In 2018, "Captain" Johnny Depp made the news that he was indicted for allegedly beating up staff members during the filming of the new film. The other party said that he was drunk and played a big card, and hit people, causing harm to his body and mind.
The lawsuit directly affected the film being filmed at the time, not only was it unexpectedly withdrawn before the North American release, but it was permanently shelved afterwards, and the filmmakers did not give a clear explanation.
It wasn't until December 2018 that the film was released in non-North American regions and grossed dismal.
In fact, the reason why the film was shelved is not as simple as "Depp beat people", but because it broke out a black history that was not allowed to be broadcast - "City of Lies".
The film revolves around a real murder.
On March 9, 1997, popular rapper "Mr. Notorious" (formerly known as Christopher Wallace) was shot in Los Angeles and killed four times.
The news was a sensation in the United States, where Wallace had become a leading figure in the East Coast rap scene and had a large number of fans.
In addition, the murder has also become extremely sensitive because of his black identity.
Because as recently as 1991, there was an incident in Los Angeles where four white police officers beat up black youths and were eventually acquitted. Instigated by the media, the verdict sparked racial tensions in Los Angeles, causing social unrest.
Considering that Wallace's murder was so sensitive, the Los Angeles Police Department put the experienced male protagonist Russell Poole in charge of the investigation.
At that time, it was rumored that the murderer was related to the late rapper 2PAC.
In the 1990s, Wallace and 2PAC led the East and West Coast rap scenes respectively, with different record labels, and the competition was particularly fierce.
In 1996, the young 2PAC was shot and killed, and there were rumors that the killer was directed by Wallace. So this time Wallace was killed, and some people deduced that the murderer was related to the dead 2PAC, perhaps the revenge of the fans.
But in the eyes of the male protagonist, the truth must be based on field investigation to reach a conclusion. But what he didn't expect was that the inside story of the case was far more complicated than he had imagined at first.
Shortly after Wallace's murder, not far from the scene of the crime, there was another case of a white man shooting a black man, and the case was more sensitive and sharp - the white man who shot was an undercover policeman, and the black man who was shot was a Los Angeles police officer who was on leave.
After investigation, the male protagonist found that the dead black policeman Kevin was actually a "black policeman", who often helped the gang boss to watch the scene in his spare time.
Coincidentally, the gang boss is the boss of singer 2PAC...
Therefore, in the eyes of the male protagonist, the shooting case of Wallace and the black police officer Kevin has some inevitable connection, and the black hand behind the scenes is likely to be the gang boss sitting on countless resources.
But after investigating and reasoning, he discovers that the whole thing is more than that — in fact, Wallace's murder was an elaborate homicide, and the suspects were several other Los Angeles police officers involved in the crime.
At the event on the day of Wallace's assassination, several black police officers were in charge of security, and they cooperated through the walkie-talkie to force Wallace's car into the blind spot of the bodyguard's line of sight, and then the professional killer stabbed and fled the scene.
Just when the male protagonist was about to carry out further evidence against the murder case and the black police, his superiors suddenly asked him to stop the investigation.
What he did not expect was that although he personally arrested a black policeman despite the obstruction of his superiors, and sent him to court with complete physical evidence.
But when the other party testified in court, he insisted that it had nothing to do with the record company of the gang boss, and left Wallace's murder case clean.
At this point, the male protagonist finally realized that he was actually confronting the police station behind him.
He tried to report the Los Angeles police department to the district attorney, only to be run by his colleagues.
He has also tried to prosecute through other key witnesses, but the strange thing is that no matter how good the lawyer is hired, the final result is an out-of-court settlement, and there is no way to go to court.
All kinds of unexpected obstructions make the male protagonist feel disheartened by justice, justice and the police.
Two weeks before retirement, he threw away his upcoming pension in vain and resigned directly.
But since then, he has never stopped investigating the case.
Another story line of the film revolves around the life of the male protagonist after his resignation.
He spends his days studying the intricacies of clues, watching Wallace's interviews repeatedly;
Because he neglected his family for many years, his relationship with his son was strained, and he could only secretly watch his son's baseball game and express his indebtedness.
After retirement, the male protagonist met a reporter who wanted to dig up some unknown case materials from the male protagonist so that his next report would win another award.
After listening to the male protagonist's analysis of the case, he realized that people had never seen the truth, and the male protagonist had paid almost everything in order to make this truth public.
What the reporter did not expect was that he himself also encountered the bottom line of the Los Angeles Police Department, and was pressured by his superiors to interrupt the coverage of the murder.
Until the end of the film, the male protagonist is still running for the investigation of this case.
Unfortunately, before he could bring the killer to justice, he died of a heart attack.
The suspected shooting of the rapper may have become a permanent unsolved case in American history, and the murderer did not know whether he could still be caught.
The film is based on the 2002 book Labyrinth by American journalist and screenwriter Randow Sullivan.
The book features interviews with retired detective Russell Poole and reveals the truth about the shooting of rapper 2PAC and Wallace.
In that book, a total of 130 key people are involved, with a clear and detailed timeline and as many as 224 references.
The key truth revealed is that Wallace's murderer was a Los Angeles policeman, but because of the involvement in black, some decisive evidence was tampered with and hidden by the police department, and because the case has not been closed, Wallace's family cannot sue the Los Angeles Police Department according to law.
Wallace's mother starred in the film
The book writes that an agent who participated in the investigation of Wallace's shooting case said that the Los Angeles Police Department has been trying to prevent the investigation because once it goes to court and the police department loses the case, it must compensate Wallace's living income standards.
This number is so high that it can almost directly shut down the police station and even bankrupt the whole of Los Angeles...
The pending case was not adapted into a film by director Brad Foreman until 2018.
Objectively speaking, compared with the director's previous work "Lincoln Lawyer", this film lacks the sharp style of tit-for-tat, but its behind-the-scenes story is turbulent, comparable to the operation in a political thriller.
In the media reports, there are two main reasons for the temporary withdrawal and shelving of "City of Lies" -
First, because the lawsuit of Johnny Depp's "beating incident" has not been concluded, it is not appropriate for the film to be released before the lawsuit;
Second, the distribution company sold the film to the new company because it was facing bankruptcy, and the buyer who took over had the right to adjust the release date.
But in fact, Depp's lawsuit is just an excuse, because the "beating incident" is purely fictitious speculation.
In the view of director Brad Foreman, the reason why the film was withdrawn is likely to be because of "political pressure" from Los Angeles.
He said that during the filming of the film, he received phone calls from various people, including many "greetings from the police station.".
Although the director was reluctant to make up his own film because of "a phone call from the police station" and was withdrawn and shelved, the various encounters during filming forced him to start associating in this direction.
According to IMDb, "City of Lies" is currently only released in Italy and Lithuania, and there is no sign of finalization in North America, and it is almost defaulted to "American banned films"...
Although at the box office, "City of Lies" lost so badly that it was not a commercial success at all. But in a way, like the original, it completes the task of trying to restore the complete truth to the public.
And the sentence that the director said through the dialogue of the male protagonist is not only the need of character shaping, but also said to each audience - what kind of society will have what kind of crime, and in the same way, what kind of society will have what kind of law enforcement method.