Even without Kevin Spacey, Jude has no plans to make a sequel to "National Treasure", and he is now fully focused on post-production of "The Seven Deadly Sins."

After a long period of bickering and negotiations, New Line finally agreed to conduct a small test screening before the film's release, with a three-party audience consisting of ordinary audiences, film critics and media reporters deciding which version of the ending to use when the film was released.

As an old friend of the new line company, Armond Kyle was naturally on the list of invitees, but what he didn't expect was that not long after receiving Shay White's phone invitation, Jude also asked someone to send a test screening movie ticket.

Armond entered the theater with this movie ticket and was surprised to find Shay White, the president of the new line, sitting next to him.

"It's been a long time, thank you for making this trip." Shay got up and hugged Armond, "We've got you the seat with the best view in the whole show, I hope you like it." ”

"You know you can't bribe me!" Armond jokingly patted Shay's arm, pointed to the seat next to Shay, and said, "There are too many familiar faces over there, so I'd better sit here." ”

"This seat is Jude's, and he should be there soon." Shay looked at his watch and said with an embarrassed expression. He knew that Armond had never had a good impression of Jude.

"I don't think he's coming." With a blank face, Amund took out a movie ticket from his pocket and handed it to Shay, "I received it the day before yesterday, and the sender's column is Jude Locke's name." ”

Shay took the movie ticket and glanced at it, covered his forehead and scolded, "Damn! Here's the movie ticket I gave him. ”

"Last year in Toronto, I should have followed your advice not to mess with this kid. You're right, he's a vengeful bastard! Armond pouted. Sympathize with Shay's plight.

"I know him too well!" Shay sneered and shook his head, "He invited you to come this time." It's definitely not because of grudges, but because you came to help make trouble. ”

Amund was confused by Shay's words, "What did you say?" ”

"To put it simply, he's using you against me." Shay took a deep breath and explained in a heavy tone: "The purpose of today's preview screening is not simply for everyone to help promote after watching the movie, Jude filmed two different versions of the movie ending, and we had a disagreement on which version to use when it was officially released, and we will release the ending of both versions later, and the people in this room think which version of the ending is better." We'll use that one when it's finally released. ”

"But I still don't get it." Armond looked at Shay in confusion, "Why does Jude think that I will definitely support the version of the ending he likes over the one you like?" ”

Shay shrugged helplessly, "You'll understand after watching the movie." ”

"Well, we'll talk about that later, there's one more thing I want to tell you." Armond leaned back in his chair and changed to a more comfortable sitting position, "I attended the New York preview of "The Usual Suspect" the day before yesterday. ”

"What?" Shay turned his head in surprise, "You're not kidding me?" ”

"Don't you even read my newspaper columns? That film review was published just yesterday. It's in the New York Times E-stack 'Art'. Armond stroked his beard a little ostentatiously.

Shay's mood turned pretty bad, and he was eager to tell Armond that the New York Times had always only read the A-stack news, leaving the B-stack "Metropolitan News." Stack C "economic life", D stack "sports", and E stack "art" are generally thrown directly into the trash. But that's too devastating.

"I'll definitely find it and read it carefully when I go back." He said with a very reluctant expression.

"I know about the collision between 'Seven Deadly Sins' and 'The Usual Suspects,' and I know you'd love to know that movie. But unfortunately I can't tell you more about that movie, my work ethic doesn't allow me to do that. Amund explained in all seriousness.

"Rest assured. I'm not going to ask you about the plot of this movie, but I'd love to know what you think of it. Shay asked the question with some impatience.

"The plot is ingenious, the ending is a bit unexpected, and overall it's a good Neo-Noir."

The term Neo-Noir is used only by professional filmmakers, and refers to a type of film that appeared after the 1960s with elements of film noir and rich in noir temperament. This kind of film still maintains the characteristics of early film noir, visually, most of them are set in the dark city in the night scene, using extreme angle photographic composition, high-contrast lighting, low-key lighting, creating a dark atmosphere, and using a more pessimistic and violent way than ordinary police movies to show the criminal activities in modern urban life and expound profound themes.

Shea is very familiar with Neo-Noir, as many of New Line's early productions have been in this style, including "Two Smoking Guns," which won $60 million at the North American box office, and "Seven Deadly Sins," which are also films in this genre.

"This may be bad news for you new line company, you know that this kind of movie is very picky about the plot requirements, and the plot of "The Extraordinary Suspects" is not the best I have seen, but it can definitely score more than 80 points, unless the plot of "The Seven Deadly Sins" also reaches this level." Armond's words are actually a little not optimistic about "The Seven Deadly Sins", after all, Jude has made two movies before, and the problem of weak plots has always existed.

"This Man is from Earth" is all supported by creativity, and the whole movie is a few people sitting in front of the fireplace chatting, and there is basically no plot to speak of; Although "Two Big Smoking Guns" was a huge success at the box office, this is more due to structural innovation, and it is actually a very simple story after smoothing out all the clues.

"I know it's unfair to deny 'The Seven Deadly Sins' like this, but to be honest I really don't expect much from the plot of this movie, although Jude is no longer the screenwriter this time, but from the fact that he made two different versions of the ending for the movie, it can be seen that he lacks enough respect for other people's scripts, and a good script can be ruined like this."

Shay was very unimpressed by Amond's comment.

Although he and Jude disagree on which version of the ending to use in the movie, this does not mean that he has a problem with his vision, and the plot of "Seven Deadly Sins" will definitely surprise everyone.

Before, Shay was still worried that Armond would mess up his plans, but now he has subconsciously put the other party in the opposite camp.

"Now you still have a chance to take back what you just said, or you'll really regret it."

Armond was stunned, Shay's words made him feel very familiar.

"I used to say something similar when I watched 'This Man Is From Earth' at the Toronto Film Festival last year." Shay reminded him, shrugged his shoulders and said, "I hope history doesn't repeat itself." ”

Armond held his glasses and looked at Shay seriously, judging from the plot released during the promotion of "Seven Deadly Sins", this movie tells a story of serial killings, this kind of story is very simple to film, but it is a great test of the director's skills to really shoot well.

Seven murders occurred in succession during the two-hour film, and if you are not careful, you will be filmed into a running account. If it is a mechanized killing, it is very likely to become a traditional homicidal movie, according to the usual killing order, all the way to the 90 minutes, Hollywood movies are countless, and many independent production companies are tired of such low-budget horror films.

Jude's "Seven Deadly Sins" is labeled as suspenseful, and it has also attracted superstars like Denzel Washington to join, and it will certainly not take the route of such a low-end murder movie, but if it is just these, it is not enough to change Armond's judgment of this movie.

Armond turned his head, looked at the movie on the screen and went directly to the main play without opening credits, and silently said to Shay in his heart: "I hope you are right." ”

I don't know if this sentence was really heard by God, but the first scene of the opening scene of the movie made Armond slightly moved.

Unlike many movies with the same theme, which cut into the murder scene as soon as they came up, "Seven Deadly Sins" patiently managed the rhythm of the film from the beginning. The first scene is a one-man show of Denzel sorting out clothes at home, the camera pays attention to the details of his life very carefully, and then there is a homicide, but it has nothing to do with Jude, the other male protagonist of the movie, it is another one-man show of Denzel, the camera does not focus directly on the scene of the murder, but focuses on the black policeman played by Denzel, he asked his colleague if the victim's child had witnessed his mother being killed, but the colleague thought that this question had nothing to do with the murder and was too lazy to answer.

The image of a police officer who is full of responsibility and is frustrated with the status quo of his work is thus highlighted.

While Ammond and most of the people in the screening room were still marveling at Denzel Washington's superb acting, Jude's white policeman Mills appeared, and he approached Denzel as soon as he arrived, showing a keen interest in investigating the murder.

Compared with Denzel, Jude's acting skills are really not enough, so the role of Mills gives people a sense of frivolity and unsteadiness no matter how you look at it, but strangely no one in front of the screen thinks that his character is very dramatic.

Amund was at first puzzled by the question, but he soon found the answer.

The setting of Mills's character in the film is that of a hot-blooded but immature rookie policeman, and Jude's "absence" acting skills just happened to bring this role to life, so his performance not only does not give people the feeling of being played, but makes people feel that this role should be like this.

Thank you for your encouragement and support, Im-back! (To be continued......)