[US Entertainment] Actor

After mocking Christian Bale, Leonardo suddenly noticed that Ebert on the other end of the phone fell silent, and he immediately stammered as if something was strangling his throat: "You, why don't you come out? sound?"

Ebert tilted his head and thought for a minute: "Happy to hear what you said, I don't want to interrupt you."

Leonardo laughed awkwardly, and soon fell silent.

Ebert can treat Leonardo with a normal heart, but Leonardo doesn't know what kind of mentality he should treat Ebert.

The last time he lost his temper at Toby for no reason, he immediately discovered his anomaly—he suspected that Ebert was gay, and as a friend, he only needed to honestly hide this secret for him, but why did he think Are you in a bad mood?

He knew he was a little self-conscious when he went to the premiere of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and that even if Ebert was gay, he wouldn't need to lay hands on his friends.

Leonardo also didn't think the fact that Ebert was gay would have any impact on him. In Hollywood, there were many gay people in the entertainment industry he came into contact with, and there were also many gays among the actors who were in the same line.He's been in a bad mood recently, but the reason for his bad mood is not that his good friend has become gay, but that he suddenly doesn't know what's wrong with him?

Why inexplicably run every day to keep fit?Why inexplicably refused even Ebert's call?

If he hadn't been going to nightclubs and bars as usual, he would even wonder if he had some kind of social phobia.

But one thing he can be sure of is that his bad state must be related to Ebert.

The call ended quickly, but after hanging up, Leonardo's mood seemed to be disturbed at once.He stared blankly at the phone keys for a few seconds, then suddenly stretched out his leg and kicked the treadmill hard, wondering if he wanted to vent his depression during this period.

Ebert on the other end is already preparing for the filming of "Batman Begins".

Before filming, he met with Christopher Nolan again.Although it was indeed Nolan's film that saved Ebert from a stagnant career, he did not have many interactions with the director after the filming of "White Night" was completed, and Ebert was not a good at dancing. Extroverted personality, but this director is even more unusual. He handed over all matters other than the director to Emma Thomas. Fortunately, he has a wife who is thoughtful in everything. Otherwise, with Nolan's dull personality and British It may be difficult to stand out as a person in Hollywood.

After the filming of "White Night", Ebert's career reached its peak, but Nolan did not continue to direct the film. Of course, this does not mean that Warner Bros. has lost confidence in Nolan. "The directing rights of such a classic American animation were handed over to Nolan, which is actually quite trusting in his performance.

Among them, "White Night Chase", which cost more than 4000 million but eventually won more than 1 million at the box office, played a decisive role.

The cooperation between Warner Bros. and Christopher Nolan has always been very pleasant. Since "White Night", Warner Bros. has released the "Batman" trilogy, "The Prestige", "Inception", "Interstellar" almost For all films directed by Nolan, this kind of tacit cooperation not only made Christopher Nolan famous, but also enabled Warner Bros. to earn more than $40 billion in global box office from Nolan.

Hollywood superheroes are always filmed over and over again by film companies, but audiences never tire of it. As one of the most classic superhero characters, Batman has become the protagonist of adapted movies many times since his debut in 1939, especially in the 80s. After Time Warner Bros. took over the film production of this image, Batman appeared on the big screen with a super high frequency. In 1989 and 1992, Tim Burton directed "Batman" and "Batman Returns" respectively, starring Michael Keaton. In 1995 and 1997, Joe Schumacher took over the directorship of this series of films. However, "Batman Forever" and "Batman and Robin" directed by him are not too highly rated in the industry. "Batman and Robin" has been criticized by the media as "the worst Batman movie in 50 years." ", the box office performance is far behind the first three, Warner Bros. had to temporarily stop the filming plan for this movie.

However, only 7 years later, Warner Bros. made a comeback with this superhero idea.

But everything is understandable. Since the 80s, several Batman films have brought Warner Bros. a total of 16 billion US dollars in global box office, ranking among the top five in the year-end box office list in 89, 92, and 95. , is an important support for Warner Bros. to maintain its front-line status after the new millennium.

Similar to Batman's fate are Spiderman and Superman. Spiderman's debut date is 23 years later than Batman's, but the pace of development is not slow. In the 70s, a TV movie was produced. After entering the 20th century, Toby The "Spider-Man" starring Maguire made Columbia Pictures hit the box office in the market, and the various series derived thereafter also made other film companies envious.

As for Superman, the image of the superhero wearing underwear outside has been adapted for the big screen many times. Although it has died down in recent years, there is no doubt that it will not take long for this character to make a comeback. .

It was the superheroes such as Spiderman and Batman who stirred up the situation in the film market that gave birth to the enthusiasm for superhero movies. Marvel's Spiderman, Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk and DC's Superman, Batman, Marvel Since then, characters such as Heroine have appeared in turn, bringing a strong record of tens of billions of dollars to the US film market.

Since Warner Bros. revealed that Ebert will play the leading role in Christopher Nolan's "Batman" movie, there have been various voices in the media.

Of course there are voices of doubt, but since Ebert's "The Pentium Age" and "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" both achieved good box office results, these voices of doubt have also slightly weakened.The media did not doubt Ebert's acting skills and his box office appeal. They were only worried about whether Ebert's image matched the role of Batman. After all, Michael Keaton and others who had played Batman before had a certain Tough guy temperament, but Ebert is a little weaker.

In the words of the media: "There are many actors with outstanding acting skills, but there is only one Batman."

Michael Keaton's development has been flat since "Batman" and "Batman Returns". Although he is considered by fans to be the best Batman in history, he is not very interested in Batman movies. After acting in two films, he resigned directly, which also made him waste more than ten years in Hollywood.

With Michael Keaton in front of him, in addition to criticism, Ebert endured endless comparisons from the media day and night.Now he can finally enjoy Tobey Maguire's previous feeling, but Ebert's ability to resist pressure has never been weak, and the media's advocacy of Michael Keaton is just encouraging him to try to surpass.

The villa area near his home has long been surrounded by reporters. Although not all of these reporters came for him, his life will inevitably be troubled by various problems.

Ebert simply learned from Leonardo how he avoided reporters.

Masks and hats are just the simplest means of covering up. Considering that he often appears in front of the media in a suit and shirt, Ebert simply changed his jacket into a denim shirt, and his lower body is a pair of black Harem pants. Ebert found that no one was following him, and just as he was proud of his disguise, the newspaper owner who knew him simply threw him a roll of newspapers early the next morning: "Hey, Ebert, are you on the Internet again?" Newspaper! Where did you buy yesterday's clothes, they are very suitable for you young lads!"

Ebert glanced at the guy in the newspaper wearing a black mask with his entire face covered with a half-smile. No matter what angle he looked at, he couldn't identify the person in the picture. How could the reporters be like that? What about supernatural powers?

It is undeniable that Ebert's popularity has been rising rapidly since last year.An Oscar nomination made him the number one young actor in Hollywood. The double word-of-mouth of "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" in terms of art and box office strengthened his position, and the discussion about freedom of the press brought him into trouble Public opinion is on the cusp, but Ebert's current attention is supported by his works, so his image in the audience's mind is very positive, and Ebert doesn't have to worry about losing popularity due to over-exposure.

After taking over the role of Bruce Wayne, Ebert began a long period of muscle training.Fortunately, he has already received relatively rigorous physical and muscle training when filming "The Pentium Era", and it is not difficult to pick it up again now.

In terms of pay, taking this movie put an extra $1200 million in Ebert's pocket.Film remuneration plus a two-year contract extension with Armani, plus a part of advertising endorsement income, in 04, less than half, Ebert's income has reached 2700 million US dollars.Although the possibility of this number increasing in the second half of the year is not very high, because he will spend a long period of time focusing on the shooting of "Batman Begins", but despite this, Ebert is far from the top ten earning actors. It is only one step away.

In recent years, there are many Hollywood stars on the Forbes Celebrity List. In 02 and 03, the tenth-ranked star's annual income was usually around 3000 million US dollars. If Ebert signed another commercial contract in the second half of the year, he should also be able to occupy a place in the top ten.

This list is always changing. For example, Tobey Maguire, when he took over the filming of "Spider-Man", he was just an ordinary second- and third-tier male star, but when it came to "Spider-Man 2", his income immediately soared to The top 3 on the list, "Spider-Man [-]" made him directly on the top five of the list.Leonardo also appeared on the Forbes list after "Titanic", but he has not appeared in the top ten in the past two years.

Ebert didn't care whether he became a rich man or not. Instead of showing his income to a bunch of people he didn't know, he might as well secretly look at the crazy numbers on his bank card by himself.

The Forbes list is only a rough estimate of the star’s income. Based on the combined estimate of the star’s salary and endorsement fees, the star’s personal investment, hidden dividends, etc. are not included in the calculation, so the list is not bad. Objective and fair, but not necessarily accurate.

When Ebert signed the contract with the first part of "Pirates of the Caribbean", he had already invested most of his income. He invested in the high-tech companies that caused great repercussions in the financial circle in later generations. With the assistance of a professional financial advisor, although he has not yet obtained ideal returns, once those businesses grow up, the returns he will get will make anyone excited.

At the end of April, under the siege of a group of reporters, Ebert quietly changed his whereabouts, met with other members of the "Batman Begins" crew, and began filming the 4-month, A new film with a total investment of 6 million US dollars.