American comics: I drew Superman during the Great Depression

As for the arrangement of Fox Film Company, it will have to wait until Colin formally accepts it later.

But right now, there is a more important thing waiting for Colin to participate.

After a 99-day countdown, the giant ship in New York Harbor is finally about to sink.

"The giant ship of Howard Hughes' latest movie Titanic will sink in New York Harbor at 13:00 this afternoon!"

On August 19, the Courier World published the news of the sinking of the giant ship in the form of a front-page special issue.

The big ship has stayed in New York Harbor for more than 100 days, and tens of thousands of American people have witnessed its existence. Although the Courier World records the time of the sinking of the giant ship in the form of a countdown every day, many people still dare not believe it when they see this news in the newspaper.

After all, due to the filming of the movie, no one can enter the interior of the giant ship during the period.

However, through the observation of the giant ship in front of the New York Harbor, a somewhat luxurious atmosphere can still be seen, not to mention that during the filming of the movie, Colin's "Courier World" sent reporters to enter the interior of the giant ship in an exclusive interview. From the photos published in the newspaper later, it also confirmed the public's guess.

The gorgeous hall, cafe and restaurant are a perfect replica of the layout of the Titanic.

And now, this giant ship seems to be repeating the mistakes of the Titanic in New York Harbor.

At eight o'clock in the morning that day, the entire New York Harbor was crowded with American citizens from all over the country. Their purpose was surprisingly consistent, just to be able to witness the sinking of the big ship with their own eyes.

...

"Are you ready, Hughes?"

On the ship not far from the giant ship, Colin looked at the giant ship in the distance, turned his head and asked Howard Hughes beside him.

"Of course."

Turning his eyes away from the camera, Howard Hughes replied in an impatient voice while holding a cigar.

"I have been looking forward to this day for a long time."

In order to be able to film the sinking of the giant ship completely, he installed a special waterproof camera inside the entire giant ship, and arranged a special ship in the distance as a shooting angle, and even did not miss the aerial shots. In the era when there were no drones, he specially dispatched his Hughes No. 1 to shoot the aerial shots of the sinking of the giant ship.

Even in Howard Hughes's original idea, he originally planned to shoot the shots of everyone sinking into the sea directly on the giant ship.

But his idea was unanimously opposed by the actors, including the heroine Katharine Hepburn, because it was too dangerous. They just came to shoot a movie, not to really experience the sinking of the Titanic.

If it were other actors, Howard Hughes might have directly used his tough stance to let the actors shoot.

However, facing Katharine Hepburn, Hughes compromised for the first time in his life.

He did not force Katharine Hepburn and the others to accompany the sinking ship to film this dangerous process, but chose to use editing techniques to shoot the water scenes in advance, as well as some terrifying clips of the sinking process of the ship. These clips will be inserted into the film through editing techniques in the later stage to simulate the scene of passengers fleeing for their lives when the ship really sank.

"So, do we really want to sink the ship to the bottom of the sea?"

On the ship, Katharine Hepburn also said in disbelief after hearing Howard Hughes' answer.

Although she had heard Howard Hughes' idea of ​​sinking the ship more than once, she did not expect that all this would be true.

Just like the thousands of people gathered in front of New York Harbor.

"I never tell lies, as I have always told you, Katharine."

In the face of Katharine Hepburn's doubts, Hughes just expressed his attitude in a more determined tone.

"..."

Facing Howard Hughes's decisive answer, Katharine Hepburn fell into silence.

"It's time..."

Looking at the silent Katharine Hepburn, Howard Hughes obviously had something to say, but Colin on the side spoke up at the right time to remind him.

Hearing Colin's reminder, Hughes had to suppress his inner thoughts, turned his head to look at the giant ship not far away, raised his finger and began to count down loudly.

"All departments are in place, everyone, listen to my instructions, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, detonate!"

Accompanied by Howard Hughes's order, the explosives at the bottom of the giant ship were detonated, and the large ship that was originally quietly docked on the sea surface far away from the port began to shake with the naked eye. With a large amount of seawater pouring back into the hole caused by the explosion, the entire giant ship began to sink into the sea bit by bit.

"It sank, it really sank!"

"OMG, this is actually true..."

"Howard Hughes is a complete lunatic. He actually sank a ship just to make a movie."

"I thought it was just a scam, but I didn't expect that the ship was really blown up and sunk..."

"How much money would it cost to just sink it like that? Doesn't the government care?"

"Why would the government care? This is Howard Hughes' personal property..."

"Even if that's the case, it's too..."

In the New York port, witnessing Howard Hughes's action of sinking the ship, even the people who had already known the news through the "Courier World" could not help but exclaim.

After all, this was a real giant ship. When it was sunk into the sea, any normal person would be unbelievable. It is said that among the crowd in the New York port at that time, there were also family members who had experienced the sinking of the Titanic. After seeing the ship sink, many of them began to cry and some even fainted.

According to later investigations, it took a total of 2 hours and 40 minutes from the time the Titanic hit the iceberg to the time it finally sank into the sea.

Although the giant ship bought and renovated by Howard Hughes was not as huge as the real Titanic, it was not a real iceberg that caused it to sink. Therefore, it took nearly an hour and a half from the time it took in water to the time it completely sank into the sea.

During this process, the people who came to witness the event near the New York Harbor also went from exclaiming in the beginning to accepting it later and even began to ask impatiently when the ship would sink completely.

Therefore, when the bow on the sea finally lifted up and tilted and was swallowed by the sea, there was even a lot of cheers in front of the New York Harbor.

It is worth mentioning that regarding the sinking process of the ship, CBS Radio also specially configured a camera as big as a cannon to broadcast the whole process on the spot. It is said that on the day when the ship sank, the beer business in New York increased by more than double, and a large number of New Yorkers squeezed into the bar to witness the sinking of the ship on TV.

…

"3, 2, 1, cut!"

On the ship, when the last trace of the outline of the giant ship in the camera screen was submerged by the sea, Howard Hughes finally breathed his last breath and announced the end of filming.

Then, the rescuers on the ship began to take action and arranged lifeboats to go to the place where the ship sank.

They did this not to rescue the victims on the ship. Howard Hughes had cleared all the actors on the ship before the ship sank.

The job of these rescuers was to salvage the cameras on the ship.

At the same time, Hughes No. 1 in the air also left quickly after completing its mission. The entire ship sank for a longer time than expected. During this process, the driver of Hughes No. 1 even left temporarily. This was the second time he came to shoot the sinking scene in the air.

"It's over."

After nearly an hour and a half of filming, even Howard Hughes, who was very excited at the beginning, couldn't help showing a tired look.

However, he was somewhat excited to personally transform a huge ship by himself.

Of course, it was not only Howard Hughes who was excited, but also Katharine Hepburn who was standing by.

Katharine knew that no matter how the box office of "Titanic" was in the end, she was destined to become an insurmountable history in Hollywood film history with this movie.

After all, since the birth of movies, no one has ever been crazy enough to sink a giant ship for the sake of making a movie.

But Howard Hughes did it, no matter what his purpose was, whether it was because of the movie or purely a personal idea.

But no matter what, when the giant ship sank, the ending was doomed.

Thinking of this, Katharine Hepburn hugged Howard Hughes beside her with some difficulty in suppressing her emotions, and the latter immediately hugged and kissed her after a slight pause.

Also on the ship, witnessing the whole process of Howard Hughes and Katharine Hepburn hugging and kissing, Colin's expression was a little subtle.

Unexpectedly, in the end, the two still came together.

Of course, Colin was not too surprised about this, after all, Hughes had shown his affection for Katharine Hepburn more than once at the dinner party.

However, from Colin's perspective, he was actually not very optimistic about their relationship.

Howard Hughes's independent character destined him to have a very unique appeal, but at the same time, it made him impossible to be a law-abiding existence. He could not abandon his pursuit for a relationship, whether for movies or for the sky.

No matter how the relationship between the two ends in the future, at least Howard Hughes is immersed in this relationship at present.

After the reluctant end and the kiss of Katharine Hepburn, Howard Hughes was somewhat reluctant to return his attention to the movie in front of him.

After the initial action of the rescuers, the fixed camera of the good family had been salvaged. Howard Hughes specifically looked at the film on it and confirmed that there was no big problem.

In the next few days, the rescuers will continue the salvage work of the camera, and Howard Hughes himself will also focus on the post-production of the movie.

"Titanic" is the movie that Howard Hughes has invested the most so far, and he naturally has great expectations.

Especially since the heroine of this movie was Katharine Hepburn, he naturally seemed to be more concerned.

Although the news of Colin's acquisition of Fox Film Corporation had not been officially announced, Howard Hughes had already learned the news from him.

Howard Hughes did not show a strong attitude towards Colin's participation in Hollywood.

As he said when they met, in fact, because of the Great Depression, Howard Hughes was not optimistic about the prospects of Hollywood in general. If Colin's script of "Titanic" had not moved him later, Hughes would not even shoot and produce this movie.

Now, although the filming of the movie "Titanic" has been completed, it does not mean that Howard Hughes will devote his energy to the development of movies again.

After experiencing the magnificent sea through the filming of the movie, Howard Hughes's originally suppressed yearning for the sky emerged again. For Hughes No. 1, he had many ideas for transformation in his heart, waiting to be implemented after the release of "Titanic".

Although the thoughts on movies have been gradually put aside as the filming of "Titanic" was finished, the cinema chain controlled by Colin and the cinema chain controlled by Howard Hughes himself also destined that the box office of "Titanic" would not be too bad.

"Now, the ship has completely sunk. If the audience wants to see the appearance of the Titanic again, they can only go to the cinema to watch it."

Of course, Howard Hughes also has great confidence in the movie he shot himself.

】

This is what he said to Colin after the ship sank.

As for the box office of "Titanic", Colin doesn't care about it. After all, no matter how good the box office of the movie is, it doesn't really have much effect on his collection of [Faith].

Therefore, compared with the box office of "Titanic", Colin and Howard Hughes discussed more about the arrangement of the cinema chain and the "Superman" animated short inserted before and after the movie.

That's right. Colin has already thought of a way to arrange the TV animation produced by Walt, which is to use it as a short film to fill the blank time in the cinema. This is also the reason why the animation was first shown in the cinema. At the same time, compared with normal films, the frequency of playing the interspersed animation is more frequent, which also meets Colin's requirements for collecting [Faith].