Dad writes son's adaptation of "Canned Villain" to open the "Zheng Yuanjie Universe"

As of yesterday, "Pipilu and Rusisi's Canned Villain" has accumulated a box office of 57 million yuan, creating a new box office record for domestic live-action children's films. Since the 1980s, Zheng Yuanjie has created his own fairy tale kingdom with his characters such as Pipilu, Ruxixi, Shuk, beta and so on; in 2021, his son Zheng Yaqi as the producer made "Pipilu and Luxixi's Canned Villain" the first big movie of Zheng Yuanjie's work to meet the audience. "Father and Son Soldier" said that "Canned Villain" has made a good start for the IP of Zheng Yuanjie's works, and will create a "Zheng Yuanjie Universe" through various forms of adaptation such as movies, dramas, and animations.

I am very satisfied with the box office of "Can Man"

Zheng Yuanjie said that in 2011, he licensed the filming rights of "Canned Villain" to Beijing Pipilu Culture and Technology Co., Ltd., which Zheng Yaqi founded and served as CEO, and Zheng Yaqi has been making various preparations for the film and television of "Canned Villain" over the years. Out of the original intention of encouraging and supporting young people, Zheng Yuanjie agreed to use Pipilu employee Yu Fei to adapt and direct the film. "I saw Yu Fei tell the media that his original intention in making "Can's Little Man" was that in 2018, he took his daughter to watch movies and found that there were few children's films, and he wanted to fill in the blanks, so he decided to make a movie of "Can Can Little Man"." Zheng Yuanjie smiled and said, "How is this possible, it is impossible for him to come to me for authorization, I will authorize him." The fact is that at that time, Yu Fei was an employee of Pipilu's company, and his directing of "Canned Villain" was the job assigned to him by the company, which was a job act. ”

When asked whether he was satisfied with this film and television adaptation, Zheng Yuanjie was still consistently straight: "I think it may depend on who directs it, and the standard should be different." If it was directed by Zhang Yimou, we are another score; this movie I think can score 70 points. ”

As for where the 30 points deducted went, Zheng Yuanjie also gave a clear response: he was not satisfied with the plot of the canned villain helping Lu xixi and his classmates to cheat collectively, and believed that such a change was not in line with the values of the original. "Whether it's writing for children or making movies, no matter what the way you use it, I think the first thing that matters is the orientation of values. Stories can be crazy, how bizarre can be, but the values can not be bizarre. ”

"I'm definitely happy with pipilu and Rusisi's Canned Villain at the box office right now." Zheng Yaqi laughed and said, "For such a long time, we have not dared to do the live-action film adaptation of Zheng Yuanjie's works, and we are worried that there is no market for live-action children's films in China, and now we have done this thing, proving that live-action children's films can be done." ”

A film version of Shuk beta is in the works

In 2018, the online movie "Taming the Rabbit" operated by Pipilu Company was released, and it was sought after by a large number of netizens on the Internet with its exaggerated and satirical style. In 2019, Zheng Yaqi's series of animated films "Shuk Beta" was launched, one season a year, and the third season has been launched this year, with a viewing volume of 1.9 billion. Coupled with the big movie "Pipilu and Lusisi's Canned Villain" that has just been released, Zheng Yaqi feels that it is time to start creating the "Zheng Yuanjie Universe".

"We have a particularly large Excel table, Zheng Yuanjie has a total of more than 700 stories, and each story is marked with which types are suitable for doing, and we have been doing this table for many years." Zheng Yaqi said that he is reluctant to reveal what he has not yet done, but in the plan, first of all, a live-action film by Zheng Yuanjie's work will be launched every year in the future; at the same time, animated films with longer production cycles are also in preparation, "Shuk Beta" and "Rubik's Cube Mansion" are the first batch; more adult-oriented works such as "Golden Thumb" and "Wisdom Teeth" are also expected to be put on the big screen; and live-action children's TV series, which are also new genres under development.

Adaptations cannot lose the soul of the original

Zheng Yaqi also got an experience from Marvel's success: if you want to do your own IP, you must be the main controller yourself, because no one will be more serious and responsible than yourself. In his vision, they could work with other companies in the industry to make the work better in the creation, publicity, etc., but Pipilu had to control the content and production.

Speaking of challenges, Zheng Yaqi frankly said that the biggest difficulty is talent. "Not only directors and screenwriters, but even when making animated films, they can't find capacity – we do the preliminary work and leave it to the animation company to produce, which is very few and more expensive." Talking about the criteria for selecting directors, he said that the most important thing is that the aesthetic must meet the standards, "not only the art, but he knows what content can impress people, how to shoot, must have this aesthetic." "As for the principle of adaptation, the plot, characters, styles, etc. have room for free play, but we must take Zheng Yuanjie's original work as the boundary, and we cannot lose the soul or essence of Zheng Yuanjie's works."

Forty years ago, Zheng Yuanjie created the classic children's literature image of Pipilu, and now, many children who watched Zheng Yuanjie's fairy tales have taken their next generation to read Zheng Yuanjie again. Zheng Yaqi sighed that when he watched Zheng Yuanjie's works when he was a child, he felt that these stories must be no worse than Hollywood blockbusters, and they can impress Chinese audiences more. In his view, the biggest significance of Zheng Yuanjie's works is to bring more audiences happiness and emotions with high-quality content.

(Original title: Dad wrote his son's adaptation and entered the screen to benchmark Marvel's "Can Little Man" to open the "Zheng Yuanjie Universe")

Source: Beijing Daily | Reporter Yuan Yun'er

Process Edit: u025