novellhall Chapter 307 Romance Unique to the Chinese
Chapter 307 Romance Unique to the Chinese
Chapter 306 Romance Unique to the Chinese
"Director Guo, what do you think is the most important thing that this story cannot lose?"
Unlike other investors, Chen Xun didn't ask about the box office forecast, how long it would take to break even, or which popular celebrities they could hire.
Guo Fan paused for a moment, then almost blurted out, "It's home! It's the spirit of the Chinese people—when facing disaster, they don't give up, they don't run away, they unite and get through it!"
"This is the core of our own Chinese science fiction, and we absolutely cannot lose it."
One sentence perfectly matched the frequency.
Chen Xun smiled, looked into Guo Fan's eyes, and said, word by word, "Director Guo, I'll cover the 6000 million funding gap!"
Guo Fan froze instantly.
"Clatter!"
The pen fell from his hand onto the table, and his eyes widened in disbelief.
Looking at Chen Xun, he seemed unable to believe his ears.
He spent more than half a year running around, meeting with dozens of investors. The largest investor he met only agreed to invest 1000 million yuan, and that came with a bunch of demands for script revisions and increased viewership.
The man in front of me listened to him for half an hour, asked only one question, and immediately agreed to make up the entire 6000 million shortfall.
"Teacher Chen Xun, could you... could you say that again?"
His voice was trembling, and he was holding his breath.
"I will cover the entire funding gap of 6000 million."
Chen Xun repeated himself, his tone utterly serious: "But I have two requests!"
"You—you said—"
Guo Fan's heart skipped a beat, waiting for Chen Xun to make an outrageous demand.
"First of all, the core of the script cannot be changed. If you're going to film it, then film the hard science fiction story that belongs to the Chinese people in your heart. No one can force you to make random changes. Secondly, the role of the male lead's father, Liu Peiqiang, is reserved for me."
Guo Fan's eyes instantly reddened.
He suddenly stood up, bowed deeply to Chen Xun, his back bent straight, and remained bent for a full three seconds before straightening up.
When he looked up again, the man in his thirties had very red eyes, but he stubbornly held back his tears, his voice choked with emotion: "Teacher Chen Xun, thank you, thank you so much."
"Rest assured, I won't change a single word of the script. The role of Liu Peiqiang is tailor-made for you from today onwards! I, Guo Fan, will remember your kindness for the rest of my life!"
He faced setbacks everywhere for more than half a year.
He was ridiculed by countless people for being unrealistic, and was forced by investors to completely revise the script he had spent four years working on. Everyone thought he was crazy. Only the person in front of him understood what he wanted to do at a glance and gave him the most solid support.
Guo Fan held Chen Xun's hand tightly, too excited to let go for a long time.
He was prepared to talk himself hoarse, and on the way there, he mentally rehearsed his responses to the various difficulties the investors might present dozens of times.
How can I convince the other party that there is a market for hard science fiction in China?
How can we guarantee that the box office will break even?
How do you deal with the criticism that no one will watch the film?
But to his utter surprise, Chen Xun not only readily agreed to cover the entire funding gap, but also didn't ask a single question about the things investors cared about most, such as investment returns and box office revenue sharing.
Instead, they only mentioned two requirements that best fit the creative process itself.
After calming down a bit, Guo Fan sat back down in his chair. He was about to explain the project's budget allocation and filming schedule to Chen Xun when Chen Xun spoke first.
"Director Guo, we can discuss the budget later. Let's talk about the script and the characters first."
Chen Xun pointed to the unfolded first draft of the script with his fingertip: "In your current version of the script, Liu Peiqiang's character arc is not fully established yet."
Guo Fan sat up straight instantly, gripped the pen tightly in his hand, and even slowed his breathing.
This was the part of his life he was most uncertain about.
The script went through more than two hundred drafts, and the worldview and plot were almost finalized, but the portrayal of the male lead, Liu Peiqiang, was still lacking something.
He wanted to write a story about a hero who saves the world.
But when he wrote it down, it always felt empty, like a floating symbol, not grounded enough. He and the screenwriting team spent several months working on it, but still couldn't find the crux of the problem.
He originally planned to work with the actors to refine the casting process once the casting was finalized.
To his utter surprise, Chen Xun accurately pinpointed the problem that was causing him the most headaches after only reading the first draft once.
"Professor Chen Xun, could you please elaborate?"
Guo Fan leaned forward, his eyes filled with eagerness, like a student waiting for his teacher to answer his questions.
"The character of Liu Peiqiang should not be written as a hero first, but as a father first."
Chen Xun looked at him and said, word by word, "He gave up seventeen years of accompanying his son as he grew up and went to the space station alone, not to become a hero who saves the world, but to get two tickets for his son and father-in-law to enter the underground city."
"The root of all his choices was not grand national righteousness, but his guilt towards his son Liu Qi, a father's belated attempt to make amends."
"Just like his final choice to ignite Jupiter, it wasn't a sacrifice for all of humanity; it was because he was looking at his son on Earth and finally had the chance to be a good father."
"The father must come first, then the hero; only then can the character be established and the audience empathize with him."
A simple sentence struck like a thunderbolt, instantly shattering the fog that had clouded Guo Fan's mind for months.
He scribbled a heavy line across the notebook with his pen, his whole body trembling slightly with excitement, repeatedly muttering, "Yes! Yes! That's it! First comes the father, then the hero! I got it backwards!"
"I kept focusing on his heroic status first, and in doing so, I missed the most crucial element!"
He stayed up countless nights and argued with the scriptwriting team countless times, but he still couldn't figure out the core of the character. Chen Xun's words made it clear!
At this moment, he no longer dared to regard Chen Xun as a celebrity who was simply there to invest.
He felt that the person in front of him had truly mastered the script, even more so than the original director.
[Guo Fan's favorability +15, current favorability: 95]
Hey!
Chen Xun was startled when he saw the favorability rating number above Guo Fan's head suddenly jump up.
It seems my appearance was perfectly timed.
Moreover, his understanding of the script touched Director Guo.
Guo Fan completely abandoned his previous awkwardness and became very talkative.
He poured out all his confusion about the script and his ideas that were still in the works.
What shocked him more and more was that Chen Xun could give a precise answer to every question he raised.
Even ideas that he himself only had a vague concept of, Chen Xun could fill in for him.
He frowned and said, "I always feel that if there are only grand planetary engines and space stations, the audience will feel that it is too far removed from their own lives and will not believe that this world is real. But I don't know what else to add. I can't just force in everyday scenes."
Chen Xun smiled and replied, "Add a touch of real life!"
"The grander the science fiction setting, the more down-to-earth details it needs to support it."
"The underground city cannot just be a refuge; it must be a place where living people live. There should be roadside barbecue stalls, elderly people playing mahjong together, school broadcasts, Chinese New Year 'Fu' characters, and even currently popular internet memes and square dancing."
"These seemingly insignificant details are what make the audience believe that this is what the future world will be like, and that even if the earth is going to wander, the Chinese people will still live their lives this way."
Guo Fan slapped his thigh, almost dropping his pen: "My God! Professor Chen Xun, you thought exactly the same thing as me!"
"I just mentioned to the art team a few days ago that I wanted to add some lifelike elements to the dungeon, but I haven't quite figured out what exactly to add. You've explained it all to me!"
His heart was pounding with shock.
He only thought about the idea once, casually mentioned it to the art team, and didn't even go into detail with the screenwriting team.
Chen Xun was able to say it perfectly, and even knew exactly what to add.
What shocked him even more was yet to come.
When discussing the climax of the plot, the scene where Jupiter is ignited, Guo Fan scratched his head: "I always felt that the emotion here was missing a bit. In the scene where the global rescue team turns back to help, I wanted to portray the collectivism of the Chinese people, but I was always afraid that it would be too deliberate, like shouting slogans."
"Not at all deliberate!"
Chen Xun looked at him, his tone incredibly certain: "This is precisely the core of the entire film, and also the biggest difference between it and Hollywood science fiction."
"Hollywood is a world where superheroes save the world. We are ordinary people, and even if we know the hope is slim, we are willing to turn back and fight with our last bit of strength."
"Saturation-style rescue—this is the unity ingrained in the bones of the Chinese people."
"You could even add a detail: rescue teams from different countries, shouting the same command in different languages, all pushing the firing pin together!"
"At this moment, all of humanity is united as one in the face of the apocalypse."
These words immediately made Guo Fan stand up.
He walked around the table twice, his hands trembling with excitement, repeatedly muttering the words "saturation rescue."
The more I read it, the more I felt it resonated with me.
This is exactly what he wanted to express, but he couldn't find the right words to summarize it!
He hadn't even thought about the details of the global rescue team, but Chen Xun's words raised the entire situation to a whole new level!
"Teacher Chen Xun! You are simply my soulmate!"
'
Guo Fan looked at Chen Xun with excitement that he felt like he had met a long-lost friend: "I used to tell people that we wanted to make science fiction that belonged to the Chinese people, but many people didn't understand and thought I was just talking nonsense."
"I never imagined you not only knew so much, but you also saw further than I did!"
Little did he know that these enlightening ideas and astonishing details were precisely what he and his team had painstakingly crafted over the next few years, navigating countless pitfalls, and ultimately presenting to the audience.
Chen Xun was merely using his advantage as a time traveler to deliver the answers to the future to him ahead of time.
But in Guo Fan's eyes, this foresight became an ultimate understanding and insight into the script, science fiction, and film.
He originally thought that Chen Xun was just an actor who had made a name for himself in Hollywood, and even if he won an Oscar, he might not understand the core of Chinese science fiction.
But now he realizes that Chen Xun's understanding of this project and his knowledge of Chinese science fiction are far more profound than those of most directors and screenwriters in the industry.
The two of them sat there in the coffee shop.
They discussed everything from script details to character development, from special effects production to filming schedules, from the challenges facing the domestic science fiction market to the future development of the Chinese film industry.
The more they talked, the deeper Guo Fan's respect for Chen Xun became. He felt that Chen Xun was not an investor, but a fellow traveler who came to ignite the flame of Chinese science fiction together.
Later in the conversation, Guo Fan simply emptied all the documents out of his backpack.
Even the concept art that the art team had scrapped and the test sample notes from the special effects team were all laid out on the table, and they discussed them page by page with Chen Xun.
When he came across the key points Chen Xun mentioned, he immediately took out a pen and frantically wrote them down in his notebook.
I wrote several pages of densely packed text, not even bothering to take a sip of my coffee when it went completely cold.
The coffee shop was filled with a constant stream of customers, and the waiters came over to refill the water several times.
The lights in the shop came on around dusk.
The owner came over and politely reminded them that it was almost closing time. Only then did the two realize that they had been chatting for a full eight hours.
Looking at the notebook filled with notes, and then at Chen Xun across from him, Guo Fan felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude and admiration.
He stood up again and bowed deeply to Chen Xun: "Teacher Chen Xun, I won't say anything else. From today onwards, you are not only an investor and lead actor in this project, but also our co-producer."
"You have absolute say in the entire project; we'll change it however you say!"
He spent more than half a year running around, meeting countless investors, but they were either trying to interfere with the script revisions or just wanted to make quick money. No one had ever understood his creative process, respected his ideas, pointed him in the right direction, or filled in all his shortcomings like Chen Xun.
Chen Xun looked at the favorability rating above Guo Fan's head, which had already reached 9 points.
In just one day, Guo Fan became the man with the highest favorability rating towards him!
Chen Xun stood up with a smile and shook hands with Guo Fan again.
He knew clearly that by leveraging his advantage as a time traveler, he not only caught the spark of Chinese science fiction, but also seized absolute control of the project from the very beginning.
The future Chinese science fiction era will not only be Guo Fan's legend, but will also be etched with the name of Chen Xun.
"Director Guo, there's no need for such polite words."
Chen Xun looked at him and said, "Tomorrow I'll have Robert transfer the investment funds. Let's set up the team as soon as possible and start this fire together."
Guo Fan nodded vigorously, his eyes reddening again, and emphasized one word: "Okay!"
The setting sun shone through the glass window of the café, falling on the two people's tightly clasped hands, and also on the script of "The Wandering Earth" spread out on the table.
at the same time.
Los Angeles.
Samuel Goldwyn Theatre.
The nominations for the 87th Academy Awards have been officially announced.
The president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences read out the last nominee for Best Original Screenplay:
"The Last Roll of Film", written by Lee So-yeon.
-
A commotion erupted from the media section.
Not only at the scene, but also in the global film and television industry and film fans who follow the Oscars, the moment they saw the complete nomination list, they were completely in an uproar.
This year's Oscar for Best Original Screenplay is arguably the most intense battle of the best in history.
Each of the five nominated films is a heavyweight masterpiece worthy of being recorded in film history.
The appearance of "The Last Roll of Film" seemed out of place among a host of feature film masterpieces.
This marks the first time in the nearly 90-year history of the Academy Awards that a student's graduation short film has been nominated for the Best Original Screenplay award in the main competition.
What shocked everyone even more was that this film was actually a student assignment that Chen Xun had taken on, which was the subject of much online ridicule.
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