"Mr. Huang, what is the third book? It couldn't still be one of our Great Liu's works, could it?" someone next to him couldn't help but ask, trying to trap Mr. Huang. With someone asking that, Mr. Huang wouldn't be able to say that the third book was still one of Great Liu's works.
Unexpectedly, Mr. Huang smiled and said, "Don't say that, you guessed right. This third book is still our Great Liu's 'Hua Xia Tai Yang'!"
"..." The atmosphere suddenly became awkward. Everyone had clearly set a trap for Mr. Huang, but he had charged straight into it. The most critical part was that such a trap was meaningless to him. Could a small pit stop a speeding train? It was impossible. He was willful because he was rich!
Of course, some people were still unconvinced. Someone from the audience said, "Mr. Huang, you said before that you wanted to adapt 'The Wandering Earth' and 'The Rural Teacher', and we all understood that. But adapting 'Hua Xia Tai Yang' would be too far-fetched. To be honest, although this work is also very great, the entire work is too straightforward. It would be too boring to adapt it into a film or television work, unless you make further changes to the entire plot. But if you do that, it would violate your previous promise to only make additions to one work!"
What this person said was not wrong. 'Hua Xia Tai Yang' was indeed a work that was not easy to adapt. For example, the fact that many onlookers had not heard of this work was a clear reason.
Because 'Hua Xia Tai Yang' tells a very plain story about a person named Shui Wa in a drought-stricken rural area in the west. Having suffered from drought when he was young, he went to work in a small coal mine.
He then ran from the small coal mine to the provincial capital. After being shocked by the prosperity of the provincial capital, he met a doctor who was researching nano-film. The two hit it off immediately. By chance, China announced the news of the construction of 'Hua Xia Tai Yang', so the two of them went from the provincial capital to the capital together.
Afterward, this graduate student joined the 'Hua Xia Tai Yang' project team with his research results, while Shui Wa became a high-altitude window cleaner, a spider-man.
Later, when 'Hua Xia Tai Yang' was completed, Shui Wa went to clean windows on this 'Hua Xia Tai Yang' through the relationship with his doctoral student friend, becoming an astronaut.
Hearing the name 'Hua Xia Tai Yang', many people might think it's a fusion solar reactor. In fact, it's not. It's actually a huge mirror placed in space.
This huge mirror can refract sunlight from outside the Earth and transfer this light and heat to a certain location on Earth. Through complex climate calculations, this extra heat can just help Earth improve its climate environment, making the dry deserts have perennial rainfall, and making places constantly attacked by floods less terrifying. Of course, through this 'Hua Xia Tai Yang', Shui Wa's drought-stricken hometown could also become a fertile land like the northern Saiwai.
Shui Wa worked on this sun for decades. As human technology advanced, they no longer needed 'Hua Xia Tai Yang' to improve their local environment.
At Shui Wa's suggestion, 'Hua Xia Tai Yang' was transformed into a solar sail in space, capable of navigating the universe by harnessing the particle waves emitted by the sun, eventually flying to the distant, unknown Centaurus constellation and becoming the first wave of humanity's exploration of the unknown universe.
The entire story can be described as grand, and the idea of installing a mirror in space is extremely astonishing. However, if one reads the story carefully, it will be found that Shui Wa's life experience is too smooth, so smooth that there are no obstacles.
From the small coal mine to the provincial capital, then to Beijing, and then to space, he encountered no obstacles along the way. Everything was so logical. Although the sci-fi creativity of this story is quite good, the story itself lacks dramatic conflict, and the adaptation would be like a running account, which would be very tedious to watch.
To put it bluntly, Shui Wa himself is a pure tool.
It's like the classic American blockbuster '2012'. The protagonist is not a down-on-his-luck novelist, nor does he go through immense hardship and risk his life to find and board Noah's Ark, and finally save everyone on board in a critical moment.
Instead, it's the second protagonist scientist who smoothly discovers the Earth crisis, smoothly boards the ship, smoothly falls in love with the president's daughter, and finally smoothly welcomes the new world. Could a movie be made like that?
Therefore, works like 'Hua Xia Tai Yang' are difficult to adapt, unless, as Mr. Huang said earlier, various melodramatic plots are added to the story.
For example, being cheated in a small coal mine, being beaten, or even almost buried alive in a mine shaft.
After finally reaching the provincial capital, he encounters a love scammer, is extorted by gangsters, gets involved in a murder case, is then framed and imprisoned, and finally makes a dramatic comeback.
After arriving in the capital, he has a girlfriend and plans to buy a house. Then there are all sorts of trivial daily life matters, constant betrayal by his girlfriend, a love triangle with his doctoral student friend, and his own research results being plagiarized, and he almost falls off a glass wall.
Finally, he reaches space... and then there's no more. Because the cost of producing space scenes is too high, the story ends directly here.
In this way, although it is still a sci-fi film, it seems to have turned into a family drama.
However, our Mr. Huang still had his own ideas. He smiled and explained, "Firstly, 'The Wandering Earth' and 'The Rural Teacher' are more suitable for adaptation into movies, while 'Hua Xia Tai Yang' is intended to be adapted into a TV series."
"Secondly, you said that the plot of 'Hua Xia Tai Yang' is too bland and not conducive to adaptation, which is very correct. But I don't think that being not conducive to adaptation means it cannot be adapted well, because I don't believe that a TV series must be filled with all sorts of conflicts and melodramatic plots to be a good TV series!"
"Why can't a TV series honestly describe Shui Wa's life? We will first focus on filming and describing the miserable living conditions in China's drought-stricken areas, then the poor environment of coal miners, and the spirit of hard work and progress of workers in the provincial capital."
"After arriving in the capital, we will begin to focus on how scientific researchers develop 'Hua Xia Tai Yang', and how the protagonist cleans windows... Frankly speaking, I think we can spend two to three episodes in detail filming the process of cleaning windows at high altitudes, rather than focusing on life conflicts!"
"The space phase at the end will be the climax of the entire TV series. We will invest heavily to create movie-level special effects, detailing the operation, maintenance, and transformation into a solar sail of 'Hua Xia Tai Yang'!"
"I will not add any melodramatic elements to this TV series, nor will I allow any boring things like emotional entanglements or love triangles. The core element I want to showcase in this TV series is just one: how an ordinary Chinese farmer gradually ascends to space through hard work, and watches all of us strive in space!"
"At the same time, taking this opportunity, we will show how our great motherland has developed step by step over decades, transforming from a poor and backward country into a great nation capable of building solar sails and leading all of humanity towards the universe. This is what I truly want to film!"
"And this is the greatest feeling I had when reading this novel. When I read this novel for the first time, I felt as if I saw the revival of a great nation, a breakthrough of civilization, and the arrival of an era!"
Mr. Huang spoke with emotion, his words filled with passion. Many audience members were ignited by his speech and applauded collectively.
Of course, Great Liu next to him looked at Mr. Huang with even greater fear.
"Don't worry, you don't need to revise the script for this TV series!" Mr. Huang, noticing Da Liu's concern, said proactively!
"Oh!" Da Liu was immediately relieved, and then asked curiously, "Why not me again!"
"Because adapting a TV series requires too much content and detail to be added. If we rely on you, Da Liu, to complete it, it might take three to five years to finish."
"Fortunately, the structure of your novel is very complete. I only need to assign people to fill in various detailed stories. Don't worry, your core storyline will not change at all. 'Hua Xia Tai Yang' will remain as it is!"
"That's wonderful!" Da Liu nodded excitedly. Hearing that he didn't have to change anything, he was immediately filled with enthusiasm... But wait... When did he agree to sell the copyright to Jiangnan Group?
Regardless of the feelings of the audience and Da Liu, the feelings of the other authors present were very complex. Although Mr. Huang's words were beautiful and the situation seemed promising, it had nothing to do with them. They were just spectators, so why were they joining in the fun?
Thus, the atmosphere of the seminar immediately became somewhat tense and dry. Mr. Huang naturally understood the thoughts of these writers. One reason was that he then said, "Gentlemen, to be honest, I only mentioned Da Liu's works because I only read his works. After all, I am very busy and cannot read all the articles every issue. I can only choose to read the works of my favorite author!"
Well, this was a lie. The truth was that in his previous life, Mr. Huang only read all of Da Niu's works after he became nationally famous. In this life, he had never read 'Science Fiction World' and had no idea what these authors had written.
But he continued, "However, I want to tell you all that Jiangnan Group will establish a special IP adaptation department in the future. They will carefully read your works, select excellent works that can be adapted into films and television, and then discuss with you in detail. As long as you produce good works, you will have the opportunity to see your works appear on screen!"
As Huang He said this, the authors' faces lit up again. However, they did not expect that Boss Wang would immediately drop another bombshell.