On Monday morning, in the post-production room of the Warner Studios office building, the post-production of "Chasing the Murderer by Day" had reached the final stage, Christopher Nolan finished the work at hand, rubbed his slightly throbbing forehead, slowly walked out of the editing room, came to the lounge area on the same floor, and picked up a cup of coffee from the coffee machine.

Just after taking a sip of coffee, Christopher Nolan saw the famous Warner Bros. producer Charles Rowan.

"Hi Charles. He offered to say hello.

Charles Rowan responded with a smile: "Hello, Director Nolan. He then asked, "Are you almost done?"

Christopher Nolan nodded: "There is only a little finishing work left, and it will not delay the release next month." ”

The two of them were fine for a while, and chatted in the rest area.

The office building in the studio is a bit empty, and like the entire Hollywood area, the number of crews staying here is decreasing year by year.

A fluorescent lamp overhead suddenly made a sizzling sound, and the light flickered, and Charles Rowan couldn't help but sigh and said: "This studio is in disrepair. ”

Christopher Nolan took a sip of coffee and said, "Warner looks like it hasn't been a studio fix in a long time. ”

Charles Rowan said: "More than half of the studio has been developed into tourist areas, and the remaining part is also limited in utilization, and at the moment the studio has several Ronan Anderson's crews stationed here to shoot in addition to your crew. ”

Christopher Nolan casually said, "It's Ronan Anderson of Relativity Entertainment, I know him." ”

"It's him, a young man with a lot of ideas, his company has developed well in recent years, and the second-tier companies can be regarded as capable of performance. Charles Rowan is a Warner Bros. executive with a natural sense of superiority over small companies: "But it's almost a bottleneck. ”

He seems to have a unique opinion: "A lot of medium-sized companies in Hollywood, which tend to grow on one or two or more series, seem to have a good momentum, but these series don't last long, often in six or seven years, and when the series is over, the company will quickly get into trouble." ”

Christopher Nolan thought for a moment and asked, "DreamWorks or Relativity Entertainment, which one has more prospects in the future?"

"There is no comparison between the two. What Charles Ronan said was an almost unanimous opinion in the circle: "Don't look at the difficulty of DreamWorks, but the resources that DreamWorks can mobilize are far from being comparable to Relativistic Entertainment." If nothing else, let's talk about extremely critical content production, DreamWorks has a multi-faceted source of projects, and all the projects of Relativity Entertainment are basically initiated by Ronan Anderson alone. ”

Christopher Nolan understood what this meant: "Once Ronan Anderson's talent runs out, relativity entertainment will be in trouble?"

"Chris, you're the director. Charles Rowan laughs and says, "You know better than I know that everyone has a creative peak, and then a trough. With so many projects in just a few years, how long do you think his peak will last? ”

He glanced at his watch: "I still have something to do, we'll talk about it another day." ”

"Good. Christopher Nolan shook his hand and said goodbye.

Charles Rowan quickly left the lounge area, and Christopher Nolan finished his coffee, thinking of the names of Ronan Anderson and Relativity Entertainment, and hurried to the newspaper rack to look for it.

Today is Monday, and the first-week box office for "Tales of the Night" should be out.

Christopher Nolan appreciates the dark style of the film, but also considers the market acceptance in order to coordinate that idea and plan in mind.

And the box office is the most intuitive market reaction.

Picking up a copy of The Hollywood Reporter, which was just published on Monday, Christopher Nolan returned to his seat and quickly flipped through the pages to find stories about "Tales of the Night" and the North American box office charts.

"The release of "Resident Evil" in February is a good start for Relativity Entertainment's new film released this year, and the global box office of the film has greatly enhanced Relativity Entertainment's position in the industry. ”

"Tales of the Night" began to be released in North America on a large scale last Friday, and the opening scale of 2,950 theaters also ensures that the film can face most North American audiences, and the film grossed $10.22 million on the first day, injecting a shot in the arm into the dull film market in this relatively cold April. ”

Seeing this, Christopher Nolan gradually relieved his mind, and "Tales of the Night" should have been a success.

He continued to read the story.

The film improved slightly on Saturday, earning $10.61 million at the box office, and in just two days, the North American box office was already on par with the production cost. ”

"On Sunday, "Tales of the Night" collected another $8.29 million, and its North American box office reached $29.09 million in the first three days, landing at the top of the North American box office list!"

Christopher Nolan picked up the coffee cup and drank the coffee inside, remembering that the last time I chatted with Ronan, I had vaguely heard that the total investment of "Tales of the Night", including the production tape and publicity, was only about 30 million US dollars.

Such a box office result means another commercial success.

In other words, movies of this genre style have a certain audience.

Even if the shooting is characteristic enough, the dark wind is highly likely to bring great success.

Christopher Nolan's thoughts became more and more determined, and his mind returned to the subject matter, and after thinking for a while, he was completely clueless, and went to look at the newspaper in his hand again.

Seeing some statistics about "Legend of the Night" later, Christopher Nolan shook his head, "Legend of the Night" won the market, but lost word of mouth.

"Tales of the Night received a B+ in the CinemaScore, Rotten Tomatoes was labeled as rotten and only 32 percent fresh, and the average IMDB audience score was 6.6......"

Christopher Nolan put down this "Hollywood Reporter", the commercial success of "Tales of the Night" is certainly gratifying, but for a director, it needs not only commercial success, but also praise and praise.

Otherwise, like Michael Bay, who he likes, even if he wins all the commercial achievements, he will still be called a bad movie director by countless people.

That's not what Christopher Nolan wants.

Christopher Nolan thinks more, he wants commercial success, good reputation and high reputation, he also wants it.

"Hi Chris. ”

The familiar greeting sounded, and Christopher Nolan quickly came back to his senses, looked in the direction where the voice came from, and found that it was Ronan.

"Hi Ronan. He beckoned Ronan: "Sit down." How do you have time to come. ”

Ronan pulled out a chair and sat across from Christopher Nolan and said, "On the night of the premiere, you left the theater and told me that you had some inspiration for the new film, and I was curious. ”

He said bluntly: "I'm a producer and a studio owner, and I can't let go of every opportunity." ”

Christopher Nolan smiled and said, "It's just a preliminary idea, it's not mature. ”

Ronan asked curiously, "Can you tell me?"

Christopher Nolan groaned slightly, thinking that the subject matter was not settled at all, what was entangled in his head was the style of the film, and he didn't have to worry about the leakage of ideas at all, and the dark style of the film, the other party had already shot and released one.

"When I was filming 'Chasing the Murderer in the White Night', I was thinking about how to make the next movie. Christopher Nolan said slowly: "When I was filming in Alaska, I was bothered a lot by the Aurora Day, and I missed the darkness very much, and I wanted to make a film with a noir theme or a dark style. ”

Ronan nodded slightly, but didn't interject, just listened to Christopher Nolan continue.

Christopher Nolan added: "At the premiere of Tales of the Night, I watched the film and it became even more intense, and the film's rich black background made me sure that my next film was going to be a film in pure darkness. ”

"I see. Ronan didn't expect that "Tales of the Night" would strengthen Christopher Nolan's idea: "Dark-style films, in fact, have a market for survival after they are filmed......"

As a producer, the first thing that comes to mind is the commodity attributes of the movie.

Christopher Nolan has seen this situation a lot, the producer is completely different from the directors of them, and the first consideration is never the artistry or ideology of the film, after all, the producer is responsible for the investor, and the reason why the investor invests in the film is to pursue commercial profits.

"Tales of the Night" was a box office hit, which also proves this. Christopher Nolan is confident: "As long as the subject matter is chosen, the dark style of the movie ......"

He didn't say anything further, and besides, he was boasting.

Ronan understood what Christopher Nolan meant, and asked directly: "Chris, have you chosen the subject matter well?" The dark style itself belongs to a niche genre, and if the subject matter is also biased towards the niche, the market prospect will not be good. ”

"I know. Christopher Nolan was very cautious: "So, I haven't thought of a suitable subject, and many popular themes are not suitable for shooting in a dark style, and if the unsuitable subject is filmed in a dark style, the film is very likely to fail." ”

Ronan hugged his chest with one hand and pinched his chin with the other, and said, "It's suitable for dark style themes, this is really not easy to find." ”

Christopher Nolan nodded in agreement: "I thought about it a lot, and in the end I vetoed it again." ”

"Dark Style! A story that takes place in the dark like Tales of the Night. Ronan muttered to himself, not in a high voice, but he could be heard by Christopher Nolan: "Black like Selena, even the heart and emotions are black?"

His voice suddenly raised: "Chris, I thought of one. ”

"What?" asked Christopher Nolan.

"Batman!"