Chapter 34: The Hand of Creating an Idol

"The new declaration of magical work, the high school campus song and dance film "Singing and Dance"!"

This is the headline of the entertainment section of the Los Angeles Times. They posted an exclusive interview with Wang Yang as scheduled. Shortly after this issue of the newspaper was launched, this exclusive interview report appeared on the Internet and was quickly reprinted everywhere. Forums that were originally influenced by the viral publicity of "Ghost Records" were hotly discussed. After all, "Ghost Records" just drew offline in North America, and the total box office in North America received 163 million yuan. Wang Yang's popularity has not yet dissipated, and there are still many fans.

Anyway, those who are following Wang Yang now know the news. He is going to shoot a campus song and dance film called "Singing and Dance Youth", which is an inspirational story. By the way, in order to make this movie, he also acquired a small film company with no future. He didn't know what it was called before, but now he changed his name to Flame Film Company, so he became a company boss.

Of course, Wang Yang had already told Jessica, Zachary and his friends last night and shared the joy with them.

However, the focus of the media is not on his film company. There is nothing to surprise when acquiring a small company worth tens of millions of dollars. Los Angeles has never lacked film companies. The media is paying attention to movies, his second movie, campus song and dance film?! People were surprised that Wang Yang was not surprised to shoot campus films, but surprisingly, the current market for singing and dancing films is what is the sluggish market. Everyone knows this clearly.

A high school campus opera? He said that he had high expectations for this movie? What is the definition of a very high? Recover the cost or become a "Hot Prodigal Son"?

Although the entertainment media have not had time to comment, the discussion on the news on the Internet is already underway. "To be honest, this movie is worrying. Maybe in the future, it will teach this young and energetic 18-year-old director a lesson and tell him that movies are not that simple." This comment was already polite, and many comments directly sarcastic: "Probably he was stimulated by being wronged by college, so he misses high school life? Want to make a movie about high school students? But does he know how to make movies? Yes, he studied at the USC Television and Film Academy, but guys, he only studied for a semester and a half, and he may not even be able to tell the difference between Einstein and Einstein..."

Eisenstein is a great director and Einstein is a great scientist. Of course, Wang Yang can tell the difference. He ignored these voices. The public's doubts were all within his expectations. If he continued to shoot horror films, they might say "expected", and he was still the star of the future; but when he shot campus song and dance films, their attitudes would change drastically. He was no longer a bright future, but just a fire-fighting moth seeking death.

Will his moth die? Do he know how to make movies? Wait for the future to prove it with facts. Although quarrel with the media is one of the promotional methods, it is not suitable for movies with positive themes like "Singing and Dance Youth", and he doesn't like to use them. Besides, the market for "Singing and Dance Youth" is mainly the student class, and the student class is not as mean as film critics. They are willing to accept new things, and the more abnormal things they like, the more they like, such as his title of "Youngest Millionaire", and he is now a new idol of many young students.

Wang Yang's previous concern has also become a reality. In the interview report of the Los Angeles Times, the last two-thirds of the content are about his private life. No wonder Wang Yang rarely accepts exclusive interviews from the media and even refuses the opportunity to be on the cover of Vanity Fair, let alone talk about his private life publicly. This time, the Los Angeles Times was invited by the Flame Film Company to conduct an exclusive interview. Reporter Kim Sylvie naturally knew how to seize the opportunity and ask enough questions.

In the office of the chairman of the Flame Movie, Wang Yang sat on a rotating office chair, looking at the newspaper unfolding in his hand, with a helpless look on his face.

I saw that most of the page was surrounded by the title "The youngest millionaire is single". The first question in this long paragraph was "Do you have a girlfriend?" Then he followed his answer: "No, my career is just starting out, I hope I will devote myself to it." This is indeed his current idea. He has experienced a lot in the past six months and his mentality has changed a lot. Now he just wants to make a good movie and cherish these hard-earned opportunities; just let it go in terms of emotions.

"Did you have a girlfriend before?" Kim Sylvie's question, when she entered the interview stage of her private life, she became a gossip tabloid style. Then he answered: "I had a relationship in high school, you know, and then broke up."

Seeing this question and answer, Wang Yang couldn't help but shake his head and wipe his eyes. It was a sweet love that ended in failure. When he was in his second year of high school, he met a mixed-race blonde girl from Rowell High School. She was very beautiful and had a personality. They all had feelings for each other, so they got together.

At first, they had a good relationship. They chatted happily on the phone every day, and came out to meet on the weekend to maintain their relationship. However, the good times did not last long. After the initial passionate love, their disagreement was also exposed, and they always made noises about small things at the beginning.

"I like to go to the cinema, but she likes to go to the playground; I like basketball, and she likes baseball; I like McDonald's, she likes KFC; I like Coca-Cola, she likes Pepsi... So we started to quarrel, and after quarrel, we couldn't stand it, so we had to break up." In the newspaper, he answered Kim Sylvie, and she asked, "Can you share this relationship with us?"

Looking at the words in the newspaper, Wang Yang smiled slightly. When he recalled that relationship, he felt a little sweet, but more calm. He was almost forgetting the appearance of the blonde girl. Even if he tried hard now, he was still vague, cheerful smile, and nice voice... He shook his head suddenly, interrupted his memories, and continued to read the newspaper, "Have you ever thought about what his future partner would be like?"

Why are all these gossip questions? Wang Yang helplessly put the newspaper aside and stopped reading it. He turned on the computer and prepared to start work to perform the first round of selection of the roles of "Singing and Dance Youth".

In fact, a few days ago, he just acquired A-pix, and he wrote a casting list for "Singing and Dance" and asked Sandy Pix to send it to the Actors Union and agency companies to give them some good introductions.

"Singing and Dance" is different from "Ghost Record", and the main actors are double-digit, so if the agency does not ask for help, it will increase the difficulty of casting and cause trouble.

His casting table sets the basic standards for casting, including all major characters such as the male protagonist and the heroine, such as Troy Burton, and his appearance needs: tall, sunny and handsome, and strong athletic ability... The casting table sent to the organization is the first round standard. The organization notifies members who meet the role conditions and then reply to the members who are interested in participating in the test role to the Flame Movie.

Then, Wang Yang first looked at these materials, filtered out those who did not meet his requirements, and then handed over the final list of remaining actors to the institutions, and agreed on a time to conduct a group audition.

Today, the company has received replies from the Actors Union and several institutions. They have sent all the information of members who meet the requirements and are interested in participating in the audition of the male and female protagonists of "Singing and Dance Youth". As for the information of members who meet the other roles, it will take time to sort them out.

In "Youth of Songs and Dances", there are several roles that are particularly important, including the male lead Troy Burton, the female lead Gabriela Mantis, the female lead second Shape Evans, the male lead second, the male lead good friend and teammate Chad Denver, as well as Xia Pei's younger brother Renne, the female lead good sister Taylor Micasey, and the piano accompanimentist Kathy Nelson.

As for the roles such as Troy's father, Gabriela's mother, Dabs, black players who love cooking, fat girls and other roles, there is no need to worry about the candidates. These roles appear less and do not need to explode. Young people do not need charming and superb acting skills. They can get one by one in the entertainment school; older people choose more, and there are countless middle-aged actors who can pass the acting skills in Hollywood, and their pay is very cheap.

So in this casting, the main focus is on those seven important characters, including the male, female protagonist, male, and female second character. First of all, there are many requirements for these four characters in appearance, which must be in line with the character's temperament, sufficient acting skills, and the pay is in line with the movie's budget.

In addition, in terms of singing and dancing, what you understand now is naturally very good; but what you don’t understand now will not be eliminated immediately. Because in terms of dance, no matter whether you understand or not, you will receive professional guidance to learn and rehearse the dance in movies; and in terms of singing, as long as you have talent and sound good, you can complete the task of recording songs with the assistance of professional teachers and recording studios.

Since Wang Yang is the investor, producer and director of "Singing and Dance" and there is no doubt that the decision-making power is in his hands, who will play what role. He has almost decided on one of these seven important roles, and Rachel has played the role of Xia Pei-Evans.

Xia Pei-Evans is a proud and competitive daughter. She and her younger brother Rennes are the absolute stars of the school music club. She always dresses noblely and beautifully, speaks in a weird tone, and is a sarcastic "bad girl".

Rachel's current acting skills are enough to cope with this role, and she also did a very good job in the future "Transformed Hot Girls", a complete "bad girl". Then she continued to perform in the school beauties of "Mean Girls" and the daughter of "Love Notebook", which were all thumbs up. Her role as "Xia Pei-Evans" seems to be walking back to the original acting career path in the dark.

In terms of appearance, she has no problem. In addition, she dances very well and has a nice voice. Now, as long as she is sure that she is not completely without musical cells, Wang Yang will hand over the role of "Xia Pei-Evans" to her.

Why didn't she be allowed to audition for the heroine? Wang Yang had considered it, but finally gave up this idea. It had nothing to do with Rachel's appearance and acting skills. The reason was that she was the heroine of "The Legend of the Ghost". The influence of "The Legend of the Ghost" on her is that when the audience sees her, they will think of "Mer", which will be a little scary, which is not conducive to the feeling of watching the movie.

So she cannot be the heroine for the time being, and the market needs time to eliminate her impression of her; otherwise, she will continue to star in horror movies. This is the terrifying thing about the "label". Once you are classified as a "horror movie actor", sorry, it will be difficult for you to get the chance to act in a G-level movie.

Wang Yang felt apologized for this, but he would not give the role to Rachel and Zachary because of his apology. He is responsible for the movie, the company, and himself. "Singing and Dance" is very important to him. The outside world is waiting to see his jokes. He can't mess it up. If it is screwed up, it will not only affect his future, but will also cause dozens of employees of Flame Movie to face the crisis of unemployment.

He promised Chris Lynch that he would do the company better and better, and even more that he would make the movie well! If it was because of his own personalities that led to the failure of "Singing and Dance" and the company layoffs, he would not be able to forgive himself.

So the only reason why Rachel got "Shape-Evans" was that she was suitable for this role and she could handle it. The same was true for Zachary Levi, and Wang Yang wanted to hand over the role of "Ren-Evans" to him.

Of course, if there are several girls who are suitable for playing "Shape-Evans", he will choose Rachel; but if someone is much better than Rachel, he... will hesitate.

Thinking of this, Wang Yang held the mouse and opened the information sent by the institutions, and began to select the male and female protagonists.

Only in a small number of movies, these two characters are not the most important; but in all movies, no matter how long the male and female protagonists appear, they directly affect whether the movie can succeed. Especially in "Singing and Dance Youth", the "idol" of this movie is more important than the "powerful one". The male and female protagonists' appearance requirements are stricter than the acting requirements. They must be beautiful, cool, and be able to charm men and women of the same age, become the new idols of students, and make them crazy about it.

"No, I'm not tall enough and don't look dynamic..." Wang Yang looked at the audition photos on the screen with a focused face, and said to himself, clicked the mouse a few times, and eliminated the handsome guy on the screen. His name was deleted and he would not enter the second round of auditions.

"The eyes are not big enough, the eyes are not charming enough, no... The eyes are too big, they look cute, no..." After a while, Wang Yang deleted more than twenty young handsome guys of different types, and clicked on the next picture. A handsome white man with blue eyes and eyebrows appeared on the screen. Wang Yang was stunned and murmured: "Why is this guy so familiar?"

He stopped to look at the actor information of this photo. Jack Gillenhill was born on December 19, 1980, 183cm tall... He searched in his mind and suddenly realized that Jack Gillenhill was the protagonist of "Brokeback Mountain". Now this guy is still very tender and he can't recognize him for a while.

Jack Gillenhill? Wang Yang frowned and looked at his photos repeatedly. After thinking for a while, he finally shook his head and eliminated the future protagonist of "Brokeback Mountain". Jack Gillenhill is of course very handsome, but his type is not a sunny handsome guy, and it is not suitable for Troy Burton's temperament. He is too mature. It can be said that Jack Gillenhill is "handsome" rather than "handsome".

Wang Yang deleted more than a dozen actors in succession, and then another actor asked him to stop. Heath Ledger! Born on April 4, 1979, 185cm tall... Wang Yang couldn't help but sigh a little, Oh, my God, he is the male lead in "Brokeback Mountain"! There is also the clown in "Batman: The Dark Knight". This guy's future acting skills are amazing. His clown is simply superb and absolutely the best actor! However, after he played the clown, he no longer had a movie, and there was no relevant report from him in his mind. I don't know what was going on. Wang Yang thought about this, but shook his head and deleted Heath Ledger.

The reason is very simple. Heath Ledger's appearance does not match. He is not handsome enough and cannot play the charming effect of Troy Burton. He is a powerful person, not an idol person.

"No, you don't have the strong temperament of a basketball captain... No, you need sunshine..." Wang Yang kept clicking on the next one, and the next one, all the handsome guys were eliminated.

Wang Yang's hand now is like a "hand that creates idols". Those who stayed behind have the opportunity to star in Troy Burton. If "Singing and Dance Youth" is successful, "Troy Burton" will become a popular youth idol around the world and become famous overnight; those who are deleted by him, regardless of whether they will become famous in the future, they will forever lose the opportunity of "Singing and Dance Youth".

One by one, the male protagonist was eliminated, and in the end, there was no name that could enter the second round! Wang Yang couldn't help but be stunned. Could it be that he was too picky? Oh, please, where have the handsome sunshine guys gone?!

Wang Yangpo scratched his head helplessly. In this case, he had to send the casting list of the male lead to more agencies and expand the search scope. If there is no suitable candidate in Los Angeles, he might have to search in New York. Now he had to start audition for the female lead. There are quite a few candidates recommended by the female lead, almost twice as many as the male lead.

This is normal. Actresses will become famous earlier. Most of them are from child stars, child models, etc. They are the most popular when they are young, and then they are replaced by newly debuted beauties a few years later. Most male actors become more and more charming as they get older and have little fame when they are young. However, when they are middle-aged, many people suddenly become angry and become first-class superstars.

Among these girls, few of them were well-known, let alone star-level actors. It’s nothing surprising, the 18-year-old director’s debut film film, small-cost investment, singing and dancing films... These factors seem to indicate a word “bad film”.

"The smile is beautiful, good... Well, the eyes are charming, not bad..." Wang Yang browsed the photos of these young and beautiful girls one by one, some were eliminated, and some were selected for the second round.

These beautiful girls have their own characteristics and temperaments. The heroine Gabriela's requirement in appearance is to be beautiful, smile sweetly, have a certain figure, no higher than 180cm. So, how many beautiful girls are not sweet when they smile? So this time, Wang Yang finally gained something. Only some of them are too short, have different temperaments, or are old-fashioned, and look too tender will be kicked out.

"Wow, beautiful girl!" Looking at this picture, Wang Yang smiled well and stopped. The picture shows a white girl with black hair, mixed golden colors, black eyes, tall nose, and sweet appearance. He looked at the girl's information, named Jennifer Love Hewitt, born on February 21, 1979, 160cm tall, and has played a small role in many movies. She learned to dance and sing since she was a child. Last year, she also won the Hollywood Reporter's Award for "Best Young Star", and it seemed that her future was bright.

Wang Yang didn't have to think about it, so he hooked up Jennifer's name and continued to look at the next picture.

After more than a dozen beautiful girls, he gained new gains. A sexy and charming beauty with a sweet smile, Eliza Dushku, born on December 30, 1980, is 165cm tall. She has also learned dance since she was a child and can play the piano. She became famous when she was 14 years old. That year she starred in "The True Lies" and played the daughter of Arnold Schwarzenegger in the film.

"Another!" Wang Yang happily called Eliza Dushku's name. There were more than a dozen beautiful girls who could enter the second round of auditions, and several of them were able to sing and dance since childhood. There seemed to be no need to worry about Gabriela's candidates. In terms of appearance alone, these beautiful girls are very suitable.

After browsing for a while, Wang Yang looked at the girl with teeth on the screen and couldn't help but smile: "Jessica Alba? Born on April 28, 1981, 170cm tall... OK!" He nodded, hooked Jessica's name on, and smiled at the screen: "Of course, you have entered the second round."

He looked at the candidate names that were now hooked, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Eliza Dushku, Jodana Brewster... Undoubtedly, Jessica was the only one who competed in appearance alone, and in the future, as she became more and more charming, she also got more performance opportunities. Although she won some "Golden Raspberry Awards", she achieved the highest achievement among these girls.
Chapter completed!