Chapter 274 Mr. Yang, Why Not Sell It to Me?

"How is your new movie? I saw the news in the newspaper two days ago." Shi Tiesheng said.

"What did the newspaper say?" Zhou Yan asked.

"The papers say this is your third film and it will determine your style."

Zhou Yan smiled. These media people always like to say eye-catching words. A director will most likely have many movies in his life. There is no way to determine the style of one movie.

Although An Li also said that the third movie is very important, there is no reason for the third movie to determine the style.

Speaking of An Li himself, the third movie also established his style.

"If you want to put it that way, Lao Yu's third novel is about to be published, will it also determine his style?"

Yu Hua said with a smile, "The media has already determined my style. Don't they all say that I am a avant-garde writer?"

"To be honest, when I first heard about avant-garde writer, I thought it was a writer who went crazy first, that is, a writer who went crazy first. At that time, I thought this word was quite appropriate to describe you."

Hearing Shi Tiesheng's words, Zhou Yan found it quite interesting.

It makes sense to say that pioneers are the first to go crazy. Pioneerism inherently emphasizes self-awareness and breaks recognized norms and traditions. To a certain extent, if you are not crazy or crazy, you cannot create avant-garde works.

But now Yu Hua actually has nothing to do with avant-gardism.

Pioneerism, in Yu Hua's creative career, was nothing more than a period of carnival when he was just starting out.

"Critics like to define something. They say I am like Kawabata Yasunari, García Márquez, and Hemingway. It seems that there is no way to define me without finding an existing character."

Zhou Yan nodded, feeling the same way. Every time one of his films comes out, some people say it looks like this or that. Maybe they think that a director in his twenties should look like a certain master.

"These people still don't understand the truth. Even if a writer is influenced by many predecessors, he will not eventually become these predecessors. Just like a sapling, which is nourished by the sun every day, it will only grow into a tree in the end. , instead of a sun."

Yu Hua's metaphor is very good. Even if a writer likes another writer, he cannot become that writer, because the composition of a person is very complicated. Nationality, family, and education will all have an impact on the life and the writer's creation. Influence.

Just like Zhou Yan, no matter how much he reads Kafka and Chekhov, what he writes in the end will still be different from Chekhov and Kafka.

No matter how much Beethoven or Mozart he listens to, the music he writes may not necessarily be like them.

"Are there any rehearsals in the studio today?" Shi Tiesheng asked.

Zhou Yan nodded and said, "Yes, the band is in the big recording studio, and Wang Feng and the others are in the practice room No. 1."

"Then let's go to the recording studio." Yu Hua put out the cigarette, "It's been a long time since I listened to music."

"Well, you go ahead, I won't accompany you."

"You should be busy with your own business." Yu Hua stood up and pushed Shi Tiesheng out. When he was almost at the door, he said again, "By the way, Wang Anyi and Su Tong will come to Yanjing next week."

"What day of the week do they come?"

"Sister Wang is on Wednesday and Su Tong is on Thursday."

Zhou Yan nodded, "Then make an appointment and let's have dinner together."

"It doesn't matter what you say, I have already told them that they will have dinner at my house on Thursday night, and you will go too."

"no problem."

"Remember not to bring anything with you. We don't have enough fruit at home."

Zhou Yan was about to speak when he heard Yu Hua say, "If you really feel bad about it, then bring some wine."

"..."

After Yu Hua and the others went out, Zhou Yan smiled and shook his head. He didn't know why, but every time he was with Yu Hua and Shi Tiesheng, he felt very relaxed no matter what they were talking about.

I have been so busy during this period. I have been working basically every day. After chatting with Yu Hua and the others, I felt a lot more relaxed.

Maybe it's also because the relationship between them is really simple, there is not much entanglement of interests, and you don't have to think too much when chatting, you can just do whatever you want.

Zhou Yan thought about the book "Xu Sanguan Sells Blood" he had just read, and couldn't help but sigh. He had read this book several times before, but after reading it again, he still gained a lot of insights.

Good works are like this. At every stage of life, you will gain new insights when reading them.

In fact, "Xu Sanguan Sells Blood" is a very humorous work, which is also Yu Hua's consistent style in the middle and later stages. No matter what kind of tragedy it is, in his writing, there is something that makes people smile.

Some people say that suffering is the eternal theme in Yu Hua's works. Zhou Yan disagrees with this point. He believes that absurdity and comedy are the ones.

Whether it is "Alive", "Brothers", or "Xu Sanguan Sells Blood", they are all very absurd, especially the beginning. Because of this absurdity, the beginnings of these works are impressive.

Zhou Yan remembers that when he first read "The Story of Xu Sanguan Selling Blood", he felt that the book had too much repetitive content. The same description and the same paragraph might be repeated several times.

But if you read it a few times, you will feel the charm of repetition.

As Yu Hua himself said, suffering and repetition are twin brothers. Suffering is not only a manifestation of the hardship of life, and repetition is not only a manifestation of the form of expression.

The words in the novel flashed through his mind, and Zhou Yan fell into deep thought. He was thinking about whether he could write a song like "Xu Sanguan Sells Blood".

The more he thought about it, the more feasible the idea became.

At that moment, he did not hesitate and started writing directly.

In fact, the narrative rhythm of "Xu Sanguan Sells Blood" can also be found in the composition world, and that is Bach.

In Bach's works, the narrative rhythm is constant back and forth and repetition, and this repetition shows a fascinating rhythm.

Zhou Yan was inspired by the novel after reading it, and what he wrote has the shadow of Bach, but it is not quite like Bach.

While the rhythm is highly concentrated, it is also full of conflicts, making the whole work rather humorous and absurd.

In many places, Zhou Yan took apart originally complex things and turned them into very simple things, but then weaved these simple things into complex things again.

In his music, he strives to dilute the cruel reality with compassionate humor, trying to easily deal with the suffering of ordinary people under painful circumstances.

As soon as Zhou Yan finished writing the previous paragraph, the phone on the table rang.

He held the pen in his right hand and picked up the phone in his left hand, "Hello."

"Hello, Teacher Zhou, I'm Yang Guohui." A substandard Mandarin voice sounded on the other end of the phone.

Zhou Yan was quite surprised when he heard Yang Guohui's voice, "Mr. Yang, what's the matter with you calling me at this time?"

Since Zhou Yan completed the soundtrack for "Westward Journey" last year, he has not been in contact with Yang Guohui and Zhou Xingchi.

The box office performance of "Westward Journey" was not good. Although the two films together grossed more than 50 million Hong Kong dollars, the production cost was too high, and there was no way to recover the cost at the box office.

The main reason is that the movie's box office performance in the Mainland was too poor, far below Yang Guohui's expectations.

At that time, "Moonlight Box" only sold four copies in Yanjing, with a box office of less than 200,000 yuan. It was withdrawn after only three days of screening.

Because the results of the first part were so poor, the screening of the second part was canceled directly.

However, Zhou Yan had no expectations about the box office of this movie before, so he didn't pay much attention to it.

On the other end of the phone, Yang Guohui said with a smile, "Our company has a new project recently. I wonder if Mr. Zhou is interested?"

Zhou Yan was quite surprised to hear Yang Guohui say that their company had a new project, "Do you want to ask me to score your new movie?"

"Teacher Zhou, you misunderstood. I actually want to ask if you are interested in investing in our new project."

Zhou Yan twitched his lips. It seemed that Caixing Company was indeed not developing well, otherwise it would not have been possible for him to invest.

"Mr. Yang, did you make the wrong call? If you want to find investment, you should go to Mr. Xu."

"Mr. Zhou is joking, I'm just looking for you. I heard that you just voted for the remake of "The Sixth Sense"?"

Zhou Yan narrowed his eyes. Yang Guohui was quite well informed and even knew about this matter.

His investment in the remake of "The Sixth Sense" was done through Zhou Entertainment, which most people don't know.

After thinking for a moment, Zhou Yan said, "Mr. Yang, I can give you Mr. Zhou Hong's phone number."

There was silence on the other end of the phone for a long time before Yang Guohui spoke again, "Teacher Zhou, can you help make an introduction? I want to talk to Mr. Xu."

Zhou Yan thought for a moment and roughly guessed what Yang Guohui was thinking.

Yang Guohui and Zhou Xingchi established Caixing Company and invested all their wealth in the movie "Westward Journey". Now the market performance of the movie is far from their expectations, and the company may not be able to sustain it.

Under this situation, Yang Guohui and Zhou Xingchi definitely want to find someone to take over this mess. Even if they don't get rid of this mess, they must at least realize some repayment.

Now it seems that Yang Guohui has set his sights on Tomson Film Company.

However, he did not go directly to Tomson Company. Instead, he contacted himself first and made a special detour.

Since Caixing Company was established for "Westward Journey", their only asset now is "Westward Journey", and the only one that can be monetized is this movie.

Zhou Yan pondered for a moment and said, "Mr. Yang, I would like to ask, do you want to sell "Westward Journey" to Sister Feng?"

Yang Guohui sighed slightly, "I want Mr. Xu to take over Caixing Company."

"But among you lottery stars, only the movie "Westward Journey" is worth any money now." Zhou Yan said very directly.

"Actually, not really. In addition to "Westward Journey", Cai Xing also has some real estate properties."

Zhou Ya couldn't help but curl his lips. What kind of real estate Caixing Company has? At most, it only has a few desks, a few printers, and nothing else. When filming "Westward Journey", the equipment was basically produced by Chang'an Studio. of.

"Mr. Yang, do you have all the copyrights for "Journey to the West"?"

Yang Guohui didn't know why Zhou Yan asked, but he still replied, "Yes, they are all here."

"Are all the copyrights from the Mainland included?"

"Yes, they are all here."

Hearing that the mainland copyrights were also there, Zhou Yan smiled and said, "How about you sell me the copyrights of "Westward Journey"."

Yang Guohui said in surprise, "Sold to you?"

"Well, isn't part of the copyright of the original soundtrack in your hands? In this case, all the copyrights of the original soundtrack will be in my hands from now on." Zhou Yan explained.

This explanation did not convince Yang Guohui.

"If you only want the full copyright of the original soundtrack, there is no need to buy other copyrights."

"I'm a person who likes to get it right in one step. Mr. Yang, I'll just say that your company's current situation is not very good. If I package and win the copyright of the movie, I won't have any worries, and you can also solve the urgent need."

The problem that Yang Guohui and Zhou Xingchi are facing now is no other than lack of money. If Zhou Yan can package and win the copyright of "Westward Journey", they will definitely be able to solve their current problem.

"Teacher Zhou, although the box office of "Westward Journey" did not meet expectations, it is not possible to win all the copyrights with just a little money."

The implication is that Zhou Yan may not be able to accept their price.

Zhou Yan also understood what Yang Guohui meant, and he said with a smile, "Mr. Yang, why don't we talk first and see if we can accept each other's prices."

"Let me tell you straight, if you want to get all the copyrights of "Westward Journey", you will need at least 10 million Xiangjiang coins." Yang Guohui said.

When Zhou Yan heard the price of 10 million, he couldn't help but twitch his lips. This Yang Guohui really dared to speak like a lion.

"Mr. Yang, I am talking to you about this matter very sincerely," Zhou Yan said.

"Eight million, no more."

"In that case, forget it, I'll help you introduce Sister Feng. But I want to tell you in advance, even if you package all the tables, chairs and benches from Caixing Company, Sister Feng will never give you eight million. Three million, that’s the price I can give.”

"It's impossible. Three million is too little. This is a movie with a box office of over fifty million."

"Fifty million...Mr. Yang, the total of 50 million for the two movies is different from 50 million for one movie."

If "Westward Journey" was not divided into two parts, but only one part and received more than 50 million at the box office, the situation would be completely different.

With a box office of more than 50 million, not to mention being the box office champion, it can at least be ranked among the top two.

But if the box office of more than 50 million yuan is divided between the upper and lower parts, the situation is completely different.

Yang Guohui did not defend himself, but repeated, "Three million is still too little."

In fact, Zhou Yan's psychological price was more than three million, but he did not rush to raise the price. Instead, he said to Yang Guohui, "Mr. Yang, let's talk about it with Sister Feng first. If the result is not ideal, we can continue talking."

Hearing what Zhou Yan said, Yang Guohui could only agree, "Okay, then I'll ask you, Mr. Zhou, to help contact you."

Zhou Yan did not set up any obstacles for Yang Guohui, but directly contacted Xu Feng for him and explained the situation to Xu Feng.

After that, Yang Guohui contacted Xu Feng.

But soon, Yang Guohui called Zhou Yan again.

"Teacher Zhou, I think we can talk more."

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "No problem." (End of Chapter)