Chapter 308: After Wrapping Up

"I announce, the *Pirates of the Caribbean* series, wrap!"

Following Wu Yuchen's shout, the hundreds of people in the entire crew cheered.

"Finally over! Fuck!"

"God! I thought I wouldn't be able to go back this year!"

"Oh, God, after going back this time, I'm going to lie at home for a month!"

Some people even cursed excitedly to vent their emotions.

Wu Yuchen wasn't dissatisfied at all; he let these people vent, even if they were cursing him, it didn't matter.

After all, 8 months of continuous filming, and having to constantly change locations, almost without stopping to rest—the intensity was high. By now, many people were exhausted both physically and mentally, and they urgently needed a rest and a vent.

Being able to finish filming in early December so they could rush home for Christmas was the best Wu Yuchen could do.

That night, the entire crew held a wild party.

"Rat, has the director left?" Chris asked.

Ning Hao nodded, raised his glass, and clinked it with the other party: "He said if he didn't leave, he was worried we wouldn't be able to let go!"

Hearing this, Chris breathed a sigh of relief and immediately said:

"He kept us in this place not fit for humans for eight months, squeezing us dry. If he were here, I'd kick his ass hard!"

Seeing Ning Hao's disdainful look, Chris stared and asked: "Why, don't you believe me?"

Ning Hao said perfunctorily: "Mm-hmm, I believe you!"

He now understood why Wu Yuchen didn't stay on set. 8 months of filming had indeed allowed him to establish strong prestige in the crew. With prestige first and trust later, it was natural for many people to feel awe when they saw Wu Yuchen. Only when he wasn't present could these people vent wantonly.

After the two finished a glass of wine, Chris asked again:

"Rat, are you staying in Hollywood? You're a decent guy; I hope we can work together again in the future~"

Hearing this, Ning Hao shook his glass and smiled: "Not at all. I plan to learn everything I can and return to China to serve as a director!"

"Oh, that's a pity~" Chris sighed upon hearing this.

But then he raised his glass and clinked it with Ning Hao's again: "Then I wish our Rat becomes a great Chinese director in the future!"

Ning Hao laughed loudly and clinked with him.

Actually, to be honest, he didn't know if he could become a good director. After all, he had only filmed a movie with a budget of less than 100,000 yuan before.

But coming here had changed many of his concepts. In the past, whether at Beijing Normal University or after entering the Beijing Film Academy, the education and concepts he received regarding film were basically based on pursuing art above all else. This was the highest pursuit for film creators.

But Hollywood? Hollywood certainly pursues art, but in the final analysis, what Hollywood values most is the market, commercial films, and money!

Coming to America this time, Ning Hao had learned a lot. Even in America, where the market is very mature, the vast majority of directors who dive headfirst into art films have no way to get ahead.

So what about China? Whether it's the Fifth Generation directors or the Sixth Generation directors, they are all on the path of art directors. Now that the Chinese market is still so weak, can it support such a large group of art directors? It simply can't.

Current Chinese art films actually survive by relying on international film festivals. For example, his *Incense* also won several film festival awards, and the prize money earned back quite a bit, but after returning to China, there wasn't a single cinema willing to screen it!

This made Ning Hao have a doubt: was he filming movies for Chinese people to watch, or for foreigners to watch?

If the films he made weren't watched by anyone in China and only won a few awards internationally, what was the point? Film, for him, wasn't just something for self-amusement; it only had value if someone watched it!

What's more, even Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige of the Fifth Generation have started to transform into large-scale commercial films and compromise with the market, haven't they?

And Director Wu—didn't he also rely on a few market-oriented films with high box office to grow and strengthen?

Especially in Hollywood, he felt it more clearly. Wu Yuchen could have the final say in such a large crew as *Pirates of the Caribbean*, and even Depp was suppressed by him. Was it because of his ability to film art movies? Definitely not! He relied on the box office results his past films achieved in the market!

So why should he, little Ning Hao, insist on being this stubborn and go against the trend?

So Ning Hao had also planned his future path. After going back, he must survive first, conform to the market, and after standing firm in the industry, he could then display his talents. After having a certain influence, it wouldn't be too late to consider filming art films.

Los Angeles. The sun was already hanging high, and sunlight drilled into the room through a gap in the curtains, falling on the two alluring beauties lying on the bed.

Wu Yuchen also woke up in this beam of light, feeling Anne Hathaway and Jessica Alba still deep in sleep beside him.

It wasn't just the crew members who needed to vent; he, the director, was no exception, otherwise, he would develop mental health issues. It's just that he chose to wait until he returned to Los Angeles to do it.

Now, he truly felt that his body and mind were much smoother, which was conducive to his subsequent work!

That's right, Wu Yuchen didn't plan to return to China immediately, but chose to stay in Hollywood for a while longer.

At the end of last month, the 'China's Top Ten Outstanding Youth' had been announced, and Wu Yuchen was on the list. He was already considered very young. However, it wasn't that there wasn't anyone younger than him; Yao Ming, born in September 1980, was 23 this year and was the youngest one.

And not long after that, the award ceremony time was also set for January 4th. Therefore, Wu Yuchen wasn't in a hurry now and planned to use the remaining nearly 3 weeks to complete all the editing work for *Pirates of the Caribbean 2*.

In this way, even if he left when the time came, the post-production of *Pirates of the Caribbean 2* here wouldn't stop. Some work that needed to be done could still be done, and it wouldn't delay much.

Then he looked at the two beauties beside him who had played wantonly with him last night and couldn't help but smile. The two films he had promised them, *The Princess Diaries* and *Step Up*, had now been fulfilled one by one.

*The Princess Diaries* was co-produced by Miracle Pictures and Disney, while *Step Up* was a collaboration with Fox. Because these two films were both youth-themed, they would be scheduled for release in next year's summer slot.

Director Wu travels the world, and being able to establish friendly and intimate cooperation with so many beauties relies on having a good reputation! He wouldn't do things like Harvey, making empty promises and then forcing his hand, leading to a pile of women suing him one after another.

Jessica Alba and Anne Hathaway, these two beauties in their early twenties, were worth his careful care and attention for a long time!

However, the film that had attracted the most attention from Miracle Pictures recently wasn't these two, but *Saw*!

During this year's Wan Shengjie slot, *Saw* was a huge success, with a production cost of 1.2 million, and the North American box office broke 100 million in one fell swoop, making the market gasp!

In his past life, *Saw* wasn't valued when it was first released, but relied on word-of-mouth to take 55 million at the North American box office, with a global total breaking 100 million. But this time, because Miracle Pictures put in the effort to do marketing, *Saw* achieved great box office results as soon as it was released, standing out among the horror films on Wan Shengjie and successfully breaking 100 million!

And its word-of-mouth was very good. Various grotesque and terrifying killing methods and profound central themes broke the bottleneck of horror films becoming increasingly formulaic and commercialized for many years, causing a sensation in the horror film circle. It also made James Wan famous in the circle!

The success of *Saw* and James Wan also made people notice Wu Yuchen's ability to discover and cultivate new directors, especially among Chinese filmmakers. Many people who considered themselves talented but unrecognized hoped to become the next James Wan through Wu Yuchen.

If they were truly talented, Wu Yuchen didn't mind giving them some opportunities to train, but wanting to produce another James Wan would probably be very difficult.

You have to know that the *Saw* series alone had a total box office of 1 billion USD. If you count the disc and various copyright revenues, the profit created was very astonishing. And James Wan didn't just create *Saw*!

DreamWorks. After Wu Yuchen was busy in the editing room for half a day, he was called out by Spielberg to have a meal together.

"This newly opened shop makes good pasta~"

"Is that so? Then I have to try it!"

The two of them chatted while eating.

"Wu, can the schedule for *Pirates of the Caribbean 2* be set?"

Wu Yuchen thought for a moment and gave Spielberg a time: "Let's make it July. That way, the time will be more generous."

Spielberg nodded: "Good, then we'll go and negotiate with the cinema chains, and then launch the promotional work!"

Wu Yuchen made an OK gesture, then buried his head and ate a mouthful of noodles. After swallowing, he said: "Maybe it's because I've been away from home for too long, but I feel its taste is far worse than Beijing Zha Jiang Mian~"

"It seems you really need to go home and rest for a while. Christmas?"

Wu Yuchen shook his head: "Steven, you know, we Chinese celebrate the Spring Festival, January 22nd next year."

Spielberg sighed helplessly. Americans rest during Christmas, while Wu Yuchen wants to rest during the Spring Festival. If the two sides can't get together, it will undoubtedly delay the post-production of *Pirates of the Caribbean* for another period of time.

However, he also knew that since Wu Yuchen had taken the crew out for so long this time, he definitely needed a rest. He couldn't open his mouth to deprive Wu Yuchen of the right to go home for the Spring Festival.

Wu Yuchen knew the other party's thoughts and smiled to comfort him: "Don't worry, when I come back after the Spring Festival, the efficiency will double, and the production of *Pirates of the Caribbean 2* will definitely be completed on schedule."

Spielberg smiled and then asked: "Wu, regarding the release plan for the *Pirates of the Caribbean* trilogy, do you have any thoughts?"

Wu Yuchen looked at Spielberg: "Didn't we say before? One each this year and next year."

Spielberg gave an 'mm' first, then asked: "Have you paid attention to *The Matrix 3*?"

Hearing this, Wu Yuchen immediately understood. Spielberg was worried that *Pirates of the Caribbean 3* would encounter the same situation as *The Matrix 3*.

The *Matrix* trilogy, like *Pirates of the Caribbean*, also adopted the method of filming two parts back-to-back. It's just that the distribution strategy Warner took for these two sequels of *The Matrix* was to release two parts in one year.

First, *The Matrix 2* was released in May of this year, achieving a global box office of 740 million; then, only half a year later, *The Matrix 3* was released in November. The word-of-mouth was very poor, and the North American box office was only 120 million USD so far, far worse than the previous work.

Although Wu Yuchen had been busy with *Pirates of the Caribbean* matters this time and hadn't paid much attention to *The Matrix 3*, he had the experience of his past life, so he naturally understood the problems with the last two parts of *The Matrix*.

He asked Spielberg with a smile: "Steven, do you know why Warner was so anxious to arrange for the third part to be released only half a year later?"

Regarding this question, Hollywood also understood after the film was released. Spielberg said:

"Because the Wachowski brothers added more and more humanistic speculative thoughts into *The Matrix 2* and *3*, making the film somewhat obscure."

Wu Yuchen nodded: "That's right. Compared to the perfect first *Matrix*, although the second one was also beautifully fought, it had large sections of profound dialogue, saying things that seemed to be deliberately mysterious. Compared to the first one, this undoubtedly raised the threshold for viewing and was not very friendly to some audiences."

"The reason Warner was worried lies right here. If there was a year in between, they were worried that the audience would even forget some of the plot of *The Matrix 2*. This would definitely have an adverse effect on the third part. Therefore, they made the decision to release two films within half a year."

"However, *The Matrix 3* was even more inclined toward philosophy and theology, obscure and difficult to understand, causing more audiences to give up on it."

In fact, most films with explosive box office have one common point: low viewing threshold and easy to understand, so that they have more universality and communicability.

Whether it's 'Truck Driver's' *Titanic* or *Avatar*, the story and core are actually understandable by children. And like Marvel, it's basically more brainless, but you have to admit the box office is high!

Then Wu Yuchen smiled and said: "Don't worry, Steven, I won't make the mistakes of *The Matrix*. *Pirates of the Caribbean* is an adventure journey and won't have any places that test the audience's brains!"

Hearing this, Spielberg also breathed a sigh of relief and revealed a smile: "Wu, of course, I'm very reassured about you. You are the director I've seen who understands the market the best!" ===== CHAPTER 309 =====