On January 24th, a northwest wind blew, and the wind and sand rolled up drilled straight into people's eyes, which was not the most suitable day to start the machine.

However, Lin Xiaozhi is not so delicate, and it has been almost a week since he came to Egypt, and the crew has been running-in, supervising the actors' recitation, setting up the scene, contacting the local government of Egypt for help, etc., and the staff of Media Asia have done almost everything during this time. After being idle for so many days, he felt that his body was about to rust, so he was not ready to delay any longer, and after choosing this day in advance, he was ready to worship God and turn on the machine!

"Bang Bang Bang ......"

The crisp sound of firecrackers sounded in the suburbs of Tantos, a desert town two hundred miles away from Luocheng City, perhaps for the first time in history, I saw a crew come to the town to shoot a movie, and it may also be very curious about the worship ceremony before the start of Hong Kong films.

After all, it is on other people's territory, and Lin Xiaozhi is also planning to recruit some villagers from the neighborhood to act as extras, so he did not stop the nearby residents and children from watching, but specially instructed a few Egyptian policemen who were invited to set up a position nearby, and asked them to help pay attention not to let ignorant children run in and interfere with the filming by crossing the circle during filming.

Although the wind blowing from the Mediterranean Sea is very uncomfortable with sand on the face, the early filmmakers in Hong Kong were all from the grassroots, and they were not as squeamish as European and American artists. And although there are a lot of white faces in the crew, most of them are European and Australian artists who can't get along in the United States, and they seem to be good in Hong Kong and come to Hong Kong to pan for gold.

The traditional Chinese worship of the gods pays attention to good days and auspicious times, so although the crew has already been prepared, Lin Xiaozhi has never announced the start of the worship ceremony. It wasn't until a crew member came over to remind him that the hour was approaching, that he glanced at the time and was already 8:40, and then ordered to go down and prepare for the worship ceremony before the start of the film.

The older generation of filmmakers in Hong Kong think that the start of filming will alarm the cows, ghosts, snakes and gods, so they want to worship God for peace, and slowly there is the custom of worshipping God before the start of Hong Kong films.

Although Lin Xiaozhi's new movie is the first time to worship God abroad this time, there are also a lot of media reporters around, some of them are from ATV, some are from "Ming Pao", some are from "Cheng Pao", and some are from "Tian Tian Daily", although most of the media under Lin Xiaozhi's own name are here, but Hong Kong is so big, and there are many other media that got the news in advance, and several curious local media in Egypt also sent reporters over, although the scale is far less than when he started filming in Hong Kong, but there are almost 100 people.

Lin Xiaozhi, who presided over the worship of God, handed it over to Zhang Yimou, and Lao Mouzi, who had not yet walked out of the marriage scandal, still has a bad reputation in the mainland, and he was brought by him to serve as an assistant director for his new movie, which is also a huge attempt by him.

As a reborn, he couldn't be clearer about Lao Mouzi's status in the mainland film industry in the future. Because his love for commercial films is far greater than that of literary films, Lin Xiaozhi did not have the admiration that domestic filmmakers should have in his previous life, at most he only had some appreciation, appreciating his control of the color of the film, and nothing else.

Yes!

But Lao Mouzi is different from him, he is just a Hong Kong man in this life, even if Hong Kong will return in a few years, even if he is the most famous commercial film director in Hong Kong, I am afraid that in the eyes of many mainland filmmakers, Hong Kong filmmakers like him are just banana people, and there are some things that only Lao Mouzi can do.

So he is now trying to pull Lao Mouzi, a director with solid basic skills, from the magic road of literary films to the right path of commercial films as much as possible. As long as he, the mainstream academic school in the mainland with strong roots, succeeds, with his identity as the head of the fifth generation of directors in the future republic, he will inevitably influence more imitators. After all, the current mainland film industry, because of the impact of the turbulent years, is still in a state of groping forward at this time, and it is far from being completely corroded by the Wenqing virus.

"Now, I announce the start of the Mummy's worship ceremony!"

Under the many onlookers, Zhang Yimou did not have stage fright at all, he was wearing a casual suit more and more like a successful person, and after seeing the Hong Kong feng shui master standing next to Lin Xiaozhi nodding at him, he immediately shouted in English to announce the official start of the worship ceremony.

The direction and time of worshipping God are particular, the time is accurate to what time it is, and the direction of worshipping God on incense is to be accurate. Fortunately, this is not the first time to do such a thing, not only every Hong Kong person in the crew is full of experience, but even some foreign actors who have acted in other crews have endured their excitement one by one and learned from them.

The main camera is covered with a red cloth, and roast suckling pig, roast goose and some seasonal fruits are placed on the desk, and some things that can only be eaten in Egypt have been added.

According to the usual practice, everyone in the crew took three incense sticks in turn, and worshiped God in turn, first of all, Lin Xiaozhi, the director and producer, was the first to come forward to worship God.

Lin Xiaozhi took three sticks of incense, bowed to the determined direction of worship, held the incense with his hands together, and casually recited the ripe prayer of the morning rolling melon in Cantonese: "The emperor and the queen of heaven and the protection of the gods and Buddhas of the four directions help me to shoot the new drama "The Mummy" safely, and the crew is fine." ”

After inserting the incense into the incense burner, the whole crew went up to worship in turn.

After him, there are assistant directors, heroes and heroines, photographers, and lamp masters in charge of lighting, etc., and a group of foreign actors also got guidance in advance, knowing that this is a unique ceremony before the start of filming of Hong Kong movies, although they are puzzled, they also take out the piety of going into the church to pray, and they are in the incense burner.

After the worship, it was to cut the pig's head, and two strong dragon and tiger warriors immediately came out of the crew with knives and cut the pig's head neatly, and finally he tore off the red cloth covering the camera, and shouted loudly, "I announce that "The Mummy" is officially launched." ”

In the curious eyes of many media and nearby villagers, Lin Xiaozhi's new drama "The Mummy" is about to start filming.

Because of Egypt's policy on the protection of ancient buildings, Media Asia was not allowed to enter the interior for filming, so it had to hire some Egyptian experts to help guide the interior of the ancient Egyptian-style palace and temple in Shenzhen Cinema, although the project has begun for a full month, but it will take some time to complete the use, and it is conservatively estimated that it may have to wait until the end of February.

Therefore, the start of "The Mummy" will not immediately shoot the plot of Immorton and Ansuna 3,000 years ago, Lin Xiaozhi will start filming with Yang Lin played by Fa Ge and Hani played by Zeng Zhiwei and others, who marched in the desert and encountered a cavalry attack by a group of descendants of the pharaoh's guards.

"Director, the people sent by Egypt to help have arrived!"

Qian Jiale changed into a British colonial military uniform, and ran over to report to him with his legs and feet. Behind him were also followed by a dozen Hong Kong martial artists who looked like British colonial military uniforms, including not only the well-known stars Liu Jiahui and Hou Yaozong of the old Liu family class who had been signed by Media Asia a long time ago, but also a backbone star of the Hong Family Class who was newly recruited by Media Asia last year - Qian Xiaohao, Ni Xing, Lin Zhengying, Meng Hai, Zhong Fa, Chen Long, Di Wei, Yuan Hua, Yuan Biao, Wu Ma and others.

Since "The Mummy" was filmed by him, Lin Xiaozhi naturally will not just make the popular actor Chow Yun-fat, the heroine Tong Ling, and the male number two Arnold, he is ready to use this film to try an international production of Hong Kong films.

As a result, Lin Xiaozhi made a lot of changes to the script, and these Chinese soldiers would be broken up with the protagonist in the battle against the descendants of the pharaoh in the early part of his film, and later reunited in Egypt and went to Hamna Tower together. In addition to adding a fight scene on the ferry, he also prepared to carefully arrange a lot of scenes for these top Hong Kong stars when Immorton led the mummy army to attack Cairo in the middle of the week.

The reason why foreign audiences love Hong Kong films is that they like the fancy and exciting fight scenes in old Hong Kong films, and he naturally wants to do what he likes, so that the audience can take a look at the wonderful action scenes in Hong Kong films.

Arnos didn't play for a short time, but he also appeared in the crew, and was sitting on the bench chatting with Charlize Theron, a South African girl who was about to play the second female lead Ansuna in "The Mummy".

Lin Xiaozhi is actually not satisfied with her, probably because the sexy Ansuna played by the Venezuelan girl Patricia Villaquez Quanguo in his previous life left a deep impression on him, Lin Xiaozhi felt in his heart that the role of Ansuna is more suitable for a tall, sexy and long black hair that symbolizes mystery to play.

For this reason, he tried to send an invitation to Sophie Marceau, the French national treasure that best fits the image of Ansuna in his heart, but unfortunately her agent immediately rejected Lin Xiaozhi's invitation without even listening to the offer after learning that Sophie Marceau needed to appear in Quanguo and could only serve as a female number two in his movie.

In desperation, he had no choice but to pick and choose among the European and Australian female artists who ate mixed rice in Hong Kong, and he could not pick out a competent actress in the list of dozens of people, so he set his sights on Europe again, and sent an invitation to Miss Spain - Laura Fangna.

Laura Fonta should be the most familiar Spanish actress for Hong Kong filmmakers, she was discovered by Golden Harvest's scouts when she traveled to Hong Kong in 83, and finally asked her to make her debut in Spain in Jackie Chan's "Plan A" cameo, and since then she has frequently cooperated with Hong Kong film companies, and has filmed many movies such as "Dragon Brother and Tiger Brother" and "Fast Food Truck". Although Lin Xiaozhi is not as expectant of her as Sophie Marceau, with her black hair, she is not only sexy, but also from the Miss Spain beauty pageant, and she can also be qualified for the role of Ansuna.

But after the two sides came into contact, the cooperation soon collapsed. Laura Fonta can accept Quan Guo's appearance, but her agent's condition is that the salary cannot be less than 60 million pesetas. Although the Spanish currency is worthless, and the exchange ratio with the US dollar has been jumping around 1:55-60, her salary has exceeded $1 million after conversion, which is the treatment only available to the first-rate actress in Europe, and it is nearly four times more than her salary when she starred in "Food Truck".

At this price, if Sophie Marceau promised to appear on the camera, Lin Xiaozhi would agree very happily. But Laura Fonta is not Sophie Marceau, so Lin Xiaozhi immediately withdrew the staff after learning of her offer, and did not even give his own intention price.

In the end, Arnold helped him solve this problem, he recommended his fellow countryman Charlize Theron to Media Asia, this blonde chick had been a model in South Africa and also starred in stage plays, Arnold had worked with her before going to the United States, and after arriving in the United States, he didn't expect Charlize Theron to immigrate to the United States with his mother and enter the showbiz, and like him, he had no acting at all, and he was very down-and-out, and he could only rely on being a cover girl for some magazines to mix qualifications.

Lin Xiaozhi was still a little resistant to letting a girl who was just seventeen or eighteen years old play Ansuna, but after meeting, he found that he still underestimated the precociousness of white people, and found that Charlize Theron was not only willing to dye her hair black for filming, but also had taken some large-scale cover photos of adult magazines, and she was not resistant to Quanguo's appearance, and the most important thing was that she only offered 60,000 US dollars for her salary, which was not too excessive, and Media Asia finally signed a contract with her, and she would play Cleopatra Ansuna.

Jonathan is played by Ecente Johnny, an Australian actor who has played a foreign triad thug in many Hong Kong movies, Lin Xiaozhi took a fancy to him for having a pair of thief eyebrows and mouse eyes, and his temperament can perform a little obscene without makeup, so he directly asked for his contract from the performing arts, because because of his image, there is no shortage of acting in many movies.

"Is anyone coming?"

Qian Jiale's report made Lin Xiaozhi stand up, and the first scene they were going to shoot in Egypt was when the British colonial army where the protagonist Yang Lin was located was about to rest because of the desert storm and the British colonial army that had deviated from the marching route, but they didn't know that they had stumbled to the legendary city near the Tower of Hamna, and were discovered by the descendants of the Pharaoh's guards who set up a guard nearby, so the Pharaoh's guard cavalry began to assemble and prepare to raid the British army.

Although the scene of this opening war is not very grand, it is conservatively estimated that at least three or five hundred actors can perform the atmosphere of war.

Lin Xiaozhi was originally going to invite some extras, and then spend more time filming this scene as well as possible. For example, Egypt has been reduced to the last brigade size of the cavalry for many years, and only needs the crew to solve the costumes and props and guns for them, and donate some materials to the cavalry brigade station, they are not only willing to send one or two cavalry companies to help with filming, but even war horses can be brought by themselves.

There is such a good thing, how can Lin Xiaozhi not agree. sent someone to contact the other party, and soon reached a consensus, the crew spent more than 200,000 Egyptian pounds to buy some camels, beef, fruits, and wine to the 112th Cavalry Brigade stationed with him, Lin Xiaozhi also stuffed nearly 300,000 pounds before and after a dozen senior officers, and they readily agreed to send two full cavalry companies to help when they were filming. Of course, these people still need to be paid on a daily basis.

A puff of sand and dust was kicked up from the direction of the town, and through the telescope, he saw a team of cavalry riding high-headed horses galloping towards the camp quickly, Lin Xiaozhi's spirit couldn't help but be shocked, he quickly picked up his guide microphone, and greeted loudly in English, "The movie is about to start, photography, lighting preparation, everyone listens to my orders, and the last five minutes are ready...... The idle crew helped, let the irrelevant onlookers retreat a little, so as not to affect our shooting! ”

On the outskirts of an empty desert town, there was an immediate echo.