Entertainment Era: My Good Sister Is All Over the World

Chapter 127 The Expedition to Cannes (Please Subscribe)

Time flew by and it was early May.

Huang Wenbin's work has come to a temporary end.

Filming for "The Mysterious Buddha" has already begun in Leshan. The male and female leads have been changed to Yu Rongguang and Liu Xiaoqing, Du Yuming has been brought in to play a newly added Japanese villain, and Zhao Changjun has only served as the martial arts director.

According to Zhao Changjun himself, he didn't really want to perform on stage and preferred to work behind the scenes, so he gave the lead role to Yu Rongguang.

Xu Xiaoming wrote a script called "The Desert Hero" and brought it to Huang Wenbin for revision.

Huang Wenbin read through the script once. The story was somewhat similar to his later film "Mirage," but overall it was probably influenced by the scene at Crescent Lake in "The Cotton Robe."

Huang Wenbin didn't make any major changes; he simply cut out some unnecessary subplots and made the whole story more complete and polished.

The original "Mirage" is adapted from Ni Kuang's Wesley series novel "Illusion," which is a short desert adventure story triggered by a mirage. It's not much different from Ni Kuang's other stories; it uses a high-concept element to create a small suspense, but ultimately resolves the event with a simple and brutal external force.

The version written by Xu Xiaoming himself is more like a story of a chivalrous knight who accidentally wanders into the desert frontier, then outwits and outfights a group of bandits, ultimately defeating them. It's a Western adventure film with some resemblance to Huang Wenbin's version of "Let the Bullets Fly".

When Huang Wenbin saw that Xu Xiaoming had set the villain as a Shaolin master, he immediately changed it to a beautiful and ruthless female bandit from a foreign tribe. The most outstanding character in the original movie was this beautiful and ruthless bandit An, so how could he let her disappear?

Huang Wenbin really didn't know how old the actress Pasha was.

However, he wasn't worried. There were plenty of beautiful women from ethnic minorities; Xu Xiaoming could just find another one.

After the revisions were completed, Huang Wenbin asked, "Who are you planning to cast as the lead?"

"Yu Rongguang," Xu Xiaoming said with a smile, "I wrote the protagonist based on his work."

Huang Wenbin said, "He's filming 'The Mysterious Buddha,' which will probably take several months."

"Then I'll just wait until he's finished filming." Xu Xiaoming smiled and said to Huang Wenbin, "We're not exactly idle either."

I came here today to tell you that Tsui Hark has agreed to direct "The Ring" after reading the script. Our company is still small and can't work on two films at the same time, so we'll finish "The Ring" first.

In fact, Xu Xiaoming had another task: to go to Cannes to find foreign film distributors to sell "The Cotton Robe".

The main copyright of "The Cotton Robe" belongs to the Hong Kong-based "Civilized People Film Company", so China Film Group has no way to get involved and cannot receive any money.

Huang Wenbin did leave 10% of the copyright revenue to Xi'an Film Studio, which can be considered a form of support for the studio.

Of course, nobody took this 10% dividend seriously at the time.

A few days later, Huang Wenbin received a notice from his superiors instructing him to collect his foreign affairs allowance and buy some nice clothes.

Huang Wenbin received the money, but instead of buying clothes, he asked Xu Xiaoming to bring him several suits.

Of course, he reported this matter to his superiors, but they did not give him a reply.

They neither agreed to nor opposed his attire, probably wanting to observe for a while before making a decision.

If Huang Wenbin generates a good response abroad, then this example can be followed in the future.

Similarly, if Huang Wenbin causes a bad reaction abroad, he can be punished when he returns to China.

The number of people going to Cannes this time is much smaller than the number going to Hong Kong last time.

Besides Huang Wenbin and Li Hanxiang, the only other actors are director Chen Huaikai, lead actor Yang Zaibao, and lead actress Zhang Jinling.

Logically speaking, Zhang Jinling is somewhat unworthy of the title of female lead, but due to political considerations, the higher authorities decided to add a female comrade.

The Film Bureau sent Deputy Director Xiao Weiming to lead the trip, along with a female translator who speaks French.

Xiao Weiming wanted to be the team leader because of the special task force that Director Chen planned to establish. He needed to get to know Huang Wenbin better to understand what kind of person he was and whether he could handle such a big responsibility.

However, they weren't the only film crew going to the Cannes Film Festival this time; it was the crew of "Nezha Conquers the Dragon King" from the Shanghai Animation Film Studio, directed by Wang Shuchen.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Soviet Union, as a big brother, intended to support Chinese animation films. As a result, the Shanghai Film Studio sent Wang Shuchen, He Yumen, and others to the Moscow Animation Film Studio to discuss matters such as the script and subject matter of co-productions.

At that time, Shanghai Film Studio decided to film "Nezha Conquers the Dragon King," a story that was well-known in China. The Soviet Union was also quite interested in the story and agreed to the project.

Both parties agreed to send one director each to co-direct the film, with pre-production work completed in China first, followed by animation production at the Moscow Animation Film Studio.

The Soviet Union also sent well-known directors to China to investigate, collecting a large number of photos of famous historical sites and viewing a large number of famous landscape paintings.

However, when it came to the actual negotiation process, the Soviet side and our side disagreed on many aspects.

Su Fang refused to continue the project, citing the story of "Nezha Conquers the Dragon King" as being too feudal and superstitious.

Filmmakers at Shanghai Animation Film Studio also felt that Su Fang's attitude was too arrogant and unacceptable.

Then came the Sino-Soviet split, and the project was completely scrapped.

In 1978, Shanghai Animation Film Studio restarted the project, and after a year, it was finally released in May 1979, generating considerable buzz.

China Film Group felt that the film could attract the interest of foreigners, so it sent a delegation consisting of deputy manager Hu Jian, actor Tang Guoqiang, and director Wang Shuchen to Cannes to participate in the film festival.

Huang Wenbin was actually a little puzzled. Why was Teacher Tang Guoqiang, who had absolutely no connection to this film, on the delegation's list?

Xiao Weiming resolved his doubts, because Tang Guoqiang was a teacher and could represent the face of the country.

Huang Wenbin glanced at the main creators of "Nezha Conquers the Dragon King." He meant no disrespect, but he immediately understood.

Strictly speaking, the two delegations are not the same thing.

Huang Wenbin's film "Let the Bullets Fly" was actually submitted to the exhibition by Li Hanxiang in his personal capacity, while "Nezha Conquers the Dragon King" was submitted by China Film Group in an official capacity.

Xu Xiaoming returned to Hong Kong. He wanted to go back to meet Chung Chor-hung and then go to Cannes with Li Hanxiang.

The two groups of people from China departed on the same day and took the same flight.

Coincidentally, the person next to Huang Wenbin was Tang Guoqiang.

The two most attractive people in the arts and culture world have finally come together.

Huang Wenbin said very politely, "Teacher Tang, it's a pleasure to meet you. I've heard of you before and seen your movies. I admire you very much."

"No, no, don't accept me as your teacher, I can't accept that title." The young Tang Guoqiang was indeed handsome and very humble. "You are the teacher, the great writer, the great screenwriter. I've watched 'Let the Bullets Fly' three times, it's simply a work of art, I can only prostrate myself in admiration."

"Then let's all be polite," Huang Wenbin said with a smile. "You're a few years older than me, so I'll call you Brother Tang."

Tang Guoqiang laughed heartily: "That's great. Having another great screenwriter as a brother is my good fortune. You'd better think of me if you have any good scripts in the future."

"There is indeed a script," Huang Wenbin said with a smile.

Tang Guoqiang was startled: "Really?"

"Really?" Huang Wenbin said with a calm expression. "My classmate Zhang and I co-wrote a script called 'Wreath at the Foot of the Mountain,' which has already been approved. I heard that several directors at the August First Film Studio are interested in it. You can inquire about it."

He added, "The main character in it is quite suitable for you; it might help you shed the 'pretty boy' label."

Tang Guoqiang paused for two seconds, then gave Huang Wenbin a deep look before saying, "Regardless, thank you for informing me in advance."

The nickname "cream-faced young man" originated during the filming of the movie "Little Flower." Tang Guoqiang loved cream, and on top of that, he was handsome with fair and delicate skin. Chen Chong quipped, "My brother is so fair-skinned because he loves cream."

From then on, the title of "pretty boy" stuck with Tang Guoqiang, subjecting him to much scrutiny.

To shed those four words (referring to his acting style), Tang Guoqiang underwent several transformations. "Garland Under the Mountain" was his first such transformation, but unfortunately, his acting didn't show much improvement. It wasn't until his first transformation, playing Zhuge Liang in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms," that he turned his career around and became a representative figure of the acting school.

In those days, there were no direct flights from Beijing to Cannes. One had to fly to Paris first and then transfer in Cannes, a journey that took more than twenty hours.

The initial excitement about going abroad quickly faded.

Most people were asleep.

Tang Guoqiang was kept wide awake by Huang Wenbin's words.