The King of Huayu Science Fiction

Chapter 406 It's OK to Get Several Oscar Nominations

"The Ninth District" is very solid in terms of the script, but to be honest, if it weren't for Chen Jingxing's name here, Universal Pictures would definitely look down on it, let alone agree to co-produce it.

In the plane of the previous life, "The Ninth District" was pushed and shoved, tossed and wandered on the desks of the producers of major studios, but no one was moved by it.

It wasn't until he met Peter Jackson, the director of "The Lord of the Rings", that he was impressed by the film master and invested 3000 million US dollars to shoot the film.

In fact, the ugly alien image alone is enough to turn off most investors.

It's okay that aliens are ugly, and Edge of Tomorrow's alien monsters are scary, but that's the villain.

The aliens in "District Ninth" are not villains, and can even be said to be the protagonists of the entire movie.

It is necessary for the audience to gradually change from the initial disgust and disgust of alien prawns to sympathy and even empathy, not to mention that the male protagonist will also become such an ugly monster image.

Therefore, the ugly image of aliens is an obstacle to the audience's empathy. Of course, if the audience can really empathize, it can indeed produce a more shocking effect.

The second is that the ending is not satisfactory, which is a bit depressing.

Sci-fi movies are different from sci-fi dramas, the investment is different, and the expected commercial returns are even more different.

If the story of "District [-]" is put in a maverick ip like "Black Mirror", it is not awkward, but theatrical movies are another matter.

Even among the sci-fi films that Chen Jingxing has made, apart from the first two "Comet" and "Fatal Identity", which one is not Dzogchen?
The depressing ending may be a plus item for movie reviews, but it is a minus item for the box office.

Moreover, this version of "The Ninth District" co-produced by DreamWorks and Universal Pictures has a larger investment, mainly because it no longer uses pseudo-documentary shooting techniques, and the scenes are larger, requiring a lot of special effects. The mecha combat scenes will also be made more intense.

Chen Jingxing is also trying to please the audience as much as possible without detracting from the core value of the film.

But he couldn't accept Universal's attempt to change the ending.

Perhaps the ending is more satisfactory, but the tone of the whole movie is also destroyed, which will make such a maverick sci-fi masterpiece even more mediocre.

DreamWorks holds cash flow that other film companies are envious of. For a film whose box office is not yet at the level of pennies, DreamWorks has no shortage of box office bombs.

However, for this reason, Chen Jingxing made a special trip to the shooting location in South Africa. He did not come to visit the set when "Spike II" and "Operation Red Sea" were filming in North Africa.

After all, the production team is jointly formed by DreamWorks and Universal Pictures. Both sides have two producers, and actors from the Hollywood Screen Actors Union also account for the majority of the crew. These disputes can easily poison the atmosphere of the crew. Chen Jingxing has to do it himself." mediate."

On the one hand, it is to support Tian Xinye, and on the other hand, it is to give an olive branch to Universal's producers as the owner of DreamWorks and the best Oscar director in the industry, so as to ease the atmosphere between the two parties, at least not to bring any disputes into the work.

The producers and supervisors sent by Universal are also quite famous. They all have a lot of experience in the production of Hollywood blockbusters. Coupled with Hollywood's producer-centered system, it is no wonder that these people often There is a condescending perspective.

From the perspective of those who have seen the operation of the Hollywood film industry, anything in your production and shooting that is different from the Hollywood rules is not advanced enough. The performance of the film industry is backward. If you want to make commercial blockbusters, you still have to listen to us.

Even if Universal Pictures regards DreamWorks as an equal partner, it will restrain these people, but these people, especially the producer Thomas Tull, will still involuntarily bring his working habits in Hollywood into "Part [-]". Nine Districts".

This made Tian Xinye, who has been in the production environment of DreamWorks, quite uncomfortable.

He had never seen a producer with such a long hand. Isn't the producer supposed to wipe the director's ass and assist the director in filming?At most, it is to monitor the progress of filming and the flow of funds. To put it bluntly, he is the financial steward of the entire crew.

But in Thomas Tull's view, these jobs he did were the normal duties of a producer.

Coupled with the fact that the actors in the crew were colorful and mixed, the language barriers, the problems of teamwork and teamwork occurred from time to time, and there were also problems with uploading and distributing. Chen Jingxing really underestimated the difficulty of co-productions.

No wonder most of the co-productions were bad, Chen Jingxing could only comfort himself that he would learn a lesson in the future.

Because of this, Chen Jingxing interrupted the day's filming as soon as he came, and called a meeting with the heads of the production team and other departments of the crew at the hotel, and clearly requested that the filming of "The Ninth District" should focus on the director Tian Xinye, and other people, including the producer, should not override the director. above.

If Chen Jingxing was only the boss of the company, he might not be able to convince these Hollywood gold medal producers, but obviously his directorship is more useful.

An internationally renowned director with a global box office of billions of dollars can trample on the "producer-centric system" as rubbish even in Hollywood, and the producers of Universal Pictures have no sense of superiority in front of him .

After the meeting at the hotel, Chen Jingxing followed Tian Xinye and several leading actors to have a look at the shooting scene.

Many people have the impression of the slums in South Africa as rare white slums in the world. South Africa does have white slums, but there are also slums of other races.

There are mainly white ghettos and motley ghettos here, and there are really no ghettos inhabited by pure blacks.

The main filming location of "District Ninth" is a motley slum in Cape Town.

Filming here is much smoother than "Operation Red Sea" and "Spike II". After all, South Africa is the most developed country in Africa, and film and television shooting is still very welcome. The production team contacted the local government and the guide, and gave The residents of the slums all sent some money, so there were basically no troubles during the filming.

"Good guy, are you here to experience life?" Chen Jingxing looked at Zhang Yi's place, which was surrounded by four wooden boards and an iron roof.

Director Tian Xinye also joked: "I sent the photos to Director Guo, and Director Guo said that I abused you, saying that your color number has gone dark again."

Zhang Yi's skin tone was darker than when he was filming "Operation Red Sea". He greeted the two children who were poking around the door in Afrikaans, and then sighed: "I don't want to look for status? Besides, it doesn't matter." Harder than "Red Sea"."

"OPERATION RED SEA" has a lot of action scenes. As a non-action actor, Zhang Yi still had a hard time filming, and his body was also bruised and purple.

The filming of "The Ninth District" was actually far less strenuous than that of "Red Sea", but Zhang Yi had been living in a slum all the time, which made Chen Jingxing a little speechless.

The rest of the crew lived in a hotel in the center of Cape Town. They filmed during the day and took a few buses rented by the crew back to the hotel at night. Only Zhang Yi specially applied to the director and producer to live in a poor area. , Said to be able to enter the state better.

After all, Chen Jingxing is a director, not an actor, so he can't understand this mysterious state. After all, the movies he made are famous for "the story is bigger than the characters", and the characters are all tools. Usually, actors don't need to contribute so much. Otherwise, Luo Chen, Hu Ge, Lu Hongzhe and other actors would not be his leading actors frequently.

But if he doesn't understand, it doesn't mean he doesn't admire: "Brother Zhang, you are going for the best actor, if "The Ninth District" receives a good response, then we will work with Universal to nominate you for an Oscar best actor It's not impossible."

Amidst the surprise and envy of Tian Xinye, Wan Qian and others, Zhang Yi was stunned for a moment, but he immediately replied calmly: "Hey, I'm satisfied if I can win a domestic award, Director Chen, don't draw big cakes for me Already, my heart is in a state of panic."

"How can this be called painting big cakes? "The Ninth District" also has Universal's investment. Universal public relations is what they should do. I don't think it's a problem to get a few Oscar nominations." Chen Jingxing still has feelings for "The Ninth District". Confidence.

Hearing this, Tian Xinye was also a little secretly excited. The boredom of arguing with the Universal production team these days has completely dissipated. He is indeed very optimistic about the script of "The Ninth District", and he is optimistic about the award.

Tian Xinye is not someone who is indifferent to fame and fortune, even a low-key actor like Zhang Yi has expectations for fame and fortune, otherwise why bother to work so hard?
From the moment he received the script of "The Ninth District", Zhang Yi had a premonition that this would be his best chance to win an award.

It's a little strange to say that Zhang Yi's acting skills have always been rated relatively high. He also feels that his acting skills are not bad. He has also shot many good works and worked with many good directors and teams, but he just didn't get any major awards. The awards, especially the awards of the best actor.

If it's an ordinary event, it's not like he can't mess around, anyway, he can't pull his hips when performing, but he may not be willing to put in so much energy.

"The Ninth District" is definitely one of the most difficult films in his career, because his role is the staff of the United Nations stationed in South Africa to deal with the "Ninth District" affairs. Most of the whole movie is in English, only He can use Chinese in some scenes with his girlfriend Wan Qian, and some scenes with the alien prawns will use Chinese in a hurry.

Zhang Yi's English is not very good, so the difficulty of superimposing English lines to interpret this role really made it very difficult for him to shoot. What supports him is being able to make a classic and win a heavyweight award.

Whether Chen Jingxing's words were comforting or sincere, they were indeed a lot of encouragement to Tian Xinye and Zhang Yi.

Even if the Oscar nomination fails, it shouldn't be a problem to win a few domestic awards.

The titular heroine Wan Qian can only be envied. Her role is not much, the performance is not difficult, and the interpretation space is also very narrow. Naturally, there is no hope of winning the award. Compared with the heroine in "Source Code", That character is a bit inferior.

However, Chen Jingxing can only do nothing to help him. Apart from the feature of "the story is greater than the character", his movies, or the entire DreamWorks film and television series, are full of positive and negative features. The heroine of "Gravity" is simply rare. , which is why Wu Yue is the envy of many domestic actresses.

Not only in China, but also in Hollywood, movies are full of yang and yin, and there are really few commercial films with heroines, but TV dramas are more popular with heroines. This is a market tendency shaped by audiences and target groups, and it will not be solved for a while.

But Wan Qian is satisfied, even the hottest 85 flowers these days don't have much box office. She has the heroines of "Source Code", "Xiuchun Knife II" and now the heroine of "The Ninth District". host.

In fact, it is the No. 1 female lead, but the female lead is the female lead, and it can be counted as a real achievement. Many female stars outside want to get on the car of DreamWorks, but they can't get a ride.

(End of this chapter)