This star is going to the moon

Chapter 352 Filming begins for "The Wandering Earth 2," possibly filmed directly in space. Guo Fan wants to treat it as a documentary!

On October 9th, the Muyuan conducted its fifth manned test flight.

This time, a professional astronaut is docking with the space station to improve the space dock. He will stay on the space station for six days.

The frequency of manned test flights of the Muyuan is not much slower than that of unmanned test flights; it can basically fly once every ten days to half a month.

Including this test flight, the Muyuan has conducted a total of eight test flights, with only four and a half months between them.

There was also a one-month interval for a thorough inspection between the unmanned test flight and the first manned test flight.

Such a high frequency of test flights is unprecedented in the history of human manned spaceflight.

After all, the opportunity to launch a spacecraft is extremely precious, and this is even more true for manned spacecraft. Generally, manned spacecraft will not have so many opportunities for test flights.

Although the Muyuan spacecraft has basically begun its mission, such as sending astronauts to dock with the space station to improve the space terminal.

However, this is not a formal commercial operation.

After so many test flights, the outside world's attention to the Muyuan has decreased. After all, Lu Yun has flown it, and a 91-year-old man has flown it. The next big news will probably be the day it officially starts commercial operation.

However, the number of spectators at the observation area outside the space airport is not small. Every test flight of the Muyuan attracts a large number of tourists, proving that Binhai City's development of aerospace tourism is indeed a good move.

That same evening, there was another space-related development: the Tianwen-1 Mars probe performed another deep-space maneuver to align itself more closely with Mars orbit.

It's just that Tianwen-1 is still on its way, far from any major cities or towns, so there's nothing interesting to see there. Therefore, only space enthusiasts are paying attention to this update.

On October 13th, an even bigger event that everyone was paying attention to arrived.

The press conference for the start of filming of "The Wandering Earth 2" was held in the terminal of Jiaodong Airport.

Lu Yun and other key members of the "The Wandering Earth 2" cast and crew, wearing T-shirts printed with the words "The Wandering Earth 2," stood in front of a large poster and shouted loudly at the camera: "Happy start of filming for 'The Wandering Earth 2'!"

Yes, after a year of writing the script and several months of preparation, "The Wandering Earth 2" has finally started filming.

As a sequel to "The Wandering Earth 1", its launch press conference attracted considerable attention.

After all, it was so successful. As the "opening act" of domestic science fiction blockbusters, it directly boosted the box office of domestic films to nearly 65 billion RMB. This is not only a success for domestic science fiction blockbusters, but also a success for domestic films.

However, apart from the dark horse "Ne Zha" which grossed 60 billion yuan, other films were unable to make a difference even when given the chance.

Let alone breaking through to higher levels, we can't even get close to 60 billion.

Since other movies don't work, we can only watch "The Wandering Earth" on its own.

When "The Wandering Earth 2" was filed for approval, everyone knew it was a two-part film. Many people were speculating whether it would break 10 billion yuan in box office revenue for one part or for both parts combined.
At the launch event, a reporter finally asked the question directly.

Director Guo humbly said, "This is a difficult question to answer. I can only say that we have done a lot of preparation for this film, and we will strive to make the best film possible. As for the rest... we will leave it to the audience."

The reporters were clearly not satisfied with this answer, and then turned to ask Lu Yun.

With the release of "The Wandering Earth 1" and its huge box office success, the main creators mentioned in an interview that when casting the actors, Lu Yun made the outrageous statement that "the box office will be at least 50 billion."

Of course, it turned out in hindsight that Lu Yun's statement was not a wild claim, but rather based on his full confidence.

So the reporters at the scene turned to ask Lu Yun.

"I think a single episode could easily gross 100 billion!"

Lu Yun spoke frankly, which caught the reporters' attention.

“We have indeed made a lot of preparations this time,” Lu Yun said, changing the subject as he explained his confidence: “Director Guo is planning to be a real-life shooting maniac this time, and not the kind with lots of props, but with real equipment.”

"Director Guo also said that he will treat this science fiction film as a documentary."

"!"

Guo Fan was startled upon hearing this and immediately turned to look at Lu Yun. The reporters, on the other hand, were overjoyed, shoving their cameras forward for close-up shots!

Guo Fan: "..."

"Yes, I want to make science fiction films like documentaries."

Lu Yun nodded and continued to talk with a smile: "For example, there is a mechanical dog in the movie, and it plays a very important role."

“Generally, science fiction movies may make static and dynamic models, but they will only be used to shoot some close-up shots. Other shots will still be presented with special effects.”

“But we are different. We made a real mechanical dog that can interact smoothly with the actor. This not only makes it easier for the actor to perform with a real object, but also reduces the difficulty of post-production.”

"The cost of manufacturing a real mechanical dog is even lower than the cost of using special effects."

"In addition, there are powered exoskeletons. I guess everyone has seen the firefighter powered exoskeleton, but we have made an even more amazing one in the movie."

"In addition, the crew's cameras captured smooth takeoff and space footage during the test flight of the Muyuan, which will be used in 'The Wandering Earth 2'."

"Furthermore, the possibility of real people going to space to film scenes during the movie's production cannot be ruled out..."

These words reignited the enthusiasm of the reporters on site, and even the live stream chat exploded with comments.

Yes, the opening ceremony for "The Wandering Earth 2" was also broadcast live.

After all, ever since Lu Yun started getting involved in various affairs, live streaming has become indispensable.

After all, no matter how much you say, it's not as effective as letting others see it for themselves.

[I thought it was normal when they said the box office would reach 100 billion, but now I'm really shocked!]

Indeed, a first film with no prior foundation can still rake in 65 billion, so a second film with a strong foundation can easily surpass 100 billion.

[That's right, Guo Fan's team is incredibly famous now, and Lu Yun's fame is phenomenal. If nothing unexpected happens, the two parts of the second season will gross 200 billion!]

[What could be more surprising? Are we worried about other movies targeting it? They'd be trying to avoid it!]

【Gui Gui, even though going to space is relatively easy now, isn't it a bit too extravagant to just go to space to film a movie?】

[Hard to say! If the tickets for the Muyuan spacecraft are indeed cheap, then going to space to film isn't a bad idea; consider it advance payment for the film's marketing and distribution.]

That makes sense. If they really went to space to film, the hype would be enormous, definitely worth a hundred million yuan in marketing expenses.

Indeed, if this movie is really filmed in space, I'll definitely have to go see it when it's released.

The Wooden Kite is just a small aircraft, not a space station. Even if it appears in a movie, it would probably only be on screen for less than a minute.

"Of course! A two-hour movie, if it were all filmed in space, how much would that cost?"

[Exactly, not to mention this is a sci-fi movie; without a sci-fi space station, they simply couldn't have filmed the whole thing.]

With current human technology, shooting a short clip to create a buzz is already pretty impressive...

It must be said that the opening ceremony of "The Wandering Earth 2" did attract a lot of attention and played a huge role in publicity as soon as filming started.

This prompted the production team to seriously discuss the feasibility of filming in space.

Of course, the most important obstacle is the ticket price for the Wooden Kite.

However, when they asked Lu Yun, he insisted, "I will announce it on my birthday."

Lu Yun's birthday is seven days from now, on October 20th, which is also the opening day of the 71st International Astronautical Congress.

Therefore, Rowoon had to take leave as soon as filming for "The Wandering Earth 2" started.

(End of this chapter)