America achieves both fame and fortune

Chapter 754 Everyone is Schizophrenic

Nightclub, VIP room on the second floor.

To the accompaniment of soothing music, four girls with different hair and skin colors, tossing their long hair, helped the four wealthy guests of the night wash their faces.

Martin closed his eyes and felt the real touch.

Nolan, standing next to her, specifically chose a Black girl, the kind whose skin was so dark it shone under the lights.

Leonardo and Nicholson leaned back in their chairs, seemingly lost in thought.

The music stopped, and so did my face washing.

Martin pulled out a wad of cash and placed it on the table: "Continue."

After glancing at the thickness of the cash, a girl turned on some music and began a new round of washing her face.

Half an hour later, the four people, looking refreshed, came downstairs and got into a minivan one after another.

Bruce was already seated in the driver's seat.

Martin said, "Let's go to the movies and see a midnight showing."

Nolan fastened his seatbelt and said, "The thought of contributing to that bastard Jon Berg's box office makes me grumpy."

Martin opened the car refrigerator and gave everyone a bottle of water: "I heard that death row inmates are given a decent meal before they go to the electric chair."

Leonardo DiCaprio cautioned, "What you said isn't politically correct; we oppose the death penalty internationally."

Nicholson nodded: "If the Harvey and Affleck brothers could really be sentenced to death, even death penalty wouldn't be as satisfying as picking up the soap."

Leonardo teased him, "Jack, are you going to go in and have them pick up the soap for you?"

Martin, that idiot, casually grabbed a fist-sized stone carving that Lily had left in the car, squeezed it hard, and the stone clattered to Nicholson's feet.

Nolan couldn't help but burst into laughter, saying, "Jack, hurry up and pick it up!"

"Tch, you think I'm afraid of you?" Nicholson picked it up, tossed it back to Martin, and then asked, "This is nice, did Lily carve it?"

Martin handed it to him: "Take it."

Nicholson didn't stand on ceremony with Martin, examined him carefully under the light, and then casually stuffed him into his pocket.

The car drove into the underground parking lot of Century City Plaza, and the five people, who were slightly disguised, went upstairs together and entered a VIP box of a movie theater.

Even after five people were seated in the private room on the second floor, there was still plenty of space.

At this moment, the lights came on, and looking down from the second floor, posters of the male protagonist fighting against giants were displayed on the walls on both sides of the theater.

Tonight, "Jack the Giant Slayer" will officially begin its North American theatrical release.

Martin and his three companions came to watch the preview.

To be precise, Nolan invited Martin to a preview screening of the film, and Martin then invited Leonardo DiCaprio and Nicholson.

Jon Berger's arrogance thoroughly angered Nolan, the great British director who, like Martin Scorsese, also wanted to see a film made with such genius fail.

The movie was about to start, and the experienced Nicholson asked the box attendant for a blanket and adjusted his chair back to make it more comfortable to sleep.

Martin asked, "You're already planning to go to sleep before the movie even starts?"

Nicholson said, "After hearing about Jon Berg's brilliant ideas, I've given up all hope for this movie. I'll just watch the beginning, then get a good night's sleep. Jennifer's coming to stay with me tonight."

Leonardo followed suit and called over the waiter in the private room: "Bring four more blankets."

Martin said, "I bought a VIP ticket at a high price; I'm here to sleep."

The waiter brought four more blankets, and all four of them draped them over their laps. When they got sleepy, they could just pull them up and go to sleep.

The lights went out, and Warner Bros.' opening sequence lit up on the big screen.

Then the poor boy Jack embarked on a journey to win over the beautiful and wealthy princess.

The film boasts stunning cinematography and exquisite special effects, but the male protagonist, Jack, is portrayed as a madman.

Just minutes ago, he was serious and deep in the dark; in a split second, he became a scatological goofball; not long after, he became a romantic Shakespearean man from medieval England; then he became righteous like the Virgin Mary; but in the blink of an eye, he became both righteous and evil.

It's as if different souls are controlling the body of the protagonist, Jack.

In just over twenty minutes, not only the male protagonist Jack, but also the other main characters, seem to have constantly changing personalities, their leaps and bounds like swinging back and forth between "Scream" and "Scary Movie".

All the main characters in the film suffer from schizophrenia.

The snoring started, Nicholson put on earplugs, covered herself with a blanket, and slept soundly, even snoring.

Leonardo then said, "Take the male lead out of the picture, edit it into a pure one-man show, like he has six personalities, and he'd be a shoo-in for the Oscar for Best Actor."

Nolan asked Martin, "How many versions did Jon Berger's final cut come together?"

Martin, through Louise's connections, knew enough about it: "It seems there are six versions."

"Then that's it." Nolan nodded slightly and said roughly, "You see, although the background color grading of the film is unified, the character personalities and editing styles are not completely the same. Based on my experience, I would say there are six different styles."

Martin exclaimed, "That's truly a genius-level final editing technique."

Leonardo DiCaprio said, "If this movie is a success, I'll twist Jack's head off and send it to Jon Berg!"

Nicholson sat bolt upright. "Who tried to twist my head?" He looked at Leonardo. "That sounded like your voice."

Leonardo pointed to the male lead on the big screen: "This Jack."

Nicholson lay back down and went back to sleep.

Martin and Leonardo were so bored that they grabbed some popcorn and cola and started eating while watching.

In comparison, director Nolan watched it most attentively.

Even bad movies like this can be useful for directors. Nolan analyzes the poorly done parts to avoid making the same mistakes.

After watching for a while, Nolan also grabbed a bucket of popcorn and started eating.

Because this film is full of basic mistakes.

Starting from the middle of the film, in order to list some scenes, not only does the male protagonist suffer from a mental breakdown, but he also becomes severely lacking in presence, and the plot becomes disjointed.

The problem is that this movie isn't a duel between two heroes like Batman and the Joker; it's purely about Farmer Jack as the absolute protagonist.

In addition, the film's content varies in terms of its level of explicitness; some scenes are suitable for adults, while others are too childish.

As an experienced director, Nolan can easily see the crux of the problem.

In order to pile up those gorgeous shots and scenes, the main storyline had to be sacrificed in some ways.

Nolan leaned back in his chair, no longer fully focused on the movie; for him, this film was not even worth summarizing its failures.

Because the mistakes they made were all too basic.

No wonder Martin always refers to Warner Bros.' new management team as the "Warner Dream Team".

Perhaps only someone high above in the sky could edit such a masterpiece?

As time went by, Martin took out his phone and started browsing Twitter.

I was originally looking for advance screening box office data for "Jack the Giant Slayer," and with the high efficiency of automated online statistics these days, it should be available by now.

Instead of finding box office data, I discovered that Twitter was full of people criticizing the movie.

"What kind of movie is this? The main character has at least three personalities. Is he schizophrenic, or am I schizophrenic?"

"It's not just the characters; the other characters are also schizophrenic, so it's definitely not the audience who's schizophrenic!"

"Wait, what's the style of this movie anyway? One minute it's dark and profound, the next it's goofy and funny, and then it suddenly becomes a Shakespearean ballad. It's totally chaotic!"

"Why did the male protagonist become a background character so quickly? Wasn't he supposed to be a giant hunter? How come his confrontation with the giants was all by sheer luck?"

"I skipped nighttime to see an advance screening, and sure enough, lying only gets you a terrible movie!"

"Guys, wouldn't it be better to save that $8 and buy a hot dog or a hot coffee? Don't come see this absolutely awful movie!"

Even a ten-year-old wouldn't watch this!

Such a brilliant production, yet moviegoers couldn't tolerate it; perhaps, to use the words of some high-level figures, the moviegoers' level of artistic appreciation was insufficient.

Martin said, "Jack, can I post you on Twitter?"

Nicholson didn't open his eyes or his mouth, but simply nodded slightly.

Martin took a picture of Nicholson sleeping soundly, then a picture of himself and Leonardo DiCaprio's legs covered with a blanket, and found a digital poster of "Jack the Giant Slayer" used by Warner Bros. for public promotion. He posted the three pictures in a tweet.

"In the movie theater, we were almost asleep because of Jack's quirky way of putting us to sleep."

Within minutes of the tweet being posted, it was retweeted by the official Twitter accounts of major entertainment media outlets.

Martin's tweet quickly garnered thousands of comments.

"I was so bored that I decided to go home and sleep."

"You guys have amazing patience, you didn't leave halfway through."

"This movie is so bad that it put Jack to sleep; there's no other movie like it."

"Go home, Martin. Isn't Elizabeth beautiful? Don't suffer here."

Martin turned off his phone, glanced at Nolan and Leonardo, and asked, "Shall we slip away?"

Nolan nodded: "Let's go. This ingenious new production model has absolutely nothing to offer."

Leonardo nudged Nicholson and said, "Let's go."

Nicholson stood up and stretched his neck: "All the refreshment from washing my face is gone."

Martin said, "Nightclub, let's begin round two."

The group left the movie theater early.

…………

Late at night, at the Warner Building.

The lights were still on in the Warner Bros. president's office and the surrounding offices of the president's assistants.

Jon Berg was restless, pacing back and forth in front of the floor-to-ceiling window.

Tonight's advance screening of "Jack the Giant Slayer" is only a little over halfway through, and there have been many negative reviews online. However, he still believes that the film, which was edited based on the opinions of many experts, will definitely have a market.

There was a knock on the office door, and McDonald came in from outside: "President, the statistics are out."

Jon Berg, like a gambler waiting for his cards to be revealed, stared wide-eyed and asked, "How much?"

"$147 million," McDonald quoted the figure.

Jon Berg took two steps back and sat on the sofa, much, much less than the worst-case scenario of $300 million he had anticipated.

(End of this chapter)