A widower's entertainment

Chapter 335 [The Child's Future] (Please Subscribe)
Regardless of how literary and film circles discuss the author Lin Youcheng's renewed collaboration with American companies and the exact amount of royalties he received for selling his novels and screenplays, the exact figure is not hard to imagine, even if it is unknown.

Because there was already a million dollars in revenue from "The Time Traveler's Wife".

Perhaps Lin Youcheng has made another million dollars this time, after all, this time he sold more than just the film rights to a novel.

This mysterious and specific number arouses curiosity and also excites many literary workers.

After all, no author or screenwriter is indifferent to royalties. Otherwise, the royalty system proposed by Lin Youcheng would have garnered support from many literary workers. Now, naturally, many people would want to work with American companies like Lin Youcheng, and some would even want to directly consult Lin Youcheng to understand what kind of stories would attract the attention of American film and television companies.

Does this mean that only stories with science fiction elements and fantasy elements, like "The Time Traveler's Wife" and "The Lake House," can be selected by the United States to be made into movies?

So, was Lin Youcheng's movie script also a science fiction script, a story full of imagination? Many people in the literary circle are very curious about what kind of movie script Lin Youcheng wrote that he sold to Warner Bros.

There has been ongoing discussion about this matter within the industry, and even Chen Aige's side has heard about it and is very curious about the story behind Lin Youcheng's movie script.

"No wonder! Your script is really interesting!"

Chen Aige truly admired Lin Youcheng for being able to write such a film script; no wonder he was noticed by a company in the United States.

Chen Aige had studied in the United States for a period of time and had some understanding of film production in Hollywood. Naturally, she was also very clear that the script "Everyday" given by Lin Youcheng was very suitable for American companies to film.

"I think Warner Bros. will definitely bring in a lot of stars to make cameo appearances in your story."

After all, Warner Bros. is no small company. In the United States, and even globally, it is one of the absolute giants of the film industry. With such influence, it is natural that many movie stars will want to make cameo appearances for Warner Bros. After all, even if it's just one or two scenes, it will be a huge boost to the production of the entire film.

Chen Aige said, "If I were to direct this movie, I would definitely cast actors from Hong Kong."

Lin Youcheng smiled and said, "That depends on whether Warner Bros. has that much influence."

Chen Aige and Lin Youcheng discussed these things, naturally focusing on the post-production of the film "Atonement". Now that filming has wrapped, the next step is editing, followed by submission to the Cannes Film Festival.

Chen Aige looked at Lin Youcheng and said, "I hope we can be nominated for the Cannes Film Festival next year."

Hearing Chen Aige's words, Lin Youcheng smiled. He didn't think the film wouldn't be shortlisted for the Cannes Film Festival. After all, the film had been shortlisted for the three major film festivals and even the Academy Awards. However, whether it would win an award depended on luck, and of course, luck also depended on its strength.

Lin Youcheng suddenly remembered that in the main competition of the Cannes Film Festival in 1991, in another timeline, the Coen brothers' "Barton Fink" won the Palme d'Or and the Best Director Award, and John Turturro won the Best Actor Award for the film, which is the Cannes Best Actor Award. It was quite crazy to win three major awards directly. It was really too scary.

But the biggest reason for this is that the president of the jury at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival was Polanski, and thus the most famous "dictator" in Cannes history was assigned to him, because Polanski didn't care about the films that were nominated at all.

Polanski basically watched and criticized them all, considering them all clichés and pretentious. Every day, Polanski would say to Jacob, "These are all the films you found? Nothing else?" Films rejected by Polanski included Lars von Trier's *Europa*, Kieslowski's *The Double Life of Veronique*, and Chen Aige's *Life on a String*...

Until the penultimate day, Jacob knew he still had his last trump card to play: Angelopoulos's "The Hesitation of the Stork," which was clearly what Polanski called a "pretentious" and boring film, Pialat's "Van Gogh," and the Coen brothers' "Barton Fink."

It wasn't until the Coen brothers' "Barton Fink" came out that Polanski finally watched the whole thing with a smile and gave it a pretty good review.

This includes the Coen brothers' homage to Polanski, which could even be described as pandering. The Cannes Film Festival president at the time, Jacob, in a panic and fearing the Palme d'Or would go unclaimed that year, also affirmed on behalf of the Coen brothers that the film was entirely a tribute to Polanski, echoing references to films like *Repulse*, *The Tenant*, and *Rosemary's Baby*.

Now Polanski has finally found the Palme d'Or he so desired, and then, in a moment of capriciousness, he also gifted out the Best Director and Best Actor awards.

Woody Allen once said, "No one has the right to decide whether a film wins an award, because that's a stupid thing to do."

Film festivals ultimately award prizes, and the most important thing is how the jury makes its choice, or rather, how the jury president personally makes his decision.

Polanski's unconventional approach led to an unwritten rule at the Cannes Film Festival: a film can only win one award.

In fact, as early as 54, when Cannes held its sixth edition, the then-jury president had already demonstrated his talent for "dictatorship." That year, the famous surrealist poet and director Jean Cocteau also did not think highly of the films, so he only awarded the Palme d'Or to Clouzot's "The Price of Fear."

Lin Youcheng suddenly became worried about Chen Aige's performance at next year's Cannes Film Festival and couldn't help but ask, "Is there enough time for the film's post-production? If not, should we consider switching to another film festival, like the Venice Film Festival or the Berlin Film Festival?"

"Don't worry, you'll make it in time!"

Clearly, Chen Aige hadn't considered any other film festivals at all; he had complete confidence in the Cannes Film Festival.

Seeing Chen Aige say this, Lin Youcheng didn't want to directly advise Chen Aige to give up next year's Cannes Film Festival, avoid that dictatorial and willful Polanski, and avoid encountering the Coen brothers' crazy tributes to Polanski. But he also knew that this was definitely not something to talk about, after all, it was still next year's matter.

Chen Aige didn't stay long and left.

Inside the courtyard, Lin Youcheng saw Chen Aige off. Watching Chen Aige's smiling figure as she left, Lin Youcheng wondered if things would be different under the butterfly effect of time, and whether he could win any awards at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival amidst the frenzy of tributes.

"It might be difficult!"

On the other side, in the courtyard, Lin Zhaomei was teaching Lin Zhaohuan to sing. Because the school had a New Year's Day performance, all the students in Lin Zhaohuan's class had to sing the children's song "The Snail and the Oriole." Lin Zhaohuan was singing, "There's a grapevine in front of the door, its tender green buds just sprouting. The snail carries its heavy shell, climbing up step by step. There are two orioles on the tree, laughing at it. The grapes are far from ripe, what are you doing up there now..." Lin Zhaomei listened to Lin Zhaohuan singing and offered some suggestions. Lin Zhaohuan quickly learned how to adjust, put her hands in front of her chest, and continued singing with a smile.

Lin Zhaomei walked over to Lin Youcheng and greeted Uncle Chen Aige as well. She overheard Lin Youcheng talking to Chen Aige as he looked at his back, and walked over with some curiosity, asking, "Dad, what's so difficult?"

When Lin Youcheng heard Lin Zhaomei ask this question, he smiled and said, "It's very difficult to win an award at the Cannes Film Festival."

Lin Zhaomei naturally remembered what she had said before. She had said that she wanted to win the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, and couldn't help but smile and say, "Dad, I will win the Palme d'Or in the future."

Lin Youcheng smiled and said, "Dad believes in you."

Although I only believe this statement.

Lin Youcheng's gaze then turned to Lin Zhaohuan, who was still singing "The Snail and the Oriole" on the other side. He thought that his daughter Lin Zhaohuan sang quite well, especially since she stood very upright, which was quite cute.

However, it seems that Lin Zhaohuan will have two round blushes applied to her face later. Well, Lin Youcheng didn't want to comment too much, since she knew that such heavy makeup for children was the current trend.

Lin Youcheng didn't say much, turned around and went into the house, as he had other things to take care of.

Without a doubt, Lin Youcheng truly made a fortune from those two books.

Because of the two additional copyright fees, Lin Youcheng once again shocked the sales staff at the real estate office. He bought a total of 24 houses in several other communities in the Asian Games Village. In addition, through the introduction of a real estate agent, he also settled on a courtyard house in Sifang Hutong. The courtyard house was quite large, and because it was well-maintained, it cost 260,000 yuan.

Clearly, the opportunity to snag a courtyard house for a mere 10,000 yuan is long gone, and the price of courtyard houses will naturally continue to rise and become increasingly outrageous.

In any case, Lin Youcheng managed to save up enough money to buy a courtyard house for each of his six children by the end of 1990.

The key point is that in addition to these six courtyard houses, there are also thirty commercial apartments. On average, this is like preparing six bowls of water for six children. Instead of dividing the water equally among the six children, each child gets a bowl of water.

Although the cost was not small, more than six million RMB, it should be noted that Lin Youcheng negotiated a copyright fee of one million eight hundred thousand US dollars with Warner Bros. Pictures, which is equivalent to nine million RMB. It was more than enough to buy those golden houses that would definitely appreciate in value in the future.

This is why Lin Youcheng was willing to spend that money to buy a house; it's a kind of investment, simple and direct, unlike Ma Weidu who invested over 300,000 yuan to build a cabaret.

Seeing Lin Youcheng looking through the property ownership certificate, Lin Zhaole walked over curiously and asked, "Dad, what are you doing?"

"I'm looking at your future."

These property deeds will be your future family property. Even without any further effort, you and your siblings can live off these property deeds. Of course, this excludes spendthrifts. If a spendthrift son were to squander all the family property after his death, it would truly make his father so angry he'd crawl out of his grave.

As for while he was alive, these children naturally shouldn't even think about squandering the family fortune; they shouldn't even consider it, and he wouldn't give them the slightest chance.

Lin Zhaole was somewhat confused and quite naive, not understanding why those incomprehensible papers represented their future. He said, "My future is to be a scientist."

“Good, that’s good. Just like your second brother, who also used to say he wanted to be a scientist.”

When Lin Zhaole said he wanted to be a scientist, Lin Youcheng naturally thought of Lin Zhaoqing saying the same thing when he was a child. However, it was clear that Lin Zhaoqing, who would be facing the high school entrance exam next year, was under a lot of pressure. His sister Lin Zhaoxi's grades were what they were, and if Lin Zhaoqing couldn't even get into the senior high school of Xinghua Middle School, then he would really have to find another way, let alone become a scientist.

After all, Lin Youcheng had never heard of any scientists after the founding of the People's Republic of China who failed the high school entrance exam.

Lin Zhaole seemed quite surprised to hear Lin Youcheng's words. He hadn't expected his second brother, Lin Zhaoqing, to also want to be a scientist. He widened his eyes and asked, "Really? Second brother, does he want to be a scientist in the future?"

"I'm going to ask my second brother!"

Lin Zhaole was very excited.

Lin Youcheng smiled and said, "It's probably difficult for your second brother to become a scientist now, but I think you still have hope. Study hard and make progress every day."

Upon hearing Lin Youcheng's words, Lin Zhaole's little face lit up with a smile. He nodded solemnly and said earnestly, "Dad, I will definitely study hard and make progress every day."

“Awesome!”

Lin Youcheng praised Lin Zhaole for his desire to become a scientist. At least for now, there is still a very strong hope for a scientist position for children like Lin Zhaole. Regardless of whether he can become a scientist in the end, at least his attitude is there. It is rare to have the desire to become a scientist from such a young age.

Of course, Lin Youcheng felt that it was still very difficult, after all, he knew Lin Zhaole's exam results. Although he was still in the lower grades, he had not shown any genius.

However, Lin Youcheng felt that no matter what his child wanted to be in the future, there was no need to worry, since even if things went badly, these property certificates would still provide a safety net for the child's future.

The future is bright, and the children's future is also promising.

(End of this chapter)