597: Chapter 597 The Construction of the Mythical Universe

There was still a month left before "ne zha: Birth of the Demon Child," but the promotion had already begun.

With the final cut completed, the corresponding promotional specials were being produced in an orderly fashion and released one after another.

However, these were just standard operations; what was important was to have one's own unique promotional strategy.

Yang Xiaozhou specifically made a call to consult someone who was filming far away in Los Angeles. After careful consideration, that person provided two directions.

"I think we can start the preview screenings half a month in advance, and hold multiple rounds. What is the advantage of 'ne zha'? Isn't it word-of-mouth? Since that's the case, we need to let the audience know how good our film is in advance!"

Yang Xiaozhou immediately recalled the strategy for another film: "Just like 'la la land,' right?"

"Exactly, release the word-of-mouth and stir up the hype. I estimate that the positive rating rate for 'ne zha' can be over ninety percent—that is almost certain."

"Anything else?"

"The promotional company shouldn't just operate the official Douyin account. Have them reach out to Douyin to launch three special effect stickers: 'ne zha Transformation,' 'Demon Child ne zha,' and 'Ao Bing.' This shouldn't be hard to pull off; it can be launched after the preview screenings. Then find some influencers and pay them to promote our stickers. That way, once ordinary users get involved, the film's topic can be hyped up again with the help of the platform, pushing the heat up once more."

"Good, I'll order it right away."

"For the first round of preview screenings, put them in first and second-tier cities. For the second round, look for cities further down the list. For the third round, open up nationwide preview screenings. You handle the specific cities. As for the number of screenings, I suggest keeping it around 20,000. This will accumulate enough valid reviews, and by then, the film should have a score on Douban before the official release."

Lin Chuyan thought for a moment and added: "As for the public opinion after the preview screenings start, have the promotional company monitor it closely, and then just base the promotion around the points the audience likes. No matter how much the creators think, it can't compare to the clever ideas of netizens."

Yang Xiaozhou noted everything down one by one. However, he had other things to say: "By the way, I've recently started pondering the creation of 'nezha 2.'"

Lin Chuyan gave him praise: "That's a good thing. How are the four screenwriters I found for you?"

"Very good, extremely good, almost too good."

Lin Chuyan felt relieved: "Alright, then you work hard on it! I'm going to get busy now... I still have filming to do here."

"Okay, go ahead."

Yang Xiaozhou was speaking the truth.

The four screenwriters provided by Lin Chuyan were originally part of Yanyu Animation's internal team researching and building the "mythology universe." Their direct leader was Lin Chuyan, and they only reported progress to him.

Yang Xiaozhou certainly knew that Lin Chuyan had such a team, but he had been busy with "ne zha 1" all this time; how could he have had the spare time to pay attention to this? Who would have thought that after meeting and chatting with the screenwriters this time... there would actually be a surprise!

It wasn't that these screenwriters were very familiar with his "ne zha," but rather that their "mythology universe" had already sorted out a lot of content, and this content was very inspiring for Director Yang Xiaozhou's subsequent creations!

Yang Xiaozhou's curiosity was piqued, and these past few days he began studying the existing achievements of the "mythology universe," only to discover that the team's composition was very complex: in addition to the lead screenwriters, there were mythologists, concept designers, original artists, historians, folklorists, art directors...

And the mythology universe that this group of people had sorted out was even more fascinating for Yang Xiaozhou to read.

"Marvel has the Avengers; we have ne zha, Yang Jian, and the Monkey King—these three rebels. Can't we form our own Avengers?"

"Is it possible to reconstruct the space-time logic and worldview framework, and then integrate the scattered mythological elements into a unified 'mythology universe'?"

Lin Chuyan remembered the conversation on the night they first met; how could he forget? These words still echoed in his ears, lingering for a long time.

And now, Yang Xiaozhou realized that Lin Chuyan didn't seem to be making empty promises; he was truly working hard, moving step by step toward this arduous goal...

The integration and reconstruction of the worldview framework had truly been pulled off by Lin Chuyan.

For example, the hierarchical design of space-time logic; here there was a main universe, establishing a mythological core layer with "investiture of the gods," "journey to the west," and the "Classic of Mountains and Seas" at its center.

In this core layer, there was the Heavenly Court, dominated by the Taoist deity system; the human world, where dynastic changes and mortal cultivation intertwined; the netherworld, containing the Underworld and the Ghost Realm of Fengdu; and the Mountain and Sea Realm, a chaotic space where the strange beasts of the "Classic of Mountains and Seas" resided.

In the future, the main hero stories would all take place in this main universe, which was the most important existence constituting the "mythology universe."

And in other parallel universe planes, Lin Chuyan's team introduced a concept called "Spirit Stone Shards." These were the materials left over from Nüwa repairing the heavens. Characters from the main plane might accidentally trigger the energy of the Spirit Stones and appear in parallel universes, thus triggering some interesting stories, which could then be made into interesting films.

For example, a strange beast from the Classic of Mountains and Seas accidentally triggers the Spirit Stone energy and arrives in a cyberpunk parallel universe—when cyberpunk meets the Classic of Mountains and Seas, and mythological monsters run rampant in a technological world, what kind of story would that be?

Take another example, what if it were the other way around? What if a deity accidentally triggers the Spirit Stone energy and arrives in a mortal world they think they can control, only to be ultimately destroyed by the human race?

Lin Chuyan's team has currently confirmed two parallel universe films that will be produced in the future.

One is "Taotie: Devouring Night City." Hmm, the name Night City was thought up by Lin Chuyan, and it's unclear what he wants to do with it later.

The other is "Mozi: Dawn of Mechanisms," showcasing the human race using mechanisms to fight against immortal arts. Unlike Night City, this story will showcase absolute Eastern mystical power.

These are just two small stories. The bigger stories take place in the main universe.

Currently, Yang Xiaozhou has already told the "individual origin" of the character ne zha. This step has been taken, but what next?

The team set their sights on Yang Jian.

Currently, what has been confirmed is: "Yang Jian: Awakening of the Heavenly Eye," which is in the script outline creation stage.

There should be several more parts to follow, with titles tentatively set as "Yang Jian 2: Shackles of Divine Power," "Yang Jian 3: Rift of the Three Realms," and "Yang Jian 4: Civil War."

The second part tells the story of Yang Jian becoming the Judicial God; the third part is Yang Jian glimpsing the existence of parallel universes through his Heavenly Eye, laying the groundwork for subsequent cross-border crossovers with parallel universe heroes; the fourth part's "Civil War" will involve the power struggle of the Heavenly Court—yes, the relationships between the protagonists in these individual stories are not set in stone.

Yang Jian's story, spanning from the investiture of the gods to the journey to the west, will run through the entire "mythology universe."

In addition to this, the team also confirmed the character stories that will be produced later:

"Legend of the Three Xiao," which tells the story of the Three Xiao Goddesses, and at the same time uses this story to talk about the Jie Sect.

"Jiang Ziya," the host of the investiture of the gods deserves a solo story, and at the same time, it will use this story to talk about the Chan Sect.

"The Judge," which tells the story of the four great judges of the Underworld, likely focusing on Zhong Kui of the Evil-Punishing Division and Lu Zhidao of the Investigation Division, to show the audience a true netherworld.

"Shen Gongbao," revealing the deeper motives for his betrayal of the Chan Sect, reconstructing the investiture of the gods war from the perspective of a "loser."

"Red Boy: Battle of the Flaming Mountains," in this story, Princess Iron Fan, the Bull Demon King, the Monkey King, ne zha, and Yang Jian will all appear, which will greatly flesh out the journey to the west plot in the later stages.

Among these, the stories of "Jiang Ziya" and "Shen Gongbao" will also avoid devolving into a "good vs. evil" narrative, but will instead reveal the conspiratorial nature of the investiture of the gods war.

Yang Xiaozhou was thoughtful: "Shen Gongbao is being redeemed too? Not bad, not bad."

And the richness of the "mythology universe" goes far beyond this.

If this path can be successfully followed, there will be all kinds of stories about "third-rate deities" later, serving as interesting little stories within the big story of the "mythology universe," further filling in the authenticity of the entire universe. For example, the Giant Spirit God, Tu Xingsun, the Eight Immortals crossing the sea... if one wants to film them, the source material is simply inexhaustible.

In addition to individual stories, Lin Chuyan also provided an idea: Could the Heavenly Court become an existence like "S.H.I.E.L.D."?

Of course, this is just an analogy. The more concrete idea is: Based on the power struggles of the Heavenly Court, have the deities of the Heavenly Court investigate Spirit Stone energy, the Mountain and Sea Realm, all kinds of demons... How many interesting events can be produced from this? Could this become a series that lasts for many seasons?

And the Heavenly Court, as a place, will also appear in many stories. The Jade Emperor, both righteous and evil, will exist as part of the long-term narrative.

Of course, the most exciting part is that if these series are truly popular, there will be "event-driven" big films, which are the "hero assembly films" released roughly every 5 years in the later stages, used to resolve core conflicts while pushing the worldview upgrade.

It's actually not difficult to complete these settings; it's easy to find some stories. For example, someone wants to restart the investiture of the gods and reshuffle the existing pattern; someone tries to collect Spirit Stones, causing a great disaster; someone causes turmoil in the Three Realms to refine a certain magical treasure; there could even be an invasion from parallel universes, the appearance of the Mechanical God Clan forcing the three rebels and the Heavenly Court to temporarily cooperate... Writing stories is not difficult; what's difficult is how to tell the previous stories well, so that one can finally reach the step of "assembly."

Also, if you want to play the "assembly film" well, you must first set up the combat power system. Currently, the team has reached a consensus, which is that you absolutely cannot let the real big shots appear, or rather, let the real big shots be held back so they cannot participate in the battles of ne zha, Yang Jian, and the others.

As long as the real big shots don't appear in the early stages, it avoids the situation where the "heroes" can't win, making the whole story seem more reasonable—that kind of scene where the Primeval Lord of Heaven is used as a power bank and drained dry will absolutely never appear in Lin Chuyan's films.

The more Yang Xiaozhou read, the more excited he became: "Feasible, it's really feasible! I want to film it, I really want to film it!"