Chapter 584: The Life of the Script

The trip to the west coast continued, and Gulfstream 4 flew to Silicon Valley.

Song Ya couldn't put down the scroll, and soon found that it was very interesting to read these scripts for a novel that spanned more than ten years. And get a glimpse of the direction of the adaptation.

For example, the first owner, Johnny Carson, bought the right to adapt the novel in 1980 when he was at the peak of his personal talk show hosting career. The same is true for his self-confidence and arrogance. In a Vegas casino, he was cut off by a local rich man, and immediately in front of the national audience on the show, he made up jokes without swear words to insult each other. This kind of character is also very good in the script of cat and mouse games in 1980-82 embodiment.

He learned of the existence of the novel "Catch Me If You Can" when the novel author Abagnell participated in his own program. At that time, he had not suffered any personal investment failure, and he generously won the right to adapt it at a high premium. Then I immediately started saving scripts with two screenwriters and producers. He is an excellent screenwriter himself, with a high passion for creation, and his personal imprint can be seen everywhere in the first version of the script. He seems to have substituted himself into the legendary liar, so he focused on portraying the characters of the protagonist in the first half of his life. In addition, it added a lot of plots that were not in the original book, and the protagonist was changed to a personable and charming "elegant thief" who goes to high-end social occasions.

But soon, he also found that he seemed to be a bit off the track. It didn't seem good to make a movie that touted a con man who was too "flawless". .

In the two editions in 1981, it is obvious that his passion has faded, and the specific work has been handed over to the other two, but he has a strong desire to control, and often expresses dissatisfaction with other people's revisions. At the end of the paragraph, there are his complaints against his companions, handwritten, such as 'The protagonist will not do this, will not say that! That's not the job of a prudent liar! ! ’ or ‘Where is the rationality after this modification? Um? Movie audiences will laugh at the screenwriter when they see this, that is me, not you who is unknown! '

In 1982, the situation changed again. The DMC car company he invested in went bankrupt, and he was in financial crisis. The script was obviously forgotten. After the last rough rewritten version, these scripts were packaged and sold to the next Columbia. film industry.

Columbia Pictures didn't pay much attention to this kind of script, but still spent some resources to continue adapting it. After going through a version that leaned towards the police thriller, they felt that the risk of casting was too high. Never mind, it was later bought by an in-house producer.

The producer named Bartlett is the most attentive to the script. He hired a screenwriter to make sneak revisions and provided the most historical versions. The last version in his hands is also the most complete and the closest to the original film of Apocalypse. Yes, it began to improve the status of the protagonist's opposite police officer, enriching the plot of the police and robber's battle of wits.

It's a pity that Bartlett passed away before the film project was established. His heirs were not interested in this kind of thing at all. The script seemed to be used as a table for a while, and there were many wine stains on the cover. The right to adapt After passing through Disney, it finally fell into the hands of Hollywood Pictures.

The main job of the Hollywood film industry is to reduce the cost of Bartlett's version. For this reason, the very rich characters and background descriptions in the original script were deleted, and the plot was rationalized on this premise.

Having read through the repeated entanglement experience of the predecessors for more than ten years, and having the original version of Tianqi in hand, Song Ya's heart is very bright now.

There are three charms of this movie. One is naturally the super acting skills dedicated by several leading actors. If you want to reproduce it perfectly in the current era, the investment in the actors' remuneration will not be small.

The second is a panoramic description of the golden age of great economic development in the United States, the 1950s and 1960s, which can please those film critics and film award judges. The old men are very indulged and nostalgic for that era.

Probably second only to Hollywood's golden age, the Thirties.

The third is the ups and downs of the plot, the protagonist's wonderful tricks, super high IQ and ability to adapt to the situation. Of course, his scenes of flirting with beautiful white girls of different styles also add a lot to the whole film.

So how much money would it cost to produce a film of the same quality with the acting skills of the actors, the background of the times, and the beautiful faces in this year? Twenty million is absolutely unstoppable. Not to mention that the original movie lasted more than two hours. Without the appeal of a super director and a big company, it would be difficult to pass the hurdle of filming in theaters.

Moreover, the dramas in the 1960s were basically insulated from black people. At that time, racial discrimination was still serious, so this must be an all-white movie.

Budget? Maybe shooting the scenery of the 1950s and 1960s now can save a little money compared to the original film ten years later...

Super director? Now there are only a few in Hollywood, and the A+ film studios that have invested in one movie and focus on low-budget movies, the Hollywood film industry that has been defeated repeatedly has no attraction for big directors.

In terms of starring, it seems that the protagonist Xiao Li must be irreplaceable. His father, the third male lead Christopher Walken, and the second male Tom Hanks can be replaced by cheap old actors.

Beautiful white girls are rich in resources, but good acting skills are also scarce resources in Hollywood.

"boss."

When he was lost in thought, the plane had stabilized at San Jose Airport. Jimmy and Delay, who came to pick him up, ran into the cabin without waiting for him to get off.

"Oh, I'll be fine soon."

Song Ya asked Linda to put away the script spread out on the table, "Let Yeremov find this person." He pointed to the script closest to the original film, which was the last version of the producer Bartlett before his death. The screenwriter he hired was named on the cover of the script.

"Kunes? And then?" Linda asked.

"Hire him to continue as a screenwriter for the cat-and-mouse game project, I'm too lazy to find a shooter."

If you want to use it, use the most suitable person. Since that person exists, Song Ya doesn't want to take a long way. "In short, let's get the script out as soon as possible, and then negotiate with Hollywood Pictures." If the script has life, this life His life will continue in his own hands.

Followed Jimmy, Delay and others to the office of 3DFX in San Jose, "So small? Are you producing chips here?" He asked the three founders of the other party.

"The chip is produced by a large company." The lead founder Ross replied: "We are only responsible for the design."

"All right."

With the help of DeLay, Jimmy had negotiated the terms of the venture capital investment with the other party before. He could only get 20% of the equity for five million dollars, which was finally obtained in the competition for "heroes" from all walks of life. , Jimmy also used gray means for this. Of course, Song Ya didn't intend to ask what it was.

Although the unconcealed excitement and sly eyes of the three founders hidden under the glasses made me feel uncomfortable, but since the apocalypse revealed the direction of the industry's development, Song Ya didn't mind these details, and talked to each other readily Signed the venture capital agreement.

"I wish your products will be launched as soon as possible." He shook hands with each other.

"Don't worry, Mr. APLUS, we won't let you down."

Leaving San Jose in a hurry, he rushed to nearby Sunnyvale. The Mosaic browser has been on the market for more than ten days. Although it is only a Beta version of 0.9, the response from the outside world is very enthusiastic. He went there and shared it with Jim Clark and Accompanied by Mark Anderson personally for practical experience.

After a familiar journey, he entered the domain name of American Music in the address bar, and a music website with detailed content and basically composed of full text appeared in front of several people.

"Classical music website?" Jim Clark couldn't help laughing when he saw it, "How many visits?"

"Very few, basically no one pays attention."

Song Ya tried the browser, and the operation was very smooth and smooth. It was much better than the original version of UIUC before, and her heart was relieved. Randomly clicked on a piece of news, about the recent concert of the Chicago Orchestra, the comment function of the article in charge of Yanhong has been launched, he scrolled to the end of the article, there are more than a dozen comments in the comment area, no need to register, the commenters are all anonymous, Only the IP address is displayed.

Followers of classical music like to write lengthy essays. More than a dozen comments are longer than the body of the article. Two different IPs debated the artistic lines of the two conductors and music directors of the Chicago Orchestra, Solti and Barenboy. The content is very professional and advanced.

'Barenboy! Is it you! ? '

With the last message, the quarrel came to an abrupt end.

"The website is very well completed." Mark Anderson praised casually, but his expression betrayed him. This kind of technical expert must not look down on the small website that DeLay created for the purpose of hoarding land.

"I heard that you were sued by UIUC?" Song Ya closed the page and revealed the real purpose of his trip.

"Yes, but don't worry."

Jim Clark smiled resolutely: "When we use the name of the mosaic browser to absorb the first batch of users, we will change the company and browser names, and then reconcile with each other. I have already written the script."

"Can this work?" Song Ya asked.

"We didn't use any other party's original code. Don't worry about APLUS, we will change it next month."

"What's the new name?"

"Netscape, Netscape."