennis ball that Danny had brought back, thinking that "Ice Age" could be made into an adventure-based game or a family casual game, and that "District 9" could be made into an action or first-person shooter game that would be released after the movie was released...... He was a little excited, for the simple reason that he loved video games, movies, basketball, games, ...... He's played a lot of classic games, and he's played a couple of movie adaptations, and he understands exactly why they failed because they were so poorly made.

The main reason is that film companies don't pay attention to this periphery, and the current way of cooperation between movies and games is basically that film companies directly transfer the copyright to game companies, but large companies don't look at it, so they often find a small company to cooperate with, or set up their own studios, so whether it is the game system or the storyline, it is not fun. Of course, they don't care, they earn a dollar.

"If District 9 is made into a game...... Wang Yang looked at Danny, who was running from afar, enjoying the game, and said to himself, "That must not be shoddy! The movie must be good, the game must be fun!" He smiled, took out his mobile phone and dialed a number, and said, "Hey, Mark, I want to buy a game development company." ”

Mark Slunt over there was stunned for a moment, and said strangely: "My boss, it seems that we are a film company, right?" He immediately understood Wang Yang's intentions, and said: "I also think that the company can develop video game peripherals, but boss, you know that our special effects company is still being formed, who knows how much it will cost in the end? The Vancouver studio has just started construction." Shouldn't we take a break when it comes to gaming?"

"No, no. Wang Yang walked to the lawn outside, thought for a while, and said to his mobile phone: "It's not an acquisition of Flame Movies, even if it's my private acquisition, a game company doesn't need much money, right? "He has just transferred 15 million before tax in his personal account, and since he is in the bank, why not make some other investments?

A lot of people in Hollywood like to invest in real estate or start their own fashion brand, but he doesn't have a lot of energy at all, but video games, he's very interested. He thought that 15 million should be enough, inject capital into a good game development company, and if it is not enough, take some money out of the Flame Company in an appropriate amount.

"Your private acquisition, wow, that's exciting, it looks like we'll be playing your game soon!" Mark Slant chuckled. Wang Yang came to the wooden chair in the garden and sat down, and said with a smile: "I don't know how to develop games, but I can play, and if it's not fun, I won't let it be released to the market." Mark Slant smiled again before he said seriously: "Young, you are really energetic, but I can't do so many things, maybe I should introduce some agents to you?"

Wang Yang also knows that the affairs of the flame movie itself, and the affairs of the special effects company are enough for this CEO to be busy, and the game company will leave it to others to do. He nodded and smiled, "OK!"

(To be continued)