Backtracking to the Age of Literature and Art

Chapter 318 Why is "Resident Evil" a failure?

Before Yang Xiao and the others arrived at Yu Dong's side, Liu Cixin and Wang Jingkang arrived one step ahead.

In a short while, a large group of people gathered beside Yu Dong.

Seeing Yang Xiao bringing Ye Weimin and the others over, the others consciously moved out of the way.

Although Ye Weimin was looking for Yu Dong, but Yang Xiao did not hurry to take him to talk to Yu Dong, but first introduced to everyone, "This is Ye Weimin and Director Ye, and the person next to him is Ms. Liang Yongqi. Directed by Director Ye, Ms. Leung and Stephen Chow will be starring in the movie "Vanity Stars" which will be screened in Xiangjiang next month, and this time we have had a lot of trouble to invite two of them."

Then she introduced others to Ye Weimin one by one, and finally it was the turn of Yu Dong and his wife.

"This is Teacher Yu Dongyu, and the one next to him is his lover, Teacher Cheng Yanqiu."

When greeting others earlier, Ye Weimin's smile was somewhat perfunctory, but when he greeted Yu Dong, he became very enthusiastic, "Teacher Yu, hello, hello."

Yu Dong could understand the Cantonese he spoke, but Liang Yongqi still helped translate: "Mr. Yu, Director Ye is greeting you."

Yu Dong smiled and waved his hands, "It's okay, I don't need an interpreter, I can probably understand a little bit. But Ye Dao still needs to practice more on his Mandarin. Since he has the idea of ​​going to the mainland, it doesn't matter if he can't speak Mandarin well."

When Mandarin was mentioned twice, Ye Weimin also felt a little embarrassed, "I'm working hard too, but Mr. Yu, you often do activities abroad, so you should be able to speak English, or we can speak English as well."

Hearing Ye Weimin's words, Yu Dong frowned, "Mr. Ye, we Chinese don't need to speak English when we talk to Chinese people."

Ye Weimin's expression froze. He didn't think much about it at first, but thought that if Yu Dong's English was good, it would be more convenient for them to chat in English. He didn't expect Yu Dong to react like this.

In his opinion, Yu Dong was somewhat sensitive.

But Yu Dong's identity is there, Ye Weimin, a young director who has just entered the industry not long ago, can't afford to offend, so he can only smile: "Sorry, I didn't think carefully. Don't worry, Teacher Yu, I will definitely do it as soon as possible. Practice Mandarin well."

Yu Dong resumed his smile, "What language to use is personal freedom, but since it's communication, it belongs to each other. Director Ye, do you think I'm right?"

Ye Weimin heaved a sigh of relief when he heard Yu Dong calling himself Dao Ye instead of Mr. Ye, and nodded repeatedly, "Yes, yes, Teacher Yu is right."

Liang Yongqi was a little dazed by the side. When she saw Yu Dong just now, she thought that Teacher Yu was so young and handsome, and he was smiling and talking without any airs.

Who would have thought that as soon as he turned around, he would start making things difficult for others.

In Xiangjiang, she has never seen an arrogant, domineering rich businessman or a big shot in the film and television industry, but this is the first time she has seen Yu Dong like this. pressure.

In fact, Yu Dong was able to suppress Ye Weimin and the others not because he had any domineering aura in him, but because of his current status, he had a natural pressure on them.

Yu Dong is not a domineering person, but he feels that Ye Weimin and the others still lack basic respect for the mainland and lack a sense of identity, so he just pointed him out.

"I heard Sister Xiao said that you are coming, I am very happy. I am mainly happy for Xiangjiang. In the past two years, Xiangjiang's film industry has started to decline. Many people want to develop in Hollywood, not to say that it is not good to go to Hollywood. , but the vision is still a bit short-sighted. Although Hollywood is good, its roots are still in China. If the domestic film industry does not develop well, no matter how well the people who go out develop, they will have no roots and will not last long." Yu Dong said with a smile ;"If you can think about coming to the mainland to develop so early, you are already one step ahead of others."

Ye Weimin swallowed, he really didn't know how to answer Yu Dong's words.

In the end, he could only say a scene, "In the future, in the mainland, we still have to rely on the teacher and other people to support us."

"It's easy to say." Yu Dong nodded with a smile, "As long as you really want to develop in the Mainland, you will eventually see rewards."

At this time, Yang Xiao said beside him, "The banquet is about to start, everyone should sit down first, we can chat at the table if we have anything to say."

During the meal, Yu Dong didn't talk much about the film and television industry, but talked more with Yang Xiao and the others about the development of domestic science fiction.

After the "Second World" became popular, Chinese people's attention to science fiction has risen to an unprecedented level. The sales volume of "Science Fiction World" has skyrocketed this year. At the same time, the new magazine "Science Fiction King", which was just launched last year, followed suit.

Yu Yu had previously reported the situation of "The King of Science Fiction" to Yu Dong, and their highest monthly sales reached [-] copies.

Although this sales volume cannot be compared with that of "Science Fiction World", it is already very impressive. After all, many magazines are going downhill now.

After the sales of "Science Fiction King" increased, not only the creators of the comics benefited, but also the authors of "Science Fiction World", because many of the comics published in "Science Fiction King" were based on the content of "Science Fiction World" Adapted from a novel.

These adapted comics not only brought direct benefits such as adaptation fees to the authors of the novels, but also brought them more attention.

Tan Kai had worried before that "Science Fiction King" would divert the popularity of "Science Fiction World", but the facts proved that "Science Fiction King" not only did not divert the popularity of "Science Fiction World", but expanded the audience of science fiction.

Many readers who have never read science fiction before will also buy a copy of "Science Fiction World" because they like comics.

Niu Erfang, the editor-in-chief of "The King of Science Fiction", was also at the same table with Yu Dong when eating, and the two of them had known each other relatively early.

When Niu Erfang and the others had just had an idea, they went to see Tai Dong, and it was precisely because of Niu Erfang's visit that Jimmy came into contact with Niu Erfang later.

Therefore, Niu Erfang is very grateful to Yu Dong. In his opinion, without Yu Dong, "The King of Science Fiction" would not be where it is today.

During the dinner, Niu Erfang was very happy, drank a lot of wine with Yu Dong and Yang Xiao, and talked a lot about his thoughts on Chinese science fiction.

"After this period of development, I also understand some things. If we want to develop Chinese science fiction, it is impossible to succeed by fighting alone. We must stand together closely and develop both upstream and downstream industries. Soundness, from novels to comics to movies, and the cartoons behind, every link should be taken seriously.”

"Especially in the field of movies. Although our technology is still inferior to others, we can take it step by step. Start from a simple start, and sooner or later we will catch up with others."

After chatting all night, Ye Weimin also drank a lot of wine, but he didn't intervene much.

For one thing, he can't speak Mandarin, so it's hard to get in the conversation.Second, Yu Dong and the others were talking about science fiction, and it was difficult for him to get in the mouth.

At this moment, I finally heard Niu Erfang talk about movies, and he said, "I agree with Editor-in-Chief Niu's point of view. Movies are an indispensable part of the entertainment industry. Take a look at this "Second World" "You know, a movie can bring science fiction to thousands of households. Also, as far as I know, the movie of the same name adapted from another novel "Resident Evil" by the teacher was released in the United States yesterday. This time The box office will definitely not be less, and the influence of science fiction will be further expanded by then."

He drank some wine, his articulation was a little unclear, and he spoke Cantonese, many people didn't understand what it meant, but Liang Yongqi translated his words in time.

Regarding the release of "Resident Evil", Yang Xiao and the others knew more or less about it, which was also reported by "Reference News" before.

As the author of the original work, Yu Dong must have received more information than others.

The early publicity of "Resident Evil" is very good. Although it is not as good as "Second World", among all the movies this year, it should be the one with the most publicity.

Relying on the popularity of the original novel and the residual heat of "Second World", "Resident Evil" was destined to have a high box office from the very beginning.

The only fly in the ointment is that "Resident Evil" is rated R, which will definitely have an impact on the box office. Compared with other family-friendly movies, it will lose a lot of viewers.

……

When Yu Dong and the others were discussing "Resident Evil", the movie had already been released in the United States for more than a day.

And Jimmy also got the box office data on the first day. "Resident Evil" performed well on the first day, winning more than 200 million US dollars in box office.Of course, this result can only be said to have not disappointed people, but it is not enough to say how hot it is.

The box office in North America is not doing well this year as a whole. Only one movie released earlier, "The New Batman Invincible Mystery", performed well, but the situation is not optimistic.

"The New Batman Undefeated Mystery" hit an astonishing 200 million at the box office in the first weekend. Just when people thought that another phenomenal movie would appear this year, the box office of "The New Batman Undefeated Mystery" quickly It has weakened, so far, it has been released for a month, but it is far less than [-] million U.S. dollars, and it will probably not break through [-] million U.S. dollars in the end.

But even so, "The New Batman Undefeated Mystery" still occupies the box office champion so far this year. It is conceivable how poorly other movies have performed this year.

There are two more films to look forward to, one is the first animated feature film "Toy Story" produced by Pixar, and the other is "Resident Evil".

Professionals predict that this year, only these two films are expected to exceed [-] million box office.

As a cartoon, "Toy Story" has the gimmick of the world's first 3D animation film, and the cost has reached 3000 million US dollars. Since Pixar announced the start of the film project, it has attracted much attention from movie fans.

Not to mention "Resident Evil", it is not only a film adaptation of a novel, with the support of a huge readership, but also a work that Romero, the father of zombies, intends to turn around, costing more than 5000 million US dollars. , is completely worth the audience's expectations.

……

Only one day after the release of the "Resident Evil" movie, countless movie critics followed.

After breakfast, Fernandez went to buy a copy of "New York Daily". He wanted to see if there were any reviews about "Resident Evil" in it.

This is his habit. When he sees a movie he likes very much, he always looks for something related to the movie and collects it.

He was originally a loyal fan of YU, and "Resident Evil" is the one he likes the most among all YU's novels, so as soon as the movie "Resident Evil" was released, he went to watch it, and even watched it twice.

After watching the second time last night and returning home, his wife asked him, wouldn't he feel tired of watching the same movie twice in such a short period of time?His answer was that he was going to watch it for the third time, and whether he would watch it for the fourth time would depend on his mood after the third time.

He didn't contribute to the box office like some people did to support YU or Romero, he simply thought the movie was good.

Looking through the New York Daily, he found a film review.

But as soon as he saw the title of the article, Fernandez frowned.

"Why is "Resident Evil" a failure?"

Is "Resident Evil" a failure?What the fuck is that called?Fernandez never admitted that "Resident Evil" was a failure.

Even though it was the famous film critic Almond Campote who wrote this article.

Fernandez liked Almond Campote before. He has read many of Almond's film reviews and often goes to the movies because of Almond's film reviews. Most of the time, he can get a good movie .

But this time, Fernandez felt that Almond was wrong, very wrong.But even so, he couldn't help but look down.

Why "Resident Evil" was a failed movie, he would like to see how Almond explained it.

"From a certain level, "Resident Evil" is a failed movie, because Romero seems to have just filmed the content of the original "Resident Evil" without any surprises."

"However, it is worth mentioning that it is not an easy task to film the content of the original "Resident Evil". When readers read the book, they will always construct some pictures in the novel in their minds. Every time The picture imagined by each reader may not be the same, but the imagination also has an extreme, and Romero has shown this extreme very well."

"Romero is very smart, because he knows that it is difficult to adapt such a popular novel, so he never thought of tampering with the storyline, but showed the plot in the novel as it is. Audiences."

"When the plot of the female corpse emerging in the novel became the picture, I felt the fear again when I read the novel...So, Romero seems to have done nothing, but he has done everything. He seems to have no Surprised no one but disappointed no one..."

After reading Almond's article, Fernandez couldn't laugh or cry. He originally thought that Almond was really going to criticize "Resident Evil" harshly, and he was even going to pick on Almond's thorns. It's blatant praise.

And not only praised the movie, but also highly praised the original novel.

The core of the whole article is: the novel is so well written, even if Romero doesn’t make a movie, it won’t be too bad, but Romero has played his own skills and presented the original plot in the novel perfectly. .

Of course, in addition to this, Almond also complained that although Winona Ryder, who plays the heroine, is very beautiful and has a good temperament, she is a bit short in height.

In fact, when Fernandez first watched the movie, he also felt that the heroine was a bit short, but after watching it for the second time, he suddenly realized that he seemed to have accepted that the heroine looked like Winona Ryder.

Although Winona is not tall, her acting skills are very good, giving people a very crisp and sharp feeling.

Fernandez carefully cut out the film review on the "New York Daily", and then carefully put it in the box, so far, his collection has one more.

After reading the film reviews, he decided to go to the cinema to watch "Resident Evil" again tonight, and take a serious look at the scenes that Almond mentioned in the film reviews.

Maybe this time, he can get some different feelings.

……

Jimmy also saw Almond's film review, and then called Almond to express his thanks.

After receiving Jimmy's call, Almond thanked Jimmy, "James, thank you for your reminder. Although the style of this film review is different from mine before, it seems that the response is very good."

Jimmy smiled and said, "I just made a trivial suggestion."

Almond is a professional film critic. The reason why he speaks well of the film is not because of what Jimmy did in it, but because he really thinks this film is worth recommending.

As for Jimmy's proposal, it's about the title.

After Jimmy knew Almond's attitude towards the film, he suggested that he should not praise it as usual, but write something different, and then gave him some ideas.

The reason why Jimmy did this is actually for the sake of the novel.

If Almond simply praised "Resident Evil", the audience might only think that the movie is good.But after writing in this way, even viewers who have never read the novel will feel that the novel "Resident Evil" is very well written, and then have the urge to read the novel.

This period of time coincides with the release of "Resident Evil 2", and of course Jimmy will not miss such a good promotional opportunity.

　I heard that the author will update [-] words tomorrow, I don’t know if it’s true or not
　　
　
(End of this chapter)