Six Hundred and Forty-Two - All the Men in the Room Want to Kill You

Four security personnel tightly surrounded the two Waynes, and did not leave until they entered the main venue of the Temple Theater. Apparently, what had just happened outside, the guests inside had already received the news, and everyone looked at the two of them. His eyes were filled with all kinds of different emotions.

"Hey, hey, listen to me."

Naomi Watts' white and slender fingers gently patted the man's back and whispered: "You are too excited today. You are totally incompatible with someone like that. Wayne, I have never seen you like this before." Look, you really scared me today!"

How does Wayne feel to his friends? Calm, down-to-earth, and focused on work, he never hesitates to be tolerant to himself even when faced with low-level temporary workers on the crew. This is a person who remains calm and clear-headed at all times.

There is no doubt that bursting out suddenly and solving problems with fists has never been the way he should appear.

"F**k you, what does that bastard want to do?! Huh?!"

Until now, Wayne knew exactly what he was doing. Although he was still a little agitated, he was always awake. You could tell by the expression on his face when he spoke that he was not dominated by violence. "Lifting up my child's mother's skirt? F**k you! This is beyond the scope of a prank."

"Ha, he's just a nobody, he's not worth your anger." Naomi Watts smiled and shook her head slightly. She didn't care about the stares from around her at all. She held the man's arm and lay on his shoulder and whispered softly. As he spoke, he wanted to calm down the man next to him as soon as possible.

Similar situations occur almost every year at the Oscars event. This is not the first reporter to prank a big star, nor will he be the last.

Not only at the Oscars, but also on the red carpets of various other award ceremonies, there have been many pranks, especially on female celebrities who want to show their face. Many things that are beyond the scope of pranks can be considered obscene if investigated seriously.

However, celebrities have to be proud, so reporters like this often succeed. There was once a bold reporter who assaulted the breasts of several actresses on the Oscars red carpet.

"Found it."

The calm voice of the assistant lady caught their attention, and she reported in a low voice: "Vitaly Seyduk, a Ukrainian journalist..."

"I don't want to hear it now."

After waving to Nina, Wayne shook his head to stop her from continuing. To put it bluntly, this was nothing more than a little person who used pranks to get news. He had countless ways to make the other party uncomfortable. "We'll talk about it later."

Led by a staff member, several people chatted casually in low voices and arrived at the location of the "Batman: The Dark Knight" crew.

In fact, from the arrangement of the Oscar organizers, we can already see their respect for Wayne. The crew of "Batman: The Dark Knight" is positioned very high, and some behind-the-scenes members who have already come in, together with Nicolas Cage and Sofia Co Pola, Christian Bale and others all stood up almost at the same time.

"Oh, God!"

Schwartz, the crew’s royal casting director, screamed with an exaggerated expression. "Boss, I heard that you just flattened a reporter's face? Damn it, did he offend Nami? If I were here, I would definitely let him taste the power of my fist!"

"Hey, Schwartz, you're almost a ball of fat."

Steve, the lighting master on the side, smiled and reached out to pat Schwartz's big belly, and shouted in the same exaggerated and funny way: "I dare say that if you sit down on that reporter with your butt, the reporter will die immediately. Fist? Damn, Are you sure you can catch him?"

The casting director slapped his hand off his stomach. "F**k you, Steve."

"Are you sure you're interested in me?" Steve imitated Schwartz's exaggerated expression just now, and asked in the same exaggerated way amidst everyone's laughter.

The atmosphere on the set was very good, and no one took the reporter seriously. Forget about Wayne, after going out from here, none of them are well-known behind-the-scenes experts in the industry, and no one will take such a small person seriously.

"Nami, I swear, my fists are very difficult to mess with, it's just that I'm not around..."

The casting director was still mumbling in Dudu, which once again caused everyone to burst into laughter.

"Thank you, Schwartz."

Although everyone took Schwartz's words as a joke to lighten the atmosphere, Naomi Watts still nodded and thanked her very formally. "Next time, next time I will try to attract a bold reporter."

"Shit, I heard that guy's face was flattened by the boss." Julia, the black editor, opened her strong arms, hugged Naomi Watts hard, and said with a smile: "I don't believe it. And that reporter doesn’t have enough brains to play another disgusting prank on you.”

After the two women sat down, they began to whisper about the rumors about this reporter. The Australian actress was not the first victim today. Several female celebrities were pranked by this reporter.

Gary Oldman and other crew members who came in later seemed to have heard about this incident, and the unfortunate reporter became the target of everyone's criticism, causing bursts of laughter.

"Good evening, Wayne."

Just as everyone was waiting for the official start of the award ceremony, several uninvited guests came over, led by an old white man with glasses and gray hair, who was also the one who greeted them.

"Good evening, Rupert."

Standing up from his seat, Wayne shook hands with the chairman of News Corporation, then turned his head and looked at Twentieth Century Fox CEO Townsend Rothman. "Good evening, Townsend."

"How is it? I heard that "Batman: The Dark Truth" did not participate in public relations this year." Townsend Rothman waited until he finished greetings with Rupert Murdoch and asked with a smile.

"Yes, I stopped Warner Bros.'s lobbying plan for this year's Oscars." There is nothing difficult to admit. Everyone here is a sensible person, and they all know why he did this.

In the past few decades since the advent of the Oscars, or the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Awards, there has never been a non-realistic film that can win a major award on this stage.

"The Dark Knight" is indeed great, but it does not break away from this category. In addition, he already won two awards for Best Director and Best Picture the previous year. Even if he spends money on public relations and lobbying this year, he will not be able to win. You can win any big prize, so there is no need to do this kind of useless work.

"With your current achievements, you can already consider going behind the scenes."

Compared to Townsend Rothman and others, Rupert Murdoch saw completely different things because of his own perspective. He looked at the young people chatting and laughing around him, and the appreciation in his eyes was not concealed at all.

"I'm still young, Rupert."

Wayne smiled and shook his head. Of course Wayne knew what the other party meant. Going from the front to the backstage, from labor to management, standing behind the scenes and playing with capital, this is the path that countless successful people have taken. "Maybe in a few years, I will consider it."

As he spoke, his eyes glanced behind Rupert Murdoch several times. A Chinese lady stood quietly behind the old man. After the few people started to greet each other, she did not say a word. talk.

Wayne was actually curious about this legendary woman. Judging from the situation, the two had just gotten together. The woman had not yet become the wife of the chairman of News Corporation, otherwise the other party would not have failed to introduce her.

"Fox held several high-level meetings to discuss the release date of "X-Men."

After the pleasantries, Townsend-Rosman got down to business. "After the Oscars, you'd better take the time to come to Fox in person. We have initially decided to put "X-Men" in August. We will wait for you to come over and have a meeting together. If there is no problem, we will start the promotion work."

"Okay." Wayne nodded.

The post-production work of "X-Men" is still in progress, but this will not delay the formulation of a release date, let alone the formulation of a complete publicity and marketing plan. You know, Townsend Rothman is a distribution executive and has presided over film promotion and distribution work in Hollywood for decades. He values ​​this aspect more than anyone else.

And Wayne also understood very well that the other party seemed to have accidentally invited him to a meeting for the purpose of announcing "X-Men". Cooperating with 20th Century Fox's publicity plan was clearly written into the producer's contract, and he had no objections to this.

The reason is very simple. "X-Men" is another superhero movie outside of the DC series in Hollywood in recent years. Among the entire creative lineup, the biggest name and the biggest publicity point is Wayne. For today's superhero movies, he is the biggest guarantee for movie fans to go to the theater and pay for it.

"This year's Twentieth Century Fox is even more productive than Warner Bros."

After the brief greetings were over and Rupert Murdoch and Townsend Rothman left, Nina sat next to Wayne and reported in a low voice: "The latest news I learned from Warner Bros., 20 This year, Century Fox has invested in three projects worth over 100 million yuan, four projects worth over 50 million yuan, and more than a dozen other low-cost projects.”

“Do you know the name of the specific project?”

Wayne frowned slightly and asked in a low voice. Twentieth Century Fox is not his enemy, which is the basis for cooperation between the two parties. However, if Twentieth Century Fox continues to release big projects, it is difficult to say whether the two parties will conflict in the future.

Because it is not just projects produced and distributed by Warner Bros., his Greenberg Studio, the third part of "The Matrix" jointly invested with Warner Bros., and films such as "Charlie's Angels" independently produced by Warner Bros. will also be produced. Schedule into the overcrowded summer schedule.

"The information is at home." The assistant lady rolled her eyes. Who attends the Oscars and carries a lot of information with them. However, she recalled it carefully and said slowly: "The ones that have been officially scheduled and announced include "Doctor Dolittle" in mid-June and "Crazy About Mary" in mid-July.

The specific release dates of "X-File: Conquest of the Future", "Cinderella", "Confessions of Love", "Total Siege", etc. are unclear, as well as 20th Century Fox's head project this year, "X-Men". "

The summer season is actually so short. It starts in mid-to-late May and ends in September. Twentieth Century Fox, a major film company alone, has crammed so many films into this period, which shows how crowded this year's summer season is.

Warner Bros. also has a lot of films this year, plus four other large film companies and countless small and medium-sized film companies. I'm afraid that by then we will be able to see more than two or three major productions squeezed into one weekend.

As guests continued to enter, the award ceremony was about to begin, and the two just chatted briefly. But one thing attracted a lot of attention. First it was Bella Grant, who was responsible for the Los Angeles Times' Oscar interview arrangements, and then it was Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Connelly, Charlize Theron and other women. , all generously came over to hug and say hello.

Every woman seemed to have not seen Naomi Watts. They hugged Wayne affectionately and exchanged greetings before returning to the seats arranged by the organizer.

It's okay for a woman to say that when he appeared one after another, the looks of several crew members around him gradually changed their meaning. Women mostly have complicated emotions, while men all show unabashed envy.

Most people know by heart that the media's reports on Wayne's chaotic private life are completely well-founded. One moment, this guy was fighting for Naomi Watts, and the next moment he was blatantly hugging him. No one could I don't know what this complicated man is thinking.

But obviously, Wayne didn't feel guilty at all. Even the Australian actress beside him just rolled his eyes helplessly several times. Because from the time the two of them first fooled around together, the woman knew very well that this guy was never a subjectively good man.

When the host Billy Crystal walked onto the stage and announced that the highlight of the night was about to begin, a tall, fat figure came over with his waist hunched over. After a few words of polite conversation with Nina, the assistant looked at her boss and moved away.

"All the men in the room look at you with fire in their eyes."

While watching Billy Crystal's talk show host on stage, Harvey Weinstein joked in a low voice. "That means looks can't kill, otherwise I swear, you would have been killed countless times by those people before the award ceremony started."

Finding that the man beside him just shrugged and had no intention of speaking, he moved his fat body, pursed his lips and continued: "According to your public relations method the year before last, this year I successfully made Good Will Hunting gain nine Nominate!”

Harvey Weinstein is definitely a good student. He carefully studied all of Wein's public relations methods for "The Departed" and copied them after a year of failed Oscar journey. It also resulted in "Good Will Hunting" being nominated for nine Oscars.

Mailing gifts to academy members, holding multiple push-pull-style parties, bombarding with phone calls, and bombing with emails, the level of spending money is not small at all.

"Listen, Harvey."

Frowning slightly, seeing that the main camera was not pointed at him, Wayne withdrew his gaze from the stage, looked at the proud fat man beside him, and whispered: "This year's situation is too special. I always feel that you spend so much money on it." Millions of dollars in public relations funds will be wasted.”

"You mean the big ship?"

Hearing this, Harvey Weinstein immediately understood. He asked thoughtfully: "Did you hear something? Tell me. Wayne, we are partners now, "Shakespeare in Love" "I've always been the one doing the hard work, so you always have to give me some compensation, right..."

"I'm the guest for the Best Director award tonight!"

"m-f**ker!"

In just one sentence, the fat man understood all the subtext.

As long as you are not stupid, you will know that the Academy cannot really wait until the Oscars ceremony to learn the so-called winners list together with the public. As long as he thought about the news that was hotly hyped by the media during the previous period, he immediately understood that the best director award would most likely go to the arrogant truck driver.

That's fine, but the meaning behind it is even more difficult to accept. Since the academy has completely bowed its head to the miraculous commercial results, it means that "Titanic" is very likely to win everything!

"...The film that won the best visual effects is "Titanic". Congratulations to Robert Legato, Mark Rusoff, Thomas Fisher, and Michael Kanfer! Congratulations to them!"

Before Harvey Weinstein could continue to think, the award presenter on the stage had already announced the first statuette for "Titanic".

Not far from the "Batman: The Dark Knight" crew, the location of the "Titanic" crew has become a sea of ​​joy, with everyone embracing and unbridledly releasing the carnival that belongs to the successful.

"It's just an insignificant little prize..."

Harvey Weinstein muttered something and walked back to the set of "Good Will Hunting" while the camera was not filming them.

"We won't get nothing today, right?"

Naomi Watts waited until the fat man left, looked at the people who were giving acceptance speeches, and asked the man next to her in a low voice.

This momentum is really abnormal. From the very beginning of the awards ceremony, "Titanic", which received 14 nominations, has already come out on top. Everyone felt the pressure brought by the big ship.

"It's very possible, who knows."

Wayne shrugged and responded casually: "There is another possibility, that is, the academy gave "Titanic" statuettes from the beginning, and they were all insignificant statuettes, indicating that there will be heavyweight awards later... "

This can be called the old method of operation of the academy. I will give you several consolation prizes first, and then wait for the most important prize, and adopt the mode of sharing the pork with everyone.

The next development seems to have fully fulfilled Wayne's ridicule. After "Titanic" won the statuette for best visual effects, it immediately ushered in the statuette for best sound effects editing. This is not over yet. In the end, The best sound effects, the best original song went to "My Heart Will Go On", and then the best original score in a drama category.

From the scenes captured by the cameras on the big screen, many people have discovered that James Cameron was very happy at first. Every time he won an award, the entire crew and he would fall into a carnival. But as insignificant awards came one after another, his face became increasingly ugly.

No one in the circle here was stupid, and most people looked at the truck driver with unabashed pity.

"The shortlist for the Best Makeup Design Award includes Rick Baker, David LeRoyin Anderson for "Men in Black", Tina Sean, Greg Cannon, Simon Thompson for "Titanic", Lily -Angie, "The Dark Knight." The winner is Lily-Ange, "The Dark Knight." Congratulations."

As the award presenter happily announced the results, everyone around Wayne also stood up to party for the first time tonight. With the warm applause of the audience, Lily, the makeup supervisor who usually has almost no presence, started to hug everyone on the crew like crazy.

"Thank you, boss, I didn't expect that there would be such a big harvest tonight."

As a behind-the-scenes worker who had been following Wayne from the very beginning, she stood in front of him with some choking and kept repeating her words of thanks loudly.

"Hey, girl, go ahead, the stage is waiting for you." Wayne patted Lily on the back under the watchful eyes of everyone. "This is what you deserve!"

So far tonight, this is the first Oscar that "Titanic" has lost. Most of the audience knows that it is impossible for the Academy to really ignore "The Dark Knight". No matter what, it is impossible to let "The Dark Knight" win. The Dark Knight left empty-handed.

This great comic-book superhero directly represented the Hollywood film industry the year before, taking one step ahead of "Titanic" and crushing 90% of the global theater market.

"First of all, I have to thank our leader, Wayne Greenberg. To this day, I still remember the scene when I joined this team..."

Looking at Lily delivering her acceptance speech on the stage, Naomi Watts raised her arm, secretly poked the man next to her, and asked in a low voice again: "Don't tell me, this is the so-called not leaving empty-handed. "

"Nami, we're not doing PR this year."

Seeing that the camera was recording his side, Wayne opened and closed his lips slightly, and whispered helplessly: "It's beyond my expectation to be able to gain anything."

His attitude has been very clear since the beginning of the awards season. This year's "The Dark Knight" is just a bystander and will not participate in the Oscar war. Isn’t it comfortable to watch the truck driver take down everything?

"Nicholas is going to be disappointed."

After the camera turned to other places, Lily on the stage also held the statuette and went backstage for an interview. The Australian actress continued to speak: "I heard that she used a lot of connections in the industry and spent a lot of money. I want to use the role of the Joker to break the Oscar tradition of not giving awards for unrealism and win the Best Supporting Actor award."

“Smart choice.”

Nodding slightly, Wayne looked at Nicolas Cage, who was chatting and laughing with Sofia Coppola, and sighed in a low voice.

Anyone who has watched the movie "The Dark Knight" will definitely find that compared to Christian Bale's Batman, Nicolas Cage's Joker is more like the movie's leading actor. Although the individual roles are not much different, the clown is obviously more outstanding.

It is undoubtedly a very smart approach to apply for the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor as the absolute protagonist of a successful movie, because for other competitors, Nicolas Cage's performance is destined to be much more outstanding. Wayne was sure that there must be someone else behind the scenes.

"I heard that old Coppola personally helped him contact many old guys in the industry..." Naomi Watts reminded in a gossipy tone after noticing Wayne's gaze.

"The probability is more than 30%."

After hearing this information, Wayne knew that even if Nicolas Cage "did not die", he might still be able to get this important acting statuette. As long as you are in this circle, who dares to underestimate Francis Ford Coppola's complicated network of relationships over the past few decades?

But for the Best Supporting Actor, he was still watching the excitement from the perspective of a bystander. From the beginning of the awards season, he has already told the core members of the crew that he and Warner Bros. will not conduct public relations activities for "The Dark Knight", which means who wants Xiao Jin? People have to work hard for themselves.