Made in Hollywood

The trailer started to play, and the chaotic venue was instantly quiet. Everyone was concentrating on the alloy curtain in front of the venue, for fear of missing any shot.

As the editor-in-chief of the entertainment section of the "Los Angeles Times", Sally naturally sat in the front row of the media seats. With her arms folded, she watched the mysterious trailer seriously.

The trailer opened with the dark background of Warner's logo and the dark knight, and then Batman's iconic Gotham buildings and cityscapes appeared on the screen, and the subtitle read: Every hero has his own journey.

Then, Bruce Wayne appeared, walking in a village, apparently looking for the villain.

The subtitles continued: Every hero has his own end.

The voice of Master Ninja, the leader of the first villain ninja group, sounded offscreen at this time: If you make yourself more than just a person, if you stick to your ideals devoutly, then you will completely change in quality, and you will become a legend, Mr. Wayne, A legend!

The camera turned to a hospital bed, and Sergeant Jim Gordon, played by Gary Oldman, was lying on the bed, looking injured, with a painful expression and voice, and he said to the person opposite: "We have been side by side in the past. Fighting, and then you left...but now that the evil has grown, it's time for Batman...to come back."

At this moment Gordon's voice was painful and suppressed.

The person on the opposite side who never appeared in the camera replied: "What if he doesn't exist anymore?"

This seems to echo the end of the second part?

Sarah couldn't help holding up her chin. At the end of "The Dark Knight", Batman became a departed soldier and a hidden hero, but the actors, photographers and screenwriters all expressed more or less in interviews before: Duke's This set of Batman trilogy is a complete series, and the summary and echo of the first two parts in the third part will become an indispensable focus.

The dialogue in the previous paragraph has no plot connection, which seems a bit meaningful. Then there is a quick cut to reveal a little information, such as Batman's motorcycle, Gordon destroying Batman's logo, and the face of the episode's villain "Bane the Destroyer" appeared in a super fast flash cut.

Then, the camera returned to the shots on the posters that had been released before: crumbling high-rise buildings, ruined industrial cities, a touch of bright-colored Batman shape, the camera gradually zoomed in on the bright colors, and the title of the film was displayed in flashing white.

Watch this trailer. Sarah couldn't help but think of the original "Batman: Beginning of War". The poster of that movie also used a huge bat to cover the sky over Gotham, but that poster had an orange background and a flat design. In the final poster, the bat What the hero will face is a doomsday collapsed Gotham.

Every hero has a journey and a beginning: why we fall, so we learn to get back up; every hero has an end: it doesn't matter who you are, it matters what you do for.

All this is not over. It was the beginning of a publicity explosion for The Dark Knight Rises.

Half a month before the film's release, Warner Bros. released a finale 13-minute super-long production special. For fans who are eager to learn about all aspects of the film's production, this video is the ultimate video that can satisfy your appetite. Feast.

In the special episode, Duke, the main creator behind the film, and all the leading actors all appeared. Explain in detail the content of the film from the origin of the story to special effects shooting, set construction, special effects production, big scene shooting, etc., including a large number of never-before-seen behind-the-scenes footage, working photos, etc.

In addition, movie fans can also go to the official website of "The Dark Knight Rises" to download a 49-page official production note, which includes cast and crew interviews, revised scripts, film design drawings and more.

And "The Dark Knight Rises" also held its first round of media screenings in North America. The film received unanimous praise from the live media, and Warner Bros. has also announced that the film will land in 97 overseas markets simultaneously with North America on the first weekend in May.

certainly. "The Dark Knight Rises" is impossible to win everyone's favor, and some people criticize the film as a stupid and stupid Hollywood industrial assembly line product.

Regarding this point, Duke has never denied that almost all of his films since his career are assembly line products. And not to mention these big commercial productions, those Oscar best pictures and even "The Shawshank Redemption" that are highly praised by niche movie fans, who is not the output of the Hollywood industrial assembly line?

Warner Bros. has spared no effort in the promotion of "The Dark Knight Rises". In fact, since many years ago, Hollywood's major film companies have had a blockbuster mentality, that is, second-tier movies receive first-tier movie treatment, vigorously publicized, and fully released. Earn huge profits.

As the summer season is about to start, another summer movie season is coming, accompanied by complaints from literary audiences about sequels, superheroes and too many special effects. They complained about the film while queuing up to buy tickets watch.

In their mouths, all commercial films are brainless.

In holding the blame for the long summer movie season, these same people must agree on the scapegoat, Steven Spielberg's "Jaws" and George Lucas' "Star Wars," released two years later.

"Jaws" is not the first film to be released in North America.

In 1971, "Billy Jack" opened in 1,200 theaters, far ahead of "Jaws"'s 465.

"Star Wars" was only shown in 43 theaters. In today's terms, it is the "big hit" hit movie in 1977. Those two films did break the $100 million mark first, though, and they pioneered "movie-watching as a thrill ride," attracting repeat viewings in ways "The Godfather" couldn't match.

No matter what people who hate commercial films say, the success of "Jaws" and "Star Wars" is unquestionable. The influence of the latter directly kills all the best Oscar films. Even the name can be used by one country as a strategy to fool another. nation.

After so many years of development of summer movies, obvious patterns have naturally emerged.

For example, size is very important now.

In Jurassic World, which Duke once saw, the T-Rex gave way to a bigger and stronger tyrannical T-Rex because, as one character puts it, "Nobody makes a fuss about dinosaurs anymore."

The first episode of "Jurassic Park" is obviously different. The star of the hit is not the Tyrannosaurus Rex, but the much smaller Velociraptor-smart, fast and lethal.

The first generation of blockbusters consisted of stories like David and Goliath that pitted speed and cunning against size, and it was speed and cunning that won.

Spielberg filled Jaws with physical underdogs, and Star Wars is a paean to the little ones.

Just like "Jurassic Park" and "Jurassic World", commercial masterpieces in the 1980s and 1990s are obviously different from those after the new century. It can be said that the previous commercial blockbusters are as rich in American characteristics as apple pie.

When "Jurassic Park" was released in France in 1993, the French Minister of Culture declared it a "threat to French national identity" and said every Frenchman had a "patriotic duty" to boycott the film and watch the French era The film "Sprout".

But a year later, Hollywood's foreign profits surpassed its domestic profits.

Films like Michael Bay's "Transformers: Resurgence" and "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" now generate more than half their profits overseas.

According to relevant data obtained by Duke, China, the fastest growing film market in the world, is expected to overtake North America in 2020, and Hollywood is adjusting and publicizing its filming plans accordingly.

In the "Iron Man 3" script, the Chinese officials are not so vicious. In the "Transformers" series, some Chinese banks and other brand placement ads appeared. The monster games in "Godzilla" and "Pacific Rim" All over the major cities on the Pacific coast, why is this all? Because China opens about ten new movie theaters every day.

Hollywood's business strategies are constantly changing. If you can't grasp it in time, you will stumble.

For example, David Ellison has always believed that blockbuster movies are for boys, but he has not noticed the changes in the market in recent years, which directly led to the lack of stamina of "Fast and Furious 5".

In the past, there was a vocabulary in Hollywood specifically to describe the core consumer customers - fanboy (fanboy). From this name, we can also see the gender of this group of people.

These are the pale-faced, handshake-averse sci-fi fans who collect related merchandise and alphabetize DVDs, and are said to be able to walk out of their Nintendo console-filled abodes to let Marvel's new release hit the top.

Indeed, since "Star Wars," major studios have targeted teenage boys, and Michael Bay once said -- "I make movies for teenage boys."

But that was before The Twilight Saga, and the misconception that only boys make blockbusters is being shattered every now and then. For films like "The Hunger Games," nearly two-thirds of the viewers are women.

However, do these blockbusters really represent brainlessness?

"It starts out with nobodies and ends up being superheroes.

At this year's Oscars, the director who was rejected by Duke finally won the best director Oscar for "Birdman", which appeared earlier. In the film, he called the comic film "cultural genocide".

This film can be said to be very average in terms of quality and content, and the comments from audiences and even professional film critics are not good.

Its win reflects the deep-rooted academy bias toward box-office blockbusters.

Oscar may always mistake itself for the Nobel Peace Prize and despise blockbusters to cater to the lowest common denominator, but how much difference is there in essence between the things produced by the Hollywood assembly line?

To put it bluntly, they are all assembly line products. The only difference is that the business caters to the general public, while Oscar films cater to the minority.

Today's no-brainer pastime often becomes tomorrow's beloved classic.

"Inception" is as ingenious as a movie watchmaker, "Mad Max" is as exhilarating as any other film ever made, and Pixar's art, skill, and care are as good as any other film ever made. Any Oscar winner for best picture... (to be continued~^~)

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