Chapter 12 Chapter 10 Floating Star Sea Refused to Photograph Hackers with Deep Secrets

"The Matrix" is popular all over the world, but its director is Jet Li's shadow enigma.The director and screenwriter sincerely invited Jet Li to join the sequel of "The Matrix", wanting to perfectly combine computer technology with Chinese Kung Fu, and Jet Li also had this intention, so he happily went.Who knows that he will change his mind halfway.Investigating the reason, it turns out that foreigners love and hate his miraculous skills, and want to "make tricks" to relieve their worries. After "Let's Die Romeo" became popular in the United States, Jet Li became very popular.Hollywood film producers contacted Jet Li one after another, and strongly invited him to play a role. For a while, Jet Li had six scripts to choose from, which can be described as a lucky star.Jet Li didn't have a hot head, but chose the script more carefully.

The creative team of "Death to Romeo" also hopes to continue to cooperate with Jet Li, form a golden partner with Silver and others, and continue to create movie myths.Warner America may promise to expand the scale of investment and substantially increase Jet Li's salary in order to keep his heart. After Li Zhi became pregnant, Jet Li kept his promise and devoted himself to spending time with his wife at home and studying Buddhism.However, Jiang did not ignore his film career. When he was free, he read the script to prepare for his comeback.After the task of accompanying Lizhi was over, Jet Li thought about it and chose "The Green Hornet" from the American Film Universal Company from among many scripts.

"The Green Hornet" is the famous work of the late kung fu actor Bruce Lee. In 1966, Bruce Lee participated in the 30-episode TV series "The Green Hornet". The story described a young newspaper owner who turned into a "Green Hornet" to fight criminals, but was not recognized by the public and was suspected of being a gangster fellow traveler.Under the trust of the senior officers of the police station, the "Green Hornet" still joined the ranks of punishing rape and eliminating evil.Back then, Bruce Lee played Kato, a Japanese karate master in the film, and the producer asked him to handle the fighting scenes in the play.He fully demonstrated his martial arts attainments in the film, and the lightning fists and feet he showed were more attractive than all fancy props. Since then, Bruce Lee has become famous.

After the media learned that Jet Li chose this film, they commented: Jet Li came to replay the role of Kato, which has a strong symbolic and metaphorical effect.It not only serves as a metaphor for the successor, but also implies that Jet Li is the direct disciple of real kung fu, and has the possibility of surpassing Bruce Lee. This will undoubtedly mobilize the desire of Americans to watch.The smart Jet Li is very optimistic about this drama, which will increase his intangible assets. Universal's remake of "The Green Hornet" has been in the works for a long time.As early as 1996, Universal Pictures intended to remake "The Green Hornet" into a movie.Found the Chinese actor Li Jie who played Bruce Lee in "The Legend of Bruce Lee", and confirmed that he would play the role of Kato, which Bruce Lee played in that year. Universal Films was afraid that Giorgio Gorson would conflict with the two roles and gave up.Later, Giorgi's popularity plummeted, and "The Green Hornet" dragged on for several years, as if he was waiting for Jet Li's joining.

In June 2000, after the role of Kato was decided to be played by Jet Li, the shooting date of "The Green Hornet" was confirmed in the winter of that year. Jet Li's salary rose to 5.2 million US dollars in this film, plus a 5% box office bonus . After the news was confirmed, Jet Li was very happy. He said to the reporter: "It is very exciting to be able to play the Green Hornet. I am very eager to play it. You must know that "Garten" played by Bruce Lee has become a classic in my mind. idol." As everyone knows, due to many factors, the filming of "The Green Hornet" has not started for a long time.

During this period of time, there has been a lot of news about Jet Li's filming. It is said that he is cooperating with Warner Films to shoot the film "The First King" (The First King), which he has conceived for five years.The film is initially scheduled to start shooting in the winter of 2001, and Jet Li will also serve as screenwriter, producer, and starring in the film.Warner will invest more than 100 million US dollars to complete Jet Li's wish. "Qin Shi Huang" is the story of China's first emperor, Qin Shi Huang, and his courtiers, who travel to the modern world in search of the elixir of immortality.The film is considered a cross between Indiana Jones and Tomb Raider.

Soon, it was widely rumored in the entertainment industry that Jet Li would cooperate with the famous French director Robisan to remake Bruce Lee's peak work "Fist of Fury". This film will create a new style of romantic martial arts.The news of the remake of "Fist of Fury" has not yet been confirmed. There is another news here, saying that Jet Li was invited to play the role of the thief with the Oscar-winning actress "Big Mouth Beauty" Julia Roberts and Giorgi Gorni. Bloodbath Las Vegas, this is "The Casino Heist".The film is based on the old version of the film of the same name, which was a sensation in the film industry.When the film was remade, the story remained the same, and the background was changed to modern society. Jet Li played the wise and brave thief in the film. There are many scenes of fighting wits and courage in the film.Jet Li's ability to be a "thief" together with the "dream combination" Giorgio and Julia means that Jet Li has entered the core area of ​​American mainstream movies.It's a pity that this film only hears the thunder and doesn't see the rain.

The reality of frequent setbacks shows that Hollywood movies are full of competition in the early stage of production, and various factors will affect the start of filming. The complexity of the inside story cannot be explained in one sentence. The actors are ups and downs in it, and they don't know what will happen in the future , Even a cooked duck will fly away.Jet Li has a deep understanding of this point. He said: "I must grasp the present and work hard to make every movie well. When a movie is finished, forget about it, don't think about the past, and try my best every time. Go all out to film, the quality of the work can only be judged by the audience, the work has already been released, it is impossible to change it. If you do your best and the work is good, the audience will naturally support you in the future."

Considering this kind of cruel competition, Jet Li's selection of films has reached a harsh level, requiring all preparations to be in place before accepting the film.This is the case with Jet Li's refusal to film "The Matrix". "The Matrix" has also been translated as "The 22nd Century Murder Network", which is familiar to Chinese movie fans.The action in the film is flawless and exquisite with high-tech production.In the prologue of "World Film and Television Expo" on CCTV Movie Channel, many scenes were edited from this film. Among them, the fighting action at the train station has become a classic scene, and the action director of this film is none other than Jet Li's old partner Yuan Heping.

This film showed the director's imagination and the charm of oriental martial arts. It became a sensation in the film industry and became a topic of constant discussion among the media and movie fans. The film is regarded as a classic of high-tech production. Director Wachowski Brothers (Wachowski Brothers) admitted that many of their inspirations for the film came from the "Once Upon a Time" series starring Jet Li.When preparing for the first episode of "The Matrix", a character was specially designed for Jet Li, allowing him to give full play to the charm of Chinese martial arts to achieve shocking effects.Later, due to various reasons, Jet Li did not appear in "The Matrix I".

After the first episode of "The Matrix" came out, it shocked the world. The audience found that the film actually combined Eastern and Western philosophical thinking, and talked about several philosophical issues, such as what is a human being?The battery in the mother body?The director expresses his philosophy in the way of images, such as the smell of roast beef is just a small program, while real people are eating junk food, a guy rebels because he misses the non-existent self-deceiving beef scent program human beings.In addition, the construction of human beings entering the network world is also very imaginative. Programs or viruses, people in life will not exist if they do not exist. The idea of ​​being able to defeat the machine is also established. The media commented at the time: ""The Matrix I" is a film that best combines philosophical thinking and commercial production." After "The Matrix I" became popular all over the world, the Wagowski brothers planned to shoot the second and third episodes of The Matrix. Naturally, they also thought of Kung Fu superstar Jet Li, so they sent someone to contact Jet Li's agent.At this time, not long after "Let's Die Romeo" was released, Jet Li was very grateful for the love of the two directors, and immediately responded to the Wagowski brothers. He told reporters in a public place: "The director of "The Matrix" has Skill, talent, and if they would ask me to do a sequel, I would." After agreeing to star in the sequel, Jet Li approached Yuan Heping, and the two met at a Chinese restaurant.The old friend was very happy to meet. After sitting down, Jet Li said to Yuan Heping: "In "The Matrix", Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fisherburne, Carrie-Ann Moss, Hugo Weaver Wen and the others have performed amazing Chinese Kung Fu, and you have contributed a lot. What are you doing now?" Yuan Heping took a puff of a cigarette and said, "The second film will start filming soon, and the two Fahrenheit brothers called them to me for a five-month intensive training. The training is near the airport in Santa Monica, and there is room for them." The huge movements required by the film capture the stage, and the doubles are three times as close to the original cast. "How did you train the leading actors? Carrie-Ann Moss' eagle wings are really beautiful." Jet Li said while gesturing. Yuan Heping said with a smile: "Is it comparable to your shadowless feet? Hehe, although they don't know martial arts, they work very seriously, hard, and diligently. They want to practice their movements well, so there will be no What an obstacle. Among all actors, Keanu is different. He is a super perfectionist. He must be satisfied with his performance. Even if I think the action is not bad, he is still not satisfied. I had to do my best to meet his demands. Carrie-Anne Moss was very hardworking, and I also devised a fast and powerful kick for her, which is called the 'Scorpio Kick', in the opening scene of the second episode. It will take her six months to practice this movement, and now it seems that the movement is perfect." Yuan Heping paused and said: "Although they are all international superstars, they are very easy-going. This kind of work attitude is very rare. For example, Keanu often dipped his body in ice-filled ice cubes between filming sessions. In the bathtub to relieve the pain, but as soon as he is on the court, he forgets everything, he does whatever you want him to do, and he doesn't scold anyone." Jet Li said: "Yes, to become a world-class actor, you must not be afraid of hardships or tiredness. What are the requirements for the martial arts in "The Matrix II"?" Yuan Heping said: "The difficulty of this film is three times that of the previous episode. Both directors like dazzling shots and hope to shoot scenes that audiences love to watch. They are interested in all kinds of physical contact, so this episode Compared with the previous episode, the fighting in this episode is more gorgeous, elegant, and wild. This is the feeling that the Fahrenheit Brothers want to express in the martial arts.” "Also, in this episode, in addition to the power confrontation between the characters that can be seen at a glance on the surface, he also expressed the growth of the characters through those actions. For example, in the part of the dojo in "The Matrix I", Neo initially Realizing his own potential; in the Hundred-Man War in "The Matrix II", he was shocked by the endless emergence of Smith, and raised his power to a new level. This shows Neo's growth process." What Yuan Heping said made Jet Li fascinated.He said: "It is really refreshing to see the rivalry between Neo and Smith reach such a climax. As a martial arts actor, this is a rare opportunity." Yuan Heping immediately went on to say: "After you join, the action will be more perfect. For my martial arts life, this film has a milestone commemorative significance." At this time, the food and wine were served, and the two drank together.Jet Li said: "What are the characteristics of the second episode? I heard that the highlight is Bullet Time and Hundred People Battle." The "bullet time" in "The Matrix" is a concept from Japanese animation. It expresses a feeling of unreal reality in the matrix. The characters in the film, mainly Neo, get a kind of "beyond the matrix". "Ability.The method of implementing bullet time on the screen is called virtual shooting, that is, slow motion around at a fixed speed. "Hundreds of Fighters" means that in the film, Smith can continuously copy himself, copying hundreds of people to fight Neo. Yuan Heping said: "Bullet time is not the highlight of "The Matrix II". The highlight of the second part is a 14-minute road chase, and Neo and 100 upgraded secret agent Smiths. Flying through the matrix at a speed of kilometers. This is all done through virtual filming." Jet Li was puzzled, and asked: "What is virtual shooting? I have been playing movies for so many years, and I don't even know." Yuan Heping laughed and said: "It was invented by the Fahrenheit Brothers and John Gaeta, the head of the interior effect design team of "The Matrix". There are 1,300 special shots in "The Matrix II". The invention of the first stage of "virtual filming" done by Fei Chan. Getter and his colleagues was to make the main characters three-dimensional to achieve those impossible shots. To build the virtual people, the VFX team applied motion capture , that is to let the main characters, stuntmen and members of Yuan Heping's martial arts team wear leotards to record the movement of their muscles when they do each movement. For this purpose, the Fahrenheit Brothers specially built the largest motion capture stage at that time. In Motion capture was also ongoing during the 4 months of principal photography. This is the most detailed motion capture for a film in the history of film.” "While compiling the motion-capture data, Gate's group 'flesh' the computer-generated avatars more 'flesh': adding muscles to them, putting real human expressions on top of these computer-generated figures. One step involved another transformation, which the artists in charge of the virtual named "joint capture. "They arranged 5 Sony HDS900 ultra-power high-definition computers in a semicircle around the actors, took pictures of all angles of the actors' faces, captured the most subtle movements on the actors' faces, and even the pores and hair follicles were clearly visible. Then, Use these five real-time videos to enhance the actor's face to a special clarity. The VFX team then adds this dimensional expression material to the digitally generated character's body, and you can get a human body that is more realistic than computer generated image." In the end, Yuan Heping said: "This kind of motion capture is also a new trick for me, but I know that this technology is very amazing, allowing me to complete actions that are impossible in reality. According to motion capture, I can emphasize the movement The beauty of it is something that has never been possible before.” Jet Li chuckled and confirmed his idea of ​​joining "The Matrix". After the banquet, before leaving, Yuan Heping patted Jet Li on the shoulder and said: "Join Hacker, there are now more than 1,000 special effects photographers and digital art workers involved in the production of "The Matrix II", anyone can join Become a celebrity." The two shook hands and said goodbye. After a while, Jet Li visited the Fahrenheit Brothers again, and the Fahrenheit Brothers said to him: "When we were preparing for the first episode of "The Matrix I", we specially designed a character for you, allowing you to fully display Chinese martial arts. It's a strong point, but unfortunately we couldn't afford the money, so in the end we had to give up and find someone else to perform." Jet Li chuckled and said: "Those things are in the past, let's look to the future, what breakthrough did you have in the second episode?" The Fahrenheit Brothers said: "The staging of "The Matrix II" pushes the mythology constructed in the first episode to a new level. Not only has the shooting technology reached the pinnacle, but it also follows Neo's journey with an uncertain future. The philosophical point of view is further developed. We believe that the core idea of ​​the hacker series is "integrated hope", just as our knowledge is limited after all, but we can use this limited knowledge to believe how things should be. This film expresses people's belief in The search for the truth, the price of knowledge, the journey to seek the true knowledge of life, and the sacrifices you choose. In addition, revolution is also an important theme in the hacker trilogy. In the first part, it is the machine against humans, humans Want to liberate themselves from the world ruled by machines. In "The Matrix II" and "The Matrix III", it is from the perspective of the machine, the audience can see the programs created by the machine, and they try to avoid the fate of being deleted , and the machines that humans need to fight against are trying to destroy Zion. In the end, the survival of the machines and the survival of humans are also threatened, and humans, programs, and machines must find a way to coexist.” Jet Li said to the Fahrenheit Brothers: "You have an extraordinary imagination and have created an amazing epic, and performed it in a visually innovative way. This is an action movie with a brain." The Fahrenheit Brothers laughed and said, "You can look at this film with a pure visual enjoyment, or you can think about it as a philosophical film. The visual and philosophical concepts introduced in the first part of "The Matrix" can be seen in "The Matrix" It has been developed in "Reloaded", and in the final song of the trilogy, it will be further explored and developed." Jet Li smiled and said, "It will be different from my previous films. I hope to contribute to this film." The Fahrenheit Brothers said happily: "Your joining will make this film even more exciting." Unfortunately, the weather is unpredictable. In November 2000, the media suddenly reported that Jet Li would not act in the sequel of "The Matrix".After the news came out, people were both surprised and disappointed. Fans all over the world were expecting him to compete with Keanu Reeves, a master. Everyone in the crew of "The Matrix" was also very heartbroken. They had high expectations for Jet Li, and they all wanted to see real kung fu during the filming process.What kind of medicine is sold in this gourd? After Jet Li resigned, the production company did not issue a statement, and various speculations were widely circulated in the society. The first is that Jet Li was "fired" by the Matrix crew.In fact, the director of "The Matrix" and Jet Li are good friends, and the producer Josifer and Jet Li are also good friends. The two collaborated on "Fatal Romeo" very happily, there is no such thing. The second is the schedule issue.While preparing for the filming of "The Matrix II", "Kiss of the Dragon" (Kiss of the Dragon), produced and written by the great French director Lu Besson, also invited Jet Li and American actress Bridget Fonda to play the leading roles. The second and third episodes of "The Matrix" hit each other right.Jet Li played the leading role in "Kiss of the Dragon" and played a supporting role in "The Matrix II".Therefore, Jet Li has no intention of participating in "The Matrix II". The third is the pay issue. The sequel to The Matrix was very expensive to shoot.Warner Bros. wanted to make the "Matrix" trilogy as successful as the "Star Wars" trilogy, and hired the famous playwright Larry as the director and the Hua Gao Weiss brothers as the director. The three of them also had great ambitions. These three people accounted for a large part of the cost of Bobo's making an eye-catching sci-fi film.In addition, the big-name stars invited also accounted for a large part of the production cost.Among them, Keanu Reeves, who continues to play the leading role in the two sequels, received a salary of up to 30 million US dollars in advance.In addition, he had to take 15% of the gross profit with the producer Josifer and the director brothers.Computers are also prohibitively expensive to make. Fearing such a huge expense, Warner Films wanted to tear down the east wall to make up for the west wall, and kept the operation by lowering the salaries of other actors.They thought that someone would be willing to reduce the price to join such a blockbuster film, because it would be of great benefit to the actors' acting careers.Just like the Spring Festival Gala, many big-name celebrities would never tire of it even if they were paid 1,000 yuan.Jet Li's asking price for the two sequels was 13 million US dollars, but the sponsor only agreed to 3 million US dollars, which was far from Jet Li's request.Selling himself at such a low price, of course Jet Li would not do it, only 1.5 million US dollars per film.The condition that Jet Li won in "Kiss of the Dragon" not long ago was an advance salary of 9.5 million US dollars, plus a commission. Regarding the comments from the outside world, Jet Li went his own way, ignored them, kept a low-key attitude, and insisted on his own approach. After Jet Li quit, the director of The Matrix prepared a big villain role for Michelle Yeoh. Michelle Yeoh doubled her net worth by starring in 007's "Tomorrow Empire" and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", which was popular in European and American film circles, and became the number one Chinese in Hollywood. actress.The success of this performance will consolidate her status as a female superstar.But in the end, Michelle Yeoh also said that although she admires the director of the film very much, she has other more important things to do now.I recently set up a production company and wanted to make a film, which may constitute a conflict with taking over the sequel to "The Matrix". Later, when filming "Kiss of the Dragon", Jet Li talked about his refusal to film "The Matrix". The two director brothers are good friends with me. They are very talented. The sequel will be as successful without my participation. I guarantee this. Therefore, I want to use this time to make another movie. The audience can choose more, Instead of waiting two or three years to see The Matrix, I don’t want to make a movie that takes a lot of people and takes three years to make.” Of course, this is just one side of Jet Li's words. The final reason for his resignation was disclosed by Jet Li's confidantes. It turns out that Jet Li's resignation has a deeper secret. The largest motion capture stage at that time used a supercomputer to record every move of Jet Li's kung fu for archiving. That said, Jet Li has practiced martial arts for 30 years. In the United States, he only needs to work on a computer for a few hours to achieve the same effect. For other films, Jet Li refused without saying a word. By the way, after "The Matrix II" was released, it achieved a global box office of 735 million, becoming the best-selling film in 2003, and the world's R-rated most-grossing film, setting a record of 158 million a week. The highest box office record in a single week of 1.2 million, and the box office record of more than 150 million in the first 6 days.It is the 10th highest-grossing film in the world in history, and the first blockbuster with a weekly income of over 100 million yuan. After the film became popular all over the world, a reporter asked Jet Li, "After resigning from the Matrix, do you regret it?" Jet Li said: "I don't regret it at all. I don't think there is any need to wrong myself. Americans 'love and hate' the phenomenon of Chinese kung fu sweeping Hollywood, full of a kind of 'hostility'. 'The trick is to promote the ever-changing charm of Chinese Kungfu, so that foreigners can only imitate its shape and lose its spirit."