Chapter 165: with translation of chapter title

The script content of the first season of Great Feng Night Watchman is basically adapted from the first volume of the novel, "Jingcha Fengyun".

Many of the characters are still easy to find, such as the Emperor Yuanjing; Jiang Heng subconsciously conjures up the image of the Jiajing Emperor portrayed by Chen Baoguo in "The Ming Dynasty 1566".

If invited by phone, Chen Baoguo would not likely refuse.

As for Wei Yuan, naturally it's Wu Gang who played Chen Pingping in "Joy of Life".

Wu Gang became famous for playing Secretary Dakang in "In the Name of the People"; Jiang Heng invited him to act, and he would surely be willing.

The truly hard-to-find ones are the male lead Xu Qian'an and the bevy of beauties.

Such as the Grand Preceptor of Great Feng, the Daoist sect leader Luo Yuheng; the novel describes her as: absolutely beautiful in appearance, refined in demeanor, possessing the fair, tender skin of a young maiden and the alluring charm of a mature woman, combined with the ethereal grace of one who transcends the mortal world. She wears a Taiji robe, wears a lotus-flower crown, and has a dab of vivid vermilion on her brow, both pure and refined yet bewitchingly alluring.

According to the original work, such a combination is extremely rare; hardly any girl possesses both these temperaments.

Liu Tianxian, while outstanding in looks and demeanor, lacks the alluring, bewitching, bewitching feeling.

Unfortunately, Dilireba is still too young at this moment; we simply can't wait!

……

Soon, the motorcade drove out of the airport; Jiang Heng sat in the stretched Lincoln, gazing at the scenery outside, and also felt his emotions stirred.

After saying that, they invited Jiang Heng into the car; his assistant, driver, and bodyguard then took separate vehicles.

This thing called temperament is truly quite mysterious.

As for wealth, he is not lacking.

Speaking of Dilireba's portrayal of Gao Wen in "Lover's Destiny", she still has quite a "slutty" feel.

Upon hearing the news, Han Sanping rarely came in person to pick him up.

As for status, with Zhang Yimou's Oscar bid failing and his commercial box office performance collapsing, and Thus output: Chen Kaige's "Wuji" seeing both reputation and box office plummet, only now has Jiang Heng secured the position of domestic top director.

In the first "Matrix" film there were only over four hundred effects shots, but the two sequels together had over twenty-five hundred.

Han Sanping laughed: "I await Director Jiang like Zhuge Liang awaiting the east wind—come on, let's first go give you a welcome!"

With his Hollywood work arrangements settled, Jiang Heng flew back to the capital on Christmas Eve.

At the airport, upon seeing Chairman Han in an instant, Jiang Heng also felt surprised: "Chairman Han, how can I trouble you to make the trip?"

After finishing "Inception", Jiang Heng continued to follow the established routine, outsourcing some of the effects shots.

Jiang Heng outsourced 100 effects shots to Vitra Digital.

The film has a total of over six hundred effects shots, neither too many nor too few.

This workload is still relatively small.

Just as some viewers wonder, why is Guan Xiaotong, with her fair skin, beautiful face, and long legs, not sexy at all?

And the wildly popular "Princess Lin'an"—Jiang Heng couldn't think of a suitable candidate for a while.

The remaining three hundred effects shots were naturally completed using his own "Super Microcomputer", thereby saving half the effects cost.

Before this, whether ordinary viewers or cultural circles and critics, when looking at Zhang Yimou and Thus output: Chen Kaige they viewed them through a filter, feeling that these masters succeeded so well in art films only because they looked down on commercial movies full of vulgar profit.

Once they decide to make a film, they will surely be able to make it well.

As a result, both films had mediocre box office and even worse reputation.

On Douban, the rating for "Hero" is slightly lower than that of Jiang Heng's worst film, "Prehistoric One Hundred Million Years".

Because in fans' hearts, although the plot of "Prehistoric One Hundred Million Years" is weak, it is still the first successful monster film domestically.

The depiction and visual effects of the dinosaurs in the film utterly trounce the renowned "Jurassic Park" series.

"Hero" and "Wuji"—one is hard to accept after watching, the other is completely incomprehensible!

Even Han Sanping only now stopped blindly believing in masters and no longer trusts Thus output: Chen Kaige.

Previously, they were still discussing cooperation on "The Legend of the Monkey King", but this time it was completely terminated—whoever wants to invest can invest, and China Film will definitely not invest.

If one wants to invest in a big production, it will definitely be in Jiang Heng.

For medium- and low-budget projects, there are naturally other directors.

This time, Han Sanping also summoned several bigwigs from the capital circle to accompany him—Feng Xiaogang, Zhang Guoli, Liu Zhenyun, and Ge You had already arrived early and were waiting in the private room.

It's not that he couldn't call more people; the main consideration was that some people have bad tempers, and he feared offending Jiang Heng, which would make things ugly.

Take Wang Shuo, for example—his temperament is not just normally impulsive.

Jiang Wen's relationship with Jiang Heng is also okay, but his speech sometimes lacks consideration.

The people Han Sanping invited this time are all relatively smooth—Zhang Guoli and Ge You, moreover, have previously collaborated with Jiang Heng.

Congratulations, Director Jiang, I heard your new film just wrapped shooting, and the next one is already slated for preparation. You truly are the pillar of Chinese-language cinema; the yearly box office really relies entirely on you. If you were to stay in Hollywood and not return, the leaders of the Film Bureau would probably lose sleep, having to send Chairman Han overnight to beg you to come back!

Although Feng Xiaogang later had a big temper, at this moment, facing Jiang Heng he really could let go of his stature.

Even more exaggerated is that when he first met Wang Shuo, with just a sentence, upon looking up and seeing the Big Dipper, he praised Wang Shuo so highly that he regarded him as a brother.

Jiang Heng naturally wouldn't easily be dazzled by being "slapped", but since the other party has put on that posture, he certainly ought to give face.

Hey, Director Feng, you're exaggerating—I just make effects-heavy blockbusters, the box office is up a bit but the risk is huge! Lose money on one film and years of work go to waste. Whereas you, your films have low cost, yet the box office is good and the reputation is also good. Sometimes I even envy you!

Feng Xiaogang put on an air of great honor, laughing heartily: "Director Jiang, you're overpraising me, overpraising me!"

Beside him, Han Sanping felt a murmur in his heart, secretly wondering, "He isn't saying that, is he?"

Everyone took their seats, ordered drinks and dishes, and began to chat aimlessly.

Among those present, aside from Han Sanping and Jiang Heng, everyone could let down their guard and talk about the strange gossip of the entertainment industry—which crew couples, which female star is involved with which producer or director, and so on—described in vivid detail.

After three rounds of wine and five flavors of food, they finally brought up Jiang Heng's new film.

Han Sanping's meaning is still that he hopes to film "Journey to the West", with the biggest advantage being its reliability.

With Sun Wukong as the protagonist, an effects-heavy blockbuster, having accumulated good word-of-mouth from "The Lion's Camel Ridge", the box office is sure to be solid.

As for the script, they have also gathered quite a few, and they are sorted by various genres.

For example, the romance-leaning "Daughter Country", the action-leaning "Gold Horn Great King, Silver Horn Great King", "Blue Bull Spirit", and the beauty-leaning "Spider Spirit"—each presents its own difficulty.

As for the love‑biased 'Daughter Country', the combat‑biased 'Jin Jiao Da Wang, Yin Jiao Da Wang', 'Qingniu Jing', and the beauty‑biased 'Zhizhu Jing'—that one difficulty.

Ge You teased: "The Spider Demon's trial is pretty good—seven gorgeous beauties! To film this, I'd even play Zhu Bajie for free!"

Zhang Guoli laughed: "You playing Zhu Bajie—how hungry would you have to be? You could get as thin as you are!"

Feng Xiaogang laughed: "Director Jiang knows special effects—is there such a technique that lets him take off his upper body, making him look like he has a big belly, really realistic, especially fat, and then his face stays his own, guaranteeing the audience will be stunned!"

Jiang Heng also found it quite amusing: "Indeed there is—it's called the head-swapping technique; the special effects turn out very realistic!"

(End of chapter)