Chapter 43: Two Divisions

If it were someone else, Su Yun probably wouldn't have played such a prank - but the person she had to "deal with" was Stanley Kubrick, whose psychological quality could not be measured by ordinary people's standards.

Perhaps many people who only care about the details of the film may not be familiar with this name that has made a great contribution to the history of film. However, once the names of his works are mentioned, there will definitely be people who will suddenly realize and applaud: "Full Metal Jacket", "2001: A Space Odyssey", "A Clockwork Orange"... and the famous weird horror masterpiece "The Shining", which has become a shadow in the childhood and even adulthood of many people.

Su Yun, once a child, was one of the "victims" of this masterpiece...

Thinking back to those years when she was so scared by this movie that she couldn't sleep even with the lights on, Su Yun is now having a big fight with Kubrick in order to avenge the shadow of her childhood.

For this purpose, she specifically referred to the classic scene in the equally famous horror film "The Exorcist" where a little girl bends over and climbs the stairs backwards. She hid folded paper balls and a wig under her wide floral dress.

It was not like filming a movie where you have to pay attention to details. The lighting in the wooden house was already dim. Paper Ball opened the wig, put it on, put on a pair of socks on her hands, and climbed down. At first glance, she looked like she was bent over in a strange posture.

That's why Kubrick just saw her bending her body and climbing the stairs backwards.

This shows that Kubrick has a strong psychological quality. He was so frightened that he was paralyzed on the ground, but he didn't want to run away. Instead, he just stayed there to observe for inspiration. If it were someone else, it would be normal to turn around and run, be so frightened that he couldn't run, or faint on the spot.

Maybe it was because he had just finished filming "A Clockwork Orange" not long ago, so he could still withstand a lot.

So Su Yun, the shrimp, crawled in front of him and sang this line of lyrics that made fun of the theme.

“Do You Want to Build a Snowman” was originally a classic interlude in the Disney movie “Frozen”. The tune is light and simple, very suitable for children’s voices. However, Su Yun wanted to make a robot, so “Snowman” was not suitable, so she changed it to “Iron Man”…

By the way, I also played with the Iron Man joke. After all, the literal translation of Iron Man in English is Iron Man.

In order to adapt to the rhythm, she did not change the "a" in front to "an": because no matter in Chinese or English, in spoken language and lyrics, people don't pay much attention to grammar issues. Sometimes in order to adapt to the tone or rhyme, inversion, change of tone, and intonation are used.

Anyway, the meaning is conveyed, and that's enough.

Apparently, after being surprised for so long, Kubrick was finally brought back to his senses by her words: "You are..."

"Mary Su, from Hong Kong, China." Su Yun stood up and answered while pulling the socks in her hands.

"That's a good idea." After seeing the paper ball, wig, and socks on the ground, Kubrick quickly understood the reason behind Su Yun's strange gesture. "How did you come up with that idea?"

Su Yun was silent for a moment: I have to say that the stupid netizens are much happier about this.

Since the development of smartphones and various short video media, silly netizens around the world have begun a joint carnival - all kinds of prank videos relying on makeup, props and acting skills are constantly updated. In short, there is nothing you can't think of that they can't do...

There are many short videos imitating the classic backwards climbing stairs in "The Exorcist". She also referred to the original movie and some imitation short videos, and then improved it according to her actual situation, which resulted in this scene of disguising herself as a doll to sneak into the wooden house.

After briefly explaining the principle to Kubrick, Su Yun got straight to the point: "I have a script about robots that I would like to ask you to shoot."

After receiving the project from Su Yun, Kubrick quickly glanced through the scripts and immediately found that the story was quite similar to his recent inspiration.

But the difference is that compared to the scattered inspirations in his mind, the story in Su Yun's script is already very complete.

However, perhaps because the author is a child, the final ending tends to be in the style of a commercial fairy tale, which has the warm flavor of a child's bedtime story.

In the simple conversation, Kubrick has learned a lot about Su Yun - her father died early and she had to depend on her grandmother for support, she had a talent for computers and electronic devices, she had good luck in stock trading and made a lot of money by accident; and she took some children's stories she wrote and made a commercial movie that was both box office and well-received...

Until recently, her teacher was seriously ill and bedridden, and she used her small body to hold up a sky that was about to collapse.

In this chaotic era, there is never a shortage of geniuses.

But behind every genius there are usually all kinds of misfortunes chasing after them, forcing them to reveal themselves prematurely with no alternative but to do so.

Su Yun, this little girl from an ancient foreign country, is very interesting and has a lot of ideas, but that's all.

Kubrick shook his head with certainty: "I have imagined such a story before, but if we were to shoot it... the requirements for the actors and the budget would be too high."

"Is my acting not good enough?" Su Yun asked, looking up.

"This is not just a problem for you." Perhaps thinking of himself in the past when he saw Su Yun, Kubrick patiently explained, "Your acting skills are good enough to play the little robot girl in the story, but the other actors are a problem, and the computer animation technology production is an even bigger problem."

"You can't just fool around with poor visuals and people's fears like you did. If you want to show the special features of simulated robots, you have to rely on computer animation technology - which is already a huge expense, not to mention that your storyboard also includes super-large scenes like flooding the city..."

"But this is based on the pictures I made." Su Yun continued to look up and took out a videotape from the pocket of her floral dress. The expression on her face was a bit proud of a child. "It was with this that I conquered the people at Warner and got a week."

Kubrick was a little confused, but he still decided to give it a try, so he put the videotape into the projector in the living room.

When the shocking picture of the flood submerging most of the city and the Statue of Liberty sinking into the water came out, Kubrick's half-asleep expression was shaken.

He played the video, which was only a few minutes long, over and over again.

The pair of eyes behind the glasses, shining with wisdom, stared at the screen intently, like a very picky quality appraiser, trying to find the slightest flaw -

No, no, no...still no.

From the sky to the ocean, from the overall to the details, everything is so vivid and real.

If Su Yun hadn't said at the beginning that this was a video she produced, he might have believed that this was a real news aerial video.

"How did you do it? How much time and money did it take?" Kubrick's eyes were still reluctant to leave the screen for a long time, and he squeezed out a sentence through gritted teeth.

Even one of the great directors who has always led the innovation of film technology, when faced with the dimensionality reduction attack from the black technology of the future, he finally showed a look of shock and fascination.

But it was definitely much better than the two Warner employees who jumped up in fright before...Su Yun glanced at Kubrick: he was sitting very steadily, with no intention of moving at all.

"It doesn't cost that much actually, but it's very time-consuming to make, and it consumes a lot of computer and accessories. In just a few minutes, the computer I had worked so hard to put together was broken. I'm currently planning to buy a new batch of computer accessories - if this movie can be successfully approved." Su Yun considered his words and tried to explain to Kubrick in the simplest terms.

"The scheduled release date is November 27th?" Kubrick glanced at the plan.

"Yes, it's my master's birthday - the share of this movie was originally his, but you know the reason for the change." Su Yun replied.

"That time is running out." Today is August 1st.

"And the investment is still not enough." Su Yun's script replaced the half-filmed "Game of Death", and half of the $1 million initial investment had already been used by the original film crew.

"Have you discussed the subsequent additional investment?" As soon as Kubrick said these words, Su Yun immediately understood what he meant.

She finally got the God of Movies to make her movie!

"I plan to discuss the follow-up additional investment with Warner after I have confirmed the director." Su Yun smiled, "You probably also understand that Warner is famous for 'looking at the person to serve the dish' - this is a proverb in my hometown, which means that they need to consider the applicant's fame and status before making an investment."

"Of course I understand. Their company is also very 'interesting'." Kubrick has also worked with Warner Bros., and found that the internal struggles in the company were extremely fierce and the management was also chaotic.

There is not much concept of macro-control and planning, and the idea is to spend money recklessly: those with fame will be given more investment, and they are as generous as can be, which is simply a model of stupid people with a lot of money; those without fame will be stingy even if they are approved, and they are as stingy as classic misers like Grandet.

But I am lucky enough that I can still stick to it despite the mess. What I like most is to grab a project that can make money and keep digging until there is no more profit.

Knowing Warner's character, after confirming his intention to cooperate with Su Yun, Kubrick, who usually didn't like to go out, actually took the initiative to go to New York to discuss additional investment with Warner.

"The shooting time is very tight. You stay here and do a preliminary screening of your 'mother' and other characters. I will be back as soon as possible." There were too many things that needed to be prepared in the early stages, and Su Yun had just obtained some parts and was building the machine, so Kubrick did not plan to let Su Yun go with him.

It's only an hour's drive from here to New York. When he gets to New York, he can spread the word to the Screen Actors Guild, and naturally people who want filming opportunities will come here to be selected.

Su Yun nodded.

However, haste makes waste. At the end of the day, Su Yun failed to select many actors that suited her, and Kubrick failed to reach an agreement with Warner on the amount of additional investment.

"I've put you on the shortlist for the role of the male dancer 'Qiao', so you have to work hard!" Su Yun stood on tiptoe and patted the shoulder of Zhuang Long, who had originally planned to come over to help out.

Perhaps beautiful people always look alike. Zhuang Long's appearance and temperament are somewhat like Qiu Hua, the actor who played the male dancer Joe in the original movie - of course, judging by the era, it should be Qiu Hua who looks a bit like him.

Unfortunately, the oriental charm is still obvious in his appearance, which is his biggest disadvantage.

The film already has one oriental face, Su Yun, which is already difficult; adding another one would be even more difficult.

Su Yun said at first that she would fight for him, but now she can only put him on the shortlist; the final decision will still have to be made by Kubrick.

However, Su Yun felt that he still had some hope - he was cheap, had a good image, and good acting skills. Compared with the previous batch of people who were ordinary-looking but quite confident, his value for money was much better.

"Qiao" is a male dancer, and what he cares about most is his looks.

After instructing Zhuang Long to work hard, Lin Jingying, who was waiting nearby, enthusiastically took the small note about her character given by Su Yun and accompanied him to rehearse outside.

After working for an entire afternoon, they finally came up with a list of names that looked hopeless. In addition, no young actor came to audition for the role of the heroine's son, which had a lot of scenes. Su Yun was simply suffocating.

For most Europeans and Americans, their hair will gradually turn from blond to darker as they age, so she can understand why adult golden retrievers are scarce - but aren't there a lot of golden retriever puppies?

So it's so difficult for her to find a golden-haired boy?!

Depressed Su Yun sighed deeply, waved and said something to the nanny and Vivian, then planned to go out for some fresh air.

As they walked to the nearby woods, Su Yun was surprised to find a group of familiar figures.

It's you guys who are bullying again!

Just in time, let her take a few naps to “breathe some air”!

Unfortunately, when Su Yun was about to step forward and take action with an excited look on her face, the group of bullying teenagers saw her in the familiar pink dress and immediately screamed and ran away, looking like they had seen a ghost.

Although they didn’t understand what it meant that the pinker the clothes, the more violent the beatings, but Su Yun’s “Nine Yin White Bone Claws” that grabbed people’s brains had already left an indelible psychological shadow on them…

"Why were you beaten again?" Seeing that the golden-haired boy Tom was beaten so badly that he couldn't stand up on his own, Su Yun had no choice but to step forward and help him up.

Tom lowered his head: "The teacher praised my acting during rehearsal today..."

"Alas, you can't beat them alone. Be more careful next time. When you see them from a distance, run away and hide at home." Su Yun shook his head.

"Can you please take me home? It's my sister's birthday. It would be bad if you were any later..." Tom looked over weakly, "My home is not far away."

"Okay, let's help him to the end, let's go!" Su Yun put his arm on his shoulders, supported him and followed his instructions.

It wasn’t far actually. After walking for about ten minutes, I arrived at a well-maintained cottage.

It seems that the family relationship is quite warm. There are a few cute signs on the lawn at the door, with pictures of a group of Q-version people cuddling together.

"This is your house, right? This sign is yours..." Su Yun said, subconsciously looking up at the name on the sign -

It turns out it's you, Brother Tang.