Huayu: Starting from Fahrenheit

Chapter 430 The Lineup of Langya List
There have long been rumors that Stephen Chow is very difficult to work with.

Wu Zhuo initially thought it was just a rumor.

But after working with him, Wu Zhuo finally understood why such rumors existed.

Because Stephen Chow is such a difficult person to deal with.

He doesn't care who you are, even if you're a superstar like Wu Zhuo. When he's filming, he doesn't allow Wu Zhuo to have his own ideas.

Yes, you'll be completely like a puppet on a string.

You get the position he assigns you to.

That's not the main point. What's even more difficult is that he has to teach you how to act in almost all the main roles.

You must learn from him.

Wu Zhuo found it very difficult to adapt to his filming style during the first few days of shooting.

His method not only slows down the filming process but also offends many people.

In other words, Wu Zhuo himself is not one of those people who focus on his own performance characteristics.

Otherwise, if someone else were sent, Wu Zhuo felt that a fight would most likely break out.

Because Stephen Chow's approach is that of a complete tyrant on set; he doesn't allow you to have your own acting ideas, and everything has to be done according to his ideas.

For many artists, especially award-winning actors.

They often have their own ideas about performance.

Such people are often stubborn; if you say their performance style is wrong, then you are questioning their professionalism.

And they completely imitated the director's performance, which many people believe is soulless.

Without a soul, there is no artistic spirit.

Therefore, news of discord between actors and directors in major productions is common in the industry.

The reason is that the two sides had conflicting ideas.

And that's just for other directors.

Wu Zhuo felt that if it were Stephen Chow instead, the two might even have come to blows.

However, although Stephen Chow was difficult to work with, Wu Zhuo gradually got used to the fact that Stephen Chow wanted to make all the decisions himself after a few days.

Wu Zhuo himself considers himself a commercial actor.

Yes, he has always considered himself a commercial actor.

He doesn't consider art when he's making films.

He only thinks about how to act in a way that the audience will like and how to make the movie a box office success.

As for artistry, to be honest, he doesn't really care.

Moreover, who says that commercial performances lack artistry?

It's important to understand that comedy inevitably leads to tragedy.

This is most evident in Stephen Chow's films.

If you look closely at his films, they are actually very thought-provoking.

Of course, "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" doesn't have that many rules.

The theme of this film is comedy.

This may be because the poor reception of "CJ7" made Stephen Chow realize that being too tragic would not be good for the film.

Therefore, he didn't incorporate too many tragic elements into this film.

In fact, Wu Zhuo found it quite challenging when he first started playing the role of Xuanzang.

The role of Xuanzang requires a lot of freedom and openness.

There's a kind of cheeky vibe about him.

Wu Zhuo was originally a singer, and his first acting role was in the TV series "KO One".

Even though the movie genres they make later are different, they all have one thing in common: they are good at being cool and stylish.

Yes, even Ip Man was like that; Ip Man was also a pretentious character.

In contrast, Xuanzang's experiences were completely tragic.

Before the final ending, this character was just an ordinary person who was good for nothing.

If you can't win a fight, you'll still get bullied.

This kind of character's personality traits were really difficult for Wu Zhuo to portray at first.

After filming for several days, Stephen Chow visited him several times for a talk, and he also consulted Huang Bo for advice on how to portray ordinary people. Only then did he gradually grasp the essence of the character.

In contrast to Wu Zhuo's struggle.

Wu Zhuoting was initially worried that Liu Shishi, who was not up to the task of playing the female lead, actually performed better than him.

Surprisingly, she wasn't scolded by Stephen Chow; instead, she was praised for grasping the essence of the character.

Especially the scene where she dances in the moonlight to seduce Zhu Bajie, Stephen Chow only taught her once, and she learned it.

He danced so well that Stephen Chow gave him a thumbs up.

In other aspects of her performance, Liu Shishi actually performed perfectly.

Stephen Chow even joked that Wu Zhuo's acting skills were better than his.

Wu Zhuo didn't mind at all.

Although he studied acting, his main focus was on singing.

He never considered acting as his main profession.

When he's out in public, he always refers to himself as a singer.

Unlike him, Liu Shishi didn't have time to hone her acting skills, but under his insistence, she spent a lot of time on acting.

For a long period of time in the past few years, she didn't take on many acting roles and focused on honing her acting skills.

Acting skills are something that can really be developed through practice.

It will improve as long as you put in the effort.

The reason why Liu Shishi's acting skills never improved in her previous life is very simple.

She has always been Tangren's cash cow, almost always appearing in period idol dramas.

Basically, all you need to do is look good.

But if you perform this kind of play too much, it will imprison you.

In this life, after she followed Wu Zhuo, he no longer needed her to make money, so he naturally had a lot of time to train her.

Therefore, it is perfectly normal to improve one's acting skills.

time flies.

The filming of "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" is proceeding smoothly.

During this period, Wu Zhuo also took several days off to attend some music awards.

He also attended the celebration party held by Sony to mark his record sales exceeding 2500 million copies.

Yes, Wu Zhuo's new album has sold another 2500 million copies.

While this album's sales figures are somewhat lower than the previous one, it has already made it the number one album on the current global sales chart.

Wu Zhuo himself doesn't know much about him in the country.

But according to some friends abroad, his popularity around the world is now beyond description.

His songs can be heard everywhere, in the streets and alleys.

Even his movies have been extremely popular on platforms like Netflix in Europe and America.

Of course, Wu Zhuo simply didn't know just how famous he had become.

He is quite aware of his current global influence.

During the time he was filming in China, many film companies in North America contacted him.

The meaning is clear: cast him in a movie.

This time, it wasn't the kind of invitation they offered just to ride the wave of popularity; they actually came knocking with scripts. Warner Bros., Marvel, and Universal have all approached them.

Warner Bros. wanted to create a movie featuring him as the sole protagonist.

The film tells the story of a Chinese martial arts master who opens a martial arts school in Chinatown in the last century and faces various challenges.

Okay, it's obvious that this script was derived from "Ip Man".

Warner Bros. probably saw Ip Man and thought this kind of film would have a market.

So I wanted to use this to create a movie for Wu Zhuo.

Then there's Universal Music, who prepared a startup script for Wu Zhuo.

The film's script is based on the life of TSMC's founder, Chang Chung-mou, and tells the story of how the protagonist, after leaving a large North American company, returned to Taiwan and founded the world's largest chip foundry.

Finally, there's Marvel. Marvel has been incredibly successful in recent years, with the consecutive success of several superhero movies propelling them to become the most successful film company in North America in recent years.

They are already working on filming "The Avengers".

Marvel's intention was to invite him to star in the Avengers, specifically as Shang-Chi, and promised that if he did, they would immediately start a project related to Shang-Chi.

In fact, once you become popular enough, many companies will be willing to make exceptions for you.

In the original Marvel series, Shang-Chi was not included before "The Avengers".

However, in order to secure Wu Zhuo's participation, Marvel made an exception and added the character to the script.

And this character has quite a few scenes.

However, despite their considerable effort, Wu Zhuo did not want to act.

He rejected all the scripts that were handed to him.

Wu Zhuo refused the offer not only because several of his films were controversial.

Another reason is that Wu Zhuo plans to initiate his own project and make a Hollywood movie for himself.

Yes, Wu Zhuo also plans to follow in Jackie Chan's footsteps and have his own company lead the production of a film aimed at Hollywood.

Wu Zhuo has already come up with the film project.

They made the John Wick series, based on Keanu Reeves' films.

He had already found a screenwriter to start writing the script. Wu Zhuo himself provided the ideas and plot direction, while the details were left to the screenwriter.

Wu Zhuo expects the project to officially begin filming next year.

This year, however, he's been incredibly busy and has no time to spare.

……

"Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" is probably the film that took the longest to make.

Filming began in March and continued until mid-August.

There's nothing we can do; that's how all of Stephen Chow's movies are.

His films over the years have all followed a high-quality approach, taking at least two years from planning to filming to release.

The same is true for "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons". The filming time was already relatively short, and the post-production will take even longer.

After filming wrapped, Wu Zhuo had a farewell dinner with the crew before everyone went their separate ways.

After finishing his trip here, Wu Zhuo rushed to the set of "Nirvana in Fire".

They've already started waiting here.

Directors Li Xue and Kong Sheng have finished filming "Fleet of Time" and are currently in the post-production stage. They don't need to be present throughout the entire post-production process; they only need to check occasionally.

On the other hand, Kong Sheng was afraid that Wu Zhuo would stand him up again, so after finishing "Fleet of Time", he immediately set up the crew and contacted all the actors.

As soon as Wu Zhuo arrived, he immediately got the production crew up and running.

In the drama "Nirvana in Fire", Wu Zhuo did not continue to have Liu Shishi co-star with him as the female lead.

He partnered with Liu Shishi several times to avoid causing audience fatigue.

He didn't cast her as the female lead in Nirvana in Fire this time, but instead arranged for her to star in "Swords of Legends," a project his company was co-producing with Tangren Media.

This film is a TV series primarily invested in by Legendary Films. The male lead, Baili Tusu, is played by Wu Zun, Wu Zhuo's old teammate.

The female lead is played by Liu Shishi.

Both films started filming around the same time.

After Wu Zhuo arrived at the "Nirvana in Fire" production team, he met with all the main cast and crew members.

The cast of Wu Zhuo's version of "Nirvana in Fire" is much larger than that of the previous version.

Chen Daoming was chosen for the role of Emperor Liang; Wu Zhuo personally called and invited him.

Originally, the other party did not want to play the role of an emperor again, but out of respect for Wu Zhuo and because this drama was indeed a high-quality series, he agreed to take the role.

Then, the role of Xiao Jingyan was played by Chen Kun.

Chen Kun wasn't invited by Wu Zhuo; he won the role by auditioning and beating out others.

His role was confirmed at the end of last year.

Then there's the role of Meng Zhi. Wu Zhuo originally wanted to invite Chen Long, the original actor, to play this role, but Tangren approached the company, and after some exchange of benefits, the role was given to Lin Gengxin.

At this time, Tangren Media was still thriving, and Lin Gengxin had not yet fallen out with Tangren Media.

Wu Zhuo sometimes wonders if Tangren Media will regret giving Lin Gengxin this role when they fall out with him in the future...

From Wu Zhuo's perspective, Lin Gengxin's falling out with Tangren Media was clearly inevitable.

The reason is simple: Tangren Media simply doesn't have the resources to promote another Lin Gengxin.

That's how it was in the past. The reason Lin Gengxin and Tangren separated was simply because Tangren's resources were concentrated on Hu Ge, and they also had Jiang Jinfu to promote, so Lin Gengxin couldn't get any good resources at all.

This can be seen from the fact that Lin Gengxin didn't get many leading roles at Tangren Media.

In fact, besides the role of Meng Zhi, Tangren originally wanted the role of Fei Liu as well.

They felt that Jiang Jinfu was capable of playing the role.

However, Wu Zhuo personally rejected their request.

He gave the role to Wu Lei, who was originally cast in the original version.

Wu Lei collaborated with Wu Zhuo on "The Magic Sword and the Chess Game" in his early years.

Wu Lei was only 7 years old at that time.

Now, Wu Lei is 13 years old, and he hasn't changed much since he acted in "Nirvana in Fire" in his previous life.

The two not only have a friendship, but Wu Lei's portrayal of the character Fei Liu in his previous life was also excellent.

In addition to these main characters, other important roles were also filled by artists who already had a certain degree of fame in the industry, thanks to Wu Zhuo's influence.

Then, finally, there's the female lead, Nihuang.

Wu Zhuo had Kong Sheng send audition invitations to various companies for this role.

Then, in the end, Yang Mi actually got the role.

Yes, it's her.

To Wu Zhuo's surprise, Yang Mi's general's outfit was actually quite dashing.

In addition, she is very popular and is familiar with Wu Zhuo.

Yes, she is Liu Shishi's best friend.

So, she eventually got the role.

To be honest, Wu Zhuo didn't know how to put it.

He just gave the role of the female lead in "Swords of Legends" that originally belonged to Yang Mi to Liu Shishi.

Unexpectedly, Yang Mi immediately seized the opportunity and won the lead role in "Nirvana in Fire".

Sometimes Wu Zhuo wondered if Yang Mi was blessed by some lucky goddess.

It seems she was like this in her past life too; just when she was about to decline, another blockbuster hit would appear.

Of the four beauties in the Legend of Sword and Fairy series, she ended up being the one who fared the best.

(End of this chapter)