Chapter 782 A Great Invention
That night, Lin Weimin didn't drink any alcohol, but just drank some tea. He didn't want to drink, and no one dared to force him to drink.
During the dinner, Haiyan talked about the TV series "Swordsman". Since the 1980s, many Jin Yong martial arts TV series from Hong Kong have been introduced to the mainland, and have been strongly sought after by the mainland's TV audience, making many Hong Kong actors become household names in the mainland with huge influence.
Liu Yanming and Zhang Heping were surprised to hear that Wencheng Film and Television had obtained the rights to adapt "Swordsman" into a TV series. Jin Yong's novels are well-known and there are many successful cases before him. Once the TV series is completed, it will definitely be another popular masterpiece. The development of Wencheng Film and Television will definitely reach a new level.
Liu Yanming laughed and said, "Oh, even I didn't know this news, you guys did a great job keeping it secret!"
Hai Yan said: "I was the one who was in communication with CCTV before, and it was not appropriate to publicize it. The communication has been almost complete in the past two days, so I dare to make it public. The investment in martial arts dramas is huge, and we, Wencheng alone, cannot afford it."
"That's true." Liu Yanming nodded and asked, "How much was the investment in this TV series?"
"Of the eight million, we pay four million and CCTV pays four million. We provide the scripts and CCTV provides the platform. The purchase price is no less than 200,000 per episode."
Liu Yanming's eyes lit up. "Such favorable conditions?"
"This is the first time that China has produced a martial arts drama with such a large investment scale, and it is Jin Yong's martial arts drama. The martial arts dramas produced by Hong Kong's TVB have been very popular in China in recent years. CCTV has high hopes for this TV series, and our previous two collaborations were very successful." Hai Yan explained.
Liu Yanming nodded, raised his glass, and said to Haiyan: "The development of Wencheng is inseparable from your contribution. Come on, let me toast to President Hai!"
When the banquet was over and everyone was leaving, they were all drunk, but Lin Weimin was the only one who remained sober.
The next day, Tong Zhonggui came to find Lin Weimin and said that the filming of "Winner" had been completed. Yan Film Studio invited them to go to the internal screening to see the quality of the film. Lin Weimin then drove Tong Zhonggui to the Yan Film Studio.
Over the years, Lin Weimin has dealt with Yanying Studio many times. Last year, Han Shanping was transferred to Yanying Studio as the director, and the two sides established a close cooperative relationship.
"Winner" is one of the two films in which Wenhua Film and Television participated in the investment. The director Huo Jianqi, like Zhang Yimou and others, is from the 1978 class of Yanying, but he studied art design and has been engaged in art work for many years. He has collaborated with many fifth-generation directors such as Tian Zhuangzhuang and Xia Gang.
Two years ago, he came up with the idea of becoming a director and got the support of his wife Su Xiaowei. The couple worked together to tinker with the script of "Winner".
It also happened that Han Shanping was transferred to Yanying Studio and was prepared to vigorously support young and middle-aged directors, so "Winner" was successfully filmed.
Yanying Studio has its own auditorium and a small projection room, both of which can show movies. Since today is an internal preview, we chose the small projection room.
When Lin Weimin came in, he shook hands with Han Shanping first. Han Shanping then introduced him to Huo Jianqi and Su Xiaowei and their spouses. After a brief greeting, they started watching the movie.
The story of the movie is not complicated. Lu Xiaoyang, played by Ning Jing, is a girl from Yanjing. She meets Chang Ping, a disabled athlete played by Shao Bing, because of a car accident. As their contact deepens, Lu Xiaoyang and Chang Ping develop feelings for each other, and finally the two overcome numerous obstacles and get together.
The style of the film is fresh and natural. Huo Jianchu took over the director's chair at the beginning, and his performance was not amazing, but it was understandable. After all, not every director is Zhang Yimou.
“The movie was well made.”
After watching the movie, Lin Weimin praised it, which made Huo Jianqi and his wife very happy.
Lin Weimin has never been involved in the domestic film industry, but his legend is everywhere in the industry.
The fact that he single-handedly brought up Zhang Yimou is enough to make countless domestic filmmakers bow down to him.
What's more, he has won many international awards for writing movie scripts. How could Huo Jianqi, an old artist and new director, not be excited to hear the evaluation of "not bad" from him?
After chatting with Huo Jianqi for a few minutes, Lin Weimin raised several practical problems, such as the leading actor's acting was too forced and the editing continuity of a small part of the shots was too poor, which made Huo Jianqi blush.
In addition to raising questions, Lin Weimin also made a few compliments.
"Geng Le's performance was good."
In the movie, Geng Le plays the boyfriend of the heroine Lu Xiaoyang, a minotaur with full attributes. His girlfriend was stolen by someone, so he wanted to vent his anger, but found out that the other person was a disabled person, so he had to hold it in. Geng Le's acting was very impressive.
"The scene where he tied his shoelaces with his teeth was pretty good too. I looked at the cast list and the guy's name is Wang Qianyuan, right?"
Huo Jianqi replied: "Yes, I am a student of the Central Academy of Drama and I haven't graduated yet!"
Lin Weimin nodded, "It's a good seedling!"
Huo Jianqi laughed and said, "I'll have to tell Xiao Wang about this later. I think he'll be so happy."
After chatting with Huo Jianqi for a few words, Lin Weimin asked about the release of Han Shanping's movie. Yanying Studio planned to release the movie on National Day.
For this era, "Winner" has a good cast. Ning Jing and Geng Le have acted in "Sunny Days", Shao Bing is also an idol actor of this era, and several main actors are very well-known and can attract many audiences.
"Pay more attention to publicity," Lin Weimin reminded.
It is really hard to describe the publicity work of state-owned film studios these days; it is nothing more than printing some posters and placing advertisements in film publications, and the methods are unremarkable.
This is partly due to outdated concepts, and partly due to reluctance to spend money.
After all, this film was not controlled by Guowen Publishing House, and Lin Weimin would not make too many suggestions.
However, Han Shanping still attached great importance to Lin Weimin's suggestion and said on the spot that he could add an additional 200,000 yuan as publicity expenses.
200,000 is not a lot of money, but for "Winner" which only invested 1 million, it is a considerable publicity expense.
Seeing that Han Shanping attached so much importance to it, Lin Weimin also said to Tong Zhonggui: "We will also add an additional amount of publicity expenses in proportion."
Tong Zhonggui nodded, but Han Shanping said hurriedly, "Teacher Lin, that's not necessary. We can just pay for it. After all, we are the issuer."
Han Shanping was persistent, so Lin Weimin did not insist.
A few days later, Lin Weimin received an email from Roger Strauss, which contained the first draft of the English translation of "God Bless America".
With Lin Weimin's level of English, it would not be difficult to make an English version, but he was too lazy to waste time and energy on it, so he directly handed it over to Roger Strauss.
It only took about a month and the efficiency of FSG Publishing was quite good.
Lin Weimin glanced through the translation. "God Bless America" is about the United States itself, and it makes more sense when read in English.
Roger Strauss also specifically mentioned his feelings about the novel in the email. At first, he was full of expectations after just listening to Lin Weimin's brief description of the content of the novel.
After the novel was translated, he couldn't wait to read it.
In the email written to Lin Weimin, the word "amazing" appeared four times throughout the text, and "magnum opus" was used to describe the novel.
Compared to words like masterpiece and classics that can also mean "masterpiece", magnum opus is much more high-end because it is a Latin word imported into English, meaning "great work", and is usually used to describe great artists and classic masterpieces.
Through the text, Lin Weimin could feel Roger Strauss's joy and excitement.
He spent a few days revising part of the translation and then sent the email back to Roger Strauss.
Then he made a special call to Roger Strauss to remind him. After answering his call, Roger Strauss flattered him again and informed Lin Weimin that if nothing unexpected happened, the novel would be published in early October.
The publication time is two months later than that in China, which is very efficient for multinational publishing.
Today, the sales of "God Bless America" are changing day by day, breaking records every day, and the attacks on him by pro-American factions outside are still continuing.
This time, Lin Weimin witnessed the fighting power of this group of people, which was indeed extraordinary.
When he wrote "Burning", although it was also a criticism of the United States, the focus was still on capitalism itself. There were also many criticisms, but compared with this time, they were nothing.
Lin Weimin even wondered if he had dug up someone's ancestral grave.
That morning, Yu Hua gave him a copy of Shanghai Literary Theory, a bimonthly magazine founded in 1987. Its content mainly focuses on research and reviews of contemporary literature, and appropriately introduces foreign literary theory and its trends.
In the latest issue of "Shanghai Literary Theory", an associate professor from Fudan University published an article.
"On the Anti-M Tendency in Lin Weimin's Works", the title alone is scary enough.
The article, which is more than 6,000 words long, lists and analyzes all the content in Lin Weimin's works that involves foreign countries, especially the United States. It finally draws a conclusion: Lin Weimin has serious populist ideas and uses his works to slander other countries. His most fundamental purpose is to support conservative forces and attempt to interfere with the direction of public opinion.
"Teacher Lin, I think you have really stirred up a hornet's nest this time. This time these people are scolding you non-stop." Yu Hua said.
Lin Weimin put down the magazine and said with a smile: "The title is scary enough and the hat is too big. It's really hard for them to spend so much time on it."
"Aren't you worried at all?" Yu Hua asked.
"What are you worried about?"
"Three people can make a tiger, and a lot of gossip can melt gold. If you let them scold you so recklessly, what if it takes too long and affects your image in the readers' minds?"
Lin Weimin asked: "Don't worry. They won't be able to scold you for long. You need to figure out who these people are."
"Who?"
"Among all those who admire Western countries, apart from a very small number of true patriots who hope to learn from foreigners and become stronger, most people are just admiring the strong. Their worship and admiration for the United States and the West is full of sophisticated egoism.
Such people will never persist for long for something that has no benefits. Imperialism is a paper tiger, and the compradors are not even paper. "
Lin Weimin's tone was understated, but to Yu Hua it sounded like a heroic spirit of "Even if the enemy surrounds me with thousands of troops, I remain unmoved."
Yu Hua looked at Lin Weimin's indifferent expression, and felt envious and admiring of Teacher Yu Lin's courage.
After chatting for a while, Lin Weimin asked Yu Hua, "Did you come here just to give me this magazine?"
Yu Hua said, "Of course not. Mo Yan has been under a lot of pressure recently and wrote to me to complain."
(End of this chapter)
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