Chapter 345 Returning to China for Filming
"The colors and atmosphere are great..."
Wu Yuchen was talking to Martin Scorsese about his "The Aviator".
Martin Scorsese is known as the godfather of gangsters. He lost to Wu Yuchen in "Gangs of New York". This year, he went against his style and filmed "The Aviator" with Leo DiCaprio, a biographical film loved by the academy. He continued to compete for the Oscar, which shows his desire for the best director.
However, in addition to Martin Scorsese, there is also Clint Eastwood this year, and Wu Yuchen also had a friendly exchange with him. This year's Oscars is actually a competition between these two people, "The Aviator" and "Million Dollar Baby".
These two people did not canvass for votes as directly as Leo DiCaprio. Instead, they discussed the art of film with Wu Yuchen, sold their own filming concepts, and then talked about the problems and interesting things they encountered during filming.
In addition, Wu Yuchen also voted for "House of Flying Daggers". Don't get me wrong, although "House of Flying Daggers" was registered, it was not shortlisted for this year's Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, but was nominated for Best Cinematography. Wu Yuchen's vote was also for the photographer, they are all from the same hometown!
"Brother-in-law, are you going to the Oscars?"
Wu Yuchen looked at Fan Bingbing with eager eyes, and couldn't help but smiled and shook his head: "No."
"Ah?" Fan Bingbing's whole body shrank when she heard it, revealing a disappointed expression.
Wu Yuchen rubbed her head: "What are you thinking about? I don't have any works to participate in this year, and I don't have anything to do with it, why should I go?"
For Wu Yuchen, the novelty of experiencing the Oscars has long passed, after all, he has won a lot of awards. He doesn't need to take advantage of this traffic at all.
He can understand Fan Bingbing's feelings. After all, the Oscars are an annual film event that the whole world pays attention to. It is natural for her to want to see it.
However, Wu Yuchen couldn't take her there in person, otherwise there would inevitably be photos or they would be sent back to China. He wasn't afraid of gossip, but if it was sent to other women, wouldn't it cause trouble for him?
Then he looked at Fan Bingbing and said to her: "If you really want to go, I'll ask someone to get you an invitation letter so you can experience the atmosphere."
Fan Bingbing hesitated, and after thinking about it, she said: "Forget it..."
There are still public opinions on artists in China. After Wu Yuchen's words, she also felt that if she went there to simply get traffic, she would definitely be scolded when she returned to China. Now that Wu Yuchen is helping her, Fan Bingbing has really entered Hollywood and has works, so she doesn't need to get traffic like this. Isn't it enough to promote her works when the time comes?
Besides, she looked at Wu Yuchen, as long as she serves him well, she still has a great chance to attend the Oscars in the future!
Wu Yuchen did not go to the Oscars to watch the event. The final result was similar to that of his previous life. Million Dollar Baby almost swept the Oscars this year, winning the Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, and Best Supporting Actor.
However, two days after the Oscars, Wu Yuchen met Martin Scorsese again, who failed to win an Oscar.
"Martin, I'm sorry, the Academy shouldn't treat you like this. You should have won the Oscar no matter what."
Wu Yuchen comforted Martin, but he felt that he was unlucky. Martin can be said to be one of the directors with the most Oscar nominations for Best Director. This is the fifth nomination, but this time he ran into Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby.
The other party's connections are not worse than his, and if you really say that Martin started out by making gangster movies, this biographical movie "The Aviator" does not have his personal characteristics. In terms of the quality of the work, it is no problem for it to fail.
Martin Scorsese smiled and shook his head: "Wu, thank you, but those are all in the past, people still have to look forward."
Old Martin was unwilling to talk about this defeat anymore. Failure is failure. The result is already like this, and he has nothing to say.
"Wu, actually, I want to buy a script from you." Old Martin said.
Wu Yuchen's heart moved when he heard this. He has indeed registered a lot of scripts in recent years. If it is not in his own shooting plan, it is okay to sell it. And old Martin is also a figure in Hollywood, but I don't know which script old Martin is interested in.
"Martin, what do you want to buy?" Wu Yuchen smiled and gestured.
"A few years ago, you Chinese released a gangster movie, "Hell's Thing". I don't know what you Chinese call it, anyway, this movie is great! I was shocked after watching it. I think it is your work as producer and screenwriter. I want its remake rights, how about it?"
"Hell's Thing"? Wu Yuchen reacted immediately. The other party should be talking about "Infernal Affairs"! The English translation of this movie is probably "Hell's Thing", which can only express the superficial meaning, but lacks the oriental charm and profound meaning.
Martin is known as the master of American gangster movies, so he is naturally very fond of gangster movies. And "Infernal Affairs" can be ranked in the history of world gangster movies, so it is naturally noticed by him.
If we talk about American gangster movies, the most recognized one is "The Godfather", which is impeccable. The second and third ones are slightly controversial, but in general, the second one is considered to be "Once Upon a Time in America", which is the one in which Jennifer Connelly amazed the world as the young Deborah, and the third one is Martin's "Goodfellas".
There are not many directors who can be called masters in America. Old Martin is one of them. Although the box office is not growing, his contribution to film reform and innovation is indeed commendable.
Wu Yuchen looked at the old Martin who was over 60 years old. It was not easy for him to get an Oscar after 20 years. Then he was kind enough to help him!
In his previous life, Martin Scorsese won the Oscar for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Editing in 2007 by remaking "Infernal Affairs", which is the American version of "The Departed". Finally, he got what he wanted.
Wu Yuchen smiled and said to Martin Scorsese: "Martin, if you want to remake it, of course there is no problem. I hope you can tell something different about this story."
Although Wu Yuchen said so, he had actually seen "The Departed" in his previous life, so he was not very surprised.
To be honest, although the American version of "The Departed" has the charm of the American version, it is definitely not as good as the original version of "Infernal Affairs". It just tells the story of "Infernal Affairs" again in the film language of Martin Scorsese. Although it shows off Martin's shooting techniques, the spiritual core is actually not as good as the original version.
In "Infernal Affairs", you can experience the sense of fate that all beings suffer and the endless reincarnation, but in "The Departed", this is completely gone. In fact, it has become a simple confrontation between police and criminals, as well as emotional ties and human struggles, which are less flavorful.
However, from another perspective, the remake of "The Departed", which is not as good as "Infernal Affairs", can win the Oscar for Best Picture and Best Director. Doesn't it prove how powerful the movie "Infernal Affairs" is? Since Martin asked for it, Wu Yuchen naturally followed the trend.
Martin smiled: "Oh, Wu, thank you very much!"
As he said, he picked up the wine glass and gently touched it with Wu Yuchen to show his gratitude.
For Wu Yuchen, the matter of "Infernal Affairs" was just a small episode, and he still spent most of his time on "Batman". The preparation of "Batman" was not only in Los Angeles. Los Angeles was mainly for the construction of some scenes in the studio, and the outdoor scenes were to be filmed in Chicago.
Gotham itself was created based on Chicago, so this time the outdoor scenes of "Batman" were to be filmed in Chicago. The Chicago City Government was naturally very welcome to Wu Yuchen's "Batman" and said that it would provide all kinds of convenience to the crew during the filming.
It was April, and the relevant preparations in America were in place, and the actors for the roles had been decided. Several old actors were also found for the supporting roles,
For example, Michael Caine played the old butler of the Wayne family and served as the elder of Batman.
Morgan Freeman played an engineer of Wayne Enterprises, providing Batman with genius high-tech support. Batman's full armor, including the famous Batmobile, was the work of this scientist.
Liam Neeson, who played Schindler in Schindler's List, plays the boss of this film, the master of the Shadow Warriors League, and the "spiritual mentor" of Batman's growth and transformation. He rescued the downtrodden Wayne from prison and taught him how to transform guilt into anger.
In April, Wu Yuchen has returned to China with some members of the crew to shoot some scenes of Batman in China. However, Fan Bingbing did not come back with Wu Yuchen this time, and Final Destination 3 has already started shooting.
On the plane, many foreigners were quite excited: "Director, I heard that Tibet is a very ancient and mysterious place with a long-standing religion. Do we need to make any special preparations after we go there?"
"Just respect the local folk customs. Don't worry, it is not a separate country, but a part of China, with laws and public security, and it is not a barren land. Also, our mission is to shoot, and we can't give you much time to hang out."
Maybe it comes from mysticism, or maybe it's the geographical condition of being located at the backbone of the world. In short, Tibet is quite famous in the West, and Shangri-La is also described as the "Pure Land of Bliss", which makes a group of foreigners look forward to this trip.
However, when the plane really landed in Tibet, the altitude sickness hit some people first. That night, several of them lay directly on the bed and breathed oxygen, and they were so weak that they stopped shouting.
Altitude sickness is something that everyone has more or less. Fortunately, although Wu Yuchen had a headache, he was still able to move normally. While letting some people rest, he went to connect with the local department and then went to see the shooting location.
In fact, there are only two scenes of "Batman" in China.
At the beginning, Bruce Wayne left Gotham City because of his inner confusion and confusion about justice and revenge, and wandered around the world in self-exile. During this period, he became a thief and committed crimes himself to understand the psychology of those criminals.
The first scene was when he was caught and detained by the police in China and locked up in the police station. In the previous life, the version released in China deleted this part. It was probably that several police officers said to Bruce Wayne on the ground, "You squat better!", followed by a Chinese curse, and then this scene was deleted.
Actually, if you really want to watch it, it doesn't mean to be insulting. It's just a normal reaction. Many domestic audiences laughed when they saw this scene in the uncut version. But since the national curse is not allowed, just shoot it cleanly.
In fact, this scene is not very important. It's just a formality. We contacted a team of police and the police station in the local area. It was basically finished in less than half a day. Instead, more time was spent on socializing.
In the next scene, the leader of the Shadow Warriors League, that is, Liam Neeson's character, rescued Bruce Wayne from the police station, which can be understood as bail. Then Bruce Wayne went to climb the snow-capped mountains and received relevant training at the Shadow Warriors League base on the snow-capped mountains.
Regarding the Shadow Warriors League, this is not made up. It is actually the Assassin's League in the comics. The Assassin's League is a super villain organization in DC comics, distributed all over the world, but mainly in the snow-capped mountains. In the comics, they have bases in the Himalayas, Switzerland and even Antarctica. Therefore, it is set in the Himalayas here for this setting.
However, in the original version of Batman Begins, the clips shown were all about ninjutsu that Bruce Wayne learned. Wu Yuchen had to make some changes here, changing it to martial arts including kung fu, assassination, judo, etc.
Of course, this time we came to the Himalayas mainly to shoot some outdoor scenes, and there were some fights on the snowy mountains and ice. Fortunately, both Bale and Liam Neeson were in good health, and the fighting requirements were not high. Otherwise, if they really shot intense fights on the plateau, it might aggravate the altitude sickness of the two and cause unnecessary trouble.
Most of the real fights trained by the Shadow Warriors League do not need to be shot on the plateau, and they can be shot in the studio.
The shots shot in China actually add up to a total of three scenes, which may be reflected in the movie for two minutes, but it took two weeks to complete.
Just when Wu Yuchen had almost finished the scenes on the Tibetan plateau, he received a call from Cai Yinong: "Director Wu, Zhang Yimou and Zhang Weiping broke up!"