Chapter 357 Interstellar officially launched

When the project of "Interstellar" was confirmed, both of them couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

Liu Zhou finally got his mind taken care of, and Han Shanping finally waited for Liu Zhou's new film.

Ever since "The Martian", Han Shanping has been looking forward to Liu Zhou's next science fiction film.

However, Liu Zhou was overwhelmed by various matters in his own company and had no time to take care of it. It has been almost half a year now, and we finally saw the shadow of his new film.

So at this moment, Han Shanping also swept away the irritability caused by the trivial matters of China Film, and a long-lost smile appeared on his face again.

"Liu Zhou, just tell us what you need us to do."

As for the preparation of the film, Liu Zhou already had some preliminary ideas in his mind when he was writing the script.

Liu Zhou pondered for a while, organized his words and said:

"First of all, we need to set up a few location shooting teams in China Film Group and send them to the Mohe and Genhe areas in the north to find a large suitable open space."

"How big is this large open space? Are there any special requirements for the terrain?" Han Shanping couldn't help but ask.

“The bigger the better. There is no end in sight, and no buildings or trees can be seen.”

This vacant land is, of course, used to grow corn.

The cornfield at the original protagonist's home was filmed in Maple Leaf Country. Liu Zhou plans to send people to Mohe and Genhe to take a look first.

The coldest temperatures in these two places throughout the year reach minus 40 to 50 degrees Celsius, which is not much warmer than the original shooting location.

Liu Zhou originally planned to shoot the movie "Interstellar" after Golden Harvest Group went public, which happened to be around winter.

Although shooting conditions in winter are more difficult, the results will be much better if real climate scenes are used.

Moreover, these two places are sparsely populated, just like the Maple Leaf Country, so it is not difficult to find a piece of barren land in the two coldest places in the country.

Even if there is a village and trees in a suitable place, the worst that can happen is that we can pay them to move away and clear out everything.

That place might not be demolished even if you wait a hundred years, and Liu Zhou doesn't want their land anyway.

The village will just be demolished, and the land will still be theirs after the filming is completed. At the same time, they will be given sufficient compensation to make up for their losses during this period.

"No problem, what else?"

"I also need China Film Group to contact the Icelandic government. I need to shoot live at Vatnajökull Glacier. I hope they will cooperate."

Iceland's Vatnajökull is the third largest glacier in the world. The largest is of course the Antarctic glacier, and the second largest is the Greenland glacier.

However, the Greenland glaciers have been melting rapidly since recent years.

As for the Antarctic glaciers, the conditions are even worse and the scenery is different, so Vatnajökull is the most suitable.

This place was also the filming location carefully selected by Christopher Nolan. The Vatnajökull glacier could be shot entirely in real life with basically no CG required.

"After confirming the shooting time, I will ask the relevant departments for coordination."

“Finally, we need to ask China Film Group to go to Jingcheng University, Huaxia University of Science and Technology, and Jinling University to invite three astrophysics professors, two astronomy professors, two quantum physics professors, and two physics professors.

The early special effects preparation work requires their guidance.”

Special effects work usually begins before filming begins, and the special effects of outer space are not just about making a few balls, randomly adding some stars, and using ice and fire effects.

This also needs to be in line with science. When filming "The Martian", Liu Zhou also invited university professors to assist.

The outer space special effects scenes of "Interstellar" are not as simple as those of "The Martian", so more people are needed.

The above three universities are the top three universities in astrophysics in China.

"Do we need help from so many professors?" Han Shanping asked in surprise.

“Of course, although Interstellar doesn’t have a lot of special effects, they are also more complex and more rigorous.

The main task of special effects is to simulate and render the cosmic environment, such as the distance between planets and stars, relative size issues, environmental issues of other planets, particle effects, the dynamics of nebulae and galaxies, including the description of wormholes and black holes, etc.

Although this is a movie, it also has to pay attention to science. If these details are in place, the audience will naturally be able to feel the sincerity of our film."

"Okay, although I don't quite understand what you mean, but it sounds very impressive. I will invite all these professors to come for you. Is there anything else?"

"I have one more small request, which is the supercomputer of the National University of Defense Technology."

"No problem. I rented it last time, so it shouldn't be a problem this time."

"That's all."

In fact, in addition to these, there is also the production of future spacecraft models.

However, Liu Zhou has already discussed this matter with Golden Harvest's special effects studio, asking them to make a 3D stereoscopic model first, and then hire a professional company to produce the model.

This spaceship model is not a copy of the current spaceship, but is full of futuristic and science fiction elements. After all, this spaceship is going to be able to pass through wormholes.

For the filming of "Interstellar", Golden Harvest Special Effects Studio will be fully responsible for the special effects production of the film.

The spaceship model is just the simplest task. The simulation and rendering of the outer space environment are more difficult. As for the thousand-meter-high waves, the special effects department also needs to calculate detailed data.

This is different from ordinary small waves, and previous data cannot be used.

The splashing of water droplets, water spray, the curling degree of wave crests, bubbles, waves, water spray, etc. all need to be re-simulated to obtain accurate data.

Moreover, this scene must have been shot with an IMAX camera, so any flaws would be highlighted infinitely, and it had to be extremely detailed.

Therefore, this time, Golden Harvest Group once again invested heavily in the special effects studio, purchasing equipment, software, and technology, and also gathered elite talents to meet this challenge.

This time, Liu Zhou would rather shoot slowly and allow Golden Harvest Special Effects Studio to hone its team and technical level.

I believe that after the trials and tribulations of "Interstellar", Golden Harvest Special Effects Studio will become more competitive in the global special effects field.

If "Interstellar" can receive positive reviews around the world, it will also bring fame to the special effects studio.

Coupled with the relatively cheap prices offered by Golden Harvest Special Effects Studio, we will definitely be able to get more orders from Hollywood.

In this way, Golden Harvest Special Effects Studio can also enter a virtuous circle.

Liu Zhou may not be able to make his Weta Digital a first-class company through "The Lord of the Rings" like Peter Jackson did. But Liu Zhou can make Golden Harvest Special Effects Studio a world-class one through one movie after another, with the strength of the entire Golden Harvest Group and even the entire Chinese film market.

This is entirely possible, as Golden Harvest Special Effects Studio is currently the most technologically advanced special effects company in China.

Apart from Golden Harvest's own films, most other companies also ask Golden Harvest Special Effects Studio to do the special effects, and no longer look for special effects companies in South Korea or other countries.

What's more, the studio has now begun to enter the Hollywood special effects market. With so many orders to support and train the team, in another seven or eight years, there will be no shortage of domestic technology.

By that time, even if we have the people, the technology, and the money, if we still cannot make Golden Harvest Special Effects Studio a world-class one, then we are truly incompetent.

"Okay, then I'll let Huang Jianxin form a production team. I'll work with him to help you solve these requirements one by one. You should also come up with the film budget and shooting plan as soon as possible."

"No problem, but isn't Mr. Huang busy with the post-production of The Founding of a Republic? Can he handle it?"

"It's not like he needs to be personally involved in the post-production of the film. He just needs to keep an eye on it. Besides, Interstellar is just in preparation, so it doesn't need to take up too much of his energy."

Liu Zhou paused, then continued:

"Boss Han, don't file the film Interstellar so quickly. Wait until Golden Harvest Group goes public before announcing it to the public."

"No problem, it's a small matter."

Han Shanping also understood what Liu Zhou meant. After Golden Harvest Group went public, announcing the news of the filming of "Interstellar" would be able to raise Golden Harvest's stock price to a certain extent.

You know, because of the huge success of "The Martian", the outside world is extremely looking forward to Liu Zhou's next science fiction film.

Now the much-anticipated movie has finally been approved and started filming, which is also great news for Golden Harvest Group.

“But you should know that now that we have started the pre-production of Interstellar, it will be difficult to keep it secret.

Maybe after you leave China Film, some people outside might know the news.”

"I understand. I didn't expect to keep it completely secret. If people in the circle know about it, then let them know. As long as it's not widely spread, that's fine."

"Okay, I'll tell the people involved in the preparations and those below to be careful."

After discussing the business, the two chatted for a while before Liu Zhou left China Film.

Back at Golden Harvest's headquarters, Liu Zhou couldn't help but think about the cast for the movie "Interstellar".

"Interstellar" is undoubtedly a movie that requires acting skills.

Although it is a science fiction film, it is different from those popcorn movies and is worth watching repeatedly.

Although it's a bit "brain-burning", the audience doesn't find it difficult to watch it, otherwise it wouldn't have gotten such a high box office.

This is also the brilliance of Christopher Nolan. Almost all the movies he shoots require the audience to think, but they are not pretentious and difficult for people to understand.

The most typical one is "Inception", which can be regarded as the culmination of Nolan's style.

He describes the multiple complex dreams very clearly. You may be confused when you read it for the first time, but if you go back and listen to other people's opinions or read it again, you may suddenly understand.

Not only that, Nolan also combines art and commercial elements very well.

The movies he shot all had good box office results. Except for two or three early movies, the movies he shot after he became famous almost all earned hundreds of millions of dollars or even billions of dollars.

While his films do well at the box office, they always spark discussion or reveal a certain topic to the audience, and their reputation is very high.

His unique style not only earned him high praise in the industry, but also attracted a large number of fans.

This makes Christopher Nolan's excellence even more evident at a time when Hollywood movies are all trying to make them younger.

In the original time and space, "Avengers" was criticized for its rubbish and stupid plot, which was intentional by the producers.

If the plot was more reasonable, it might not have sold at this box office.

There is no need to worry about how real or reasonable the plot is, as long as it can make sense. After all, movies are for entertainment, and everything is to cater to the audience.

Even Jin Yong is no exception to this. If you have read the serialized version of Jin Yong's novels in Ming Pao and then read the later versions that have been revised several times, you will obviously find a big difference.

When serializing, we have to take Ming Pao's sales and reputation into consideration, and many things have to cater to the readers' tastes.

However, he did not cater to the readers in the plot where Xiaolongnu was defiled by Yin Zhiping, but insisted on keeping it as is. Even though it aroused the anger of readers across Hong Kong and Ming Pao was smashed, he did not change it.

But later on, Jin Yong became successful and had a very high social status, so even though his work was a martial arts novel, it had to be refined to be a little more upscale.

Of course, this depends on Jin Yong’s writing skills, which is equivalent to the director’s storytelling ability.

The audience can actually tolerate shortcomings in one or two of the various aspects of a movie, such as actors, plot, special effects, etc., but the prerequisite is that you need to have enough or good enough advantages for the audience to tolerate.

There is no perfect movie in the world, nor is it possible to be all-encompassing. There will definitely be some shortcomings, more or less.

The more classic a movie is, the fewer shortcomings it has.

"Interstellar" is undoubtedly a classic science fiction film. Now that Liu Zhou is shooting it, he also hopes to make the film have fewer shortcomings.

Otherwise, why would Liu Zhou make the early preparations for the film so troublesome?

As for the special effects shots of the vast space, it’s just okay if they are acceptable. There is no need to invite so many astrophysics professors from universities to calculate the sizes of planets, the distances between them, and so on.

As for the cornfield, there is no need to arrange for people to plant it personally. Just plant some corn in the studio, circle it with a blue screen, and cut out the background in post-production.

Isn’t the background of “Avatar” also cutout?

But obviously doing so would damage his own reputation, and Liu Zhou would definitely not do such a stupid thing.

"Interstellar" directed by Christopher Noren is such a classic, so Liu Zhou must not be worse than him, and may even be better than him. After all, he is standing on the shoulders of giants.

Now Liu Zhou has also carefully polished and prepared the plot, special effects and other aspects. The remaining important thing is the selection of actors.

This movie has high requirements on the actors' acting skills, so Brother Xiao Ming Liu Zhou had to be excluded. He has wanted to shoot Liu Zhou's movie for a long time.

But there's really nothing we can do. Not only may his acting skills not be good enough, but his height is also a bit off. Taller astronauts are more imposing and give people a sense of trust.

Since Brother Xiao Ming has been ruled out, the only options left for the male lead are Qin Hao and Liu Ye, but both of them seem quite suitable.

(End of this chapter)