Reborn Action Star: Starting in Hollywood

In the study of Douglasston Manor, Lin Yuan leaned comfortably back in his chair, holding a cup of milk coffee with lots of sugar in his hand.

There are also various small desserts on the table, so you can indulge in sweets without worrying about gaining weight. This is truly a blissful thing.

He hadn't sat in this window seat for a long time. Coming back from the Gobi Desert in Northwest China, he felt a bit like he was in another world.

"Boom boom boom!"

There was a knock at the door.

The way she knocked on the door sounded exactly like GAKKI-chan; Lin Yuan knew it all too well—two light knocks followed by one heavy one.

However, under normal circumstances, she would not knock before entering.

Lin Yuan had almost nothing to hide from GAKKI-chan.

Even if you're fixing a water pipe or watching a short video, there's no need to hide it.

The only reason GAKKI knocks on the door is because there are guests.

"Come in!" Lin Yuan said.

Then GAKKI walked in with director Miller and director Nolan.

Lin Yuan was quite surprised to see the two directors come together.

His schedule was empty this morning; he had planned to steal a moment to rest for half a day.

Unexpectedly, the burdens of life would still weigh heavily on his shoulders at all times.

"Good morning, directors," Lin Yuan said, standing up to greet them.

"Long time no see!" Director Nolan said.

"It's nice to see you again," said director Miller.

Lin Yuan invited the two to sit down, while GAKKI-chan instructed the butler to prepare coffee.

After everyone was seated, Lin Yuan smiled and asked Director Nolan, "What brings you here today? Aren't you busy filming 'Inception'?"

Compared to his previous life, Nolan became famous earlier in this life and received a wealth of resources from Lin Yuan, which enabled the first two films of the Batman trilogy to be completed by 2005.

Director Nolan is now the second largest box office printer after Lin Yuan Films, which is Lin Yuan himself.

His partnership with Eastwood, a combination of old and Chinese, together supported most of Lin Yuan's income outside of film production.

He is currently filming "Inception," a film that has achieved both critical and commercial success.

The film, titled "Previous Life," was filmed in 2009 and released in 2010. It cost $1.6 million to make and grossed $8.9 million, making it a very successful film.

Lin Yuan naturally wouldn't wait that long. If Interstellar required high-level special effects technology and the filming conditions weren't yet in place, then the filming conditions for Inception were already met.

So, with Lin Yuan's investment of $2.5 million, Inception was officially launched and filming began. At this point, director Nolan's departure from the crew came as a surprise to Lin Yuan.

However, seeing that he came with director Miller, Lin Yuan roughly guessed the reason.

The morning sunlight streamed obliquely into the office through the floor-to-ceiling windows, casting long shadows of the three people.

Lin Yuan sat on the large leather sofa, his fingertips lightly tapping the armrest, making a soft "tap-tap" sound.

The pace was neither too fast nor too slow, yet it made the two directors on the other side unconsciously tense up.

Nolan and Miller exchanged a glance.

Director Miller unconsciously rubbed his knuckles against his knees, his signature cowboy boots still covered in sand from the set.

Director Nolan maintained the posture of a British gentleman, except that his tie was tied a little tighter than usual.

“Lin Yuan,” Director Nolan finally spoke, his voice eight octaves lower than usual, “about the filming team of *Inception*.”

His words paused subtly here, his gaze sweeping over Lin Yuan's expression. Lin Yuan maintained that faint smile, but his eyes were unfathomable.

"I want to use the same team that directed Mad Max: Fury Road," Nolan said, his Adam's apple bobbing noticeably.

The office suddenly became eerily quiet.

The buzzing sound from the air conditioner vents became unusually clear.

Director Miller leaned forward at the opportune moment, his gruff voice breaking the silence: "It was my suggestion."

He gestured with his finger in the air: "You know, those kids followed us through the Taklamakan Desert for months, crawling and struggling. Although they weren't very capable, but..."

Director Miller didn't continue, as he himself felt he couldn't say anything more.

Lin Yuan's gaze slowly shifted between the two.

He noticed that Nolan was drawing irregular circles on his knee with his right index finger, a rare sign of anxiety for the director, who is known for his composure.

Time passes minute by minute.

Lin Yuan finally moved and picked up the milk coffee on the coffee table, taking a sip.

“Christopher…” Lin Yuan suddenly addressed Nolan by his name, his voice so soft it was almost a sigh: “Do you think I wouldn’t notice?”

Director Nolan's back straightened involuntarily, and his expensive custom-made suit created a few subtle wrinkles at the shoulder line.

Director Miller's breathing became heavy, and his rough fingers unconsciously rubbed the holes in his jeans.

“I…” Director Nolan’s Adam’s apple bobbed, and he said in a dry voice, “If you feel it’s inappropriate, then forget it. Just pretend I didn’t mention it.”

Lin Yuan sighed softly, his voice sounding particularly heavy in the quiet office: "You have disappointed me greatly."

"I'm sorry!" the two directors apologized in unison, their voices clearly showing their panic.

Lin Yuan shook his head, his gaze slowly shifting between the two: "Do you really understand what I mean? What are you apologizing for?"

“I shouldn’t have abused my power; it was my own selfish desires that got the better of me,” Director Nolan responded immediately, his British accent more pronounced than usual.

“No, it was because I was too greedy, coveting things I didn’t deserve,” Director Miller said, beads of sweat clinging to his thick eyebrows.

Lin Yuan shook his head again: "No! You didn't understand what I meant at all."

"What is that?" Director Miller asked tentatively.

"Please be frank," Director Nolan's voice regained some composure.

Lin Yuan looked at Director Nolan and said, "When you joined Lin Yuan Pictures, the entire company's framework had already been established, and the team and various production departments were all in place."

You are not content to be just a director and hope to become a senior manager in the company, but you are faced with an established organizational framework and do not know where to start to expand your influence.

Therefore, even though you knew Miller's team was incompetent, you still wanted to use the opportunity of filming "Inception" to recruit them and eventually bring them into the company's system.

Director Nolan's intentions were exposed by Lin Yuan with just a few words, and he lowered his head in shame.

Lin Yuan then turned to director Miller: "You have a pretty good team, and you've gotten used to working alone all these years, so you haven't thought there was anything wrong with it. But after working with me on 'Mad Max: Fury Road,' you've seen the huge gap between you and the experienced team at Lin Yuan Film Studio."

"Whether it's benefits or professional skills, you're hoping to take advantage of the opportunity presented by the filming of 'Inception' to see if you can integrate the entire team into Lin Yuan Pictures."

Director Miller was also told what he was thinking. Even though Lin Yuan was only his grandson's age, he was still so ashamed that he couldn't lift his head.

Actually, the whole thing is not complicated at all. Director Nolan wanted to take advantage of this filming opportunity to bring in an external team and expand his influence at Lin Yuan Film Studio.

Director Miller, on the other hand, wanted to take the opportunity to "pass the civil service exam and get a job."

The two hit it off immediately and decided to take a roundabout approach to achieve their goal through the movie "Inception".

From a human perspective, the entire plan is reasonable, but it has a fatal flaw:

That means director Miller's team was not capable enough.

It's not that director Miller's team is bad; in fact, in the hierarchy of Hollywood film production teams, they would be considered somewhere between second and first tier, scoring around 70 points.

The problem is that Lin Yuan Film Industry, as a top-tier film company in the industry, has attracted almost all of the most elite talents in the industry and has trained several of the best film production teams.

Each of these film production teams is at least 90 points in quality.

Director Nolan's decision to leave out a 90-point team and choose Director Miller's 70-point team is somewhat like prioritizing personal interests over public duty.

The fact that the team led by director Namneler, who scored 70 points, joined Lin Yuan Film Industry is even more inconsistent with the company's personnel system requirements.

Lin Yuan will not blindly accept this team just because he has just had a pleasant collaboration with director Miller's team.

In fact, he had a very clear understanding of the team's capabilities:
In terms of overall ability, they are indeed at most 70 points, which is far weaker than the current team level of Linyuan Pictures.

However, the reason he chose to use this team when filming "Mad Max: Fury Road" was not just because of director Miller's influence, but because of their experience in filming the first three "Mad Max" movies.

When it comes to filming post-apocalyptic themes, this team can achieve a 90-point level.

As for the shortcomings in action scenes, those were addressed by the action team led by Meng Tao.

However, when it comes to the filming of "Inception," director Miller's 70-point filming team would absolutely not have been able to complete the filming to the expected standard.

There's even a possibility that insufficient ability could ultimately lead to a significant downgrade of this classic film.

This is what Lin Yuan cares about most, and it's also the reason why he's going to give the two directors a warning today.

Seeing the two directors' fearful expressions, Lin Yuan knew that a gentle rebuke to make them realize their mistake would be enough.

After all, no terrible outcome has occurred yet; the key now is how to handle the problem.

"Nolan, what disappoints me is not your ambition, but the way you handle problems," Lin Yuan said after a moment's thought.

"What do you mean?" Director Nolan asked cautiously.

"Do you think I can't tolerate your ambition? You want more say and management power, just tell me honestly, and I really won't give it to you?" Lin Yuan questioned.

"I'm worried that my expectations are too high and you'll reject me," director Nolan said with shame.

“You see right, of course I won’t give it to you directly,” Lin Yuan replied.

Director Nolan: "..."

But Lin Yuan changed the subject and continued, "It's just that I can't give it to you directly in the way you want, otherwise it would be unfair to everyone."

Director Nolan nodded: "That makes sense."

Linyuan Film Studio was built brick by brick by everyone.

Lin Yuan not only needs to be responsible to newcomers like director Nolan, but also needs to consider the feelings of his old comrades.

Any organization of even moderate size will have to deal with this conflict of interest between veterans and newcomers.

The elderly are the foundation of an organization and determine the stability of the entire organization.

Newcomers are a reflection of an organization's pioneering spirit. If they are not planning to rest on their laurels without any ambition, then they must be given sufficient opportunities to benefit.

This is the situation that Lin Yuan Film Industry must face as it develops to its current scale.

In fact, Lin Yuan had long planned to adjust the company's business structure.

Let's just make it clear today, taking advantage of the "Inception" thing.

So Lin Yuan spoke up, saying, "I don't agree with using only director Miller's team to film Inception."

Upon hearing this conclusion, both Nolan and Miller involuntarily lowered their heads.

But Lin Yuan's next words immediately made them raise their heads in surprise:

“But I approve the establishment of an independent studio for you. You can use director Miller’s team as the core, and I will inject the necessary personnel into your studio to ensure that it reaches the level required for film production.”

This was a delightful surprise for director Nolan.

Within the established ecosystem of Lin Yuan Film Industry, it's not appropriate for Lin Yuan to give him special treatment.

However, by setting up a new studio for him and injecting sufficient resources, we can ensure that Nora has greater authority without disrupting the existing system.

This solution greatly satisfied director Nolan.

Director Nolan was unaware that Lin Yuan's tactic was actually used by many large companies in his previous life, especially internet companies and cultural companies that needed to stimulate employee creativity.

As long as the head office can firmly grasp the most core resources and processes, there is no need to worry about these outsourced studios becoming too large to manage.

Lin Yuan had seen too many cases like this, so he wasn't worried.

"Don't get too excited yet, I also have my requirements!" Lin Yuan said.

"You say so, and I promise!"

"The studio's first film is Inception. I'm increasing your investment to $3.5 million and pushing the visual effects to the limit, but I require you to achieve $11 billion at the box office. Can you do it?"

In terms of story and core ideas, the original Inception was undoubtedly a masterpiece.

In terms of the film's special effects, they can only be described as decent, achieving the basic effects, but they are not top-notch.

After all, when Nolan was filming "Inception" in his previous life, he didn't have the resources to leverage so much funding.

Faced with Lin Yuan's new request, Director Nora gritted her teeth and agreed:

"Don't worry, I promise I'll do it."

Lin Yuan smiled and extended his hand to shake hands with the two directors one by one.

He knew that Lin Yuan Film Industry's reform journey had finally taken its first step. (End of Chapter)