America: Starting with the acquisition of MGM

Chapter 239 238. Each shows his or her special abilities

"Inception", Christopher Nolan's masterpiece, is a classic in film history.

More than 2 million people have rated it on Douban, with a rating of 9.4 and a 5-star rating of over 72%, which is higher than 99% of science fiction and suspense films.

The top250 score is 8.8, ranking 14th on the list. In front of it is "Fight Club", and behind it is "Dune 2".

That's right, it's "Dune 2."

Although the "Dune" series is not very popular in China, its popularity abroad is not low.

"Dune 2" and "Spider-Man: Across the Universe" are also the only two movies to make it into the top 50 after 2020.

Of course, 14th place is not Nolan's limit, because his immortal work "The Dark Knight" scored 9.0, ranking third on the list.

Second only to the champion "The Shawshank Redemption" with a score of 9.3 and "The Godfather Part I" with a score of 9.2, it is a well-deserved superstar ceiling.

It has brought the superhero genre to a level that hardly belongs to it, and also built an almost insurmountable wall for those who come after it.

Entering the new era, Christopher Nolan is the absolute, well-deserved, and undisputed number one director.

Not in Hollywood, but the number one director in the world.

There is an interesting saying in Hollywood about directors: James Cameron is responsible for innovating film technology, and Christopher Nolan is responsible for innovating film structure.

Eric liked him very much and wanted to work with Nolan if there was a chance.

In the hotel, a group of people gathered around a round table for a meeting. The main content was to study the script of "Inception".

It has been more than half a year since Eric provided them with the script, and everyone has read the script over and over countless times.

During this period, everyone contacted Eric several times, including when getting along with Nicole and Theron. The two of them would also ask relevant questions, but Eric never answered them in detail.

Now is the time to go through the plot carefully. It is best to have a clear grasp of everything. If not, you must at least understand your own role and role.

If you can't even figure this out, although the movie can be filmed, the effect will definitely be greatly reduced.

Neill Blomkamp took out the printed script and prepared it for distribution.

Bell waved his hand: "Thank you, I'll take it with me."

He took out a script with severely wrinkled corners from his handbag, which looked like a textbook used by an elementary school student who didn't like to study, and then took out a black notebook.

"Bell, are these the notes you took?" Tom Hardy next to him came over.

Bell nodded and opened the notebook, only to see plot analysis, character biographies, character psychology, etc. neatly written on it.

"Wow! Your handwriting is so beautiful. Wait, such a thick book isn't all biographies, is it?"

"No, I actually only wrote about half of the book, about a hundred pages."

Looking at his calm look, Tom Hardy smacked his lips in surprise, his heart skipped a beat, and he suddenly felt a sudden increase in pressure.

He has long heard that Christian Bale is famous for his professionalism. He can go crazy in order to deepen the role of his professionalism, otherwise he would not be able to play "American Psycho".

Although I haven't seen his live performance yet, judging from the other party's solid preparations, it seems that the rumors are true.

And I have a lot of scenes with Bell, so don't screw it up.

Tom Hardy knew that this was a good opportunity specially given to him by Eric. He also gave James McAvoy the opportunity to film "Assassins" and Michael Fassbender the opportunity to film "Hurricane".

Although Zhan Yimei and Fasha played the protagonists, and he played a supporting role, the configuration of "Inception" is top-notch in Hollywood, much better than "Assassin's League" and "Hurricane", and his supporting role is no better than Both of their protagonists are treated poorly.

It depends on who can become popular this time. If you mess up, you will probably only be left with some side characters in the future, and you won't be able to turn around in five or six years.

He also quickly took out his script: "I have it too."

Neil shrugged and looked around, seeing everyone taking out their own scripts.

"Well, it seems I did something unnecessary."

“But at least you’re prepared.”

Everyone sat down and focused their attention on Eric. Although he was both a choreographer and a director, he had to take care of a lot of things every day, so he also took detailed notes.

"Okay, let's figure out the plot of the movie first, and then if you have any questions, ask them individually."

"I will lay out the plot in chronological order, Bell, Theron, let's start with the story of you two."

"First of all, the male protagonist Cobb played by Bale and Cobb's wife Mel played by Theron. You two are pioneers in the dream world. Your common pursuit of the dream world made you decide to explore and experiment on yourselves."

"So you entered deeper dreams layer by layer until you entered the fourth layer of dreams. Since the time flow rate of each layer of dreams is about 20 times, the time flow rate of the fourth layer of dreams is already quite slow, so you two He stayed here for decades, until he died of old age."

"After death, you enter a deeper realm of loss. Mel hopes to continue to stay with Cobb here and does not want to return to the real world."

"But Cobb misses his children and hopes to return to the real world. However, since he is also a pioneer, he has no idea how to return. He can only guess that death may return, but he may not be able to return."

"So he could only do double insurance. On the one hand, he used the top totem to implant the idea of ​​suicide in his wife, and on the other hand, he implanted the idea of ​​doubting everything and trying everything in his wife before committing suicide."

"This is also the first time that Cobb has used implants to change a person's mind."

"After they committed suicide by lying on the train, they returned to reality, but the side effects of the implant also began to appear. Mel completely lost the boundary between dreams and reality, so she chose to commit suicide to escape from what she thought was a dream, causing Cobb to become a murderer. Able to flee overseas.”

"Then the rich man Saito, played by Watanabe, hired Cobb to implant ideas into his competitors, hoping to destroy the other company's company and dominate the energy market."

"In order to return to China, Cobb had no choice but to form a team and start setting up traps to set up Inception on the plane."

"But unexpectedly, Fisher has received professional anti-dream stealing training, so accidents began to happen, and they could only keep moving towards deeper dreams."

"In the end, because Saito died and entered the Lost Realm, Cobb could only die with Mel and entered the Lost Realm to find him, and finally brought him back to reality."

"OK, the general plot is like this. Let's go to the question and answer session. I will try my best to answer what I can."

Hearing this, Nicole looked at Eric in astonishment: "Director, what do you mean by answering as many questions as you can? Does it mean there are things you don't understand? You are the screenwriter."

Eric nodded very bachelorly: ""Inception" is a science fiction movie. Science fiction movies are the crystallization of imagination."

"Imaginations that are not based on reality will inevitably cause problems. I can't cover everything, so this meeting can also be used as a way to fix loopholes."

After he finished speaking, everyone looked at each other, thinking that you are quite honest and don't like to be mysterious like many directors.

Heath Ledger raised his hand.

"Okay Heath, there's no need to act like a student, just say it."

"Director, I want to know how many layers of dreams there are? You just mentioned the fourth layer, so is the fourth layer of dreams the Lost Realm?"

"That's what I want to know too," Theron said.

"I have doubts about this too." Daniel Bruhl also looked over.

The character he will play is Fisher, the second-generation rich man from Stolen Dreams. At the Golden Globe Awards not long ago, the movie "Goodbye Lenin" starring him was also nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. Although he is a German actor, he is very popular in Hollywood. Developed a certain reputation.

The point that several people are confused about is also the issue that many people struggled with after the movie was released. Some people think that the fourth level is the Lost Realm, and some people think it is not. The movie does not give a very clear conclusion on this.

Eric nodded: "Good question. My answer is that the fourth level of dreamland is not the Lost Realm. These are two different worlds."

"We can turn to page 49 of the script. This scene explains some of the settings of the dream, including the fact that once one enters the Lost Realm, one's memory will be severely lost."

"Then we turn the script to page 187, where Fisher enters the dying stage because he was shot by Mel."

"In order to buy enough time to save him, under the advice of the dream builder Ali Redney played by Nicole Nicole, they entered the fourth level of dreamland."

Eric almost yelled and subconsciously said his nickname. Fortunately, he stopped the car in time. Theron was concentrating on reading the script and probably didn't notice.

Nicole raised the corners of her mouth slightly and threw a wink over her.

At this time, Bell raised his head: "Director, then when Cobb and Ali Redney entered the fourth floor, why was everything here the same as the scene where he and Mel committed suicide by lying on the track? Does it mean that the dream on the fourth floor Is the Lord Cobb?"

Eric nodded: "Yes, Cobb moved everything he and Mel built to the fourth floor, so it looks very similar."

"Well, I understand, then I have a suggestion."

"What?"

"Whether it is necessary to add this sentence to the script, just add the statement that Cobb is the dream master of the fourth level, then it will make sense."

"Huh? Didn't I write it?" Eric turned back and found that he couldn't find this line.

Theron said with a smile: "Director, it seems you didn't check the script carefully enough."

"Okay, my question, that's what this meeting is for, who has any more questions?"

Nicole turned the script to the last few pages: "Eric, the last description is fixed on the spinning top."

"The top seems to be Cobb's totem. If it falls off and is still spinning, doesn't it mean that he is still in a dream? Has Cobb returned to reality?"

Everyone else looked over again, and it seemed that everyone had this question.

Eric smiled. This question is actually easy to answer, but if you only read the text of the script, you may be confused.

He explained: "Of course Cobb has returned to reality. The spinning off is a little trick. The final scene will actually be frozen at the moment when the top slows down and is about to fall."

"I didn't put this description into words, but that's what the final film will show."

"Also, let me ask you a question, is Cobb's totem really a top?"

"No!" Theron and Bell replied at the same time.

Bell made a gesture of invitation, and Theron said: "The script only said that this was Mel's totem and that Cobb carried it with him, but no clear information was given that it was Cobb's totem."

"After comparing several descriptions of dreaming in the script, I think his real totem may be a ring."

"Because every time when he falls into a dream, a description of a ring is added to the description of Cobb, but there is no relevant description in the daily plot."

"Eric, since the ring is specifically emphasized in the script, there must be a reason."

"This is also my opinion." Bell nodded towards Theron.

"Correct answer, the answer is the ring. It looks like this will be a smooth shoot because you studied the script very thoroughly."

Ken Watanabe suddenly realized: "So the final image of the spinning top is just a smoke bomb. The top represents nothing at all."

Eric laughed and said: "'Inception' is a movie that softens the elements of suspense and science fiction. It is also part of the fun to confuse the audience appropriately."

"Director, I also have a question."

Tom Hardy was aware of the questions raised by others when he read the script. Seeing that others were almost asking all the questions he wanted to ask, he hurriedly raised his hands to prevent Eric from thinking that he had not studied the script carefully.

"Say it, Tom."

"My question is about Saito's death. In the script, he was injured in the first level of dreams, died on the third level, and was later rescued from the Lost Realm by Cobb."

"Since Cobb can go to the Lost Realm to save people, why not let Saito die directly on the first floor? Anyway, let Cobb save him, lest he become a burden on the second and third floors."

"I've also thought about this question, maybe I can try to answer it." Morris Chestnut, who plays the pharmacist, said.

As a less distinct character, Eric changed the pharmacist's race from Indian to black.

He doesn't have a good impression of Ah San, and the Indian market is not a big box office. Using Ah San really won't bring as big a boost to the box office as using black people.

"I think the reason is the flow of time. If Saito really dies in the first level of dreamland, the time it takes for him to enter the Lost Realm will be much longer than the time he dies in the third level."

"Although the script does not clearly indicate the comparison between the time flow rate in the Lost Realm and the real world, it must be very exaggerated."

"Enter one minute earlier, and Saito may have stayed in the Lost Realm for ten more years."

"When Cobb found Saito, he was already about to die of old age. If he stayed for another ten years, he would have already died of old age in the Lost Realm without waiting for Cobb to find him."

"According to the setting, once old age dies in the Lost Realm, although the person will return to reality, his brain consciousness will also be severely damaged. Saito will be equivalent to a vegetative state, and Cobb's hope of returning to the country with his help will naturally be in vain. .”

"This is my guess, director, what do you think?"

After Morris Chestnut finished speaking, Eric looked at him with some surprise. It seemed that this guy understood the script to a certain extent.

It is comfortable to work with excellent actors. They not only like to delve into the characters in the script, but also help the director fill in the loopholes.

As you can imagine, this shooting should go smoothly.

"Well, that's a good explanation Morris. It seems I have to add some lines to the script."