Entertainment: I just want to be the boss behind the scenes

Chapter 489 Restarting the "Green Vine Universe" Phase

After the Golden Eagle Awards, the online discussion about "The Bad Kids" winning the "Grand Slam" of three major awards died down after two days of discussion.

After all, for ordinary audiences, whether it is an online drama or a TV series, as long as it is good-looking and interesting, it's fine.

And to be honest, in recent years, most TV dramas are chosen to be broadcast simultaneously on video platforms. In the end, everyone watches them on their mobile phones, and the boundary between the two is not so clear.

The same is true for the industry. Arclight's title of "the best online drama team" has been recognized for a long time. Now adding a "Grand Slam" is nothing more than continuing to consolidate this honor.

Huguang signed a cooperation agreement with director Xin Shang and established an independent director studio for him, providing him with all kinds of benefits.

Although he has only one drama, "The Bad Kids", at present, his status among the many directors in the Arclight system is only one level lower than that of "founding heroes" such as Wu Bai and Wang Wei.

Meng Bai opened all the scripts of the Arc Light screenwriting department to him. He could choose whichever he liked and start the project directly after making a decision.

In fact, this condition is more attractive to Xin Shuang than all the other preferential conditions combined.

Everyone in the industry knows that in terms of the number of script projects, many platforms and companies have more inventory than Arclight. But in terms of quality, the name of "Arclight Screenwriting Department" has long been well-known.

The reason is simple. All the scripts written by Mr. Meng himself are in Arclight's inventory. Any one of them will be a hit.

For Xin Shuang, a new director, this is like a disciple who has just entered the inner sect in a fantasy novel and directly obtains access to the secret books of the entire Sutra Repository, which even includes the "top-level skills" written by the master himself.

Who can withstand this?

The result is that Shin Hsang has plunged into the Arclight Screenwriter Library. No matter which one you choose in the end, just watch it first.

Meng Bai let him go and began to arrange the next stage of tasks for the film and television department.

"The Zijin Chen trilogy is all finished, and the new 'Retrospective Series' is almost finished filming, and should all be broadcast by next year."

In the conference room, Meng Bai looked at the heads of various departments and gestured to the screen behind him, saying, "The next core project of Arclight will be the production of The Three-Body Problem."

After several months of negotiations between ArcLight and Youzu, the two sides finally agreed on all the details and formally reached a cooperation agreement.

Three-Body Universe, a subsidiary of Youzu, has given the film and television adaptation rights of "The Three-Body Problem" to Arclight for production. The cooperation is temporarily limited to the film and television drama part. As for the film adaptation rights, Lin Qi is still considering it, and the negotiations between the two parties have not yet ended.

"The original work of The Three-Body Problem consists of three books, which is very long. It is impossible to finish it in just one season." Meng Bai said, "So our plan for The Three-Body Problem has been to follow the standards of a series from the beginning."

The person in charge of the screenwriting department raised his hand and said, "Mr. Meng, are we going to just finish revising the first book, "The Past of Earth," for the first season?"

"When we make the specific adaptation later, we will discuss it based on the rhythm of the plot. However, according to my current rough plan, the first season's plot should only progress to the 'Guzheng Project' at most."

Glancing at the thoughtful crowd, Meng Bai continued, "The Three-Body Project will be the core of ArcLight for the next two years. We expect it to premiere in 2023. In this way, it will form a linkage effect with The Wandering Earth during the Spring Festival that year, and boost the progress of the entire science fiction system."

His expectations for The Three-Body Problem are not just to film a few TV series. In fact, he hopes to take this opportunity to participate in the complete development of the "Three-Body Universe".

To be honest, ArcLight has funds, development capabilities, and channels. Whether in terms of comprehensive strength or overall resources, it can be said to be a very suitable partner.

Unless Youzu is planning to join a giant like Tencent, it would be better to find Arclight to cooperate with. The only problem is that Youzu's boss Lin Qi has always insisted on independently developing the IP of "Three-Body Universe", and at most, he will cooperate with other companies on some parts of the content as it is now.

It can be seen from the fact that he spent many years and effort to regain the copyright of "The Three-Body Problem" that he is very stubborn about the things he believes in, and it is difficult to change his mind.

Meng Bai had no other choice but to work on the film and television adaptation while continuing to discuss other cooperation with the other party to see if he could find an opportunity.

However, although "The Three-Body Problem" is important, there is plenty of time after all, so there is no need to be too anxious.

The most important project at the moment is the "anti-gangster drama" in cooperation with the Political and Legal Affairs Commission.

The script problem is easy to solve. Meng Bai has initially constructed the story framework based on his own "fragments of inspiration". He also found Wang Wei to be in charge of this new project. The director also cooperated with the screenwriter to polish the plot together.

"Well, I have a suggestion." Wang Wei raised his hand, "Can we also set the background of this 'anti-gang drama' in Green Vine City?"

Meng Bai raised his eyebrows: "You mean to merge this drama into the 'Green Ivy Universe'?"

After thinking for a while, he shook his head and said, "No, although 'anti-crime dramas' can also be filmed in a suspenseful way, they are different from 'criminal investigation dramas' after all. If they are forced to be linked, it will not only affect the structure of the plot itself, but also distract the audience."

Wang Wei said: "There is no need to connect the plots, nor is it necessary to incorporate it into the 'Green Ivy Universe'. What I mean is that we can just use Green Ivy as a background. After all, many settings are ready-made, so we can just use them directly, saving trouble and effort.

Another point is that this way, the "Green Ivy Series" can be named after the Political and Legal Affairs Commission. With this banner, we may have a chance to restart the second phase of the "Green Ivy Universe."

As Meng Bai's pioneering work, the first phase of the "Green Vine Series" plays a vital role in the development of Arc Light.

Although as the company expanded, the number of projects gradually increased and new choices gradually emerged, the "Green Ivy Criminal Investigation Universe" is still the masterpiece of Arc Light.

However, after the first phase, the censorship of online dramas by radio and television has gradually tightened. Especially in the field of "suspenseful criminal investigation", it is the core of supervision.

"Day and Night", a crucial part of the "Green Ivy Series", was even named by relevant departments as a typical case of "censorship error".

It is precisely because of these reasons that, except for the "Detective Chinatown" movie version which has separated from the "Green Ivy Detective Universe" and become an independent story, the entire subsequent second phase has been stopped.

But it’s different now. As Arclight Pictures’ strength and influence grow, it gradually has room for negotiation when facing higher-level censorship.

As the director of "Day and Night", Wang Wei has always been upset about the lack of a sequel to the series. So taking this opportunity, he proposed to see if he could cooperate with the Political and Legal Affairs Commission to bring out the "Green Ivy Universe" and try to "save" it.

Meng Bai thought about it and felt that this matter was not without a way forward: "Well, let me talk to the Political and Legal Affairs Commission. If they have no requirements for the setting of the story background, then we can set the plot scene in 'Green Vine City'."

In the conference room, everyone was discussing the plans for various projects in an intense and orderly manner.

While listening to everyone's reports, Meng Bai was thinking about whether there was any need to adjust ArcLight's subsequent development strategy.

During the break, he suddenly looked up and saw a bright and naive figure waving at him through the floor-to-ceiling glass outside the meeting room.

(End of this chapter)