Chapter 56: Is the Co-Author Looking for a Tool Director?

Most of the scenes shot in Beijing for "Departures" are the opening scenes of the movie.

That is, the protagonist Lin Wu works in a Peking Opera troupe, and then the troupe disbands and falls into a difficult situation.

There is also the beginning of the scene where the protagonist interviews for a new company and his first job is to be a "corpse" model and is manipulated to shoot a "Departures Teaching Video". Although the movie takes place in the protagonist's hometown, the actual shooting is still in Beijing.

Who said that Beijing has a suitable studio?

These scenes are not heavy, and they are also relatively light-hearted and humorous. Both the actors and the director feel that the shooting is very smooth, and the shooting progress is also very smooth.

However, in just three or five days, this part of the plot was shot, and the crew is also preparing to move to Anshan in the northeast.

Most of the content of this movie will be shot in Anshan.

Anshan is a very special city. It seems that many domestic art film directors prefer it and like to shoot here.

Wu Yuan, who has personally visited the site, has to admit that these directors have a professional vision.

Anshan is very beautiful in winter, with mountains, water and forests, which is very suitable for filming aesthetic art films, and the filming is not inferior to those Winter Sonata movies in RB.

Of course, this does not refer to the urban area of ​​​​Anshan.

This time, the filming location of "Departures" is in Xiuyan County, Anshan, which is an autonomous county of ethnic minorities and retains many original features.

However, just when the crew was about to move to Anshan, Jerry Bruckheimer, who flew from the other side of the ocean, arrived in Beijing while Wu Yuan was still in Beijing, and asked him to meet.

In any case, this is also a gold medal producer in Hollywood, so Wu Yuan had to let the crew go to Anshan first and stay in Beijing for one more day.

Due to the tight schedule, Wu Yuan directly met Jerry at the hotel where he was staying.

It was in the Huaiyang cuisine restaurant on the second floor of this five-star hotel that Wu Yuan met this well-known producer in Hollywood.

Jerry Bruckheimer was born in 1945 and is 57 years old this year, but his blond hair is still thick and lush, and he looks only in his early 40s, and he is very well maintained.

Of course, he is famous in Hollywood not because of his maintenance skills, but because he has produced many excellent movies.

He produced "Pearl Harbor", which was released at the same time as "Juno" this summer, and it has a global box office of 449 million US dollars.

In addition, he also participated in the production of famous movies such as "Armageddon", "Black Hawk Down", "The Rock", "Public Enemies", and "Days of Thunder".

Although Wu Yuan was not flattered that such a well-known producer came all the way to see him, he also attached great importance to it.

The two met in a restaurant, sat down and chatted for a few words, and he took the initiative to ask curiously: "Jerry, I know Michael Bay and you are a good partner, and his "Pearl Harbor" has already been released, isn't there anything next?"

If you want to talk about which director has the best relationship with Jerry Bruckheimer, it is definitely Explosive Bay at this stage.

Starting from Explosive Bay's second film "Armageddon", the two of them have successively cooperated in "Wolf Club" and "Pearl Harbor", and both have achieved very good box office results.

Now Jerry Bruckheimer has started the "Pirates of the Caribbean" project, and his private company is also one of the producers. It is reasonable to ask Michael Bay to be the director, why should Wu Yuan, an outsider, take his turn?

"Daniel, I don't want to hide it from you." Jerry took a sip of the coffee that the waiter had just brought, and said to Wu Yuan very sincerely: "Michael is indeed my first choice."

"In fact, when the movie script was written, the first person I contacted was Michael."

"But he didn't want to take this movie. The reason he gave me was that he didn't want to direct a movie for the time being, and wanted to shoot two documentaries for fun."

"Yes, he wants to be a documentary actor, not a director!"

"You know, he doesn't have much to pursue at the box office now. "Pearl Harbor" has just sold well all over the world, and he doesn't want to take over another commercial blockbuster at all."

"Even if he goes to shoot a documentary, he thinks it's more interesting."

No matter whether Explosive Bay can make a good fantasy movie, as long as he is willing to take over "Pirates of the Caribbean", both Jerry and Disney will definitely be eager to take it, after all, his box office performance in the past two years is really good.

It's a pity that he doesn't want to take it!

After Jerry's serious explanation, Wu Yuan understood the current dilemma of "Pirates of the Caribbean".

When Explosive Bay was unwilling to take the film, Jerry contacted many Hollywood first-line directors one after another, but was rejected by all of them.

The directors with box office success have projects to do, and they will not take such soulless popcorn commercial films where the directors are just big tools.

The directors who have no box office and are aiming for awards look down on such purely commercial films, and Disney does not dare to give such commercial blockbusters to literary and artistic directors for fear that they will not shoot according to the script.

After this screening, only a group of second- and third-rate Hollywood directors can take over this "Pirates of the Caribbean".

Jerry originally accepted this situation.

Hollywood is not without precedents of using small and medium-sized directors to shoot commercial series films!

As long as the director's level is qualified, such purely commercial films can be shot.

He also really found a young director who was good at shooting suspense atmosphere. He just wanted to make it cheap and easy to use. If it couldn't be done, he could use a few more assistant directors who were experienced in directing adventure films.

Don’t think Hollywood doesn’t understand this!

The fact that Guo Xiaosi had 4 to 6 unnamed assistant directors on the crew of "Tiny Times" was not his original creation, it was all leftover from Hollywood.

But this is a last resort choice.

When Wu Yuan burst onto the scene in North America with "Juno", Jerry had other ideas.

"Juno" is indeed just a low-budget movie. The scene only focuses on a small town and has no adventure elements at all. However, this movie has a global box office of US$200 million!

Even if we were to make a mascot, it would be better to find a director with a global box office of US$200 million than a director of the American version of "The Ring," right?

Commercial films operate differently from artistic films.

Commercial films are all about selling points!

The combination of a high-grossing director + well-known actors + handsome men and beautiful women is, at least to say, a top-notch match, which naturally attracts the attention of the audience.

At least on the surface, Wu Yuan joining the "Pirates of the Caribbean" project can make up for the shortcomings of the director's reputation for this movie!

Moreover, Wu Yuan is currently the one with the best value for money among Hollywood directors with a box office of over 100 million yuan!

He only has one movie in North America, and his net worth has not risen to the sky.

The worst result is to hire a mascot director, and the specific filming work of the crew will be controlled by several experienced assistant directors.

The director is indeed the soul of a movie, but in the commercial movies created by the industrialization of Hollywood, the director is only one of the links, one of the tools, not the soul.

This is true for "Pirates of the Caribbean" and even more so for the subsequent Marvel series of movies.

During the conversation with Jerry, Wu Yuan also vaguely guessed his thoughts, and felt that what Jerry valued more than his directorship was his reputation as a "new North American director with a box office of 200 million".

But for this reputation, Jerry is really willing to spend money!

"Daniel, as long as you are willing to accept this movie, we can give you a director's fee of 8 million US dollars. This is not a small amount of money!"

"But you have to sign three film contracts in a row."

"Of course, we can sign a supplementary contract for the director's fees for the next two films!"

"If the global box office of the first film exceeds US$500 million, the subsequent director's fee can be increased to US$10 million!"

Spending eight million dollars on a mascot is definitely a high price.

Jerry believes that Wu Yuan's status as a "$200 million box office director" is worth $8 million. With his name alone, he can add more than $8 million to the box office of "Pirates of the Caribbean"!

Converted into RMB, it’s more than 6,000 and nearly 70 million!

However, Wu Yuan was not immediately impressed. Instead, he looked at the other party with interest, reached out and tapped the table: "Do I have the right to edit?"

"No."

"Who is the biggest in the crew?"

"You are the biggest in the filming work, but you must shoot according to the script. We have professional storyboard artists who will even prepare storyboards."

"Ha." Wu Yuan sneered. What's the point of such a pure tool director? Even if he can earn 8 million US dollars from this trip, it's still very boring!

After thinking about it carefully, Wu Yuan thought of another thing and his eyes lit up: "Then I have another request. I want to bring someone into the group!"

Jerry frowned and suddenly felt that the Chinese director in front of him was a little confused about the situation.

How could Disney's commercial blockbusters allow Chinese actors like Wu Yuanse to come in?

"Daniel, this is a fantasy story about Pirates of the Caribbean in the 17th century. In the background of this story, there is no room for Asian actors." Jerry shook his head and refused.

"No, you got me wrong."

Unexpectedly, Wu Yuan smiled and said with gleaming eyes: "I want to bring some crew members into the set."

"Not many, just about twenty, including photography assistants, lighting, sound recording, equipment workers, props, scenery, art directors, factory workers, location selectors, layout designers and other staff."

"Of course, they will serve as assistants and interns after joining the crew and will not interfere with the crew's normal filming."

"You know, the crew in China is not professional enough and there is a lot to learn. I also need a crew in China that I can use easily."

"I guess you wouldn't mind?"

Jerry's Adam's apple twitched and he swallowed, "Daniel, are you serious?"

In fact, for Wu Yuan himself, participating in such a large project is also a learning opportunity.

You can also borrow chickens to lay eggs, which is pretty good.

Please note that the original "Pirates of the Caribbean" is like this. Not only Pirates of the Caribbean, but also many Hollywood commercial IP movies, the director is a big tool, acting as a series of crew members, and there are dedicated people in charge of scripts and storyboards. , editing and special effects are done by other people. The director only needs to be responsible for the on-site shooting. He only needs to be able to tell whether the actors are passing or not, and can shout "yes" or "pass". He is only responsible for the scene shooting. There is no need to worry about other things. This is what is called The industrialized assembly line makes the director's work easier, but it doesn't mean he can become a famous director.

I really am not making this up.

Just look at the director of "Wonder Woman."

Directors like James Cameron are the ones who really take charge of everything in the crew, and everything has to go through his hands, but he is James, and he makes his own movies, so there is really no comparison.

Speaking of which, Zack Snyder didn't even have the editing rights in "Justice League", let alone Wu Yuan