Japanese Entertainment: From special effects actor to action superstar

Chapter 580: Dragon, prepare to get beaten up!
With one step, the entire stadium fell silent.

Cheng Long took a few steps back, leaned against the prop rack, panting, his head buzzing.

Fortunately, he raised his arm to deflect the force; otherwise, if he had been kicked squarely in the head, he probably would have died on the spot.

It wasn't a real kick, but being hit by one still hurts a lot.

Jean-Claude Van Damme turned pale.

broken!

He's in trouble, he's in big trouble!
Jean-Claude Van Damme knew he didn't mean it, but kicking someone who was clearly a high-ranking and respected actor in the crew was definitely not a good thing!
The Jackie Chan Stunt Team members reacted quickly, getting up one after another and surrounding Jean-Claude Van Damme, but they didn't make a move.

The Mars group naturally ran towards Cheng Long to see if he was alright.

Gu Ming was shocked by the accident on set. He then saw Cheng Long steadying himself with the support of a frame, and on the surface, he seemed to be fine.

He raised his hand and gestured to everyone to calm down, then pulled Zhen Zidan aside.

"Dennis, keep things under control. Don't let the Hong Kong guys start fighting. I'm afraid they'll kill that Belgian."

After settling things over here, Gu Mingcai quickly ran towards Cheng Long, separating himself from Huo Xing and the others to get closer.

"What's going on, Brother Long? You don't have to go to such lengths when filming action scenes, do you?"

"I'm fine. It was an accident, all an accident." Cheng Long shook his head, quite nonchalantly. "Not bad, this foreigner has some strength."

"After all, he is a five-time European karate champion, so he has a solid foundation."

Gu Ming looked around and realized that something was amiss.

They're filming an outdoor scene now, and they haven't blocked off the entire street, only the area around the apartment where the film set is located. Quite a few people have already seen this.

"But nowadays, without cell phones, and normal people wouldn't go out with cameras, so it shouldn't be a big problem, right?"

Gu Mingquan helped Cheng Long up and waved to the staff around the set to get to work.

First, clear the area! Then we'll see how to seal it off!

If someone kicks a kung fu movie actor to the ground, the impact of such an incident would be significant if word got out.

Although the concept of creating a persona doesn't exist now, some things are considered established conventions that shouldn't be easily broken.

Cheng Long, on the other hand, seemed completely unconcerned. He stood up and jumped around a few times to loosen up his muscles.

"I'm fine, I can handle it."

"Even if you can withstand it, it's still not enough. We need to get you checked out first to see if there are any aftereffects that aren't visible to the naked eye. Otherwise, what if you faint while getting an X-ray in a few days? Wouldn't that be even more troublesome?"

Regardless of Cheng Long's insistence, Gu Ming still arranged for someone to take Cheng Long for a check-up.

After all, being kicked in is no small matter.

Seeing Jean-Claude Van Damme still standing there anxiously, Gu Ming shrugged.

"Everyone, go home, calm down, there's no need to be so tense. He's fine now. Getting beaten up is common when filming action movies, tomorrow it'll be your turn to get beaten up."

Jean-Claude Van Damme grinned, but his smile looked more like a grimace.

It seems he really needs to see a proctologist!

……

...That evening, Gu Ming received a medical report stating that, after examination, Cheng Long had no other injuries besides a slight concussion.

"Brother Long is still tough, after all, he was able to make 50 million US dollars at the global box office even with a terrible movie like 'The Karate Kid 2'."

Gu Ming couldn't help but feel a little resentful.

Most people would have given up after watching one bad movie after another, but Jackie Chan actually managed to hold on.

However, the fact that this terrible movie cost 40 million US dollars made Gu Ming suspect that Commissioner Smith might also be laundering money.

Judging from the final quality of Karate Dream 2, this movie cost 40 million yuan, which is even more terrifying than Hot & Spicy which cost hundreds of millions of yuan.

As someone who watched The Karate Kid 2 before time travel, Gu Ming could only silently think that Brother Long deserved to be beaten up. He should refund Gu Ming the thirty yuan for the movie ticket!
Thirty yuan isn't enough.

Considering the terrible movies Jackie Chan had made in the past, Gu Ming figured it wouldn't be too much to ask Jackie Chan to kowtow to him twice.

He watched all the terrible movies Jackie Chan made. Isn't he Jackie Chan's benefactor in a second life?

Speaking of the Kung Fu Dream, Gu Ming immediately thinks of Kung Fu Dream 1. This movie actually did fairly well in terms of both critical reception and box office, and it wasn't a completely bad film.

The movie The Karate Kid is actually based on a real-life film. It was adapted from the 20th-century film The Karate Kid, also known as The Karate Kid. This movie had a low budget but a phenomenal box office performance, raking in a whopping $90 million.

The story is similar to The Karate Kid 1, about a new young man who trains with an ordinary sweeping monk, masters superb skills, goes back to win a competition, and grows through his experience.

It's a standard American three-part film, encompassing the entire process from confusion to growth.

"Dragon Might Kid, it seems like filming hasn't started yet?"

Gu Ming quickly processed the information in his mind; it seemed that filming hadn't started yet.

Of course, the script may have already been written. Many film scripts are often written three or four years or even more than ten years before filming begins. This is true not only in Hollywood, but all over the world.

But Gu Ming thought to himself, even if it did, it wouldn't matter.

When it comes to scripts, whoever publishes it first owns it.

"I've even watched a terrible movie like The Karate Kid 2, so it's only natural that they make an original version of The Karate Kid 1 now! Consider it Brother Long paying me back for the movie ticket!"

Gu Ming immediately made the decision and called Tanaka first.

"Tanaka, please write this down and register a script for me. The temporary title is... Karate Boy. The plot is roughly about an American kid learning karate. I'll explain the details when I get back."

After a pause, Gu Ming added, "Take this script and talk to Sony. We have that music producer's contact information, so let him act as a go-between. Don't ask me why, just do it."

This film was produced by Columbia Pictures. Speaking of Columbia, as everyone knows, Sony later acquired Columbia.

In the autumn of 1983, although Sony had not yet completed the acquisition, it had already begun to secretly communicate with Columbia.

Columbia Pictures is, after all, one of the most well-known giants in Hollywood. Acquiring Columbia was not something that could be done in a day or two; it required years of negotiations. Sony started the negotiation project several years in advance in order to acquire Columbia, and finally reached an acquisition agreement with Coca-Cola in 1989, successfully taking over Columbia.

Even the later economic crisis in Japan did not prevent Sony from acquiring Columbia.

Prior to this, Sony had already made contact with Columbia. Since he was currently in Japan, Gu Ming naturally took the opportunity to ask Sony about it.

With the matter settled, Gu Ming hung up the phone, feeling relieved.

Well... even though The Karate Kid 2 was pretty bad, I still charged him thirty yuan for the movie ticket.

But if he makes a movie called Dragon Warrior, he should at least earn back 3 billion yen!

(End of this chapter)