Chapter 280 Wu Yuan Is Worried

The Hollywood superhero era is coming.

"Iron Man" is the first work to open this era.

Since "Iron Man", Hollywood has been sinking deeper and deeper into the road of big IP.

Whether it is the Marvel series or the DC series, the "Transformers" series, the "Fast and Furious" series, the rebooted "Star Trek" and "Jurassic World", and various Disney princess films, they are all made with the same IP.

In addition, the only movies that can sell well in North America and even the world are various animated movies.

Such as "Despicable Me", "Big Hero 6", "Zootopia", "The Secret Life of Pets", "Finding Nemo" and other movies.

At the most exaggerated time, among the top ten movies of the year in North America in 2016, 6 were derivative movies of Marvel, DC and "Harry Potter", and four were Disney animated movies.

Original movies can't even make it into the top ten, and have completely become the foil of various big IP movies.

Wu Yuan has no way to reverse this situation.

It can be said that the further back in time, the fewer original commercial blockbusters with outstanding box office performance in Hollywood. Only occasionally there are a few small and medium-cost dark horse movies with tens of millions of investment but 300 to 400 million box office.

So, for Wu Yuan, if he wants to make some commercial blockbusters of his own in Hollywood, he has to do it as soon as possible.

Otherwise, after a few years, he will have no choice but to make superhero movies for Paramount, Disney, Universal and other companies.

Originally, he actually wanted to make "2012" before the release of the epoch-making 3D movie "Avatar" to give the global audience the last special effects shock of the pre-2D movie era.

As a result, plans cannot keep up with changes.

Compared with the North American business, it is obviously more important to do the "Gravity" project in China. Wu Yuan could only reluctantly give up "2012" and watch Roland Emmerich conceive the movie "2012".

Now, he is unwilling to be delayed by New Line again and go to shoot the "Kingsman" series.

Although the Kingsman project is not bad, the global box office of more than 400 million US dollars is still not worthy of Wu Yuan.

The first film in the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, which has the worst box office, has a global box office of more than 700 million US dollars.

Wu Yuan has given enough face to New Line by helping it promote Rush Hour 3. If he is asked to promote Kingsman, New Line will be too proud.

So, after reading the script of Kingsman, Wu Yuan told New Line's president Elad directly that the script was fine and the crew could start preparations, but he would not be the director of this movie.

Even if Elad said that as long as Wu Yuan was willing to take over, it would be fine to start filming next year or even the year after, Wu Yuan ignored it.

"Ellard, I have plans to make a movie in Hollywood next year. I may work with one of the Big Six. I really don't have time to make "Kingsman"."

"I believe that with the participation of Cheng Long, this movie is already halfway to success."

"I can recommend a director to you, Matthew Vaughn. His movies are very good and he is fully capable of making this movie."

Matthew Vaughn is the director of the "Kingsman" series of movies.

In the downturn of spy movies, it is really not easy to make a movie that the audience can remember the name.

Matthew Vaughn did it. He made the spy movies, which have always been heavy and dark, novel and interesting.

The most important thing is that his action scenes are very good.

Why is Cheng Long famous in Hollywood?

It's because he is very good at fighting. Not only does he know how to fight, he also teaches the foreign actors in the crew how to fight. There is a whole martial arts class to design excellent fighting scenes.

You know, in most Hollywood action movies, the actors always fight randomly when they fight in groups, just like street thugs fighting.

The kind of pleasing fighting scenes that Chinese people think of do not exist in Hollywood.

But the appearance of Matthew Vaughn broke this stereotype.

In "Kingsman: The Golden Circle", there is a group fight scene in which the male protagonist fights 1v100 in a church, which is a textbook action group scene.

The rotation of the camera, the smoothness of the movements, the overall control, and the use of various agent weapons are eye-opening.

This set of fighting scenes is done in one go, neither exaggerated nor mediocre, and the audience's adrenaline surges. After watching it, they will always remember this fight scene and the exciting feeling when watching it.

More importantly, this fight scene also shows the characteristics of Matthew Vaughn, or the "Kingsman: The Golden Circle" series.

That is, while punching hard and flowing smoothly, he is also elegant, which is in line with the setting of the "gentleman agent" in the movie who wears a tailor-made suit, black-framed glasses, and holds a British gentleman's umbrella.

Wu Yuan sincerely feels that even if he is asked to shoot, he may not be able to shoot this scene well.

Because he doesn't understand what a so-called "British gentleman" is like, Cheng Long's Hong Kong martial arts team probably can't design such elegant fighting moves.

If he and Cheng Long are put together, it may be difficult to shoot the unique style and essence of the "Kingsman" series.

If the "Kingsman" series wants to be well shot, the director Matthew Vaughn is still indispensable.

Although it's early now, Vaughn's directing style has basically taken shape. Two years later, "Kick-Ass" already has a distinct personal style.

It is more reliable to ask him to shoot this movie than Wu Yuan himself.

However, Elad does not know any Matthew Vaughn.

He muttered this strange name several times and asked doubtfully: "Daniel, who is this Matthew Vaughn? I have no impression of him."

"A new director." Wu Yuan had to introduce patiently: "Last August, the fantasy adventure movie "Stardust" directed by him was released and the box office was pretty good."

"This director is very talented, and his directing style is very suitable for "Kingsman"."

"We can sign him and let him be the director of the entire "Kingsman" series, just like I did in "Pirates of the Caribbean."

"Stardust?" Elad frowned: "The movie produced by Paramount?"

"I see." He sighed and glanced at Wu Yuan with some regret: "I will go back and consider your suggestion carefully."

"Seriously, Daniel, can you really not take over "Kingsman"?"

Wu Yuan shook his head firmly.

In the end, Elad accepted Wu Yuan's suggestion, gave up the idea of ​​seeking Wu Yuan to direct, and began the preparations for "Kingsman".

The copyright of this series is shared by Guangshi and New Line Cinema, and the two companies will also jointly finance the filming.

New Line is not a top company with deep pockets, and Guangshi is also a character who saves as much as possible.

The production budget of "Kingsman 1" was only 80 million US dollars, and the two companies each contributed 40 million.

Well, this production cost is even less worthy of Wu Yuan.

In Hollywood, do you have the nerve to ask him to direct a movie with a production cost of less than 100 million US dollars?

After settling the long-pending "Kingsman" project and finally letting it proceed normally, Wu Yuan's business trip to the United States this time was almost done.

Next, he only needs to wait until the release of "Pirates of the Caribbean 3" in May, cooperate with the crew to do some publicity for the release, and run some theater activities, and there will be no other business.

However, his trip to the United States is far from over.

Time has passed in a blink of an eye and it is late February.

After strolling around Chinatown in Los Angeles with Liu Yifei and her daughter, watching an interesting lion dance performance, and spending an exotic Spring Festival, the release of Liu Yifei's two singles was also put on the agenda.

For his girlfriend's road to becoming a global superstar, Wu Yuan was really worried.

"Call Me Maybe" and "Good Time" are the singles that Liu Yifei will release in North America this time. The MVs of both songs have been shot and the audio sources have been prepared.

Even for the song "Good Time", Wu Yuan invited Justin Timberlake to sing with Liu Yifei.

Before Justin Bieber became famous, Justin Timberlake was the most famous Justin in the world.

In 1995, the 14-year-old Justin Timberlake joined the boy band Super Boy and made his debut, becoming a singing and dancing idol that swept North America.

In 2002, Justin went solo and released his first solo album, which won the Grammy Awards for Best Pop Album and Best Pop Male Vocalist.

It is no exaggeration to say that Justin Timberlake has been the most popular male singer in North America in the past five years.

Just a few days ago, he won the Best Pop Male Vocalist and Best Dance Recording Awards at the Grammy Awards.

Logically speaking, it is impossible for a top male singer in North America like Justin Timberlake to collaborate on a single with a pure newcomer like Liu Yifei.

In the film industry, it is almost like Gong Li acting in a movie with a new male singer who has just crossed over, and playing a supporting role for him.

But who can blame Justin Timberlake for wanting to develop in the film industry now?

He is no longer satisfied with being a singer and dancer, but wants to cross over to become a movie actor.

But he does not have any connections in the film industry. The relationship between singers and actors in North America is very clear, and there is almost no crossover between them. His acting career is extremely difficult.

In this case, Wu Yuan invited him to collaborate with Liu Yifei on a single. Obviously, for Justin Timberlake, it was a great opportunity to get involved in the film industry.

So he agreed to the single collaboration without hesitation, hoping that Wu Yuan would help him and bring him into the film industry.

Wu Yuan was also happy to do so.

Justin Timberlake did make some achievements in crossing over to acting in movies.

He performed well in "The Social Network" and "In Time", and he even played the leading role in "In Time"!

Wu Yuan planned to make "In Time", a low-cost and high-reputation movie, after Guangshidai finished the four movies on hand, and asked Justin Timberlake to play the leading role!

Liu Yifei, who knew all this, was so touched.

The senior brother was willing to exchange a movie leading role for her single collaboration, which was really good to her.