After 5 years of appetite, "Feng Shen 1" was finally finalized, but Huang Bo became the most questioned actor
In 2018, the appearance of a group of concept posters made people look forward to the movie "Fengshen Trilogy".
In this set of dynamic posters in the ink painting style, one by one, the ancient immortals appeared in a state of battle, opening the prelude to the immortal war.
Under the highly detailed portrayal, Lei Zhenzi, Yang Jian, the four generals of the demon family and other camp characters appeared, and the epic sense of the whole work was amazing.
This poster with excellent texture is from the announcement period of "Fengshen Trilogy" in 2018.
Under the full investment cost of 3 billion yuan, the crew not only invited the Hollywood special effects team, but also invited Li Xuejian, Huang Bo, Chen Kun and other big coffees to participate.
The strong lineup and the big plus of publicity make the outside world full of expectations for the words "released in 2020" on the poster.
But as the saying goes, plans can't keep up with change.
Although the poster says 2020, the film side does not do this.
Due to post-production and other factors, the Fengshen trilogy has not been officially released until now.
Until this month, the film party announced the news that the first work was scheduled for July 20.
From 2018 to 2023, this IP can be said to have whetted the audience's appetite for 5 years.
So, can this IP, which made netizens "wait for 5 years", be worthy of this long wait?
Below, let's talk about it in combination with the relevant information of the film.
01, the trailer texture is online, but Huang Bo's character has become a hidden danger
When the official announcement was set for July, the film party also released a relevant trailer.
The 2-minute teaser information intuitively presents the "origin of chaos" of Fengshen IP.
From the accession of the last monarch Yin Shou (that is, King Cheng), to the fox demon on the upper body, to the ensuing catastrophe of the world, it is reflected in the trailer.
From the perspective of art style reduction, the taste of the trailer is very right.
In the 2-minute trailer, the familiar early famous scenes in the Feng Shen IP have been restored a lot.
There is a scene where Queen Jiang dies to the king, and the character's decisive posture is touching.
There are also famous scenes where the old minister shows his loyalty by taking out his heart, and the character's loyalty is wrong to pay.
There is also a human tragedy that Bo Yi Kao saved his father, but was miserably designed.
The tragic death of the character shows the fox demon and the mediocrity of the king.
With the addition of costume styling, scene layout and acting skills, the restoration of these famous scenes is indeed very high.
And whether it is the direct portrayal of the "human head" or the restoration of the bizarre fighting scene, the magical cult temperament in the original work has also been restored.
The score is up to standard in terms of restoration, so what about the lineup match?
In the trailer, a group of actors shuttled through the camera like a horse lantern, and the audience was able to judge the casting match in detail.
In Bluestone's view, the matching degree of most characters is OK.
The extremely important role is played by actor Fei Xiang.
In the trailer, Fei Xiang, who is 1.91 meters tall, appears in a burly painting style, and the highest king in history has a strong viewing style.
Under the mighty and courageous figure, the character's hesitant and sometimes violent painting style at that time is also quite in line with the impermanent and easily exploitable nature of the king in the original work.
Surrounding Fei Xiang's version of King Cheng is the tragic Queen Jiang played by Yuan Quan and the loyal minister Bi Gan played by the old drama bone king Luo Yong, and the two of them are also touched by their worried posture.
And Shen Gongbao, played by Xia Yu, appeared in a treacherous posture, and the four words of the god stick of the troubled world came to his face.
King Wen Ji Chang, played by Li Xuejian, although he only glimpsed it briefly in the trailer, this generous and generous Renjun posture is not difficult to capture.
And some newcomer actors are not bad in terms of perception.
The actor Yu Shi who plays Ji Fa and the actor Chen Muchi who plays Yin Jiao are both selected by the crew from tens of thousands of people around the world, and the character painting style is also eye-catching.
Wu Yafan, the actor of the popular character Nezha, is a child star from martial arts, and his martial arts moves are worth looking forward to.
Yang Jian is played by newcomer actor This Sha, he has a handsome face, and he is also the actor of Guo Jing of the new version of the Condor, and his appearance and temperament are still guaranteed.
But among the praise, Huang Bo's version of Jiang Ziya may be the most questioned.
In the trailer, Jiang Ziya went down the mountain and entered the dynasty and "recommended" the list of gods to King Shu.
And judging from the feeling of Huang Bo's interpretation, the role seems to be a little less immortal wind Dao bone of the immortal cultivator, and even faintly more worldly.
In this regard, many netizens said that Huang Bo and Jiang Ziya's temperament did not match well, and he acted more like a land lord and an old urchin...
And he has also become the most questionable actor in this trailer.
In addition, the trailer clearly leaves a suspense.
Although the core villain of Fengshen IP, Daji, appeared in the trailer, he never showed his real face.
From beginning to end, she always appears as a side face or an open back, and her painting style focuses on a mystery.
Judging from the announcement of the film side, they also intend to maintain the mystery of casting, and so far the actor has not been officially announced.
In this regard, the outside world can only capture clues from some clues.
Judging from some media in-depth excavation and Douban information, the actor of Daji this time may be a Chinese-Russian mixed-race model named Naran.
The actor has no film and television experience except for participating in the heroine of Jay Chou's "Confession Balloon" MV, and his career is as "mysterious" as the character.
If the news is true, the crew boldly uses the operation of newcomers, which is quite courageous.
Unlike 5 years ago, the whole network was optimistic, this time, after the trailer was released, the audience's response was not so uniform.
This time, there are also many doubts mixed in the expectations of netizens.
Some netizens have reservations about the level of special effects.
They believe that most of the trailers are literary dramas, and there are fewer long-range shots that reflect the level of special effects, which makes people doubt the filmmakers' lack of confidence in the level of special effects.
Some people are inexplicably worried after watching the trailer.
They believe the trailer falls far short of the "epic feel" of years of marketing and falls short of their own expectations.
Combined with this slightly sloppy poster, many people even complained that they were not sure about the lower limit of the work:
This is a work whose upper limit is less than "The Lord of the Rings" and lower than "The Legend of Fengsheng".
So, compared with the expectations of 5 years ago, why is the expectation of this "Fengshen Trilogy" lowered?
Quite simply, let's talk about this reason.
02, 3 billion cost "cushion stomach", audience appetite has been adjusted
Objectively speaking, judging from the trailer, the texture of the first part of "Feng Shen" is still good.
The disappointment of many audiences comes more from the high expectations of the film.
And this is largely due to the high-profile operation of the film side in recent years.
From investment to production to the cast and crew, the entire Fengshen team highlights a "top in the top".
The first "high profile" is that the production cost sounds scary.
This Fengshen trilogy claims to have an investment of 3 billion yuan.
Today's film and television industry is also a huge number, let alone 5 years ago.
According to the film party, 70% of the 3 billion funds are used for production.
In other words, the work roughly has a pure production cost of at least 2 billion.
2 billion smashed in, and the sound can be heard anyway.
No, during the entire filming of Wuershan, the sound of this "2 billion" level was quite large.
With sufficient financial guarantees, he pulled up the crew size of more than 2,000 people this time and made various big operations.
Or, build a house and make a big move.
To build the Longde Hall where King Feng was located alone, they invited more than 800 craftsmen and spent a total of 35,000 man-hours to build, which sounds very bluffing, and I don't know how the data is calculated.
Or, choose a new person to make a fuss.
In December 2017, Wuershan recruited new actors around the world and selected more than two dozen out of 15,000.
In the following two years, Wuershan launched an acting class to train these two dozen people.
They not only have to receive acting training in 24 weeks of professional courses, but also physical shaping exercises such as fighting and equestrianism, and even the six arts training of gentlemen who "shoot the number of books with ceremonial music".
In order to present this masculine "Youth Proton Brigade", the director spent 2 years of training, and this intention was amazing.
Even filming an equestrian scene, the "rich and willful" Wuershan has to look at Hollywood.
During filming, they scoured the globe for horses and brought in Hollywood horse trainers for training.
During the filming of the opening scene of the Battle of Jizhou, he released more than 200 trained horses to participate in one go, and the scene was quite spectacular.
The second "high profile" lies in the top of the production lineup.
The cast itself is full of big coffee, and the behind-the-scenes production team is even more powerful.
Tim Yip, who won the "Oscar for Best Art Design" for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", was also invited to the crew.
The concept design team led by him joined the group as early as 2016 and has helped the team complete nearly 100 biological digital character designs, such as Dragon Beard Tiger and Lei Zhenzi.
In terms of special effects control, it is also Oscar-level.
Hans Smith, who participated in the production of "Planet of the Apes" and "Independence Day" and won the Academy Award for Best Special Effects, served as the visual effects director of the film.
Under his supervision and guidance, Fengshen produced 1747 special effects shots in his first film, and the special effects bonus can be described as quite a lot.
And the other behind-the-scenes lists are even more casual.
The screenwriter column, written by Ran Ping, the chief writer of the 98th version of CCTV's "Water Margin", sits.
In the consultant column, the production consultant is Barry Osborne, the executive producer of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, and the script consultant is "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" screenwriter Shams...
Almost all of them are the top players in the industry joining, and the business level of the entire production team is indeed fierce.
The third "high profile" lies in the top traffic of IP in recent years;
As a traditional mythological IP, Fengshen IP itself has a lot of national popularity.
At a time when the Westward Journey IP is being increasingly developed and even aesthetically fatigued, Fengshen IP has sprung up in recent years and has become a sweet potato on film history IP.
In recent years, many film and television works with the theme of Fengshen have been very successful, allowing people to see the potential of this IP.
In 2019, the animated movie "Nezha" became a summer theater hit.
Under the good production, the work finally cut 5 billion box office, and it is still a domestic animation record.
The following year, another movie with the theme of Fengshen characters "Jiang Ziya" also had a box office data of 1.6 billion.
The grand and magnificent mythological world view and magical character settings have made Fengshen IP a theatrical password in recent years.
This is still the case for animated films, and the appeal of live-action movies is even more exciting.
And the film side of "Fengshen Trilogy" obviously also felt this industry east wind and intended to make this cake bigger.
In August 2018, Du Yang, the producer of the "Fengshen Trilogy", publicly confirmed that he would cooperate with the well-known streaming media website Netflix to develop the online drama of the same name of "Fengshen ".
Whether it is the top configuration of the trilogy or the fantastic operation of linking Netflix, it raises the expectations of the outside world.
And this, invisibly, also amplifies the production requirements of the outside world for the film side.
03. Years of skipping tickets led to suspicion, and Fengshen IP really couldn't afford to "drag" it
Although the outside world is looking forward to the Fengshen trilogy, it can't stand the "disappointed expectations" for many years.
And under the long wait for the theater, the outside world has also produced faint unease.
At the moment of the rapid development of domestic film and television, whether a work made 5 years ago can still adapt to the trend has begun to be discussed by netizens.
In recent years, the repeated skipping of the Fengshen trilogy has made this doubt increase day by day.
For the "drag" of "Fengsheng", there are two speculations from the outside world: one good and one bad.
Optimistic netizens believe that "dragging" stems from the creator's pursuit of excellence in his work, just like Cameron is constantly polished for "Avatar".
But there are also many pessimistic voices.
Many netizens speculated that it may be that the actual positive film effect is difficult to meet expectations, and the film side continues to delay the schedule.
None of the speculations have been confirmed, but as the "Fengshen Trilogy" dragged on for years, more people became more and more convinced of the second statement.
After all, in the history of domestic film and television dramas, there are not a few overturned film and television projects of super large-scale productions.
In 2016, the Sino-Western cooperation film "The Great Wall", which cost 1 billion yuan, was typical.
This work is directed by Zhang Yimou, starring Chinese and Western film superstars such as Andy Lau and Matt Damon, and also inviting a Hollywood special effects team to help.
But the final presentation effect was spit on "1+1+1≈0".
Under the influence of Pull's script and the newcomer's pompous acting skills, the widely poorly reviewed work score was pulled to the end, and the data of 4.9 points was quite dismal.
Coincidentally, another movie known as an all-star cast "The Legend of Fengshen "collapsed more completely.
Under the invitation of Jet Li, Koo Tianle, Leung Ka-fai and other actor celebrities to participate, this work has attracted criticism for its strange special effects and plot.
Under the scene obviously tilted to Lei Zhenzi played by Xiang Zuo, this thunderous work was even complained that it was "The Legend of Xiang Zuo" that was strongly praised by Xiang Zuo.
Not surprisingly, the score of this big coffee collection but full of thunder points is only 3 points, which is not much higher than "Chasing Dreams Showbiz".
As one work after another explodes under the banner of big productions, domestic audiences have gradually developed antibodies to "big productions".
Today, the selective retention of "Fengshen Trilogy" is the embodiment of this progress in viewing thinking.
After the release of the trailer of "Fengshen 1", although the overall texture was barely qualified, the audience who was scared by the "big-production bad film" in recent years also began to provoke a thorn.
Jiang Ziya, played by Huang Bo, is obviously the biggest potential lightning point at present.
Although the outside world has no doubts about Huang Bo's acting skills, in terms of role matching, Huang Bo, who is relatively short, does deviate from the "Xianfeng Dao Bone" not small.
How to use acting skills to make up for the disadvantage of wind evaluation is obviously the project that Huang Bo has to do.
Outside the play, an operation of the film side strangely triggered speculation from the outside world.
When the official micro announced the starring information, many actors moved significantly backwards compared to the official announcement in 2019.
Among them, the first male protagonist Huang Bo at the time of the official announcement in 2019, quietly came to the third pick this time.
Xia Yu, who had previously set the fourth pick, was moved to seventh.
Chen Kun, who played Yuan Shi Tianzun, this time he was directly ranked behind the newcomers, and he was directly at the bottom of the cast list...
In the entertainment industry, which has always "emphasized the position", such a celebrity "downgrade" operation can be described as extremely rare.
This operation, which is jokingly called "escaping the storm", has also been interpreted by many netizens as the actor is not optimistic about the effect of the film and wants to avoid responsibility.
Although the official Weiwei then responded with "the order of actors is adjusted due to the proportion of the first plot scene", the outside speculation did not stop there.
Obviously, the longer the "Fengshen Trilogy" drags on, the more and more pressure from public opinion is also increasing.
04, 50-year-old Wuershan forced himself to gamble
Of course, until its official release in July, all speculation about the film remains hypothetical.
As movie lovers, of course, we are also happy to see it, and hope that the Fengshen trilogy can be filmed well.
But we don't count what we say, everything has to be said by the market.
When the July schedule officially arrives, director Wu Ershan and his "Feng Shen" will usher in the official exam.
Combined with relevant interviews, it is not difficult to see that Wuershan has super high expectations for the film.
For the "Fengshen Trilogy", he is not afraid to talk about it in a high-profile way.
While fellow directors talk low-key about the box office, Wuershan confidently sets his sights on the West.
In the interview, he took the Hollywood trilogy "The Lord of the Rings" as an example to talk about his vision of Fengshen IP:
If Chinese films want to truly keep pace with the world and compete with Western films such as Hollywood, fantasy films are a bottleneck that must be broken.
I want to create The Lord of the Rings that belongs to Chinese! I also want to explore each character in the way of the Marvel Universe.
This high-profile put into action reflects Wuershan's sincerity towards himself.
Since filming "Finding the Dragon" in 2015, he focused on filming the Fengshen trilogy for the next 5 years, and the rest of the scenes were not accepted.
In the past five years, from script polishing to special effects sets to newcomer selection, he has participated in everything detailed.
Even some of the shooting details, he has to be more realistic.
For example, in the presentation of some wound pictures, he had to study what knife the wound was cut with, the skin changes of the wound for several days, and asked the staff to give a corresponding report.
Wu Ershan's "more true" makes people see it, and he can't hide his "ambition" for the Fengshen universe at all.
I have to say that Wuershan forced himself to make a "big gamble" this time.
He not only gambled on his 5 years, but also gambled on the reputation he had accumulated because of movies such as "Finding the Dragon", in order to realize the dream of "China's version of the Lord of the Rings".
However, whether a work is successful or not, character matching and other factors will affect the wind review.
Coupled with the fact that the Fengshen trilogy has dragged on for many years, whether the level of special effects in 2018 can keep up with the current rhythm is also a question mark.
So whether it is a myth or a joke, after the movie is released in July, everything will be revealed.
Bluestone Movies | Lele De
This article is the original content of Bluestone Film, please do not reprint it in any form without authorization