Just when "Dragon Raiders" was rushing to shoot the last port container war scene, a big event happened in Hollywood. Australian actor Heath Ledger, who starred in "Brokeback Mountain," died suddenly in his apartment in Manhattan, New York, and police said the cause of death may have been a drug overdose.

In order to complete the production of the film on schedule, the crew has been working overtime to catch up with the filming for the past week. Although Heath Ledger's death has been widely rumored in Hollywood, Lin Mingyang did not learn about it in the first place.

By the time he saw the news on the Internet, there were multiple versions of the cause of Heath Ledger's death: some people said that Heath Ledger committed suicide because he had remarks like "life continues in his daughter, and he can die in peace"; Because Heath Ledger's death was caused by an overdose, some people suspect that his death was related to drugs; Some people even put forward the hypothesis that he killed, but Heath Ledger was completely ** when he died, and the police preliminarily ruled out the possibility of his murder.

Lin Mingyang and Heath Ledger don't even know each other, and Heath Ledger's death doesn't have much impact on him. In addition to expressing regret and regret, Lin Mingyang didn't pay too much attention to this matter, and it wasn't until Ex personally ran to the crew for this matter that Lin Mingyang realized that things were a little different from what he thought.

"Heath Ledger is dead, you should already know about it, right?"

Lin Mingyang does have a lot of "thoughts" about this matter, but it is not aimed at Heath Ledger, "As an actor, I think the number of times Heath Ledger made newspaper headlines during his lifetime combined is not as concentrated as the few days after his death... I don't say this to satirize a soul who has also died, but the Hollywood press seems to be far more interested in the dead than the living, and the media has degenerated to such an extent that they have lost even basic human care! ”

Ex sighed softly, "The moral observance of the media is not the subject of my discussion with you today..."

Lin Mingyang asked puzzledly: "Then do you think I should send a wreath to Heath Ledger like other Hollywood company bosses, and then pretend to say in front of the media that an excellent actor has left us like this, which is a major loss for Hollywood... I would never do that, because it would be both an insult to the dead and an insult to myself, and God knows if I didn't know Heath Ledger at all, what does it have to do with me when he dies? ”

"Maybe not before, but now things have changed...", Ex looked preoccupied.

Lin Mingyang was confused by his strange expression, "What's wrong?" ”

"Heath Ledger was preparing to star in a movie before he died, and now the crew has to be replaced on the fly, and it just so happens that the director of that film is a good friend of mine, and he asked me for help, so..."

Lin Mingyang's eyes widened, "So you're going to let me pick up a dead man's class?" ”

Ex stood up and waved at him, "Don't get excited, I know that with your current status, you can completely dismiss that kind of role, this is just a personal request of mine... And one thing I have to tell you is that the character is just a supporting character! ”

Lin Mingyang's face did not show a disdainful expression as Ex imagined, but instead became solemn: "Okay, although you are no longer an agent, I believe that you will not find a supporting role for me to play for no reason." Tell me, what kind of character is that? ”

Ex looked at Lin Mingyang overjoyed, his eyes couldn't hide his excitement and excitement, "Are you really willing to consider acting?" ”

Lin Mingyang shrugged, "The premise is that the character must be attractive enough." ”

"This role is definitely an experience for you like to have before, and I'm sure you've never tried this type of character before!" ”

"Really?" Ex's statement made Lin Mingyang a little skeptical.

"Of course!" Ex looked at Lin Mingyang with an oath, "I know you have played a lot of roles, but you have never played the villain in a movie... Although he is the 'bad guy' in the movie, I guarantee that this character is no worse than the main character in the film, and in a dark movie, such a character will often perform more brilliantly! ”

Lin Mingyang was not fooled by Ex, seeing that Exx still had the intention of continuing to speak, he hurriedly made a gesture to stop: "Okay, just say what you want me to play... As for how the character is, I'll judge it myself! ”

Ex looked at Lin Mingyang with a "ghostly expression", and finally deliberately left a suspense when announcing the results: "Since you starred in Spider-Man and Iron Man, you have almost become the film and television agent of Marvel Comics, this time your opponent is from DC Comics, and the background is not small... He is a veteran figure in comic book adaptations, and he is also the one who has been adapted into movies the most times so far. ”

Lin Mingyang guessed: "Are you talking about Batman?" ”

Ex didn't continue to sell off: "'Batman Prequel,' to be exact." ”

Lin Mingyang glanced at Ex with bad intentions: "You actually know Christopher Nolan?" ”

"You know him, too?" Ex was a little puzzled, because it was not difficult to hear his appreciation for Christopher Nolan from Lin Mingyang's tone, but in fact, Christopher Nolan is not a super-first-class director in Hollywood now, Lin Mingyang's status is different now, he uses such a tone and attitude to evaluate a director, Ex suddenly had doubts.

I can't blame Aix for being suspicious, compared to those famous directors, Christopher Nolan's first real film, the ultra-low-budget "Following", was only released in London in 1999. Like many directors who started in the beginnings, this rough-and-dry debut film brought Nolan great success and fame at that year's film festival, and his glamorous approach and unrivalled inspiration and talent propelled Nolan's career to a stage of rapid development.

In this black-and-white film of less than 70 minutes, Nolan uses flashbacks as the basic cinematic narrative language, and then completely breaks time on the basis of flashbacks, and then pastes these fragments of time together, making this film of less than 70 minutes unbelievably long. Because the participants were all full-time writers, they were only able to get together every Saturday to shoot a 15-minute film, and it took a full year to shoot the film. It is precisely because of the above reasons that "Following" is known as a "cool black and white movie with young dreams and ambitions".

"Following" is undoubtedly a low-cost movie, costing only about $6,000. If it were in the United States, no one would have been able to do that -- because the style of the film was very Hollywood. Nolan established his own shooting style with this feeling, and the success of "Memory Fragments" later proved it.

It can be said that "Following" paved the way for "Fragments of Memory". After filming "Following" was completed and submitted to the festival, Nolan began working on "Fragments of Memory". The film, which is structured in the form of a non-chronological flashback, grossed $26 million at the U.S. box office. In fact, based on the predictions that Nolan and his friends had received from sellers in advance, this type of film would be a high box office if it could sell $4 million to $5 million.

Compared with the so-called big-name directors who spend money lavishly and even extravagantly, Hollywood studios are now more and more inclined to directors who can "save money" and make good movies.

Although Christopher Nolan's status as a cutting-edge director and a very keen sense of character and super-confident directing style have been established with psychological thrillers such as "Fragments of Memory" and "Chasing the Murderer in the White Night", the original Nolan vows to give a turn to the image of past directors. His extraordinary imagination made his addition the most surprising part of the film "Batman: The Mystery of the Shadow". This director with a peculiar style and a full surname hit it off with the dark Batman. With an 86% approval rating from 35 critics, the film has even surpassed the global box office "Star Wars Prequel 3".

From this point of view, Christopher Nolan is undoubtedly a very promising director, and his 2006 directorial work "Deadly Magic" once again won the hearts of critics and fans with its eerie atmosphere and fine structure, and despite the excellent praise received by Hollywood film critics, he is still not a "heavyweight" director in Hollywood.

It's not that Christopher Nolan's personal ability is insufficient, but that under the evaluation system of Hollywood commercial films, the box office is the key to measuring the success of a director. Christopher Nolan did make a lot of applauded films, but these films were lackluster at the box office. In contrast, although James Cameron has not seen a new work for 10 years, people still miss him, and the reason is because he has created many box office blockbusters, and the box office myth created by "Titanic" may only be able to break by himself.

At least so far, Christopher Nolan can't afford to be so valued by Lin Mingyang, so Ex is curious, but it's a pity that Lin Mingyang didn't tell him the answer.

It's not that Lin Mingyang doesn't want to say it, it's that he can't say it. Lin Mingyang didn't tell Ex that Christopher Nolan was about to make a blockbuster that grossed more than $1 billion, and this film was exactly what they were talking about right now, "Batman Begins 2: The Dark Knight."

Ex met Christopher Nolan when Memory Fragments was released in the United States, and at first he wanted to make Nolan his invest, but Christopher Nolan had his own ideas. During that time, Ex helped Christopher Nolan a lot, and then Ex met Lin Mingyang, who had more "investment value", although there was no possibility of economic cooperation, but he and Christopher Nolan still maintained close contact. This time Christopher Nolan opened his mouth to plead, and Ex naturally spared no effort to help him convince Lin Mingyang.

"In this film, Batman's opponent is the Joker, a highly intelligent criminal... Nolan promised me that if you were willing to star in this movie, you would be paid twice as much as Batman star Christian Bale, and that the Joker in Batman would be the highest-paid villain in Hollywood if you wanted to. ”

"I'm going to read the script first, and I'll make a decision after talking to Christopher Nolan himself!"

――――Lin Mingyang is still very interested in the proposal to play the role of the Joker, in his memory "Batman Begins 2: The Dark Knight" is Hollywood's first comic book adaptation film with a box office of more than $1 billion, but this film was filmed nearly half a year later than Lin Mingyang's memory, and many things have changed because of this, although the director is still Christopher Nolan, but Lin Mingyang is not sure whether the plot is consistent with his memory.

After getting the script, although he had been mentally prepared in advance, Lin Mingyang was still frightened by the seriousness of the plot of "The Dark Knight".

As early as 05, when he first saw "Batman Prequel: Time to War", Lin Mingyang was already very surprised by Nolan's realist transformation of Batman. Now compared with the script of "The Dark Knight" in his hand, "Time to War" can still be classified as a comic book movie. At least the Batman of that film can also do ninjutsu and destroy enemies like a comic book hero; At least the villain Shadow Warriors League is an evil organization full of comics; At least at that time, Gotham City still had a bit of a combination of virtual and real flavors.

And this time, the only remaining comic color in "Time to Go to War" was completely abandoned by director Nolan. Judging from the script, "The Dark Knight" is completely a realistic crime movie, extremely serious, extremely dark, and even extremely sad. In it, Lin Mingyang can hardly see a trace of comics: Batman has degenerated from a strong martial arts ninja to an ordinary person who only wears body armor and has slightly better athletic ability, no longer elusive, and is injured more frequently; The villains are no longer a bunch of demons and monsters parachuted into the city; The virtual city of Gotham has completely transformed into the real Chicago.

What amazes Lin Mingyang is that while abandoning almost all comic elements, the display of extreme evil and the discussion of the relationship between good and evil in the plot of "The Dark Knight" have also reached unprecedented heights in this genre.

From the plot of "The Dark Knight", Lin Mingyang felt a familiar creative concept, which is to put superheroes back into reality, and then give people the opportunity to reflect on what the essence of superheroes is. In "The New Spider-Man 2", Lin Mingyang once used the plot of the film to discuss this issue with all the audience, this proposition seems ridiculous at first glance, but superheroes are no longer those special functional people who wear underwear, underwear pullovers or only underwear, but abstract as a symbol.

Lin Mingyang has actually given hints in the plot of "The New Spider-Man 2", and "The Dark Knight" has once again further strengthened his thinking about this proposition. On this proposition, Lin Mingyang and Christopher Nolan basically agree on the idea that the essence of those superheroes is actually the ultimate justice that transcends legal constraints.

Such a conclusion directly begs the question of which one can cause more damage to society when compared to the ultimate evil and the unbridled justice.

In "The New Spider-Man 2", Lin Mingyang only initially revealed his concern about this issue, while in "The Dark Knight", director Christopher Nolan directly put this issue on the table for discussion.

Although Christopher Nolan did not give a clear answer in this script, Lin Mingyang felt that he and himself thought the same, and in most cases, justice without restraint was more terrible than evil at the peak.

The basic framework of a legal society is to use the law to restrain evil, and under this basic social system, the law is inherently used to fight evil, so the law and the people under the protection of the law have a natural ability to distinguish and resist evil. Even when evil reaches its peak, there is still a legal system and the moral power of the people that naturally restrain and contend with it.

But justice is different, because it is consistent with the law and the morality of the people, it has an additional cloak of confusion than evil. Law and morality are far less vigilant against it than they are against evil. Therefore, when the person who holds the ultimate justice loses self-restraint, the destructive power it produces may be even more terrible than the ultimate evil.

In a perfect society governed by the rule of law, almost all potential destructive forces are bound, balanced, and counteracted by law, so superheroes born to uphold social justice have become the most vulnerable link in social justice. Superheroes have the ultimate power in their hands to wield the ultimate justice. But whether this power is abused or not is only constrained by the superhero's own moral force.

In The Dark Knight, Christopher Nolan devised a plot where Batman's butler invented a device for Batman through which he could see holograms of the entire Gotham City and listen to cell phone calls. Under Batman's strict moral self-discipline, the use of this device has not caused any evil consequences. But even so, the stewards who finally invented the device were worried, because the use of the device itself was a red flag for extreme justice, unfettered by other constraints, to the brink of spiraling out of control. This plot carries a strong political metaphor.

After 911, the American political axe expanded rapidly, and it became more and more like a superhero with extreme justice in his hands, and its power also seemed to be more and more unrestrained and controlled. The control of security by the American political axe is reaching an unprecedented level, and security and freedom are always a contradiction. The American people have always had a freedom that is the envy of the world, and it's easy to overlook that much of that freedom has come at the expense of security. The American people are still paying this price to this day, and most are willing.

But in the wake of 911, people's freedoms were increasingly threatened by various political measures aimed at security. The details of listening to mobile phone calls in the script have a direct blueprint of reality. In the film, Batman did not abuse this power by relying on his own moral self-discipline, and it is still very doubtful whether the American political axe, which is becoming more and more like a superhero in reality, can have such moral self-discipline.

In Lin Mingyang's view, extreme justice has begun to spiral out of control in the hands of American political axe, turning into a flashy excuse for violating people's freedom and individual rights. Even if it is not out of control, extreme justice cannot be used as a justification for violating people's freedoms and individual rights. If the ultimate justice must be done at the expense of violating individual freedoms and rights, then the raison d'être of such justice is also questionable.

(To be continued)