America achieves both fame and fortune

Chapter 636 Martin Leads Oscar astray

To promote her Oscar campaign, New Yorker Natalie Portman held her engagement ceremony in Los Angeles.

The engagement ceremony appeared to be very low-key, with few guests invited, but the news had already been quietly leaked out, and dozens of entertainment reporters surrounded a villa in Malibu, hoping to get the first scoop.

Martin entered the villa, where Ali Emmanuel greeted him.

"Your idea is brilliant!" He walked with Martin to the lawn in the back garden, whispering as they went, "Although the ballots won't be mailed out until the end of the month, Nat's momentum has overwhelmed all the competitors."

Martin cautioned, "This method can only be used once at a time; it won't work as well the next time."

Ali understood this as well, saying, "If Nat wins Best Actress this time, her next step will likely lean towards commercial development. Since Julia Roberts, Hollywood hasn't had a universally recognized leading lady. Perhaps Nat can compete for that title."

He made a key point: "Nate is still one of our own."

Ali and Natalie Portman are both Jewish.

Martin asked, "Are you planning to make Nat your company's top female client?"

Ali nodded: "She has that idea. If she wants to become the top star in Hollywood, business is the key. She has also been in preliminary talks for her post-Oscar projects, and it turns out that it has something to do with you."

Martin thought about it carefully, and realized that none of the works he was involved in, whether it was "The Martian" and "Argo" in which he was confirmed to star, or "Napoleon's Bride" in which he invested, seemed to have any connection with Natalie.

Ali roughly said, "Warner Bros.' major project is the adaptation of Gillian Flynn's new novel, 'Darklands.' You've read the original novel; it's a work centered around a female protagonist. 'Gone Girl' was a huge hit, so this novel is getting a lot of attention."

Martin aptly summarized the current situation: "Gillian is now a hot writer and screenwriter in Hollywood."

Ali asked, "Gone Girl has grossed over $1.8 million at the North American box office, right?"

Martin replied, "As of yesterday, it was $1.85 million."

Ali exclaimed, "This will be another blockbuster film with $2 million in North America and nearly $5 million worldwide. What's even more remarkable is that it's an R-rated film that's neither a comedy, nor a horror, nor an action film. Martin, your vision and appeal are amazing."

Martin hadn't expected Warner Bros. to want to work with Natalie, but it was unpredictable, and no one could say for sure that Darklands would fail.

Moving onto the lawn, Martin saw Natalie and Benjamin.

He went over to offer his blessings and gifts, and sat down with Thomas, who had arrived earlier.

Thomas said, "I met with Ridley Scott at Warner Bros. Studios this morning. Post-production on 'Owls and Gods' is nearing completion. He doesn't have the final cut, but it's expected to be finished before February. Ridley said he'll rest for about ten days before getting ready to work on 'The Martian'."

It's already a fantasy epic, and Ridley Scott still doesn't have final cut rights, just like with Kingdom of Heaven. Martin can already foresee the future of this film.

Without getting involved in other people's business, he asked, "Has NASA responded yet?"

Through his connections in Washington and the White House, Martin had a batch of sample copies of Andy Weir's novel sent to NASA after it was completed.

The filming of this movie wouldn't have been possible without NASA's support.

Thomas added, "Louise went to Washington to prepare for signing a cooperation agreement with NASA."

Martin said, "I'll call Louise later."

Ali then came over and sat on the other side of Martin, saying, "Ridley postponed Fox's new Alien to direct your 'The Martian.' That film is hard science fiction; will it work?"

At this point, Martin would certainly want to inspire confidence: "I'm 80% confident we'll succeed; Ridley is good at science fiction..."

"No, Ridley's forte is epics." Ali specifically reminded Martin, "You must remember this, especially when you're dealing with Ridley. Saying a few good things about him and epic films will be more effective than anything else."

Martin understood and simply stated, "Ridley's epic films are my favorites."

Considering Ridley Scott's epic films, aside from Gladiator, let's not even mention the others.

The engagement ceremony began, and Martin and his two companions remained silent, observing quietly.

The arranged photographers and videographers have been taking pictures and recording videos, which will then be delivered to the media, generating another wave of buzz at this crucial moment when Oscar votes are about to be distributed.

The engagement ceremony was successfully completed, and the hosts subsequently arranged a reception.

Natalie, heavily pregnant, sought out Martin separately to express her gratitude: "Your idea has given me a significant advantage over my competitors."

All of her efforts paid off, and she was overjoyed: "Starting with the Gotham Independent Awards, I've won fourteen Best Actress awards at the Precursor Awards."

"You're welcome, Nat." Martin smiled. "I saw Black Swan; your role was fantastic."

Natalie was anything but modest: "I prepared a lot for this role and put in a lot of effort. I practiced ballet for half a year, and I personally completed 90% of all the ballet scenes in the film."

Martin nodded casually.

This kind of publicity is normal at the Oscars. If Natalie had used a stunt double for many of the dance scenes, she would have had a hard time even getting a nomination.

If Natalie Portman wins this year's Oscar for Best Actress, she will be the first actress born in the 1980s to receive this award.

In some respects, this signifies that she is the first Hollywood actress born in the 1980s to achieve this status.

She desperately wanted the award: "Voting will start soon, Martin, do you have any other ways to get more votes?"

Martin felt that was enough: "I can't think of anything else for now."

"You're a genius, in choosing scripts, in acting, and in publicity." Natalie glanced around to make sure no one was paying attention, then lowered her voice and said, "Tonight, I'll kick Benjamin out, right here in my and Benjamin's bedroom, and I'll properly thank you, okay?"

She held her protruding belly and said, "Maybe I'm not as beautiful and sexy as Elizabeth Olsen, but you've probably never experienced anything like this before, have you?"

Although Martin often acts recklessly, he always has a moral bottom line and remains unmoved by Natalie's proposal.

Moreover, he had no grudge against Benjamin Millepied, so he immediately said, "Nat, we're friends, there's no need for this. Just focus on what's in front of you, and you'll have a great chance of winning."

Natalie sighed inwardly, with a hint of regret: "If only I had met you a few years earlier."

They are rich, good-looking, have status and fame, and are also good at publicity and marketing.

Martin was self-aware enough to think, "Would you have even looked at me a few years ago?"

If they talked alone again, the topic would definitely veer off course once more, so he casually made up an excuse and went to where Ali and Thomas were.

Ali asked, "What's wrong? Were you frightened?"

Martin shook his head, unsure of what to say.

Ali, recalling that Martin had come from Natalie's side, roughly understood and said, "Don't worry about it. Natalie can be quite daring and wild at times. Her high intelligence, high education, and indifference to fame and fortune are all carefully crafted personas."

"Understood." Martin wasn't disdainful of this, because he was the same way; Ali and Thomas knew him inside and out. He joked, "I'm still a sunny, handsome guy and an American hero, you know."

After the party, Thomas got into Martin's car.

Bruce drove to Burbank.

Thomas, seeing the huge Leonardo DiCaprio poster outside the window, remarked, "This year's Oscars PR is a bit strange."

He picked up a newspaper next to him, which featured a picture of Leonardo DiCaprio with a water gun: "The Best Actress doesn't promote her acting or her role, but instead struts around in front of the media every day with her big belly. Leo is even more interesting; she actually resorted to making herself look bad. This is the first time I've ever seen an actress openly making herself look bad in Oscar PR."

Martin said, "Harvey is gone, and now it's a time of chaos."

Thomas shook his head: "But the direction of this Oscar PR campaign is way off track."

Bruce couldn't help but laugh, saying, "Martin single-handedly ruined the entire Oscars' PR team!"

Thomas completely agreed: "That's absolutely right."

Leonardo DiCaprio used his looks to sell himself, Natalie Portman used her pregnancy to sell herself, James Franco claimed to have broken his arm to sell his disability, and Nicole Kidman sold her love of her life, Cruise...

The first Oscars in the post-Harvey Weinstein era seemed to have its publicity direction skewed by Martin Scorsese alone.

Martin felt that playing the victim or selling his belly was better than selling LGBTQ stuff.

Back in the studio, Martin called Louise, who had already started discussions with NASA about collaboration.

In Los Angeles, Bradett and Andy Weir are working together to adapt the script, which, according to the two, contains fifty pages that will cover NASA's technical and operational details.

Like the FBI and CIA, NASA has a dedicated Hollywood office to handle matters related to collaborative filming with Hollywood production crews.

They have worked with many Hollywood production teams in the past and wouldn't mind working together again.

According to Louise's feedback, NASA internally highly approves of the novel "The Martian." Several executives said they had never seen a science fiction novel that could tell such a compelling story while maintaining such high technical accuracy.

This can be considered a form of hard science fiction within the realm of soft science fiction.

Hard science fiction films have historically been relatively few that have achieved great commercial success.

Therefore, even before the project officially began preparations, Martin was already considering publicity and promotion. He asked Louise to discuss with NASA whether they could take a batch of special paper and posters into space during the next space launch. After they were recovered, they could be used to make promotional brochures or print commemorative posters, which would be a good gimmick.

Meanwhile, the studio is also raising funds for filming.

The Martian had a production budget of $100 million, marking the first time Davis Studios had ever worked on a film project with an investment of over $100 million.

Then, Christmas arrived, and after the Christmas holidays, Davis Studio was also moving.

(End of this chapter)