Back to 1997, I became the originator of online literature

Chapter 556 Warner's Call
America.

In a corner of a coffee shop.

William Monahan and Martin Scorsese sat facing each other. Scorsese looked down thoughtfully, his right hand unconsciously stirring his coffee with a spoon.

William Monahan asked expectantly, "So, Martin, what do you think of this Chinese film? Is it a good movie?"

Upon hearing this, Martin Scorsese looked up at the other person.

He smiled and nodded. "Of course! Although there are still some parts of this movie that I don't understand, I'm pretty sure this Chinese film is a rare masterpiece! William, thank you for recommending this movie to me."

William Monaghan smiled.

Then he asked, "Are you interested in remaking this movie?"

Martin Scorsese frowned slightly and hesitated, saying, "William, I need time to consider this question and cannot give you an answer now. I hope you can understand."

William Monaghan sighed and nodded. "I understand! I understand! A great director like you really needs to be careful when remaking other people's films. I completely understand."

Martin Scorsese: "Thank you for your understanding."

Martin Scorsese is indeed very famous.

He is an Italian-American director, screenwriter, producer, and actor. A graduate of New York University’s film school, he made his first film, “Who’s Knocking on My Door,” in 1967.

His 1976 film, "Taxi Driver," won the Palme d'Or at Cannes.

You read that right, it's the Cannes Palme d'Or. Chinese director Chen Kaige won this award for "Farewell My Concubine," which cemented his legendary status in China and cemented his reputation as one of the top directors in mainland China.

But Martin Scorsese's achievements go far beyond that.

In 1980, his biographical film "Raging Bull" earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Director.

In 1985, his film "After get off work" won the Best Director Award at the Cannes Film Festival.

In 1990, his film "Goodfellas" won the Silver Lion Award for Best Director at the Venice International Film Festival.

In 1993, his film "The Age of Innocence" earned him a Golden Globe nomination for Best Director.

and many more.

Looking at all the awards he has won along the way, it's clear that he's not a director who makes popcorn movies; otherwise, he wouldn't have won so many awards.

In the original timeline, after 2002, he also won several major awards.

He is a true Hollywood director.

Therefore, persuading him to remake someone else's movie is not an easy task.

……

A few days later.

Martin Scorsese called William Monaghan.

"Hey William, could you write me a script outline based on that Chinese movie? I'd like to see your adaptation ideas, is that alright, buddy?"

William Monaghan: "No problem! Of course, no problem! In fact, I've already written an outline, and I can send it to you right now. Do you need it?"

Martin Scorsese: "Really? Great! Send it to me right away! I'll get back to you after I read it."

William Monaghan: "Okay! Okay!"

……

About two hours later.

Martin Scorsese called William Monahan, “Hey William, how about we meet in person? I have some ideas I’d like to discuss with you in person.”

William Monahan: "No problem! Just name a place, and I'll be right there."

……

The two then went to a coffee shop.

Upon meeting, Martin Scorsese said, "William, I must say, your adaptation approach has amazed me. You're not just copying the plot of that Chinese film; you've managed to recreate it on its foundation and bring something new to it. Your approach has impressed me and given me the urge to film it as soon as possible. Now let's talk about how to work on this project."

Upon hearing this, William Monaghan immediately beamed and nodded repeatedly. "Thank you! Thank you for your approval. I knew you would like my script outline. Martin, how do you plan to proceed with this project?"

Martin Scorsese: "First and foremost, you need to finish the script as soon as possible. While you're finishing the script, I'll take your script outline to Warner Bros. to discuss investment for this project, and at the same time, find suitable actors. We'll work on this movie together. What do you think?"

William Monaghan nodded repeatedly.

He admires Martin Scorsese's drive and initiative.

He believed that given Martin Scorsese's past track record, he would definitely be able to secure enough funding for the film, and he only raised one question.

“Great! Martin, your ideas are all excellent! However, I think we need to do one more thing: purchase the remake rights to this Chinese film from its production company. What do you think?”

Martin Scorsese thought for a moment and nodded. "Yes! Even if we haven't secured investment yet, we should definitely contact the production company of this Chinese film as soon as possible to inquire whether they're selling the remake rights and what price they'd be willing to pay! You've thought this through very well, William!"

……

Huizhou.

It's already late August.

Cao Sheng's writing performance has declined significantly recently, and he is becoming increasingly exhausted, both physically and mentally.

My daily word count has become very unstable lately.

Sometimes I can write 16,000 words a day, and sometimes I can only write 12,000 or 8,000.

His declining performance is directly reflected in the recent update count of the two books he is currently serializing.

The manuscripts for both books have recently been exhausted.

The chapters updated daily are all written on the day they are released.

The amount of code that can be written is the only amount that can be updated.

He knew why his recent performance had declined.

—Simultaneously serializing two books and consistently writing 16,000 words a day, while not anti-human, is far too anti-Cao Sheng.

Before his rebirth, he had never updated so frequently.

Before his rebirth, his record for updating the page was 12,000 words a day for more than 100 consecutive days.

During that period, that amount of updates was already very close to his limit.

He was not the legendary tentacle monster or octopus.

I can't write 10,000 words a day, but it's easy.

Back when he was posting so frequently, he set his own standards based on the workload and hours of assembly line workers in unscrupulous factories.

During that period, he wrote one chapter every morning, one chapter every afternoon, and two chapters every evening. He spent more than 12 hours a day sitting in front of the computer writing.

Until Qidian suddenly blocked his latest chapter, which he had just published, with a ban notice stating that the chapter contained sensitive words.

He spent most of the day trying to figure out which word was sensitive in that chapter before he could break his streak of updating incessantly.

From then on, I could never find that kind of explosive writing state again.

It's like someone who has mastered the Golden Bell Shield technique suddenly having their weak point breached.

It's like a bicycle tire suddenly having its valve core pulled out.

And recently?

Why did his performance decline?
It wasn't that the valve core was pulled out; rather, the tire pressure had been too high for an extended period, causing a blowout. What does "willing but unable" mean? It's exactly his current state.

Sitting in front of the computer every day, reason tells him that he needs to hurry up and write.

But my tired body and mind always made me feel weak in the hands and my mind was a bit blank, making it hard to find the right state of mind to type.

When you're in a good writing state, you can write three or five chapters and feel like you've been holding in your pee for half a day and suddenly the floodgates open, it's so exhilarating. You can't stop halfway through, and even after you've finished peeing, you still feel like you haven't had enough.

But if you're not in good shape, it can be fatal.

It's like when you don't need to pee, you force yourself to pee some to extinguish the fire in front of you.

Some of it can be squeezed out.

But the amount was too small, not enough to extinguish the fire in front of them.

What is a campfire?
Fans of the books "The Romance of Chinese Martial Arts" and "Cultivation Chat Group" have become accustomed to the daily updates of 8,000 words for these two books.

Many people have developed the habit of following along with their reading.

Recently, Cao Sheng's update frequency has become very unstable. Sometimes he only updates one chapter, even if that chapter has four thousand words.

That's still too little for them.

It wasn't satisfying at all.

Recently, the review sections for these two books have seen a surge of posts that seem to provoke Cao Sheng.

For example: "A touch of gray in the Central Plains? I think you're just a chapter of gray in the Central Plains? Only one chapter today?"

"Dual-writer? With that typing speed, you dare to dual-writer? One chapter a day isn't enough for anyone to read! If the readers next door see this, they'll think we're looking down on them!"

"Ah Grey, update more chapters! You're not going to stop updating, are you? Really? Really?"

"Updating 16,000 words a day before really surprised me, but it turns out it was just a flash in the pan, tsk tsk..."

and many more.

This has made Cao Sheng a little afraid to look at the book review section lately.

This afternoon.

It's already past 3 o'clock.

He had been sitting in front of the computer for more than two hours, but still couldn't find the right state of mind to type. His right hand was holding the mouse, and he kept switching between several documents on the computer screen.

One document contains the manuscript for "Cultivation Chat Group," all of which have already been published.

Another document is the outline of "Cultivation Chat Group".

There is also a detailed outline of "Cultivation Chat Group".

The fourth document is a memo for this book, which records some people, items, etc. that he wrote about before. These are all information that he did not write in the outline or detailed outline, but wrote in the main text. He made this memo in case he forgot them.

He kept switching between the pages of these four documents, looking at the contents, hoping to trigger his inspiration and find the right state to start writing.

Unfortunately, he still felt something was missing and didn't know how to write the first sentence of the new chapter.

Or, how should the full text of the new chapter be written?

Suddenly, there was a knock on the study door.

"Dong dong!"

"Boss, I have something important to report to you. May I come in?"

Wang Jing's voice came from outside the door.

Cao Sheng frowned. He was already in a bad state of mind when he started writing, and the little bit of focus he had managed to get into was interrupted like this, which made him feel irritable.

But reason kept him in check. He turned to look at the door and said, "Come in!"

Wang Jing pushed open the door with a beaming smile. She walked a few steps to Cao Sheng and, without even seeing his expression, said quickly, "Boss! Great news! It's really great news! I just received a long-distance call from Hollywood. A man who calls himself Hans said he's a Warner Bros. employee and wants to buy the remake rights to 'Infernal Affairs' for $50. Are you willing to sell?"

Cao Sheng raised an eyebrow, quite surprised.

I never expected Wang Jing to bring this news.

Did the original Infernal Affairs film sell its adaptation rights to the United States so quickly?
He vaguely remembered the American version of "Infernal Affairs," which was adapted and remade into a movie called "Infernal Walker." News of the filming of "Infernal Walker" only came out a few years after the release of "Infernal Affairs."

How come in this timeline, with "Infernal Affairs" having just been released in China this year, someone in the US already wants to buy the remake rights to this movie?
The Butterfly Effect?

What went wrong?

"Are you sure Warner Bros. wants to buy the remake rights to this movie?"

Cao Sheng asked the question.

He knew that Warner Bros. was one of the six major Hollywood film studios.

He had just had a thought: Could it be that some struggling film company saw "Infernal Affairs" playing in the US, thought it was a good movie, and wanted to snatch it up at a low price to buy the copyright?

Many domestic film companies in the original timeline have done similar things.

The difference is that back then, some domestic film companies bought the film and television adaptation rights of popular online novels. During the years when online novel IPs were all the rage, the film and television adaptation rights of almost any popular work were snapped up. However, after these companies bought the film and television adaptation rights of these online novels, they delayed the start of filming. By the time Cao Sheng was reborn, the vast majority of the online novels whose film and television adaptation rights had been snapped up were still not being filmed.

It's obvious that those companies bought it to fill their copyright libraries.

Cao Sheng certainly didn't want the US remake rights to "Infernal Affairs" to be bought by some flop company to fill a copyright library.

The astonishing box office numbers of the original "Infernal Affairs" and the numerous awards it won after its release had already told Cao Sheng that "Infernal Affairs" had the potential to achieve remarkable success in a remake in the United States.

He even vaguely remembered that "The Departed" had won several Oscars, and when the news reached China, it caused quite a stir.

but……

Wang Jing just mentioned that Warner Bros. wanted to buy the remake rights to "Infernal Affairs".

Warner Bros. is not some flop movie company.

As one of the six major Hollywood studios, Warner Bros. is a household name worldwide.

"Well, the person on the phone claimed to be a Warner Bros. employee, but I have no way of verifying whether that's true or not."

Wang Jing hesitated before speaking.

Cao Sheng nodded slightly. Wang Jing couldn't verify it, but he had a way to do so.

After thinking for a moment, he took out his phone and dialed Cheng Long's number.

"Hey? Brother Long, there's something I'd like to ask you for help with. Um, hehe, thank you! Thank you! Well, my assistant just told me that Warner Bros. wants to buy the remake rights to 'Infernal Affairs,' yes! Warner Bros. in Hollywood, um, hehe. The main thing is we can't be sure if it's really Warner Bros. that wants to buy it, so could you please help me contact Warner Bros. to verify? Yes! Yes! That's it. Thank you so much, Brother Long."

call ended.

Cao Sheng put down his phone.

Upon seeing this, Wang Jing hesitated and asked, "Hey! Boss, if the other party is really from Warner, would you agree to give them the remake rights for $50? $50 doesn't sound like much, but it's quite a lot in RMB, more than three million!"

Cao Sheng glanced at her, "Convert to RMB? Why convert to RMB when doing business with Americans?"

Wang Jing opened her mouth, unsure how to refute it.

For Cao Sheng, when doing business with Americans, he could simply quote prices in US dollars as if they were RMB, since the Americans had plenty of money anyway.

So why convert it to RMB?

Can't we convert the currency after the business deal is finalized?
(End of this chapter)