Back to 80: My Literary Life

Before Fang Minghua decided what to write, shortly after getting up the next morning, he received a call from Williams, the editor-in-chief of the American "Fantasy and Science Fiction" magazine.

During the phone call, Williams first congratulated Fang Minghua on winning the Nebula Award for his novel, and also extended an invitation:

"Mr. Fang, you are welcome to continue to contribute to our magazine. I am very happy to see your articles."

This is a draft.

Although Williams' English accent was a bit heavy, Fang Minghua could barely understand what he meant.

"Thank you, I will seriously consider it." Fang Minghua replied.

"Mr. Fang, our magazine not only publishes science fiction novels, but is also very interested in fantasy stories." Finally, Williams emphasized one point.

This is different between the United States and China. Their science fiction and fantasy are not so clearly divided. Otherwise, it is not just science fiction that wins the Nebula Award and Hugo Award. Fantasy novels are also often on the list.

After agreeing to Williams, Fang Minghua began to consider what science fiction novel to write.

Of course, there is a more important factor to consider, which is to facilitate the adaptation into a movie.

Four science fiction novels published in the United States, "Country Teacher", "Poetry Cloud", "Solar Catastrophe" and "Wall-E", the film and television adaptation rights of the latter two were bought yesterday, but no one has paid attention to it before, including the award-winning novel "Country Teacher"!

The most critical problem is that the first two articles are too Chinese-flavored to be adapted locally.

Take photos directly?

Chinese people like to watch it, but Americans won’t buy it.

Now, not thirty years from now, no American director will consider the Chinese film market.

But there is no need to rush this matter. I will stay in the United States for a while, and it will be more than enough to finish a novella.

But what he didn't expect was that just one day later, Fang Minghua had attended an IWP seminar at noon and had just returned to the hotel to go to dinner with Zhang Xianliang and the others when he met Lisa in the corridor.

"Dear Minghua, please wait a moment, someone is looking for you." The girl said loudly.

Hearing the girl call "Dear Minghua", Zhang Xianliang and others couldn't help laughing.

If this were said in China, wouldn't it cause an uproar?

Maybe, Fang Minghua's beautiful female soldier in Xijing will run up to him and ask what is your relationship?

But here, the girl is just passionate and has no other intentions.

"Who is looking for me?" Fang Minghua stopped.

"It's a Hollywood director."

Ah?

one by one?

Good thing.

"Are you in the hotel reception room? I'll go over and have a look." Fang Minghua was about to go over, but was stopped by Lisa.

"Dear Minghua, I want to remind you of something. This director also wants to buy the film and television adaptation rights of your novel, but I suggest you not to give it to him." Lisa Lisa said.

"Why?" Fang Minghua was a little surprised.

"Because he just made a really bad science fiction movie." The girl said in a low voice.

"What movie?"

"Blade Runner!"

Is this a bad movie? !

Fang Minghua was surprised.

The girl was still minding her own business and said: "This is also a science fiction film, adapted from Philip K. Dick's novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"

"It's about Los Angeles in the future in 2019. A group of replicants with the same intelligence and feelings as humans risk hijacking a spaceship and return to Earth, trying to find a way to survive forever before their mechanical energy is about to run out.

"The Los Angeles Blade Runner police dispatched the elite Deckard to track down and eliminate these clones. Unexpectedly, Deckard met a beautiful female clone during the operation and fell in love with her."

Lisa gave a brief introduction to the content, and finally said: "Fans all said that the filming was terrible and messy. I had no idea what the movie was about. I fell asleep while watching it. If you don't believe it, you can go watch it when you have time. See a movie."

"Thank you, thank you for the reminder." Fang Minghua said, and the two of them walked towards the conference room together.

What Lisa said was not wrong. This movie, which was regarded as a masterpiece by later generations, received rave reviews when it was released:

The style of the film is strange and the narrative is incomprehensible.

In the end, some niche movie lovers and scientists began to watch the film and write positive comments, and the film's reputation was dominated by praise.

It was not until later that this work was regarded as a classic and a sequel was made. Many scientists believe that this film completely surpasses "2001: A Space Odyssey" from the perspective of subject selection.

This experience is very similar to "Westward Journey" filmed by Stephen Chow in China.

Anyway, let’s talk first.

Ridley Scott was sitting on the sofa in the conference room, looking a little nervous.

He came from Los Angeles to buy the film and television adaptation rights of "The Sun".

The movie "Blade Runner" I shot the year before last was a flop.

It cost 28 million, but the final box office was only 33 million. What a loss.

Scott was also scolded by the boss of Warner Bros.

In order to make a comeback, he began to look for science fiction novels suitable to be made into movies.

He fell in love with Fang Minghua's novels.

He was very interested in this Chinese writer who emerged from nowhere.

He has published four science fiction novels in the United States, all of which are excellent. What is even more admirable is that the four novels have completely different styles, are full of wild imagination, and are full of philosophical implications.

Of course, from the perspective of adapting it into a movie, the two most suitable ones are "Solar Catastrophe" and "Wall-E". 》

He fell in love with the science fiction novel "Solar Catastrophe" written by this Chinese writer.

Typical Hollywood science fiction narrative style, with grand scenes and fast pace, it is a doomsday disaster theme that the audience likes very much. It is not like the previous book "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" 》The story is inherently very complex and obscure.

But, this novel won’t be snatched away, right?

As Scott was thinking about it, he saw a man and a woman walking in. The woman was a girl named Lisa whom she had just met, and the man was an Oriental young man who was very handsome.

The two parties shook hands and introduced each other, and Scott immediately stated the purpose of his trip: requesting to purchase the film and television adaptation rights of "The Sun".

"I'm sorry, Mr. Scott, I'm late. Yesterday, director Steven Spielberg purchased the film and television adaptation rights of this novel." Fang Minghua explained.

Scott was immediately disappointed.

Let this mortal enemy take the lead again!

Since he couldn't buy what he wanted, Scott said something and stood up to say goodbye, but was stopped by Fang Minghua.

"Mr. Scott, if you are very interested in the science fiction novel I wrote, I can rewrite it for you."

Scott was stunned

Lisa, who was listening next to her, was also stunned.

Fang Minghua actually wanted to write a science fiction novel specifically for him!

"Mr. Fang, why?" Scott couldn't help asking.

"Because, I really like the movie "Blade Runner" you made," Fang Minghua said with a smile.