The Best Director

"I'm a policeman."

In the quiet office room, Heath Ledger muttered to himself and wrote something down on his notepad from time to time. He was dissecting the character "Chen Yongren (lly)". Since the character's specific background and undercover duration had not yet been determined, , I didn’t even know what my name was before. Wang Yang said: "What name do you like? It doesn’t matter, okay, okay, Billy!" lly means "baton" in American English, which is naturally an allusion to "Billy" is actually a police officer.

Therefore, Heath can only vaguely feel some of the character's moods in different periods in a leaping way. This is enough for him to figure out some personality traits, favorite habits, etc., so as to create a "Billy" that belongs to him.

"Wow wow wow -" Just as he was immersed in a sad and uncomfortable emotion, suddenly the baby's cry came from the monitor, Matilda cried! Ledger couldn't help but frown, and he got up and walked away with love and annoyance. Of course his daughter was his heart and soul, but she was not anyone of "Billy". What should he do? This is out of character! How do other actors handle these relationships? He frowned, should he leave them for a while, lock himself up and isolate himself from the world?

"Ma Shoe, what's wrong? Haha! Hug daddy..."

Heath Ledger is famous for being picky and casual in his film selections, but because of his superb acting skills and popularity, he has always had many film appointments despite careful selection. Last year, four films were released. Now that he has a wife and a daughter, he has become family-oriented and does not want to take on so many jobs. Now he only has two film contracts on hand, one is the American version of "Infernal Affairs" which will start filming in July this year, and the other is expected to be the second season next year. The filming of "The Dark Knight" has just begun, and he will not take on other movies before completing these two movies. It is enough.

It was also full of dangers. Ledger was almost unable to participate in the US version of "Infernal Affairs" due to scheduling conflicts, and missed "Billy" with regret; but luckily, he gave up on "I'm Not There", which was also scheduled to start filming in July. "Robbie", chose to join "Infernal Affairs".

"I'm Not There" is a musical biographical drama about the life of legendary singer Bob Dylan. Distributor: Weinstein Films. Director and screenwriter: Todd Haynes. Starring: Cate Blanchett, Christian Bale... is also scheduled to be released at the end of this year or next year. What does this mean? If this independent film is a masterpiece, the Weinstein brothers will not let it remain unknown during the awards season. The genre positioning will be like last year's "Walking with Songs" and the previous "The King of Soul Singers".

Heath Ledger is the man most famous for "The Departed", but he also has some other jobs. Recently, he and his friend, the famous singer Ben Harper, intend to form a record company and step into the music industry to find out. Both Ledger and Harper hope to get Magic Young to join them, but his interest is not very great.

In fact, it's not that Wang Yang is not interested, it's actually that the film work has tortured him so much that he can't even sleep! He would never allow himself to sacrifice family time.

He doesn't want to just invest money. He knows that once he joins a team, he won't be able to sit back and do nothing. It seems to have opened Pandora's box, so this matter needs to be carefully considered. In addition, if they want to jointly open a music company, he feels that the lineup of the "Big Three" is a bit unsatisfactory.

Firstly, he is too busy, and secondly, he is a rookie in the music industry; Ledger is obviously a playboy, and with his temperament, he does not have much "business ability"; Harper has experience and connections, but his management ability and vision If there are any shortcomings, he just feels that he needs someone else.

Time flies, and there is not much time to think about the music company. Wang Yang has been busy with the preparations for two films. Of course, he cannot do everything himself. Many tasks are assigned, and he will not be the director of the American version of "Infernal Affairs" The first production producer has less control over many things, but the adaptation of the script must be fully taken care of no matter what, and it is urgent. At least the character settings and scene outlines must be laid out for substantial preparations.

How to adapt "Infernal Affairs"? This problem gives Wang Yang a headache. He doesn't want to disappoint movie audiences in Asia, nor does he want to disappoint movie audiences in Europe and the United States. However, in any adaptation from east to west, there must be differences in concepts. He is sure You need to choose a camp or a camp closer to it.

The WB version of "The Departed" (The-Departed, literally translated as "The Dead") undoubtedly chooses the Western camp. It seems to be telling a story similar to "The Departed", but the style and buried themes are completely different, providing The movie-watching experience and energy are also different. This is precisely because of the overall cultural differences, differences in beliefs, and differences in interpretations of good and evil among the creative teams of directors, screenwriters, actors, etc....

The differences in themes and styles in turn lead to differences in stories and characters, for example, a very critical point: time. In "Infernal Affairs", Chen Yongren and Liu Jianming have been undercover agents for almost ten years, which makes Chen Yongren more ruffian. At the same time, his words and deeds have already become calm and straightforward, even if he is in pain inside; "Infernal Affairs" 》Not long after the two of them worked as undercover agents after graduating from the police academy, they had a different mentality and behavior.

Each of the two movies has its own characteristics and charms. If I had to rank the favorites, Wang Yang prefers "Infernal Affairs" because it gives more unforgettable and worth savoring emotions, regardless of whether Is it the characters or the relationship between the characters; "The Departed" is more commercial. It tells emotions and stories in a rough, cheerful, exciting, straightforward and realistic way, and finally completes the theme, so its characters and In contrast, the relationships between the characters appear simple and black and white, and their complex and contradictory inner worlds are also a bit superficial.

"The Departed" has naturally received very good reviews in the United States. It has a box office of 100 billion on Rotten Tomatoes' three indicators and received Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Editing. You can imagine how people are interested in "Americanization" Very interested in the endless stories and emotions after.

In Asia, it is very average. It only received 1.03 million US dollars in box office in Hong Kong, 1.21 million US dollars in Taiwan, Singapore and mainland China. Most of the media and the public dismissed it and laughed at it, thinking it was just a boring and bad movie. It’s not difficult to understand. The vast majority of the audience watched with the mindset of “Infernal Affairs” vs. “Infernal Affairs”. As a result, they saw almost the same stories and American-style thinking and emotions, which was such a waste of a masterpiece. It's strange that everyone has a good face.

Wang Yang understands that no matter what kind of film he makes, it will inevitably be compared with the original version. It seems that one party will be disappointed. How can he have the cake and eat it too?

In an instant, he figured out that the way to get the best of both worlds was to shoot according to his own ideas! He will consider the aesthetics of North American audiences and the aesthetics of Asian audiences, but will not be bound by them. This is a "non-traditional commercial film". The most important thing is, what does he want to get from a story about two undercovers?

"Loneliness." It is also loneliness, and it is loneliness that suffers from different pains. Loneliness that even death cannot solve, Wang Yang knows that is what he wants.

Another main reason why Wang Yang prefers "Infernal Affairs" is that the acting is so great! That group of talented veteran actors supported the whole movie, especially the four men, it was really wonderful! This is where "The Departed" falls apart. As a popular movie that won the Oscar for Best Picture that year, it only received one Best Supporting Actor nomination (Mark Wolber) in terms of acting awards. grid), it can be seen from the side that the actors' performances are not amazing.

It can't be said to be bad, it can be called "a job well done", but there is a chance to be better. The problem all occurs in the control of the heat. Leonardo DiCaprio (Chen Yongren) stretched his nerves too much. , he seems to be exploding all the time; Matt Damon (Liu Jianming) has almost no effort. If Leonardo's fire is too strong, he is too weak; and Jack Nicholson (Han Han) Chen)'s role was a bit excessive, and his performance was very scene-stealing, causing the fire to get out of control from the other end; as for Martin Sheen (Officer Huang), he almost failed to leave any deep impression.

Except for Heath Ledger, who plays Chen Yongren, the cast list is still blank. Liu Jianming, Han Chen and Officer Huang will definitely appear, and there is no shortage of actors on the candidate list.

Although Matt Damon agreed to participate in Liu Jianming's audition, Wang Yang felt that it probably wouldn't be him. Martin Scorsese's directing ability is unquestionable, but Damon still showed a limited interpretation of this role. Maybe it was him. Cosese likes it, but Wang Yang doesn't like that style unless Dameng has a different performance that impresses him during the audition; and Jake Gyllenhaal's audition inquiry was directly rejected.

There are only a few months until the shooting starts, and there is not much time for the actors to slowly prepare, and the shooting situation is bound to be very tight, so he must choose a guy who has a good understanding of the character and is crazy enough to play the role. Michael Pitt is also " "Liu Jianming" was on the audition list, but we won't know how he performed until later.

"I won't know the answer until I see the script." Jack Nicholson previously responded to the invitation to star. He was happy to deal with Heath Ledger and was interested in "Infernal Affairs". Wang Yang said to him: "You'll be here soon." The conversation between the two took up a lot of time on NBA topics, because Nicholson started the conversation and asked why he couldn't be seen at Staples Center recently. Wang Yang naturally said that he was busy, and it was more fun to watch TV with his baby at home. Then we talked about whether the Lakers can make the playoffs, the upcoming All-Star Game, which team will be the championship...

As a result, in the All-Star Game, the Eastern Conference staged a huge comeback from being 21 points behind and defeated the Western Conference 122-120. LeBron James, who scored 29 points, won his first MVP trophy. Tracy- McGrady missed out on the MVP title, and Yao Ming continued to perform mediocrely.

"Flame and Huayi have joined hands to establish Oriental Flame and plan to launch joint venture Chinese-language films in the next five years" - Sina Entertainment; "Flame Huayi founded Oriental Flame, and Flame Chinese-language films will be available within five years" - NetEase Entertainment; "Magic is not ruled out" Directing Chinese-language films" - Tencent Entertainment...

Although it is not as eye-catching as the NBA All-Star Game news, this news has attracted a large number of clicks from movie fans! Oriental Flame Entertainment Company! ? Wang Yang directs a Chinese-language film! ? what happened! ?

After hurriedly reading the news, the fans were excited and disappointed at the same time. The editor suffered a thousand cuts! It turns out that Flame Films and Beijing Huayi Brothers Media Group recently finalized a cooperation agreement to jointly establish a new film and television production company "East-Flames". The company will be headquartered in Shanghai. The first film project is expected to be launched within the next five years. Completed and released. It is understood that Flame Films will be responsible for the global distribution of EF films in the future, while Huayi Brothers will be responsible for the distribution in China.

"This is a huge and exciting opportunity." Mark Slante of Flame Group said, "China's film market is developing rapidly and has a different look every year. We believe that in the next 10 years, it will become One of the film markets that cannot be ignored in the world, it may be the largest." He also said that Oriental Flame will create Sino-US co-productions with Chinese culture as the background of the story. Both Chinese-language films and English-language films will have the opportunity to be put into production. That will be the mainland An unprecedented large-scale production.

"We are very sure that after Chinese stories are carefully created with high cost and high technology, they will have a wide market in the world." Slante's words all imply that EF Films has global ambitions, and it will not only serve China. In addition, he also hinted that EF will plan to introduce some typical "Hollywood movie" genres, such as superheroes, youth campus, family comedies, etc. to China. He said: "We believe these movies are quite dynamic no matter where they are. , Chinese audiences should have their own "High School Musical."

"Actually, the movies we want to make are mainly large-scale productions, at least over 100 million US dollars..." Hu Ming, Huayi Brothers' secretary general, also accepted an interview with reporters and talked about some detailed cooperation intentions. , she even revealed a shocking news: Wang Yang may direct EF's first Chinese-language film!

Wang Yang, who was interviewed by a Sina reporter over the phone, naturally expressed a lot of excitement. When answering the question of "directing a Chinese film," he said with a smile: "We can't rule out this possibility, we can't rule out any possibility, but at the moment For me, I need to go all out to make the two movies I have."

This is why Chinese film fans are so disappointed. First of all, Huo Huo did not say that EF's first film project will definitely be a Chinese film, and most of it will be an English film for the world market, and then add a few popular Chinese actors to play supporting roles; then Normal people can see that what Wang Yang said was polite, but Hu Ming said it right, "It was impossible twenty years ago." In any case, this co-production is the first time in the history of China \u0026 Hollywood. At least it’s a Chinese story! $100 million budget! history? Fantasy? Sci-fi? There is enough reason to look forward to it.

As for the Chinese version of "High School Musical"? The most die-hard singing and dancing fans raised their brows, it was a bit creepy just thinking about it...

A live-action Chinese story film with a production cost of US$100 million? Let alone 20 years ago, it was unimaginable even 5 years ago! Even if "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" was a huge success. But the facts are before our eyes. The Chinese film market is growing day by day. Flame Films has completed an important step in Asia faster and earlier than any other company. The North American media, while sighing, inevitably questioned whether the Chinese film market is really Will it develop so fast? ! Will it become the world's largest market in 10 years? Are you kidding me?

No one knows now, but the association between Huayi Brothers and Huayi Brothers has made Hollywood studios feel a little uneasy. If the Chinese market really becomes so exaggerated in a few years, they will undoubtedly take a big step slower, and other joint venture movies will be released. Now, they are looking for partners to start a company?

Of course, we must secure a controlling stake in some powerful Chinese company, otherwise it will be very difficult to move forward and there will be no change in issuance resources! You must know that this kind of joint venture film has a huge power. It breaks the annual import quota. If the company is established in China and Huayi Brothers distributes it, it does not count as an introduction. There is no need to fight with other film producers.

In fact, the competition for the 20 introduction quotas every year is very fierce. It is rumored that many companies have secretly exceeded the boundaries of ordinary lobbying. This also led to Flame Films' final decision to participate in the investment of "Red Cliff". Otherwise, this is regarded as China Film Group's It’s a warm invitation that FF can’t refuse. Wang Yang has been very disrespectful to Han Sanping and his gang several times, and the right to say what movies to introduce is all in their hands. If there is any unpleasantness again, who will guarantee that FF will still have the quota to introduce?

No matter how high the box office of Qi Qiyang is, if he is "banned" and the circumstances are serious, his name will even disappear immediately, and he has to be treated with caution. However, the shareholding ratio of Huoyan Films in "Red Cliff" is not high, only 10%, about 10 million US dollars, which is not considered a high risk.

As for Oriental Flame, which is still just a shell company, currently Flame holds 80.1%, while Huayi holds 19.9%. The two companies agreed to bring in a group of people from Hong Kong to share risks and obtain representatives representing Hong Kong. support.

These things are not urgent, because obviously the market has not matured yet, the time has not come yet, and Dongfang Flame’s first project is still blank. The movie "Fire on the Other Half of the Earth" is in full swing, and Wang Yang is so busy every day that he enjoys it...! .