Chapter 292: Countdown to Sinking (1/2)

In the script of "Titanic", Jack Dawson is a down-and-out painter who won a lower-class ticket in a gambling game at the dock.

Lesley Howard has obviously been well substituted into this role. He wears a simple suit and a peaked cap, which is very common in this era, giving people a rustic feeling.

However, compared with Jack in Colin's memory, Lesley Howard has a bit of obvious confidence. Even if the clothes are cheap, it still can't hide the confidence in him. This is the difference in the understanding of the role by different actors. Whether it is Katherine Hepburn or Lesley Howard, they are not the actors of the original "Titanic" after all.

Therefore, even if they play the same role and script, they have formed completely different styles because of their different interpretations.

Not to mention, Howard Hughes, the director of this film.

This is a guy who pursues perfection more than James Cameron. After all, even Cameron can't sink a real ship for a movie.

"Good afternoon, Hepburn."

"Good afternoon, Director Howard Hughes."

From the greetings between Katharine Hepburn and Howard Hughes, Colin could tell that their relationship was still at the beginning stage.

Although Hughes had never concealed his admiration for Katharine Hepburn, Katharine Hepburn obviously still kept a distance from him.

This was a very opinionated woman. In fact, the final breakdown of her relationship with Howard Hughes was also because the other party interfered with her filming of the movie. Katharine Hepburn, who was furious, directly spent $200,000 to buy back the contract and switched to other companies.

Now, although Katharine Hepburn's emotional career has experienced twists and turns, she has not divorced her husband yet, so it is naturally impossible for her to agree to Howard Hughes' pursuit.

The measure in Katharine Hepburn's tone did not discourage Hughes too much. He himself was a person who liked challenges, whether it was the test flight of the aircraft or the filming of the movie "Titanic".

In Howard Hughes' introduction, Colin also greeted the two leading actors of the film, Leslie Howard and Katharine Hepburn.

"Mr. Leslie Howard, I was impressed by your performance in the movie "A Free Soul."

Compared with Katharine Hepburn, Colin paid more attention to Leslie Howard, not only because he was the leading actor of "Titanic", but also because of his legendary life.

If I remember correctly, Leslie Howard had become a spy during this period.

A British spy walking in Hollywood, what could be more dramatic than this?

"Thank you."

Accepting Colin's praise with a smile, Lesley Howard also echoed: "During my time in New York, the newspaper I read the most was Mr. Colin Luper's "The Daily Courier". In fact, I have become a loyal reader of "Superman" and can't wait to see new comics every day."

Lesley Howard is worthy of being a spy who can mix in Hollywood and become a big star. He is obviously very good at talking to people.

Of course, Colin also noticed that Lesley Howard's skillful words, including the rise of the "Daily Courier", can express his own views eloquently. Obviously, the other party has not done less work in this regard before.

If it were any other actor, Colin might just regard it as the other party's simple flattery of himself.

However, thinking of Lesley Howard's other identity, the look in Colin's eyes suddenly became clearer.

The other party took the initiative to talk to him, obviously valuing the relationship behind him, which is the professional quality that an intelligence worker should have.

Colin realized Leslie Howard's purpose, but he didn't say much. Even if Leslie Howard's secret spy identity was put aside, his subsequent development and influence in Hollywood were also impressive, so Colin was also happy to establish a relationship with him.

In this way, in an unspoken understanding, Leslie Howard and Colin showed a harmonious conversation atmosphere.

On the other hand, Howard Hughes, who didn't know the deeper meaning behind this conversation, just regarded Colin's initiative to communicate with Leslie Howard as an opportunity for his own creation. He seized the opportunity to communicate with Katharine Hepburn next to him.

...

"There are only 99 days left before the ship sinks!"

The next day, New Yorkers saw the number marked by Colin in huge words on the front page of the Daily Courier.

As the undisputed largest newspaper in New York today, the Daily Courier has a huge influence.

In just one day, the news that a huge ship would sink in New York Harbor spread throughout the streets of New York City.

At first, people did not believe it. After all, it was a good ship that had not encountered any accidents, so how could it sink?

Moreover, Colin confidently marked the time of the ship's sinking in the newspaper, which made readers more suspicious.

However, this doubt became a little hesitant with the appearance of Howard Hughes.

A few years ago, the process of Howard Hughes shooting "Hell's Angels" had already become a household name through newspaper exaggeration. Everyone knew that there was a guy in Hollywood who spent money like water. In fact, the new movie "Scarface" invested by the other party had just been released.

This movie, which was shot with the background of a real gangster story, also left a very deep impression on the audience.

After all, the background of "Scarface" was not a fictional plot, but a real thing that happened in Chicago. Even the protagonist of the movie, Al Capone, was only prosecuted and imprisoned for tax evasion the year before. Howard Hughes actually launched a movie related to him the following year. His boldness and fearlessness not only shocked the entire Hollywood, but also the audience.

Similarly, the movie "Scarface" is also the pioneering work of Hollywood crime films. It is set in the Prohibition era, telling the interest struggle between underground gangs, exaggerating the street violence of machine guns, and influencing a large number of similar works later.

Howard Hughes' name and the huge ship in New York Harbor made the whole report more real.

The name of Titanic was soon revealed by an actor on a ship "inadvertently".

Howard Hughes was filming a movie about Titanic. The huge ship in New York Harbor will be sunk into the sea in 99 days, just like the Titanic back then.

There is no doubt that Colin's publicity in the newspaper successfully attracted the attention of New York citizens.

As a result, the sales of the Daily Courier have further increased because of the topic of the huge ship.

Even those who don't care much about the Superman series, in order to understand the news of the sinking of the huge ship, have also bought newspapers.

During the Great Depression, people's entertainment methods were far less popular than in later generations.

The economic recession forced a lot of entertainment expenses to be cut or stopped. Under such a premise, some entertainment methods that do not require money have become the first choice of the people. Just like the flagpole challenge that Colin had known in San Francisco before, it was just an ordinary activity, but it could attract countless people to watch.

It was not because the challenge was so interesting, but purely because it was a "form of entertainment" that could be participated in without spending too much money.

There was no doubt that the sinking of the giant ship also showed signs of development in this direction.

With the appearance of the countdown in the Daily Courier, a large number of people went to New York Harbor every day to witness the giant ship.

From the deck of the giant ship and some external structures, they could perceive the luxury of the giant ship.

Even, many people swore that they had seen the flashing lights and heard the sound of music in the ship at night, and that someone was holding a dance party in the ship.

And it was precisely because of all these things that more people questioned whether Howard Hughes would really sink this valuable giant ship after the countdown in the Daily Courier?

The discussion about whether Howard Hughes would really sink the ship became a topic of concern in New York, and even surpassed the lawsuit between Colin and the radio company in terms of the heat of the discussion.

CBS even opened a special program for this purpose to seriously discuss the feasibility of the whole incident.

Of course, in the minds of most people, more or less, they did not believe that Howard Hughes would sink this luxury ship, especially when the Daily Courier released the stills of the interior of the ship, this suspicion became more obvious.

In this regard, Colin did not explain much, but just continued to count down on the front page day after day.

Of course, in addition to the report on the sinking of the ship, he did not forget the serialization of the comics.

After the mark was upgraded to [Silver], the unlocked ability also had the possibility of further upgrading, and Colin would naturally not let it go.

In fact, while reporting the news about the ship, he also serialized several new "Superman" stories to increase the sales of the newspaper.

In addition to some old-fashioned plots of justice defeating evil, Colin also designed a new story line.

With the experience of the anti-world as the background, Colin designed a guy called Supergirl to be called into the pocket universe.

The setting of this pocket universe is obviously based on the existence of the anti-world. Through the battle between Superstar and Dormammu, Colin has also noticed the abnormality of the anti-world and designed it into the latest serialized comic plot. In this story background, the pocket universe is as its name suggests, a limited universe.

Unlike the vast and boundless universe in people's impression, the world of the pocket universe has limits.

When Superman came to this universe, he found three Kryptonian criminals there. They ruled this universe and cruelly killed people in this universe, almost destroying everyone in this universe.

Superman met the remaining humans in this world in the pocket universe, learned about the behavior of the Kryptonian criminals, and also understood the purpose of Supergirl's summoning himself. In the end, Superman found these three Kryptonian criminals and fought with them, and defeated them one against three, and finally killed them with heat vision.

As for why Superman was able to kill them, Colin also explained in the comics that because Superman's world is different from the pocket universe, the ability he gained from absorbing the sun is more powerful than that of the three.

As the pocket universe stories were serialized, the content of the story also became a widely circulated Superman murder case in the future.

In past comics, Superman often defeated his opponents or killed his enemies.

But whether it is Luthor or the King of Pranksters, such villains will appear again in various ways. In the story of the pocket universe, Colin clearly expressed that Superman really killed the three Kryptonian criminals. He was executed, and Superman felt guilty for his actions.

This is a rare depiction of Superman killing an enemy.

Although, at this time, readers who have seen the plot through the serials are not surprised by this. After all, it has been explained in the previous story that the crimes of these three Kryptonian criminals do not deserve sympathy.

Through the serialization of Pocket Universe, Colin successfully unlocked the ability of [Heat Vision] to the [Silver] level.

Furthermore, in the real world, he can also emit powerful high-temperature rays from his eyes.

Originally, Colin planned to pursue the victory and upgrade all the unlocked abilities through more serials. However, the contact with the Scripps-Howard newspaper team forced him to postpone this plan.

As the Courier Daily's sales have increased, the World Journal has lost its position as New York's largest newspaper.

As news leaked out that the Scripps-Howard newspaper group was selling the World Journal, the newspaper's circulation has further decreased. Today, the newspaper's circulation is less than one-third of its peak.

The Scripps-Howard newspaper team was obviously aware of this, so they couldn't wait to contact Colin.

If you want to complete the subsequent transfer, buy World Journal.

It can be seen from this that the financial situation within the Scripps-Howard newspaper group is not optimistic.

Although, today's "Courier Daily" no longer needs the weight of "World Journal".

But as a long-established newspaper in New York, being able to incorporate it into its own newspapers is also a way to increase its heritage.

In particular, "World Journal", as the largest newspaper in New York, can well fill Colin's shortage of personnel, allowing it to develop the newspaper more aggressively, not only in New York but also in other cities. .

Old John alone cannot support the development of the San Francisco newspaper. It just so happens that he can mobilize the staff of "World Journal", which can not only maintain the business of San Francisco, but also allocate the staff of "World Journal" to avoid these people Bring him unnecessary trouble.