Became an American Retro Novelist - Chapter 232



Only Noblemtl

232.

As I began to live another life, there was one big thing I decided to do.

That was exactly what it said, ‘Don’t be swayed by the name value.’

Of course, if you sign a contract with a big company, they will do a good job with marketing and they will not be picky about the details, so it is good in many ways. However, because of that, there is a high possibility that you will be bullied.

So, since my debut, I have repeatedly promised myself that I would be able to work on my art without being swayed by the company.

······But to be honest, Warner Brothers was a bit shaken.

What kind of company is Warner Brothers?

A mega-film production company headquartered in Burbank, California, it has produced countless great works, both animation and regular films.

In the future, it will be counted as one of the five major studios along with Walt Disney Studios, Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures, and Sony Pictures.

Personally, I have enjoyed many of Warner Brothers’ films, so I was honestly excited just to hear that I had received the offer.

And with Simon’s subsequent comments, I had no choice but to push for a deal right away.

“Do you know director Tim Burton?”

“Huh? Oh······ Tim Burton?”

The name of the amazing director suddenly popped up, to the point where it was regrettable that I had to pretend not to know him.

Tim Burton.

The man who had been immersed in a unique gloomy world since childhood sublimated that tendency into his own artistic color. As a result, he became the director who created numerous masterpieces such as ‘Batman’, ‘Edward Scissorhands’, ‘Beetlejuice’, and ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’.

‘How was it now?’

While I was pondering, Simon took it upon himself to answer the question I had asked.

“He’s the director who directed ‘Pee-wee’s Big Adventure.’”

“ah.”

‘Pee-wee’s Big Adventure’.

This comedy film, featuring the character Pee-wee Herman from the stage live show “The Pee-wee Herman Show,” was a huge hit that later had a huge influence on the creation of the children’s TV show “Pee-wee’s Playhouse.”

Starting with this feature film as his debut, Tim Burton would go on to gain immense fame with the release of the comedy horror film ‘Beetlejuice’ in 1988.

‘Is it appropriate in terms of timing?’

He was a director famous for adapting original works into his own unique world and creating wonderful films.

My heart started pounding and racing at the thought that maybe he would take on the film adaptation of my work.

But Simon has also said this:

“I want to make a movie of ‘Mother’.”

“······I, I see.”

“Should we wait a little longer as planned and see if we can get more offers?”

“I’d like to do that too, but, uh······ If it’s okay with Simon, I’d like to accept this offer.”

“What caught your interest?”

Simon asked with a soft smile. At times like this, I felt like he was much more mature than I was.

I coughed slightly to calm down the excitement I felt at the name ‘Tim Burton’ and then spoke seriously.

“I like Pee Wee Herman.”

“······Author, that’s a children’s movie.”

“All writers are children.”

Of course, it was a biased statement.

“And if you’re going to do it, please include me in the meeting this time.”

“You really liked Pee Wee Herman.”

“Uh, yes······.”

‘I really want to catch Tim Burton because I know he’s going to be a hugely famous director in a few years. And I really want to meet him and talk to him on this occasion,’ so I couldn’t just say that outright, so I had no choice but to use the Pee-wee Herman excuse until the very end.

This is really sad, like Kung Fury.

‘Because he can’t tell his secrets to anyone like me.’

Maybe that’s why.

After the fight with Nin-Zero ends, Kung-Fury feels a strange sensation.

Because the one who had noticed his secret had completely disappeared again.

I had no intention of telling anyone about it, but the fact that I kept repeating life and death was very stressful in itself. So, I had an indescribably strange feeling that Nin-Zero knew about it.

A man who killed countless innocent people to achieve his own goals.

A certain relief that comes from the fact that he has completely disappeared from the world, and at the same time an inexplicable sense of desolation that comes.

But the incident was over, and life returned to normal, leaving all that behind.

After the terrorist incident by the villain known as Zero, the agency also accepted their mistakes to some extent and began to inspect internally to prevent something like this from happening again and to do their best to contain the incident.

America’s representative superhero Star Chaser has begun activities with his face revealed.

Although there were some problems that arose because of this, he paid no attention to it and acted more cheerfully than before, occasionally visiting Kung-Fury, who had become his friend, and they began to have comfortable conversations.

Sodapop’s popularity actually grew through its fight with Zero.

The agency tried to use it as a marketing point, and Sodapop didn’t want to do that anymore. But after complaining about it to Kung-Fury and hearing his advice to “do whatever you want,” he went on a talk show and talked about his experience dealing with Zero, and started rowing wildly when the tide came in.

And finally, Kung-Fury returned to his usual routine.

While trying to revive the kung fu dojo with Shifu, he also continued to help people through his superhero activities. Then, he ended up urinating in front of Fujiyama Kung Fu, and when Fujiyama found out, he got angry and threatened to use him as a punching bag if he caught anyone.

Joe was grateful that he had returned to such a small(?) daily life.

America, with its superheroes, is slowly returning to its original state.

Just one.

Even after Zero’s death, the supercomputer that remained intact and preserved his personality and goals was dreaming of revenge on the United States and Kung-Fury.

‘Kung-fury : Novel’ FIN.

As I was naturally recalling the final scene of my latest work in my head, I felt that it was time to move on to the next step.

He won the Nebula Award and the Hugo Award for his ‘Loser’ series. His next work, ‘Kung-fury’, also achieved considerable success, and became a work known to many people, especially through the book review incident.

As a winner of two of the major science fiction literary awards and a writer who had proven both his resume and his skills with his next work that was popular across America, it was time to move forward with a full-fledged film adaptation of my work.

“Then please proceed with the contract with Warner Brothers.”

······While I’m at it, I’d also like to meet director Tim Burton.

***

Making a movie is a task that requires a tremendous amount of ‘force’.

The ‘power’ mentioned here had several meanings. Simply put, it included manpower, the technical skills needed for production, the capital to prepare all the necessary matters, and sometimes even the power that extended to the industry.

So, in order not to waste energy, each film company was careful about production and generally did not take risks easily. And instead, as a means, they tended to prefer works that had an ‘original’.

The work of adapting an original work that had already sold well in the market into a movie could have a much higher prognosis than creating a work without a foundation at all. Of course, not all works with an original work were successful, but since there was a solid central narrative and characters and an existing fan base, it was in many ways less risky, even if it was the same adventure.

So then, how do you set up the original work?

There were two main methodologies.

One is when the work itself is selected as suitable for film adaptation.

Another case is when the original work or author is so famous that people want to make it into a movie.

When approaching the latter case, the writer who has been receiving the most attention in the American film industry recently has clearly been ‘SEEN’.

As the author became famous overnight by winning both the Hugo Award and Nebula Award for the ‘Losers’ series, adapting his work into a film was a task that involved minimal risk.

The quality of the work is also important, but production companies that value commerciality inevitably had to pay special attention to it. No matter how bad the film is (there is a limit to that), they wanted the work of an author who would get people interested and come to the theater, and Shin’s current reputation is perfect for that.

However, the reason why there has been no news about the film adaptation yet is because of the ‘work’.

Shin’s most famous work was probably the ‘Losers’ series. The work that followed was the superhero ‘Kung-fury: Novel’. However, since the production costs of both works were obviously enormous due to the genre characteristics, everyone was watching closely and secretly.

In addition, there is ‘About T’, but that work had already been made into a television drama, so there was no particular reason to produce it.

Still, just the news that God’s work was being made into a movie would have been a huge issue.

The reason Sony Pictures, which was about to be established, proposed the film adaptation of ‘Kung-Fury’ was also largely due to this purpose. The film adaptation of a famous work that everyone wanted, but had not made any progress due to various problems and a war of wits behind the scenes. It was an attempt to take the first step into uncharted territory, where the outcome was unknown, while also promoting it before a full-fledged launch.

However, hard-boiled publishers, who were not completely unaware of the industry’s situation, used them in reverse.

I declined the offer as ‘politely’ as possible, and then leaked information to the film industry based on that incident.

There was a great deal of help from Rémy Martin, who worked in perfect sync with the hard-boiled publisher. He knew a lot of people, but he didn’t get along with them, so he would go to any appropriate gathering and say in his characteristically loud voice:

‘Ah! That, Sony Pictures this time? I heard they made a movie proposal to Hardboiled Publishing. Yes, yes. The company that has the author of the novel who won the award for that. The contract fell through, but if Sony Pictures made an offer, then the author’s name value must be important!’

The information spread slowly, like soot burning paper.

From then on, each film production company began to make inquiries about film adaptations. And Hardboiled Publishing reversed the situation by suggesting that they send in a list of works and plans they wanted to adapt into films.

With this, most production companies have figured out the other party’s position.

‘It seems like they’re not just focusing on selling the copyright, but also looking at the realistic aspects of whether it can actually be made into a movie.’

It was also naturally expected that Sony Pictures was rejected because of this shortcoming.

By then, some production companies had given up and decided not to delve any deeper, but others began to seriously look into Shin’s work to see if there was anything that could be made into a movie.

In the grand scheme of things, of the six full-length novels Shin has published so far, the latter three have achieved significant public success.

The ‘About T’ series has already been dramatized.

The ‘Losers’ series, which won the Nebula and Hugo Awards.

‘Kung-fury’, which became a hot topic through comics.

But as I said before, these three works were by no means suitable for immediate film production.

So, each production company began to look at the three previous works and think about which one would be good to make into a movie.

‘Mother’ was her debut work.

The second work, ‘Double spy’.

The third work, ‘Princess quest’.

Works that were popular as serials in newspapers and magazines in California. Of these three novels, the first two were the ones that had the highest possibility of being produced. After all, making sword and sorcery into movies has similar problems to superhero movies.

But at a time when everyone was thinking that way, if they really wanted to proceed with the contract, they would have to come up with a concrete agenda, and Michael Bender, the producer in charge of this agenda within Warner Bros., asked Tim Burton, a young film director he knew, if he might be a good fit for the job.

Through this flow, Tim Burton became interested in ‘Mother’, and they wrote a proposal for a film adaptation and sent it to Hardboiled Publishers.

And within a few days, a reply arrived.

[I want to proceed. I want a meeting.]

Michael Bender, who received the message, couldn’t help but tilt his head for a moment.

I can’t believe permission was granted this quickly.

‘Is it possible that other places aren’t as active as we are······?’

But the reason things turned out this way was very simple.

It was because of the active support of the writer who knew the talent of the director, Tim Burton.

At the request of Hardboiled Publishers, who wanted a meeting before signing, Michael asked director Tim Burton, who happened to live in Burbank, close to the company.

And surprisingly, the team, who were usually reluctant to meet people, actively expressed their desire to meet and talk as soon as they heard that the original author was coming.

‘Huh, did the artists communicate with each other like some kind of telepathy?’

Warner Bros. producer Michael Bender chuckled at the idea and arranged a meeting between the original writer and the film director.

***

Saturday, October 11, 1986.

Under the circumstances that ‘the writer is a college student and only has time on weekends,’ Michael Bender and Tim Burton entered the company located in Burbank, California on the agreed date and time.

The office has a leisurely atmosphere because most people don’t go to work.

After sitting in an empty conference room with his team for a while, Michael received word from Hardboiled Publishers that two guests had arrived and went out to greet them. As he met them and guided them around, he naturally found it fascinating.

‘You’re young.’

This applies to the representative as well, but especially to the writer.

Back in the conference room, he glanced at Tim Burton, who was keeping his mouth shut and avoiding eye contact, and then Michael, who knew his tendencies well, took the lead in leading the table talk.

“Michael Bender, producer at Warner Brothers, and this is director Tim Burton.”

“Simon Carver from Hardboiled Publishing. And you’re a new writer.”

“Hello. I am God.”

The god greeted me with a light smile and a friendly manner.

A light conversation followed between the two businessmen, both familiar with sales.

“Oh my, the team manager is so old-fashioned, it’s embarrassing. He told me how moved he was after reading ‘Mother’, but when we actually met, he didn’t say a word! Hahaha!”

“Oh, really? Our writer also said that he was very impressed by director Tim Burton’s ‘Pee-wee Herman’ series! Hahaha!”

Haha, hoo hoo, kkkkkkk.

Next to the two businessmen who were talking excitedly, an exchange of glances was taking place.

Tim Burton, who turned his head as if he should step in, found the face of God looking at him with sparkling eyes while sitting in his seat.

“······.”

“······.”

The silence still continues.

People who have developed a sensitive tendency as creators tend to have difficulty opening up conversations with strangers.

But even though their fields were different, they were both creators, so there was one special topic that they could relate to.

Finally, the team spoke first.

“Mr. New Writer.”

“Yes, team manager.”

“I really liked the emptiness inside the author.”

When the god heard those words, his eyes widened.