A widower's entertainment

Chapter 364 [Love Every Day] (Please Subscribe)
Xinghua Hutong, Beijing.

Lin Youcheng didn't pay much attention to the male and female leads chosen by Yanjing Film Studio. However, Yanjing Film Studio would later inform Lin Youcheng that the female lead was Yu Feihong, whom Lin Youcheng had recommended. She would play two roles, Song Qingyue and Lin Xi. The male lead would be played by Zhang Yi as Zhou He and Huang Lei as Zhou Weimin, who falls in love with Lin Xi.

Lin Youcheng was not the director; he was just the screenwriter. After handing the script over to Yanjing Film Studio, there was nothing he, as the screenwriter, needed to worry about.

Undoubtedly, the news that Yu Feihong would indeed play the female lead in the movie "If Love Has a Destiny" would shock the entire film academy and make the acting students very envious. To some extent, it would also stimulate the acting students of Yenching Academy of Drama, who would naturally hear about the news as well.

"Why did they choose people from the Beijing Film Academy and not people from our Yanxi Opera School?"

Wang Xuebin was rather direct, noting that the Beijing Film Studio hadn't even come to them to select actors.

Chen Jianbin shook his head and said, "No, I heard that Zhang Yishi is also going to act in this play. The Beijing Film Studio came to the school to select people, but they didn't select any freshmen or sophomores."

Upon hearing Chen Jianbin's words, Wang Xuebin raised an eyebrow, shook his head, and said, "If I had known, I would definitely have given it a try."

Chen Jianbin didn't particularly care about this opportunity. In his opinion, he should study hard and improve his acting skills. He would eventually have the opportunity to act. Of course, he would like to play a role in Lin Youcheng's works in the future. His favorite character is not the love story written by Lin Youcheng. His favorite character is Yu Zecheng in Lin Youcheng's novel "Lurking". He really likes the character Yu Zecheng.

In his view, a role like Yu Zecheng is the most challenging to play.

Of course, if he could collaborate with the great writer and screenwriter Lin Youcheng, he would be willing to work on any kind of project in the future.

This is also the thought of many people in the film industry. Even those who are just acting students are very clear about how amazing Lin Youcheng's novels and screenplays are, and naturally they all want to be able to play roles in Lin Youcheng's works.

I wonder who will be as lucky as that student from the Beijing Film Academy, who was directly recommended by Lin Youcheng to play the female lead. This is something that makes countless people envious, and they all wish they had such an opportunity.

Clearly, regardless of the discussions among students at Yenching Film Academy and Yenching Drama Academy, Lin Youcheng, the writer and screenwriter, is undoubtedly a big name in their minds.

Lin Youcheng didn't pay much attention to this matter. He was still writing the screenplay for "The Reader," but it wasn't as simple as "If Love Has a Destiny" because he didn't know if the plot would pass censorship and needed to be revised. Of course, Lin Youcheng himself wasn't in a hurry.

Just after the casting for "If Love Has a Destiny" was finalized, Chen Aige specifically informed Lin Youcheng that the film "Atonement" would be released and would be nominated for the Oscars and Golden Globes. Accompanying Chen Aige was his wife, Hong Huang.

Hong Huang's background is quite extraordinary, stemming from a family with a strong academic tradition. She studied abroad on a government scholarship and later worked in the United States. It was by chance that she saw Chen Aige's film "Yellow Earth" in a cinema. This artistically powerful work deeply moved her and sparked a strong interest in Chen Aige. At the time, Chen Aige, though not yet at the peak of his career, exuded the aura of an artist and was exceptionally talented. Hong Huang, drawn by her love for "Yellow Earth," visited Chen Aige on set. They were immediately attracted to each other upon their first meeting, and eventually became a couple.

"Brother Lin, I've been reading your novel."

Although Hong Huang had a somewhat Western-like arrogance, he was still very polite to Lin Youcheng, a literary giant, and said, "I like several of your works very much, especially your collaboration with Ai Ge, 'Atonement'."

Lin Youcheng naturally expressed his gratitude upon hearing Hong Huang's words.

Hong Huang also made a special effort to get to know the great author Lin Youcheng through Chen Aige. Lin Youcheng didn't even appear when "Atonement" was being filmed before, so now he naturally had the opportunity to meet this big shot. Although Hong Huang had some Western arrogance, it was clear that he greatly admired Lin Youcheng.

"You may not know how popular your screenplay, 'Everyday,' is in the United States. I even went to see the movie myself."

Hong Huang is a US citizen, which is a common choice for most people who go abroad. Hong Huang has naturally watched the movie "Every Day," written by Lin Youcheng, and he watched it in the US. He said with a serious face, "The story you wrote is really amazing."

Although Chen Aige had not seen the movie "Everyday", he had heard Hong Huang mention the plot of the movie. He also knew that Lin Youcheng's screenplay for "Everyday" had been bought by Warner Bros. for more than a million dollars. He couldn't help but say, "His screenplays are naturally very good. Otherwise, why would Warner Bros. in Hollywood spend more than a million dollars to buy this screenplay?"

When Hong Huang heard Chen Aige mention the price of the script, he frowned slightly, feeling that it was too vulgar for Chen Aige to bring up copyright fees at this time. Looking at Lin Youcheng, he said, "I really like your story. It has a wonderful feeling, like a perfume with top notes, middle notes, and base notes. The top notes make me feel that the ending is a bit bitter and a bit tragic. The middle notes make me realize that life is like this. No matter how romantic or reluctant we are, we must continue. The base notes suddenly give rise to a redefinition of the role of 'human being'."

Undoubtedly, Hong Huang was somewhat artistic, otherwise he wouldn't have gotten together with Chen Aige. However, due to certain events, even when Chen Aige was successful, he still chose to divorce her.

Hong Huang added, "Several media outlets in the United States, such as Los Angeles, have given you very high praise for this movie script."

This explains why Paramount Pictures approached them so quickly. The success of the film *Everyday* is undeniably inseparable from screenwriter Lin Youcheng, which is why Paramount Pictures directly sought them out. It's undeniable that *Everyday*, with Lin Youcheng as screenwriter, is incredibly popular in the United States. While the film's success is also due to the director's skill and the actors' excellent performances, everyone in Hollywood understands that the film's success is ultimately due to the amazing concept and imagination of this Eastern screenwriter, Lin Youcheng.

The Chicago Sun-Times, for example, made no secret of its praise for Lin Youcheng, the screenwriter of "Everyday," saying, "A genius imagination! This Eastern author, Lin Youcheng, truly deserves his Hugo Award. His imagination is amazing! This script is absolutely brilliant. We are always set up in an accumulation mode, but perhaps we can actually be like 'A,' resetting to zero every day and starting a completely new life the next day. It's hard to imagine how an Eastern author came up with this idea: one character doesn't have their own physical body and can constantly possess another of the same age, A; the other has their own physical body, but their appearance changes every time they wake up tomorrow. This script is so cool!"

"The whole process was heartwarming, especially how A, each time it woke up in someone's body, lived with true love, helping that person live their most wonderful day. Because of these experiences, it became extremely gentle and compassionate, experiencing so much and seeing the world through so many eyes, thus gaining a deeper understanding of everyone's differences. What impressed me most was when A woke up one day in Ri's body and saw itself in the mirror—it was incredibly excited! This was its happiest, most cherished, and also most exciting and nerve-wracking day. It also did its best to leave traces of love, smiling from ear to ear all day, and bringing joy to its family and friends. Most importantly, the film's idea is wonderful: when the person you love doesn't have a fixed body, you will still love them. This film uses this magical setting to express that we love a person's soul, not their body. The film is a response to the fast-paced, superficial views of love prevalent in our time. When you fall in love with such a soul, their appearance—male or female, fat or thin, black or white—no longer matters. This is the essence of love!"

Not only the Chicago Sun-Times, but also critics from The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times have praised Lin Youcheng, this Eastern author, for his brilliant ideas.

Of course, back when the novels "The Time Traveler's Wife" and "The Lake House" were adapted and released, Hollywood media outlets praised Lin Youcheng as the author. There's no way around it; in the eyes of the United States, Lin Youcheng's stories are just too wonderful and too cool.

Of course, Lin Youcheng's film scripts are not entirely in line with Hollywood. Some Hollywood actors will make cameo appearances based on the characters in Lin Youcheng's scripts. This means that actors of different skin colors will appear in the scripts. On the one hand, it is about being upright and correct, and on the other hand, it is about expressing love between people of different skin colors, genders, and ages. The female lead never rejects A because he is black or has a patient. At the last moment of parting with A, the female lead is in pain, but life must go on, and tomorrow is still beautiful for everyone.

These are all reasons why "Everyday" is so popular in Hollywood, and of course, why Hollywood media highly praise Lin Youcheng, the Eastern screenwriter.

Nothing else, the main story concept is just amazing!
This was actually what Hong Huang was thinking too. He smiled and said, "I think if you go to America, those newspapers will all do exclusive interviews with you. You're very popular in America now."

Lin Youcheng just smiled when he heard Hong Huang's words. He had no intention of going to the United States, let alone for any interview. If anything, the Times Publishing Company could do an interview for him, after all, he, the Hugo Award-winning author from the East, was very mysterious.

Upon hearing Hong Huang's words, Chen Aige couldn't help but say, "Even if Brother Lin doesn't go to America, those American companies will still come knocking on his door. Paramount Pictures just bought another movie script from him, and the script copyright fee is still so high."

Hong Huang had naturally heard about this as well. She didn't care about the copyright fee; in her opinion, the important thing was the story of the movie itself. She just asked with some curiosity, "Is this movie script still a love story?"

Clearly, Hong Huang also knew that the writer Lin Youcheng was particularly good at writing love stories, just like the three movies that were released in Hollywood, all of which were related to love.

Lin Youcheng shook his head and said, "No, it's more like a science fiction movie with romance elements."

"Oh, a sci-fi movie? I definitely have to watch this movie later."

Hong Huang had also read Lin Youcheng's "The Time Traveler's Wife" and was naturally looking forward to Lin Youcheng's new science fiction film script, but he didn't know what kind of science fiction story it would be.

Obviously, someone like Hong Huang, a Chinese American with American citizenship who can travel to the US at any time, can go see movies that are shown in Hollywood.

Listening to Lin Youcheng's words, Chen Aige couldn't help but say, "If your movie is released in Hollywood and becomes successful again, I really don't know how much those Hollywood companies will fawn over you."

Hong Huang found Chen Aige's words rather jarring. Clearly, in Hong Huang's view, something had changed in her heart. Since things changed every day, love would also change. Such beautiful love might only exist in literature and film.

Chen Aige was unaware of Hong Huang's thoughts. He couldn't help but chat with Lin Youcheng about the script adaptation of the movie "Farewell My Concubine." Currently, Chen Aige, Lu Wei, and Li Bihua are revising the movie script of "Farewell My Concubine."

Chen Aige naturally wanted to hear Lin Youcheng's opinion, and more importantly, he really hoped that Lin Youcheng could work together to adapt the play "Farewell My Concubine".

Listening to Chen Aige's words, Lin Youcheng thought of the movie "Farewell My Concubine". He knew very well that Lu Wei and Chen Aige had spent more than half a year polishing the script.

Thinking of the movie "Farewell My Concubine," Lin Youcheng couldn't help but think of Cheng Dieyi's line: "It's about a lifetime! A year, a month, a day, an hour less, it's not a lifetime!"

"If you think the ending needs to be changed, then change it!"

When Lin Youcheng heard Chen Aige say that the original ending of the novel was that Cheng Dieyi and Duan Xiaolou met in a Hong Kong bathhouse years later, both naked, open and honest with each other, reminiscing about the past, and then went their separate ways, Lin Youcheng naturally felt that this ending was not good enough. Without much thought, he directly said the real ending, blurting out: "Then let 'Overlord' and 'Consort Yu' have another chance to stand on the stage where things have changed. Cheng Dieyi, in the story of 'Farewell My Concubine,' will face Overlord and commit suicide like Consort Yu."

Chen Aige's eyes lit up when she heard Lin Youcheng mention this ending.

(End of this chapter)