Chinese Entertainment: Academic Director

Chapter 375 Preparations
As the most well-rounded idol among Hong Kong's "Four Heavenly Kings," Andy Lau's work schedule is already packed, making him a true "workaholic."

In February of this year, the movie "Protégé" starring him was released, and the box office was relatively good, with about 65 million yuan in mainland China.

Of course, although director Derek Yee is extremely famous in Hong Kong, the box office of "Protégé," which Andy Lau collaborated on with him, can't compare to "House of Flying Daggers," which he collaborated on with Zhang Yimou, nor can it compare to "A World Without Thieves," which he collaborated on with Chris Lee.

The latter two both grossed over 100 million yuan at the box office.

At the end of March, filming wrapped up for "The Warlords," starring Liu Dehua, Li Lianjie, and Takeshi Kaneshiro.

At the end of June, filming wrapped up for the Three Kingdoms... well, Three Kingdoms adaptation blockbuster "Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon".

On July 18th, they also released a Mandarin music album titled "A Cow's Fantasy World," which covers themes such as love, environmental protection, and attitudes towards life.

Furthermore, starting from Nanjing on September 13th and ending in Quanzhou on November 2nd, a total of 16 "Wonderful World" concerts will be held in mainland China.

You think this is the end of your work this year?
how is this possible.

He will also be releasing a compilation album called "EVERYONE IS NO.1" in December. The songs are almost finalized, and he just needs to find time to record them.

Although I'm currently busy with concert rehearsals, which will continue until November, this compilation album will definitely be released in December.

You think this is the end of your work this year?

wrong!
Starting December 21st, he will also hold 16 more "Wonderful World" New Year's Eve concerts at the Hong Kong Coliseum!

16+16, uh, Andy Lau will hold a total of 32 concerts this year.

Andy Lau's achievements are largely due to his "workaholic" nature.

However, despite having a full schedule right up until the Lunar New Year, Liu Dehua did not hesitate to inquire about the specific details after learning that Cao Yang wanted a Hong Kong actor to play the male lead.

Even though he had already held his first concert in Nanjing and was preparing for his next concert in Beijing.

He also wants to act in Cao Yang's movies, he also wants to gain recognition from internationally recognized awards, and he also has the idea of ​​breaking into Hollywood.

As for the schedule, as long as I can participate in Cao Yang's movie, I can find a reason to postpone the concert. At worst, I'll just lose some money.

Another member of the "Four Heavenly Kings," Li Ming, also wanted to participate in Director Cao's film, and his desire was extremely strong.

Unfortunately, he is currently filming "Mei Lanfang," a film about the great poet Kai Ge, which started filming in July.

According to the plan, filming will not be completed until at least the end of the year.

However, during the two months of filming, the crew encountered numerous problems, and the production team repeatedly adjusted the filming schedule. It seems unlikely that the filming will be completed as planned by the end of the year.

Even so, Li Ming still tried to find out information about Director Cao's filming plans.

If the preparation time is longer and filming is scheduled for the end of the year, he will do everything he can to try and collaborate with Director Cao.

What if the filming of "Mei Lanfang" is not finished?
What else can I do?
Let's discuss it.

The contract originally gave us a six-month window. If it needs to be extended, we can discuss it with the director and have the filming concentrated in one go. That shouldn't be a problem.

Of course, the prerequisite is to know the shooting schedule of Director Cao's new movie.

As for the common practice of filming multiple movies simultaneously in Hong Kong in the past, Li Ming never even considered it, even though he came from that era.

To work with directors of Chen Kaige or Cao Yang's caliber... well, there aren't any actors with that kind of influence right now.

If we're talking about actors who are available next, the only ones who meet Cao Yang's requirements are Aaron Kwok and Jackie Chan.

Aaron Kwok's new movie, "C+ Detective," will be released simultaneously in Hong Kong and mainland China in a few days, on September 25th.

He is currently busy promoting his movie.

This show, "C+ Detective," is quite interesting. Set in Bangkok's Chinatown, it tells the story of private detective Ah Tan as he delves into a perplexing series of murders.

In other words, the movie is a combination of Chinese detective, Chinatown, and Thai elements. Sound familiar?

However, this is a thriller/crime film, not a comedy.

Actually, saying he has availability just means that Aaron Kwok doesn't have any film plans for the second half of the year.

But he also has plans for a concert.

He plans to hold 11 special Hong Kong shows of his "Kwok Fu-cheng Dancing Legend World Tour Concert" at the Hong Kong Coliseum in November.

In December, I will be holding two concerts at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut, USA.

Of course, if I can participate in Cao Yang's movie, the concerts in these two places will likely be postponed.

Guo Fucheng also took advantage of the opportunity to promote his film in mainland China to actively seek out information about Cao Yang's movie.

If we're talking about someone who's currently available, it's Jackie Chan.

After filming wrapped up earlier this month for "The Forbidden Kingdom," which he co-starred in with Li Lianjie, he has no plans for either a film or a concert in the second half of the year.

Therefore, Jackie Chan is most concerned about Cao Yang's upcoming film plans.

Although he didn't get any specific information about the movie from President Han, he did get some useful news—a large part of Director Cao's new movie is planned to be filmed in Hong Kong.

For this reason, Jackie Chan, who had finished filming "The Forbidden Kingdom" and returned to Hong Kong to rest for a while, took a flight from Hong Kong to Beijing.

After arriving in Beijing, he called Cao Yang, but didn't mention anything about wanting to act in Cao Yang's new movie.

Instead, he said that he had just finished filming "The Forbidden Kingdom" a few days ago and was currently in Beijing. He had heard that Director Cao's new movie might be filmed in Hong Kong, and he would have nothing to do for the next six months.

To express his gratitude for attending the premiere of "Rush Hour 3," Cao offered to handle any tasks related to his new film, including providing sets, props, extras, and professional staff.

He still has some influence in Hong Kong.

That's why people say Jackie Chan knows how to handle people; he has good emotional intelligence, otherwise he wouldn't have achieved his current status.

Afterwards, he chatted with Cao Yang for a while about things in the film industry.

Finally, he casually chuckled and said that he was getting old, couldn't play anymore, and should consider a career change.

He also said that he had worked hard for most of his life and had earned enough money to live on, so he didn't have many material requirements for art films that were undergoing a transformation.

He jokingly added that as long as you pay, even just one dollar will do.

After hanging up Cheng Long's call, Cao Yang seemed to be deep in thought.

Cheng Long's words contain several meanings.

This indicates that he is in Beijing and can audition at any time, and it can also be seen as meaning that he has available time throughout the second half of the year and can join a film crew at any time.

The second meaning is that he is a "local bigwig" in Hong Kong, and he can help the film crew with anything they need in Hong Kong.

The last layer of meaning is that although he may be very expensive to make commercial films, he only needs to give a symbolic amount for art films, especially Cao's art films.

Although the phone call didn't explicitly mention wanting to act in Cao Yang's film, every word implied a desire to do so.

Cao Yang took out a piece of paper and wrote down the names Cheng Long, Liu Dehua, Li Ming, and Guo Fucheng, which were the four people he thought were suitable.

Well, the main reason is that these four people have left a bad impression on everyone so far, with not having much acting skill.

Cao Yang had already had several people check their schedules, and he first crossed out Li Ming's name.

Actually, Cao Yang initially thought Li Ming was the most suitable candidate—a "young heartthrob" who debuted with his good looks and became popular throughout Asia, especially Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia.

Furthermore, Li Ming has a very good reputation and has always presented himself as a patriot, quietly doing a lot of good deeds.

In terms of acting skills, he has always given people the impression that he has no acting skills at all, even though he was the first of the "Four Heavenly Kings" to win the Golden Horse Award for Best Actor.

However, the film for which he won the award was a horror film, which has a small audience. In addition, winning Best Actor for a horror film always gives people a feeling that it lacks credibility.

Therefore, Li Ming is the most suitable candidate among these people. Unfortunately, Li Ming is currently filming Chen Kaige's "Mei Lanfang", which will most likely continue until next year, while Cao Yang's new movie may start filming in October, so there is no way to adjust the schedule.

After considering the information he had gathered, Cao Yang hesitated for a moment and then crossed out Liu Dehua's name.

Liu Dehua's schedule is just too full.

Another 32 concerts and another compilation album, even if he can make appropriate adjustments for the movie, how could it not have an impact?

Concerts and album releases cannot all be postponed, nor are they so easy to postpone.

Looking at the list on the paper, only Aaron Kwok and Jackie Chan are left now.

Guo Fucheng is probably best known for his good looks and dancing, but if you've seen his performances in "After This Our Exile" last year and "Divergence" the year before, you'll have a different opinion of him.

"Crossroads" was a breakthrough for his acting skills. Through subtle facial expressions and body language, he showed the character's inner struggles and emotional fluctuations, making the character more three-dimensional and real.

His mental breakdown upon learning the truth about his girlfriend's death completely overturned the outside world's perception of him.

If he retained some idol qualities in "Divergence", then in the movie "After This Our Exile", he completely subverted his previous sunny and handsome image.

He was slovenly dressed, acted rudely, and frequently swore, transforming into the aimless and unemployed vagrant Ah Sheng. This unkempt and "ugly" image completely overturned people's previous perception of him.

His seamless performance has truly impressed audiences and industry professionals alike.

Cao Yang believes that his winning the Golden Horse Award for Best Actor for two consecutive years with these two films is actually more convincing than Li Ming's Golden Horse Award.

Undeniably, Li Ming gave a very good performance in the horror film "Three Extremes: Homecoming," but it also owes much to the good script and the decadent and eerie cinematography created by cinematographer Christopher Doyle.

A deeply moving script, a character with an obsessive and twisted love interest, plus the special lens of a top-notch cinematographer—that's already half the battle won.

Therefore, someone who won the Golden Horse Best Actor award in 05, won it again in 06, and was nominated for the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actor in 07 will most likely be nominated for the Golden Horse Best Actor award for the third consecutive year this year.

Choosing such an actor, even if he wins the Berlin Film Festival Best Actor award in 08, doesn't seem to offer much sense of accomplishment or persuasiveness.

Of course, that's true for Cao Yang.

But for Aaron Kwok, if he were to win the Berlin Film Festival Best Actor award again in 08, the Hong Kong media would dare to "deify" him – at least the award achievements combined with his status, especially in Hong Kong, would be enough to "deify" him.

Cao Yang circled the names of Guo Fucheng and Cheng Long, and thought about it again to decide who to choose.

Having narrowed down the possibilities for the male lead, he began to consider other actors for the film.

Cao Yang initially wanted to invite Maggie Cheung to play the role of the male lead's ex-wife, but after thinking about it, he realized that Maggie Cheung had already announced her retirement from acting. Most importantly, Lao Tian had invited her to star in "Pieta," but she declined.

Cao Yang is very confident that he can get Maggie Cheung to join the team, but that would be a bit of a slap in the face for Lao Tian.

After all, I have a good relationship with Lao Tian, ​​so I can't let him feel awkward.

Don't underestimate this character just because she doesn't have many scenes. There are a few scenes that require a lot of explosive power, which will really test her acting skills. If she performs well, she might even win Best Supporting Actress at other film festivals.

How about giving it to...Sister Hong?
"Pah, pah!" Cao Yang quickly suppressed this inappropriate thought.

But thinking about it carefully, Sister Hong is still quite suitable, shall we?
Cao Yang didn't want to bother finding a replacement for the male lead's brother, so he simply let Lao Tian play the role.

The role of "sister-in-law" is also very suitable for Sister-in-law Hong...

Forget it, let's not rack our brains anymore. Let's just let Kara Hui from Hong Kong do it. She's the right age, she's very obedient when working with Lao Tian, ​​and she even admires him quite a bit. The way she looks at Lao Tian reveals... cough.

The nephew has a lot of screen time and is one of the most important characters.

Cao Yang decided to select one from the current students of Beijing Film Academy. He called the head of the acting department and asked him to compile a list of current students.

This list is actually easy to find from the school's academic affairs office. Just make a phone call, and the director of the academic affairs office will personally send the list to Cao Yang, or even deliver it to him personally.

However, calling the head of the acting department also implied that I was going to use students from the Beijing Film Academy's acting department in my new film.

As expected, the head of the performing arts department understood Cao Yang's meaning. He not only personally delivered the list but also included photos of each student, their academic performance, and college entrance examination materials.

Furthermore, he specifically noted which students in each grade and class had good talent and performance, and which students had acted in which movies or TV series.

These tasks may seem tedious, but they are actually just a matter of notifying the counselors and homeroom teachers of each class, and the statistics can be compiled in a short time.

Cao Yang wanted this list not only to select the role of his "nephew," but also to find his "nephew's" two girlfriends from among the current students.

Cao Yang saw many familiar names on the list, as well as some unexpected ones.

For example, he saw Chen Xiao's name in the class of 05.

Cao Yang initially thought it was just a coincidence of names, but after looking at his information, he found that in 05, 18-year-old Chen Xiao applied to the Beijing Film Academy, the Central Academy of Drama, and the Nanjing University of the Arts, and was accepted by all of them.

Take another look at his photo. Yes, it's Chen Xiao, who later played Lin Pingzhi in "The Smiling, Proud Wanderer" and Yang Guo in "The Return of the Condor Heroes".

Cao Yang remembered that he seemed to have graduated from the Central Academy of Drama.

This time, however, he chose the Beijing Film Academy.

In fact, given the current status and influence of the Beijing Film Academy, barring special factors, if one is admitted to both the Beijing Film Academy and the Central Academy of Drama, choosing which school to attend is no longer a matter of choice.

This guy looks pretty young in the photos; he could easily pass for a high school student. We could call him over to take a look at his appearance.

Besides Chen Xiao, Cao Yang also tagged four other students from the class of 06, including Zhu Yilong and Peng Guanying.

This gives you more options for actresses.

Cao Yang randomly selected a few: Yuan Shanshan, Zhang Xiaofei, and Yang Mi from the class of 05; Gao Ye from the class of 06; and Jing Tian and Kan Qingzi from the class of 07.

There's also the character who's the male lead's brother's best friend, who becomes the guardian of his "nephew" after the male lead leaves.

Cao Yang made a change, setting the character as a "cousin," which made it more reasonable for him to be the guardian of his "nephew."

When Cao Yang thought of this role, the first person he thought of was Wang Jinsong from the acting department. Wang Jinsong has now been promoted to deputy director of the acting department and is also Cao Yang's old partner who has worked with him many times before.

And then there's the role of his wife. Cao Yang immediately thought of Sister Hong... Ugh, why is it that whenever there's a wife role, the first person that comes to mind is Sister Hong?

Cao Yang couldn't help but reflect and finally concluded that the feng shui of the directing department was indeed bad.

There's also the role of the nephew's girlfriend's mother, which doesn't have many scenes. Cao Yang thought about it and decided that Jiang Wenli could just make a cameo appearance, since she had mentioned wanting to play a cameo role quite a few times.

However, Cao Yang felt that Jiang Wenli's cameo role was fake; the real purpose was to keep an eye on Lao Gu, the top photographer in China and one of the top photographers in Hollywood.

Although Lao Gu never directed a film, his status in the film industry is no less than that of his predecessor. Two Oscars for Best Cinematography are no joke.

In addition, he is Cao Yang's go-to person for filmmaking, having worked with Cao Yang on numerous award-winning movies. He has both awards and box office success, so his status is truly undisputed.

As usual, Cao Yang's film is invested by Qingdao Film Studio and China Film Group, with a tentative budget of 3000 million yuan. Such a "small" budget means that it is impossible to pay the actors too high a salary, especially the male lead.

As is customary, Cao Yang's expenses, after being converted into a share, are still split among him, and he receives approximately one-third.

Of course, this budget of 3000 million is real money, and it does not take into account Cao Yang's "value".

They publicly stated that the budget was definitely not 3000 million, but 5000 million.

However, this is not the final budget, but only a rough estimate. The specific calculation will be done after the male lead and the required location locations are determined.

Regarding the staff, the cinematographer is still Gu Changwei, the two assistant directors are still Liu Shan and Li Mingyi, the art director is Ye Jintian, and the stylist is Huang Liqi.

Most of the others were staff members that Cao Yang had worked with before.

Liu Shan, along with the location liaison and production staff, has already gone to Hong Kong and the UK to find filming locations, as requested by Cao Yang.

Now that the staff is in place and most of the actors have been found, all that's missing is the male lead, his "nephew," and the "nephew's" two girlfriends.

(End of this chapter)