Although there are many movies related to King Kong, it is only the 1933 and 1976 versions that count as the orthodox works. In the forr, the heroine is an unemployed young woman because of the Great Depression, holess and with nowhere to go, she is taken in by a director wanting to shoot a landscape film, and then she encounters King Kong. In the latter, she is a survivor of a shipwreck, rescued by the director and his crew, and follows them to the island to et King Kong.
In the latest version of the script, the heroine is an actress with dreams. She works as a bit player in a theater, hoping one day to beco the main character on stage. However, due to the onslaught of the Great Depression, she loses her job and everything else, even eating beca a problem, and eventually, after picking up sothing from outside a fruit store, she is saved by a director.
This director is at his wits’ end for his new movie, planning to make a do-or-die attempt but without a suitable actress, then he discovers the heroine outside the fruit shop, not only does he treat her to a full al, but he also invites her to star in his film.
A familiar plot, right? It’s almost a replica of how Adrian and Naomi t back in the days, there may be many differences in the details, but essentially, there’s no difference, so she hesitates for a long ti before asking him after the eting ends with pursed lips: Is this the reason she’s been chosen for the heroine?
What that afternoon and night ant to Naomi, only she herself knows best, even Adrian cannot fathom it deeply as she does; like she said herself, a dash of color finally appeared in her colorless life of over a decade. Thus, it is certain that Naomi will bring an exceptional interpretation to the role, especially the first ten-plus minutes of her performance.
Of course, Adrian had his selfish reasons for arranging it this way, but what of it? Naomi knew of these selfish motives, and Adrian also knew that she knew, and her subsequent reaction said everything. Therefore, Adrian changed his plans and stood up Nicole, spending the evening alone with Naomi.
"I love you, Ed, no matter what kind of person you are," said the girl, nestled in Adrian’s arms, sitting on the grassy slope, looking down at the brilliant lights of Los Angeles city below.
Adrian didn’t answer, but only hugged her tighter and kissed her gently on the top of her head.
Even though the press conference for the live-action version of "Transforrs" was eye-catching, it did not affect the release and box office of various blockbusters, so "Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones" hit 80 million in the first week after its scheduled release, much higher than the first part, and landed firmly at the top of the North Arican box office.
However, pity that this installnt received even worse reviews than the previous one, with criticism all over the dia, resulting in a drop of more than 40% in the second week. Despite passing the 100 million mark and seeming likely to make two to three hundred million in total North Arican box office receipts without a problem, the ridicule from the dia persisted, with voices like "Lucas is old" and "The Star Wars Prequel trilogy is insincere" everywhere.
Lucas must have felt quite displeased, but who would care? As long as it attracted attention, the reporters didn’t care about the feelings of the person they were designing headlines about, so most of the characters in the movie were mocked, even Master Yoda, the fictional character, didn’t escape, and only Moussel Jackson and Natalie received slightly better treatnt. The forr didn’t have much screen ti and still carried so deanor, while the latter... enough said.
"This one’s not so good either, I may not have that kind of... temperant," Natalie said in a lazy tone, sitting curled up in a chair in the sunlit garden after flipping through all the scripts or outlines.
"But you have to know, Nata, I don’t have any more concepts in my hands," Adrian said, seeming to complain but with an unconcerned smile on his face.
Adrian would certainly not miss the premiere of the Star Wars Prequel, so naturally, Natalie would accompany him back to his mansion in Beverly Hills. Adrian never missed an opportunity to have her in Los Angeles.
"It’s fine... We’re not in a hurry, are we?" Natalie lowered her head. "And I was thinking... Maybe I could further my studies in Israel."
"I don’t think that’s a good idea, Nata," Adrian knew her little sche all too well. Traveling between the United States and Israel was much more troubleso than between Los Angeles and New York. "It’s like when I initially advised you not to tell the dia that acting was just a sideline. It’s about the image you project as an actor. The audience wants to see soone who embodies an... exemplar."
Natalie fell silent, but before she could speak, Adrian swiftly changed the subject. "Speaking of which, I had an idea that you might want to hear about."
And then he went on to speak on his own. "In the sixties, a charismatic priest arrived at a Catholic school in New York. He taught the children in a light-hearted atmosphere and quickly won many people’s hearts, but the conservative and devout old nun who used to run the school didn’t like these changes and found them hard to accept. Then, as a result of the civil rights movent, the first black boy was accepted to the school. The priest showed an unusual amount of enthusiasm for the boy, and a young, innocent nun watched all this and grew suspicious. Eventually, she told the old nun everything, which led the old nun to start an investigation and discover that the priest apparently had a past.
Despite lacking evidence, her firm belief in his guilt led her to do everything in her power to have the priest removed from the school. The priest, insisting on his innocence, declared he would do anything to protect his authority. Thus began a form of war without gunfire between the priest and the nun."
He paused here to give Natalie ti to digest this information before continuing. "In the end, the priest compromised for the sake of the child and left the school, allowing the old nun to achieve her goal. Then, in a mont alone, faced with the young nun who had inford her, she couldn’t resist breaking down in tears, for she never had concrete evidence. Hence, whether the priest was guilty of child molestation isn’t really relevant to the story. It’s ant to show people the significant impact suspicion and stubbornness can have on human relationships."
Still, Natalie didn’t speak but just turned her head towards the distant bushes, her expression subtly changing several tis. Adrian watched her, amused. Intelligent people overthink; even he couldn’t escape it, let alone Natalie, who always harbored internal contradictions.
"The role of the old nun is definitely not right for you, but the young nun shouldn’t be a problem," Adrian continued.
"Yes, it’s a rather good concept, thought-provoking from a human nature perspective. Turning it into a screenplay should... be quite good." Natalie took a deep breath, evidently deciding that he was using it as a warning because...
"But you’re forgetting one thing, Ed," she lifted her head, trying to appear serious, "I’m Jewish. Even though I’m not particularly devout... I’m still Jewish."
"Yes, that’s a pity," Adrian chuckled. "That’s why I didn’t bring it up earlier. It was just a sudden thought, and I’m glad you approve."
With that, he stood up, checked the sky with his hand shading his eyes; the sun was exceptionally intense. Although it was still June, the weather in Los Angeles was already becoming like sumr.
"Since we can’t find a good script for now, why not take a break? You’ve graduated after all. You can use this ti to adjust your mood. And... it doesn’t matter if you don’t want to move to Los Angeles, but having a permanent residence is essential, right?" Adrian smiled. "Don’t worry. I’ll have a great script for you within the year, so don’t think too much about it now, co swim with ."
He bent down, getting close to her face and playfully winked. "I’ve specially chosen a swimsuit for you."
Natalie opened her mouth as if she wanted to say sothing but ultimately just shrugged and said with an indifferent tone, "I hope it’s not the Emperor’s new clothes."
Adrian burst into laughter. He was indeed curious to see Natalie skinny-dipping, but she might reluctantly accept being topless while complete nudity would probably be off the table. No matter, he didn’t mind at all; slowly but surely was fine by him. Besides, the swimsuit prepared for her was rather nice; the tiny fabric covering just three palm-sized areas made her look incredibly sexy, and since she wasn’t insisting on a strict vegetarian diet anymore, her figure had filled out quite a bit, looking very well-proportioned.
Despite her subconscious wariness and resistance, once Natalie got into the swing of things and played around in the water, she couldn’t help but laugh at Adrian’s teasing.
Use whatever tricks you want, Nata. As Adrian kissed the drenched girl, he thought this—just a pity that it would affect the concept of "Doubt".
Although Adrian had planned everything, to be safe, he still intended to give Natalie a weighty supporting role that could earn good acclaim, preferably to be released the following year. However, despite looking around, he hadn’t found anything particularly suitable, and Natalie herself felt indifferent toward those ideas. Currently, the only suitable one was "Doubt".
The film was supposed to have a stage version first in 2005, and then be adapted into a movie. The role of the young and innocent nun was very fitting for Natalie’s current public image, but there was an insurmountable barrier—she was Jewish, from a slightly conservative Jewish family, no less.
In reality, there was nothing wrong with a Jewish person playing a Catholic character—roles are roles, and actors are actors. But this could possibly impact Adrian’s plans. So he gave up the tempting idea, as it was likely to spark so controversy, however small. He didn’t want to take the risk because he had promised her to elevate her to unparalleled heights.
No need to rush, the sa saying goes—slow and steady. Even though he had the post-production of "The Matrix", "The Lord of the Rings", and "Monster" to supervise, and there was a good chance another movie would start by the end of the year, there were still several months left, enough to find a good fit for Natalie.
As "Star Wars" was released, the competition for the sumr box office began to heat up. However, unlike the last year’s back-to-back blockbuster releases, AC dia’s film companies seed to quiet down, even the leading animation studio Pixar didn’t have any releases this year, although several popular films were scheduled for year-end releases.
However, if one thought this was the end of AC dia’s developnt, they would be grossly mistaken. As July approached, AC dia announced the acquisition of FHM very quietly from the longstanding British dia company EMAP. Yes, that’s right, the first-class n’s magazine "FHM".
"Why did you want to acquire this magazine?" Adrian asked out of curiosity in Claude’s spacious office. The acquisition was entirely led by Claude, and although Adrian knew about it, he hadn’t paid much attention until it was already finalized.
"Why are you only asking about this magazine?" Claude retorted. "You should know, I didn’t just acquire FHM from EMAP, but also several European radio and TV stations."
"I know, I know, we’re expanding in Europe," Adrian raised his hands, "But I rember emphasizing to you that the print dia’s decline is going to start soon, even though FHM has a lot of readers, it won’t escape this fate, right?"
"That’s why I’ve already had soone redesign FHM’s website and transplant so of the successful strategies from MAXIM," Claude smiled. "Co on now, Ed, stop posturing. You know that now, if you wanted, you could easily arrange...for any woman you want...to be on the cover of FHM."
Narrowing his eyes and staring at him for a while, Adrian sighed: "Alright, FHM is indeed not bad, although I would prefer to have ELLE."
"That won’t be easy, after all, it’s a magazine that started in the ’40s of the last century, and now it’s a renowned fashion brand," Claude leaned back languidly in his chair, "Besides, haven’t you said it? The twilight of print dia is fast approaching. With MAXIM, FHM, and ESPN, the print magazines under our banner are enough."
"Yes, I know," Adrian sighed.
As for MAXIM, there’s no need to ntion it—it was acquired not long after its launch, and Adrian’s attitude toward the internet matched theirs perfectly. Currently, it is extrely popular, only slightly behind top-tier magazines like FHM. Then there’s ESPN, which originally was a famous sports channel acquired by ABC in its early days, with Hearst Group holding a stake. After ABC was acquired by AC dia, ESPN was spun off similar to CNN. To date, it has beco the most renowned and most subscribed sports channel in the United States, often referenced and joked about in various TV dramas when it cos to sports.
At the mont, ESPN is preparing to expand into Europe, which is why Claude acquired so of EMAP’s radio and television stations.
However, ESPN Magazine was first published at the end of 2000. While ESPN was the most prominent na in sports broadcasting, "Sports Illustrated" was the most popular sports magazine, with its annual swimsuit issue garnering a lot of attention. Because of this, despite the idea of starting their magazine, ESPN had hesitated, lacking the experience and fearing they couldn’t compete with "Sports Illustrated," while also needing to continue developing and consolidating themselves. So, they never went through with the idea.
But when Adrian learned of this, he imdiately began to stir things up—he vaguely rembered that ESPN did have its magazine—and even gave them a sowhat...sleazy idea: Whatever "Sports Illustrated" had done, ESPN could do too and should even step up in areas "Sports Illustrated" hadn’t touched. In short, ESPN could not only invite attractive female athletes for their covers or spreads like "Sports Illustrated" but also invite strong and sexy male athletes as well, knowing that both male and female beauty could attract a large readership.
"Sotis I really want to crack open your head and see exactly what’s inside," Claude had said, stunned for a mont upon learning this; Adrian rely shrugged in response—it was all about following trends.
After discussion and research, the team at ESPN swiftly decided to go ahead with the idea. In an effort to be quick, the magazine was finally published at the end of the millennium. After more than a year of developnt, the response was surprisingly good. Although it wasn’t quite up to initial expectations and couldn’t compete with "Sports Illustrated," the tactic of including "male beauty" did earn a lot of praise, and Adrian once more proved his vision.
In any case, as long as they maintained their montum and continuously adjusted themselves, with the support of AC dia, ESPN was bound to carve out a space for itself in sports magazines. And now, with the addition of FHM, even if AC dia didn’t own famous magazines like "Ti," "Vanity Fair," or "People," they had established their territory in that realm. Moreover...
"Don’t mind it, Ed," Claude interrupted, waving his hand dismissively, "It didn’t cost us much; it was a good deal."
"So now you’re targeting the Dallas Cowboys?" Adrian humd in response.
"You’ve finally co to this topic," Claude laughed, "I thought you weren’t going to ntion it."
Adrian narrowed his eyes; the Dallas Cowboys, one of the NFL powerhouses and frequent champions of the league, were the main competition for the New York Giants, also multiple-ti champions, in a bid to see who would secure the most championships. As it was often said long ago, many tycoons and large conglorates enjoyed owning sports teams, and the sports culture in the United States was quite admirable; naturally, Claude was no exception.
He wasn’t particularly fanatical about Arican football; comparatively, he might have preferred baseball a little more. However, since AC dia had beco one of the world’s top dia conglorates, of course, they should own the hottest and most luxurious teams—even Claude couldn’t escape that line of thinking, after all, not many people could achieve what they had by the age of thirty.
Moreover, Los Angeles was interesting that way; the city hosted NBA teams like the Lakers and Clippers, MLB’s Dodgers, and Angels, NHL’s Mighty Ducks and Kings, MLS’s Los Angeles Galaxy, and Arican Chivas, the only thing missing was an NFL team. There were no top teams in the surrounding large cities, so Claude had to set his sights on the Dallas Cowboys based in Texas.
"You really are in high spirits, Crow. Texans might not take kindly to investors from California taking control of the Dallas Cowboys," Adrian frowned slightly, "And what about... my Lakers?" (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welco to vote for it at qidian with recomndations and monthly votes. Your support is my greatest motivation.)
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