I didn't want to be an actor

Chapter 723: Difficult? (13)

Tang Jili's most famous work was not a collaboration with Jackie Chan.

As early as "Project A" (1983), Stanley Tong was a martial artist in the crew. Later, he developed independently and made a movie "Dragon from the Dark", which was shot in Indonesia and had a lot of fighting and helicopter scenes. Ho Kuan Chang asked Jackie Chan to guess how much Stanley Tong spent on making this movie. When he learned that the cost was only 50, Jackie Chan was extremely surprised, so he began to seek cooperation, which led to the later masterpieces such as "Police Story 3", "Rumble in the Bronx" and "The Myth" that have been passed down to this day.

Among that group of Hong Kong directors, Tang Jili was the one who was better at utilizing resources to coordinate "action scenes", and Tang Jili's way of presenting action scenes, in our view today, is still the "stupid method", that is, insisting on real shooting, thus the movie was shot in XJ Zhaosu, with the use of thousands of extras and ten thousand horses to create the "tens of thousands of troops" scene.

But... the scenes created are much more awesome than those in Zhang Yimou's "Hero", let alone "The Blade of Heaven"!
He doesn't understand war scenes...

Otherwise, "Legend" would not have replicated "Myth"...

Shen Liang didn't give him any face at all and said directly: "Director Tang, I'm a straight talker, but I really think the mise-en-scène of "The Myth" is quite weak... We want to shoot an ancient war, I don't think you are suitable!"

Tang Jili probably has never met such a young man...

Having followed Jackie Chan for decades, Stanley Tong has become an internationally renowned director. His masterpiece, Rumble in the Bronx, grossed $3234 million in North America, successfully helping Jackie Chan break into Hollywood.

Later, he returned to the mainland to develop his career and became a top commercial director thanks to Jackie Chan...

Cooperate with China Film to establish China Film (Shanghai) International Media Company - this company is a joint investment of China Film Digital Film Development Co., Ltd., China Film Equipment Co., Ltd., China International Media Group Co., Ltd., and HuaDa Pictures, all subsidiaries of China Film.

Tang Jili was appointed as the managing director, formed an international production team, and launched a strong attack to conquer the international co-production market.

So, in recent years, whether it is "Vanguard" or "Legend", he has KPIs to complete and is responsible for bringing mainland films to the international market every year.

He definitely can’t do this kind of thing by himself, he has to rely on Jackie Chan, so “Legend” gave Jackie Chan a lot of extra roles…

"Who do you think is the most suitable?"

Shen Liang thought for a moment, then said, "Director Zhang Yi is quite suitable..."

Jackie Chan's eyes lit up: "...Have you told Zhang Yi?"

"That's not the case. However, as Director Zhang is from Shaanxi, he should be happy to make a movie like this!"

"Isn't he filming 'Red River'?"

Shen Liang smiled and said, "Director Zhang can prepare two or three movies at the same time..."

"I've always wanted to work with Director Zhang...but there's never been a suitable story!"

That's right, it's really hard to find a role that is suitable for Jackie Chan and suitable for a great director to show his talents. As early as 95, Jackie Chan talked to Zhang Yimou...

But there has been no cooperation!

"I think the main reason is that the big brother's personal style is too prominent in his movies. Director Zhang Yi had a lot of personal style in his early days, also known as authorial style. There is a conflict between the two of you! This is called a king not meeting a king!"

“…Can you convince Zhang Yi to direct?”

Shen Liang thought for a moment: "It's not a big problem..."

"Okay, when will we shoot?"

"Maybe next July..."

……

In fact, as early as 2009, Jackie Chan had collaborated with Er Dongsheng in "Shinjuku Incident". The role played by Jackie Chan in that film can be said to be the most subversive in his career, even more subversive than "The Foreigner" in 2017, which he collaborated with Martin Campbell.

In fact, the action design of "The Foreigner" was directed by the Jackie Chan Stunt Team, so the character played by Jackie Chan in that movie still has some of his previous style when fighting, such as jumping, dodging, moving, etc.; but in "Shinjuku Incident" Jackie Chan played a character who can't fight at all.

Before the filming of "Shinjuku Incident" began, Er Dongsheng was not very reassured because he knew Jackie Chan's status and he was afraid that it would be difficult for him to direct the film.

But Jackie Chan said that this time he would just be an actor and would not interfere with any of his creative work, so Er Dongsheng started filming without hesitation.

This is normal, as Jackie Chan and Stephen Chow are the two most accomplished genre film actors in the Chinese film industry.

It is not quite accurate to say that they are actors. To be precise, they are the core of the movie with their own system. That is to say, if they are in a movie, they must be the core of the movie. The whole movie revolves around such a core actor. Moreover, no matter who is the director or who plays the supporting role, the overall style of the movie must have the distinctive personal style of Jackie Chan/Stephen Chow, which will overwhelm everything else. However, this is at the peak.

Now their acting careers are basically coming to an end.

In the "Nine Thousand Nine Hundred Miles to Anxi" mentioned by Shen Liang, Jackie Chan is actually the second protagonist, and the core of the play and the growth attributes are all placed on Lu Shisi played by Shen Liang.

According to Shen Liang's idea, most of this script is about two people giving money and going through three difficulties: natural disasters, man-made disasters, and desire...

Natural disasters are desert sandstorms, and man-made disasters are robbers...

Desire refers to Lu Shisi passing through an inn and experiencing the beauty test...

Pass three levels and enter the city!
To be honest, Shen Liang was not sure if he could convince Jackie Chan to star in the film...

So, he said he would ask Zhang Yi to direct...

But... Shen Liang rejected Zhang Yi twice in a row - "Above the Cliff" and "Man Jiang Hong".

However, when he told Chen Jiadong about this, the latter was not worried at all whether Zhang Yimou would direct it, but asked: "Are you the absolute protagonist of this play?"

“…I think so…”

Chen Jiadong: "That's good!"

"Ah? Aren't you worried that Zhang Yi won't direct?"

Chen Jiadong: "Director Zhang... I'll go and persuade him. If that doesn't work, let's get President Fu along!"

"…Do you know something?"

“…Although Director Zhang still loves movies, he is not as serious about movies as before!”

Lao Zhang does not have the passion for creating stars that he had in the previous two eras.

The most typical example is Liu Haochun.

Compared with previous "Mou Girls", the biggest difference between Liu Haochun is that she is the first signed artist of Zhang Yimou's studio.

Thus, one of the funniest phenomena in the advertising circle came into being. Liu Haochun, who had a halo of purple star from heaven, was endorsing big-name advertisements while supporting micro-business brands.

The magic of this micro-business brand lies in the fact that behind the brand is Chen Ting’s mother, who is Zhang Yi’s current wife.

Shen Liang scratched his head after hearing what he said: "Each of the four of us will have 25% of this play. We won't look for other investors!"

Chen Jiadong asked in return: "Why 25% each? We will take at least 50% of the investment, transfer 10% to Jackie Chan, 20% to China Film, and the rest to China Film, Tengxun and Douyin..."

"I heard that he has a close relationship with Huanxi Media..."

"It doesn't matter who he's close to... This is our project, if it doesn't work, we can change the director... Don't you want to find a director who is good at large-scale scenes? Lu Yang and Cao Dun will both work!"

“…But if the director is changed, Jackie Chan may not be willing to join!”

Chen Jiadong: "...It's okay, you can work with Jackie Chan and write the script yourself. If that doesn't work, we can go to Hollywood and find a director!"

Shen Liang wondered: "Hollywood doesn't understand China, right?"

"I'm just giving an example... You have to show your strength!"

"We are working together, so please show some respect to me... I notice that you are very arrogant now!"

Chen Jiadong on the other end of the phone smiled awkwardly: "I just said this..."

"Don't show off. I'm not showing off. Why are you showing off like that?"

(End of this chapter)