After communicating with the people who participated in the news investigation in those years, and reviewing most of the information, Murphy began to write the outline of the screenplay focus. This screenplay is completely different from the past, and it is also very different from the city of darkness. There should be no exaggeration in all the basics of the screenplay. All the contents should conform to the facts and stand up to anyone and others Investigation of the organization.

    Although there are more serious film adaptations based on real life directors in the past, it''s not too exaggerated.

    You know, the villain mask in the movie is the Catholic church today! If there are false situations in the future films, they will surely become a laughing stock in the Catholic attack!

    That''s not what Murphy wants.

    Therefore, in the process of writing the script, Murphy always adheres to a principle that is objective enough.

    Murphy''s play is like a close-up report on the activities of the feature group of focus, which leads people to get closer to the truth step by step.

    For example, in the process of the investigation, the reporters did not encounter difficulties: the public relations department specially reminded that they should be careful to offend the 53% Catholic subscribers of the Boston Globe; the church was powerful, and the upper class did not want to tear off the veil of hypocrisy, making it too shameful; the reporter''s personal belief wavered In the closing stage of investigation and evidence collection, the group caught up with the "September 11" in 2001, and the "bigger" news forced reporters to get away from reporting more "important" news, explaining to the victims they contacted and apologizing at the same time being wary of being sniffed by their peers Showing signs and taking advantage of reports

    Sensationalism is definitely not suitable for this film. It is more powerful to reveal the existing facts from an objective standpoint.

    There is no objective content, that is slander, not counterattack!

    In the whole outline of the play, Murphy almost eliminated the drama and told the story in a straightforward way. He did not deliberately vilify the priests who committed crimes, nor did he have the stimulation of crime.

    For example, when he wrote a scene of the play, female reporter Sasha visited the priest involved one by one, and ate a lot of silence. Leng buting met an old priest with a charitable face, admitted that he had molested the boy without any defense, and calmly said, "I have never felt happy in this incident myself."

    In reality, all the clergy are secretive about it. Only this priest named Ronald Paquin openly admits what he has done. As he tells in the script, Paquin himself was raped by a Catholic priest when he was a teenager.

    These are not sensational, not to criticize, but objectively displayed in front of the audience.

    In the face of such a serious situation, no script, no director, no final film conclusion, the audience is enough to judge good and evil right and wrong!

    Similarly, Murphy doesn''t need to preach heroism, let alone the plots and dangers in the commercial films with the same theme. Even if someone questioned why he didn''t do anything when he sent the information to the newspaper a few years ago? It''s not the possible reversal of imagination: Robbie Robinson, the editor of the focus group, finally found out that it was his own negligence that missed the source, which made the possible report seven years late - true presentation. Even excellent journalists would make mistakes.

    The biggest conflict he used in the play was that reporter Mike found the most critical evidence and anxiously asked the group leader to publish the manuscript, which suppressed his urge for justice: the greater truth was behind, and in-depth reporting could not only cause riots. If the church apologized with individual cases, it would not bring about changes in the social essence, but their news Ambition is "dealing with the whole system.".

    After spending a month working out the script outline, Murphy recruited the writing team of Stanton studio into the project again, and continued to enrich the script with collective strength.

    Even this kind of very serious subject matter''s movie, also cannot get rid of Hollywood assembly line''s destiny finally.

    In terms of the concept of assembly line factory, the production process of a film needs to go through a number of "flow" procedures, including screenwriter, director, actor, photography, recording, props, clothing and other departments, and each department has a more detailed division.

    For example, the screenwriter Department has "propose intention", "structure main plot", "add secondary plot", "write dialogue", "add gimmick" and other special parts, all of which are presided over by enough special personnel; the director department has "main director" and "assistant director" who is specially responsible for various types of scenes; the actor Department has experts who are specially responsible for discovering actors, Actors are divided into different types. Other departments also have fine division of labor, and employ various experts to perform their duties.

    Like the production lines of other enterprises, this "flow process" is a product of the highly developed era of large machine production.

    Although film is a kind of spiritual product for entertainment, Hollywood has materialized and industrialized it according to the needs of the market.

    The result of this fine division of labor has its advantages and disadvantages.

    On the one hand, every detail of film production, such as set design, scene performance and character dialogue, will be excellent and exquisite because of the control of quite proficient professionals; on the other hand, when every detail professional wants to express his creative personality, many personalities will collide with each other and can''t control the overall situation In the end, it was drowned in the noise and became the appendage of production process and standardization.Although there is such a paradoxical relationship, for the current Hollywood film industry, fine and modern professional division is still an important "joint" to improve the quality of products and industry.

    The script was handed over to the writing team to enrich according to the facts, while Murphy considered the specific shooting plan. The first is the production concept.

    The final film must be as objective and calm as the script.

    In the film, Murphy is not allowed to exaggerate the conflict between the good and the evil, but he is not allowed to exaggerate the conflict between the good and the evil Prepare to use too much of the protagonist''s inner struggle and emotional transformation.

    In his plan, the film just shows how the journalists fulfill their responsibilities and compete with the power of public opinion.

    In some ways, the confrontation between the two sides in the film is not so much justice and evil as the professional ethics of journalists and the laissez faire.

    This is not only a counterattack against the Catholic Church, but also the greatest support of the media!

    In today''s society, no one can underestimate the power of media opinion!

    There is no heroic and dramatic attack, but only trivial work. However, for the press in pursuit of the truth, it is in such trivial things that they have accumulated the power to change the status quo.

    That''s what Murphy wants from journalists.

    In addition, in the aspect of Catholic scandal, Murphy intends to focus on the work behind the scenes before the famous report, hiding the focus of the case, the priest, behind the narrative. This will not only give the film more space to show the spirit of the real main characters and journalists, but more importantly, avoid rough value judgment and full of anger accuse.

    Obviously, what the crime priest did should be punished, but this is not what Murphy wants to do. His film will state the process of revealing the truth itself, and the attitude towards the truth, as he thought at the beginning, will be given to the audience to choose for themselves - the audience has more insight and good and evil than they think in this kind of thing that directly affects the next generation Heart, far from being guided and led.

    In fact, this refusal to comment on the results is not Murphy''s choice to avoid the problem.

    On the contrary, in too many similar films, the director or screenwriter implanted his own strong judgment into the film, presenting a piece of video message on the screen of the cinema.

    Of course, such a choice is far from wrong, but in such a serious and sensitive film involving such a huge power of Catholicism, the calm and restrained attitude can finally give the film a heavier texture.

    In this real case involving religion, children, legal fairness and other sensitive topics, how to show the truth objectively and sincerely, and how not to be reduced to a farce of playing with gimmicks and exposing people''s scars, is the real part of testing Murphy as a director and screenwriter.

    Although he is really not a good person and can be included in the ranks of villains by the standards of many people, Murphy still has his own understanding of justice.

    The meaning of justice is not only to punish crime, but also to protect the innocent!

    In the absence of visual stimulation and tense plot, Murphy thinks that only this calm and restraint can bring the unique temperament of a serious film.

    What''s more, this film is basically a black film. No matter the theme or the content, it has the characteristics of this kind of film. Murphy will also choose the gray tone in the selection of painting style, just like the Boston winter sky.

    By October, all the scripts had been created, and Murphy had come up with a complete project plan. Based on the successful cooperation in the past, the big sale of "dark city" and the counter attack against the Catholic attack, 20th Century Fox also gave the green light to the project, saying that the investment of 40 million US dollars was completely different from participating in the Venice Film Festival It''s not a problem.

    Then Murphy brought all the stantons together to discuss the actors.