Back to 17, My Brother is the Cult Leader

Chapter 100 Script Adaptation

The script Fang Yuan presented was "Happy Death Day," registered with the Writers Guild of North America.

The script was written in 2000.

He had just finalized the project plan for "Saw 2" and spent less than two weeks in his Los Angeles studio writing the first draft of the script.

The concept is simple: a college student is murdered on his birthday, then wakes up to find himself on the same day again, in a continuous loop, until the killer is found.

Beneath the guise of suspense and thriller lies a core theme of growth and self-redemption.

He wrote down the registration number in his notebook and then never looked at it again.

It wasn't until the beginning of this year that Ellie called from Los Angeles.

"I took a look at your script for 'Happy Death Day'."

With a low budget, it features one female lead, several supporting characters, and scenes primarily set on campus and in dormitories.

I feel this script shouldn't be too difficult to film, and the box office performance shouldn't be too bad.

Fang Yuan was having tea with Ning Hao at the company at the time.

"I'll think about it."

Fang Yuan thought about it for a few days and then called Ellie back. "We can start this project. I'll film it; consider it practice."

James Wan happens to be free too, so he can help me out. I'll bring the lead actor over.

The shooting schedule is set for July and August; I'll return to China after filming.

Ellie asked him, "Is two months enough?"

"That's enough. There aren't many scenes, and the scheduling isn't complicated."

The key is to clearly depict the cyclical logic, keeping the audience on the edge of their seats while remaining guessing about the killer.

In the following period, Fang Yuan revised the script three times.

The original script was set in a pure American school setting. The female protagonist, Terri, was a member of a sorority and lived in a school dormitory. On her birthday, she was woken up by her roommate in the morning, attended a party in the afternoon, and was murdered by a masked man in the evening.

As the cycle unfolds, she gradually discovers different clues from the same day, eventually uncovering the murderer.

Fang Yuan changed the background to an international setting: Terri is an American student of Chinese descent whose parents immigrated to the United States from China, and she studies at a university in the Midwest.

This change has two advantages: First, it makes sense that Yan Danchen and Zeng Li are playing Chinese-American students;

Secondly, some Chinese elements can be incorporated into the cultural details to make domestic audiences feel a sense of immersion, without affecting the understanding of North American audiences.

Yan Danchen's character, Terry, was initially written to be somewhat unlikeable—selfish, mean, and unkind to her roommates and classmates.

In Fang Yuan's second revised version, several scenes were added for Terry: she secretly visits her hospitalized father in a loop and does some good deeds without others knowing.

These scenes, placed in a montage, are very short, but enough to let the audience know that she is not a bad person, but just keeps herself too tightly wrapped up.

Zeng Li plays Lori, Terry's roommate.

Lori was not a born killer; her descent into darkness followed a clear trajectory.

From an ordinary girl yearning for friendship and love, to a jealous person who has been looked down upon for a long time, she eventually becomes a tragic villain.

Lori is a mirror reflecting the protagonist's growth. The harsher Xiao Cui is to Lori, the worse her own past was.

It can be said that it was Lori's extreme behavior that ultimately led the protagonist to transform from selfish to kind.

If no suitable actor is found for the male lead, Carter, Fang Yuan will play the role himself.

Carter is Terry's classmate and has a crush on her, but Terry couldn't remember his name at first.

In the original script, Carter's role was mainly in the last third. Fang Yuan added some of his appearances at the beginning as well. In each loop, Carter was selling pizzas in the same place and saying the exact same things. Terry gradually noticed him.

This role doesn't require much acting skill, and Fang Yuan feels he can handle it.

Fang Yuan handled the integration of cultural characteristics with great restraint.

He doesn't plan to prominently feature Chinese elements in the film, as that would seem contrived.

He made only minor adjustments in a few places.

On the wall of Terry's dormitory, there is a piece of Chinese calligraphy that reads "Peace".

It was sent by her mother from China, and she hasn't taken it down yet.

In the morning scene, the first thing Terry does when she wakes up is to glance at the words on the paper before getting out of bed.

There are no lines to explain; the camera simply shows it.

The day Terry was killed was her birthday. Her mother called from China, said "Happy Birthday," and Terry hung up perfunctorily. Later in the loop, Terry began to answer that phone call seriously and talk to her mother a little longer in the repeated cycles.

When the truth was finally revealed, the background music used in the phone call segment was an old Chinese song. Fang Yuan chose "Wishing You Peace," but it wasn't the original version; it was a piano solo, very soft and subtle, lasting only a few seconds. The audience might not even be able to tell what the piece was.

During Terry's search for the killer, there is a scene where she is looking up information in the library and comes across an ancient Chinese Taoist book.

She read the line, "The living are temporary dwellers, the dead return home," and seemed to ponder it.

Fang Yuan wrote this line into the script, and Yan Danchen read it out in Chinese with English subtitles.

When it was later released in North America, a film critic specifically mentioned this detail, saying that "this film hides an Eastern view of life and death within the framework of a Hollywood genre film."

In addition, Fang Yuan also used the face of a lucky doll for the mask worn by the murderer, creating a stark contrast.

Filming took place in Los Angeles and the surrounding area.

In early July, Fang Yuan flew to Los Angeles.

Hao Wei, along with Yan Danchen and Zeng Li, arrived a week earlier than him and spent their time adjusting to the time difference and familiarizing themselves with the script at the hotel arranged by Ellie.

After landing, Fang Yuan went directly to the filming location—a rented university campus. It was a community college, and since it was summer vacation in July, the campus was empty, which was perfect for filming.

Ellie has already prepared all the preliminary work.

The production manager, director of photography, art director, costume designer, and casting director are mostly from the same team Ellie has worked with before, some of whom worked on "Saw," while others were newly recruited.

The budget was kept under eight million dollars, which was higher than "Saw", but it was still considered a low budget in Hollywood.

The group was delighted to see Wen Ziren and the others.

This is Yan Danchen's first time filming an English movie, and she feels a lot of pressure.

Fang Yuan had a private talk with her before filming began.

"Just memorize the English lines; there's no need to deliberately practice your accent."

Your character is of Chinese descent and can speak English with an accent; this is part of the character's setup.

Yan Danchen breathed a sigh of relief.

She studied English in the country, but she was far from fluent.

Fang Yuan asked Ellie to hire a dialect coach to help Yan Danchen adjust her pronunciation, with the goal of making it "understandable, not awkward, and not deliberately imitating an American accent."

Zeng Li has fewer scenes, so she has less pressure.

Her character, Lori, is cheerful and outgoing, which is similar to her own image and temperament, so it wasn't difficult for her to play the role.

Fang Yuan plays Carter himself.

He wasn't a professional actor, but Carter's role didn't require much facial expression—most of the time he stood in the school square in his pizzeria uniform, saying the same thing to everyone who passed by.

Fang Yuan handled the role very calmly, without stealing the spotlight, leaving room for Yan Danchen.