America gains both fame and fortune

Chapter 132 Rattlesnake (Subscribe)
The complicated action scenes were very exhausting to shoot, and the actors were bound to suffer minor bumps and bruises. Martin himself was fine, but several of the stunt doubles had multiple bruises.

This is very common on the set and the stuntmen are used to it.

Another action scene was finished. Martin was fine, but the stunt doubles were exhausted and out of breath.

Ajia's voice had long been hoarse, and he said to his assistant, "Let them rest for an hour."

Three stuntmen with a similar body shape to Martin, and two stuntmen who appeared as perverts, came to the rest area and sat down, none of them wanting to move.

Martin personally went to get Gatorade, gave each person a bottle, and said, "Guys, refill some energy."

"You've filmed as much as we have, take a break." Buck, the double, had a good physique, but he was already bald at the age of 25. He said, "Martin, you have great stamina."

Martin sat on a chair, deliberately bent his arms, pointed at his bulging muscles and said, "Forgot? I'm the best fighter in the crew."

When men get together to chat, it's hard not to brag: "Have you seen my machine gun dance? I have the best endurance, too."

Special actor Lord said: "I watched the Saturn Awards live with my wife. My wife saw you dancing and laughed at me, saying that compared to that man, you are a wimp. At that time, I thought that if I saw him, I would definitely beat up his brothers."

Martin looked frightened: "Dude, you can hit me in the face but you can't hit my brother because your hand will break!"

Lewis, who was also Martin's stand-in, said: "Martin, I admit that you have the best physical strength and the best fighting ability in the entire crew, but what really ranks first for you is your thick skin."

The others laughed.

Martin said seriously: "Do you know what the most popular saying in Atlanta is? Everyone is jealous of Martin, and everyone wants to be Martin."

He coughed and said, "I have good news for you. This weekend, we are organizing a beach party with the crew next door."

Lord became excited: "Really."

Buck said, "There are only pretty girls next door."

Martin suggested: "How about we form a pickup group?"

"No, I want to stay away from you." Lewis has already recognized the reality: "If we follow you, all the pretty girls will go to you, and we can only pick up the remaining ugly girls."

After a while of chatting and laughing, Bruce came over and said that Sophia was looking for him.

Sofia took Scott out traveling, and Martin thought she would go straight back to Atlanta, but unexpectedly she came back.

Martin dragged Bruce along with him: "Don't worry, she won't dare to do anything to you with me here."

Bruce's buttocks were clenched, his legs were shaking, but he said stubbornly: "You are worried about what she will do to you!"

The two guilty men met Sophia at the door of the studio.

The female King Kong was wearing a vest and shorts, revealing her muscular body: "I'm ready to go back to Atlanta."

Bruce's legs, which were tightly clenched, relaxed unconsciously.

"Over here on the crew, you two, watch out and don't cause any trouble." Sophia suddenly thought of the fat guy who was trying to steal investment in Los Angeles: "If that what's his name, that ugly fat guy, dares to make trouble again, call me and I'll go to Los Angeles to deal with him myself!"

"No problem." Martin felt more confident. If Weinstein caused trouble, he could just summon Sophia.

Sophia's eyes swept across Bruce's face, and Bruce grabbed Martin's arm, suddenly remembering that this piece of stinky shit was unreliable and might sell him out.

Martin said, "Goodbye."

"Let's go." Sophia called Scott and walked out of the studio.

Scott followed behind with a rudderless step.

Martin and Bruce walked back and passed the beverage area, where two stage managers were packing up.

They spoke in a high voice: "Did you just see that? Martin from our crew is great at action scenes. He is the best fighter in the crew."

"I have a more powerful one over there." Another person from the crew next door said: "The last movie he shot was The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Do you know what the director said? If he goes to war, the Iraqi enemy will have no choice but to run away."

The previous production manager said with some cryptic meaning: "Everyone can brag."

The person next door said, "You don't know, before he became an actor, he was a professional boxer. When he first started, he was taking a shower in the collective bathroom of the studio... He was a very handsome boy, and he was covered in foam. A few bastards came looking for some fun, and he saw them in the mirror, and then... bang, bang, bang, those bastards all fell down."

The stage manager asked, "Really?"

“A lot of people on my side know about it.”

Martin and Bruce kept walking inside.

When they walked away, the two turned around and looked at each other. The stage manager said, "He must have heard it. The balance."

Rick from the next group took out a rolled-up small-denomination dollar bill and stuffed it into his hand: "Publicize it more in the crew."

The stage manager took the money and said, "It's nothing."

Arriving at the rest area, Martin found a deserted spot, sat down, and closed his eyes to rest.

Bruce sat nearby and glanced at the drinks area.

Martin asked, "Who are they talking about? What do they want to do? In such a stupid way?"

Bruce thought for a moment and said, "To provoke you to fight with others? You brag about yourself on the set, and people misunderstand you as a decent person who likes to argue?"

Martin was unhappy: "Am I not bright enough? Not decent enough?" Bruce stated the facts and reasoned: "Please give an example of the time and place when you confronted someone head-on."

Martin didn't answer at all, and turned the conversation back: "He left enough information and wanted me to go to his house to fight him? This is a lousy method, worse than Adrian's."

He shook his head, "That idiot Lily is better than him."

Bruce said, "Ask who it is first."

Martin took out his cell phone and called Blake Lively, asked a few questions, hung up, and said, "Mike Vogel, it's not surprising at all."

Bruce said, "That actor with a similar style to yours at WMA? No wonder you're in the way. What a shitty circle."

Martin pointed to one side: "He is in the next crew. Is he trying to provoke me to go and fight him?" He recalled the several encounters with the other party: "He doesn't seem like such a brainless person."

Bruce suggested: "How about this, you continue to brag in the crew, I will spread the news, spend some money to ask Dalot for help, and see what happens."

Martin laughed: "Boasting? I'm the best at it."

It was break time, and after a simple touch-up of makeup, Martin and the stuntmen returned to the set.

Perhaps stimulated by the news of the weekend party, the stuntmen regained their energy.

…………

Pacific Pictures, Los Angeles.

In the office, Louise, wearing black-rimmed glasses, looked smart and capable, without any trace of debauchery.

Assistant Nikki knocked on the door and came in, placing the latest report on the desk.

Louise took it and sighed: "Even Jerry Bruckheimer can't create a miracle of comeback."

"King Arthur," a co-production between Touchstone Pictures and Bruckheimer Films, was a flop.

With an investment of hundreds of millions of dollars, the film only grossed $1500 million in North America in its first weekend. Now, three weekends later, the North American box office is only a pitiful $4500 million, and the number of screenings has dropped from more than 3000 theaters to less than 2000.

Huge losses are inevitable.

“Troy” failed to live up to expectations, “King Arthur” was a box office and critical flop, but what about the similar “Alexander the Great”?

Louise's many years of career as a producer have given her a feeling that the market is tired of this genre?

The success of "Gladiator" and "The Lord of the Rings" series made people believe that North America would usher in an era of epic and fantasy.

The judgment generally recognized by the industry may be inaccurate.

Louise took the bottle of wine next to her, poured a glass of wine, drank it all, picked up the phone and dialed Warner CEO Barry Meyer's number, suggesting that the release of "Alexander the Great" be postponed.

Barry Meyer refused. The platter project involved funding from all parties and no one was willing to wait any longer.

Louise called Warner President Alan Horn again, who also did not think that postponing the release was a good idea. The market would not change in the short term, and the funds of the compiling parties could not be tied up in this project for a long time. If the film failed to be released at the end of the year, postponing it for half a year would not change the outcome.

After hanging up the phone, Louise had another drink, stood up and walked to the window, looking at the Warner Studios not far away. She felt extremely stressed for a moment.

She took off her glasses, dug out the notepad Martin had given her from her bag, tore off a page, and called her assistant Nikki: "Call Esquire and the Bartenders Association and tell them that bartender Louise Mayer has created a brand new cocktail."

…………

At the Jeans crew’s residence, the crew is making final preparations for the official filming, and the actors are busy rehearsing their parts.

Ten days later, Mike Vogel will follow crew B to Greece for filming.

Rick, the production manager, quietly found Vogel and said, "I've been there every day these past few days, and I'm completely sure that Martin Davis likes to brag and is extremely arrogant. Everyone in that crew praises him."

Vogel fixed his dark brown hair in the mirror: "Anything else?"

"He likes to drink. Every day after work, he would go for a drink with the crew." Rick found out a lot from there: "When he drinks more, he brags even more. He calls himself the most talented person in Georgia. Once when he was drunk, he even boasted about a gunfight with gangsters and dealers, and shot a dealer in the ass with one shot. I knew it was fake the moment I heard it."

Vogel nodded, a typical drunk guy who didn't know who he was.

Judging that Martin Davis is arrogant and likes to brag in front of others, he deliberately released the news in order to stimulate Martin's competitive spirit, and then combined with alcohol...

Vogel then asked, "Are you sure the crew wants to have a party?"

Rick responded, "This Saturday, all day."

Vogel stood in front of the mirror and thought for a few minutes: "Rick, you are Mexican, can you get a rattlesnake or other venomous snake?"

"What do you want to do? Put a poisonous snake in his room?" Although Rick is from Tijuana, he doesn't want to cause a murder of an American: "I won't do such a thing. There are surveillance cameras everywhere in the hotel. It's impossible to avoid it! Buddy, I advise you not to do this."

Vogel's father used to work in a snake farm, so he knew something about venomous snakes: "How could I do such a thing? Are you kidding me?"

Rick asked, "Are you sure you won't mess around?"

"Find someone to get a snake and empty most of the venom from the venom sac." Vogel whispered a few more words and emphasized: "I'll pay more."

Rick responded: "Well, Mexico has no shortage of this stuff."

Two updates today.

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(End of this chapter)