Huayu Entertainment 1995 started with hijacking.

Chapter 301 Shooting
After Depp apologized, the entire crew became more efficient.

On the one hand, Wu Yuchen dealt with the male lead's mistakes, so who would dare to be careless? On the other hand, Depp's apology did improve the atmosphere of the entire crew, making them more like a cohesive unit. Everyone genuinely respected Wu Yuchen because he treated everyone fairly, and everyone felt respected.

Just before Hugh Jackman left to film "X-Men 2", the crew of "The Pirate King" finally finished filming the interior scenes in Los Angeles. Then the crew moved to the Dominican Republic, which had the kind of remoteness that Wu Yuchen wanted.

The locals warmly welcomed the arrival of the "Pirate King" film crew, as the production would bring significant revenue. Most directly, the crew employed over 400 local residents, generating income. Combined with the crew's own 600-person workforce, this created a massive production with over a thousand people, significantly boosting local consumer spending.

This small island was previously primarily agricultural and was one of the poorest areas in the Caribbean. Using it as a filming location for "Pirates of the Caribbean" will be very beneficial to its tourism industry in the long run; if the filming is beautiful enough, it will attract a large number of tourists.

However, the crew encountered some troubles when they first started filming here. More than 400 people, mostly locals with low levels of education, flooded into the crew, causing a lot of management chaos.

Chen Er and Ning Hao had previously been observing and talking less while working with Wu Yuchen, especially Ning Hao. Although his English had improved somewhat, it wasn't great, so communication was indeed a problem. But now, even the two of them were stepping in, helping the crew with directing.

"You, you, you, go over there!" Ning Hao stopped speaking English and started shouting in Chinese while gesturing.

Because English is no longer useful at this point, and the official language of the Dominican Republic is Spanish, but this small island with over 200 years of history has its own indigenous language, many people don't speak Spanish, and there aren't enough translators. So, for these people, communication is truly by hand. But it doesn't matter that Ning Hao doesn't speak English.

"Stop, don't move, follow me, yes, keep this posture!" Ning Hao was teaching several native extras how to act, letting them know how to perform later.

After work stopped that night, Ning Hao went back to his bed, lay down, looked up at the ceiling, and said to Chen Er, "Old Chen, I feel like I've learned sign language before I even learned English. If I go back now, I'll definitely be able to communicate with deaf and mute people without any problems!"

Chen Er was writing in his work diary. Without turning his head, he said to Ning Hao, "That's great! You can go back and film a movie with a deaf-mute protagonist!"

"You know what, I really have a lot of empathy for deaf and mute people now, and I can especially understand their feelings!"

Then Ning Hao exclaimed, "Director Wu is truly amazing!"

"Do you even need to tell me?" Chen Er said with a smile.

"No, what I mean is, the more I work with Director Wu, the more I realize that managing a large crew of over a thousand people and keeping a bunch of foreigners completely under his thumb is no easy feat! If it were me, I couldn't even manage 100 people, let alone over a thousand!"

Then Ning Hao chuckled and added, "And about Director Wu bringing Depp to apologize to us all, I'll definitely have to talk about that when the media interviews me in the future!"

Upon hearing this, Chen Er turned her head and said, "Don't do anything reckless. The crew has issued a gag order, and no one is allowed to tell anyone!"

Ning Hao waved his hand: "I can't say it here in the US, but I can't say it when I get back to China? Besides, you underestimate those reporters. I reckon there are already rumors circulating outside."

"Hey, stop thinking about all this nonsense. We're filming a forest chase scene tomorrow, so think about how to keep your group of natives from running off!"

Ning Hao sighed upon hearing this, realizing that he still needed to continue to deepen his relationship with the local villagers!

……

"Welcome back, our big star!" Wu Yuchen and Hugh Jackman hugged.

"Thank you, Wu. I hope the filming wasn't affected because of me."

"That's true to some extent, so you'd better get into the zone quickly!" Wu Yuchen said with a smile.

Hugh Jackman was away from the set for a week due to the release of "X-Men 2," but his work was still very successful.

In the first X-Men film, his Wolverine was just one of the main characters, but in X-Men 2, his role as Wolverine was greatly expanded, making him undoubtedly the male lead. Moreover, X-Men 2 achieved a remarkable $8556 million box office in its opening weekend, a very impressive result that will solidify Hugh Jackman's position as a top-tier actor.

Wu Yuchen smiled. The success of "X-Men 2" has made Hollywood increasingly aware of the potential of IP comic book adaptations. Warner Bros. couldn't resist anymore and wanted to visit him again to discuss the "Batman" trilogy.

Wu Yuchen wasn't surprised by this, but to be honest, he was currently fully focused on "The Pirate King" and didn't have the time or energy to deal with Warner Bros. directly on the phone that his conditions wouldn't change. If they agreed, they could continue the talks; if not, they shouldn't waste each other's time.

This has put Warner Bros. in a dilemma once again, as they decide to wait and see what the upcoming "Hulk" movie, scheduled for release next month, will be like.

Wu Yuchen didn't care what Warner Bros. thought, nor did he care whether Li An's "Hulk" would give him a reverse boost. In the end, people still have to rely on themselves. Anyway, when "Pirates of the Caribbean 2" is released next year, the box office results will prove everything.

The crew filmed for five weeks in the Dominican Republic, and then went to a small island in the Bahamas to film the final battle scene.

……

As August approached, "The Pirate King" headed to Grand Bahama Island to film scenes of ships and naval battles. The crew also gained some new faces, such as Leung Ka-fai!

In "Pirate King 3", there are nine pirate leaders in the world, one of whom is Chinese, the Singaporean pirate king Xiaofeng. He also has the most important role among the nine pirate leaders.

The original Pirates of the Caribbean 3 cast Chow Yun-fat in the role, but Wu Yu-chen has no intention of using him again and has instead cast Tony Leung Ka-fai. Leung Ka-fai has gained considerable fame in Hollywood thanks to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and in the past two years, he's the first person they think of for any Chinese roles in Hollywood.

"The bright moon rises over the Tianshan Mountains, amidst the vast sea of ​​clouds; the long wind blows for tens of thousands of miles, passing through the Jade Gate Pass."

At this moment, Liang Jiahui was reciting Li Bai's poem "Guan Shan Yue" in Mandarin, expressing his life as a pirate, constantly wandering and adrift at sea. "Cut! This performance was excellent, especially the poem; the emotion was spot on!" Wu Yuchen praised Liang Jiahui.

Tony Leung smiled at Wu Yuchen and said, "This is a rare opportunity to recite ancient Chinese poems to foreigners, so I definitely can't let them down!"

At this moment, Liang Jiahui had shaved his head, and the makeup artist had tattooed a blue dragon on his head. There were also several knife marks on the other side of his neck, making him look fierce. Even when he smiled, it was a bit creepy.

However, it is still different from the image of Chow Yun-fat in his previous life. For example, he does not have long, pointed fingernails, which would make him look like an old monster.

In the previous life, when "Pirates of the Caribbean 3" was released in mainland China, 20 minutes were cut, half of which was Chow Yun-fat's appearance, causing the plot to be disjointed, including the part that the audience was most looking forward to, where he recited Li Bai's poem "Guan Shan Yue".

The reason given by Big Scissors is that Chow Yun-fat's appearance is suspected of defaming the image of Chinese people.

To be honest, this reason is a bit weak, because if you wanted to portray something negative, you should have just deleted it all, or not included it at all. The fact that you deleted half and kept the other half makes the explanation rather far-fetched.

Just like *Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales*, it wasn't even released in China. The rumored reason was that the crew of the Flying Dutchman were too frightening and might scare children. But this thing also appeared in the third film, completely uncut…

Moreover, most of the characters in "Pirates of the Caribbean" have rather strange outfits, and the pirate leaders in the other regions are not much better than Xiaofeng, so there is no intention to deliberately vilify Chinese people.

In short, sometimes it's best to take the explanation from Big Scissors with a grain of salt. Compared to this explanation, Wu Yuchen actually believes another rumor circulating privately: that someone wanted to deliberately sabotage Chow Yun-fat.

As for the reason, it all comes down to Chow Yun-fat's sudden withdrawal from the filming of "Red Cliff" in April 2007, just before filming began. His move caught the entire "Red Cliff" crew off guard, and public opinion was in an uproar, with many criticizing him for breaking his promise.

"Red Cliff" is a project strongly supported by Han Sanping. You're definitely going to make Shandiao very unhappy by doing this!

So, two months later, "Pirates of the Caribbean 3" was cut, and the reason for that lies here. If the film hadn't already secured its import quota at the beginning of the year, it's doubtful it would have even been released.

However, Wu Yuchen hasn't used Chow Yun-fat at all, so there won't be so many problems. His current design for the character retains most of the physical appearance, and the fierce traits are definitely present. He's removed some odd details like the long fingernails, but overall it doesn't affect the character's appearance and certainly won't be considered a derogatory portrayal of Chinese people.

"Director Wu, you have no idea. A few months ago, Hong Kong Island was really panicked by SARS. The economy declined, and the property market, which had already hit rock bottom, plummeted. Everyone stayed at home and didn't go to the cinema. The entire film industry in Hong Kong Island came to a standstill. There was simply no work to be done!"

During the break, Liang Jiahui and Wu Yuchen chatted about things that had happened recently.

Wu Yuchen smiled and comforted him, "Fortunately, it's all over now."

Leung Ka-fai shook his head: "There's no going back. Everyone knows that Hong Kong cinema is finished. Many people are asking me about ways to go north. I think Hong Kong cinema can never recover to what it used to be!"

After listening, Wu Yuchen chuckled softly and said, "They don't want to lose talent, but Hong Kong films can't provide enough job opportunities for people in the industry. You can't have everything. What do Hong Kong filmmakers value most?"

"Of course, it's about making money!" Leung Ka-fai answered without hesitation. Although everyone was talking about revitalizing Hong Kong's film industry, who didn't prioritize making money?

Wu Yuchen chuckled and said, "Isn't that the point? The development of the film industry is based on the economy. The better the mainland economy develops and the more prosperous the market becomes, the more Hong Kong filmmakers will be attracted to the mainland. This is an irreversible trend."

Tony, there's one thing I admire about you: your honesty. Unlike many Hong Kongers who go north, you're all talk and no action.

"Saying one thing but doing another?" Liang Jiahui didn't understand.

"They've already come to the mainland to make money, yet they still complain about this and that. Such an arrogant attitude is unacceptable!"

Upon hearing this, Liang Jiahui immediately flattered him, saying, "Director Wu, with you and Miracle Films around, who would dare to put on airs!"

He said that, but he knew in his heart what his fellow Hong Kong compatriots were thinking. They felt that the mainland was backward and easy to make money from, so they couldn't help but put on a superior attitude.

Then Liang Jiahui asked a question that everyone has been concerned about and discussing recently: "Director Wu, what do you think of CPEA?"

The CPEA, short for Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement between the Mainland and Hong Kong, includes two provisions related to the film industry: co-productions between the Mainland and Hong Kong can be treated as domestic films for distribution in the Mainland; and Chinese-language films shot in Hong Kong can be distributed in the Mainland without import quota restrictions after being reviewed and approved by the relevant Mainland authorities.

In other words, the mainland market, which Hong Kong films have wanted for many years, has finally been opened to them without any restrictions!

This is also seen by many Hong Kong filmmakers as the biggest savior policy. With such a large mainland market, it can definitely support Hong Kong films to return to glory!

"We can ensure that Hong Kong's film industry won't starve again, but don't even think about recreating the glory days of more than a decade ago!"

Wu Yuchen further told Liang Jiahui, "Films are ultimately something that contains cultural attributes. Hong Kong culture is destined not to become the mainstream of mainland culture, and the mainstream of the mainland market in the future will only be local films."

In my past life, many people criticized this policy, saying that letting Hong Kong stars in allowed them to ride roughshod over the mainland and seize various resources.

In Wu Yuchen's view, the above decision is a brilliant move. It will not only bring more talent and technology to the mainland film and television industry, but also have a powerful "catfish effect."

The mainland film industry has a somewhat comfortable environment, constantly protected by policies and lacking competition. Introducing Hong Kong films has significantly boosted competitiveness, forcing mainland filmmakers to learn how to make commercial films, how to market effectively, and how to manage the market better.

(End of this chapter)