Rebirth In Hollywood

"Since you are retiring, don't stand up and make empty shots. Please control your mouth and hands! Please don't judge Warner's movies in the future. If you really want to comment, please give a low score, okay?"

At the end of April, an executive director of Time Warner bombarded the famous film critic Roger Ebert, imploring him to let Warner's films go, and not to give Warner's production or distribution films any more ratings. This is absolutely the best A sharp tool to drive away the audience. x.

Perhaps movies and cinemas are indeed a good place to avoid the crisis, and the world economy in 2009 is still shrouded in crisis.

However, not everything has become a victim of the crisis. Just like the 1929 economic crisis, facing the gloomy reality, people chose to hide in the virtual world to seek excitement and entertainment. In 2009, it proved again that movie entertainment is the choice that people love in the crisis era. To some extent, it has become a refuge for people's hearts.

Perhaps it was stimulated by the fact that the total box office in North America exceeded 10 billion U.S. dollars for the first time last year. Since the beginning of this year, the box office of movies in North America and even the world has been on the rise. Several seemingly inconspicuous films have achieved good box office results. .

In fact, as early as January, this trend had begun to emerge. North American audiences who were distracted by the financial crisis spent more time watching movies, and major Hollywood companies found that all types of movies can be blockbusters. , the previous highest January box office was only 841 million U.S. dollars, while in January 2009 it was an astonishing 1.074 billion U.S. dollars.

Some lesser-known low-budget films, such as "Paranormal," found success this spring, while some high-flying titles dropped Squibs.

Among them are the two super big productions "Prophet" and "Watchmen" launched by Warner Bros.

The failure of these two films at the box office is also the biggest reason why Warner executives bombarded Roger Ebert.

"This is the best sci-fi movie I've ever seen - thrilling, suspenseful, witty and, when necessary, awe-inspiring!"

Roger Ebert not only gave "Prophet" ten points, but also the iconic two thumbs up, and "Watchmen" also received the same treatment.

"A gripping and shocking piece of work - sound, image and characters come together to create an absolutely bizarre, graphic novel-like visual experience. The film has a powerful inner drive, and we can feel that the film focuses on the plight of saving a hopeless world."

If Roger Albert would give such an evaluation more than ten years ago, not only would Warner's executives not be angry, but they would happily remit an extra bonus to the other party's account.

But now?

In the past five years, Roger Ebert has released movies with a score of nine or more, and 99% of them hit the box office. However, the worthless movies that he flattened have become huge sellers. Some tabloids even dubbed him "The Crow's Mouth".

The Prophet and Watchmen certainly didn't fall out of this category. The former has been removed from North America, and the production cost of 115 million US dollars was only exchanged for a box office of more than 71.9 million US dollars.

After the latter was released in March, in the past two months, the box office in North America has not exceeded 100 million US dollars, which annoyed Time Warner executives who had high hopes for the comic film.

To be precise, Roger Ebert has nothing to do with the poor box office of the movie, but in the past five years, the movies he favored hit the market one after another. People have to wonder if he has a magical power that can curse the movies he watches, making the audience unconsciously want to stay away.

"Roger Ebert's praise is equivalent to a box office murder."

This view gradually formed a consensus within Hollywood. Some film companies even exaggeratedly wanted to renew public relations with him, so that the other party would never give their films a thumbs up.

The replacement of old and new is a natural law, and those who do not adapt to the times will eventually be eliminated.

This month, another thing happened that caused a sensation in the film circles all over the world. Roman Polanski attends a film event in Switzerland,

On the way from the hotel to the red carpet, he was arrested by the Swiss police. The old story of him seducing and raping an underage girl once again hit the headlines of the media.

The U.S. Department of Justice reacted immediately and contacted the Swiss side, intending to extradite Roman Polanski, who had been hunted down for many years, back to the U.S. If the extradition is successful, the great director will most likely spend the rest of his life in prison Pass.

Subsequently, the Swiss Ministry of Justice rejected Roman Polanski's request for bail because he had a history of fleeing.

According to Swiss law, the United States will have 60 days to submit an extradition request and submit it to the Ministry of Justice for review. If approved...

This incident not only caused strong repercussions in the Polish and French film circles, but also Hollywood, which was relatively quiet after the Oscars, was instantly activated.

Just look at the people who hang out with Roman Polanski, Woody Allen, Martin Scorsese, David Lynch, Harvey Weinstein, Pedro Almodovar, Ethan Coen, Jack Nicholson, Harrison Ford, Steven Spielberg, Robert De Niro...

Heavyweight names can bring dusty tragic events back into focus, and can also affect serious judicial trials. Hollywood bigwigs have always considered themselves to be members of privilege.

Especially the Jewish Club in Hollywood will never allow an important member of itself to fall into the pocket of the US Department of Justice.

Those who had a deep friendship with Roman Polanski even started running for him.

Or to put it another way, Hollywood does not allow the top figures in the circle to be completely trampled under their feet, especially if the other party is a Jew.

"Jack, this is not a good way. Speaking up collectively will only arouse public resentment."

Sitting on the sofa in his living room, Ryan looked at the visiting Jack Nicholson and David Lynch, "thus pushing the incident to the side we don't want to see."

Out of respect, Jack Nicholson took off his iconic sunglasses when he came in, "Don't we do anything? I believe that if we collectively stand in solidarity, the Department of Justice will definitely have scruples, and the public will also because of us. support, and change positions appropriately.”

"David, what do you think?" Ryan asked again.

"We always have our own attitude."

The other party seemed dissatisfied with Ryan's colder response.

The two sides said a few more words, but they couldn't reach an agreement on this, so Jack Nicholson and David Lynch had to leave.

Ryan didn't stay too long, because he was very interested in the seduction and rape case, and he still had some memories. The remarks supported by Hollywood celebrities in his previous life not only did not help Roman Polanski, but made his situation even more difficult .

According to his true wish, Ryan does not want to interfere in this matter, but while enjoying the privileges of a Jewish person, he naturally wants to safeguard the interests of this class and watch each other when possible. It can be said that the Hollywood Jewish Club is the best One of the basic rules.

The joint visit of Jack Nicholson and David Lynch also made it clear that he cannot completely stay out of it.

Waved to Charlize who came down from upstairs, Ryan sat here, thinking for a few minutes, and roughly thought about the pros and cons of this matter.

Not to mention other things, Roman Polanski should be fine. After a series of hardships in his previous life, he finally paid 5 million euros in bail and successfully escaped.

The result is here, how can I make a profit from it?

If he makes a move at the right time and shows that he has played an important role in it, then the Hollywood Jewish Club will owe a favor, and this favor can completely exert a huge or even a key influence in next year's Oscar selection.

As a fairly successful businessman, Ryan figured out what he should do in a short time.

But now, he has to wait and see what happens, and wait for Hollywood celebrities to collectively speak out and bring the incident to a worse side.

However, in two days, Woody Allen, Martin Scorsese, David Lynch, Harvey Weinstein and many other Hollywood celebrities have expressed their views on this matter. Their words may be There is a difference, in the end, it is an expression of support for Roman Polanski.

"I am shocked and angry at the behavior of the Swiss side. The incident happened 31 years ago, and the victim has already forgiven Polanski, and Polanski went to Switzerland and owned real estate there. What is even more incomprehensible is that, Why was he arrested when he accepted the invitation to receive the award in Zurich?"

Many people were outraged and supported Polanski. Putting their names together, it is simply a who's who of Hollywood elite.

However, things did not change because of Hollywood's support. Hollywood stars unanimously supported the troubled director, but it caused a public backlash, especially from women and women's rights organizations.

Many women left messages on the Internet, expressing their opinions bluntly, and more and more people applauded Polanski's arrest. Be a rapist who sexually abuses children.

Those well-known women in the United States also stood up. The female writer Kate Harding wrote in a column article-Roman Polanski raped a child. It is a detail that some people deliberately want to ignore. "

This article immediately became popular on the Internet. In just a few hours, the number of visits exceeded 100,000, which seemed to indicate some kind of reaction.

Kate Harding subsequently received invitations from many right-wing radio talk shows to condemn Roman Polanski's commentary articles, which were published one after another on the well-known covert anti-Semitic media in North America. Applause for the belated arrest.

Events developed dramatically, and the consequences seemed to go far beyond Polanski himself. Some people who had supported him, such as Whoopi Goldberg, also began to defect and clarify their positions. Over the next few days, more and more female stars also joined the ranks.

Hollywood's support for Polanski's actions obviously had the opposite effect. (To be continued..) R640