Chapter 274 285 [The standard of a good director, the selection of cast members for the Three Kingdoms drama]

After finalizing the relevant cooperation matters with Harvey, the follow-up matters were handed over to Amy who was in North America. Li Yishu did not stay in Cannes for long. After saying goodbye to Gong Li, he flew to the UK.

It’s a rare opportunity to come to Europe, so of course I have to go visit Monica and visit the crew of Li An’s “Sense and Sensibility”.

This movie cost tens of millions of dollars, not including post-production promotion.

If you count it, it is at least around 1500 million US dollars. It is the first time that Li Yishu has made a bold overseas investment.

If it were someone else, Lee Ye-seok might still be a little worried, but if it was Lee An who was making this movie, he wouldn’t have so many concerns.

“Sense and Sensibility” was originally directed by Li An, although he missed out on “Eat Drink Man Woman” and “The Girl from Hunan”, but strictly speaking, Li An is not the type of director who only cares about killing monsters and leveling up.

He practiced hard for many years and became a world-renowned representative overnight.

After all, no director would stay at home for six or seven years without looking for a job or doing an internship. With just one opportunity, he was nominated for the Golden Horse Award for Best Director.

United Kingdom.

The crew of “Sense and Sensibility”.

While Li Yishu was checking in with Monica about the crew’s filming progress, she was watching Kate Winslet acting with someone on the lawn not far away.

It has been three months since we last saw each other. Now when I see Kate Winslet again, her figure has indeed changed a lot. If she was plump before, now she has baby fat. Although there is a little flesh on her face, it still gives people a youthful feeling.

“When will the crew finish filming?” Li Yishu turned to look at Monica Bellucci.

“It will take at least another month.”

Monica Bellucci shook her head and said, “Li An is too persistent. I felt some of the shots were OK, but he insisted on doing them again a few more times.”

“Haha, this is his only chance to prove himself, how can he not be strict?”

Li Yishu smiled. Although the global box office of “Final Destination” has already exceeded 100 million US dollars, no one will put the credit on Li An.

It is very common for horror films to become box office dark horses in North America. The 1978 horror film Halloween, which cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, earned 4716 million dollars at the North American box office. The 1973 film The Exorcist, which cost only tens of millions of dollars to make, earned 4.41 million dollars at the global box office…

It is precisely because it is common for horror movies to become box office dark horses, and the script of Death was written by Li Yishu, those film companies that know the situation will only think that Li An is lucky to have got the script written by Li Yishu, and then the box office exploded.

“By the way, what’s the budget like now? Is there any overspending?”

“No, the budget is still sufficient. Li is very good at this.” Monica praised: “He is very good at controlling costs. He doesn’t spend money if he can save money. Now there is more than 300 million US dollars on the account, which is enough to support the filming of the rest of the plot.”

“A director who knows how to control costs is a good director!”

Lee Yi-su smiled with satisfaction: “What I hate most is directors who don’t know how to control costs, because those who don’t know how to control costs mean that their own vision for the film is not up to standard, causing the film to deviate from the track.”

Being a director is actually an accounting job. This is Li Yishu’s experience in making online movies over the years. If you want to make a movie, you must keep a record of everything from wages, pay, costumes and props to the crew’s lunch boxes.

For this point, Li Yishu particularly admires Christopher Nolan, the director of “Interstellar”. No matter whether his fans will deify him in the future, there is at least one thing that Li Yishu admires the most, which is his ability to control budgets accurately, comparable to that of an accountant.

Nolan likes to arrange the schedule and data of his works neatly, and he has control over every account in advance.

It is said that after the filming of “Interstellar”, Nolan returned a large sum of money to Paramount because the budget was not used up and a lot was left instead. He would not be like the husband of Thirteenth Sister, who bought a straw hat worth thousands of dollars and a beggar’s outfit worth hundreds of dollars.

Monica has been a producer for such a long time, from being ignorant to learning from the assistant producer, and now controlling the budget of the crew. She can deeply understand what Li Yishu said.

She couldn’t help but ask, “Honey, is Li An a good director?”

“Half and half, it depends on your perspective.”

From the perspective of ordinary people, Li An is a good director. From the perspective of Li Yishu, he is also a good director. But from the perspective of the boss, it is a different story.

When it comes to good directors who can make money for the company, Li Yishu only admires Nolan and Wang Jing.

Wang Jing’s films rarely lose money, and the production costs are low and the shooting cycle is short. Even if the rate of return is a little lower, the advantage is the fast turnover.

The most important thing is that this little fat guy is also good at making TV dramas. “The Best Under Heaven” and “Little Fish and Flower”… the ratings are not low, and they were all popular dramas of the year.

Thinking this way, it seems that after a few years, I can drag Wang Jing to the United States to shoot a low-cost film.

American B-movies, such as “Wrong Turn” and “The Hills Have Eyes” series, are actually similar to Hong Kong’s Category III films, selling sex scenes while creating horror plots. In this regard, Wang Jing, a veteran Category III film expert, still has a lot to say.

While Li Yishu was thinking, Li An had already stopped filming and ran over, panting, “Director Li, I’m sorry, the crew was filming just now and I couldn’t come here right away!”

“It’s okay. Filming is more important. I just came to visit the set and see the progress of the filming.” Li Yishu waved her hand nonchalantly.

Li An glanced at the producer Monica. He knew that the boss lady should have reported everything to Director Li. She did not mention the progress of the filming anymore, but smiled and congratulated:
“Congratulations to Director Li for winning the Cannes Best Director Award. This is the first time that a Chinese person has won the Cannes Best Director Award. It really boosts the Chinese people’s pride.”

Li Yishu looked at him in surprise. She didn’t expect Li An to be so good at flattering her. “Film it well. I think your film has a great chance of winning an award. I just don’t know which film festival you are going to participate in?”

Li An thought for a moment and said, “I do want to attend Cannes, but it may be a little late. It will probably be the Berlin Film Festival next year.”

His film will be finished before the end of June and then go into post-production. If he rushes, he can make it in time for the Venice Film Festival in September, but Li An doesn’t want to rush the process.

The sample film will be sent to the Venice Film Festival in August, which means there is only a little over a month for post-production, which is definitely not enough.

Li An was used to taking his time to do things carefully, so instead of rushing around, he decided to wait until next year and sign up for the Berlin International Film Festival.

“Well, Berlin is nice.”

Li Yishu nodded slightly. Originally, Li An was going to win an award with this movie, and it seemed to be the Berlin Film Festival. But he didn’t know if he could win the Golden Bear Award next year.

The jury has changed, and next year’s jury may not like this film. After all, everyone’s viewing style is different.

After chatting with Li An for a while, several actors from the crew also rushed over. Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet and other actresses had met before during the audition. Li Yishu also greeted them and then looked at the three male leads.

The leading actor is Hugh Grant, whose movie “Four Weddings and a Funeral” released this year achieved a global box office of 2.5 million US dollars, making him the most famous young British actor.

Lee Ye-seo wasn’t very impressed with him, but the same could not be said for the second male lead, Alan Rickman.

This name may be a little unfamiliar, but the name “Severus Snape” is much more familiar. He is the teacher of Defense Against the Dark Arts in “Harry Potter” and also the admirer of Harry Potter’s mother.

He extended his hand and smiled, “Hi Alan, I’ve seen you in Robin Hood, it was very good.”

“Thank you Director Li, I am a fan of your movies. I really like your movies “Central Station” and “The Postman”. I think you captured the bottom of society…”

Alan Rickman talked endlessly about his thoughts after watching the movie. Some of his views were so surprising that even director Lee Ye-su found it a bit unbelievable. He wondered if he had thought so much when he was filming the movie.
But overall, Lee Yi-su was still very happy. This at least showed that the other party really watched her movie and did not just swallow it whole.

The group entered the crew’s manor and began to chat. After more than half an hour, seeing that it was getting late, Li Yishu patted Li An’s arm, told him to continue filming, and said goodbye with Monica.

Before leaving, Li An suddenly asked, “By the way, Director Li, do you know that Director Wu Yusen’s new movie will be released in mid-June?”

“It’s confirmed to be released so soon?” Li Yishu was surprised. After Wu Yusen finished filming the movie, he contacted him to help with the distribution.

Li Yishu naturally kept her promise and helped introduce Hisao Morishima of Columbia Pictures.

Morishima Hisao had naturally heard of Wu Yusen, the pioneering director of Hong Kong’s violent aesthetics. When he learned that he was going to distribute the film, he readily agreed. He originally thought it would take some time, but he didn’t expect it to be released in mid-June.

“Yes, Director Wu contacted me yesterday. I guess he will also contact you, Director Li.”

“It just so happens that I’m going to the United States in June, so I might as well go and see his new film.”

Li Yishu’s face was full of curiosity. She didn’t know what the final effect of this film, which was derived from “A Better Tomorrow”, would be.
Two days later.

On May 5, Li Yishu flew directly back to Yanjing from London.

Han Sanping came back a day earlier than him, and the affairs in Cannes had not been completed yet, but they had all been handed over to the two directors of Emei Film Studio.

Han Sanping actually went to Cannes just to fulfill his dream, to participate in an international film festival, and to complete his final duty as the producer of “Nobody”.

Now he is the director of Beijing Film Studio and is responsible for the entire studio. He has to return to China early to prepare for the casting of “Red Cliff of the Three Kingdoms”.

Beijing Film Studio.

in an office.

Directors Xie Jin and Wang Fulin were already there, and after Li Yishu arrived, she was directly involved in the actor screening.

There are too many actors involved in “Red Cliff of the Three Kingdoms”. There are hundreds of main characters from the three parties of Wei, Shu and Wu alone.

Cao Cao has Cao Ren, Xu Huang, Zhang He, Yu Jin, Xun Yu, Xun You, Jia Xu, Cheng Yu…

On Liu Bei’s side there are Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, Zhuge Liang, Mi Zhu… and also the earlier Xu Shu.

On Sun Quan’s side there are Zhou Yu, Lu Su, Zhang Zhao, Gu Yong, Huang Gai, Gan Ning, Cheng Pu…

With so many people, it is definitely impossible to perfect their personalities and images in the movie, and most of them will definitely be highly homogenized.

A man in armor and with a beard is a general, and a man with a feather fan and a scarf is a strategist.

After some discussion, there are 13 important characters that need to be interviewed, namely: Cao Liu Sun, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, Zhuge Liang, Zhou Yu, Lu Su, Huang Gai, Zhang Liao, Jiang Gan and Pang Tong.

These 13 important characters are almost the most typical representatives of the three parties of Cao, Liu and Sun throughout the Battle of Chibi.

“Guan Yu interviewed Lu Shuming and Zhang Shan…”

“The people Zhang Fei interviewed are…”

“The people Zhao Yun interviewed include Hua Zai and He Jiajin…”

Among these main characters, the most popular ones are Zhao Yun, Zhuge Liang and Zhou Yu, the famous handsome men of the Three Kingdoms.

The most eye-catching among them has to be Zhao Yun, with more than a dozen candidates, because this character is not only handsome, but also has his own separate roles, going in and out of Changbanpo seven times.

Comparing Guan Yu and Zhang Fei in the Battle of Red Cliff, one killed Xiahou Jie with a glare and a spear in hand on Dangyang Bridge, and the other released Cao Cao at Huarong Pass. Although both of them had their own highlight moments, the images of these two characters are not something that ordinary people can handle.

Compared to Zhao Yun, as long as he is handsome, it’s enough. There is not much of anything in the entertainment industry. There are the most handsome men and beautiful women. As long as he is a handsome man, with a little dressing up, he can fit the image of Zhao Zilong on a white horse and with a silver spear.

Hearing that Chen Daoming was not on Liu Bei’s interview list, Li Yishu was surprised and asked, “Chen Daoming is not coming for the interview?”

Hearing this, Xie Jin, who had been recommending Chen Daoming, said with an unhappy look on his face: “He went to play Jing Ke.”

Chen Kaige’s new film “The Emperor and the Assassin” is also a big-budget film. Although the production cost is not as high as Lee Yi-su’s “Red Cliff”, Jing Ke is the protagonist. He assassinates the King of Qin and he definitely has the most scenes.

But playing Liu Bei is different. In the Battle of Red Cliff, Liu Bei’s presence is not very high, so after receiving a notice from Brother Chen Kai, Chen Daoming ran to play Jing Ke.

“If you don’t want to come, then don’t come.”

Chen Daoming’s acting skills are still very good now, unlike the roles he played later, which were almost all “Chen Daoming”.

The way he acted according to the template was a bit similar to Jin Dong, and the characters he played were always the same, “elite man with slicked back hair”, including the later Hu Bayi, who actually had the same flavor, except without the slicked back hair.

Li Yishu waved her hand and said, “Director Han, please notify these actors and ask them to come to the Beijing Film Studio for an audition in three days.”

There were 13 important roles and more than 100 actors auditioned. The most popular ones were Zhuge Liang, Zhou Yu and Zhao Yun, while Guan Yu and Zhang Fei were the least.

(End of this chapter)