Chapter 92: First animation adaptation (1410)

Hearing Wei Ming praise him, Biaozi said modestly: "Oh, what kind of encyclopedia am I? I'm far from Miss Wang."

Coach Wu: "Who is Miss Wang? Which school is she from?"

Wei Ming laughed: "Not from any school, a fictional character in a novel."

Today's chat with Coach Wu was very happy. After a few cups of strong sorghum liquor, he even planned to lend Wei Ming a few books for him to read.

Because his home wasn't far from here, the three of them went with him again. These "martial arts secret manuals" were all illustrated, and with Biaozi's live demonstration, it was very helpful for Wei Ming's creation.

Wei Ming naturally thanked him profusely, indicating he would return them after reading.

After the three of them walked away, just as Coach Wu was about to return to the courtyard, he felt a gust of wind coming from behind him and immediately made a blocking reaction.

After seeing clearly who it was, he laughed: "Good for you, Wu Jinquan, actually launching a sneak attack!"

"Coach Wu, I've been waiting for you for an hour, and I haven't even eaten dinner yet." The other party said with a grin, looking a few years younger than Coach Wu.

Both were surnamed Wu, but they weren't relatives. This Wu Jinquan actually worked at the Aerospace Bureau, but had practiced martial arts since childhood, had family inheritance, and was good at Mantis Fist and the Nine-Section Whip.

"It's about your son again, right? I've said it so many times, he's too young, too young."

Wu Jinquan wanted his son to enter the Shichahai Sports School to learn martial arts, but he was only five years old this year and hadn't even started elementary school.

"Doesn't learning martial arts require childhood training? He practices with me, but I don't teach as well as you. I'm afraid of delaying the child."

Wu Bin thought for a while: "Your kid really has talent. How about this, next year, at least wait."

"Sigh, alright then. Shall we spar a bit?"

Coach Wu burped: "No sparring, I just ate... too full."

While riding, Wei Ming, Biaozi, and Liu Rulong separated. Ah Long indicated he would complete the illustrations for the second part as soon as possible; he wanted to support himself.

Biaozi had drunk a little wine and was still a bit excited now.

He asked Wei Ming: "Brother Ming, is the protagonist of your novel named Biao?"

"Sure, but he mainly walks the world using a nickname."

"Then what's the nickname?"

Wei Ming: "Great Husband!"

Wei Ming thought the quality of the film *Heroes Emerge from Youth* itself could only be considered average. The biggest highlight was the setting of the age-gap couple, the "Great Husband" and the "Little Wife."

The Great Husband was sharp-tongued and mischievous, with mediocre skills; the Little Wife was silent but had high martial arts skills. Although she was his wife, she managed him and protected him like a mother.

So this couple's character setting definitely had to be kept. As for the rest, it needed to be deliberated.

Wei Ming initially wanted to write this novel to connect with Xia Meng. It's just that the film's box office performance in Hong Kong wasn't very good, only over 3 million Hong Kong dollars, far less amazing than the mainland.

And it was said that Xia Meng's Blue Bird investment was larger, taking overseas box office, while Emei Studio invested less and took mainland revenue. As a result, Emei Studio made a big profit, while Blue Bird almost worked for nothing.

Today he met Coach Wu Bin. If he could get the help of martial arts peers to optimize the action scenes, and even polish the script, perhaps even pushing it to the market before *Shaolin Temple*, there might be a different result.

In the middle of the night, Wei Ming had to work, and he was thinking about the story while patrolling.

After catching up on sleep the next day, thinking that he still had so many photos not developed, Wei Ming hurriedly went to the school newspaper darkroom to get busy.

Photographer Yang Hao came over with a copy of *People's Daily*.

"Little Wei, you're on *People's Daily* again!"

Wei Ming tilted his head and glanced. It turned out to be news about the closing ceremony of the People's Congress. He wasn't in the photo, but the article mentioned: The oldest artist among the attendees was the 83-year-old Mr. Mao Dun, and the youngest was the writer Wei Ming, who was only 18.

Taking advantage of being young, Wei Ming was mentioned and listed alongside Mr. Mao Dun.

"Well, very good. I'll collect this newspaper."

Yang Hao: "……"

After a moment of speechlessness, Yang Hao asked again: "Why did you develop two copies of all these photos?"

"No, some were developed in three copies."

Yang Hao: "……"

Although Wei Ming could operate the photo development here himself, he still had to pay. He couldn't take advantage of the public, so Yang Hao could only sigh that money was burning a hole in his pocket.

After developing the photos, Wei Ming kept a copy of all the photos himself, and some were prepared to be mailed home.

Others were to be mailed to other parties in the photos. For example, the group photo with Factory Director Wang Yang and Director Ling Zifeng would be mailed to the Beijing Er Yingchang, the group photo with Ma Jingwu would be sent to the Beijing Film Academy, and the photo of the old gentleman Ma Shitu would be sent to the Sichuan-Chongqing Federation of Literary and Art Circles...

These people all had units. By sending the photos over, they wouldn't just be his connections; he would also become their connection, which might be useful in the future.

After finishing these, it was almost evening. Wei Ming rode his bike to Uncle Ping'an's house again.

Today was the publication day of the November issue of *Children's Literature*. Uncle Ping'an asked him to come to his house to collect the royalties.

*The Tale of the Heavenly Book*, 38,000 words. The first part was 12,000 words, at a standard of 6 yuan per thousand words, totaling 72 yuan.

In addition, Aunt Xiaoyan also brought good news.

"The Shanghai Er Yingchang has decided to adapt *The Toothless Tiger* and *If I Were Wu Song*!"

"Ah, they want both?"

"Yes, they just want these two. It's a pity they don't have a feature film plan now; otherwise, *The Tale of the Heavenly Book* would actually be very suitable."

Wei Ping'an helped Wei Ming ask what was in his heart: "Then how are the royalties calculated?"

Lu Xiaoyan asked Wei Ming: "Do you want to write the script yourself or let the Shanghai Animation Er Yingchang find someone to write it?"

Wei Ping'an waved his hand: "How would Little Ming know how to write a script?" Wei Ming: "I'll write it myself."

Uncle, actually, writing scripts is my main job!

Lu Xiaoyan said: "I also suggest you write it yourself. If you don't know, you can learn. And the money for a script is more."

Wei Ping'an: "Oh, how much more?"

Then Lu Xiaoyan talked about the ins and outs. Of course, she also heard it from Editor-in-Chief Jin.

Now there is no such thing as copyright in the country. A film studio sees an original novel, and after seeking consent, takes it for adaptation. Sometimes it can even be eaten multiple times, like *Xu Mao and His Daughters*, which both Beijing Film and August First picked up, so they each filmed one.

As for how much the original author can get.

Actually, not much.

The film studio will give a total cost for a film script, of which 20%~30% goes to the original author, and 50%~89% goes to the screenwriter.

Finally, after successful finalization, another 10%~15% of the total amount goes to the responsible editor.

And the royalties for a short film are almost only half of those for a feature film.

!

So if Wei Ming doesn't participate in the script, he can only get about one-fifth of the total script royalties, at least one hundred, at most two or three hundred.

Honestly, Wei Ming's story is basically a ready-made script, which can be used as soon as it's picked up. There are very few places that need adaptation. If this money were earned by others, he would be too much of a sucker.

Wei Ming asked again: "Then do I still need to go to Shanghai?"

Lu Xiaoyan said: "You write it first, let the other party see it. If there are inappropriate places, you might need to make a trip."

Wei Ming nodded, and he remembered another thing: "Then how much are the illustration royalties?"

Beijing Film Academy.

"Liu Rulong, you have a letter, I brought it back for you." The roommate pointed to the table.

Liu Rulong hurriedly ran over, thinking it was a letter from his father or mother, but it was from *Children's Literature*.

His heart was happy. He opened the envelope, took out the remittance slip inside, and saw the number on it was 40 yuan!

A total of 8 of his illustrations were selected, each priced at five yuan!

And he only spent a week drawing these. As long as he insists on drawing every day, earning over a hundred a month is not a problem!

Liu Rulong felt that he was finally a useful person. It's a pity it was already late, he must buy a few copies of *Children's Literature* tomorrow.

On the other side, for the sake of the foreseeable generous adaptation fees, Wei Ming decided to postpone the opening of *Heroes Emerge from Youth* and change the script first.

However, he had only written a few words today when he was interrupted.

Mei Wenhua breathed quickly: "Brother Ming, you, that, my, my family member came to find you!"

"Your family member... oh, Melinda." Wei Ming had to put down his paper and pen for a moment, remembering that he was going to the Friendship Store with her today to buy things.

Wei Ming said: "Little Mei, can you lend me your bike to ride?"

Mei Wenhua: "Not lending, it's not like you don't have one."

Wei Ming: "But Melinda doesn't have one. Let her ride it."

He immediately picked up a rag: "It was left outside for a night yesterday, I'll go wipe it."

Until Melinda rode her little Flying Pigeon further and further away, Mei Wenhua was still watching.

On the road.

"How do you usually travel?" Wei Ming asked Melinda, "Take the bus?"

Melinda: "Take a human-powered tricycle. There are quite a few around the Summer Palace."

Wei Ming thought to himself, it seems she isn't poor to the point of being destitute.

He asked again: "How much money did you prepare?"

"One thousand pounds."

Whoa, over two thousand dollars.

"You're still quite rich." Wei Ming said sourly.

Just this money could buy a courtyard house in Beijing. Although it was only 3000+ in RMB, for those who wanted to go abroad, this foreign exchange was worth at least twenty thousand, and if things went well, he could get two houses.

"This is all my belongings, and I can't spend it all. I don't know if I can find a job immediately after returning to the country, so I have to save some for living."

Wei Ming asked: "What job do you plan to find? Translator?"

"I studied literature, so I might go to a publishing house to find an editor's job."

Oh, publishing house editor, huh.

Wei Ming looked at Melinda, finding her increasingly appetizing.

Arriving at the Friendship Store on Jianguomen Outer Street, because there were many embassies nearby, one could see foreigners on the road, and those entering and leaving the Friendship Store were also foreigners.

Even if there were sporadic Chinese, they could only look through the store windows to see what was inside.

Even with foreigners leading, it wasn't that easy for Chinese to get in.

So before going out, Melinda borrowed a set of clothes from Li Aiguo, and Wei Ming had already changed into them.

Now he looked very foreign, and he started communicating with Melinda in English before even entering the door.

The guard glanced at the two of them and let them in without saying anything.

……

(First subscription 4000 added, actually didn't reach it, but the sincerity must be there!)

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 93 =====