Chapter 304 Jet Li Goes to Hollywood
Jet Li had just finished filming "Fang Shiyu" when he saw his agent hurried over.
"Ajie, get ready. We're going to Hollywood in a few days."
Jet Li was stunned. "Hollywood?"
"That's right! Mr. Liu acquired the Hollywood giant MGM. MGM recently invested in an action movie called Lethal Weapon 3. Mr. Liu asked you to play a role."
When Li Lianjie heard this, he immediately became happy.
"Okay, I'll go back and pack my things."
After returning to his residence, he immediately hugged his girlfriend Li Zhi.
"Azhi, Mr. Liu asked me to go to Hollywood to film. Thanks to you for putting in a good word for me in front of his wife."
Li Zhi was also very happy. "I just mentioned it to my wife a few times. I didn't expect that she would really help me."
Li Lianjie said excitedly: "It seems that your idea is right. With you speaking for me in front of my wife, my future development will definitely get better and better."
They didn't know that Liu Hongmin's giving Li Lianjie a chance had nothing to do with Li Zhi's wife route. Li Lizhen never spoke for the company's artists, even though Li Zhi had a good relationship with her. Li Lizhen knew clearly that she didn't know much about the company and the film. If she made a mistake, it might affect Liu Hongmin's thinking and cause losses to the company.
This is Li Lizhen's advantage. She knows her own weight. Although this may cause inferiority complex, it makes her self-aware.
Before going to Hollywood, Li Zhi went to the Clearwater Bay Villa to thank Li Lizhen. Li Lizhen smiled, said a few polite words, and went to find Liu Hongmin after Li Zhi left.
"Honey, Li Zhi came just now and said that you recommended a Hollywood role to Jet Li."
Liu Hongmin nodded, "Yes, after I acquired MGM, I wanted to film some of our own people there. Comedy has regional restrictions, so I can only think of action movies. Jet Li is the company's top action star, so naturally I have to send him over to check out the situation first."
Li Lizhen nodded, "As long as it is in line with the company's development, I'm afraid you sent Li Lianjie over just to help me."
Liu Hongmin smiled and said, "That's also the reason. No matter what, Li Zhi is very respectful to you, so you should give him some sweet treats."
"Husband, you are so kind."
Jet Li and Li Zhi arrived in Hollywood accompanied by their agent. Feng Kan received them and took them to MGM. Jet Li's English was not very good, so Feng Kan specially found an international student in MGM to serve as an interpreter for him and accompany him to complete the audition of "Lethal Weapon 3".
This was not the first time for the two to come to the United States. They had traveled to the United States many times in their spare time. They had some knowledge of Hollywood. They had also been to Warner Bros., but they just watched from the outside. This time, accompanied by people from MGM, they easily entered the interior of Warner Bros.
The audition was just a formality. After all, MGM had invested 3 million US dollars, so it was just a matter of words to insert a supporting role. The director and screenwriter of "Lethal Weapon " also had this idea, but when Jet Li showed his kung fu, their eyes suddenly shone. Jet Li's martial arts moves were like a gorgeous waltz, which gave them a lot of inspiration.
Soon, they decided to add a special character to the script, an international policeman from Hong Kong, who became the protagonist's helper. The director and screenwriter gave this character a lot of scenes, and many exciting fights were undertaken by this character.
Not only that, Jet Li was also invited to be the action director of "Lethal Weapon 3", and all of his martial arts scenes were designed by Jet Li himself.
Jet Li has a decent talent for martial arts guidance. He may not be able to be the action director of the entire film, but he has no problem being responsible for his own part. So he stayed in Hollywood temporarily and designed the martial arts scenes with other action directors.
Other action directors were also curious about how Hong Kong action films designed action, and when Jet Li demonstrated his abilities, they were immediately astounded.
Hong Kong action movies have always been the object of imitation for Hollywood, and Hollywood action directors highly respect Hong Kong action movies and often use Hong Kong's classic action movies to learn action design concepts.
Now that there was a ready-made Hong Kong action star, how could they miss this opportunity to learn? They were very humble and often listened to Jet Li sharing his experience in action design.
It’s just that the actors of “Lethal Weapon 3” are unable to perform the actions in Hong Kong movies, otherwise they would have wanted to directly shoot a Hong Kong action movie.
Jet Li also took this into consideration and designed some bold and aggressive moves. He also learned some boxing moves from others, combined with the concept of Jeet Kune Do, and designed a lot of straight-forward attack moves, which look much more pleasing to the eye than the Hollywood style of punch-and-punch.
Although there was a language barrier, Jet Li and the crew still got along very well. With the help of the translator and Li Zhi, Jet Li's English improved a lot. Although he still had an accent, he had no problem speaking the lines.
According to the plot setting, Jet Li, who played the role of a Hong Kong international policeman, spoke British English and was ridiculed by the detectives. So Jet Li usually didn't talk much and became a character of few words.
With the start of filming of "Lethal Weapon 3", other film projects invested by MGM have also gradually started filming. After the news came out, it once again became good news, boosting MGM's stock price.
Jet Li's entry into Hollywood has made another Hong Kong kung fu superstar unable to sit still.
In 80, Jackie Chan was ready to go to Hollywood and filmed "The Trench". Unfortunately, his acting style was incompatible with that of foreign directors, so the films he made were awkward and none of them were released in Hollywood. Later, he filmed "Cannonball Run 2", which was released but failed at the box office. The following year, "The Detective" also failed to make a splash, indicating that Jackie Chan's attempt to enter Hollywood had failed.
After returning to Hong Kong movies, Cheng Long has made excellent action movies for many years, and together with Jet Li, he has taken up the banner of Hong Kong action movies. However, his action style is different from Jet Li's. Jet Li's action is very positive, and his actions are humorous. The positive and the genius make him and Jet Li become unique action stars in Hong Kong at the same time.
Although his first attempt to break into Hollywood failed, Cheng Long still had a crush on Hollywood. Seeing that Jet Li had already entered Hollywood, he no longer cared about being reserved and went to visit Liu Hongmin.
Liu Hongmin has a very good impression of Cheng Long, although he disagrees with his views on men and women, but now Liu Hongmin is no longer qualified to comment on Cheng Long's private life. Excluding the shortcomings in his private life, Cheng Long is still good in other aspects.
(End of this chapter)
