Chapter 253: Memories of Murder

"Akiwara-sensei, what is this?" Utsumi Takuto asked, puzzled.

What he wanted was the film rights to *The Devotion of Suspect X*, not this work he hadn't even heard the name of!

The former had sold over a million copies; as long as it was released, there would surely be plenty of readers coming to support it!

But for this work, he reckoned they could only rely on Akiwara Yuto's reputation to sustain it!

In that case, it would be quite difficult to make it a big hit, and even those investors who had signed letters of intent would very likely back out!

Akiwara Yuto looked at him for a moment, then said, "Please finish reading it before you speak."

Utsumi Takuto hesitated for a moment, then picked up the manuscript and began reading it with his partner.

Seeing the other party's expression gradually become engrossed, Akiwara Yuto nodded with satisfaction.

The work he had handed to them this time was titled *Memories of Murder*.

This work was a crime thriller film released in South Korea in 2003, telling the story of a series of serial murders in a small town and the joint investigation by local police and a detective transferred from Seoul.

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

The so-called Hwaseong serial murder case consisted of 14 cases that occurred between September 1986 and November 1991, with all victims being female, ranging in age from their teens to over 70.

Because of the hot-topic nature of the social event, and because the film's plot itself was thrilling, it garnered 5. 5 million admissions after its release and won numerous awards, achieving success in both reputation and box office.

However, this version of *Memories of Murder* by Akiwara Yuto was adapted based on the current criminal background of Japanese society.

The era he was in now was still fermenting under the neon economic crisis, and due to unemployment issues, there was a large amount of criminal activity in society.

Therefore, such a crime film could, to a certain extent, resonate with the public.

And he was not worried about the IP adaptation failing to adapt to local conditions, because adaptations of the same IP for different markets were actually common in his past life.

For example, *Suspect X* and *I Am a Killer* both had Japanese and Korean versions, and their box office performances were quite good.

But the most critical factor was the quality of the film and the performance of the actors.

So he specifically wrote *Memories of Murder*, a work full of tension and excitement, tailored to Utsumi Takuto's style, and hoped the other party would make it into a film.

Once the film was released, he could take advantage of the momentum to publish the original work, thereby gaining two streams of revenue.

Time passed bit by bit, and after about 30 minutes, Utsumi Takuto and Nagayama Yoshito finished reading the work.

After finishing, both of them wore complex expressions.

How to put it—although it did not meet their expectations, they had to admit that this work called *Memories of Murder* was also very suitable for adaptation into a film.

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

And the constant shifting of perspectives could bring a very strong sense of stimulation to the audience!

Seeing Utsumi Takuto's expression, Akiwara Yuto asked, "Utsumi-san, how is it? Can you accept it?"

Utsumi Takuto sighed and said hesitantly, "Akiwara-sensei, if it's only the script, I'm sorry, but we cannot accept it."

The script was indeed excellent, but an excellent script alone could not guarantee box office success.

Lacking the reader base of something like *Suspect X*, this new work might require more promotional expenses to achieve the same promotional effect.

Not only that, according to the previous conditions, he still had to pay Akiwara Yuto a 10% share of the box office, which was a large sum of money!

If this caused other investors to lose too much, he probably wouldn't be able to continue in the independent producer business.

Between risk and profit, he ultimately chose the one that was safest for himself.

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

"Akiwara-sensei, if possible, why not give me the film and television rights to *Suspect X*? If that one doesn't work, *The Death of a Mystery Writer* or *Manslaughter* would also be fine!"

Akiwara Yuto raised his eyebrows.

Good fellow, he had a sharp eye; all the works he wanted were ones that had performed quite well at the box office in his past life!

But he had no intention of backing down, so he continued, "Utsumi-san, please forgive me, I have other uses for these works."

Seeing Utsumi Takuto still wearing a bitter face, Akiwara Yuto coughed.

"I remember the estimated production cost is 150 million yen, right? How about I invest 100 million yen of it? But the final box office split will need to be adjusted."

Because the books under his name were basically self-published, and the advertising and channel costs spent were relatively low, Akiwara Yuto's royalties remained high.

The cost of 100 million yen was now only half a month's income for him.

Although it didn't count for much to those large corporations, it was equivalent to the total salary of a high-level white-collar worker for 10 years without eating or drinking.

But upon hearing the figure of 100 million yen, Utsumi Takuto and Nagayama Yoshito showed expressions of shock and uncertainty.

Was being a writer this profitable? Or had Akiwara Yuto taken out all his savings!

Thinking of this, he subconsciously looked around the high-end apartment they were currently in, dispelling his doubts.

In his view, this apartment of Akiwara's in Minato City must have cost at least several hundred million yen!

Akiwara Yuto poured tea for the two of them again, then said he had something to take care of temporarily, and left the living room for the study.

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

After he left, Utsumi Takuto and his partner Nagayama Yoshito began to discuss, "Nagayama, what do you think? Should we accept it?"

He was actually already tempted, but he still wanted to seek Nagayama Yoshito's opinion; after all, the latter was a screenwriter and had participated in the writing of many film scripts.

If they were really going to cooperate, he also intended to hand the script for *Memories of Murder* to the other party to write.

Nagayama Yoshito hesitated for a moment and replied, "Why don't we accept it? Look, we don't have much risk after all."

Of the 150 million yen in production costs, Akiwara Yuto was covering two-thirds by himself.

And all they needed to do was to pull in the remaining 50 million yen in production costs and 50 million yen in promotional expenses.

Moreover, with Akiwara Yuto's support, they would have much more confidence whether they were trying to persuade other investors or promoting the film!

The hope for success was so great, and the cost of trial and error was so low; it would be too stupid to miss this opportunity!

After listening to his partner's analysis, Utsumi Takuto gritted his teeth and made his decision.

After seeing the two off, Akiwara Yuto held his teacup and walked to the floor-to-ceiling window, looking at the distant Dongjingwan, thinking about his next plan.

Up to now, he had basically used half of the mystery works in his mind, and there weren't many memorable works left, most of which were still mystery films.

And with the increase in his works and fans, he had also become a member of the "famous writers" who could not be ignored in the mystery world, achieving a certain level of success.

The Uemura Prize was definitely no problem, and the Mystery Writers of Japan Award was also not a big issue; getting them was just a matter of time.

When he had collected all the awards, if he released a few more works, he reckoned he could soon reach the status of Keigo Higashino from his past life.

In other words, in the field of mystery, he didn't face many challenges anymore.

But without these challenges, should he move to other fields, for example, opening up a new "battlefield" outside the mystery field?

Making *Memories of Murder* into a film this time was one of his experiments.

After all, works that could fit with reality could still be adapted into reality and published after the film was released.

But having said that, should he write some works in traditional fields?

For example, Xia Mushushi's *I Am a Cat*, Yasunari Kawabata's *Snow Country*, or Keigo Higashino's *Norwegian Wood*; these works had greater fame and attracted more attention in his past life.

But there were also hidden dangers; for instance, because he wrote works of different genres, some book critics were already complaining that his style was unstable.

If he jumped from the field of mystery works to other fields, the step he took would be even larger, and it was possible he would be suspected of having schizophrenia.

Or, should he create a pseudonym?