Zhou Yan originally thought that after Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was taken away by Kanter and the others, he would never come back.
But after their rehearsal for the day ended, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar appeared again.
"Mr. Y, can we talk again?"
Jabbar directly stopped Zhou Yan at the entrance of the hall. It seemed that he should have been guarding him for a long time.
Seeing the sincere look on Jabbar's face, Zhou Yan sighed, "You probably haven't eaten yet."
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar shook his head, "Not yet."
"Let's go, if you don't mind, come to the hotel to eat with us."
"Of course I don't mind." Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's eyes lit up, He knew what Zhou Yan's words meant.
After arriving at the hotel restaurant, Zhou Yan asked Jabbar while eating some not-so-authentic Chinese food, "Have you ever directed a musical by yourself before?"
Jabbar nodded. , "Of course, I have served as screenwriter and director of a total of seven plays."
Seven?
Zhou Yan looked at Jabbar in surprise.
This number is extraordinary, because musicals are very time-consuming, and many directors spend many years just on one musical.
The creative process of a musical is different from that of a movie. It is continuous. Even if the preliminary work goes well, when the musical actually goes on the stage, the creation will still continue. The director will make changes based on the situation on the scene. , and constantly adjust.
The same play may be completely different after the first performance and a hundred performances.
"These seven musicals don't include your homework at school, right?" Zhou Yan asked half-jokingly.
"Of course not, these seven musicals have all been performed in public. Of course, five of them have been performed less than fifty times, and only one has been performed more than a hundred times."< br>
This result is not particularly good, but it is still good.
Zhou Yan wondered, "Then why are you still working as a resident director?"
Since Jabbar has performed more than a hundred performances, it proves that there is still some market. There is no need for him to be a resident director for others, he can just rely on his own plays.
Being a resident director for others is very time-consuming and energy-consuming. As a director with creative ability and experience, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has no reason to do this anymore.
Jabbar smiled and explained, "'The Sound of Music' is the first real commercial play I participated in. I have feelings for it, and my residency is only in Houston. My daily performance tasks are It’s not heavy, I have a lot of time to do my own things.”
“Are your plays still being performed?”
“There are no performances planned this month, but there will be ones next month. Six games, all in Houston."
Zhou Yan nodded. He probably understood Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's situation. He had underestimated Kareem Abdul-Jabbar before. He thought Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was just a tool.
"It's a pity. If I could stay longer, I would definitely go and watch your play. What is the theme of your play? Adaptation or original?"
"It is original, and the name is "A Wonderful Night at the Circus" , the main story is..."
Jabbar spent about ten minutes introducing his "Night at the Circus" to Zhou Yan. This is a very conventional stage musical. The format is different from classic musicals and opera house musicals. The storyline is relatively complex and interesting, and the music used is basically popular music.
Of course, although the form is new, the core of the story is still the same old plot, which is about a rich boy falling in love with the daughter of the circus leader.
In order to see his beloved girl, a rich boy went to the circus in the dark and happened to encounter a circus rehearsal. He had to dress up as a clown and join the circus rehearsal.
Naturally, there are many situations along the way, and it seems that the rich kid will be found out at any time.
The ending is that the rich kid successfully passed the night and saw his beloved girl, but all this was under the watchful eye of the circus leader.
It turns out that the circus leader had long known that the clown was played by a kid from a rich family.
The storyline is quite good. At least Zhou Yan became somewhat interested in this drama after hearing about it.
However, whether this play is good or not depends on the live performance. What is on the stage is always different from what is in the script.
Especially in musicals, many of the scripts seem to be ordinary stories, but when presented on the stage, they are very contagious.
Those classic plays, the scripts have not changed after many years of performance, and many theater groups have imitated them, but the effects presented by different theater groups are very different.
This not only tests the director's choreography ability, but also tests the actor's performance ability.
After Jabbar finished talking about his musical, he kept watching Zhou Yan, trying to judge Zhou Yan's attitude towards the musical through Zhou Yan's expression.
However, Zhou Yan neither made any unnecessary expressions nor spoke, as if he was thinking about the problem.
Seeing Zhou Yan thinking, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar didn't dare to disturb him.
After about a minute, Zhou Yan finally said, "Do you know Barnum?"
Jabbar was stunned for a moment. He thought that Zhou Yan would treat him after being silent. While reviewing the musical "Night at the Circus", Zhou Yan unexpectedly asked him if he knew Barnum.
However, this question does not seem to be off-topic, because Barnum is a very important figure in the history of the circus.
Jabbar didn't know Barnum before. It was because he was going to write "Night at the Circus" that he studied the development history of the circus, and then he learned about Barnum.
"I know Barnum. He has a profound influence on the development of the current circus."
Zhou Yan nodded. Some people say that Barnum is the King of Circus. At first glance, this title sounds like a circus. The regiment was invented by Barnum.
Of course this is not the case. There was a circus long before Barnum, but the circus at that time was very different from the circus today.
It was the appearance of Barnum that innovated the form of the circus and made the circus popular among the masses.
"Have you ever thought about arranging a Barnum story?" Zhou Yan asked.
"This... I never thought about it."
Jabbar knew Barnum's influence on the development of the circus, but he didn't think Barnum's story was easy to arrange.
Barnum is actually a businessman through and through. He will do whatever it takes to succeed and sell tickets. For example, he once bought a paralyzed black slave girl and released news that the black slave girl was one hundred and sixty-one years old. , and she was also Washington's mother. In order to extract the value of the slave girl, he had to put the slave girl on display for more than ten hours every day.
The most outrageous thing is that he even held a ticketed anatomy show after the death of the slave girl.
He also trained a four-year-old child and packaged the child into a thumb general.
In addition, there are a bunch of strange characters such as a bearded woman, a dog man, a four-legged girl, etc.
From the perspective of entertaining the public, Barnum is undoubtedly a genius. He is always able to take advantage of the audience's curiosity and contribute unique performances.
Today, more than a hundred years later, the circus is still following the same path that Barnum followed.
In Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s view, Barnum is a profiteer who has no bottom line and only knows how to entertain the public. If he is to be arranged in a musical, he should be a villain in it.
After thinking about it, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar added, "Y, you may not know Barnum very well. Maybe you have read some of the stories that were circulated in the early days, but in fact these stories were Barnum's attempt to give himself Made up to create a good reputation”
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is telling the truth. Barnum did do whatever he could in his early days, but as he became more and more famous and gradually entered the upper class, he began to pay attention to his image.
In order to change the public's impression of himself, he even bribed many newspapers and asked them to write some articles that were beneficial to him.
In such an era, these articles obviously played a role.
So Kareem Abdul-Jabbar thought that Zhou Yan might have said this because he accidentally saw those old stories.
But he must let Zhou Yan know that the real Barnum is not as good as those stories say.
Zhou Yan shook his head, "I know Barnum somewhat, and I also know that he is a simple entertainer."
For a simple entertainer, I can't hear the praise or criticism, but Jabbar thinks it is quite appropriate. .
"I don't think Barnum has anything worthy of praise." Kareem Abdul-Jabbar said his thoughts directly.
Zhou Yan smiled and put down the chopsticks in his hand, "A musical is not a historical drama. Historical figures can be just a symbol, a symbol, like a ball of thread. We only need to find one thread. Barnum counts. His legendary experience can serve as a thread."
Jabbar also responded quickly, he frowned and said, "You mean, just take a little bit from his story?"
"Just find what we want. No matter what methods Barnum uses, his entrepreneurial history is still quite inspirational."
Jabbar nodded in approval, "Indeed, aside from some of his unscrupulous operations , just looking at his rising resume, it is indeed very inspiring. In any case, he has indeed given a lot of innovation to the circus, and his influence is real.”
“So, if we follow this clue, we will. It’s completely possible to arrange an inspirational musical.”
“That’s true, and the strange actors in the circus can also...”
Halfway through, Jabbar suddenly stopped. .
He didn't understand what he was doing, why did he suddenly discuss the new drama with Zhou Yan? He came to Zhou Yan to ask Zhou Yan to cooperate with him to make "Spring of the Cowherd Class" into a musical. But now the content of the discussion between the two completely deviated from the topic he wanted to discuss, and became related to the circus.
“Mr. .
However, Zhou Yan smiled and said, "But after listening to your "Wonderful Night at the Circus", I have some ideas."
"But..."
As soon as Jabbar opened his mouth, Zhou Yan interrupted him, "If you are willing, we can try to cooperate on this new drama. As for "Spring of the Cowherd Class", I am not ready to do it yet."
< br>Zhou Yan's words made Kareem Abdul-Jabbar not sure how to respond.
Of course he still wanted "Spring of the Cowherd Class", but Zhou Yandu had already said so firmly that it seemed pointless for him to persist.
As for the new drama, although he only has one idea now, and he doesn't even know what Zhou Yan wants to do, he doesn't want to miss it, after all, it's Zhou Yan sitting in front of him.
Since Zhou Yan can produce "Spring of the Cowherd Class", can he produce another equally excellent work?
Leaving aside the script, if you work with Zhou Yan, at least you don’t have to worry about the music anymore.
After pondering for a long time, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar said, "As long as I can cooperate with you, I will be extremely honored."
"But I won't be able to write the script until the end of the year." Zhou Yan said.
“Of course there is no problem.”
Jabbar even feels that the script will be available at the end of the year, which has exceeded expectations. It only takes a few months to create a musical script from scratch. time, the efficiency is not generally high.
It was "The Greatest Showman" that Zhou Yan wanted to collaborate with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
"The Greatest Showman" is a musical film with a very good market response, with a global box office of more than 400 million US dollars.
Zhou Yan only thought of this movie after Kareem Abdul-Jabbar talked about his own musical. Zhou Yan thought that he might as well take this movie and change it into a stage musical.
It can be considered as a test of the waters. If the effect is good, it can be made into a movie in the future, whether he does it himself or leaves it to other directors.
Of course, Zhou Yan will not necessarily cooperate with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. What he knows about Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the time being is from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar himself.
He must find an opportunity to watch Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's musical before he can make a final decision.
......
After dinner, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar did not stay any longer. After the two exchanged contact information, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar left.
After returning to the room, Zhou Yan wrote "The Greatest Showman" on his schedule again.
His schedule is basically full during this period, and he won't have time to work on "The Greatest Showman" until "Space Traveler" is finished.
Making the musical "The Greatest Showman" was more difficult than "The Greatest Showman" because he had only seen the movie version of "The Greatest Showman" and could not copy it, so he had to adapt it based on the movie.
In this regard, he may have to communicate with Jabaldo.
Or, he can also ask his good friend Alan Rickman for advice. Alan Rickman is very experienced in musicals, especially in the writing of musical scripts.
After adding to the schedule, Zhou Yan started busy working on the storyboards for "Time Traveler".
Probably due to the influence of James Cameron, Zhou Yan's painting skills have improved recently, and the split shots are much more delicate than before.
But at the same time, there is a problem, that is, the painting is very detailed, so the speed slows down. His speed of producing storyboards is even slower now than when he was filming "Spring of the Cowherd Class".
But he is pressed for time, so he now spends a lot of time drawing storyboards every day.
Basically, whenever he has free time, he will work on his drawings.
Of course, the detailed drawings will be more convenient when taking pictures later, and can save a lot of explanation time.
As soon as the others read the manuscript, they basically knew what Zhou Yan wanted, and they could be regarded as chopping wood without missing a beat.
That night, Zhou Yan went to bed at around eleven o'clock, but he got out of bed at seven o'clock the next morning.
After getting up, I had a simple breakfast and started to work again.
Zhou Yan didn’t stop what he was doing until he went to the theater with the orchestra in the afternoon.
Not long after Zhou Yangang arrived backstage, he was playing with his bamboo flute and violin. Team leader Zhang Lin came over and said, "Teacher Zhou, someone is looking for you."
"Looking for me? Who is it? ?”
"Beyoncé and her manager."
Zhou Yan was a little surprised, wondering why the father and daughter were here without saying hello in advance.
“Let them in.”
“Okay.”
Not long after Zhang Lin left, he led a tall black man and a tall little girl away Come over, the girl is Beyoncé.
Matthew Knowles has a typical black appearance, but although he is black, you can tell that his facial features are quite regular.
Although Beyoncé is only fifteen years old, she is already quite tall, probably close to 1.7 meters.
Beyoncé looks darker now than she did later. Later her skin tone was more tanned, but now her skin tone is similar to that of Will Smith.
As soon as he saw Zhou Yan, Matthew Knowles walked up enthusiastically and said, "Mr. Y, I am so happy to meet you. Welcome to Houston. I hope you can stay here. Good memories.”
Zhou Yan probably understood that Matthew Knowles’ family is in Houston, so no wonder they came here.
However, Zhou Yan still saw Matthew Knowles' little thought. He only brought Beyoncé and none of the other members of Mr. Right.
“Come on, Beyoncé, say hello to Mr. Y.”
“Hello, Mr. Y.”
Zhou Yan looked at Beyoncé, he didn’t He thought that the little girl was actually a little shy, which was different from what he imagined Beyoncé to be.
"Hello." Zhou Yan nodded and praised again, "Your expression in "We Are Young" was very good."
"Thank you."
At this time, Matthew Knowles tugged on his daughter's clothes, and then Beyoncé reacted and quickly said in broken Chinese, "Thank you."
Zhou Yan secretly Shaking his head, this Matthew Knowles is quite good at camp. Before coming here, he specially asked his daughter to learn a sentence of Chinese.
But this trick does work. When Zhou Yan heard Beyoncé say thank you in Chinese, he also smiled and said, "The pronunciation is not bad, can you say anything else?"
Beyoncé said thank you in Chinese. Si glanced at her father and then said, "Hello, have you eaten? I'm sorry."
It can be seen that she has tried her best to speak out the Chinese words she remembered, and among them, the pronunciation of "Hello" is not bad.
However, Zhou Yan still gave her encouragement, "Not bad, keep up the good work, maybe next time we meet, we can communicate in Chinese."
See a few words he asked his daughter to learn Chinese came in handy, and Matthew Knowles was also very happy. He added, "Actually, Beyoncé has been very fond of Chinese culture since she was a child. Unfortunately, there are very few Chinese people around us, so it is difficult for her to learn more about it." "Chinese culture."
Obviously, this is a lie made up by Matthew Knowles, and Beyoncé does not seem to be interested in Chinese culture.
However, Zhou Yan does not exclude others from favoring him. Regardless of whether Beyoncé liked Chinese culture before or not, if Beyoncé understands Chinese culture because of herself, the result will be good.
"Chinese culture is profound and profound. It cannot be understood in a day or two. If she is really interested, we can communicate more in the future."
"That would be such an honor."
Matthew· Knowles' goal was achieved, and he was naturally in a good mood.
He knew clearly that if Beyoncé could hold onto Zhou Yan, her future would be limitless.
If he only used Zhou Yan as one of his preparations before, now he is determined to hug Zhou Yan's thigh, and his change of mentality all comes from "We Are Young".
As soon as the song was aired, it became the Billboard weekly number one and has held the title for two weeks.
Looking at the current situation, it should continue to hold the title for a few more weeks.
The Backstreet Boys, who were already on the rise, also took their career to a new level because of this song.
Now they are firmly seated on the throne of the number one teen group in North America, and the two songs "Yellow" and "We Are Young" have lifted them up.
Although Zhou Yan does not write many English songs, they have dominated the charts for a long time. His previous song "Young and Beautiful" dominated the charts for many weeks. (End of chapter)