Audition 1

What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again.

—Günter Grass, "Gathering at Tergett," 1979

……

Beijing Film Studio attached great importance to "Let the Bullets Fly," almost making it a key project for the second half of the year.

Director Wang even directly approved 80 yuan in funding for the production team, which was truly unprecedented.

In this era, the cost of an ordinary film is only around 200,000 to 500,000 yuan, while a slightly better one costs around 600,000 yuan.

A film with a budget of one million is considered a big production, but those are war films because the scale is grand and the budget is naturally higher.

The fact that the Beijing Film Studio received an 80 yuan grant for "Let the Bullets Fly" also demonstrates the studio's ambitious vision.

At that time, the film industry was still implementing a "unified distribution and purchase" system, which meant that after major film studios across the country finished making their films, China Film Group Corporation would distribute them uniformly.

The "China Film" mentioned here refers to the China Film Exhibition and Distribution Company, established in 1951, not the later China Film Group.

The revenue of film studios is paid by China Film Group Corporation as a percentage of the film's distribution and screening, as well as the number of copies distributed. It is said to be 15%.

This system clearly restricts the development of film production, but in this day and age, it still supports many film studios to survive.

Because there is no fertile ground for commercial films yet, and the film market is still immature, if we leave everything to the market to choose, many film production companies may go bankrupt on the spot.

It wasn't until 1993 that the unified sales and purchase system for this film was legally abolished, with a transitional policy implemented in between.

In 1995, China Film Corporation completely abolished the "unified purchase and distribution" system for domestic films, and this system was completely phased out of history.

The investment of 800,000 yuan caused quite a stir in the film industry, with everyone speculating about what kind of film this new production from Beijing Film Studio would be.

Many actors are also getting restless. Who wouldn't want to participate in a big-budget film, especially when the director is the well-established and renowned director Chen Huaikai?

On the first day, nearly a hundred actors showed up, vying for roles big and small.

Chen Huaikai originally wanted to start by auditioning actors from the Beijing Film Studio, but now he had to loosen the restrictions and start auditions on a first-come, first-served basis.

Of course, under the same conditions, actors from Beijing Film Studio will definitely be given priority in recruitment.

Chen Huaikai and his team arrived, consisting of two assistant directors, one slightly older and one younger.

The older one is named Yu Yang, 49 years old this year. He used to be an actor, but only started directing two years ago. He was looking for scripts when Chen Huaikai called him over to be an assistant director.

The young Zhou Qiyue is quite remarkable, only 32 years old this year. There isn't much information about him online; the only notable thing is that he was the screenwriter for Li Hanxiang's 1986 novel "Fire Dragon".

After introductions, we got down to business.

Huang Wenbin doesn't know much about the actors from this era. Even though he watched some movies from this period last year, he can't remember many of them.

Therefore, even though Chen Huaikai said his opinion should be respected, he did not express his opinion casually.

If you don't even have this much emotional intelligence, then you really shouldn't be in the film industry.

For the next few hours, Huang Wenbin held a stack of actors' information and kept flipping through it.

The original "Let the Bullets Fly" was a film about older men. The three main actors, Jiang Wen, were 47 years old at the time, while Chow Yun-fat and Ge You were over 50.

However, the main characters in most of the films currently being reviewed and approved are young people.

Therefore, when Huang Wenbin wrote this script, he deliberately made their ages more than ten years younger, so the actors needed now are in the 30 to 45 age range.

Of course, if it matches the character's temperament, the age restriction can be relaxed.

There were quite a few actors who came to audition, but after auditioning several young actors from the factory, it was found that none of them were quite suitable.

Zhang Mazi possesses a rough and rugged temperament. He is very unruly, but not truly a bandit. Instead, he exudes a powerful aura of authority and has the composure and confidence to control the entire situation at any time.

Most of the young actors in the factory are handsome and upright.

At this time, Wang Xingang, a former rising star in the factory, came to audition.

He is exactly 47 years old this year, the same age as Jiang Wen when he filmed this movie.

In fact, Wang Xingang's face is the typical template face of a positive figure of this era. He looks heroic and righteous.

However, he has a wealth of life experience and is a very good actor. He is quite skilled at portraying the complexity of the character Zhang Mazi.

Chen Huaikai liked it quite a bit, so he kept it for future use.

It was difficult to find an actor to play Zhang Mazi, and Chen Huaikai was also not satisfied with the actors who played Ma Bangde and Huang Silang.

The actors who came were all the kind who played villains in war films; you could tell they were villains just by looking at their faces, and they were evil to the core.

This is also the current trend: the male lead must be perfect and all-powerful, and the villain must be evil at first glance; otherwise, it will easily confuse the audience and be detrimental to promotion.

However, Huang Wenbin mentioned this to Chen Huaikai a few days ago. The role of Huang Silang is very important. He is not a traditional villain. His personality is very complex. Moreover, he has received higher education and even studied in Japan. Therefore, the actor chosen must have this kind of temperament.

The original Chow Yun-fat played heroic and chivalrous roles when he was young, such as Hui Man-keung in "Shanghai Bund", Mark in "A Better Tomorrow", and Li Mu Bai in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon".

He only started playing villains when he got older, such as the emperor in "Curse of the Golden Flower" and Huang Silang in "Let the Bullets Fly".

He also possesses a powerful aura, and if his opponents are not strong enough, their acting skills will be directly crushed, such as the actors in "Curse of the Golden Flower" except for Gong Li.

These requirements make it difficult to find suitable actors.

We can only search slowly; if we really can't find it, then we'll have to lower our standards.

There has been no progress regarding actresses as well.

Although there are only two or three female characters, the county magistrate's wife and Sister Hua have relatively few scenes.

But both of these characters are equally fascinating and complex.

The county magistrate's wife was also a former prostitute, and having experienced the ways of the world for so long, she exuded an involuntary allure that would be difficult for modern actresses to match.

The role of Sister Hua is highly sought after because it is relatively easy to get the part, and on the surface, she is not much different from the female lead in many movies nowadays.

For example, 28-year-old Zhang Jinling and 25-year-old Li Xiuming both came to compete for the role.

Chen Huaikai felt that Li Xiuming was a bit too gentle, while Zhang Jinling was more suitable. They could decide on her first and let her try out the role.

The remaining supporting roles went quite smoothly, such as Liao Bingyan, who was specifically mentioned by Huang Wenbin.

Liao Bingyan is actually a stage actor from Hunan. It just so happens that he has been performing in Beijing in the past two years and has gained some fame in the industry.

However, he didn't have much involvement in film, except for a role in the 1976 film version of "Maple Bay," which had only a moderate impact.

He didn't know why he received an audition notice from Beijing Film Studio, but he still came.

The role Liao Bingyan played was the third son of his future son, Liao Fanfan.

"Try this scene. You have two minutes to prepare." Chen Huaikai chose a scene, which was the scene where the third brother spoke while holding the tombstone during the memorial service for the sixth brother.

Huang Wenbin immediately took out the script for that scene and handed it over.

"Thank you." Liao Bingyan smiled gratefully at Huang Wenbin, then watched the scene.

Two minutes later, Liao Bingyan had a better understanding of the situation, so he nodded to Chen Huaikai and said, "Director Chen, I'm ready."

Chen Huaikai turned to Huang Wenbin and said, "Alright, Xiao Huang, you play the seventh brother in front and help Comrade Liao get into character."

"what?"

Huang Wenbin was a little surprised, but he quickly composed himself and said, "Okay."

He quickly got into character, immediately mimicking the seventh brother's tone, slightly choked with emotion and displeasure, and hoarsely said, "Sixth Brother, Seventh Brother swears to avenge you!"

"My second brother is drunk. He asked me to pass on a message: he swears to avenge you!"

The tone, expression, and emotion were all perfectly captured.

Chen Huaikai's eyes lit up, but he didn't say anything to disturb them.

Liao Bingyan quickly picked up on this sentiment, lowering his voice and fiercely declaring, "Sixth Brother, Third Brother swears to avenge you!"

His eyes blazed with anger: "Second brother isn't drunk, he's angry!"

A hint of resentment crept in: "Our leader doesn't want us to fight to the death! If we're not going to risk our lives, are we still bandits?!"

As he spoke, he glanced resentfully to the side, then quickly looked away: "That guy surnamed Tang is no good; Big Brother shouldn't have listened to him!"

After reciting his lines, he angrily retreated to the back, but his eyes remained fixed on a certain direction.

"Very good! Very beautiful!"

Chen Huaikai was very satisfied with this, and even clapped his hands, saying, "The role of the third brother is yours!"