America: Starting with the acquisition of MGM...

Chapter 313, Section 311: The Assembled Warriors

bang bang bang...

clap clap...

"Yes! Yes! Yes!"

"roar!"

"Kamikameha!"

When Eric arrived at the training camp, the scene there could only be described as utter chaos.

Some people are seriously building muscle, following the movements of a martial arts instructor.

Some people were striking exaggerated poses and making hand gestures while the Dragon Ball anime was playing in front of them.

"director!"

"Eric!"

"Hello, Director!"

The scene immediately fell silent upon his appearance, as this was his first time appearing on set.

The MGM veterans were well aware that this was their boss's working style.

Although his name is credited as the director, it would be a miracle if he actually directed half of the film's runtime.

But can you say he's not a director because of that?

Of course, that won't work either.

After all, everyone was a puppet in his hands. Even when he wasn't around, they had to follow the rules and regulations he left behind, step by step.

How strict is it? Not a single angle of a shot is allowed to change.

It's supposed to be a 45-degree angle, but if it's shot at 60 degrees, we'll have to start all over again.

It's said that the female lead has to shed two lines of tears; if you cry your eyes out, you have to start over.

In short, being his assistant director and director's assistant was the most tiring job in the crew.

Of course, the results are also the best. Look at Neill Blomkamp; he's a proper director now.

With tens of millions of dollars that Michael Jackson did not invest, he is building his own movie empire.

All of this happened in just two years. Can an average assistant director climb to this position in two years?

That's ridiculous!

This leads to a situation where, although everyone understands the job is challenging, they also understand that it could be a golden opportunity to achieve instant success.

Eric Cooper hasn't filmed in over half a year, and Neill Blomkamp is unlikely to return; he's all alone now.

Therefore, not only are actors sought after, but assistant director positions are also highly competitive.

The winner was Barry Jenkins, a young black guy.

You may not be familiar with his name, but his future masterpiece is very famous, "Moonlight," which won the Academy Award for Best Picture.

Of course, a large part of the reason this movie is so famous is because of its water.

The political correctness was too strong. That year, it was competing with many awesome films such as "Manchester by the Sea", "La La Land", and "Hacksaw Ridge".

"Moonlight" was so obscure that nobody thought it could win an award, but it did.

This led to the film, like Gwyneth Paltrow's Water Queen, being mentioned and ridiculed.

Eric also admitted that he did benefit from political correctness, but that this should not be used to completely criticize him.

Being able to compete with Einstein and Tesla already puts them ahead of most people, and they certainly have something to offer.

In comparison, the assistant director Eric found for himself will have a much more illustrious resume in the future.

His name is Damian Chazelle, and yes, he wrote La La Land. Isn't that a coincidence?

Besides his most famous work, La La Land, his other work is Whiplash, which received rave reviews in China.

In terms of future achievements, the latter will undoubtedly surpass the former.

The reason Damian was chosen as the director's assistant is quite simple: he's too young.

He is only 19 years old and is studying at Harvard. He hasn't graduated from college yet and has only been involved in small theater and troupe operations. He doesn't have much work experience.

The purpose of making him an assistant director was entirely to cultivate his talent; if he has good comprehension, he could be promoted to assistant director in the next film.

"Don't stop, you guys can continue. I'm just here to get to know everyone. After all, some of the actors are still a bit unfamiliar to me."

Eric walked up to a mixed-race young man who looked to be around twenty years old. Upon seeing him, the young man immediately stood up respectfully.

James Lin is the guy who was selected in this audition.

The young man is exactly 18 years old this year, a perfect age to just come of age.

He is of mixed Chinese, American, Japanese, and Russian descent; heaven knows how these four countries ended up together.

However, he grew up in the United States, has a certain foundation in Jeet Kune Do, and is also good-looking.

Although his muscular physique during the audition couldn't compare to that of a Saiyan from the manga, it was still very strong for a normal person, which was one of the reasons he stood out.

"Mr. Cooper, it's a pleasure to see you again."

Eric shook hands with him: "Lin, don't be so nervous. We'll have a long time to work together in the future."

"I idolize you, so it's understandable that I'm nervous, but I will overcome it."

Eric chuckled and said to Donnie Yen beside him, "See Johnny? He's quite worldly-wise. Did you teach him?"

Donnie Yen shrugged and chuckled dryly: "I still need to learn. He's much more open-minded than me."

"Come on! You're a martial arts choreographer. Hollywood movies don't have this position, but I think we need to find a reliable one. I like your style."

"Thank you, everyone worked very hard."

That's right, Master Ip Man was the action choreographer Eric found for "Dragon Ball". In recent years, Hong Kong action choreographers have been doing very well in Hollywood.

They were involved in films such as The Matrix and Blade.

Compared to Yuen Woo-ping, considered the world's top action choreographer, Eric prefers Donnie Yen, not because of his kung fu skills, but because of their stylistic compatibility.

Master Yuan has an overflowing imagination and can design all sorts of unbelievable actions.

Donnie Yen is synonymous with visceral, fast-paced action, and clearly, Dragon Ball cannot follow a formulaic approach; a "universe-style" Donnie Yen is more suitable.

When he came to Samuel L. Jackson's table, as the Big Bad Guy, he also had quite a few action scenes.

But Mazefak's age is a factor; he's over 50 years old and definitely can't fight, so a stunt double has to be used.

However, you must know how to pose properly to make it look presentable.

"Eric, I must have been crazy to take this role. Why? Why should an old man like me suffer like this?"

"Hehehe, did you find filming 'Iron Man' very comfortable?"

"Of course, all I need to do is put on a trench coat and look cool, maybe run a few laps around the street. There's absolutely no need to be stuck in this damn place and work out like crazy."

"But from another perspective, it's very good for your health, isn't it?"

"But I'd rather not have this benefit. If you're going to make a sequel, I suggest you change the actor. My old bones can't handle the hassle."

"Heh. How can that be! You're the role I handpicked, Carol. Remember to renew Samuel's contract."

"Boss, how many films do you want to sign?"

"So-so, let's sign ten contracts first."

Upon hearing this, Samuel L. Jackson nearly strained his back and asked in surprise, "Ten movies? How many are you planning to make?"

"Don't worry, it's mostly Marvel stuff, you should just focus on looking cool."

"Phew! That puts my mind at ease. This money is easy to earn, and it can be considered a way to make up for the pain caused by Dragon Ball."

Beside him, Jay Chou, the rising star of the Chinese music scene, was suspended in mid-air.

The staff member pulled and released the object, followed by a furious shout in a distinctively Taiwanese accent: "Wolf Fang Wind Fist!"

He moved his hands rhythmically, which looked chaotic but didn't give the impression of wild, uncontrolled punches; it was clearly a carefully designed move.

Eric crossed his arms and nodded: "Great, cool!"

Jay Chou, on the other hand, was not at all reserved: "Doesn't it feel awesome? Donnie Yen spent several days studying it before he could perfect the beautiful moves."

"It definitely has a very anime style, and with your face, with a little makeup, you'd be a living Yamcha."

"Yamcha was just too unlucky. I always felt that Akira Toriyama portrayed this character as a clown. The first part of Dragon Ball was also the peak of Yamcha's life."

Eric smiled wryly; the title "Tea Master" wasn't given lightly.

If you say that the old bird was bad to him, he took advantage of Bulma for more than ten years, that's more than ten years, before the two officially broke up.

If you're talking about how important it was, its death was so unexpected that it became a world-famous scene that has been paid homage to and used as a meme in countless anime.

"By the way, Eric, does MGM have any plans to make a 'Detective Conan' movie?" Jay Chou asked again.

"Not yet, we'll have to wait for the results of Dragon Ball."

"Oh, actually, I'd most like to play Shinichi Kudo, the cunning frog who keeps touching your belly!"

Eric certainly couldn't grant Jay Chou's wish.

Shinichi Kudo is such a handsome guy, bro. Look in the mirror and see which part of you could be used to scam someone?

Looks are on a completely different level, okay? These days, it's not like there are brainless fans everywhere. Even fans usually only praise talent, not appearance.

After walking around and greeting everyone, he finally arrived at Liu Yifei and Daddario's side.

It was mainly Xiao Liu practicing his skills, while Daddario was doing some simple exercises.

As Eric approached, joy shone in both of their eyes, and they felt their hormones surge.

It's a pity that you can't express your emotions in a public place.

"How are you? You're all sweaty."

Xiao Liu pulled his leg back: "It's okay, I've gotten used to it anyway. It's been almost two years, and now I feel uncomfortable if I don't move around every day."

"You've had a tough time lately, doing promotions and training at the same time. It must have been exhausting."

Eric offered a few words of comfort, and Xiao Liu immediately felt all his fatigue vanish.

"Eric, Crystal is amazing. At first, I thought the action scenes in 'The Hunger Games' were fake and done by stunt doubles."

"But when I saw her, wow!"

"And James, and Johnny, it seems like every Chinese person can do a few kung fu moves, that's amazing!"

Hahahaha

"You have this impression thanks to Bruce Lee, Jackie Chen, and Jet Lee," said Xiao Liu.

"Alexandra, everyone else is training, what are you doing?"

"My main job is to read books, read comics, watch anime, and collect information about Bulma to learn from. In short, I feel ashamed compared to Crystal."

Xiao Liu put his arm around hers: "No way! It's just that the roles are different, and we both need to prepare carefully."

As she spoke, her arm naturally brushed against D'Addario's large steamed bun, and Liu Yifei suddenly felt a little inferior.

Of course, she also studies anime and knows that her breasts are still too small compared to Kiki's. She wishes Daddario could give her half of his breasts.

However, things have gotten better since growing up with Eric, as the stimulation still has an effect.

Suddenly, I seemed to see something different in Daddario's eyes; her eyes were so unique.

Special attention can also lead to a situation where special things cannot be kept secret.

The way she looked at Eric was a little strange; why did he seem a bit like her?

But upon closer inspection, it doesn't seem like a problem. Who is Eric? It's perfectly normal that all the women in the entire crew are interested in him and want to sleep with him.

"Yes, I was overthinking it."

Standing between the two women, Eric rubbed their bottoms with one hand on each, and all three of them wore genuine smiles.

The Hunger Games has grossed over $4.4 million worldwide, and Prisoners of Azkaban is doing similarly at $4.3 million.

Compared to the huge production and marketing costs, this film certainly won't make much money, but we can place our hopes on a sequel.

In comparison, The Prisoner of Azkaban fared even worse, as the first film, The Philosopher's Stone, grossed $9.76 million, and the second film, The Chamber of Secrets, grossed $8.76 million.

The box office performance was almost halved, and the production costs of "Harry Potter" were even higher, leaving almost no profit margin.

Previously, Warner Bros. had to falsify accounts to deceive actors, turning huge box office hits into losses in order to reduce the share given to authors and lead actors.

No matter how anxious the actors are, there's nothing they can do; they simply can't compete with Warner Bros.

This time they finally didn't have to falsify accounts, so they deserved what they got.

While "Machete Kills" is exciting and crazy, its box office performance is not optimistic. After half a month of release, it only grossed $4100 million in North America.

This is only because a host of big-name celebrities made cameo appearances; otherwise, it would have cost at least $2000 million less.

However, the DVDs have already been produced, and they can be sold immediately after the movie's theatrical run ends, making a fortune is no problem.

Similar to Jackie Chan and Jet Li's movies, DVDs are the main channel for these B-movies, even in this era of the decline of optical discs.

The box office performance of "Sharknado 3" was far below expectations, earning only $45 million in half a month. Don't even think about breaking $100 million; it'll probably only reach around $60 million.

If you look online, you'll find that more and more viewers are opting to watch "Sharknado 3" through Lionheart.com.

Although delayed gratification is possible, there are just too many movies available right now, and even fans don't have much energy to pay attention to this shark.

Overall, Barbershop 2 actually had the best box office performance, taking in $5500 million.

Because the film still features an all-Black cast and follows the same comedic approach as the previous one.

Black friends are very supportive of each other; it's common to see groups booking out entire venues in the Black community.

Overall, this round of cutthroat competition will cost MGM at least $3 million in box office revenue.

With the Christmas season approaching, even a film like "Inception," which has been given a lot of effort, still faces an uncertain future.

(End of this chapter)