Chapter 159: "Pirates of the Caribbean 2" Is Being Filmed

After resting for two days in the Beverly mansion, dealing with some trivial matters of the company, and arranging the next stage of work, Wu Yuan finally had time to deal with his personal affairs.

He brought the original film of "Painted Skin" to the headquarters of Weta Digital and handed it to them.

In the next few months, Wu Yuan will come to Weta Digital from time to time to check the special effects production situation, hold meetings with the team to discuss specific special effects arrangements, and ensure that the special effects produced in the post-production meet his expectations.

The workload is not large, but it is very tedious.

Fortunately, Weta Digital's headquarters is in Los Angeles. When Wu Yuan started filming "Pirates of the Caribbean 2", he could also take time to focus on the post-production, without delaying the two.

In this way, Wu Yuan also started a daily two-point-one-line life in Los Angeles, running back and forth between home and Weta Digital.

Although China on the other side of the ocean is in a joyful Spring Festival holiday, Wu Yuan is still busy with work.

Soon, time came to the end of February.

Wu Yuan's crew flew from China to Los Angeles.

The preparations for Pirates of the Caribbean 2 have been basically completed, and the actual shooting will begin soon.

Speaking of which, the preparations for this movie were really difficult.

First of all, Disney was very confident due to the success of Pirates of the Caribbean 1, and wanted to shoot the second and third movies together.

This put a lot of pressure on the two screenwriters, who had to write the scripts for the last two movies in one go.

The two screenwriters knew that since the crew had not changed, they could not let the various plots and characters develop freely like many Hollywood series.

They had to make the story connect reasonably like Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings.

It took a lot of effort for them to use the "Fountain of Youth" to write the story of the second part.

When it came to the script for the third part, they only thought of the concept of "the end of the world", and wanted to introduce elements of the Far East and the East India Company, so that Captain Jack could take the Black Pearl on a world tour.

However, the script for the third part was stopped by Wu Yuan.

He really couldn't accept the "Xiao Feng" in the third part. The Chinese pirates written by foreigners were even stranger than Sibu Xiang.

Not only that, in the script writing, Wu Yuan also made some revisions and guidance to the script according to his impression of the story of "Pirates of the Caribbean 2".

There is no way. In the original track, the script of "Pirates of the Caribbean 2" was polished by two screenwriters and director Gore Verbinski.

For example, the sailors on the Flying Dutchman in the second part should be designed as ghost-like creatures in the minds of the two screenwriters, that is, referring to the legend of the "ghost ship".

But Gore Verbinski thought the setting of the "ghost ship" was too old-fashioned, so there was a ship of crew members who looked like incompletely evolved marine creatures, and Davy Jones' octopus face.

Now that the director has changed to Wu Yuan, such changes must be corrected by Wu Yuan.

Fortunately, after the success of "Pirates of the Caribbean 1", Wu Yuan's voice in the crew has also increased, and now the screenwriters and Disney are willing to follow his ideas.

With his intervention, the script of "Pirates of the Caribbean 2" gradually became the same as he remembered.

And getting the script done does not mean that the movie can be filmed.

The next step is the actor audition.

Before Wu Yuan returned to North America, he was interviewing actors online with producers and screenwriters during the filming of Painted Skin.

It took a lot of effort for Wu Yuan to gather the actors of Pirates of the Caribbean 2, and basically used the cast of his dream.

His production concept for this series of films is to restore the version he has seen in his dreams as much as possible without making any drastic changes.

Well, except for the third one.

After getting the actors, the crew entered the long process of prop production.

The production scale of this sequel is much larger, and it is necessary to make fully functional ships for filming.

The "Black Pearl" was built in Bayeux La Batre, Alabama, which is famous for its shipyards and shipbuilding experts.

At the same time, the 170-foot-long, 420-ton "Flying Dutchman" was also built.

These two ships not only have the appearance required by the film, but also have sufficient sailing capabilities and sufficient practical value.

Shipbuilding and landscaping, everything is being prepared in an orderly manner.

The crew also found four tall ships to fill the background.

The scenes that had been built in the previous film had experienced three typhoons in the past two years and had been severely damaged and needed to be rebuilt.

In addition, Jerry, the producer, visited the countries along the Caribbean coast and selected the small island country of the Dominican Republic as the main shooting location for the second film.

The entire preparation work started last summer and took more than half a year to complete.

Even in the middle, due to the rising costs and the unfinished script, Disney once threatened to cancel the project.

But in the end, Disney did not do so and compromised, no longer thinking about the second or third consecutive shooting, and filmed the second film first.

Otherwise, if we really have to wait for the script of the third film, and then make the scenery and props for the third film, it is estimated that we will not be able to start this year.

This is why "Pirates of the Caribbean 2" officially started on February 28.

Compared with the first film, Wu Yuan was completely hands-off, and he was more involved in the second film. From script creation to casting to the production of various props, he nodded and designed them personally.

Wu Yuan is more concerned about this movie than the first one.

If he was just a tool in the first one, then in the second one, he can say that he is really the father of "Pirates of the Caribbean".

This project has truly become his masterpiece.

February 28.

Disneyland, Los Angeles, California.

The first day of filming was conducted at Disney Studios in Los Angeles, including the interior of the Black Pearl and another ship in the film.

The first day of filming was relatively simple and boring, but everyone in the crew was excited and enthusiastic.

And there were many fans watching the filming.

It is impossible for Disneyland to close directly for the filming of "Pirates of the Caribbean". That would be a waste of money. They just temporarily closed the Pirates of the Caribbean Park and lent it to the crew for filming.

This also allows tourists who come to Disneyland in the next few days to have a novel experience and watch the filming of the movie on the spot.

"Keira, smile happily, you are going to marry Will!" Wu Yuan was sweating and roared behind the monitor with a walkie-talkie.

The crew of "Pirates of the Caribbean 2" is much larger than the previous one.

There are more than 400 crew members alone, and with some temporary staff, there are at least 600 people working for the crew.

Even if these people have their own supervisors to manage, Wu Yuan, who is in charge of the overall planning, also needs to deal with a lot of things and catch up with the filming.

For him, the filming of "Pirates of the Caribbean 2" is also a big challenge!

Seeing that he was sweating profusely in Los Angeles at the end of February, you can see how tired he was and how many difficulties he encountered.

"Depp, shit! You can't be unprofessional just because you are famous!"

With another curse, Wu Yuan stood up from the director's chair, pointed at Depp's nose and cursed: "If you are so careless again, I will ask Disney to change people!"

"Don't think that Captain Jack really has to be you. At worst, I won't shoot this movie!"

Depp, wearing a Captain Jack costume, felt a little aggrieved. He really didn't act like a big shot, but he was a little distracted.

But seeing Wu Yuan's angry face, with an attitude that if you dare to talk back, then don't shoot today, Depp had to swallow his grievances.

"Director, it's my fault." He forced a smile.

Staring at him angrily, Wu Yuan picked up the intercom: "All departments, get ready, do it again!"

There were more than 400 people in the crew, and no one dared to offend the director, so they quickly kept silent and acted quickly.

"Second act, third shot, second time, start!"

Compared with the shooting of the first part, the second part was obviously much more difficult.

Wu Yuan also understood why many well-known directors said that it was very difficult to shoot a sequel.

Not only because the scale of sequels is often larger than the previous work, with more investment, more staff, and larger scenes, which makes the coordination difficulty increase exponentially.

It's also because the actors are often a little arrogant after the popularity of the first part.

In other words, they are not as obedient and easy to use as before.

Even Keira, a young and sensible girl, is obviously not as dedicated as she was in the first part when it comes to shooting.

During the first filming, she would go into the water whenever she wanted, and she would soak in the water for a whole day at any time, even if her contact lenses were washed off, she would not complain.

During the filming of the second film, when they went into the water in the studio, Keira would complain that the water was a little cold, and she needed an assistant to bring hot water and a blanket as soon as possible.

Although this is a normal situation, Wu Yuan felt that he was not used to it.

Keira was still good, at least she would do whatever Wu Yuan asked her to do, and at most she would complain a few words.

Depp was different, this guy was really arrogant.

When filming the first film, in order to play the role well, he would pull out his teeth and take the initiative to get gold teeth.

When filming the second film, he did not pull out his teeth again, but made gold patches to fool around.

That was fine, but what bothered Wu Yuan the most was that Depp had a big show in the crew, with seven or eight assistants surrounding him, and during the actual filming, he would occasionally put forward some so-called "opinions".

What's the opinion? Actually, he just wanted to change to a more relaxed shooting method or take a break.

At the beginning, Wu Yuan could still discuss with him properly, but after a few times, Wu Yuan's temper also came up.

No director has a good temper.

When he scolded and even threatened not to shoot, Jerry, the producer, stepped in and finally suppressed Depp.

Then, the shooting in the Los Angeles studio went smoothly, and Wu Yuan regained the feeling of being able to control the crew like an arm when shooting the first film.

However, he didn't enjoy this smoothness for long.

In mid-April, the crew completed the shooting in the Los Angeles studio, and after most of the interior shooting of the Black Pearl and the Flying Dutchman were completed, they were about to move to the Caribbean.

When they went to St. Vincent Island to shoot the scenes of Port Royal and Tortuga Island in the film, everything went smoothly. These two places had been shot in the first film, and everyone had experience.

But when the crew moved to the neighboring Dominican Republic, the difficulties began.

The crew consists of 600 people, and more than 400 people were hired in the Dominican Republic for filming.

For this small Caribbean island country, more than a thousand people gathered together, which is really lively.

The country's government was unprepared for the arrival of a Hollywood production.

On the first day on the island, the huge production team of 600 people occupied 90% of the roads on the island, causing traffic jams on the island.

Moreover, the roads on the island are in disrepair and are full of potholes, making it very inconvenient for vehicles to move around.

What's even more unfortunate is that the local weather is still very bad, with torrential rains and hot temperatures alternating.

The main filming on the island was some of the battles on the island and the chase scenes in the forest in the second half of the film.

This adds insult to injury for the actors.

"This damn weather." Wu Yuan, who was wearing a raincoat and hiding under a shed made of banana leaves to take shelter from the rain, cursed and complained to Jerry.

But Jerry had already expected this. While adjusting his raincoat, he said calmly: "Daniel, this is the Caribbean, a place where the weather is unpredictable."

"You have to adapt, we have to stay here for another two months."

"I'm more worried about the fact that we might be over budget than I am about the weather."

Frowning, Jerry said helplessly: "It's such a waste of money to film here. Do you know how many bills I have received these days?"

"On important shooting days, the catering department has to prepare three meals a day for 780 to 840 people."

"Breakfast alone requires 1,100 to 1,500 eggs, 100 to 160 pounds of bacon, 80 loaves of bread, 50 pounds of sausages, and more than 10 boxes of fruit."

"Except for some fruits and some eggs that can be purchased directly locally, most things have to be flown directly from the United States."

"Damn it, if the local cassava hadn't been so delicious, I don't think I would have accepted spending this money!"

"And this is just the beginning."

The more he talked, the more distressed Jerry felt.

"Do you know how distressed I was when I saw that list of project data?"

"We were filming in the Dominican Republic and needed 475 cell phones, 200 walkie-talkies, 550 boxes of clothing, and 178 barrels of smoke-generating materials!"

"The sound effects team also prepared more than 6,000 batteries, and the props department prepared 460,000 feet of rope!"

"Even you requested 400 miles of film!"

"Just to prepare and transport these things here, the crew used more than 10,000 one-way tickets for transportation!"

“This doesn’t even include meals that we directly charter planes to deliver!”

"Oh my god, we will spend at least $90 million more on this sequel than the previous one!"

Jerry didn't care about the local heavy rain at all. What he cared about was that every extra day the crew stayed in the Dominican Republic would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars!

"Daniel, even if it rains heavily, the crew cannot stop work!"

Jerry wiped the rain off his face and said fiercely: "Let's change the script!"

"Change part of the forest chase and fight scenes into rain scenes!"

"Depp took my $20 million plus 5% of the global box office!"

"This money is not that easy to get!"

"Isn't it just a little heavy rain? It won't kill anyone!"

Good guy, you are ruthless as a producer, you will do anything to save money.

Wu Yuan actually has no objection to this, and he is also a little unhappy with Depp now.

"I think this is a good suggestion."

The two looked at each other and smiled.