Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 152 "The Glory of Criminal Police"!
"In the past twelve years, Captain Cheng worked as a security guard in a factory in Mentougou, worked as a decorator in Shanghai, worked as a wheat picker in northern Shaanxi, and worked as a taxi driver in Shenzhen..."

"He is a very outstanding person, and he can do everything well. But he always runs into the murderer. There was even one time when he drove a night bus in Shenzhen and gave the murderer a ride..."

"Time and again, he gave up his promising life and rushed into strange environments just to catch the murderer."

"The 80s to 90s were the 20 years with the most dramatic changes in modern Chinese history. The torrent of time has changed everything around Captain Cheng beyond recognition. The only thing that has not changed is Captain Cheng himself."

"Finally, Captain Cheng found clues and discovered that the murderer bought a fake ID and married a widow with a child in Hainan."

"Captain Cheng came to Hainan and began the last pursuit of his life..."

After Zhang Chao finished his story, the car just happened to arrive downstairs of Yu Zhandong's house. But Yu Zhandong did not get out of the car, and Zhang Chao did not say anything.

After a long while, Yu Zhandong said in a trembling voice due to excessive suppression of emotions: "This story... this story... we... Captain Cheng..."

I couldn't even utter a complete sentence.

Zhang Chao understood his feelings and asked with a smile: "Is this story too bizarre?"

Yu Zhandong shook his head and adjusted his mood before saying, "In fact, after Captain Cheng was released from prison, he knew that the murderer had not been arrested yet, so he often asked his old colleagues in the bureau about the progress and helped analyze clues. He wanted to solve this case so badly.

But the 80s were not like today. The economic conditions of each family were poor and there was not much surplus. At that time, Captain Cheng's parents were sick, and his son had to go to college. His wife could not support the family alone.

He can only take care of the family first and can’t go out…”

After that, he turned to look at Zhang Chao and said in a trembling voice: "I think if he is really as carefree as in your story, then he will definitely embark on this path in the story. He is a twisted person, and the more twisted he is, the more persistent he is.

If he could read the story you wrote, he would rest in peace in his grave."

Zhang Chao nodded and said nothing more.

Yu Zhandong patted Zhang Chao on the shoulder, got off the car and went home.

As Zhang Chao said, the main framework naturally came from "The Third Brigade".

"The Third Brigade" was originally a non-fiction story from the Wangyi Renjian Studio. It was later made into two versions, a movie and a TV series, and both were successful in terms of box office and ratings.

But both the movie and TV series versions have their own problems.

The problem with the movie version is that in order to highlight the tragedy of the protagonist Captain Cheng, some of the plots are out of touch with reality, such as being bullied by prison bullies in prison and the bureau's refusal to pay pension to his master.

The problem with the TV series is that in order to fill the 20-plus episodes, too many extra characters and plots were added, diluting the emotions. At the same time, the tracking process relied too much on coincidences. For example, when Captain Cheng was in a border city, he not only stayed in the hotel where the murderer had stayed, but even stayed in the same room.

On the one hand, the overly dry details of the original story gave the adapter a lot of creative space, but on the other hand, these adaptations also affected the tension of the core of the story to a certain extent.

Especially in movies and TV series, the original members of the "Three Teams" have joined the setting of "returning to the team" and solving cases together. This process of "returning" and then having to leave one by one for various reasons is intended to highlight the tragic feeling of the protagonist Captain Cheng, but it also "wrapped" him into a "shell".

Therefore, the directors and screenwriters of both the film and TV series obviously lacked confidence in creating an ultimate "lone hero", so they needed to find partners for him - even if these partners left one by one in the end. In Zhang Chao's mind, the most fascinating part of the original story is that Captain Li Cheng tracked down the murderer alone in the sky and hell.

In this process, what he is fighting against is not only the cunning murderer, but also the destruction inflicted on him by the entire outside world and secular concepts.

This is not an inspirational story, nor even a passionate story. Whether readers or viewers, after reading it, what should surge in their hearts is not just a sense of resonance with the revenge, but also arousing a certain examination of their own lives and idealism.

This is of course a very "unpopular" idea. It is obviously a novel that can be a big seller, with both suspense and passion, but it insists on being oriented towards serious literature.

If some snobbish publishing house editors knew about this, they would definitely smile on his face but scold him behind his back for being a "literary youth again."

However, Zhang Chao was really reluctant to give up such a good story, so during the novel writing stage, he used the routine of hot-blooded animation to vulgarize it.

If it is adapted into a film or TV series, then it will definitely be determined by the market trend. Zhang Chao has never been stubborn about this. After all, it is not just his business, and it involves more than just his money.

In the next two days, Zhang Chao distilled the story into an outline of several thousand words and handed it to Yu Zhandong, asking him to examine it from the professional perspective of a veteran policeman to see whether there were any problems that violated the characteristics of the times in the overall story logic and important plots.

Although I have watched both the movie and TV versions in my previous life, the time background is nearly 30 years different. The environment of Chinese society, as well as the procedures and methods of public security handling of cases, have undergone tremendous changes.

We can’t ask Captain Cheng from 1990 to deliver bottled water, right?
Yu Zhandong also took it very seriously and helped to revise it for three days. When he handed it to Zhang Chao, the revisions, comments, and additions on the draft filled up the blank spaces on the manuscript paper.

Zhang Chao said: "After this book is finished, I will definitely sign your name on it."

Yu Zhandong waved his hand and said, "No need. This is to make up for the regrets of Captain Cheng and myself. By the way, what is the name of the novel?"

Zhang Chao fell into deep thought. In the real world, Yu Zhandong and Captain Cheng were not in the "Third Brigade", and the name lacked storytelling nowadays.

After thinking for a while, Zhang Chao said, "Let's call it "Crime Police Glory" first. We can change it later if we get inspiration during the creative process."

Yu Zhandong said: "This name sounds good!"

Zhang Chao plans to start writing this novel after the new year, but the project work for film and television adaptation can be carried out now, which is why he has refined the story outline first.

This time, Zhang Chao and his team did not approach Huayi Films, but Bernard Films, to which the adaptation rights of Wotou Guild Hall were previously sold.

The company was founded in 2003 and is the first private film company to obtain distribution rights. In the past two years, it has not been satisfied with just doing distribution business, but is actively moving into the upstream production industry chain, so it has a strong demand for good scripts and good stories.

Their offer for Wotou Guild Hall was nearly 20% higher than that of Huayi. Zhang Chao had also heard of the slogan "Bernard's products must be top-quality" in later generations, so he was not obsessed with cooperating with Huayi.

But after listening to Zhang Chao's story, Yu Dong, the boss of Bona Films and also a senior filmmaker, frowned and said, "The story is very exciting. But...it may be difficult to get the project started."

Zhang Chao asked: "Why?"

Yu Dong replied: "After 2004, it was very difficult to get dramas involving crimes approved, and they were not allowed to be broadcast during prime time..."

(End of this chapter)