Hollywood Road

After continuously communicating with those who personally participated in the news investigation back then, and reviewing most of the materials, Murphy began to write the outline of the script for Focus. No, basically everything in the script should not be exaggerated, and all the content must conform to the facts and withstand the investigation of any person or institution.

Although the film must have appropriate artistic exaggeration, and Murphy has directed films based on real people and real events in the past, those themes are far less serious than this one.

You know, it is the Catholic Church that appears in the villain's mask in the movie! If there are untruths in future films, they will surely become a laughing stock in Catholic attacks!

This was not what Murphy wanted.

Therefore, in the process of writing the script, Murphy always adhered to a principle of being objective enough.

Murphy's script is like a close-up report on the activities of the Focus feature group that year, leading people closer to the truth step by step.

The content in it is completely a reproduction of the situation in the past. For example, during the investigation process, the reporters encountered difficulties: the public relations department specially reminded them to be careful not to offend the Catholics who account for 53% of the Boston Globe subscribers ; the church is powerful, and the upper class is unwilling to tear off the veil of hypocrisy, which is too shameful; the reporter's personal beliefs are shaken, facing the heavy depression of the pain of many others, the impact of busy work on marriage; and even the cruelty of journalism itself— —The team caught up with the September 11 in 2001 in the final stage of investigation and evidence collection. The bigger news forced the reporter to withdraw to report more important news, while explaining and apologizing to the victims contacted, At the same time, we must also beware of being sniffed out by colleagues and taking the opportunity to report...

Sensationalism is definitely not suitable for this film. It is more powerful to reveal the facts that existed in the past from an objective standpoint.

Content that does not exist objectively is called slander, not counterattack!

In the entire outline of the script, Murphy almost eliminated the drama, and the narrative was completely straightforward, without deliberately vilifying those criminal priests, and there were no criminal scenes.

For example, when he was writing a scene in the script, the female reporter Sacha visited the priests involved in the case one by one, and had a lot of rejections. Suddenly, he met an old priest with a benevolent face. Say I've never been happier with this myself.

In reality, all the clergy kept secret about this matter. Only this priest named Ronald Paquin publicly admitted what he had done. As he described in the script, Paquin himself He was also raped by a Catholic priest.

None of this is provocative,

Not to criticize, but to show objectively in front of the audience.

Faced with such a serious situation, there is no need for a script, a director, or a conclusion for the final film. The audience is enough to judge good and evil, right and wrong!

Similarly, Murphy does not need heroic preaching, nor does he need the conspiracy and danger in commercial films of the same theme; even if someone questioned that he sent the information to the newspaper a few years ago, why didn't he act at that time? Nor is it the possible reversal as imagined: Robbie Robinson, the editor of the Focus group, finally found that it was due to his own negligence that he missed the source and made the possible report 7 years late-even if the real presentation is excellent Such journalists also make mistakes.

The biggest conflict he used in the script was that the reporter Mike found the most critical evidence and anxiously asked the team leader to publish the manuscript, who suppressed his eager urge to get justice: the bigger truth lies behind, going deeper into the story. Reporting cannot just cause a commotion. If the church apologizes for individual cases, it will not bring about substantial changes in society, and their journalistic ambition is to deal with the entire system.

After spending a month finalizing the outline of the script, Murphy once again recruited the screenwriting team from Stanton Studio into the project, and continued to enrich the script with collective strength.

Even a film with such a very serious subject matter cannot escape the fate of the Hollywood assembly line in the end.

In terms of the concept of an assembly line factory, the production process of a film needs to go through multiple flow procedures, including screenwriting, director, actors, photography, recording, props, costumes and other departments, and each department has a more detailed process. division.

For example, the screenwriting department has various special departments such as presenting intentions, structuring the main plot, adding subplots, writing dialogue, and adding gimmicks, all of which are presided over by enough dedicated people; the director department has main plots. director and assistant director who are responsible for various types of scenes; the actor department has experts who are responsible for discovering actors, and actors are divided into different types. Other departments also have a fine division of labor, and employ various experts to perform their duties.

This kind of assembly line program, like the product production lines of other enterprises, is a product of the highly developed era of large-scale machine production.

Although movies are an entertaining spiritual product, Hollywood has materialized and industrialized them based on market needs.

The result of this fine division of labor has its advantages and disadvantages.

On the one hand, every detail of film production, such as set design, scene performance, character dialogue, etc., will be done very well and exquisitely because of the control of quite proficient professionals; When professionals want to express their own creative personalities, many personalities will eventually be submerged in the noise and become appendages of procedural and standardized production because they collide with each other and cannot grasp the overall situation.

Although there is such a paradoxical relationship, for the current Hollywood film industry, refined and modern professional division of labor is still an important joint to improve product and industrial quality.

The script was handed over to the screenwriting team to be enriched based on facts and materials, while Murphy considered the specific shooting plan, first of all, the production concept.

The final finished film must be as objective and calm as the script.

In terms of basic narrative, Murphy is going to use the common narrative routine of confrontation between good and evil, good and evil, but it is an uncommon way of not deliberately exaggerating tension and conflicts. During the adventure, the threats and blows from the church will not be exaggerated indiscriminately, and there is no need for the undermining of the villains, and it is not even prepared to use too many protagonists' inner struggles and emotional changes.

In his plan, this film is only to show restraint, simple and plain how these reporters fulfill their responsibilities, and use the power of public opinion to contend with power.

In some respects, it is not so much that the confrontation between the two sides in the film is justice and evil, it is better to say that it is the persistence of the journalist's professional ethics and the laissez-faire of the crowd.

Doing so is not only a counterattack against the Catholic Church, but it can also win the greatest support from the media and public opinion!

In today's society, no one can underestimate the power of media and public opinion!

There is no heroism and drama of the charge, but only trivial and small work, but for the journalists who pursue the truth, it is in such step-by-step trivial matters that accumulate the power to change the status quo.

This is Murphy's request for the film to reflect journalists.

In addition, in terms of the Catholic scandal, Murphy intends to focus the film on the behind-the-scenes work before the famous report was released, and hide the focus of the case-the priest behind the narrative, which will not only give the film more space To show the spirit of the real main character journalists, and more importantly, to avoid rough value judgments and hostile accusations.

Obviously, what the criminal priest did deserves to be whipped, but this is not what Murphy is going to do. His film will state the process of revealing the truth itself, and what attitude he takes towards the truth, as he originally thought In that way, leave it to the audience to choose for themselves-the audience is more insightful and kind than imagined on matters that directly affect the next generation, and they do not need to be guided and led.

In fact, this refusal to comment on the results is not Murphy's choice to deliberately avoid questions.

On the contrary, in too many similar films, the director or screenwriter implanted his own strong judgment into the film, presenting a piece of video-based proclamation on the screen of the theater.

Of course, such a choice is far from wrong, but in such a serious and sensitive film involving such a huge power of the Catholic Church, a calm and restrained attitude can finally give the film a thicker texture.

In this real case involving sensitive topics such as religion, children, and legal fairness, how to present the truth objectively and sincerely, and how not to become a farce with gimmicks to expose scars is the real test of Murphy, the director and screenwriter.

Although he was indeed not a good person, and by many people's standards, he could be considered a villain, but Murphy still had his own understanding of justice.

The meaning of justice is not only to punish the evil, but also to protect the innocent!

In the absence of visual stimulation and tense plots in the film, Murphy believes that only this kind of calmness and restraint can bring the unique temperament of a serious film.

Another point is that this film is fundamentally a noir film, both in terms of theme and content, all of which have the characteristics of this type of film. Murphy will also choose dark tones in the choice of painting style, just like Winter skies in Boston are average.

By October, all the script creations were completed, and Murphy also came up with a complete project proposal, based on the many successful cooperations in the past and the great sales of Dark City, as well as a counterattack against the already Catholic attack , Twentieth Century Fox also gave the green light to this project all the way, saying that the investment of 40 million US dollars and participation in the Venice Film Festival are not a problem at all.

Murphy then called all the Stanton party members together to discuss casting.