Chapter 427: International Impact of Wei Ming

Inside the Southbank Cinema of the British Film Institute, there is a famous coffee gallery, which is a famous gathering point for London's film and literary circles.

This place often gathers a group of actors, directors, film fans, and cultural workers, which can be called a "gas station" for intellectuals.

Andrew Lloyd Webber had just watched a new film by Director Spielberg, *ET*, with Sarah Brightman. This was a children's sci-fi story, and it was deeply moving, which shocked people greatly.

After watching it, the two sat in the coffee gallery for a while, chatting about the film's plot and characters. Webber couldn't bear to part with Sarah, wishing he could see her every minute.

Although he was still a married man, he promised Sarah that he was trying hard to divorce. It was just that he was also a successful person with some family business, and divorce wasn't something that could be settled by moving his lips.

"Don't worry, before *The Lion King* is staged, I will definitely divorce." In this way, *The Lion King* wouldn't be considered marital property.

Sarah didn't want to chat about the topic of marriage and divorce. This would make their relationship look immoral, and she was clearly just watching a movie and drinking coffee with him, not opening a room.

So she changed the subject: "How is *The Lion King* written now?"

"Quite smoothly. I've already written several important singing segments. Next year or so, we can start rehearsing."

It was just because of the plot problem, although he could let Sarah serve as the female lead, the scenes definitely wouldn't be too many. This opera could only have one core protagonist, Simba, and the core singing segments were all concentrated on him.

The two chatted for a while about *The Lion King*. Someone entered the coffee shop. It was a couple, and each of them was holding a book with an alien spaceship on the cover.

Only then did Sarah discover that there were actually people in the coffee shop drinking coffee and reading *District Nine*. In just over a week on the shelves, *District Nine* rushed to the forefront of the British bestseller list at an extremely fast speed.

So Sarah shifted the topic to Wei Ming and *District Nine*, as well as the different attitudes of humans toward the two different aliens, Prawns and ET.

Seeing Sarah talking with eyebrows dancing, Webber shrugged: "Okay, it seems I should buy a copy of *District Nine* to read, otherwise I'll be out of touch with the times. Actually, I don't have much interest in sci-fi themes, but I was a bit moved after watching *ET*."

"Must try it. I've already finished reading it. After reading it, my heart was very restless, and at the same time, I had deep sympathy for the South African people," Sarah said. A week ago, Melinda had sent her a copy.

When leaving the house after drinking coffee, Sarah also saw people parading, petitioning for Mr. Mandela of South Africa, which made her want to join them. However, considering she was a public figure, she still sat in the car and silently cheered for them.

It was unclear when the British began to pay attention to Mandela, but the popularity was indeed because of the article Wei Ming wrote last year. Afterward, reporters successively risked coming to South Africa to interview Mandela's related deeds, obtaining a lot of first-hand information, making the image of this anti-apartheid fighter fuller.

And this kind of parade action only appeared after the publication of *District Nine*. The holy London people hoped that the great British Empire could do something for the poor South African people.

To say that there was no push from the British government in this, Wei Ming definitely wouldn't believe it.

During this period, the two most famous aliens in the whole UK were one, the ugly and cute ET, and the other, the ugly and strange Prawn.

ET's father, Spielberg, hadn't heard of *District Nine*, but he had recently heard of the great name of the father of District Nine.

Since its release, *ET* had achieved a glorious reputation and box office performance. Who would have thought that such a sci-fi film with only one alien and an inner core of warmth would harvest a box office comparable to *Star Wars*.

This also became another box office peak for Director Spielberg since *Jaws* and *Raiders of the Lost Ark*.

And at this time, he also began to seek topics for subsequent works. First was the sequel to *Raiders of the Lost Ark* in cooperation with his old friend Lu Kasi.

In addition, he also wanted to film a dinosaur-themed special effects film. He hoped to resurrect dinosaurs on the big screen, the kind of lifelike dinosaurs, not the kind of leather suits before.

He had discussed it with Lu Kasi. Now computer special effects technology could do it.

At this time, the screenwriter Spielberg often cooperated with recommended *Jurassic Park* to him. The English version of this book had already been published to the second volume.

After reading it, Spielberg slapped the table and shouted good. He felt that this was the kind he wanted. It was both a dinosaur theme and had box office elements like thrillers. The key was that according to what was written in the story, the time for dinosaurs to appear was actually very limited, which could also greatly reduce the difficulty of filming. It was a natural good script embryo!

However, after Spielberg sent someone to inquire, he learned that the option for this novel had fallen into the hands of MGM. What a waste! Where would MGM film this kind of high-investment special effects blockbuster!

Wei Ming didn't know about this matter. Even if he knew, it was useless. Old Si could only wait, wait to see if MGM had the courage to start this project three years later.

On the day he received Melinda's package, he first went to the library to work. With the curator's consent, he also put the two original English versions of *District Nine* into the English book collection of the Peking University Library.

It was said that the first student to borrow this book was Yu Minhong from the '80 Spanish Department. He saw the words "" written on the spine, and regardless of what it was written, he pulled it out and borrowed it.

It hadn't been returned for a long time afterward, because before he could return it after reading it, it was borrowed by other students. This made Yu Minhong anxious. You are the ones reading the book, but if it's lost, the one paying for it is me!

And he borrowed the hardcover version with multiple exquisite illustrations. The price on the back made him, a farmer's son, feel shocked.

Wei Ming also met Uncle Pingan in the library. He was recently working on the TOEFL teaching project and came to the library to check information.

Wei Ming's bag contained two Transformers, but he didn't give them to Uncle Pingan directly. Of course, he had to give gifts face-to-face, so he agreed to go to his house for dinner in the evening.

"Good, call Xiao Hong, let your aunt cook two more good dishes."

Uncle Pingan and his wife now had high salaries. Although they couldn't compare with their eldest nephew, they couldn't be poor from eating.

When Wei Ming appeared downstairs in the girls' dormitory, he was immediately surrounded by female college students who admired him, and a phenomenon of urging for updates appeared.

In their eyes, the last work with literary quality by Wei Ming was *In the Heat of the Sun* last year.

Wei Ming immediately revealed that a collection of prose would be released recently, and *Flower City* would also publish a medium-length novel.

After Wei Hong came down, Wei Ming hurriedly pulled her away from the girls' encirclement.

When learning that there was a gift, Xizi happily performed a somersault for Wei Ming. Lele didn't let her brother be the only one to be beautiful, and played a piece of harmonica for Wei Ming.

But when she played, Xizi couldn't help it, and asked directly: "Big brother, what did you bring me? Is it White Rabbit candy?!"

Seeing Xizi start to rummage through Wei Ming's bag, Lele was anxious. Can't you wait for me?

Wei Ming pointed to Lele: "Appreciate, appreciate first."

Xizi couldn't appreciate it at all, anxious and scratching his ears and cheeks.

After Lele's song ended, Wei Ming and Wei Hong immediately sent applause, and only then did they take out two beautifully packaged boxes.

Wei Hong was also curious: "Brother, what exactly is the gift?"

Wei Ming: "Toys, the Transformers I told you about."

Wei Hong's eyes lit up: "This is fun, absolutely fun!"

Because she had played with it, the performance wasn't very good at that time.

Uncle Pingan also knew about Transformers. Hearing this, he came out of the kitchen to look.

"Is this the toy? This is quite expensive, right?"

Wei Ming waved his hand: "Not much money. These two added together are just your and Auntie's one month's salary."

Wei Ming wasn't showing off. Explaining its expensive price was just to prevent Xizi from giving this thing to some little girl like Xiao Mei, Xiao Li, or Xiao Fang in his class. He hadn't done this kind of thing less before.

"What, so expensive!" Auntie Lu Xiaoyan came out with the dishes. Hearing this, she was surprised, "Is this toy made of gold or jade?"

Wei Ming smiled: "This is specifically made to earn US dollars from the old Americans. Little Aunt plans to conquer the American market first."

With this, they didn't eat dinner first. The couple hurriedly urged the two children to open it and take a look, and then they saw a beautifully crafted red truck and a yellow small sedan. ===== CHAPTER 428 =====