1novels Chapter 66, Script
Chapter 66, Script
Time flew by and it was December 29st.
With the filming of "Go Fighting!" about to begin, Huang Bo organized a gathering, saying that they would have a meal before filming started to get to know each other and become familiar with each other.
The location was a Huaiyang cuisine restaurant on the edge of the East Fourth Ring Road. It was very private, with no sign at the entrance, just a dusty wooden door. Pushing it open revealed a hidden world inside.
When Gao Huan arrived, Sun Honglei was already there, sitting in the private room drinking tea. He was wearing a black casual jacket, his hair was unkempt, but his face exuded an aura of quiet authority.
Seeing Gao Huan enter, he put down his teacup and looked him up and down.
"Oh, you're here? You're even taller than you look on TV."
Gao Huan walked over and bowed slightly: "Hello, Brother Honglei."
"Don't be shy, have a seat." Sun Honglei gestured to the chair next to him. "What kind of tea would you like? Longjing or Tieguanyin?"
"Anything is fine."
"Then Longjing tea will do." Sun Honglei poured him a cup of tea, his movements unhurried, as if he were entertaining a guest in his own living room.
"I watched your performance of 'One Meat, One Vegetable' on the Spring Festival Gala. You sang it so well, my mom even cried. The old lady said, 'This child has a human touch in his eyes, unlike those who just know how to show off.'"
Gao Huan took the teacup and smiled, "I'm glad Auntie likes it. Please thank her for me."
"She's a fan of yours now, she keeps saying, 'Why isn't Gao Huan on TV anymore?'"
Sun Honglei laughed as he spoke, "I told her she's filming, she can't be on TV every day. She wasn't happy about it, saying she needs to eat too, why can't she go on a variety show while filming?"
Just then, the door was pushed open again.
Huang Bo walked in, wearing a dark gray hoodie without a hood and with slightly messy hair, but he looked very energetic and his smile revealed particularly warm lines around his eyes.
"I'm so sorry, the traffic was terrible. The Third Ring Road was jammed from Guomao all the way to Sanyuanqiao. I almost got out of the car and walked over."
"It took you forty minutes to walk here," Sun Honglei said.
"So you didn't leave."
Huang Bo sat down next to Gao Huan, poured himself a cup of tea, took a big gulp, and said, "Xiao Gao, what have you been busy with lately? You've lost weight."
"I just finished filming 'Brotherhood of Blades' and an idol drama, and I'm working on a movie script."
Gao Huan took a brown paper envelope out of his bag and placed it on the table. "I was just thinking of asking a few of my older brothers to help me take a look today."
"A script?" Huang Bo put down his teacup, intrigued. He picked up the envelope and pulled out an A4 sheet of paper. "The Nameless? What's the story?"
"It mainly tells the story of two low-level robbers and a sharp-tongued woman in a wheelchair."
Gao Huan said, "It's dark humor, absurd, and takes place in a small town in Guizhou. It's about a simpleton who wants to be a big brother, an honest man who wants to get married, a gun without bullets, and a woman who just wants to die."
Huang Bo flipped through a few pages, his brows furrowing slightly before relaxing. He didn't say anything and continued reading.
He read very slowly, not as if he were scanning a script, but as if he were savoring the flavor of each word.
Huang Lei arrived at that moment.
He was wearing a light blue shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his forearms. He looked gentle and relaxed, like a cup of Longjing tea that had been brewed a second time, with just the right flavor.
"I'm so sorry, something came up at school, that's why I'm late."
As he walked in, he saw Gao Huan and smiled, "Gao, long time no see. My daughter has watched your 'Medal' music video more than ten times and says she wants to learn table tennis."
Gao Huan stood up: "Teacher Huang."
Huang Lei taught at the Beijing Film Academy. Although he did not directly teach Gao Huan, Gao Huan always called him "Teacher Huang," which is a common practice in the industry and a term of respect.
Huang Lei waved his hand: "Don't be so polite, sit down. Weren't you filming in Huairou before the New Year? I have a student on the set there who said he saw you practicing your sword skills until dark every day."
"Yeah, there are a lot of action scenes, so I need to get my body in shape."
The word "skilled" made Huang Lei take another look at him.
This child knows how to speak appropriately.
Wang Xun was the last to arrive. He pushed open the door, looking apologetic, and clasped his hands together in prayer.
"Sorry I'm late, there was a traffic jam on the way. I came from Zhongguancun and it took me almost an hour to get here."
"It's alright, we just arrived not long ago," Huang Bo said, inviting him to sit down.
When Wang Xun was filming "Crazy Stone," he was much more famous than Huang Bo. Now he is one of Huang Bo's artists, and Huang Bo brought him into the industry this time.
After Wang Xun sat down, he glanced around at the people at the table, his gaze lingering on Gao Huan's face for a moment before he smiled and nodded.
Gao Huan nodded to him and said, "Hello, Teacher Wang."
The dishes were served one by one.
Huaiyang cuisine is exquisite and beautifully presented, but the portions are not large.
Hot dried bean curd strips, braised crab meat lion's head meatballs, braised dried bean curd strips, squirrel-shaped mandarin fish, and salted duck—each dish is made like a work of art.
The group ate and chatted, their conversation ranging from their respective works to their recent schedules, and from their schedules to gossip in the entertainment industry.
Halfway through the meal, Huang Lei suddenly put down his chopsticks and looked at Gao Huan.
"Xiao Gao, I heard you have a really good script that Chen Sicheng highly recommends?"
Gao Huan was picking up a lion's head meatball when he heard this, and his chopsticks paused for a moment.
"Did Director Chen tell you?"
"Yeah, I ran into him the other day, and he mentioned it to me, saying that your script was really good, the best black humor he'd seen in years."
Huang Lei picked up his teacup and took a sip. "His exact words were, 'This kid's writing doesn't sound like that of a newcomer; it sounds like that of a seasoned veteran who's been holding back for years.'"
Gao Huan smiled and said, "Director Chen, you flatter me. That script is still being revised and is not yet finalized."
"Still revising it?" Sun Honglei interjected. "What kind of script could make Chen Sicheng praise it so much? He's very picky; ordinary things don't meet his standards."
"It's called 'The Great Buddha+', a dark and absurd drama told from the perspective of ordinary people at the bottom of society."
Gao Huan didn't plan to bring that one out today because it wasn't fixed yet; he hadn't found the right balance. "That one still needs some work. I brought another one today."
He pushed the second copy of "The Nameless" to the center of the table.
"I was just thinking of asking Professor Huang to take a look at 'The Nameless'."
Huang Lei took it, but instead of opening it right away, he looked at the cover first.
"The Nameless... This name is interesting; it evokes a sense of frustration."
He opened the script, read a few pages, and his expression slowly changed.
The private room fell silent.
Huang Bo was also looking at the copy of the script in his hand, and Wang Xun also came over.
The two people sat around a script, neither of them speaking.
Sun Honglei sat to the side, not squeezing in, but judging from the expressions of the three people, he already knew what was going on.
Something that can make Huang Bo and Huang Lei watch it so intently for so long must be good.
About ten minutes later, Huang Lei looked up.
He looked at Gao Huan with a complex emotion in his eyes, a mixture of surprise and regret.
The script was surprisingly good, but unfortunately there wasn't a role that suited me well.
"How long have you been working on this notebook?"
Gao Huan thought for a moment: "I started conceiving this last year when we were filming 'The Coffin in the Mountain'. I wrote it on and off for about half a year and revised it several times. I wrote and deleted some dialogues, and I revised the most paragraphs eleven times."
At this moment, Huang Bo, who had been silent for a long time, spoke first, saying something that did not surprise anyone present.
"I'll take the role of Glasses."
Sun Honglei was taken aback: "You haven't finished reading yet."
"You don't need to read the whole thing."
Huang Bo turned to one of the pages of the script.
"I can see the footage of this scene, the one where the two robbers are arguing in the hallway."
Glasses said: You cowardly murderer, arsonist, and bank robber! Big Head said: I didn't rob a bank, I robbed a mobile phone store.
The person with glasses said: "A mobile phone store isn't a bank?"
Big Head said: "Mobile phone stores sell mobile phones, banks sell money, how can they be the same?"
Looking at Huang Bo, Gao Huan felt a little relieved.
He knew which part Huang Bo was referring to.
The scene depicts two robbers who rob a mobile phone store and, while fleeing, mistakenly enter the home of a woman in a wheelchair.
Two people were arguing in the stairwell. One wanted to run away, and the other wanted to save someone. They were cowardly, stupid, and kind-hearted, and their argument caused chaos.
That was a darkly humorous segment in the whole film, but also a very heartwarming one.
"Brother Bo, you're playing the role of Glasses?" Gao Huan asked to confirm.
"Yes, that rural youth who wanted to be the big brother looked fierce, but he was actually incredibly soft-hearted."
As Huang Bo spoke, he turned to another page of the script. "Look here, 'Glasses puts a gun to a woman's head, his hand is shaking, the woman says if you dare to shoot, Glasses says you think I wouldn't dare?'"
The woman said, "You just don't dare." In this scene, the man in glasses's glasses wasn't cowardly at all; he was kind. He never intended to truly hurt anyone.
Wang Xun chimed in from the side, "Shall I take the big head?"
Huang Bo glanced at him and laughed: "You have a good eye for talent. The character Da Tou is like you—honest and simple-minded, but not malicious."
"And he has a love story." Wang Xun smiled and scratched his head. "I like characters with romantic subplots, even if they don't end up together."
Sun Honglei sat to the side without saying a word, and accepted the third script from Gao Huan's empire.
After quickly flipping through the script, he watched as the others continued discussing it, and lightly tapped his fingers twice on the table.
The pace was neither too fast nor too slow, as if he was thinking about something.
"Xiao Gao," he began, "you mean that manuscript you're still revising, 'The Great Buddha+', what's it about?"
Gao Huan thought for a moment and summarized it in one sentence: "A nobody from the bottom of society saw something he shouldn't have seen in a rich person's dashcam, and then he died."
The private room fell silent for a moment.
"That's it?" Sun Honglei asked.
"That's it," Gao Huan said. "But that 'death' seems like the ending, but it's actually the beginning of the movie."
No one saw him when he was alive, but his story was captured by a dashcam after he died.
A wealthy person saw his face while driving, said, "Who's this guy?", and then turned off the screen.
Sun Honglei looked at him, something churning in his eyes.
He was both scrutinizing Gao Huan and assessing the young man's worth.
Having been in the industry for so many years, he has seen too many people who know how to talk a good game.
"Is there a suitable role for me in 'The Unknown'?" Sun Honglei asked.
Gao Huan looked at him, and a scene flashed through her mind.
In the movie "The Nameless", Chen Jianbin played the role of Ma Xianyong.
A down-on-his-luck security guard, formerly a police auxiliary officer, lost his job because of drunk driving. His wife died, his sister became paralyzed, and his daughter ignored him.
He wanted to find the lost gun and prove that he was still a policeman.
That character was cowardly, stubborn, pitiful, and hateful, but in the final scene, he stood in front of his daughter, took a bullet, and said, "Don't hit her."
A man who had failed his entire life finally did one thing right at the last moment.
"There is a character," Gao Huan said.
"Ma Xianyong, a security guard. He used to be a police auxiliary officer, but lost his job because of drunk driving."
His wife died, his sister became paralyzed, and his daughter ignored him.
He wanted to find a lost gun to prove he wasn't useless.
Sun Honglei's fingers stopped.
He looked at Gao Huan, remained silent for a few seconds, and then said something that surprised everyone present.
"Am I suitable for this role?"
Huanhuan nodded happily, "Of course."
Looking at Sun Honglei, Gao Huan felt a little relieved.
The film *The Nameless* features three main male characters: Glasses, Big Head, and Ma Xianyong. Glasses is played by Huang Bo, Big Head by Wang Xun, and Ma Xianyong by Sun Honglei.
Three people, three styles, three completely different performance methods.
If they could really get together, the scene would be so luxurious that Gao Huan couldn't even imagine it.
These three people standing in the same shot, even their breathing could fill the scene.
Huang Lei sat to the side, not saying much.
He looked at Gao Huan with a look of a teacher's satisfaction at seeing a student, and also a little surprise.
He never expected that Gao Huan would quietly orchestrate such a scheme, not through resources or connections, but through a single document.
"Xiao Gao, who are you planning to get to direct this script?"
Gao Huan thought for a moment and said, "I want to find a new director."
"A new director?" Huang Lei raised an eyebrow. "With this lineup—Huang Bo, Sun Honglei, Wang Xun—you're telling me you're looking for a new director?"
"Yes," Gao Huan said, "because this play doesn't require much skill or showing off."
Its most important element is the actors.
If the actors are right, the play will be right.
The director's job is to not block the actors' view.
Huang Lei was silent for a few seconds, then nodded.
"So, do you have someone in mind?"
"There is one named Rao Xiaozhi."
Gao Huan said, "As a theater director, I have a very accurate grasp of human nature."
He directed a play called "Hello, Crazy," a dark comedy with an ensemble cast, which matched the feel of "The Unknown" very well.
Huang Bo chimed in from the side, "Rao Xiaozhi? I think I've heard of him. He graduated from the Central Academy of Drama?"
"Yes, he has been doing stage plays for almost ten years and has a particularly keen eye for observing ordinary people."
Gao Huan said, "I want to invite him to take a look at the script, and if he's interested, I'll let him direct it."
Sun Honglei interjected, "And what about the producer?"
"I would like to invite Brother Bo and Brother Honglei to be the producers."
Gao Huan looked at them and said, "You've been on set for so many years, you know what good stuff is and how to film good stuff."
With you all here, I feel confident.
Huang Bo and Huang Lei exchanged a glance but remained silent.
Wang Xun quietly sipped his tea, but a smile played on his lips.
He was amused by Gao Huan's way of speaking, which was to say, "I can't do it, but you guys can."
This child really knows what he wants.