China Entertainment please answer! 1997

Chapter 97 Casting of "The Grandmaster"
On April 2000, 4, after a lot of preparations, Cao Qing finally officially started casting for the movie "The Grandmaster". For this reason, he sent a message to all major entertainment companies directly by email.

In the email, he clearly marked all the roles he plans to audition and the detailed requirements for these roles. Anyone who is interested in auditioning can quickly find their suitable target according to the specific role introduction in this email.

Speaking of it, I am a little sorry for director Wang Jiawei. The storyline of the movie "The Grandmaster" is quite complicated. Not only does it involve many sects and social affairs at that time, but the various branch plots are also quite complicated. .

If he hadn't stepped on Wang Jiawei's shoulders and could directly set the character of each character in the movie according to the casting template in Wang Jiawei's original film, even if Cao Qing had the entire script of "The Grandmaster", It is completely impossible to master this film thoroughly in such a short period of time.

And now, all the countless painstaking efforts Wang Jiawei has put into "The Grandmaster" have all made a big gift package for Cao Qing, giving him the ability to stand on the shoulders of the original movie and continue to climb the peak.

"I'm sorry, Director Wang Jiawei, I will try my best to make your movie well and try not to waste your hard work."

"Although I know that you have had the idea of ​​filming "The Grandmaster" a long time ago, but there is no way, the system gave me this film, so I can only borrow your film in one fell swoop. Ying rushed to the throne of B-level director."

"However, if there is a chance, I will try my best to make up for you. Anyway, your elder brother has a long life, and he will definitely be able to wait until the time when we have an intersection with me in the future."

After sending the audition news to the major entertainment companies, thinking about the reactions of the major entertainment companies after receiving this audition email, Cao Qing couldn't help but raise the corners of his mouth slightly, and silently looked forward to the next thing about this audition. The result of filming.

On April 2000, 4, after receiving the audition invitation sent by Cao Qing, major entertainment companies pushed out suitable personnel in their own companies, and asked them to go to the company according to the time given in Cao Qing's email. Tengda Film and Television Entertainment Company went to audition.

Faced with the numerous audition actors, Cao Qing had no idea of ​​compromising. He worked on this casting job for a month, and it was not until May 5 that he truly completed the work on "The Grandmaster" The casting process for this film.

During this process, Cao Qing had to face a large number of actors, and the choices he had to make were continuous. Among them, there were some who came to audition for favors, and some inside the company who wanted to participate in the performance by themselves, and there were also actors with different appearances and appearances. It's pretty good, but it's not beneficial to Tengda Film and Television Entertainment Company at all.

During this month, Cao Qing had to put in a lot of effort every day just thinking about how to screen these actors and try not to offend others.

Cao Qing's current reputation is really too prestigious, so much so that he just sent out an invitation to those film and television entertainment companies to audition for casting, and it immediately made countless film and television entertainment companies, artists and actors smell like blood. Like a shark, it is chasing after it from hundreds of miles away.

A "Crazy Stone", a "Hangover", and a "Meteor Garden" have really achieved Cao Qing too much, making his current status in the entertainment industry almost complete except for a few directors such as Chen Kai and Zhang Yimou. Reached the pinnacle of domestic director career.

Even Zhang Jizhong, the boss of the TV industry, and others, because the default TV drama director in the film and television industry is half a level lower than the movie director, the current celebrity status in the film and television industry is only about the same as Cao Qing, even outside the film and television industry. In the eyes of people, it is slightly worse.

The reason why Cao Qing only made two films and one TV series to achieve such an achievement, although partly because his works are indeed excellent, but more importantly, is because the film industry these days is really bad.

At present, in the entire film circle, there are only a handful of people who can really make money from making films.

If these directors who can make money are ranked in one place, those who can still make money after investing tens of millions of dollars, it is estimated that the sum of them will not reach the amount of ten fingers.

Among the fifth-generation directors who are already at the top of the pyramid, Chen Kaige was the first to be promoted last year, and Zhang Yimou was the first to be promoted this year.

After all, although Chen Kaige is a leading figure among the fifth-generation directors, the "Yellow Earth" directly caused a sensation in the entire film industry. Even Zhang Yimou, a later super director, was willing to serve as his photographer and assist him. Later, with "Farewell My Concubine", the mainland masterpiece that ranked No. [-] on Douban in later generations, it won eight awards at the Cannes Film Festival, including the Palme d'Or, and became a god in one fell swoop.

But the dazzling crown on his head, since the failure of "Jing Ke Assassinates the King of Qin" with an investment of nearly [-] million last year, has been directly cut out a gap, making his fame never reach its peak. high.

On the other hand, Zhang Yimou, although he has not yet made an epoch-making work like "Hero", and has not directly become a god because he saved the domestic market in one fell swoop, but as a film master who is quite prolific and can make money in almost every film , since he directed his first film "Red Sorghum" in 1987, he has won numerous awards along the way.

Among them, "Red Sorghum" won him the Golden Bear Award at Huaguo's first international film festival. In the following years, his film works "Ju Dou", "Raise the Red Lantern", "A Lawsuit by Qiu Ju", " Alive", "Not One Less", "My Father and Mother" have won numerous film awards overseas all the year round, and made him nominated for the Oscar three times and the Golden Globe Award five times. His directing ability, which almost never loses money and is extremely high-yielding in making movies, is really unmatched in China at present.

Even Chen Kai, apart from being able to overwhelm him in "Farewell My Concubine", he is also completely suppressed by him in every other aspect.

If Zhang Yimou's current status in the film industry is substituted into the online literary world to make an analogy, it is probably equivalent to the planning and setting of a squid who loves diving + the speed of eagle codewords + the writing style of the princes of Fenghuo opera. It is simply invincible among invincibles.

Apart from these two, there are only two directors under the age of 40 in the domestic film industry who can stabilize Cao Qing's head.

Of course, one of them is Comrade Xiaogang, the director of commercial films who first created the concept of Lunar New Year films, and all of them are box office hits.

But it is a pity that compared with Chen Kai and Zhang Yimou, the current Feng Xiaogang is still a bit out of place. After all, although his films are very popular with domestic audiences, it is often difficult to get rewards internationally, which naturally makes it difficult for him He completely convinced the audience in the film and television circle and gained the reputation of a master.

What's more, many filmmakers in China look down on directors of commercial films like Feng Xiaogang who are full of money and only know how to increase the box office of movies, but can't increase the art and literary quality of movies.

As for another great director, Jiang Wen, although his works are extremely strong in terms of box office and artistry, the production rate of his works is extremely low.

Since his self-written and directed "Sunny Day" in 95 was named the first among the "Top Ten Best Movies in the World in 33" by Time Magazine, and won the 1995rd Taiwan Film Golden Horse Award in one fell swoop. After the Best Director Award, from 2000 to 53, he made only one film again in the five years, and that was "The Devil Is Coming", which won the Jury Prize at the [-]rd Cannes International Film Festival.

And because of this drama, he was also ordered by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television not to shoot movies in the mainland again for several years. Compared with Zhang Yimou, Feng Xiaogang and others, the output rate of this kind of movie is really too low.

To sum up, in the current domestic film industry, except for the four people mentioned above who can hold Cao Qing at a head, the rest of the domestic film industry, no matter how high their status is, they are at most on par with Cao Qing , keep pace with each other.

Even those directors who can keep pace with Cao Qing, most of them still have to rely on the blessing of their status in the world. When it comes to the box office earning ability of making movies, they are far inferior to Cao Qing.

In this way, Cao Qing, who is only 22 years old at the moment, has suddenly stood out from the current circle of directors that everyone is rotten by relying on these two movies and a TV series, and has become a well-known director in the eyes of everyone in one fell swoop. He has super attractiveness and absolute power of life and death to those actors and entertainers.

Relying on his status in the film and television industry, Cao Qing finally held a press conference for the media on May 5th after sifting through countless selections of actors who came to audition.

At this press conference, Cao Qing not only announced that his film "The Grandmaster" will be launched on June 6st, but also reported all the cast members of the film in one fell swoop.

【Starring Cao Qing (playing Ip Man), Zhang Ziyi (Miss Gong Er), Wu Jing (One-line Sky), Lin Zhiling (Zhang Yongcheng), Wang Qingxiang (Gong Yutian), Zhang Jin (Ma San)】

On the second day of the press conference, countless viewers across the country were bewildered by Cao Qing's casting. They couldn't help but engage in various heated debates around Cao Qing's casting. The most controversial issue was, Since the content of the movie "The Great Master" tells the story of the martial arts era in the Republic of China, why is the choice of this TV series so young? Is the choice too frivolous.

And another question from netizens is about the rationality of the election of Ip Man's wife Zhang Yongcheng and whether there is any shady in this election.

Since Lin Zhiling had just made her debut these days and was kidnapped by Cao Qing into her own company, netizens had never heard of her name at all, and the actress who also competed with her for the role of Ip Man's wife Zhang Yongcheng was this Xu Jinglei, who was already quite famous at that time.

Such a reputation comparison, no matter what aspect you look at, those netizens think that the wife of Ip Man, Zhang Yongcheng, should choose Xu Jinglei, and Cao Qing's choice of using the company's newcomers indiscriminately is completely shady.

However, Cao Qing has already prepared his own way to deal with the skeptical attitude of many netizens on the Internet.

On May 5th, Cao Qing gathered all the cast members of "The Great Master" together at home, and then called the crew photographers to take a set of photos for each of these important cast members and publish them on the media newspapers. superior.

Soon, the netizens who had been arguing endlessly on the Tianya forum about the appearances of these actors published by Cao Qing on the Internet finally silently canceled their comments after comparing the profiles of these actors described in the newspaper one by one. previous thoughts in your mind.

"As expected, it is Lin Zhiling, the newly promoted supermodel of Wanwan that was introduced in the newspaper. This appearance and figure are simply perfect, crushing Xu Jinglei."

"Such a beautiful woman, if I choose her too, there is absolutely no shady existence in choosing her."

Unconsciously, there was a heated discussion about Lin Zhiling on Tianya.com, and even many viewers who coveted her beauty immediately chose to fall when they saw her face, and silently made a support in their hearts called " The plan of the movie "The Grandmaster".

It can be said that compared with the movie "The Grandmaster" starring Xu Jinglei, most young audiences have become more interested in the movie "The Grandmaster" since they saw Lin Zhiling's beautiful face in the newspaper .

And Cao Qing is also quite satisfied with the reaction of these audiences. After successfully solving a small public opinion storm, he directly brought Zhang Ziyi and many other leading actors, as well as the lighting engineer, prop artist, makeup artist, etc. of the crew of "The Great Master" A large group of behind-the-scenes staff rushed directly to Hengdian.

It stands to reason that Hong Kong Island should be the place where Cao Qing should lead the crew to film "The Grandmaster", a film that assumes the story of the Jianghu in the Republic of China. However, due to the current price level of Hong Kong Island compared with the mainland It was too much higher. In order to save money, Cao Qing still chose Hengdian as the filming location of "The Grandmaster" after much hesitation.

Hengdian Film and Television City was first built in 1996. Its original model was the Guangzhou Street Scenic Area, the first film and television shooting base built by director Xie Jin to shoot the tribute blockbuster "Opium War".

Then, three years ago, another brother Chen Kai built the Qin Palace Scenic Spot for the filming of the historical blockbuster "Jing Ke Assassinates the King of Qin".

In the following few years, as more and more film crews came here from all over the country, scenic spots such as Hong Kong Street, Qingming Shanghe Scene, Ming and Qing Palace Gardens, and Jiangnan Water Town were also built one by one.

This year, in order to attract more film crews from home and abroad to shoot here, Hengdian Film and Television City has directly carried out rent-free activities for film and television shooting of all scenes in Hengdian Film and Television City.

And this behavior of Hengdian Film and Television City was like the last straw that broke the camel's back. It made Cao Qing, who was still hesitating whether to go to Hong Kong Island to shoot, completely determined his thoughts at once, and directly chose I chose Hengdian as the shooting location for my own movie.

(End of this chapter)