Chapter 688: Time Curtain

Future Technology’s allure was indeed unprecedented. The company received 170281 scripts which were equivalent to the listings on some web novel sites.

Of course, it wasn’t just Future Technology’s name – the one million in prizes also played a role.

The massive number of documents meant it was impossible to manually complete the review process. It was time for Jiang Chen’s “assistant”.

For Jean, there was no inherent difference between 170281 and 1782. The computation speed of the quantum computer could read through billions of words in an instant.

The only problematic thing was that because she was just intermediate artificial intelligence, while she had the ability to think, she didn’t possess any human emotions.

Without emotions, she obviously wouldn’t understand the beauty hidden inside the words and it would be impossible for her to rate the submissions. She could only filter the text based on the settings Jiang Chen set.

Anything less than 100 thousand words were eliminated. It was too difficult to rewrite that into a script with a plot that could fill a three-hour film.

Works over one million words were also removed. He was planning to make a movie, not a drama series.

Works with more than 50 grammatical errors, awkward logic, and obvious plot holes were among the factors considered; only a few thousand works remained after that. Of course, there might’ve been gold dusted out along with the sand, but the quality of the remaining works would definitely be of higher quality.

The first round of selections took five seconds, but the second round took two weeks!

With Nolan’s lead, Warner Brothers employees began to manually review the English. Chinese works were the responsibility of Future Group.

In order to be fair and open, Warner Brothers invited the World Science Fiction Association, which was the sponsor of the Hugo Awards, to participate in the selection process. Of course, the opinions of the judges were only for reference and did not have a direct impact on the results of the selection process.

After two weeks of selection.

Finally, after much anticipation, Future Technology and Warner Brothers jointly announced their winners on the official website. All winners would be reimbursed for their airfare expenses to attend a grand award ceremony on Coro Island and sign with Future Technology.

At the end of the ceremony, Jiang Chen went to see Nolan.

A total of ten works were selected, but they still needed to discuss to select the top work.

The entire event costed a total of 15 million US dollar to select the right screenplay. Future Technology’s willingness to invest certainly made Mr. Nolan feel immense pressure. When they met, he said:

“If we were just trying to create hype, didn’t we invest too much?”

“But from the results, our reward is satisfying, isn’t it?” Jiang Chen smiled.

Nolan revealed a helpless expression. “I can’t disagree on that point, and on that point alone.”

In all the works submitted to Future Technology, there were pieces of some emerging writers as well as some novels that had been popular for a long time and had a high demand for an adaptation. Obviously, it wasn’t only fans of science fiction films but science fiction writers’ enthusiasm for this open contest was also frivolous.

As they went through the list from the top, Jiang Chen exchanged opinions with Nolan, one by one.

“What about ‘Civilization’ by Ian M. Banks? The most famous space opera science fiction in the 1980s.”

“It’s too difficult to adapt a series of novels.” Nolan shrugged bluntly.

“Then what about the ‘Dust in God’s Eyes’? Larry Neven’s story of the first contact between humans and extraterrestrial intelligent creatures is very interesting. The expedition team, composed of naval officers and soldiers, and businessmen and scientists, was also exciting. Their approach of: ‘In the case of contact with nonhuman intelligent creatures, we must assume the other side is hostile’ is also quite interesting.”

“That book is on my shortlist.” Nolan laughed.

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“Haha, can you tell me about the lucky ones on your list?”

“In addition to this, there’s ‘the Fire on the Abyss.’ I used to discuss the possibility of adapting this science fiction masterpiece with my younger brother Jonathan, but we finally decided we couldn’t film this.

“Not possible to do it?”

“That’s right. The scale of the universe described in this book is too great. Three worlds and countless races – even Industrial Light and Magic can’t recreate the essence of this work.” Nolan looked at Jiang with eyes full of hope. “Could Virtual Image’s VR imaging technology do it?”

When Jiang Chen heard Nolan’s question, his mouth twitched.

“There’s no problem in theory, but three worlds … the production cycle is probably going to be quite long.”

Nolan also knew his proposal was impossible, so he sighed.

“That’s really a pity …”

But when he went down the list, he stumbled on an unfamiliar name.

“‘Time Curtain’ – what’s this?”

“Oh, this, ah, I was planning to recommend this to you,” Jiang Chen said with a smile.

“Author … Li Ming?” Christopher furrowed his brows as he had never heard of the name.

Although the works weren’t rigidly attached to the authors’names, since he never heard this name before, he instinctively donned his tinted glasses.

However, Jiang Chen didn’t mind and began to introduce the plot.

“This book is on my list of candidates. Although the writing and character shaping aren’t as carefully crafted, the depth of thought is unexpectedly at a masters level, and the point of view is also very fascinating. In 2070, the world’s climate is no longer suitable for human survival, nor is the world’s space weather. The International Astronautics Federation launched a colonization ship called ‘Borderlands,’ heading for Kepler 22b 600 lightyears away.”

“Because of the slow effects of the speed of light, when the Borderlands arrived on Kepler 22b, tens of thousands of years had passed since they left. When they entered this alien land, they discovered the ruins of human civilization and alien species. Evidence suggested that a second colonization ship was launched by the International Astronautic Federation a year after 2070. They just didn’t know why they were ahead on the time scale and had long disappeared.”

“The extraterrestrial civilization on the planet was still in its infancy, but whether it was indigenous peoples who were enlightened by the remnants of human civilization or those who came from earth themselves wasn’t known. What was even more interesting are the later stories. The conflicts and suspense are carefully orchestrated. I won’t spoil things for you; you should read it yourself.”

“Just from your description, this story is certainly interesting. But how did you pick this book out of so many works?” Nolan asked.

“I didn’t choose this, but my assistant recommended it to me,” Jiang replied.

This confused Jiang Chen the most.

What logic did Jean, without a concept of emotion or aesthetics, use to recommend him this piece? Jiang Chen asked Jean before, but Jean couldn’t answer the question. She only used a vague and humane way to respond to the question: “Because it’s interesting?”

Although the theme was impressive, it wasn’t stellar by definition. The concept of time wasn’t a novel concept in the sci-fi world. While the topic escalated to a discussion of civilization, this point didn’t add too much complexity.

But after reading the work, Jiang Chen had to admit that Jean didn’t lie to him; the work was indeed fascinating.

“It’s too early to make a decision. I’ll go back, read this book and I’ll give you a reply tomorrow.” Then Nolan stood up and looked at Jiang Chen.

“I’m looking forward to your good news.” Jiang Chen smiled.

Nolan raised his eyebrows and jokingly whispered.

“I’ve always been picky with the script.”

“Believe me, you’ll love it.”