＂Tomorrow’s War＂ is a hot film of Louis Koo, and how ambitious is it？

Special feature of 1905 film network After waiting for 7 years, I finally met the audience.From the official announcement of this project, from the pre-announcement to the information revealed from time to time, it is enough to witness the trader behind the film — —Louis Koo; Tin LokThe heart.

As we all know, this is his long-planned ambition.In 2015, the official announcement of the project cost 450 million Hong Kong dollars, of which the light special effects took five years.

Why did the special effects take so long?Because Louis Koo insisted on using the China team to create the whole film, starting from scratch, as he said, "If you use a foreign team, it will be easy to do it, because you can’t learn anything. If you shoot again, you will let others help you, and you will never learn."

In fact, as early as 2009, when Louis Koo was promoting, he said more than once, "In the future, I want to make a science fiction film that belongs to Asia."

But if we want to trace back to the singularity of this idea, it may take longer, but it may be a glimmer in Louis Koo’s heart at that time, or a "force" that has not yet been excavated.

01. singularity

Today’s Louis Koo, in the eyes of the outside world, has many labels — — The "Gu Principal" who has devoted himself to charity, as the dual "Gu President" of the Hong Kong Film Workers’ Federation and the President of the Hong Kong Artists Association, has always maintained the "Gu Model" of film creation and the "Gu Boss" of many film and television companies.

But before 2009, for many viewers, he was a childhood male god, an actor with acting skills, and there were no other more identity labels.

Around the Millennium, Louis Koo, who won many awards on the small screen, turned to the big screen completely.Although in many urban light comedies, he can be seen as the leading actor, handsome appearance, and this kind of film has a high degree of adaptability, but in more A-class movies, he mostly appears as a supporting role.

It was not until 2007 that he was nominated for the first film award. Even the director bluntly said, "Gu Zi started to really put aside his idol burden from this movie. Later, there was no shackles at all, so the opportunities became a lot. "

With more and more opportunities, more aspects of Louis Koo were gradually revealed. In 2008, he published the book Toy Wars.

Just like what has been told repeatedly, Louis Koo is a sci-fi fan, and he has been obsessed with the "Dark Knight" in movies since he was a child.

It was the first sci-fi movie his parents took him to see, and he was quickly attracted by the mysterious Darth Vader wearing a black helmet. Perhaps there, it became the beginning of his sci-fi movie dream.

Boys always like to play with all kinds of remote-controlled cars and model cars when they are young. If possible, they must want to collect all of them.

The same is true of Louis Koo. The ancient mother once said that he likes to assemble the model car little by little and put it neatly at home, "and then show a satisfied look".Maybe I really answered the sentence, "A man is a teenager until he dies".

In 2003, Louis Koo went to Cannes International Film Festival with the crew, passing by a toy store, and saw a 1:1 half-length Darth Vader model with his mask off. He wanted it very much, but the shopkeeper was reluctant to give up at first.

Unexpectedly, Louis Koo, in order to show his sincerity, bought other models in the shop in one gulp, only with the owner’s consent, bought the Darth Vader.

At this point, he started the journey of collecting models crazily. As the screenwriter described it, "the degree of investment can be said to be’ plunged into it’".

When he bought more and more models, he directly bought a warehouse to store them. He once compared the recording site of a program, "almost, even bigger", and the recording site covers an area of about 1200 square meters.

Since then, it seems that he has added a label, a teenager who loves to play with hand-made toys.However, there is always a barrier to the behavior of collecting this second element by hand. Some media have asked him if he has time to play with his hand in the near future. As a result, he looked wooden. "Huh? I’m not 3 years old, and I still play with my hand? They are just collections. "

It is true that all his collections are aimed at understanding how these foreign model mechs are designed. "I never liked to play with those toys. They are as tall as us. What’s so interesting about them? I bought them for research. In the future, I hope I can make a science fiction film, which we have never had in Asia, but I think it will take a long time to study."

In the program at that time, the host didn’t understand him and asked, "Is it seven?" At that time, it was just released for one year, and it was already the science fiction movie closest to the audience.

Obviously, the sci-fi movie that Louis Koo wants to shoot is obviously not the kind of parent-child comedy, but he doesn’t avoid it either. It is really after watching Changjiang No.7 that he has strengthened his confidence in shooting sci-fi movies.

02. The best in the world

Louis Koo had a plan in mind after he firmly established the idea of sci-fi movies. It would take about eight years to realize it, and the biggest problems he encountered were high investment and special effects.

He has looked for many film and television companies for this, and he has touched the wall and has been affirmed. In any case, he is laying the foundation for realizing this idea.

For a long time in the past, the film density in Louis Koo was extremely high, but the word-of-mouth was mixed. To put it mildly, a model worker; What is not pleasant to say is "the king of bad movies".

It’s not that no one around him has advised him to spend more time choosing scripts. His answer is always, "I want to film, and many people need me."

I can’t be idle, and I can’t be idle.Over time, this artist who doesn’t want to rest has become an invisible rich man in the entertainment circle. In 2013, he set up his own film and television company, which is a "one in the world" company integrating film creation and distribution, post-production, artist brokerage and equipment leasing.

The biggest reason for setting up this company is for Tomorrow’s Battle.

Through "Best in the World", Louis Koo has successively acquired a number of post-production companies specializing in post-production and digital special effects, including FATface production, the most important post-production company of Battle of Tomorrow.

Tung shing Yee lamented more than once that Louis Koo is one of the "pillars" of the Hong Kong film industry. "He makes money and puts it in movies. Movies are very expensive, so he actually invests fully in the bank. "

Finally, in 2015, Louis Koo announced with great confidence that The Battle of Tomorrow was launched.

The director is a newcomer, but his other identity is the boss of FATface production, and he has participated in the visual effects production of many films such as Painted Skin.

Louis Koo also looked for other directors, but everyone felt that they had never made such a film and didn’t know how to make it. "I need someone who is very familiar with special effects to cooperate." Moreover, his idea is very simple. The film should be made by his own local team, not by a foreign team, and everything should be done by himself.The words are simple, but the challenges are great.

The special effects team can’t be quick in one day, but can only accumulate experience from different projects as if it were an upgrade. For a long time, many China films, especially those made in Hong Kong, can see the shadow of "the best in the world" at the end of the film.

And the most important part of the mecha design, Louis Koo invited Mike Nash, a "god-class" designer in the game industry, to make it. Almost every step is the top presentation.

Just like his Toy Wars, many book fans read it and thought it was an ordinary photo, but they didn’t expect to interpret each model in great detail.

This kind of understanding is more thorough in "Tomorrow’s War". Even Yuen Fai Ng, the director who is also a sci-fi fan, is ashamed. "It is difficult to find an actor who knows so much about science fiction. To some extent, he is a consultant."

In the end, "Battle of Tomorrow" used more than 1,700 special effects shots, accounting for 90% of the whole film, and the difficulty of making special effects in the later period can be imagined.

There is a line in the film, "We decide what the ending is", which may also be Louis Koo’s footnote in "Tomorrow’s War".

As for what will follow?He also wants to shoot more sci-fi movies made by China’s team.

Not long ago, he just officially announced another sci-fi movie "Ladder". "Because of the first time, it will be easier to do it next time. That is a brand-new space story. The shooting is ten times more complicated than this one. It will build a 360-degree large LED and create an IMAX effect. "

03. Beyond the story

The War of Tomorrow seems to be more like the other side of Louis Koo’s "model worker", which is divorced from rapid creation and realizes its value more delicately.It seems to be to realize my childhood dream, and more to improve the development of the entire film industry.

Just like the "best in the world" behind it, in the stage of rapid input and output, the more purpose is to cultivate the new generation of local film talents and break the negative barriers of the Hong Kong film industry.

All this is very much like Louis Koo himself. If you don’t promote the film, you will hardly come out for an interview. Even if you are interviewed, all the content revolves around the work itself, and there is no more information to disclose.

If it weren’t for Tung shing Yee’s exposure in Weibo in 2014, the outside world would never know. After the Wenchuan earthquake in 2008, Louis Koo successively invested 10 million yuan to establish primary schools, many health centers and water wells in Guangxi, Guizhou and Yunnan.If asked by the media, he would only say, "I don’t want to talk more."

It is true that as early as the publication of Toy Wars, he had already explained that all the proceeds would be donated to UNICEF after deducting expenses, so that he could do good deeds while realizing his dreams.

Not only that, one of the toys in his collection came from an online auction. The other daughter was seriously ill and eager to raise money. Without saying anything, Louis Koo immediately photographed the toy. "It’s not just a collection, but the meaning behind it is more important."

All kinds of behaviors are mostly related to his young past experiences, but the past is no longer important, but now he is showing the brighter side of life in an extremely low-key way.

Someone once described him as a plain Louis Koo.He said, yes, "I really feel ordinary."Just, now, it seems, is ambitious.