Chapter 218: Difficulties and Choices

Chapter 218: Chapter 218: Difficulties and Choices

Irene Coppola picked up her pen and lightly sketched the core elements of the two films on paper.

Brokeback Mountain required extreme restraint and empathy, where the actors’ eye contact and subtle interactions were crucial.

Million Dollar Baby demanded explosive power and depth, especially in the portrayal of the female lead, who had to be both tough and vulnerable.

At that moment, a soft knock on the door broke the deep silence of the night.

She looked up and answered. The door was slowly pushed open, and Francis Coppola walked in wearing comfortable loungewear.

The legendary Hollywood director looked a bit tired, but his eyes were still bright. Seeing the light still on in his daughter’s room, he walked in with a glass of warm milk and placed it gently on the corner of the desk.

"Why aren’t you asleep yet? You’ve been working on the Oscar all day. You need to rest." His tone was full of a father’s concern, and his gaze fell on the two scripts spread across the table.

Irene didn’t hide anything. She reached out and pushed the two scripts toward her father. Her voice sounded particularly soft in the quiet room.

"I’m thinking about the next step. Post-production on Pirates of the Caribbean is almost finished, and I want to finalize the new project early. These two are my upcoming options."

She briefly and concisely explained the two stories:

one was a forbidden love between two men in the western wilderness, enduring half a lifetime of repression and struggle;

the other was a passionate tragedy in a boxing ring, where an old coach accompanied a down-and-out girl to chase her dreams and confront the dignity of life.

She also candidly expressed her concerns. "Brokeback Mountain will lack power if filmed with too much restraint, but it will ruin the core if it’s too extroverted. Million Dollar Baby has such a strong emotional impact that it could easily become deliberately melodramatic if I’m not careful."

Francis picked up the two scripts, his fingertips lightly stroking the covers, without rushing to express his opinion.

He was silent for a moment, then gently set down Brokeback Mountain, looked at his daughter with a firm gaze, and gave his answer. "Shoot Million Dollar Baby first."

Irene was slightly taken aback, thinking her father was rejecting the sensitive subject matter. Just as she was about to speak, Francis interrupted her.

"I’m not rejecting gay subject matter, nor do I think this story isn’t good enough. On the contrary, it is delicate and sharp enough that it will sooner or later become a classic in film history. But child, you must face yourself—you are still too young."

He looked at his daughter, his tone full of the transparency and love of someone who had been there.

"In your life, the only relationship that had any real meaning was the one with Loren, and it ended in a rush before you had time to seriously invest in it and deeply experience it.

You haven’t experienced heart-wrenching attachment. You haven’t experienced the torment of unrequited love.

And you don’t understand the kind of emotion that is hidden in the bottom of your heart, that dares not see the light, and requires caution even for a hug."

"Brokeback Mountain’s soul is not the scenery, not the lines, not the plot. It is the love between Jack and Ennis that is carved into the bones and suppressed by the times.

As a director, if you cannot truly empathize and understand the weight of this emotion, how can you lead the actors to find that state? How can you make the audience believe in this pain?"

Those words hit Irene like a thunderbolt, instantly waking her from the obsession she’d been trapped in.

She was stunned, a huge sense of realization surging in her heart.

Yes, she had the memories of her rebirth and the "internal film" cheat code. She could precisely copy every shot, every piece of music, and every line of dialogue.

She thought this would allow her to shoot the exact same classics, and her previous imitations had indeed let her taste success.

But she hadn’t considered that while she could replicate the visuals, she couldn’t feel that repressed pain for the actors. She could arrange the plot, but she couldn’t convey a love she herself didn’t understand.

If the actors couldn’t reach that state of extreme empathy, how could she help them achieve the ideal effect?

Seeing the clarity gradually appearing in his daughter’s eyes, Francis gently patted her shoulder and said in a gentle tone,

"Million Dollar Baby is different. It is about dreams, persistence, and dignity. It is about the mutual appreciation between master and apprentice, and the solitary courage to face difficulties.

These emotions are straightforward, passionate, and powerful. They are things you can understand, control, and convey. You are naturally good at shooting stories where the characters have resilience and sharpness. This is the path you should be taking now."

Irene looked down at Million Dollar Baby on the desk. All her previous entanglement and hesitation instantly vanished, and her heart was clear.

"I understand, Dad. Let’s shoot Million Dollar Baby," Irene said with a smile.

Francis smiled with satisfaction and ruffled his daughter’s hair. "Go to sleep now that you’ve figured it out. The road has to be walked one step at a time. Good things are never late."

After saying this, he gently closed the door, and the room returned to silence.

Irene sat at the desk, her fingertips lightly tracing the cover of the Brokeback Mountain script. The previous hesitation was gone from her eyes.

She picked up her phone and sent a message to Vera Cecil: "Help me check on Director Ang Lee’s recent situation, especially his current projects and work status. The more detailed, the better."

She knew very well that she couldn’t shoot the repression and torment hidden in the wind of the wilderness in *Brokeback Mountain*

that love spanning decades that dared not be spoken aloud, or the despair and attachment trapped by the shackles of the times.

It required not only camera technique but also extreme empathy for the complex emotions deep within human nature.

Her father’s words had woken her up. Rather than holding onto a golden IP but failing to capture its soul, it was better to hand it over to someone who understood this type of subject matter best.

If she stepped back to be a producer, she could prevent a classic from being wasted and add a brilliant stroke to her resume. Why not?

The phone vibrated quickly. Vera Cecil’s reply was concise and sharp: "Received, Boss."

Irene put down her phone, and her tense nerves completely relaxed.

The next morning, the California sun shone through the blinds onto the head of the bed. When Irene woke up, the phone notification was already quietly lying in the notification bar. Vera Cecil’s investigation report had been sent to her email.

After a simple wash, she ate breakfast slowly in the dining room. Only after downing a cup of hot coffee did she open her computer and log into her email.

The content of the email was more detailed than expected.

Irene scrolled the mouse, her gaze falling on the core information: Ang Lee, invited by Universal Pictures to direct the superhero movie Hulk, had officially started filming in Arizona a week ago.

The report detailed Ang Lee’s creative investment. To create this green giant that combined power and complexity, he not only collaborated with the Industrial Light & Magic team, but also spent a year and a half, gathered 180 special effects technicians, and used six trillion bits of computer data to construct the image of the Hulk.

Possessing 100 layers of skin and 1,165 muscles, this fifteen-foot-tall giant creature could both lift 5,000 pounds and reveal Dr. Banner’s struggle in its eyes.

He also injected his most adept humanistic core into the narrative, shaping the confrontation between Bruce Banner and his father into a modern version of Oedipus Rex, incorporating romantic and tragic colors, depicting a contradictory image that was "both a superhero and a giant monster."

Using clever comic-book-style editing to pay tribute to the original work, he attempted to plant deep issues about trauma and redemption within the popcorn blockbuster.