director of the millennium

Wu Yuan once accidentally saw a video about AI face-changing on the video website Bilibili.

This is a Marvel movie mashup video, in which the faces of Marvel superheroes have been replaced with Chinese actors.

For example, Ge Da Ye's face was replaced with Loki's head, Jiang Wen became Thor, Shen Teng became Tony Stark, and professional wizard Liu Haizhu became Doctor Strange...

Among them, the face of Master Ancient One was replaced with Kara Hui's.

You know what, there is really no sense of incongruity, it fits perfectly!

It was also because of this video, which was just a glimpse, but for a long time, when Wu Yuan thought of Master Gu Yi, he would think of Teacher Hui Yinghong's face.
It's really a perfect match.

If the role of Ancient One is changed to a female character this time, Wu Yuan will definitely choose Kara Hui to play the role without hesitation.

Unfortunately, after his interference in the script, Ancient One was the same as in the comics, an old Chinese grandfather with a white beard whose "secular name" was Yao.

In this case, Ms. Kara Hui is not suitable.

However, even if it is a male character, it is not difficult for Wu Yuan.

In fact, after seeing the new version of the script, Wu Yuan immediately had an actor candidate in mind - Mr. Li Xuejian!

In the early years, when filming "Departures", Wu Yuan had a very pleasant collaboration with teacher Li Xuejian.

There is no doubt that Mr. Li Xuejian is one of the best male actors in the country, and now he fits the setting of the character of Ancient One in terms of age and facial features.

You just need to give him a simple makeup with white hair, white beard and white eyebrows, and he will definitely have the mysterious demeanor and "highly respected" feeling of Master Ancient One.

So when Marvel urged Wu Yuan to cast quickly, he called Teacher Li Xuejian immediately.

In Wu Yuan's opinion, as a semi-retired actor, Mr. Li Xuejian's schedule should not be that tight.

Last year, Mr. Li Xuejian just completed the filming of the TV series "The Young Marshal", in which he played the Northeast warlord Zhang Zuolin.

However, he is not the male lead. Since the drama is called "The Young Marshal", the male lead is naturally Zhang Zuolin's successor Zhang Xueliang. The actor who plays Zhang Xueliang is Wen Zhang, one of the top three good men whose reputation collapsed because of the drama "Cherish Every Moment".

Speaking of which, Wen Zhang's life was quite miserable. His career was originally smooth sailing. He played the leading role in Stephen Chow's movie and became an actor with a box office of 12 billion yuan. He was about to become the successor of the new generation of young film actors in mainland China.

As a result, he ruined his acting career because he couldn't control his lower body.

After staying out of the spotlight for a while, Wen Zhang filmed "The Young Marshal", hoping to make a comeback through this TV series.

It's a good idea, and he and his wife didn't break up, so from the perspective of public opinion, the losses have been minimized.

However, "The Young Marshal" did not help Wen Zhang successfully return to the entertainment industry.

Although the drama has not been aired yet, Wu Yuan knows that the drama has not brought much of a turnaround in Wen Zhang's reputation.

The drama is a good one, both he and teacher Li Xuejian acted very well, and the content and plot were not changed in any way, and it still restored history. However, the drama just failed to become a hit, and the public still has a serious prejudice against Wen Zhang.

After the failure of his attempt at "Young Marshal", Wen Zhang did not give up and even asked his wife to direct and act in a TV series. Of course, this is a story for later.

Teacher Li Xuejian, whom Wu Yuan valued very much, took on another movie after filming "The Young Marshal". It was a revolutionary movie produced by Changchun Film Studio - "Old Auntie".

After Wu Yuan made the call, he found out that the film would start shooting in October and was expected to be completed in late November or early December.

Unfortunately, Mr. Li Xuejian, who was almost semi-retired and had not filmed for several years, took on several film and TV series shooting jobs in 2014-2015, which was just the time when he was very quiet and wanted to move.
Wu Yuan, who had not paid special attention to Teacher Li Xuejian for several years, had no idea about this.

Now he was in an awkward situation. The actor he had already chosen in his mind was not available, so he had to look for a suitable actor again.

Wu Yuan wanted to slap himself twice. He should have contacted Teacher Li Xuejian earlier. It was true that when people are too busy, all kinds of work mistakes will occur, and even he cannot avoid them.

However, no matter how much he regretted it, there was no medicine for regret in the world, and Wu Yuan soon thought of a second option.

It was the actor who had worked with him before - Mr. Wang Xueqi.

Teacher Wang Xueqi has a good fit with the Ancient One. Although the impression he leaves on most audiences is still that of a domineering person, he is indeed good at playing the role of an old man.

The old Wudang Master also has white hair and eyebrows, and a very funny personality, and it doesn’t feel out of place at all when played by Mr. Wang Xueqi.

He is also a good choice.

So Wu Yuan contacted Teacher Wang Xueqi again.

The bad news is that when the call was connected, Mr. Wang Xueqi said that he was filming his first film directorial debut "In the Name of the Father".

This is a story about fatherly love, revenge and redemption.

Teacher Wang Xueqi invited "King's Wife" Kun Ling to play his daughter, as well as the company's actress Wang Ou and Miao Pu, who starred in "The Great Wall", to join. All of them were brought in by Teacher Wang Xueqi through his connections.

However, Wu Yuan had no impression of Wang Xueqi's debut film. It seemed that the film was not even released, but was only screened in Cannes (not shortlisted for any category), and then there was no follow-up news.

I guess the theaters aren't buying it and aren't even giving the film a chance to schedule a screening.

It's understandable as the debut work of an actor-turned-director.

But the good news is that although Mr. Wang Xueqi is filming his debut film, the film will be completed before November, so Mr. Wang Xueqi will still be able to free up time to film "Doctor Strange".

Originally, he had no good feelings towards Hollywood and had no intention of taking on any more Hollywood movies. Previously, because "X-Men: Days of Future Past" performed very well at the Chinese box office, Hollywood extended olive branches to mainland actors, but he rejected them all.

Not to mention, this "Doctor Strange" is a Marvel and Disney movie. The previous "Iron Man 3" really screwed him over, and Mr. Wang Xueqi has always remembered this grudge!
But the person who invited him this time was Wu Yuan, so the situation was different.

Without much hesitation, and even without seeing the script, Mr. Wang Xueqi decisively accepted Wu Yuan's invitation over the phone, and said he would postpone the post-production of his debut film, join the filming of "Doctor Strange" first, and then get busy with his own work.

It can only be said that Teacher Wang Xueqi really gave Wu Yuan face, which also touched Wu Yuan. He repeatedly assured that he would never let Teacher Wang Xueqi down. This time it was a very positive and high-end role, and the "China Special Edition" incident would not happen again.

However, Master Ancient One has been dealt with, but what about the other character, "The King"? (End of this chapter)