The next day's filming, Matthew only had a morning scene, and after the filming was completed, when he went to the Burbank Angels Agency, he deliberately asked Brown Williams to stop for a while in a bookstore passing by, and let a bodyguard enter the bookstore to see if there was any "Hunger Games" for sale.

The email I saw last night was the latest New York Times book recommendation collected by Bella Anderson, who has been on his assistant team since he won the rights to the "Twilight" series last year.

Matthew couldn't tell Bella Anderson exactly which one to focus on, so he simply asked her to send him the recommendations and bestseller list supplements for each issue in a timely manner.

Finally, he waited for The Hunger Games to appear.

“Boss……”

A bodyguard pulled open the door and handed Matthew a not-so-thick one, "Do you think it's this one?"

Matthew took it and looked down, and the cover was a flaming golden ring with a bird with an arrow in it, and two lines of letters underneath, the title of the book, The Hunger Games, and the author, Susan Collins.

"That's right. Matthew waved his hand at the bodyguard, waited for him to be in the passenger seat, and said to Brown Williams, who was driving, "Let's go." ”

The car started and drove onto the highway to Burbank.

It would take some time to get to Burbank, and while he was okay in the car, Matthew flipped through it and took a quick look.

"When I woke up, the other half of the bed was cold. I reached out to test the warmth of Polim in the quilt, but all I could do was touch the rough canvas sheets, and she must have had another nightmare and crawled into her mother's bed. Well, that's right. Today is the Harvest Festival. ”

"I stood up with my arms, and the room was so bright that I could see them......"

Contrary to Matthew's expectations, it is described in the first person and first perspective of the heroine, Katniss.

Although it was a little awkward to read, he continued to read it, after all, this is not a hobby, but a related to future investment returns.

Matthew flipped through only twenty pages and was completely sure that this was the movie that his eldest cousin once starred in, although when he was on the other side of the Pacific, he only dragged his feet to watch the first film, but the setting similar to Battle Royale was still impressive.

He flipped through the book very quickly, roughly going through the book before the car arrived at Burbank.

In the popular words of the film industry, this is a typical youth idol dystopia.

In the future of North America, the kingdom of Panham was built on ruins, and its center, Capit, was located in the center of the twelve districts.

Every year, 12 districts are forced to send Kepitt a "tribute" to a boy and a girl between the ages of 12 and 18 to participate in the "Hunger Games". It is a brutal and terrifying life-and-death contest in which all the tributes must be fought to the death, and the last survivor is the winner.

The arena is an artificially arranged forest and wasteland, and in the competition, the scenes of hunting, tracking, starvation, camouflage, and outwitting are broadcast live to the whole country, and everyone must watch and celebrate it as if it were a holiday. For Kepitt, it's an annual event, a game, and for the other twelve districts, it's humiliation and torture.

Survival is the instinct of 16-year-old Katniss, who barely supports her mother, sister and herself by poaching and gathering wild fruit outside the fence of District 12. When Katniss takes the place of her sister who won the "Draw of Life and Death" in The Hunger Games, she understands that it means death to her, and that if she wants to survive, she must choose between humanity and survival, death and love.

In the arena, Katniss is coincidentally portrayed as the "Burning Girl" and forms a "Star Lover" with Peta, another tribute in the district. Confused about her relationship with Peeta, she tries to save the lives of other competitors and wittily tackles the puzzles that arise in the game, which puts her at the center of attention of the TV audience......

Much like another youth series, The Hunger Games is also like a dystopian love affair.

And it's a lot similar to the Battle Royale he watched last year when he was looking for The Hunger Games.

In the future, if it is widely disseminated, or if it is made into a movie, it will definitely be discussed as plagiarizing the "Battle Royale" series.

However, Matthew didn't take this to heart at all, and Hollywood is sometimes very domineering.

Hollywood companies are very particular about copyright among themselves, and even with other companies in North America or the Western world, but outside of this range, the style is a bit overbearing.

For example, in the country of origin of "Battle Royale", how many Hollywood movies have been discussed for plagiarizing their anime or other literary works, but people there rarely file copyright lawsuits, and even if someone files a copyright lawsuit, it is difficult to win the lawsuit.

It can be said that countries and regions that are not within the circle demarcated by Hollywood, the rules of the game in Hollywood do not take them into account at all.

A circle that attaches great importance to copyright and contracts, but does not pay attention to copyright contracts in other countries and regions, is not new in Hollywood.

In addition, this one is full of thriller and sci-fi elements.

These can also provide a selling point for an adaptation of a movie.

After Matthew finished reading what he had in his hand and was sure that this was the original book of "The Hunger Games", he naturally thought of adapting the movie.

More importantly, he saw from the back cover that the publication date of The Hunger Games was September 14, 2008.

In other words, it has only been more than half a month since this book was officially published, and it should not have attracted people's attention.

Of course, the fewer competitors the better.

"The rights to this movie?"

In the office of Angel Agency, Helen Herman looked at the cover in her hand, lifted her glasses, and asked, "The Hunger Games? ”

Matthew didn't care about this, pulled out a chair and sat across from the desk, and said, "I just read this, like "Twilight", a typical youth-oriented genre, I think there is some value in adaptation. ”

Hearing this, Helen Herman did not respond immediately, but opened it, thought for a while, and then said, "The theme of youth has gradually increased in the past two years, but how about the film adaptation, there are no related films released yet, and no one can guarantee the result, I suggest waiting for the release of "Twilight" before making a decision." ”

This is undoubtedly a very sound strategy, if the "Twilight Scar", a typical youth adaptation dressed in the garb of other genres, is successful, it means that there is indeed a market for this genre, otherwise there is no need to waste money and time on the "Hunger Games" series.

But Matthew doesn't see it that way, now that "The Hunger Games" has been on the market for a short time, few people have noticed, and if it drags on, who knows if other competitors will pop up?

"I think that when "Twilight" is released, once the film is a big hit, there may be a lot of uncontrollable factors. Matthew went through his considerations, and when he saw Helen Herman lost his thoughts, he added, "I called Bella Anderson when I came, Susan Collins is a rookie writer, The Hunger Games is her first published work, the royalties can't be very high, and I can afford to pay millions of dollars." ”

Helen Herman ended her thinking and said, "Now that you've made up your mind, do it." ”

Frankly speaking, it doesn't matter if Studio 13 buys the film rights even if she doesn't agree, and the reason why Matthew said it is because she needs to come forward to talk about it, and on the other hand, it is also out of respect for her as an agent.

Then again, a few million dollars really isn't much to Matthew.

Matthew was not polite to Helen Herman, and said directly, "You are responsible for contacting the author and publisher of this book, and strive to get the copyright this month, this is obviously not the end, if it is a series, fight for the copyright of the serial episode or the right of first refusal." ”

Helen Herman didn't speak, just nodded slightly.

"Your commission...... "Matthew knows that you have to be paid to make people work, "how about referencing the Twilight series?"

"Yes. Helen Herman responded, "I'm going to have someone do the preliminary investigation." ”

Matthew added, "The sooner the better." ”

Helen Herman has always been very productive, and the opening scene of "Special Forces" has just finished filming, and she has already passed the preliminary information she has collected to Matthew.

Things are not as simple as Matthew thinks.

Susan Collins is a rookie author, yes, but not a housewife like Stephanie Mayer who knew little about the film and television industry before writing, but a veteran children's TV writer who wrote the series "Clarissa Knows" and "Shelby Wu's Mysterious Files" for the "Nicoroden" children's channel, which was nominated for an Emmy.

In other words, it's a Hollywood insider.

It is not easy to get the film rights from such a senior screenwriter at a low price.

Also, the famous writer Stephen King has already written a review for this one: Among the dystopian stories, "The Hunger Games" is the best, the story is fast-paced and always full of suspense. The author is a master of writing, there is no nonsense in his pen, and there is a pleasantly cold humor. Reading The Hunger Games is addictive, like playing a video game, and you know the world isn't real, but you can't help but cast a copper plate over and over again.

These will become the capital of Susan Collins when negotiating the rights of the film.

Of course, this will not discourage Matthew's decision to take over the series, and the original strategy remains unchanged, allowing Helen Herman to continue to contact Susan Collins and the publishing house to try to buy the film rights as soon as possible.