director of the millennium

Huairou Film and Television Base, inside the "The Great Wall" studio.

The crew of "The Great Wall" directly rented a large studio covering an area of ​​more than 3,000 square meters.

The seven or eight meter high studio has been completely transformed into the appearance of the "Great Wall". On each section of the "Great Wall" stands countless soldiers in armor, fighting fiercely with special effects people wrapped in green cloth.

Among them, the ones who received the most attention from the camera were naturally Wu Jing and Zhang Hanyu standing in the center.

They are the two male protagonists in "The Great Wall".

Zhang Hanyu was the palace commander of the Shadowless Army, a common official position in the Song Dynasty.

Wu Jing is the commander of the Tiger Army of the Shadowless Army, and the main plot revolves around him.

As for Zhang Yi, Duan Yihong, Zhang Guoqiang and others, they are the commanders of the Bear Army, Eagle Army and Leopard Army respectively. Together with the commander of the Crane Army played by Miao Pu, the five commanders of the Shadowless Army are complete.

The story of this new version of "The Great Wall" basically revolves around the Shadowless Army, and the overall story structure is a very thorough war film, but it is a fantasy war film.

The classical army relied on various "super-realistic" machines to surround the Great Wall and resist invasion.

This was something Wu Yuan strongly suggested.

To be honest, when he watched "The Great Wall" in his previous life, what impressed him most was the "transformable" Great Wall in the movie. Various mechanisms emerged from the walls of the Great Wall, and large war machines were fired into the army of monsters, which was very exciting.

Logically speaking, this should be the important selling point of "The Great Wall".

Just like the machine guns, cannons, missile vehicles and tanks in war movies, they are things that can make the audience's blood boil and their adrenaline surge.

But in the original version of "The Great Wall", this scene was just a fleeting moment. I don't know if it was due to cost reasons or the screenwriter was crazy. The audience could have been won over by such a big scene, but the main storyline had to go through a small "stealing gunpowder" and "the rise of the female army", which was outrageous.

Wu Yuan didn't want to see such a scene again in his life, so Zhang Yimou also took a step forward, planning to have a shocking military battle.

Facts have proved that this should not be due to cost constraints. Most of the war mechanisms on the Great Wall are real props that were actually made, and then supplemented by some post-production special effects to achieve the effects in the movie.

Even if more attention is paid to this aspect of the lens, the cost will not soar too much and will still be within a controllable range.

Standing in the corner of the set, listening to the constant "boom" sound coming from the set, Wu Yuan stroked his chin, eager to try.

He hasn't made a war movie yet.

"Riding the Wind" can be considered a war film, and it's also good to learn from Zhang Yimou now.

Just like that, after he waited for more than ten minutes, the crew finally started their intermission and rearranged the props on the set. Only then did Wu Yuan start to communicate with director Zhang Yimou.

"It was my first time shooting a special effects movie like this, so it was a big challenge for me."

"No, Director Yimou, you have been exposed to movie special effects during the Olympics. In fact, if you know one thing about this, you will know everything."

"How is it? This kind of war scene is quite fun to shoot, but the personnel scheduling is a bit complicated."

"It was really cool. There are very few opportunities to shoot such a big scene. The last time was when I was filming Curse of the Golden Flower."

"Director Yimou, you should make more movies of this kind. The audiences in our country are more sophisticated now and love to watch these special effects blockbusters. If we don't make them, all the money will be earned by Hollywood."

"Look at those Marvel superhero movies, they easily make hundreds of millions at the box office and are popular all over Asia."

"We can give it a try too!" It's true that Wu Yuan really hopes that Zhang Yimou will try more special effects blockbusters. Among Chinese-language film directors, especially those who can make commercial films, Zhang Yimou is the only one who is well-known overseas, besides Wu Yuan.

Although Zhang Yimou's fame overseas is mainly due to his art films, he is indeed a director who can make good commercial films.

If Chinese-language films are to be exported, Wu Yuan alone cannot do it.

In particular, the Asian strategy that Guangying Times is planning requires more film directors who can be successful in Asia.

Among them, Zhang Yimou is definitely the best choice.

Instead of letting him degenerate into filming "Man Jiang Hong", it is better to train him to develop overseas and strive to make him bigger and stronger!
In fact, Zhang Yimou has always been ambitious about the international market.

Since "Hero" that year, Zhang Yimou has never given up on becoming an international director, hoping that his films can also be a big success in foreign countries.

The original version of "The Great Wall" was Zhang Yimou's last attempt to impact the international market.

In order to impact the international market, especially to break into Hollywood, Zhang Yimou made a lot of compromises in the original version of "The Great Wall", introducing foreign screenwriters and foreign leading actors, hoping that the film would be more international and would be liked by audiences around the world. In short, he made a lot of efforts and compromises.

Unfortunately, this attempt ultimately failed, dampening his ambition to enter Hollywood.

From then on, Zhang Yimou gave up the idea of ​​exporting his films overseas and focused on making films for the Chinese people.

But in this life, Wu Yuan doesn't want Zhang Yimou to fail again.

Although the new version of "The Great Wall" by Light and Shadow Times has eliminated European and American elements, it does not mean that Light and Shadow Times has no interest in the Asian market.

The "Great Wall" itself is China's most famous and well-known business card in the world, and its international reputation is like that of the Egyptian pyramids.

Just with this name, "The Great Wall" has room to go overseas.

Unlike the ridiculous idea of ​​the original version targeting Hollywood, Light and Shadow Era intends to target Asia, especially the markets in East Asia and Southeast Asia.

The elements of "The Great Wall" itself are Chinese ancient costumes + monsters. These two elements are easy to understand in Asian countries and are full of the appeal of China's mysterious culture.

As long as the movie is well made, and the focus is that the plot of the battle with monsters is exciting enough, it is possible that it will become a small hit in Asia.

Just like "Train to Busan" and "The Host".

After all, this movie does not involve any cultural background or historical stories. It is a completely fictional ancient Chinese world. The only symbol is the "Great Wall" that everyone knows.

"Director Yimou, this time our film The Great Wall is targeting the entire Asian market, so you should be mentally prepared."

Wu Yuan rarely blinked at Zhang Yimou in a mischievous way. Only in front of this great senior could Wu Yuan feel a bit relaxed as a junior.

Faced with Wu Yuan's "frivolity", Zhang Yimou pointed at him, shook his head and laughed.

"I'm here to visit the set today, but I have something important to tell you." After joking around, Wu Yuan straightened his face and got down to business: "I'm here to see Wu Jing."

"I also plan to use him as the leading actor in my new movie."

"Wu Jing is really lucky. We two great directors take turns to serve him." (End of this chapter)