director of the millennium

"So, this is the cast you decided on?"

"Peng Yuchang, Liu Yifei, Yuan Hong, Zhu Yawen, Jin Sha, Chen Daoming, Sun Honglei?"

With a bang, a list of actors was slapped on the table.

Li Xiaoping, who had never been angry in front of Wu Yuan, said with a frown, "Just these people?"

“Why not cast a more famous actor?”

"It's not like the company can't afford it!"

"I think it would be great to have Tony Leung Chiu Wai play the villain. He played Mr. Yi in Lust, Caution, who was sinister and cunning! He fits the character setting of this villain very well!"

"Why did you think of looking for Sun Honglei?"

"He hasn't acted in a movie in many years, right?"

"No, he hasn't acted in many movies in the first place!"

Wu Yuan spread his hands helplessly and interrupted Li Xiaoping's complaints: "But Brother Honglei is recognized as a bad guy. Moreover, his face is fierce when he is not tense, but it reveals a sinister and cunning feeling when he is tense."

"Most importantly, his tall and strong figure is in line with the character setting. Liang Chaowei is too thin. It is hard for me to imagine him turning into a muscular man and fighting 1v5 in the movie."

"Besides, who said I don't use big-name actors?"

Wu Yuan pointed to the last line of the cast list and said, "I'm also planning to invite Andy Lau!"

It would have been fine if this hadn't been mentioned. As soon as this was mentioned, Li Xiaoping got angry again: "But you only invited him to play a cameo role!"

"This curator role doesn't have that many scenes!"

"This is Andy Lau, you invited him to star in your movie, but he's not the main character, not even an important supporting role!"

"Eh." Looking at the somewhat excited Li Xiaoping, Wu Yuan asked in surprise, "Could it be that you are a fan of Liu Dehua?"

"Come to think of it, your age is indeed in the age group of his fans."

"But I really think that Andy Lau is suitable for this role. This is a story about young people's adventures, and the protagonists must all be young talents."

"In fact, even Yuan Hong and Zhu Yawen, I dislike them because they are too old."

"If Xixi hadn't already been chosen to play the leading female role, I would actually like to find a young person around 17 or 18 years old for the role."

"The Dilraba Dilmurat that the company just signed is pretty good. She looks very exotic and her image in Oasis will definitely be very charming."

"Unfortunately, Sissi decided first."

Well, this time Li Xiaoping really couldn’t hold it anymore and sighed with a dark face.

He was not even satisfied with the heroine Liu Yifei, what else could Li Xiaoping say?

"I understand. I will notify the actors." She nodded.

Wu Yuan was satisfied, and then he remembered another thing and asked, "By the way, how is the preparation for Director Yimou's The Great Wall going?"

"Liu Dehua can play the leading role in The Great Wall. This movie suits him!" After parting ways with Zhang Weiping, Zhang Yimou turned to cooperate with Guangying Times. Not only did all the artist contracts in his studio transfer to Guangying Times, he also cooperated with Guangying Times to open a new personal studio.

This time it is a real personal studio and I will no longer sign actors.

In fact, if it were not for Zhang Weiping's strong request, Zhang Yimou would not like to sign actors to do artist management business, and the actors signed into Zhang Yimou's personal studio were completely in a state of no one asking and no one caring about them.

On the contrary, now all these actors have switched to the era of light and shadow. Zhang Yimou is very satisfied, the company is very satisfied, and these actors who have professional agents planning their work are also very satisfied. Everyone is happy!

After Zhang Yimou cooperated with Guangying Times, Wu Yuan immediately brought out the project of "The Great Wall".

As I said before, instead of letting Legendary Pictures produce this co-production of "The Great Wall", it would be better for Guangying Times to do it themselves. At least Wu Yuan will not restrict Zhang Yimou's creation.

In fact, the script of "The Great Wall" in which Zhang Yimou was the mastermind was indeed better, because there were no white people running from Rome to the East to steal gunpowder in this script.

Zhang Yimou's version of "The Great Wall" is a commercial monster-fighting movie with a simple and straightforward plot.

Simple and direct, this word is not a derogatory term in the field of commercial popcorn movies.

Compared to the outrageous plot in "The Great Wall" which starts off well but ends badly, where the foreign hero steals gunpowder, is then summoned to stay and fight against monsters, and even later the foreign hero follows the Chinese into the palace, the story of Zhang Yimou's "The Great Wall" is very simple. It is a battle of offense and defense in an imaginary Chinese fantasy ancient world.

Taotie, a monster that feeds on humans, will gather in human territory to forage for food every sixty years. The human army that defends the territory builds the Great Wall to resist the invasion of monsters.

The story begins when another sixty-year period has arrived, and the Shadowless Army defending the Great Wall is about to face an extremely brutal war...

The story is very simple, almost as simple as "Pacific Rim". Monsters appear, and then humans fight the monsters. There are all kinds of fierce battles, and finally they defeat the monsters and protect human civilization.

There is no need to insert any foreign mercenaries who come to China in search of black powder to make a fortune.

In fact, removing this group of foreign mercenaries would not have any impact on the original story of "The Great Wall". On the contrary, it would make the story more smooth.

This actually also shows that this plot about foreign mercenaries was added at the insistence of Legendary. After all, it will be released globally and it is a co-production between China and the United States.

After giving up the so-called "global release" in this life, Zhang Yimou took complete control of himself, and his pure popcorn monster movie "The Great Wall" turned out to be surprisingly good.

In other words, if a top director like Zhang Yimou makes a commercial monster movie, even if it is his first time, it will not be that bad.

After reading the script, Wu Yuan was actually quite concerned about when the production of this film would begin.

China also needs such a monster-fighting movie of its own. We can’t just rely on “Godzilla”, “Pacific Rim” and “Dragon Wars” from across the sea every year, right?

"The Great Wall project has been approved, but this is the first time that director Zhang Yimou has made a monster special effects movie. Everything is still in the exploratory stage, and the early preparations will be relatively slow. It is estimated that it will start shooting in the second half of next year," Li Xiaoping explained.

Wu Yuan nodded in understanding. He was a 70-year-old man, and it was his first time making a special effects blockbuster, so he should indeed proceed with caution. He understood!

He was about to say something else when suddenly, the cell phone that had been sitting quietly on the table rang.

Without looking at who was calling, Wu Yuan picked up the phone casually, and then heard a burst of pleasant English.

"Hey, Director Daniel, I'm the chairman of the Berlin Film Festival. I'm sorry to call you. Do you have any film plans for this year or next? The Berlin Film Festival sincerely invites you..."

Before the person on the other end of the phone finished speaking, Wu Yuan's heart skipped a beat.

Oh no, another invitation to film! (End of this chapter)