director of the millennium

Since the "Ready Player One" crew finally got on track, Wu Yuan finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Once the most difficult problem of combining virtual special effects with reality is solved, other small problems will be easy to solve.

Wu Yuan no longer needed to feel stressed out every day and bring low pressure to the crew. The filming atmosphere became better and better every day. A month later, the crew moved from Beijing to the Fog City to shoot some realistic scenes.

At the same time, as time entered June and July, another major project of this year was launched at Light and Shadow Times.

Last year, the two biggest projects of Light and Shadow Times were two new works in the Xianxia movie universe, "Shushan" and "The Battle of the Demonic Tide".

When it comes to making ordinary special effects blockbusters, Light and Shadow Era is already familiar with the process, just like Marvel, which is used to making superhero movies, and can almost shoot in an assembly line manner.

Both films were successfully completed before the Spring Festival, and the post-production special effects of "War of the Demon Tide" which was filmed first were half done, and the special effects of "Shu Mountain" have also started to be produced. It is expected that one will be released at the end of the year or during the Spring Festival, and the second will be released during the summer vacation next year.

This year, Light and Shadow Times does not plan to continue making subsequent works in the Xianxia Movie Universe.

This kind of thing cannot be produced every year. You also have to give fans room to look forward to it. Sometimes if you produce too much, it will make fans feel bored.

You have to keep their interest.

So this year's major projects of Light and Shadow Times are Wu Yuan's "Ready Player One", which needs no further explanation, and the other is Zhang Yimou's first blockbuster after joining Light and Shadow Times - "The Great Wall"!
In fact, after joining Guangying Times, Zhang Yimou has already collaborated with the company once, which was the art film "The Return".

Guangying Times did not do anything to interfere with Zhang Yimou. They happily approved the project, paid the money, and allowed Zhang Yimou to play his role freely.

Even though this is an art film and doesn't seem to be a big hit, Guangying Times is willing to invest money in it because of Zhang Yimou's status and fame.

In the end, Zhang Yimou also gave a brilliant answer to the era of light and shadow.

The mainland box office of "Coming Home" reached 3.42 million yuan, breaking the box office record for domestic art films, and was shortlisted for many film awards.

(Love Letter is not considered an art film, but a commercial romance film, so the box office of Love Letter has nothing to do with the art film record.)
The box office performance of this movie is more than 40 million to nearly 50 million higher than that of the original time and space. This is because the current domestic film market is larger than the original time and space, there are more moviegoers, and also because the publicity and promotion are better.

Compared with the Internet company "LeTV", Guangying Times knows better how to promote and market movies, and is much more professional than LeTV, which was just starting to explore the film industry.

Zhang Yimou did make a very good art film, so it was natural that he achieved such good results.

After the success of "Coming Home", Zhang Yimou naturally regained his confidence and became interested in making blockbusters and commercial blockbusters.

And "The Great Wall", which had been prepared for him a long time ago, could naturally be launched smoothly.

In fact, when Zhang Yimou joined Guangying Times, Wu Yuan talked to Zhang Yimou about the story outline of "The Great Wall" and invited him to make this movie. Li Xiaoping was also very interested at that time.

It’s just that Zhang Yimou was at the center of public opinion about the “breakup of the two Zhangs” at the time, and his scandal was exposed. Although he was not condemned by everyone, his situation was indeed very bad, which made him somewhat insecure and autistic.

Being an introvert by nature, he was not willing to take over such a big project right away.

Just as Zhang Yimou said when he was filming "Hero" that year, he is responsible to the investors when making movies, and he does it with the attitude that he must succeed.

But in 2012, he really didn't have the courage to make "The Great Wall", which required an investment of at least 2 million yuan.

It was not until the success of "Coming Home" that he regained his confidence and became the Zhang Yimou who dared to challenge and liked to try new things.

In the second half of last year, Zhang Yimou had been doing the early preparations for "The Great Wall", looking for screenwriters to create and improve the script, contacting special effects companies, making special effects storyboards, designing monster images, making original paintings, etc. ... It was not until after the Chinese New Year that all the preparatory work was completed, and the characters and so on were all determined. Only then did Zhang Yimou start casting.

But this casting issue alone kept Zhang Yimou busy for several months.

The new version of "The Great Wall" is almost two different movies from the "Great Wall" that Wu Yuan remembered.

Although the core concept of the Great Wall defending against monsters has not changed, and the setting of the Shadowless Legion, an army stationed on the Great Wall, is still there, the main plot and characters have changed beyond recognition.

The story of the new version of "The Great Wall" revolves around "defending the country" and "protecting the territory", and the protagonists are the generals and soldiers who guard the country on the Great Wall.

Although there is a love line, it is only a secondary line. It is more like the story of Guo Jing and his wife when they were defending Xiangyang. It combines personal feelings with patriotism, and more shows the strong emotions of the couple fighting against foreign enemies together.

That is great love, not the small love that young men and women are busy dating, quarreling, and breaking up while guarding the Great Wall.

Therefore, when casting, Zhang Yimou mainly wanted a group of tough guys and heroic actresses.

This is hard to find.

In 2014, the Korean wave overwhelmed the Chinese wave.

In other words, the aesthetic taste of the younger generation in China has gradually changed since 2010, and the actors and actresses who the older generation considered to have "good looks" are no longer the style that the younger generation likes.

Young people prefer the Korean or Japanese style of handsome boys or gentle and handsome guys.

Using the word "sissy" is indeed incorrect and insulting.

But we have to admit that the aesthetic taste of the entertainment industry during this period was indeed more neutral and delicate.

Those tough, rough guys are completely out of fashion.

The heroic, graceful and elegant actress is even more vulnerable in front of sweet girls, mature women and vixen.

Under such circumstances, it was really not easy for Zhang Yimou to put together a tough guy group with Mulan and Mu Guiying.

He almost went through all the existing resumes of actors in the entertainment industry, watched video after video, and conducted large-scale auditions, only then did he find the only group of tough guys and heroic girls in the entertainment industry.

Yes, Wolf Warrior was definitely selected and became the male lead.

The heroine is Miao Pu, who brought Mu Guiying to life.

The other main supporting roles are all male actors who are serving intensive military service in the domestic entertainment industry, such as Zhang Yi, Duan Yihong, and Zhang Guoqiang.

It’s just that it’s really hard to find a heroic actress.

In addition to Miao Pu, Zhang Yimou searched everywhere, even holding an open audition to find Zhong Chuxi, but it was still not enough.
It was only with the recommendation of Wolf Warrior's Wu Jing that Zhang Yimou found actress Yu Nan, who was also serving in the military in the domestic entertainment industry, and was able to barely get the leading role.

It's this cast that makes you think it's some special forces movie.
Anyway, Wu Yuan couldn't hold back when he saw the cast list.
The only thing that was similar to the Great Wall in his memory was the title. (End of this chapter)