King of Hollywood

Standing in the vestibule of his villa and watching the four editorial assistants who left in a hurry, Adrian's mouth couldn't help showing a smile. Thinking of the shocked expressions on their faces as they left, he knew that his campaign was almost half successful.

These scripts were selected after he thought about it, carefully scrutinized, especially the four types that were mailed out earlier were different, including campus comedy, romantic love, thriller love, and Horror film. And three of these four scripts belong to the kind that have bright spots and can make money, but don't make much money.

Then, when the other party sent someone to negotiate, two more potentially valuable scripts were thrown out again - "American Pie" and "Scream". Both of these films are examples of low-budget, high-box-office movies, and there have been countless sequels. It's impossible not to see the professional quality of these people, and he also added some suggestive notes at the back.

So how will the major film companies react next?

Adrian shook his head and ignored it. Anyway, half of his purpose had been achieved. As long as these four films were filmed and made money, the other half of the purpose was almost achieved.

It's just a little bit regretful and unwilling, because one of the four scripts at the beginning, the one that was sold to the Warners assistant before, was the "Bodyguard" starring Whitney Houston that was supposed to be released two years later. If Adrian remembers correctly, the film grossed $100 million in North America alone - that's $100 million in the early '90s!

It's a pity that he didn't invest by himself, and he sold it for $35,000. He would inevitably be a little depressed. Of course, this emotion was thrown away by Adrian after a few minutes.

If you want to initially build your reputation as soon as possible, it is impossible to sell all the scripts that make a little money. It is still necessary to add a script that sells at the box office among the first few. As long as the producer uses a little bit of brains, plus the things that Adrian wrote obscurely in the back, it will definitely make Warner a lot of money.

Of course, the main thing is that there are many scripts that make money in Adrian's hands, so don't care about this one. In the past three months of writing the script, he deliberately took time to register with the screenwriters union, not because the union could provide help when necessary, but he was interested in the union that paid a fee to store and keep the script outline. two-year feature.

Most screenwriters will hand over their outlines to the union for safekeeping, and film companies will also regularly check with the union to see if there are any noteworthy scripts, or if there is a story that may be similar to the newly received script.

Adrian put all the ten script outlines that he was busy with in the past three months in it, and will continue to put in outlines or complete scripts in the days to come. In this way, even if there may be "similar" ideas, he can be invincible by virtue of the union's record of keeping.

As for what happened to those "once" screenwriters, I'm sorry, that's not within Adrian's consideration. When he was Zhang Haoxuan, he once saw a theory in a science fiction novel, which impressed him deeply and was quite touched by being marginalized and living - the theory of the herd!

This herd theory is not the one that studies the herd effect. The author assumes such a picture: one billion sheep living in a world covered with ice sheets, in order to survive, are arranged in an isosceles triangle to walk on the ice sheet together; The sheep in the front can enjoy the grass or water source first, while the sheep in the back can only eat grass roots and drink the remaining water.

There is no sheep that can live alone without the flock. On the cold ice sheet, I don’t know when I can see the next grassy place, when there is a blizzard. Only by walking together and supporting each other can we survive.

The sheep standing at the back of the line pushed forward desperately in order to get the same rights as the sheep in front—nothing more than eating fresh grass and drinking clean water. The sheep in front must first maintain their existing position to ensure that they will not be pushed to the back, and then try their best to move forward as much as possible.

Some sheep, because they stood at the back, struggled all their lives and could not appear at the front of the team. And other sheep, when they are just born, stand behind their parents for granted, and their position is much higher than other sheep.

There is no fairness in this world.

Now that he is reborn, or it can be seen that God or some other great power has adopted him as an adopted son, put him in a higher position, and gave him a pair of extremely hard horns, so why should he not Continue to squeeze forward?

Maybe in the future he will set up a foundation to help those down-and-out screenwriters, maybe he may secretly support the screenwriters' union to strike for their rights-the 2008 general strike was far-reaching, and there were several strike plans before that. Stillborn, he knew all these things when he was still Zhang Haoxuan - but it is impossible for him to give up plagiarism in exchange for the accumulation of funds and fame.

Shameless? Of course, never deny it. However, I don't care.

"I'm going out, Mrs. Galen, don't wait for me at night." Adrian tidied up a little and went out. He has an important appointment this afternoon.

"Okay, but I'll make two sandwiches and keep them in the refrigerator. You just need to put them in the microwave for a while and eat them." Mrs. Galen, who was tidying up the living room, said kindly.

"Thank you." Adrian nodded, then went out and drove to the city.

Although the profession of screenwriting is not as low as it used to be in modern times, it is not necessarily high to go up. Otherwise, why would there be a major strike in 2008? A good script, a good director, and a good actor are the three main factors for making a good movie, but when have you ever seen a screenwriter asking for dividends? Even those screenwriters who earn 500,000 yuan a year from the Screenwriters Guild have never done it.

Although the screenwriter made it easy for him to step into the door of Hollywood, he would never stop there.

"I didn't expect you to arrive earlier than me, Claude." Adrian sat down in front of Claude with a teasing expression, then nodded to the male waiter who came over: "A cup of latte."

Without waiting for Claude to speak, he continued to ask in a teasing tone, "Did you have a good time?"

Although he handed over all his wealth to Claude, and he had been copying the script for the past three months, he still took the time to look at the financial statements sent by the private accountant. Facing the ups and downs of the graph, Adrian has only one thought: Claude is addicted to playing!

"Hey, how can you say that, anyway, the funds you gave me have already turned over four times." Claude looked innocent.

"You can obviously stop when you are flipping five times, and then wait for the fluctuations to pass before starting." Adrian said bluntly, "Don't forget our agreement, and play depends on the situation."

Having said that, Adrian is still a little depressed, after all, this is a verbal agreement, and in his last words, even if Claude has finished playing, he can only accept it. Fortunately, the villa was not mortgaged in order to save the cost of turning over, Adrian twitched the corners of his mouth secretly.

"Relax, I always take the agreement to heart. You trust me so much, of course I can't let you down." Claude smiled and raised his hands.

"My accountant told me it was three months at the most."

"For me there are at least four months or more." Claude said confidently, with a little arrogance at the same time, obviously benefited a lot in these three months.

"Okay Ed, let's just say it, what's the reason for asking me out." He took a sip of his coffee.

"It's very simple, I need to acquire a film company and then direct a debut." Adrian tapped his fingers on the table.

Claude almost spit out the coffee in his mouth, he quickly put down the cup in his hand and looked at Adrian with surprise.

"Warner, Universal, Fox, and Disney each bought a script from me, and they are still competing for the ownership of two scripts, so you don't have to be so surprised." Adrian said calmly.

"I thought... I thought..." Claude made several gestures unconsciously.

"You thought I was just joking? Please, Crow, I'm very serious." Adrian raised his eyebrows, "When did I officially ask you for help while joking."

After taking a long breath, Claude shrugged: "I know, but... Ed, you've changed a lot."

"Everyone will change, I told you, from the day I got electrocuted, I'm no longer what I used to be." Adrian waved his hand when he said that, "Okay, let's not talk about that, I originally planned to It took 500,000 yuan to set up a new film company, but I didn’t have that much time and energy to start from scratch, so I planned to acquire one. It doesn’t need to be too big, the price is around 3 million yuan, and it’s enough to have a complete department and a basic network of relationships.”

Claude stirred the coffee in the cup with a spoon, watched Adrian for a long time without saying a word, and finally sighed: "It's really strange, Ed, although reason tells me this idea is crazy, but intuition tells me I and you are likely to succeed."

"When did you become a mother-in-law, Crowe?" Adrian couldn't help frowning.

"Okay okay," Claude raised his hands, "So, what do you want me to do? Open a new account and transfer the money directly to it? Or directly help you find a movie company to sell?"

"It would be best if you could help me, but I need you to come up with 4 million." Adrian said after thinking about it, "In addition to acquiring the film company, I need to buy the rights to adapt several novels and invest in myself. first film."

"If you do as you say, the investment for your first movie is only a few hundred thousand at most..." Claude was interrupted by Adrian before he finished speaking: "Okay, Crow, I I know you care about me, but trust me."

"Okay," Claude nodded, "However, if you only leave me 20 million funds, I can't guarantee that I will make 60 million for you in the end."

"Then it will be lowered to 50 million, and your remuneration cannot be counted." Adrian said immediately.

"Then that's it." Claude drank the coffee and stood up, "I'll wait and see for your miracle, this time it's the truth."