Hollywood Drawing

Under Jenna's expectant gaze, Wayne smiled and nodded. "Yeah, I didn't expect such a big surprise at all. When I saw the data Jimmy gave me, I thought my agent was joking with me."

"I still find it incredible until now. I had a hunch that the film would be liked by many fans, but I didn't expect that the audience's enthusiasm would be so high."

"This is a masterpiece of a thriller! Congratulations." Jenna once again connected with him through words. "That's not what I said, it's what the famous film critic Roger Ebert said about you."

"Thank you, but this is not my fault alone." Wayne shrugged. "The fact that this film is loved by movie fans is the result of the joint efforts of the entire crew."

When talking about crew work, Jenna changed the subject. "We all know that you ran into huge trouble just after you started filming. Did that farce have a big impact on the crew's work?"

"No, everyone believes in me. They all understand me and know that I will not look at anyone with a colored eye. This incident did not affect our work progress, and in the end we even completed the shooting ahead of schedule."

After answering this question, the smile on Wayne's face disappeared. He was reminding Jenna that he didn't like this aspect of the question. The matter was over, all the benefits were gone, and he didn't want to mention it again.

Seeing the change in the face of the young director across from her, Jenna changed the subject very smartly.

"I heard that you were a top student before you graduated. Was the film "Happy Death Day" born because of your graduation film?"

"Yes, that was my first feature film." Wayne leaned his upper body back slightly and found a more comfortable position. "I remember that we encountered a lot of difficulties at the time, but the film was still shot despite all the stumblings."

Jenna looked at him and rolled her eyes, then continued: "That is undoubtedly a very good film. You took it to the Saint-Denis Film Festival, right?"

Wayne understood what she meant. She should have read her information in detail in advance, otherwise she would not have led the topic to this.

But this is not impossible to say. After all, the film was a huge success in the end.

"Yes, I hope to find a suitable distributor at the Saint-Denis Film Festival."

"Things didn't go well, right? I remember the publisher of "Happy Death Day" was 20th Century Fox." Seeing that he was willing to talk about this topic, Jenna continued to guide him.

Wayne was very moved when he thought about his memories at the film festival. During the worst days, he even wanted to give up.

"Things didn't go well. Our film was very popular at film festivals, but no distribution company wanted to buy it. They didn't even give us a chance to talk."

After saying this, he paused to calm down his emotions. "At that time, I was considering selling the film at a loss, even if it cost no money, as long as someone was willing to distribute it. To this day, I am still grateful to 20th Century Fox. Without them, "Happy Death Day" would not be in theaters. .”

"Even if you no longer cooperate with them?"

"Yes, I didn't cooperate with Fox this time, but this is just a business issue, and it does not affect my gratitude to them." Wayne's tone was firm, and his words were half true and half false. "Especially Mr. Townsend-Rossman, I have never forgotten his support for me."

Jenna shook her head, her tone laced with schadenfreude. “I think those distribution companies that turned you down won’t know what they’re missing until they see the box office of the film.

I heard that the film "Happy Death Day" finally brought you US$30 million in revenue. Is this true? "

"Of course, there's nothing that can't be said." He said with a magnanimous look on his face, and did not avoid the topic of the film's income. "I packaged up the overseas rights and subsequent filming rights of the film and sold them to 20th Century Fox. I would like to mention here that I paid the tax."

"Oh my God, one movie can bring you tens of millions of dollars in income. This is simply the American dream happening around us." Jenna raised her hand to cover her mouth, with a surprised expression on her face.

Wayne felt that the editor should choose to become an actor. In his eyes, the other person's performance was very natural, as if it was the first time he heard the news.

He has somewhat understood the routine of these reporters, which is to win your favor through questions, words and expressions, and then through guidance, let you say what they want.

After Jenna continued to ask a few questions about the first film, the conversation suddenly changed. "The box office of "Get Out" was very successful in its first week. This has exceeded the production cost ten times. Wouldn't you be proud that your film can beat Tom Cruise?"

When he came, he knew what she wanted to do as soon as he heard the other party's question.

Even if Warner Bros. has communicated with Vanity Fair, they still hope to be topical. If the interview questions are all bland, how can their magazine attract attention?

Wayne looked at her with a smile on his face while waiting for his answer. He thought for a moment and then said: "Of course, I am very honored that the film can beat "The Great Earth" to win the first-week box office. That is Tom Clark. A superstar like Russ and a veteran director like Garland Howard gave me great encouragement!"

Looking at the young director chatting across from her, Jenna was slightly stunned. She didn't expect that he didn't take the bait and tried hard to step on the superstar Tom Cruise.

She got the news early in the morning. News that was unfavorable to him appeared in many gossip tabloids. It was obvious that someone was deliberately guiding public opinion.

The person who has the ability and motivation to do this is most likely the superstar who has lost face. She has definite information that it is the superstar's agent who is involved.

She believed that the young director, who was backed by Warner Bros., must have received the news. Many tabloids that appeared early in the morning vaguely compared him to a "traitor"! "White skin, black heart"!

Some things are not a secret in the industry. Tom Cruise is a very proud man. He became famous at a young age and became a Hollywood superstar. It can be said that his journey has been smooth sailing.

Everyone around him has nothing but compliments and appreciation for him. This superstar has never suffered such a big setback. As long as he participates in a movie, it will become a box office guarantee for the producer.

1's first film, "The Kid Is Crazy", won the box office and ranked among the top ten in the box office rankings that year.

After "Top Gun" was released, it not only grossed US$170 million at the box office in a short period of time, but also defeated "Alien 2" and "Star Trek 4" and directly topped the box office list that year.

In the same year, before the excitement of "Top Gun" had passed, he starred in another film "The Color of Money", a film co-written with Martin Lao, which received good reviews at the box office and ranked No. 1 in the year with a box office of more than 52 million US dollars. Twelve.

Since "Top Gun", Tom Cruise has become a guarantee of the film's box office and a national idol. This film even directly became a North American recruitment propaganda film.

1's movie "Cocktail" grossed more than 80 million US dollars at the box office. Within two months, "Rain Man", the second movie starring Tom Cruise in the same year, grossed another 172 million US dollars, becoming the annual box office champion.

It can be said that Tom Cruise has been following success along the way. Almost no one can beat him when his film is released.

His overly smooth stardom has also created his extremely proud and arrogant character. His beliefs and personal sexual orientation have always been criticized, but his fan base is so strong, which gives him the capital to be proud of.

Jenna heard more than once in the past two days that Tom Cruise was angry about losing the starring role in such a low-budget thriller, and by the way, he was also angry at the director and producer of "Get Out". Definitely not a good feeling.

Her purpose is simple. She hopes that the young Wayne Greenberg will say some provocative remarks about Tom Cruise, so that this issue of Vanity Fair will be a gimmick.

It's just that this young director has obviously always been clear-headed and has not been dazzled by the temporary success. He is so calm that he almost doesn't want to be a young man in his early 20s.

In fact, Wayne certainly understands what she means. If the box office figures of the two films are similar, he will not be stingy with eye-catching remarks to gain attention.

But now "Earth Ambition" obviously doesn't even have the strength to fight to the death. Being pushed and crushed by his own "Get Out", he can no longer go to the thankless effort to attract the hatred of that superstar.

The only trick the other party has left now is to find some gossip tabloids and small film critics to covertly smear themselves. Even such smear comments dare not be published blatantly, and they can only use words to guide them.

It's better to leave these things to Warner Bros., after all, he is just a director.

"Do you think your film will continue to be the box office champion? After all, there are no new movies released on a large scale this week." Jenna saw that he was not willing to step on his competitors, so she began to bring the question back to the film.

"I'm very confident about the box office." Wayne adjusted his sitting posture and put his left leg on his right leg. "This film's box office potential has obviously not yet been unleashed, and it will continue to dominate the North American theater market this week."

Before the film was released, Wayne was worried about whether it would be acclimatized due to the age difference. Or because of my own production style, I gave it a larger scale than the original film, which may cause discomfort to movie fans.

But almost none of these have appeared. Up to now, the film has become a rampaging train. No one can stop it with bare hands and can only wait for it to burn out its oil.