Chapter 435 Script and Casting
On January 28th, "Avatar" was released in mainland China for ten days and the total box office exceeded 400 million, setting the fastest record of breaking 400 million in the country.

The daily box office exceeded 40 million for ten consecutive days, which is once again astonishing.

Following this trend, it should be a foregone conclusion that "Avatar" will break the box office record of "The Martian" which exceeded 700 million yuan.

Not only that, the higher-ups also officially issued instructions to extend the key on that day. The outside world estimates that the box office of "Avatar" is very likely to exceed the 10 billion mark, becoming the first billion-level movie in the country.

This news left the entire Chinese film industry speechless.

The previous box office success of "The Martian" was still within everyone's understanding. After all, the first domestic science fiction blockbuster was indeed very hype and the quality of the film was also good.

Although I am shocked that the box office has reached 700 million, I don’t find it incredible.

"Avatar" is expected to raise the mainland box office ceiling to ten digits in one go. How can it not surprise everyone?

A movie with a box office of 1 billion is really unimaginable. This was the total box office in mainland China in one year ten years ago.

In fact, "Avatar" shocked a lot of people not only in China, but also overseas and in North America.

In less than a month after its release in North America, the film grossed $5 million, breaking numerous records.

The overseas box office has even broken through $10 billion. According to this trend, it is even expected to break the super record of $20 billion for a single movie.

James Cameron was deified again, and the North American media directly ranked him before Spielberg, calling him the number one director in Hollywood.

In China, although there is a lot of entertainment news, the popularity of "Avatar" has always dominated the mainstream, and four of the top ten related hot searches are about it.

This was not purchased with any money, but was made it to the hot search list through spontaneous browsing, commenting, and forwarding by netizens.

You can imagine how popular "Avatar" is at this time.

However, "Avatar" is a foreign film after all. After a long discussion, the audience is increasingly looking forward to China launching its own special effects blockbuster.

The situation in this life is much better than the previous one.

In the past, China had experienced the successive bombardment of "Transformers 2", "2012" and "Avatar", and at that time, the box office record of mainland movies was still held by Hollywood movies, so some people who were in charge of the rhythm criticized domestic filmmakers even more harshly.

The audience also expected that the Chinese film industry could launch its own sci-fi special effects blockbuster, but it took nearly ten years until the release of "The Wandering Earth" in 2019, which gave everyone a glimmer of hope.

But now, at least domestic films have long regained the mainland's box office records, and they also have their own science fiction special effects blockbusters.

So although I am looking forward to it, it doesn’t feel out of reach.

Moreover, it will not be long before Zhang Yimou's science fiction film "Moon" will be released during the Spring Festival. At the same time, Liu Zhou's second science fiction blockbuster, the highly anticipated "Interstellar", has also been completed and is scheduled to be released during the 2010 Lunar New Year.

Although "Avatar" is very good, it is a foreign movie after all. Seeing that the domestic box office record is about to be taken away by Hollywood movies again, everyone still hopes that domestic films can make some efforts.

At present, it seems that the only film that has the potential to regain the domestic box office record is Liu Zhou's "Interstellar", and even Zhang Yimou's "Moon" is not favored by them.

Because "Avatar" is so amazing, and "Moon" is not a 3D movie, they feel that no matter how well "Moon" is filmed, it will be difficult to break the billion box office.

What's more, this Lunar New Year period has already consumed the movie-watching budget of most domestic moviegoers. Not to mention "Moon", even the box office potential of this Spring Festival period may be affected.

So the only movie we can see right now that has the potential to break the domestic box office record again is "Interstellar".

This made everyone even more excited about "Interstellar", and there was more discussion about Liu Zhou.

However, although Liu Zhou and "Interstellar" were being hotly discussed online, he came to Tangshan in a low-key manner at this time.

After exchanging pleasantries with Leader Zhao from Tangshan, the two headed to the filming location built by Tangshan for the movie.

The location is an open space on the east side of Tangshan Nanhu Park, which has been fenced off.

How to restore the life scenes in the 70s was a major challenge faced by the filming. In order to find this scene, the art department ran around for more than a month and consulted a lot of information before finally finalizing it.

In order to truly reproduce the appearance of Tangshan at that time, the crew built a real scene of the area where the protagonist's home was located at a 1:1 ratio.

Tangshan invested nearly 1000 million yuan to build this real scene, constructing more than 10 buildings and numerous bungalows on both sides of the --meter-long street.

Of course, it is impossible to build a real building. The cost is too high and the construction period is too long. Therefore, the buildings that are built are half-set and half-real. The buildings are neither poured nor laid with foundations.

From the outside it looks no different from a real building, but when you walk in you'll find there are only four walls, no floors or rooms inside.

Although it cost nearly $1000 million to build these sets, this part of the scene was only shot in four to five days, and then all the buildings were demolished to shoot the scenes after the earthquake.

This is the most important filming location for "Aftershock" and a shooting base carefully built for the film.

At this time, two cars stopped at the gate of the base, and Liu Zhou and Zhao got out one after another.

Entering the base, Liu Zhou suddenly felt like he had traveled back to the 1970s and 1980s.

The Hongqi Courtyard, the Qianjin Grocery Store, the ancient traffic posts, traffic lights, convenience stores, street lights, cinemas, hospitals, and supply and marketing cooperatives all have a strong sense of age.

This inevitably evoked Liu Zhou's childhood memories. Although he grew up in Guangzhou, which as a window city might be more fashionable, the area where he lived was not much different from the environment here.

Liu Zhou feels that the actors don’t need to experience much life. He believes that when they walk into this area they will be brought in all at once and all the feelings will be created.

"Yes, Leader Zhao has taken the trouble to restore the site. It is really good. Coming here makes me feel like I have returned to my childhood."

"Mr. Liu, I remember you were born in 1977 or 1988, so the first time you can remember things should be in the 1980s."

"That's right, but the early 1980s shouldn't be much different from the 1970s."

"Haha, that's right."

"Leader Zhao, the filming base should have been completed, right?"

"It's all done, just waiting for you to come and inspect it."

"Then take me to the protagonist's house."

He certainly would not come in person to do the overall inspection, the production team and art team would do this, but there were many shots of the protagonist's home, so he wanted to see how it was in person. The protagonist's house was a three-story Soviet-style building, a typical style of the 1950s and 1960s.

This building is different from other semi-set buildings. It must have floors and rooms because the protagonist and his family live in this building. The shots of going up and down the stairs and entering and exiting the building must be real.

According to the setting of the movie, the protagonist's family, the husband is a worker in a steel rolling mill, the wife is a female worker in the Huaxin Textile Factory, the mother is still alive, and there is a younger sister who is in high school, and two other children.

This was a common family in cities in the 1970s.

Liu Zhou stood in front of the building and said:
"Is there any problem with the quality of this building? Some scenes must be shot in the building, and both cameras and people will go into the building. If it collapses at that time, we cannot bear the responsibility."

"Don't worry about this. The city is also keeping an eye on the quality of the building, and there are relevant experts to check it. Although the foundation has not been laid, the building has been poured.

Moreover, the construction workers and art team have been in the building for quite a long time, and we have also gone through the weighing test, so the safety is absolutely guaranteed." Leader Zhao patted his chest and said confidently.

Seeing Leader Zhao so confident, Liu Zhou also felt relieved, then walked into the building and took a careful look around.

The rooms inside have also been decorated, and various furniture as well as enamel tea trays, enamel cups, teachers' quotations, old propaganda posters, etc. have been arranged in place, giving it a very 1970s feel.

Now all the props needed for "Aftershock" are in place, and most of them have been shipped to Tangshan.

This is also thanks to the donations from Mr. Fan Jianchuan and some enthusiastic people, as well as the help from several major domestic film studios, otherwise the props issue would have been a big problem.

Even though it's just a movie, the crew did a statistics and found that there are thousands of props of all kinds, totaling more than 100,000 pieces. The quantity is too large, and if they are to be remade, both time and cost will be a problem!

Seeing that there was no problem with the protagonist's family's house, Liu Zhou went to the heroine's parents' house.

According to the script written by Liu Heng, the heroine took her daughter back to her parents' home the day before the earthquake because her mother was ill.

Therefore, the area where the heroine's mother's home is located is also an important scene for filming the movie, which was built at the other end of the filming base.

The house of the heroine's mother is an old-fashioned building made of blue bricks, exuding a nostalgic atmosphere. On the wall is a huge portrait of a teacher and slogans from the 1970s such as "grasp the revolution, promote production" are written.

"How is it? Is it okay?" Leader Zhao asked with a smile.

"It's very good, but we need to invite an old man to come and take a look. If they say it was like this at the beginning, then there is no problem. If they say it is different, we need to adjust it."

"No need to invite him. When we first built it, we invited an old man to come and give us guidance."

"It seems that it was a good idea to let you guys take charge of this filming base. You have done a very detailed job."

"Haha, there's not much we can do for this movie. The most important thing is to rely on Director Liu and your team. All we can do is do some work that doesn't require much technical skills."

This time, everyone in Tangshan attached great importance to this movie, and they actually gained a lot from the construction of this filming base.

According to the investment agreement, the filming base that Tangshan is responsible for is valued at an investment of 15 million yuan, but because they are an official department, they have their own construction company.

Therefore, the actual investment was less than eight million, which was a saving of seven million. So no matter what, Leader Zhao felt that this project should be done well.

Originally, according to Liu Zhou's suggestion, a special film and television base could be built, but after investigation, the idea was finally abandoned.

If Golden Harvest would cooperate, they would certainly be willing to do it, but since Golden Harvest has its own bigger plans and won't get involved, they are not planning to do it.

Otherwise, if they have no experience in operating a film and television base, it will most likely become a face-saving project.

"Leader Zhao, you are too modest. You have done a lot of work."

In addition to the construction of this filming base, they also took care of all the above relationships, which allowed Liu Zhou to focus on filming the movie.

This official relationship may be just a piece of cake for them, but it is not an easy matter for the film crew. Even if Golden Harvest handles it, it still takes some effort.

Seeing that Liu Zhou was satisfied, Leader Zhao also laughed and said:

"Director Liu, when are you going to start filming?"

"Since the filming location is ready, we can start shooting after the new year. The actors and other preparatory work are ready."

While Liu Zhou was filming "Interstellar", Liu Heng spent nearly half a year and revised the script five times before finally finalizing the script of "Aftershock".

At the beginning, the script written by Liu Heng only had one line about the heroine. When the earthquake happened, she was at her mother's house with her daughter. Then she walked all the way back to Tangshan with her daughter. On the way, she met all kinds of people and rescued her son from the ruins.

However, Liu Zhou felt that the story was too thin, and then Liu Heng added a line about the heroine's sister-in-law, but Liu Zhou still felt unsatisfied.

After that, Liu Heng wrote two more drafts, but still failed to gain everyone's approval.

It was not until Liu Heng met a person who had a similar experience to the heroine and listened to her story that he added another line of inquiry: the heroine's brother-in-law, who was a soldier participating in disaster relief.

The film reflects people's state when the earthquake occurs through three lines: the heroine, her sister-in-law and her brother-in-law.

And at the end of the movie, the three lines converge and work together to rescue the heroine's young son from the ruins.

As a result, the movie has three main characters, namely the heroine, her sister-in-law and her brother-in-law.

In addition to these three main characters, there is another important character, a truck driver whom the heroine met on the road when she was rushing to Tangshan.

After learning about the earthquake, the heroine wanted to return to Tangshan, but all the passenger buses were gone and the railway was closed due to the earthquake, so she had to walk back while seeing if she could stop a car on the side of the road.

Unexpectedly, she was lucky enough to meet a truck from a bicycle factory returning to Tangshan. The truck stopped and started frequently and took nearly 24 hours to reach Tangshan.

What the heroine saw and experienced on her way back to Tangshan will also be a very important part of the movie.

So the role of this truck driver is also very strong.

As for the heroine's husband, he doesn't have much presence in the movie and he unfortunately dies in the earthquake.

After the script was finalized and approved by Tangshan, Liu Zhou had already started secretly casting.

(End of this chapter)