On August 23, Guan Xiaotong's studio posted a set of beautiful pictures, with the caption: "Clad in armor, cold as ice, a princess and a heroine." Polish every shot and Turandot is ready! "Guan Xiaotong in the picture is wearing silver armor, heroic and cool, and has the feeling of not letting her eyebrows be shaved.
This is a tidbit shot by Guan Xiaotong for the magical movie "Turandot". This film is the film work that director Zheng Xiaolong re-launched after 20 years after "Gua Sha" in 2001, and the heroine of Guan Xiaotong's film. Director Zheng Xiaolong and his wife Wang Xiaoping once revealed that Guan Xiaotong is the heroine they selected from more than 8,000 people, which can be seen how much attention is attached.
The film has been officially prepared since 2015, and it has been a full 6 years now. 6 years of grinding a sword, and is the director Zheng Xiaolong from 1991 directing "The Story of the Editorial Department", the second film in the 30 years of directing career, it is no wonder that the couple attaches great importance to this film.
It can be seen from the main creative team that director Zheng Xiaolong personally directed, the screenwriter is his golden partner, the wife who has cooperated with "The Biography of Zhen Huan" and "The Biography of Mi Yue", and wang Xiaoping, who is also a well-known screenwriter. In this film, you can see the film emperor Jiang Wen and Hu Jun, which is also the second cooperation between the two after 11 years of "Let the Bullets Fly".
Jiang Wen once cooperated with director Zheng Xiaolong in the TV series "Beijingers in New York", and Jiang Wen, who never made TV dramas at that time, was gladly invited to be the male lead after watching "The Story of the Editorial Department", and also achieved a classic work in the history of this TV series. This is also the second time that the two have worked together after 1994, after a gap of 27, and it is also the first time that the two have collaborated on a film.
The cooperation with Hu Jun also has a relationship. Hu Jun once starred in the TV series "Golden Wedding Storm" directed by Zheng Xiaolong, and the two worked together again after 11 years, which was also the first time to cooperate in a film. His wonderful rivalry with Jiang Wen also made the audience look forward to it, and the two tough guy-type film emperors did not know what kind of sparks would collide.
In addition to the 2 film emperors, there are also 3 foreign actors among the main actors. French actresses Sophie Marceau and Vincent Perez are internationally acclaimed actors, the youngest being Dylan Spros in '92. At the age of 29, he appeared in the movie "Daddy Rush Forward" at the age of 7, and starred in the Disney series at the age of 13 to become the most popular idol for American children.
When it comes to choosing actresses, Zheng Xiaolong once said that he chose Zhao Liying to play "Happiness to Ten Thousand Families" because in his eyes Zhao Liying is definitely not a vase actor who can play drifting, she is very eager to be close to the role, so there will be another cooperation after "Golden Wedding". It can be seen from this that the choice of Guan Xiaotong is also very cautious, after all, it is a movie of great significance to himself.
According to director Zheng Xiaolong, the movie "Turandot" tells a pair of golden children and jade girls, which is a love story with magical colors, so it is necessary to find young actresses. Wang Xiaoping said that they have chosen actresses aged 18-25 at home and abroad, and guan Xiaotong has been selected among more than 8,000 people because she has rich acting experience and meets the requirements of the characters.
From the plot point of view, Guan Xiaotong plays a cursed princess and has a very complicated inner drama. Guan Xiaotong must not only play the heroine's inner pain and emotions of wanting to break free from the curse, but also show the cruelty when she is cursed. These complex inner activities are performed to be realized. Zheng Xiaolong praised Guan Xiaotong's spirit of hard-working and hard-working, remade without complaint, and no matter how hard he worked, he would overcome it.
Wang Xiaoping, the screenwriter, frankly said that the filming process was a great challenge to Guan Xiaotong, because there were many hanging scenes in The hanging Weiya. Guan Xiaotong still had palpitations after finishing the shooting, saying that he felt that he was flying in the air all day long, and when he ate, he felt that his stomach was turning over the river and the sea. Jumping down from a very high place at a very fast speed is a challenge to the average actor, not to mention Guan Xiaotong, who is afraid of heights.
Zheng Xiaolong said that the reason why he shot "Turandot" was because of a friend's proposal, that is, in 2000, the couple had just finished working on "Gua Sha", but after carefully analyzing the opera "Turandot" at that time, he found that this story originated from "One Thousand and One Nights", the story lacked rationality and did not have the value of adaptation.
Because the couple suddenly found the key plot props and starting points of the 'tricolor bracelet', they had the subsequent creation. Wang Xiaoping spent 8 years creating the novel "Tricolor Bracelet", reinterpreting the story of the Oriental Princess Turandot. Because the script writing was overturned many times, the novel was completed first, and it was not until the market matured that the novel was considered to be adapted into a film script.
From the beginning of worrying that the opera could not be adapted to the screen, to the time When Wang Xiaoping himself wrote a novel and adapted it into a screenplay, he overcame the greatest difficulties. Zheng Xiaolong had suspected that there was no way to shoot it, because the difficulty was too great. Wang Xiaoping explained that the film is out of the original setting and uses new characters. Although the inspiration comes from opera, it is actually true regardless of the background.
The 1-minute trailer is extremely informative and reveals the main character relationships, with Guan Xiaotong playing the cursed princess Turandot, while Jiang Wen plays the country's Great Khan. The characters of Calaf and Turandot, played by Dylan Sprouts, will work hard to break the curse for the sake of the princess.
In the copywriting "Cutting Thorns, FearlessLy Moving Forward, The Mystery of Fate, Only Love Can Solve" forwarded by Guan Xiaotong's studio, everyone can predict that the curse on Princess Turandot should be solved, and it will be resolved with love. Whether it is his lover to solve it or not, this will not be able to reveal the mystery until the movie is released.
The scenes in this film are very grand, and the pictures are even more exquisite. 3 bracelets from exotic lands, "unique for immortals, combined for demons, 3 bracelets for 3 fans", who is the person who casts the spell, and who solves this mystery for her, why the character played by Hu Jun and the monarch played by Jiang Wen have an antagonistic relationship, how the princess faces the destruction of the country and the death of the family, and whether the love of the children will become a bond.
Unlike Zheng Xiaolong's other works, "Turandot: The Origin of the Spell" comes from his wife Wang Xiaoping's novel "Three Color Bracelet", and the screenwriter is also Wang Xiaoping himself. The couple collaborated for the first time from "Beijingers in New York", but Wang Xiaoping was not a screenwriter at the time, because when filming in New York, Wang Xiaoping and his children also studied in the United States, and Zheng Xiaolong went overseas to shoot for his wife.
Although Zheng Xiaolong denied this incident, it can be seen that the husband and wife have a very good relationship. From "Gua Sha" in 2001 to "The Biography of Zhen Huan" and "The Biography of Mi Yue", the couple have collaborated 3 times. The couple's cooperation works also have the unaired "Tu Youyou" (starring Zhou Xun), I don't know if this golden partner joined forces to shoot "Turandot", can become a box office guarantee.
When "The Legend of Mi Yue" was broadcast, Zheng Xiaolong once lamented that he was no longer willing to cooperate with his wife, because the identities of the two were directors and screenwriters, and the strong daughter-in-law was not like other cooperative screenwriters. Every time he proposed a revision, the couple had to break it up, making Zheng Xiaolong feel miserable. However, he was more grateful, without Wang Xiaoping, there would be no "Zhen Huan Biography".
He once said in an interview that his wife and son were abroad and had a 12-hour time difference with himself. Every day she changed the script for her husband at night, so busy that she woke up her children in the morning and sent them to school. He confessed that he did not consider his wife's hardships at that time, and only then did he understand his lover's efforts, and it was really Zheng Xiaolong, who was aware of his work.
For the sake of the script, Zheng Xiaolong and Wang Xiaoping did not quarrel less. When visiting the class of "The Legend of Mi Yue", Wang Xiaoping poured bitter water, saying that Zheng Xiaolong was a very harsh director, and other screenwriters were not happy under him, "I barely struggled to survive, other screenwriters have died several times." ”
Zheng Xiaolong admitted that he and his wife did not have the identity of their husband when talking about work, he said that the relationship between the two is the director and the screenwriter, no wonder he was blamed too harshly. However, in life, Zheng Xiaolong is actually a very romantic person, who likes to surprise his wife, such as buying her clothes, and will suddenly appear at the door while saying that he does not go home.
Gao Yunxiang, an actor who starred in "The Legend of Mi Yue", once revealed that the more the couple quarreled, the sweeter it was, and Zheng Xiaolong, who was over 60 years old, would also spoil his wife, which he couldn't see anymore, whether he wanted to be so greasy and crooked. Zheng Xiaolong, who used to be the director of the TV Drama Art Center, gave all the money in his family to Wang Xiaoping, and his daughter-in-law was the financial director of the family, and he had no concept of numbers.
Wang Xiaoping himself is a very outstanding writer, once a screenwriter of "People's Literature", with excellent literary literacy. She never works as a screenwriter for others, except for her husband Zheng Xiaolong, because her husband is the best collaborator. Wang Xiaoping said that the film uses the names of "Turandot" and The three names of Calaf and Liu'er, which is actually derived from Wang Xiaoping's own original novel "Three Color Bracelet".
Some people say that the works starring Guan Xiaotong are very general in terms of word of mouth or ratings, worried that she cannot take on this big responsibility, and some people say that there are many magic theme films in the domestic street, starting from Chen Kaige's "Wuji" to the later "Asura", why Zheng Xiaolong will try such a theme.
Zheng Xiaolong has made achievements in directing TV dramas with life themes that have attracted the attention of the world. "Longing", which was a producer in 1990, and "Beijingers in New York" directed in 1994, both set the record for viewership at the time. He is also the chief planner of "The Story of the Editorial Department" and the general director of the hit drama "The Biography of Zhen Huan" in 2011, which can be said to have created a brilliant era of TV dramas.
"The Biography of Zhen Huan" gave Sun Li Jiang Xin the opportunity to catch fire. Sun Li and Zheng Xiaolong's three collaborations are of great significance to her, "I have worked with director Zheng Xiaolong three times, it is three plays that have changed my life, the first is "Happiness is Like a Flower", he is the chief producer, the second is "The Biography of Zhen Huan", "The Biography of Mi Yue" is the third, he is the general director. "Maybe the next fire is Guan Xiaotong."
As for why he chose "Turandot" as his return to the big screen after 20 years of his directing career, he said that he did not want to die on a subject matter and liked to shoot something different. Everyone speculates that the more important reason is that this movie is based on the novel "Pansy Bracelet" completed by his wife Wang Xiaoping after 8 years.
In July 2018, the movie "Turandot" was officially completed, and the screenwriter Ms. Wang Xiaoping said: "Eighteen spring and autumn, finally from the text on the script to the visual lens, everyone has worked hard, thank you"! From having a preliminary idea in 2000, to the preparation in 2015, the completion of filming in 2018, and then to the upcoming release in 2021, it took 21 years to have the effect that everyone sees now.
Let's look forward to zheng Xiaolong and his wife working together again, and have such a strong team to create the oriental magic theme movie "Turandot: The Origin of the Spell".
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