Chapter 427 New Theme of Wonderful Night 2

After returning to the office, Lu Pingan stopped caring about Secretary Yang and focused on the work of "Wonderful Night 2".

The script of "Wonderful Night 2" has been finalized.

The structure is similar to the original version, but the content will be more adapted than "Wonderful Night 1".

The original time and space "Wonderful Night 2" is actually not very good.

The special effects of the original "Wonderful Night 2" are obviously much more than the first episode.

Including IMAX, the second part should have more screening channels than the first part.

The first part was only screened on more than 3,700 screens in the United States, while the sequel had nearly 300 more screens.

The budget of the second part was as high as 150 million US dollars, and it earned 176 million US dollars in the United States and a total global box office of 410 million US dollars.

Although this achievement is remarkable, it is nothing compared to the first part's US box office of 250 million US dollars and a global box office of 570 million US dollars.

You know, the budget of the first part was only 12 million US dollars.

So the box office results of "Wonderful Night 2" show that this sequel was lazy in some aspects.

The original version of "Wonderful Night 2" tells the story of the male protagonist who achieved great success in his career and became a big boss after the first part.

Then he returned to the museum after many years, only to find that the museum was going to be replaced, the old friends were going to be replaced by high technology, and the old exhibits were going to be sent to Washington for storage.

After saying goodbye to the old friends, the protagonist received a call for help. It turned out that the capuchin had stolen the gold medal, so that the exhibits in the entire warehouse were resurrected, and the old friends were hunted down, and the protagonist went to rescue them.

In Washington, the protagonist met several new NPCs, including Einstein, the sincere Lincoln, and the pilot Emilia who always fascinated him. The historical elements involved included the Washington Museum of Natural History and the Space Museum.

In the end, the protagonist defeated Carmenla and their gang, stopped the army from the underground, successfully rescued his friends, and then returned to the old museum.

Overall, the museum in "Wonderful Night 2" is larger, there are more characters, the heroine is more beautiful, and the movie is still lively.

But after the excitement, I always feel that something is missing.

After careful analysis, the reason is actually very simple.

The story of the original "Wonderful Night" comes from a fairy tale book.

The amazing creativity, complete story and plot, plus Hollywood's eye-catching special effects, made this commercial blockbuster.

In contrast, "Wonderful Night 2" is a simple copy of the plot mode of the previous work by the screenwriters.

"Wonderful Night 2" is still the protagonist saving NPCs in the museum.

The characters and plot have not developed much.

Therefore, people can't have more impressions of the plot except for shouting at the amazing visual effects during the viewing process.

Most of the outstanding sequels have extensions in story and plot.

For example, "The Godfather 2" tells the story of the growth of Michael Corleone, the new head of the mafia family, and his transformation into a father.

"The Mummy 2" develops children. Although the story routine remains basically unchanged, there is an additional clue of a child.

For example, "Iron Man 2" begins to reveal clues about S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers.

Putting aside other things, these films have surpassed their predecessors in action and visual effects.

From this, we can see that the fancy changes in special effects and production quality are only inevitable means. To make the sequel a success in both box office and word of mouth, we must work hard on the storyline.

In "Wonderful Night 1", Larry's transformation from "can't" to "I can", and the emotional transmission between father and son.

In the sequel, there is no room for the development of the father-son emotional clue, but there is only an additional female pilot who is a dispensable acting vase.

And the villains such as Pharaoh's brother, Ivan the Terrible, Napoleon and the Mafia are just formal bluffing, more than joking, and lack the gold content to promote the plot.

Although the director spared no effort to show special effects and humorous ridicule, and even added tributes to "The Mummy Series" and "300 Spartans", it did not leave much impression after watching it.

So to put it simply, "Wonderful Night 2" is a bowl of authentic egg fried rice.

Stir-fried cold rice, not fresh enough.

So how to adapt it?

At the beginning, Lu Pingan also faced two options.

One is to copy.

The total box office of "Wonderful Night Trilogy" was not bad, and now Lu Pingan can kill two birds with one stone, which is equivalent to six movies.

In this way, even if the box office of the last two movies is worse than the previous one, Lu Pingan can still make a lot of money.

In addition to copying, there is a second option.

That is to optimize the trilogy and add more grand themes and worldviews.

This will be accompanied by huge risks.

For example, the adaptation is not satisfactory, so that the box office is a Waterloo.

After all, since it is adapted, there is no reference, and no one knows what the future results will be.

But Lu Pingan finally thought about it and felt that he still had to change it.

Because he has confidence.

The confidence does not come from the ability to adapt, but "kill two birds with one stone".

If the Chinese version is not well adapted, then wouldn't it be better to shoot the original American version?

This means that he has two test sites, and the two test sites will not have much correlation.

Because Chinese films about culture are not easy to go abroad, this also leaves enough space for the American version to make money at the box office.

The two versions of "Strange Night 1" have proved this point.

Of course, if the Chinese version of "Wonderful Night 2" goes abroad, even if it causes a global sensation, it will not affect the American version of "Wonderful Night 2" to continue using the original version.

After all, Chinese and Western cultures are different.

So the soil for trial and error is already there.

The next step is to make bold assumptions and try carefully.

So, now the Chinese version of "Wonderful Night 2" has the following changes.

First of all, the structure and theme.

This version of "Wonderful Night 2" can be the same as the original version, and it is also about saving old friends.

There is no problem with this.

But in the process of saving, a lot of content and details can be added, and a more grand theme can be added.

For example, the protagonist of the first part has grown up.

The second part can be the protagonist taking his son and letting him grow up.

Where does the son need to grow?

The theme of making the son go from cowardly to brave is applicable to all teenagers and children.

On this basis, because it is a "museum", we can add the change in attitude of the son who has grown up a little bit and accepted a lot of Western cultural baptism, from despising his own history, people, and cultural relics to realizing the vividness and thickness of history, being proud of his own 5,000-year history, and being proud of the spirit of the Chinese nation that has been passed down for 5,000 years, and willing to continue to pass it on.

This can be applied to both the son and the protagonist, and it can also be applied to all viewers.

The so-called bringing the museum to life is not just to stir up a hodgepodge and let everyone play house, but also to let each of them be connected in a chain to show a deeper meaning.

This was not reflected in the first part, it just made history vivid, and the focus was more on the personal growth of the protagonist, and the portrayal of the theme of history was just a touch.

So it is just right to use it now.

Lu Ping'an couldn't think of any theme that would be more suitable for such a movie to be shot in China.

Being able to do this, Lu Ping'an felt that this movie would be better than the second part of the original version.

In addition to this, the background of the "turtle back plate" should also add some more attractive elements.

Just like many movie fans are curious now, everyone is guessing why the turtle back plate has such magical powers. It was not clearly stated in the first part, and King Zhou, played by Jay Chou, did not know the source of this thing.

So in the second part, more can be revealed, not all, just as a deeper pit to pave the way for the third part.

After determining the general structure and theme, the next step is to shape the skeleton and flesh.