Chapter 246: Something big happened

"Wu Dao is Wu Dao. This *Pirates of the Caribbean* is really filmed impressively. It is a well-deserved Hollywood blockbuster!"

"That's for sure. I heard it suppressed *Pearl Harbor* so much that it couldn't lift its head. This time it wasn't even introduced."

As the filming progressed, time had slowly entered August. *Pirates of the Caribbean* was also successfully introduced to the mainland by China Film, and it set off a viewing craze as soon as it was released.

This wind naturally blew to the *Brotherhood of Blades* crew. Quite a few people went to watch *Pirates of the Caribbean* during the filming, and they were all chatting in groups of three or five when they came back. It happened that Jiang Qinqin and Fan Bingbing both played roles in the crew, and the two good sisters were chatting happily at this time.

"Sister Qinqin, I saw in the newspaper that the global box office of *Pirates of the Caribbean* has already exceeded 600 million USD, and the final total box office might be able to rush to 800 million USD. This is much higher than last year's *Mission: Impossible 2*! It will definitely be able to take the global box office number one this year!"

The reason for comparing with *Mission: Impossible 2* was, first, because *Mission: Impossible 2* took the global box office number one last year with 540 million; second, its director was Wu Baige, so naturally, many people couldn't help but compare the two Wus who were breaking into Hollywood.

Jiang Qinqin also showed a look of self-satisfaction on her face and pretended to be understated: "Hi, it's nothing amazing to be higher than *Mission: Impossible 2*. Your brother-in-law's *The Sixth Sense* was more than 200 million higher than *Mission: Impossible 2*. If it hadn't encountered *Star Wars: Episode I* the year before last, it would have taken number one long ago. Your brother-in-law doesn't care about this false name at all~"

Fan Bingbing gave a thumbs up: "Brother-in-law's realm is high. Ah, I said I can't leave you, Sister Qinqin, the woman standing behind brother-in-law~"

Jiang Qinqin smiled and poked Fan Bingbing: "Your little mouth is like being smeared with honey~"

Fan Bingbing giggled, secretly thinking that it was smeared with honey. Wu Dao liked it the most, especially when calling him brother-in-law.

And on the other side, during the break, Jiang Wen saw the corners of Wu Jing's mouth that had been raised, and also asked with a smile:

Movie special effects were a major trend recognized by global commercial films. However, in terms of special effects, *Shaolin Soccer* was a small witch compared to *Zu Warriors*. The special effects shots of *Zu Warriors* were four times as many as *Shaolin Soccer*. From this point of view, how could it not be successful?

He played a role that was probably the fourth male lead in *Zu Warriors*. This time he played a Jin Yichuan in *Brotherhood of Blades*. Getting important roles in two top Chinese blockbusters in a row made him feel that his career was also rising step by step. After these two movies were released and achieved success, he could be considered a person with a name and surname in the film circle!

"*Zu Warriors* invested over 100 million, with a first-week box office of 7 million, losing everything!"

In fact, it wasn't just Wu Jing; the crew and the producers were also confident in *Zu Warriors*. Because *Shaolin Soccer*, which was released last month, was a great success, and one of the big signboards played by *Shaolin Soccer* was the strongest special effects in Chinese language.

In fact, Wu Yuchen felt that *Zu Warriors* wasn't that bad. If you pull the timeline long, even if the technology improved a lot later, China would never have a fairy-xia movie filmed with this fairy-xia flavor like *Zu Warriors* in the next 20 years. The visual wonders shown by the martial arts moves in the movie truly restored the scenes and artistic conception in fairy-xia novels.

This matter of *Zu Warriors* was quite noisy. After all, it was a big production claiming to invest over 100 million, which could be said to be a super big production in the current Chinese film industry. Even though Wu Yuchen was busy with *Brotherhood of Blades* every day, he already knew the news from the phone. He estimated that the cost of over 100 million might not be there, but 80 million was about the same. As a result, the final Hong Kong box office was only 11.91 million. You know, *Shaolin Soccer* alone had a box office of over 60 million in Hong Kong. This time it really lost miserably.

"Narrative is unclear, don't know what it's talking about, *Zu Warriors* box office failed miserably!"

Wu Jing hurriedly waved his hand: "Don't, I'm just a small supporting role. Let's not delay the crew's filming."

It was just that Xu Laoguai's ambition was too big, and the worldview of *Zu Warriors* was too big. One movie couldn't fit it at all. He wanted to say too much, and every character and every clue was not explained enough, which led to the whole film being complicated, the structure was chaotic, the narrative was unclear, and it looked lively, but it just couldn't tell a story.

"*Zu Warriors*—Century Big Rotten Film!"

At this time, Zhang Guorong walked over with a smile: "*Zu Warriors*, which the third brother participated in, is going to be released in a few days."

If *Pirates of the Caribbean* was the most concerned foreign film this summer, then the next most concerned Chinese blockbuster was Xu Laoguai's *Zu Warriors*. Claiming to invest over 100 million yuan, Chinese top special effects fairy-xia blockbuster, strongest star lineup, quite worth looking forward to.

"Xu Laoguai's three-year ambitious work, box office and reputation both failed!"

Wu Jing shook his head: "Nothing, big brother."

Although he said so, Wu Jing was still quite looking forward to *Zu Warriors*.

The upcoming *Zu Warriors* made Wu Jing full of confidence in the future.

"Old Third, what good thing did you encounter? You've been happy all day today."

However, things didn't go as smoothly as they imagined...

Jiang Wen patted Wu Jing on the shoulder when he heard this: "Heh, Old Third, this is a good thing. Why hide it? We'll go support you when the time comes!"

Thinking of Xu Laoguai, Wu Yuchen also shook his head. This guy was really willful. In fact, before he filmed *Zu Warriors*, he encountered the Waterloo of his directing career in Hollywood, returning from Hollywood in defeat. As a result, he still didn't follow the path of commercial films and filmed this *Zu Warriors* as a personal experimental work.

However, it had to be said that Xu Laoguai's blood was really thick. Even if *Zu Warriors* pitted investors for so much money, a few years later, for the next *Seven Swords*, there were still people willing to invest.

Seeing *Zu Warriors* like this, Wu Yuchen also reminded himself again that when filming commercial films, regardless of anything else, first of all, you must tell the story well and let the audience understand it. Otherwise, regardless of whether you are Xu Laoguai or Chen Kaizi, all roll away and be voted by the market with feet.

"Cut!"

Wu Yuchen was filming when he suddenly heard a few people gather together, making a buzzing sound. After calling a stop, he couldn't help but scold them: "What are you doing! Don't you know you're filming?!"

At this time, the few people over there were holding a radio. After being scolded by Wu Yuchen, they didn't apologize immediately, but said with a very shocked expression: "Wu Dao, something big happened! The old Americans were bombed!"

As soon as this word came out, it immediately caused chaos in the entire crew. Not to mention others, Jiang Wen, who was standing in the field filming, walked over directly and asked with concern: "What? The old Americans were bombed?! Who bombed them?"

That person shook his head: "Don't know, the radio said the Pentagon and everything were bombed!"

Others were also like a frying pan: "The old Americans were bombed? Impossible, right!"

"Who bombed them? The Maozi?"

"Ah? Is there going to be a war?"

"Will there be a world war?"

Now the old Americans could be said to be in their most prosperous period, the well-deserved world lighthouse. It was unimaginable that someone dared to bomb America. Many people's reaction was that there was going to be a war!

Wu Yuchen also knew what happened at this time. 9/11 was here! It's just that at the first moment the incident happened, everyone didn't know what was going on at all, so many guesses were spread.

"Quiet!" Wu Yuchen shouted loudly.

"What's there to panic about? Isn't it just the old Americans being bombed? The sky won't fall! Don't guess blindly, there will be news tomorrow. Let's just do this today, everyone pack up and go back to rest, don't delay tomorrow's work!"

Seeing that the crew was restless because of this news, some panicked and some excited, Wu Yuchen knew that filming tonight would be half the effort, so he simply let everyone go back to adjust their mood.

Just after returning to the hotel where they stayed, everyone saw the scenes repeatedly played in the news on the TV in the lobby on the first floor. Zhang Guorong couldn't help but mutter: "Is there any mistake! Plane hit the World Trade Center?"

After returning to the room, Jiang Qinqin kept pulling Wu Yuchen and asking: "Husband, is there really going to be a war? Could this be a plane mistake and hit it?"

"Mistake?" Wu Yuchen shook his head upon hearing this.

"How could 4 planes hit at the same time? It must be intentional, it might be terrorists."

"Then just go catch the terrorists? Why would there be a war?"

"How can it be as simple as you think? Internal pressure needs to be transferred to the outside! And it's hard to say clearly behind this matter..."

Although 9/11 had been characterized as a terrorist attack later, and the culprit was identified as Laden. But Laden had never admitted that 9/11 was done by him. The so-called "admission" was also admitted by the old Americans from a tape.

And there were some sayings in later generations that Laden's own development had been funded and supported by the old Americans. Anyway, there was an unclear relationship with some forces of the old Americans behind it, but the people behind didn't expect that the dog they raised dared to bite the master back.

More conspiracy theories were that some interest groups deliberately created this incident, making a fortune from war and oil...

Anyway, after this incident, it was certain that the old Americans would send troops to Afghanistan, and it was estimated that Iraq couldn't escape later.

Wu Yuchen patted Jiang Qinqin and smiled: "Don't think too much, it's not necessarily a bad thing for us!"

To tell the truth, 9/11 really changed the world pattern directly, helping China relieve pressure.

In fact, the two sides of China and America had already had a conflict in the southern sea at the beginning of this year, which was the collision incident in the southern sea. Counting further back was the embassy incident. In the past few years, the old Americans would provoke and find things from time to time.

A few months ago, the newly inaugurated Bush also proposed the strategy of returning to the Asia-Pacific, and not long after, 9/11 happened. This directly transferred the attention of the old Americans and completely transferred the strategic focus of the Ugly Country to the Middle East. Many aspects that the old Ugly had been blocking China were directly loosened. After all, their top task now had become anti-terrorism!

China and Ugly didn't have another crisis in the yellow sea until 2010. And at this time, China had already become the world's second-largest economy. This precious ten years!

It had to be said that it was indeed national luck!

However, Wu Yuchen would definitely not say these words. He wouldn't say a word. His identity now was relatively influential, and he knew clearly what words could be said and what words couldn't be said.

After he came back, he also called America repeatedly, contacted everyone he was familiar with, and at the same time asked his agent Carl to help him issue an announcement to mourn the 9/11 incident and send prayers to the victims. Miracle Pictures and the charity fund in America also operated the same way.

"Wu, thank you for your concern, we are fine. No one in the crew was in the Pentagon and the Twin Towers, but now the Twin Towers shots we filmed are afraid to be all scrapped. Sigh..."

The person currently contacting Wu Yuchen was the director of *Spider-Man*, Sam Raimi. He was very troubled now. The original idea was very good. Spider-Man swung between the Twin Towers and caught a group of criminals taking a helicopter, which would become a classic shot in the movie.

But now, the Twin Towers were destroyed, so this landmark building could no longer appear in the movie, otherwise it would evoke the sad memories of the public, and it would also attract the attack of public opinion, so it could only be cut with tears.

In fact, Wu Yuchen guessed this matter back then, but he didn't have an excuse to stop it. Now he opened his mouth to comfort:

"It doesn't matter, change to another place, find Toby Maguire back to reshoot. This is not the point. The point now is the release date of *Spider-Man*. I suggest postponing it to next year."

*Spider-Man* was originally scheduled for the Christmas season this year.

"This... I can't make the decision, but now it seems that the end of the year is not necessarily a good choice."

"Hmm, in a short period of time, the entertainment consumption desire of American citizens will decline. So to avoid risks, it is best for *Spider-Man* to change the release date. I will tell Sony about this suggestion."

After Wu Yuchen hung up the phone, it could be considered that he had explained everything in America. Letting *Spider-Man* change the release date was partly because of the influence of 9/11, but a more important reason was that there would be two powerful movies in the Christmas season this year, *The Lord of the Rings* and *Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone*.

*The Lord of the Rings* was 880 million USD, and *Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone* was even fiercer, 970 million USD. Why let *Spider-Man* go up and fight them to death? The release date in May next year was quite good.

Although 9/11 had a great influence, the *Brotherhood of Blades* crew still had to film as usual. Everyone was shocked for a day or two, and life had to go on.

At this time, it was September, and the weather was actually still very hot. However, in the lens, snowflakes fell on the injured Zhang Guorong and Jiang Qinqin on his back, suddenly adding a touch of romance and tragedy.

There was more than one snow scene in the drama, and there were also the death of the third brother Jin Yichuan and the killing of the eldest brother Lu Jianxing. For several snow scenes, the crew specifically transferred 10 snow machines, estimated to make 5 tons of snow, plus labor costs, it would cost over a million. However, Wu Yuchen didn't blink when spending it.

After the snow scene between Shen Lian and Zhou Miaotong was finished, Jiang Wen came knocking again...