Chapter 816： Polanski

"Since you are going to retire, don't stand up and let your guns go. Please take care of your mouth and hands! Please don't make any comments on Warner's movies in the future. If you really want to comment, please give a low score?"

At the end of April, an executive director of Time Warner bombarded Roger Albert, the famous film critic, and begged him to let Warner’s films go and stop commenting on Warner’s production or distribution. This is definitely the best. A weapon to drive the audience away. x.

Perhaps movies and cinemas are indeed a good place to escape the crisis. In 2009, the world economy was still shrouded in crisis.

However, not everything has become a victim of the crisis. Just as people chose to hide in the virtual world for stimulating pastimes in the face of the gloomy reality of the economic crisis in 1929, it was once again proved in 2009 that movie entertainment is the favorite choice of people in the crisis era. To some extent, it has become a refuge for people's souls.

Perhaps it was stimulated by the total box office in North America last year that exceeded 10 billion U.S. dollars for the first time. Since the beginning of this year, the box office of movies in North America and the world has been rising all the way, and several unremarkable films have achieved good box office results. .

In fact, as early as January, this trend has begun to emerge. North American audiences upset by the financial crisis spend more time watching movies. Major Hollywood companies have found that all types of movies can sell well. In the past, the highest January box office in the past was only 841 million U.S. dollars, while in January 2009 it was an astonishing more than 1,074 million U.S. dollars.

Some not-so-famous low-investment films such as "The Paranormal" have all achieved success this spring, and certain high-expected films have been put off.

Among them are the two super productions "Prophet" and "Watchmen" launched by Warner Bros.

The box office failures of these two films are also the biggest reason why Warner's executives bombarded Roger Albert.

"This is the best sci-fi movie I have ever seen-thriller, suspense, wit, and very awesome when needed!"

Roger Albert not only scored ten points for "The Prophet," he also gave two iconic thumbs up, and "Watchmen" also received the same treatment.

"An exciting and shocking work-sound, image, and characters work together to create an absolutely bizarre, illustrated novel-like visual experience. The film has a strong inner motivation, and we can feel that the film focuses on the dilemma of saving a desperate world."

If it were placed more than ten years ago, Roger Albert Ken gave such an evaluation, Warner's senior management would not only not get angry, but would happily transfer an extra bonus to the other party's account.

But now?

In the past five years, Roger Albert has shown movies with a score of 9 or more, and 99% of the box office has gone to death, and the movies that were worthless by him have sold superbly. Some tabloids even dubbed him the title of'crow's mouth'.

"The Prophet" and "The Watcher" certainly did not break away from this category. The former has been downgraded from North America, and the $115 million production cost has only been exchanged for more than $71.9 million at the box office.

After the latter was released in March, in the past two months, the North American box office has not exceeded 100 million US dollars, which irritated the senior officials of Time Warner, who had high hopes for comics and movies.

To be precise, the film has a bad box office and has nothing to do with Roger Albert, but in the past five years, the movies he has watched have been on the street one after another. People have to wonder if he has a kind of magic power that can curse the movies he watched and make the audience want to stay away unconsciously.

"Roger Albert's praise is equivalent to a box office murder."

This view gradually formed a consensus within Hollywood. Some film companies even exaggeratedly wanted to re-public relations with him, so that the other party should never give a thumbs up to their films.

The alternation of old and new is a natural law, and people who do not adapt to the times will eventually be eliminated.

This month, another sensation occurred in the film industry around the world. Roman Polanski participated in a movie event in Switzerland and was arrested by the Swiss police on his way from the hotel to the red carpet. His old story of temptation and **** of underage girls once again made headlines in the media.

The U.S. Department of Justice immediately reacted and contacted the Swiss side, wanting to extradite Roman Polanski, who has been hunting for many years, back to the U.S. If the extradition is successful, the remaining life of the great director is likely to be spent in prison. Over.

Subsequently, the Swiss Ministry of Justice rejected Roman Polanski's request for bail because he had a history of escape.

According to Swiss law, the United States will have 60 days to file an extradition request and submit it to the Ministry of Justice for review. If it is passed...

This incident not only caused strong repercussions in the Polish and French film industry, but Hollywood, which was originally a quiet place after the Oscars, was also instantly activated.

Look at the people who have made friends with Roman Polanski, Woody Allen, Martin Scorsese, David Lynch, Harvey Weinstein, Pedro Almodovar, Ethan Cohen, Jack Nicholson, Harrison Ford, Steven Spielberg, Robert De Niro...

The heavyweight names can bring dusty tragedies back into focus, and can also affect serious judicial trials. Hollywood bigwigs have always considered themselves to be privileged members.

Especially the Jewish Club in Hollywood will never allow an important member of itself to fall into the pocket of the US Department of Justice.

Those who had a deep friendship with Roman Polanski even began to run for him.

Or to put it another way is more appropriate, Hollywood does not allow top figures in the circle to be completely trampled underfoot, especially if the opponent is still a Jew.

"Jack, this is not a good way. The collective voice will only arouse public disgust."

Sitting on the sofa in his living room, Ryan looked at Jack Nicholson and David Lynch who were visiting from the opposite side, "thus pushing the incident to the side we don't want to see."

Out of respect, Jack Nicholson took off his iconic sunglasses when he came in. "Aren’t we doing anything? I believe that if we collectively support us, the Ministry of Justice will definitely be scrupulous, and the public will also be because of us. Support, and change the position appropriately."

"David, what do you think?" Ryan asked again.

"We must have our own attitude."

The other party seemed to be a little dissatisfied with Ryan's relatively cold response.

The two sides said a few more words, there was no consensus on this, Jack Nicholson and David Lynch had to leave.

Ryan didn't stay too much, because he was quite interested in the **** case, and he still had some memories. The remarks supported by the Hollywood celebrities in the past life not only did not help Roman Polanski, but made his situation more difficult. .

If according to his true wishes, Ryan does not want to intervene in this matter, but while enjoying the privileges of a Jewish descent, he will naturally protect the interests of this class and watch each other when possible. It can be said that he is the best in the Hollywood Jewish Club. One of the basic rules.

The joint visit of Jack Nicholson and David Lynch also fully demonstrated that he could not completely stay out of the matter.

Waved to Charlize who came downstairs, Ryan sat here, thought for a few minutes, and roughly thought about the pros and cons of this matter.

Let alone other things, Roman Polanski should be fine. After a series of hardships in his previous life, he finally paid 5 million euros in bail and successfully escaped.

The result is here, how can I profit from it?

If you make a timely move to show that you have played an important role in it, then the Hollywood Jewish Club will owe a favor, which can completely exert a huge and even key influence in the Oscar selection next year.

As a fairly successful businessman, Ryan figured out what he should do in a short time.

And now, he has to wait and see the changes, waiting for Hollywood celebrities to make a collective voice, to take the incident to the worse side.

But in two days, Woody Allen, Martin Scorsese, David Lynch, Harvey Weinstein and many other Hollywood celebrities have expressed their views on this matter one after another. Perhaps their words There are differences, in the end they all express their support for Roman Polanski.

"Expressed shock and anger at the behavior of the Swiss side. It happened 31 years ago, and the victim had already forgiven Polanski, and Polanski went to Switzerland and also owned real estate there, even more so. It is hard to understand why he was arrested when he accepted an invitation to receive the prize in Zurich?"

Many people are very angry and support Polanski. The names of these people are simply a Who's Who in Hollywood.

However, things did not change because of Hollywood's support. Hollywood stars unanimously supported the troubled director, but instead attracted strong public opposition, especially women and feminist organizations.

Many women left messages on the Internet, expressing their opinions bluntly, and more and more members of the public applauded Polanski’s arrest. Their attention was focused on the case itself, and the great director just watched. Be a **** who sexually assaults children.

Well-known women in the United States have also stepped up. The female writer Kate Harding wrote in a column—Roman Polanski had a child. Let’s not care about the others. Let’s start from this point. It is a detail that some people deliberately want to ignore. "

This article became popular on the Internet. In just a few hours, the number of visits exceeded 100,000, which seemed to foreshadow a response.

Kate Harding then received many invitations from right-wing radio talk shows to denounce Roman Polanski’s commentary, one after another published on the famous hidden anti-Semitic media in North America, and they all agreed this time. The late arrest was applauded.

The incident developed dramatically, and the consequences seemed to far surpass Polanski himself. Some people who originally supported him, such as Ubi Goldberg, also began to clarify their positions. In the next few days, more and more. 'S female stars have also joined the ranks.

Hollywood's support for Polanski's actions was obviously counterproductive. (To be continued...) R640