China Entertainment Mythology 2004

Chapter 166 The Martian Cast
The four most popular films of the 82nd Academy Awards - "Avatar", "The Hurt Locker", "Manchester by the Sea", and "Gravity", the rest of the participating films belong to the second or third echelon , these four films have the highest calls for awards and belong to the first echelon.

Among them, the total global box office of "Avatar" has exceeded the US$20 billion mark, and it has officially topped the global box office championship. "The Hurt Locker" director Catherine Bigelow is the ex-wife of director James Cameron. The director of "Manchester by the Sea" and "Gravity" is the same person, and "Gravity" also created a super high global box office of 16.9 billion US dollars, ranking third in global film history.

The above points undoubtedly make this year's Oscars very interesting.

This year's Oscars ceremony will be held on March 3th, and there is still more than a month to go. This year's Oscars, Li Mu has three films nominated at the same time. Naturally, he himself will not fail to participate, so the start time of "The Hunger Games" will be After the ceremony.

Naturally, the one month before the Oscar ceremony will not be wasted by Li Mu, he is already preparing his next sci-fi masterpiece.

In the previous life, the four parts of the "Hunger Games" series had a global box office of over 30 billion U.S. dollars, which was regarded as a very successful series, but this series seemed to be a bit unacceptable to Chinese audiences.

The domestic box office performance of the first film only ranked in the top 20 of China's annual box office list.

The second part was even worse, falling to No.40.

In the third part, there are more than 50 people.

The third subordinate, more than 60 people.

It stands to reason that after Li Mu's version replaces the heroine with Liu Yifei, who is more familiar to Chinese audiences, its domestic box office should improve, but to be honest, Li Mu is actually not sure.

Therefore, Li Mu will not shoot four "Hunger Games" in four consecutive years, and always intersperse some works that are more popular with domestic audiences.

And this time he set his sights on "The Martian", which also won the Hugo Award.

The novel "The Martian" is very popular in China, and the total sales volume of the Chinese version alone has exceeded 1500 million copies.

The Hugo Award-winning work and the work directed by Li Mu—these two labels alone have already made this book a hit in the domestic market.

Moreover, the plots of Survival on Mars and Alien Potatoes in this book are very in line with the cultural genes of the Chinese people.

And in the past few years, almost every year, countless readers strongly appealed to Li Mu to make this work as soon as possible. "Inception" has already been released, and it has created a miracle at the box office.

"Gravity" was also released, and it also created a box office miracle.

So now it's time for Li Mu's novel "The Martian", the best-selling novel in China, right?
So it was decided that Li Mu's next sci-fi work would be "The Martian".

On the original timeline, the movie "The Martian" had a domestic box office of 5.85 million yuan and a global box office of 6.3 million US dollars.

It's not particularly good, but it's definitely not bad, and after choosing Chinese actors who are more familiar to domestic audiences, Li Mu believes that his version will surpass the original at least in the domestic box office.

The readership of the novel is much larger than in the previous life, and the fame of the director (Li Mu's fame) is also much greater than in the previous life. There is no reason why the box office of Li Mu's version will be worse in China at least.

It is worth noting that Li Mu's version of the plot has been changed compared to the original version. As for the extent of the changes, it can be said to be large or not.

First of all, the biggest change must be that the implementation of the Mars program has changed from the old American to the Chinese. The original version was obtained by the American astronauts through the abandoned Pathfinder Mars rover launched by the old American in 1996. connection.

Then according to the general logic, Li Mu's version should be revised so that the Huaxia astronauts contacted the Huaxia Aerospace Department through the abandoned Huaxia Mars probe launched in a certain year.

But obviously Li Mu didn't change like that.

Huaxia's Mars probe will not be launched until 2020 is only one of the reasons, and taking into account the European and American markets is another reason Li Mu considers.

In order to open up the Chinese market, Hollywood movies often add some Chinese elements to the movies.

Now it was Li Mu's turn to do the same.

In his version of "The Martian" script, Huaxia's astronauts also found the American Pathfinder Mars rover launched in 1996, and then made contact with NASA through this rover, and then the NASA contacted the Huaxia Aerospace Administration, and finally the Chinese and American space agencies worked together to rescue the hero and return to Earth.

Moreover, after setting the protagonist's first contact person as NASA, Li Mu can completely write the leaders of NASA to be a little more stupid and stumbling, so that there is no psychological burden at all.

The original version of "The Martian" ended up using Huaxia's rocket booster technology for supply missions. This version of Li Mu is not going to trouble the Americans.

In Li Mu's version, the role of the Americans is limited to helping the Chinese astronauts who landed on Mars to get in touch with the Chinese Space Agency, that's all.

After solving the problem of the script, Li Mu then began to study the cast of the film.

In fact, Li Mu already has a suitable candidate for the leading actor in his heart at this moment, but he doesn't know if the other party will agree to his invitation.

In terms of Li Mu's status in the film industry today, not to mention domestic actors, there are not many actors in the world who would categorically reject Li Mu's invitation to lead the role, but this time the person he wants to invite is a bit special, simply put The person he wanted to invite this time was also a director himself.

This person is none other than director Jiang Wen from Xiying.

In fact, as early as when Li Mu started writing the novel version of "The Martian", he already felt that Jiang Wen was very suitable to play the leading actor in this movie.

So after Li Mu officially decided to shoot "The Martian" today, he quickly called director Jiang Wen.

One day in February at noon.

Li Mu dialed the phone, and the other end was connected quickly.

"Hey, Director Li! It's strange, why did you think of calling me today?"

Li Mu said with a smile: "Now I have a pretty good script in my hand, and I want to find a good person to do it together. How about it, are you interested?"

The other end of the phone smiled and said: "Yo, so that's the case, I understand. Then I will translate and translate: You have a very awesome script in your hand, and you want to find someone who is more awesome to do it together. Let's do something together." A very awesome movie is coming out. Director Li doesn't know if I'm right?"

Li Mu said with a smile: "Incisive, absolutely correct!"

The other end of the phone said: "Since even Director Li said that it is a very good movie, then the investment amount must be unambiguous, this ordinary investment amount is not worthy of our Director Li's saying that it is awesome, right? How about it, do you have a hundred million dollars?"

Li Mu definitely replied: "There must be an investment of one hundred million US dollars!"

On the other end of the phone, Jiang Wen said again: "With an investment of [-] million US dollars, this is considered an awesome movie."

Li Mu said with a smile: "Then I wish us two awesome people a happy cooperation?"

The other end of the phone pondered for a moment, and then said: "Okay, Director Li's "Gravity" this time is the world's top movie, and even Director Cameron would give a thumbs up to the application of new technologies. If I can be an assistant director or producer for Director Li, and learn something new from Director Li, I will certainly be in a good position here."

"Associate director or producer? Who said I'm looking for Director Jiang to do this?" Li Mu asked in surprise.

"Didn't you ask me to be the assistant director? Then shouldn't it be the chief director?" Jiang Wen's voice on the other end of the phone was also full of surprise.

Li Mu didn't go around in circles, he said directly this time: "I am looking for Director Jiang this time, neither to ask Director Jiang to be the assistant director, producer, nor to ask Director Jiang to be the director, but to ask you to play the leading role How about Director Jiang, can you help me?"

The other end of the phone asked again: "Which project are you talking about?"

Li Mudao: "The Martian."

Jiang Wendao: "I know this novel is indeed a very good work. When I finish "Let the Bullets Fly", I will report to Director Li."

Li Mu asked: "The crew of "Let the Bullets Fly" haven't finished yet? Then Mr. Hu should be on the set, right?"

"Yes, just squat next to me and eat lunch." Jiang Wen said at this time.

Li Mu thought for a while, and said, "Then ask Director Jiang to help me ask, just say that I have an important supporting role here and I want to ask him to try it. I don't know if he is interested."

……

On the other end of the phone, the crew of "Let the Bullets Fly".

Jiang Wen turned his head and said to Hu Jun who was eating a boxed lunch five meters away: "Hu Jun, come over here. Director Li Mu said that there is an important supporting role and wants to ask if you are interested."

Hu Jun held the chicken leg in his hand for a full six or seven seconds, and then the forehead lines on his forehead stood up.

"Director Li Mu looking for me?"

"Yes, Director Li Mu is looking for you, and he hasn't hung up the phone yet."

Hu Jun hurriedly put down the lunch box, then wiped his hands on the costume, and then walked up to Director Jiang Wen and reached out to answer the phone.

"Hi, Director Li, I'm Hu Jun."

I just heard the other side of the phone say: "Brother Hu, I have the role of an astronaut. The role is not too much, but it is enough for the standard of an important supporting role. I wonder if you are interested in giving it a try?"

"interested in."

Without the slightest hesitation, Hu Jun agreed on the spot.

……

at the same time.

Li Mu here.

After hanging up the phone, he continued to think about other roles in the movie.

In the movie "The Martian", apart from the hero who is trapped on Mars, the most important role in the other roles must be the commander of the Mars exploration team.

In the original movie, this role was played by Ms. Jessica Chastain, who is also the heroine of "Hunting Ben**" and "Interstellar Crossing", and also successfully won the 2022th Academy Award in 94 Best Actress Award.

As the commander of the Mars Exploration Team, this role must show the aura of leadership, in other words, the temperament must be able to hold the field.

There are not many domestic actresses who can do this, and among them, Gong Li must be the one who best meets Li Mu's requirements.

In addition, there is also the role of a female system operator, which was played by Kate Mara in the original movie. This person also played the role of the female reporter Zoe in "Paper House". The beauty who was pushed off the platform.

This role will naturally be left to Liu Yifei.

Li Mu, the male leader of China's space agency, initially planned to invite Teacher Li Xuejian, while the female leader continued to use Ms. Chen Shu from the original movie.The rest of NASA's staff will naturally choose actors from Hollywood, in addition to several astronaut roles.

One of the slightly older astronauts - Li Mu plans to invite Andy Lau to play this time.

In fact, Li Mu has always wanted to invite Brother Hua to act in a movie, but he has never encountered a suitable opportunity before. This time the role of an astronaut is not much, so I don't know if Andy Lau is interested.

In fact, it's not that there are movies suitable for Andy Lau in Li Mu's mind. The main reason is that he doesn't have the time and energy to shoot them himself. For example, right now, he thinks of two good movies that are suitable for Brother Hua.

One is Source Code and the other is Gone Girl.

Especially the movie "Gone Girl".

As a suspense, drama, and thriller film, it has been able to win a box office of 3.69 million US dollars worldwide, which already shows the excellence of this film.

After deciding to invite Andy Lau, Li Mu quickly made a call to the other party's mobile phone.

"Hey, Brother Hua, I'm Li Mu."

"Director Li." Liu Dehua said.

"Now I'm preparing a sci-fi movie here, and there is a supporting role in it. I don't know if you are interested." Li Mu asked.

……

The two chatted on the phone for about half an hour. After learning the basic information of the movie, Andy Lau agreed without hesitation.

"No problem, no problem. I can play this role. I was still hesitating whether to accept another script adapted from a classic Hollywood movie. I was not very satisfied with that script. Later, I heard that they would invite Miss Gong Li to play the role. The heroine, I am only interested in accepting the script, but recently I heard that Miss Gong Li has clearly rejected the other party, and Miss Gong Li will not act, so I don't want to accept the script."

Adapted from a classic Hollywood movie, with Andy Lau and Gong Li cast, this should be the "I Know Women's Hearts", right?
Li Mu remembered that the movie was quite miserable in his previous life, and there seemed to be some disputes. Now under the influence of Li Mu, Liu Dehua and Gong Li did not accept this movie. Li Mu thinks the result is not bad.

……

In the next period of time, Li Mu continued to study the cast candidates, and at the same time began to make the film budget.

I didn't expect that Jiang Wenyi's words really caught my attention. The budget of this movie is really around [-] million US dollars.

When these things were almost done, Li Mu went to China Film Group with the basic information of "The Martian".

After seeing Li Mu, chairman Han Sanping was not in a hurry to talk about new movies, but asked Li Mu if he could really win a few important Oscars this time.

Li Mu replied: "For important awards, "Manchester by the Sea" should still be a bit stable in winning the best actor. First, we have a tacit understanding with those big companies in Hollywood. Second, Tom Hanks' performance is also true. It deserves its name, there is no strong opponent for this year's Best Actor in the past three years."

"As for other awards, it's hard to say."

Han Sanping said, "Where's the Best Actress?"

Li Mu thought for a while and said, "The biggest competitor is Sandra Bullock, the heroine of the movie "The Weakness."

Han Sanping smiled and said: "I also know that it is quite rare for Gong Li to be nominated for Best Actress, but in my heart, I still fantasize about creating a miracle this time. After all, the opportunity is rare."

As he spoke, he asked again: "How about it, have you ever thought about bringing back the best picture?"

Li Mu smiled and said, "Best film? Impossible, this year's best film has a high probability of being "The Hurt Locker."

　Thanks to "Book Friend 20210301106550433518" for the reward.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)