In mid-October, the filming of "The Lost City 2" was coming to an end. After filming some scenes that needed to be re-shot in the later stage, "God's Redemption" was finally put on the agenda.
This novel, originally titled "Prisoners", had always touched Cesare's heart when he was young, and it was not until this time that it was finally officially adapted for the big screen.
First of all, Cesare was very strict in the selection of actors, making sure that every actor could achieve the feeling of every character in the novel that he had in mind.
It was not easy to do this. He spent many years adapting the script and observing the actors. Finally, he chose Donald Bianchi, a popular Italian actor, to play the role of Andrea in "Salvation of the Divine". As for the heroine Lanny in the film, Cesare chose Laura, known as the Hollywood sweetheart.
When "God's Redemption" announced its official cast list, many people noticed the only Chinese face in the cast.
Cesare prefers Chinese actors, which can be seen from the consecutive shooting of two films in the "Lost City" series. In both commercial blockbusters, China's top actress Tao Cen joined, and in his new film, there is another Chinese actress Jiang Se.
As for Jiang Se, Cesare's fans are definitely familiar with her. At the French Film Festival in March, her "Demons" was featured in the American film magazine "Film Talk". The sales of the magazine that month are still far ahead, almost a year later.
Her acting skills in "The Devil" were also recognized by the audience. The global box office data in the film database still remains at the 15th place, creating a miracle in the Chinese film box office.
In the eyes of many of Cesare's supporters, it was only a matter of time before Cesare would work with her.
This darling of China has a close friendship with Cesare. At the film festival, Cesare even predicted that he was quite optimistic about Jiang Se's performance. Later, when the media asked about their relationship, he vowed to cooperate with Jiang Se.
After the film list was announced, Cesare updated his Twitter with a message: "Sorry for the long wait, here I come!", which attracted fans to forward and comment crazily.
In addition to the European and American media publishing the news of the confirmed cast of "God's Redemption", the long-lost Jiang Se once again appeared on the pages of major foreign media, and people speculated whether Cesare has also bowed to the Chinese audience in recent years, valued the strong purchasing power of the Chinese people, and hired Chinese actors to achieve a good box office harvest.
Even the American media used the adjective "art has become commercial" to describe Cesare, believing that he had finally given up the burden of art for the sake of money and instead took the commercial route of attracting box office revenue.
When Huaxia Information first released this news, some people questioned its authenticity. Now Jiang Se's name has appeared on the official website of "God's Redemption". After confirming that Jiang Se will star in this movie, Jiang Se's fans can finally put their minds at ease.
The investment for "God's Redemption" has been in place, and as soon as Cesare finished filming the movie, he immediately started to prepare the script and set up the location.
The filming location was set in Modena, Italy. Jiang Se arrived here a week in advance and read the script every day.
She trained with a fighting coach for more than half a year. After gaining ten pounds, her figure became more distinct than before, and she was on par with European and American supermodels.
Whenever Mo Anqi envied her exposed waist and flat, firm belly, she would always think of her six months of training, and that trace of envy would turn into heartache.
"God's Redemption" is scheduled to start filming in early January. Before filming begins, the crew members will get to know each other one by one.
Almost all the crew members, including the actors, are foreigners, and the cooperation and shooting methods may be different from what Jiang Se is used to.
Fortunately, Jiang Se had already anticipated this situation during this period. After Cesare mentioned that the main filming location of "God's Redemption" would be set in Italy, she had been practicing fighting and hired an Italian linguist to be by her side so that she could learn at any time.
In the past six months, some simple conversations are no longer a problem for her, and her English is quite fluent, which is enough to deal with most problems during filming. However, because some of the staff on the scene are Italian, in order to prevent communication during the filming process, Jiang Se still hired an interpreter before starting the filming.
The male lead in "God's Redemption" Donald is about 50 years old. He has a pair of very deep green eyes, golden brown curly hair combed back, and his smile looks very gentlemanly and decent.
He was one of Cesare's friends, and it is said that he turned down a commercial film with a considerable salary in order to shoot Cesare's "Divine Redemption".
In terms of temperament, he was introverted and steady, with slight wrinkles at the corners of his eyes when he smiled. In terms of appearance, Jiang Se felt that he was quite consistent with the impression that Andre gave in the early part of the book, a gentle and kind pastor.
In addition, she also saw several main actors, one of whom was Laura Brown, the most important person in the industry. This Hollywood sweetheart hurried in, escorted by a group of staff and accompanied by a terrifying number of assistants.
She has a delicate face, brown hair and blue eyes. She looks pure and lovely. She has a slender figure, about 1.65 meters tall. She wears a light pink dress and her skin is as white as snow.
On the first day of filming, the investor Borgia Company also came. Xia Chaoqun approached Jiang Se and pointed at the Borgia man who was wearing a blue suit and a black woolen coat and whispered:
"He is the seventeenth heir of the Borgia family and one of the most powerful people, Carlo Borgia. He is in charge of the "Redemption of God" that the Borgia invested in this time."
Borgia Entertainment, one of the largest film and television entertainment production companies in Europe and the United States, is just a subsidiary of the Borgia Consortium.
His family has considerable power in Europe. In the minds of many people, it is a famous family that has been passed down for many years, and its ancestors can be traced back to the 17th century.
As a result of years of development, this family has become very prosperous. Even the family members themselves may not be able to call out the name of every family member, but this obviously does not pose a problem for Xia Chaoqun.
This man named Carlo, who was born in the core branch and was an heir to a high position, was already very eye-catching. After Xia Chaoqun finished speaking, Jiang Se couldn't help but look at him. This favored child of heaven was just over 1.8 meters tall, with a narrow face and deep eyes. He was sitting in a chair specially arranged for him on the set. Laura, who played the heroine Lanny in "The Divine Redemption", was leaning on the chair and flirting with him. It was obvious that she wanted to attract the attention of the seventeenth heir of the Borgia Company.
On the set, Cesare was discussing things with the staff. Jiang Se was holding the script, and Donald, who played Andre, had already changed his clothes and was getting his styling done.
Most of the other actors were quiet. When Jiang Se turned around, he caught the attention of the heir of the Borgia family. He looked up at Jiang Se and nodded politely, looking quite cold.
His actions quickly attracted Laura's attention. After noticing Carlo's gaze, this beautiful lady followed his gaze and found Jiang Se. When she saw Jiang Se, she grinned and gave Jiang Se a kind smile. Jiang Se also pursed his lips, smiled back at her and nodded.
"Did you see that? She's smiling at me."
She lowered her head and flirted with Carlo, while raising her hand and waving at Jiang Se:
"Like a monkey with its face stomped on."
Laura spoke in English. She saw the translator that Jiang Se brought with him and laughed unscrupulously:
"She probably didn't understand what I was saying at all, and she waved at me stupidly."
Xia Chaoqun immediately frowned and instinctively turned to look at Jiang Se. She certainly knew that Jiang Se could understand what Laura said.
"I really don't understand why Mr. Cesare wanted to ask Chinese people to star in such a movie. It simply lowers the level of the entire team." Laura smiled and winked at Jiang Se.
The translator next to Jiang Se had a strange expression on his face, and the staff next to Laura lowered his head, looking as if he was trying not to laugh.
This famous Hollywood sweetheart is completely different from her reputation on the outside. Jiang Se calmly put down her hand. She could understand the look in Xia Chaoqun's eyes. Jiang Se smiled at her and lowered her head to read the script, pretending not to understand. Laura couldn't help laughing again when she saw this scene.
She turned to the assistant beside her and said:
"The character of Shilin only has a few lines, and dies as soon as she appears. She looked so serious holding the script. If I hadn't known the inside story, I would have thought she was holding the female lead's script and was going to play the character of Lanny."
Perhaps because Jiang Se was the only Chinese among all the actors, several girls on the set showed a certain hostility towards her.
"I heard that Federer chose her to be the spokesperson for China. I really don't see how she can match Federer."
When the other girl heard Laura's words, she covered her mouth and whispered:
“Perhaps Federer just wants to launch a poverty alleviation program this year.”
Several people were whispering to each other, and laughter broke out from time to time.
Mo Anqi felt that something was wrong. In the distance, Cesare was still communicating with the makeup artist and prop master about the next plot to be filmed, and did not notice the dirty rejection between several girls in the crew today.
The lead actor Donald, who had already put on his makeup, did listen to what the girls said, but when he saw Jiang Se reading the script with his head down, he quickly followed suit and focused on the script, ignoring the matter.
Jiang Se felt both amused and confused. Naturally, he was unhappy to be talked about in front of him, but today was the day when the filming of "God's Redemption" was about to start, and it would not be wise to make a scene.
This is not China. The investors are already prejudiced against Chinese people like Jiang Se. If Jiang Se makes a scene, Laura will be in trouble, and Jiang Se will not have a good result either. In the end, both sides will suffer.
It is not easy to go international. The cooperation with Cesare was not easy. She spent many years and even took extra courses in archaeology and interned for half a year to win Cesare's favor for the role of Shireen in "Prisoners".
Jiang Se regarded Laura's childish behavior as a kind of tempering for her. Holding the script, he took a deep breath.
The first scenes to be shot on the temporary set-up by the crew were a few scenes in the snow.
Today was mainly about everyone getting familiar with the environment on the set and finding their own feelings. After Cesare finished discussing things with others, he clapped his hands and everyone stood up at the same time.
It was very cold on the set, there was no heating equipment, and it was freezing and snowy outside Modena. In the extremely cold weather, there were some problems with the photographic equipment.
Cesare looked unhappy. He called out to everyone:
"Take a day off tomorrow. I checked the weather and the day after tomorrow we'll have the heaviest snowfall of the winter in Modena. It just so happens that I'm going to shoot the first scene between you and Donald." He extended his hand and said, "Get ready."
Laura, who was standing by, heard what Cesare said and turned to Jiang Se and made a gesture of encouragement.
She originally thought that Jiang Se would need an interpreter beside her to understand what Cesare meant. In front of Cesare, Laura turned sideways and looked at the interpreter beside Jiang Se and said:
"Please tell Miss Jiang that her..."
"OK, I will memorize the lines." Jiang Se nodded and responded to Cesare first, then she turned to look at Laura, whose face changed slightly, and said with a smile:
"Miss Brown, I don't need to tell you. You can tell me what you want to say. I can understand you."
As soon as she finished speaking, Laura's face turned pale and blue, and the expressions of the girls who had previously laughed at Jiang Se with Laura also changed slightly, with embarrassment on their faces.
Several people had previously thought that Jiang Se could not understand English, so they deliberately made fun of him with language. Laura remembered that her previous actions and words were all heard by Jiang Se.
When she raised her hand to greet Jiang Se and ridiculed Jiang Se, she thought Jiang Se didn't understand what she meant, and she laughed many times in front of Mr. Borgia, making fun of this Chinese girl as a joke.
But if this Chinese girl could understand what she said, then her previous performance would probably become a joke in the eyes of others.
Her face flushed, she was a little embarrassed, and also a little angry, but Jiang Se still smiled and said:
"In fact, the filming hasn't started yet, but I've been thinking back on Miss Brown's performance. I'm really looking forward to the next shoot." Jiang Se said this, and he imitated Laura's previous actions, raising his hand and waving at her. This action made Laura feel even more ashamed, and anger appeared in her blue eyes.
Jiang Se had been enduring in silence before, so she naturally didn't dare to make a noise now. She saw a faint smile on the lips of the seventeenth heir of the Borgia family from the corner of her eye, and she immediately hated Jiang Se in her heart with gnashing teeth.
In front of the heir of the Borgia family, Jiang Se's actions were clearly intended to embarrass her and bring shame to her! (To be continued)