America 1987

Chapter 120 Four Crossings

"In addition, it's also related to the fact that it was a semi-public event —"

6

After thinking for a moment, David explained his guess to her.

Catherine was dressed very formally today, wearing a pure black strapless tulle dress. The light and transparent tulle fabric draped naturally, spreading out soft folds on the bed, which not only outlined the elegance of her shoulders and neck, but also brought a hazy and beautiful atmosphere.

"That's strange, why are you dressed so formally today?"

After finishing their conversation, David couldn't help but tilt his head and ask, "Wearing a thin bracelet on your wrist is one thing, but why do you have the same one on your ankle too?"

"What's that? An anklet adorned with colored rhinestones?"

"Isn't it good-looking?"

"Well, no, it's just that it's so beautiful that I couldn't help but ask."

77

Her toes were already small and rounded, like plump pearls, and her delicate skin had a soft glow. The delicate chain adorning her ankles made her ankles appear even more slender, and against the backdrop of the black tulle dress, the glittering white at her toes looked even more ethereal and captivating.

"That settles it then," Catherine said smugly, then continued the previous topic, "You just said that semi-public events are suitable for creative use, so what about public events?"

Well, in fact, not all semi-public events are suitable for use as creative material.

Otherwise, after the TV series adapted from the Nanjing University dismemberment case was released, actor Zhang Yi wouldn't have been publicly criticized by the victim's brother-in-law, putting him in such a difficult position.

Even for semi-public events, it's better to choose those that have already been settled, with clear facts, a complete chain of evidence, and publicly verifiable judgments. When adapting these events, authoritative materials such as official announcements and judgments can be directly relied upon, eliminating the need to rely on subjectively fabricated sensational plots to attract attention and effectively avoiding most of the risks of infringement.

As for well-known public events, they are very unsuitable for making movies.

The film "Four Crossings," released this summer, is a prime example.

The battle outline of the Four Crossings of the Chishui River is almost common knowledge among the general public, as it seems to have been covered in junior high school history textbooks.

However, the audience certainly knew from the beginning that "the Red Army would eventually break through successfully." To make the film feel life-or-death and suspenseful and tense under the premise that the audience already knew the ending and did not distort the historical facts at all, it was indeed quite difficult. If not careful, it would turn into a textbook-style narrative.

Although it has won the daily box office champion for several consecutive days, based on its word-of-mouth and box office trend, it is questionable whether it can break 3 million yuan by the time it leaves theaters. It will be sitting at the same table as Feng Xiaogang's "Catch the Spy".

However, setting aside the film's mediocre quality, the main reason for its declining box office performance was actually due to 83...

With classic films already established as gems, most casual viewers, upon hearing that a film is a bad one, especially a bad remake of a classic, will definitely support the old film on streaming platforms instead of going to the cinema.

Therefore, adapting a public event into a movie carries a high risk.

"No, novelty is actually very important for a commercial film."

Catherine agrees with this point; the pursuit of novelty is human nature, which is why she suddenly decided to change into this outfit today.

How important is it?

It is so important that it can directly determine the commercial value of a work, because essentially, when audiences buy tickets to watch a movie, they are buying a "unique experience that cannot be obtained at low cost in real life".

If a movie's plot, visuals, and characters are all formulaic and have been seen countless times by the audience, it's like the audience paid money but only got an experience they could repeatedly encounter in their daily lives. This will create a strong sense of "not worth it," leading them not only to give up watching the movie but also to give it a bad review, completely cutting off the work's potential for widespread dissemination.

Therefore, when old films are re-released, the box office is generally very low, with only a few hundred thousand or a few million being the norm.

周星驰的《食神》24年重映时拿了600多万，《鹿鼎记》25年重映时拿了74.8万，《鹿鼎记2：神龙教》26年重映时拿了95万。

However, there are exceptions. When "A Chinese Odyssey" was re-released in 17, it grossed 1.78 million yuan, but that was thanks to the slogan "We owe Stephen Chow a movie ticket".

Well, strictly speaking, this is true, because "A Chinese Odyssey" did indeed have a very poor box office performance when it was first released, so using this slogan when re-releasing the movie is quite appropriate.

However, when it comes to the box office peak of re-released old movies, James Cameron's "Titanic" is second to none. It grossed 9.46 million yuan in mainland China alone, second only to Xu Zheng's "Lost in Thailand," ranking second in the annual box office chart. That's incredible.

It remains the most representative re-release box office record in the history of mainland Chinese films, far exceeding the box office of subsequent re-releases such as "A Chinese Odyssey" and "Jurassic Park 3D". It is estimated that it was this film that started the trend of a large number of old films being re-released.

However, none of this concerns David; he is currently on set preparing for filming.

In the brief moment before it began, he briefly recalled Catherine's feet, which resembled jade bathed in a soft glow. He had to admit that not only were her toes slender and rounded, but their curves were also as soft as tender shoots sprouting in spring, with every line exuding a nonchalant allure.

Coupled with the delicate anklet adorned with colorful diamonds loosely wrapped around her ankle and the black tulle draped at her feet, the overall form and the exquisite details were perfectly executed, which pleased him greatly.

So today, after the film officially started shooting, he put in 120% of his enthusiasm.

The camera pans to a picture on the front page of the newspaper, the most eye-catching image being Stans, who is wielding a baton with great enthusiasm, demonstrating to the people of Los Angeles what it means to "enforce the law with compassion, and use a baton with force."

"A bloody Christmas Eve?"

"The media loves to create sensational headlines."

David responded to his superior, but the answer clearly did not satisfy him: "You should know that this is no small matter."

"A full jury has been formed."

The camera gave a wide shot of the three police station leaders sitting at their desks.

"They might actually sue you. Will you testify in court?" the leader sitting in the middle asked.

"No, sir, I won't," David said calmly.

"Would you like to talk to Prosecutor Luo?" The man pointed to his colleague on the left.

Here is a brief introduction to the identities and responsibilities of the three individuals.

On the far left is Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney Ellis Lowe, who is the direct head of the "grand jury" mentioned in the dialogue. He holds the core power to decide whether to prosecute the officers involved and to escalate the incident from an internal police dispute into a public judicial case.

That's why the middle leader sent David to talk to him.

The prosecutor's core objective was to quickly suppress the violent scandal of the bloody Christmas Eve and prevent the incident from escalating to the point of affecting the image of the entire prosecution system. He was the one who led the legal process and exerted legal pressure on the police officers during this inquiry.

At the very center is a representative of the Los Angeles Police Department's top leadership, the nominal highest-ranking officer, who directly oversees the police force's disciplinary review process and holds the authority to suspend, discipline, and dismiss the officers involved. He is responsible for finalizing the internal handling plan for the incident from the police force's management level.

The villain on the far right, Dudley, is the actual person in charge of the criminal investigation system. He directly manages all front-line detectives and holds all personnel power over officers' promotions, transfers, and subsequent promotions. The three main characters are all his direct subordinates.