Yu Dong had just finished calling Hosseini and was about to turn around and leave when the phone on the coffee table rang again.
He turned around and picked up the phone, and Spielberg's voice came from inside, "It seems that you are really busy. The phone has been unreachable. If I can't get through again, I will fly to New York to find you."
."
"That's because you called at the wrong time." Yu Dong smiled and asked, "Why are you calling me at this time? Because of the new book?"
Spielberg smiled and said, "You guessed it right, so can you tell me about the new book? What is it about? It is both expressionist literature and science fiction."
"Can't."
He was rejected by Yu Dong, but Spielberg was not disappointed at all, "I knew it. I'd better wait until the new book is finished before I read it. You can consider getting a trial version this time so that we can have a sneak peek."
Some writers will produce trial copies of their new books and distribute them to the outside world before the official release of their new books. The trial copies usually include a small number of trial chapters, a story summary, an introduction to the author, and media comments.
To put it bluntly, this trial copy is a brochure, which is a marketing method. Trial copies are generally distributed to readers for free, allowing readers to have a preliminary understanding of the content of the book before reading it, and then trigger
Interest in reading and attract them to buy.
This type of marketing method is not new in Europe and the United States. Some people have done this in the past years, and it is more popular now. Publishing houses often help writers prepare this kind of trial books.
Usually, the works that can be produced as preview copies are books that the publishing house is very optimistic about, and their authors are usually famous writers who have long been famous.
The marketing model of trial books requires a certain amount of investment to produce results. If the amount is small, not only will the publicity effect be limited, but the cost-effectiveness will also be low. After all, content production also takes time and energy.
If you invest too much, the cost will be too high and the risk will be too high, so the publishing house will not be willing to do it.
In addition to the amount of publication, whether it is suitable to launch a trial version is also related to the style of the novel.
Since it is a trial book, the trial chapters in it must be the previous chapters, and in many works, the first few chapters are not attractive.
Some works have several chapters at the beginning that are just foreshadowing. If you put these chapters into a trial book, readers will simply lose interest in the book after reading it. That would be shooting yourself in the foot.
Yu Dong didn't get a trial copy in the early days, and now he doesn't need a trial copy as a publicity method.
However, the preview book Spielberg mentioned should not refer to the ordinary preview book produced for publicity, but the kind of collection preview book. This kind of preview book usually contains most or even all chapters of the work, and has a well-made cover.
The paper is exquisite and very suitable for collection.
This type of trial book is very gimmick. After all, it is a sneak peek and the cost is higher than the official version, so the price will be much higher. Generally, such trial books are produced to make money, and Yu Dong has never done this.
However, after hearing what Spielberg said, Yu Dong did not refuse, but said with a smile, "Let's wait until I finish writing the book. If you are interested, I can make a trial copy for you."
"I remember what you said. I will definitely call you and ask for it when the time comes."
"Then please remember it well. But why did you call me today? You couldn't just ask me to leave a trial copy for you, right?"
"I have finished reading the book you recommended to me before," Spielberg said.
"The book I recommended to you?" Yu Dong was a little confused. He did recommend books to Spielberg, but there were so many recommended books that he didn't know which one Spielberg was talking about. "What did you say?"
Is it Lord of the Flies?"
Among the books that Yu Dong recommended to Spielberg, "Lord of the Flies" impressed Yu Dong the most, because Yu Dong did not expect that Spielberg had not read this book.
Yu Dong self-righteously believed that everyone who reads such a world-famous novel should have read it.
"Well, I read a little bit of "Lord of the Flies", and to be honest, it's a bit not to my taste... I'm going to talk about another one, the one with a very long title."
After hearing Spielberg say that the title of the book was very long, Yu Dong suddenly remembered it.
"You're talking about Catch Me If You Can - The Amazing True Story of a Scammer, right?"
The title of the book is indeed very long, so much so that Yu Dong almost didn't finish reading it in one breath.
"Haha, this is it. The story is very exciting. I have read it several times in the past few days. I hope to put this story on the big screen, so I called you in the hope that you can complete it.
The script of the movie. Since you recommended this book to me, you must also know the story very well."
Yu Dong raised his eyebrows. Although he did not immediately think of the book "Catch Me If You Can...", in fact, he had a purpose in recommending this book to Spielberg. He just hoped that
Spielberg was able to read the book and make the story into a movie.
In the original world, this story was made into a movie by Spielberg, and the Chinese name is "Cat and Mouse Game". What Yu Dong is doing now just puts things on the original track in advance.
Of course, the difference is that the initiative will be in the hands of deep space.
Yu Dong smiled and said, "Steven, I'm sorry to tell you that I will not write the script for this movie for you."
Spielberg at the other end of the movie was stunned for a moment. He didn't expect that Yu Dong refused so simply, and there was a hint of laughter in his voice. What was he doing?
Before Spielberg could ask, Yu Dong said, "But I can recommend another screenwriter to you."
Spielberg subconsciously asked, "Who?"
"Jeff Nathanson." Yu Dong said a name.
Spielberg went through the name in his mind, but had no impression at all, "Who is he? What works has he produced? I don't remember this name."
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! "He is a young screenwriter who signed a contract with our company a few years ago. The most famous work he has written before is probably "Speed ​​2". In addition, he
Another script of "Rush Hour 2" is also about to be filmed."
Spielberg had heard of the two movies Yu Dong mentioned, but they were both sequels, which made Spielberg secretly exclaim that it was no wonder, because the screenwriters who wrote sequels were generally unknown.
"Well, does he know the story?"
Yu Dong couldn't help but smile. Spielberg loved to beat around the bush. He was probably worried that Jeff Nathanson was not good enough, but he was unwilling to say it directly.
"In fact, his script has been written a long time ago. If you are interested, I will have someone send you a copy tomorrow. Whether he understands the story or not, you will know after you read the script."
"It's already written..." Spielberg reacted immediately, "It turns out you are digging a hole for me to jump into!"
Seeing Spielberg's reaction, Yu Dong also laughed loudly, "Just tell me, do you want to avoid this trap?"
Spielberg sighed slightly, "You have an old saying in China, which is called 'Jiang Taigong fishes only when he is willing to take the bait'. Now, you are Jiang Taigong, and I am the fish. Even if your fishhook is straight, I
I will bite the hook without hesitation."
"It seems that your research on Chinese culture has made great progress recently, and your usage is very accurate."
"Thanks for the compliment. If possible, I hope to see the script tonight. Can you send me the script tonight?"
Yu Dong looked at the time and said, "At this moment, I'm afraid Jeff has fallen asleep. Are you in Los Angeles now?"
"Well, he's here too?"
"Yes, he is here too. Let's do this. I will call him tomorrow morning and ask him to contact you. Let's meet and talk."
"Give me his phone number."
"...Then you promise not to disturb him tonight."
Spielberg agreed very simply, "I promise."
"Okay, please remember, his number is..."
"Beep, beep, beep..."
After Yu Dong reported his number, he heard a busy signal from the other end of the phone.
Looking at the microphone, Yu Dong shook his head helplessly. He knew that Spielberg's guarantee was bullshit.
However, if Yu Dong really didn't want Spielberg to bother Jeff Nathanson, he wouldn't have given Spielberg his phone number.
Speaking of Jeff Nathanson, Yu Dong thought it was quite a coincidence.
Jeff Nathanson is a contracted screenwriter with Deep Space Company. He is the kind of person who has a basic salary, and the salary is not low.
As early as after Jeff Nathanson wrote the first movie, he was signed by Deep Space Company.
In the past few years, Jeff Nathanson has been writing scripts at the company every day, but the scripts he wrote were often rejected, and his career development was not smooth.
The most famous thing he wrote in the past few years is of course "Speed ​​2". The global box office of this movie is more than 100 million US dollars, which sounds good, but the problem is that the production cost of this movie is more than 100 million US dollars.
, the North American box office only recovered more than 40 million US dollars, which can be said to be a loss to grandma's family.
After "Speed ​​2", Jeff Nathanson has been living on the subsistence allowance and his previous salary at the Deep Space Company, while also writing a script, which is "Cat and Mouse Game".
In the past two years, the company has helped him submit this script to several directors, including but not limited to Lars Ostrom, Morris Fummy, and Gore Verbinski.
These directors were very optimistic about the script, but due to various reasons it was not possible to film it.
When this happens, the company usually recommends the script to a more famous director, so this script was noticed by Jimmy.
Jimmy was very optimistic after reading the script and sent it to Yu Dong to read.
Not to mention Yu Dong, he has even seen the finished movie, so of course he knows that the script is not bad.
Once the two of them got together, they were going to recommend the script to Spielberg and let him film it.
However, they did not look for it directly, but took a detour. Yu Dong recommended to Spielberg the autobiography "Catch Me If You Can" written by the prototype author, and asked Spielberg to come to him on his own initiative.
In addition, Deep Space has also signed a contract with the prototype character Abagnale in advance. Next year, Abagnale's work "The Art of Plagiarism" will be published.
At that time, Deep Space Company will earn three shares from the original author, screenwriter, and movie box office.
…
Ten minutes later, Spielberg called again.
This time, Spielberg's voice was full of joy, and it was obvious that he had a great time talking to Jeff Nathanson.
Before he could ask anything, Spielberg took the initiative and said, "I have made an appointment with him to go to a cafe to have coffee together tomorrow. By the way, we also had a brief chat about the script. The person you recommended is indeed right. He
He knew Abagnale's story very well, and his knowledge was not limited to the autobiography "Catch Me If You Can". He even met with Abagnale and had an in-depth chat. He told me some
There is nothing written in the autobiography. Although I haven’t read the script yet, I already believe that the script will not disappoint me.”
"Congratulations, you found another good story." Yu Dong said with a smile.
"Haha, tell me, what do you want? Isn't it just to push Jeff's script to me? Or do you want me to work for you?"
"Don't say it sounds like part-time work is so unpleasant. It's a collaboration. Deep Space and DreamWorks can cooperate to produce this movie."
This is what Yu Dong and Jimmy plan to do. They plan to produce this movie together with DreamWorks, with a total investment of about US$50 million.
Spielberg pondered for a while and said, "Let Amblin and Deep Space produce it together, and then Deep Space will be responsible for the distribution. If you don't distribute it, then I can contact Universal and ask them to do it."
Hearing what Spielberg said, Yu Dong was not surprised at all.
Amblin is a film and television production company founded by Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall.
Amblin is an independent film production company that does not distribute its own films and does not have sufficient financing products and studios to help. In other words, they are like a studio in their own right.
In the past few years, Amblin had cooperated more with DreamWorks. However, in the past two years, the relationship between Spielberg and DreamWorks has gradually become more subtle, and the cooperation between the two parties has gradually become less and less.
This time, Spielberg wants to put aside DreamWorks and let Amblin directly cooperate with Deep Space Company, which is naturally expected.
Yu Dong smiled and said, "No problem, we will produce together and we will do the distribution. We will discuss the specific details of the cooperation after you talk to Jeff tomorrow."
"No problem, I still have some ideas related to casting, let's talk about it later." At this point, Spielberg sighed slightly, "I don't know why, but I always feel that Deep Space Company has been giving you the best advice in the past few years.
work to earn a living."
Yu Dong comforted him with a smile, "Don't think so, our Deep Space Company should be working for you. Think about it, in the past few years of cooperation with our Deep Space Company, has your movie box office become higher and higher?"
Are you investing more and more assets?"
Chapter completed!