Light and shadow player

Chapter 344 Casting and Quarrel

Which identity is more effective in Hollywood, the gold medal producer of "Inception" which sold 8.6 million dollars worldwide, the chairman of a major film company, and the winner of the Silver Lion Award for Best Director at the Venice Film Festival?
The answer is, both work!
After filming "Warm and Warm with Light" in 03 and winning the Silver Lion Award in 04, Cheng Yu'an never touched literary themes again.

"I've sent someone to contact the actor." Cheng Lingfeng walked into the office, and Cheng Yu'an was looking at the company report and film list.

"Why do you suddenly want to make a literary film?"

"Mark Muller called to make an appointment with me, and he spoke in person. Do you think I can not answer?"

"That's right." Cheng Lingfeng nodded, "The quality of the films participating in this year's exhibition was not high, and Quentin messed around again."

"Didn't you say you were going to shoot "The Walking Dead" last year? How is it now?"

A big film company has gradually made efforts in the field of TV dramas in the past few years. It makes one or two TV dramas a year, and the ratings are pretty good, and the profitability is good.

"The first season will air on AMC at the end of this month. Do you think there are people who really like to watch such a zombie TV series?"

"Yes! There is a huge market for cult movies all over the world, and the basic market is very stable. Otherwise, why would our "Chain Saw" be so popular." Speaking of cult movies, Cheng Yu'an remembered that he also held a copy of the copyright in his hand. "Is "Sin City 2" filmed yet?"

In 06, the first part of "Sin City" won a global box office of 4000 million at a cost of 1.6 million US dollars. Excluding costs and publicity, it made a fortune.

"The preparations have begun, and actors are being discussed. Mickey Rourke and Rosario Dawson are confirmed to return, but Eva Green and Jessica Alba are more difficult to talk about."

"Both of these are easy to handle. Eva Green will shoot "Dark Shadows" next year. This film will take 4 months to shoot, and we can't wait. We borrowed from Warner, and strive to start in March and finish in May.

"What happened to Jessica Alba?" Jessica Alba has a good relationship with the company. After "Sin City", she cooperated with this year's Valentine's Day movie "Valentine's Day", which has a global box office of 2.2 million.

"She swiped the screen this year and appeared in five movies in one breath. She just finished filming "Spy 4" a while ago and wanted to take a break."

Rest is impossible for her to rest: "Let Robert Rodriguez [director of "Sin City] go and say for himself that Robert was so good to her."

Robert Rodriguez is a cult film director who is very famous in Hollywood and has a very good output.He made three films for Jessica Alba, and the relationship between the two is inseparable. "Sin City 2" is directed by Robert. It may be more effective for him to lobby Alba than Cheng Yu'an, the boss.

Cheng Lingfeng asked him about the domestic situation, and Cheng Yu'an said: "Zhong Lifang is quick to learn, she is in charge of the market, and Zhixi is in the production, and the two cooperate very well."

"Zhixi isn't jealous?" Cheng Lingfeng was most worried about leaving Yuanyuan because Chen Zhixi and Zhong Lifang didn't get along.

"Why would Zhixi be jealous?" Cheng Yu'an laughed, "She is in charge of the company's core film production business, and Qiushi Group is the company's major shareholder. How can she argue with Zhong Lifang for the position of CEO?"

The two were chatting about the changes in the past few months in the office. After Cheng Lingfeng took over a large film company, she was mainly continuing or finishing the projects that Bob had worked on before. She herself took a fancy to two low-cost scripts. Just got to sign it.

For medium and low-cost films, Cheng Yu'an let Cheng Lingfeng do it. It's not her first day to make a film, she has her own plan.

It wasn't until the two of them had lunch in the company that Lucy notified Cheng Yu'an that Hugh Grant and Roger Deakins had arrived.

Roger Deakins, a British master photographer, is also Cheng Yu'an's personal favorite photographer, and he is the photographer of "Time Planning Bureau" that the company just completed.

A big film company has a good relationship with British filmmakers. Roger Deakins heard that Cheng Yu'an was going to make "The Hunt" and sent Hugh Grant an audition request, so he came with him.

Cheng Yu'an assigned the audition work to other people in the company, and took Luo Jie to chat alone.

It seems that Luo Jie didn't come to apply for the photographer of "Hunting", he just came to discuss the lens and color of "Hunting" with Cheng Yu'an.

“The story takes place in the fall and winter, and I wanted to use a lot of natural light…It’s in a forest town, so I’m not going to set the exteriors…no no no, Roger, no empty shots, empty shots will ruin the overall texture of the film. "

Cheng Yu'an and Luo Jie quarreled in the office for a long time. The 61-year-old man was still very energetic, and he was not at all disadvantaged in arguing with Cheng Yu'an.

"I don't need symmetry!" Cheng Yu'an patted the table with Roger, "I'm not Wes Anderson, I don't like that sense of symmetrical form!" Roger himself likes symmetrical composition and creating realistic and formalistic light effects .

But Cheng Yuan objected to doing so.

Luo Jie was right, and directly said that Cheng Yu'an "doesn't understand movies at all" "If I were your photography teacher, you don't want to graduate from me."

"Is it okay for them to be arguing like this?" Cheng Lingfeng had already finished interviewing Hugh Grant, Jude Law and Michael Fassbender who came later.

"It's okay." Cheng Lingfeng waved his hand to reassure them, "He's like this when he's filming, he quarrels with people every day. Don't worry, both of them have their sense of proportion."

The two quarreled more and more intensely, and finally Roger even wanted to resign: "Go to hell with your script!"

"Really! Just right, I'm going to meet Emmanuel Lubezki tomorrow!" Cheng Yu'an refused to budge.

Finally the old man got angry and slammed the door and went out.

Cheng Yu'an rubbed his face with a tired face, and smiled at the people who came in: "It's okay, everything is still under control. How is the casting?"

"Today, Michael Fassbender is perfect for the role of Lucas, but he will be in Shame next January, also targeting Venice. Tomorrow Matthew McConaughey and Gary Oldman will come over , and then look again.

"It's easy for old actors to say, what about the little girl Klara?"

"The play doesn't depend on the little girl, as long as she is not afraid of the camera or stage fright, there are so many child stars in Hollywood, just find a little girl."

If McKenna Grace was not too young, she was only 4 years old this year, and there was no place to find her, otherwise Cheng Yu'an would have used her directly.

Later, while Cheng Yu'an was arguing with Roger, he took the old man around the United States to see the sights.

The scene required by "The Hunt" is very simple, an ordinary town will do.

I can take pictures anywhere, and finally I took a stroll and was invited by Toronto.

The movie tax rebate they gave is really very attractive.

Cheng Yu'an has been busy going around these few days, going through the production crew of the scene, and having a remote meeting to confirm the actor candidates. On the other hand, he also has to answer domestic calls and handle some official business.

By the time he finalized the list of actors and the general framework of the crew, it was already the 26th, and he had to return to China.

"I'll go back first, and you can keep an eye on the rest of the work, and call me if there is any situation." Cheng Yu'an packed his luggage, got on the plane, and slept all the way back home.

(End of this chapter)