Backtracking to the Age of Literature and Art

Listening to Chen Tao's explanation of the level, Tom Hanks quickly said, "Objectively speaking, the Chinese version is indeed the first version, no matter when it is released or when it is written."

Chen Tao glanced at Tom Hanks, but he didn't expect him to be quite serious.

"Haha, this is what netizens are arguing about, and there is no official explanation." Chen Tao laughed. He usually pays little attention to this aspect. After all, Yu Dong is his brother-in-law, and a set of signed books of the first edition is not difficult for him.

It is not difficult to get together a set of Yu Dong's signed books, but the difficulty of a full set of first-print first-print signed books is different.

The number of first printings of Yu Dong's novels in the early days was not many.

A total of [-] copies of "Second World" were first printed, which sounds like a lot, but nearly ten years have passed, and there are not many left that are completely preserved and can still be found.

At that time, the readers who bought "Second World" were all students, and these books were extremely worn out in the hands of students. Usually, a class bought two or three copies, and some schools even bought one book for several classes.

A copy of "Second World" may have to pass through the hands of dozens of people, and it will be handed down after a while. No matter how good the quality is, it will definitely be tattered.

In order to improve the efficiency of reading, some students simply tore the book into pages and read them separately.

The complete first printing edition of "Second World" that can be found in the market now may only have two to three thousand copies, and these two to three thousand copies are not many signed.

……

When Chen Tao took Tom Hanks and the others to Yu Dong's office, Yu Dong was chatting with Spielberg.

Seeing the two people coming, Yu Dong and Spielberg got up together, exchanged a few words, and the four of them took their seats.

"Xiao Tao, make some tea for the two of them."

After exhorting Chen Tao, Yu Dong said with a smile, "The two of you were exhausted from the journey, and I dragged you here before you arrived in Jinling. Please forgive me."

"You're welcome, Yu, Leonardo and I are also eager to see the script." Tom Hanks said with a smile.

That's right, the two of them came to Jinling early this time just to read the script.

Some time ago, before "The Martian" was released, Spielberg contacted the two of them separately, saying that he had a very good script on hand and hoped that the two of them could participate in it.

After receiving the call, both of them were very interested. After all, few people don't want to cooperate with a big director like Spielberg.

When they learned that Yu Dong had personally passed the script, they agreed to come to Jinling to read the script without any hesitation.

Until now, they have no idea what type of story the new script will be about.

On the way here, the two also discussed. At first, Leonardo guessed that the new script might be a sci-fi film, but Tom Hanks had a different opinion. He believed that there had been quite a lot of sci-fi films made by Deep Space Company in the past two years. Yes, and he himself has no experience in sci-fi films.

Yu Dong nodded, and handed out two black notebooks on the table to each of them.

"Here is the script. Do you want to read it now, or let me tell you about it before you read it?"

The two looked at each other, and Tom Hanks said, "I prefer to read the script myself first."

"I think so too." Leonardo Dicap nodded.

Yu Dong looked at his watch, "No problem, I'll take you inside to have a look, it's quieter over there."

After leading the two inside, Yu Dong and Spielberg returned to the front. Yu Dong smiled and said, "Actually, there is no need to be in such a hurry. The two of them have come all the way, so they should rest first."

Spielberg waved his hand, "Even if I let the two of them go to rest now, they won't be able to fall asleep, so it's better to discuss things first. And I'm also in a hurry. After they read the script, if there is no problem, I will choose another Now that I'm an actor, I'll start filming when spring comes."

"Is it necessary to be in such a hurry? You have hardly stopped in the past two years."

Yu Dong feels that Spielberg has been busier than him in the past two years. In addition to "The Martian", Spielberg has participated in the production of film and television dramas such as "Artificial Intelligence", "Shrek", "Jurassic "Park 3" and "Band of Brothers", these film and television dramas have not yet been launched, and Spielberg is eager to make new movies again.

The script shown to Tom Hanks and the others is the movie script "Cat and Mouse Game" changed according to "Catch Me If You Can...", and Spielberg has another plan in his hand, according to Philip Dick's A film adaptation of the novel Minority Report.

Now it seems that Spielberg wants to finish filming "Cat and Mouse Game" first, and then film "Minority Report".

Seeing his hard work, Yu Dong teased, "Aren't you thinking about becoming the first director with a total box office of more than 100 billion U.S. dollars?"

Spielberg shrugged and said generously, "If it can be achieved, why not? The title of the first director whose box office breaks through [-] billion is very useful to me."

Hearing Spielberg say this, Yu Dong was not surprised at all. This guy will never hide his pursuit of commercial value.

Some people have calculated before that the total box office of the films directed by Spielberg has exceeded 60 billion US dollars. If "The Martian" performs better, his total box office can reach more than 70 billion US dollars.

For a movie with a box office of one billion, he needs to make three more in a row to make his total box office reach 100 billion US dollars.

Of course, this possibility is very small. Even if Spielberg wants to make a movie with a box office of more than one billion, it is very difficult. So far, Spielberg has only made two movies with a box office of more than one billion. , one is "Jurassic Park" and the other is "Second World".

The box office of "The Martian", which is currently being released, is doing very well at the box office. I believe that he will have another movie with a box office of more than one billion US dollars in a short time, and two of his three movies with a box office of over one billion dollars are both It was in cooperation with Yu Dong.

Some people have calculated that the box office of Spielberg's films in the past ten years is mostly between 100 million and [-] million US dollars. Based on this data, Spielberg wants to make his total box office exceed [-] billion US dollars , and may have to make another seven or eight movies.

But even if it didn't reach the 100 billion box office, Spielberg's total box office still far exceeds that of other directors.

Speaking of the box office, Spielberg asked Yu Dong with great interest, "Have you calculated your total box office?"

"Me?" Yu Dong raised his eyebrows, "Do I still count the total box office? It doesn't make sense for me to count this."

In fact, someone on the Internet calculated for Yu Dong, and there are billions, mainly due to the high box office of the "Resident Evil" series and "Second World".

But this thing can only be counted for fun, no one takes this data seriously, and no one has counted the data in this area before. Count how many times.

Spielberg laughed again, "If you don't count the box office, but only book sales, is there any hope of exceeding tens of billions of dollars?"

Yu Dong twitched his lips, "100 billion dollars, that's too difficult."

If the average price of each book is five dollars, if you want to achieve 100 billion sales, you need to sell 20 billion books. Possibly up to five dollars.

"It's difficult, but it's not hopeless, is it?"

"Well, it's not hopeless."

Yu Dong now sells 7000 to 30 million books a year. According to this rate, he will be able to reach this goal in another [-] to [-] years.

The two didn't talk much about the data. Spielberg asked about "Shrek", "I heard that this time the deep space park has a monster zone?"

"Well, the movie will be released in May, and we should do publicity in advance. This cartoon cost us 7000 million US dollars, and we are now making money from it."

Spielberg said with a smile, "There are too many movies that you want to make money this year. "Lord of the Rings" and "Harry Potter" have more potential than "Shrek". This year's movie market is too competitive." When I grow up, I want to adjust the schedule of "Jurassic Park 3."

Yu Dong nodded. The film market in 2001 was indeed very strong. Deep Space Company alone would release several films, and most of them were blockbusters, such as "Harry Potter", "Lord of the Rings", "Shrek" All three films are definitely competitive at the box office.

In addition, films such as "Monsters Inc", "Pearl Harbor", "Personnel Planet", "The Mummy 2001" and "Rush Hour 2" were released in 2.

"However, even if you want to adjust the schedule, there is no way to adjust it, because the competition will be more intense next year."

Yu Dongyang frowned and thought for a while, and found that Spielberg was right, the competition in the film market will be more intense next year.

In 2002, Deep Space Company released more movies, and both "Lord of the Rings" and "Harry Potter" will have sequels, and then "Spiderman", which has been brewing for a long time, should also be released this year, "Bourne Shadow" It may also be released.

Spielberg's upcoming "Cat and Mouse Game" and "Minority Report" are likely to be released in 2002. In addition, there are some such as "Ice Age", "Chicago", "Ace Powers" 3" is a very competitive film.

Instead of moving "Jurassic Park 3" to 2002, it would be better to put it in 2001.

……

After about two hours, Tom Hanks and Leonardo Dicap came out from the rest area at the back.

The two of them should have already discussed it, otherwise it would be impossible to read the script together by such a coincidence.

After it came out, both of them expressed their satisfaction with the script.

Now that the two of them are satisfied, the rest is to negotiate the salary and finalize the contract. Naturally, they don't need to discuss this kind of matter, and someone from the company will help them.

But Leonardo suddenly said, "YU, regarding my salary, can I add your full set of signed first edition books?"

Yu Dong froze for a moment, "What?"

Now that he had spoken, Leonardo let go, "I mean, I hope to get your full set of first-edition signed books as part of my salary."

Spielberg next to him said with a smile, "YU, is your signed book worth so much now that it can even be used for the salary."

Yu Dong spread his hands, he didn't really understand what a "full set of first edition signed books" meant.

Their company has prepared a full set of books in the collector's edition, and there are also signed editions, but Leonardo is obviously not talking about this.

He could only guess, "What you want is the first edition of all my books, and then the signature?"

Tom Hanks quickly replied, "It's the first printing of the first edition."

Hearing that it was the first printing of the first edition, Yu Dong raised his eyebrows. He didn't expect the request to be quite high.

Of course, the first printing of the first edition was not difficult for him. Many of the first printings of his books were hidden in Wangqiu Pavilion.

After thinking for a while, Yu Dong said, "If you want, I can get you a set. You don't need to pay the salary, and I will give it to you."

After finishing speaking, he turned his head to look at Tom Hanks again, "Tom, what do you want?"

Tom Hanks nodded again and again, "Yes, yes."

Seeing Tom Hanks' happy look, Yu Dong smiled and led them to the cafeteria for dinner, but just as their elevator reached the first floor, they suddenly heard a bell.

Leonardo Dicap asked curiously, "Is it already the hour? Will there still be a bell in the park?"

At this moment the bell was over, Tom Hanks shook his head and said, "It shouldn't be the bell for telling the time, it only rang three times just now."

Yu Dong explained to them with a smile, "This bell is not for telling the time, but for announcing the good news. Once the bell rings, it means that the Chinese box office of "The Martian" has exceeded [-] million yuan."

Leonardo was surprised: "Then it rang three times just now..."

"That's right, after three rings, it proves that the box office has exceeded [-] million yuan."

Hearing that the box office of "The Martian" has exceeded 1000 million yuan, several people's expressions were a little surprised, especially Leonardo Dicap and Tom Hanks, their previous impressions of China's box office That is, if a movie can get a box office of [-] million US dollars, it is very good.

If it is 4000 million yuan, it is about [-] million yuan when converted into US dollars.

Moreover, this movie has only been released for less than a month, and it will definitely rise in the future.

"How much was the box office of "Titanic" in China before?" Tom Hanks asked.

"More than 6000 million yuan." Yu Dong said.

Tom Hanks glanced at Leonardo DiCap, and sighed, "It seems that the box office of "The Martian" will surpass that of "Titanic."

"Well, the box office in China should be fast, but the global box office will definitely not surpass it." Spielberg said: "The Martian has a home field advantage here, so it is not surprising that the box office can surpass it."

Leonardo DiCapp laughed, "If it were in the United States, tomorrow some media would write a piece of news - "The Martian" surpassed "Titanic" to become the box office champion."

Yu Dong raised his eyebrows and said with a smile, "You think you can't do it in China?"