Japanese Entertainment: From special effects actor to action superstar

Chapter 571 The script definitely needs to be changed.
George Lucas gave Gu Ming a definitive statement.

The film "Onimusha" will definitely gross tens of millions of dollars at the North American box office.

The exact figures cannot be determined at this time due to the long overseas payment cycle.

However, judging from the films Gu Ming has made over the years, apart from those that have not been released overseas and those that have been released overseas but are unrelated to him, there are none of them.

From 1978 until today, Gu Mingcai has finally received the last overseas payment before the first "Ghostly Scroll" was taken off the market. The film earned several hundred million yen in rations in Japan and about one to two million US dollars overseas.

Four years have passed since then.

Four years is considered fast. When Shaw Brothers was handling overseas distribution, they often withheld payments from small production companies in Hong Kong. Sometimes, these companies would even go bankrupt before they received their overseas box office revenue. It was common for them to withhold payments for one or two years at a time.

But the number still gave Gu Ming some encouragement.

He wasn't quite sure what the exact percentage of the overseas box office revenue would be, but it should be better than a certain novel app he had read before; he should get at least 15%.

If Onimusha's overseas box office starts at over ten million US dollars, then he will eventually get two or three million US dollars, enough to make a Meal Truck with a little more effort.

Busy filming Star Wars Episode III, George Lucas didn't have much time to stroll around with Gu Ming. After entertaining Gu Ming for one night in San Francisco, he drove Gu Ming and his party to the San Francisco pier.

At that time, there were no direct flights from San Francisco to Japan, but one could take a boat from San Francisco to Hawaii and then fly back to Japan from Hawaii.

That's right, there are direct flights from Hawaii to Japan...

George Lucas gave him a hug and asked, "Ming, are you really not planning to come to Hollywood and develop your career here?"

Gu Ming shook his head: "I'll think about developing in Hollywood when I'm able to lead a project."

Past experience has already taught all the foreign actors a lesson.

If you don't have the ability to lead projects, don't go to Hollywood, or you'll be left with nothing.

Chow Wan-fat was once a shining star in Hong Kong, known at his peak as one of the "Two Chows and One Jackie." After going to the US, he only made bad movies, like "Bulletproof Monk," and even played a rather humiliating role in a big-budget production like Pirates of the Caribbean.

Jet Li was incredibly successful in Asia, with all sorts of big-name directors and actors playing supporting roles for him. But when he went to the United States, he could only act in terrible movies. Even someone of Sylvester Stallone's caliber would invite Jet Li to make movies, and he would eagerly offer to act in something like The Expendables.

Donnie Yen, despite his later fame, didn't even have the opportunity to make films during the most difficult times back then, and could only travel all over the world as a martial arts choreographer.

However, by a twist of fate, Zhen Zidan became an idol in the Japanese killing formation world, and almost all modern Japanese killing formation masters are from Zhen Zidan's Zhen Family Team.

Even someone at Jackie Chan's level only became a sensation when he had the ability to lead projects in the Bronx.

George Lucas shrugged, offering little comment on the situation.

He had seen too much of it, so he knew very well that such things were real.

"Hollywood is somewhat xenophobic, but talented people are never xenophobic. If you don't have the opportunity to be an actor, you might have the opportunity to be an action director in the future. If possible, I will recommend you to some friends."

After seeing Gu Ming and the others off onto the passenger ship, George Lucas's eyes were looking in another direction.

The forklift carried the box onto the passenger ship. It was something Gu Ming had specially brought back. It was packed into a small container and was personally guarded by Harvey.

At first, George Lucas thought Harvey was someone brought by Gu Ming, but now it seems that's not the case.

What kind of good stuff is inside?

"It's just a set of photography equipment." Gu Ming smiled. "I asked someone to pull some strings and bought a high-speed camera from Kodak."

George Lucas instantly became alert.

Ok? !

A high-speed camera system is no small expense. Buying something like this suddenly is definitely not a joke!
"I have some ideas and plan to apply a new technology to the filming process." Gu Ming shrugged. "However, the effect will take some time to develop. We'll have to wait until the film is released to see what happens."

Those few words made George Lucas take them to heart. So...

What kind of new technology is this?!

Everyone knows that Industrial Light & Magic is the company that cares most about new technologies!

……

……

Sending this high-speed camera back to Japan wouldn't be easy, so Gu Ming had no intention of bringing it back.

He directly arranged for Harvey, that American, to send the equipment to France.

Filming was to take place in France, so the equipment was naturally transported directly to France as well.

The route from the US to France is simply via the Panama Canal; it's very close. In fact, if Gu Ming had been procuring equipment on the US East Coast, he could have departed directly from there, making the journey even shorter.

The equipment went to France, but Gu Ming had to return to Japan first.

He's already commissioned someone to write the script; the original story of the food truck was rather thin, after all, Sammo Hung isn't exactly a skilled storyteller. But now, Gu Ming has to find a way to correct that.

The action sequences and various comedic moments were handled by the Hong Kong screenwriters, while he naturally had to provide the dialogue and plot-driving scripts.

The script was naturally handled by the planning department. With the story outline provided by Gu Ming, the content was quickly filled in.

The story of The Food Truck is simple: it's about a battle for an inheritance. The protagonist becomes a protector, helping Laura Forna win the inheritance. However, the love story remains unresolved. After all, Jackie Chan, Yuen Biao, and Sammo Hung were all very famous at the time, and if the love story were to be developed, it wouldn't be good for any of the three parties.

However, the plot also hinted that Laura Forna and Yuen Biao became cousins, and she didn't like Sammo Hung, so of course only Jackie Chan was left, but the plot just didn't say it.

The script has now undergone significant revisions.

First, the third protagonist, Sammo Hung, is no longer present. His role is replaced by Zhen Xialong. Although he still plays the role of a detective, his role has been significantly reduced, making him a supporting character with more screen time, providing informational assistance, and he will not appear in the final battle.

As for the enemy, since the background has been changed from Spain to France, the story also needs to be adjusted to some extent. The main villain is now Mafia from Italy, and the main villain is played by the already mature actor, Dan Shilang. The main villain's number one henchman is Jean-Claude Van Damme, the Belgian tough guy.

Jean-Claude Van Damme, as the number one henchman, is just as powerful as the original jet Benny. Even the two protagonists combined were beaten to a pulp by him, forced to run for their lives. It wasn't until the final battle that he was defeated by Jackie Chan's specialty, the props.

Since the original third character is no longer present, there is no need to add an extra description during the final battle. Relatively speaking, the plot can be expanded, focusing more on the different personalities and habits of the two protagonists.

Overall, Gu Ming was quite satisfied with the revised script. However, he felt that both sides needed to find ways to integrate the martial arts scenes with those from Hong Kong and combine the dialogue and action sequences.

In particular, these two characters are different from the original settings. They are not both from Hong Kong, but one is from Hong Kong and the other is from Japan, which creates a cultural clash.

This will involve designing some jokes, which will require a lot of communication with the Hong Kong screenwriters.

Tetsuo Kinjo gave a thumbs up.

"I'm fine with it. Although there's a slight language barrier, we can still communicate if we want to. But for you, Mr. Furuya, do you have time to meet with Mr. Jissoji?"

'Jishang Temple? How could he...? Oh!'

Gu Ming slapped his forehead.

He had completely forgotten that he had promised Akio Jissoji that he would make a film for him, but then he went on to make Satomi Hakkenden and Onimusha, both of which were directed by Kinji Fukasaku, so he naturally forgot about Akio Jissoji.

Thinking about it now, it really gives me a headache.

"Jishoji-kun should have time, right? Then let's invite him to come and meet us."

Before going to France, Gu Ming naturally took care of the matter of Akio Jisōji first.

Otherwise, the old man would probably faint from anger just seeing him now!
(End of this chapter)