director of the millennium

Chapter 86
Although Wu Yuan was a little obsessed with surfing the domestic Internet after returning to the crew of "Pirates of the Caribbean", he did not miss his job.

Most of the exterior scenes of this movie have been shot in the Caribbean.

After Wu Yuan returned from China, the crew had already transferred to Los Angeles.

On the Los Angeles side, Disney has prepared a total of four indoor studios for this movie, a semi-enclosed studio at the port!
The plots shot in these studios mainly revolve around Barbossa's treasure cave later in the film, where a pile of gold and silver jewelry and a large box of cursed gold coins are kept, as well as several sea battles.

The most difficult part to shoot is the battles at sea, because according to the plot of the movie, Barbossa and the pirates led by him were cursed to gain the ability to be immortal and turn into skeletons under the moonlight.

It's 2003 now, not 2023. Even in Hollywood, it's not easy to do this special effect of dozens of people turning into skeletons fighting.

The famous industrial light and magic company did the special effects for the crew of "Pirates of the Caribbean"!
In order to make these skeleton images well, Industrial Light & Magic not only sent a team to follow the group throughout the whole process, input the scanned data of the actors' bodies into the computer, so that each skeleton image conforms to the appearance and action characteristics of the characters.

And there is a team behind the scenes that has been working on screen design.

When filming, the actors also had to dress up as little green men and wear a bunch of motion capture equipment to facilitate the synthesis of skeleton special effects later.

So when it was actually filmed, the on-site effect was not good-looking, even a bit boring.

Most special effects movies are like this. When the audience watches, there are all kinds of cool explosions, the protagonists fly into the sky and escape, and all kinds of fantasy creatures and fantasy creatures are handsome and stylish.

On the set, what Wu Yuan saw was either a green curtain or a blue curtain. The faces of the actors could not even be seen. They were dressed like the men in black in Conan, but the color changed from black to green. .

As far as the director is concerned, Wu Yuan doesn't even need to think about whether the actors' performances are in place. Anyway, they can't see the facial expressions, and they can pass if the movements are in place.

Wu Yuan, who has filmed many "Internet movies" in his memory, is extremely familiar with this special effects shooting method. The crew's shooting progress is extremely fast!

Of course, apart from Depp who needs to become a skeleton in one scene among the leading actors, Keira and Orlando don't need to do this.

Therefore, during the on-site shooting, Wu Yuan only focused on the performances of three or four actors.

"Keira! Nervous, give me a more nervous expression!"

"Your expression is too calm. You were kidnapped by pirates, not having afternoon tea!"

"Orlando, bend your waist more when you swing the sword, idiot! You will stab yourself if you swing the sword like this!"

"Depp! Don't look more disdainful! You are the most bohemian liar in the Caribbean! You advocate freedom and are not afraid of anyone. Do you understand?"

Almost every day, Wu Yuan could be heard angrily scolding several actors in the studio.

Whether it's Orlando or Keira, or Depp, who will become a big star in the future and loves to play big names, they are all very well-behaved in front of Wu Yuan. Wu Yuan does whatever he says, and immediately apologizes when scolded without daring to say a word. Talk back.

Are you kidding me, now Jerry has to listen to Wu Yuan on the set, Disney has to coax Wu Yuan, how many actors dare to confront Wu Yuan?
Believe it or not, if you say something back, Jerry will be blacklisted!

You ask why Jerry and Disney support Wu Yuan so much?

Then I have to thank Director Yimou!
The box office of "Hero" in mainland China has reached 2.5 million yuan!
And the news spread to Hollywood on the other side of the ocean immediately.

The Chinese film market, which has been ignored by Hollywood, has once again entered their sights.

Although, in the past Hollywood movies also sold well in mainland China, such as "Titanic" which sold 3.6 million box office in the mainland.

But this is not the norm.

Not to mention the mainland, there is no second movie with a better box office performance than "Titanic" in North America!
In the past two years, since China joined the WTO, 2 Hollywood movies have entered the mainland market every year.

Those with poor results can only achieve a box office of more than 1000 million yuan, and the best ones can only achieve a box office of 5000 to [-] million yuan.

This little money, converted into US dollars, is not enough to pay Wu Yuan's director's fee.

But it’s different now. Zhang Yimou, a Chinese director, led a group of Chinese actors and made a movie with a box office of 2.5 million yuan in China.

What does this mean?
It shows that China's film market has begun to recover again!

China's film market can actually support a box office of over 2 million for a single film!
Of course, what Hollywood values ​​​​is not the money.

After all, now that Hollywood movies enter the mainland market, they can only get 13% of the box office share, and a box office of 1 million can only get 1300 million.

What Hollywood values ​​more is that more people are watching movies in mainland China!
Then Hollywood blockbusters should expand their influence in China!
To put it bluntly, the cultural invasion of Hollywood movies in China needs to be accelerated!

Hollywood has always had the ambition to conquer the global film market.

Because the film market in North America has basically become saturated, it is difficult to have explosive growth.

Unless the population of North America doubles immediately!
Although China's current film market is still insignificant, China is a populous country. After entering the 21st century, the growth rate of GDP is also frighteningly fast.

With the economic growth that China is showing now, more and more people will definitely get used to going to the movies in the future!
Hollywood's top film companies, that is, the Hollywood Six, have all been keenly aware that China will probably be the growth point of the movie box office in the next ten or even twenty years.

What they want is the future!

And grasping Wu Yuan, to a certain extent, is equivalent to grasping the future.

Because Wu Yuan is a director!
As a director, his career will be very long!

Ten years later, 20 years later, he will still be active as a director.

Even more than ten or twenty years later, he may have just reached the peak of his career. He is too young.

As long as they can maintain a good cooperative relationship with Wu Yuan, then Disney can rely on Wu Yuan to open up the Chinese movie market!

A Hollywood blockbuster directed by a Chinese is definitely more acceptable and popular for Chinese audiences.

And now Disney really has no choice.
Wu Baige's "Wind Whisperer" was released in June last year, and it was a smash hit at the box office!
At a cost of US$1.15 million, it only got a box office of US$0.77 million.

The film's blood loss not only opened up the fate of Nicolas Cage's "box office poison", but also became the last straw that overwhelmed MGM.

Among the Chinese directors currently working in Hollywood, Wu Yuan is the only one left.
Oh, you can't say that. Wu Baige will have another movie "Memory Crack" after him, and he can still survive for a while.

In short, Disney is now more afraid of Wu Yuan's failure than Wu Yuan himself. I wish Wu Yuan could develop better in Hollywood. "Pirates of the Caribbean" and subsequent sequels are all hits.
If Wu Yuan fails, Hollywood or Disney will also lose a director who can help them enter the Chinese film market more easily.

In terms of emotions and reasons, in public and private matters, whether it is for future or money, Disney must support Wu Yuan!

So this scene happened now.

Because of the outstanding performance in the film market in mainland China, Wu Yuan, a director who has been working far away in Hollywood, immediately raised his status and influence.

In just a few months, in the eyes of Disney, he has changed from a tool director who can be thrown away after use to a partner who must maintain a good long-term relationship!
He now not only represents himself, but also represents the Chinese mainland film market.

Reflecting on the crew, it is that Jerry is becoming more and more johnized.

As long as Wu Yuan doesn't want to change the script or change the storyboard, no matter what he says on the set, Jerry will support him and actively help to communicate and solve it.

Regarding this, the more than 20 Chinese crew members brought by Wu Yuan from China felt even more deeply.

Wu Yuan is really majestic in the crew!

There were hundreds of blond foreigners in the entire crew, even the famous Elf Prince and Edward Scissorhands, all of them were submissive in front of Wu Yuan!

If Director Wu told them to go south, they would not dare to go north!
They will do whatever Director Wu says, focusing on a sensible and obedient person!
Seeing Wu Yuan standing up and angrily scolding the props team because some props were not arranged properly, and several Chinese team members who gathered together to observe and learn, it was a sigh of relief.

"Director Wu is really good, training these foreigners is like training your grandson!"

"Depp just got scolded yesterday, right?"

"That's right, big companies in Hollywood are begging Director Wu to make movies for them, how dare these youngsters bark their teeth in front of Director Wu?"

"Hey, the only director Huaxia who can do this is Director Wu!"

"Unfortunately, domestic audiences still don't know how good Director Wu is in Hollywood."

"It would be great if Director Wu could return to China to make a blockbuster movie!"

　In fact, the Big Six of Hollywood have always been ahead of their time. They have long seen that the growth point of the global movie box office market in the 21st century lies in China.

　　However, a regulation restricting Hollywood blockbusters from entering the mainland market immediately choked their necks. They could only enter 20 films a year, which was later relaxed to 37.

　　Hollywood has always hoped to use the limited quota of films entering the mainland market to maximize box office benefits.

　　If at this point in time there really was a Huaxia director who had made his mark in Hollywood, he would definitely be treated differently and be treated like a guest of honor.

　　The premise is that this director can really control Hollywood commercial blockbusters and conquer the city for Hollywood.

　　Wu Baige didn't live up to it, and fell on the eve of dawn. After Wu Baige, there is no Hollywood commercial blockbuster controlled by a Chinese director.

　　In fact, Ang Lee also tried it under the influence of the Big Six, but his Hulk performance was not good. He was only suitable for literary films and could not protect Hollywood commercial blockbusters.

　　With no other choice, Hollywood is now focusing on the field of co-productions, and the next best thing is to use Chinese actors and create special versions for the mainland.

　　Of course, Director Wu has no intention of being a vanguard for Hollywood in conquering the Chinese market.

　　Let’s see how our Director Wu deceives Hollywood~
　　
　
(End of this chapter)