director of the millennium

"I never thought that "Mulan" has not been completed yet, and we even have to throw everything away and start over again!" Wu Yuan pinched his eyebrows with one hand and said to his wife with some headache.

At this time, his wife Liu Yifei was walking back and forth in the living room with her daughter in her arms, coaxing her.

Wu Qingqing is almost one year old, and the one-year-old birthday banquet will be held soon. Wu Yuan's mother-in-law has been busy with this recently, buying things suitable for the one-year-old celebration everywhere. Liu Yifei is also very positive about this matter.

Wu Yuan, on the other hand, was not very enthusiastic about this matter. He was the kind of person who did not believe in feudal superstitions at all, and he did not think that the "Zhuazhou" ceremony really represented anything. Does it mean that if his daughter grabbed a musical instrument during the "Zhuazhou" ceremony, he really wanted to train her to be a musician?

In his opinion, he would at least wait until his daughter herself understands what a hobby is and likes something before he cultivates it, instead of just believing the so-called results of the one-year-old celebration.

However, since it is just for fun, he would not stop it. After all, this custom is now considered a part of traditional culture.

"Why, Disney still wants me to film "Mulan"? " Liu Yifei, who was holding her daughter, frowned and didn't seem very interested.

Ever since she gave birth to her daughter, she has devoted all her heart to her daughter and no longer cares about her career.

I can only say that maternal love is indeed great. In addition, Liu Yifei has not been so ambitious in recent years. After all, she has won the Berlin Film Festival Best Actress Award, so her career can be considered successful.

Now she just wants to accompany her lovely daughter as she grows up, and she feels extremely satisfied.

"Yeah." Wu Yuan sighed helplessly: "The Mulan project is really a mess."

"There were many twists and turns during the preparations. After we finally started filming, the director and the leading actress disagreed, so we stopped filming after less than a third of the time. After so much arguing, the director got really mad and went on strike."

"The leading actress wants to continue filming, but it's hard for Disney to find someone to take over the project."

"After going around in circles, you actually found me with your face licked."

"After all, Disney and I had just collaborated on Bruce Lee, and the collaboration was very pleasant. Naturally, they have a lot of good things to say about me, and they are eager for me to collaborate with them more."

"And Disney also said that as long as I am willing to take over the project, I will have the final say on everything."

"I guess they have suffered enough and need a dictatorial director to take charge of this project. They are fed up with the situation where small directors cannot control actresses."

Although Niki Caro, the female director Disney found for "Mulan", is not young anymore, she is really just a small director in Hollywood.

She entered the directing industry in 94. Apart from a short film she made as a debut, she has only made six films so far, and the total box office of these six films is less than $1 million.
Wu Yuan actually couldn’t understand why Disney wanted to find such a director. He could only say that Disney really loved to use young directors.

When Disney made "Pirates of the Caribbean" back then, it was young directors. Whether it was Gore Verbinski in the original version or Wu Yuan in this time and space, they were both third-tier directors in Hollywood when they directed this movie.

The director Disney found for "Beauty and the Beast" is also a small director, but he has directed at least "Dreamgirls", which was nominated for 8 Oscars except for Best Picture, and the last two "Twilight" films.

Niki Caro was even younger, but she was chosen by Disney, and then he couldn't suppress the heroine with a financial sponsor. Although Depp also liked to act like a big shot, he was at least honest when filming the movie, so neither Gore Verbinski nor Wu Yuan could suppress him.

Now if we change to a female director and meet a domineering actress, she will be at a loss.

In the end, this project took almost two years and cost $100 million, but the crew ended up breaking up, causing Disney to suffer a huge loss, so they had to kneel down and ask Wu Yuan for help.

It’s no wonder that Disney suffered huge losses from “Mulan”, so they were really generous when they approached Wu Yuan.

Money was given when asked for, people were given when asked for, and everything in the crew was led by Wu Yuan, including the writing of the script, which could be completely decided by Wu Yuan.

Disney had only one request for Wu Yuan, which was to take on the project, film it successfully, and make it a box office hit!
Disney had great confidence in Wu Yuan and believed that as long as he was willing to take on the project, he would be able to save this princess film, whose internal rating at Disney was already in jeopardy.

Because Wu Yuan has not failed in Hollywood so far, and the scripts he writes are also very good, and both parties are very satisfied with the cooperation with Disney, so they can give him such great power.

To be honest, Wu Yuan was indeed a little tempted.

When Disney approached Liu Yifei to play Mulan, the young director Niki Caro disagreed to this and that. She even disagreed with the most basic requirement of respecting an epic with a Chinese background and hiring a Chinese historical consultant. She looked like a proud white person, which really disgusted Wu Yuan.

Disney's idea that "our princess movies have their own logic" also made Wu Yuan frown, so he blocked Liu Yifei's invitation to star in the film.

But now, if he were to take on the role of director and let the crew make all the decisions, and the script would be written according to his requirements, then all the problems would no longer be problems.

And the timing is really suitable.

If it was the originally planned shooting period of "Mulan", Wu Yuan would definitely not have had the time to shoot it, as he was busy making "The Monkey King" and "Bruce Lee". These two films, one involves the consolidation of the mainland commercial market, and the other involves the consolidation of international influence. Both cannot be delayed, otherwise his development in the next few years will be restricted.

But it’s different now. He has completed all the plans he was supposed to complete, but the shooting plans for the next two to three years have not been arranged yet. If he wants to make "Mulan", it’s not impossible.

"Disney is probably a bit troubled by the political correctness movement in Hollywood," Wu Yuan said with interest, "so Disney is so stubborn about the Mulan project. They will continue to bet on it even if it fails once."

"After all, this is a movie with an all-Asian cast, which fits in with Hollywood's current philosophy of caring for minorities."

"I heard that Disney is going to make a Black Mermaid for political correctness, and they are going to find a black actress to play the mermaid, just to take care of the feelings of the black community."

"Compared to forcibly dyeing the mermaid black, it is obviously more effective to promote Mulan, a movie that tells a story about a Chinese legendary figure, and it is not as blunt as the black mermaid."

"If the schedule is right, we can actually still take on this movie."

"I will direct and you will play Hua Mulan. Together we will shock audiences around the world with the image of a Chinese princess." (End of this chapter)