Literary Master 1978.

Chapter 434 The grass boat borrows arrows
"Anhua, is there any other problem with the script?" Xu Guanwen asked nervously.

Ann Hui looked at him, with a hint of disdain hidden behind her eyes.

“No, the script is very well written.”

Although she was dissatisfied with Xu Guanwen's influence on the script writing, Ann Hui also understood that given Xu Guanwen's status in the Hong Kong film industry, he was qualified to do so.

And without him, there probably wouldn't be this movie.

Ann Hui looked at Lin Chaoyang again and couldn't help feeling sorry for the fate of this talented writer.

Especially when she heard Lin Chaoyang say that the light-hearted tone of the script was for its subsequent distribution and release, she felt even more sad. Everyone works behind the scenes, and she understands the kind of pressure that comes from being forced too well.

“Lin Sheng’s script is full of ingenuity. The dystopian atmosphere in the script, which is deeply rooted in the daily life of today, is both lighthearted and easy to understand, and shocking and thought-provoking.

If it is filmed, it will definitely be well received.”

Xu Guanwen agreed with Xu's words. He said with a red face: "Anhua, you said it very well! This was how I felt when Chaoyang and I first met to discuss the script.

And don’t you think so? I feel that the atmosphere of entertainment to death in the script almost perfectly reflects the current situation of our Hong Kong society. "

Ann Hui put aside her prejudice against Xu Guanwen and nodded, "That's right. It's really unexpected that such a script with a profound insight into Hong Kong society was written by Mr. Lin."

What she meant by this was naturally Lin Chaoyang's mainland origin, but she meant it with no ill will, and she specifically explained it to Lin Chaoyang.

Lin Chaoyang waved his hand and smiled, then asked nonchalantly, "Do you think the script needs to be adjusted?"

Before Xu Anhua could respond, Xu Guanwen said, "Such a perfect script, why change it?"

Ann Hui sighed helplessly in her heart. With this script, it would not be a problem for Xu Guanwen to win two more Best Actor awards. Naturally, he was extremely satisfied.

Ann Hui also understands that the script is already good enough, and this style may be a good choice now.

Thinking of this, her face relaxed and she said to Lin Chaoyang, "There's nothing wrong with the script. When I write the storyboards later, there may be some minor adjustments. Let's communicate then."

A consensus has been reached, and now the pressure is on Ann Hui.

Xu Guanwen said that they plan to participate in this film at next year's Cannes Film Festival. Regardless of the final quality of the film, the time limit has already been set.

Fortunately, the crews in Hong Kong have always been efficient and have plenty of time.

Ann Hui estimated in her mind that she would first write a storyboard script, and then carry out preparatory work such as location scouting, set design, casting, etc. based on the storyboard script. The preliminary preparations would take at least two months.

If filming can start smoothly in August, there will be three months left for shooting, which means it will be wrapped up in November, and another two months for post-production, which means it will be January next year.

This pace is very conscientious compared to ordinary Hong Kong commercial films. In today's Hong Kong film industry, many films may take no more than three months from the time the main creative staff come up with the idea to the time they are released.

"This movie must be refined and polished, and we still have plenty of time." Xu Guanwen said after listening to her ideas.

Ann Hui is a rare director in the Hong Kong film industry who has always insisted on pursuing art films. She was very happy to hear Xu Guanwen say this.

This is exactly what she has been looking for!

After that day, Lin Chaoyang would go to Hai'an Coffee Shop to meet with Ann Hui almost every two days. She had to write the storyboard script and could not do without Lin Chaoyang as the screenwriter.

As the relationship between the two gradually became more familiar, the storyboard script of "The Truman Show" became more and more perfect.

During this period, Tao Yushu's belly became bigger and bigger, but she attended classes more and more frequently. Lin Chaoyang felt helpless about her fighting spirit even when pregnant, and he tried to persuade her to take a break but to no avail.

In Ms. Tao's words: It's uncomfortable to be idle.

"Sister, I'm not saying anything bad about you, but you were born to be a hard worker!"

That night, Tao Yumo coaxed Xiao Dongdong to sleep early and ran to the living room to watch a TV series on Jade Channel.

Comrade Yumo has been in Hong Kong for nearly two months. He has already adapted to the environment and is quite wise, thinking "I am so happy here that I don't miss my homeland".

Apart from taking care of the children and going out shopping, the rest of the time is basically occupied by movies, TV and games.

By the way, after coming to Hong Kong, she developed a new hobby - pop songs.

She used to listen to it when she was in Yanjing, but there were restrictions at that time. Now that she is in Hong Kong, it is like a fish in the sea and a teddy bear in the flowers.

Lin Chaoyang particularly loves Principal Tan’s “Love Trilogy”. He is really afraid that in the future, when there will be a “Tan-Zhang rivalry”, the sister-in-law will hold Dongdong and rush to the front.

Tao Yushu slapped his sister on the back, using force to make Tao Yumo submit. "You just play all day long, and you never write a letter home."

"Who said I didn't write it? I wrote it half a month ago."

"It's been half a month."

"I can't write letters every day, can I?"

"You have nothing to do at home."

"Who said I'm fine? Are you taking care of the child?"

Tao Yumo got furious when she heard her sister's words. I work so hard to take care of the children, but in your eyes I'm doing nothing?

"Okay, okay, your sister doesn't mean that. She's just worried that you'll be bored at home. I estimate that in a month or two, the film I wrote will start shooting. I'll have someone arrange a role for you then."

Lin Chaoyang acted as a peacemaker and used acting to divert Tao Yumo's attention.

"So fast?" Tao Yumo was indeed attracted by him and asked excitedly.

"The script has been finalized, the investment has been secured, and a director has been hired. How can we not be happy?"

Tao Yumo asked excitedly, "Brother-in-law, what role are you going to assign to me?"

"What kind of role do you want?" Tao Yumo thought seriously, "I have never learned acting, so I definitely can't play the leading lady. There are too few roles for minor roles... Brother-in-law, is there a role that doesn't require much acting skills but has screen time?"

"That's quite a high requirement. Do you think I'm a director?"

"Didn't you say that you would also let my sister be the producer?"

"Your sister became a producer because we took up the investment. As for the role, it's up to the director. You will act according to how he arranges it."

Tao Yumo originally thought that she had Lin Chaoyang's protection in the crew, but after hearing what he said, she felt a little insecure.

"My sister said that if you don't act well on the set, you'll be scolded."

"I didn't act well and delayed the shooting progress. It's normal to get scolded." Lin Chaoyang said as a matter of course.

It seems that acting is not that good!

Tao Yumo didn't say anything else. He went aside to watch TV with a heavy heart.

Lin Chaoyang and his wife smiled at each other when they saw this.

The next day, Tian Geng from Yenching Publishing House showed up at Oriental Garden. Half a month ago, Lin Chaoyang wrote a letter to their publishing house, explaining the situation facing the new work.

After learning the news, Tian Geng hurriedly communicated with his unit, and then prepared the procedures to go south to Hong Kong. He only arrived in Hong Kong today.

During this period of time, Li Shifei did not leave just to wait for today.

Based on the principles of fairness, justice and openness, Lin Chaoyang specially called the two together, had a meal with them first, then explained his "difficulties", and finally asked them to write a royalty quotation on their palms.

We will sign a contract with whoever offers the highest price.

Even though they had prepared themselves mentally, the two were still almost broken by Lin Chaoyang's trick. Are you playing "borrowing arrows from a straw boat" here?

After struggling for a long time, I finally had no choice but to give in.

Who makes Lin Chaoyang's works so popular?

While Tian Geng was writing numbers on his palm, he kept muttering "This big store bullies its customers" and "This big store bullies its customers".

After finishing writing, Tian Geng and Li Shifei looked at each other, their eyes full of nervousness, after all, it was related to a huge income of their respective publishing houses in the next few years.

Under Lin Chaoyang's command, the two men opened their hands.

"21%!"

The numbers in the hands of the two people were surprisingly consistent. They looked at each other's numbers with astonishment in their eyes.

Immediately, Li Shifei grinned, his face full of excitement, while Tian Geng looked as if he had lost his parents.

Both parties knew that Lin Chaoyang had an agreement with Huacheng Publishing House that if the conditions were the same, his new work would be given priority to Huacheng Publishing House.

This condition can be regarded as Lin Chaoyang's gratitude and return to Huacheng Publishing House for daring to go against the world's will and being the first in the country to implement a royalty payment system.

Li Shifei waved his fists excitedly for a long time. At this time, Tian Geng had come out of his depressed mood.

"Editor-in-Chief Li, congratulations!"

"Editor-in-Chief Tian, ​​thank you very much!"

Li Shifei's smile was like a chrysanthemum, so dazzling.

Tian Geng could only force a smile, after all, he was still one step behind!

The royalty payment system is one in which the performance of the publishing house and the income of the writer are linked to the sales of the work. If the sales are good, everyone makes money; if the sales are poor, no one makes money.

It can be said that risks are shared, but the prerequisite is that the royalty rate must be moderate.

If the royalty rate is too low, no matter how many works are sold, the writer's income will not be high; conversely, the publishing house will gain less profit.

Previously, Yenching Publishing House gave Lin Chaoyang a 15% royalty treatment, which is considered the treatment of a first-line best-selling author in the publishing industry of most countries and regions.

But competition is like this. The essence is not how high your bid is, but whether it is higher than your competitor.

Under this law of the dark forest, Huacheng Publishing House and Yenching Publishing House had to fight to the death in order to obtain the publishing rights of Lin Chaoyang's new work.

A royalty rate of 21% is almost the limit they can bear.

Originally, this number should be 20%, but both parties felt that the other party might make a relatively neat offer, so if they raised the offer a little bit, they would naturally have an advantage.

Unfortunately, Wolong met Fengchu, and in the end, Wolong, who invested first in Wang Duoyu, won.

Li Shifei obtained the publishing rights of Lin Chaoyang's new work on behalf of Huacheng Publishing House, so he was naturally smiling. Tian Geng, the loser, had to force a smile, which made Lin Chaoyang feel embarrassed.

He asked Li Shifei to leave first, then invited Tian Geng to have a meal alone, and accompanied him for a day in Hong Kong, which barely made up for the psychological trauma that Comrade Tian Geng suffered from this trip to Hong Kong.

After Tian Geng left, Lin Chaoyang formally signed the contract and handed over the publication of his new work "The Truman Show" in the mainland to Huacheng Publishing House.

Li Shifei spent more than half a month in Hong Kong and finally returned satisfied.

The novel was about to be published and the script was finished. Lin Chaoyang suddenly felt a lot more relaxed. Apart from meeting with Ann Hui every two days to discuss the creation and preparation of the film, there was basically nothing to do.

A few days later, he received a phone call. The caller claimed to be Pan Yaoming, deputy editor-in-chief of Joint Publishing Company of Hong Kong. He called to invite Lin Chaoyang to dinner.

Lin Chaoyang thought that since they didn't know each other, why should they have a meal together? But Pan Yaoming told him that there were also more than a dozen writers from the mainland who were visiting the United States at the party.

Pan Yaoming randomly mentioned a few names, all of whom were acquaintances, so it was really difficult for Lin Chaoyang to not go.

(End of this chapter)