reshape life

Time moved forward to May, when Lu Heng was polishing his first film directed at an outrageous speed, the global entertainment circle once again ushered in this year's Cannes Film Festival.

The post-production of the film "The Forbidden Man" starring Lu Heng and Zhao Miao has finally been completed. As the director, Wu Zhongyuan immediately started preparing for the trip to Cannes after receiving the master tape of "The Forbidden Man".Lu Heng, Zhao Miao, and Chen Mengyi, who are the two leading actors and the only heroine, are the main actors of the crew of "Forbidden Man", and some of them were also invited by director Wu Zhongyuan - I hope they can go to Cannes with the crew.

The opening ceremony of this year's Cannes Film Festival is scheduled for May No. 12. Generally, the films that can be shortlisted for the main competition unit will be screened in the screening halls of the Film Palace one after another within [-] days after the opening ceremony. It is to let more movie fans enjoy the movie, and secondly, it is also to promote the movie.

That is to say, if the three of Lu Heng accepted Director Wu Zhongyuan's invitation to go to Cannes with the crew of "Forbidden Man", they would have to stay in Cannes for at least 20 days including the film show after the opening ceremony.

Taking the current situation of "Cats and Dogs War" as an example, counting the actors' salaries and various miscellaneous expenses, the entire crew spends hundreds of thousands of budgets on filming every day, not to mention those who have already made appointments. The schedule of guest appearances by superstars——

Everyone is out of Lu Heng's face, so they are willing to squeeze out a few hours like squeezing toothpaste to come to the crew of "Cats and Dogs" to shoot cameo scenes in their busy schedules.Lu Heng couldn't put aside the entire film crew and friends just because he was going to Cannes.

Therefore, after careful consideration, for the sake of their duties as a director, and to take care of the crew of "Cats and Dogs" that had been dragged to the point where the producers wanted to cry, Lu Heng and the three decided to decline Director Wu Zhongyuan's invitation after deliberation. Flying to Cannes with the crew of "Forbidden City" instead of waiting for the opening ceremony of the Cannes Film Festival - this choice is also a common choice for most actors when they attend the film festival.

However, this kind of decision also means that the idea of ​​using Lu Heng's influence to publicize the jury at the film festival that the crew of "Heroes Forbidden" had previously planned must be put on hold—at least temporarily.

In other words, before Lu Heng arrived in Cannes, they had to rely on their own strength to submit the film for trial.

For Director Wu Zhongyuan, who has been shooting commercial films and has never made any achievements in the field of literature and art, but hopes to transform into an award and go international with the film "Forbidden Man", it is inevitable that he lacks confidence.

But he also understood Lu Heng's approach.Because for an actor like Lu Heng, it is very normal to choose to arrive at the venue two days before the opening ceremony of the film festival - after all, everyone is a first-line superstar in the circle, with super popularity and business. The value also means that everyone's usual schedule for announcements is very full, obviously not like some newcomers who debuted as "underground movies", or specialize in filming literary films so that their filming paths become narrower and narrower, or even Tossing to the point that, except for insiders, outsiders simply "can't find such a person", some actors have such a free schedule, and they can spare ten days and a half months to accompany the crew to fight in Cannes——

In fact, including Hollywood, many stars participating in the Cannes Film Festival do not have the time and energy to participate in the entire film festival from beginning to end.Most people will only choose to make a debut at the opening ceremony and walk the red carpet, and then wait patiently for the film festival organizers to arrange for their films to be released-after that, if they can ensure that their films win awards, some people may Interested in staying until the closing awards ceremony, if not, then most superstars (here refers to Hollywood superstars who have a certain influence in the world) will choose to leave immediately after the film is released.

Therefore, industry insiders and movie fans who are familiar with the holding process of major international film festivals can notice the fact that, unlike the star-studded opening ceremony red carpet, the closing ceremony of most international film festivals is relatively "cold and depressed". .In the worst times, it can even reach the point where more than half of the male and female protagonists of the participating films are absent from the award ceremony-and this kind of imagination is obviously a convention that everyone in the circle understands.

So director Wu Zhongyuan was not surprised when he got the reply from Lu Heng and the others.Wu Zhongyuan, who is also a director, can actually understand the pressure Lu Heng faced when he directed a film for the first time.He believes that under such circumstances, it is understandable that Lu Heng does not want himself and the leading actors and actresses to leave the crew for a long time.After all, given the special situation of the crew of "Cats and Dogs", if Lu Heng, Zhao Miao and Chen Mengyi all accompanied the crew of "Forbidden City" to Cannes, it would mean that both the director and the hero and heroine would be absent from "Cats and Dogs" The crew must stop——

However, during the filming of "Cats and Dogs", the news that the filming progress was seriously behind due to Lu Heng's "turtle hair" has long been tacit gossip among artists in the circle.Originally, the filming progress of the crew has been so slow that investors and producers want to cry. If the director is still at this juncture and asks for leave to participate in some film festival, and then throws his crew away, it will be twenty or so. sky……

It is estimated that if this kind of thing really happens, the investors and producers will really be so angry that they want to kill——

Even if the investors and producers of "Cats and Dogs" are not so angry, in Wu Zhongyuan's view, no principled and responsible director can tolerate his crew being suspended for more than 20 days without reason during filming. In order to participate in a film festival that I don't know if I can win an award!At least director Wu Zhongyuan thought he couldn't accept it, so he judged others by himself, and at the first moment Lu Heng expressed his embarrassment, he immediately agreed with Lu Heng and the three as the three leading actors of "Heroes Forbidden". It takes one day to fly over to meet everyone's request.

As for director Wu Zhongyuan's "understanding", Lu Heng, who was directing a movie for the first time, felt very grateful.However, what he didn't expect was that although Director Wu sympathized with his request, it also aroused the dissatisfaction of the rest of the crew of "Forbidden Man".This person is Lin Chaoyang, who plays the third male villain in "The Forbidden Man" - Eunuch Sun, the supervisor of the army.

As a well-received veteran actor in the industry for his professional ability, Lin Chaoyang's acting skills are obviously not directly proportional to his magnanimity.As early as during the filming of "Heroes Forbidden", everyone was very unhappy because of some inexplicable little things.However, after Wei Linxuan, the agent, visited the set with a rather strong attitude, someone's unhappiness was finally suppressed, and everyone was able to film the finale safely.

For this old actor who has been in the industry for more than 20 years before barely getting into the second-tier, the fact that the film he participated in can compete for the Cannes Film Festival is obviously a major event that can affect his career.Therefore, Lin Chaoyang certainly hopes that everyone in the crew can go all out——

This all-out effort not only refers to everyone's interpretation of roles during filming, but obviously in Lin Chaoyang's understanding, it also means some off-site strengths—for example, Lu Heng's contacts in the jury of the Cannes Film Festival.

After all, everyone knows that Lu Heng has been nominated for the main competition unit of the Cannes Film Festival several times, and even won the Palme d'Or and Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival.In this case, the relationship between Lu Heng and the Cannes Jury is self-evident.So Lin Chaoyang has been expecting Lu Heng to go to Cannes together as the main creative member of "Heroes Forbidden" and do his part for the film's public relations.

It's a pity that Lu Heng's move to postpone the trip completely shattered Lin Chaoyang's fantasy.

In front of Lu Heng, Lin Chaoyang didn't dare to say anything.Behind his back, he dragged Wu Zhongyuan and complained non-stop.

"Young people are young people, and they have no sense of responsibility at all. No matter how you say "Forbidden Man" is a movie he and Zhao Miao acted together, I don't think he cares at all. That's right, he is already the best actor in Cannes, and he followed Fang Kai I have never seen anything in the world. Naturally, I don’t pay attention to our movies.”

"It's fine if he doesn't want to help himself, and he has to stop Zhao Miao and Chen Mengyi from giving them a fake. Now it's a good movie, the male and female protagonists are absent, so why should we promote it? This is too much?"

Hearing the endless complaints from his old friend, director Wu Zhongyuan also smiled wryly.I couldn't help but say something fair: "This is also normal. He was originally the male number two, not to mention that this male number two was rescued temporarily because of Zhao Miao's face. During the filming, he helped us design the whole set. Martial arts action... This is already very good. We can't ask someone else's second male lead to work hard for the crew to win awards, right? They also confiscated that money, right?"

What Wu Zhongyuan said was sincere. After so many years in the circle, he had never met anyone.Many actors work according to the contract, and what they say is better than what they sing. When it comes to the real chapter, it is not Ding Mao or Ding Mao who calculates the shooting date. One more scene and one more line for one more day can't wait to increase the price.There are too few "fools" like Lu Heng who are willing to do free work and almost offend others for the sake of making movies perfect.

Lin Chaoyang didn't take it seriously after hearing his old friend's emotion.

"You can't say that." Lin Chaoyang couldn't see his old friend's cowardice, and said with a cold snort: "It's another matter to collect or confiscate the money. What I'm saying is that he doesn't have the heart. If he really has the heart , At least ask Hengxuan Studio to help with public relations like "Rejuvenation" competed for the Oscar at the beginning of the year. Instead of sending you away with just a few sentences like now."

"Besides, the actor has to cooperate with the crew to do publicity during the publicity period, which is what he should have been given. You can't stop going just because he can't say a word because Lu Heng is big. That means you have a good temper—"

Before Lin Chaoyang could finish his complaint, he was suddenly interrupted by the ringing of the phone.

Wu Zhongyuan took out his mobile phone to look, and was immediately taken aback by the caller ID.When I picked up the phone, I was still a little apprehensive: "Mr. Fang, why did you remember to call me?"

As the sixth-generation director in China, Wu Zhongyuan's respect for Fang Kaizhi is not only because of Fang Kaizhi's well-deserved status and influence among the fifth-generation directors in China, but also because Director Wu Zhongyuan had the honor to listen to Fang Kaizhi's two public lectures.So if it's cheeky to say, Wu Zhongyuan is still Fang Kaizhi's student.It's a pity that this kind of teacher-student relationship is too watery. ,

At least Wu Zhongyuan has been a director for so many years after graduation, and he has made a name for himself in the circle. Unfortunately, he has never had the opportunity to communicate with this teacher face to face.Not to mention being like Lu Heng, who was earnestly persuaded by Director Fang to study more, find ways to transform into a director, and even tried his best to introduce Lu Heng to Fang Qizheng, let him learn martial arts instruction from Mr. Fang, and took the trouble to train him Lu Heng was his director's assistant, and even taught him how to direct plays...

Under such circumstances, it is no wonder that Wu Zhongyuan was flattered when he received Fang Kaizhi's call.