Exciting 1979!

Chapter 164: The filming of "The Book of Heaven" begins (guaranteed 1 more chapters, please give me a monthly ticket!)
It was still a little chilly in Shanghai in March, and there was no heating, so in the morning Wei Ming was reluctant to leave the bed that he had warmed up all night.

But he still had a lot of things to do today, so he got up at eight o'clock in the morning and went out to find a restaurant for dinner.

The last time he came here, he was afraid to go to restaurants in Shanghai, but now it is different. He only cares about the price of a plate of pork ribs and rice cake and a bowl of wontons.

Today, he can even arrange a meal at the Peace Hotel.

After he joined the editorial department of Harvest, Li Xiaolin was first surprised by the title of Wei Ming's book. Wouldn't it be inappropriate to directly use the great man's poem as the title?
However, after reading the outline, I saw that the story ended with our army taking Nanjing in 49. If Heaven Has Feelings, It Will Age, and The Way of the World Is Full of Vicissitudes. It is indeed a suitable name.

"Xiao Wei, come with me to meet the editor-in-chief."

"it is good!"

When we arrived at Ba Lao's office, he was in better spirits than last year and said with a smile, "Xiao Wei is here, come sit down."

It seemed that Editor Li had already told him about Wei Ming's new work. He directly reached out to take the outline and was obviously stunned when he saw the name.

He praised: "Good name."

This name can be seen as Wei Ming expressing his position. Since I have chosen this name, I must not make any mistakes in principle.

What I am afraid of is that with such a grand title, the content inside is written in a timid way and lacks the heroic spirit.

"The Right Path in the World is Full of Vicissitudes" tells the story of a landlord family named Jiang in Hebei. The outline starts directly with the anecdotes of the old grandfather Jiang Chixia, who practiced martial arts when he was young, then joined the army, and retired after witnessing many major events. The prototype is his great-grandfather Wei Jiang, so the protagonist's family has the surname Jiang.

Wei Ming planned to put the story of Old Master Jiang in the prologue, using a relatively short chapter to cover the period from the late Qing Dynasty to around the Xinhai Revolution. However, this short chapter involved important figures such as Yuan Shikai and Feng Guozhang, all of whom had close ties with Old Master Jiang.

When reading the outline, Ba Lao felt a strong sense of anticipation, and based on the few words describing Jiang Chixia, he saw the shadows of many real people from the Republic of China period, such as Du Xinwu, Sun Lutang, Li Shuwen, etc.

The perspective then shifts to 1925, the year of Dr. Sun Yat-sen's death, and introduces the next generation of three siblings, Jiang Lizhong, Jiang Lihua, and Jiang Liming.

Actually, there are four siblings. Jiang Chixia and his sister-in-law gave birth to the youngest son, Jiang Lizu, making up the "Chinese nation". However, he does not have many scenes and is not mentioned in the outline. It will be used to highlight the theme at the end.

Each of the three brothers and sisters of the "Republic of China" was a tough guy, and they all had intricate ties with the top leaders of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party at that time.

If Wei Ming continues writing according to this creative idea, it would be easy to violate taboos, and many high-level figures who are still alive and hold important positions would appear. No wonder he was worried about not being able to publish "Harvest".

Three thousand words can be read very quickly, but for a novel, three thousand words may not be enough to describe all the main characters. Ba Lao can only see that this novel is extremely ambitious and difficult to write. If he finishes it, it will surely be a masterpiece.

This reminded Ba Lao that when he created the "Torrent Trilogy" he was only 27 years old. Young people should dare to challenge high difficulties. When you get older, you won't have that kind of spirit.

As a writer, the novel is a genre that tests a writer's ability very much. Ba Lao believed that his status in the literary world was almost entirely established by "Family", "Spring" and "Autumn", especially "Family", his earliest work.

Mr. Lu Xun suffers from the fact that he has no novel, otherwise they would not be worthy of being discussed together with Mr. Lu Xun.

Ba Lao asked: "How long do you plan to write this novel?"

Wei Ming: "I estimate that I will need to write at least 50 words."

Li Xiaolin exclaimed, "Five hundred thousand words! It's ten times longer than Wei Ming's previous novellas!"
50 words, spanning 25 years, will write about Huangpu study, Huangpu Eastern Expedition, Zhongshan Ship, Northern Expedition, April , Jinggangshan, Xi'an Incident, Pingxingguan, Southern Anhui Incident, Chongqing peace talks, three major battles, etc. It is still very tight, and Wei Ming hopes to write it more compactly.

Seeing that Wei Ming was going to challenge such a long length for his first novel, Ba Lao was worried that he might go astray as he wrote. Many authors of novels make this mistake and forget why they started by the very end.

"Does this novel have a core idea that runs through the entire novel?" asked Ba Lao.

Wei Ming thought for a moment and said, "The ideology of saving the nation and the conflict of ideals are what I want to explore in the book."

Ba Lao nodded and said that the word "conflict" should be applied to the two brothers Lizhong and Limin. They are the protagonists, and the younger brother Limin is the core protagonist.

The brief portrayal of Du Limin in the outline has allowed Ba Lao to see a vivid and unusual image of a senior general of our party.

Mr. Ba has another question: "Almost all the characters that appear in this period of history are already established great figures, and their life stories can stand up to scrutiny. The people on the other side are easy to talk about, and the jokes are just jokes. Many of our veterans are still alive. Even if they are not alive, their descendants have held important positions. How do you balance reality and the dramatic viewing value of the novel?"

Wei Ming understood what the old man meant. Novels are dramatic creations, and dramatic conflict is very necessary. Otherwise, it would be better to just write a celebrity biography.

But since this is modern history, many things cannot be exaggerated. A writer of Wei Ming's fame must be watched by many people.

Wei Mingdao: "The main characters in the novel, such as the three brothers and sisters of the male protagonist, the eldest sister's man, and the male protagonist's teacher and wife, are all original characters. At most, I add some characteristics and experiences of real people to them. There are also some big figures who are in power now. I try to place them in the background of the story and not let them officially participate in the plot."

Ba Lao thought for a moment and finally nodded. Wei Ming asked, "Ba Lao, am I sure I can write?"

"Write," Ba Lao said firmly, "As long as it is not against one's conscience, there is nothing that cannot be written. As long as you dare to write, we dare to publish it."

With these words from the second-best person in today's literary world, Wei Ming can write with full enthusiasm.

Not only that, Ba Lao also gave him a list of books, saying that it might be helpful for his creation.

"You may not be able to find all these books in the Peking University Library. You can go to the Yenching Library to look for them."

The Yenching Library was later the National Library and also the library with the largest collection of books in China. However, some of these books were not accessible to ordinary people. Ba Lao asked him to ask the Writers Association for help in issuing a certificate.

Looking at these book titles, Wei Ming felt that the day he wanted to start publishing a book would have to be postponed again.

At this time, Editor Li asked him, "When will it be finished?"

Wei Ming carefully put away the list of books: "It's unlikely that I can finish it this year. Maybe I'll have to wait until next year."

This means that it may take another year, which is normal for a novel with more than 50 words, and it is even a bit fast.

Li Xiaolin said: "For a novel this long, we have to publish it in at least three installments. You can notify me when you have finished writing 20 words."

"Well."

After leaving the editorial office of Harvest, Wei Ming did not immediately return to the guesthouse to create, but took a toad car to the Shanghai Animation Film Studio.

Wei Ming found Director Wang Bairong, who had been in contact with him before. When Director Wang heard that Wei Ming was coming, he put down his work and came out to meet him.

Wei Ming actually wanted to ask whether the British side agreed or not with the script, and when his royalties would be paid.

He didn't want to explain it so clearly, so he took out the script of the puppet short film "If I Were Wu Song" and asked them to do it.

Wang Bairong smiled and said, "Great! Our puppeteer is waiting for your script. I'll ask the finance department to pay you the royalties later. As for The Magic Book, we'll have to wait a little longer."

"Why is there no definite news on whether the BBC agrees or not?" Wei Ming even wanted to ask Melinda.

"After all, they are foreigners, and we have to translate the script into English, which will definitely take a longer time. This is normal," Wang Bairong suggested, "Why don't we take Writer Wei to visit us and see the production process of "The Legend of Heaven and Earth"?"

Wei Ming: "Ah, has production already started?"

Wang Bairong said, "Yes, whether the British invest or not, our Shanghai Animation Film Studio has already decided to shoot this film. Oh, and Toothless Tiger is also in production, and the progress is even faster. You can take a look at it together."

According to Wang Bairong, "The Toothless Tiger" can be produced this year, "If I Were Wu Song" will probably be produced next year, and it would be good enough if "The Magic Book" can be completed the year after next.

So from now on, there will be fairy tale adaptations of Wei's works released every year.

Wei Ming took a look and found that the character designs of "The Magic Book" were currently being redone, based on the work he and Liu Rulong had done, with more details added to achieve a movie-level level of sophistication.

Some clips of "The Toothless Tiger" have already been moved. Wei Ming was quite moved when he saw the tiger and the fox, and he wanted to add this pair of enemies into the "Black Cat Sheriff" series.

Speaking of which, this month's "Children's Literature" is about to be released. I wonder if this sheriff will be as popular among kids as the animated version.

After visiting the film studio, it was time for lunch. Wang Bairong called the two directors of "The Magic Book", Wang Shuchen and Qian Yunda, to accompany Wei Ming to Nanjing Road for dinner.

They all knew that Wei What was Wei Ming, so their attitude was quite respectful, and Wei Ming was not arrogant either. Director Wang was the one who made "Nezha Conquers the Dragon King", and Director Qian later also had works such as "The Sloppy King".

The food in Shanghai is not as luxurious as in Guangzhou, but it is still acceptable.

During the dinner, Wang Bairong also mentioned that "Nezha Conquers the Dragon King" was invited to participate in the Cannes Film Festival in May this year, and director Wang Shuchen will also go to Cannes as the head of the Chinese film delegation, which is a great honor.

Recently, the three major European film festivals have been very enthusiastic about Chinese films, and their intention to win them over is obvious.

Wei Ming actually knew about this. Originally, "Nezha Conquers the Dragon King" was invited as a film in the main competition unit, but due to an error in filling out the materials, it missed the opportunity and could only enter the screening unit.

It was not until 82's "The True Story of Ah Q" that mainland films entered the main competition unit for the first time.

One mistake, and the international copyright could probably sell for a lot less money~
(End of this chapter)