America achieves both fame and fortune

Chapter 112 New Tricks and New Ways to Play (Alliance Leader +11)

The fashion party was held at a luxury estate in Beverly Hills. Bruce drove his Volkswagen behind Louise's Bentley, ready to support Martin at any time.

When the car arrived at the manor gate, Bruce saw Louise, dressed in her finest attire, walking in arm-in-arm with Martin. Bruce was practically spitting out a mouthful of dog food (a Chinese slang term for witnessing public displays of affection).

I've been being fed too much lately, and I feel nauseous.

A stylishly decorated front yard for a party, with hostess Joanna standing in front of the fountain to greet guests.

Kate Winslet had been waiting for Louise. When she saw Louise coming with Martin, she quickly went to greet her and hugged her friend, saying, "You look beautiful tonight."

Then, turning to Martin, she said, "Handsome, you've finally come to Los Angeles to develop your career... Let me take a closer look, you and Louise are a perfect match."

Martin, like a gentleman, took Kate's hand and gently kissed the back of it: "Beautiful English rose, may we dance together later?"

"No problem." Kate led the way. "I'll introduce you."

Louise nodded: "It's better for you to formally introduce yourself than for me to rush over."

The three walked to the fountain, where Kate introduced Louise and Martin to Joanna, who was also from England.

Harvey Weinstein also came over from the side and chatted with Louise for a few words.

Soon, Martin and his two companions left and headed towards the crowd.

Louise asked, "Kate, are you planning to use Harvey Weinstein's influence?"

Kate shook her head: "It's useless this year. The movie isn't his, how could he possibly put in any effort?" She wanted to win an Oscar for Best Actress: "I'll wait until later. If this doesn't work out, Joanna can help me out a bit."

Louise sincerely suggested, "Find a psychopath or an ugly character."

Kate couldn't help but laugh, looking at Martin: "I remember you said that last time."

This wasn't a joke back then; Martin was self-aware: "I don't even know which way the college gates face."

Kate came over and took Louise's arm: "May I borrow your female companion for a few words?"

Martin automatically slowed down.

Kate whispered, "If Harvey Weinstein wants to talk to you privately, make sure Martin is with you."

Louise understood what she meant: "I will not cooperate with him, nor am I interested in cooperating with him."

"If possible, I wouldn't want to either," Kate said, echoing her previous statement. "It just feels like something's missing if I don't win an Oscar."

Louise could only say, "I wish you all the best in achieving your dreams."

Kate gestured unconsciously to indicate the name of the hand: "Because I got high box office returns, I was discriminated against by a group of old men who have no commercial achievements. Where can I go to seek justice?"

"Let's not talk about these troublesome things." Louise lowered her voice as well. "I need your help later."

She and Kate whispered to each other for a while before stopping.

Kate agreed: "Fine, it's none of your business. It's mainly because Martin treated me well in Atlanta."

Louise's expression changed instantly, her wantonness even overshadowing her formal evening gown: "What? Sam can't satisfy you? Kate, if you want to join in, I don't mind, and Martin certainly won't mind either."

Kate threw her arm away: "I'm going to find Wes Craven."

Martin followed from behind and asked, "Can it be done?"

Louise said, "Do you think there's something wrong with Kate's acting?"

Martin vaguely saw the tall Wes Craven and pulled Louise up: "Let's go the other way."

Louise asked, "Are you sure it will work?"

"Not sure, but you said Wes Craven likes group parties, so I'll give it a try." Martin repeated his usual tactic: "Give it a shot, or we'll quit if it doesn't work out."

He said in a low voice, "You've tied up a lot of money here. If we don't go into any new ventures in the short term, I'll have to think of something. Do you really expect me to support you? What if you drain me dry and then dump me?"

The two walked around in circles until Kate struck up a conversation with Wes Craven, then they strolled off at a leisurely pace, greeting people along the way as if they were just ordinary people socializing.

Besides Kate, Wes Craven's inner circle also includes two other people: David Arquette and Courteney Cox, the actors from the "Scream" series.

The latter is one of the female leads in "Friends" and is very famous.

These people are discussing horror movies.

Martin and Louise approached, and Louise greeted Kate, "So you're here."

Kate smiled and said, "I ran into Wes, and David and Courteney happened to be there too, so we chatted about horror movies."

Craven glanced at Louise briefly: "You're Mel's daughter."

Louise said, "Yes, my father has mentioned you several times. He's a big fan of the Nightmare on Elm Street series."

Next, she introduced Martin.

A male companion brought to a formal occasion will be taken seriously by others, even if they don't know him.

Martin himself would not be able to participate in such circles at all; he could only rely on Louise's influence.

It's not wrong to say she was kept by a sugar daddy.

After a few brief pleasantries, Kate's gaze swept over Martin and Louise's faces, and the topic immediately shifted back to horror movies: "Back then, the first Scream summarized a series of clichéd rules of horror movies, but in the end, it still followed the same old path."

Craven agreed: "American horror films have reached a point where it's hard to innovate. The Scream series is just old wine in new bottles, except the methods of killing are more unexpected, the killer's identity is more unusual, and the motives for killing are more outrageous..."

Courteney chimed in, "Some Eastern horror elements are quite good; DreamWorks adapted a Japanese horror film."

Craven, however, said, "The response has been lukewarm; it's a matter of cultural differences and varying market acceptance."

Louise, speaking from an investor's perspective, said, "There is still an audience for traditional splatter films, and several films of this type have become big hits in the past two years."

Martin also chimed in: "Final Destination had a good concept, but the sequels became formulaic."

Louise said, "It's difficult to create a new horror movie formula; getting past the investors is the biggest hurdle."

Craven completely agreed: "No one is willing to invest, so even the best ideas are just ideas. Production companies are conservative and only want to continue with successful models, while innovation means huge unknown risks."

Martin said, "So, Freddie and Jason made one movie after another."

Seeing Martin and Louise join the conversation, Kate became less talkative.

Louise added, "Last year we also made a Freddie Mercury vs. Jason movie. I actually think it's quite interesting to put monsters from different movies together."

Craven, the film's writer and producer, said, "It was a reasonable innovation within a conservative framework."

Martin continued, "What if we put even more terrifying monsters into one movie? Like a giant python, a unicorn, a tooth fairy, a serial killer, a giant bat, a ghost, a zombie, a witch, a werewolf, and so on. Find a suitable story and idea, cram them all into one movie, and have a massive carnage. Wouldn't horror movie fans be thrilled?"

Craven thought to himself, "It's a bit of a mess, I can't picture it right now."

"This is just my personal opinion," Martin said, looking at Louise. "How about I make the costume party next week a horror monster theme? Dark nights with all sorts of scary monsters roaming around, just thinking about it is exciting."

Louise said, "You decide."

Kate chimed in, "That sounds interesting, can I participate?"

Martin said, "Of course, it would be my pleasure." He then took the opportunity to extend an invitation: "David, Wes, Courteney, you are welcome to come as well."

Louise laughed and said, "He always likes to brag about being the king of parties and loves to come up with all sorts of fancy new tricks. You be the judge."

David and Courtney asked about the time, only saying they would attend if they were free.

Clay, who loves parties, hasn't been attending as many in the past two years, mainly due to a lack of fresh and exciting experiences. Hearing Martin's words, he became interested and said seriously, "You've brought out a bunch of terrifying monsters; it'll be perfect for me to see how they look together."

Martin, suddenly becoming more sophisticated, said, "I've also been involved in the production of horror films, so we can have a special seminar on the theme of horror films."

Craven wanted to maintain his composure in public: "This topic is very worthy of study."

Louise took out her and Martin's business cards, exchanged them with Craven, arranged a time, and said to everyone, "I will send out the formal invitations next Monday."

The group chatted happily for a while before parting ways.

After a while, Louise used the excuse of having something to do at home to say goodbye to Joanna.

Martin and she arrived at the parking lot, but instead of getting into the Bentley, Martin called Bruce.

When the Volkswagen arrived, Martin asked, "I'm planning to rent the villa in Malibu where we filmed 'Entourage' last time. I'll pay for it myself, but I don't have any professional help here. Could you give me another hand?"

Louise reminds me: "Your debt to me is growing."

Martin was blunt: "Pay with your body."

Louise opened the Volkswagen door, pushed Martin into the car, and said to the driver, "Old Brooks, throw this piece of junk into the Malibu Sea, and I'll pay you later."

Bruce turned around and smiled: "You can trust civilized people to do things."

Martin got into the car, pulled out a small notebook, and handed it to Louise: "See if this can pay off the debt?"

Louise opened it, glanced at it, and smiled with satisfaction: "Old Brooks, spare his life for now."

The Volkswagen doors closed, and it sped away.

Louise got into the car and called her assistant: "Nikki, go and rent a villa in Malibu as soon as possible."

Bruce drove out of Beverly Hills and headed northeast along the highway, asking, "This investment will be very high. Are you sure you can make it back?"

"Investing now is for higher returns later." Martin took out his phone and called Jenna Jameson.

According to Louise, Wes Craven preferred group parties to purely horror costume parties.

Even if Hollywood modeling agencies are willing to take her on, the fees are very high.

Martin had called Jenna Jameson that afternoon, and now that the party was confirmed, he naturally needed to find a professional: "Sorry Jenna, for keeping you waiting so late. Old Brooks and I are on our way to the San Fernando Valley. There's a lot of traffic, so it should take about an hour to get there."

(End of this chapter)