Huayu: The director just wants to save money

Chapter 575 The real plan?
The filming of "Homecoming" is still in progress.

Many people in the circle who were previously invited by Zhou Mo, Da Tiantian and the company came and went.

Da Tiantian's shooting skills have been constantly improving during this process.

From the very beginning, Zhou Mo needed to follow behind Da Tiantian throughout the filming and guide her step by step.

Sometimes I even need to take over directly and let Da Tiantian learn for a while in a teaching mode.

Later on, he just needed to watch from the side, and sometimes even let her control the operations of the crew for a short period of time.

The time came to February.

Just a few days before the release of "Return of the Motherland", Zhou Mo began writing the script for his next film.

Nine p.m.

After finishing the work at hand, Da Tiantian came to Zhou Mo's bedroom. Seeing that he was still lying on the table writing something, she slowed down her pace and walked over quietly.

He walked closer and took a look at the script written by Zhou Mo.

Four big words caught my eye.

"Bad Genius".

Da Tiantian was stunned. What kind of title is this?
Gunner?

Is this another gangster or gunfighter movie?

Da Tiantian frowned slightly, feeling something was not right.

She remembered that Zhou Mo said a few days ago that he would not watch any gun-fight movies this year.

But the gunman...

Continue looking down, and below the title is an introduction to the content of the movie.

After reading it, Da Tiantian realized that she was extremely wrong. This script had nothing to do with gun fights, gangs, etc., and it had nothing to do with war.

This is actually a movie about student exams!
The script roughly tells the story of cheating in an international examination, where the same examination paper is used to cheat and pass on answers by taking advantage of different examination locations and time zones, which lead to different examination times.

The term "gunman" is used to refer to those who take exams for others and cheat.

Da Tiantian was shocked by the novelty of this subject matter.

Logically speaking, this should be a youth, campus movie.

But it is obvious that the core of "Bad Genius" is completely different from those campus movies about "love, romance, abortion, and drunkenness".

This thing is about exams and cheating.

Da Tiantian immediately started reading the script.

Soon, she was immersed in the script written by Zhou Mo.

In the script, she saw the process of four candidates discussing how to cheat, saw how hard the heroine worked, and saw how the hero used his brain.

I saw the deep reasons why the two people did this.

It took Da Tiantian nearly twenty minutes to piece together the complete story from the scattered script.

Then, she suddenly felt that the script was somewhat familiar.

She gently took out her cell phone and searched for relevant information on the Internet. Da Tiantian was surprised to find that she had actually found a real case on the Internet that was somewhat similar to the script.

SAT cheating case in Asia.

Moreover, the incident happened very recently, just last October.

A candidate who was taking an examination in Bangkok was caught cheating during the test. The test taker had a copy of the test answers stored in his iPhone.

And this answer is exactly the answer to the test paper.

Later, according to the investigation results, it was learned that the answer came from another candidate who also took the test in Asia, but in a different region from Bangkok (Australia).

Due to the time zone difference between Bangkok and Australia, Australia will be tested first. At the same time, since both Australia and Bangkok are counted as Asian test centers, the results of the two regions are the same.

Therefore, it is possible to cheat by taking advantage of this feature.

The result of this incident was that the candidates' behavior caused the release of scores for a large number of students to be delayed, which almost affected these students' applications to schools.

After a rough estimate, it was found that more than 10,000 students were affected by the incident.

"Is this script adapted from the real event from two years ago?" Da Tiantian asked subconsciously.

Zhou Mo had already noticed Da Tiantian's movements, but seeing that she was so engrossed in watching, he did not disturb her.

After she came to her senses, he handed her a glass of water.

As she drank the water, she explained, "Yes, but some changes have been made to blur some of the information."

In the script of "Bad Genius", the original incident was caused by a domestic candidate, but it was a director named Sawadee who adapted the incident into a movie.

Zhou Mo has now written the script, and of course has also made corresponding adaptations to the people and places.

He waited for Da Tiantian to finish drinking the water and asked for her opinion.

"I don't know much about that exam, but I heard that it's quite popular." Da Tiantian asked.

"Yes, and it will become more and more popular in the future. Otherwise, there wouldn't be large-scale cheating incidents and they wouldn't be discovered in the end."

"That is to say, the content of this movie is actually quite close to life."

"Yes, that's understandable."

“That’s great. I’m quite optimistic about the general plot. The sense of novelty and anticipation is completely different from previous campus movies.

If it comes out, I think it will do well at the box office.”

Zhou Mo heard this compliment and waved his hands: "Grades and such are not important. My real reason for writing this script is to add some new content to the youth campus movies in China.

Besides, the performance of this movie may not be very good, so I am considering whether to make this movie myself."

After hearing the first half of Zhou Mo's words, Da Tiantian thought that this guy was going to start showing off again.

But after hearing the second half of the sentence, she asked in confusion, "You don't think this movie will do well at the box office?"

"Although the number of people taking this test is gradually increasing, to be honest, the total number is just that, and the box office may not be that impressive."

When "Bad Genius" was released in China in its previous life, the total box office was about 3 million.

There is the factor of foreign films involved, but even if it was shot domestically, the final box office would be at most in the 10 billion level, and it would be difficult to go any higher.

After all, SAT is ultimately an entrance exam for American universities, and the number of people taking this exam is a drop in the bucket compared to China's largest exam, the college entrance exam.

The story of "Bad Genius" is indeed wonderful, but since many people have no relevant experience, it is actually difficult to resonate deeply with it, and the upper limit of the box office is basically determined.

"So what you mean is that you don't want to make this movie?" Da Tiantian asked.

"Yes, I personally want to release this movie, and our company will provide the manpower and money." Zhou Mo nodded.

Da Tiantian raised her eyebrows.

"I saw you working on the script these days, forgetting to eat and sleep. I thought you were going to make this movie."

“It’s going to be filmed, but not this movie.”

"Huh? What do you mean?"

Zhou Mo opened the drawer next to him and took out a new script.

The result is sweet. When I opened the first page, two big words caught my eye.

"Students".

(End of this chapter)