American fame and fortune

In the afternoon, I made an appointment with Leonardo and Nicholson to have tea together. Martin got in the car and returned home.

Halfway through, he received a call from Nicholson asking him to buy a newspaper.

Bruce stopped to buy a newspaper, and Martin found a picture of a Spanish-language newspaper, which reported a shooting in Tijuana.

Similar cases occur from time to time in Tijuana, and the detection rate is infinitely close to zero.

Martin let Bruce read it and said, "The newspaper reported it so quickly."

Bruce understood the meaning behind this: "This is also a way for the employee to prove to the employer that the task has been completed."

Martin nodded, and suddenly remembered what Lao Bu had just said, and asked: "Does this newspaper have a large circulation in Los Angeles?"

"It's not bad." Bruce understood a little bit: "There are a lot of Mexicans in Los Angeles, and this should be one of the Spanish-language newspapers with the largest circulation."

Martin thought about it and asked: "Brother Boo, if you were Megan Ellison, what would you think when you saw this news?"

Bruce said: "Hurry up and find some bodyguards to protect me 24 hours a day to prevent you from doing anything."

"You are still used to killing and messing with people." Martin simply took out his mobile phone and called Leonardo and Nicholson to ask them to arrive quickly.

Half an hour later, the three met at Nicholson's home.

Nicholson's butler had prepared black tea and snacks, and the three of them sat in the garden, basking in the warm winter sun, discussing what had just happened.

Leonardo also has a film company called Kailu Pictures.

Martin asked him: "From the perspective of a film company owner, if you were Megan Ellison, what would you think after seeing these news?"

Leonardo thought for a while and said: "If Megan Ellison has contact with those Mexicans, she will definitely guess that it was us who did it. From the perspective of investors, she will pay more and more attention to the two scripts you threw away. .”

Nicholson took over: "This morning, Annapurna Pictures announced additional investment in "Seventh Son" and "Transcendence", which can confirm this speculation."

Leonardo had questions and looked at Martin: "What's going on with these two projects? Are you really optimistic about them, so you put them in the safe?"

"On the contrary, I'm not very optimistic about it." Martin didn't know what to say in some words: "The scripts are indeed well written and very high-level, but after careful study, I always have a feeling that they may not be a genre that is widely liked by the audience. .”

Leonardo grabbed Martin's painful foot: "You're not optimistic about it and it's still locked in the safe. Is your head full of seawater?"

Nicholson habitually mocked: "How can a bastard who doesn't accept Satan have a normal mind?"

Leonardo, who is also a film company boss, couldn't help but ask: "Do you think these two projects will fail? Why?"

"Since the success of "The Lord of the Rings," Hollywood's magical epics have continued to emerge, but how many have been successful?" Martin took a sip from his tea cup and added: "Maybe the influence and inertia of Hollywood over the decades has continued. Epics There are big-budget projects appearing every year..."

Leonardo recalled carefully: "I will never touch an epic project in the future!"

Martin continued: "As for Annapurna Pictures' heavy investment in Depp in "Transcendence", my personal opinion is that how successful Depp's Captain Jack Sparrow is, he would like to star in other projects and roles. How great are the obstacles to success."

He added: "These two projects may also succeed. Before a movie is released on a large scale, who can guarantee 100% success or failure."

Leonardo said: "Although when it comes to women, you are a bastard who likes to pick up other people's wives, but in the more than five years since I have known you, you have proven your vision and judgment time and time again."

Martin automatically ignored the last sentence and gave Leonardo a middle finger: "You, an amateur athlete who lives 100 meters in 20 seconds, stop slandering others!"

Leonardo didn't bother to refute this bad guy, so he turned on his mobile phone and sent a message to an intermediary: "I'm going to organize a party for Asian actresses after the Oscars. Please invite a few more beautiful and sexy people who are married or engaged." female star."

The message came back quickly: "Your hobby is really special!"

Leonardo retorted: "Don't slander people."

"That Megan Ellison must be very happy now, and it feels so good to pluck your wool." Nicholson felt uncomfortable not doing anything, and followed the train of thought just now and said: "People have inertial thinking. Megan just did it." She has married you and made you very comfortable. If you have another promising project, will she take action?"

Leonardo put away his phone: "Dig a hole to bury people? I like it!"

Martin said: "You can't throw the bait too obviously, otherwise you won't attract fish."

Nicholson asked: "Do you have the right project in mind?"

"Not yet." Martin only thought of this after seeing the newspaper news, so he was not prepared.

Nicholson was already interested: "You are responsible for finding projects, and I am responsible for throwing bait."

Leonardo interjected: "What about me?"

"You can go for the award safely." Martin reminded: "If you lose the best actor, Jack and I will send you to the Sacred Valley and let you make a movie with Pete!"

The trio's party ends today.

Back home, Martin was still thinking about the bait. It was hard to find successful films, but what about the big ones?

Those that meet the requirements of high investment and low returns and can arouse the interest of investors are actually not easy to find.

The first thing that came to Martin's mind was Ridley Scott, and the old Ray's epic films basically meet this requirement.

But preferably not of an original type.

Ridley Scott also gave Martin a reminder that people can recommend works. After entering 2010, besides Lao Lei's works, whose works have more pitfalls?

Martin thought of two seeded players, Robert Downey Jr. and Johnny Depp.

The former is fine, but the latter is a sinkhole!

Already having Depp's "Transcendence", Martin tried hard to recall the Depp films he had watched.

There is no need to consider things like "Alice 2" and "Caribbean 5". Others...

Don't tell me, Martin really remembered one. I remember it seemed to be adapted from a well-known TV series. Depp, a weirdo, played a weirdo with a face full of oil paint. It seemed to be called "The Lone Ranger".

He picked up the phone, called Thomas, and asked: "Do you know about a TV series called "The Lone Ranger"? Go find out which company the copyright belongs to."

"I know, no need to look it up, this is a classic old drama." Thomas has seen related film and television works and has some understanding: ""The Lone Ranger" was originally an ABC radio drama with about 3,000 episodes. Later, after ABC developed its television business , was made into a TV series, and the leading actor was veteran actor Clayton Moore. I remember that in the 1950s, ABC also filmed two "The Lone Ranger" movies."

He thought carefully: "The copyright should always be in the hands of ABC. After ABC was acquired by Disney, film and television copyrights were unified into the film library of Disney Pictures. The top person in charge now is your old friend Alan Huo. kindness."

Martin couldn't help but said: "I didn't expect such a coincidence."

Thomas asked: "Do you need me to contact Disney Studios?"

"No need." Martin said without further ado: "I'll call Alan Horn personally."

Thomas thought of the "Seventh Son" and "Transcendental Hacker" that had just been thrown away, and specifically reminded: "Be sure to keep it confidential."

Martin hung up the phone and called Allen Horn directly, who also lived in Beverly Hills.

The two made an appointment to meet, and Martin arrived at Allen Horn's house on time.

Alan Horn said: "Wait a moment, I asked Cody to go to Disney in person to get the information about "The Lone Ranger"."

"There's no rush," Martin said.

Alan Horn further said: "Someone mentioned this old classic series to me before. By the way, it was Jerry Bruckheimer. He wanted to adapt it into a giant production with an investment of more than 150 million US dollars, but in "Pirates of the Caribbean" Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer had serious differences of interest regarding the distribution of profits from the series, so I temporarily suppressed his proposal."

He looked at Martin: "If you are interested in adapting it, Disney Pictures can cooperate with you."

Martin tentatively said: "I have an idea that may allow Disney to make high profits without investing any money and only license the adaptation copyright for ten years. Spending US$150 million to adapt such a Western-themed work is too risky."

Allen Horn wouldn't pay attention to what others said, but the person who said it was Martin, so he couldn't help but take it seriously.

He remembered the worst fall in his life, "Terminator 2018".

The two chatted about this topic, and after a while, Cody Horn came back with information about "The Lone Ranger."

The information is very comprehensive, because Jerry Bruckheimer once wanted to adapt it and specially compiled it, and even had a preliminary plan.

This saved Martin a lot of trouble.

More than half an hour later, Martin left with the information, called Nicholson and Leonardo, and the three met at the former's home.

"Jerry Bruckheimer has always had a good eye." Nicholson looked through the information Martin brought: "Do you think there will be problems with this project?"

Martin explained: "It's an outdated Western genre film, but it's endorsed by gold medal producer Jerry Brusheimer."

Leonardo added: "And Martin Davis, who has a particularly good vision for scripts and projects, was used as a background board."

Martin continued: "My point of view is still the same as before. The key to the problem lies with Johnny Depp. Depp is working with Megan Ellison on "Transcendence". When we contacted Disney, we also went to Contact Depp…”

Nicholson made it clear, and continued Martin's line of thinking: "Megan Ellison took two projects from you, and you took Jessica Chastain in front of her, but this is It’s too small and doesn’t fit in with our trio’s style of making big things happen, so we used this project to poach Depp!”

He knows Hollywood well: "Hollywood crews have an exit mechanism. "Transcendence" is still in preparation. According to Hollywood rules, Depp can withdraw from the crew as long as he pays a certain price before filming officially starts."

"We have made a gesture of paying liquidated damages on Depp's behalf," Martin said.

"I have dealt with Depp before and know him and the people around him." Nicholson has seen too much in this circle: "Depp is a good person, but he is also a drunkard and a big mouth. People around him They are a group of unreliable people, and it is too difficult for them to keep it secret."

Leonardo said: "Jack is right, the situation around Depp is a mess."

It was the same in Martin's memory.

Nicholson said: "The digging plan has officially begun!"