Chapter 298: Chapter 25 Preparing the Large Boat Chapter 298: Chapter 25 Preparing the Large Boat “What are you laughing at, Ed?” Don Simpson, who was conversing with Jerry Bruckheir beside Adrian, was the first to notice his smile and looked curiously in the direction he was gazing at.
“Nothing,” Adrian turned his head, his smile unabated, “I bet Michael Bay is thinking right now: just you wait, I’ll surpass you soday.”
“Surpassing Jamie won’t be easy,” Simpson shrugged as he watched, “Michael is certainly a talented director, but he’s still quite a distance from Jamie. He’s a bit too fascinated with dazzling and explosive visuals, always wanting to make the film look cooler and more impactful, thereby neglecting the developnt of the story.”
Admittedly, Simpson had hit upon Michael Bay’s Achilles’ heel, an issue that continued to hamper him for years to co.
“It’s good for young people to have drive, even with this or that flaw, as long as he realizes it, he will naturally find a way to correct it. Jerry didn’t grow under your guidance?” Adrian said, though deep down he didn’t really believe Michael Bay would make adjustnts, but who knew the future would definitely follow his mory?
“Indeed,” Simpson nodded and then sothing ca to mind as he looked at him, “Wait a minute, you’re a young man too, aren’t you, Ed? Not to ntion Jerry, Mike seems to be a couple of years older than you, right?”
“What, you and Jerry are allowed to play the old card, and I’m not?” Adrian jested.
“Hey, I didn’t say anything.” Jerry Bruckheir, who was suddenly dragged into this, quickly raised his hands in defense.
The three of them laughed together, and Adrian glanced over at a nearby location before taking his leave. After taking a few steps, he turned his head back, having thought of sothing, and said, “I believe this will definitely be a box-office hit, Don, so are you interested in collaborating again?”
Simpson looked at Adrian with a surprised expression: “What’s the good idea now, Ed?”
“Yes, it’s a story that’s exciting, explosive, and stunning. I’ve already picked out the producers and directors,” Adrian said, glancing at Bruckheir and then at Michael Bay, who was still conversing with Caron in the distance. The implication was clear, “I even have candidates for the three main actors. I believe if we continue to collaborate, this will be another box-office hit.”
“Can you tell the rough concept?” Simpson was imdiately interested.
“Now? Or shall we wait until after the premiere of ‘Bad Boys’? I need to systematically organize this concept first so that I can explain it better to you,” Adrian chuckled and walked away, “Excuse .”
Simpson shrugged his shoulders, sowhat disappointed but not minding. Adrian had said as much, so it was better to wait for his detailed concept. This young man had proven on many occasions that his words were always genuine.
“Oh, sorry, my boyfriend’s here.” Before Adrian reached the bar front, a long-haired girl who had spotted him left the man she was talking with and walked over, taking Adrian’s arm and beaming with a sweet smile.
Adrian was surprised but did not show it on his face, smiling and looking at her: “Did I interrupt you?”
“You never told you already had a boyfriend,” the man, who looked to be sowhere between his twenties and thirties and still sowhat handso, imdiately showed a disappointed and sowhat unwilling face, ignoring Adrian’s presence completely.
“Did I not?” The girl thought for a bit and then laughed, “Sorry, I might have forgotten.”
“Why did you co here, Liv? I’ve been looking for you everywhere.” By now, Adrian could clearly see what was going on and affectionately asked, leaning in to kiss her attractive cheek.
“I saw you were having a good talk and didn’t want to disturb you, so I walked around by myself,” Liv shrugged.
“Sorry, darling, I’ve neglected you. Can you give a chance to apologize?” Adrian asked with a sincere tone. Liv quickly glanced at the man, pretended to ponder, and then playfully smiled, “Okay.”
Adrian then led her away and politely smiled at the man, though he was a bit arrogant, Adrian could not afford to be. The man subsequently raised his hands and muttered sothing as he walked off in the opposite direction.
“This is your date? Not fun at all,” Adrian had barely looked away when Liv asked with dissatisfaction.
“What’s wrong? Is there sothing unpleasant about the movie premiere?” Adrian asked, puzzled.
“No, but it’s not much different from a party. I thought I’d see sothing else,” Liv pouted and continued, “I’ve been attending parties since I was born, enough is enough, can’t life offer more than just parties?”
She paused for a mont, then looked around and added, “Of course, I admit this premiere is different from parties, but… I just had a birthday party a few days ago, so…”
Liv gestured without speaking further, but the pout did not fade, adding to her charm.
“It’s a pity, I couldn’t attend on July 1st, otherwise I would have livened up the party,” Adrian said with a smile, “I hope you liked the birthday gift I sent.”
“Not bad, but now you’re wasting the chance I’m giving you, Ed,” Liv suddenly released his arm, planted her hands on her waist, and looked at him, “I won’t comnt on the dragged-out agreent, or the perfunctory dates we’ve had before, but if it continues like this, then I’ll have to say goodbye.”
A charming girl. Watching the girl’s slightly discontented blue eyes, Adrian’s eyes narrowed slightly, then he laughed, “How about this, tomorrow or the day after, I’ll take you to a very beautiful place, you’ll like it.”
“Really?” Liv blinked, showing a hint of surprise.
As Adrian was about the say sothing, surprised by her reaction, Caron’s voice suddenly ca over: “Hey, Ed, you’re here, no wonder I couldn’t find you over there.”
“Looks like you finally got away from them,” Adrian said with a smile as he shook hands with him.
“Not too bad, where did you find this newcor to direct? That kid has so great ideas about special effects,” Caron rambled on, and then noticed Liv standing by Adrian’s side, “Who is this?”
“There are always a lot of people looking for you, so I won’t bother you anymore, Ed. I’m waiting for our date,” Liv said, pulling a funny face before quickly walking away without waiting for Adrian to speak.
“Liv Tyler, the leading actress in the movie I’m working on with Tim Burton,” Adrian explained.
Caron gave a aningful ‘oh,’ as if he wanted to say sothing else, but after glancing at Adrian, he went back to his original question, “How’s it going now?”
Although the question seed out of the blue, Adrian knew what he was concerned about. The reason Caron ca to the premiere of “Bad Boys,” besides being invited by Adrian, was that “True Lies” was closing in on roughly 100 million US Dollars at the North Arican box office.
The Arab-Arican Anti-Discrimination Committee had sowhat affected the movie’s box office performance, yet it couldn’t stop the hot screening of “True Lies.” It was clear to almost everyone that after the third week, breaking 100 million in North Arica was inevitable. As for the international box office, a unified ban by Arab countries might cause so loss, but it wasn’t a problem for the film to recoup its investnt. The only question remaining was just how much profit it would make, so Caron was eager to find Adrian again.
“Pretty well,” Adrian said with a smile, but then he brought up another topic, “How has the past half year been for you, Jamie?”
“Great, what about it?” Caron didn’t understand why he was being asked this but still patiently answered.
“I an, have you done any interesting activities, like travel or sothing?” Adrian continued, gesturing with his hands.
“Of course, at the beginning of last month, Linda and I went on vacation to Hawaii. We deliberately went to a deeper diving area. The world beneath the sea is just so beautiful,” Caron reminisced.
“That’s not necessarily the case,” Adrian said with a smile. “In deeper places, it’s pitch-black, with few living creatures—nothing beautiful about it. Like the spot where the largest ship in the world at that ti sank decades ago.”
“The largest ship in the world at that ti?” Caron paused, then his eyes lit up. He had been trying to figure out why Adrian was telling him all this since their conversation began, and now how could he not catch on?
“You want to make a movie about the Titanic?” Excitent tinged his voice.
“You know, just last weekend, as simple as it was, ‘Twisters’ easily knocked ‘True Lies’ off the top of the North Arican box office, so I want to make—or rather have you make and direct—a disaster movie related to the Titanic,” Adrian said bluntly, “Of course, not just a disaster, but also including a deeply touching love story, like between a poor boy and a rich girl. What’s more important is—”
He made a lengthy pause, watching Caron hang on his every word before continuing, “I’m personally investing 200 million US Dollars for the shooting. I don’t care how you splash the cash. You can rent a submarine to observe the wreckage up close, or build a 1:1 scale huge model ship for filming, or even take three to four years to produce it. I just want to see a beautifully crafted super-production that will astonish and amaze the whole world—Don’t tell you can’t do it!”
“200 million US Dollars? Are you sure?!” Even for a maverick like Caron, that figure made him swallow hard; his eyes were fixed on Adrian, afraid he would next tell him it was all a joke.
“Yes, 200 million US Dollars, for you to spend as you wish,” Adrian spread his hands, “This is absolutely no joke, Jamie. I’ve said I want to create miracles with you, and I can definitely keep my word.”
Then, he added, “Of course, only 200 million US Dollars!”
Although Adrian rembered the final cost of this unprecedented production was $240 million, he only offered a budget of $200 million. Once Caron started burning money, he wouldn’t hesitate to splurge, not even hesitating if the budget doubled. Despite knowing the potential profits the movie could bring, it didn’t an Adrian could tolerate Caron’s unrestrained spending, especially since it was entirely funded by him personally.
So, Adrian directly offered $200 million in funding, which ant that even soone like Caron would need to think twice before burning through the cash. And should Caron brazenly ask for additional investnt later, the favor owed would naturally be much greater.
Without hesitation, Caron agreed. How many people in Hollywood had the audacity to spend $200 million on producing a single film? Missing such an opportunity would be foolish.
Honestly, Adrian had considered directing the movie himself—after all, it was “Titanic”, a film that had broken global box office records and would be revered for centuries in film history. However, after giving it much thought, he decided against it, simply because he didn’t have the ti to devote to such an extensive and energy-consuming project. Not to ntion the myriad difficulties during filming, the myriad details were daunting enough, and Adrian couldn’t match Caron’s pursuit of perfection in every detail.
He rembered reading an anecdote about Caron’s production of “Titanic”. During the filming of the dining scenes, Caron had discovered that the cutlery didn’t bear “Titanic” inscriptions and declared all previously fild footage void until he could have cutlery custom-made from a British manufacturer. This back-and-forth cost nearly $100,000, and with the previous footage scrapped, that was how the money was burned.
It wasn’t that Adrian couldn’t produce the movie; with Caron’s original as a reference, coupled with his own experience in “remakes”, he wouldn’t need to spend a year and a half in preparation and another year and a half filming. But even so, a rough estimate told him that it might still take almost two years to complete without building a 1:1 scale model.
That was far too long. It would also consu most of his own energy, and although Adrian didn’t mind gaining an additional halo of prestige, it wasn’t his main objective. Besides, he already had other plans to enhance the director’s prestige, ones that promised to be just as impactful as “Titanic”. Therefore, it was better to leave this honor and burden to Caron, which would also fully demonstrate his acun and boldness in judging people and films.
The two didn’t continue the conversation further. Adrian had made such a surprising commitnt, yet the story was still only a concept without even an outline. Although Caron was excited and invigorated by the promise, he also felt considerable pressure and naturally needed to go back and think carefully about how to prepare.
“Bad Boys” finally premiered, allowing the major film companies that were keeping a watchful eye to breathe a sigh of relief. Its number of theaters was similar to that of “Twisters”, but its opening weekend box office was only around $17 million. While it made it onto the North Arican box office charts, it was among the last few, nowhere near the montum of “True Lies” or “Twisters”. No wonder a Paramount executive privately gloated to his assistant, saying that big investnts bring big money, so in the end, they needed to be involved.
Yet, they seed to forget that while “Bad Boys” didn’t match the earlier two films in its opening week, it cost only around $20 million, which was a quarter of “Twisters” and a fifth of “True Lies”. Moreover, all three films lingering on the North Arican box office charts were produced by Bossworth Film Company, with Fox and Warner only involved in investing and distribution.
When this sentint reached Adrian’s ears, he simply laughed it off. Them having such thoughts aligned perfectly with his intentions. Although, after AC dia acquired TBS, the major film companies realized that it was less likely to completely suppress Bossworth Film Company. However, they hadn’t given up on trying to trip it up, considering that Bossworth had been too dazzling in the past three years.
Luckily, as Adrian anticipated, the early establishnt of DreamWorks drew much attention. After securing financing for a robust capacity that other new companies lacked, Katzenberg ambitiously aid to elevate DreamWorks to rival the Seven Major Film Companies and extended its reach into various fields, including movies, music, and animation.
Such a bold move was bound to capture people’s attention. So believed that DreamWorks, with Jeffrey Katzenberg, Steven Spielberg, and David Geffen, would beco a new powerhouse not to be underestimated in Hollywood. Others thought it was too early to gauge how far DreamWorks could go. Executives from major film companies started to observe the impact of DreamWorks’ establishnt on the industry, naturally diverting their focus from Bossworth Film Company.
With this mindset, there was even less to worry about. Moreover, with New Line and Miramax also under AC dia’s umbrella, any small moves by other companies were of little concern.
In any case, the success of the three films was already assured. At the sa ti, the popularity of “Bad Boys” Black actors Martin Lawrence and Will Smith was beginning to surge—regrettably, “Twisters” star was the tornado itself, so even though Kate was gaining attention, in terms of rising popularity, she couldn’t keep pace with the two “bad boys”.
Prompted by Adrian, the talent agencies quickly brought Will Smith on board, while Lawrence followed naturally. It wasn’t favoritism on Adrian’s part; Lawrence was from the Black neighborhoods and often spoke frankly to the point of controversy, while Smith was raised in a middle-class family, with a mindset closer to Arica’s mainstream society. Therefore, the forr presented more challenges, while the latter gained wider adoration. Adrian had already prepared a new, very exciting sci-fi movie for him, one whose director’s agent had been employed by the talent agency even before it was acquired by AC dia.
Of course, before that, Adrian had a date to deal with.
(To be continued, for further information, please visit qidian. More chapters are available there to support the author and for legitimate reading.)
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