Simon got to know Kathryn Bigelow, a Hollywood female director, for the first time after she have won an Oscar award with 《The Hurt Locker》[1] in year 2010.
Speaking of it, what impressed him the most was Kathryn"s appearance.
At 2010 Oscar awards ceremony, Kathryn Bigelow in a flaxen silk quality long dress looked only 30 years old. Both her figure or individual temperament had beaten most of the actresses who attended the ceremony.
But in fact, she was born in 1951. Even now in the year 1986, she is 35 years old.
Simon could only lament that the world had never have a shortage of goblins that can resist the erosion of time.
Then there is her work.
After that year"s Oscar award, Simon had watched several other films of Kathryn Bigelow.
To be honest, most of her films can only be said ordinary, but the roughness in her works was like an ancient stone totem being chiseled with an axe, which impressed people. She seemed to be telling the audience in front of the screen with all her masculine aura: I could do what men could do and what men couldn"t do, I still could do!
Simon even thought she over-expressed her gender strength through her works.
The bus started again and headed south along California Highway 1.
After giving a slight gesture, Kathryn Bigelow put all her attention on the script. Simon glimpsed at it with curiosity. Judging from the text format on the paper, it should be a script in her hands. Then he didn"t bother her any more.
It took more than an hour until Kathryn finished reading the last page of the script. Simon asked: "Is it a script?"
The sixth sense of women was always sharp. In the process of reading, Kathryn had realized that the young man beside her was watching her from time to time. But as a beautiful woman, she never lacked of unwanted people that wants to chat and had gotten used to it.
But this guy didn"t interrupt her in the past hour until she finished reading the script, which made her feel a little better. So she smiled and nodded to Simon: "Yes."
Although she responded, Kathryn seemed not willing to talk more with Simon.
Although the young man have a handsome face and seemed to be more mature than his peers, in any case, he was still a young man who is obviously less than 20 years old. If her friends knew that she was getting hit up by such a young man, they would make fun of her.
Just as she turned her eyes out of the window to make a hint of refusal, she heard the young man continued: "In fact, I also have a script. Since it will take us a few more hours before we arrive at Los Angeles, how about we exchange scripts to kill time?"
While speaking, Simon had already stood up quickly and took off his backpack from the luggage compartment, then picked out one of the two ma.n.u.scripts and showed it to Kathryn.
Kathryn was surprised at Simon"s action of pulling out a script at random, but she still thought it was an act to hit up conversation. She meant to directly refuse, but when she caught sight of the script t.i.tle, she suddenly got curious and asked subconsciously: "b.u.t.terfly effect? What does it mean?"
"This is a hypothesis put forward by MIT Meteorology professor Edward Lorenz[2] to explain his theory." Simon pa.s.sed it to Kathryn while explaining and continued: "Professor Lorenz a.s.sumes that a b.u.t.terfly in South America Amazon River Basin occasionally flaps its wings. The influence of this wing flapping on the surrounding air continues to spread then causes a series of chain reactions that eventually led to a terrible tornado in Texas."
Kathryn listened carefully to Simon"s explanation and couldn"t help shake her head: "A b.u.t.terfly"s wings flapping causes a tornado? How can that be possible?"
Simon said: "Professor Lorenz describes the great influence that a tiny variable may have on the whole system. And I think it is very possible, but we can"t prove it."
Kathryn quietly hummed and didn"t argue with Simon because she didn"t like arguing. She found herself holding this script called 《b.u.t.terfly Effect》[3] unwittingly and then opened it with curiosity.
Realizing that the young man beside her was still looking at her, she suddenly thought of his previous words.
After a short hesitation, she still pa.s.sed her script to him.
Just like what he had said, it was just to kill time.
After opening the script and taking a glance at it, she thought of something and jumped over a few pages. Finally, she confirmed something.
The whole script including the cover t.i.tle was written in neat English font that was similar to being printed, which made her look at the young man who had turned attention to her script.
Nowadays, typewriter were already a very popular office tool. A young man like him who had wrote more than 100 pages of script by hand and it was beautifully written is very rare.
Simon didn"t know what Kathryn was thinking. In fact, while he lived in the psychiatric hospital, he had no choice but to write it by hand because even if the doctor allowed him to have one typewriter, he still couldn"t afford it.
When he put Kathryn"s script on his knees and just began to read, Simon had recognized that this should be the first film 《Near Dark》[4] that was directed by Kathryn Bigelow. When she had won the Oscar award with 《The Hurt Locker》, Simon found information about this film introduction out of curiosity, but he didn"t spend time learning about this movie.
As he was reading, Simon soon understood the outline of the story in the script.
Caleb, a young man in a small town in Oklahoma met a girl named Mae and fell in love with her at first sight. But in fact, Mae was a vampire and turned Caleb into a vampire on impulse.
Soon afterwards, Caleb was abducted by Mae"s companion and had no choice but wander around the world.
Despite his immortality, after several twists and turns, Caleb found that this was not the life he wanted. So he wanted to leave the vampire group. In the same time, Caleb"s father and sister set foot on the road to find him since his disappearance.
On the other hand, she didn"t know how long it took, after reading the last page of the script, Kathryn raised her head but found that Simon was still reading through her script, but she suddenly had a slight impulse to grab the script in his hands.
Although she didn"t like the overly pessimistic gray tone of 《b.u.t.terfly Effect》, but after completely reading the whole story, Kathryn had to admit that 《b.u.t.terfly Effect》 script and its innovative plot were far better than 《Near Dark》.
In the final a.n.a.lysis, 《Near Dark》 was simply a love film with a vampire theme, and there were some script loopholes that she couldn"t fix.
Quietly waiting for Simon to finish reading, Kathryn couldn"t help asking for advice even she herself wasn"t aware of this: "How is it?"
Simon thought about it and replied: "I like the scene of Caleb kneeling down in front of Mae to drink the blood from her wrist. It felt like it is going against a sort of ethics. This should be inspired by lamb breastfeeding and it will be touching if the scene is filmed someday."
Kathryn didn"t expect Simon to tell his thoughts according to a certain point of the script. Although 《Near Dark》 wasn"t entirely written by her, the scene that Simon described originated from her.
Many film fans would excessively deconstruct the film that was totally beyond the director"s intentions after watching the film, but Simon"s understanding coincided with her mind. She is an art student, so she habitually add some symbolic scenes to the scripts.
"So" after a short hesitation, Kathryn frankly asked: "Do you think there is anything needs to be improved in the script?"
Hearing her question, Simon felt a little surprised but still answered quickly: "Maybe you can change the farm into a pasture. I have read many scenes about farm. However, no matter in what state the farm is, it will never be more scenic than a pasture that is full of green meadows."
Kathryn thought about it and nodded then asked another question: "What about the last scenario about Mae and Caleb turning back into human? Do you think there is any better way to deal with it?"
In the script of 《Near Dark》, the 2 protagonists turned back into human through blood transfusion which is really far-fetched.
However, Simon shook his head and said: "You should have revised the scripts many times right? If it can be changed, I am sure I won"t be able see this plot. There really is no way to change it, otherwise the second part will be overthrown and turns into another story."
Kathryn nodded and she knew Simon"s word was correct, but there was still some disappointment showing on her face.
Noticing her expression, Simon said: "Actually there is another way to adjust."
Kathryn looked at him: "Yes?"
"The name of male protagonist." A smile played at the corner of Simon"s mouth, and said: "Do you know? Caleb"s name originated from Hebrew, which means ferocious hunting dog. You better change such a out-fashioned name."
Kathryn realized from his smile that he was joking, so she also smiled and teased: "You also know Hebrew."
"Yes, I can speak it fluently. Therefore, I am sure that I"ll perform well in Hollywood in the future."
It was well-known that Hebrew was the national language of the Jews and Hollywood was the land of the Jews. Simon would definitely earn the Jews" welcome if he could speak Hebrew fluently.
In fact, besides Hebrew, he is more fluent in English and Chinese, Simon could also speak Germany, French and Spanish, which had covered the most popular languages in the world due to the memory of the other 12 people. Therefore, even if he worked as a translator, he would be at the top. (T/N: I am jelly)
Hearing Simon"s words, Kathryn had the impulse to roll her eyes at him but she also felt that the young man was just trying to change the topic to avoid commenting more on her script. Perhaps, compared with his 《b.u.t.terfly Effect》, there really is nothing to say about 《Near Dark》.
It was not like Simon was unwilling to give more advice to Kathryn, he knew all the advantage and disadvantage of her series of works.
The thing is, they just knew each other today, advising her to restrain her violent atmosphere that deliberately blurred gender consciousness in her works and encourage her to show a more feminine side on her works.
How would he know that such a beautiful woman"s film wasn"t delicate enough?
Guess?
The more he talks, the more information he would let out.
However, Kathryn was not a demanding woman, so she followed Simon"s topic with a somewhat chatting tone: "So as for Caleb, what name do you think should it be changed into?
"How about Simon?"
Kathryn was a bit confused: "Simon? Does it have any special meaning?"
Simon stretched out a hand to the woman and smiled: "Simon Westeros. Lady, may I know your name?"
Kathryn suddenly realized that it was his name.
"I"m Kathryn Bigelow" Shaking hands with him, Kathryn introduced herself and then asked with curiosity: "Westeros is a very rare family name, and you can speak Hebrew. So is it Jewish family name?"
"No" Simon shook his head: "This is my family name."
Westeros was an original word created by Gorge R. R. Martin and should appear 10 years later. Therefore, Simon is now undoubtedly the only "Westeros" in the world.
Kathryn was able to feel a faint sense of superiority implied in Simon"s word but she didn"t hate it.
It was reasonable for such an excellent young man to feel proud of himself, since he was able to composed a script like 《b.u.t.terfly Effect》, even to casually talk about a theory of a professor at MIT and even mastered Hebrew which wasn"t a very popular language.
[1] The Hurt Locker is a 2008 American war drama film directed by Kathryn Bigelow and written by Mark Boal. The film follows an Iraq War Explosive Ordnance Disposal team who are targeted by insurgents, and shows their psychological reactions to the stress of combat, which is intolerable to some and addictive to others.
[2] Edward Lorenz was an American mathematician and meteorologist who established the theoretical basis of weather and climate predictability, as well as the basis for computer-aided atmospheric physics and meteorology.
[3] The b.u.t.terfly Effect is a 2004 American science fiction thriller film written and directed by Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber. The t.i.tle refers to the b.u.t.terfly effect, a popular hypothetical situation that ill.u.s.trates how small initial differences may lead to large unforeseen consequences over time.
[4] Near Dark is a 1987 American neo-western horror film directed by Kathryn Bigelow and written by her and Eric Red. The story follows a young man in a small midwestern town who becomes involved with a family of nomadic American vampires.