After "Pirates of the Caribbean 2" was completed, Wu Yuan did not stay long, and returned to Los Angeles to take the original film of "Painted Skin" that had completed the post-production of special effects, and went back to China directly.

It's still the same, the post-editing of "Pirates of the Caribbean 2" has nothing to do with Wu Yuan.

When he signed the contract that year, he didn't win the editing rights.

In Hollywood, the big directors who took over the six major projects and could also get the editing rights can be counted on one hand.

But again, Disney also hopes that the series "Pirates of the Caribbean" will continue to be a big hit, and it is impossible to make any malicious editing.

Wu Yuan also has confidence in the material he shoots and the editors of Disney.

Of course, the main thing is that it's really cool to do it!

Returning to China with the finished film of "Painted Skin", Wu Yuan enjoyed Han Dong's personal pick-up this time.

Without him, the main reason is that the finished film of "Painted Skin" in his hand is too precious.

This thing was specially made in three copies, and it was transported by air throughout the whole process, just for fear of damage.

Once damaged, Weta Digital did not save any of the original films, so everything had to be remade.

A small copy tray containing tens of millions of dollars worth of things.

Han Dong, who also participated in the investment, naturally had to come to pick it up in person.

"A big production of 150 million yuan." On the way, Han Dong said with some emotion: "The era of blockbusters in the mainland is really coming. ”

"When I first made "Hero", there was not even a movie with an investment of more than 100 million yuan in China."

"In just two or three years, there are now four or five films with an investment of more than 100 million yuan a year."

"Feng Xiaogang's "No Thieves in the World" sold 120 million at the box office, and he is now ambitious to make blockbusters."

"He wants to make a transformation and make costume action movies like 'Hero' and 'Ambush on All Sides.'"

"But the script is still being done, and the initial budget is to spend $20 million to make a blockbuster."

""Wuji" directed by Kaige is also being filmed, and this one is even more amazing, with an investment of more than 300 million yuan."

"After the success of Yimou "Ambush on All Sides", I didn't want to make a commercial blockbuster anymore, so I turned my head and went to drum up a literary film."

"By the way, Jiang Wen's ban period is over, and the emperor on Hong Kong Island is very optimistic about him and has invested in a movie for him, which is now being filmed."

Wu Yuanan listened quietly to Han Dong giving him a summary of the recent situation of the big domestic directors.

It's just that none of this news is good news.

The two years from 2005 to 2006 were two years when the mainland's big directors were sprayed out.

Feng Xiao just managed to practice Hollywood-style commercial genre films in "No Thieves in the World", bidding farewell to his previous large-scale sitcom-like movie model.

As a result, he made a big stride and made a court film "Night Banquet" adapted and localized based on "Hamlet".

Although nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, he still can't escape the fate of being sprayed badly.

Needless to say, Kaigo's "Boundless" is not to be said.

Zhang Yimou's "Riding Alone for a Thousand Miles" is a pure literary film with no sense of existence.

Jiang Wen's "The Sun Also Rises", few people understand it, and they were scolded when it was released.

Overall, in the next year or two, the film reputation of several major directors in the mainland will have to be scolded and questioned for a wave.

Wu Yuan is also a little helpless, the director is really a group of very mavericks and people who do their own thing, and few can listen to others.

At the premiere of "Hero", Wu Yuan kindly reminded Chen Kaige and Feng Xiaogang, but after thinking about it seriously for two years, they still made the same choice.

After chatting for a while, Wu Yuan and Han Dong returned to China Film Group.

The first thing to do, naturally, is to watch the film.

The finished film of "Painted Skin", China Film, as one of the investors, must have a sneak peek.

In fact, there is nothing to say about the process and content, Wu Yuan has patched the original version of "Painted Skin 1" with the vision of 2022, and the finished product after perfecting the special effects is definitely better than Chen Jiashang's version.

Han Dong is naturally very satisfied.

"It's got to be you, Director Wu."

Han Sanping gave a thumbs up with praise, "Among so many directors in China, you are definitely the most powerful one in terms of the use of movie special effects!" ”

"When Zhou Xun turned into a vixen, I was shocked, it was too realistic."

"And Zeng Li's disfiguring makeup, is that made with special effects, or is it really made of makeup?"

"That's special effects makeup." Wu Yuan explained: "This kind of special effect makeup is still relatively rare in China, but it is already a very common shooting method in Hollywood. ”

"By making an inverted mold of the actor's face, and then applying all kinds of realistic special effects makeup on the inverted mold, you can save the cost of special effects, and the effect presented is not worse than the special effects."

It is worth mentioning that in Wu Yuan's version of "Painted Skin", Pei Rong's appearance after poisoning is bald and rotten with fangs, which is very Chinese-style horror.

Zeng Li is different from Zhao Junqi, her main focus in the crew is an obedient person, she can shoot how the director tells her to shoot, and she doesn't care that such makeup will be ugly on camera.

Just to make this special effect makeup, she needs to prepare a few hours in advance for the process of facial molding, makeup, etc., and even the makeup artist is specially invited from Hollywood.

They are all professional in making special effects makeup for the zombies of that kind of zombie movie, and they have rich experience.

The actors are dedicated, the special effects makeup artists are professional, and the final effect is of course very good.

It's much better than Zhao Junqi's foolish way of simply applying a black spot on his cheek to be poisoned!

"Very good, Director Wu is worthy of being mixed in Hollywood, so he should take more of Hollywood's cutting-edge film shooting technology to China to learn and use it!"

Han Dong praised again and again: "You have to bring a lot of new ideas and the popularization of new technologies to domestic filmmakers when you make a "Painted Skin"! ”

"If we want to develop Chinese films and catch up with the level of Hollywood, we still need a big director like Ling to drive it personally."

Wu Yuan has long been immune to Han Dong's various praises, and after hearing too many such words, it is difficult for him to have any ups and downs in his heart.

Nodding flatly, Wu Yuan returned to the topic: "Then when is the right time for "Painted Skin" to be finalized?" ”

"It must be a Chinese New Year stall!" Han Dong patted his thigh and said excitedly.

In the current mainland film industry, the most important schedule is the Lunar New Year file, and the Chinese New Year file is also the most box office schedule.

Last year's Chinese New Year, "No Thieves in the World" and "Kung Fu", two movies with big investment and superstars, both broke 100 million at the box office, adding up to 300 million at the box office.

And this year, there are no mainland blockbusters scheduled for the Chinese New Year.

Feng Xiaogang has no New Year's works this year, and "Riding Alone for a Thousand Miles" directed by Yimou is intended to be set in the Lunar New Year file, but this is a literary film, and it is impossible to pursue a high box office.

Chen Kaige's "Wuji", under Wu Yuan's various advocacy, was finally started half a year later than the original trajectory, and it couldn't catch up with this year's Chinese New Year.

Jiang Wen's "The Sun Also Rises" has only been on for a long time, and there is no need to think about it, and it is impossible for Han Dong to put the treasure of competing for the box office on Jiang Wen.

Counting over and over, this year's Chinese New Year stalls actually did not have any commercial films from mainland directors to support the scene and grab the box office, how can this work?

Wu Yuan's "Painted Skin" came just right!

"Director Wu, this "Painted Skin" must be put in the New Year file!" Han Dong repeated again very firmly.

Wu Yuan didn't have any opinions, "Speaking of which, this should be the first time I've participated in the Lunar New Year fight, right?" ”

"Harm." Han Dong said confidently: "Director Wu, those movies in this year's Chinese New Year file are not enough for you to play this "Painted Skin". ”

"I think we should make it bigger."

"Why don't you premiere it simultaneously in China, South Korea, and Japan on December 28 this year!"

"I think that "Painted Skin", an oriental fantasy-themed movie, will also be liked by Japanese and Korean audiences."

"You are an internationally renowned first-line director in Japan, although the box office sales in South Korea are average, but your popularity is not low, after all, Koreans respect Hollywood movies very much."

This kind of simultaneous premiere of multiple countries has only been done by Hollywood's films.

There are many movies in Hollywood that are premiered simultaneously in North America, don't laugh, there are three countries in North America, which can be regarded as the simultaneous release of the three countries.

Sometimes even some South American countries will premiere together.

However, Chinese-language films, there have not yet been movies released simultaneously in multiple countries, at most, they have achieved simultaneous premieres on the mainland and Hong Kong Island.

Han Dong can now shout out the idea of "simultaneous premiere of China, Japan and South Korea", which shows that his vision in the film industry is still very advanced and forward-looking.

In another five or eight years, Hollywood will have a simultaneous premiere of China and the United States.

Because at that time, the Huaxia market had become the second largest box office of Hollywood films, and it was necessary to have simultaneous premieres in order to show the importance of the Huaxia market.

For Wu Yuan now, the Japanese and Korean markets are the second largest box office of his films, and it is indeed necessary to pay enough attention to the second largest box office.

"I have no opinion, if it can premiere in three countries at the same time, it will indeed be a good thing, which will stimulate the box office more." Wu Yuan nodded.

"Okay, then I'll talk to the publishers in Japan and South Korea."

Han Dong rubbed his hands, "Japan is still Toho, as the largest distributor in Japan, they can cooperate or try to maintain cooperation." ”

"In South Korea, Seagate has always been responsible for the distribution, but I feel that the publicity effect of their release is very average."

"You can change to SHOWBOX, which is a new distribution company that has not been established for a few years, but it is backed by a large Korean consortium, and there is no shortage of contacts and money, and now they dare to fight as long as they have good movies in their hands in order to seize the distribution market."

"The film "Taiji Flag Flying", which broke the Korean film record last year, was released by their company, and created a historical record of 11.6 million moviegoers in South Korea."

Wu Yuan nodded thoughtfully.

SHOWBOX, what he knows, is one of the investors of "The Battle of Red Cliffs", and also the distributor of the two parts of "Red Cliff" in South Korea.

Talking about this company, Wu Yuan can just cut into another topic.

"SHOWBOX, I know, one of the investors of Wu Yusen's "Battle of Red Cliffs".

Wu Yuan pretended to be chatting and asked, "Han Dong, how are the preparations for "The Battle of Red Cliffs"? ”

When this topic was mentioned, Han Dong, who was cheered up because of "Painted Skin", immediately became depressed.

He let out a long sigh, "Grinding, grinding." ”

"From casting to script, everything was too grinding."

"Just for the casting, Wu Yusen has been pulling over and over again, from February to now, only Zhou Runfa who plays Zhou Yu has been determined for half a day."

"Mrs. Zhou Yu" played the role of "Xiao Qiao", he would say that Zhang Jingchu who played "Peacock" was suitable, and then he said that it was not suitable. ”

"Last month's low finally decided on the three leading actors Zhou Runfa, Liang Chaowei, and Watanabe Qian, but Wu Yusen felt that Zhou Runfa was not suitable for playing Zhou Yu, and should play Liu Bei."

"Sun star Watanabe Ken plays Cao Cao, and their drama runs through the main line of the whole film."

"Then he thought about inviting Andy over, and played Zhuge Liang and Zhou Yu with Liang Chaowei respectively, which is another main drama."

"The result is very good, take a look at the preparations, the script only has an outline, and the specific content has been changed to seven or eight versions, and Wu Yusen is not satisfied."

The project "Battle of Red Cliffs" should be said to be the most hyped project in 2005.

From February to mid-August, almost every month, one or two pieces of casting news about the film have been leaked.

Brother broke out today, Chaowei tomorrow, and Andy may want to join the day after tomorrow.

Including the actress's side, the casting of Xiao Qiao also slipped from Gong Li and International Chapter all the way to Zhang Jingchu, who appeared at the Berlin Film Festival with "Peacock".

But now there are rumors about inviting Sister Chi Ling.

It can be said that the casting and hype of "Red Cliff" is definitely the originator of those TV series and movies in later generations.

Han Dong actually doesn't mind these hypes, of course he also hopes to have as much attention as possible for movies with hundreds of millions of investments.

But what really made Han Dong dissatisfied was that the project had been in preparation for more than a year, and Wu Yusen really didn't have a casting standard in his heart.

Because the script hasn't been polished yet!

The producer invited many screenwriters to write scripts for "The Battle of Red Cliffs", including Zou Jingzhi, who is known as the first screenwriter in China, but Wu Yusen was not satisfied after watching it.

He felt that the script of "The Battle of Red Cliffs", under the condition that the background did not contradict history, the characters in the film should change.

Liu Bei can no longer be cowardly, Cao Cao should no longer show a treacherous image, and Zhou Yu can't be cautious, and he must cherish the hero with Zhuge Liang.

Wu Yuan quietly listened to Han Dong's complaints.

In fact, he knows more than Han Dong.

He also knew that even if the final script was written by Wu Yusen after Wu Yusen invited Lu Wei, the screenwriter who had written "Farewell My Concubine", and finally came up with the script of "The Battle of Red Cliffs", the filming of this movie would not be smooth.

Because of the disagreement with the director's concept, the martial arts instructor was replaced halfway through the filming, and some of the scenes previously filmed needed to be reshot.

The main photographer of the crew had to leave the group because of the schedule.

Especially Fa Ge broke the contract halfway, and the sets, costumes, etc. had to be redesigned because of the change of the protagonist.

The most important thing is that in casting, Wu Yusen spent 100 million on salary alone!

This is still Fa Ge's 40 million not taken, otherwise it would have been spent more!

The money was given to Wu Yusen to the actors on Treasure Island and Hong Kong Island, as well as Japan and South Korea, which is a pure waste.

Quietly waiting for Han Dong to finish complaining, when he had a dry mouth and picked up the water cup to drink saliva to moisten his throat, Wu Yuan asked in a flat but sincere tone: "Han Dong, what do you say about the project "The Battle of Red Cliffs", how about me?" ”

"Poof-" A large mouthful of tea squirted out of Han Dong's mouth, so that it was suspended and sprayed on Wu Yuan's body.

"Director Wu, you're not kidding, are you?"

(End of chapter)