Huayu Entertainment 1995 started with hijacking.

Chapter 227 A Specialist in Villain-Themed Works

Wu Yuchen smiled at Cai Yinong, who was flattering him, and then asked, "By the way, President Cai, how's the acquisition of the special effects company I asked you to contact going?"

Upon hearing this, Cai Yinong immediately said:
"Director Wu, there are mainly three special effects companies in Hong Kong: Centro Digital, Man Kwun, and Tsui Hark's New Vision Special Effects Studio. I've already contacted them all. Man Kwun has agreed to the acquisition, Mr. Zhu from Centro Digital is still hesitating, and Tsui Hark doesn't want to sell his New Vision Special Effects Studio."

Wu Yuchen nodded upon hearing this. In fact, the reason why he worked so hard to get "Shaolin Soccer" broadcast in mainland China was partly because they had invested in the film, and partly because he wanted to develop film special effects.

To this day, no computer-generated special effects (CGI) films have been released in mainland China. "The Storm Riders," hailed as the progenitor of CGI-driven Chinese films, was never shown in mainland China. Therefore, Wu Yuchen still wants to try to get "Shaolin Soccer," which heavily utilizes CGI, released so that audiences can see CGI in theaters.

The term "film and television special effects" is actually quite broad. Any visual effect that can create illusions or hallucinations in film and television using special means can be called a special effect. As early as the 1920s and 1930s, China had already used special effects in the filming of "The Burning of the Red Lotus Temple".

However, the special effects that people generally refer to now are computer-generated special effects, digital matte painting, etc., which originated in Hollywood and spread to the world through blockbuster movies.

Wu Yuchen actually wanted to develop his special effects skills in mainland China, but unfortunately, his foundation was so weak that it was practically invisible.

In 2000, Shanghai Film Studio took the lead in establishing a computer special effects production center within the film studio system, and that year it filmed China's first truly computer-generated special effects film, "Emergency Landing".

In 2002, another 2000 million yuan was invested in the film "Polar Rescue," which was promoted as having extensively used digital special effects technology, claiming that 60% of the shots were computer-generated and composited, making it the film with the most special effects shots in domestic films at the time. However, anyone who actually saw the movie knows that the computer effects were simply unwatchable. It was far inferior to Hollywood, and even to the level of Hong Kong films.

Even if Wu Yuchen wanted to train someone, he wouldn't have anyone to train. The mainland is completely lacking in this area. Who on the mainland with the technology would bother with special effects? Everyone's gone into computer science.

Therefore, he simply had Little White Bear make the acquisitions in Hong Kong.

The three companies that Cai Yinong just mentioned are the best special effects companies in Hong Kong.

The earliest established studio is Tsui Hark's New Visual Effects Studio. It's well-known that Tsui Hark has always been obsessed with special effects, having founded this studio in the 80s to work on special effects technology. His company just completed the special effects for "The Legend of Zu," a film scheduled for release this summer. Tsui Hark is still optimistic about the film's box office performance and has no intention of selling the company.

However, if we're talking about the best technology and capabilities, it should be Centro Digital. Founded in the 80s, they've built a solid foundation over time. This company has participated in the special effects production of many Hong Kong films, such as "The Storm Riders," which used advanced special effects technologies like fully virtual characters, green screen compositing, and particle rendering, becoming a benchmark for special effects in Hong Kong films. And this time, "Shaolin Soccer" was basically completed by Centro Digital.

As for Wan Kuan, it was established in the 90s and its foundation was relatively weak, but its development momentum was quite fast. This time, Tsui Hark's "The Legend of Zu" was produced in cooperation with Wan Kuan, and later Chen Kaige's "The Promise" also had its special effects handled by this company.

Wu Yuchen thought for a moment, then said to Cai Yinong, "Since you're hesitant, it means you're interested. Raise the price, and then tell Zhu Jiaxin that we'll merge Wan Kuan into Xian Tao and develop it into the largest special effects company in Asia."

That's right, Wu Yuchen wants to buy and merge the two visual effects companies. Currently, the Chinese-language visual effects market is actually quite small and can't support so many companies. In reality, the majority of the revenue for these Chinese-language visual effects companies comes from advertising. They already lag far behind Hollywood and have been doing low-end work with no improvement in their technical level. It's better to merge them and catch up!

Let them develop on Hong Kong Island for now, and set up a branch in Shenzhen in a couple of years. Once Huaqiangbei in Shenzhen becomes popular, we can move the special effects company there directly. After all, Shenzhen is close to Hong Kong Island, only a 40-50 minute drive away, so the employees on Hong Kong Island won't have much of an opinion.

Wu Yuchen didn't intend to make money off this special effects company; his main goal was to catch up with Hollywood and improve the special effects level of Chinese-language films. Of course, he wouldn't keep idle staff. In the next few years, Chinese-language films would enter an era of big-budget martial arts movies, all of which would require special effects, so he would take on all of them and hand them over.

Furthermore, when he goes to Hollywood to film in the future, he can bring along key technical personnel to learn from the crew and personally observe the production process of top Hollywood special effects, which is far more effective than working in isolation. This is also a major benefit that attracts these special effects workers to follow him.

After watching Cai Yinong write down what he had told him, Wu Yuchen thought for a moment and then said, "President Cai, go and contact Wu Zongxian, the variety show king in Taiwan, and ask him how much his Alpha company is worth. Buy it as a package deal."

"Hmm? Director Wu, what do you mean?" Cai Yinong wanted to ask Wu Yuchen about his intentions in buying the company.

"I listened to Jay Chou's new album and thought it was quite interesting, so I bought it and decided to focus on developing his talent."

“Okay, I’ll contact them in a bit.” Cai Yinong quickly wrote down the names of Wu Zongxian and Jay Chou.

Wu Yuchen thought about it and realized that with F4 and Xiao Zhou, the money they earned was more than enough to support a special effects company with over a hundred people.

After discussing these two important acquisitions, Wu Yuchen and Cai Yinong talked about Miracle Films' filming plans for this year, mainly focusing on TV dramas, since TV dramas are now far more profitable than movies in China.

Needless to say, Little White Bear's side mainly revolves around F4, producing idol dramas.

As Miracle Films has gained more and more fame in recent years, it has received more and more offers for investment projects and projects it is preparing to produce.

Jiang Xuerou has finished filming "The Legend of the Condor Heroes," and her next plan is to continue filming Gu Long's works, specifically "Xiao Shiyi Lang." This young woman is a passionate martial arts enthusiast and an important member of the Chinese Martial Arts Literature Association, thus she has always been dedicated to filming martial arts dramas.

Then there are three more period dramas. One of them is "Love Across Time," which was previously promised to Fan Bingbing as the female lead. Jiang Xuerou will personally oversee that as well.

The second project is "The Emperor of Han Dynasty," a script by the famous screenwriter Yang Xiaoxiong. Miracle Films directly bought the rights and is preparing to start filming it.

The third project was a co-production with Taiwan, titled "Storm Riders." The two parties agreed that Nie Feng and Bu Jingyun would each be played by a Taiwanese actor and a mainland actor, respectively.

Wu Yuchen plans to let Huang Xiaoming choose one of these period dramas to play the male lead.

It's not that Wu Yuchen is biased towards Huang Xiaoming, it's just that Huang Xiaoming's leading role really sells well!

Having debuted as part of F4, and being the most popular Dao Ming Si, Huang Xiaoming is still quite popular even in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

If you find a male star from mainland China, like Lu Yi who is currently a popular young actor, he may be quite popular in mainland China, but who would know him outside of mainland China?

These martial arts dramas, whether from Hong Kong, Taiwan, or even Singapore, are all their sales targets, so naturally Huang Xiaoming, who has a strong following both in mainland China and overseas, is the most suitable choice!

As for which role he chooses, that's up to him. Playing Xiao Shiyi Lang or Bu Jingyun would just be about showing off his coolness, which wouldn't be too difficult. But "The Emperor of Han Dynasty" would be a more serious drama.

That's all for now regarding period dramas. Maybe we'll get more offers around the middle of the year, then we'll see.

Then, Wu Yuchen looked at several modern dramas that the company planned to film this year.

The first film I watched was "The Black Hole," directed by Guan Hu, and the male lead was to be played by director Chen Daoming.

Seeing this, Wu Yuchen couldn't help but ask Cai Yinong, "Has Guan Hu finally come to his senses? He's actually willing to film a TV series now?"

Cai Yinong smiled and said, "Director Wu, it's like this..."

Two years ago, Guanhu produced a film called "Get on the Bus, Let's Go!" After filming, they tried to find theaters to distribute it, but no one was willing to. In the end, they had no choice but to sell it to the movie channel. They did manage to recoup their 50 yuan investment, barely breaking even.

This frustrated Guan Hu, who still wanted to continue making movies, so he brought a script called "Xi Shi's Eyes" to Miracle Films to attract investment.

"When I met him, I didn't agree right away. His art film looked like it would be hard to break even unless it won an award abroad. So I told him that I could invest in his film, but he had to make a TV series for the company first, and then I would invest in the film."

Guan Hu thought about it and agreed. Then I recommended a few scripts for him to choose from, and he picked "The Black Hole" himself, saying he would personally invite Director Chen Ming to participate.

Upon hearing this, Wu Yuchen laughed and said, "President Cai, that's a good idea!"

The TV series "Black Hole" is considered a classic anti-corruption drama. It became very popular after it was broadcast because the scenes depicted in it were so realistic that everyone felt they were based on real events.

As for the scripts, those are the ones Miracle Films has acquired in the last two years. Miracle Films is not short of money now, and when they come across some good scripts, they will acquire them first.

Then Wu Yuchen looked back and blurted out, "Conquer?"

"Yes, this film was approached by director Gao Qunshu, who said he only needed 500 million yuan. I didn't think that was a lot of money, and Director Gao is good at making this kind of film, so I invested in it."

Some people may not be familiar with this show, but they should know about Liu Huaqiang buying melons!
Thinking of this, Wu Yuchen couldn't help but ask, "Has the male lead been confirmed?"

“I didn’t ask that. Director Wu, do you have any thoughts?” Cai Yinong asked.

Wu Yuchen nodded, then picked up his phone and dialed the number. It was answered after only two beeps.

"Hello, Director Wu!" came Sun Honglei's delighted voice from the other end of the line.

"Hehe, Hong Lei, what have you been busy with lately?" Wu Yuchen asked with a smile.

"It's nothing, just acting in a play. Director Wu, if you need me, I'm ready anytime!"

Wu Yuchen then asked, "Hey, I heard that after you finished filming 'Mr. Donkey,' some people on the street called you a coward? Is that true?" In "Mr. Donkey," Sun Honglei's character, Zhou Tienan, was so scared by a gun that he knelt down and begged for mercy. The more heroic he was in the beginning, the more cowardly he became in the end. Many people were angry at his lack of courage, and it was inevitable that some people would bring their personal emotions into the movie and criticize him.

Upon hearing this, Sun Honglei's heart skipped a beat, and he immediately said:

"Hey, they were just joking with me! Besides, I'm actually happy to be scolded, it means I acted well, it's a compliment! If I have the chance again, Director Wu, you must ask me to come back~"

Wu Yuchen chuckled: "If that's really the case, then I'll feel a little guilty. How about this, I've come across a pretty good script. The director is Gao Qunshu, and the male lead is incredibly charismatic. If you act in it, no one will call you a coward anymore!"

Sun Honglei had initially thought it was Wu Yuchen's film, and was somewhat disappointed to hear it was someone else's. However, he quickly recovered and said, "Thank you so much for your concern, Director Wu. You've certainly made the right choice, Director Wu. I will definitely cherish this opportunity!"

"Okay, that's settled then."

"Okay, thank you, Director Wu!"

Sun Honglei smiled after hanging up the phone. Although it wasn't Director Wu's film, the fact that Director Wu called him meant that he still remembered him. If he performed well this time, he would naturally be the first choice for future opportunities.

Wu Yuchen smiled and said to Cai Yinong, "I think Sun Honglei is particularly suitable for the role of Liu Huaqiang. You can talk to Director Gao about it later."

Cai Yinong readily agreed, "No problem, Director Wu, your judgment is definitely the best!"

Then Wu Yuchen looked at the next book... "No Escape"?
Hao Ge's classic quote immediately popped into his mind: "I don't want to talk about any bullshit love, I just want to make money!"

He couldn't help but look up at Cai Yinong, thinking to himself, "Cai Yinong, have you changed your ways? How come you've made so many crime dramas? And in all three of them, you're the villainous male lead. Is this still Cai Yinong's style?"
Cai Yinong thought Wu Yuchen had questions about the film, so she said, "Director Wu, the film hasn't been finalized yet, but Zhang Zihao, the king of thieves, is very famous, so I thought we could consider it."

Wu Yuchen smiled and waved his hand: "It's okay, go ahead and film it. I think this movie is quite interesting."

"No Escape" is considered a classic crime drama. It fully depicts Zhang Shih-hao's rise from humble beginnings, making it not only realistic but also as satisfying to watch as a thrilling novel.

"The Black Hole," "Conquest," and "No Escape" are truly the pinnacle of anti-corruption and gangster films of this era. Moreover, they can only be made in the last two years; in another two years, they won't be able to make them at all.

Therefore, now that it's already in the hands of Miracle Films, Wu Yuchen naturally won't stop it. It's good to have these films made as soon as possible so that the audience can see them.

And to be honest, this kind of subject matter has really been quite popular in recent years. Audiences like to watch it, which satisfies their curiosity. After all, whether it's corrupt officials or criminals, audiences want to know what they think and how they live.

Once these three dramas air consecutively, Miracle Films hopes that viewers won't label them as specialists in villainous dramas!
Thinking of this, Wu Yuchen smiled and shook his head.

In addition, there is another drama that Wu Yuchen specifically arranged, namely "Qing Yi". This drama is directed by Kang Honglei and was specially tailored for Zeng Li.

This was originally just a novella by Bi Feiyu. Adapting it into a TV series naturally required expanding the content, so screenwriter Chen Ping was brought in, and the group worked together to flesh it out and expand it into a TV script. Zeng Li also spent a considerable amount of time preparing for this project, and filming began after the Spring Festival.

……

In the following period, Wu Yuchen filmed promotional videos for the Olympic bid, and then spent time with the women. At the same time, he also called the United States every day to keep track of what was happening there.

"Glazer, have the roles for 'A Beautiful Mind' been finalized?"

"Don't worry, I've already taken care of all the minor roles, including applying for all the filming locations and permits. We're just waiting for you to come back so we can start filming."

Wu Yuchen nodded, then asked with a smile, "By the way, how are our two leading actors doing now?"

"Russell Crowe is a strong contender for Best Actor, but he has a formidable rival: Tom Hanks in 'Cast Away.' He might just make us pay him 300 million less!"

Tom Hanks, this "Big Tom," is truly a master at winning awards; no one who faces him feels they have an advantage.

"Oh, I'd rather pay an extra 300 million in salary. If Russell Crowe can win the Best Actor award, it will definitely be a boost to our film!"

"That depends on whether DreamWorks' PR team is up to par. As for your leading lady, Jennifer is also running around doing PR for 'The Untouchables,' so it seems she really hopes to win the Best Supporting Actress award."

Wu Yuchen smiled. Jennifer Connelly was the lead actress in "A Beautiful Mind." She was also the lead actress in "The Unique Online," but because her role wasn't very large, she was nominated for the Best Supporting Actress award.

This time, Fox was hired to handle the public relations for "Exclusive Online". Wu Yuchen didn't pay much attention to it. However, he knew that the key award that "Exclusive Online" was promoting was Best Director. Whether Jennifer Connelly could win Best Supporting Actress was hard to say.

He then called Kevin Feige: "Kevin, how's Spider-Man going?"

"Everything is great! Tobey Maguire has made remarkable progress in his training over the past few months. He's now training in the Spider-Man suit, though the Green Goblin suit is quite troublesome to put on. The entire suit consists of 580 parts, and it takes at least half an hour to get dressed. But Willem Dafoe is very dedicated and tirelessly puts it on and does adaptation exercises every day."

Kevin Feige also explained everything about Spider-Man to Wu Yuchen in great detail. Wu Yuchen listened patiently, occasionally offering his comments and suggestions, which Kevin Feige quickly wrote down.

After Wu Yuchen hung up the phone, a delicate body pressed against him and reached out to wrap her arms around his. Even through his clothes, Wu Yuchen could feel himself sinking into a soft embrace.

"Is it ready yet?" Li Xiaoran asked from the side.

"Alright, alright, don't worry, we won't be late!" he said, taking the mask and handing it to Li Xiaoran.

Both of them wore masks, thick scarves, and hats, leaving only their eyes and noses exposed.

"Now no one should be able to resist coming!"

Li Xiaoran chuckled and then said, "I just feel a little bored."

"We can just remove it after the movie theater lights go out, right?" Wu Yuchen put his arm around Li Xiaoran, and the two walked outside together.

At the entrance of a movie theater, a poster was hanging, featuring Andy Lau and Tony Leung, one with a dark background and the other with a bright background, and the words "Infernal Affairs" written on it.

Below "Infernal Affairs," a prominent line boldly proclaims: "Produced by Wu Yu-chen." In contrast, the names of directors like Andrew Lau are relegated to inconspicuous places.

Just then, a passerby remarked, "Wu Yuchen's film has been moved to the Spring Festival release this year, but with big names like Andy Lau and Tony Leung in it, we'll definitely have to check it out!"

"I wonder if Director Wu will have any issues adapting to working with these Hong Kong actors this time, especially since it seems to be set in Hong Kong."

His friend immediately retorted, "What do you mean by 'culture shock'? Wu Yuchen has even conquered America, what's a little Hong Kong Island? How could he possibly be unaccustomed to it!"

"Let me finish. I'm not saying Director Wu is no good. What I mean is, I don't know if Director Wu can capture that Hong Kong film feel."

"Who cares if it has a Hong Kong movie feel, as long as it's entertaining, isn't that enough?"

The group walked into the movie theater as they talked.

Li Xiaoran nudged Wu Yuchen with her elbow, gesturing towards the "Wu Yuchen's Production" sign on the poster, and asked, "Hey, how many days were you on set?"

Wu Yuchen smiled generously and said, "I didn't go even for a day."

"How could that be considered your work?!"

Wu Yuchen shrugged, feigning innocence, and said, "It's not my fault, they begged me to add my name!"

"Infernal Affairs" was filmed last year and passed censorship, so it was chosen to be released simultaneously during the Lunar New Year season in Mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.

The fact that Wu Yuchen was listed as a producer, and so prominently at that, was definitely not intentional. At this point, he no longer needs to do that to increase his fame or status.

The reason for this was naturally a decision reached by the production team and the company. After all, Wu Yuchen's name is incredibly useful. By using his name, "Infernal Affairs" becomes a blockbuster with a top director and a star-studded cast, a sure-fire big production and the most anticipated film of the Spring Festival season, making it extremely easy to promote. Just look at the crowds pouring into the cinemas to see how effective it was.

Of course, this meant that Liu Weiqiang and others had to make a little sacrifice, since this way everyone would think that "Infernal Affairs" was Wu Yuchen's work. This is similar to how everyone assumed "A Chinese Ghost Story" was Tsui Hark's work, completely ignoring director Cheng Xiaodong.

(End of this chapter)