When people mention Brazil, many words will come to their minds, such as samba, football, beach, beauty, leisure, and enjoy themselves... and so on, blue sea and blue sky, passionate and unrestrained Brazil has become the most unique scenery on the South American continent; Rio de Janeiro, the "City of Carnival", even spreads its friendly arms and embraces people from all over the world. Brazilians say, "God spent six days creating the world, and Rio de Janeiro on the seventh day."

But only those who have truly arrived in this land know that this is definitely not the only appearance of Brazil; only those who have truly lived in this land know that behind this passionate soil, there is also the darkness that penetrates the bone marrow. The turbulent gang violence, blatant drug/product transactions, the collusion between the black and white sides, the dirty and filthy poor life... Just a few streets away from the blue sea and blue sky of Rio de Janeiro, there is a slum at the bottom of the society, and crimes are staged here almost every day.

The novel "City of Gods" created by Paul Lins tells the story of a slum called the City of Gods inside the city of Rio de Janeiro. Paul, who was born at the bottom of the slum, spent eight years in interviews and collected relevant information on drug/product transactions. It took him a total of ten years to complete the novel. Its authenticity, profoundness and reflection have been enthusiastically sought after and became one of the best-selling novels in Brazil.

In fact, many Brazilians, even locals who have lived in Rio de Janeiro for many years, were shocked by this novel.

People are always like this, confined to their own circle of life, thinking that they already have enough understanding of the world around them, but in fact, the life of the middle class is still a certain gap between the bottom of society. The so-called state, law, citizenship, education, future and future are just abstract concepts.

This is the novel "City of Gods", which deeply reveals the cruel reality of Brazilian society such as apartheid, bloody violence, and lack of education. The accelerated social division has made violent crimes a trivial matter, and has strongly impacted the ideas and concepts of many middle-class people.

The movie "City of God" adapted from "City of God" is such a special movie. Its protagonist is not a specific character, but a slum called "City of God". It tells a piece of history in this entire area, tells the dozens of entangled stories that happened here, and shows a brand new field that has never been explored, real and cruel.

After its release, "City of God" achieved great success. It not only revived the Brazilian film industry, but also became a representative of Brazilian films with "Central Station" and became famous all over the world. It also gave people a certain understanding of the social roots of the chaotic situation in Brazil, causing a widespread and far-reaching sensation in Brazil.

Above the 76th Oscars, "City of God" was nominated for four nominations: Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Photography, Best Film Editing, etc. Unfortunately, due to the release time, the deadline for Best Foreign Language Film was missed. People generally believe that if it weren't for this, this work would be the most powerful contender for the best foreign language film that year.

In addition, it is regrettable that when "City of God" was released in North America, the publicity was not in place and did not attract much attention. Then it missed the nomination for the best foreign language film of the Oscar, resulting in the box office being unable to get one step closer and only earned 7.5 million US dollars. Although this result is already very outstanding compared to the investment of a movie of only 3.3 million, it is a slight witch compared to the performance of the movie in the video tape market later.

After the rise of the Internet era, the Internet Film Database (IMDB), which best reflects the authority of audiences and the power of fans, has been named "City of God". The rating of this work is as high as 8.6 points. Among the top 250 most authoritative films in IMDB, it has ranked in the top 20 for more than ten years, firmly occupying the top spot in non-English films!

Previously, Lance held a little hope - hoping to find a suitable project among these six novels and become a platform for him to start over, but unexpectedly, he dug a gold mine! A real gold mine!

If "Lost Tokyo" is a masterpiece, then "City of God" can definitely be called a classic!

Taking "City of God" as Lance's comeback work is indeed the most appropriate choice. It can definitely be called "If you don't make a sound, you'll make a splash. Of course, the best situation is that Lance also grabs "Lost Tokyo" and then independently produces "City of God", but Lance also knows that this is too greedy. Don't say that Ryan will never let go of "Lost Tokyo". Even if Lance successfully seizes food from the tiger's mouth, with his current funds and resources, it is impossible to produce two works at the same time.

If you choose one of "Lost Tokyo" and "City of God", Lance will choose the latter without hesitation. Now Lance is firmly holding the adaptation copyright of "City of God" in his hand, which can definitely be a sleepy encounter with a pillow.

After a little overly excited thought, Lance carefully looked through the relevant information of the novel "City of Gods" and found that he had bought the copyright of the novel in 1998 - they pushed "Central Station" into the North American market and achieved great success. So Lance took the opportunity to persuade Paul and obtained the copyright. However, Lance had never found a suitable screenwriter to carry out the adaptation work.

"City of God" is a work with distinct Brazilian characteristics. Screenwriters who are competent for this job must have a deep understanding of Brazilian culture, politics, economy, pattern, etc., and also need to have a deep understanding of the background and language of the novel. But how easy is this?

Later, Lance began to try script adaptation work by himself. Lance studied Spanish at Cambridge University, and conducted in-depth research on the literature and culture of the Spanish department, and even studied some Latin. Although Brazil spoke Portuguese, Lance decided to try it.

However, the adaptation work is too large. In the past three years, Lance has spent one to two months every year living in Rio de Janeiro. On the one hand, he can talk face to face with the original author Paul, and on the other hand, he can integrate into local life. The most important thing is to go to the City of God in person to inspect.

Despite this, the adaptation of the script was still not completed. Only the semi-finished product of the script was found in the information. This semi-finished product was sandwiched in a notebook, only one-third of the completion. However, the dense notes and materials in the notebook consumed two-thirds of the entire book. It can be seen that Lance attached and was serious about this script. As for the quality of the script... it still needs to be read in detail before he could draw a conclusion.

Lance was stunned for a moment with his notebook. He couldn't help but start thinking, if he hadn't worn/surfed over in his previous life, would Lance have a chance to rise again? Even with Ryan's suppression, even with George's betrayal, even with Lance's own inexperience in the world, but...

"Have you found the treasure?" Percy's voice interrupted Lance's thoughts. He nodded and handed Percy the novel "City of Gods" to him. "I think this novel has great potential."

Percy took the novel and read it, but asked without stopping, "So have you decided? Should you reopen a production company yourself or work with a large studio?" Percy looked up at Lance.

After leaving the cemetery today, Lance himself has been thinking about this issue. He has thought of countless possibilities. Overall, cooperating with a large studio is the most suitable and convenient way. After all, Lance is now reopening a production company, and it is definitely not an easy task to catch up with Diorama Pictures in a short period of time; and with the rapid rise of Diorama Pictures, he has not much time left. Although cooperating with a large studio will inevitably be hindered, in terms of short-term interests, it is the easiest choice.

Now the script of "City of God" appears before your eyes again.

The filming of this work is definitely not easy. First of all, it must be filmed in Rio de Janeiro, which involves difficult issues such as official cooperation and transnational cooperation. Secondly, the movie is best to be filmed in the slums, so the local gangsters will be the first to be affected, let alone the poor public security and high crime rates around it.

Therefore, if you want to shoot "City of God" and seek cooperation with a mature production company, this is the wisest thing to do, and it is best to be a large-scale production company with experience in overseas shooting - otherwise, if you arrive in Brazil, you will be blinded, which is not a good sign.

But here's the problem, "City of God" is not a work that is easy for large film companies to watch.

The performance of non-English films in the North American market has always been very bad. As of 2002, only six non-English works have had a box office of more than 20 million US dollars, of which only two works have achieved a box office of 40 million US dollars, one is China's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and the other is Italy's "Beautiful Life".

In addition, the space for non-English films to perform at awards ceremony is also very limited - most of the works are summarized as the best foreign language films, and thousands of troops are crowded on a single-plank bridge, which is a situation that can give anyone a headache.

In short, non-English films have very limited development space in North America, and the benefits of recycling are also very limited. No large production companies are willing to spend their energy. Generally speaking, only small production companies will work tirelessly around the world in the early stages of development, seeking opportunities - this is how Diorama Film developed.

Considering the cost of the movie "City of God", although the movie only cost three million dollars, he can't afford such a large amount of cash at all. So... this is a difficult problem.
Chapter completed!