This celebrity is overly enthusiastic!

Chapter 81 The Edge Walker

The rewards he's received for his work lately have been far too many. Each new option forces Chen Yuan to abandon his previous plans and reconsider the future development path of the metaverse from scratch.

After taking a couple of sips of the purified water provided by the airline to calm his chaotic thoughts, Chen Yuan decided to quickly review the reward he had just received.

Now he has learned a lot about film and television production, whether by choice or by voluntarily. He can now move beyond simply watching a story or appreciating art and analyze works from the perspective of a producer and practitioner.

"The Edge Walker" is undoubtedly a masterpiece with excellent animation, a tight story, and sincere emotions.

While the cyberpunk vibe was somewhat diluted, it perfectly accomplished its biggest mission—to salvage the reputation of the disastrous Cyberpunk 2077.

The tragic ending, where Adam's hammer kills the protagonist David, leaving Lucy a widow, prompts players with pent-up emotions to enter the game, storm the Arasaka Tower, and seek revenge on Adam's hammer—a truly ingenious design.

If you set aside the game itself, while the plot of Edgewalker is a bit cramped, the overall structure is quite complete. It is a very standard, even old-fashioned, 'hero's journey' story.

The basic story template for a hero's journey is that a hero enters an extraordinary world from an ordinary world, gains mythical powers, achieves a decisive victory, and then returns from the extraordinary world to share the spoils with friends.

Since this formula was first proposed, it has been revised and improved by countless writers and screenwriters, and is now a fairly mature template.

To hand over "The Edge Walker" directly to the animation department would be a waste of talent and a crime.

There is simply no fertile ground for the development of animation in China right now; even if something is made, it can't recoup its costs.

Even when distributed overseas, Japanese manga is not yet in the stale, toilet paper-filled era of later isekai (another world) manga. Masterpieces emerge every year, so the impact they have is limited.

There is only one way to maximize profits: adapt it into a live-action film.

Fortunately, a standard template story like "The Edge Walker" is very suitable for adaptation.

Furthermore, Chen Yuan also has a complete video walkthrough of Cyberpunk 2077, and a whole set of art assets from the game for him to reference.

Creating a lifelike Night City is something that can be done even with today's technology, considering that The Matrix 1 already had such amazing CGI technology back in 99.

To recreate the look of Night City, the investment would be no less than the $60 million budget of The Matrix.

In other words, if Chen Yuan wants to launch this project, he must collaborate with Hollywood, as China lacks the technology and market to incubate such a large-scale project.

But how can he convince Hollywood companies to invest in him?

Relations with Colombia are good now, but not so good that they'll agree to cooperate just because we present a project proposal!

Chen Yuan rubbed his temples, feeling that things were getting complicated.

Think about it, what could be as popular as "Kung Fu Panda" or the successful bid for the Olympics that he could ride on?
How did cyberpunk, a genre that is quite niche now, become a popular subculture with considerable influence in later generations?
No, no, cyberpunk is already quite popular in Europe and America, and its origin is the cool and profound "The Matrix"!
The Matrix, which grossed $4.56 million, made the Wachowski brothers, who are still brothers, famous, and they are now working hard on the sequel.

The TV series "Reloaded" and "Matrix Revolutions" were released in mid-2003 and at the end of 2003 respectively, and both achieved remarkable success.

The Matrix trilogy is not only a milestone in cyberpunk films, but also the core engine that propelled this subculture from the margins to global popularity.

Its influence extends far beyond the realm of film, permeating multiple fields such as visual arts, philosophical thought, technological ethics, and popular culture.

If I were to capitalize on the cyberpunk craze sparked by "The Matrix" and promote a cyberpunk-flavored story like "The Edge Walker,"
Will it attract investment from Columbia Pictures, Warner Bros., or other powerful Hollywood studios?
It's feasible to some extent. This time, we have to take this PPT project seriously! Chen Yuan finished his bottled water in one gulp, feeling a bit of a headache, and then ate the small cake that was given to him on the flight.

After calming down, he decided to clear his head and think about other things.

How can the Netflix animated series "The Edge Walker" be adapted into a live-action film?

The anime's introduction to Night City's background is rather rushed and perfunctory, failing to even show a tenth of the city's sinful landscape.
It seems to assume that viewers have played Cyberpunk 2077, or will play the game after watching the anime.

If you remove the opening and ending credits, the actual plot of the anime is only about 200 minutes long, roughly the length of one and a half movies.

However, if the film is to create a 'real' Night City, then one or two movies are simply not enough; a trilogy would be just right.

Sigh, he wasn't even sure if he could secure Hollywood funding in the next few years, but now he's come up with a trilogy out of his dreams. Chen Yuan himself is laughing at himself.

But since we're flying at an altitude of 12000 meters and have nothing else to do, let's indulge in this daydream!

If The Edgewalker were to become a trilogy, then the 'cyberpunk universe' could also be put into action!

The main game, Cyberpunk 2077, also has many highlights in its storyline. It's not just a pure action game; some plots and stories have considerable depth, such as the story of the lark in the Shadows of the Past DLC.

Who knows, they might actually be able to get Keanu Reeves to play Johnny Silverhand!
It seems a bit inappropriate to have Johnny take an atomic bomb to bomb Abandon Tower after the legendary Middle Eastern pilot incident.

The live-action adaptation of "The Edge Walker" will feature Chen Yuan as David, and Binbin as Lucy, the only choice for the female lead.

Aside from Binbin, Chen Yuan couldn't imagine anyone else who could pull off Lucy's orange triangular eye makeup and her asymmetrical, chic short hairstyle with silver-white rainbow ombre highlights.

Although Binbin usually acts like a sweet little girl in front of him,
But when it comes to actually taking control, having experienced the "ravages" of Queen Binbin a few times, Chen Yuan can confidently say that he has absolutely no problem with it!

I just don't know if, in "The Widow's Little Tune," the audience will see the main characters all die one by one by the end.

Only Lucy and her driver Falk are left dead. After Lucy lands alone on the moon, how will she wipe away her tears and curse herself?

Hehe, just thinking about that scene makes Chen Yuan feel it's really interesting and something to look forward to.

Unfortunately, the entire story structure of "The Edge Walker" and the character development of David destined him to die for others in the finale, which was the inevitability of his fate as a Night City legend.

If this ending is changed, the whole story will fall apart.

If there are sequels to the trilogy, they could include more Easter eggs featuring Lucy and David to console the disappointed audience.

Perhaps making a sweet and heartwarming movie with Binbin afterward would be more comforting.

Wait, isn't there a "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" movie out right now?

If such a sweet and exciting movie were released after the Edge Walker trilogy, it would surely make fans incredibly happy!
But if this is the case, who should be chosen to replace the first movie in the metaverse?

Damn it, my brain is about to explode from thinking about this!

Chen Yuan shook his head, stopped daydreaming, and decided to focus on getting the current project done first!
(End of this chapter)