director of the millennium

Chapter 56 Is the co-author looking for a tool person director?
Most of the scenes shot in the capital of "The Undertaker" are the opening part of the movie.

That is to say, the male protagonist Lin Wu worked in a Peking Opera troupe, and then the troupe disbanded and fell into an embarrassing situation.

And at the beginning, when the male protagonist interviewed for a new company, his first job was to be a "corpse" model, and he was manipulated into filming the plot of the "Teaching Videotape for the Embalmer". Although the movie took place in the protagonist's hometown, the real shooting Still shot in Beijing.

Who said there was a suitable photo studio in Beijing?

These scenes are not heavy, and they can be regarded as relatively relaxed and humorous plots. Both actors and directors feel that the filming process is very smooth, and the filming progress is also very smooth.

However, within three to five days, this part of the storyline has been filmed in sevens and eighties, and the crew is also preparing to make a transition to Anshan in the northeast.

Most of the next movie will be shot in Anshan.

Anshan is a very special city. It seems that many directors of literary and artistic films in China prefer this place and like to shoot scenes here.

Wu Yuan, who has personally conducted on-site inspections, has to admit that these directors have a professional vision.

The winter in Anshan is very beautiful, with mountains, waters and forests, it is very suitable for the framing of aesthetic literary films, and the filming does not lose to RB's winter love song movies.

Of course, this does not refer to the urban area of ​​Anshan.

This time, "The Undertaker" was filmed in Xiuyan County, Anshan, which is an autonomous county of ethnic minorities, and has retained many original features.

But just when the crew was about to transfer to Anshan, Jerry Bruckheimer, who flew from the other side of the ocean, arrived in the capital on the tail of Wu Yuan who was still in the capital and asked him to meet.

Anyway, this is also a gold medal producer in Hollywood, so Wu Yuan had no choice but to let the crew go to Anshan first, and he stayed in the capital for an extra day.

Due to tight schedule, Wu Yuan directly made an appointment with Jerry at the hotel where he was staying.

In the Huaiyang cuisine restaurant on the second floor of this five-star hotel, Wu Yuan met this well-known Hollywood producer.

Jerry Bruckheimer was born in 1945 and is 57 years old this year, but his blond hair is still thick and thick, and he looks like he is only in his early 40s, and he is very well maintained.

Of course, he is famous in Hollywood not because of his maintenance skills, but because he has produced many excellent movies.

"Pearl Harbor," which was just released this summer and was produced at the same time as "Juno," was produced by him and had a global box office of US$4.49 million.

In addition, he has also participated in the production of famous movies such as "The End of the World", "Black Hawk Down", "The Island", "Public Enemy" and "Thunderbolt".

Although Wu Yuan was not flattered that such a well-known producer came all the way to meet him, he still took it seriously.

The two met at the restaurant, and after sitting down and chatting with each other, he asked curiously: "Jerry, I know that Michael Bay is a good partner with you, and isn't his "Pearl Harbor" all finished?" Now that it's released, is there anything else going on?"

As for which director has the best relationship with Jerry Bruckheimer, it is definitely a bombshell at this stage.

Starting from Bombshell's second film "The End of the World", the two of them collaborated on two more films, "Wolf Girl Club" and "Pearl Harbor", and both achieved very good box office results.

Now that Jerry Bruckheimer has launched the "Pirates of the Caribbean" project, and his private company is also one of the producers, logically and logically, Michael Bay should be the director. How could it be the turn of an outsider like Wu Yuan?
"Daniel, I don't want to hide it from you." Jerry took a sip of the coffee just delivered by the waiter and said to Wu Yuan very sincerely: "Michael is indeed my first choice."

"In fact, when the script was written, Michael was the first person I contacted."

"But he didn't want to take on the film. The reason he gave me was that he didn't want to direct for the time being and wanted to make two documentaries for fun."

"Yes, he is going to be a documentary actor, not a director!"

"You know, he doesn't really have much to pursue at the box office now. "Pearl Harbor" just became a big hit all over the world, and now he doesn't want to take over another commercial blockbuster at all."

"Even if it's to make a documentary, he thinks it's more interesting."

Regardless of whether Bang Bei can make fantasy movies or not, as long as he is willing to take over "Pirates of the Caribbean", no matter whether it is Jerry or Disney, he must be looking forward to it. After all, his box office performance in the past two years has been really good.

It's a pity that people don't want to accept it!
Only after Jerry's serious explanation did Wu Yuan understand the current predicament of "Pirates of the Caribbean".

When Bang Bei was unwilling to accept the film, Jerry contacted many Hollywood first-line directors one after another, but they were all rejected.

A director with a box office has projects to do. If he doesn't take this kind of soulless, the director is a popcorn commercial film of a big tool man.

There is no box office and awards-oriented directors will look down on this kind of purely commercial film. Disney also dare not let such commercial blockbusters be made by literary and artistic directors for fear that they will not follow the script.

After this screening, only a group of second- and third-rate Hollywood directors can take over this "Pirates of the Caribbean".

Originally, Jerry also accepted the situation.

It’s not like Hollywood has no precedent of using small and medium-sized directors to make commercial series of movies!

As long as the director is qualified, it is not impossible to make such a purely commercial film.

He also really found a young director who was good at shooting suspense atmosphere. He just wanted to make it cheap and easy to use. If it couldn't be done, he could use a few more assistant directors who were experienced in directing adventure films.

Don’t think Hollywood doesn’t understand this!
The fact that Guo Xiaosi had 4 to 6 unnamed assistant directors on the crew of "Tiny Times" was not his original creation, it was all leftover from Hollywood.

But this is a last resort option.

When Wu Yuan was born in North America with "Juno", Jerry had other ideas.

"Juno" is indeed just a low-budget movie. The scene only focuses on a small town and has no adventure elements at all. However, this movie has a global box office of US$2 million!

Even if it is also a mascot, finding a director with a global box office of 2 million US dollars is better than finding the director of the American version of "Midnight Ring", right?

Commercial films work differently than literary films.

All commercial films focus on selling points!

The configuration of high-grossing director + well-known actors + handsome men and beautiful women is at least a top match, which naturally attracts the attention of the audience.

At least on the bright side, Wu Yuan's participation in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" project can make up for the shortcoming of the director's reputation for this film!
Moreover, Wu Yuan is currently the most cost-effective in Hollywood's billion-dollar box office director club!

He only has one movie in North America, and his net worth has not risen to the sky.

The worst result would be to invite a mascot director, and the specific shooting work of the crew would be overseen by several experienced assistant directors.

The director is indeed the soul of a movie, but in commercial movies created by Hollywood industrialization, the director is only one of the links, one of the tools, not the soul.

This is true for "Pirates of the Caribbean" and even more so for the subsequent Marvel series of movies.

During the conversation with Jerry, Wu Yuan also vaguely guessed his thoughts, and felt that Jerry valued his title of "new director with a box office of 2 million in North America" ​​more than his director level.

But for this name, Jerry is really willing to spend money!

"Daniel, as long as you are willing to take this movie, we can give you 800 million dollars in director's fee, which is not a small amount of money!"

"But you have to sign three film contracts in a row."

"Of course, we can sign a supplementary contract for the director's fees of the next two films!"

"If the global box office of the first film exceeds US$5 million, the subsequent director's fee can be increased to US$1000 million!"

Spend $800 million for a mascot, which is definitely a high price.

Jerry believes that Wu Yuan's status as "director with a box office of 800 million US dollars" is worth 800 million US dollars. With his name alone, he can also increase the box office of "Pirates of the Caribbean" by more than [-] million US dollars!

Converted into RMB, that’s more than 6000 and nearly 7000 million!
However, Wu Yuan was not immediately moved. Instead, he looked at the other party with great interest, and reached out and tapped on the table: "Do I have the right to edit?"

"No."

"Who is the biggest in the crew?"

"You are the biggest in the shooting work, but you must shoot according to the requirements of the script. We have professional storyboarders who will even prepare the storyboards."

"Ha." Wu Yuan sneered. What's the point of such a pure tool director? Even if he can earn 800 million US dollars from this trip, it's still very boring!

After thinking about it carefully, Wu Yuan thought of another thing and his eyes lit up: "Then I have another request. I want to bring someone into the group!"

Jerry frowned and suddenly felt that the Chinese director in front of him was a little confused about the situation.

How is it possible for Disney's commercial blockbuster to allow Chinese actors like Wu Yuansai to come in?

"Daniel, this is a fantasy story about Pirates of the Caribbean in the [-]th century. There is no room for Asian actors in the background of this story." Jerry shook his head repeatedly and refused.

"No, you got me wrong."

Unexpectedly, Wu Yuan smiled, and said with bright eyes: "I want to bring some crew members into the set."

"Not many, just over 20, including photography assistants, lighting, sound recording, equipment workers, props, scenery, art directors, factory workers, location selection, layout designers and other staff."

"Of course, they will serve as assistants and interns after joining the crew and will not interfere with the crew's normal filming."

"You know, the crew here in Huaxia is not professional enough, and there is a lot to learn. I also need a crew in Huaxia that I can use easily."

"I suppose you don't mind?"

Jerry's Adam's apple twitched and he swallowed, "Daniel, are you serious?"

　In fact, for Wu Yuan himself, participating in such a large project is also a learning opportunity.

　　You can also borrow chickens to lay eggs, which is very good.

　　Please note that the original "Pirates of the Caribbean" is like this. Not only Pirates of the Caribbean, but also many Hollywood commercial IP movies, the director is a big tool, acting as a series of crew members, and there are dedicated people in charge of scripts and storyboards. , editing and special effects are done by other people. The director only needs to be responsible for the on-site shooting. He only needs to be able to tell whether the actor's performance is passing or not, and can shout "yes" or "pass". He is only responsible for the scene shooting. There is no need to worry about other things. This is what is called The industrialized assembly line makes the director's job easier, but it doesn't mean he can become a famous director.

　　This is really not made up by me.

　　Just look at the director of "Wonder Woman."

　　
　　A director like James Cameron can really handle everything on the crew, and every detail must go through his hands. But this is James, and he makes the movie by himself, so there is really no comparison.

　　In other words, Director Zha doesn’t even have the right to edit “Justice League”, let alone Wu Yuan
　　
　
(End of this chapter)