The King of Soft Rice in Chinese Entertainment

Chapter 415 Designated Candidate

When Xu Jiuyang gave Angela the script for "Reign of Assassins," he didn't go through all the details right away. Instead, he provided an outline and asked her to find someone to fill in the content first, and then he would review it and offer suggestions.

The advantage of doing this is that by gradually revealing details, the creation of the entire script seems more reasonable.

Providing a finished or semi-finished product all the time might not be a big deal once or twice, but over time someone will eventually notice something amiss. And then, with unfounded speculation, who knows how skewed the conclusion might become.

Then, even though he had already started filming "Chinese Paladin" at that time, he would still meet with Li Xue and Li Xiu every now and then to discuss the script—the project had been handed over to them, with Li Xue in charge of the screenplay and Li Xiu in charge of the production.

The sisters are highly regarded by Angela, and their abilities are indeed outstanding. Although they are in charge of Zhang Yimou's new film, which is a bit of a leap forward, with Angela protecting them, there shouldn't be any major problems.

Developing our own professional directors and producers was something Xu Jiuyang emphasized repeatedly when he proposed the large-scale film studio relocation system.

In short, as they used their silver tongues in various ways, the script gradually began to fill in the gaps of "Reign of Assassins," and then someone, because of their leaps in thinking, thought of an ancient version of "Mr. & Mrs. Smith."

Although Jiang Asheng and Zeng Jing's situation is very different from that of Mr. and Mrs. Smith, the fact that the couple each have secrets, and that these secrets are mutually targeting each other, is very consistent.

Therefore, Xu Jiuyang inevitably started to think outside the box: should he simply turn "Reign of Assassins" into an ancient version of "Mr. & Mrs. Smith"?

The Li sisters used their words to dissuade him from his idea.

"This is tantamount to completely rewriting a script. There's already a good story, and it's still being written, and now suddenly they're saying they want to scrap it and start over... Please, screenwriters are human too," Li Xue said.

“Preliminary preparations have already begun, and audition invitations have even been sent out. To start all over again at this point would have a very bad impact,” Li Xiu stated.

Although they were all vague at the time, their meaning was still conveyed quite clearly.

After thinking it over again, Xu Jiuyang realized it wasn't quite right and gave up the idea.

As for the future... it seems that "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" was released in 05, and filming started no later than 04, so it's really difficult to make a period drama version.

However, he soon had a new idea because of the female lead in "Reign of Assassins".

Because of the success of "Hero", Zhang Yimou wanted to further solidify his position as a director of blockbusters, especially after hearing that Kevin Cheng was also preparing to make a big production.

What are the criteria for a blockbuster director? Big investment, big scenes, big stars, of course. So it's only natural that Andy Lau was cast as the male lead in the new film.

With the male lead decided, the question became: who would play the female lead? That's when Angela intervened, or more precisely, Li Yunxin intervened.

She suggested that China and South Korea should cooperate. They produced a hit TV series last year, and now they should produce a hit movie this year. Wouldn't that be great?

So they asked for the female lead to come over, and who is the most popular Korean actress in China right now? Of course, it's Jun Ji-hyun, who became famous with "My Sassy Girl".

It's really interesting to think about. In their past lives, the male lead of "Reign of Assassins" was a Korean male star and the female lead was a Hong Kong and Taiwan female star. But in this life, the roles have been reversed. The male lead has become a Hong Kong and Taiwan male star and the female lead has become a Korean female star. It's like every little thing is a matter of fate.

Xu Jiuyang thought the change was great. Andy Lau is only in his early forties now, not much older than when Jung Woo-sung took on this movie in his previous life.

Jun Ji-hyun completely outshone Yang Ziqiong. Although the latter performed beautifully on the big screen, she was too old when filming this movie. Moreover, even so, it was still somewhat believable. However, the pre-surgery version of Xiaoyu was played by Lin Xilei, and the contrast was just too stark, making it unbearable to watch.

And then there's the fact that Yang Ziqiong is ten years older than Jung Woo-sung...

In any case, the current change is quite good. Zhang Yimou is probably used to following orders, and since he didn't receive much of a cold reception at the Oscars because of "Hero", he approves of the sponsor and didn't raise any objections.

In fact, Zhang Yimou is actually very easy to please. If Zhang Weiping hadn't become arrogant and too stingy in his past life, he wouldn't have ended up like that with Zhang Yimou.

In short, since things were like this, Xu Jiuyang didn't stand on ceremony and simply designated other actors as well.

To be precise, the actors for Zhang Renfeng and Xiyu were specifically chosen. Jiang Asheng was Zhang Renfeng after plastic surgery, and Zeng Jing was Xiyu after plastic surgery, so other actors needed to be found to play the roles before the plastic surgery.

As mentioned before, Lin Xilei's Xi Yu completely outshines Yang Ziqiong's Zeng Jing in terms of appearance. However, there's no need to worry about Jun Ji-hyun's Zeng Jing, as she is a well-known beauty and is currently at the peak of her beauty.

So Xi Yu approached Ha Ji Won, partly to keep the benefits within the family, and partly because Ha Ji Won was currently very popular.

There's no need to worry about the role not matching. Ha Ji-won's Seo Jang-geum is different from Lee Young-ae's Seo Jang-geum. In her previous life, Seo Jang-geum was gentle and resilient, while in this life, she is resilient and sharp.

Lee Young-ae has a gentle appearance, so she naturally leans towards that when creating roles, and then relies on her acting skills to portray the resilience beneath that gentleness.

Ha Ji-won's appearance is more heroic, and her acting skills are definitely not as good as Lee Young-ae's, so when she portrays a character, she tends to express that sharpness directly.

Of course, both versions of Seo Jang-geum were incredibly popular, and it has to be said that Koreans do have some talent.

Fortunately, things weren't too bad on the mainland either. Fan Bingbing, relying on the name of Xiao Yanzi and with a considerable investment, made "The Imperial Doctress" quite popular, not losing to "Dae Jang Geum"—in fact, the fact that "The Imperial Doctress" was able to match "Dae Jang Geum" in popularity, thanks to Xiao Yanzi's popularity and the collaboration, already speaks volumes.

Getting back to the main point, since Xi Yu found a Korean actress like Jun Ji-hyun, should Zhang Renfeng find a Hong Kong actor like Andy Lau? Of course he should, and he even chose Tony Leung.

Although Xu Jiuyang disliked this guy very much, Chen Yongren's plastic surgery to avenge Liu Jianming was a good publicity point.
If Huanya had a bit of business sense, they could sell some useless clips from "Infernal Affairs" to the production team, then edit them together and post them online, which would definitely attract a lot of attention.

It's a pity that it's hard to find a yellow dog to play the Wheel King, and it's impossible for Francis Ng to play the eunuch supporting role, otherwise it would be another interesting gimmick.

In short, the publicity plan was already prepared before the movie even started filming.

Then, as mentioned before, Xu Jiuyang came up with an interesting idea because of the choice of the female lead.

“I checked, and there were three or four scripts with similar ideas. I bought them all. Come to think of it, you’ve never done this before. Why are you thinking about it now?” Angela sounded a little lazy on the other end of the phone.

"Isn't that obvious? The ideas I came up with before only fit the situation in mainland China. But a modern version of an unsuspecting killer couple is obviously more suitable for a developed country, especially Hollywood. Of course, I have to plan ahead," Xu Jiuyang replied irritably.

Finally, he asked, half-jokingly and half-sarcastically, "Do you know what the phrase 'preparedness for a rainy day' means?"

(End of this chapter)