Chapter 201: The New Spider-Man II

  The day after the Oscars ended, Sony Pictures held the opening conference for the movie The New Spider-Man II in Los Angeles. Although the release of this news was met with a cold reception from the media some time ago, the conference site was still filled with thousands of reporters from the press and media.

  In recent years, the characteristics of high investment, high return, and high attention have made comic book action movies the most marketable genre in Hollywood. It's no surprise that the New Spider-Man series, as one of the best of the best, has received so much attention. Even the less-than-stellar Superman Returns at the box office or the mediocre Fantastic Four have managed to gain recognition from other sources without hitting rock bottom like Batman & Robin did a decade ago.

  Judging from the feedback from the market, audiences are more enthusiastic than ever about comic book action movies, with the first episode of Spider-Man reeling in $750 million worldwide and New Spider-Man's total gross easily surpassing the $1 billion mark after its makeover, even the most cautious investors wouldn't let go of such a good money grab, and the emergence of New Spider-Man II was already expected.

  The suspense left in the end credits of "The New Spider-Man" has already created enough momentum for the launch of the sequel, and on top of that, Sony Pictures has also pushed the envelope by throwing out a few heavy numbers: $280 million investment, a full $30 million more than the previous episode; the top paycheck of $30 million paid to Lin Ming Yang tied the record for highest paycheck ever set by Arnold Schwarzenegger in "Terminator 3" . ...But at the press conference, the first concern of the reporters was whether "New Spider-Man II" would be the ultimate movie of the series.

  "Will there be a fourth installment of the Spider-Man series?" and "How many Spider-Man movies will you continue to direct?", Lin Mingyang really admired Sam Raimi's calmness in the face of reporters' questions, because his ambiguous and evasive answers made "The New Spider-Man III" seem to be a real possibility.

  On this issue, Lin Mingyang and Sam Raimi did not communicate in private, perhaps Sam Raimi on the Spider-Man system of movies is not yet finished, but Lin Mingyang firmly held the idea of goodbye in his heart, no accident, "New Spider-Man Ⅱ" will be his last "Spider-Man" movie.

  However, in front of the media, Lin Mingyang did not show this tendency, but the same sitting on the scene of Jessica Alba is very clear that she will not continue to play Spider-Man's girlfriend.

  When asked by the media why, Alba covered her mouth and smiled while explaining: "In this movie, Spider-Man and I are already married and have children.

  Alba's rare humor will be the scene of the atmosphere fully mobilized, looking at the stage many high raised arms, Alba did not give them the opportunity to ask questions, she immediately added:

  "Of course, this is just a joke. Felix convinced me to stay on as the female lead in the movie, and he promised to give me more room to act in the script, so here I am... As a screenwriter, Felix has done his best, and I've always thought of him as a very good screenwriter... And he won an Oscar last night.... An Oscar...but Felix can't change the theme of the whole movie, Spider-Man is always the main character, as for the other characters, a different person might bring more new ideas to the movie."

  Alba today wore a printed saree, black silk legs sexy and charming yet simple, while the other heroine of the film, Jessica Biel, wore a nude-colored, low-cut, high-rise gown, which appeared to be demure and elegant, with a different flavor.

  Alba was reluctant to say much about any other aspect of the movie, so reporters naturally turned to the equally striking Jessica Biel.

  "Can you talk about your role in this movie?"

  "Well, I actually didn't go to the audition for the role of Mary at first, but for Spider-Man's real girlfriend, Winger, but Alba was ahead of me in the audition." For the first time after three years, Bale spoke openly about the past in front of the media.

  "It turned out that Alba got the part, and of course I thought she was the best person for the role, but at the time I was disappointed. After the audition, I thought the director had gotten everything he wanted in this movie. The other auditioners had left and Sam and Felix were discussing the plot at the front desk when I inadvertently walked in and overheard them talking to each other. By that time the lead role had been confirmed and Sam could only apologize, while Felix asked me if I wanted to play the part of Mary, and I said yes without thinking too much about it at the time."

  "In the last episode, Mary was just a small role, but they made me do a lot for the character and made her very dramatic. At first I didn't understand what they were trying to do, but after reading the script for this episode, I realized that the character of Mary has very much to offer in the sequel, and I'm very happy about that."

  "In The New Spider-Man, your character had a fling with Spider-Man, will your relationship go further in this episode?"

  "There are new developments, but definitely not what you think!" Bell seemed cautious in her answer to this question, but she still accidentally fell into a trap designed by the reporter.

  The opponent followed up by asking, "So will you be replacing Alba in the movie?"

  This guy's ultimate goal is to "provoke" the relationship between Belle and Alba, just when Belle is difficult to answer, but Alba took the initiative to stand up for her.

  She smiled and said: "Of course not, but Bale's role in this movie is more than mine, it is the need of the plot."

  Bale was grateful in her heart, but on her lips she joked, "But you own Spider-Man, why don't you and I switch?"

  "No way!" Alba shook her head adamantly.

  Seeing the tacit understanding between the two women, the reporters felt that it would be very difficult to make a breakthrough from them, and took the opportunity to bring the topic to Lin Ming Yang, who had been very "silent" during the conference.

  "Felix, in your opinion the roles of Alba and Belle, which one is more important?"

  "The story mainly revolves around the lives of Spider-Man and Alba, but the appearance of Belle changes the lives of the two, there's only so much I can say about the plot, and as for whose role is more important, I think the audience will have their own judgment after seeing the movie." Lin Mingyang's explanation was simple, and to plug the reporter's wild speculations, he added, "The plot of the movie will definitely not fall into that kind of cheesy love triangle, and in general this will be a movie about family, affection and responsibility."

  The topic was initiated by director Sam Raimi, and finally the microphone returned to his hand, in the face of the reporter's doubts about the sequel's stylistic orientation, he laughingly explained: "Felix also said that the film will be biased towards warmth in the plot, but I don't deny my own love for the style of the cult movie, in the film's action sequences, we can still see the embodiment of this style. can still see the embodiment of this style."

  In 1980, 21-year-old Sam Raimi made his debut film Ghost Players with a low budget of less than $350,000. This horror movie depicting a safari encounter with a zombie attack has no exciting storyline, but creates a ferocious and bloody world through extreme audiovisual language.

  Released in early 1983, the film won the approval of hardcore horror fans and young audiences alike, was re-released no less than ten times in the United States alone, and became an icon of 1980s cult film culture.

  Now, 25 years later, it is clear that Sam Raimi, who started out as a low-budget B-movie star, has risen to the top of the Hollywood game, with easy access to huge amounts of investment, and a natural ability to incorporate his deeply rooted personal style into his work while controlling the production of box office blockbusters in an assembly line style.

  The criticism of "The New Spider-Man" after its release, that it is more about excitement than logic, is precisely the problem with most B-movies. If the commercial film model of "A-class investment + B-class story" has become the mainstream of Hollywood, then "New Spider-Man" and "King Kong" have further strengthened this model, and Sam Raimi and Peter Jackson are naturally the representatives of Hollywood who have emerged in the new round of metabolism.

  Sam Raimi has the capital to create at will, so in "New Spider-Man", the scattered rhythm, a variety of very different types of styles, intentionally flirt with emotional soap, quirky supporting characters are intentionally contrary to a "normal" Hollywood blockbusters, but it is such a cult classic style of the movie, but But it was this cult movie that became the box office bomb of the year.

  Whether it is the movie that leads the audience's aesthetics or the audience that determines the direction of the movie trend has always been a topic of debate. The first cult movies were all shoddy due to limited investment, with neither stars nor convincing stories, but exaggerated and strange plot characters, bloody and erotic sensual stimulation, and a temperament diametrically opposed to mainstream movies, which can be summarized as "bad but stylish".

  However, after more than three decades of development, cult movies, which used to be a semi-underground youth subculture, have gradually turned into the mainstream, with creators drawing inspiration from them and teenage viewers forming a continuous preference for this particular genre, driven by curiosity.

  The most obvious sign of this trend is the rise of Lionsgate, an independent company specializing in the production and distribution of horror films in Hollywood. Lionsgate's horror film series Saw, known for its depiction of sadistic plots by serial killers, totaled less than $30 million, but has earned more than $400 million worldwide for its three films.

  This jaw-dropping achievement is proof enough that black, gory cult movies have long been the private favorites of niche moviegoers and have become the popular choice of a new generation.

  Learning from the lessons of the last movie, Lin put a lot of effort into the plot of "The New Spider-Man II", which makes the movie's orientation slightly more "normal", but Sam Raimi has arranged a lot of "desserts" in the action scenes to pay back the "Spider-Man II" for its success. But Sam Raimi rewards the hardcore Spider-Man fans with a number of "desserts" during the action sequences, a technique that is a common practice in cult movies.

  As the film began to shoot, Lin Mingyang soon realized that Sam Raimi's answer at the opening conference was not a trick. Those action sequences Sam had envisioned played with more than just a heartbeat.

  In the last episode, Lin Mingyang's Spider-Man was quite mesmerizing as he flew around the skyscrapers of downtown New York. With a large production budget in hand, Sam Raimi has not only continued this form of swinging in the sequel, but also improved it further. In the movie, Spider-Man's vision will be broader, and more buildings in front of the audience, which makes Spider-Man's flying images will be very beautiful and vivid.

  Sam Raimi has a big appetite this time, just the upgraded version of the "flying kung fu" can not make him completely satisfied, in addition, he invented a new Spider-Man "shuttle kung fu", in this episode, Lin Mingyang not only want to fly in the sky, but also to learn to fly in a small space. In this episode, Lin Ming Yang not only has to fly in the sky, but also learns to sneak and dodge in small spaces.

  In order to demonstrate this new skill of Spider-Man, Sam Raimi has designed a number of thrilling scenes in the movie, among which are Spider-Man encountering a big truck rushing past in the midst of flying swings, and he has to skim over the connecting empty space between the truck's head and carriage at high speed, and then continue to chase the fleeing thugs; facing the thugs in the car in the air with the flying guns, and prancing to dodge; and there is also a scene of weaving in and out of the speeding traffic, where Spider-Man stays close to the ground and Slide, both to maintain the speed, but also to avoid the opposite side of the car constantly crashing into the ...

  One of the most difficult to shoot is that from the front of a fast-moving truck and the compartment between the lens, this lens computer composite effect is not ideal, the actual shooting of the difficulty is very big. What gave director Sam Raimi the biggest headache was that Lin Mingyang was determined not to use a body double. If he has an accident, even if it is rubbed a little fur, will become a sensational Hollywood headlines, the consequences are unimaginable.

  Because of Lin Ming Yang's determination, Sam Raimi had to make concessions, for which he not only strengthened the safety measures for filming, but also modified the filming plan. In Sam Raimi's initial conception, there was a camera on both the left and right sides of the truck, and what he wanted was the whole process of Spider-Man flying through the gap, but in the end, he removed the camera on the left side, and what the audience ended up seeing was only Spider-Man flying and swinging over to meet the camera, and on the side where the camera was removed, the front of the vehicle was connected to the cabin with thick impact airbags placed on both sides of the gap.

  Even so, Lin Mingyang's bold move still made a lot of people worried, before the shooting Alba found Lin Mingyang, at this time he was two staff members assisted, laboriously wearing that spider suit. When Alba knocked on the door and came in, he had just moved his wrists and was about to put the mask on as well.

  "Can we have a moment alone?" Alba's words were tantamount to an "eviction order", and the two staff members, after looking at each other for a few moments, left the room wisely.

  Lin Ming Yang was constantly adjusting his Spider suit in the fitting mirror, Alba pulled over a chair next to him with a sad face and sat down next to him, saying, "I know you like to take risks, but do you really know how dangerous that action is?"

  Lin Ming Yang clasped his hands and leaned against the wall opposite her, whether it was from Alba's somewhat flustered eyes or her concerned tone, he could feel Alba's concern for herself.

  Lin Ming Yang shrugged his shoulders and looked at Alba with a relaxed expression, "Do you have so little confidence in me?"

  Alba persuaded bitterly, "I don't object to you showing off your personality at some point, but this isn't the time to play it cool, what do you think your chances of success are if you go through an air raid in motion? I think it's pointless for you to take such a risk."

  Lin Ming Yang suddenly hemmed and hawed, "You say that like you care about me?"

  Seeing that this guy looked like he had gotten the better of me, Alba glared at him in annoyance and turned her head to say in exasperation, "I just think that it's barely enjoyable to work with this guy you, if something happens to you, the movie will definitely have to be replaced, but I won't necessarily like the new guy, so I don't really want anything to happen to you, that's all. "

  "Is that really it?" Lin Ming Yang smilingly brought his face close to Alba, the other party was startled by this bold move of his and subconsciously reached out to push him away.

  Alba stood up in a bit of a panic, glancing angrily at Lin Ming Yang, she knew that she couldn't convince this guy, and was about to turn around and leave, when suddenly a pair of strong arms hugged her from behind.

  Her entire body froze there, she didn't even resist, at this time Lin Ming Yang put his head to her ear and whispered, "Don't worry, I'll be fine!"

  Lin Ming Yang knew very well in his heart that this bold embrace of his was already the limit of what the current Alba could accept, so he didn't continue to have more intimate movements, and let go of Alba after saying those words.

  Standing there half speechless Alba didn't even know if she was angry or ashamed, she turned around a little trembling, ready to question Lin Ming Yang why he did that, but what she saw was not the handsome face she was familiar with, but Spider-Man, who had already put on a mask.

  Alba's heart was originally full of aggression and resentment, but seeing Lin Ming Yang's meticulous costume, her heart was ultimately a little intolerant, her lips moved, and the words of accusation ultimately did not come out.

  Lin Ming Yang took Alba's entire change of expression in his eyes, but wearing a mask he was not convenient to speak, just gently patted Alba's shoulder. When he went out the door, Alba behind him suddenly called out to him.

  Lin Ming Yang turned around and saw Alba smiling at him, "If anything happens to you, I'll ignore you in the future!"