America gains both fame and fortune

Chapter 369 Maintaining Ecological Balance

Brothers turn against each other, and love turns into hatred, which satisfies the psychological needs of too many spectators: there is no true friendship in Hollywood, they are all fake brothers or sisters.

Some media also revealed that Martin and Nicholson had a long-standing conflict. The latter once used homemade fireworks to bombard Martin's residence, and even attracted the LAPD.

The latest issue of Vanity Fair magazine uses the image of the Joker from DC Comics as its cover, and has a special article analyzing the feud between Martin and Nicholson.

"The Joker played by Jack Nicholson has become one of the classic images in film history and has always been praised. Jack has never been a generous person. His criticism of Martin's Joker is inevitably motivated by this mentality: If Martin's Joker surpasses his Joker, would he be embarrassed?"

Reporters and paparazzi gathered frantically at the entrance of Warner Studios. Whenever they saw members of The Dark Knight crew, they surrounded them and asked them about their opinions on Martin and Nicholson.

The film has not yet started shooting, but Martin and the Joker have already grabbed all the entertainment headlines.

Nicholson had so much fun that he dressed up as the Joker from the 1989 version of Batman while watching the Lakers' first playoff game of the season.

According to the media's interpretation, Nicholson was telling Martin in this way that there is only one Joker in the movie version!
"Let's see, are we lacking attention?"

Standing in front of the French window of his office in the Warner building, Charles Roven pointed to the crowd of reporters at the entrance of the studio area and said to Orlin: "The actors alone have created enough hype to grab most of the entertainment headlines without even the crew making any effort."

Orlin has also been eating melons recently, saying: "Martin is a great actor. How do you say it in Silicon Valley? Yes, he brings his own traffic!"

Charles Roven said: "Warner Bros. has been working with Martin. He has brought a lot of profits to Warner in recent years. Looking at the current situation, he will be able to create more in the next few years."

Orlin still reminded: "No matter how popular it is, the work is the key. Without the support of high-quality works, all these are illusions."

Charles said: "You saw Martin's performance during the audition. His acting skills are definitely not a problem. What I am most worried about is Nolan. Can the audience accept such a dark, heavy and realistic story, in which the Joker plays an equal role to Batman, or even more than him?"

“The script was inspired by The Dark Knight Returns, a comic book that was very well received,” Alllin added.

At this time, someone knocked on the office door and Nolan walked in.

Charles smiled and asked, "The crew wasn't disturbed much, right?"

"Most of the crew have already gone to Atlanta for pre-production, and there aren't many people left here." Nolan came here with an idea: "The Martin and Nicholson issue is very hot right now, and it will be hard to sustain it later..."

“What do you think?” Orlin asked.

Nolan is good at more than just filming: "When the film reaches a certain stage, Warner and DC can invite Nicholson to visit the crew and see how Martin's Joker is."

Charles nodded: "Okay."

Before Nolan finished speaking, he suggested, "Then we can continue to think of ways to deal with Martin Davis and Jack Nicholson."

He suddenly lowered his voice: "Or continue to stir up conflict between the two and let their quarrel continue."

Orlin smiled: "Good idea."

The production cost alone was as high as 1.8 million US dollars. Nolan took on this billion-dollar burden and not only worked hard on the film itself, but also paid attention to other aspects.

In the past seven or eight years, there have been too many good movies that did not perform well at the box office.

Promotion and marketing are becoming more and more important. Nolan added: "I think Martin's topicality and ability to create news are much stronger than Bale's. Whether it is the film or the publicity, Martin should be the core."

He became more and more excited as he spoke: "It's not just the relationship between Martin and Nicholson, there's also the relationship between Martin and Bale, there's also room for discussion. Now they have created a harmonious image in front of the public, and when the film is being filmed and conflicts break out between them, we can say in external publicity that the two were too immersed in the role and were affected by the characters."

Charles Roven looked at Nolan with great admiration and said to Orlin, "See, I was right. If Martin is the best marketable actor, Chris is the best marketable director."

Nolan smiled and said, "That's an exaggeration."

“It’s a huge investment, like a mountain,” Orlin said.

Nolan continued: "There is one more thing. I plan to have a member of Jonathan's screenwriting team follow Martin throughout the filming and record his words and deeds. I have communicated with Martin about this and he agrees, but the published report must be approved by him."

Charles understood Nolan's intention: "Martin is a person who always has news that attracts public attention." He nodded to Nolan: "Okay, I will send someone to discuss the relevant matters with Martin's agent."

Orlin laughed. With such a director and actors who are good at making things happen, the film will surely attract the attention of passers-by.

…………

A van drove into Warner Studios, turned onto a side road, and stopped next to the warehouse of the Dark Knight Studios.

Lily followed in her new red Cadillac, parked the car and ran to the cargo box.

Linda, who was in charge of the handover, had already opened the warehouse door.

Lily said, "Manager, all the goods are in the car. I moved them all here."

The conditions offered by the crew were good, so she cleared out all the carved clowns at once.

She gets a share of the profits from all the sales.

To Martin, without a penny of income.

Lily felt that if she wanted to truly stand up in front of Martin and her sister Elena and reject the iron fist of care, an economic foundation was very important.

We must work hard to make money! Linda asked someone to carry the goods off the car and found that the goods were packed in several large boxes. She opened one of the boxes for inspection and found that every clown carving was vivid and exquisite.

She looked at Lily. No wonder a sharp carving knife looked as flexible as a finger in this girl's hand, and she could poke wherever she wanted.

"Supervisor?" someone came over and asked.

Linda said, "Hurry up and count all the items and put them into storage."

Several workers became busy.

Linda remembered clearly that Lily Carter was a relative of Martin Davis, who was famously difficult to deal with in Hollywood. She immediately smiled and said, "Lily, you carved so many?"

Lily recalled the horror of being dominated by a huge amount of buffalo horns, and she was still terrified: "I have been practicing in my spare time for most of the past six months. Even the birthday present I received was a pile of carving raw materials. I... want to cry."

Linda wondered what bastard was so cruel as to torture such a beautiful girl.

She carefully looked at the material of the carving in her hand and asked, "Where is this raw material produced? It looks good."

Lily was very aware of the fact that she was paid for her work, and said, "It looks like the horns of an Australian bull."

Linda asked, “Where do you get the goods from?”

Lily didn't dare to go to Martin, fearing that she would be suppressed by an iron fist, so she said, "Shall I ask someone?"

Linda nodded: "Okay."

Lily called Bruce.
A few minutes later, Bruce came over.

Lily gave a brief account of the situation.

Linda took the initiative and said, "Do you have a source for these materials?"

Bruce nodded: "Yes."

"The crew may need a large number of people later." Linda thought for a moment and said, "Leave me your contact information."

Bruce left his business card to Linda, and suddenly thought of something. Martin couldn't exterminate the Australian bison by himself, so why not bring in a crew?
Linda went to help inspect the goods.

Lily came over and whispered to Bruce, "Are there a lot of bison in Australia?"

Bruce didn't quite understand: "It shouldn't be...extinct, right?"

Lily is not an environmentalist and has no interest in protecting animals. She said, "As long as they don't become extinct, that's fine."

Bruce called Martin about this.

Martin thought about it for a while and suggested a solution: "Well, Old Bull, you can join hands with Elena and her brother to register an import and export trading company. Harris should know about this, so let him do it. If the crew needs it, he can supply the crew with Australian specialties."

Australia's bison and saltwater crocodiles are rampant, so this helps them maintain the ecological balance.

After hanging up the phone, Martin looked at Kelly and Louise in the office and said, "I just received a call from Wu Maoting from Asia tonight. He doesn't plan to continue investing in our project."

Louise recalled what happened some time ago: "Warner Pictures contacted him?"

Martin said: "Yes, Warner Bros. invited him to invest in Terminator 4 and made a lot of promises that we couldn't give."

"Promises?" Kelly couldn't help laughing. "Didn't you tell him that promises in Hollywood are bullshit?"

Martin shrugged, "I told them, but no one would listen. Hollywood is famous, and Wu Maoting thinks he can make more money by working directly with big companies without middlemen like us."

Louise said: "Maybe, everyone has their own aspirations, and we can't force them."

Martin nodded: "I'm going to Atlanta soon, Lily is on the set, please take care of her for me."

"Don't worry, leave it to me." Louise said deliberately, "If you use something made by Lily, you have to give her some compensation."

She pulled Kelly down and said, "Slut, am I right?"

Kelly laughed as she leaned on Louise's shoulder.

In May, the Dark Knight crew chartered a plane to Atlanta.

Even though most of the staff had gone to Atlanta early, the plane was still full of people.

The director of the crew is a real-life shooting fanatic, and two cargo planes were filled with various goods.

One of the cameras, an IMAX camera, was the most important part of the transportation.

Although Hollywood already has some 3D movies, Nolan refused to let The Dark Knight be one of them.
After arriving in Atlanta, Martin locked himself in the hotel and devoted all his energy to preparing for the role, and did not even go to see Elena.

It was not until two days before the crew started filming that he came out of the hotel and met with old friends in Atlanta.

(End of this chapter)