America achieves both fame and fortune

Chapter 661 Amazing Operation

"Guys, on this special day, let's raise a glass to Chad!" In the Angels Club's entertainment hall, Martin raised a glass of champagne and shouted, "Cheers!"

Chad, Menez, Marcus, Chen Hu, Bradt, Kane, and others raised their glasses together.

Martin wouldn't let Chad off the hook, saying, "You're the director and producer, say something!"

Marcus urged, "You're usually the most talkative, so don't be a mute now."

Chad stepped forward and said seriously, "Guys, we'll take a two-month break, then start preparing for the third installment. If the third one goes well, we'll make even more money. Money makes for a good life, and money makes for countless beautiful women!"

"Wow!" Mene exclaimed, "Now that you say that, I'm instantly motivated!"

Chen Hu exposed him: "You already have Celine Dion, have some loyalty and don't try to steal her from us."

Everyone burst into laughter.

Boss Kane, feeling a bit envious, asked Martin, "Could I have a cameo role in the next movie? I don't ask for much, just a few scenes where I die under your gun."

"No problem." Martin wouldn't refuse such a small thing: "Go find Chad and Tiger, and have them design an assassin role for you."

Chad heard this too and said, "Don't worry, you're pretty good. We'll set you up as a mini-boss, let you play to your strengths, and have a shootout with Martin."

Kane replied, "Okay! No matter where your crew is, I'll fly there to participate in the filming."

Martin urged, "Quick, quick! Write this down. It's real behind-the-scenes footage that can be used in the promotion for the third movie."

At that moment, he seemed to be channeling Nolan: "Martin and Chad's longtime friends, in order to participate in the filming of a single scene, did not hesitate to fly across the entire Atlantic or Pacific Ocean to the set, and after filming only a few minutes of footage, they flew back to Los Angeles that same day."

Menez said, "Boss, you've caught Nolan's influence."

Martin shrugged: "Nolan is a master at publicity and marketing, a true expert."

Chad seemed to be inspired by Kane, and suddenly had a burst of inspiration. He called Marcus and Chen Hu to discuss the character and action design of Kane, and even had Kane perform a quick-fire shooting scene on the spot.

Menez checked his watch several times.

Martin said, "Go ahead and do what you need to do."

Menne scratched his head sheepishly: "Celine arranged a plane to pick me up so we can go to Las Vegas for her wedding anniversary with René."

"Wait a minute." Martin was completely bewildered; how had things suddenly become so chaotic? "Celine Dion's husband, René Angélil?"

Menez nodded: "Yes."

Martin asked in surprise, "Rennie knows about you and Celine?"

“Celine took me to see René.” Mene didn’t think there was anything wrong with it: “René’s cancer has relapsed and is in its late stage. He told me to take good care of Celine and not to let her down.”

Martin patted Menez on the shoulder: "Be careful."

Mene smiled and said, "Boss, don't worry. I'm confident that all of Renee and Celine's assets were earned by Celine and are basically all under Celine's name."

Martin didn't say anything more, but he had heard about René's great deeds. Other men would settle down after hooking up with a billionaire, but he personally cultivated a billionaire before settling down.

Renée is definitely a master at signing Celine Dion. He signed her when she was 12 years old, and it is said that the two started living together when Celine was 14.

Less than 15 minutes later, someone came to inform Menez that the plane picking him up was about to arrive.

Menez picked up his bag and went to the club's large lawn.

Soon, a helicopter landed, and Celine Dion appeared at the open door, waving to Ménez.

Menez quickly boarded the plane, waved to his old friends, and left.

Chen Hu said, "There's no one who's a true winner in life."

Bradt agreed: "If I ever fail in this line of work, I'll become Menez's sidekick."

Marcus chimed in, "I'll go too, maybe I can find a rich woman."

There's no way around it, Menez was too successful, causing everyone's life goals to shift to a certain extent.

As the helicopter flew away, Martin called out, "Guys, to the fighting ring, let's get started!"

After a short two-day break, the cast and crew of "John Wick" are back in flight mode, traveling all over the world for promotional appearances.

The North American summer movie season is packed with releases, with major films hitting theaters every weekend. On the third weekend of May, Universal Pictures' "Bridesmaids" opened in North America.

This is the latest work by Paul Feig, the famous director of the "Fleabags" series. Toilet humor and cheesy comedies have always had a market in North America.

With the release of several new films, including "Bridesmaids," "Exodus: Gods and Kings" has essentially sealed the fate of the summer blockbuster. In its third week of release, the weekend box office fell below $300 million.

However, "John Wick 2" continues its steady box office performance, having surpassed $1 million in North America before the weekend.

Over the weekend, the film grossed another $3785 million, surpassing the newly released "Bridesmaids" which grossed $2624 million, and retained its position as the top-grossing film in North America.

In addition, John Wick 2 continues to make strides overseas, appearing in 15 new countries and regions this week.

The film has grossed $2.75 million worldwide.

Meanwhile, in North America and Europe, a wide variety of film-related merchandise appeared in cinemas, shopping malls, and chain stores.

Disney's distribution channels for merchandise are no worse than Warner Bros.', and they even have Disney Town as a powerful weapon.

John Wick 2 merchandise also appeared in Disney Town.

In just ten days, various merchandise items sold nearly $3000 million. While this can't compare to Batman, Inception, or Pirates of the Caribbean, it's still an impressive achievement for an R-rated film.

According to relevant statistics, merchandise featuring Jonathan, played by Martin, sold the best, followed by merchandise featuring Winston, played by Menezes. The buyers were mainly middle-aged and elderly women who were relatively rational consumers.

Menez's agent, Munir, has joined the WMA, and the various supporting role offers he has received could be stacked three feet high on his desk.

…………

Atlanta, Gray Film Production Center.

Although Kelly Gray has shifted her focus to politics, she still visits this place every week.

Today, just as her BMW arrived at the entrance of the film studio area, before she could even switch to an electric scooter, she heard a fierce argument erupting from the open-air filming area closest to the gate.

Kelly looked over there curiously and saw a middle-aged director who looked somewhat familiar arguing loudly with five or six people near the camera track, while the five or six people were also arguing with each other.

All the cast and crew members were watching the commotion, waiting for them to finish arguing before starting work.

Kelly asked, "What happened?"

Martin's old acquaintance Andrew, who has now been promoted to head of the production center, quickly came over and said, "This is the crew of Warner Bros.' 'Jack the Giant Slayer.' The crew had been filming quietly until last week when Warner Bros. suddenly sent a group of new producers and production managers to supervise the director's filming."

Kelly asked in surprise, "A batch?"

Andrew said, "It seems like there were six people. Ever since they came, the crew has been in chaos. All six of them wanted to interfere with the filming and daily operations, and they were arguing with director Bryan Singer every day. And then there were arguments among the six of them every day..."

Kelly, with a background in film and television production, frowned: "What's Warner Bros. doing? How can they make a good movie like this?"

Andrew shook his head: "I've never seen anything like it either. Warner Bros. has really opened my eyes!"

In the open-air film set, Bryan Singer was overwhelmed with frustration, his voice hoarse from arguing, and he couldn't stand the six people in front of him any longer, so he gave up on arguing with them.

These people are all representatives of the investors; they dictate how the filming should be done, and that's how they decide to film it.

Bryan Singer said, "I skipped the scene of the giant eating people."

McDonald said, "Very good, a wise decision."

Another person shouted, "We don't have to shoot from the front, but adding human bones here would create a better effect."

McDonald countered, "This is a PG or PG-13 movie, this kind of scene..."

Before he could finish speaking, a bald man interrupted, "No skulls."

Another middle-aged man with black hair questioned, "How can you prove the skeleton is human if there's no skull?"

"The pelvis and skeleton can prove it!" someone else chimed in, "You can't be that ignorant, can you?"

The six producers and production manager started arguing loudly, like online political commentators with differing opinions, none of them could convince the others, and they were just short of coming to blows.

Bryan Singer silently left the director's chair, away from this place of trouble, found a quiet spot to sit down, and didn't want to say a word.

He has been directing for nearly 20 years since he directed his first film in the early 1990s, and this is the first time he has encountered such a messed-up situation.

Bryan Singer did protest, even calling Warner Bros. president Jon Berg several times, but Berg insisted on keeping it in mind, believing it would benefit the filming process.

If filming hadn't been more than halfway through and the cost of quitting was too high, he would have quit his job.

The entire crew was waiting as they couldn't reach an agreement.

Bryan Singer vowed that even if he were unemployed and broke, he would never work with Warner Bros. again.

Which director could tolerate such a mess?

After arguing for another ten minutes, they finally reached a compromise. Bryan Singer didn't want to argue with them anymore, so he continued filming the relevant scenes according to the compromised agreement.

Originally, he was very ambitious.

Now, Bryan Singer has lost all confidence.

A big-budget production with an investment of two hundred million dollars was a nightmare!

After a brief global promotional trip, Martin returned to Los Angeles and received a call from Thomas informing him that Samsung had sent people to prepare for the filming of the GG movie with David Fincher, and they were just waiting for him, the male lead, to return.

Samsung has invested a lot of money and resources in order to compete with Apple in the smartphone market.

Of course, there are many others.

(End of this chapter)