After resting for two days at Beverly's mansion and dealing with some company chores, Wu Yuan finally had time to deal with his personal affairs after arranging the next stage of work.

He took the original film of "Painted Skin" to the headquarters of Weta Digital and handed them the original film.

In the next few months, Wu Yuan would come to Weta Digital from time to time to see the situation of special effects production, and hold meetings with the team to discuss specific special effects arrangements to ensure that the special effects produced in post-production were as he wished.

The workload is not large, but it is very tedious.

Fortunately, Weta Digital's headquarters is in Los Angeles, and when Wu Yuan's "Pirates of the Caribbean 2" starts filming, he can also find time to keep an eye on the later stage, and neither will be delayed.

In this way, Wu Yuan also started a life of two o'clock a day in Los Angeles, running back and forth between his home and Weta Digital.

Although China on the other side of the ocean is falling into a joyful Spring Festival holiday, Wu Yuan is still busy with work.

Soon, the time came to the end of February.

Wu Yuan's crew flew from Huaxia to Los Angeles.

The preparations for "Pirates of the Caribbean 2" have basically been completed, and the official filming process is about to begin.

Speaking of which, the preparation of this movie is also really difficult.

First of all, Disney, due to the success of "Pirates of the Caribbean 1", Disney has a lot of confidence, and directly wants to shoot the second and third parts together.

This put a lot of pressure on the two screenwriters to write the scripts for the latter two films in one go.

The two screenwriters knew that because the crew had not changed, they could not let all kinds of plots and characters develop freely like many Hollywood series.

It has to be like "Harry Potter" and "The Lord of the Rings", so that the story is reasonable.

It took a lot of effort before they used the "Fountain of Youth" to write the story of the second part.

In the script of the third part, they only thought of the concept of "the end of the world", and wanted to introduce elements of the Far East and East India Company, so that Captain Jack would take the Black Pearl on a journey around the world.

However, the script of the third part was stopped by Wu Yuan.

He really can't accept the "Howling Wind" in the third part, the Chinese pirates written by foreigners, which are stranger than the four.

Not only that, in the writing of the script, Wu Yuan also made some revisions to the script according to the story of "Pirates of the Caribbean 2" in his impression.

No way, on the original trajectory, the script of "Pirates of the Caribbean 2" was polished by the two screenwriters and director Gore Verbinski.

For example, the seafarers on the Flying Dutchman in the second part of the two writers thought that they should be designed to resemble ghost-like creatures, that is, to reference the legend of the "ghost ship".

But Gore Verbinski thinks the setting of the "ghost ship" is too old-fashioned, and this leads to a crew that looks like an imperfectly evolved sea creature, and an octopus face of David Jones.

Now that the director has changed Wu Yuan, similar to this kind of change, Wu Yuan has to set things right.

Fortunately, after the success of "Pirates of the Caribbean 1", Wu Yuan's voice in the crew has also increased, and now the screenwriter and Disney are willing to focus on his ideas.

With his intervention, the script of "Pirates of the Caribbean 2" gradually became the same as he remembered.

And getting the script done doesn't mean that the movie can be filmed.

The next step is an actor audition.

As early as when Wu Yuan had not returned to North America, during the filming of the crew of "Painted Skin", he connected with the producer and screenwriter online to interview the actors together.

It took a lot of effort for Wu Yuan to get together the actors of "Pirates of the Caribbean 2", and basically followed the team in his dreams.

His production philosophy for this series of movies is to restore the version he saw in his dreams as much as possible, and not to make any drastic changes.

Well, except for the third part.

After getting the actors, the crew entered the long production of props.

This sequel was made on a much larger scale, and it was also necessary to make a fully functional ship for filming.

The Black Pearl was built in Bayolabatelle, Alabama, known for its shipyards and shipbuilding specialists.

Also being built was the 170-foot-long, 420-ton Flying Dutchman.

These two ships not only have the appearance required by the film, but also have sufficient seafaring capabilities and have enough practical value.

Shipbuilding, landscaping, everything is in orderly preparation.

The crew also found 4 tall ships to fill in the background.

The scene that has been built in the previous work has experienced three typhoons in the past two years, and it has long been seriously damaged and needs to be rebuilt.

In addition, Jerry, the producer, walked around the Caribbean coastal countries and chose the Dominican Republic, a small country on the island, as the main filming location for the second part.

The whole preparatory work began last summer and took more than half a year to complete.

Even in the middle, due to rising costs and the fact that the script was never completed, Disney once threatened to cancel the project.

But in the end, Disney still didn't do this, and compromised, no longer thinking about two or three consecutive films, and filmed the second part first.

Otherwise, if you really have to wait for the script of the third part, and then make the scenery and props for the third part, it is estimated that there will be no way to start this year.

This is the official launch of "Pirates of the Caribbean 2" on February 28.

Compared with the first part, Wu Yuan was completely in charge, and in the second part, he was more involved, from script creation to angle fixing to the production of various props, he nodded and designed it himself.

For this movie, Wu Yuan is also more concerned than the first one.

If he was completely a tool man in the first part, then in the second part, he can be said to be the father of "Pirates of the Caribbean".

This project has truly become his signature work.

February 28th.

Disneyland, Los Angeles, California.

The crew's first day of filming took place at Disney Studios in Los Angeles and included the interior of the Black Pearl and the other ship featured in the film.

The first day of filming was relatively simple and boring, but everyone in the crew was in high spirits and enthusiasm.

And there were many fans watching the shooting.

It is impossible for Disneyland to close directly for the filming of "Pirates of the Caribbean", it would be a waste of money, they just temporarily closed Pirates of the Caribbean and lent it to the crew for filming.

This also allows visitors to Disneyland to enjoy a new experience in the next few days, watching the movie shoot live.

"Kayla, laugh merrily, you're getting married to Will!" Wu Yuan was sweating profusely and roaring behind the monitor with a walkie-talkie.

The crew of "Pirates of the Caribbean 2" is much better than the previous work.

There are more than 400 crew members alone, plus some temporarily recruited staff, at least 600 people work for the crew.

Even if each of these people has a supervisor who is responsible for management, Wu Yuan, who is in the middle of the coordination, also needs to deal with a lot of things and shoot.

For him, the filming of "Pirates of the Caribbean 2" is also a big challenge!

Looking at him being able to sweat profusely in Los Angeles at the end of February, you can see how tired he is and how many difficulties he encounters.

"Depp, shit! You can't be disrespectful just because you're popular! ”

With another scolding, Wu Yuan stood up from the director's chair, pointed at Depp's nose and scolded angrily: "If you are so unserious, I will let Disney replace you!" ”

"Don't think that Captain Jack really has to do it, it's a big deal that I'm not going to make this movie!"

Depp, who was wearing a Captain Jack costume, was a little aggrieved, he really didn't play a big name, but he was a little distracted.

But seeing Wu Yuan's face full of anger, with an attitude that as long as you dare to say a word, then don't shoot today, Depp had no choice but to swallow the grievances back into his stomach.

"Director, my fault." He barely managed to squeeze out a smile.

Glaring at him angrily, Wu Yuan picked up the walkie-talkie: "All departments prepare, do it again!" ”

There were more than 400 people in the crew, and no one dared to touch the director's moldy head, so they hurriedly took silent action.

"Act II, Third Shot, Second Time, Begin!"

Compared with the filming of the first part, the second part is obviously much more difficult.

Wu Yuan also understands why many well-known directors say that it is very difficult to shoot sequels when it comes to sequel shooting.

It's not just that sequels are often larger in scale, with more investment, more staff, and bigger scenes than their predecessors, which makes it exponentially more difficult to coordinate.

is also because the actors are often a little drifting after the popularity of the first part.

Speaking of human words, it is not as obedient and easy to use as before.

Even Kayla, a young and sensible little girl, is obviously not as dedicated as she was in the first part when she was filming.

During the filming of the first part, she said that she would go into the water when she went into the water, and she could soak in the water for a day at every turn, even if the contact lenses were washed away, she would not complain.

And for the filming of the second part this time, when the water was launched in the studio, Kayla would complain that the water was a little cold, and she needed an assistant to send hot water and blankets to the side as soon as possible.

Although this is a normal situation, Wu Yuan looks a little uncomfortable.

Kayla is not bad, at least what Wu Yuan asked her to do, she will still be honest, at most she will complain a few words.

Depp is different, this guy is really floating.

When filming the first part of the year, in order to play the role well, he said that he would extract his teeth, and took the initiative to inlay gold teeth.

And when it came to the filming of this second part, he didn't go to extract his teeth anymore, but made gold patches to fool around.

Forget it, the biggest headache for Wu Yuan is that Depp has a lot of pomp and circumstance in the crew, seven or eight assistants around him without talking, and during the actual shooting, he also put forward some so-called "opinions" from time to time.

What's the opinion, in fact, I just want to change the shooting method to a relaxed way, or be lazy.

At first, Wu Yuan could still discuss with him well, and after a few times, Wu Yuan's temper also came up.

If you are a director, you don't have a good temper.

When he scolded angrily and even threatened not to film, Jerry, the producer, came forward, which made Depp honest.

The next shooting in the Los Angeles studio went smoothly, and Wu Yuan regained the feeling that the crew was like a finger when he filmed the first part before.

But this smoothness didn't last long.

In mid-April, the crew completed filming in the Los Angeles studio, and after most of the interior filming of the Black Pearl and the Flying Dutchman was completed, it was time to transfer to the Caribbean.

When I went to St. Vincent and shot the shots of Puerto Royal and Tortuga in the film, everything went well, these two places were filmed in the first film, and everyone has experience.

But when the crew moved to the Dominican Republic next door, the difficulties began.

There are 600 crew members, and more than 400 people are hired in Dominica for filming needs.

For this tiny Caribbean island nation, it's too much for more than a thousand people to get together.

The government was unprepared for the arrival of a Hollywood production project.

On the first day on the island, the huge production team of 600 people occupied 90% of the roads on the island, making the traffic on the island congested.

Moreover, the roads on the island are in disrepair, full of potholes, and it is very inconvenient for vehicles to move around.

To make matters worse, the weather was not good, alternating between torrential rains and hot temperatures.

On the island, the main shots were the battles on the island and the chase scenes in the forest in the second half of some films.

This is another thing to add insult to injury for the actors.

"It's damn weather." Wu Yuan, who was wearing a raincoat and hid under a shed made of banana leaves to avoid the rain, scolded and complained to Jerry.

However, Jerry had expected this, and while arranging the raincoat on his body, he said in a calm tone: "Daniel, this is the Caribbean, a place where the weather is unpredictable. ”

"You've got to get used to it, and we're going to have to stay here for the next two months."

"I'm more worried than the weather that we're going to overrun our budget."

Frowning, Jerry said helplessly: "It's really a waste of money to film here, do you know how many bills I have received these days?" ”

"On important filming days, the catering department prepares three meals a day for 780 to 840 people."

"For breakfast alone, I need 1,100 to 1,500 eggs, 100 to 160 pounds of bacon, 80 loaves of bread, 50 pounds of sausages, and more than 10 boxes of fruit."

"With the exception of some fruit and some eggs, which can be purchased directly locally, the vast majority of things have to be flown in directly from the United States."

"Damn, if it weren't for the fact that the local cassava was really unpalatable, I don't think I would have accepted this money!"

"And that's just the beginning."

The more he talked, the more distressed Jerry became.

"Do you know how distressed I was when I saw that list of project data?"

"We were shooting in Dominica, and we needed 475 mobile phones, 200 walkie-talkies, 550 boxes of costumes for filming, and 178 barrels of smoke generation materials!"

"The sound team also prepared more than 6,000 batteries, and the props department prepared 460,000 feet of rope!"

"Even you applied for 400 miles of film!"

"Just preparing these things and transporting them here, the crew used more than 10,000 one-way tickets in terms of transportation!"

"And that's not even counting the meals we rent directly from the plane!"

"Oh my God, we're going to spend at least $90 million more on this sequel than the previous one!"

Jerry doesn't care about the heavy rainstorm in the local area at all, what he cares about is that every day the crew stays in Dominica, it will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars more!

"Daniel, it's raining heavily, and the crew can't stop working!"

Jerry wiped the rain from his face and said fiercely, "Let's change the script!" ”

"Change some of the forest chase and fight scenes into rain scenes!"

"Depp took my $20 million plus 5% share of the global box office!"

"It's not that easy to get!"

"Isn't it just a little heavy rain? You can't get drenched! ”

Good guy, ruthless or producer, he can do anything to save money.

Wu Yuan actually has no opinion on this, and he is a little unhappy to see Depp now.

"I think that's a good suggestion."

The two looked at each other and smiled.

(End of chapter)