Chapter 1688 - 826: Left Hand

Chapter 1688: Chapter 826: Left Hand

He decided not to take it upon himself to find the director, waiting instead to see if Song Chi and Zhou Yun had any ideas.

He communicated a bit with Zhou Lan about Zhou Yun’s schedule.

After finishing that, Wu Chengbao started talking about the "Child of Prophecy" that Zhou Lan was working on.

"When are you planning to start filming and release this movie?"

"Why are you suddenly asking about this?" Zhou Lan asked.

Wu Chengbao said, "Brother Chi and New Shield are also collaborating on a film with prophetic elements. The themes overlap a bit, so it’s better to stagger the release dates. If I know when yours will be released, we can adjust ours accordingly."

Zhou Lan thought, Wu Chengbao has a point.

"Our plan is to release during next year’s summer season, but you know, these things aren’t set in stone."

"No worries, I understand. It’s enough to know your general plan first. Afterward, let’s stay in touch to avoid internal competition."

"Okay."

"How are your ’Treasure’ sales going? I previously saw in the news that there was a lot of buzz about your move into the overseas agency market, but then I didn’t hear anything more." Wu Chengbao said.

"Those news media just love to exaggerate, don’t they? The Berlin Film Festival was postponed. I’m planning a private screening of ’Treasure’ in Berlin to gauge people’s reactions," Zhou Lan said. "Fortunately, it was postponed. Zhu Wenju needs to re-edit a version, redo the dubbing, and handle post-production. Time is a bit tight."

Wu Chengbao nodded, saying, "If you manage to break even with ’Treasure’, you’ll make a name for yourself."

"Breaking even isn’t hard. The domestic box office trend for ’Treasure’ is quite good now, with only around a 24 million loss. Plus, with the new post-production, breaking even is easier," Zhou Lan said. "Besides, after re-editing, it can also be re-released domestically."

Wu Chengbao said, "Well, there needs to be interest outside. It’s not a Zhou Yun lead film. Ning Yao might be somewhat known in Asia, but not in Europe and America."

Zhou Lan: "I’ve preliminarily tested their interest. They’re still curious."

Wu Chengbao: "Then I’ll be waiting in anticipation."

After seeing Wu Chengbao off, Zhou Lan called her secretary and asked her to invite the "reading group" over.

The "reading group" consisted of five people.

After the five people came in, Zhou Lan said, "I just looked at your report from last week. ’His Eraser’ has already discussed the rights. The rights for ’Mind the Silent’ were snatched by Yuehai, we were too late. ’Left Hand’ steps on too many red lines. I want to ask, why did you recommend we develop this story?"

The girl with black-framed glasses and a chubby figure said, "Director Zhou, all five of us cried after reading this novel. The adaptation is indeed challenging, but we unanimously believe the story is worth developing."

"Yes, and this story holds both market and artistic value." Another boy with acne on his face said seriously, "Two years ago, a similar themed ’Deskmate’ fetched a 1.3 billion box office and led the male and female leads to win awards. ’Left Hand’ is a story not inferior to ’Deskmate’."

Zhou Lan nodded.

"I understand what you’re saying, but I have a question. Do you think ’Left Hand’ will still move you once adapted?" Zhou Lan said, "I remember ’Deskmate’ took three years from completion to release, going through countless changes. Thankfully, the core team didn’t compromise for the sake of release, resulting in a story that was still great upon release. I don’t deny ’Left Hand’ is an excellent story—about a girl facing school bullying and a delinquent wandering the world. I was moved reading it too, but I don’t know how to adapt it in a way that’s both releasable and still emotionally impactful."

Zhou Lan’s words left the five people silent.

"As far as I know, this is also why the novel receives high acclaim among readers but still hasn’t been picked up by a film company for rights acquisition," Zhou Lan said. "If you indeed like this story, help me think about how to develop it. How to turn it into a script that can be shot."

The girl with black-framed glasses and a chubby figure hesitated a bit, raised her hand, and cautiously said, "Director Zhou, should I give it a try?"

Zhou Lan nodded.

"Okay."

-

Seeking monthly votes!

I’ve seen some friends worried about dual postings affecting the updates of this book. Actually, this book has hardly ever missed updates; daily updates have always been guaranteed. Of course, when real-life events prevent updates, it’s unrelated to dual postings, and that other book hasn’t been updated either.

The reason I didn’t choose scheduled posting before was that posting whatever I wrote motivated me to update more every day.

But I didn’t consider stability issues. From now on, let’s standardize the update time to 8:35 PM every day. You can check at this time, and there will surely be an update.