The Best Director

Chapter 265 Pleasing to the Eye

“There’s one more thing,” Andrea, played by Jessica, turns around in the elegantly decorated, spacious room on the big screen of the screening room, looking at the emotionless silver-haired Meryl Streep, and says with a smile, “FUCK YOU, Miranda, FUCK YOU!” In a close-up shot, she turns and strides away, a truly relieved and sweet smile on her face, with Miranda slowly blurring into the background.”

The words FUCK YOU were not a resentful curse, nor vulgar abuse but a subtle psychological statement. Andrea actually understood the plight of Miranda, a powerful woman, and her previous dissatisfaction vanished at the moment she made a life choice. It was like scoffing at Miranda’s ‘everyone loves the superficial,’ no longer fearing the monster, a declaration of finally overcoming herself, of breaking free from Miranda’s control and reclaiming herself.

What’s the best thing to say when rejecting the fashion world? Shatter its façade of elegance and beauty, FUCK.

“She’s just a kid,” Meryl Streep remains indifferent, flipping through a magazine with a nearly inaudible voice: “Disappointed.”

Listening to the upbeat soundtrack and watching the ending unfold, Wang Yang also smiles from his seat in front of the screen, thinking, “Thank you, Jessica, for still choosing me.” Margaret, Varese Faust, composer David Lawrence, and Mark Strang also reveal smiles on their faces. Soon the 120 minutes of footage comes to an end, the end credits and cast list appear, and Wang Yang applauds, saying with a smile, “That was great! What do you all think?”

“It’s really good,” “Fantastic!” the three of them also applaud with smiles, very satisfied with the work.

Mark Strang, the outsider of the production team, also applauds and nods. The 120 minutes flowed smoothly from start to finish, lighthearted and humorous with moments of bewilderment and struggle. The acting was exquisite, the sets and props were top-notch, the color palette was soft and refreshing, bright and full. The cinematography was fresh and simple, and the story was completely under the masterful control of the director. If we were to categorize it among Wang Yang’s works, it would belong to the same camp as ‘The Pursuit of Happyness’ and ‘Juno,’ truly a visually delightful classic film.

“Thank you, everyone, thank you, Maggie!” Wang Yang looks to Margaret on his right, the middle-aged woman with glasses, and sincerely thanks her with a smile: “You saved my life.”

Wang Yang is grateful to Margaret for her wake-up call, otherwise this 120-minute story would remain the same, but it would be very different in its expression of details, enough to turn an A+ into a C+. Because of her scolding and intervention, he regained his passion from the time of conception and filming, not treating it as merely a job or task, but as a movie worth dedicating himself to, personally supervising the editing, soundtrack, and color grading along with all the post-production work.

He was very satisfied with this version. Underneath its brisk pacing, Andrea’s layered psychological changes, Miranda, Emily, and others were all depicted, telling an interesting story with an explosive ending while also expressing everything he wanted to discuss. He thought this was already the pinnacle of “effortless storytelling” for this type of story, the best he could do, and at this moment, he felt satisfied and happy.

“Don’t mention it,” Margaret replies with a smile, adjusting her glasses and feeling relieved. Although the market has too many uncertainties, in all fairness, this is a work that has almost all the components for a blockbuster. Not only does she think so, but everyone who has seen this theatrical version also has the idea that “this Christmas, we have another box office hit.” They all believe it wouldn’t be a problem for it to gross $200 million or $300 million worldwide.

Wang Yang pats Margaret on the shoulder, stands up, and says with a laugh: “Let’s send it to the MPAA for rating, but I’m sure it’ll get a PG.”

“Of course,” everyone stands up with smiles, leaving the screening room together. There was no violence, no horror, not even a kiss scene… just two objectionable swear words “FUCK YOU,” otherwise, it might even be rated G.

“However, relative to your other works, ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ doesn’t have many of your trademarks,” Mark Strang continues his review of ‘Prada’ as they walk back to the office. Wang Yang laughs uncertainly: “What trademarks?” Strang ponders before responding, “It’s just not that stunning. ‘Paranormal Activity’ can scare people to death, ‘The Hangover’ can make them laugh to death, ’21’ is indescribably cool, ‘District 9,’ ‘Juno,’ ‘High School Musical’…”

He looks at Wang Yang with an expression of admiration: “My boss, you always shock the audience, oh my!” Wang Yang shrugs, and Strang spreads his hands, “But ‘Prada’ is like ‘The Pursuit of Happyness,’ like a warm cup of water—it just isn’t as deeply moving.”

“What else do you want, what else do you expect it to be?” Wang Yang laughs, was he expected to be Superman? Did every movie have to reach an extreme of “scaring to death,” “laughing to death,” “being too cool”? Or reach the level of ‘The Godfather’? The truth is there are so many nuanced types of films, so many sensory experiences. Some offer extremes and insights that ‘The Godfather’ and ‘The Shawshank Redemption’ cannot provide. ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ represents one of those gentle and light-hearted types.

“I think it wouldn’t be bad for Best Picture at the Oscars,” Strang also laughs, feigning confusion, “Why not, you have Meryl Streep.”

Wang Yang punches him playfully as they continue walking and laughing, “No, I couldn’t care less about the Oscars, not aiming for it.” He just wanted to capture the impulses and thoughts he had at the time, to make a satisfying film. He says, “If you’re after an Oscar, you might adapt that novel into a dark fashion world story, discussing power, money, temptation, corruption… probing deeply into human nature, not the current lighthearted ‘life choices.'”

“But you still have ways of grossing $300 million worldwide, right?” Strang naturally understood his point; following that approach would result in a completely different film, one that might win over critics and juries, but it would be harder to please mainstream audiences.

“I don’t know, it’s not a good idea, the subject shouldn’t be treated like that,” says Wang Yang, shaking his head decisively. Of course, the movie is almost ready to be released, and nothing said now will change it; but if he had to do it all over again, he would still make the same choice as the original, to treat the grumbling, resentful ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ with humor and light-heartedness. What’s more important to him is to showcase the transformation of the characters’ emotions.

Wang Yang continued, “If we abandon the idea of an art film and talk about commercial films, you can’t take it to an extreme and make something like ‘The Hangover’ or ’21’. That would actually ruin it. This theme, this content, it needs to be told in a gentle way—then, bam! THE END.” He patted the nodding Mark Strong on the back, smiling, “I don’t need the audience to experience too many emotional ups and downs. Just enjoy the whole movie for a pleasant evening. Isn’t that good? People will like it, just watch.”

“I can’t think of a reason why audiences, especially female audiences, wouldn’t like it.” Mark Strong chuckled, giving a thumbs-up and laughing in praise, “You’re right. I now feel that even if the initial adaptation fee was ten million, we should have bought that book. But I do have a worry…” He said seriously, “The reaction from the critics—I don’t know if they will accept this kind of ‘mediocrity’.”

The decline in the critical reception had been a major worry for Mark Strong lately. Previously, Firefly was like Pixar; when you saw the Firefly logo on the movie screen, no matter how alternative the film was, the audience knew it was definitely good. But now, after the setbacks with “Life Dance” and “Saw”, the media onslaught was sure to influence some of the audience’s decisions, causing the brand value of “Firefly” to fall.

These voices would affect box office sales and even more so the sales in later stages. A company that grows larger and releases more films on a large scale each year naturally finds it difficult to win the hearts of both the audience and critics, especially a daring independent film company like Firefly. The company meetings agreed that perhaps this was about shedding a burden, or rather, maintaining the reputation of “Firefly production, audience favorite” was enough.

And what about their biggest star, the “Cash-Grabbing Chairman” Wang Yang? Could he keep doubling profits? Everyone at Firefly tended to think he could. But on the other hand, it was like a basketball game where a superstar averages 50 or 60 points per game. Fans and experts get used to him scoring an average of 55 points, and then suddenly he drops to 30 points in one game. Thirty points is not low, but it’s 25 points less than usual. What happened? The experts wouldn’t stay quiet.

Especially since they had been particularly disgruntled with Firefly films recently… Mark Strong looked at Wang Yang’s calm face and spread his hands, “Maybe I’m overthinking it, but anyway, I found it delightful to watch.”

Wang Yang didn’t respond. As far as he knew, the 2006 version of “The Devil Wears Prada” was ridiculed as “a fashion show”, but it still had a freshness rating of 76% and 84%. He had a sense of aesthetic judgment too, and the current “Prada” was obviously superior, definitely not a rotten tomato. He asked casually, “It’s a good movie, what reason is there to criticize it?”

“Is ‘Saw’ a good movie?” Mark Strong countered with a question.

“Haha!” Wang Yang couldn’t help laughing. That just demonstrated the limitations of the critical realm. He readily admitted he liked acclaim and awards; he wouldn’t disdain film criticism awards and always reminded himself not to get carried away with such praise. Beneath the beautiful facade of the butterfly, he must maintain the heart of the original moth, Marg had saved his life; but this beautiful moth wouldn’t seek praise for the sake of it or please anyone, let alone satisfy everyone. It was just continuing to fly toward its original goal.

Wang Yang shrugged and said, “I don’t care.”

“Hmm.” Mark Strong silently nodded, hoping he wouldn’t face a “Saw” kind of situation. Since this marvel had stepped onto the big screen, it hadn’t faced any real criticism. Saying he didn’t care now, but would that truly be the case if it happened? Still, that was a low probability event. He laughed, “We’re taking this too seriously—those guys won’t turn a blind eye to good movies, a good film is a good film.”

“Not necessarily, ‘The Hangover’ received a lot of negative reviews,” Wang Yang said with a laugh, patting him on the back and striding towards his office.

By mid-November, the entire production of “The Devil Wears Prada” was completed. With its production cost fixed at a personal record second-highest of 55 million, aside from some promotional work related to it, Wang Yang’s shoulders were truly lightened. He could now focus all his attention on the passionate preparations for “Firefly,” with casting the suitable actors for the roles naturally being a major focus.

He had just thought of an important candidate for a role, not one of the crew members of Serenity, but “Firefly’s” number one antagonist—the federal agent sent by the Alliance to capture River, known as “Blue Gloves.”

“Blue Gloves” was actually the nickname for that secret police organization because they all wore suits and donned a pair of blue gloves, tasked with “bringing River back and killing anyone who has had contact with her, including Alliance officials.” Joss Whedon’s original TV script featured two Blue Gloves for this task; now for the big screen, Wang Yang cut it down to one.

In behavior, Blue Gloves was an utterly bad person. For the sake of a “New World,” he wouldn’t blink an eye while killing, even if he had to personally slaughter a million, or ten million innocent people. He believed the death of these people was worth the birth of a “New World,” and anything that obstructed the “New World” had to be destroyed. On the day the New World actually arrived, he would only take a look and then kill himself.

That was his belief, what he considered his own value. On the surface, Blue Gloves seemed a loyal dog to the Alliance, or rather, thoroughly brainwashed by the Alliance; but no, his ideals simply aligned with those of the Alliance. So, if destroying the entire Alliance would bring about a New World, he would also not hesitate.

Describing this character would be like calling it a “calm storm” — with righteousness yet wickedness, calm yet with a touch of absolute determination, a devil with a streak of kindness… It’s certainly not an easy role to play, and physically he needs to be imposing and preferably handsome and charming.

After considering many people, Wang Yang first extended an audition invitation to Brad Pitt. He had always admired Brad Pitt on the silver screen, whether in “Interview with the Vampire” or “Fight Club”. But would Brad Pitt agree to a significant antagonist that was not the main character? Wang Yang thought it was worth a try. (.)