Chapter 27 Booting up

In China, the celebration banquet for "Time and Space Lovers" was very large. Most of the well-known directors and artists in the entertainment industry were invited. The main creative staff of China Film, Huayi, Guangguang and the crew all attended the event, and no one was absent.

However, reporters and media at the scene discovered that Director Gu Wei did not attend the celebration banquet. When someone asked Han Sanping, Wang Changtian and others, they did not give a clear answer. They only said that Gu Wei had other things to do and could not get away for the time being. Others did not care too much.

Gu Wei, who was in Hollywood, did not pay attention to what was happening in China. He returned to the hotel and went to bed early to recharge his energy.

The next morning, Gu Wei contacted the person sent by Warner and went to the shooting location for inspection.

In Hollywood, hundreds of movies are generally produced in a year, most of which are produced by small companies and distributed by large companies. At the same time, several large companies such as Warner and Disney will produce dozens of blockbusters with investments of hundreds of millions of dollars. The main income of American films depends on these dozens of blockbusters, especially in overseas markets.

Most people think that as long as it is a Hollywood movie, it can make money. In fact, it is not true. Just like the survivor bias, only a few can make money or become famous every year. Most movies are considered lucky if they can break even.

The scene design of the movie "A True Story" is very unique. In addition to explaining some plot changes, it mainly focuses on the reversal of the story in the movie and the ending of the subsequent movie.

As the main filming location for the movie, Gu Wei chose a small town near Hollywood, and most of the scenes will be shot here.

These scenes not only add a sense of reality to the story, but also contain profound implications.

After paying the rent and basically deciding on the filming location, all that remained was the selection of the actors.

Gu Wei does not plan to invite big-name stars to star in this film. The cost of the film limits the actors, and most of the actors will be selected from the Hollywood Film Guild.

Gu Wei handed the task of selecting actors over to the person in charge of Warner, who was responsible for making contacts and he would be responsible for the auditions.

The person in charge of Warner agreed and said that they would execute the contract and select the actors immediately.

Any industry basically conforms to the 80/20 rule, where the upper class people are well fed while the lower class people are struggling. The same is true in Hollywood. There are only so many famous actors, and most of the others work in the Actors Guild, slowly waiting for opportunities.

After waiting for two days, Gu Wei received a call from the person in charge of Warner, saying that the actor selection had been completed and the leading actors who needed to audition for the film had also been scheduled, and they were just waiting for Gu Wei to audition.

Gu Wei didn't waste any time and auditioned for the leading role in the movie at Warner Bros.

The audition lasted two days, and for each major role in the film, there were two to three people who needed to audition.

After watching the impromptu performances of the last batch of audition actors, Gu Wei directly decided on a few main actors. As for the other extras, Gu Wei did not audition them one by one as the workload would be too heavy. As long as there were no major problems, it would be fine.

The next day, Gu Wei went to Warner again and signed contracts with the actors of the film. The film was scheduled to start shooting three days later. Warner had already completed the review and application of the film in advance.

After signing the contract, Gu Wei sent the script to the actors. They had three days to familiarize themselves with the script, memorize the lines, and find their form.

The filming equipment and crew members are already in place, and we can start filming right away once some modifications to the filming location are completed.

In China, as time went by, the box office of "Time and Space Lovers" exceeded 100 million after a one-week delay. Major media and the Internet reported on it, and official media also issued congratulatory articles.

China Film Group.

Han Sanping has been living a very comfortable life recently. The box office of the movie he directed has exceeded 100 million yuan, and he has both wealth and reputation.

"Mr. Han, 'Time and Space Lovers' has officially been released in North America, with a box office of 1760 million US dollars."

The assistant in the office reported.

"Okay, the box office revenue sharing will be arranged according to the contract. Once the revenue sharing comes in, we will transfer it to other companies."

"Okay, Mr. Han."

Han Sanping thought for a while, picked up the landline on the desk and dialed.

Los Angeles, USA.

Gu Wei, who was already asleep, was woken up by a phone call. He took a look at the unfamiliar number and decided to answer it.

"Hello".

"How's it going over there? When will the movie start shooting?" Han Sanping's voice came from the other end of the phone.

"Mr. Han, didn't you check the time? It's early morning here."

Listening to Gu Wei's confused voice, Han Sanping laughed and then said, "I really didn't pay attention to the time, so I thought of calling you to ask about the situation over there."

"Everything is going smoothly and we expect filming to start around March 3th."

"That's good. I have something to tell you. 'Time and Space Lovers' has been taken off the screen in North America. It grossed 1760 million US dollars, which is a huge profit."

Han Sanping said this in a good mood.

The two chatted for more than ten minutes, and then Gu Wei hung up the phone. He looked at the time, it was 2 a.m., and Gu Wei couldn't help shaking his head and went to sleep.

At the same time, Han Sanping hung up the phone and rushed to the conference room to attend the group meeting.

At the meeting, President Yang, the head of China Film Group, gave a speech, summarizing the achievements of the film and television industry in the past year. He also said that with the country's vigorous development of the film and television industry, funds from all walks of life have poured in, and the era of blockbuster Chinese-language films has arrived. China Film must seize the opportunity, invest more in movies, and ensure the company's good operation.

Finally, he said that the group's investment amount for this year has been announced, and department heads should screen out high-quality scripts, invest in them, encourage the production of commercial films, and do a good job of macro-control.

China Film, which has reaped the benefits of "Time and Space Lovers", has clarified its next investment direction.

2002 was an important year for domestic films. As the country continued to increase its investment in the development of the film industry, directors such as Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige, Tian Zhuangzhuang, and Jia Zhangke all started shooting new films.

Not to mention Zhang Yimou's "Hero", for example, Tian Zhuangzhuang returned after a long break and began preparations for the movie "Spring in a Small Town". Also in preparation are Chen Kaige's "Together with You", Lu Chuan's "Looking for the Gun" and so on.

Hollywood, Los Angeles.

On March 3, "A True Story" officially started filming.

There was no opening ceremony at the site. Gu Wei, the main actors of the film, and the person in charge of Warner took a group photo together, which was released by Warner.

Starting in 2000, Hollywood decided to abandon film shooting and fully transform to digital, thus starting the journey of abandoning film and paving the way for the digital transformation of movies.

The shooting equipment provided by Warner is a digital camera. The movies produced are clearer, but the quality is not as good as that of a camera using film. It is more challenging for the photographer to master the shooting angle and on-site lighting.

However, as a big Hollywood company, Warner has no shortage of talent in this area. Gu Wei put forward his requirements, and the on-site shooting staff all said there was no problem.

On the first day of filming, almost no shots were taken, and Gu Wei spent most of the time trying to adjust the shooting angle and lighting.

The filming of "A True Detective" is not complicated. According to the working efficiency in Hollywood, it can be completed within a month and a half.

Considering that this was his first Hollywood movie, Gu Wei extended the shooting time to 2 months and polished it slowly, and also signed a contract with the crew and actors for 2 months.

Although the cost has increased, Gu Wei feels it is worth it.

.........

There are things happening in the domestic entertainment industry every day, and there is no shortage of topics to report.

Since the celebration party of "Time and Space Lovers", many media reporters found that Gu Wei had disappeared from the country. At first, the media did not pay much attention to it, but as time went by.

Reporters found that Gu Wei had not shown up. Reporters who were waiting at the school and Xingchen Film and Television Company did not capture any trace of Gu Wei. Subsequently, reports of Gu Wei's disappearance appeared on the Internet.

"He won't go abroad," some well-known directors and artists speculated, but without any solid evidence, no one dared to speak out.

It was not until March 3 that reporters stationed abroad discovered that Warner Bros. Pictures released a group photo of the start of filming of the company's movie, and standing in the middle of the photo was director Gu Wei.

"On March 2002, 3, the filming of Warner Bros.' newest movie started in Hollywood. The director and screenwriter of "A True Story" were both Gu Wei."

It was March 3 when the news and photos of the start of filming were transmitted back to China. All major media and Internet portals reported on it, and the entertainment industry was in an uproar.

Many film and television companies and well-known artists have been trying to confirm the authenticity of the news. Later, Xingchen Film and Television issued a statement confirming that the matter was true and that director Gu Wei had started filming a new movie in Hollywood.

When the directors and actors saw the news, they couldn't help but sigh that they had guessed it right. Gu Wei had indeed gone to Hollywood, and their words were full of envy.

In the following days, the phone of Xingchen Film and Television Company was almost blown up by calls, with celebrities and artists constantly calling to ask about Gu Wei's new movie and whether domestic actors were needed.

Wang Chen followed Gu Wei's instructions and declined all the offers, saying only that the cast for the film had already been confirmed and other matters could be discussed later when there was a chance.

Several well-known directors, in interviews with reporters, gave positive comments on Gu Wei's venture into Hollywood and wished him all the best.

Gu Wei, who was filming a movie, also received many greetings and congratulatory calls. After seeing the text messages, Gu Wei did not take them to heart and continued to concentrate on the filming of the movie.

The filming of this movie took a month. Things were not smooth in the first few days of shooting. The shooting habits in Hollywood are somewhat different from those in China, and Gu Wei is also slowly adapting.

There are also strict regulations on shooting time. If it exceeds the normal shooting time, the actors have the right to refuse shooting, which makes Gu Wei feel very uncomfortable.

After a few days, Gu Wei adapted to the crew's shooting habits and slowly got into the state. The first part of the movie slowly emerged in the camera.

This film is considered a successful crime and detective film. Although the ending is slightly controversial, it was later introduced into China for remake, but the ending was changed.

After much thought, Gu Wei decided to maintain an open ending, where the evil people die and the good people survive. This is in line with people's thoughts. In Hollywood, an open ending is also a better choice, which can attract a large number of audiences to the theater.

However, Gu Wei plans to shoot two versions of the movie's ending, mainly because the movie will be released in other regions and some regions have strict censorship, so he wants to be on the safe side.

(End of this chapter)