Novoland: Eagle Flag Update with Linmon CEO

Right after the new Novoland: Eagle Flag trailer was released, Linmon Pictures CEO Su Xiao conducted a small, brief interview with Dushe on the production process and what they have changed about the drama to ensure that it might appeal to audiences more. I didn't translate the entire interview, but in essence, it seems that Linmon considers this more than just another project - this is also a way for them to make their mark on dramaland, to create history and realize the dreams and ambitions of the top notch production team members. 

Main points from Linmon Pictures CEO Su Xiao interview with Dushe on Novoland: Eagle Flag (2018.8.18)

- The first official trailer did not attempt to introduce the vast world of Novoland - instead, it went straight to the heart of the story to draw in viewers. The production team spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to condense the grand scale of the original books into a story that would make sense and appeal to the general audience.

- As such, the team decided the best way to tell the story was to have the audience follow a main thread: Lv Gui Chen's coming-of-age story. This way, it would be easier for viewers to enjoy the story and ultimately be drawn into all the amazing aspects of the Novoland world.

- There are a lot of stories that center around young heroes, but Novoland: Eagle Flag wants to be a heroic epic. When the script was being written, the production team and head scriptwriter Jiang Nan (also the author of the original novels) agreed to use Lv Gui Chen's perspective in telling the story. As the sickly young heir who hails from the Northern Land but is sent as a hostage to the Eastern Land at the age of 12, he is the character that connects all the countries and their corresponding threads.

- Because the character of Lv Gui Chen goes through a lot of experiences that change him, it is an incredibly difficult role to pull off and requires tremendous acting skill/acting foundation from the actor. Su Xiao reveals that everyone was very high on Liu Hao Ran and his ability to pull off the role from the very beginning, and he also worked very hard. When Detective Chinatown 2 was blowing up at the box office, Liu Hao Ran did not ask for any time off to attend commercial activities (T/N: meaning endorsements, magazines, etc.). Instead, he went straight to the icy conditions of Xinjiang and spent Chinese New Year's on set. Whether there was a blizzard or sandstorm outside, he would still personally step up to continue filming.

- Although the story focuses on the three youngsters, the characters who lend the historical context and are the key power players for the drama are played by veteran actors. The director had multiple conversations with each actor about their characters, and a lot of actors were touched by the sincerity of the production so were willing to take on less pay or work around full schedules. The total pay for actors (including extras) did not exceed 30% of the overall budget for the drama.

- In the original story, there were moments when Lv Gui Chen would be "out of the picture", but this wouldn't be good for a drama adaptation as it's him that the audience would be invested in. As such, this has been changed for the drama.

- Most of the battle scenes were filmed in Xinjiang, where the production team ran into several blizzards and sandstorms. Because Xinjiang's Shawan County freezes as soon as it gets its first snowfall, a couple hundred members of the Novoland: Eagle Flag crew arrived in the summer of 2017 (before filming even started) to set up the site. They were there for a hundred days, but few people knew about it because of how isolated the area was.

- The filming conditions of Xinjiang were extremely rough. When the cast and crew were filming in Kuqa County, the food that the production team had delivered from the city would be cold by the time it arrived on set. As a result, the team had a stash of naan as backup food.

- Though the production team spent a lot of time in Xiangyang's Tang City film studios, they actually didn't utilize it all that much, because from an artistic perspective, they were going for a different look than what was used in Legend of the Demon Cat. So while they did use the Tang City sets for some of the Eastern Land scenes, they also built many of their own sets in Xiangyang for filming purposes.

- The production team wanted the fight scenes to be realistic and not have a lot of wuxia elements (i.e. too much flying around).

- The drama spent 14 months on pre-production, 9 months of filming, and are estimating 9 more months for post-production. (T/N: As sad as this is to hear because that means the wait is even longer, this does mean that the rumors were correct - NEF is probably targeting for one of the primetime summer slots next year)