Actor: Thank you.

After managing his relationship with the blonde woman, Zhang Yuan thrived on set.

His work schedule in Hollywood, coupled with the purely commercial nature of his films, made his job very easy.

It only requires physical effort, not mental effort.

Because the movie is mindless.

I'm not aiming for awards; I'm just happy to make some money and have some fun.

With millions of dollars in film fees plus royalties from copyrights, he could easily rake in several million dollars. It's incredibly lucrative.

He planned to hire a real estate agent to look at houses in Hollywood or New York.

The taxes are quite high if you bring the money back to China.

The current policy of both countries is that it is easy to bring money out of the country domestically, but difficult to bring money back from the US.

The iron fist of capitalism is no joke.

Filming and handling some domestic official business, time flies by.

Elizabeth would often come to him for coffee, meals, and chats.

Then one day, he received a call from Keanu Reeves.

After they met in the country last time, they haven't been in much contact.

Because this guy is a very "traditional" person, the kind who rarely uses social media.

Those thick arms and fingers make it difficult for them to even use a computer.

"Of course I have time, we can have dinner together."

"Okay, I'll wait for you." He said, then put down his phone.

He then saw Xiao Bai, who was sitting opposite him, holding a cup of cappuccino, glancing at him sideways and casually asking in a flippant tone.

"Have a date?"

"That's it."

"Congratulations, it seems you have a very fulfilling life." This person made a show of being very happy for you, as if to say, "You're doing great."

His acting skills have indeed improved.

Looking at this woman wearing an orange and white floral dress with long, dark golden hair cascading down her back.

In terms of looks and temperament, she is indeed much better than that blonde girl in the crew.

She has a good personality and comes from a good family.

Unfortunately, it's okay to eat Western food occasionally, or even for a period of time.

But Zhang Yuan was worried that his stomach wouldn't be able to adapt to eating Western food for the rest of his life.

We still need to find a suitable way to get along.

"Yes, because I'm someone who likes making friends."

"I'm having dinner with Keanu Reeves tonight, do you want to come?"

"he?"

Yes, he is my friend.

A sense of relief rose in Xiaobai's heart, but it was also strange.

Why does he always hang out with these "washed-up" Hollywood celebrities?

It refers to Nicolas Cage and Keanu Reeves.

These two are indeed "outdated".

But I can't exactly hang out with a drug addict like Downey.

These people who are currently very popular are so arrogant, would they really be willing to befriend someone with yellow skin?
Come on, there aren't many human-like people in Hollywood anyway.

"Then... in what capacity should I go?" Elizabeth asked, shaking her head after a moment of silence.

"As an entertainer, because in addition to Keanu, there will also be producers present."

In the evening, Xiaobai changed into a relatively formal evening dress and put her long hair up in an updo.

In formal occasions in Europe and America, hairstyles that expose the forehead are common, so most of them are what is known in China as the "slicked-back" hairstyle.

Or it could be a perm, a neatly styled, side-swept fringe.

Airy bangs, a loose, wispy hairstyle, are considered inappropriate for formal occasions in both the West and the East.

Therefore, the costumes in later Chinese period dramas were clearly influenced by small countries like Japan and South Korea, which lacked proper etiquette.

You can tell if a woman is truly beautiful just by looking at her with her hair up.

People who always cover their faces with their hairstyles are probably insecure or have facial bone structure that is not naturally ideal.

It's like going to a public bathhouse; men and women with big breasts never hesitate to take off their clothes.

Elizabeth is very generous and quite nice.

"Hi, long time no see." He shook hands with Keanu, who had medium-length hair and a full beard.

Beside him was a middle-aged man who looked very white.

“Basil Ivannik,” the older brother introduced.

"Just call me Buzz."

"Okay." Zhang Yuan shook hands with him, but his expression was a little tense.

Because the dialect used in Shanghai to refer to people from the countryside is "Bazi".

With a name like yours, you should avoid going to the Jiangnan area in the future...

“Eve, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” Buzz recognized Little White at a glance.

"Give my regards to your sister."

Because this person is a professional.

I previously worked at Warner Bros. for over ten years.

I couldn't stand Warner's stupid behavior anymore, especially the Japanese president who was just promoted, so I resigned and started my own business.

Whether Warner Bros. is stupid or not has nothing to do with who is the CEO; it's ingrained in their very being.

Because of a car accident, it could be due to a faulty car or an uneven road.

But if someone has been in dozens of car accidents over several decades, then it can only mean that their driving skills are poor.

Like James Wan's Brenham House owner, this guy, Baz, established an independent production company after leaving the company, using his connections.

If you're going to do it yourself, you need to build a team and find a project.

It just so happens that an old friend of mine, a guy named Derek Kelsta, is here.

This person is a screenwriter, but has been out of the business for several years because no one ever uses the scripts he writes.

On a whim, I wrote an action movie script called "Contempt".

The story tells of a man seeking revenge for his wife.

It's very simple, very American style.

The male lead is also very much a Western cowboy, ruthless and taciturn, ready to draw his gun and fight.

So after seeing the script and becoming interested, Baz thought it could be made into a low-budget action film.

The so-called low cost is only relative to Warner Bros.' investments of hundreds of millions of US dollars.

It's not a low-budget B-movie that can be made with just a million or two dollars.

Because the male lead was based on a Western cowboy, Baz initially considered using two famous actors who played cowboy roles in North American film history.

Collint Eastwood, the male lead in "A Fistful of Dollars," and Harrison Ford, the male lead in "Indiana Jones."

I'm planning to look for these two.

Two elderly cowboys seek revenge for their wives who were accidentally killed by gangsters; it's very Western in style.

But after thinking it over, Buzz felt that the two of them were too old. He wanted to make an action movie, but they were too old to fight anymore.

After searching high and low, they finally found Keanu Reeves, an old friend with whom they had collaborated many times.

The reason we found him is firstly because he is good at action films. He trained for several months to prepare for his role in "The Matrix" and fell in love with karate and kung fu ever since.

In addition, the older brother has a good reputation in the industry and is not greedy for money; otherwise, he would not have distributed his tens of millions of US dollars in bonuses to the entire crew back then.

Secondly, he is not arrogant and will not look down on others just because he was once a top male star. He will only act in big productions.

He has never been arrogant, is not particular about food and drink, has lived in hotels all these years since his debut, and has never bought a house or invested in stocks.

I rode my motorcycle to dinner today, very casually.

Especially in terms of relationships, his former true love was Jennifer Lawrence, who was an assistant to the famous director David Lynch. Keanu and she had a child, but the child was born prematurely at eight months and died.

A few years later, Jennifer died in a car accident.

Around the same time, Keanu's sister was diagnosed with leukemia, but fortunately he had the money to get her cured.

However, he donated most of the proceeds from The Matrix to cancer research institutions.

After suffering several setbacks in life, he seemed to have become somewhat disillusioned with the world.

In addition, he not only cultivated his external martial arts skills but also his internal ones, and he also studied Zen Buddhist thinking, which led to a kind of semi-enlightenment.

Material possessions didn't mean much to him; he understood early on that "this little box is your eternal home."

Baz approached him not only because Keanu is a good fighter and takes acting seriously, but also because he wanted to take advantage of him.

I want to act in a movie, but I don't have the money. What should I do?
They came up with the idea of ​​having the male lead bring his own funding to the production... Guo Fan exclaimed that they were experts.

They found the most generous actor in all of Hollywood.

When Keanu arrived, he glanced at the notebook and thought it was alright. He also happened to be free recently.

Not only did he intend to act in it, he also helped the other party find a director to make the film.

Having a producer and a male lead alone isn't enough.

After searching high and low, they approached many famous directors, who were willing to lend their expertise out of respect for Keanu Reeves and Jimmy Butler.

But after reading the script, they were not satisfied and thought it needed to be changed.

The proposed changes were all the same: increase the screen time of the female lead, who is also the male lead's wife!
All directors believe that even action films need to have a significant amount of emotional scenes, otherwise the male lead's motives will remain unclear.

How can his motives and ruthlessness for revenge be clearly demonstrated without depicting the relationship between the male protagonist and his wife?
Plus, everyone shoots like this, it's a formula.

Besides the family aspect, shouldn't there be a love story in "Fast & Furious"?

Even "The Expendables" needs to have a little bit of romance added.

But Keanu Reeves disagrees!
He felt that action movies should focus on filming the action sequences well and keeping the plot coherent.

Why make so much of a love story in a play meant for men?
The most crucial thing is his idea and decision!
It saved the show, or rather the series.

If we follow the advice of most directors and let the male lead's wife live until the middle or later stages of the film to allow the male lead to "explode," then that's it, and it falls into a complete cliché.

His idea was that "real men don't need to be in love" and "I am a heartless killer."

It's not that he's completely devoid of feelings, but he believes that men should keep their emotions buried deep inside and not be all lovey-dovey.

It's clear that he incorporated his own experiences into the script.

Jennifer died, and he faded from the entertainment industry, silently bearing the pain alone.

That's how he transformed from a sunny and cheerful young man into the taciturn "slovenly man" he is today.

He would rather not hire a famous director than not make a real action movie, not one of those mass-produced films on the market.

So he found two old friends, David Leitch and Chad Starski.

David and Chad are an amazing couple, having worked on films such as The Matrix, Blade, Ocean's Eleven, Constantine, 300, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, The Bourne Identity, and I Am Legend.

All of them are top-notch productions, and are extremely famous.

However, both of them are action directors.

He has never been the chief director.

But Keanu felt it was fine; those directors had already been corrupted by formulas, and it didn't matter that we lacked experience—we could just take our time filming.

These two veteran action directors are also the designers of the most exciting action scenes in the entire Marvel series, namely the fight scenes between Captain America and Bucky in the currently filming "Captain America 2"!
These two really dislike Marvel's special effects fight scenes, feeling that they lack any sense of realism.

So, the three groups of people got together.

Producer Baz, Warner Bros. are idiots.

Keanu Reeves, the male lead, is an idiot for stuffing romance into an action movie.

Director David and Chad, Marvel is an idiot.

Three people who disapproved of the current action film market came together, hit it off immediately, and had double good news.

This led to the most exhilarating action film of the next 10 years, or even longer, without exception, namely the blockbuster named after the male lead, John Wick.

In China, it was translated as "John Wick".

That's quite fitting.

Of course, "I Want Your Dog's Life" would be more suitable.

It was Keanu's persistence that prevented this film from becoming just another ordinary movie.

Moreover, this role was adapted based on him, so it wouldn't be suitable for anyone else to play it.

This is a pure film that disregards market unspoken rules and ignores various "popular elements" such as diversity, sexism, and environmentalism.

It's like an old-fashioned gasoline car without any electronic equipment.

Use a carburetor, the kind without power steering.

It feels like a return to the pure action movies of 3 or 40 years ago, even purer than those movies from that era.

They talked about the project while eating.

The current situation is that the budget exceeds 2000 million US dollars.

Keanu Reeves contributed $500 million and, knowing the production team was facing difficulties, offered to forgo his salary upfront.

This way, you can save several million in upfront expenses.

Producer Baz maxed out all six of his credit cards and even took out a bank loan.

It uses the title "Starring Keanu Reeves"...

Without this title, it's difficult to get a loan.

They raised another 500 million US dollars.

So now the total is only 1000 million, less than half.

Keanu remembered Zhang Yuan, whom he had met in China, and knew that Zhang Yuan owned his own film company and also made some overseas film investments.

They only asked him to come here to make some money.

Zhang Yuan's smile is harder to maintain than Faker's these days.

then what should we do?

They absolutely had to come to me.

Of course, he originally intended to be on good terms with the other party in this way.

I had originally planned to look for him too.

Now that the other party is taking the initiative to contact me, wouldn't it be even better!

Keanu's expectations are not high; he wants to raise $200 million, at most $300 million, and $100 million would be acceptable.

Even a little is a little.

The main issue is that, at this stage, this movie has no selling points other than the male lead, Keanu Reeves.

Before contacting him, I had already reached out to a wide range of companies, both large and small, and inquired with various well-known investors.

The same question remains: without romance, who wants to watch a bunch of men just fighting?

You're not Sylvester Stallone...

Moreover, Stallone's films are big-budget action movies with investments of hundreds of millions of dollars and explosions everywhere.

Who would want to watch a movie like this, where you only have a few tens of millions of dollars, and all you do is shoot around with small pistols without even a bomb?
No one will like it.

Many people advised them not to film, saying that they would definitely lose money if they did.

This is also the case with the advice given by many "professionals".

But Keanu Reeves is "stubborn" because he has experience with not being optimistic about this.

Back then, The Matrix was not well-received either. The Wachowski brothers begged and pleaded but couldn't find any funding, and the project was almost canceled by the producers.

It was Warner Bros. again...

So the guy decided to stick to his own ideas and make an action movie unlike any other.

Despite the other party's enthusiastic and passionate speech, Zhang Yuan ate his foie gras and lobster without making any comment.

He simply said that he would consider it.

As a friend of Keanu, I'm seriously considering this... he added, making it clear he wasn't just making excuses.

Agreeing on the spot is too easy and doesn't maximize benefits.

After finishing his meal and leaving the restaurant, Keanu rode off on his little motorcycle.

He then drove Xiaobai back to the hotel.

"What do you think of that project they were talking about earlier?" Zhang Yuan asked in the car.

"I think...it's very pure, but there are reasons why it's difficult to raise funds and the market isn't optimistic," Elizabeth said tactfully.

At least she wouldn't act in a script like that.

The main problem is that now that they're acting in Marvel movies, they're unlikely to be interested in low-budget productions like this anymore.

"But some things always have to be done by someone."

"It's impossible for everyone to go and make blockbuster movies."

“Just like your movie ‘Massa’s Two Faces,’ right?” Zhang Yuan looked at him with a smile.

Xiao Bai raised an eyebrow; Zhang Yuan had paid for this performance.

Moreover, as the lead actress, she won some minor awards.

As for the box office, since it didn't break even, Zhang Yuan didn't care.

He didn't say that to hurt her feelings.

But the girl doesn't think that way.

After brushing a strand of hair behind her ear, she spoke gently.

"You are truly a filmmaker who is very passionate about movies and has a lot of passion for them."

"You have a unique romantic aura about you."

Zhang Yuan thought for a moment and said, "You must have smelled it wrong."
It clearly tastes like US dollars.

That's true, Dao Le is quite romantic.

Especially the money-making fun of knives... (End of Chapter)