Reborn Action Star: Starting in Hollywood

"Welcome, director George Miller."

Lin Yuan stood up from the chair, the movement appearing somewhat difficult.

Unfortunately, in the eyes of outsiders, he was still seriously injured and had not yet recovered.

Upon seeing this, director George Miller quickly stepped forward and helped Lin Yuan up, saying, "Mr. Lin, please don't be so polite. You're not fully recovered yet. I can't afford to take responsibility if your injuries worsen."

"Don't worry, I'll recover soon and start filming our new movie," Lin Yuan replied with a smile.

George Miller really likes this way of presenting our new film.

After greeting his old friend, director Christopher Nolan, and GAKKI-chan who was standing next to him, he sat down in a chair.

GAKKI-chan handled all the previous cooperation agreements, so Lin Yuan was actually the person director George Miller was least familiar with in this room.

He asked somewhat reservedly, "Mr. Lin, let's talk about the filming details of Mad Max 4."

"Yes, that's exactly what we're going to talk about today. Take a look at this first, the cast and crew list."

At Lin Yuan's prompting, GAKKI-chan handed the list to director George Miller.

Director Miller took it, and after reading a few pages, his worried expression immediately disappeared.

Lin Yuan saw all of this.

Director Miller's reaction was exactly what he expected.

The film's cast is almost identical to that of its predecessor, Mad Max: Fury Road.

There is no doubt that the male lead has been changed from Tom Hardy, who played Venom, to Lin Yuan himself.

The female lead, Furiosa, was originally played by Charlize Theron, so there's no need to change her; just continue to strengthen her on-screen chemistry with Lin Yuan.

The role of the villainous big boss "Immortal Joe" will once again be played by Hugh Keith Byrne, a veteran actor who has appeared in previous Mad Max movies.

Lin Yuan did not interfere with any other personnel, from photography and production management to music production, leaving everything to director George Miller.

He only brought in Meng Tao's team for the action direction part, instead of using the team from the previous Mad Max 4.

This is perfectly reasonable, after all, Meng Tao's team is the best team in the world today, and director George Miller is very happy to be able to make use of Meng Tao's team's professional strength.

In short, this list takes full account of director George Miller, who was originally worried that his production team would be "wiped out".

He was very satisfied with the current arrangement.

This also greatly increased director George Miller's positive impression of Lin Yuan:

Who said Lin Yuan was a tyrant who ruled the set like a king?
“Mr. Lin, thank you! I have no objections to this list of personnel,” Director George Miller said excitedly.

"Let's talk about the budget then," Lin Yuan said.
"Budget? Wasn't that agreed upon before?" Director George Miller asked, somewhat puzzled.

He wouldn't have been able to sign the cooperation agreement if the budget hadn't been agreed upon beforehand.

According to his proposed budget, the production cost was $1.5 million, while Ms. Aragaki, who was standing next to him, voluntarily increased it to $2 million.

This delighted director George Miller, as many of the large-scale scenes that were originally planned to be cut could now be brought out.

But... what does it mean to bring up discussing the budget now?
Are you planning to back out?
Lin Yuan was well aware of director George Miller's concerns.

He said with a smile, "This is my problem. I wasn't involved in the previous discussions about the filming details, so the budget of $2 million was set."

“But now, based on the action design, I need new filming locations, so the budget also needs to be changed.”

"A new filming location?" Director George Miller sensed something was wrong.

“Yes, so I plan to increase the production cost to $3 million,” Lin Yuan replied with a smile.

$3 million…

Director George Miller felt like he'd been hit over the head, and for a moment he couldn't care less about new filming locations.

Because Lin Yuan's offer was simply too high.

This is equivalent to twice his original budget!

With so much money, how can we possibly spend it all?!
Seeing director George Miller's stunned reaction to the money, Lin Yuan smiled and remained silent, waiting for him to process the shock.

In fact, logically speaking, changing the filming location from Australia to Northwest China should have reduced production costs.

However, the action scenes that Lin Yuan wanted to realize caused the production costs to skyrocket. The previously estimated $2 million was simply not enough, so the cost soared to $3 million.

If the post-production budget is insufficient, he will continue to add more funds.

Among all of Lin Yuan's past film production budgets, this one can be considered a top-tier masterpiece.

All of this is in order to create a new masterpiece.

Of course, this skyrocketing production budget will also be the most powerful bargaining chip to persuade director George Miller.

After more than a minute, director George Miller, somewhat embarrassed, said:

"I'm sorry, I lost my composure. I'd like to ask, what's the meaning of the new filming location? And how does it relate to the increased budget?"

GAKKI-chan promptly handed over a large globe.

Many people in Europe and America have poor geographical knowledge and know very little about China.

Lin Yuan rolled the globe and pointed to Northwest China: "I plan to move the filming location to Northwest China."

Upon hearing Lin Yuan's words, director George Miller felt a jolt in his heart; there really is no such thing as a free lunch in this world.

I just said that Lin Yuan doesn't run a one-man show, but it seems I spoke too soon.

Director George Miller said somewhat awkwardly, "Mr. Lin, the world of the Mad Max series is a wasteland, which requires a lot of desert terrain. Filming in Australia has been tested by three films in the series."

Changing the filming location at the last minute will likely cause a lot of inconvenience.

“I know that, and I didn’t just make this decision on a whim. Take a look at these photos.” With that, Lin Yuan handed a stack of photos to director George Miller.

Director George Miller reached out and took the photos. After looking at just a few, he was immediately struck by their beauty.

His original filming location for Mad Max 4 was the red plains and sparse deserts of Australia.

Its color is bright orange-red, and its temperament is rugged and wild, but due to the simple geological conditions, it lacks diversity.

However, the photos Lin Yuan gave him covered a variety of different landforms:

With deserts, yardang landforms, salt lakes, and canyons, it appears more colorful, yet it still retains the sense of post-apocalyptic desolation he needed.

What surprised director Miller even more was that the scenes in the photos possessed a breathtaking beauty.

Just looking at the photos is enough to make you unable to look away; how stunning must it be when the actual scenes are filmed?
What director Miller didn't know was that the desert depicted in the photo was the Taklamakan Desert, China's largest desert. The boundless sand dunes and extremely arid climate were perfect for conveying a sense of apocalypse due to "resource depletion."

The wide-angle desert chase scenes in the movie could be filmed here to create an even more spectacular effect of shifting sand dunes.

The dunes have sharper lines, stronger light and shadow contrasts under the setting sun, and are "purer" than the Australian desert.

The Yardang landform is the Dunhuang Yardang Devil City.

The giant Yardang landforms, formed by wind erosion, resemble alien castles or monster skeletons, naturally fitting the aesthetics of the wasteland.

The terrain is highly diverse, ranging from the Gobi Desert to wonders like the "Devil City," making it suitable for building outposts of different styles.

Immortal Joe's "Gasoline Town" or "Bullet Farm" can use yardang landforms as a backdrop, which is more eerie than the flat Gobi Desert in Australia.

The next scene is Eboling (Mars Camp) in Qingxi Province.

With its sulfur lakes, cracked earth, and rugged yardang formations, it is known as "the most Mars-like place on Earth".

The yellow, white, and red soils are interspersed, creating a more layered effect than the monotonous orange-yellow of Australia.

It is perfect for use as an oasis in movies, a swamp with "many mothers", or a radiation wasteland scene, giving people an extremely strong sense of eeriness.

The last location is the Badain Jaran Desert.

The landscape where sand dunes and lakes coexist is perfect for capturing symbolic images of "scarce water resources".

It can be used as the "Green Land" in Furiosa's memories or as the water battlefield during the final battle.

The spectacular sight of sand dunes reflected in a lake can create a strong sense of surrealism.

Just four photos were enough to leave director George Miller speechless.

Lin Yuan was not surprised at all. How could the beautiful landscape of the motherland be compared to the wild land of Australia?
Seeing Lin Yuan persuade director Miller in such a gentle and reasoned way, director Nolan, who had remained silent until now, also spoke up:

“George, Lin Yuan and I went to China to film ‘The Legend of Tang Dynasty’. There are indeed countless amazing sights there. Choosing to film in China will only make this movie better. You won’t be disappointed.”

“I admit that the filming locations in China are fantastic, but Australia also has some great spots. Could we consider combining the two?”

Director George Miller is still struggling and has proposed a compromise of filming in both countries.

He also had to admit that he did have some selfish motives.

After all, Australia is his homeland, and it is one of his greatest wishes to be able to showcase more of his country's features in films.

He has also traveled to all those filming locations over the past twenty years, and is very familiar with the geographical and climatic conditions, which gives him a greater sense of control when filming.

Now that he's suddenly in China, a place he doesn't know at all, he still feels uncertain.

But no matter what director Miller thinks, Lin Yuan is not prepared to accept this filming plan involving two countries.

Filming across two countries across the ocean requires a large number of personnel and equipment to travel back and forth, which greatly increases the filming period.

For Lin Yuan, time is his most precious possession.

If it's necessary to do so, he's willing to accept spending a little more time.

But it's clearly unnecessary right now; Northwest China alone is more than enough to meet the filming needs.

Why add the Australian filming location, which is completely unnecessary?

Lin Yuan could naturally see through director Miller's ulterior motives, and he had been prepared for it.

So he played his trump card.

"Director Miller, I chose several filming locations in Northwest China not just for the scenery, but also because the action scenes I was shooting needed to be integrated with the local natural conditions. These are things that Australia cannot provide."

After speaking, Lin Yuan handed over a shooting plan.

Director Miller then realized that his collaborator this time was Lin Yuan.

It's Lin Yuan, who is world-renowned for his countless thrilling and deadly action scenes.

The most appealing aspects of the Mad Max film series in the past were its post-apocalyptic world and its extreme heavy metal punk aesthetics.

However, with Lin Yuan joining the team, the biggest selling point has undoubtedly become his action scenes.

Everything in the film must give way to the spectacular action sequences.

Director George Miller naturally understood this principle, and he had no objection to it.

His expectation to collaborate with Lin Yuan was precisely because he hoped to leverage Lin Yuan's brilliant action scenes to break through the bottleneck of his film and reach unprecedented heights.

If the action scenes designed by Lin Yuan can only be completed in Northwest China, then he will naturally support them unconditionally.

Director Miller accepted the filming plan handed to him by Lin Yuan.

There are a total of three action scenes planned for filming. This is certainly not all of them, but it is definitely one of the more exciting parts.

Director Miller opened the first plan, and after reading only a few pages, his eyes widened in disbelief.

No, is this how you've always filmed?
How have you survived this long with such a reckless lifestyle?
In Lin Yuan's plan, one of the scenes was to be filmed in the Badain Jaran Desert.

The climate in this desert is exceptionally violent; in autumn and winter, the leading edge of sandstorms forms a terrifying "black wall of death."
The sand grains adhered to each other due to electrostatic attraction, forming a moving sand wall up to 1200 meters high. The internal friction generated a 2000 million volt electrostatic field, and blue electric arcs between the sand grains moved like snakes.

Charged sand grains collide with high-altitude ice crystals, forming a ball lightning matrix at the top of the sandstorm, which randomly strikes down with lightning bolts every tens of seconds.

Upon seeing this description of the weather conditions, director Miller had only one thought in his mind: This is truly a case of being struck by lightning.

In this kind of weather, instead of hiding, you're actually preparing to go up and film?
In Lin Yuan's design, the bottom of the sand dunes conceals the buried scrap metal frames of oil drilling rigs, with the exposed metal serving as lightning rods.

He will ride in a vehicle through the raging "Black Wall of Death," facing lightning strikes from the sky, and embark on a death surfing adventure!

Just reading the written descriptions in the shooting schedule made director George Miller feel like his heart was going to stop beating.

He looked at Lin Yuan with a complicated expression:

To stand at the top of the world is truly something that only the most capable can do.

In the past, he had only watched Lin Yuan's movies in theaters. While he felt incredibly thrilled and excited then, it was nothing compared to the awe he felt now that he was personally involved.

Director George Miller sighed and said, "Mr. Lin, I'll listen to you. But please make sure you manage the risks well and be careful."

Lin Yuan smiled and nodded: "Trust me, we will create a classic in film history together."

"Once the crew arrives, I'll take you to see the real Northwest of China. I'm sure you'll agree that this is the best choice."

The two shook hands again, and this time, director George Miller's resolve was much stronger than before. (End of Chapter)