Chapter 253: *Memories of Murder*

"Teacher Akiwara, this is?" Nei Hai Tuo Ren asked puzzledly.

What he wanted was the copyright of *The Devotion of Suspect X*! Not this work whose name he hadn't even heard of!

The sales of the former had already exceeded one million copies; as long as it was released, there would definitely be quite a few readers coming to support it!

But for this work, he estimated it could only rely on Akiwara Yuto's fame to support it!

If that were the case, wanting a hit would have quite a bit of difficulty; even those investors who signed letters of intent would very likely give up!

Akiwara Yuto looked at him for two glances and said, "Please finish reading before talking."

Nei Hai Tuo Ren hesitated for a while, then picked up the manuscript and read it with his partner.

Akiwara Yuto looked at the other party's expression gradually becoming addicted and nodded with satisfaction.

What he handed to the other party this time was a work called *Memories of Murder*.

This work is a crime thriller movie released in South Korea in 2003, telling the story of a series of serial murder cases appearing in a town, and the town police and the Su police transferred from Seoul working together to solve the case.

And this story is adapted from the Hwaseong serial murder case, one of the three major unsolved cases in South Korea.

The so-called Hwaseong serial murder case is 14 cases that occurred from September 1986 to November 1991; the victims were all female, ranging in age from teenagers to 70s.

Because of the hot spot effect of social events, and the plot of the movie itself was thrilling, the movie obtained 5.25 million viewers after its release and won various awards, which could be said to be a harvest of both word-of-mouth and box office.

However, this version of *Memories of Murder* by Akiwara Yuto was adapted according to the current crime background of Japanese society.

The era he is in now is still fermenting the economic crisis in Japan; because of unemployment problems, there are a large number of criminal phenomena in society.

So such crime movies can gain resonance from the public to a certain extent.

And he is not worried about the water and soil incompatibility of IP adaptation, because adaptation of the same IP for different markets is actually common in his past life.

For example, *The Devotion of Suspect X* and *I Am a Murderer* have both Japanese and Korean versions, and the box office performance was also quite good.

But the most critical thing is the level of movie quality and the performance of the actors.

So he specifically wrote *Memories of Murder*, a work full of tension and stimulation elements, for Nei Hai Tuo Ren's style and hoped the other party would film it into a movie.

After the movie is released, he can take advantage of the trend to release the original work of this work, thereby obtaining two incomes.

……

Time passed bit by bit; after about 30 minutes, Nei Hai Tuo Ren and Yongshan Yi Ren finished reading the work.

After reading, both revealed complex expressions.

How to say it, although it didn't meet their expectations, they had to admit that this work called *Memories of Murder* was also very suitable for adaptation into a movie.

The plot was extremely tight from beginning to end, and a series of conflicts erupted around the suspense of who the murderer was.

And the constant switching of perspectives could bring very strong stimulation to the audience!

Seeing Nei Hai Tuo Ren's expression, Akiwara Yuto asked: "Nei Hai-san, how is it, can you accept it?"

Nei Hai Tuo Ren sighed and said hesitantly: "Teacher Akiwara, if it's only the script, sorry, we cannot accept it."

A script being excellent is indeed excellent, but a script being excellent cannot guarantee the box office will be a hit.

In the absence of as many reader bases as *The Devotion of Suspect X*, this new work might need more promotion fees to achieve the same promotional effect.

Not only that, according to the previous conditions, he also had to deliver 10% of the box office share to Akiwara Yuto; this is a large sum of money!

If other investors were harmed and lost too much because of this, he estimated he wouldn't be able to continue in this line of independent producers.

Between risk and benefit, he finally chose the safest one for himself.

However, he didn't intend to give up his initial idea and tried to persuade Akiwara Yuto.

"Teacher Akiwara, if possible, why not hand over the filming copyright of *The Devotion of Suspect X* to me? If this one doesn't work, *Death of a Mystery Writer* or *Manslaughter* could also work!"

Akiwara Yuto raised his eyebrows.

Good guy, the eyes are really poisonous; all the ones he wants are works with good box office performance in his past life!

However, he didn't intend to make concessions and continued: "Nei Hai-san, please forgive me, these works have other uses."

When seeing Nei Hai Tuo Ren still looking bitter, Akiwara Yuto coughed.

"I remember the estimated production cost is 150 million yen, right? How about I invest 100 million yen in it? But the final share of the box office needs to be changed again."

Because the books under his name are basically self-published, and the advertising and channel fees spent are relatively low, his royalties remain high.

100 million yen, now it's just his income for more than half a month.

Although it doesn't count for anything for those big enterprises, it is equivalent to the total salary of a high-level white-collar worker for 10 years without eating or drinking.

But hearing the number 100 million yen, Nei Hai Tuo Ren and Yongshan Yi Ren revealed surprised and uncertain expressions.

Is being a writer so profitable? Or did Akiwara Yuto take out all his savings!

Thinking of this, he subconsciously looked at the high-end apartment he was currently in and dismissed his suspicion.

In his view, this apartment of Akiwara in Minato Ward alone must have cost several hundred million yen, right!

Akiwara Yuto poured tea for the two again, then said he had something to deal with temporarily, and left the living room to go to the study.

He wanted to leave this time for the two to discuss slowly.

After he left, Nei Hai Tuo Ren and his partner Yongshan Yi Ren discussed, "Yongshan, what do you think, should we accept it?"

He was actually already moved, but still asked for Yongshan Yi Ren's opinion; after all, the latter is a screenwriter and has participated in the writing of quite a few movie scripts.

If they really want to cooperate, he also intends to hand the script of this *Memories of Murder* to the other party to write.

Yongshan Yi Ren hesitated and replied: "Why don't we accept it? Look, we don't have much risk after all."

Of the 150 million yen production cost, Akiwara Yuto alone undertook two-thirds.

And what they need to do is just pull in the remaining 50 million yen production cost and 50 million yen promotion fee.

And with Akiwara Yuto's support, whether they go to persuade other investors or promote the movie, they have quite a bit of certainty!

The hope of success is so big, and the cost of trial and error is so small; it would be too stupid to miss it again!

After listening to his partner's analysis, Nei Hai Tuo Ren gritted his teeth and made a decision.

……

After seeing the two off, Akiwara Yuto held the teacup, walked to the floor-to-ceiling window, looked at the Tokyo Bay in the distance, and thought about his next plan.

Up to now, the mystery works in his mind have basically been used up by half, and there aren't many works left that he remembers, most of which are mystery movies.

And with the increase in works and fans, he has also become a "famous writer" in the mystery circle that cannot be ignored, reaching a certain achievement.

The Zhi Cun Award is definitely no problem, the Mystery Writers Association Award is also not a big problem; getting it in hand is just a matter of time.

When the awards are all collected, he will launch some works again, and he estimates he will soon reach the status of Higashino Keigo in his past life.

In other words, in the mystery field, he doesn't have many challenges left.

But without these challenges, should he switch to other fields, such as opening up a new "battlefield" outside the mystery field.

Filming this *Memories of Murder* into a movie this time is one of his experiments.

After all, this kind of work that can fit with reality can still be adapted into reality and released after screening.

However, speaking of which, should he write some works in traditional fields?

For example, Natsume Soseki's *I Am a Cat*, Kawabata Yasunari's *Snow Country*, Higashino Keigo's *Norwegian Wood*; these works had greater fame and were more eye-catching in his past life.

But it's not without hidden dangers; for example, because he writes works of different schools now, he has already been complained by some book reviewers that his style is unstable.

If he jumps from the mystery work field to other fields, the steps he takes will be even bigger, and it's possible he will be suspected of being schizophrenic.

Or, should he get a mask? ===== CHAPTER 254 =====