Yes, Adrian started shooting his new film in February 2001, which was the musical "Moulin Rouge." That’s why he had Nicole begin dance and singing training early on, and why he sent the script to Baz Luhrmann and invited him to discuss it when he was in the United Kingdom—all to ensure the smooth comncent of filming today.
Of course, the preparation involved far more than this. As a musical, and one that tells tales from the still-fad Moulin Rouge in Paris—though the movie only borrowed the na—the necessary groundwork couldn’t be skimped on. The costus of the ti, the environnt, the stages, all of these had to be ticulously recreated, and for this purpose, Adrian had the internal set of the Moulin Rouge fully reconstructed within the film studio.
Luckily, as a musical, there wasn’t a heavy need for outdoor scenes; the few that were required could be generated with CG effects, so there wasn’t even a need for location scouting, given the plethora of resources on Paris and the Moulin Rouge.
Beyond that, there was a need to train the actors. After all, a musical film isn’t the sa as a Broadway stage play, and it demands much more in terms of acting ability, so it wasn’t possible to simply cast stage actors in the film. But higher demands on acting implied lower demands on dance skills since film editing, shot transitions, and montage techniques could be used to display the actors’ dance skills without requiring them to perform an entire dance flawlessly from beginning to end as stage actors must.
The actors in front of the cara, engaging in dance, could appear even more lively and infectious, giving the impression of a multi-talented cast, which is why musicals were once very popular. However, tis change, as do audiences’ tastes and film-making technology, leading to the decline of musicals. In recent years, they’ve beco increasingly scarce even at various award ceremonies. The one constant is that to win an award with a musical, actors must personally take to singing and dancing.
This is why Adrian wanted Nicole to spend a year practicing. Long before he convinced Naomi to do the sa, he cited Audrey Hepburn’s "My Fair Lady" as an example. That film could have earned Audrey another nomination for Best Actress, but the issue was that the dances and nearly all the singing were perford by stand-ins, leading the Film Academy to exclude her from nominations.
Even earlier, with "Breakfast at Tiffany’s," many say that it was precisely because the the song was sung by another that Audrey missed out on her second Oscar statuette.
Since Adrian had decided to propel Nicole to stardom with "Moulin Rouge," he definitely needed to do his best. These aspects were key elents where nothing could go wrong. Of course, the others didn’t need to work as hard—two to three months of preparation and practice was ample since it wasn’t a stage play.
"This is not a stage play, after all, and there’s no need to perform the entire dance every ti. Otherwise, both the actors and the film crew would be overwheld," Adrian said to the assistant director after test shooting several scenes.
He might have "borrowed" from many movies and accumulated plenty of experience, but this was his first ti directing a musical, so he brought on a quite decent stage play director as an assistant. However, this director, Aubrey Chaba, though skilled in stage direction, had never tried his hand at film. Inevitably, he carried so of the stage style into handling film details, which frustrated Adrian, who regretted not bringing Sam ndes on board as his assistant.
It indeed seed like a good idea. Even though ndes had gained a lot of attention after winning Best Director for "Arican Beauty," he hadn’t indiscriminately accepted every offer that followed. He was very careful in selecting scripts and occasionally responded to requests to guest-direct stage plays. Since his Oscar for Best Director was partly thanks to Adrian’s efforts, he certainly wouldn’t refuse if the Miracle Director asked him to be an assistant.
However, with ndes’s reputation already established, having him as an assistant would certainly draw so attention, but it could lead to unwelco scrutiny from certain quarters after the film’s release. Besides, not all stage plays involve singing and dancing—it was still uncertain if he would make a good assistant until tested. And all things considered, Chaba was doing an acceptable job. Adrian wasn’t one to turn his back on people, so he let the idea pass.
"Alright, folks, let’s take it from the top, everybody give it your all!" Adrian called out loudly, clapping his hands, then proceeded to instruct the three leads one by one.
"Ivan, reflect on your performance during the second shoot, that was the best one."
"Richard, you need to show a bit of gentlemanly grace, although this duke is a jerk, he’s still a duke on the surface."
"Nicole, I have just one request, although you’ve done very well, I want you to do even better!"
Currently being fild is Shatine’s first appearance in Moulin Rouge, where everyone’s singing and dancing beautifully showcase her allure, and because the Duke has fallen for Shatine and wants to et her, a series of mix-ups by the theater manager leads Shatine to mistake the sightseeing Christian for the Duke, thus beginning the entire story.
Adrian basically used the "original" cast, needless to say, Nicole played Shatine, and the role of Christian was still portrayed by Ivan McGregor. So people changed their destiny due to the butterfly effect, others continued along the path set for them. McGregor still played Obi Wan in the Star Wars Prequel and thus successfully entered Hollywood. With this in mind, Adrian simply chose him again to play the leading man.
Similarly, the Duke was still played by Australian actor Richard Rausberg, speaking of which, there’s an interesting thing. When preparing earlier, Adrian couldn’t recall the Duke’s actor’s na from mory and thought about having Gary Oldman do a screen test, but when they approached him unofficially without ntioning their own brand, Oldman imdiately refused.
"The Duke? You must be joking, how do I look like a duke, let alone one who has to sing and dance?" That’s what he said.
This was quite in line with Oldman’s character, though an Englishman, he had always looked down on gentlemanly manners and despised the academic style of acting. That’s also why Adrian had people reach out without dropping his na or giving too many details. If the other party accepted just because it was him inviting, they might overlook the fit between themselves and the role—that was exactly what happened with McGregor. As soon as he heard that the Miracle Director was personally directing the movie, he agreed without even knowing what the genre was.
Since Oldman took this stance and Adrian subsequently rembered the na of the original actor, the role of the Duke ultimately went back to Rausberg.
"No problem, Ed, I’ll do my best." After Adrian’s instructions, McGregor was the first to express his commitnt.
"Then I’ll try to convey the Duke’s inner thoughts with my facial expressions and his deanor with body language, how’s that?" Rausberg asked after a mont of thought.
Only Nicole, moving aside to do her warm-up exercises for dancing, ca back and shrugged her shoulders signaling she was ready to start, after Adrian had everything in order.
Yet, she couldn’t help but ask, "Are you sure musical films will be popular?"
"Of course," Adrian laughed, "How would I make such a movie without being completely confident? Don’t worry, sweetheart."
He whispered this and suddenly, with lightning speed, slipped his hand under the fur coat and pinched her pert bottom, earning himself a big eye roll from Nicole filled with annoyance.
Indeed, starting from the mid to late ’90s, musicals had all but disappeared from various award ceremonies. Everything that hits rock bottom will rebound, even if only slightly, so it was about ti for musicals to make their coback. Besides, "Moulin Rouge" didn’t bring anything new to the table as a musical. Simply put, it was a traditional Hollywood "backstage musical" narrative: a type of movie that was extrely popular in the 1930s and 1940s, which featured song and dance performances on a real stage complented with a backstage love story filler.
The love story was simple and cliché—a female perforr, or rather a prostitute, and a talented man fall in love after a chance encounter, followed by the appearance of a villainous Duke who attempts to steal her away. After a series of trials and tribulations, the perforr finally chooses the talented man. Although the evil Duke frantically tries to prevent their happiness, he is ultimately knocked down and scorned by everyone.
Of course, the screenplay of "Moulin Rouge" did have so original elents, at least in the sense that the lead couple didn’t end up together. Although they rid themselves of the evil Duke, the leading lady soon dies of tuberculosis, leaving the male lead to write their story into a screenplay. But this twist didn’t contribute much to the overall narrative, which still laid out most of its plot points according to the traditional backstage musical formula.
However, this was perfect for Adrian, who, as ntioned before, had no experience directing musicals, so a project steeped in familiar tropes was ideal for him. Moreover, a musical didn’t necessarily need to be original to succeed; as long as there was enough dedication to the content being displayed, it could still garner much applause. "Moulin Rouge," for instance, laid out the decadent, extravagant, and libertine party scenes within the Moulin Rouge to its fullest potential, creating a utopian atmosphere to draw the audience in. It used a collage and fragnted montage technique to demonstrate the love story between the leads, coupled with saturated color blocks, cartoonish performances, and freely shifting cara perspectives to add a bit of that "postmodern" narrative flair, thereby breaking through the conventional standards and clichés of musicals.
Therefore, all Adrian had to do was entrust the choreography to his assistant director, Shaba, and then tweak and fine-tune the rest as he rembered from his various experiences.
"I never knew... you could direct musicals..." Nicole panted.
"If you knew all there was to know about , would I still be ?" Adrian laughed heartily, continually changing the rhythm. Nicole should have asked this sort of question when she first got the script. Her current questioning was simply a tactic to distract herself from trembling so violently under the overwhelming stimulation, for beyond the thick curtain, a large crowd was dancing to the music.
Having declared that he would take advantage of her behind the curtain, Adrian intended to keep his word. As for safety concerns, oh, there was no need to worry; most of the crew knew or suspected his relationship with Nicole, and he had deliberately allowed so quick-witted people to see them before he pulled her inside. Thus, he trusted that no one would co to interrupt.
"Don’t worry, the dance outside will go on for a while; they won’t hear your moans, Nicole," Adrian whispered into her ear, all the while relentless below.
They were only filming so scattered dance scenes outside; the three main actors weren’t involved, and everything could be left to the assistant director—so he could bring Nicole here, still in her costu.
"You damned bastard." Amidst heavy panting, and listening to the singing and music from outside, Nicole tightened her legs wrapped around Adrian’s waist even more.
The sa words, when spoken by different people, naturally had different effects.
"MIRACLE DIRECTOR DIRECTS A MUSICAL FILM?" This headline published in the Los Angeles Tis imdiately caused quite a stir: everyone knew that the energetic Adrian had begun producing a new film. Such news could hardly remain a secret for long in the entertainnt industry, especially when he’s known as the Miracle Director. Too many eyes were on him.
But the majority of people did not know which type of film Adrian was going to produce, so when the dia disclosed it, various expressions of surprise started to arise. It’s quite normal. After Woody Allen’s "Everyone Says I Love You" stood as a watershed, the movie market barely had a place for musical films since the 95s. Now that Adrian was planning to produce a musical film, should we say the Miracle Director was too arrogant or does he have an unparalleled confidence? Moreover, he had never directed this type of film before.
Therefore, how could industry insiders not engage in various discussions? Interestingly, most of the topics focused on the forr point, and the latter, which should have been a significant point of attack, was rarely ntioned. Actually, when you think about it, it’s not surprising; Adrian had directed so many films before—dramas, science fiction, cult films, dark codies—and this year he shot two similarly thed films in completely different styles, so creating a musical film would definitely not be too challenging for him.
Because of this, the discussions centered on what Adrian might achieve and how likely it was that the film would be quite ordinary.
"The Miracle Director seems to always have so surprising ideas and he always manages to bring these ideas to life, earning much applause. Now he’s set his sights on a completely new film genre he’s never tried before, making everyone really look forward to seeing what he can accomplish," soone wrote on the IMDb forum.
Basically, unless they were particularly stubborn and opposed for the sake of opposing, nobody would fully commit to the prediction that "it won’t be good." Quite simply, those who had done so in the past had been harshly slapped by Adrian. The British said he couldn’t make a movie with an English style like "Howards End," and what happened? So said it was impossible for him to maintain quality while producing three films in one year, and what happened? Or that he couldn’t make a film like Kubrick’s, and what happened? With so many examples on record, anyone still unsure how to react to a similar situation must be a born fool.
However, compared to discussions about what exactly the Miracle Director was thinking and why the new film was a musical, there were so things that spread even faster. Yes, gossip—gossip about Adrian and Nicole.
Back when Nicole and Cruise divorced, there was a lot of gossip about her and Adrian, especially after Nicole’s bold performance in "Eyes Wide Shut," directed by Adrian. But at that ti, the divorce case itself was more interesting than these rumors, and Adrian’s playboy reputation wasn’t so well-known to the public yet, plus he had rumors with many won at the ti, so such speculations, despite being nurous, did not cause much of a stir.
But as ti went on, these speculations did not fade away but spread further, especially after the release of "Mulholland Drive," which sparked much discussion. Fortunately, Naomi was a bit more dazzling at that ti, and with the title of the seventh Miracle Girl, the discussions were not too intense.
Now things were different. Although the public did not know how heavy the weight of his playboy reputation was, the precedent of the seven Miracle Girls was enough to prove so points, not to ntion the rumors circulating in Hollywood. Listen to this: the fastest way to fa is to bed the Miracle Director and make him happy! It’s evident that the chances of any actress who played the leading role in his movies and had been in bed with him were over 90%.
Now, Nicole Kidman was the unique leading lady in Adrian’s new film and considering the past rumors, the title of the eighth Miracle Girl was definitely hers. The dia had previously wanted to bestow the title on Natalie, but for various reasons, it was not brought up again; Nicole, however, couldn’t escape it.
Even more importantly, soone on the internet took screenshots fra by fra of Nicole’s passionate scene with a naval officer in "Eyes Wide Shut," spanning several seconds, to observe and analyze them, concluding that the naval officer might be Adrian himself. This instantly ignited the gossip souls of countless people, prompting everyone to express opinions; there were dissenters, but overall, the majority agreed.
Despite those few seconds of screen ti being expertly handled, showing only the back of the naval officer’s ear and head without a proper view of even the slightly angled side of his face, people still managed to compare screenshots of Adrian’s caos in other movies. Moreover, soone took the ti to scour every reputable movie website only to find that none of the cast lists for "Eyes Wide Shut" included the na of this naval officer, which further confird the theory, causing a lively stir online.
It must be said, netizens are both annoying and powerful. (To be continued. If you like this work, please support it by casting your recomndation votes and monthly votes on Qidian. Your support is my greatest motivation.)
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