This director lacks vision.

Chapter 384 The Powerful Lineup of Zhu Xian

On the morning of March 27, Jiang Yifeng arrived at the Classic of Mountains and Seas Town in the Pacific Rim Film City.

This town is more than 10 times the size of a typical North American town, and it is planned to have two areas—the urban area and the suburbs.

The city has a total of eight streets, four vertical and four horizontal, each with its own unique antique-style buildings.

The suburbs are connected to the canal that runs through Zhangjiawan, extending all the way to the artificial hill in Zhangjiawan.

This artificial mountain is the only mountain in Tongzhou District. It was built as a defensive fortification to prevent the Sulians from invading through the Mongols.

Now, Sulian is a thing of the past. With China's growing national strength, this mountain has long lost its original function.

Pacific Rim Resort then leased the site for renovations, making appropriate optimizations to the vegetation, buildings, air-raid shelters, and even the shape of the mountain.

The Classic of Mountains and Seas Town project, with a total investment of 22 billion yuan, is the largest investment project since the establishment of the Pacific Rim theme park.

Once completed, it will basically meet the set design needs of Fengxing Media for more than 80% of their period drama filming.

This place is connected to Monster Studios and Monster Picture Studio, enabling integrated production of filming and post-production.

Of course, such a large investment must be used to develop tourism.

The Shan Hai Jing Town is filled with elements from the Shan Hai Jing, including various mythical beast models. It will also collaborate with IPs such as Zhu Xian and Ghost Blows Out the Light in the future, and is part of the Yanjing Pacific Rim Film City.

When Jiang Yifeng arrived, the Shan Hai Jing Town had only been open to the public for a week, yet it was already teeming with tourists.

This place is the same as Hengdian, only the areas where film crews are shooting are sealed off.

When Jiang Yifeng entered the set of the TV series "Zhu Xian", he saw four beautiful women sitting together chatting.

Liu Yifei and Shu Chang sat on the left, while Li Yitong and Tian Qianwei sat on the right.

Judging from their tone and posture during the conversation, the Tongxinweimin duo was in a weaker position.

Oda flashed her signature sweet smile, her dimples peeking out from the corners of her mouth.

When she's being mischievous, Tian Qianwei's smile is very faint, and her big eyes like to dart around, giving people the impression of a fake smile.

When she's being well-behaved, her smile is quite wide, and her dimples add to her sweetness.

This is both Tian Qianwei's habit and the result of her training in facial expression management.

Seeing Jiang Yifeng enter, Liu Yifei stood up and said, "You've finally arrived. Is farming really that fun?"

Liu Yifei's statement indicates that she is interested in farming; after watching the program, she also wants to give it a try.

Shu Chang took advantage of this, jokingly saying, "Farming isn't necessarily fun, but it's different when you're farming with beautiful women by your side."

Sisi, you don't know, Zu'er went to audition for Yue Qiluo and did a pretty good job.

Director Lu Yang had already finalized the cast, but then our Director Jiang made a phone call and the casting was changed to a beautiful woman named Chen Yao, who is also a classmate of Meng Ziyi's cousin.

Jiang Yifeng sensed the resentment in Shu Chang's heart, patted her little head, and explained, "Zu'er is still young, there's no need for her to play too many villains."

After the show "Lost in Thailand" aired, her fame increased significantly.

It would be good for her to play a female role in "Guardian" as a transitional role.

Upon hearing this, Shu Chang revealed her purpose.

"There's no point in having him act in Guardian. It would be better to let Zu'er study and reflect for a while."

"Guardian" is a very popular BL novel from last year. Hu Qian is very optimistic about this IP and wants to adapt it into a TV series.

Just like in the previous life, the male leads in this drama are Bai Yu and Zhu Yilong.

Jiang Yifeng didn't say anything about this situation, after all, there was indeed a market for BL dramas, and Hu Qian's decision was correct.

Jiang Yifeng has basically relinquished control of many of the company's projects, only checking on them periodically.

In dramas like Guardian, female characters are basically just supporting roles, so there's no point in Song Zuer playing one.

However, this arrangement was given by Jiang Yifeng, and Song Zuer dared not say anything.

Shu Chang then helped to decline the offer.

Jiang Yifeng nodded and said, "Sure, since Guardian hasn't started filming yet, and Bai Yu and Zhu Yilong have to film Jade Dynasty first, it's easy to switch roles."

After chatting with the four women for a few minutes, Jiang Yifeng called a meeting with the main cast and crew.

Today we're shooting character photos, so all the main actors are here.

Jiang Yifeng's "Zhu Xian" has a much stronger cast than Huanrui's version.

Besides the previously cast female roles—Liu Yifei as Lu Xueqi, Li Yitong as Tian Ling'er, Tian Qianwei as Biyao, and Shu Chang making a cameo appearance as Xiaobai—Li Xian was ultimately chosen as the male lead.

Jiang Yifeng initially intended to cast Bai Ke as Zhang Xiaofan.

In his view, the most successful aspect of the novel *Zhu Xian* is its depiction of the emotions of ordinary people.

Zhang Xiaofan is just an average-looking, average-talented loser who is hopelessly in love with his beloved senior sister.

Bai Ke's image undoubtedly fits the description of a loser.

However, after the audition, Jiang Yifeng still chose Li Xian.

Bai Ke's period costume looks a bit comical, perhaps because he never expected it to leave such a deep impression.

Moreover, he couldn't portray that kind of suffering.

In contrast, Li Xian is much better. He's not exactly a conventionally handsome man, and his looks have always been controversial, with many people criticizing his triangular eyes.

Male viewers can accept him playing the ordinary-looking Zhang Xiaofan, and female viewers can also empathize with him after watching for a while.

As for Zhang Xiaofan's fellow villager and friend Lin Jingyu, he was played by Bai Yu, Jiang Mingyang played Zeng Shushu, Zhu Yilong played Xiao Yicai, Qi Hao was played by Qin Hao, and Wen Min was played by Yang Caiyu.

Qin Wuyan is played by Chen Xiao, Jin Ping'er is played by Tang Yan (guest role), Madam Sanmiao is played by Fan Bingbing, You Ji is played by Wang Ou, and Linglong is played by Tong Liya.

Besides young actors, the production team also invited many veteran actors. The chubby Liang Guanhua plays Tian Buyi, Yan Danchen plays Su Ru, Liu Yijun plays Cangsong Daoren, Chen Baoguo plays Daoxuan Zhenren, the head of Qingyun Sect, Xie Junhao plays Wan Jianyi, the other of the Qingyun Twins, Wang Jinsong plays Zeng Shuchang, and Liu Xiaoli makes a guest appearance as Master Shuiyue.

The Ghost King is Chen Daoming, and the eldest is Du Yuming.

Even the monk Puzhi at the beginning was a cameo role played by Zhang Guoli.

Jiang Yifeng himself also played an important role in the drama – the Beast God, the main villain in Jade Dynasty 2.

The main point is that the description of the Beast God is that of a bewitching and ghostly young man.

The production team searched around but couldn't find a suitable young actor. Even if there were actors with the right appearance, they couldn't portray the imposing presence of the Beast God.

So Jiang Yifeng took over himself.

Only a renowned director and entertainment company boss like Jiang Yifeng could muster such a powerful cast.

Although many people jokingly call Zhu Xian a romance novel disguised as a fantasy novel, it is, in any case, a representative work of male-oriented novels and has a huge number of male fans.

In Jiang Yifeng's view, the most important thing for male-oriented novels to be adapted well is their quality.

In addition to excellent costumes, props, and sets, and outstanding scripts, actors are also a very important factor in achieving a high level of quality.

The success of Joy of Life owes much to the performances of veteran actors.

The same should be true for the novel *Zhu Xian*.

The most popular line in this novel is from Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching: "Heaven and earth are ruthless, treating all things like straw dogs."

Jiang Yifeng wanted to capture the core essence of the story: the ruthlessness of heaven and earth, the crucible of the Great Dao, and the myriad forms of life, focusing on the pursuit of immortality and the battle between good and evil.

As for the romantic storyline, Zhang Xiaofan's emotions in the novel "Zhu Xian" are inherently restrained and patient.

Jiang Yifeng still follows this rule, not deliberately engaging in romance, but letting the relationship develop naturally and spontaneously within the events.

According to Jiang Yifeng's original plan, the first season of Jade Dynasty was to be filmed with 10 episodes, but the scriptwriting difficulty was too great, and 10 episodes could not tell a relatively complete story.

Therefore, the first season was expanded to about 20 episodes, mainly telling the story from Zhang Xiaofan entering Qingyun Sect to Biyao's death.

However, the script was still too shallow, so Jiang Yifeng continued to revise it and decided to film it all at once.

The entire series is approximately 35 episodes long.

Inside the meeting room, all the key members of the creative team were present, which immediately highlighted the difference in their status within the industry.

The main characters sat in the back, while Chen Baoguo, Chen Daoming, and others sat in the front.

Jiang Yifeng said, "Since everyone is here today, let's have a meeting first to clarify the style of the whole drama. It can also be considered a script gathering."

If anyone has any questions about the script or the characters, please feel free to ask.

Generally speaking, actors join a production team according to their schedules and roles, and many actors never even meet after filming a whole series.

The scenes for each character are staggered.

Jiang Yifeng took advantage of the fact that everyone was present to explain the situation of the TV series "Zhu Xian".

He doesn't want to film those fantasy dramas about romance, and this point must be emphasized.

After hearing Jiang Yifeng's words, everyone was quiet for a while. Chen Daoming was the first to ask: "After receiving the role of Ghost King, I read the novel Zhu Xian several times. I feel that the characters and core of this book should be inspired by The Smiling, Proud Wanderer. The protagonist also retires from the martial arts world in the end. Logically speaking, this book should still praise the spirit of chivalry."

However, the phrase "Heaven and Earth are ruthless, treating all things like straw dogs" appears repeatedly in the script, and it has even become the Ghost King's catchphrase.

How should we understand this statement?

Chen Daoming immediately asked a rather profound question. Jiang Yifeng took a sip of tea and explained, "It should be understood according to the original meaning of the Tao Te Ching—Heaven and Earth treat all things without favoritism, letting them live and die naturally."

Extending this further, it means that the Way of Heaven is ruthless. In the specific sense, for humankind, the Way of Heaven simply doesn't care about so-called good or evil.

Whether it's the righteous path or the demonic path, they are all the same before the Way of Heaven.

Good and evil are merely moral constraints and social norms from a human perspective, and have nothing to do with the Way of Heaven.

Under this central theme, each character in Jade Dynasty has their own logic for acting, which is the foundation for our drama to be an ensemble piece.

Teacher Chen, the Ghost King you portray can be interpreted in many ways.

You can portray him as a ruthless overlord pursuing the unification of the demonic sect, or as a wicked savior who "saves the world with demonic methods."

The saying goes, "Killing is saving lives, selfishness is selflessness," and everyone has their own philosophy.

The Ghost King said that Heaven and Earth are ruthless, treating all things like straw dogs. This could mean either an arrogant condescension towards all living beings, or a compassionate pity for them.

It depends on your understanding and portrayal of the character.

The novel *Zhu Xian* is a masterpiece in its first half, but the second half has many problems. The main theme is loose, and plot holes are left unresolved, making it a poorly written ending.

This is a common problem with online novels.

As for Xiao Ding's multiple revisions of Zhu Xian in the future, and even his direct announcement that Zhu Xian only has one female lead, Lu Xueqi, and that Bi Yao is a supporting female character, many readers did not accept it.

People jokingly say that the person who did the most harm to Jade Dynasty was the original author, Xiao Ding.

Jiang Yifeng adapted "Zhu Xian" and quoted the future popular theory that "cultivators are cancer cells"—cultivators plunder the resources of heaven and earth for themselves, are cancer cells of the world, and are incompatible with the Dao of Heaven.

The main plot of the script is also very tight. It goes from the massacre in the mountain village to the Seven Sects Martial Arts Tournament to the battle between good and evil and the invasion of the Beast God. Zhang Xiaofan gradually collects the five volumes of the Heavenly Book and uncovers the ultimate secret of the Heavenly Dao - it turns out that the Heavenly Dao wants to kill the immortals!
This is why Tianchengzi, the leader of the Qingyun Sect, and Daoxuan both eventually turned into demons, and it is also the origin of the names of the Qingyun Sect's Zhuxian Sword and Zhuxian Sword Formation.

It truly shows that Heaven and Earth are ruthless, treating all things like straw dogs.

Of course, Jiang Yifeng didn't preach any grand principles. He simply arranged for the protagonist's team to break free from the shackles of fate and forge a new path where human will triumphs over nature.

The reason for this adaptation is to make the plot more compact and to elevate the overall scope of the series.

Ultimately, it's all about the visual appeal.

(End of this chapter)