Chapter 246: Taken

The employees of Galaxy Pictures did receive a good year-end bonus during this Spring Festival because of the huge sales of the company's films.

However, having a lot of money does not mean that they can have a good New Year, because the actors of "Taken", including Liam Neeson, have all arrived safely in Shangjing under the leadership of Zhuang Wenqiang.

This also means that they will have to work overtime during this Spring Festival.

Fortunately, Wang Hao is not a black-hearted boss. All employees who work overtime are compensated at the rate of five times their salary.

With the help of overtime pay, these employees naturally had no complaints. The entire "Taken" crew was successfully set up in Shangjing and began to enter the filming state.

Of course, a press conference is also essential before the filming of a movie starts.

Originally, if "Taken" was still directed by Zhuang Wenqiang as originally planned, the attention to this movie might not be so high.

However, now that Wang Hao has been appointed as the director, media reporters from all sides have flocked to the launch conference of "Taken".

The launch conference of "Taken" was held in a hotel near the Huairou Film and Television Base in Beijing. When reporters from major news media arrived, they found that most of the people standing on the stage were foreign actors from Hollywood.

The only person they are familiar with, besides the director Wang Hao, is the supporting actress Liu Yifei.

So after the press conference officially started, most of the media reporters focused their interviews on Wang Hao and Liu Yifei.

"Yifei, I'm a reporter from Sina Entertainment. I'd like to ask, how do you feel about working with Director Wang Hao for the first time?"

“Very happy and excited.”

"Yifei, may I ask how you got involved in this big Hollywood production?"

"An audition, of course!"

"Yifei! Yifei! What do you think of Director Wang?"

Such a straightforward question made Liu Yifei pause for a rare moment. After glancing at Wang Hao, she said:

"Director Wang is very strict and has very high requirements for movies. Acting under his guidance, I believe my acting skills will be greatly improved."

Wang Hao smiled at her, and the reporters handed the microphone to Wang Hao.

"Director Wang!"

"Come one by one!" Wang Hao pressed his hands down and began to answer the reporters' questions one by one.

Just like when they questioned Liu Yifei, these reporters also dug a lot of traps when asking questions.

For example, a reporter from Southern Weekly pointed out that the director of the movie "Taken" was originally supposed to be Zhuang Wenqiang, so why was it replaced by Wang Hao? Is the mainland entertainment industry suppressing new directors from Hong Kong?

This kind of question was obviously intended to cause trouble, but fortunately Wang Hao was also experienced. After revealing that Zhuang Wenqiang was busy with a new project, he cleverly resolved the issue.

After sending these reporters away, the crew finally started the official filming.

Unlike the original version of "Taken", the identity of the male protagonist in Wang Hao's "Taken" has changed to a certain extent. He has changed from a retired agent to a special police officer of the Hong Kong Special Service Team.

Because of this, a lot of the plot logic and scenes had to be changed.

However, those who need to go to Hong Kong to shoot outdoor scenes, now they are mainly shooting indoor scenes in the studio in Huairou. For example, the first scene today is that Liam Neeson, as a father, adds gift packaging to the newly bought digital products to compensate his neglected daughter and prepares to give them to her at her daughter's birthday party.

The content of the play is also very simple, Liam Neeson is just sitting on the sofa and wrapping gifts.

Of course, there are many details in this scene.

For example, the decoration of Liam Neeson's house is simple to the point of being crude, straightforward and tough, and the colors are basically cold colors such as black, yellow, and gray. There is nothing unnecessary, in order to highlight the character traits of the male protagonist.

In addition, Liam Neeson is also very particular about the gifts he chooses for his daughter.

In the original story, he chose a karaoke machine that seems a bit old-fashioned now, because his daughter dreamed of becoming a singer.

However, the background of Wang Hao's "Taken" is the science fiction world of the Galaxy Cinematic Universe, and the time is near future, so the things Liam Neeson gives to his daughter naturally have to show science fiction.

Regarding this prop, the screenwriters of "Taken" initially suggested using a smartphone like in previous science fiction movies.

But this suggestion was rejected by Wang Hao. After consulting Chen Mingyong of OPPO, he boldly changed the gift to a smart tablet.

After all, Chen Mingyong has given him some shares of Oppo, and under his advice, Oppo's R&D department has spent nearly two or three years to develop a mature tablet computer.

In a mutually beneficial situation, he certainly had to take care of his own people. Not only did he replace the gift with a tablet computer, he also specially marked the brand of the computer as Opal.

This can also be considered as an advertisement placement, and it also coincides with the release of the movie next year, forming a promotional linkage with the Oppo tablet that will be released at the same time.

Of course, the scenery and details are all prepared in advance by the props and staff on the set.

During the live filming, Liam Neeson lived up to his Oscar-winning status. Even the action of folding and wrapping a gift perfectly expressed emotions such as nervousness and guilt.

"Okay, click, save one!"

Wang Hao looked at the images on the monitor and shouted into the intercom.

Liam Neeson, who was performing, stopped and breathed a sigh of relief, allowing the staff to touch up his makeup and prepare for another shoot.

As for the others, they were busy restoring the shooting scene to its original state. Everything was so orderly, quick and efficient.

Liu Yifei, who had been standing behind Wang Hao and watching the entire filming process, was also very surprised at this time.

You should know that despite her young age, she has filmed many movies and has worked with many domestic directors.

It was the first time she had seen such an efficient and professional crew as the one for "Taken" in China.

The only crew atmosphere that can be compared to this one is perhaps the crew of "The Forbidden Kingdom" which she filmed in the first half of last year.

Anyway, based on her perception, although most of the behind-the-scenes team of "Taken" are Chinese, the entire crew seems to be on par with the professional team in Hollywood.

Moreover, when Wang Hao was filming his first movie "Buried", Liu Yifei also watched the scene as a student of the leading actor Huang Lei.

At that time, although Wang Hao was a director, he was still a bit childish, which made people feel that they were just classmates and there was no difference.

However, now, two years later, they are on the same set again. Looking at Wang Hao sitting in the director's chair and speaking in a very steady and calm tone, Liu Yifei has a completely different feeling.

Full of domineering aura!

Kingly style!
(End of this chapter)

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