Huayu Entertainment 1995 started with hijacking.

Chapter 246 Big Things Happened
"Director Wu is truly amazing. This 'Pirate King' is a masterpiece, a worthy Hollywood blockbuster!"

"That's right. I heard that it overshadowed Pearl Harbor so much that they won't even import it this time."

As filming progressed, August arrived, and "The Pirate King" was successfully imported to mainland China by China Film Group, sparking a viewing frenzy upon its release.

This trend naturally reached the "Brotherhood of Blades" crew as well. Many people went to see "The Pirate King" during their breaks from filming, and afterwards they would chat about it in small groups. Coincidentally, Jiang Qinqin and Fan Bingbing both played roles in the film, and the two good friends were also chatting happily at that moment.

"Sister Qinqin, I read in the newspaper that 'Pirates of the Caribbean' has already grossed over $6 million worldwide, and the final total box office might even reach $8 million. That's much higher than 'Mission: Impossible 2' last year! It'll definitely be the highest-grossing film of the year worldwide!"

The reason for comparing it with "Mission: Impossible 2" is twofold: firstly, "Mission: Impossible 2" topped the global box office last year with 5.4 million; secondly, its director is Wu Baige, so it's inevitable that many people will compare the two Wu Fangs who have ventured into Hollywood.

Jiang Qinqin also wore a smug expression, casually saying, "Hey, it's not a big deal to be higher than 'Mission: Impossible 2.' Your brother-in-law's 'The Sixth Sense' made over 2 million more than 'Mission: Impossible 2,' and if it hadn't been for 'Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace' two years ago, it would have been number one long ago. Your brother-in-law doesn't care about this empty title at all~"

Fan Bingbing gave a thumbs up: "Brother-in-law is truly amazing! I knew I couldn't live without Sister Qinqin, the woman who stands behind her husband!"

Jiang Qinqin smiled and tapped Fan Bingbing: "Your mouth is as sweet as honey!"

Fan Bingbing chuckled to himself, thinking to himself, "Isn't that just sweet talk? Director Wu loves it, especially when he calls me brother-in-law."

……

Meanwhile, during the break, Jiang Wen noticed Wu Jing's perpetually upturned lips and asked with a smile:

"Third brother, what good thing happened? You've been all smiles today."

Wu Jing shook his head: "It's nothing, brother."

At this moment, Leslie Cheung walked over with a smile: "In a few days, the movie 'The Legend of Zu' starring my third brother will be released."

If *The Pirate King* was the most anticipated foreign film of the summer, then the next most anticipated Chinese blockbuster is Tsui Hark's *The Legend of Zu*. Billed with an investment of over 100 million yuan, this top-tier Chinese fantasy film boasts top-notch special effects and a star-studded cast, making it highly anticipated.

Upon hearing this, Jiang Wen patted Wu Jing on the shoulder: "Hey, third brother, this is great news! Why keep it a secret? We'll be there to support you!"

Wu Jing quickly waved his hand: "No need for that, I'm just a minor supporting actor. Let's not delay the filming."

Despite saying that, Wu Jing was still quite looking forward to "The Legend of Shushan".

He played a supporting role, roughly the fourth male lead, in "The Legend of Zu," and now he plays Jin Yichuan in "Brotherhood of Blades." These consecutive important roles in two top-tier Chinese blockbusters have made him feel that his career is steadily rising. Once these two films are released and achieve success, he will undoubtedly be a well-known figure in the film industry!

The upcoming release of "The Legend of Zu" fills Wu Jing with confidence for the future.

In fact, it wasn't just Wu Jing; the entire production team and producers were also confident in "The Legend of Zu." This was because "Shaolin Soccer," released last month, was a huge success, and one of its major selling points was its top-tier special effects in Chinese cinema.

Special effects are a globally recognized trend in commercial cinema. However, in terms of special effects, *Shaolin Soccer* pales in comparison to *The Legend of Zu*, which boasts four times more special effects shots. Given this, how could it not be a success?

However, things did not go as smoothly as they had imagined...

"The Legend of Zu Mountain - The worst movie of the century!"

"With its unclear and incomprehensible narrative, 'The Legend of Zu' was a box office flop!"

"The Legend of Zu Mountain had an investment of over 100 million yuan, but only grossed 7 million yuan in its opening week, resulting in a complete loss!"

"Tsui Hark's ambitious three-year project has flopped both at the box office and with critics!"

The "Legend of Zu" incident caused quite a stir, considering it was touted as a big-budget production with an investment of over 100 million yuan, truly a mega-production in the current Chinese film industry. Even though Wu Yuchen was busy with "Brotherhood of Blades" every day, he had already heard the news over the phone. He estimated that the cost might not have been over 100 million yuan, but it was close to 80 million yuan. In the end, the box office in Hong Kong was only 1191 million yuan, while "Shaolin Soccer" alone grossed over 60 million yuan in Hong Kong. This time, it was indeed a huge loss.

Actually, Wu Yuchen doesn't think "The Legend of Zu" is that bad. Looking at it over a longer timeline, even with significant technological advancements over the next 20 years, no Chinese fantasy film has ever captured the essence of "The Legend of Zu." The visual spectacle of the martial arts techniques in the film authentically recreates the scenes and atmosphere of the fantasy novel.

However, Tsui Hark's ambitions were too great, and the world of "The Legend of Zu" was too vast. One movie simply couldn't contain it all. There was too much to say, and each character and each plot point was not explained enough, resulting in a film that was intricate, structurally chaotic, and narratively unclear. It seemed lively and exciting, but it couldn't tell a coherent story.

Thinking of Tsui Hark, Wu Yuchen shook his head. That guy was really quite willful. Actually, before making *The Legend of Zu*, he had suffered a major setback in his directing career in Hollywood, returning empty-handed. But he still didn't follow the commercial film route, turning *The Legend of Zu* into a personal experimental work.

However, it must be said that Tsui Hark is really thick-skinned. Even though "The Legend of Zu" ripped off so much money from investors, people were still willing to invest in his next film, "Seven Swords," a few years later.

Seeing the success of "The Legend of Zu Mountain," Wu Yuchen reminded himself once again that when making commercial films, regardless of anything else, the first priority is to tell a good story that the audience can understand. Otherwise, no matter who you are, whether it's Tsui Hark or Chen Kaige, you'll all be out of the running and the market will vote with its feet.

……

"Crack!"

Wu Yuchen was filming when he suddenly heard several people gathered together nearby, making a buzzing sound. After calling for them to stop, he angrily shouted in their direction, "What are you doing! Don't you know we're filming?!"

At that moment, a group of people over there, holding a radio, didn't immediately apologize after being scolded by Wu Yuchen. Instead, they said with shocked expressions, "Director Wu, something terrible has happened! The Americans have been bombed!"

These words immediately caused an uproar throughout the entire film crew. Jiang Wen, who was filming in the middle of the set, immediately came over and asked with concern, "What? The Americans got bombed?! Who bombed them?"

The man shook his head: "I don't know, the radio said the Pentagon and everything was bombed!"

The others were equally astonished: "The Americans got bombed? No way!" "Bombed by whom? The Russians?"

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

"Is a world war about to break out?"

The United States is currently at its peak, a true beacon of the world. It's unimaginable that anyone would dare to bomb America. Many people's immediate reaction is that war is imminent!
Wu Yuchen also knew what had happened at this time; 9/11 had arrived! However, at the very beginning, no one knew what was going on, so many speculations arose.

"Quiet!" Wu Yuchen shouted.

"What's there to panic about? It's just that the Americans got bombed, the sky isn't falling! Stop speculating, we'll have news tomorrow. That's all for today, everyone pack up and go home to rest, don't let tomorrow's work suffer!"

Wu Yuchen noticed that the crew was in a state of agitation because of the news; some were panicked, while others were excited. He knew that filming tonight would be much less effective, so he simply told everyone to go back and calm down.

Upon returning to their hotel, the group saw the news repeatedly playing on the television in the lobby. Leslie Cheung muttered, "Are you kidding me?! A plane crashed into the World Trade Center?"

Back in their room, Jiang Qinqin kept pulling Wu Yuchen aside and asking, "Honey, are we really going to go to war? Could it be that the plane crashed by accident?"

"A mistake?" Wu Yuchen shook his head upon hearing this.

"How could four planes fail at the same time? It must have been intentional, possibly by terrorists."

"Why not just go and catch terrorists? Why are we fighting a war?"

"It's not as simple as you think. Internal pressure needs to be shifted externally! And the details behind this matter are hard to explain..."

Although 911/911 was later classified as a terrorist attack and bin Laden was identified as the culprit, he never admitted to carrying out the attacks. His so-called "admission" was based on a video recording provided by the Americans.

Furthermore, some later accounts suggest that bin Laden's development was funded and supported by the United States, implying that he had some unclear relationship with certain forces behind the United States. However, those behind him never expected that their dog would dare to bite its master.

To take it a step further, a conspiracy theory is that certain interest groups deliberately orchestrated this event to make a fortune from war and oil...

Anyway, after this incident, it's certain that the US will send troops to Afghanistan, and it's estimated that Iraq will follow suit soon.

Wu Yuchen patted Jiang Qinqin and said with a smile, "Don't overthink it, it might not be a bad thing for us!"

To be honest, 9/11 really changed the world order and relieved pressure on China.

In fact, a conflict broke out between China and the US in the South China Sea earlier this year, namely the collision between two aircraft. Going back further, there was the embassy incident. In recent years, the US has been provoking and causing trouble from time to time.

Just a few months ago, newly elected President Bush proposed the "Pivot to Asia" strategy, and then 9/11 happened shortly after. This directly shifted the US's attention, completely turning its strategic focus to the Middle East. Many aspects that the US had previously maintained a blockade against China were now loosened, after all, their top priority is now counter-terrorism!
It wasn't until 2010 that another maritime crisis erupted between China and the US. By then, China had become the world's second-largest economy—those were precious ten years!

It has to be said that this truly reflects the fate of the nation!

However, Wu Yuchen would definitely not utter these words aloud; he wouldn't say a single one. He already held a rather influential position, and he knew exactly what he could and couldn't say.

Upon his return, he repeatedly called people in America and contacted various acquaintances, while also instructing his agent, Carl, to issue a statement on his behalf, offering a moment of silence for the 9/11 attacks and sending prayers for the victims. Miracle Pictures and its charitable foundation in the US followed the same procedure.

"Wu, thank you for your concern, we're fine. No one from the crew is at the Pentagon or the Twin Towers, but it seems all our Twin Tower scenes will have to be scrapped now. Sigh..."

The person currently in contact with Wu Yuchen is Sam Raimi, the director of "Spider-Man." He is having a real headache. He had a great idea in mind: Spider-Man swinging between the Twin Towers and capturing a group of thugs in a helicopter would become a classic scene in the movie.

But now that the Twin Towers have been destroyed, this iconic building can no longer appear in movies, otherwise it would evoke sad memories for the public and also attract public criticism, so it had to be cut with tears in our eyes.

Wu Yuchen had actually guessed this was going to happen, but he had no excuse to stop it. Now he offered words of comfort:

“It’s okay, let’s find another location and get Tobey Maguire back for reshoots. That’s not the point. The point is the release date of Spider-Man. I suggest postponing it until next year.”

Spider-Man was originally scheduled for release during this year's Christmas season.

"Well... I can't make that decision, but looking at the current situation, the end of the year might not be a good choice."

"Yes, Americans' desire to consume entertainment will decline in the short term. So to avoid risks, it would be best to change the release date of 'Spider-Man'. I will pass this suggestion on to Sony."

After Wu Yuchen hung up the phone, he explained everything that was happening in America. The reason for changing the release date of "Spider-Man" was partly due to the impact of 9/11, but an even more important reason was that there would be two strong movies during this year's Christmas season: "The Lord of the Rings" and "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone".

With $880 million for "The Lord of the Rings" and an even bigger $970 million for "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," why bother having "Spider-Man" join the fray and fight them to the death? The May release date next year would be perfect.

Although 9/11 had a huge impact, the film crew of "Brotherhood of Blades" still had to continue filming as usual. People were shocked for a day or two and then it was over. Life went on as usual.

It was September, and the weather was still quite hot. However, the scene showed snowflakes gently falling on the injured Leslie Cheung and Jiang Qinqin on his back, instantly adding a touch of romance and tragedy.

The drama features more than just this snow scene; it also includes the deaths of the third brother, Jin Yichuan, and the eldest brother, Lu Jianxing. For these snow scenes, the production team specially brought in 10 snowmaking machines, estimating that they would need to produce 5 tons of snow, costing over a million yuan including labor. However, Wu Yuchen doesn't hesitate to spend money.

After Shen Lian and Zhou Miaotong finished filming their snow scene, Jiang Wen came knocking on their door again...

(End of this chapter)