1980 My literary era

When Cheng Kaige was working as a coder on the crew, news about the upcoming filming of "Farewell My Concubine" had spread throughout the Chinese film industry.

Original work by Lin Weimin, directed by Cheng Kaige, with an investment of 8 million US dollars from Hong Kong and the United States...

Such a lineup is considered king in the Chinese film industry.

Although Cheng Kaige has been under the pressure of Zhang Yimou in recent years, he is a dwarf, but in any case, the fifth generation of directors has gradually entered the stage of creative maturity. This group of people has become the mainstay of the Chinese film industry. Cheng Kaige is one of the leaders of this generation. The leading filmmaker has already established his position.

The investment of 8 million US dollars from Hong Kong and the United States set a record for a film directed by a mainland director.

It was scary enough that Xie Tieli spent tens of millions to shoot "Dream of Red Mansions". At a time when state-owned studios generally invested around one million dollars, the investment scale of a film worth 8 million dollars was completely a dimensionality reduction blow.

In addition to the director and investment scale, the most controversial thing is "Farewell My Concubine" itself and Lin Weimin, the original author.

Not to mention the influence of "Farewell My Concubine", Lin Weimin is very special in the domestic film industry.

To be precise, he has always been aloof from the domestic film industry.

For most domestic writers, when their works have gained a certain degree of influence, a studio or director comes to them, and then both parties collaborate to make a movie to expand the influence of their works. This is a very normal operation in the literary and art circles.

Since Lin Weimin became famous, many studios and directors have also hoped to film his works, but they have never been successful. Only one company in Hong Kong filmed "Lover".

But it would be inaccurate to say that Lin Weimin is not involved in the film industry at all.

Look at the film works he has worked on over the years, "Lover", "Old Well", "Red Sorghum", "The Last Emperor"... these film works have won awards in overseas film markets one after another.

Such an impressive record has created Lin Weimin's unique position in the Chinese film industry. Although he rarely appears in the film industry, every time his name appears in the film industry, it will set off a storm.

So many people in the film industry were very surprised when they heard that "Farewell My Concubine" was going to be adapted.

After all, Lin Weimin has been famous for so many years, but there are only a handful of film adaptations of his works.

At the same time, the news that the crew of "Farewell My Concubine" had begun preparations also attracted the attention of the media, who quickly followed up with reports.

This time, it triggered a strong response not only in the film circle, but also in the literary circle and among readers.

Ten years after its publication, "Farewell My Concubine" has finally been adapted into a film and TV show. Many fans of the book are overjoyed and are running around telling each other that they can't wait for the movie to be released tomorrow.

In mid-April, Michael Phillips has been in China for almost half a month. During this time, in addition to communicating with Xu Feng about the preparations for "Farewell My Concubine," he was also supervising the filming of "Sunny Days."

That evening, Michael Phillips asked Lin Weimin to go out for dinner. He planned to fly back to the United States tomorrow and do some pre-publicity for "Farewell My Concubine" to build momentum for the movie.

When Lin Weimin arrived, he found that there was someone else beside Michael Phillips.

Jiang Wen's face was filled with a flattering smile, "Mr. Lin, you haven't been to the crew to guide the work for a long time."

"With Mike here, there's no need for me to go."

A few people took their seats, served the food, and chatted while eating.

Jiang Wen sat aside with a tangled expression on his face and hesitated to speak.

"Teacher Lin!" he shouted.

"What's up?"

"Farewell My Concubine is going to be made into a movie."

"yes."

"The character Cheng Dieyi..."

Before he could finish his words, Lin Weimin interrupted him, "Don't think nonsense, don't you know your own image?"

Jiang Wen was a little hurt, "Mr. Lin, you are wrong. What is an actor? An actor is just plasticine. Whatever shape the character is, we are that shape. I am confident that I can play the role of Cheng Dieyi well! Really, do you believe it?" Me. Give me a Cheng Dieyi, and I will give you a best actor in return."

Lin Weimin ignored Jiang Wen's words and looked at Michael Phillips, "Did he tell you about this?"

Michael Phillips nodded, "I said it."

"I told you to bring him here?"

Michael Phillips shrugged and spread his hands, "What can I do if he insists on following?"

To translate what Michael Phillips said: This shameless follower has nothing to do with me.

"Teacher Lin, Teacher Lin, give me a chance!"

Jiang Wen looked humble, hunched over and holding up his wine glass.

Lin Weimin was unmoved, "You are also thinking blindly. If you say you want to play Duan Xiaolou, I will consider it."

"What's the point of Duan Xiaolou? If you want to act, you have to play Cheng Dieyi. Teacher Lin, you know that Cheng Dieyi has been my dream since I was a student. You can't break a young actor's dream so rudely." dream!"

Lin Weimin waved his hands impatiently, "Don't give me your damn words and moral hijacking! You, give up this idea as soon as possible. Let me tell you this, even if this movie is not made, you will not be cast as Cheng Die. Clothes!"

Jiang Wen looked depressed, "You can't do this!"

"That's all. You just need to work hard on your movie, don't think about it all day long."

"If there is no further delay, I will finish filming the film in a few months. I will just have time to film Farewell My Concubine."

Lin Weimin knew that Jiang Wen had a smooth character, so he simply ignored him. No matter how much you said, he wouldn't be able to star in the film.

Leaving Jiang Wen aside, Lin Weimin and Michael Phillips continued chatting.

Michael Phillips also hesitated to tell Lin Weimin the news, "Lin, Steven may not direct "Life is Beautiful Anyway"."

Lin Weimin was not surprised at all by this news. In 1988, Spielberg bought the copyright of "No Matter What, Life is Beautiful". There has been no movement for four years, and it was already scheduled to be filmed.

Seeing his expressionless face, Michael Phillips thought he was unhappy, so he took the initiative to explain: "Actually, it's not that Steven doesn't want to make this film, but that some Jews in the United States have some objections to your novel. World War II has great consequences for the Jews. This is an unprecedented disaster for us, and the novel "Life is Beautiful No Matter What" uses a comedic approach to deconstruct this painful history, which many Jews cannot accept."

Lin Weimin nodded slightly. After "No matter what, life is beautiful" was published in the United States, there were also such voices. Roger Strauss also reacted to Lin Weimin.

However, the literary circle is far more tolerant than the film circle. Although there is a small stir, it does not affect the sales of "No matter what, life is beautiful".

For half a century, there have been many literary works in European and American countries describing the suffering history of Jews during World War II. However, the angle of "Life is Beautiful No matter what" has never been tried before. Many people think that the comedy content in the novel is not The jokes and blasphemy about wars and tragedies, on the contrary, have a kind of compassionate and open-mindedness.

It is precisely because of this that this novel has a considerable number of fans in the European and American literary circles and reader groups.

"The adaptation rights have been sold for four years now. I am mentally prepared. There is still one year left before the adaptation rights expire." Lin Weimin said with a relaxed expression.

The agreement signed that year also stipulated that the director of the adaptation must be Spielberg, so Lin Weimin had no worries that Spielberg would sell the script midway.

Michael Phillips laughed when he heard this. Although it was a pity for Lin Weimin that the movie was not made, he did not suffer a loss since he earned 800,000 yuan in copyright fees in vain.

After dinner, Lin Weimin said goodbye to Michael Phillips.

Jiang Wen stood next to the two of them, his face as bitter as a little Cuiba, and his eyes looked at Lin Weimin with reluctance.

If Cheng Dieyi doesn't act for me, you are blind!

Michael Phillips left the country and returned to the United States. Xu Feng and Cheng Kaige were busy preparing for "Farewell My Concubine", and Lin Weimin focused his energy on work again.

This morning, Lin Weimin just finished the meeting and received a call from Lu Yao.

After the completion of "The Ordinary World", Lu Yao entered a long period of creative rest.

"The Ordinary World" overdrawn his considerable creative accumulation. Coupled with more than ten years of continuous writing, Lu Yao suffered from cirrhosis of the liver and has been recovering from illness in the past few years.

During this period of recuperation, Lu Yao used his spare time to intermittently write "Morning Begins at Noon", the creative essay of "The Ordinary World", which has been published in "Girlfriend" magazine since last winter. "Girlfriend" is a Shaanxi Magazine sponsored by the Women's Federation.

Yanjing October Literature and Art Publishing House planned to publish a collection of creative essays called "Morning Begins at Noon". Lu Yao specially called Lin Weimin and asked him to help write a preface.

The sales volume of essays has never been high, and the Chinese Literature Society has never thought about it. Lin Weimin readily agreed to Lu Yao's request.

After talking about business, Lu Yao and Lin Weimin chatted about a recent gossip in the Shaanxi literary world.

The manuscript of "The Last Huns" by writer Gao Jianqun was lost. He had just finished writing the novel and had no time to publish it. He asked a critic to borrow it for a preview, but the manuscript was lost.

It would be fair to say that it was lost on the way to the editorial office.

But it was really frustrating to lose the manuscript when I lent it to others, especially since the novel hadn't been published yet. Gao Jianqun probably wanted to die.

Computers are now expensive and have certain barriers to use, so now only a small number of writers have the courage to try using computers for writing, and most writers still write by hand.

A novel has hundreds of thousands of words. After the author completes the novel, almost no one is willing to spend energy to copy it, and no one would think that the manuscript lent to a friend can still be lost.

When Lu Yao talked about this matter, he felt as if he had experienced it, "Forget about ordinary short and medium stories. The long story that I worked so hard to write was easily lent to others before it was published. This is good, the manuscript If I lose it, I can only rely on memory to rewrite it, I’m afraid it will peel off the skin!”

"The Last Huns" is a long novel that Gao Jianqun spent nearly four years writing. Part of the content was published in the literary magazine "Classic Characters of the Classic Century" in the form of a novella in the past two years. "Lijiang River" was published and was well received by many literary critics and readers.

After Lin Weimin finished listening to Lu Yao's gossip, he had some thoughts in his mind, "Do you have Gao Jianqun's contact information?"

Lu Yao immediately realized what Lin Weimin was going to do, "You want to poach someone?"