23 years ago, Liu Cixin's novel "The Wandering Earth" was published for the first time in the "Science Fiction World" magazine founded in Chengdu. While shocking the world, it also planted a dream seed for Guo Fan, who had just entered university; 23 years ago Finally, the movie "The Wandering Earth 2", which shined during the Spring Festival, was also co-produced by Eying Group located in Chengdu, so this movie has a deep relationship with Chengdu.

　　On February 3, Guo Fan brought the main creative team of "The Wandering Earth 2" to Chengdu. When interviewed by West China Metropolis Daily and cover news reporters, the talented young director opened his heart and revealed the behind-the-scenes story of the film. And his thoughts on the future development of China's science fiction industry.

　　Guo Fan said that science fiction filmmakers have a lot of inspiration from science fiction literature.

"I hope there will be more categories and perspectives of science fiction literature, so that our thinking space and angles can be better expanded."

College Entrance Exam Composition

Planting dreams for sci-fi movies

　　Since the release of "The Wandering Earth 2", key plots such as "digital life" and "memory transplantation" have continued to spark heated discussions among movie fans.

Sharp-eyed netizens discovered that film producer Gong Geer and director Guo Fan both took the college entrance examination in 1999, and the topic of their essays that year happened to be "If Memory Can Be Transplanted".

　　In an interview, Guo Fan talked about the impact of his college entrance examination composition on him.

Guo Fan said: "The 1999 composition question itself was very sci-fi. When I saw this question at the time, I found it very interesting. a movie."

　　In Guo Fan's view, this composition has something to do with digital life.

"It may have planted a seed of imagination at that time, and it also caused teenagers like me to think about it as they grew up. I was very impressed by this, because when I opened the book, I found that this topic was similar to the one that the teacher had bet on before. The topics are different."

　　Reporter: "The Wandering Earth 2" has been released abroad. Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb (Internet Movie Database) have high scores. Compared with Hollywood counterparts, the gap between Chinese science fiction films and them is gradually narrowing. What are our strengths and weaknesses? ?

　　Guo Fan: We are gradually closing this distance, but we will move forward step by step, just like when we are making this movie, you will find more difficulties than the first one.

We thought it was a process from 1 to 2, but later found that it was very similar to filming the first film, that is, starting from scratch again.

　　When the scale, shooting difficulty and plot complexity of "The Wandering Earth 2" increase, we still don't know how to solve these new problems.

We also joked that we shot the "Wandering Earth" series from workshops to construction sites, and the next step may be the prototype of industrialization, which requires us to continue to explore.

　　This time we invited more than 20 interns from the Film Academy to work in various departments, and they mainly helped us record mistakes.

Every day we have problems that, if not addressed in time, may be forgotten after a day or two.

After the movie wrapped, we accumulated a thick book full of mistakes.

Now the school teachers also help us to sort out a preliminary process, which has two pages, and we will review it after the road show.

Making a sci-fi movie needs to be done step by step, and you can't become a fat man in one go.

　　Reporter: "The Wandering Earth" has 2008 visual effects scenes, how many visual effects scenes are there in "The Wandering Earth 2", and which scenes are the most difficult?

　　Guo Fan: We counted a little over 3,300 visual effects shots for this one, but this is a very complicated calculation, because there are more than 1,000 visual effects shots that are related to faces.

In the movie, the facial details of the actors will be optimized and changed, but at the same time, the visual effects in the background of the actors will still exist.

We divided this kind of visual effects production into two parts, one part is to "change the face" separately, and the other part is to do whatever the visual effects behind it do.

In this way, there are more than 4,000 visual effects shots in the whole film.

take the next one

There is still a long development process

　　Reporter: How can science fiction reading cultivate the imagination of young people?

　　Guo Fan: This is a process from quantitative change to qualitative change. I think whether it is science fiction literature or film and television works, when young audiences watch more and more, they will always find a point, like being particularly enlightened. Focus on a point.

I was most fascinated by things related to machines. Later, when I wanted to do science fiction film and television, I found that in our knowledge framework, in addition to machines, we also need theoretical support. Read books on celestial bodies and quantum physics, and gradually expand your thinking.

　　Through continuous reading, the framework of scientific knowledge will be slowly established. If we want to construct a work with a unique worldview next, you will find that this knowledge reserve is not enough, so you have to pay attention to some social science books, such as social science. What is the structure of

What will the future society look like?

This requires reading some futuristic books... This is like a seed, it will take root and sprout, and the veins it unfolds are your knowledge framework.

　　Reporter: Liu Cixin said some time ago that "The Wandering Earth 2" has little to do with his original work, because it is an original work of the film's creative team, not an adaptation of the original novel.

Is it because you remade a new world?

　　Guo Fan: I think the core has not changed, because Liu (Liu Cixin) has constructed the grand fulcrum of "The Wandering Earth", which is to take the earth to wander, and there is a very profound Chinese cultural attribute behind it.

This is the soul of the entire film, and we just expanded our worldview based on this.

　　In 2000, "The Wandering Earth" was published in the "Science Fiction World" magazine, and it has been 23 years.

At that time, the Internet had just started, mobile phones were not popular, and there were no cameras. Now, our lives have been changed by technology.

We are thinking, how can today's audience have more empathy and recognition?

Therefore, today's algorithms, numbers, and virtual things are added into the movie, and some concepts in the original work are replaced. For example, the battle between the earth faction and the spaceship faction written in the novel has become a battle between reality and virtuality.

　　Reporter: Does "The Wandering Earth 3" require viewers to wait another four years?

　　Guo Fan: There is a research and development process. For example, in the second part, we did a lot of tests when we were doing Liu Peiqiang's youthful and aging faces, and also integrated a lot of domestic and foreign technologies. This process will be relatively long.

　　Wu Jing:

　　Want to try innovative action movies in the future

　　Four years ago, "The Wandering Earth" ushered in a new era of Chinese science fiction films. Actor Wu Jing played a pivotal role in the film. Before the stage, he played the Chinese astronaut Liu Peiqiang with flesh and blood; Guo Fan's support is affectionate and righteous.

On February 3, when interviewed by West China Metropolis Daily and cover news reporters, Wu Jing revealed some of his next work plans, such as conducting recovery training for his injured body parts, paving the way for his return to the field of action movies in the future.

　　It's very cool to play with Andy Lau "separately"

　　Liu Peiqiang is the soul character in the movie "The Wandering Earth" series. When asked how to create this character, Wu Jing said frankly: "I didn't think about how to set it up, I just interpreted it according to the role given by the director. Guo Fan wrote a chronicle, I am a small part of it. He has already set the growth line of Liu Peiqiang's character. We follow this growth line to deduce it. This is a technical job. It happens that everyone has never seen Wu Jing play a shy boy before. .Besides, I used to beat people a lot. This time I was beaten, and many people must have enjoyed watching it very well. If my beating can bring happiness to the audience, then my sacrifice is worth it.”

　　Reporter: This time fans hope that you and Andy Lau will have a rivalry scene, but in the end you two passed each other on the big screen. Is this a little regret for you?

　　Wu Jing: Maybe you want to see two people performing face to face, where everyone competes in acting skills and skills.

But in fact, if there is a "layer of glass" in the movie, the performance of the two people will look better, and I prefer that feeling.

If you use "fighting" to describe this scene, Brother Hua can't see my dialogue, I can't see his face, one can't hear, the other can't see, there is a thick layer of things in between, all of which are voice-overs Remind us, that MOSS is speaking.

At that time, two people in different situations made choices for their own families, and the two actors had different understandings of their roles, but the rhythm of the two was so synchronized, and the scene was magically accomplished.

Maybe this kind of "fighting scene" will be more enjoyable. This is an inexplicable sense of wonder, the meaning is still unfinished, the feeling will be more refreshing, and it will be more memorable.

　　I want to make another innovative action movie

　　Reporter: Netizens are very concerned about how your leg injury is recovering?

Because seeing that you are still wearing knee pads, does this bring some inconvenience to life?

　　Wu Jing: Thank you for your concern. After the road show of "The Wandering Earth 2" this time, I plan to lock myself up for restorative training and rehabilitation. These tasks must be carried out gradually.

After all, I have worked a lot these years, and only my body and family will accompany you to the end. I don’t want to be in a wheelchair when I get old, and my wife is pushing you behind.

Therefore, I want to recover my body and accumulate for the future plans and the movies I want to make later.

　　Reporter: Are you talking about "The Wandering Earth 3"?

　　Wu Jing: No.

"The Wandering Earth" is like Guo Fan's child. He brought this child out with his shit and piss. He is equivalent to taking this child to two universities, one for four years and another for four years.

As for me, I was born in action movies, and I want to see if I can make some innovations and let our action movies go to the world again.