The King of Huayu Science Fiction

Chapter 408

The preparations for "Inception" are still in full swing. According to the original script, this film will be filmed in many countries such as Europe and the United States, and of course there will be domestic scenes.

The filming cycle was also set relatively loosely. For Chen Jingxing and the entire crew, it was a rare travel filming, which made Guo Fan quite jealous.

"OPERATION RED SEA" was filmed in three countries in Africa. In addition, the management of the crew was relatively strict. Guo Fan enjoyed some scenery, but traveling was out of the question, but filming was really hard.

After staying in the desert for three full months, no matter how magnificent the scenery is, I still have to look at it, let alone the bugs. Fortunately, the crew of "Spike II" explored the way and summed up some experience. "Operation Red Sea" At least from top to bottom, the crew knew that they had to lift the mattress before going to bed, and first boil a pot of boiling water to iron the bed.

Therefore, Guo Fan admires Zhang Yi's filming of "OPERATION RED SEA" and "The Ninth District". Even if he is filming in South Africa, if possible, Guo Fan does not want to go to Africa.

Although the production of "The Wandering Earth" is also very difficult, the main shooting locations are in the greenhouse, and the application of cgi special effects will also be the project second only to "Gravity" in DreamWorks' films, which is not difficult for Guo Fan.

Guo Fan is currently busy with the casting of "The Wandering Earth", and the female lead has already been decided, which is Zhao Jinmai, who has gained countless fans through "The Walking Dead".

Zhao Jinmai's role in "The Walking Dead" is quite lovable, with a miserable life experience. He lost his father at the beginning of the zombie virus outbreak, but after this change, his character became more resolute. But there were not many highlight scenes afterwards.

Nowadays, many film and television dramas prefer to portray female characters as oily bottles, and they need to be rescued by the male protagonist. Once the plot cannot continue, the IQ of the female protagonist will be reduced, or her ability will be reduced, and she will get into trouble and fall into danger to promote the plot.

I don't know if it's to make the female audience feel a sense of substitution, or to produce industrial sugar in the scene where the female troublemaker saves the male.

But such female characters are undoubtedly not likable enough.

And Zhao Jinmai's role in "The Walking Dead" has a weak side, like a little white lotus in the ugly zombies and ugly humanity, but at the same time she also has a wise and strong side, in the fifteen episodes of the story , except for the slow-down plot in the second episode of "Train Memories", after that, they are all wise and resourceful characters.

Such a high-profile role makes Zhao Jinmai not much less traffic and attention than the male lead.

Of course, even so, stepping into a project like "The Wandering Earth" can definitely be called a triple jump.

The progress of the "Wandering Earth" project in the previous world has been full of twists and turns, and not many people are optimistic about it. The funds and time are very tight, and it is unknown whether it will finally meet the audience on the big screen.

After all, it is a breakthrough in domestic sci-fi movies, and the future is uncertain. Not many people will think that this is such a good cake.

But in this plane, the butterfly of DreamWorks has been fanning its wings for several years, and science fiction themes have long become a business card of domestic blockbusters in the world film industry.

No one doubts the level of sci-fi movies made by DreamWorks, coupled with the importance that DreamWorks internally attaches to this project, even the popular Xiaohua will only feel honored to have this project without any hesitation.

And as the preparations for "The Wandering Earth" began, the news inevitably spread around the small circle of DreamWorks to the outside world.

Various artists and major companies have begun to show their talents and compete for a share of the pie.

The power of casting is naturally with Guo Fan. Although DreamWorks has borrowed from the Hollywood film industry, the director-centered system has not changed, which makes Guo Fan confused.

In addition to preparing for "Inception", Chen Jingxing also took advantage of the last gap before filming to brainstorm with the screenwriters, trying to finalize DreamWorks' next TV series project.

The five episodes of "Black Mirror II" have a total of five stories, which have been handed over to five different directors, and the second season of "Suspect Tracker" is about to wrap up.

DreamWorks has at least two dramas to be broadcast next year, and what makes Chen Jingxing undecided is the third drama - "Ball Lightning".

This is a very amazing story from the concept of science fiction.

Ball lightning, commonly known as rolling mines, usually occurs during thunderstorms. It is spherical-shaped lightning and is a real physical phenomenon.

It is very bright, nearly spherical, with a diameter ranging from 15 to 40 centimeters, and usually only lasts for a few seconds, but there are also records of 1 to 2 minutes.

Ball lightning is more harmful. It can fly freely in the air near the ground or travel against the wind with the ups and downs of the airflow. It can enter the room through open doors and windows. It is common to enter the building after passing through the chimney. Swipe up, sometimes it will hover, sometimes it will disappear silently, and sometimes it will explode when it hits an obstacle.

The most important thing is that until now, ball lightning is still a strange natural phenomenon that people cannot explain. There is only one thing in common: ball lightning basically occurs in thunderstorm weather.

In order to unravel the mystery of ball lightning, microwave radiation, oxidized aerosol, nuclear energy, dark matter, antimatter, black holes and other unreliable conjectures and theories have been put forward, but there is still no clear and authoritative explanation for the cause of ball lightning and the theory of the formation process.

The amazing thing about the story of "Ball Lightning" is that Liu created an extremely outrageous high-level concept with a certain degree of self-consistent brain hole that fits many characteristics of the ball lightning itself.

The brain holes of macro-electrons, macro-protons and even macro-atoms are already quite wonderful, and what makes this setting change from wonderful to weird is that the quantum effects of the microscopic high-energy field are brought to the macroscopic world by the macro-electron setting. Come.

From a creative point of view, this is definitely a story that combines hardcore and romance, science and fun.

But its shortcomings are also obvious, that is, it is difficult to adapt it into video works.

The part that impresses people is almost all explanations and demonstrations of some theories and phenomena. These things are very enjoyable to read when reading text, but it is extremely difficult to convert the same shocking degree into moving images.

Movies and novels are different art forms, one focuses on stereoscopic vision, the other focuses on inner senses,
Not to mention that "Ball Lightning" itself is a running account, and his drama is seriously insufficient.

Therefore, what Chen Jingxing and the screenwriters have to do is to change him into an entertaining story with intense dramatic contradictions.

"...so what's the overall tone of the show? Is it a thriller?"

"...Since we have confirmed that the villain is ETO, why don't we use case-solving as a narrative method like "Suspect Tracker" or "Special Mobile Team"?"

"What about ETO? Is ETO going to do more development here? Think of him as a prequel to "The Three-Body Problem"?"

"Since this is the case, how about treating him as the first work of the "Three-Body" universe? Let ETO debut first!"

The "brain storm" in the meeting room was quite intense. At this time, Chen Jingxing was always the relatively silent one, listening intently to everyone's thoughts and mutual arguments.

Although "The Three-Body Problem" has not yet been formally approved, the screenwriting team has already been initially formed. The recruiters are elite soldiers from DreamWorks, and everyone has signed a non-disclosure agreement.

In fact, secrecy is essential in the scriptwriting and preparatory stages of every DreamWorks production today.

It's just that the "Three-Body" project team has a higher level of confidentiality. Chen Jingxing has explained the stories and general framework of "Ball Lightning" and "Three-Body", as well as the science fiction concepts involved, to the screenwriters of the screenwriting team, and they What has to be done is to sort out this huge sci-fi universe into stories that can be visualized in the form of film and television dramas or even animations.

That is to break down a big goal into small goals one by one.

This is more complicated than Guo Fan's "Wandering Earth" project.

And the first thing before everyone is "Ball Lightning" - a part of the "Three-Body" universe.

The sci-fi concept in "Ball Lightning" was used by one of the Wallfacers in "Three-Body", that is, using macro-electrons, namely ball lightning, and macro-nuclear fusion as weapons to attack the earth fleet, making it a quantum that can observe itself Ghosts against Trisolaran.

Since there is such a connection, "Ball Lightning" is of course part of the "Three-Body" universe.

Of course, there is no way to shoot the gorgeous battle in "Ball Flash", no matter how good the relationship between DreamWorks and the film bureau is.

Otherwise, why would he want to co-produce a zombie-themed movie with Universal?

The story of Ye Wenjie in "The Three-Body Problem" may still be released, but the plot of the gorgeous war must not be filmed.

Moreover, this kind of plot is not suitable for visualization, and the audience may not buy it.

Chen Jingxing's previous films always used characters as the theme to tell stories.

"Signal" is the story of the redemption of father and son, "Source Code" is the hero's battle of wits and courage on the train, "Gravity" is the spiritual transformation of the heroine in the midst of survival, and "Matrix" is the love between the hero and heroine. Breaking through the shackles of the matrix and becoming a savior, "Mars" is the hero's survival through hardships.

What the audience wants to see is always the story of the characters. Even if the world is destroyed, the focus is still on the characters. Once they break away from the specific characters and start a grand narrative that they think is epic, it is difficult for the audience to buy such a film and television drama.

Even if "Skyhawk Warrior" is such a magnificent human completion plan, isn't the main line of the story also that boys and girls grow up fighting monsters?

Therefore, the scripting of "Ball Lightning" is to compress the "pattern" of the story.

Compressed into a story of a battle of wits and courage between the protagonist and the villain, although the routine seems very vulgar, many of DreamWorks' sci-fi works are actually based on this routine.

The villain of "Ball Lightning" can't be a world war, and naturally it can't be an official, so there must be a mysterious and high-profile organization.

The villain of "Source Code" and "Person of Interest" is the mysterious KB organization.

The villain of "Skyhawk Warrior" is the Dawn Foundation, which is adhering to the human completion plan.

The villain of "Ball Lightning" is naturally ready-made, the Earth Trisolaran Organization, ETO.

(End of this chapter)