Huayu: Starting from Fahrenheit

Chapter 440 Si Cong called me Uncle?
"Cut! OK, everyone take a break, then we'll film the Kingdom Hotel scenes."

Chen Musheng shouted through a megaphone.

As soon as he finished shouting, the actors cheered.

These kinds of fight scenes are the hardest to film.

I originally thought it would take at least several takes, but I was surprised to find that it was done in one take.

"I'm really sorry, I kicked a little too hard just now."

Upon hearing that the scene was over, Tony Jaa quickly ran over to Wu Zhuo to apologize.

When he kicked, he clearly felt that he had hit Wu Zhuo.

His kick was very hard; he was worried that Wu Zhuo would get hurt.

"You almost crippled me!"

Wu Zhuo touched the spot where he had been kicked and joked with Tony Jaa.

"Abel, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to."

Tony Jaa didn't realize Wu Zhuo was joking and looked a little nervous.

"I was just kidding. It's nothing serious. Bumps and bruises are normal."

Wu Zhuo realized he was taking it seriously and quickly corrected him.

As he spoke, Wu Zhuo patted him on the shoulder.

"Although I'm not as professional as you, I've still made a few action movies. Don't treat me like a newbie."

"Haha...yes, I was overthinking it."

The two walked toward the director's seat, chatting and laughing.

Just as I arrived here, a commotion suddenly broke out at the main entrance.

The group looked in that direction and saw a short, middle-aged man being led this way by a staff member.

"It's Jackie Chan!"

"Why is he here!"

"Oh my god, is he going to be in it too?!"

The staff around were all talking in hushed tones.

The person who arrived was none other than Jackie Chan.

Upon his arrival, Wu Zhuo, Chen Musheng, and Tony Jaa quickly went to greet him.

"You invited him to make a cameo appearance?"

Chen Musheng asked Wu Zhuo in a low voice.

"No, he probably came to visit the set."

Wu Zhuo shook his head.

He did not invite Jackie Chan to make a cameo appearance.

He didn't even know the other party was coming here.

"Haha, Chaozai, I've come uninvited, are you happy to see me!"

From a great distance, Jackie Chan began to speak with a smile.

"Of course you're welcome. I'd be overjoyed if you could come, Jackie Chan."

Wu Zhuo went to greet him, saying, "It's a bit sudden. You should have told me beforehand, and I would have sent someone to pick you up."

"Why would I need to pick it up? It's not like I don't have legs."

Jackie Chan shook his head as he surveyed the film set.

"Judging from this, you've just finished filming an important scene."

"It's an important scene, a fight scene between Ah-Chuo and Tony Jaa."

Benny Chan responded with a smile, and then quickly introduced Tony Jaa to Jackie Chan, "This is Tony Jaa."

"Hello Jackie Chan, I'm Tony Jaa, and I'm a big fan of yours."

"I know you, your action scenes are really cool..."

After Jackie Chan greeted Tony Jaa, he started chatting with Wu Zhuo.

"How's the filming progress? How much longer will it take to finish?"

"It's still early; it will probably take two or three months to finish filming."

By the way, weren't you filming "Chinese Zodiac"? How come you have time to come to North America?

Wu Zhuo looked on with curiosity.

He remembered that Jackie Chan was currently filming "Chinese Zodiac".

Jackie Chan also invited him to participate in this film.

Speaking of which, Jackie Chan is quite persistent.

He would send an invitation to Wu Zhuofa for every film or television project he was involved in.

Unfortunately, every time, it just so happens that Wu Zhuo's schedule doesn't match.

"The filming is already finished. We just need to add a few more shots later. I'm here to participate in an event."

Knowing you were filming here, I came to visit the set.

"Haha, thank you so much, brother! Since you're already here, why don't you give us a cameo role?"

As Wu Zhuo spoke, he gave Chen Musheng a wink.

The other party immediately understood.

It would have been fine if Jackie Chan hadn't come to the film set.

Since they've come to visit the set, it wouldn't be right not to let them have a cameo role.

It's important to know that Jackie Chan was at his peak at this time, and his global appeal was extraordinary.

When the time comes, just put his name in the credits, cut a little of his cameo appearance in the trailer, and you can directly advertise that Jackie Chan has joined the film.

"No, I just arrived! This crew won't even let me have a sip of water, and they're just making me do a cameo role?"

Jackie Chan pointed at Wu Zhuo with a speechless expression.

"Haha, the water on set isn't that good, so I'll just have a cameo role for now."

Wu Zhuo and Jackie Chan have always had a good relationship.

Therefore, Wu Zhuo is not afraid to joke with him at all.

"You! Let me make this clear first, I'm very expensive! You have to pay me."

"There's no pay, but you get plenty of food."

Wu Zhuo joked with a smile, then told Jackie Chan to rest for two minutes while he went to talk to director Benny Chan about how to design a cameo role.

Since Jackie Chan is making a cameo appearance, we definitely need to design a good cameo role for him.

Benny Chan glanced at the script and looked at Ng Cheuk:

"How about we just have him work as a part-time hotel receptionist?"

Wu Zhuo shook his head. "That role isn't suitable for him. Let's design him as a hotel guest who has just checked out, who meets the protagonist, and the two chat for a few minutes in the lobby."

Although the plan was to have Jackie Chan make a cameo appearance, Wu Zhuo couldn't possibly give him a large role.

Making a cameo appearance for free is going too far.

Jackie Chan might not mind acting for a few more minutes, but Wu Zhuo himself doesn't like it.

He had been deceived by such imposters before.

He was invited to make a cameo appearance in "KO One Re-act", but they ended up making him the main character.

He made a fortune by exploiting his fame.

He has been disgusted by this behavior ever since.

He himself disliked it, so naturally, when he asked someone to make a cameo appearance, he would consider things from the other person's perspective...

Designing Jackie Chan's cameo role was not difficult.

After listening to Wu Zhuo's suggestion, Chen Musheng discussed it with the screenwriter and immediately came up with an idea.

Chen Musheng is a formidable figure.

After designing the character, he went directly to Wu Zhuo, who was chatting with Jackie Chan, pulled him aside, and said:
"Didn't you say you wanted to turn 'John Wick' into a cinematic universe?"
I think you could extend an invitation to Jackie Chan. If our movie is successful, we could invite him to direct a spin-off.

After listening to his words, Wu Zhuo seemed to be deep in thought.

And you know what? It actually works!

However, Wu Zhuo was unsure whether Jackie Chan would agree.

After returning to Jackie Chan's place, Wu Zhuo did not mention Chen Musheng's earlier suggestion.

He felt that even if they wanted to invite Jackie Chan to make a spin-off, they shouldn't bring it up now.

It would be best to wait until the movie is a real success before talking to Jackie Chan; the chances of success would be much higher then.

After the two chatted for a while, the crew set up the scene and filming continued.

This scene depicts John Wu, played by Wu Zhuo, staying at the Kingdom Hotel.

Then I ran into Jackie Chan in the hotel lobby.

The two exchanged a few words.

It wasn't anything important.

The main thing is that the two knew each other before, and greeted each other after meeting again.

Wu Zhuo asked him how he was doing lately, and he asked Wu Zhuo if he was going to come back to take on business again.

The filming was not difficult; we got it right in one take.

After filming wrapped, Wu Zhuo filmed some more scenes of chatting with acquaintances at the Kingdom Hotel. Then, that concluded today's filming.

As soon as this was over, Wu Zhuo immediately took Jackie Chan out for dinner.

When people came to visit the set, I bought a bunch of drinks for everyone.

It's perfectly normal for Wu Zhuo to invite him to dinner.

"Your business is growing bigger and bigger. Once Legend goes public, you'll be the boss of a listed company."

The two found a quiet Western restaurant and chatted while they ate.

Jackie Chan was envious of Wu Zhuo's company going public.

He's worked for so many years and never achieved such a great success.

Wu Zhuo is not even thirty years old, yet he already has such a large career.

"Brother, you're joking. With your current status, even the boss of a listed company is nothing compared to you."

Wu Zhuo shook his head.

He doesn't think that becoming the owner of a listed company makes him more awesome than Jackie Chan.

In fact, when it comes to money, Jackie Chan's wealth is not necessarily that great.

But their status is just different.

He represents a culture, a symbol of an era.

In his presence, the bosses of domestic listed entertainment companies were just as polite.

"I'm old, and I can't play anymore."

What I'm most gratified about is that you've now taken up the mantle of action films, ensuring that Chinese kung fu movies don't die out.

Speaking of this, Jackie Chan was not in a good mood.

Everyone says he refuses to accept getting old, but in reality, no one refuses to accept getting old.

In the past two years, he has increasingly felt that he can no longer play.

Therefore, he announced to the public that "Chinese Zodiac" would be the last film in which he would truly work his hardest.

Wu Zhuo also fell silent for a moment.

He was thinking about Jackie Chan's movies later on.

If he doesn't work so hard, Jackie Chan won't be Jackie Chan anymore.

In the following years, almost all of his films were bad, with only one or two receiving good reviews.

People online have been saying that Jackie Chan has become the king of bad movies, and so on.

Various voices converged, all belittling Jackie Chan.

But who doesn't get old?

Jackie Chan has been fighting for so many years, and he is now 58 years old.

This age is already considered old.

It's normal that he can't fight, and he shouldn't be ridiculed or mocked.

……

Jackie Chan visited the set for one day and then left.

Meanwhile, filming continued on the other side of the set.

In addition to filming, Wu Zhuo also occasionally attends a few events in North America.

For example, being interviewed by Time magazine, or appearing on television.

He even appeared on a WWE episode and beat up Vince McMahon.

I must say, WWE wrestling matches are quite interesting.

When he brutally beat up Vince McMahon, it caused the entire arena to erupt in cheers.

The intense feeling was similar to when he held a concert.

Time flies.

In June, Wu Zhuo returned to China.

This time it wasn't for personal matters, but to apply for an ID card.

He applied for a Chinese citizen ID card at the beginning of the year.

He received a reply at the end of May, informing him that his application had been approved and that he should go over to complete the necessary procedures.

Actually, there weren't many procedures involved; everything that needed to be reviewed had already been reviewed.

He went back only to have his ID card taken on-site.

After receiving the ID card, Wu Zhuo did not disclose the matter publicly.

Making this public will not do him any good; it could easily provoke certain people in Taiwan.

After obtaining his ID card, Wu Zhuo immediately returned to North America to continue filming.

There were no problems during this shoot.

This continued until the end of July when filming wrapped.

As soon as filming wrapped up here, Wu Zhuo rushed back to China without stopping for a moment.

Legendary Entertainment is seeking funding.

This is a pre-IPO financing round. After the financing is completed, Legendary Entertainment will set sail with a new image.

Upon returning to China, Wu Zhuo immediately began working on various pre-IPO preparations.

Meet with investment funds and several major domestic companies that are interested in investing.

Legendary Entertainment has enormous potential, and companies including Tencent, Wanda, and even Alibaba have expressed interest in investing in it.

These companies all sent people to contact Wu Zhuo.

In the end, Wanda showed the most sincerity, acquiring 10% of the shares for 600 million RMB.

Yes, that's 10% of the 600 million.

Legendary Entertainment's valuation reached an astonishing 60 billion after financing rounds.

It ranks among the top-valued listed entertainment companies in China.

A market capitalization of 60 billion is still far less than the 74 billion when Enlight Media went public, but it's worth noting that Legendary Entertainment has not been around for very long.

This company was founded in 08, so it's only been around for four years.

To bring a company to a market value of 60 billion in four years is definitely something to be proud of.

Wanda Group's investment of 6 million RMB in Legendary Entertainment quickly sparked heated discussions online.

Many people still don't expect that Legendary Entertainment could reach this level in just four years.

"I had been seeing news about Legendary going public, and I always thought that even if it did, its market value wouldn't be too high."

"I can't believe it's 60 billion! Wu Zhuo is amazing!"

"Wu Zhuo must be the richest celebrity in China now! He's instantly become a big shot."

"Upstairs, Wu Zhuo is already a big shot. Look at last year's Golden Rooster and Golden Horse Awards."

Wu Zhuo was already seated in the front row, with the bosses of Enlight Media and Huayi Brothers.

"No wonder I see so many celebrities taking the initiative to shake hands with Wu Zhuo when they meet him. It turns out he has already made it to a position of power in the business world."

"It's nothing for celebrities to go up and shake hands. When Wang Sicong met Wu Zhuo last time, she was extremely respectful!"

"Haha, Principal Wang is always criticizing everyone on Weibo, but he is indeed quite respectful to Wu Zhuo."

Last time it was Wu Zhuo's birthday, he seemed to have tagged Wu Zhuo in his message to celebrate.

Wu Zhuo was also reading the online discussions at this time.

When Wu Zhuo saw netizens mention Principal Wang, he couldn't help but smile.

He recalled the last time he saw Wang Sicong.

Because Wu Zhuo called Wang Jianlin "Brother Wang" during their several meetings.

This resulted in Wang Sicong calling Wu Zhuo "brother" during their meeting, which led to Wang Jianlin slapping him across the face.

"Call me 'Uncle,' I'm your brother, why are you calling me 'Brother'?"

Wang Sicong was suffering from severe constipation at the time.

In the end, he could only obediently call out "Uncle!"

In the past two years, Wu Zhuo's status in the entertainment industry has risen, and his net worth has increased.

He has met with most of the top investors in China.

Wang Jianlin was someone he got along well with.

Old Wang is an honest man, and Wu Zhuo finds it very comfortable to chat with him.

Then Wu Zhuo met Jack Ma, but this guy was very eccentric and had been putting on airs for the past two years, so he couldn't chat with him for more than a few words.

As for Tengxunma, I've never actually seen it.

The other person is a homebody; he probably spends most of his time playing video games at home and doesn't go out often, so I've never seen him before...

There's a saying: "Speak of Cao Cao and Cao Cao arrives."

This saying can be really apt sometimes.

Wu Zhuo was reading netizens' comments teasing Wang Sicong.

The other party then called him.

He invited Wu Zhuo out to play.

(End of this chapter)