The three of them chatted as they sat down together on a sofa in the backstage area.
Brian De Palma continued the previous topic. "Simon, Bob and I have been discussing this project over the past few days. I understand that you want me to direct the film to add more suspense and tension to the story. However, both Bob and I feel that while the theme of Indecent Proposal goes against mainstream moral values, the core of this story should still be love. Romance films are simply not my strong suit."
Simon felt a pang of regret at De Palma's polite refusal, but he did not take any offense.
After thinking it over, Simon realized that De Palma's analysis made a lot of sense. "In that case, I'll reach out to some other directors. By the way, Brian, are you interested in any other scripts lately?"
A bitter smile appeared on Brian De Palma's face as he shook his head. "Not at the moment. I think I should return to what I do best."
Over the past few years, De Palma had directed two films: one Vietnam War drama called Casualties of War and one satirical comedy called The Bonfire of the Vanities. Both had been attempts to break away from his previous style, and both had ended in failure.
It was not hard to understand why he would turn down Indecent Proposal.
If things continued at this lukewarm pace, a drop in status would be the least of his worries. Landing good projects would become increasingly difficult.
"I will keep an eye out for you," Simon said. He then turned to Robert Redford. "Bob, I hope you're not losing interest in Indecent Proposal as well?"
Robert Redford nodded. "I can give it a try."
"Then I will arrange a formal meeting as soon as possible."
As they were talking, another arriving guest came over to greet Simon. De Palma and Redford smiled and politely excused themselves.
"Hi, Cindy. Long time no see."
Simon stood up as well and greeted Cindy Crawford, who was wearing a black low-cut evening gown.
At the 20th birthday party, Simon had made a promise to each of the four models who had come to support him. He had originally planned for them to make cameo appearances as Bruce Wayne's dates in Batman Begins, but it hadn't worked out due to the plot. This time, he was finally able to fulfill that promise.
For now, however, he had only fulfilled it for Cindy Crawford.
Hearing Simon's words, Cindy Crawford stepped forward and hugged him. With a half-joking, half-serious tone of complaint, she said, "It really has been a long time, Simon. It's not easy to see you at all."
Simon felt the soft warmth in his arms and caught the perfectly balanced scent of her perfume. Only then did he notice that she seemed to have come without a male companion. Smiling, he asked, "You came alone?"
Cindy Crawford released him but stayed at a slightly close distance. Her beautiful eyes met his as she said, "Yes. So, Simon, could you give me a ride back to the hotel later?"
"Unfortunately, I have a bit of a phobia about hotels. I usually don't go within fifty feet of them."
Cindy's eyes sparkled as she became even bolder. "Then you can take me anywhere you like."
Janet had started showing recently, and her morning sickness was quite severe, so she had not attended today's premiere. Simon had no intention of staying out all night either, so he casually changed the somewhat flirtatious subject. "I thought you had a boyfriend. That, um, Richard Gere?"
Cindy Crawford did not shy away from the topic. With a hint of regret in her expression, she explained, "We broke up last year."
Simon was slightly surprised, but he quickly understood the reason.
Richard Gere, who had shot to fame in 1982 with An Officer and a Gentleman, had been on a downward slide in the late 1980s.
Originally, Richard Gere had returned to the top with Pretty Woman in 1990 and then married his girlfriend of several years, Cindy Crawford. It had been a mutually beneficial arrangement.
It was similar to how Bruce Willis had his whirlwind marriage with Demi Moore during the Die Hard period. Deep down, America was a very conservative society. Audiences did not like the idea of their perfect screen heroes being single playboys in real life.
For this reason, Bruce Willis, Richard Gere, Sylvester Stallone, and even Tom Cruise would all try to maintain the appearance of marriage, no matter what their private lives were like. It was another form of political correctness that celebrities gradually stopped following only after the new millennium.
Although Richard Gere appeared on screen as a charming gentleman who captivated countless female fans, in private he was quite the playboy, comparable to Leonardo DiCaprio in the original timeline. He had not married before forty and only dated tall, beautiful supermodels.
Now, having missed out on Pretty Woman and with no other box office hits in recent years, even reduced to appearing in television movies, the forty-something Richard Gere was completely washed up.
There was no longer any need to maintain that "political correctness."
Moreover, Cindy Crawford, who was only twenty-five and at the peak of her beauty with equally ambitious thoughts, had used her relationship with Richard Gere to rise in status. Her career still had plenty of room to grow, so she naturally would not tie herself to a fading star.
After a few perfectly timed flirtatious remarks, and seeing that the man before her was not responding, Cindy Crawford smoothly changed the subject to her cameo experience in Batman: The Dark Knight. She also expressed her hope to take on more roles in Hollywood in the future.
At that moment, Simon's female assistant arrived with her best friend Lisa Collins.
Noticing that Simon's attention had shifted, Cindy Crawford stepped aside slightly but did not leave. She politely nodded to Jennifer and the other woman. She knew Simon's assistant. Since her career focus was in New York, she was also aware that the Rebould family had become extremely influential in Manhattan in recent years thanks to Simon.
"Simon, it's really not easy to see you."
Lisa Collins's first sentence, clearly carrying a hint of playful resentment, almost made Cindy Crawford laugh out loud.
Simon gently hugged Lisa and smiled. "Alright, it seems I really am quite hard to meet."
Lisa Collins had wanted to see Simon in person again ever since she attended Madonna's concert where he made a guest appearance last year.
Unfortunately, she had never found the opportunity.
It was understandable. Over the past year or so, aside from his honeymoon after the wedding, Simon had been constantly busy, flying between cities almost every week. He simply did not have much time for personal matters.
After chatting and socializing for a few more minutes, a staff member came over to remind them that the premiere was about to begin. Everyone gradually made their way into the auditorium hall.
The opening segment was simple. After the host gave a short speech, the film screening officially started.
Following the animated studio logos of the two companies, the sound of dense police sirens filled the air as the scene gradually shifted to a highway.
The film opened with an explosive car chase.
Car chases in Hollywood had a long history. Most action films would include at least one or two. However, in recent years, the most memorable one was undoubtedly the car chase at the climax of Batman.
Thus, the moment Batman: The Dark Knight opened with its chase scene, it immediately brought the audience back to the excitement and thrill they had felt on the big screen a year and a half earlier.
Although it was only the opening, this brief car chase prologue did not disappoint the audience.
Faced with a pair of reckless, heavily armed criminals in speeding cars, the Gotham police were completely suppressed and suffered heavy casualties.
Under everyone's watchful eyes, the Batwing descended gracefully. After using its cannons to destroy several henchman vehicles, Batman employed the same method Catwoman had used in the first film. He dropped from the sky on the Batcycle, which had been flying on autopilot, and charged toward a heavy truck guarded by a pair of henchman cars.
This opening prologue had clearly been carefully designed to ignite the audience's passion for the film right from the start.
The choice of a car chase and the detail of Batman dropping from the sky on his motorcycle were also deliberately crafted to evoke the same sense of awe that fans of the first film had experienced.
Next came an intense and thrilling confrontation. Batman eliminated all the henchman vehicles. The Batcycle whipped around in a sharp turn and charged toward the heavy truck that had been left behind.
The hearts of the audience in the theater were all in their throats.
Watching the bloodthirsty and crazed look in the truck driver's eyes, they wondered what Batman was planning to do. Ram the truck head-on and end it all? The End? Of course not.
The instant the two vehicles of vastly different sizes made contact, the Batcycle suddenly lowered itself and passed directly underneath the truck. At the same time, the camera showed cables shooting out from the motorcycle and anchoring into the front of the heavy truck.
What was he doing now?
Using a motorcycle that weighed only a few hundred pounds to stop a truck weighing dozens of tons? That did not seem realistic.
If there had been anyone in the hall with the same "experiences" as Simon, they would have immediately thought of a certain scene from Nolan's version of The Dark Knight in their memories.
However, this version was even cooler.
After passing under the truck, the Batcycle did not wrap the cable around a roadside lamppost like in the original. Instead, it came to a sudden stop.
The cable connecting the truck and the motorcycle continued to stretch. Batman pressed a button on the Batcycle, then raised his hand and fired a grappling hook toward a billboard by the roadside.
In the middle of the road, the Batcycle actively transformed. Its two massive wheels tilted downward, embedding into the ground like giant screws. At the same time, eight more grappling hooks shot out from the motorcycle, anchoring and wrapping around roadside railings and lampposts like a spider's web.
Twang!
After the heart-stopping sound of taut cables, the massive truck that had been charging forward like a giant beast suddenly halted.
Then.
Under the immense pulling force, the enormous vehicle body performed a 180-degree flip.
Boom!
"Wow..."
"That's so cool!"
All kinds of exclamations erupted throughout the hall, and some people even started applauding.
Some filmmakers sitting near Simon could not help but sigh once again that movies could be made this way. At the same time, they realized that this was all thanks to money.
Most filmmakers might think of such ideas, but they could never afford to actually film them.
After the opening prologue and the title sequence, the film officially entered the main story.
The prologue in Batman: The Dark Knight was still closely tied to the main plot, rather than being a pure show-off segment like in the James Bond series.
The film soon revealed the reason behind the prologue.
The Gotham City police and Batman were both investigating an arms smuggler known as the Penguin. While the Gotham media was filled with reports of Batman's crusade against crime, another rising star was emerging in Gotham's political scene: District Attorney Harvey Dent, a man who hated evil with a passion and had publicly declared in the media that he would send every criminal in Gotham to prison.
As the media reported on them, Batman and Harvey Dent gradually earned the nicknames "Dark Knight" and "White Knight."
At the same time, as the heir to the Wayne family, Bruce Wayne had to deal with some minor troubles in his personal life.
Catwoman Selina Kyle had not ended up with Bruce Wayne in the previous film. Alfred, the butler who was constantly concerned about the Wayne family lineage, kept arranging various blind dates for Wayne. This plot thread continued from the first film and provided most of the film's humorous moments.
Cindy Crawford's cameo was as one of Bruce Wayne's blind dates.
In the film, the woman did not appear as a supermodel. Instead, she was portrayed as a strong career woman too busy with work to worry about marriage. She was also being pressured by her family into blind dates. She had a straightforward personality and greatly admired Batman. She viewed Bruce Wayne as nothing more than a spoiled rich kid who had inherited the family fortune but achieved nothing himself.
Especially after she performed a small act of heroism right in front of Wayne and noticed his "cowardice" during the incident, her opinion of him dropped even further.
After some superficial pleasantries, the character played by Cindy quickly dumped Wayne.
Of course, since the story needed proper resolution, there would be a reversal later. During a major battle, Batman unexpectedly saved the character played by Cindy. The strong woman began to have some suspicions about Batman's identity, feeling it seemed somewhat familiar, but the matter was never directly addressed.
Returning to the main plot.
Batman and Harvey Dent worked together seamlessly on several occasions, dealing heavy blows to the Penguin.
During one court session, the frenzied Penguin sent his men to publicly throw acid onto Harvey Dent's face in the courtroom, disfiguring half of his face.
As someone who had always been strong-willed, Harvey Dent gradually turned extreme when faced with the rejection and pity from those around him afterward.
To punish the Penguin for his crimes, Batman used violence to destroy the Penguin's lair, sending a large number of his henchmen to the hospital.
The increasingly extreme Harvey Dent planted bombs in the hospital where the Penguin's men were gathered. In a massive explosion that destroyed the entire hospital, Two-Face was born.
That's right.
In this sequence, Simon had once again referenced the scene from Nolan's The Dark Knight where the Joker blew up the hospital, except this time the villain was Two-Face instead.
The Penguin was still on the run.
Batman now had to face two major villains at once.
Realizing that Batman was obstructing his "quest for justice," Harvey Dent secretly teamed up with the Penguin. His true intention, however, was to eliminate both the Penguin and Batman, because he stubbornly believed that he was the true embodiment of justice. In all of Gotham City, neither the Penguin nor Batman should exist.
Coincidentally, the Penguin was attempting to smuggle a dirty bomb powerful enough to destroy an entire city.
Having suffered continuous defeats, Two-Face descended even further into madness. He came to believe that the entire Gotham City, which had abandoned him, should no longer exist.
Thus.
Gotham City faced an unprecedented crisis of destruction.