Most of the filming tasks of "The Martian" had to be completed in the studio of the magic capital, and after completing this part of the shooting tasks, the entire crew moved to the United States to continue filming, during which Li Mu took time to check the work of Manwu Animation Studio.

The purpose of Li Mu's establishment of an animation studio in the United States is to learn from the advanced animation film production and management experience here, and to cultivate his own animation talent team. In the long run, sooner or later, the headquarters of animation studios will have to be moved to China, but this process may take up to six or seven years.

The head of the animation studio is a henchman sent from the head office, surnamed Zhang, with a financial background, and is a layman for animation production. He does not participate in the specific production process of animated films, but he has to help Li Mu take charge of the money bag.

The total investment in the company's first animated film, Frozen, is expected to reach $150 million, which is unprecedented for a Chinese filmmaker.

Prior to this, the largest film invested by Huaxia Film and Television Company was "Inception" directed by Li Mu himself, with a total investment of $120 million.

The budget of "Frozen" is 30 million US dollars higher than that of "Inception", and with such a large investment, Li Mu has to be cautious and dare not be cautious.

The person in charge of the film production is an American recruited by the company at a high price, and there are two deputies for the project, namely the two talents that Li Mu found from China - Tian Xiaopeng and Dumpling Yang Yu.

American talents have done better in terms of professionalism and experience, and Tian Xiaopeng and Yang Yu have reassured Li Mu even more.

In this way, a situation has been formed in which the head of the studio from a financial background, the former senior talents of Pix Animation who were dug up by the company at a high price, and the domestic professionals Tian Xiaopeng and Yang Yu supervise and cooperate with each other.

It is worth mentioning that although Li Mu did not sit in the studio and handle the specific production work throughout the whole process, he is still the undisputed chief director of the movie "Frozen".

What are the typical responsibilities of an animation director?

The movie "Frozen" from the idea to the script, story version, to the character image design, character characteristics, as well as the later soundtrack, editing, etc., these are almost all covered by Li Mu alone.

In addition, Li Mu also has one of the most important tasks, which is to make decisions.

Almost all the major matters encountered in the production process of "Frozen" have to be made by Li Mu, and in the production process of the animated film, the person who completes these tasks is the director of the animated film!

It can even be said that Li Mu is responsible for more work than ordinary animated film directors do in person, so although he is not personally in the United States, he can add the words "director Li Mu's works" at the beginning and end of the movie with peace of mind.

After coming to the animation studio, Li Mu first checked the production progress of "Frozen", and the reply he got was that the production cycle of the film would take at least 3 years.

Hearing this, Li Mu fell silent.

Dumpling Yang Yu and Tian Xiaopeng both guessed that Li Mu was dissatisfied with the progress, so the two explained to Li Mu that this speed is actually very fast, you must know that the production cycle of a Pixar animation movie is generally about 5 years.

Obviously, the two misunderstood what Li Mu meant, Li Mu didn't think the progress was slow, but was afraid that the progress would be too fast.

Even Pixar Studios takes four or five years or more to make such an animated film, so why does it take only three years for its fledgling animation studio to do all the work?

In the previous life, the total box office of the first and second parts of "Frozen" combined was as high as 2.8 billion US dollars, and the peripheral income of the film earned 12 billion US dollars in only six years, becoming a well-deserved Disney No. 1 gold princess.

Of course, Li Mu does not have the ability to develop movie peripherals as strong as Disney, but you Disney can sell 12 billion, and I Li Mu can sell 4 billion US dollars, right?

You sold 12 billion in 6 years, it's amazing that I sold 4 billion in 10 years, right?

Besides, Li Mu doesn't feel that the gap between himself and Disney is really that big.

The stakes are too great, and it's even more rare that this is a very long-term one

of the cash cow. In other words, as long as Li Mu builds this IP, then basically the follow-up income will be endless.

Let's ask such a far-reaching work, where is Li Mu accounting for a year or two slower than the production progress?

When he learned that Li Mu didn't think the progress was too slow, but was afraid that the progress would be fast, both Tian Xiaopeng and Dumpling couldn't help but sigh.

The two only knew that Director Li Mu had created one movie miracle after another, and even at the age of less than thirty, he was already on par with Director James Cameron.

But as for what kind of person Director Li Mu is, the two of them knew very little before.

But through this incident, the two finally realized that the reason why Li Mu was able to achieve today's achievements has a lot to do with the fact that he has been making movies seriously.

Then the two began to explain to Li Mu the reason why the work efficiency of their newly established animation studio was higher than that of Pixar Animation, and the reason was all Li Mu!

To put it simply, when an animation studio such as Pixar wants to make an animated film, they not only have to repeatedly polish the animation script, constantly design and modify the characters, but also have a lot of work such as animation style and animation scene design.

The workflow of his own studio is completely different, and these tedious and important tasks have long been completed by the boss Li Mu without knowing when.

Therefore, the efficiency of our newly established animation studio is higher than here.

Li Mu nodded after hearing this, and recognized the statement of the two.

During the inspection work, whether it was Tian Xiaopeng or Dumpling, they paid great attention to showing their talent and potential in Li Mumian.

Sending the two to the United States to participate in the production of "Frozen" is undoubtedly an extremely rare and eye-opening opportunity for the two.

The world's most cutting-edge animated film production technology, the world's top animated film investment scale, and the total investment of a Chinese animated film is as high as 150 million US dollars, which has had a great impact on the mental health of both of them.

After the impact, the hearts of both of them also warmed up.

It's no problem for this movie to be dominated by foreigners, now both of them are inexperienced, if Li Mu really comes up and hands over the project to the two, the two are really not confident that they will be able to catch it.

But the next animated film is completely different.

Both men are actually quite egotistical people at heart, and they believe that when they are involved in the production of "Frozen" from the beginning to the end, they must already have what it takes to lead the next animated film of this scale.

A $150 million project, the world's most cutting-edge animated film technology, who of the two can not be hot?

The actual person in charge of Director Li Mu's next animated film is most likely one of the two, and there is only one chance, who will Director Li Mu be more optimistic about?

Neither of them is stupid, so in fact the competition between the two has already begun.

In China, at this time, Huashang Media's two romance movies have also been launched one after another.

As the heroine of "33 Days of Broken Love", although Zhao Liying doesn't know why she was handpicked by director Li Mu to play the heroine of this movie, this does not prevent her from cherishing this opportunity very much.

Before this, she could only play some small supporting roles with no sense of existence, and most of the roles she played were little maids and small followers. Although Huayi Brothers has signed a contract, in fact, there is no sense of existence in Huayi Brothers at all.

But suddenly, she was selected by Director Li Mu and directly ascended to the sky to play the heroine of Huashang Movie.

It's not even as simple as the heroine.

Although the heroine of some movies is also the heroine in name, in fact, it is often a vase role in a group of men's plays.

But this "33 Days of Broken Love" is completely different, this movie is obviously a big heroine movie, once this kind of movie explodes, then the improvement of the heroine's coffee position will be exponential.

It is precisely because this opportunity is so rare that many actresses in the circle who have been famous for a long time can't ask for it, why can you play such an important role when you are a nobody, a trickster?

Isn't there any inside story here?

Zhao Liying, who has no fame, no background, and no background, will inevitably face the impact of some gossip and a certain amount of hostility at this time.

But there are basically few rumors about her and Li Mu.

First, Li Mu has too much influence and too many fans, and if there is no real evidence, the consequences of provoking Li Mu may be very serious.

Second, how many top media companies in China rely on Li Mu to eat, it is no exaggeration to say that you make Li Mu's rumors are difficult to get along with many large domestic companies, and at this time, Li Mu does not need to take action in person, so naturally someone spontaneously eliminates the influence for Li Mu.

In other words, general negative information about Li Mu cannot be easily sent.

In the face of those bad rumors and the jealous eyes around her, Zhao Liying just worked harder to play her role better.

Because she knew that as long as she grasped this opportunity tightly, then all the troubles she was facing now would be solved in the future.

At this time, Jing Tian was also in the crew of "33 Days of Broken Love".

She originally wanted to compete for the heroine of this movie.

In terms of popularity, she has previously starred in many film and television dramas such as "My Beautiful Boss", "The Biography of Sun Tzu", "A Woman's Epic", "Python Horror", etc., while Zhao Liying has only played some supporting actresses before.

In terms of connections, Zhao Liying can't be compared with her at all, and she and Director Li Mu are still fellow countrymen.

In terms of beauty, she is confident that she can still suppress this Zhao Liying.

In terms of the suitability of the role, the role of this young urban white-collar woman is simply tailor-made for her.

But she still lost to this Zhao Liying.

In addition to being puzzled, she also speculated about the relationship between the two. However, since the role has been decided, and it is impossible to change it anymore, it is useless to think about these things, it is better to play this supporting role seriously, and strive to leave a better impression on Director Li Mu.

As long as you leave a good impression on Director Li Mu, you are not afraid that there will be no good opportunities in the future.

Speaking of which, Director Li Mu's impression of her should be quite good.

Some time ago, such a passage suddenly circulated on the Internet:

"If you have to choose nothing, you have to choose nothing, if you don't have a Yuan, you can choose Jingtian."

It is said that this was said by Director Li Mu himself, and when the media interviewed Director Li Mu, he did not explicitly deny it.

From this sentence, it can be seen that Director Li Mu's impression of himself is actually very good, so as long as his acting skills are passable, then there should be many opportunities in the future.

mentioned the sixteen-character formula that Director Li casually said, Jing Tian was a little nervous.

She has also starred in so many film and television works, but it is not as easy as Li Mu's words.

At present, this sentence has spread all over the Chinese Internet, and then countless netizens are asking after reading it: "Liu Yifei is Li Mu's girlfriend, Gao Yuanyuan has starred in many Li Mu works, we all know these, but where is this Jingtian sacred?"

In this way, her Jingtian suddenly became popular!

didn't catch fire because of the role, but because of someone else's casual remark, Jing Tian couldn't laugh or cry about it.

The start of "Beijing Meets Seattle" is later than "33 Days of Broken Love", Zhang Jiayi is an important supporting role in "33 Days of Broken Love", and he will not be able to officially start the movie until his role over there is completed.

Gao Yuanyuan, as the heroine of this play, of course attaches great importance to this hard-won opportunity.

As a veteran actor who has debuted for more than ten years, Gao Yuanyuan at this time already knows that her acting talent is actually quite limited. Generally, the heavier stories and roles will be quite difficult for her to play.

On the contrary, she is very handy in playing the role of this urban woman.

Director Li Mu's main focus is on sci-fi blockbusters, Huashang Media

Most of the urban movies invested in are men's dramas, and urban romantic dramas with big heroines like "Seattle" are simply hard to find with lanterns.

Therefore, she must seize this opportunity no matter what.

At the same time, getting this role also made her a lot more confident than before.

I heard that during the casting, Director Li Mu once said something like this:

"If you have to choose nothing, you have to choose nothing, if you don't have a Yuan, you can choose Jingtian."

It seems that her status in Director Li Mu's heart is not bad, so when there are similar and suitable opportunities in the future, Director Li Mu should still think of her.

It was also during this time that a new TV series "Step by Step" by Huashang Media was about to be officially launched.

In addition to the heroine Liu Shishi and the male protagonist Nie Yuan, this play also involves many male and female roles, and there is no need to copy the casting of these supporting actors in their previous lives at this time.

There are actually a lot of actors who can play this kind of supporting role in China, and after several leading actors are determined, these supporting actors can be selected at will. Huashang Media's dramas naturally give priority to Huashang's people.

Over the years, Huashang Media has still signed some potential newcomers, but Liu Siying is in charge of these things, Li Mu generally doesn't ask much, and even how many artists Li Mu has signed with Huashang now is not very clear.

In short, some newcomer actors from Huashang Media have been used in the supporting roles of "Step by Step" this time.

The launch date of "Palace Lock Heart Jade" may be about a month later than "Step by Step".

Now Yang Mi and Tong Liya are both filming in the crew of "Beijing City Love Story", and the two are the first woman and the second woman in the new drama "Palace Lock Heart Jade", which means that "Beijing City Love Story" will not be completed in a day, and "Palace Lock Heart Jade" will be difficult to start for a day.

In this regard, Li Mu is very happy to see it.

In his previous life, Yu Zheng tried every possible way to let his "Palace Lock Heart Jade" be released before "Step by Step", but in this life, Li Mu just wanted to let "Step by Step" meet the audience first.

During the filming of "The Martian" in the United States, Li Mu also met Tom Hanks, and the other party naturally came for the "The Revenant" project this time.

Now Tom Hanks is the only actor in the history of the American Oscars to win the Best Actor crown three times, and "The Revenant" is likely to make him an even more unprecedented four-star actor in Oscar history!

Even if you can't get the best actor, it's good to get a nomination.

Such a good script is really very rare.

In the end, Li Mu promised that the other party would officially launch the project next year.

In fact, the filming of "The Revenant" next year was already within Li Mu's plan.

The reason why it is not this year is that he has just won the Oscar for Best Picture, Best Director and other unprecedented awards for Chinese people, and he feels that it is unlikely that the Oscar committee will award the award to the work of the same director for two consecutive years, even if the film is a pure American film in addition to the director.

The second is that next year's Oscar will inevitably be the world of "The King's Speech", if filming starts this year and wins next year, then for "The King's Speech", Li Mu feels that "The Revenant" has almost no chance of winning.

On the contrary, if the annual awards are judged after the start of filming next year, there may be a glimmer of life.