Chapter 320 Preparations for a New Movie

Chapter 320 Preparations for a New Movie

Chapter 320 Preparations for a New Movie
The first co-production film directed by Wang Hao was "Wushuang", which was released in 2006.

The film earned more than 1.4 million yuan at the domestic box office and million US dollars at the overseas box office. In that era, it could be said to be extremely successful both at home and abroad.

Then Wang Hao's second co-production film "Taken" was released in 2009, with a domestic box office of 2.6 million and a global total box office of 3.1 million US dollars. Compared with its cost of 1500 million US dollars, this result can also be said to be a huge profit.

The reason why these two co-productions directed by Wang Hao are recognized by audiences at home and abroad is that, on the one hand, the places where the events take place are mostly in Hong Kong, a place where Chinese and foreign cultures have long coexisted.

On the other hand, the themes of these two films both contain "modern" and "action" elements, which reduces many conflicts and incongruities in cultural elements.

As for using European and American stars as male protagonists, this can only be regarded as icing on the cake. After all, "The Great Wall" also invited Matt Damon, and "Shang-Chi" also invited Tony Leung Chiu-wai, but they were also ridiculed by the public.

Although Wang Hao's "Inception" has more science fiction elements, it is also quite similar to "Wushuang" and "Taken" in many ways.

They all have a lot of action scenes and all take place in modern society.

However, compared to the previous two films, Wang Hao still wants to incorporate more Chinese elements into this film.

For example, Shanghai was chosen as one of the main filming locations for the movie. The explosion of the street cafe and the folding of the city in the original "Inception" took place on the rue Busch in Paris, France.

In this version of the script, all this happened in the Magic City.

There are also some other small details in the movie, and several supporting characters in the movie have become Chinese, which is to ensure that the people and scenes can be perfectly and harmoniously integrated into the plot of the movie.

At the very least, it has to be ensured that when Shi Qiang, played by Wang Jingchun, appears in front of Leonardo Dicaprio, it won't be so abrupt.

Therefore, Wang Hao pays special attention to costume design, props, scenes and art style. Especially in the selection of personnel, he prefers younger ones with an international perspective.

At the same time, we also need to recruit some behind-the-scenes staff from overseas. After all, these people are more professional in terms of the aesthetics in Europe and the United States.

However, since these behind-the-scenes staff are of different nationalities, Wang Hao, as the director, also has to be able to control them and make choices and make decisions on various design conflicts.

Wang Hao is not in a hurry in this regard. He has to wait until the art and design personnel behind the scenes are found, and then he will hold a meeting with them to discuss and determine the artistic style of the film.

Compared with the recruitment of behind-the-scenes staff, the selection of actors for "Inception" has more problems.

So far, four actors have been confirmed for the roles in the film.

One is Dr. Ma Zhao, who invented the subconscious therapy device and will be played by Ning Li. He will also be the teacher of the protagonist Dom Cobb.

The protagonist Dom Cobb, played by Hollywood superstar Leonardo Dicaprio, is an experienced "dream stealer".

The supporting actor Shi Qiang, the connecting figure of the movie universe, is still Wang Jingchun.

The supporting character Qin Yanni, played by Shu Chang, is an agent of the Special Affairs Department. She was originally Shi Qiang's disciple. In this "Inception", she will replace Ellen Page and play the role of "dream builder".

In addition to these four actors, there are many other important supporting roles in "Inception".

After all, this is also a group drama. The protagonist cannot complete the dream stealing by himself, he also needs a team.

Among them, Shu Chang occupies the position of "dream builder", who is mainly responsible for helping dream stealers design buildings in dreams and build the general environment framework.

Then there is the "Sentinel" Arthur, who is mainly responsible for the preliminary work such as collecting data and gathering information, and is also responsible for helping the protagonist to clear up various unexpected difficulties in the dream.

In Wang Hao's version of "Inception", this character is an acquaintance the protagonist met in the United States after leaving China, so an actor from Hollywood was chosen for the role, and the casting audition will need to be arranged in the United States when the time comes.

There is also a "disguiser" named Yin Xiu, who is responsible for disguising himself as a special person in the dream, usually someone who is close to the target person, so as to better influence the target person at the subconscious level.

Wang Hao designed this character to be the protagonist's junior and love rival, and also a student of Dr. Ma Zhao, so he needs to be played by a Chinese actor, preferably in his early 30s, a little younger than Leonardo DiCaprio.

Moreover, he will also replace some of the role of the Japanese "tycoon" Saito in the original "Inception" in the movie. In this regard, this role should be regarded as the second male lead in the new "Inception" and has a lot of room for development.

This also places certain demands on the acting skills of the actor playing this role. He must at least be able to act with Leo. Not to say he has to crush him or be on par with him, but at least he has to be able to keep up.

In addition, the actor's temperament must be able to complement Leo and have strong plasticity and tolerance.

Wang Hao couldn't think of any Chinese male actor who met this requirement, so he put him on the list of roles that needed to be auditioned.

In addition to the protagonist's team members, other characters that have relatively important roles in "Inception" include the protagonist's wife Li Li (Mary), as well as their target of the dream theft.

The character of the male protagonist's wife is Dom Cobb's junior and Dr. Ma Zhao's daughter, so she has to be played by a Chinese actress.

There are actually not many female celebrities to choose from for this role.

After all, to be Leo's lover, first of all, her appearance must be outstanding, and secondly, her temperament cannot be inferior to Leo's.

In addition, this "Inception" will also be released overseas. The previous Chinese actors are not very famous overseas, so the overseas fame of this female star cannot be too low either.

Considering the above conditions, there are actually even fewer actresses to choose from, and Wang Hao finally decided that Li Binbin would play the role.

After this woman left Huayi last year, her resources did not decrease. In the same year, at the invitation of Wendi Deng, she played the leading female role in the Hollywood art film "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan", which allowed her to enter the vision of global audiences.

Then she met Paul Anderson, the director of "Resident Evil 5", at the film's New York premiere and successfully cast the second female lead, Ada Wong.

At least with this experience, Wang Hao doesn't have to worry about Li Binbin's English dialogue skills.

The titular heroine of "Inception" has been confirmed, leaving the titular villain Saito, the supporting character whose dream is "stolen", whose character is set to be a Japanese tycoon.

Wang Hao didn't think about it for long, and referring to the original "Inception", he invited Watanabe Ken to play this role.

Therefore, the only important role that "Inception" really needs to be auditioned is the "Pretender", followed by the pharmacist and various minor supporting roles with some screen time.

When this news came out, many Chinese actresses were disappointed.

After all, they had already used all the connections they could, but still failed to get into the crew of "Inception", so those actresses could only pin their hopes on auditions. However, now that there is no hope for auditions, how can they not feel lost?

In contrast, those male actors who felt they met the requirements for the second male lead, the "pretender", were very excited.

Male actors such as Huang Xiaoming, Liu Huohua, Deng Chao, Tong Dawei, Zhu Yawen, Hu Ge, and Ruan Jingtian have all submitted their resumes to Galaxy Pictures and then fell into anxious waiting.

For these male stars who submitted their resumes, Galaxy Pictures first conducted a preliminary screening, eliminated actors who did not meet the requirements, and then notified them to audition.

The audition took place in a newly built Wanda hotel near Galaxy Cinema. Many stars participated in the audition. In addition to the most important second male lead, there were also many competitors for other more important supporting roles.

However, this time the auditions were only for some of the roles in "Inception". After all, it was a Sino-US co-production, and the auditions for the other roles had to be done in Hollywood, recruiting a group of foreign actors so that the cast composition of the film would not be too unbalanced.

The final result of the actor audition was far beyond everyone's expectations. For the role of the second male lead "The Pretender", Wang Hao did not choose those more well-known or good-looking male actors, but chose the not-so-remarkable Qin Hao.

In the eyes of the public, Qin Hao's appearance is indeed average, but his acting skills and qualifications are actually quite good.

He graduated from the Performance Department of China Drama Academy in 2000. In 2005, he went to Cannes for the first time with the crew of "Qinghong" and was nominated for Best Actor.

Later in 2009, Qin Hao went to Cannes for the second time with the crew of "Spring Breeze Intoxicated Night" to compete for the Best Actor.

In 2010, he went to Cannes for the third time with the crew of "Rizhao Chongqing" to compete for the Best Actor.

It can be said that Qin Hao had been around in the art film circle until this year, when he first confirmed his role in Zhang Guoshi's "The Flowers of War", and now has been selected for "Inception". It can be said that he became famous in one fell swoop and successfully completed his transformation.

Qin Hao was very happy about this opportunity. The only problem was that "The Flowers of War" was currently being filmed and he was a little worried about schedule conflicts.

Fortunately, his role in "Inception" is mainly opposite Leonardo DiCaprio, and he will have to wait until April to join the crew. Before that, the crew will shoot scenes unrelated to Leo at Galaxy Studios.

Qin Hao doesn't have many scenes in "The Flowers of War", so there won't be much conflict if they squeeze in.

After selecting the actors for the roles in China, Wang Hao flew to Hollywood again to participate in the casting work there, and then quickly flew back to Beijing to continue to take charge of the early preparations for the film.

During this process, Jing Tian, ​​who had just made substantial progress in his relationship with Wang Hao, was also very clingy. Whenever there was an opportunity, he would be eager to take the initiative to come to him.

Sometimes, even if Wang Hao was too busy to go back to the villa and had to sleep in the company, she would still chat with Wang Hao on her phone and tell him how much she missed him.

【Brother Hao, I miss you so much! 】

【Honey, are you done with your work? (°‵′)】

[Another day of missing my husband! 】

[My dear husband, I bought some black silk stockings today. Do you think they look good? ]

【Black silk·JPG】

[And this lace tulle suspender, which was also bought together]

……

Whenever Wang Hao, who had been discussing with crew members for a whole day, saw these messages on his mobile phone, no matter how tired he was, he could not help but stop for a moment, with the corners of his mouth slightly raised and a hint of a smile revealed.

I have to say that this girl Jing Tian can indeed provide people with high emotional value.

Although her family conditions are good, this did not make her develop a willful and capricious character. Instead, she is a bit naive, simple and childish, which is very cute.

In addition, she is not very strong. Whether in career or in relationships, she is the kind of little woman who is more dependent on others.

Especially after the two had sex, Jing Tian became obedient to Wang Hao's words. As long as they were together, her eyes were filled with only Wang Hao.

From this point of view, Jing Tian is actually not very suitable for the entertainment industry.

But it was this point that made Wang Hao very satisfied.

He is a strong-willed and opinionated person. When he was with Wan Qian, things were fine for the two of them at first, but as they both became busy with their careers, it became increasingly difficult for them to get along.

Now that I'm with Jing Tian, ​​there is no such problem at all. Every day, I have such a young and beautiful girl by my side, calling my name sweetly and greeting me with a smile. It is very comfortable.

In other words, Wang Hao still remembered his responsibilities and his dream of developing Chinese science fiction films and leading the development of the company. Otherwise, now that he has both money and beauties, it is really possible that he will "never attend court again."

It turns out that the land of beauties is the home of heroes!

When Wang Hao, who had fed Jing Tian well, boarded the plane to Hollywood, he couldn't help but sigh, and at the same time he was still reminiscing about Jing Tian who was wearing black stockings and a sailor suit last night.

But this was just a recollection, after all, he was already ten thousand meters above the sky.

As for why he went to Hollywood during the busiest period of preparation for "Inception", it was of course for another important element of the film.

To make a 3D movie as good as "Avatar", you naturally need extremely advanced 3D movie equipment.

In this regard, Wang Hao had already started learning relevant knowledge in advance when he was preparing to shoot "Inception" in 3D format last year.

Not long ago, after confirming the photography team headed by Luo Pan, Wang Hao specially arranged for them to visit relevant equipment companies in Hollywood and Sony Group to learn about the practical shooting technology of 3D movies.

Even the Photography Department of Shanghai Film Academy was very interested in this most cutting-edge technology in the current film industry. They took advantage of it and arranged for several professors to go to Hollywood.

Now Wang Hao also has to make a trip. On the one hand, he has to receive training on the use of the equipment, and on the other hand, he has to get these precious equipment back.

(End of this chapter)