Chapter 86: Status Improved Again

Although Wu Yuan became somewhat addicted to surfing the domestic Internet after returning to the set of "Pirates of the Caribbean", he did not neglect his job.

Most of the exterior scenes for this movie have been shot in the Caribbean.

After Wu Yuan returned from China, the crew had already transferred to Los Angeles.

In Los Angeles, Disney prepared a total of four indoor sound stages for this movie, including a semi-enclosed sound stage at the port!

The scenes shot in these studios mainly revolve around Barbossa's treasure cave later in the film, where a pile of gold and silver jewelry and a large box of cursed gold coins are kept, as well as several sea battles.

The most difficult part to shoot was the several sea battles, because according to the plot of the movie, Barbossa and the pirates he led were cursed to gain immortality and would turn into skeletons under the moonlight.

This is 2003, not 2023. Even in Hollywood, special effects like dozens of people turning into skeletons for battle are not easy to do.

The famous Industrial Light and Magic company did the special effects for the "Pirates of the Caribbean" crew!

In order to make these skeleton images, Industrial Light and Magic not only sent a team to follow the whole process, but also input the scanned data of the actors' bodies into the computer so that each skeleton image could match the character's appearance and movement characteristics.

And there is a team behind the scenes that has been working on screen design.

When filming, the actors also had to dress up as little green men and wear a bunch of motion capture equipment to facilitate the synthesis of skeleton special effects later.

Therefore, when actually filming, the on-site effect was not good-looking and even a bit boring.

Most special effects movies are like this. When the audience watches, there are all kinds of cool explosions, the protagonists fly into the sky and escape, and all kinds of fantasy creatures and fantasy creatures are handsome and stylish.

On the set, what Wu Yuan saw was either a green curtain or a blue curtain. The faces of the actors could not even be seen. They were dressed like the men in black in Conan, but the color changed from black to green. .

As far as the director is concerned, Wu Yuan doesn't need to worry about whether the actors' performances are up to par. Anyway, since you can't see the facial expressions, you can get by if the movements are in place.

Wu Yuan, who has filmed many "Internet movies" in his memory, is extremely familiar with this special effects shooting method. The crew's filming progress is extremely fast!

Of course, among the leading actors, except for Depp who had to turn into a skeleton for one scene, neither Keira nor Orlando needed to do this.

Therefore, during the on-site shooting, Wu Yuan only focused on the performances of these three or four actors.

"Keira! Nervous, give me a more nervous expression!"

"Your expression is too calm. You were kidnapped by pirates, not having afternoon tea!"

"Orlando, bend your waist more when you swing the sword, idiot! You will stab yourself if you swing the sword like this!"

"Depp! Don't look more disdainful! You are the most bohemian liar in the Caribbean! You advocate freedom and are not afraid of anyone. Do you understand?"

Almost every day, Wu Yuan could be heard angrily scolding several actors in the studio.

Whether it's Orlando or Keira, or Depp, who will become a big star in the future and loves to play big names, they are all very well-behaved in front of Wu Yuan. Wu Yuan does whatever he says and apologizes immediately when scolded without daring to say a word. Talk back.

Are you kidding me? Now Jerry has to listen to Wu Yuan on the set, and Disney has to coax Wu Yuan. How many actors dare to go against Wu Yuan?

Believe it or not, if you talk back, Jerry will blacklist you!

You ask why Jerry and Disney are so supportive of Wu Yuan?

Then I have to thank director Yimou!

The box office of "Hero" in mainland China has reached 250 million yuan!

And the news reached Hollywood on the other side of the ocean as soon as possible.

The Chinese film market, which has been ignored by Hollywood, has once again entered their sights.

Although, in the past, Hollywood movies also sold well in mainland China, such as "Titanic" which sold a box office of 360 million in the mainland.

But this is not the norm.

Not to mention the mainland, there is no other movie in North America that has a better box office performance than "Titanic"!

In the past two years, since China joined the WTO, 20 Hollywood movies have entered the mainland market every year.

The ones with poor results can only get more than 10 million yuan at the box office, and the best ones can only get 40 to 50 million yuan. ₆₉ₛₕᵤₓ.cₒₘ

This little money, converted into US dollars, is not enough to pay Wu Yuan's director's fee.

But things are different now. Zhang Yimou, a Chinese director, led a group of Chinese actors and made a movie with a Chinese box office of 250 million yuan.

What does this mean?

It shows that China’s film market is beginning to recover again!

China's film market can actually support a single film with a box office of over 200 million!

Of course, what Hollywood values ​​​​is not the money.

After all, now that Hollywood movies enter the mainland market, they can only get 13% of the box office share, and a box office of 100 million can only get 13 million.

What Hollywood values ​​more is that more people are watching movies in mainland China!

Then Hollywood blockbusters should expand their influence in China!

To put it bluntly, the cultural invasion of Hollywood movies in China needs to speed up!

Hollywood has always had the ambition to conquer the global film market.

Because the North American film market has basically become saturated, it is difficult to have explosive growth.

Unless the population of North America doubles immediately!

Although China's current film market is still inconspicuous, China is a country with a large population. After entering the 21st century, the GDP growth rate is also frighteningly fast.

With the economic growth rate shown by China now, more and more people will definitely get used to watching movies in the future!

The top film companies in Hollywood, that is, the Big Six in Hollywood, have keenly noticed that 80% of the growth points of movie box office in the next ten or even twenty years will be from China.

What they want is the future!

And grasping Wu Yuan, to a certain extent, is equivalent to grasping the future.

Because Wu Yuan is a director!

As a director, his career will be very long!

Ten years later, twenty years later, he will still be active in the position of director.

Even ten or twenty years later, he may have just reached the peak of his career. He is really too young.

As long as he can maintain a good cooperative relationship with Wu Yuan, Disney can completely rely on Wu Yuan to open up the Chinese film market in the future!

A Hollywood blockbuster directed by a Chinese is definitely more acceptable and popular to Chinese audiences.

And now Disney actually has no choice.

Wu Baige's "Windtalkers" was released in June last year, and the box office was a huge flop!

With a cost of 115 million US dollars, it only earned 77 million US dollars at the box office.

The huge loss of this movie not only opened up Nicolas Cage's fate of "box office poison", but also became the last straw that overwhelmed MGM.

Now there is only Wu Yuan, the only Chinese director in Hollywood

Oh, that's not the case. Wu Baige will have another "Memento Motion Picture" after that, and he can still survive for a while.

In short, Disney is more afraid of Wu Yuan's failure than Wu Yuan himself, and they hope that Wu Yuan can develop better in Hollywood. "Pirates of the Caribbean" and the subsequent sequels are all big sellers.

If Wu Yuan fails, Hollywood or Disney will also lose a director who can help them enter the Chinese film market more easily.

For emotional and rational reasons, for public and private reasons, whether for the future or for money, Disney must support Wu Yuan!

So this scene appeared now.

Because of the bright performance of the Chinese mainland film market, Wu Yuan, a director who worked hard in Hollywood, immediately rose in status and influence.

In just a few months, in the eyes of Disney, he has changed from a tool director who can be thrown away after use to a partner who must maintain a good relationship for a long time!

He now represents not only himself, but also the Chinese mainland film market.

Reflecting on the crew, Jerry is becoming more and more John-like.

As long as Wu Yuan does not want to change the script or the storyboard, Jerry will support him no matter what he says in the crew, and actively help communicate and solve the problem.

For this point, the more than 20 Chinese crew members brought by Wu Yuan from China feel it more deeply.

Wu Yuan is really powerful in the crew!

The hundreds of blond and blue-eyed foreigners in the entire crew, even the famous elf prince and Edward Scissorhands, are obedient in front of Wu Yuan!

Director Wu asked them to go south, and they would not dare to go north!

Whatever Director Wu said, they did it, and the main feature was a sensible and obedient person!

Seeing Wu Yuan, who stood up and scolded the props team because some props were not arranged properly, several Chinese team members who gathered together to observe and learn were full of emotion.

"Director Wu is really awesome. He scolds these foreigners just like scolding his grandson!"

"Didn't Depp just get scolded yesterday?"

"Of course, the big companies in Hollywood are begging Director Wu to make movies for them. How dare these minions show their teeth in front of Director Wu?"

"Hey, the only Chinese director who can do this is Director Wu!"

"Unfortunately, domestic audiences still don't know how powerful Director Wu is in Hollywood."

"When can Director Wu return to China to make a blockbuster!"

In fact, the vision of the six major Hollywood companies has always been quite advanced. They have long seen that the growth point of the global movie box office market in the 21st century is in China.

However, a regulation restricting Hollywood blockbusters from entering the mainland market immediately choked their necks. They could only enter 20 films a year, which was later relaxed to 37 films.

Hollywood has always hoped to use the limited number of films entering the mainland market to create the maximum box office benefits.

If a Chinese director really makes it in Hollywood at this point in time, he will definitely be treated differently and be treated as a guest of honor.

The premise is that this director can really control Hollywood commercial blockbusters and conquer the city for Hollywood.

Wu Baige himself failed to live up to expectations and fell on the eve of dawn. After Wu Baige, no Chinese director can control Hollywood commercial blockbusters.

Ang Lee actually tried it under the influence of the six majors, but his performance in The Hulk was not good, and he was only suitable for art films, and could not escort Hollywood commercial blockbusters.

With no other choice, Hollywood has set its sights on the field of co-productions, and as a second choice, it uses Chinese actors to make special editions for the mainland.

Of course, our Director Wu does not intend to be the vanguard of Hollywood's attack on the Chinese market.

Let's see how our Director Wu fooled Hollywood~