director of the millennium

After returning to her home in Beijing, Liu Yifei officially began her pregnancy life.

Although the outside world is widely reporting the news of her winning the Berlin Film Actress Award and it is constantly on the screen, the domestic release of "Cai Wenji" is also scheduled for April.

But it is obvious that Liu Yifei will no longer be able to participate in the promotion and marketing of the film.

The release of "Cai Wenji" cannot be postponed either. It must be released as soon as possible before the popularity of winning the award fades and reap some box office revenue.

Although Guangying Times did not expect to make money from this kind of art film, it would be really hard to understand if an award-winning art film ended up losing money.

At the time of the Berlin International Film Festival, the overseas copyright of "Cai Wenji" had almost been sold out.

However, times have changed. When Wu Yuan sold the copyright of "The Night the Comet Came" for a few million dollars, he made a profit of more than ten times.

But now, although "Cai Wenji" has won a more important award, it only sold the copyright for more than 300 million US dollars, which is equivalent to less than 2000 million RMB.

This money is not even enough to cover the investment cost. Because it is a biographical film about a historical figure, even though Zhang Yimou was very frugal in filming it, the production cost of "Cai Wenji" still cost 6000 million RMB, and Liu Yifei only received a low salary.

In this age of soaring prices, it is becoming increasingly difficult, even for art films, to make a profit by selling copyrights after winning awards in Europe.

It is no wonder that Wang Xiaoshuai, Jia Zhangke and other sixth-generation directors who used to be disdainful of the domestic market and pretended to be aloof, can no longer help but "denounce" on domestic social media every day that the domestic film market has been hijacked by commercial films and that the aesthetic taste of this generation of audiences is no longer good.

It’s not that this generation of audiences is really bad, but that this generation of audiences don’t watch their art films, which makes them feel uncomfortable.

In comparison, Zhang Yimou's art films are the most popular in the country. To date, the box office record holder for mainland art films is still Zhang Yimou's "Coming Home."

This time, "Cai Wenji" won the Berlin Film Festival Best Actress. We don't expect the box office in mainland China to break the record of "Coming Home", but it should be no problem to get a box office of 3 or 4 million yuan to recover the investment cost and make a small profit.

However, the subsequent film releases, publicity, and roadshows have nothing to do with Liu Yifei. She only needs to stay at home quietly to take care of her pregnancy and wait for good news from her "comrades-in-arms".

As for Wu Yuan, he did not accompany Liu Yifei to take care of the pregnancy.

After asking his mother-in-law to take care of his wife, Wu Yuan immediately started the preparations for the "Bruce Lee" movie.

The script for this movie was already ready. Wu Yuan had written it several years ago, but he had always locked it in a drawer in his study.

He plans to shoot as soon as possible and finish the film before the New Year to fulfill his "obsession". Otherwise, when the epidemic comes, who knows when the film will be approved.

Not to mention him, even at Light and Shadow Times, Wu Yuan had already instructed to stop next year's film investment work, temporarily focus on this year's film projects, and focus on the production of variety shows next year.

The focus of Guangying Times’ work has now been temporarily shifted to the music variety shows that it is collaborating with Guangying Kuaibo.

Li Xiaoping was extremely puzzled by Wu Yuan's decision, but because of Wu Yuan's theory of "film and television industry bubble", she could barely understand it and chose to wait and see for the time being.

For this reason, there are not many film projects on hand for the time being. The only film being promoted is "Glass Love", and the Light and Shadow Era is very fast in preparing for Wu Yuan's new film crew.

The veterans who had worked with Wu Yuan quickly returned to the production team. Some of them had been with the crew since the time of "Departures". Later, they were busy with other film projects of the company and returned to Wu Yuan's crew. Of course, the work of forming these crews was specifically in the charge of the assistant director.

Wu Yuan was selecting actors for the Bruce Lee movie.

In fact, there is no need for screening. Among the current Chinese actors, there is only one person who is suitable to play "Bruce Lee", and that is Hong Kong actor Chen Guokun!
He can be said to be the only designated actor in China to play "Bruce Lee".

In 1983, 7-year-old Chen Guokun accidentally saw the movie "Fist of Fury", and since then, Bruce Lee entered Chen Guokun's life.

Because of his obsession with Bruce Lee, Chen Guokun often imitated Bruce Lee's every move and every move. He bought a book called "Introduction to Jeet Kune Do".

When he was eleven or twelve years old, Chen Guokun realized that he looked very much like Bruce Lee, and people around him began to call him "Xiao Long" directly.

His acting career started in 1995. In that year, Chen Guokun played Xiaolong in his first movie "Bad Boys Club", a role written based on Bruce Lee.

However, things did not go smoothly after his debut and he could only play small supporting roles in the circle.

2001 was a year that changed Chen Guokun's destiny.

Once, Chen Guokun was having a gathering with friends in a cafe and happened to meet Stephen Chow. Because he looked like Bruce Lee, he was appreciated by Stephen Chow and officially signed to his company. Soon after, he played the role of "Goalkeeper Fourth Brother" in the movie "Shaolin Soccer" and gradually became familiar to everyone.

Later, he starred in Stephen Chow's movie "Kung Fu", in which he played the Axe Gang leader Brother Chen. This can be regarded as his first classic role after he got rid of the "Bruce Lee" image.

Well, the only one.

Because from then on his acting career became inseparable from the three words "Bruce Lee".

From the biographical TV series "The Legend of Bruce Lee" to the movie "Ip Man", he has been playing Bruce Lee. It can even be said that on the screen, he is Bruce Lee and Bruce Lee is him.

Just this year, he won the Best Supporting Actor at the 4th Huading Awards for his role as Bruce Lee who returns home to visit Ip Man in "Ip Man 27: The Finale". This was the first time he won a major acting award, and it was all because of Bruce Lee.

There is no doubt that based on his consistent performance as Bruce Lee for 30 years, Wu Yuan must have chosen him to play the role in Bruce Lee, because he can be said to be the person who knows Bruce Lee best in the world, and may even know him better than Bruce Lee's children.
However, after confirming the actor to play Bruce Lee, it does not mean that Wu Yuan can easily handle the casting.

Because the background of this movie is mainly set in North America and Hollywood, there will be a large number of white European and American characters in the film, including Bruce Lee's wife Linda Emery.

It is obvious that it is impossible to find actors for these roles in China. Wu Yuan is not Guo Fan, who can just find a group of European and American extras in China and shoot "The Wandering Earth".

He has to go to Hollywood to find some truly globally famous actors who are worthy of this personal movie made for Bruce Lee!

So, at the end of February, Wu Yuan flew to Los Angeles again in a low-key manner.

This was also the first time he had returned to Hollywood, the glamorous film capital of the world, after selling the Light Era. (End of this chapter)