It only took a day for a sinister 31-year-old clown to outpace the combined powers of Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson, aka The Rock.

When the first teaser for “It,” the new film based on Stephen King’s terrifying 1986 novel, was released in March, it spooked its way into a record for the most views online in 24 hours. The trailer picked up 197 million views across platforms in just a single day, leaving the previous record-holder, “The Fate of the Furious” and its 139 million views, in the rearview mirror.

一個已有31年歷史的邪惡小丑只花了一天，就打敗了馮迪索與道恩強森（又稱巨石強森）的合體。

新片「牠」以美國作家史蒂芬．金1986年的同名恐怖小說為基礎，首支前導預告片3月公開時，神出鬼沒地竄上24小時內網上觀看次數第一名的寶座。這支前導預告片短短一天內在眾家影音分享網站被觀看1億9700萬次，把先前的紀錄保持者「玩命關頭8」預告片及其1億3900萬的觀看次數甩到了後頭。

Even after the release of a new “It” trailer in July, the original teaser continued to grab more viewers as the movie’s release approached. And it’s not as if we haven’t seen the story before: The movie’s source material is 3 decades old, and it was previously turned into a TV miniseries in 1990. So somewhere in the course of 2 minutes lay the secret to making footage tied to a familiar story go viral: a mix of callbacks and cameos with fresh suspense.

“It” isn’t the only film to capitalize on this mix of nostalgia and novelty. In October, “Blade Runner 2049” will hit the big screen, revisiting the world of “Blade Runner,” Ridley Scott’s 1982 science-fiction classic. The sequel’s trailers, too, have the challenge of feeling original while connecting with audiences who saw the original.

就算在「牠」的新預告片7月公開之後，原本的前導預告片仍在電影上映日日益接近之際持續吸引更多觀眾。而且又不是說我們從沒看過這個故事：這部片子的故事已有30年之久，而且曾在1990年被改編成電視連續劇。所以這兩分鐘的前導預告片藏著秘密，才能讓與熟悉情節有關的影片片段爆紅：把過往情節、大牌客串鏡頭和新的懸念結合起來。

「牠」並不是唯一利用「懷舊氛圍加新鮮感」的電影。今年10月，「銀翼殺手2049」將登上大銀幕，讓世界重溫導演雷利史考特1982年的經典科幻電影「銀翼殺手」。這部續集的預告片同樣面臨挑戰，要在連結看過原作的觀眾時令人感到有原創性。

In both cases, teasers for “It” and “Blade Runner 2049” generate hype through the use of their central figures. One relies on the charisma of a weathered Harrison Ford. The other hinges on the apparitions of a nightmarish clown.

在這兩個案例中，「牠」與「銀翼殺手2049」的預告片都用核心角色來炒作，其中一個依靠飽經風霜的哈里遜福特的魅力，另一個仰賴令人毛骨悚然的小丑現身。

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文／張佑生

本周選譯的兩篇文章介紹三部現代經典作品的重拍（remake），包括也被視為續集的《銀翼殺手2049》。Teaser（前導短片）指吊人胃口的預告片（trailer），揉合粉絲對原著既熟悉又陌生（mix of nostalgia and novelty）的感知，吸引舊雨新知捧場。

三部作品問世最晚的《牠》都已31年。《銀》片倚重資深影星哈里遜福特飽閱風霜（weathered）的魅力。Weather當動詞指受日曬雨淋的，形容人則是歷經滄桑，仍能屹立不搖。美國短篇小說《棄婦吟》（The Jilting of Granny Weatherall）的阿嬤姓氏即源自此字（weatherall = weather all），卻是很大的諷刺。

《蒼蠅王》審視人性本惡（the inherent evil of humanity）。紐時用的兩個動詞很巧妙，一個是描述男孩的新團體迅速分崩離析（unravel），這個字和系統、計畫或組織連用、當不及物動詞時採此義。當及物動詞常作「條分縷析」解釋，例unravel the mystery 。

動詞片語set in指不愉快的事或壞天氣到來，可能會持續一段時間，例如「猜疑」及「暴力」。先後被用來追思瑪麗蓮夢露及黛安娜王妃的流行歌曲《Candle in the Wind》形容主角的一生宛如風中之燭，偏偏又開始下雨（When the rain set in），真是風雨飄搖。

A planned film adaptation of “Lord of the Flies,” the 1954 novel that examined the inherent evil of humanity through an island of boys without adult supervision, will have a provocative twist: This time, the island will be full of girls.

The concept alone invited immediate scrutiny on social media. But skepticism was inflamed by a fairly common Hollywood story: The film about girls will be written and directed by two men, Scott McGehee and David Siegel.

小說《蒼蠅王》出版於1954年，透過在島上沒有大人監督的一群男孩，探討人性本惡的問題。籌畫中的改編電影《蒼蠅王》，則做了一項具挑釁性的轉變：這次，島上盡是女孩。

光是這個概念就在社群媒體上立即引來檢視。而且這種看衰論還因好萊塢相當常見的一個故事而加重，這部女版電影將由史考特麥基席和大衛席格這兩個男人編寫和執導。

Using girls “might help people see the story anew,” McGehee said.

“It breaks away from some of the conventions, the ways we think of boys and aggression,” he said. “People still talk about the movie and the book from the standpoint of pure storytelling. It is a great adventure story, real entertainment, but it has a lot of meaning embedded in it as well.”

麥基席說，啟用女孩「或許可幫助人們以全新的眼光看待這個故事」。

他說：「它擺脫了一些傳統，我們對男孩和侵略的思考模式。人們還是從純講故事的角度來討論這部電影和小說。這是一個很棒的冒險故事，真正的娛樂，但其中也不乏許多深意。」

Theirs would be at least the third adaptation of “Lord of the Flies,” after a 1963 version and another one in 1990. Warner Bros. did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In the book — spoiler alert — things go badly for the preteen boys, classmates from an English boarding school who become stranded on an island without adults. They first try to work together to survive, but their new society quickly unravels as distrust and violence set in. A favorite of high school English classes, the story has for decades been seen as a cautionary look at how members of mankind can treat one another poorly.

兩人的電影至少是繼1963年和1990年兩個版本之後的第三個《蒼蠅王》改編作品。華納兄弟未立即回應外界要求，對此事發表評論。

在這本書中─劇情透露警告─這些青春期前男孩的情況變得很糟糕，他們是英國一所住宿學校同班同學，在沒有大人情況下，受困在一個荒島上。一開始，他們試圖共同求生，但隨著不信任和暴力進入，他們的新社會也快速崩解。這本小說是高中英文課的最愛，數十年來，這個故事被看待成是一個前車之鑑，可了解人類社會成員可能如何傷害對方。

But is it about mankind or about men? Flipping the gender dynamics would lead to an entirely different story, several people argued on Twitter.

In an undated interview, the author of the book, William Golding, who died in 1993, said he was often asked why he wrote about boys instead of girls. He said that it was partly because he grew up as one, but that gender was also crucial to the larger point of the novel:

“If you land with a group of little boys, they are more like scaled-down society than a group of little girls would be. Don’t ask me why, and this is a terrible thing to say, because I’m going to be chased from hell to breakfast by all the women who talk about equality. This has nothing to do with equality at all. I mean, I think women are foolish to pretend they’re equal to men — they’re far superior and always have been. But one thing you cannot do with them is take a bunch of them and boil them down, so to speak, into a set of little girls who would then become a kind of image of civilization, of society.”

不過，它針對的究竟是人類還是男人呢？有些人在推特上說，翻轉性別動力將帶來一個全然不同的故事。

在一個未註明日期的訪談中，1993年去世的小說作者威廉．高汀說，他常被問到為何寫的是男孩而不是女孩。他說，部分是因他是男孩，但是男孩這個性別在小說的更大觀點中也至關重要：

「和一群小男孩一起降落，他們要比一群小女孩更像個縮小的社會。不要問我為什麼，說這句話是件可怕的事，我會被談論兩性平等的女性追到天涯海角。這和兩性平等完全無關。我的意思是，我認為女性假裝她們和男人平等是件愚蠢的事，她們優越得多，而且一向如此。但是有件事你無法透過她們來做到，你無法找來一群女孩，然後這麼說吧，把她們壓縮成一組女孩，讓她們成為文明或社會的某種形象。」