director of the millennium

While Wu Yuan and his wife were busy having a baby, the domestic entertainment and film industry was also in turmoil.

The box office of "Time Raiders" exceeded 10 billion, which is not a big deal in the current hot film market. Although everyone was a little surprised that another romance film had a box office of over 10 billion, they accepted it very quickly.

Compared to the box office performance of "Time Raiders", the industry is now more concerned about another major event.

The new Chinese film "The Monkey King", directed by Wu Yuan, will be released in China on December 12!

Although both are movies produced by Guangying Times, the attention received by "Time Raiders" is completely incomparable to that of "The Monkey King".

The former is just the work of a not-so-famous female director, and the most eye-catching thing is the heroine Liu Yifei.

But "The Monkey King" is a new Chinese-language film directed by Wu Yuan after a break of one and a half years!
As time goes by, Wu Yuan is no longer the "young director" in the public's impression. Although he is not yet 40 years old, he is definitely a young man in the field of directing.

But he has been in the industry for nearly 20 years, and it can even be said that he has grown up with a generation. The earliest fans who watched Wu Yuan's movies are now in their 20s and 30s, and the current core group of moviegoers (- years old) can be said to have grown up watching Wu Yuan's movies.

From "The Night the Comet Came" in 2000 to the "Pirates of the Caribbean" trilogy and then to a series of hit commercial films such as "Your Name", "Painted Skin", "Gravity", "Interstellar", "The Martian", "Love Letter" and "Ready Player One", it can be said that these are the movies that accompanied the growth of the post-80s and post-90s generations.

Although there are not many of them, they are all excellent.

As time went by, Wu Yuan had unknowingly accumulated countless halos, and his foundation had long been deeply rooted, making him one of the best directors in China. Like Zhang Yimou, he was recognized as the best director in China.

His "Your Name" is the love enlightenment movie for countless young people, and "Gravity" is also the first science fiction movie that all Chinese people have seen.

His "Departures" and "Love" are the pride of Chinese art films and have won international awards.

From middle-aged people in their forties and fifties to young people in their teens and twenties, everyone is looking forward to Wu Yuan's new movie.

Especially the new film "The Monkey King". Judging from the trailer, the story is undoubtedly related to the Chinese national idol, the Monkey King.

"Journey to the West" is undoubtedly the most famous and well-known work in China. Even though not many people may have read the original novel, various versions of Journey to the West TV series and movies are definitely seen by every Chinese person.

Compared to the science fiction films that Wu Yuan liked to shoot before, "The Monkey King" is undoubtedly a movie with a wider audience. It can even be said to be the movie with the widest audience in the 20 years since Wu Yuan started shooting movies. It can be said that any Chinese person can be an audience of this movie.

Under such circumstances, Guangying Times did not invest too much in publicity, and "The Monkey King" easily broke the circle and was known by almost all Chinese people.

On online ticket purchasing websites such as Maoyan, the number of users who made reservations to watch this movie exceeded 10 million, inadvertently setting a new record for the number of users who made reservations for movies
All cinema chains are looking forward to "The Monkey King", believing that this film is very likely to break the box office record of mainland films again. They are trying their best to coordinate the screening schedules, wishing that 100% of the screenings on the premiere day would be for this film.

Every cinema owner believes that this movie will be the biggest carnival in the industry in 2018, and everyone is ready to pick up money with sacks.

Even optimistic theaters believe that the box office of this movie is likely to exceed 40 billion, raising the box office record of Chinese-language films from 30 billion+ to a new level of 40 billion!

It has been several years since the single-film box office of mainland movies has reached 30 billion yuan. It is indeed time for a breakthrough. After all, this year's mainland box office market has increased by 20% compared to last year, and a new record should be set. It can be said that since the release date of "The Monkey King" was set and the promotion began, major theaters have prepared sacks and are waiting for this movie to be released. It can be said that they are eagerly waiting!

However, the eagerly awaited protagonist Wu Yuan did not pay much attention to the release of this movie.

For Wu Yuan, once he finishes shooting and post-production of a film, his work on the film is over. As for the subsequent release, it is no longer his job.

He is now very relaxed and even has time to care about Mr. Zhang Guorong, another director and shareholder of the company.

In a lounge of Light and Shadow Times, Wu Yuan and Zhang Guorong sat face to face, drinking tea and chatting about their recent situation.

The reason why Zhang Guorong is in Beijing is to attend the premiere of "The Monkey King" tomorrow.

In recent years, Zhang Guorong has not spent much time in Beijing and has basically lived in Hong Kong Island.

His era has passed.

This year, Zhang Guorong is already 63 years old, and it has been almost 15 years since he ended his activities as a singer and actor. His popularity as a top idol in Asia has basically disappeared with the passage of time.

No matter how popular a star is, there will come a day when he or she will become out of fashion.

Although there are still many people on the Internet reminiscing about the glorious days when Zhang Guorong was a celebrity, he is basically not recognized when he goes out on the street anymore, and can enjoy a simple and precious life.

However, for a director, 63 is not old.

After all, there are still a group of directors in their eighties active in the world, and they are still working hard to bring new works to movie fans.

As for Zhang Guorong, after completely transforming into a director, he has been making movies for the Light and Shadow Era. His most recent movies are the "Along with the Gods" series.

In the original time and space, there were only two works in South Korea's "Along with the Gods" series, but in this time and space, this series is considered to be the pillar series of the light and shadow era, and four works have been filmed.

The scripts for the first two parts were given by Wu Yuan, and the scripts for the last two parts were written by the screenwriting department of Guangying Times. They are all based on the underworld and ghost worldview of "Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds", and also have some intersections with "Soul Ferry". It can barely be regarded as a branch of the Guangying Times' fairy-xia movie universe.

It's probably similar to the relationship between Marvel's "Avengers" and "Guardians of the Galaxy", which are two parallel stories in the same universe, but they can also be joined when necessary.

This series has always been directed by Zhang Guorong, and the cumulative box office of the series has exceeded 30 billion, which is a good result.

However, today, Zhang Guorong made an appointment to meet Wu Yuan in advance, not for this long-running series of commercial films, but for another matter.

"Director Wu, I want to make an art film of my own!" (End of this chapter)