From "The Big Short" to "The Revenant" to "Spotlight", it's a lot of fun to pick a script project.

Although this is not the first time that Lan Li has done this, it feels completely different, not because of the quantity, but because Lan Li can temporarily put aside his own considerations and just select projects with development potential, which is as if the horizon is completely opened, and a new world is unfolded in front of him.

It's like opening a treasure.

If the selection of Oscar-based works is more or less structured and restrained, it is even more interesting to choose independent works of art outside the departmental department.

For example, works that are very close to the faculty in temperament and style, but are miserably ignored by the academy for various reasons.

It presents the "beast of no borders" in Africa in the form of a semi-documentary, "Captain Fantastic" tells the relationship between human beings and society like a utopia, presents the "ghostly life" of the relationship between human beings and time in a minimalist story, and explores the "end of the journey" formed by dialogue but explores the depth of life and art, and uses humor to ridicule "Ms. Sloane" who exchanges the interests of Washington lobbyists for the truth.

These works are all very unique in their quality, and although they are more mainstream and more academic, they have their own colors, which can be considered worthy of chewing on the awards season collection, and often bring unexpected surprises, but unfortunately, they are still ignored and ultimately ignored.

For example, horror films that are of excellent quality but destined to miss the awards season tend to be small and large by virtue of their excellent word-of-mouth, which is also a popular investment target for small independent film companies, as well as low-budget comedy films that are trailblazers in the market.

The common characteristics of horror movies such as "It's Behind You", "After the Lights Off", "Hold Your Breath", "Hot Hand Nanny", and "Safe Neighborhood" are: the investment cost is very light, but the market return is exceptionally gratifying, and the income ratio can reach ten or even twenty times.

The same is true for comedy movies such as "Cool Dead", "Female Spy", "Wreckage of Life", "Intern", "Bad Mother", although excellent comedy movies are becoming more and more scarce now, but the audience group has always been relatively stable.

In case, it can explode like a "hangover", this is a lot of money.

Among them, "The Return of the Clown" is an unexpected surprise.

This thriller horror movie is undoubtedly one of the most popular and successful in recent years, with an investment of $35 million in exchange for a box office of $300 million in North America.

However, in the preparation stage, "Return of the Joker" did not have much special treatment, and New Line Pictures just treated it as another ordinary film adaptation of Stephen-King, from the cast to the selection of directors and screenwriters to the control of investment costs.

Although Stephen King's original book has dedicated countless classics, such as "Carrie the Witch", "The Mist", "The Shining", "The Shawshank Redemption" and so on, professionals generally believe that he can only be regarded as second-rate, and the focus is still on the screenwriter and director - almost every year there are film companies adapting his works, but after the nineties, the classics have disappeared.

Therefore, the name "adapted from Stephen King" can no longer be considered a gimmick.

No one thought that "The Return of the Clown" would explode like this. Of course, from a historical perspective, the success of this film has a complex historical background, and if it were to be changed in time, it might have failed miserably, but this is not the part that Lan Li needs to consider now, and the most important thing is that the project came to Sisyphus Pictures.

Since "Return of the Clown" can appear on Lan Li's table, it also means that the adaptation rights are not in the hands of New Line Pictures, but in the hands of the producers, and at the same time, New Line Pictures obviously did not pay enough attention to the film project, and there were disagreements during the negotiation process, which led the producers to start looking for other partners.

It is worth noting that the producer of "Return of the Joker" is a Chinese American named Dan-Lin, whose name can also be seen in "The Departed", "Sherlock Holmes", "The Lego Movie" and other works, and obviously has a very close relationship with Warner Bros.

However, he is not a filmmaker — at least, he is not involved in the filmmaking process, he is a producer who is responsible for finding investments, that is, the one who controls the budget, adjusts the costs, and manages the money. The reason why he sent the "Clown Resurrection" to Lan Li is also for a reason.

On the title page of the project "Return of the Clown", he wrote a passage in both Chinese and English:

"This is a story about horrific memories of childhood. Everyone's childhood memories hide their own fears, which are difficult to talk about except for themselves, and those childhood friends have also disappeared with the burial of memories. It's not a Stephen King movie, it's a movie for everyone. ”

Obviously, Dan Lin just wants to impress Lan Li, not for Lan Li to star - because the protagonists of the movie are a group of underage children, but for Lan Li to be able to serve as an executive producer.

It has to be said that Dan Lin's strategy was very successful.

Because these words reminded Lan Li of another film adaptation of Stephen King, "Walk with Me", which has always been one of Lan Li's favorite and most memorable movies.

Lan Li also marked the five-pointed star symbol for the "Return of the Clown".

For another example, art films that have nothing to do with the awards season, and independent films that have nothing to do with the box office, but they interpret the world from different perspectives and in different ways, and are irreplaceable components in the field of artistic creation.

To be honest, this kind of film is the most charming and characteristic work, because without the constraints of two tights, creators can often collide with infinite artistic sparks, the Coen brothers, David Fincher, David Lynch, Wes Anderson, etc., they can all be regarded as creators in such a field.

"Orange", the first film to be filmed entirely on smartphones (iPhone-5s) and released in movie theaters, focuses on a group of transgender/sexual/body service workers in Los Angeles, reflecting their real lives. This kind of theme is destined to do nothing during the awards season and theatrical chains, even when it comes to investment and production, but above the Sundance and Independent Spirit Awards, it has received applause from all professionals.

Presenting the current situation of women in contemporary North America in an almost blank way, "a certain woman" consciously avoids all dramatic conflicts, and records a state of life in the form of a flow of life, but through the intertwined power of image and light, it brings a strong resonance to the movie.

"Patterson" and "American Sweetheart", which present different sections of the current situation of grassroots life, burst out in a rough and primitive state with their own poetry, because they are too real and too sharp, and the academic school will not like it, but the level of artistic creation is lovely. And the "edge of growth" with a comedic self-deprecating and self-deprecating style can also be regarded as another form of expression.

In a light and ingenious way to present different aspects of love, "Love and Friendship", "The Song of First Love", both films are immersed in their own life patterns, the kind of narrative techniques and bridges that are far from the mainstream but have their own unique wisdom, bringing more thinking. "The Lobster" presents the dark side of society and love, and the cold narrative technique and picture style are impressive.

There is also the secret room suspense work "House of Vice", which uses a small story to refract the complexity of human nature, and opens the perspective in a way that advances layer by layer and peels off the cocoon, the thickness of the expression and the selection of shots interpret a dark story in the style of a stage drama with more possibilities, but it is destined to be difficult to win more attention in theaters.

"Me and Earl and the Dying Girl" is an unclassifiable film that examines the meaning of death from the perspective of a teenager, which is lighter and simpler than the cancer-faced romance movie "The Fault of the Stars", but bursts out with more power through the delicate depiction of the pure friendship between the male and female protagonists.

The most interesting thing is that "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl" is still a fan movie - the male protagonist and his friends are avid movie lovers, and the greatest pleasure outside of high school life is to make all kinds of "big bad movies" and adapt those classic movies into bad movies.

This style of film is somewhat similar to works such as "Patterson" and "Love and Friendship", which are completely stylized artistic interpretations and interpretations by the director, whether it is an awards season or an art theater, it is really difficult to find an opportunity to show, perhaps only on the Sundance Film Festival and many film festivals in Europe, can carefully occupy a place, but that's all.

These films cannot be categorized simply and crudely, nor can they be summarized in general, because they all have their own edges and styles.

Most movies may not have been heard of, let alone watched, for mainstream audiences, but for true film lovers, or creators of film art, these films are worth far more than two tights.

Because they can really open the door to the world through these works, appreciate the colorful, rich and diverse different content, and then experience the diversity and diversity of the art world, which is the true essence of artistic creation.

Like a treasure!