Seven Hundred and Forty-Seven - Expanding Too Fast

Hollywood draws Los Angeles 1990747 - Expanding too fast. London is also very cold in January. The main managers of various departments of the "Wonder Woman" crew have basically long been accustomed to the warm temperature of Los Angeles. Undoubtedly, in the biting cold weather , even if more than 90% of the shots have to be shot in the studio, it makes all the staff miserable.

Fortunately, after more than two months of filming, everyone, including the main actors, has all entered into the best working condition. With tacit cooperation, at least in the literary and dramatic parts, the filming progress is far ahead of the scheduled plan. .

After a scene on the streets of London ended, all the staff were busy packing up the things at hand. Everything seemed messy but in order.

“This shit weather, f**k.”

The actor Matt Damon took off the hat on his head and threw it on the dressing table next to him. Even though he was wearing a thick cotton coat and holding a cup of steaming coffee in one hand, he kept whispering. Swearing.

The makeup artists were used to it, and they ignored his curses about the weather. Several of them methodically removed makeup from his face.

"I'm noticing some not-so-good trends, Matt."

Royce Lides, an agent from CAA, squatted beside his client and looked at him with worried eyes. "When you are filming, it is best to put all your energy into your work, okay? Matt, please don't have other ideas."

"What?!"

Taking a warm towel casually, Matt Damon wiped two handfuls of it on his face. At the same time, he waved his hand and drove away the three makeup artists around him.

Shaking his head and looking around, he looked at his agent nervously. "Hey, hey, hey, man, don't talk nonsense, all my thoughts are on filming."

"Come on, Matt."

Royce Reid's eyes widened, and he glanced at the heroine who was taking off her makeup. Due to nervousness, his hoarse voice was like a saw blade grinding. "I know you very well, and I'm not blind. The way you look at Angelina Jolie is not right!

Listen, Matt. There are countless dewy couples in Hollywood, and it’s not uncommon for the heroine to sleep all over the set, but Angelina Jolie is completely different, okay? I know she's so hot that I can't bear to take my eyes away, but the most I can do is look at her, Matt, this is Wayne Greenberg's crew! "

As the filming progresses, it is not uncommon for the heroine, who plays the most roles, to fall in love with the drama, or to have feelings for the drama.

But agent Royce Lides saw clearly that all Angelina Jolie's thoughts were focused on the young man behind the director's monitor. Even if Angelina Jolie intentionally wants to have a passionate relationship with her clients, her clients should stay away.

"Damn, is it that obvious?"

Matt Damon looked at his agent for a moment, his brows gradually furrowed, and he muttered in a low voice: "Maybe it's because we spent too much time in contact, and the way I looked at her changed. F**k , all the men in the entire crew were looking at her, and I wasn’t the only one.”

The agent shook his head slightly, glanced furtively at the director who was talking to the producer in the distance, and couldn't help but remind him in a low voice: "Matt, I'm just telling you first, try not to create opportunities for yourself. Existential trouble, this is big trouble!

Think about what Harvey usually does? But now he is still risking his life to make money for this man! It doesn't sound nice, but that's the truth. You see, Harvey takes care of the crew's PR almost all day long, but does he pay much attention to Cate Blanchett? "

Nodding silently, Matt Damon whispered: "I understand, don't worry Royce, I'm not a little boy."

In fact, he is not stupid at all. He knows better than anyone in his heart that he does not look like a traditional handsome guy. He is neither handsome nor has sexy explosive muscles, and he does not think that he can make a circle with his appearance. The inner woman is tempted.

Just like what he and Angelina Jolie said when discussing the characters in the script, yes, this woman is indeed very sexy and beautiful, and people can't help but think about it, but even so, the cooperation between the two In the past two months or so, some of the things they said to each other may not be true.

Regardless of the high status of the male and female protagonists in the crew, just like most men and women in the Hollywood circle, even if they get along like friends, it is impossible to make friends with sincerity.

Don't talk about him, he is very sure that even when Angelina Jolie faces Wayne Greenberg, she is still acting most of the time. In this circle, it is naturally impossible for people to open their hearts and trust each other. Treating each other with sincerity is even more impossible.

Just as the manager reminded him, he didn't want to cause trouble at all, so even though he was very attracted to this woman, he would not really do anything to please her.

"Boss, Bruce Rosenblum has arrived in London."

The staff was still cleaning up the shooting scene, so Nina covered her mouth and hung up the phone, leaning behind Wayne to report in a low voice. "He just checked in at the hotel and wanted to take some time to chat with you."

"At this time, he is not in Los Angeles busy with awards season promotions, why did he come to London?" Turning to look at Nina, Wayne asked slightly surprised.

"I don't know." The assistant lady shook her head slightly, thought about it for a moment and said, "The tone of his voice on the phone probably wasn't directed at us. There was a high probability that he had other things. It sounded like he wanted to have a chat with you. , more like a visit between friends.”

Although he didn't quite understand why the other party came to London at this time, Wayne still waved his hand and took the lead towards his car. "Come on, let's meet our old friends."

"Are you going to wait for our "Wonder Woman"?" Nina pushed up her glasses and asked after him.

"Forget it, let's go back first."

Since this time the shooting was on the streets of London, there were relatively few shots, especially some long-range shots, which were basically done in the past two days, so Wayne rarely waited for the crew and got in the car to head towards the hotel. Drive away.

Along the way, he kept calculating the production time of "Wonder Woman". When he saw that the footage was about to be shot, the post-production work was put in place.

There are not many scenes left. Except for the war scenes arranged in the suburbs and the large-scale explosion scenes, which are more difficult for him, some other scattered scenes need to leave London and shoot in other European countries.

However, these are relatively simple. As soon as all filming plans in London are completed, most of the crew will be disbanded. When the time comes, he and Gilmore will split the crew in two, each with their own camera crew to finish filming quickly.

Finally, we returned to Los Angeles before the end of January to reshoot some scattered shots at Warner Studio, and the project will enter post-production work.

Lowering his head and thinking about Oscar's previous work plan, Wayne just walked into the hotel lobby and was immediately hugged by an old white man.

"Well, long time no see, Wayne."

"Damn, you scared me."

Wayne smiled and patted Bruce Rosenblum on the back, and the two of them walked toward the elevator, exchanging greetings as they walked.

"Hey, man, you don't look good."

Looking carefully at Wayne's face, Bruce Rosenblum smiled and shook his head, pointed at his slightly puffy eye bags, and joked: "I heard that during your filming in Italy, there were always two The beauty lives in your suite. Shit, it’s been so long since you’ve been in London and you still haven’t breathed your last?”

"Eternal God Emperor"

"F**k, Bruce, I'm tired trying to keep up with the filming schedule!"

Pouting his lips unceremoniously, Wayne took the lead and walked into the elevator. After the elevator door closed, he continued: "Bruce, you don't understand this feeling of being under tremendous pressure all the time. Do you know? Since October Now, I haven’t had a good night’s sleep, and almost every night I dream under the huge pressure of hundreds of millions of dollars.”

After hearing his words, Bruce Rosenblum put away the joke on his face, looked at him and nodded, indicating that he understood the situation.

Since the overall commercialization of Hollywood, every crew leader has been under tremendous pressure from the beginning of project preparation, and this has been the case for so many years.

This time, Wayne's situation is obviously different from other crew leaders, because he has a bigger and heavier burden.

You know, there is not just one project launched this year, but two projects, "Superman" and "Wonder Woman." Moreover, the budgets of these two projects have reached US$200 million. From this perspective, Wayne, as the person in charge of the two projects, is working under the heaviest financial pressure in the history of Hollywood.

Not to talk about how successful he was before, but one thing is for sure, if he messes up the two big projects in his hands, even with his current status, he will still be hidden by the Warner Bros. board of directors, and the rest will follow. The cooperation has become a carrot in front of the donkey.

You know, in the entire Hollywood except Warner Brothers, countless people are looking forward to his failure.

"I came here this time for other things."

After the two returned to Wayne's suite, Bruce Rosenblum did not mention the project again. Instead, he took out a cigar box and carefully trimmed one cigar, then handed it to Wayne. , while saying seemingly casually.

"You happen to be still in London, so I might as well come over and have a chat with you. We haven't seen each other for a while."

Taking the cigar handed over by the other party and gently turning it back and forth in his hand, Wayne watched his man trim the next one again, a smile slowly appearing on his lips.

With a "click", blue flames came out of the nozzle. He patiently circled the end of the cigar and lit it. After nodding with satisfaction, he put it in his mouth and took a big sip, pausing for a few seconds before spitting it out.

"Look, aren't you enjoying this now too?"

Smiling and taking the spray gun, Bruce Rosenblum still remembers that when he and Jeff invited this guy to smoke cigars a few years ago, he could see the reluctance on the other person's face every time that he couldn't bear to refuse.

"Actually, I still prefer cigarettes to cigars."

Glancing at the smiling Warner Bros. distribution executive, Wayne didn't show any embarrassment at all. He shrugged and admitted openly: "Even if I can enjoy the aroma of cigars now, I still can't help but think about it." Breathe it into your lungs.”

The two men's eyes met and they laughed at the same time.

His upper body was sunk into the soft sofa. Wayne waved his hand, looked across the table and asked: "Tell me, Bruce, what do you want to talk to me about. Hey, don't deny it, I will return to Los Angeles after a while, By then you would have plenty of time to chat and smoke cigars with me, but instead you came to London."

"Aren't you curious as to why I came to London?"

Bruce Rosenblum did not deny it, but he still crossed his legs and glanced at Nina, who was flipping through a history magazine. He knew better than anyone else that he must not underestimate this ordinary-looking woman. He wanted to know whether this woman had guessed something.

"You don't have to look at Nina." Wayne exhaled a large cloud of green smoke with the aroma of fruit wood and said directly: "She didn't guess it, but... I did think of something."

Speaking of this, he stared at Bruce Rosenblum's glasses and spoke slowly. "When you come here this time, you will most likely be promoting Little Wizard personally."

The United Kingdom, London, and Warner Bros. were connected together, and Wayne subconsciously thought of Little Wizards. Coupled with the current time, he concluded that in the next two years, Warner Bros. will use its huge media resources to fully promote the global popularity of Little Wizards.

The position of head of distribution at Warner Bros. is more than just responsible for distributing its film projects. Including its TV networks, magazines, newspapers, books, and even public relations, publicity and marketing, etc., it can be said that all matters related to promotion and marketing are all within the management scope of the distribution manager.

In recent years, apart from the DC series in his own hands, are there any other projects worthy of the distribution director of Warner Bros. personally traveling abroad from the Los Angeles headquarters? The only answer was the little wizard the other party mentioned a long time ago.

"Shit, you're not going to keep staring at the little wizard, are you?"

Hearing Wayne's affirmative answer, Bruce Rosenblum's mouth suddenly widened. He didn't care about the cigar ashes falling on the carpet and almost stood up in shock.

"I'm not that free yet." Wayne rolled his eyes and said casually.

Who knew Bruce Rosenblum muttered: "It's impossible to tell..."

Yes, if there is any individual filmmaker in Hollywood who would be interested in the film and television adaptation rights of books, the first one would be Wayne. There is no dispute about this.

Only this guy would use an empty film studio to continuously acquire adaptation rights that only large film companies would be interested in.

"You don't really think I'm a copyright monster, do you? Bruce, I've always been sober."

Seeing Bruce Rosenblum's expression as if he had seen a ghost, Wayne smiled and explained: "I know better than anyone else what kind of copyright I can operate and make money, and what kind of copyright I can't play with.

Just like the little wizard you value so much, without Warner Bros.’s global promotion channels, do you think I can bring such a project from scratch? "

Now that the conversation had come to this point, he simply spoke frankly. "For all the film and television rights I buy, my first goal is always to make money. If it cannot be operated in a short time, even if it is given to me for free, Greenberg Studio will not take it."

His words are already 70% true. Greenberg Studio is crazy about buying copyrights, and the first purpose is always to make money. To put it more clearly, it is actually to increase the weight of this deformed empty shell studio.

"Okay, this is your studio."

Shaking his head helplessly, Bruce Rosenblum leaned his upper body forward and looked at Wayne with a sense of oppression. "The reason why I stopped by to talk to you this time is to tell you that someone has expressed considerable interest in your studio."

"What?"

This time it was Wayne who looked surprised. He used the action of serving coffee to hide his eyes, lowered his head and asked, "What's going on?"

Bruce Rosenblum slowly narrowed his eyes and whispered: "Wayne, Greenberg Studio has expanded too fast, which has provoked the sensitive nerves of some shareholders of the parent company Time Warner... ..”