The Best Director

Chapter 34: Hands That Make Idols

"Magic Yang's new work manifesto, the high school musical "High School Musical"!"

This is the headline of the entertainment section of the "Los Angeles Times", and they published the exclusive interview with Wang Yang as promised. Not long after this issue of the newspaper went public, this exclusive interview report appeared on the Internet, and was quickly reposted everywhere. The forums that had been affected by the viral publicity of "Ghost Shadows" were all heatedly discussed. After all, "Ghost Story" has just been drawn in North America, and the total box office in North America has received 163 million. Wang Yang's popularity has not dissipated, and he still has many fans.

Anyway, those who follow Wang Yang know the news now that he is going to shoot a campus song and dance film called "High School Musical", and the content is an inspirational story. By the way, in order to make this film, he also bought a small film company with no future. I don’t know what it was called before, but now it is renamed Flame Film Company, so he became a company owner.

Of course, Wang Yang had already told Jessica, Zachary and other friends about this news last night, and shared the joy with them.

However, the focus of the media is not his film company. It is not surprising that tens of millions of dollars to buy a small company, Los Angeles has never been short of film companies; the media is concerned about the film, his second film, campus dance piece? ! The filmmakers were all taken aback. It is not surprising that Wang Yang made campus films, but what is surprising is musicals. How is the market for musicals now? Malaise. Everyone is well aware of this.

High school musical? He said he had high expectations for the film? What is the definition of very high? Recover the cost or become "The Hot Prodigal Son"?

Although the entertainment media haven't had time to comment, discussions on the news are already underway on the Internet. "To be honest, this movie is worrying. Maybe in the future, it will teach this young and energetic 18-year-old director a lesson, telling him that movies are not that simple." This comment is already considered polite, Many comments directly sarcasm: "Maybe he was stimulated by being wronged by the university, so he misses high school life? Want to make a movie about high school students? But does he know how to make a movie? Yes, he is on USC TV. Film school, but guys, he's only been there for a semester and a half, and he probably can't tell the difference between an Eisenstein and an Einstein..."

Eisenstein is a great director, Einstein is a great scientist. Of course Wang Yang could tell the difference. He ignored these voices. The doubts from the public were all in his expectation. If he continued to make horror films, they might say "looking forward to it". He is still a star in the future; but he shot Their attitudes will change drastically when they watch campus musicals. He is no longer a bright future, but just a fireflying moth looking for death.

Whether he will die as a moth, whether he knows how to make movies, etc., will be proved by facts in the future. Although arguing with the media is one of the propaganda methods, it is not suitable for movies with a positive theme like "High School Musical", and he does not like to use it. Besides, the market of "High School Musical" is mainly the student class, and the student class will not be as harsh as film critics. They are willing to accept new things, and the more abnormal things are the more they like it, such as his "youngest multi-millionaire" title, He is now the new idol of many young students.

And Wang Yang's previous worry has also become a reality. In the "Los Angeles Times" interview report, the latter two-thirds of the content are about his private life. It’s no wonder that Wang Yang rarely accepts exclusive interviews from the media, and even declined the opportunity to appear on the cover of "Vanity Fair", let alone discuss his private life publicly; this time, the "Los Angeles Times" was invited by Flame Films to do it For the exclusive interview, reporter Kim Sylvie naturally knows how to seize the opportunity and ask enough questions.

In the chairman's office of Huomo Films, Wang Yang sat on the swivel office chair, looking at the newspaper unfolded in his hand, with a face full of helplessness.

I saw that more than half of the page was surrounded by the headline "The youngest multi-millionaire is single\

,"The first question in this long paragraph is "Do you have a girlfriend?" Then followed by his answer: "No, my career is just getting started, and I hope I can devote myself to it." This is indeed what he thinks now , He has experienced a lot in the past six months, and his mentality has changed a lot. Now he just wants to make a good movie and cherish these hard-won opportunities; emotionally, just let it go.

"Have you ever had a girlfriend before?" asked Kim Sylvie, and when she entered the stage of interviewing her private life, she became tabloid style. This was followed by his answer: "I had a relationship in high school, you know, and then we broke up."

Seeing this question and answer, Wang Yang couldn't help shaking his head and wiped his eyes. It was a once sweet love, which ended in failure. When he was a sophomore in high school, he met a mixed-race blond girl from Lowell High School during an exchange event at a high school in San Francisco. She was very beautiful and had a great personality.

In the beginning, their relationship was very good. They talked happily on the phone for a while every day, and they came out to meet each other on weekends to maintain their relationship. But the good times didn't last long. After the initial passionate love, the problem of their personality incompatibility was also exposed, and they always quarreled over some small things at first.

"I like going to the movies, but she likes going to the playground; I like basketball, and she likes baseball; I like McDonald's, she likes KFC; I like Coca-Cola, she likes Pepsi... So we started fighting, and fighting, and finally we I couldn't take it anymore, so we had to break up." In the newspaper, he replied to Kim Sylvie, who asked, "Can you share this relationship with us?"

Looking at the words in the newspaper, Wang Yang smiled slightly. When he recalled that relationship now, he still felt a little sweet, but more calm. He almost forgot what the blonde girl looked like, even if he tried to think about it now, it was still vague, with a hearty smile and a pleasant voice... He shook his head violently, interrupting his memory, and continued to read A glance at the newspaper "Have you ever thought about what your future partner will be like?"

Why are all these gossip questions? Wang Yang reluctantly put the newspaper aside and stopped reading it. He turned on his computer and was ready to go to work, doing his first round of casting for a role on High School Musical.

In fact, just a few days ago, just after the acquisition of A-Pix, he wrote a casting list for "High School Musical" and asked Sandy Parkes to send it to actors' unions, brokerage companies and other organizations, asking them to give some Good introduction.

"High School Musical" is different from "Ghost Story", the main actors have double digits, so if you don't ask the agency to help, it will increase the difficulty of casting, and you will ask for trouble.

His casting list established the basic criteria for casting, including all the main characters such as male lead and female lead, such as the male lead Troy Burton, appearance requirements: tall, sunny and handsome, strong athletic ability...sent to the agency The casting list is the first round of standards. The agencies notify the members who meet the role requirements, and then reply to Flame Movie with the information of the members who are interested in participating in the audition.

Then, Wang Yang looked at these materials first, filtered out those whose appearance did not meet his requirements, and then returned the final list of remaining actors to the agencies, and agreed a time for a group audition.

Today, the company has successively received replies from the actors' union and several organizations. They have passed on the information of qualified members who are interested in participating in the "High School Musical" male and female lead auditions. As for the members who meet other roles The data also takes time to sort out.

In "High School Musical", several characters are particularly important, the male lead Troy Burton, the female lead Gabriela Mantis, the second female lead Sharpay Evans, the second male lead, and the best friend of the male lead And teammate Chad - Denver, as well as Sharpay's brother Ryan, the heroine's good sister Taylor - Micky West, piano accompanist Casey - Nelson.

As for roles such as Troy's father, Gabriela's mother, Mr. Dabs, the black team members who love to cook, and the fat girl classmates, there is no need to worry about the selection of candidates. These roles rarely appear on the screen, and they don’t need to explode. Young people don’t need charming and superb acting skills, so they can be picked up by acting schools; older people have more choices. There are countless middle-aged actors with decent acting skills in Hollywood. And their pay is cheap.

Therefore, in this casting, we mainly focus on the seven important roles, among which there are male and female protagonists, and the second male and female characters are the most difficult to choose; Temperament and appearance, sufficient acting skills, and the salary is in line with the movie's budget.

In addition, in terms of singing and dancing, it is naturally good to know it now; but those who do not understand it now will not be eliminated immediately. Because in terms of dance, no matter whether you understand it now or not, you will receive professional guidance, learn and rehearse the dance in the movie; as for singing, as long as you have talent and a good voice, you can also complete the recording with the assistance of professional teachers and recording studios song task.

Since Wang Yang is the investor, producer, and director of "High School Musical", he undoubtedly holds the power, and he has the power to decide who will play what role. Of these seven important roles, he has almost settled on one of them now, and Sharpay-Evans will be played by Rachel.

Sharpay-Evans is a proud and aggressive young lady. She and her younger brother Ryan are the absolute stars of the school music club. She always dresses up noble and beautiful, and speaks with a weird accent. ".

Rachel's current acting skills are good enough for this role, and she also did a very good job in the future "Spice Girl", a full-fledged "bad girl", and then she continued to be the school girl in "Mean Girls", "The Notebook" "Miss Qianjin" is a performance that makes people give thumbs up. Her performance of "Sharpe-Evans" seems to be returning to the original path of acting.

In terms of appearance, she has no problem, plus she dances very well and has a nice voice. Now as long as she is sure that she is not completely musical, Wang Yang will give the role of "Sharpe-Evans" to she.

Why not let her audition for the lead actress? Wang Yang thought about it, but finally dismissed the idea. It has nothing to do with Rachel's appearance and acting skills. The reason is that she is the heroine of "Ghost Story". The influence of "Ghost Story" on her is that when the audience sees her, they will think of "Meier", which will more or less have a sense of horror, which is not conducive to the feeling of watching the movie.

So she can't be the heroine for the time being, the market needs time to get rid of her impression; otherwise, she will continue to star in horror movies. This is the terrible thing about "labeling". Once you are classified as a "horror movie actor", sorry, it is very difficult for you to get a chance to act in a G-rated movie.

For this, Wang Yang is apologetic in his heart, but he will not give the role to Rachel and Zachary just because of apology. He has to be responsible for the film, the company, and himself. "High School Musical" is very important to him. The outside world is waiting to see his jokes. He can't mess up. Affecting his own future will also make dozens of employees of Flame Movie face the crisis of unemployment.

He promised Chris Lynch that he would make the company better and better, and he even promised himself that he would make a good movie! If it was because of his own selfishness that caused the failure of "High School Musical" and the layoffs of the company, he would not be able to forgive himself.

So the only reason Rachel got "Sharpe-Evans" would be because she fits the role, she can handle it. The same is true for Zachary Levi, Wang Yang wants to give him the role of "Rain Evans".

Of course, if there are several girls who are suitable for "Sharpe-Evans", he will choose Rachel; but if there is someone who is far better than Rachel, he ... will hesitate.

Thinking of this, Wang Yang held the mouse and opened the information sent by the agencies, and began to select the male and female protagonists.

Only in a small number of movies, these two roles are not the most important; but in all movies, no matter how long the hero and heroine play, it directly affects the success of the movie. This is especially the case for "High School Musical". In this movie, the "idol group" is more important than the "strength group". The requirements for the appearance of the male and female protagonists are stricter than the requirements for acting skills. They must be beautiful, cool, and able to fascinate their peers Men and women, become the new idols of the students and make them crazy about it.

"No, I'm not tall enough, and I don't look dynamic..." Wang Yang looked at the audition photos on the screen intently, said to himself, and clicked the mouse a few times to eliminate the handsome guy on the screen. The name is deleted and will not enter the second round of auditions.

"The eyes are not big enough, the eyes are not charming enough, no...the eyes are too big, they look cute, no..." After a while, Wang Yang deleted more than 20 handsome young men of different types, and clicked again. In a picture, a handsome white man with blue eyes and down eyebrows appeared on the screen. Wang Yang was taken aback, and murmured, "Why does this guy look so familiar?"

He stopped to look at the actor profile of this photo, Jack Gyllenhaal, born on December 19, 1980, 183cm tall... He searched in his mind, and suddenly came to realize that Jack Gyllenhaal was The protagonist of "Brokeback Mountain", this guy is still very young, so he can't recognize him for a while.

Jack - Gyllenshire? Wang Yang frowned, looked at several of his photos repeatedly, thought for a while, finally shook his head, and eliminated the future protagonist of "Brokeback Mountain". Jack Gyllenshire is of course handsome, but his type is not sunny and handsome, not suitable for Troy Burton's temperament. He is too mature. It can be said that Jack Gyllenshire is "handsome", not "handsome".

Wang Yang deleted more than a dozen actors in a row, and then another actor asked him to stop, Heath Ledger! Born on April 4, 1979, with a height of 185cm... Wang Yang couldn't help sighing a little, oh, my God, it's the male lead of "Brokeback Mountain" again! There is also the clown in "The Dark Knight of Batman", this guy's future acting skills are amazing, his clown is simply superb, an absolute actor-level! But after he finished playing the clown, he didn't have any more movies, and he didn't have related reports in his mind, and he didn't know what was going on. Wang Yang thought about this, but shook his head again, and deleted Heath Ledger.

The reason is very simple, Heath Ledger's appearance doesn't match, he is not handsome enough to play the charming effect of Troy Burton, he is a powerful group, not an idol group.

"No, I don't have the tough temperament of a basketball captain... No, I need sunshine..." Wang Yang kept clicking on the next picture and the next picture, and every handsome guy was eliminated.

Wang Yang's current hand is like an "idol-making hand". Those who stay will have the opportunity to play Troy Burton. If "High School Musical" is successful, "Troy Burton" will become a global hit. Youth idols become famous overnight; those who are deleted by him, no matter whether they will become famous in the future, will lose the opportunity of "High School Musical" forever.

They were eliminated one after another, and in the end, none of the male protagonist's names could enter the second round! Wang Yang couldn't help being stunned. Could it be that he was too picky? Oh come on, where are all the sunny guys? !

Wang Yang scratched his head helplessly. Under such circumstances, he had no choice but to send the actor's casting list to more agencies to expand the scope of the search. If there is no suitable candidate in Los Angeles, he might have to go to New York. while looking. Now he had no choice but to start auditioning for the heroine. The number of candidates recommended by the heroine was really quite a lot, almost double that of the male lead.

This is normal. Actresses will become famous earlier. Most of them come from child stars, child models, etc. They were the most popular when they were young, and then they were replaced by new beauties after a few years; while most male actors are older and more attractive. , when they were young, they were not very famous, but when they reached middle age, many people would suddenly go crazy and become first-class superstars.

Among these girls, few who came to participate in the first round of auditions were well-known, let alone star-level actors. Not surprisingly, the 18-year-old director's film debut, small-budget investment, musicals...all these factors together seem to point to the word "bad movie".

"The smile is beautiful, not bad...well, the eyes are charming, not bad..." Wang Yang browsed the photos of these young and beautiful girls one by one, some were eliminated, and some were selected for the second round.

These beautiful girls have their own characteristics and temperament. Gabriela, the heroine of "High School Musical", has the requirements for appearance, which is to be beautiful, have a sweet smile, and have a certain figure, not higher than 180cm. So, how many beautiful girls are not sweet when they laugh? So this time, Wang Yang has finally gained something. Only those who are too short, whose temperament is inconsistent, or who are old-fashioned or too young will be kicked out.

"Wow, beautiful girl!" Looking at this picture, Wang Yang smiled in a good mood and stopped. In the picture is a Caucasian girl with mixed black and golden hair, black eyes, a high nose, and a very handsome face. Sweet, he looked at the girl's information, named Jennifer Love-Hewitt, born on February 21, 1979, 160cm tall, has acted in many small roles in movies, she learned to dance and sing since she was a child, in the last year , she also won the "Best Young Star" at the Hollywood Reporter Awards, and she seems to have a bright future.

Wang Yang ticked off Jennifer's name without even thinking about it, and continued to look at the next picture.

After more than a dozen beautiful girls, he has a new harvest, a sexy and charming beauty with a sweet smile, Elisa Dushku, born on December 30, 1980, 165cm tall, also learned dance since childhood, I can also play the piano. She became famous when she was 14 years old. That year she starred in "True Lies", playing Arnold Schwarzenegger's daughter in the film.

"Another one!" Wang Yang happily ticked Eliza Dushku's name. There are already more than a dozen beautiful girls who can enter the second round of auditions, and there are several who can sing and dance since they were young. It seems that there is no need to worry about the candidates for Ella. In terms of appearance alone, these beautiful girls are very suitable.

After browsing for a while, Wang Yang looked at the grinning girl on the screen and couldn't help smiling: "Jessica Alba? Born on April 28, 1981, 170cm tall...OK!" He nodded , checked Jessica's name, and smiled at the screen: "Of course, you have entered the second round."

He looked at the candidate names that were ticked off now, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Eliza Dushku, Jordana Brewster... Undoubtedly, Jessica did her part in the competition based on appearance alone , and in the future, as she becomes more and more charming, she will also get more performance opportunities. Although she has won some "Golden Raspberry Awards", she has the highest achievement among these girls.

But now it is 1998, and now is now, Jessica's appearance has not yet reached the point of killing everyone, and her acting skills... must be no problem! Wang Yang looked at the screen and said softly, "Jessica, come on."

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PS: In the blink of an eye, two rudder masters, Cang Lan and Pandaboy, appeared! Wow thank you so much. In addition, Wowley received a notice that the book will be pushed next week, and then it will be on the shelves after the push, so book your monthly pass for March first! Leave it to Wow! ! !

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