As soon as he came out of the movie, Jem took out his phone to call his girlfriend.

"Hey, Lucy, I just watched a super awesome movie that was released before Thanksgiving, so let's go see it together, shall we? I swear, this is definitely one of the most interesting movies I've seen this year, not one of them! ”

A black young man who came out with Jem next to him glanced up at the guy who was on the phone, and continued to lower his head to text his brother - Dear Laddie, you missed a super wonderful movie, thank you for giving me this opportunity, and in return I will give you two tickets to the premiere!

After the message was successfully sent, the black youth had just stuffed his phone into his trouser pocket when his younger brother Laddie's reply text message arrived.

Why Two Movie Tickets?

The black youth pursed his lips helplessly, and quickly typed a reply: Because I want to watch it again!

As soon as the message was sent, a couple passed by, and the two were actually arguing about the same topic.

"Do you want to watch it again?"

"Why not? I'll call Tony, Cook, and Matthew to watch them together, and they've been laughing at the movies I like for being big hits, and I'm going to leave them speechless this time! ”

"But don't you think this movie is too dark and depressing? Actually, I still prefer works like "Two Big Smoking Guns", which is easy and interesting. ”

"But 'The Seven Deadly Sins' is even more shocking, isn't it? This is the best proof of this. The boy pointed to the bucket of popcorn in his hand, "Normally, this bucket of popcorn will never last until the end of the movie, but the reality is that we haven't even eaten half of it in the last two hours." What does this mean? It shows that we are all attracted to the plot and forget to eat. Doesn't that prove that it's a good movie? ”

"I'll admit it's a good movie, but having so much popcorn left has nothing to do with it. Any normal person who sees the disgusting murder scene in the movie will not have a snack**, and you still eat so much! The girl looked at her boyfriend in disgust, clasped her hands and made a shuddering motion.

The conversation between the two was overheard by a fat man who was following behind him who was tearing open the package of the hot dog and preparing to eat it, and his throat rolled hard, and finally he silently threw a bite of the uneaten burger into the trash.

So as soon as the audience members who were randomly selected for the test screening left, about a third of the seats in the screening room were vacated, and Shay White stepped up to the front desk to explain the true purpose of the preview screening to the media reporters and critics who remained.

"Director Locke shot two different versions of the film, and the one you just saw was the one with a long time. We will give you the version with a short screening time, of course, in order to save your time, we will not play the movie again, only the two versions are different. ”

Shay raised his hand, and the big screen behind him projected a new movie image.

The first movie clip is the scene where the two male protagonists go to the home of the murdered lawyer to inquire about the case, Charlize Theron's lawyer's wife rejects her attitude of refusing to cooperate with the police questioning in the previous full version, and instead keeps sitting on the bed with a tissue to wipe her tears, looking very sad, and Jude's Mills is trying to comfort her by the side. Finally persuaded her to cooperate with the investigation.

"I still prefer the previous version of this scene, whether it is the lawyer's wife or Denzel who exposed her extramarital affair, there are wonderful performances, compared to the version with Jude playing Mills as the main point of view, it is much less expressive." Armond tilted his head. Said to Shay, who had just returned to his seat.

Shay pouted noncommittally.

"The actress who played the lawyer's wife is the same agent as Jude, and she took the initiative to change the previous version."

"He's going to use resources."

The "he" in Armond's mouth is, of course, Jude, and the phrase is clearly derogatory.

"Jude's agent must have done it." Shay said a rare good word for Jude.

"The Chinese?" Amund turned his head to look at Shay in some surprise. "I thought Jude kicked him away when he became famous in his first movie."

"I would have liked that to happen, but the fact is that the two are much more connected now. Some time ago, this Ritter even successfully sold a movie packaging project to Disney through Ovitz's connections! The actress just mentioned. is the heroine of this movie. ”

Speaking of Lee's rapid rise during this time, Shay's tone was somewhat helpless.

"It seems that Ovitz is not doing a good job in the position of president of Disney and has begun to make a way out for himself." Amund pinpointed the essence of the matter, and Littlet was nothing more than a puppet put in the foreground by Ovitz in his eyes.

"Maybe!" Shay sighed and didn't continue the topic.

The second movie clip released is that the heroine played by Kate invites Denzel Washington to her home for dinner, which looks no different from the previous full version, but soon the attentive person discovers that the discussion about homosexuality in it is missing.

Armond turned his head and was about to make an opinion, but Shay preemptively spoke, "I see what you mean, you must think the previous version is higher, right?" ”

Amund shrugged his shoulders with some regret and said, "I didn't realize it before, so you still have such a conservative side." ”

"When you throw $40 million at a movie, anything that could lead to a box office failure becomes incredibly sensitive." Shay defended himself.

Amund ironically asked, "If you're worried about homosexuality, then aren't you worried about protests from religious people?" ”

Shay replied unmoved: "Religious issues are not as sensitive as homosexuality, at least in the United States." ”

Armond turned his head to the big screen and didn't say anything more.

The third movie clip makes it to the end of the film, but this time Jude shoots and kills the serial killer played by Anthony Hopkins. He was not killed by a sniper, but was escorted into a police car under the helpless gaze of Denzel.

Amund watched the slowly setting sun on the screen. Without turning his head, he said, "Now I finally understand the meaning of what you said to me before the movie opened." ”

"So which ending do you think is better?" Shay asked with some eagerness.

"You must think I'm going to pick the previous ending, do you?" Armond turned his head and said an answer that Shay didn't expect: "You're wrong, I think it's more appropriate to end now." ”

"Are you kidding me?" Shay's eyes widened.

"Notice what I'm saying is appropriate. And not better! Amund corrected Shay's misunderstanding, "I personally prefer the previous version of the ending, but as a popular film critic, I prefer this dark film to have a touch of warmth and not be so desperate, after all, human beings are fundamentally more yearning for such beautiful things." ”

Shay looked at Armond in a daze, as if he had met each other for the first time.

"If only others thought the same way you did."

Armond then made a request: "I'll vote for the next version of the ending, but you have to promise me to keep the previous version of the ending when the tape is released!" ”

"I think you've got one thing wrong." Shay looked at Amund, who had a serious face, and explained with a wry smile: "Jude joined Denzel Washington and Anthony Hopkins to put pressure on me. The previous version of the ending had to be used when it was released, or they would have publicly announced a boycott of the film, and I finally managed to convince him to vote at the test screening to decide which version to release in the end, and I was the weaker party! ”

"Okay, I'll take that back sentence."

Amund patted Shay on the shoulder, and was about to get up from his seat to get the questionnaire, when something suddenly came to mind.

"By the way, do you want to know who scored higher in my mind between this movie and "The Usual Suspects"?"

Without thinking, Shay asked, "Who?" ”

Armond deliberately hesitated for a moment, and cleared his throat before saying, "Okay." I have to congratulate you, I'm afraid that this time the new line company is really going to win! ”

"Really?"

Shay's eyes lit up, this was the second good news he had heard today.

"Would you put this comparison in your review?"

"Of course not!" With a single sentence, Amund extinguished Shay's fledgling hope, but he gave Shay another hope: "Actually, the quality of the two films is about the same. However, "Seven Deadly Sins" is much better than "The Usual Suspects", and the combined fame of Jude and Denzel Washington is far more famous than "The Extraordinary Suspects", plus Anthony Hopkins is hidden until the end. This hand is definitely a sure win, all that remains is a matter of how much you can win. ”

Armond's analysis makes sense. Still, Shay felt a little regretful.

"Everyone here today has signed a non-disclosure agreement, and the news of Hopkins' appearance in the film will be blocked until the film is released. In other words, we can't use his fame to carry out any publicity before the release. ”

"There are good and bad things in this matter!" Armond shrugged, "The advantage is that you can keep the suspense until the end and give the audience a huge surprise, the disadvantage you have already mentioned, but I'm curious, the publicity of "Seven Deadly Sins" this time feels much more low-key, and it doesn't have the carpet bombing publicity momentum of "Two Big Smoking Guns" last time." ”

Shay spread his hands and said, "The last publicity was so big because of the lawsuit dispute between Jude and Sharon Stone, and this kind of thing is not encountered every day." ”

"If Jude is busy with lawsuits with other celebrities all day long, you will be the one who should have a headache." Armond made a joke at first, then turned back to the serious and said, "Is it a problem with money?" ”

Amund thought Jude had overspent on "The Seven Deadly Sins," which had caused New Line to be strapped for cash, but Shay immediately denied the reason.

Armond continued to inquire about the reason, but Shay showed a sense of resistance, and seemed unwilling to talk more about it.

"This kind of thing needs to be kept secret?" Armond said he couldn't understand.

Shay was annoyed by Armond's contemptuous tone, glared and asked, "Do you really want to know why?" ”

Armond nodded in affirmation.

"It's very simple, after the release of "Two Big Smoking Guns" last time, you once wrote a film review, picking on a bunch of faults with this movie, and saying that this movie completely took advantage of the audience's curiosity and relied on publicity to win such a high box office."

Before Shay could finish speaking, Armond interrupted directly: "What I said is the truth! ”

"But it's because of your so-called bullshit reality that Jude feels that his directorial strength has been insulted, so this time he decided not to promote "The Seven Deadly Sins" with great fanfare, he wants to prove that you are wrong!" Shay spread his hands angrily, "Now you're satisfied, right?" ”

"This vengeful bastard!" Ammond cursed hatefully.

Fearing that Armond would turn his anger on The Seven Deadly Sins, Shay immediately added, "Don't forget what you just said about the film, even I will look down on you if you publish an opinion in the newspaper that goes against your will." ”

"You!" Armond waited angrily for Shay, and it took a long time to squeeze a sentence out of his teeth: "You'd better pray that every movie in the future can maintain the level of "The Seven Deadly Sins", otherwise I will definitely make you regret it!" ”

Shay didn't take Amond's threat to heart at first, because he believed that Ammond would not violate the principle of objectivity and fairness to write film reviews, and to be honest, the views of film critics affect the selection of various awards more, and have little impact on the public's viewing choices, as long as they are not aiming at award-winning films, they generally don't care too much about the opinions of film critics.

But Shay regretted it a day later, because Armond actually wrote a film review about "The Seven Deadly Sins" after he returned, and the whole article was full of praise and appreciation, which made many people familiar with Armond's film review style a little uncomfortable.

As soon as this film review was published, it immediately aroused a lot of doubts, and some even suspected that it was a premeditated hype!

Shay was in his office for half an hour after seeing the review, and before he could call Armond to ask what was going on, Jude's call arrived first.

"How much did you pay to pay Armond to write this review?"

"This is not Oscar PR, I have a sick brain to buy a film critic!" Shay knew that Jude was dissatisfied with the results of the test screening vote and took the opportunity to retaliate, so it had nothing to do with him.

"I wouldn't be surprised if the two of you announced coming out together one day!"

Listening to the sound of the phone being hung up, Shay instantly felt like he had been trapped. (To be continued......)