A widower's entertainment

Chapter 290 [Everyone’s Thoughts] (Subscribe)
Lin Youcheng rejected Wang Ju's invitation and joined the Haima Film and Television Creation Center. Zheng Xiaolong just replied to Wang Ju on behalf of Lin Youcheng.

Wang Qi knew that Lin Youcheng refused, but he was not particularly surprised. After all, he was not very familiar with Lin Youcheng. He was just thinking about Lin Youcheng's status and influence to see if they could work together. If he could get Lin Youcheng to join the studio, it would definitely be a great thing.

It’s a pity that Lin Youcheng refused now.

Ma Weidu shook his head and said regretfully, "Lin Youcheng refused, but Zheng Xiaolong also said that there will be opportunities for cooperation in the future. I think several of his novels are suitable for film and television adaptations."

"No, no, I don't want to adapt Lin Youcheng's novel and write a script."

When Wang Qi heard what Ma Weidu said, he shook his head and said, "If they don't pay attention to us, we shouldn't rush to discuss cooperation. It's not like we can't write a script."

Although being rejected was not unexpected, Wang Lu still felt a little uncomfortable.

When Ma Weidu heard what Wang Qi said, he nodded, understood what Wang Qi meant, and said, "That's right, we are not short of writers and screenwriters."

Now that Lin Youchengdu has rejected the invitation, they naturally won't say anything more. It's impossible for them to visit him three times and beg him to join.

By the way, some of the people that Wang Qi found to collaborate with are also powerful writers, such as Mo Yan, Hai Yan, Liu Zhenyun, Wei Ren and others. This team of nearly 20 writers should not be underestimated.

Wang Qi said: "We will quickly set up this film and television creation center later."

……

Lin Youcheng didn't pay much attention to the preparations for the Seahorse Film and Television Creation Center on Wang Li's side. Just as he and Zheng Xiaolong said, he himself was indeed considering the subsequent film and television company.

Of course, there is no rush for Lin Youcheng about this matter. He has already written a script. In addition to Zheng Xiaolong's, he also wrote the script for "My Brothers and Sisters" which was previously released by Yanjing Film Studio. He also wrote "The Sound of the Wind" in collaboration with director Xie Jin, and "The Devotion of Suspect X", the Palme d'Or best film adapted and filmed by director Hou Xiaoxian. It can be said that these are all big directors who took the initiative to seek cooperation with Lin Youcheng.

Not to mention "Under the Hawthorn Tree" directed by Wu Tianming, "Love Letter" directed by Chen Ai'ge, and the two films "War Meridian" and "Tengu".

It can be said that these are the people that Lin Youcheng cooperates with.

The key point is that these people all came to Lin Youcheng to discuss cooperation.

Lin Youcheng knew very well that as long as the novels and scripts written by him as an author were good enough, those people would come to him to discuss cooperation, and this was one of the reasons why Lin Youcheng rejected Wang Li's invitation.

Lin Youcheng has already negotiated the royalties with Huayi Publishing House. In addition to asking about the royalties, Zhang Wei also asked Lin Youcheng if he had any plans to create new works in the future, that is, to urge him to submit his manuscripts.

In fact, this is also because Zhang Wei knew that Lin Youcheng was writing the TV drama script of "The Disguiser" for Zheng Xiaolong before, so he didn't keep asking. But now that the TV drama script has been completed and the royalties for the novel have been negotiated, as a literary editor, Zhang Wei will naturally do his best to ask Lin Youcheng to urge him to submit the manuscript, or in other words - to urge him to give birth to the novel.

Lin Youcheng told Zhang Wei the truth and said he already had an idea.

Zhang Wei was naturally very much looking forward to it.

Just when Zhang Wei was looking forward to Lin Youcheng writing a new novel, someone else came to Lin Youcheng to discuss cooperation and script adaptation.

Lin Youcheng was also very surprised that Chen Ai'ge would come to Xinghua Hutong to find him at this time, wanting to buy the film adaptation rights of "Strange Things in the World" and let him be the screenwriter to write the film script of "Strange Things in the World".

Chen Ai Ge has also collaborated with Lin You Cheng before. She had previously adapted and filmed Lin You Cheng's "Love Letter". That movie was also quite touching. Chen Ai Ge did not change the original story of "Love Letter" without authorization. Coupled with Master Zhang's photography and the heroine Gong Xue playing two roles, it is quite amazing. It is definitely a beautiful, moving and poetic love movie, which is not inferior to the original.

However, the two did not have any dealings with each other afterwards, and the screenwriter of "Love Letter" was not Lin Youcheng.

Now that Chen Ai Ge approached Lin Youcheng to discuss the film adaptation rights of "Wonderful Things in the World", Lin Youcheng was still a little surprised.

Because the novel "Wonderful Things in the World" is not easy to adapt with current makeup technology, and if the hero's fantasy life of rejuvenation is to be filmed without properly handling the hero's makeup, it would be better not to film it.

You should know that the film "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" from another time and space not only won the Academy Award for Best Makeup, but also won the Best Visual Effects Award. The film used CG technology to present the facial expressions of the male protagonist. The key is that it is different from the role of CG technology in the production of science fiction special effects in the past. In order to reproduce the emotional changes and inner state of the male protagonist in a subtle and realistic way, the production team focused on motion capture. You should know that even at that time, using motion capture technology and producing the micro-expressions of the characters was very advanced.

Lin Youcheng does not think that there will be such art design and visual effects now.

"Aige, I don't think that the current film technology can make a good movie like "Wonderful Things in the World". You know that the visual image of the male protagonist growing from a baby to an old man in reverse growth is not easy to achieve."

"I would not agree to do the story of 'Strange Things in the World' now."

Lin Youcheng didn't beat around the bush for Chen Ai'ge at all, even though he hadn't paid much attention to the adaptation of the novel before and hadn't interfered with the director's casting and filming.

But there are obvious problems, and he can't sell the adaptation rights. Especially the novel "Strange Things in the World", which is also a winner of the Mao Dun Literature Award. In addition to Lynch's story, the novel also contains four foreshadowings that appeared in Lynch's life, such as the story of "The Sound of the Wind". Countless readers are delighted by the foreshadowings in "Strange Things in the World", and the story is also quite amazing.

How could Lin Youcheng easily let someone film such a classic novel, especially when he knew it would not be a good film?

disagree?
Chen Ai Ge was a little embarrassed.

Obviously, he didn't expect Lin Youcheng to refuse directly, but he also knew that Lin Youcheng was telling the truth, so he nodded and admitted: "It is difficult for Hollywood's current technology to achieve the realistic effect in the novel."

In fact, Chen Ai-ge is now studying film in the United States, so she naturally knows that the film technology there is not up to par.

Although the movie "The King of Children" he shot the year before last was shortlisted for the main competition unit of the Cannes Film Festival, it did not win any awards. Later, he thought about going abroad to study film. Some of the reasons for this were inseparable from Zhang Yimou winning the Golden Bear Award at the Berlin Film Festival. You must know that Zhang Yimou was just a photographer in his film crew before, but now he turned around and won the highest awards at the three major film festivals before him. This made Chen Ai'ge, a film student, feel dissatisfied.

It is for this reason that Chen Ai Ge wanted to study abroad. Of course, she has always been thinking about shooting a movie that would win awards at the three major film festivals.

According to later reports, Chen Ai Ge would adapt Shi Tiesheng's novel "Life is Like a String" into the movie "Walking and Singing". Although it was shortlisted for the main competition unit of the Cannes Film Festival, it still did not win any awards. It was not until two years later that it won the Cannes Palme d'Or with "Farewell My Concubine".

Chen Ai Ge also knew that the first Chinese-language Palme d'Or had been won by Hou Xiaoxian from Taiwan, for his adaptation of Lin Youcheng's novel The Devotion of Suspect X. Naturally, he also wanted to win mainland China's first Palme d'Or, so he thought of Lin Youcheng's work Curiosities: Human Events, which had won the Mao Dun Literature Prize.

There is no doubt that if the story of "Wonderful Things in the World" were really filmed, the whole movie would not be bad, because the original novel is quite wonderful.

Chen Ai Ge looked at Lin Youcheng and tried to say, "Brother Lin, I must say that I really like your film "Wonderful Things in the World", a poetic fantasy life. I will definitely make this story well and try to win awards at the three major film festivals. As for technical issues, we can find the best technology company and do our best."

When Lin Youcheng heard what Chen Ai'ge said, he just smiled. He could see that Chen Ai'ge, the literary director, really liked the story of "Strange Things in the World", just like he liked the novel "Love Letter". However, it was obvious that he could not give "Strange Things in the World" to Chen Ai'ge to shoot.

In Lin Youcheng's opinion, there are actually other movie stories that can be filmed besides "Wonderful Things in the World", and film festivals that want to win awards often do not just look at the story, but also at the film director's shooting skills and the director's shooting level. If a mediocre director is given a movie script like "Wonderful Things in the World" and has no ideas of his own, the film he makes may be like the remake of "Sunny" by Director Bao, which only takes the essence and turns it into dregs.

A bizarre movie like "Mulholland Drive" lost to "The Son's Room" at the Cannes Film Festival. You have to know that "The Son's Room" is a story about how a perfect family painfully and difficultly faces sadness and discord after the death of their son. But such a story was made simple and profound, sincere and highly artistically mature under the director Nanni Moretti's skillful modern film shooting techniques, and finally won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

Of course, winning an award at a film festival does not simply depend on the film itself, but also on the jury of the film festival. After all, if the judges can help to pick the awards, then there is definitely more hope, but if the chairman of the jury is sidelined, it will still be difficult to win an award.

Just like in 1997, when Adjani served as the president of the Cannes Film Festival jury, her beloved "Unexpected Spring" did not win the Palme d'Or, but only the Grand Jury Prize, because her power was undermined. This was because Nanni Moretti persuaded Adjani to set up a double yolk egg, making her think that this would ensure that "Unexpected Spring" would win the grand prize. But after Adjani agreed, Moretti turned against her and expressed his support for "The Eel". In the end, "The Eel" and "Taste of Cherry", two films that Moretti liked, won the Palme d'Or, while Adjani's "Unexpected Spring" only won the Grand Jury Prize.

In addition, when "Mulholland Drive" appeared at the Cannes Film Festival, all the judges couldn't understand it except director Edward Yang, who insisted on vetoing all the judges. Later, when the film did not win the Palme d'Or, Yang couldn't stand it and was even very angry. He scolded the other judges for not understanding what a movie was. Fortunately, this film was still pushed by Yang to win the Palme d'Or for Best Director.

Lin Youcheng looked at Chen Aige. He knew that Chen Aige really wanted to win the award, especially after Master Zhang won the Berlin Golden Bear Award. He thought for a moment and said, "Let's change the story."

"The story of 'Wonderful Things in the World' is not suitable for filming now."

Chen Ai Ge was disappointed when she saw that Lin Youcheng still disagreed. She said honestly, "The first movie that came to my mind was your film "Wonderful Things in the World". I also liked your previous film "Tengu", but it's a pity that it has been filmed by director Wu Ziniu."

"In addition to your novel "Wonderful Things in the World", I also read Shi Tiesheng's novel "Life is Like a String of Harps", and I also want to make this novel into a movie."

Lin Youcheng naturally wouldn't say that later Chen Ai Ge adapted and filmed Shi Tiesheng's "Life Like a String", which was shortlisted for Cannes but still did not win an award.

"Life is Like a String of a Lute" is a short story by Shi Tiesheng. It tells the story of two blind men, one old and one young, who make a living by singing and dancing. They hope that when they break a thousand strings of the lute, they will get a prescription and see the light. When a thousand strings are broken, the old blind man only gets a blank piece of paper, but he chooses to tell the young blind man to break 1,200 strings at the end of the novel. The whole story tells about the tenacity and life of living in lies.

"I have also read this novel. It is a very meaningful novel, very realistic, digging out the true nature of human nature from ordinary people and extracting the meaning of life."

In fact, many times a movie cannot just be judged by the story, but also by how the director and screenwriter adapt and film the story.

When Chen Ai Ge heard what Lin Youcheng said, he couldn't help but start thinking about whether he should go find Shi Tiesheng and shoot Shi Tiesheng's "Life is Like a String", but he still felt that he would rather shoot Lin Youcheng's "Wonderful Things in the World".

Lin Youcheng thought about the idea of ​​a new novel that Zhang Wei had urged him to write before. After hesitating for a moment, he suppressed the thought and did not tell Chen Aige directly.

After all, even if the story is written, it doesn’t necessarily have to be filmed by Chen Ai Ge.

Maybe other directors will have ideas too, like Xie Jin, Zhang Guoshi, or Hou Xiaoxian, who has already won the Palme d'Or.

Lin Youcheng suppressed his thoughts, thinking that once the novel was written and published, the answer would naturally come out.

(End of this chapter)