Despite saying that, Zhuang Hongyi still gestured for his assistant to come over, whispered a few words in the assistant's ear, and then the assistant nodded and turned to leave.
The somewhat empty restaurant fell into an eerie silence.
Xiao He was not used to such an overly serious occasion, so he could only continue to pretend to be calm and stare straight ahead.
Fortunately, the assistant returned soon.
"Give."
The assistant handed me a... comic book?
Xiao He looked at the comic book with its flashy cover in his assistant's hand with some surprise, but he didn't show it on his face. Instead, he took the comic book with a puzzled look in his mind.
I never expected it to be a comic book!
Moreover, the book I have here is only the first volume.
Xiao He glanced at Sister Liu and noticed that she was also examining the cover of the book from all angles.
“This is a new project I invested in recently,” Zhuang Hongyi said softly. “Like ‘The Phantom Thieves’, if the subsequent broadcast goes well, I plan to turn it into a series, except this one is a live-action adaptation of a manga.”
Comic adaptation?
Several comic book adaptations that had flopped in his memory had already flashed through Xiao He's mind subconsciously.
Although there were some high-quality projects recently, the reputation and profits were not proportional, and ultimately, they still resulted in losses.
Because of these consecutive failures, many people in the industry are now taking a wait-and-see attitude towards manga adaptations.
Of course, adapting novel IPs into TV series and movies is already very popular, and there are few original scripts in China. Regardless of whether fans of the original work are willing to accept it, the market situation is what it is, and almost all capital is rushing to develop IPs. For actors to get such big IP adaptations is a testament to their strength.
Although manga adaptations are currently in a slump, it's only a matter of time before capital flows into them... It's just a matter of who gets a piece of the pie first.
Xiao He's gaze fell on the title of the comic book—
"Yuye"
"Yuya?" What a strange name. It's impossible to imagine the specific content or subject matter.
Xiao He doesn't usually read comics and doesn't know much about this one. However, Liu Rulan has a slight impression of it after seeing the title: "Oh, it's 'Yu Ye'. I heard before that the copyright of 'Yu Ye' was bought for a high price. I didn't know it was you, Director Zhuang."
Zhuang Hongyi coughed lightly: "I think this comic has a lot of potential. If it can be adapted into a film, it would definitely be a good investment."
Don't let Zhuang Hongyi's current role as a director fool you; he's also a well-known investor in the industry, the kind of person who has the backing of capital and isn't short of money—you can tell just by looking at this villa.
Zhuang Hongyi usually works as a director, and also participates in the investment and supervision of many other works. This is why he dares to try film series. He is the capital himself and has the ability to back himself up. Even if the first "Phantom Thieves" was not very successful, he can still push a new one on his own. That's how capricious it is when you have money.
Of course, as a businessman, he also had his own considerations.
For example, Zhuang Hongyi had already seen the potential of newcomers like Xiao He and was happy to partner with such newcomers in advance.
After all, it's going to be a series, which will take a long time and span a long period of time. Maybe Xiao He is just a newcomer who makes a cameo appearance for a few minutes now, but a few years later he will be the male lead of other works.
Inviting Xiao He to play these roles later would require an even greater expense.
By binding yourself to Xiao He in advance, even if the contract changes later, it will definitely be much more convenient than signing a separate contract later.
Otherwise, Zhuang Hongyi wouldn't have agreed to let other investors submit Xiao He's resume, since he himself was also an investor.
Liu Rulan nodded in agreement with Zhuang Hongyi: "That's right. 'Yu Ye' has been a hot topic of discussion in recent years. If it can be adapted into a film or television series, it will definitely attract a lot of attention."
However, poor adaptation also carries a high risk.
Nine out of ten of these notebooks will be lost, and the last one will be a complete flop.
To be honest, it would be quite a hot potato for an actor to take on such a role.
Meanwhile, Xiao He didn't consider so many issues. He looked at the comic book in his hand, which clearly showed signs of being flipped through, and then secretly observed Zhuang Hongyi, lost in thought.
Xiao He then lowered his head, covered his mouth with his fist, and coughed lightly to hide his smile.
He vaguely guessed something—
Perhaps Director Zhuang simply liked the comic, which is why he bought the film and television rights.
First came the Gundam collection, then the manga lover... Xiao He felt that if his guess was correct—
Is this Director Zhuang a fan of anime/manga?
Zhuang Hongyi was unaware that his "hidden" nature had been discovered, and was still telling Liu Rulan, "I think Xiao He is very suitable for the villain role in the show, but I am only the producer for this series. The casting still needs to be confirmed by the director. If you are interested, I can help you make recommendations."
This kind of recommendation is practically a pre-arranged decision.
Liu Rulan immediately nodded: "I see, thank you so much, Director Zhuang!"
Xiao He composed himself and began to skim through the comic book in his hand.
The comic is in a classic black and white style. Xiao He couldn't quite distinguish the differences between these drawing styles and techniques, but he felt that the lines of the characters and backgrounds were quite clean, making it very comfortable to look at.
The story takes place in a fictional modern setting, but it begins in an ancient dynasty where the emperor, in pursuit of immortality, sends a group of alchemists to sea to find the legendary secret to eternal life.
This group of alchemists accepted the order and set sail, spending more than forty years in total. In the end, they actually brought back a treasure—a meteorite from outer space that emitted a strange fragrance.
It is said that taking elixirs made ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ from its fragments can grant immortality.
However, the group of alchemists returned at the wrong time. The emperor who had sent them out to sea had already passed away, and the new emperor despised these alchemical arts and completely ignored them, simply kicking them out.
The fact that these alchemists were able to persist in searching for the treasure of immortality for over forty years shows that they were not normal people. They were also obsessed with the art of immortality. Even though they were driven out by the new emperor, they did not give up their research on immortality. So, these madmen secretly captured a group of people who were used as medicine and began to continue their research on the art of immortality in the deep mountains.
But what these sorcerers didn't expect was that the meteorite could also cause physical mutations, giving people special abilities that ordinary people couldn't match.
After the group of people being studied gained this ability, they suddenly rose up one day, killed all the sorcerers, and successfully escaped.
It was later proven that these surviving drug users did indeed possess the ability to slow down aging, but this does not mean that they will not age. In fact, from a certain perspective, their aging period will be dozens of times longer than that of ordinary people.
At the same time, their extraordinary abilities will gradually disappear over time, until they eventually become just ordinary old people.
This also means that their later years will be very painful, from a powerful person with special abilities to a completely ordinary person, and they will continue to live the next hundred years as a weak old man until they finally die of natural causes. Due to the special nature of their bodies, ordinary injuries cannot harm them, and they cannot even die easily.
And so time passed, and the world changed...
In modern society, the remaining survivors of the medicinal plants are now very old, ordinary people, peacefully awaiting death. However, due to technological advancements, the secret to their immortality has been uncovered, leading to a battle of humanity—a struggle between life and death—among the remaining survivors...
