According to the Oscar faction works of the previous life, Lan Li selected ten works, but among them, he also found unexpected surprises in addition to the "Big Short", "Focus" and "The Revenant" are two other surprises.

"The Revenant" is a big name, and even Lan Li wants to ignore it, because this work helped Leonardo DiCaprio draw a perfect end to his more than ten years of Little Golden Man competition, just like "The Departed" was to Martin Scorsese, and finally won his first Little Golden Man trophy.

From the perspective of project preparation, "The Revenant" is adapted from the eponymous name, and Michael Punke (Michael Punke) used the legendary real-life Revenant Hugh-Glass as the prototype of the story, and completed the creation of the entire fictional story by the way, Michael Punk, the official U.S. ambassador to the World Trade Organization (WTO), who completed the creation in his spare time.

Although this is not a personal biography, but a reinterpretation of the story based on folklore, it can also be called a personal epic, and presents the most primitive and crude personal battles, which can be regarded as a genre that the academic school quite likes, but surprisingly, this work has never been favored, mainly because it is too difficult to shoot, and there are too many uncertainties in the style and connotation presented, which makes the project always be shelved.

Published in 2001, the rights had already been bought by producer Akiva-Goldsman, but after years of going around and around, he was never able to find a suitable production company and production team, and even Ajwa himself gave up and sold the rights. In the past ten years, the copyright has changed hands several times, the director has changed hands several times, and even the actor has changed several times, but it still has not been formed.

Until the second half of last year, Alejandro González Iñárritu had just finished filming "Birdman", saw the potential of the project, and officially took over, but Alejandro was not able to change the difficulties of the project, and in a few months, the actor and supporting actor changed hands several times, and the arduous filming work made many actors shy away

Because Alejandro wanted the entire film to be shot with natural light, which meant that the actors had to spend most of the year in the snow and ice, and at the same time, Alejandro wanted to present as natural realism as possible, with the makeup factor being minimized, which also meant that the actors had to be around forty years old, which posed a new challenge for middle-aged actors to challenge the bitter cold.

To add insult to injury, the new Regent Pictures, which now owns the rights to the adaptation of the original book, has encountered a dilemma in the financial chain, although they have invested in the production of works such as "12 Years a Slave", "Birdman", "Gone Lover", etc., but the box office fiasco of "Time Planning Bureau" and "Reversal Ace" has put their financial turnover in an embarrassing situation, so that all the projects in their hands are currently suspended, "The Revenant" is only one of them, and "Assassin's Creed" is also temporarily stranded.

Cause?

Or Alessandro. Because insisting on using natural light to complete the shoot meant that the whole shooting cycle was lengthened, all the shooting was more difficult, everything from the equipment to the crew was multiplied, and now the shooting budget has exceeded 100 million US dollars, and it can't stop the car.

New Regent Pictures is also a headache.

Although before the Golden Globes, Alejandro persuaded Leonardo to join "The Revenant" and Leonardo persuaded Tom Hardy to join the film......; They still can't convince Wall Street that no one will invest $100 million for an Oscar-based work, even if it is an Oscar winner for Best Picture, it should win the box office first, and then win the award, which is the order of consideration for Wall Street investment.

As a result, New Regent Pictures had to start asking for help, which was a project that Andre got through a personal relationship, not a news from an agency.

In Andrei's words, "I think they're crazy." But I'm not an expert, it's not my turn to judge, maybe you can see potential that I can't see. ”

"Focus" is another situation, this is a biography, this is a work that serves justice, this is a work that reflects the dark reality of society, this should be a typical academic work, but no production company dares to take over, because this is a hot potato or even a hot durian, even if it is thrown off, it is estimated that it will be fishy.

The film tells the story of a column of the "Boston Globe" reporting team, which they call Spotlight, which is dedicated to focusing on some special cases and social in-depth reporting. They began to report on a long-hidden case, a Catholic priest/sexual/molested parish child, which started as a small task, but then uncovered a huge and terrible inside story, involving hundreds of victims, and the church had privately compensated these victims and sent people to cover up the crime.

As the investigation deepened, they found that this conspiracy was even more terrifying, not only in Boston, but also in the whole world, not only church personnel, but also local officials, conglomerates, underworld and other forces, all of whom colluded to bury the whole incident for their own benefit.

Before getting to know about this case, as well as the film, it is necessary to understand the peculiarities of the Boston area.

Dating back to the early days of European frontiers or invasions of North America, New York and Boston were the main port locations, but there were slight differences between the two regions, with New England where Boston was located, mainly British Protestants fleeing religious persecution, and New York being more diverse, including speculators, blue-collar workers, and people from the bottom.

In the mid-twentieth century, most of the traditional industries were moved to other states in the United States or overseas, where labor costs were lower, and high-tech areas centered on Boston began to emerge, including biotechnology, education, finance, services, pharmaceuticals, and so on.

Slowly, it became one of the richest and most upscale areas in the United States, with Yale University, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, etc., all located in this area, and law, economics, politics, finance, etc. have all taken a unique lead in this area.

Naturally, the people living in this region actively or passively distinguish themselves from the rest of the world, and a distinct hierarchy of classes begins to permeate all corners of society:

From the economy to politics, from education to law, from journalism to gangsters, from language to culture, this region seems to be a region independent of the United States, with its own pride and dignity that refuses to be compared to other states.

When people talk about the North American continent, the West Coast led by Los Angeles and the East Coast led by New York are in a-for-tat confrontation for geographical and historical reasons, but in this case, the New England region led by Boston is on the sidelines, and they even look down on New York, showing a kind of self-respecting arrogance.

Suffice it to say, the New England region is self-contained!

Hollywood's Boston gang has always been a unique presence, with Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and others being the core of the entire faction.

It is precisely because of this that in the "focused" story, Boston can form an iron bucket to prevent the column reporting team from revealing the truth of the matter from all sides, while in the real world, the "focused" film obviously has academic characteristics, but it has never been able to find a film company willing to take over

Everyone is afraid to uncover the scars of Massachusetts again, and if they are not careful, they may lose their wives and soldiers.

Tom McCarthy is an actor, entered the industry in 1997, rolled in small roles for many years, in 2003 he tried his first screenwriting and director, filmed "Soul Station", in one fell swoop at the Sundance Film Festival the following year, it was well received, won the Audience Choice Award and the Special Jury Award, which also officially changed his career, the transformation was successful, and he was even officially invited by the government/government to participate in projects beyond cultural exchange, to the Middle East to promote different cultural projects.

Then, in 2007, he wrote and directed "Uninvited Guest" again, and successfully won the actor Richard Jenkins (Richard-Jenkins) the first Oscar nomination for Best Actor in his career. After that, Tom wrote scripts for works such as "Flying House" and "Million Golden Arm", and his career gradually stabilized.

"Spotlight" is Tom's latest project, from gathering information in the early stage, to delving into each prototype of the reporting team, to researching all the reporting materials and the ins and outs of the year, it took him nearly a year to go back and forth and overturn several drafts before it finally took shape.

But now, he can't find a production company that dares to invest and let alone the production process, even if it is successfully released, the film's academic public relations will inevitably be difficult, and it is hard to imagine how serious obstacles will be encountered. No one wants to take any chances.

This was also evidenced by the direction of the awards season for later works, and although "Spotlight" won the Oscar for Best Picture, there was only one trophy for Best Original Screenplay, which can be called one of the weakest best films of the decade.

The most ironic thing is to refract from the film to reality, from the case told in the movie to the difficulties of the film project in reality.

In any case, the three projects of "Big Short", "Revenant", and "Focus" finally came to Lan Li.

Andy noticed that there was a special five-pointed star symbol behind the "Focus" item, which was not found in other items, and he couldn't help but raise his head to look at Lan Li, "Pentagram, what does this mean?"

Andre was also slightly stunned, those memories of his previous high school years were indeed a little blurry now, and he turned his head to Matthew to look for help.

"Absolute caution. Matthew said.

Lan Li nodded in the affirmative, but he didn't explain why.

Because of his journalism background, he is always very tolerant and partial to news-themed movies, which is his personal orientation, and there is no special reason.