Backtracking to the Age of Literature and Art

If Eisner wants to work with Deep Space to develop these Marvel superheroes in Deep Space, Yu Dong actually doesn't mind, but it depends on which hero it is, such as Spiderman or X-Men, Yu Dong still wants to He has to do it himself, because he has seen successful experiences and knows that the risks of shooting these are low and the returns are high.

"If the Deep Space Corporation needs help, we can..."

Seeing that Eisner was still going around the corner, Yu Dong got straight to the point, "Michael, we are already very familiar, and we don't have to say anything so tactfully, and I don't have time to go around with you right now, we'll have an interview later, The dinner party is about to begin. Just tell me, which hero or heroes are you interested in?"

Seeing Yu Dong being so straightforward, Eisner also laughed, "Okay, then I'll just say it straight, we are more interested in the Hulk."

Yu Dong was not too surprised to hear that Eisner was interested in Hulk. Among the superheroes they got, Hulk was quite popular.

In addition, Hulk is also the superhero who spends the most money in Deep Space, because the copyright is not bought directly from Marvel, but from Universal.

Long before Deep Space acquired the film and television rights of Marvel superheroes, Universal Pictures bought Hulk's film and television adaptation rights in 1990, and was later bought by Deep Space in 97.

The opportunity was that Universal released the news in 96. They hoped to sell the Iron Man they bought from Marvel. At that time, both Deep Space and Fox showed interest. After a year of negotiations, Deep Space finally defeated Fox and took Iron Man. , and took Hulk down by the way.

From the perspective of deep space, it is true that when you buy Iron Man, you buy Hulk by the way, but from the perspective of Universal, you buy Hulk and buy Iron Man by the way, because compared to Hulk, Iron Man is more popular. It's not high, and Deep Space also spent more money for Hulk in this transaction.

Therefore, Hulk, Iron Man, and Spider-Man have a limited time limit. If Deep Space does not make a movie within the specified time, the film and television adaptation rights of the characters must be returned to Marvel, and they can only retain the distribution rights.

The adaptation rights of other heroes acquired by Deep Space Corporation, such as Fantastic Four and X-Men, are indefinite copyrights, which means that as long as Deep Space is unwilling to sell them, Marvel will not be able to take them back.

Hulk's deadline is still a few years away, and Deep Space is really going to make a movie in the past few years.

In his previous life, Hulk's development in Marvel movies was not particularly good. Because of copyright reasons, he always appeared in other people's movies as a supporting role and became a real show king. The indie films "The Incredible Hulk" and "The Incredible Hulk" did not fare well at the box office.

The reason why Universal lost Hulk's film production rights is also because they spent a lot of money to hire Oscar director Ang Lee but failed in the end, making them unwilling to take the risk of making a second film.

In Yu Dong's view, the box office failure of "Hulk" has a lot to do with director Ang Lee.

Of course Ang Lee is a good director, otherwise he would not have been favored by the Golden Horse Awards, Golden Bear Awards, Golden Lion Awards and Oscars.

But the problem is that Ang Lee is not suitable for superhero movies.

Look at the movies he made, "Pushing Hands", "Brokeback Mountain", "Life of Pi", and "Lust, Caution". From these few movies, it can be seen that his movies have some literary nature.

Besides, the movie "Riding with the Devil" just released some time ago is also directed by Ang Lee. This is a movie set against the background of the American Civil War. , the story of a man who ends up at war.

The movie cost 500 million U.S. dollars, but it only took back more than 60 at the box office, making it the movie with the highest loss rate this year. Even Ang Lee himself felt that he would never receive movie invitations in the United States, but later Universal Still ask him to direct "Hulk".

After taking over "The Incredible Hulk", Ang Lee also wanted to do some literary work in the movie, so he directly made "The Incredible Hulk" into a movie with a total length of 1308 minutes, and it was not until the No. 40 minute that Banner started to become the Hulk. How can this make fans who want to watch superheroes bear it?
It is said that the box office of the premiere of "The Hulk" broke records, which shows how high the audience's expectations for the Hulk are, but the box office fell off a cliff in the second week.

With the "lessons learned from the past", Yu Dong also has more foresight, and dare not be too aggressive in the production of Hulk movies. Hearing that Eisner is interested in Hulk now, it fits his wishes.

Yu Dong said with a smile: "Michael, you are really good at picking, Hulk's popularity is not small, we are not willing to part with it, why don't you consider Iron Man?"

Hearing Yu Dong mention Iron Man, Eisner smiled and shook his head, "Of course Iron Man is also very good, but I think Stark, a technological hero, is more suitable for your company, and our Disney is more suitable for Hulk. If you want, we can pay a high price to buy Hulk's film and television adaptation rights."

Yu Dong didn't answer Eisner directly, but just told him, "Uh, I know about this, I'll have a good talk with Jimmy after today's annual meeting... When are you going back to America?"

"The air ticket for the day after tomorrow will stay in Jinling for another day."

Yu Dong nodded, "Then tomorrow, I will inform you that we will meet and have a good chat about the Hulk. But you have to be mentally prepared, the possibility of selling to you directly is unlikely, after all, Hulk is our We spent a lot of money to buy it, it is one of our important plans, we even discussed special effects with Industrial Light and Magic, if the movie starts this year, the special effects will be entrusted to them.”

"I understand that direct buying is only one option."

……

After separating from Eisner, Wang Xiaobo asked curiously, "He, the CEO of Disney, came to you at this juncture just to discuss the copyright of a character? We can wait until the end of the annual meeting to discuss this matter."

Yu Dong shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know, maybe he's more aggressive."

Yu Hua asked from the side: "What character copyright?"

Yu Dong smiled, "Co-author, you didn't understand a word just now."

"You have always understood my foreign language level."

"The point is, since you don't understand, why do you keep nodding pretendingly?"

"This is called respect, do you understand...he wants to buy the copyright of your character?"

"No, he wants the copyright of a character from Marvel, but the right to adapt this character is now in our hands." Yu Dong explained briefly, and then said: "Let's go, go to the interview area."

……

The whole interview process went very smoothly, and nothing happened.

This year's dinner was held in the Deep Space Canteen. In order to prepare for the dinner, the company specially redecorated the third floor of the canteen. Even if the current level is not as good as Jinling Hotel, it is not much worse.

The key point is that the Jinling Hotel is a little far away from the park. After the annual meeting is over, it will be a waste of time for everyone to go there in a mess.

Yu Dongren had just entered the banquet hall, and was looking up to find Cheng Yanqiu, but was stopped by a circle of people, so he had no choice but to give up.

It was none other than Clezio, Joyce Oates and Modiano who stopped him.

Clerzio was holding a glass cup with a cup of dark green tea in it, but this teacup looked like a wine cup in Clerzio's hand.

In fact, most people would not hold a cup of tea on the façade of the banquet hall like Clezio.

"YU, the tea you prepared is very good." Clezio raised the teacup in his hand and said with a smile, "I've fallen in love with this magical drink recently."

Yu Dong glanced at Clezio's cup and said with a smile, "This is white tea. If you like it, I'll ask someone to make a few boxes for you later."

"White tea?" Joyce Oates said in surprise, "but it's green."

Clerzio laughed and said, "White may not necessarily be... There are many kinds of tea in China, and white tea is one of them. This kind of tea..."

When Yu Dong heard Clezio showing off his little tea ceremony knowledge, he couldn't help grinning, "Actually, the white tea you mentioned is not the same thing as the white tea you mentioned. Although the white tea in your cup is called white tea, it It's actually green tea..."

After briefly spreading the knowledge about tea, Yu Dong looked at the three of Clezio who looked confused, and said with a smile: "Today is not a tea exchange meeting, and we will talk about tea knowledge later. I just have something to ask. Your opinions, I have been wanting to ask you for the past few days, but I have never found a chance."

"What's the matter?" Clezio asked strangely.

"You have all been to Jinling Academy of Art, and you know that although we are an art school, we attach great importance to literature. This year, we also established an international writing center. The members include me, Yu Hua and others from several Chinese countries. But since there are The word "international" should naturally invite some foreign writers."

Joyce Oates nodded and said, "Do you want to invite us to join the International Writing Center of Jinling Academy of Arts?"

"That's right." Yu Dong smiled and nodded.

Modiano, who remained silent all this time, asked, "Does joining this international writing center require us to spend time in China?"

"Yes, but not many. Considering the situation of foreign writers, the writing center only requires you to go to Jinyi at least twice a year, and other activities are all voluntary. This requirement should not be difficult for you, right?"

All three nodded, agreeing with Yu Dong's words. Even if they didn't ask for it, they would come to Jinling twice a year. Among other things, they would definitely come to the annual meeting, which was one less time.

Another time, just come over at any time from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.

"If that's the only requirement, I certainly don't mind joining."

Yu Dong looked at Modiano unexpectedly, but he was the first to express his opinion.

Everyone knows that Modiano is a very mysterious writer. He seldom goes out. He has participated in the Deep Space Annual Meeting for two consecutive years, which surprised Yu Dong, and now he agrees to join the Deep Space Annual Meeting.

Clerzio was also a little surprised, but he didn't think too much about it. He nodded and said, "I don't have any problems. Even if I don't join the International Writing Center of Jinling Academy of Arts, I come to Jinling more than twice a year."

Clezio is the one who has visited China most frequently among all the foreign writers signed by Deep Space. This year alone, he has come to China five times, with an average of one visit every two months. Stay close to a week.

If it weren't for such a high frequency, he wouldn't be fond of drinking tea, and even learned some knowledge about tea.

Every time he came, he would hold a book signing or be invited to attend a literature lecture at a certain school, and it would usually end in a day or two, and he would take his wife to play around in the rest of the time.

Yu Dong believes that if Clezio is given a few more years, he will travel to more cities in China than himself.

Therefore, Yu Dong was not surprised that Clezio agreed to this matter.

Joyce Oates asked, "You can withdraw at any time", but before Dong could answer, she said, "I agree to join."

However, Yu Dong still answered her question, "Of course, you can withdraw at any time without any restrictions. I won't talk about the benefits here. The benefits of the International Collaboration Center are not high, but more of a symbolic meaning. In addition, international writing There is also a class for writers in the center, if you are interested, you can also give lectures to young writers and friends.”

The writing class of the International Writing Center started in November, nearly three months have passed, and there are still more than three months left.

The effect is not bad, and some of them have made great progress.

In the writing class, the teachers do not limit the students' style, that is to say, as long as the students are willing, they can write any type of work they want.

In addition to traditional literature, you can also write some popular science fiction, martial arts and even fantasy.

It's just that the students who come to the International Writing Center seldom take the initiative to write popular novels, and if they want to learn the creation of popular novels such as science fiction, fantasy and martial arts in the writing center, there are very few mentors who can guide them. .

In fact, the International Writing Center is completely different from some foreign writing trainings. Yu Dong basically doesn’t teach the students how to choose words and make sentences, let alone let them do vocabulary association training.

These students are not children who are still in compulsory education. If they feel that they need these trainings, they will naturally arrange it themselves. Yu Dong and the others are more about guiding students how to realize their true feelings.

Many people think that they can't write what they see and hear, just because they can't use words and sentences. In fact, the choice of words and sentences is secondary. The most important thing is that most people haven't found a way to face their feelings.

Some people have good words and sentences, but when they see heavy rain, they immediately think of torrential and pouring, when they see clouds and mists, they immediately think of dense and lingering, when they see water waves, they immediately think of words such as turbulent, rippling, and sparkling, but they don't think about seeing these things. What is the first feeling when

Therefore, no matter how good your words and sentences are, what you write is nothing more than someone else's stuff, and you are just a master of composition in the end.