Huayu: A Commercial Director

Chapter 352 Jiang Ziya's Candidate: Wu Jing Lets Slip the Thread

"The Investiture of the Gods" was filmed by CTV, and the actors were decided by both parties. Chen Shouzhe had already seen the actors.

He personally went to invite the actor who played Jiang Ziya.

Chen Daoming is currently the vice president of the China Film Association.

Of course, there are many vice presidents, such as Ren Zhonglun and La Dong. This year, Wu Jing and Huang Bo are expected to be admitted as well.

Despite being a leading figure in Chinese cinema, Chen Shouzhe has not joined any association.

These so-called association presidents are actually just figureheads; they're all people who are in the public eye, but they don't get to make decisions.

Rather, it is the deacons who are the main decision-makers of the association.

Just like in a sect, the real big shots are all buried in their cultivation, striving to ascend to immortality as soon as possible.

Those elders who are mediocre and see no hope can only manipulate power within the sect to gain benefits for themselves.

These people aren't very capable, but they cause a lot of trouble. They have little ability but a lot of influence.

Even if he joins the so-called association, he'll only be there to be their mascot; it won't be of any use to him, and there will be a whole bunch of so-called meetings waiting for him.

Chen Shouzhe would be better off raising fish at the horse farm than carrying their sedan chairs and being treated like a mascot.

Chen Daoming is one of his favorite actors. Jiang Ziya needs an actor with a refined and otherworldly demeanor. CTV has been sighing, thinking that if the Investiture of the Gods had been made twenty years earlier, they could have invited Mr. Lan. Unfortunately, Mr. Lan is now over ninety years old.

Chen Shouzhe chose Chen Daoming because he felt that Chen Daoming's portrayal of Liu Bang was very impressive, and that Chen Daoming, who is known for his one-dimensional acting style, could portray the role of Jiang Ziya well.

I bought a ton of stuff to visit the set. There were way more people there than at Guo Degang's place. Investiture of the Gods is a group portrait, featuring all sorts of gods and immortals.

Watch the battle of magic between the Taoist and Buddhist sects.

Although there is controversy, it is, after all, just an adaptation of a novel, and it is unlikely to result in a complaint from the Taoist Association like that of a great poet.

Chen Shouzhe still gave the role of Daji to Reba.

She played a fox spirit before, and she plays a fox spirit now.

Before entering the palace, Daji was very innocent, but after entering the palace, she became seductive and needed makeup artists to make changes to her makeup and styling.

After spending half a day on the set of "The Investiture of the Gods," Chen Shouzhe finally returned to the company. Time was running out. Yang Mi's company was being released, and the box office on the first day exceeded 130 million yuan. Breaking 1 billion yuan should be no problem.

We've fully communicated with Haiyi, and filming can begin.

Before the Venice International Film Festival, Chen Shou announced the start of filming here, and many domestic celebrities and artists had already flown to Venice.

Chen Shou recorded a video and sent it to Lu Sen, asking Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon to participate in his place.

"We won't do that kind of thing with mainstream films."

At the opening ceremony, someone asked Chen Shouzhe if he wanted to offer a prayer, as it's a custom from Hong Kong.

Other movies would be fine, but mainstream commercial films won't do. Half of the media reporters here today have official backgrounds. If they saw them burning incense and making offerings, what kind of decorum would that be?

Simply lift the red cloth to reveal the camera draped with a big red flower.

The media naturally swarmed around for interviews, with Chen Shou standing beside him alongside Wu Jing, Zhang Hanyu, and other key members of the production team. "Director Wu, I heard you're preparing a new movie, is that true?" a reporter asked, handing Wu Jing a microphone.

"How did you find out?" Wu Jing asked in surprise. He was still making preparations, so how did the news suddenly leak out?

"Really?" The reporter just wanted to stir things up, but unexpectedly, it actually came out.

Wu Jing realized she had spoken out of turn.

Suddenly, apart from the official media, all the other media outlets handed the microphone to Wu Jing.

It's worth noting that Wu Jing's last film was Wolf Warrior 2, which broke records last year. Now he's making another movie. Could it be Wolf Warrior 3?
"No, no, it must be fake. I'm currently filming 'Operation Red Sea,' how could I have time to make a movie? I have no movie plans at the moment," Wu Jing hurriedly shook her head.

"You just said 'how did you know?'" the reporter persisted.

"How did you know that? I didn't even know myself. I didn't even have time to say the second half of the sentence before you said it for me." Wu Jing had dealt with these people countless times, and her skill in lying through her teeth was already top-notch.

Previously, Guo Fan's premature leak of "The Wandering Earth 2" caused a direct conflict between Chen Shouzhe and Ren Zhonglun. His film has been the subject of much scrutiny, and if the news were to be leaked again, even more people would come knocking on his door.

He doesn't want to be disturbed right now; he just wants to finish filming the movie.

Hearing Wu Jing's explanation, the media, though still unwilling to give up, finally gave up. After all, a group of people in white were watching them, so who would dare to do anything reckless?

The microphone continued, aimed at Wu Jing, asking, "Director Wu Jing, when do you plan to film the third installment?"

"It will happen, but there are no plans at the moment," Wu Jing said with a smile.

Since we can't get anything out of Wu Jing, we can only ask Chen Shouzhe.

"Director Chen Shouzhe, this is your first time making a film with a naval theme. Are you feeling any pressure?" the reporter asked.

Chen Shouzhe glanced at the reporter; he was an official, one of their own.

"There is pressure, and a lot of pressure. Actually, making other movies isn't that stressful for me; at worst, I'll lose money. But patriotic commercial films are the most stressful genre because they represent the face of the country and showcase our national power. I hope to make them even better, while also gaining audience approval while maintaining the patriotic theme," Chen Shou replied.

He didn't talk about box office revenue, but rather audience approval. If the audience approves, then the box office revenue will naturally be high.

The double entendre suggests that Chen Shou is also growing.

"What do you think were the difficulties in making this film?" the reporter then asked.

"I'm thinking about how to make the warships look smaller on camera. Our country's warships are just too big. I recently went to CCTV to ask the cameramen there how they managed to make the warships look so small. It's so misleading. I was fooled before and really thought the warships were small," Chen Shou said with a smile.

Many people who understood the joke chuckled. The power of strategic deception will likely be hard to maintain once the movie is released, especially with the filming of the movie.

After all, this film is meant to promote China's national prestige to the world.

The evacuation of Chinese citizens back then showed the world China's naval power. It was also around that time that the so-called Rim of the Pacific Exercise (RIMPAC) was still being invited in 14, but then this incident happened in 15, and people began to treat the Chinese navy as an enemy.

Sometimes it's necessary to draw your sword, otherwise some monkeys will start jumping around again.

"Director Chen Shouzhe, I'd like to ask you, you have three films submitted to this year's Venice International Film Festival. Are you confident you can win an award?" an entertainment reporter asked.

"I hope so, but it doesn't matter if it doesn't. I'm still young, I can just go a few more times."

(End of this chapter)