The preview screening of "Instinct" took place at a theater in Century City in Beverly Hills, and Simon and Janet traveled from Malibu to flip through Sophia Fehcy's investigative report.

There are too many cases of rich and famous people who have encountered bad luck because of unladylike encounters, and there are not a few families who have died, and Sophia Fesse is in charge of affairs closely related to Simon's private life, and he is very cautious in this matter.

In the report, Simon was very pleased with Sophia Fessie's resume.

An ordinary girl from a small seaside town in Corsica, France, graduated from the French Public University No. 10, majoring in administration, and the woman's grades in college are amazing. After graduating at the age of 22 and working for three years at an investment firm in Paris, she unexpectedly entered the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich to study business administration, but dropped out only a year later to marry her former husband, Paul Brigney.

Paul Brigny was a businessman in the wine business, and the Brigny family owned their own wineries in the popular wine regions of Bordeaux, Provence and the Loire Valley. However, the marriage lasted only three years and ended in failure, and Sofia Faisy was given custody of a pair of children, and in recent years she has been working as a luxury real estate agent in Nice, a top real estate agency near Cannes, and has done very well.

Simon flipped through the pages of the information in his hand, and Janet leaned over him and asked, "How's it going, it's interesting, isn't it?"

In addition to the main biographies, there are also some accounts of Sophia Faisi's marriage to her former husband, who was eleven years older than her, and the reasons for the divorce, in which the woman successfully won custody of a pair of children in the course of the divorce on the grounds that Paul Brigny had a bad record of domestic violence, but the price was only a one-time alimony of 5 million francs, which was left after paying the costly litigation costs that lasted for a year.

Obviously, the merchant named Paul Breney was also a ruthless man who was determined enough. According to the information, Sophia Faisi's children are now only 7 and 5 years old. The Brienne family has assets of more than 300 million francs, and Paul Brieny has not paid a penny of alimony for his children in recent years.

Hearing Janet's question, Simon reached out and pinched the woman's chin, and said with a smile: "You are just from too good background, I don't know how difficult it is for a helpless little woman to go all the way, but I think it's funny." ”

"Not really," Janet shook off Simon's hand in dissatisfaction, snatched the investigation report and flipped through a few pages, and handed it over, "You see, it's actually the businessman who recently wants to take back custody of those two little guys." He was in an accident while traveling on a yacht two years ago and was supposed to have lost his fertility. Looking at Sophia Fercy, it's no accident that she agreed to work for you, she wants a strong support to protect herself from losing custody. ”

Simon skimmed through the pages of information in front of him, just smiled, and said, "The boss should protect his employees, since you are so interested in this matter, you should come forward when needed." ”

Janet really looked very interested, and nodded and snorted a few times with a wicked little expression. Seeing that the woman was about to become a sperm, Simon hurriedly reached out to suppress it. Attacked under the ribs, Janet suddenly smiled and softened.

The preview began at seven o'clock, and Simon and Janet arrived outside a theater in the AMC Cinema Line in Century City ten minutes early.

In order to build up publicity as much as possible, Fox made the test screening quite popular, and also specially arranged a red carpet, and a large number of media reporters and enthusiastic fans holding various posters also gathered outside the theater.

Simon and Janet got out of the car, and the crowd, which was originally quite orderly, suddenly stirred, and if it wasn't for the security guards, the crowd would almost rush to the two of them. Seeing this situation, Simon did not accept the interview, but only took Janet into the theater in a hurry after cooperating with the photo.

The two were led by the staff to a lounge first, Fox Chairman Barry Diller and Fox Film President Ronald Goldberg had arrived early, Brian De Palma, Michael Douglas and other "Instinct" creators, there were also several big-name film critics in the lounge.

The test screening was about to begin, and everyone didn't say much goodbye, and soon entered the screening hall and took a seat.

Simon sat down slightly at the front with Janet and Barry Diller, and looked around to see that the medium-sized screening room of more than 200 people was almost full, all of them media reporters and film critics from all over North America. This also shows that Fox Films spared no effort for this test screening, because most of the people's expenses such as accommodation, travel expenses were borne by Fox.

The lights dimmed, and the screening of the film soon began.

After a short and psychedelic opening, a passionate scene of Chi Lu appeared in front of everyone, which caught many film critics off guard.

Simon's previous "Vulgar", although it was very bloody and violent, did not have any revealing shots throughout.

However, this passionate scene was only the beginning, when the woman suddenly pulled out an ice pick and stabbed the man below mercilessly, blood splattered, and some media reporters and film critics in the screening room were almost stunned.

Is this Simon Westeros' script?

Is this the script written by Simon Westeros, who created the strings of "Lola Run," "The Butterfly Effect," "Here Comes Death," and most recently, the equally stunning "Vulgar"?

In the screening hall not far from the main creator, Terrence Lafferty, a famous film critic from The New Yorker, was about to finish the opening episode, glanced at the figure of the young man not far away, and asked Richard Schickel, the chief film critic of Time Magazine, who was also frowning next to him: "Is it possible that someone else's script has Westeros' name on it?"

Richard Schickel also looked in a certain direction and shook his head: "I think that if it weren't for the contract with Fox Films, Westeros would not have put his name on this film at all." ”

Terrence Rafferty thought about it and couldn't help but nod.

However, he soon felt that perhaps other well-known directors or screenwriters were trying not to associate themselves with controversial films, but a young man like Westeros who didn't play by common sense might not care about that. The controversy caused by "Vulgar" was also very great during this time, and a youth protection group in New York State even protested to the state government because of the blunt depiction of drug injection in "Vulgar", demanding that the film be banned.

Now, Westeros has just squandered a handful of violence with impunity, and has begun to show off his lust again.

I really don't know what he's going to do next.

Terrence Lafferty is actually a fan of the "Batman" comics, and looking at some hints that can be seen everywhere on the big screen in less than half an hour, he is even a little worried that Simon Westeros will make "Batman" an inappropriate R-rated movie.

Heaven was so kind to that young man.

Perhaps, this time he should suffer some setbacks.

Having made up his mind in his heart, Terrance Lafferty once again turned his attention to the big screen, and even if he wanted to criticize the film, he would definitely watch it carefully.

Energetic, Terrence Lafferty also quickly noticed the performance of the heroine Linda Fiorentino, who did not actually know the actress's name, but remembered that she played an eccentric artist in Martin Scorsese's "After Hours".

Although very disgusted by the film's theme, Terrence Lafferty has to admit that like Sandra Bullock in "Lola Run", Meg Ryan in "When Harry Meets Sally" and Nicole Kidman in "Vulgar", Simon Westeros has once again picked the right heroine.

However, for the same reason, it may be difficult for the actress to get rid of her position in "Instinct" next.

In addition, the performance of the new actor Michael Douglas is also remarkable, and director Brian De Palma shows his preference for Hitchcock vividly in the film.

And, in addition to the ubiquitous sexual themes, the core of this film is also like its title "Instinct", which ultimately shows the deep-seated desires in human instinct that drive a person's behavior, and the femme fatale is also using human instinct to manipulate the men around her, however, her behavior may also come from the dark instinct of human nature.

At the end of the screening, Terrance Lafferty unconsciously realized that if the sexual part of the film was removed, it was also a film worth savoring. But think about it instead, if those elements are really removed, this film, which is crowned with "Instinct", will still lose too much color after all.

This is a proposition that cannot have it both ways.

The credits began to rise at the end of the film, and Terrence Lafferty was still reminiscing about the plot just now, when Richard Schickel, who was next to him, suddenly came over and whispered, "Roger left early." ”

Terrence Lafferty was stunned for a moment before he remembered.

There may not be only one person named Roger in this screening room, but the only person who can be named by Richard Schickel without mentioning his surname is the famous Chicago film critic Roger Albert.

Because of preconceived notions, Terrance Lafferty still has some prejudices against the film he just watched, but in his bones he is no longer so disgusted. Out of the thoughts of some literati, Terrance Lafferty also laughed a little teasingly, and said: "It's normal, Roger Albert has never liked this kind of suspense thriller type of film too much. ”

Terrance Lafferty said it tactfully, but Richard Schickel smiled knowingly.

As one of the few top film critics in North America, Roger Albert's film criticism style has always been known for its mildness, with the exception of certain genres, which are thrillers and suspense.

In fact, there is an allusion in this, many years ago, a high-spirited young man planned to become a screenwriter and liked thriller and suspense films, but the scripts he created were rejected again and again, and he had no choice but to change careers and become a film critic. Because of the 'tragic encounter' when he was a screenwriter, this film critic who became a monk halfway through the family and finally became a famous artist is particularly harsh on thriller and suspense films.

After a few words of laughter, Richard Schickel saw that the subtitles on the big screen were about to end, and he couldn't help but ask Terrence Lafferty next to him: "Are you going to Fox's reception next?"

Terrence Lafferty was a little hesitant, he was still very interested in Simon Westeros, and originally planned to take this opportunity to chat with the other party. Now, though, Fox's reception, which was clearly public relations, was there, and if he had attended it and been lobbied for it, Terrence Lafferty felt that it would be difficult for him to be too harsh on Instinct.

Although, after watching the whole film, Terrance Lafferty's perception of "Instinct" is not too bad, but he is reluctant to let his ideas be swayed by others.

Turning his head and looking around, in addition to Roger Albert, there were obviously some other people in the screening hall who had left the theater early, and it was obvious that although they had taken all kinds of hospitality from Fox Films, a large number of people still expressed their attitude in this way, and perhaps those people would not accept Fox's return tickets in the future.

Retracting his gaze, Terrence Lafferty nodded, "Go ahead, I'm still very curious about that young man, Charlie, what about you?"

Richard Schickel also nodded: "I plan to go too." ”

Before the film screening was accepted, Ronald Goldberg kept hearing from his assistant that someone had left the theater early. It's true that Fox intends to use a controversial marketing strategy, but at the end of the day, Ronald Goldberg is a little worried that if the reputation of "Instinct" completely collapses, then there will be no "controversy" at all.

The reception was held at the nearby InterContinental Century City Hotel.

More than three of the more than 200 film critics who attended the preview did not appear again after the screening, which cast another shadow on Ronald Goldberg's heart. Since last year's "Butterfly Effect", Fox's performance has suddenly improved, and this year's summer file has seen such an unexpected success as "Flying Over the Future". The company originally had high hopes for "Instinct", and Ronald Goldberg also expects that he will be able to accumulate a seniority with "Instinct" before he officially leaves this fall, and by the way, he will receive a bonus to accumulate more capital for him to start a new company after leaving.

But now, the situation has suddenly become uncertain again.

After enthusiastically shuttling through the crowd, Ronald Goldberg also roughly saw the strong polarization of film critics in general about the film, but at the same time, due to the high expectations of Simon Westeros, this polarized word-of-mouth is actually more biased towards criticism.

Obviously, "Instinct" will definitely be controversial next, but the word of mouth may become very bad.

Ronald Goldberg wasn't sure if audiences would pay for a controversial but badly worded film, even if it was a Simon Westeros film, or, especially since it was a Simon Westeros film.

With this worried mood, Ronald Goldberg found Simon and Barry Diller, who were chatting, looked at their expressions of talking and laughing, and couldn't help but say, "You don't seem to be worried at all." ”