Chapter 128: Magical Ambition

"The male lead in "The Ninth District" will be starring Robert Downey Jr."

When the Flame Movie released this latest update, during this hot summer vacation, media fans immediately had another topic of conversation. Robert Downey Jr., everyone who knows who this guy is also aware that Downey is tied to "drugs, troubles, self-destructive". His drug addiction that he can never quit has turned him from a popular star to a prisoner who makes fans feel sorry for him and makes the producers despair.

Now Shenqi Yang let Downey, who had just been released from prison on parole, play the leading role? It is said that "The Ninth District" will be a special effect production? It is unbelievable! The two are roommates in the River Island Prison. Everyone has known this for a long time. Maybe they have made a deep friendship in prison and become friends in distress... But to be honest, isn't Shenqi Yang afraid of getting into trouble?

Anyway, Wang Yang's fans are very worried about him. In addition to the filming of the movie, there are also many female fans who are worried that their sunny and handsome idol will be led by Robert Downey Jr., such as learning to drink and smoke, or even take drugs... On the fan website, female fans commented: "If Yang becomes such a person, I will die of sadness!", "That's too terrible!"

In an interview with the latest issue of Variety Show magazine, Wang Yang was also asked about the question of "Donny's drug addiction". In the reception room of Variety Show magazine, looking at the beautiful brown-haired reporter Eve Smahn opposite him, he replied: "I'm not worried. I know Robert's determination to get rid of drugs, and I believe him. What he needs most now is everyone's encouragement and forgiveness. We support him, and then we will see a brand new Robert Donny Jr."

After talking about the starring question, he naturally talked about the movie "Ninth District". Eve looked at Wang Yang with fiery eyes. She held her drooping hair in her ear and asked in a seductive voice: "Strange Yang, what is the story of "Ninth District"?"

"Well, I can only say..." Wang Yang smiled softly, and immediately understood that this woman wanted to get more exclusive information with the beauty trick. But since the time when Juno selected the heroine, auditioned for thousands of young and beautiful girls, the beauty trick was useless to him, unless it was Jessica who used it. He took a sip of tea and said, "I can't disclose it for the time being. But now you are asking, so..."

In fact, this was originally intended to be said in this interview for early publicity. Looking at Eve with an expectant look, he smiled and said, "This is an R-level movie." As he said, he slapped his forehead in annoyance and said, "It's over, it's over! I've said everything."

"Wow! R-level?" Eve immediately opened his eyes excitedly, and asked while recording, "Are you sure? It's not G-level but R-level? You know that in everyone's impression, Wang Yang is sunshine, there is no violence or pornography in his movies... There is not even a kissing scene, magical Yang's R-level? What's that?"

Wang Yang couldn't help laughing loudly because he remembered that three years ago, the "everybody" said, "That boy doesn't make horror movies? What a joke!" He spread his hands and smiled: "I think they must have forgotten "The Ghost Record". I remember someone said at that time, 'That boy is really dark!' Ha, when did I become sunshine?"

Both of them laughed a few times, and he said seriously: "I answered this question three years ago. I want to say that "Ghost Records" is not the whole me, "Singing and Dance" and "Juno" are not either. For me, every movie is a new attempt, and every different story has a different way of expression. This time I will let everyone see another me and a new Wang Yang."

Eve nodded, continued to fire his eyes at him, and asked, "Can you tell me what kind of R-level content it is? Will it be drug use?" She asked, of course, because Robert Downey Jr.

"No, I can say not." Wang Yang picked up the teacup, took a sip of the clear and slightly sweet tea, and smiled: "It's just some violent scenes."

Violent scene! Eve's eyes lit up again, and quickly recorded it, and asked in pursuit: "You have revealed before that "The Ninth District" has special effects, and now I say it is an R-level, violent movie. Can we understand it as a commercial special effects blockbuster?" She described and smiled: "Full of bloody murders, maybe a boom bombing..."

"No, no, it cannot be positioned as a commercial violent movie, so don't understand it like this." Wang Yang interrupted her, brewed for a while, and explained: "This movie may have many categories, but I have to say it is a drama film! Whether it is violent pictures or beautiful special effects, it is for the film's plot service to make the plot better."

He smiled and said, "Many people have said this, but I still want to say it again. What is the most important thing about a movie? Stories, stories, stories! Without this core, no matter how beautiful the special effects are, they are just piled up and they are meaningless."

After answering this question, Wang Yang finished all the information he wanted to disclose in his plan, so Eve's beauty plan was completely invalid next, but she was already very satisfied with the information she could get.

As soon as the latest episode of "Variety Show" was released, media fans who followed "Ninth District" felt that they were stupid and could not guess what kind of movie "Ninth District" was! Because these elements seemed to be mutually exclusive: magical, r-level, violence... Could it be to tell a story of beating paparazzi? It is a pseudo documentary! But it has large production special effects and cannot be positioned as a commercial movie, but a drama film...

High-cost cult-movie? Yahoo Movie made this speculation. The so-called cult-movie movies are simply to ignore the mainstream market and do their own things. They often have strange themes, unique shooting techniques, very personal style, and very controversial. Cult-movie movies ignore the characteristics of the market and are destined to not get too much money, so they are usually produced at a low cost, but this does not affect the birth of classics at all.

Whether in the United States, Britain, Hong Kong, ***... there are cult movies everywhere, and the most famous "cult director" in Hollywood now is undoubtedly Quentin Tarantino, the director of "The Drops of Water", and David Finch, the director of "The Seven Deadly Sins" and "Fight Club".

Yahoo Film Channel's commentary read: "After three academic films, we have indeed forgotten the magical work of "Ghost Records" by 18-year-old ***, and also forgotten that it was a meaningful cult movie. It pointed out the way for the DV movies, created a new form of pseudo-documentary, and created a new way of publicity 'viral marketing'. From the movie itself to the movie, how cult it is?!"

"If you think about it carefully, in fact, Shenqiyang's cult heart has never stopped beating. "Singing and Dance" is a campus song and dance film that no one dared to touch at that time. "Juno" is a theme of unsuccessful girl pregnancy, and only "When Happiness Comes Knocks the Door" is the entire academic school. In the future, Shenqiyang seems to want to come back in this R-level "Ninth District", he said violence, he said it was not just commercial... When he said it would be a pseudo documentary, we should guess that this is probably a high-cost cult movie."

The editor of the final comment said expectantly: "Sunshine, warm, warm? Put it away for the time being. Maybe a weird cult director is the real magical Yang."

The statement of cult movies has received support from many movie fans. As for the content of the movie, some movie fans also speculated that "The Ninth District" is a subject related to aliens, because the title is very similar to a place, that is, the legendary "51" base of the government researching aliens; and in the latest street photos, Wang Yang wore a T-shirt with an alien flying saucer pattern.

In the bright and spacious study, Wang Yang sat at the desk. The printer on the desk spit out pictures, all of which were detailed alien design sketches. He picked it up and looked carefully. His whole body was front, side, back, and front of his head... Looking at the designs, he nodded from time to time with satisfaction.

This alien is not a simple beetle man or a shrimp man. Its body structure is the same as that of the earthlings. It walks upright, has no tail, is very thin and ugly hands and feet. It is not smooth skin on it, but the shells of insects with different shapes and colors. On the key head, they have long soft tentacles of beetles on their heads, the armor on their necks is made of grasshoppers, and the tentacles of shrimps on their noses...

They all meet the requirements, with a filthy and ugly appearance, but they look cooler than the previous aliens. When Wang Yang continued to see the image of Christopher Fusen and his son, he decided to choose this design. He leaned on the chair and said to himself: "What is the name of this alien race?"

However, compared to this small problem, there is a bigger problem at present, that is, these aliens are just 2D images on paper. To convert them into 3D in the movie and complete the shooting of the entire movie, we naturally need the help of special effects companies.

Blue Sky Studio seems to be a ready-made choice. It has often participated in some TV special effects production and has excellent animation special effects technologies, such as CGI animation technology, radiation flux rendering technology, production model, bone and hair binding, etc. However, the special effects team of "The Ninth District" cannot choose Blue Sky because there are two problems in front of you.

First, movie special effects are not equal to animation. Some technologies are the same, but some are different, especially the technology that connects animation and reality. Why do some special effects seem fake, and some special effects are seamless? The difference lies in this place, while Blue Sky Studio does not have that part of the technology; Second, now Blue Sky animators are busy with the final stage of "Ice Age". After making "Ice Age", "Ice Age 2" or other cartoons will start, and they don't have time.

Therefore, "The Ninth District" needs to find another special effects company. Now the most famous company in this field is naturally the "traditional powerhouse" Industrial Light and Magic. George Lucas founded it in 1975 and then changed the term "special effects" with "Star Wars". Its technology is extremely advanced and leads the trend. It can be said to be the top special effects company; there is also the digital field founded by James Cameron and Stan Winston in 1990, which made a big splash with "Titanic" in 1997.

The core technology in the digital field is the digital synthesis software Nuke, which can seamlessly combine the CG model with real background; it is almost the best at the industry in terms of the Houdini (movie special effects magician) software developed by side special effects software companies, including dynamic plug-ins, implicit surface models of fluid particles, etc., which are all its unique skills.

There are other Sony Images, which now produces special effects for "The Matrix 2", SGI (Silicon Image). The movies it participates in include "Toy Story", "Jurassic Park", etc., but it is not a movie special effects company. It is a company that produces high-performance computers, but its graphics processing system technology is very powerful, even the US Air Force and Nasa (NASA).

The special effects of a movie are not to be done by giants like Industrial Light and Magic, but many special effects companies need to be used, this one handles water waves, that one handles animals, this one is responsible for rendering, and that one is responsible for seamless integration... In fact, many times, even Industrial Light and Magic dare not say "I'm inclusive" in a special effects blockbuster. There are 3 other companies participating in the production of "Planet Prequel 2" that is still being produced; there are 7 companies in "The Matrix", and "The Lord of the Rings 1: The Lord of the Rings Appearance" released this Christmas schedule. In addition to Vita Studio, there are 8 companies participating in the production of special effects.

"The Ninth District" will definitely not be an exception, but no matter how many companies are involved in the end, there will be a company leading the way in the early stages, shooting periods, and later stages. It is also a special effects team that follows the crew's shooting. The Oscars' Best Visual Effects Award is also awarded, and it is the company that "The Ninth District" currently needs.

Looking for Industrial Light and Magic? Looking for the digital field? Wang Yang had long thought about this problem, but he immediately realized that he didn't want to do that. He thought that Flame Movie could own a special effects company. Maybe it was ambition or ambition, but why not do that? He was so clear about the importance of special effects technology in the future, and this future is not far away. Now is the rapid development stage of digital technology. The later it is, the harder it is to set up a company.

It seems not difficult to form a special effects company. There is no talent to recruit and no technology to buy, just like special effects software such as Houdini; but in fact it is not that easy, basic software can be bought, but how to use this software and if you develop it again, these technologies will not be able to buy. Each company relies on these exclusive technologies to survive and become a member of a special effects production company for a blockbuster film.

And developers of these technologies are generally not recruited because they own companies; or they start companies in partnership with directors, such as Stan Winston and James Cameron, Richard Taylor and Peter Jackson.

But Wang Yang has been in the film industry for too short and has never been involved in these special effects masters before, so after thinking about it, he finally got his idea to Robert Zemegis. Although Zemegis is not a special effects master, he is a pioneer in action expression capture technology and has broad connections in digital technology!

Just like my grandfather, in order to get the secret of Mr. Wu's family, he brought Mr. Wu into the gang; Wang Yang also brought Robert Zemegis, who was half a master, apprentice and half a friend, to join the gang, and his words included "spending money to develop motion capture technology" and so on. This is not a sweet word to coax people. The aliens in "The Ninth District", especially Christopher Fusen, all need to use this technology, so it is naturally the better.

However, Robert Zemegis was invited to start a company together for more than once or twice. Besides, he and Warner Bros. Disney have a good relationship. If you want to play motion capture, you can find a large company with 100 million or 200 million, so he is still considering Wang Yang's enthusiastic invitation.

But Wang Yang thought that whether Robert would agree to join the gang or not, it would not affect his determination to form a special effects company; even if Robert joined the gang, the company would get resources in connections, rather than direct technical support. But the company needs technology! How can it be obtained?

In fact, there is still a feasible solution, which is what he is doing now, which is to invest in a good special effects company with talented talents. First share technology with Blue Sky Studio, then use money to expand its scale, including purchasing required technical software, recruiting enough employees and talents, and then making a name for a movie.

Then it continues to produce special effects for other companies' films, and at the same time continuously develops technology, so it can embark on a healthy development path and slowly seek opportunities to become a big company.

Fortunately, there are many small special effects companies that welcome others to inject capital; but unfortunately, their core technologies are not enough to quickly expand into a company that is capable of serving as the special effects team of the "Ninth District". Mark Slunt is still looking for that suitable company, and his vision is no longer limited to the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and other countries.

Looking at the alien design drawings, Wang Yang fell into deep thought. It was not easy to integrate a special effects company... At this time, Danny, holding a tennis ball in, rushed in excitedly, rubbing his head against his thigh, which was obvious, "Play with me!" Wang Yang smiled, put down the design drawing in his hand, and stood up and said, "Hey, man, I don't have time to play with you now."

He walked to the floor-to-ceiling window and opened it, took Danny's ball and threw it hard on the lawn outside. It ran away. He looked around with his hands wrapped around his chest and laughed softly, "You like to play games, don't you?"

Game? Wang Yang suddenly frowned, and an idea that had been vaguely present in his heart clearly surfaced, Game! Electronic Games! This is an industry and a periphery of movies. In the past, present, and future, there were games adapted from these movies. Although there were almost no one on both sides who were well-known, he thought that digital technology would develop so fast, so naturally, the pictures of the movies would not only be the progressive, and the pictures of the game would become more and more powerful.

When the two have more and more common points, and when the game industry explores how to adapt movies, their relationship will become close, DVDs and game disc sales will affect each other... Maybe electronic games will become an important peripheral. Furthermore, from a commercial perspective, film companies should not let go of any peripherals, because more money is made, and this is also a promotional method.

"go!" Wang Yang thought, and threw out the tennis ball that Danny brought back. Thinking about "Ice Age" can be made into an adventure-breaking game or a family casual game; "The Ninth Zone" can be made into an action or first-person shooting game, and will be launched in conjunction with the movie after it is released...

A good idea! He suddenly felt a little excited, the reason was very simple, he liked electronic games! Movies, basketball, games... Who doesn't have several hobbies? He has played many classic games and several movie adaptations, fully understanding why they failed to sell and were made too poorly.

The main reason is that film companies do not pay attention to this peripheral area. The way the two cooperate now is that film companies directly transfer the copyright to the game company, but large companies look down on it; so they often find a small company to cooperate with or set up their own studios, so they do it without any fun in the game system or the storyline. Of course, they don’t care, and they can make a profit of a dollar.

"If "The Ninth Zone" is made into a game..." Wang Yang looked at Danny who was running from a distance and enjoying the fun of the game and said to himself: "Then you must not be shoddy! Movies should be good, games should be fun!" He smiled and took out his phone, dialed a number, and said: "Hi, Mark! I want to acquire a game development company."

Mark Slunt on the other side was stunned and said strangely: "My boss, it seems we are a film company, right?" He immediately understood Wang Yang's intention and said: "I also think the company can develop electronic game peripherals, but boss, you know our special effects company is still being established, who knows how much it will cost in the end? The studio in Vancouver has just started construction. Should the game company be slowed down?"

"No, no need." Wang Yang walked out to the lawn, thought for a while, and said to his phone: "It's not the acquisition of Fire Movie. It's my private acquisition. A game company doesn't cost much, right? I'm not planning to acquire ea." He has just transferred 15 million before tax in his personal account. Since it's also placed in the bank, why not make any other investments?

Many people in Hollywood like to invest in real estate or create their own fashion brands; but he is completely unhappy with these things, but he is very interested in electronic games. He thinks 15 million should be enough to invest in a good game development company, and if it is not enough, he will withdraw some money from the Flame Company in moderation.

"Your private acquisition? Wow, it's so exciting. It seems that we will be able to play your game soon!" Mark Slunt laughed. Wang Yang came to the wooden chair in the garden and sat down, laughed and said, "Stop it! I don't know how to develop games; but I know how to play, but I won't let it launch it on the market if it's not fun." Mark Slunt smiled again and said seriously: "Yang, you are really energetic, but I can't do so many things. Maybe I should introduce some agents to you?"
Chapter completed!