1978 Synthetic Writers

Chapter 379: Unexpected Essay Result

The next day, Nolan sent out his vote for "The Hunger Games" early in the morning and recommended the novel to the children of nearby neighbors.

Similar things are happening in many places in the United States.

A large part of the science fiction reading group is teenagers.

The protagonists of the novel "The Hunger Games", whether Katniss or Peeta, are boys and girls between the ages of 12 and 18.

Therefore, teenagers can feel strongly involved when reading this novel.

Therefore, the novel "The Hunger Games" quickly set off a reading storm among young people.

At the same time, the novel "The Hunger Games" began to enter the vision of mainstream critics and print media.

William Morris's Marshall read the novel after being reminded by a colleague in the company.

After reading.

Marshall was deeply shocked.

Not only is the content of this novel so brilliant, the imagination is almost pushed to the extreme, but the author's writing skills are also so profound.

Marshall could clearly see that Jiang Xian's novel drew nourishment from history. Although he wrote about the future and technology, it was not difficult to find traces of ancient Roman history in the novel.

Because of this, the narrative of this novel has a classical beauty.

What shocked Marshall even more was.

This is Jiang Xian's novel.
In Marshall's opinion, the novel "The Castaway" is the ultimate display of a writer's imagination.

But Jiang Xian's imagination seems to be free.

It hasn't been long since then, and now there is another wonderful novel like "The Hunger Games" that relies almost entirely on imagination.

this is too scary.

In a sense, the story of "The Hunger Games" takes more of a writer's imagination than "Castaway".

Because the story of "The Hunger Games" is very appealing.

Such a story is definitely built on a flash of light in the writer's mind.

It is this kind of inspiration that many writers may never be able to touch in their entire lives.

But with Jiang Xian, Marshall saw it at least twice!
And it happened in a very short time of less than half a year!
As Jiang Xian's agent, Marshall has been paying close attention to the outside world's response to the novel "The Hunger Games" in the following period of time.

To his surprise, The Hunger Games quickly received literary reviews from outside.

You know, compared with traditional literature, American literary criticism has never paid much attention to science fiction.

But this time, "The Hunger Games" successfully entered their field of vision.

The Los Angeles Times published a review of The Hunger Games by literary critic Susan Sontag titled “The Mergence of Panem and America”:
The article first praised the novel "The Hunger Games" for its wonderful plot, beautiful rhythm and rich meaning.

The author makes good use of details to create a convincing world.

The heroine's complex and charming character is unforgettable.

In the end, Sontag lamented that, in fact, if you don't remind yourself, the text itself will disappear as you read.

Because there is no gap between the heroine and the readers, Panem as written by Jiang Xian is actually a reflection of the real American society.

The critic Sontag is also well-known in the literary criticism circle. Although most of her own novels have received mixed reviews, she has outstanding insights in criticizing works.

Marshall was very impressed with the critic.

Because she once publicly declared that she had loved 9 people, 5 of whom were same-sex couples and 4 were heterosexual couples.

This Los Angeles Times commentary is not the only reflection of the popularity of The Hunger Games.

After this article, a large number of newspapers began to publish reviews of the novel.

These include The New York Times, a magazine with considerable influence and distributed worldwide, and Kirkus Reviews, a nationally renowned book review magazine.

"I've found a treasure!" Marshall soon felt this way.

Although Jiang Xian is a Chinese writer, judging by the performance of his recent novels in the United States, his nationality will not affect the rapid popularity of his works across the country.

Marshall was just about to celebrate the success of his new novel with Jiang Xian when Ang Lee called and said he had just completed the first draft of the film script for "Letter from an Unknown Woman."

Marshall immediately asked him to fax the first draft of the script to Jiang Xian for him to review.

As for Jiang Xian, he had just held a small full moon ceremony for his daughter at home.

A month has passed since the little Majesty was born.

Xiao Xiao Xiao is obviously different from when he was just born.

First of all, I gained several kilograms and now weigh more than ten kilograms.

Then my hands and feet became more flexible.

She used to be dazed and would not move at all, but now she can control the movements of her head to some extent, and often turns her big head to glance at Jiang Xian or Zhu Lin.

Sometimes he would raise his little hands in front of his eyes, clench them in the air, and then babble.

The one-month-old little Majesty has learned to suck his fingers!
Every time Jiang Xian saw this scene, he would feel his heart melt with cuteness.

His daughter is so cute!
Even if he was asked to wash hundreds of his daughter's smelly urine, he wouldn't feel tired at all.

After receiving the script sent by Ang Lee, Jiang Xian took a quick look at it and felt there was nothing wrong with it.

When giving the script to others to write, Jiang Xian's biggest worry is ideological errors.

But what Ang Lee wrote is very stable.

This is also the reason why he chose Ang Lee.

Ang Lee and Wong Kar-wai are two opposite extremes.

Wong Kar-wai's style is passionate and uninhibited, transcending the times, and he does whatever he wants.

Ang Lee is very moderate.

The Golden Mean does not mean that his abilities are mediocre.

The doctrine of the mean means to remain moderate and peaceful in dealing with others.

Adapt to the times, adapt to the materials, adapt to the circumstances, and adapt to the location.

This is the moral standard followed and advocated by Confucianism.

All of Ang Lee's scripts, whether the one given to Jiang Xian or the ones he filmed later, are moderate in every way.

He is very good at balancing all parties in the script and ultimately obtaining the greatest benefit for himself.

Just like himself, he has an American green card and Chinese nationality. He does not offend anyone and has room for maneuver on both sides. He can get rewards from Americans and also be liked by Chinese.

It's not often that you see a movie where Ang Lee lets loose.

The only exception is "Pushing Hands", which he filmed for the high prize money, so there are many innuendos.

Apart from "Pushing Hands", it is difficult to find another one, and it is highly likely that there will never be such a day in the future.

Jiang Xian sent Ang Lee's script to MGM.

The feedback from MGM was that it was pretty good and that it only needed some polishing of the language.

If it were any other screenwriter, MGM would probably send it back and ask them to revise it.

But when facing Jiang Xian, they chose to hire someone to polish it themselves. After all, scripts are meant to be filmed, not read, and it is fine as long as there is no problem with the content of the movie adapted from the novel.

Taking this opportunity, Jiang Xian asked Maxim about the preparations of the film crew at MGM. The current structure of MGM is a bit strange.

The owner of MGM is the gambling king of Las Vegas. He has basically no interest in the film industry and even declared a few years ago that MGM has become a hotel company.

It is said that the MGM Grand is the hotel with the largest guest rooms in Las Vegas, and the show venue alone cost nearly $2 million.

There you can even dine while watching the keepers train the lions.

It's a casino after all.

If you don't have any special skills, you won't be able to work there.

Two years ago, after MGM acquired Maxim's United Artists, the boss of MGM handed over the film production affairs to Maxim's United Artists.

Although United Artists is small in scale, it is also one of the eight largest companies in the American film industry.

This has to mention the history of the founding of United Artists, which was funded by four film celebrities:
Douglas Fairbanks.

Mary Pickford.

David Griffith.

And
Charlie Chaplin.

These four people founded United Artists in order to break free from the constraints and exploitation of the big film companies and gain more creative freedom and greater profits for themselves.

United Artists was indeed once glorious.

Chaplin's "The Gold Rush", "Modern Times" and "The Great Dictator". These films were all shot by them.

Unfortunately, I never made it into capital.

As the film industry declined in the 50s and the founders withdrew one after another, the company was acquired by MGM after several changes of hands.

"We are planning to ask Robert Wise to direct Letter from an Unknown Woman."

"The one who did West Side Story?"

"Yes."

Hearing that it was this person, Jiang Xian became a little excited.

Robert Wise is a versatile person who has dabbled in almost all film genres except animation.

The work is also of the "gentle and modest" type. It looks very friendly, without a trace of aggressiveness, which is in line with the style required for "Letter from an Unknown Woman".

"Where are the actors?"

"Do you have a favorite?" Maxim asked, "We are still very happy to listen to the author's opinion. The author's choice of actors is often the most appropriate, and it is difficult for others to compare."

"Not really."

Many cases flashed through Jiang Xian’s mind.

Like Wang Hedi and Xu Qian'an
"Let's talk, Jiang. We are happy to listen to your opinions." Maxim said very politely.

Jiang Xian had no choice but to start thinking.

As the original author of the novel, he was unable to directly participate in the creation of the film, but he would rise and fall with the film.

Jiang Xian was happy to see that the quality of the movie was high and its reputation was good, so he was not stingy in finding a good actor for the movie.

Jiang Xian was silent for a while.

"Maxim, I have a candidate for writer R."

The characters in the novel "Letter from a Stranger" are simple: one is a woman, and the other is the male protagonist, the writer R.

This writer R is young and promising, romantic and unrestrained, and most importantly, he is born with a kind of seductiveness, affectionate and soul-stirring, which can instantly attract people and make them hold him tightly.

According to the novel setting, he has to be a little older.

Because the heroine has been in love with him since childhood.

This man is mature and charming, a playboy with a romantic and uninhibited manner.
As Jiang Xian thought about it, the figure of an actor gradually took shape in his mind and the outline quickly became clear.

"Maxim."

He said, "How about Al Pacino?"

Al Pacino's most classic image is the second-generation Godfather Michael Corleone in "The Godfather".

When Jiang Xian was thinking about it just now, he thought of his performance in "Scent of a Woman".

Isn’t the retired officer Lieutenant Colonel Stephen Flan that he played exactly the image that Jiang Xian needed?

"Al Pacino?"

Maxim thought for a moment and said, "He's pretty good, and very popular in Hollywood these days."

"That's your job as the producer," Jiang Xian said. "Give the script to Al Pacino. He'll be interested."

As soon as these words came out, Maxim suddenly felt an unparalleled sense of confidence.

But Jiang Xian did have the confidence to say this. Maxim believed that even the most prejudiced people would have to admit the literary excellence of Jiang Xian's two novels.

"We'll fight for it."

"Maxim, he can be used in both movies, Al Pacino." Jiang Xian said.

Whether it is the writer R in "Letter from an Unknown Woman" or the male protagonist Strickland in "The Moon and Sixpence", he believes that Al Pacino can perfectly interpret their unique temperament.

As autumn came, the temperature gradually dropped. Zhu's mother and Rao Yuemei bought some wool and knitted several small sweaters of different colors for the little emperor.

A week before Halloween, Smith rushed to Jiang Xian's house and brought him a letter.

"Jiang, you'll never guess who wrote it," Smith said excitedly.

"Who's making all that noise?"

Jiang Xian opened the letter, glanced at the name line, and saw the words Stephen King.

"Stephen King?"

"Yes, he read your The Hunger Games some time ago, and knowing that I knew you, he insisted that I bring you a letter."

"Is it?"

Jiang Xian glanced at the content of the letter. Stephen King greeted him warmly and then highly praised the novel "The Hunger Games":
"Among dystopian stories, The Hunger Games stands out, with a fast-paced, suspenseful storyline.

The author is also a master of words. His writing is free of nonsense and is filled with pleasant, dry humor.

Reading The Hunger Games is addictive, just like playing a video game, you know that the world is not real, but you can't help but bet a coin again and again."

"Your article 'The Hunger Games' is really great. How did you write it? Give it to our publishing house and we will publish it for you." Smith said with great interest.

"You can talk to my agent about this." Jiang Xian replied.

That's what agents do.

We will definitely strive for the best interests for Jiang Xian.

Jiang Xian also believed that Marshall would be more professional than him in this regard.

At the same time, "Simulation Science Fiction and Reality" also announced the final results of the essay competition.

To his surprise.

The work that won the first prize was not "The Hunger Games"?
(End of this chapter)