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Text Chapter 292 Lovely Bones, Home for Stray Dogs

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    "The Lovely Bones" has a sad and heavy story, but it is a touching, sincere, humorous and warm book.

    When it was first published in June 2002, bookseller Little Brown thought its plot and narrative structure were unusual and unconventional and would only be a modest success. At that time, it sold 20,000 copies.  In the end, it was an unexpected and huge success. It was on the New York Times hardcover bestseller list for a year, and sold more than one million copies in four months. It was also named "The Best Novel of the Year in the United States in 2002".

    It is certainly an extraordinary book. Susie, a 14-year-old girl, grew up in a happy family with loving parents, smart younger sisters and younger brothers, but she herself was quirky and enjoying her wonderful youth.  My best friend is in love, and they just had their first kiss with Ray Singer, who they like in school.

    However, all this beauty was suddenly completely shattered. One day after school, Susie was raped and killed by a neighbor man, Harvey, and her body was dismembered in the cornfield.  This huge change plunged Susie's family into collapse, and also plunged the community and school into sadness.  But Harvey got away with it.

    This is just the background of the story, not the main story of the book. It does not go towards grief, sorrow, or depression. "My last name is Salmon, which sounds like 'salmon', and my name is Susie. 1973  On December 3, 2011, I was only 14 years old. "This is the first sentence at the beginning of the book.

    Its humor and peace can be seen everywhere, but its sadness and hatred are hard to find.  Maybe "Another World" was inspired by it.

    The article is based on Susie's first-person perspective and her narration of observing the world in heaven. For nearly ten years, she watched her father chase the murderer frantically, guessing that Harvey was the murderer but had no evidence; watching her mother unable to  Accepting the fact, she alienated her family, cheated, and ran away from home in order to escape; she watched her sister become strong and mature, trying to stay on the right track in life; the only thing she could communicate with was her younger four-year-old brother, but he didn't understand what was happening.  What happened? She watched how her friend Ruth and her boyfriend Ray gradually emerged from the shadows of grief and fell in love with her; she watched her grandmother heal the family's trauma and let the Salmon family come out of the gloom.

    The last part of the article still gives readers comfort. Susie briefly returned to the world and possessed Ruth, and their love with Ray came to an end; Harvey lost his footing and fell into the ravine when he was about to commit another crime.  Death; the family is united again, and all the good people are warm and happy.

    As Susie realizes, her death triggered changes in her family and friends, some mundane and some costly.

    "They can still live well without me. My death finally created the harmony of the family, just like the bones of the human body. Although they are damaged and missing, new bones will eventually grow in the unknown future.  Become whole. I understand now that I paid for this magical cycle of life.¡±

    This is what "The Lovely Bones" is about. It is not about the sexual assault of a girl, nor how to punish the murderer, nor all the solemnity. It is about the growth of a family, the growth of a group of people, and Susie in the midst of great pain.  Your own soul grows.

    It is about bravery and warmth, but not about religion. Although its paradise setting has been criticized by some: each deceased has his own paradise, which is like a private territory that can be personalized according to his own wishes, and people can interact with each other.  Come and visit as guests.

    So it also has no obvious religious stance at all, and tends to spiritualism, believing that the soul can continue to learn, communicate and mature after death.

    It is more politically correct than "The Other World" in that it is still called Heaven, but it is different from the traditional setting.  Author Alice Sebold, 42, said the book was not about religion, explaining "For me, heaven is about being happy."

    Ye Wei likes "The Lovely Bones", but doesn't love it because the beginning of the story is too cruel and he can't love it.

    He read this book recently because his mother thought it was not suitable for his age and refused to read it. Only after reading it did he understand why. The plot of how Harvey raped and killed Susie at the beginning was so infuriating and sad.  It's indescribably disgusting, and the peaceful words are like an innocent girl, which makes people's hearts collapse.

    He couldn¡¯t bear to watch it a second time. He really wanted to beat Harvey to death and rescue Susie.  He also admired the bravery of the author Sebold, because the book was based on her personal experience. She was raped in 1981 when she was 18 years old and was a freshman at Syracuse University. She later came forward to identify the rapist to the police, and the prisoner finally deserved what he deserved.

    What is a well -known best -selling book full of topics, its adaptation power is of course sought -after.  But as early as May 2000, when it was still a half-written manuscript, producer Amy Perronette took a fancy to it, and then teamed up with Film4 to obtain the rights to adapt it.

    In February 2001, Lynne Ramsay (1969-12-5, talented director and screenwriter) was invited to write an adapted script.  But in July 2002, parent company Channel 4?The closure of Film4 has given Hollywood studios and producers the opportunity to cooperate with Perronette.

    By that time, "The Lovely Bones" had already begun to sell well. The film project had a budget of $15 million and Ramsey had been signed to write and direct it.  In October of the same year, Ramsey and Liana Dognini continued to adapt the script and planned to start filming in the summer of 2003.

    But things change when Perronette invites original author Sebold to join the project, the women have creative disagreements, Ramsay has a key idea, and Susie's father becomes friends with Harvey because he never suspected  Harvey is the murderer of his daughter.

    Sebold disagreed, but Ramsey insisted.  This resulted in the filming not being completed in July 2003. DreamWorks and Perronette reached a preliminary cooperation agreement, and Spielberg even expressed interest in the project. Ramsay's team finally left the project, and she lost  , the producers wanted a version that was more faithful to the original work.

    "But DreamWorks did not immediately win the adaptation rights, and Spielberg was only interested in it and did not really want to film it.

    By April 2004, Peter Jackson, Fran Welsh, and Philippa Bowens, the golden team that created the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, joined the negotiation and development of the project.  In January 2005, Jackson's team planned to acquire the adaptation rights and seek financing to develop the script after becoming independent.

    Jackson said that he liked this novel very much, "because of the author's humor, which is strangely optimistic and uplifting." He also said that he would adapt and direct it himself.  He is very popular with the original author. Except that he is Peter Jackson, he does not touch the story like Ramsey. Instead, he focuses on describing how he wants to film paradise: "When Susie is happy, her paradise will be  The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and when Susie isn¡¯t feeling happy, she¡¯s out in the middle of the rain.¡±

    <>To achieve this, you need to increase the budget and do enough special effects. Whether it is sweet words or true words, this makes people happy.

    But until now, the project is still in this state. The Jackson team has not done any substantial work yet and is busy with "King Kong" to be released at the end of the year.

    Ye Wei¡¯s joining is a recent thing, mainly due to Julia Roberts¡¯ expectations.

    Roberts is very enthusiastic about "The Lovely Bones". First, it is a popular best-seller, and the box office is guaranteed; second, it has the qualifications to hit the awards season, and both Spielberg and Jackson agree with it; third, Susie has no chance  Annoying, impossible in the slightest, only lovable, she is the kind of character that even if the movie fails, the actor will succeed.

    In fact, no matter who comes to shoot, she will let Emma compete with Susie, but if the competition is not necessarily Emma, ??unless it is Ye Wei's project.

    If a superstar to whom you owe a huge debt of gratitude says to you in a very sincere tone, "Why don't you try competing? I'm optimistic about you." How can you refuse?  Can't refuse.

    And Ye Wei himself is also interested. He likes "Susie", only slightly less than "Rui".

    Roberts even had an idea for Ye Wei to play "Ray Singer", Susie's lover during her lifetime, because in the book Ray is an Indian-American boy, that is, Asian, so it would be okay to change the Indian-American to Chinese-American.  She has two considerations. First, when LMS is successful and VIY plays Lei, the topic and attention of the project will explode; second, Emma will never be awkward and refuse to act.

    Ye Wei felt that Roberts did not understand the situation. Why was Ramsey kicked out?  Because she doesn't respect the original work.

    It can be said that Ramsey does not understand or care about Siobold's thoughts at all, and his words are just calm. How much does Siobold hate "Mr. Harvey"?  The criminal who raped her?  This can be seen from the fact that Harvey's evil deeds are punished and he falls into a ravine and dies in the end.  Be friends?  Sebold was being polite by not kicking her.

    Respect the original work.  This is the main reason why Jackson's team is leading the competition. Their experience in successfully adapting "The Lord of the Rings" gives people confidence.

    With more than five years later, what Sebold thinks now has a decisive role. It is she who makes the decision as to who will give the adaptation rights.

    So if you want to win, you must respect the original work.  But there is a clear saying in the film industry: "Either you destroy the original work and make a good movie; or you respect the original work and make a bad movie."

    It is very, very difficult to make a good movie while being faithful to the original work, because there are too many differences in the narrative style and story structure between novels and scripts. A novel can have a long inner monologue of a character, while a script can have a lot of differences.  No, there is no inner drama in the script, only specific scenes.

    Only those novels with strong visual scenes and few words on the conscious level can be easily adapted into good scripts.

    But "The Lovely Bones" is a stream-of-consciousness novel with a complex narrative, a large number of inner monologues, a large time span, and many characters. It has been listed by the media as "the least likely to be adapted into a movie""One of the theories".

    In such a situation, we still have to be loyal to the original work. You know why there hasn¡¯t been a decent script for so long.

    It is too difficult to adapt, much more difficult than "The Other World".  How do you tell this story well, organize the timeline and scenes and shoot along the way?  A stream-of-consciousness movie made using a lot of flashbacks and other techniques?  How come it starts so well, with Susie being killed in heaven right at the beginning?  How to explain the complex story background?  Susie's murder as the first turning point?  How long is the entire story?

    150 minutes?  120 minutes?  90 minutes?  90 minutes is certainly not enough to finish the talk.

    The length of the film also involves another issue, audience positioning, who is the film for, mature adult audiences?  Teenager audience?  Family viewers?  Couple audience?

    We also need to consider the specific form. How to use the lens to express Susie looking at the world in heaven?  Split screen?  Split left and right or up and down?  We can't always be separated. She looked down from the clouds?  She uses a crystal ball?  Hologram?  Close your eyes and telepathize?  Do you want the picture of heaven to be particularly soft?  Does the world need to be particularly gloomy?  ¡­

    Ye Wei knew that this was like a project bidding. Only if he came up with a better adaptation and production plan that would impress Siebold would he have a chance to win.

    The good news is that the rival Jackson team is not nervous and has been quiet for a long time, but the news he got is that "they are still very interested."

    The bad news is that DreamWorks also likes Jackson more. If Jackson is filming, he will definitely compete for cooperation.  And him?  If he can handle Sebold and LMS become a big success, DreamWorks will fully support it. Even a small success will not suffice. Otherwise, let's be more realistic and make "Home for Stray Dogs".

    "I promise you I will try." What Ye Wei promised Roberts was exactly what he later promised Emma, ??"I can't promise anything, but I will try my best."

    Although he did not initiate it himself, he likes this huge challenge. The more difficult it is, the stronger the enemy, and the greater his interest!  He won't be afraid of it. This matter is no more difficult than a 15-year-old unknown and moneyless boy looking for a superstar to make a movie.  Be fearless along the way!

    "That's it, competing for "The Lovely Bones" became one of the candidate projects. Roberts most wanted to see the project come to fruition. He was looking forward to good news from Ye Wei.

    Now Ye Wei has not publicly joined the competition. No one knows what will happen if he does. A group of hobbits rush out to beat him?  Gollum shouted "That's my baby"?

    Oh yeah, I am, come on over!

    Roberts doesn¡¯t just have Plan A, he also has Plan B, ¡°Hotel-for-Dogs.¡±  If "The Lovely Bones" is like buying a Powerball bet, and winning the jackpot means "Damn, now I'm rich", then "Home for Stray Dogs" is a guaranteed consolation prize "no matter how bad it is, at least I have this".

    It is also an adaptation of a novel project, a classic children's novel published in 1971 by the famous female children's book writer Lois Duncan (1934-April-25).

    In June 2005, DreamWorks obtained the rights to adapt it and listed it as a key development project. It is not that complicated. There is nothing yet, no producer, no screenwriter, no director, just waiting for Ye Wei to take over.  .  Yes, DreamWorks has already laid out a position: "Genius, you have to shoot this for us." The premise is that LMS is successful.

    But Ye Wei's interest in it is only average, not as good as "The Other World". Of course he likes those dogs, but it is just a relaxed and warm children's story that can only be made into a standard commercial family film, such as "We Are Dai"  Akane's Trouble" kind of positioning.

    It¡¯s not that this is not good. Audiences need stories like this. Think about a movie like this. The whole family can watch it together and laugh endlessly. It must be very happy.

    ¡°It¡¯s just that making a movie is not watching a movie, you have to have a desire to create, and now he wants to make something more interesting.  He didn't even have any feelings for the heroine in the novel because she was too thin. Interestingly, the heroine was also named Liz. She was nothing special. She was young, sweet, healthy and cute, which was the most suitable for Emma's image positioning.

    The story is also very simple. Liz is a young girl who does not want to move in with her great-aunt Alice, who has animal allergies, because it means saying goodbye to her beloved dog Beibei.  But she was forced to move with her family.  Shortly after moving, she met a stray dog ??that pitifully looked forward to following her.

    But Liz¡¯s mother objected, and her aunt couldn¡¯t stand it, so Liz and her brother Bruce had to raise the dog in an abandoned house across the street and named it Sadie.  Soon, the two had three more partners, Tim, Debbie and Annabelle, and eight more dogs.

    Expenses started to overwhelm the dog hotel, and their parents found out.  In the end, the bad guy was exposed (Jerry, the original owner of one of the dogs who abused Red Tiger, was Bruce's mortal enemy. His bad deeds were known to his ignorant father. It was inevitable.punishment), the dogs each got a new home, and Liz's article was published.

    Cute and interesting story, but a little boring story.

    The good news is that this project doesn't need to respect the original work. You can destroy it as much as you want. Bruce becomes Liz's brother, Liz isn't called Liz anymore, it doesn't matter, as long as it's still a story for children and family audiences.  That¡¯s it.

    The bad news is that this project is so Hollywood that it has nothing but money and fame, and you can¡¯t make much money at any time, so there is no competition at all.  If Ye Wei is willing to take over, he can go to the DreamWorks headquarters to sign the contract immediately. Anyway, if the LMS performance is not good, he can change people or shelve the project directly.

    Looking at the guarantees from DreamWorks and Roberts, Ye Wei was a little annoyed and a little amused. Why is it such a project?  Because he is young?  No, it¡¯s because this is the kind of project that has been adapted and it makes no difference who is the director. Even if the LMS score is average, he can be directed. Of course, the producer and screenwriter will be gone.

    This way, rather than asking for his glory, it is better to tell the truth and squeeze out all the reputation value he can have.

    Therefore, Ye Wei's interest in "Home of Stray Dogs" is very low, currently the lowest. If his new project is filmed with this, it means that he is a failure.

    "The Lovely Bones" is paradise, "The Home for Stray Dogs" is stray dogs, and "Soul Surfer", a real-life biography project, is the surfing of the soul.

    The story of Bethany Hamilton, an unfortunate girl with a broken arm bravely redeems herself and pursues her dreams with determination.
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