Chapter 228: Choice of Roles

Leonardo spent three days repeatedly reading the novel "Inception" many times.

From the initial face full of question marks—what does this mean? Can dreams be stolen and implanted?

To slowly falling into deep thought, and then to finding the creativity more amazing the more he read.

Finally, he couldn't help but slap the table and stand up; the layered "dream-building" mode and the precise and rigorous time design were all extremely wonderful.

Especially the 4-layer dream setting, where the time in each layer differs by 12 times, and the 20 times after using sedatives, can be called extremely rigorous, more like an extremely precise instrument.

Exquisite, rigorous!

New concepts, new ideas, new viewpoints, new creativity!

Missing such a film might be a lifelong regret.

Leonardo had a strong premonition that if he acted in this film, it would definitely become another representative work of his.

He hurriedly found studio manager Rick Yorn and couldn't help but dance with excitement:

"Rick, I've thought it through. Agree to Columbia; we can do without the bonus. I want the male lead of this film. You don't know how wonderful the creativity of this novel is..."

Rick Yorn couldn't help but be stunned for a moment, opened his mouth, then sighed, and finally couldn't help but stand up, pressing his hands on Leonardo, who was constantly expressing his excitement with body language, and said:

"Leo, don't be excited first; calm down. What I mean is, you need to be mentally prepared; we might lose this role."

"What?"

Leonardo slapped Rick Yorn's hand away and couldn't help but say: "Rick, I said, I can do without the box office bonus; I just want the male lead of this film. Didn't you hear clearly?"

He still thought Rick Yorn was unwilling to give up the box office bonus.

Rick Yorn turned around and took out several newspapers, including the "Los Angeles Times" and "The Hollywood Reporter," etc.

He handed the newspapers to Leonardo and said: "Leo, I said, you need to be mentally prepared. Look at the news in these newspapers first."

Leonardo grabbed the newspapers and flipped through them quickly. The more he read, the wider his eyes became, until finally, he slammed the newspapers on the ground and roared:

"Dog shit! It's only been a few days? Why? How can the casting of a film be decided so easily? Especially such a super-production! Are you sure they didn't decide it internally long ago and then teamed up to play me?"

Rick Yorn sighed and pressed Leonardo's shoulder again.

"Leo, calm down. You actually know very well that this is impossible. Columbia just sent us an invitation; we didn't lose anything, and we didn't even go through the audition process. No matter how you look at it, they wouldn't be playing us."

He leaned down to pick up the newspaper, pointed to Depp's photo on it, and said:

"According to the inside information I got, this weird guy... has great decisiveness. After his agency received the invitation, they originally wanted to talk about box office bonuses, but this guy threatened to leave, forcing the agency to make concessions..."

The more Leonardo heard, the worse his complexion became, staring at Rick Yorn with an unkind expression. What do you mean by this? Are you mocking me for not having the courage and decisiveness of that guy?

Damn it!

"Rick, let's talk to Columbia; do you think it's possible..."

Rick Yorn thought for a while, then shook his head.

"I'm sorry Leo, if it were other actors, with your popularity and influence, Columbia would have happily agreed, but the other party is Depp."

Rick Yorn didn't directly say that Depp had also become a member of the "20 Million Club," with a status similar to Leonardo's, and artistic achievements that crushed him, but said euphemistically:

"Depp collaborated with Director Cao Yang on two films and won two Oscars for Best Actor; their relationship is very good. Columbia will likely not replace Depp for you."

"Dog shit!"

Leonardo waved his hand forcefully, then his little mouth was like it had been smeared with honey, constantly spitting out greetings starting with F, cursing Depp for not following the rules of the game and cursing Columbia for being unprofessional.

Han Zong had already booked his flight, preparing to return to the country after the Oscars ended.

However, due to the establishment of "Inception," Cao Yang gave China Film Group a share, which made Han Zong so excited that he canceled his flight and stayed behind to discuss matters related to the film.

Cao Yang originally wanted to leave three important roles for Chinese people, but this decision was not only opposed by Columbia, but even Han Zong privately did not quite approve.

With a budget of 1.32 billion RMB, let alone in the country, even in Hollywood, it is a super-production that can be counted on one hand. Han Zong became conservative and dared not use too many Chinese actors, fearing it would affect the box office.

Even Han Zong "chickened out," so Cao Yang stopped insisting. Then let's leave two important roles and a few roles with very little screen time for Chinese people. Since it's a co-production, we must find more people in the country to participate.

Seeing Cao Yang "compromise," Columbia saw that it was good to stop, so they agreed.

In the four-person protagonist team, besides the protagonist, the roles of "Architect" Ariadne, "Point Man" Arthur, and "Forger" Eames have the most screen time.

After consideration, Cao Yang decided to keep the role of "Architect" Ariadne; this is a female role, and there are many candidates available in the country.

In this "Inception," Cao Yang wrote the original Japanese "Tycoon" Saito role into a Chinese tycoon; this role also has quite a lot of screen time, second only to the four-person protagonist team.

This role must definitely be left to be found back in the country.

After the Oscars ended, Cao Yang stayed in the US for another ten days. During this period, he completed the final editing of "Juno," and he wouldn't care about it anymore; perhaps if he had time, he would help promote it when it was released.

At the same time, he also completed the auditions for several main actors of "Inception."

For "Point Man" Arthur, after the audition, Cao Yang chose "Hulk" Mark Ruffalo.

This guy performed excellently in "Milk" and won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor; he is doing quite well now and has always been grateful to Cao Yang.

He seemed very excited to be able to collaborate with Cao Yang again.

For the role of "Forger" Eames, Cao Yang chose Tom Hardy, who had also collaborated with Cao Yang in "Milk."

Cao Yang remembered that this role was played by him in the original work, and his performance was okay.

Another role with some screen time is the "Target" Fischer. Cao Yang originally wanted to audition, but didn't expect Leonardo to call and directly say he wanted to cameo in this role.

Leonardo also made this decision after some mental struggle.

Since there was no hope for the lead, Leonardo wanted to participate in this film and also wanted to befriend Cao Yang, so he could only think of this method.

Especially befriending Cao Yang, this is something he had always wanted to do, otherwise he wouldn't have helped Cao Yang's "companion" Dong Xuan out of a tight spot at the Oscar banquet.

!

Regarding Leonardo wanting to cameo, Columbia, while happy, still had some concerns.

However, when Leonardo's studio manager Rick Yorn went to Columbia and signed a contract that only symbolically collected a salary of 1 million USD, Columbia's concerns were completely dispelled.

Of course, although it was a cameo and the salary was only symbolically collected, Leonardo's status was there after all, and all treatment during filming could not be fooled.

Columbia would not fool around with such small matters.

During the filming period, all of Leonardo's treatment would be the same as Depp's; this was all written in the contract, which detailed all treatment issues including eating, wearing, living, and traveling.

With these main roles finalized, the remaining unimportant roles, except for a few left for the country, were all left to the casting director and Columbia to decide.

Besides the actors, the crew's staff also almost used the people from "District 9."

Except for some scenes that must use CG, Cao Yang wanted to use real-scene filming for many places in "Inception."

For example, the classic fight scene in the hotel, which is that rotating corridor that looks like weightlessness.

After discussing with technical personnel, Cao Yang decided to build a metal corridor that could rotate 360 degrees, driven by a hydraulic system, to complete a series of fight actions.

And the explosions in the snow fortress and a series of snow mountain scenes would be built in Canada for real-scene filming.

The internal structure of the fortress was chosen to be built in a studio in Montreal, Quebec, Canada; the explosion scenes would use real explosives combined with miniature models to enhance visual impact.

The folding of Paris streets used exterior filming combined with built street sets; the folding special effects were synthesized in post-production, but destruction shots like building collapses used physical models.

And the train rushing into the street, the weightless cabin, etc., all used real-scene filming.

Actually, building many real scenes is cheaper than using CG and also has a greater sense of reality; the disadvantage is that it is more troublesome and may produce many uncontrollable factors, not as worry-free and effortless as CG.

These preliminary preparation works, even if everything goes smoothly, would take about four months. Cao Yang let Cheng Jianye follow up on these specifically, and he just happened to use this time to film "Black Swan."

He also let Venice Film Festival Chairman Old Ma see the script for "Black Swan," and the other party praised it endlessly and promised that as long as the film was made, everything would be left to him.

Cao Yang would not stop filming seriously because of Old Ma's guarantee; this relates to his reputation and certainly cannot be careless.

This film "Black Swan" is indeed very suitable for the Venice Film Festival.

In the process of pursuing perfection, the female lead gradually has a mental breakdown, deeply exploring the dark side of human nature, such as obsession, self-identity, dual personality, etc.

Such a film is inherently very easy to win awards.

In addition, Cao Yang felt that it was time to promote Dong Xuan, and it would be good to get Dong Xuan a weighty big award, such as the Venice Best Actress.

Of course, the reason Cao Yang did this was not because of Dong Xuan's twin ponytails, nor because Dong Xuan liked to wear Goddess Dragon costumes at night, and even less because Dong Xuan had recently learned many new postures... knowledge.

It was just because Dong Xuan came from a dance background and was more suitable for the role.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 229 =====