Chapter 324

In Hollywood, male and female actors are actually the same; they all have opportunities to test their acting in private beforehand.

Many male directors and male producers like to call male actors over in private to test their acting.

It's just that Cao Yang is a person with normal orientation and is only interested in testing actresses, so for male actors' auditions, it's a real audition.

For Jude Law, Casey Affleck, and Chris Evans, Cao Yang didn't test their acting skills for their auditions, but instead had makeup artists apply makeup to them, put on the little blacksmith's clothes, and see who was more handsome.

This comparison effect came out.

Although Casey Affleck and Chris Evans were also very handsome, compared to the peak-period Jude Law "Jude Flower," they were indeed a bit lacking.

Moreover, Jude Law's temperament also crushed the other two.

Then, Cao Yang had the three of them put on James Norrington's clothes separately; he was also preparing to choose the actor for James Norrington from the three.

James Norrington could also be considered a supporting role with decent screen time, a naval commodore who liked the female lead and was committed to fighting pirates.

Well, wearing naval attire, Jude Law still crushed the other two in terms of temperament.

After consideration, Cao Yang chose Jude Law to play the little blacksmith Will Turner, and then gave the role of James Norrington to the slightly more familiar Casey Affleck.

The female lead's audition was much simpler.

Indeed, only Natalie Portman came to audition; after the audition, Cao Yang had someone tell the William Mo Lisi people that she wasn't suitable, and then he didn't care.

He believed the William Mo Lisi people would definitely regret it and get anxious.

Actually, Natalie Portman was indeed a bit unsuitable; she was a bit short and not very suitable for a female lead who dared to venture and take risks and also had action scenes.

Sure enough, upon learning that Natalie Portman wasn't suitable for the female lead, William Mo Lisi got anxious.

Their senior partner called Cao Yang personally that night, saying that the other person invited to audition, Eva Green, was sick and didn't go to the audition, and hoped Director Cao Yang would give her another chance.

Cao Yang looked at Eva Green lying next to him.

Fine, if you say she's sick, then let's assume she's sick.

So, Cao Yang gave the William Mo Lisi senior partner some face and let Eva Green come to audition tomorrow.

Eva Green was very grateful to Cao Yang; after Cao Yang hung up the phone, she very consciously crawled down and implemented the software hardening project with her mouth and tongue.

Then not long after, her phone rang desperately.

Eva Green didn't pay attention; she didn't need to guess to know it must be her agent calling.

Thinking that the company and her agent couldn't find her and must be going crazy, she worked even harder, feeling a sense of revenge in her heart.

In the subsequent exchange, this feeling infinitely magnified her sensitivity, letting Cao Yang see why women are made of water.

Afterwards, Eva Green felt that she would definitely remember this feeling for the rest of her life.

The three roles of the little blacksmith, the female lead, and James Norrington were finalized, and the rest was left to the casting agency and the executive producer.

Over there, Disney had already reached an agreement with China Film Group and the Youth Film Studio.

Cao Yang then returned to the country.

As for the choice for Hector Barbossa, Cao Yang didn't make it public; it just so happened that Duan Yihong wasn't chosen by Old Tian, so he just gave it to Duan Yihong.

With this role, as long as the film was successful, Cao Yang felt that Duan Yihong would definitely be able to make a name for himself in Hollywood.

Especially the first three parts, which would absolutely be able to reverse the audience's perception of him.

What, you ask why a pirate movie would have a Chinese person become the captain's deputy, and even be able to "usurp the throne" successfully.

This is actually a very normal thing.

The setting of "Pirates of the Caribbean" is about things happening around 1700; at that time, it had only been about 40 years since Zheng Chenggong recovered Taiwan, and there were still very many Chinese pirates, and there were also many large forces on the sea.

Like when Zheng Chenggong's father, Zheng Zhilong, was still a pirate, his subordinates once reached 100,000 people, making him the "giant" among the world's pirates at that time.

Later, the main force that Zheng Chenggong used to seize Taiwan Island from the Dutch as a base for resisting the Qing was Zheng Zhilong's pirate group.

There was also the later female pirate Zheng Yi Sao, who also commanded an unprecedentedly large fleet.

At its peak, she commanded about 1,800 ships of various sizes, totaling 70,000-80,000 pirates, and was called the most successful pirate fleet in history!

Their fierce naval combat strength made even the Qing army, the British army, and the Portuguese navy have to avoid their edge.

The female pirate king "Mistress Ching" in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series is based on her.

Pirates, after all, still value strength; as long as you show ability on the sea, "usurping the throne" to become captain is no big deal.

On October 20, Han Zong, full of ambition, held a press conference with Cao Yang, announcing that China Film Group, the Youth Film Studio, and Disney would jointly invest 160 million US dollars to create the fantasy film "New Pirates of the Caribbean."

This caused a sensation in the country once again.

Although the media also reported this news vigorously, they weren't too surprised.

Disney had already held a press conference in the US before, and the domestic side had also received the news, but at that time, it wasn't mentioned that they would be with China Film Group and the Youth Film Studio.

Media reporters also didn't expect that this film with an investment of 160 million US dollars would eventually be made into a co-production.

Of course, there were also well-informed people who knew that Cao Yang played a decisive role in all of this; otherwise, how would China Film Group and the Youth Film Studio have anything to do with it.

The big and small Boss Wangs of Huayi knew this news and sighed that China Film Group and the Youth Film Studio were just lucky; otherwise, how would they have so many high-quality resources to invest in.

On this point, Huayi has the right to speak.

They also tried to invest in films in Hollywood a few times, and to sum it up, it was like a meat bun hitting a dog—gone forever.

Those bastards in Hollywood who eat people without spitting out bones—some films clearly had decent box office, and by Huayi's experience, they must have been profitable.

However, the result was that the finance department showed their people a pile of receipts, and then added them up, and the box office couldn't break even.

Therefore, after being pitted a few times, Huayi Brothers extinguished the idea of investing in Hollywood films.

But the news they got was that China Film Group and the Youth Film Studio's several investments with Cao Yang were all very profitable, with several times the profit.

This made Huayi Brothers both envious and angry.

Helplessly, they tried every means to connect with Cao Yang, but Cao Yang didn't pay any attention to them at all.

What? Play tough and be forceful?

Heh, with Cao Yang's current status and influence, it's a good thing he doesn't look for trouble with them; what qualifications do they have to play tough?

The current Beijing Film Academy faction is amazing; with a backbone, they have a cohesive centripetal force, and those directors and photographers who are doing well all know the importance of unity.

Especially the Beijing Film Academy graduates from the last few years, they are even more amazing, with stronger cohesion.

Plus the relationship between Han Zong and Cao Yang, who dares to provoke Cao Yang now?

Huayi Brothers also heard internal news that next month, Cao Yang's status would have one more layer of official protection.

In November, Cao Yang attended the Eighth Congress of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles; the level of this congress was very high.

Without any surprises, Cao Yang became one of the vice chairmen of the Federation.

Just this month, Cao Yang was preparing the film while gathering several leads to Jingcheng to conduct script reading.

This had almost become his trademark; as long as it was before the film started shooting, he would definitely conduct script reading for at least about twenty days.

This was also considered by the outside world as one of the means he used to coach actors.

Of course, the actors themselves also believed that the reason they could be so relaxed and comfortable during filming was all because of this script reading.

Anyway, the outside world had already formed a consensus, which was that Cao Yang possessed a special "charm" that could make actors more easily understand the film and more easily enter the role.

(End of chapter)