Backtracking to the Age of Literature and Art

Chapter 309 The screenwriter should leave it to you

Martin hadn't had a good night's sleep, and by the next morning, the urge to shoot "Fatal Identity" grew stronger.Although "Casino" is being filmed, he feels that if he misses "Fatal Identity" this time, he may not have a chance in the future. Wouldn't the things he conceived yesterday be in vain?

After thinking about it, Martin decided to go to Universal Pictures again to see if he could win the film and television adaptation rights of "Fatal Identity".

……

Because there wasn't much time, Yu Dong and Cheng Yanqiu didn't go too far, they just strolled around Los Angeles.

They were still playing at Disney, when Yu Dong received a call from Jimmy.

"Someone is going to make 'Fatal Identity.'"

That's what Jimmy said. Yu Dong was a little surprised. What surprised him wasn't that someone was going to shoot "Fatal Identity", but that Jimmy had to call him to tell him about it.

When "Fatal Identity" was still being promoted, several companies expressed their interest and hoped to discuss cooperation, but Jimmy never talked to them because all the companies came.

"Jimmy, you have regressed, you still want to tell me this kind of thing?"

Jimmy smiled and said, "It's not because you are here. I want to tell you the good news when I have good news."

Yu Dong could hear the joy in Jimmy's tone, and asked in confusion, "Isn't it because someone wants to make "Fatal Identity", why are you so happy?"

"It's different this time. It's a director I like very much."

"Who is it?" Yu Dong asked.

"Martin Scorsese, the director of "Rough Driver" and "Goodfellas", have you seen these two movies?"

It turned out to be Martin, and Yu Dong also laughed. He not only watched "Get Out of the Rough Car Phone" and "Goodfellas", but also watched Martin's "Casino", "Shutter Island", "The Wolf of Wall Street" and " "The Departed", but these movies seem to have not come out yet.

"He talked to you directly?"

"No, the movie "Casino" he is currently filming is produced by Universal, so he contacted me through Universal."

Yu Dong nodded, "What do you think?"

"I'm definitely going to sell "Fatal Identity" for a good price."

"Never thought about investing?"

"No." Jimmy replied very simply, "With the addition of novels, plus Universal, the movie will definitely not lose money. But I don't think this movie will be a big hit. We have too many places to spend money now. There's no need to put a stick in this movie."

Jimmy is a guy who can tell everything clearly. Although he likes Martin very much, he doesn't make blind decisions.

Movies like "Fatal Identity" have a market, but they definitely won't be as big a hit as "Second World". If they invest, they should be able to make money, but it won't be huge.

"But you just said that Martin is filming "Casino", so after he takes "Fatal Identity", he won't start it for the time being, right?"

"That's right, at least until October. Martin said that if there is a chance, he would like to meet you and talk to you about the script. I mean wait until the cost of the film and television adaptation is settled." Jimmy said.

Yu Dong smiled and said, "Okay, just follow what you said..."

Just as he was talking, Yu Dong suddenly noticed something was going on with his wife, so he said to Jimmy, "Let's not talk about it, I have something to do."

When Yu Dong called just now, Cheng Yanqiu was walking around by himself, and Yu Dong never took his eyes off his wife. Now when he saw a foreign man talking to Cheng Yanqiu with a camera, he hurriedly hung up Jimmy's phone.

After walking over, Yu Dong stood in front of Cheng Yanqiu, "Hi, what's the matter? I'm her husband, if you have anything to say to me."

The man holding the camera was taken aback for a moment, and then smiled harmlessly, "Hi sir, don't get me wrong, I'm a director, when I was taking pictures just now, I saw your wife is very temperamental, so I wanted to ask her I have no plans to enter the showbiz."

Cheng Yanqiu stood behind Yu Dong, smiled and said in Mandarin, "Looks like a liar."

Yu Dong smiled and nodded, "It does."

The man couldn't understand what they were saying, but seeing them laughing, he hit the rails while it was hot: "Sir, I actually think that not only is your wife, but you also have a good image, and you are very suitable to enter the showbiz. I just talked to Universal The film industry has signed a film, which needs to use several Asian actors. Do you know Universal Pictures? They produced the "Second World" that was a big hit some time ago. This time my new movie, Spielberg I will also serve as a producer."

"What's the name of your movie?" Yu Dong asked.

"Because you haven't agreed to participate in it, so I can't tell you the name of the movie, I hope you can understand."

Yu Dong nodded and smiled and said, "It's understandable, it's a commercial secret. How long will we be filming and how much will we be paid? By the way, I don't know your name yet."

"My name is De Rossi Kennedy. How about you, sir?"

"Oh, De Rossi, my name is Jack and my wife's name is Ruth."

"Hello, Jack, Ruth." De Rossi smiled, "You don't have many roles, but you are paid a lot. The supporting actor is $[-], and the supporting actress is $[-]."

"Wow." Yu Dong showed a surprised expression, "Can there really be so many?"

"Of course, we are a big crew with an investment of more than 5000 million US dollars. How about it, are you willing?"

Yu Dongkyu nodded impatiently, "Of course, we agreed, when can we give us the salary?"

De Rossi showed a hint of complacency, "As long as you sign the contract, you will be paid 80.00% of the salary immediately. Of course, before that, you need to go to the hospital for a physical examination. After all, we are a formal crew, and the actors need to ensure their health." , can not have some strange diseases."

"It's understandable. Which hospital do I need to go to for a physical examination? There must be a designated hospital for your kind?" Yu Dong said.

De Rossi was very happy, this guy is too good, he took out a card from his pocket, "This hospital is not far from here, it takes 10 minutes by car, just go there and report my name .”

Yu Dong took the card and nodded, "Okay, we'll go tomorrow."

Cheng Yanqiu also said beside him, "When we get the medical report, we must sign a contract with us."

De Rossi smiled, "Don't worry, Jack and Ruth, these two roles must belong to you. There is my phone number on the card, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me."

"Oh, by the way, De Rossi." Yu Dong said suddenly, "I have a friend who always wanted to be an actor, but he never had the chance. I wonder if we can sign him too?"

De Rossi showed a embarrassed expression, "But, we only need two Asian actors."

"It's okay, he's American."

"Oh, in that case, you can try it."

"However, I'm afraid that if I tell him, he thinks I'm lying to him. I'll give you his phone number. Tell him."

De Rossi nodded, "OK."

Yu Dong smiled, took out a pen and wrote a series of numbers to De Rossi.

After finishing writing, Yu Dong also said, "Director, you must remember to contact him, he is very rich, so you can give the film whatever you want, as long as you give him the opportunity to act."

When he heard that the other party was very rich, De Rossi suddenly became excited, "Okay, I will contact him when I get back at night."

"Well, let's go play first, see you tomorrow."

Then Yu Dong pulled Cheng Yanqiu to go elsewhere, and the two of them held back their laughter and walked for a long time. Cheng Yanqiu finally couldn't help it, and sneered, "I think when he heard that the friend you introduced was rich, his eyes were wide open." Guang, I laughed so hard. But would anyone really be fooled by his clumsy deception?"

Yu Dong smiled and touched his wife's hair, "First of all, you are not short of money, secondly, you have no movie dreams, and thirdly, your husband is me, so of course you will not be fooled. But others may not be able to withstand the temptation, And he didn't make any excessive demands, he just asked us to go for a medical examination, and many people would relax their vigilance."

"He must have colluded with the hospital."

"Indeed, the reason is very simple, but many people just can't figure it out, or simply don't want to think about it. They hope that a piece of delicious pie will fall from their heads."

"The number you wrote him was made up."

Yu Dong showed a strange expression and shook his head, "No, the number is real."

……

Jimmy was so busy that he suddenly received a call. The other party claimed to be De Rossi, the contracted director of Universal Pictures.

When he first received the call, Jimmy was still thinking about what Universal was going to do, and why he had sent a director he had never heard of to talk to him.

Later, the other party said that he could be allowed to act in some kind of movie, as long as he went to some kind of hospital for a physical examination.

Jimmy knew he had encountered a liar.

What did the other party say about Jack and Ruth? Jimmy didn't know him at all, and he didn't say much to the other party. After sending a few words starting with f to the other party, he hung up the phone.

Jimmy is busy discussing with Universal Pictures about the film and television adaptation of "Fatal Identity". Jimmy only needs the copyright fee, and of course Universal Pictures agrees, after all, this is the easiest way.

However, the amount of the copyright fee has not yet been reached. Jimmy advocated for 180 million US dollars, but Universal Pictures is only willing to pay 100 million US dollars, and the expectations of the two parties are 80 less.

Of course, this is all normal. One party asks for the price, and the other party pays back the money.Business needs to be negotiated. If it hits it off, both parties will regret it later.

However, both parties do not want to delay for too long. Universal Pictures is afraid that there will be more nights and dreams, and they will become passive if other competitors get involved.Jimmy wants to get the money early so that he can quickly start the next plan.

Finally, the day before Yudong was going to return to China, the two sides reached a consensus.

In the end, the license fee for the film and television adaptation of "Fatal Identity" was 150 million US dollars. If Universal Pictures does not remake it within the next five years, the copyright will be automatically taken back by YU.

In addition, Universal Pictures also added 30 US dollars, the purpose is to let Yu Dong name the screenwriter.

Since it was a name, Yu Dong didn't have to do anything, but before leaving, he still met with Martin Scorsese and talked with him about the script.

When Martin took out more than a dozen pages of A4 paper full of words, Yu Dong was very surprised. It seemed that Martin really came prepared.

The sheets were full of Martin's ideas for the script.

Of course, it is impossible for Yu Dong to read carefully page by page. Martin explained to him: "There are only seven characters in the novel. I think it is a bit small for the movie, so I decided to add a few more characters. The temporary idea is Add three to seven more. Of course, the background has to be changed to the United States, and I want to change it to a remote town. I plan to keep the element of rainy night..."

After listening to it about once, Yu Dong couldn't help but sigh with emotion, a famous director is a famous director, and once he makes a move, it is really extraordinary.When Yu Dong was writing a commercial novel, he definitely had some basic things in mind, such as the three elements of the novel and the four parts that make up the novel.

The three elements are characters, plot, and environment, and the environment is divided into human environment and natural environment.

Four components, beginning, development, climax, and ending.

These are all junior high school knowledge, but I have to think about it, because in general, novels are all about these things.

And the one given by Martin—it’s not a script yet, because it’s all fragmented, but even so fragmented, Martin has already divided every part of the script.

The whole movie is divided into a typical four-act style. The opening first attracts attention, then mobilizes emotions, and when entering the second act, the audience must have expectations...

Yu Dong has been studying script writing recently, and he has benefited a lot from a casual chat with a master like Martin.

"However, I have never been able to figure out how to deal with the number of people's names in the novel. Jimmy mentioned before that they can be named after the gods in Rome. I don't think it's very useful."

Yu Dong smiled and said, "Didn't you want to set the background in a small town? It can be more specific, everyone is gathered in one hotel, and then they live in different rooms, with room numbers ranging from one to ten or eleven , the specific number depends on how many characters you arrange. Then the order of death of the characters can be related to these numbers."

Martin stared at Yu Dong and blinked his eyes. He originally just casually mentioned the difficulties he encountered, and didn't expect Yu Dong to help him solve them, but unexpectedly, Yu Dong came up with a good idea immediately.

"YU, since you thought of this, why didn't you include it when you wrote the novel?" Martin wondered, "Didn't you think about it then?"

Yu Dong explained with a smile, "Because the novel is different from the movie, I don't need to use these to serve my theme. If I use too much of these designs to mobilize the reader's emotions, it is likely to weaken the psychological description in the novel."

"But the script you are adapting now is different. I can feel that you want to highlight the suspense in it and make the movie have a continuous sense of tension. Then these things can be added."

Yu Dong didn't say the rest. If Martin wants to add suspense, he must give up some things, such as the discussion of family, school, and youth in the novel.

This kind of choice is not right or wrong, and Martin is also responsible for his own works.

And what Yu Dong said just now is actually the design in the original "Fatal Identity" movie.

But Martin didn't know this, he couldn't help giving Yu Dong a thumbs up: "YU, it makes sense for you to be able to sell every novel."

Then he said excitedly: "Do you have any ideas about the way each character dies? My idea is..."

In the next half day, Martin and Yu Dong discussed the script in great detail.

Later, when Yu Dong sent Martin away, Martin held Yu Dong's hand and sighed, "Actually, the screenwriter should be fully entrusted to you."

Yu Dong smiled and said, "I can only offer some trivial suggestions, mainly relying on you, Mr. Scorsese."

"The Chinese are really humble." Martin smiled and waved goodbye to Yu Dong.

He was in a good mood, at least the waiting for these few days was not in vain.

After seeing Martin off, Jiang Jie said from the side, "The 30 flowers from Universal this time are really worth it."

Isn't it worth it? Originally, Universal Pictures only wanted to let Yu Dong get a name. Thinking of Yu Dong's work and contribution, Jiang Jie watched the whole process, watching a complete script slowly come out.

Yu Dong himself didn't feel much. Even if Universal Pictures didn't pay him a screenwriting fee, he would try his best to help when Martin came over.And to say it was worth it, it was worth it for Yu Dong to meet Martin this time, because he did learn a lot from Martin.

In addition to novels, he will definitely write some scripts in the future. The cooperation with Bi Feiyu in "Shake Ah Shake" last time can only be regarded as practice. Looking back, he will have to seriously start some plans.

He wants to reproduce some excellent movies, but he can't write a novel for every movie. Writing the script directly is the most efficient.

Yu Dong looked at Jiang Jie again, "How are you these few days, I walked around with Jimmy, how do you feel?"

In the past few days, Yu Dong was having fun with Cheng Yanqiu, but Jiang Jie was not idle. He spent most of the time learning from Jimmy.

Jiang Jie said with a smile, "Mr. Ji is very busy, and I feel that his time is being used separately, but it is because he is so busy that I can learn from it. At the same time, I also realized my own shortcomings. In the future, I will definitely ..."

Yu Dong waved his hand, "There's no need to talk about clichés, and I'm just asking casually. It's up to you to learn more and less. I think you should understand this truth."

"I understand." Jiang Jie nodded, "So I dare not slack off for a moment.

"Well, I've worked hard for you during this time, so you can take two days off after returning to China. By the way, is there any news from the US recently?"

Jiang Jie began to report: "The entertainment industry is basically about the Oscars. ABC made a special, which mentioned you, Mr. Yu, and gave a scene. Besides, many news In the report that "Second World" won six awards and beat "Forrest Gump", Madonna was protested by environmentalists when she shot the MV bullfighting, Winona's new movie "Resident Evil" was about to be released in summer, and her ex-boyfriend John Neil Depp will also have a new movie coming out in April..."

"Wait, her what?"

"Ex-boyfriend."

"Winona dated Johnny? Then broke up?"

Jiang Jie nodded, "According to the information I collected, Winona and Johnny were engaged before and broke up the year before last. Winona's current boyfriend is the lead singer of Soul Sanctuary..."

Yu Dong didn't want to listen to these gossips, but he finally understood what he said before that made Winona stop talking. It turned out that he and Depp had such a past.

"Next time, don't collect gossip about these celebrities... Even if you collect it, you don't have to report it to me."

Jiang Jie nodded, "I will pay attention to screening information later."

……

After Yu Dong and the others returned to Jinyi, they realized that the Academy Awards were quite lively in China during this period. Many news reports were reporting that "Second World" swept the Oscars and won six awards.

Domestic readers don't understand Oscar either, and they believe what the news says.

The news also said that Yu Dong also won the award.

This is actually true, and he did go on stage to receive the award with others.But the specific situation was not reported in the news.

This is the same for domestic and foreign media, which only report news that is beneficial to them.

The foreign media boasted about "Second World" because of Universal Pictures' publicity fee, while the domestic media simply knew that such reports were the favorite of domestic readers.

There are Oscars every year, why is it so popular with domestic audiences this year?Isn't it because of "Second World" and because of Yu Dong?
So it must be right to direct the news to Yu Dong.

After returning to school, Yu Dong first went to the dormitory to put down his things, and then went to the new house to check the progress of the renovation.The floor has been transported, and the masters are ready to install it. When the place is installed, there will not be many remaining processes.If all goes well, they will be able to move in in two months.

After seeing the decoration, Yu Dong came out of the new house, and Yu Hua just came out of the house, and was about to light a cigarette when he saw Yu Dong.

"You're back?"

Before Dong could answer, Yu Hua shouted again, "Feiyu, Yu Dong is back."

In just ten seconds, Bi Feiyu ran out of the house, "Yo, you're really back, where's your little golden man?"

"What little golden man?" Yu Dong rolled his eyes.

"The news is saying that you won the Academy Award, isn't there a statuette who won the award?"

"No, it's just that the movie won an award, I didn't get an award personally."

Bi Feiyu smiled and said, "So that's it. We have said before that you didn't win the Nobel Prize for Literature, but you won an Oscar first. It seems that you still have to work hard."

Yu Dong said disdainfully, "It's just an Oscar, I'll see it?"

Bi Feiyu poked Yu Hua with his hand, "You really hit the mark, this kid went crazy after attending an awards ceremony."

Only now did Yu Hua light up the cigarette, and said with a smile, "This is the bad habit of capitalism. Now that he comes back, we have to fix him in time."

"How to set things right?" Bi Feiyu asked.

"Let him treat him to dinner, let him have bloodletting, and he must clean up the blood polluted by capitalism on his body, so that he can mend his ways and start a new life."

"I think it will work." Bi Feiyu nodded.

Yu Dong was amused by the two of them, "It's easy to talk about eating, but Yu Hua, have you written a lot about selling blood recently, and everything can be related to bloodletting. By the way, Yu Yu asked you to go on TV, how about it? "

"It hasn't been released yet, and "To Live" has just started selling."

""Alive" has started selling? How is the situation?"

Yu Hua shook her head, "Average."

Later, I may feel that the word "average" is not appropriate, and add: "Not very ideal."

Bi Feiyu on the side felt that "not very ideal" was not quite appropriate, so he helped Yu Hua and added: "It is very not ideal, we both went to the bookstore to buy books yesterday... He insisted on pulling me to buy books, so I went with him, we The two stood in the bookstore for a long time, and only one copy of "To Live" was sold, and Yu Hua couldn't eat anymore when he came back at night."

"Don't talk nonsense, I can't eat anything, I ate three bowls of rice last night!"

Yu Dong smiled and comforted, "It's actually pretty good. Think about it, if a bookstore sells one book in half a day, it will sell two books in that day, and a thousand bookstores will sell two thousand books a day. It's a good seller." Novels, in this market, who else can sell you better?"

Yu Hua stared at Yu Dong, "Looks like I have to bleed you tonight, otherwise you're going to be broken to the bone soon."

Yu Dong smiled and waved his hands, "Haha, I'm not joking, I'll take you to eat hot pot tonight. Besides, Yu Hua, I have some good news for you. "To Live" will be published in France, and we have already negotiated with the local publishing house. We're done talking."

"Really?" Yu Hua couldn't believe it.

"You should know. Didn't you sign a carte blanche contract with Jimmy before, asking him to negotiate and sign the contract with the French publishing house on your behalf?"

Yu Hua thought for a while and said, "It seems that there is such a contract, but at that time, there were more than one contract, and there were many entrusted contracts. I thought it was for future preparations. How could I think so soon? He has already hired someone to translate it? "

"Of course, you thought Jimmy was a dry cook. Well, I've told you about it, and you don't have to worry about the domestic sales..."

"I'm not worried."

Yu Dong curled his lips, "Okay, you don't worry, I worry. Write your new book well, I'm still waiting to read it. Don't forget to eat hot pot at night."

"This cannot be forgotten." Bi Feiyu laughed.

　Thank you [Love is Loneliness] Big Brother for the 1500 reward
　　Thank you [Cheese Flavored Wafers] for the 200 tip
　　Thank you [Qin Shouyang] for the 100 tip
　　Thank you [Yanzhao Gaoge] for the 100 reward
　　
　
(End of this chapter)