Chapter 311 Shutter Island

Zhou Yan had lunch in the canteen of the martial arts school. The school food was definitely not comparable to the food in Zhou Yan's studio, but it was actually pretty good, with a lot of meat.

Martial arts students have a greater demand for meat than ordinary students, so the school leaders would rather save a little in other areas than cut costs on food.

While eating, Zhou Yan also specifically asked about Wu Jing's situation. Wu Bin said that since participating in "Tai Chi Boys in Love", Wu Jing has rarely returned to school, and each time he comes back, he will not stay for too long.

Although Chen Hong is the heroine of "Tai Chi Master", she has not seen Wu Jing in person in these days.

"The children are grown up, and we don't want them to come back every day." Wu Bin said with a smile.

Chen Hong smiled and said, "I heard from Director Zhang that Wu Jing will go back to school next week, and I, the leading actress, haven't met the leading actor yet."

"Really? I didn't hear him say that." Wu Bin raised his eyebrows and said with a smile, "This time Wu Jing is participating in "Tai Chi Master", and Miss Chen needs to take care of him. After all, he is a newcomer and has little experience in acting."

"No, I've seen him in "Tai Chi Boy in Love", and he acted very well. But I'm older, so I usually have to take care of my little brother."

Chen Hong is six years older than Wu Jing, and the age gap is quite large.

However, it is not easy to find an actress younger than Wu Jing, after all, Wu Jing just turned 22 this year, and Christy Chung, who Wu Jing worked with before, is also four years older than him.

Basically, when Wu Jing acts now, he works with older sisters.

However, actors with a good foundation, regardless of gender, look no different before the age of 30. When Wu Jing worked with Christy Chung before, no one thought that Christy Chung was older than Wu Jing.

"Don't worry, Mr. Wu. The role of Yang Yuqian is very suitable for Wu Jing. He just needs to try his best to show himself. And there will be many senior actors in this play, and everyone can help him." Zhou Yan said.

Speaking of actors, Wu Bin asked curiously, "I heard that Wang Qun will also participate?"

Wang Qun also graduated from Shichahai Martial Arts School. He is Jet Li's senior brother and Wu Bin's favorite disciple, so Wu Bin asked about him.

Zhou Yan nodded, "Well, it should have been negotiated, right? In addition to Wang Qun, there is also Teacher Yu Hai."

"Oh, Old Yu will go too."

Wu Bin and Yu Hai are the head coaches of the Yanjing Wushu Team and the Shandong Province Wushu Team, respectively. They have a lot of private exchanges and have a good relationship.

Moreover, Yu Hai entered the film and television industry with the movie "Shaolin Temple" and has a close relationship with Jet Li. In short, Yu Hai and Wu Bin are both Jet Li's masters.

Wu Bin was not surprised to hear that Yu Hai was going. Yu Hai is now very famous in the film and television industry, and should be the most famous in his age group.

Yu Hai had worked with Wu Jing before in "Kung Fu Kids in Love", where he played Wu Jing's father, Tai Chi master Yang Chongwu. This time, "Tai Chi Master" is also their second collaboration.

"The filming location is in Bazhou, not very far away. You can go there if you have time, Mr. Wu."

Facing Zhou Yan's invitation, Wu Bin nodded, "Okay, I will definitely go there if I have a chance."

Even if Zhou Yan didn't say it, Wu Bin would definitely go. "Tai Chi Master" not only has Wu Jing, Wang Qun and others, but also many supporting roles will be selected from Yanjing Martial Arts School.

By then, there will be at least a dozen students from Yanjing Martial Arts School in the crew of "Tai Chi Master". As the head coach, he will definitely go there to take a look.

Zhou Yan came here today. Although it was not a formal casting, he also wanted to see which students were suitable for the group. However, Xu Jin was injured in the middle, so Zhou Yan did not mention the casting again.

After lunch in the cafeteria, Wu Bin left first because he had something else to do. He asked Tian Yan and others to accompany Zhou Yan to walk around the school.

Chen Hong wanted to be alone with Zhou Yan for a while, but she didn't find a chance. Tian Yan and others followed her all the time.

Until she sent Zhou Yan away, she took the opportunity to whisper in Zhou Yan's ear, "I'll find you in the evening."

After that, she ran away.

After leaving the martial arts school, Zhou Yan did not go home, but went to the studio. He first went to find Liu Hang and asked Liu Hang to go to the hospital where Xu Jin was to help Xu Jin make arrangements, and then returned to his office to complete the script that had not been completed before.

There were not many scripts left, and it would be completed in two or three days at most.

...

Five days later, Xu Feng was watching the videotape of "Feng Yue" at home, and the company's people delivered Zhou Yan's new script.

Whenever Xu Feng has time, she will watch and study movies, especially the movies made by their company. She will watch them many times after each filming.

It is no exaggeration to say that she is more familiar with the movies made by Zhou Yan than Zhou Yan, because she has watched each movie at least 20 times.

Especially "The Chorus", although it is the latest movie, she will take it out to watch when she has nothing to do, sometimes she will watch it two or three times a day.

Xu Feng was not satisfied with the finished product of "Feng Yue". She did not intervene much in this movie, and it was basically led by Chen Kaige himself.

Not to mention the difficulty of the whole filming process, the initial filming was not satisfactory.

The film went to the Cannes Film Festival, but it didn't win any prizes.

Although the film didn't do what Xu Feng wanted and didn't win any awards, she would still study it when she had nothing to do. Through the film, she could also get to know Chen Kaige better.

She wanted to know more about the directors she worked with so that she could make better films.

Even though "Feng Yue" was not very successful this time, Xu Feng was still willing to continue to trust Chen Kaige. Anyway, Tomson was rich now and didn't care much about the failure this time.

But Chen Kaige was a little discouraged. They had several phone calls during this period. Xu Feng felt that their cooperation might be difficult to continue.

Seeing the script sent by the company, Xu Feng turned off the TV and took the script.

On the title page of the script, there were three big words - Shutter Island.

This should be the name of the movie. Just looking at the name, it is a bit similar to the previous "Sixth Sense". Is it another thriller?

With curiosity, Xu Feng opened the script.

At the beginning of the story, a ship slowly sailed out of the fog, and on the ship, a policeman was lying on the sink and vomiting. From what he said to the mirror, we can learn that his name is Gan Wenshan, and the reason he vomited is because he is afraid of water.

Soon, a second character appeared, also a policeman named Zhang Yong.

Through the conversation between the two, Xu Feng roughly understood the background of the story.

The destination of the ship they are on now is Shutter Island, where there is a prison dedicated to mentally ill prisoners.

Some time ago, a prisoner in the prison disappeared strangely, and criminal policeman Gan Wenshan was assigned to go to Shutter Island with his new partner Zhang Yong to investigate the matter.

In fact, Gan Wenshan came to Shutter Island this time, in addition to investigating the missing case, there is another purpose, that is, to find Liu Mourui, the murderer who made his wife die in the sea of ​​fire.

As Gan Wenshan's investigation deepened, he found that in addition to the 66 mentally ill criminals with files on the Shutter Island, there was also a prisoner No. 67, but no matter doctors, prison guards or other prisoners, they all denied the existence of No. 67.

Gan Wenshan believed that No. 67 was Liu Mourui, the murderer of his wife, and there must be a huge conspiracy hidden on this island.

The story became more and more confusing, and more and more mysteries appeared.

The more Xu Feng read, the more headache she felt, but she couldn't help but continue reading. She wanted to see what the truth was, what secrets this Shutter Island had, and what was going on with the prisoner No. 67.

The appearance of the female prisoner Qin Yu made Xu Feng feel that she was getting closer to the truth. Perhaps, as Qin Yu said, the secret of this prison was that they were doing some live experiments.

In order to get to the bottom of it, Gan Wenshan sneaked into the lighthouse, but found that Fang Li, the chief doctor on the island, had been waiting for his arrival.

Fang Li told him that in fact, the patient No. 67 that Gan Wenshan had been looking for, Liu Mourui, the murderer of his wife, was actually Gan Wenshan himself.

Gan Wenshan's original name was Liu Mourui. His wife was mentally ill and drowned their three daughters. Liu Mourui, who could not accept all this, killed his wife.

After that, Liu Mourui could not face the reality, so he imagined himself as a policeman to investigate his wife's death.

The name Gan Wenshan was taken from his real name Liu Mourui.

The ending of the story is a bit open. When Zhang Yong went to chat with Liu Mourui, he found that Liu Mourui still thought he was Gan Wenshan, and it seemed that the treatment did not work.

But Liu Mourui's last words were intriguing. He seemed to have sobered up, but still chose to go on as Gan Wenshan.

After reading the whole story, Xu Feng breathed a sigh of relief.

Although "Shutter Island" and "The Sixth Sense" are not the same kind of stories, the styles are somewhat similar, and the answers to the stories are revealed at the end.

In "The Sixth Sense", the audience only found out at the end that the male protagonist had actually died a long time ago.

In "Shutter Island", the audience only found out at the end that all this was just a scene where the doctors accompanied the male protagonist, just to treat the male protagonist's mental illness.

In fact, some information was given in the middle of the story, but Xu Feng didn't think about it at all.

For example, at the beginning, the male protagonist's partner Zhang Yong, as a criminal policeman, was not very skilled in even pulling out a gun, which is a very noteworthy detail.

Xu Feng certainly noticed this, but her thoughts completely followed the male protagonist's thoughts, thinking that Zhang Yong should be a bad guy and had some conspiracy.

In addition to this, there are many details in it, but because Xu Feng has been led by the rhythm of the story, she didn't think of this at all.

This is the strength of Zhou Yan. Although the story has a big reversal at the end, it doesn't make people feel abrupt.

Seeing the ending, some people will slap their thighs and say, so that's it, and some people will be surprised, why didn't I think of it?

Xu Feng is very satisfied with this script.

In fact, she thinks that they can shoot this story. The cost is indeed higher, but it is not unbearable.

But what Zhou Yan said was indeed correct. Even if the movie was managed, the effect would not be particularly good.

The most basic thing is that they need to find an island and shoot on the island.

Finding an island seems to be a very simple thing, and there are many islands in China, but the problem is that there are many difficulties to overcome when shooting on an island, and supplies, communications, etc. all require more costs.

Zhou Yan said that the budget of 50 to 60 million yuan is indeed very conservative.

"Alas~"

Xu Feng sighed slightly. He had a good script in his hand, but he couldn't shoot it. This feeling was very uncomfortable.

"It can only be discounted to Warner."

Although he hadn't talked to Warner yet, Xu Feng firmly believed that Warner would definitely not miss this script.

After a moment of silence, Xu Feng picked up the phone and called Warner's office in Yanjing.

Chris, the head of the office, was very happy when he received a call from Xu Feng: "Mr. Xu, has your company agreed to sell the remake rights of "The Chorus" to us?"

Xu Feng smiled and said, "Chris, don't even think about the remake rights of "The Chorus". It is impossible to sell it to you."

Chris asked in confusion, "Are you not satisfied with the conditions? We can continue to talk."

"Chris, it's not that I don't want to talk to you, but Zhou Yan has already said that he is not going to sell the remake rights of "The Chorus."

Chris was stunned on the other end of the phone. He thought that the copyright of "The Chorus" was in the hands of Tomson, and Xu Feng should be able to decide on this matter. Unexpectedly, Zhou Yan rejected it in the end.

"Can I talk to Zhou Yan?" Chris still didn't give up.

The headquarters was very interested in "The Chorus" and gave him the authority directly. He could make the decision at a price below 2.6 million US dollars.

Now he hasn't played his cards yet, and this round has ended. Of course, he is unwilling to accept it.

This is more than two million US dollars. He doesn't believe that Xu Feng and Zhou Yan will not be tempted. The key is that this two million US dollars is equivalent to free money, and they don't need to pay anything.

Xu Feng said firmly, "Chris, don't bother with this. I know Zhou Yan. Since he said so, it is impossible for him to agree, unless you offer a price that no one can refuse... For example, increase the price tenfold?"

Chris couldn't help but twitched his mouth, "Increase tenfold... Mr. Xu, you really like to joke. We don't have so much budget for the whole movie."

"So, I asked you not to focus on "The Chorus". But, I have another business to discuss with you."

"What business?" Chris asked curiously.

"I can't sell you the remake rights of "The Chorus", but I can sell you "The Piano Boy Who Wants to Fly". If you want the remake rights of "The Piano Boy Who Wants to Fly", I can make the decision and sell it to you for 1.5 million US dollars."

"This... Mr. Xu, "The Piano Boy Who Wants to Fly" is indeed a good movie, but it has been remade once, and our company didn't have much interest in this movie."

"Don't rush to refuse, I can lower the price for you. If you don't want 150 US dollars, how about 1 million US dollars? If that doesn't work, 800,000 US dollars."

Chris said in embarrassment, "Mr. Xu, we are really not interested in this movie."

Don't say 800,000 US dollars, even if it's 80,000 US dollars, Chris can't take it, because they won't shoot it at all. Making a movie costs money, and they don't want to do a business that doesn't make money.

Hearing what Chris said, Xu Feng was not disappointed at all. She smiled and said, "Actually, I have another business to discuss with you."

"Another one?"

"Well, Zhou Yan rejected your request to buy the remake rights of "The Chorus", and he felt bad about it, so he wanted to make it up to you."

"Make it up to us?" Chris was very surprised, "How does Zhou Yan want to make it up to us?"

"In order to make it up to you, he specially wrote a new script, which is tailor-made for you Warner."

New script?

Chris was even more surprised.

He was not surprised that Zhou Yan wrote a script. After all, he knew Zhou Yan well. He knew that Zhou Yan was not only a musician and director, but also a writer and screenwriter.

The movie "Tree Hole" written by Zhou Yan before also won a big award.

Moreover, Zhou Yan's movies are all written and directed by himself, so his screenwriting ability must be beyond doubt.

What really surprised Chris was that it had only been a few days since they proposed to buy the remake rights of "The Chorus".

In such a short time, Zhou Yan could write a script?

"Has the script been written?"

"Yes, it has been written and is in my hands now."

"...Mr. Xu, is this script really written by Zhou Yan specifically for us?"

"Of course, there is no need for me to lie to you about this."

"That's too fast."

Xu Feng sneered, "Tsk, you underestimate Zhou Yan's talent. The speed at which he writes scripts is as fast as the speed at which he composes music. Both are amazingly fast."

Chris thought about it and didn't bother to worry about whether this script was written specifically for Warner, because this was not the point of the matter.

The key point is whether the script written by Zhou Yan is good or not. As long as the script is good, they will definitely get it, regardless of whether it is written specifically for Warner or not.

"When can I see the script?"

"That's easy. I'll have someone send a copy of the script to your office."

Warner's office is in Yanjing, and Zhou Yan is also in Yanjing. Xu Feng just needs to ask Zhou Yan to send someone to send a copy of the script.

"How about this, if it's convenient, I'll visit Zhou Yan and read the script directly from him."

"That's fine too, then I'll call Zhou Yan and ask him."

After Xu Feng hung up Chris's phone, he called Zhou Yan and told him about the matter. After getting Zhou Yan's consent, he called Chris back.

...

Chris arrived at Zhou Yan's office that afternoon.

The reason why Chris wanted to come to Zhou Yan's office was, on the one hand, to see the script as soon as possible, and on the other hand, to visit Zhou Yan.

Zhou Yan has been very popular this year. The Berlin Film Festival Jury Special Award and the Oscar for Best Original Score have made him the center of attention in the film industry. In addition, the amazing box office performance of "The Sixth Sense" has made him a director that major Hollywood companies pay close attention to.

In addition, Warner originally intended to enter the Chinese market, so naturally they wanted to have a good relationship with Zhou Yan. (End of this chapter)