America gains both fame and fortune

Chapter 507: There is a problem with the action scene
Santa Monica Plaza, Los Angeles.

In the huge lounge, Bell sat alone, looking a little dazed.

There was a knock on the door, and the agent outside reminded: "The event will start in fifteen minutes."

Bell came back to his senses and responded, "I know."

What is about to take place is a very important roadshow promotion for "Terminator 2018".

The Santa Monica Commercial Plaza was the birthplace of the classic scene in the Terminator series, where John Connor first encountered the T1000 and T800.
Therefore, the first roadshow after the film’s release in North America was arranged here.

But Bale wasn't motivated because the North American box office in the first week was only 4225 million U.S. dollars!
Compared to its arch-rival Martin Davis' new film after "The Dark Knight", the opening box office seems to be not much less.

But the difference between a $2 million investment and a $4000 million investment, a PG-13 rating and an R rating, and the scale of publicity and distribution...

What a complete failure!

Bale was overshadowed by Martin in The Dark Knight, and originally thought he could make a comeback with his new work and overtake Martin.

But the idea is beautiful and the reality is cruel.

Bell looked at the time, suppressed the sadness in his heart, walked out of the lounge, and walked along the corridor to the event site.

As soon as he walked onto the stage, the host hadn't even started talking when he heard boos and shouts from fans below.

“Are you guys filming The Terminator?”

"This piece of crap tarnishes the name of the Terminator!"

"Christian Bale, you are not worthy of being a savior!"

"Get off the stage, no one likes your crappy movie!"

"You don't deserve to be here!"

Many of the people who came here today are die-hard fans of the Terminator series and love the series to the extreme.

These people hate this one as much as they loved the first two Terminator movies.

In the 1990s, Arnold Schwarzenegger stood on this stage and began promoting "Terminator 2".

The reputation of "Terminator 2018" is so bad that fans of the series deny that it is a Terminator movie.

"Get out! All of you get out!"

When the fans went crazy, they didn't make any sense at all. Some of them threw the Coke in their hands onto the stage, making a crackling sound.

Bale's face looked extremely ugly. The failure of the film had already made him in a bad mood, and this scene made him even more angry.

He has never been a good-tempered person.

During the filming of "Terminator 2018", the photographer made a mistake at work and chatted with Martin in passing, which caused Bale to lose control of his emotions. He angrily scolded the photographer for more than minutes on the set, and the director and producer couldn't stop him even if they stepped in.

With a bang, a bottle of Coca-Cola hit the edge of the stage, and the liquid spurted out of the exploded bottle and landed near Bell.

Bell turned around and walked straight down the stage without hesitation.

Bryce Howard next to him was confused and didn't know whether to follow Bell.

There was an uproar in the audience, and the paparazzi and reporters were going crazy, scrambling to the stage exit to interview Bale.

There were so many people and it was so crazy that the isolation fence put up by the security personnel was shaky.

Bell strode down the stage.

The reporter from TMZ adhered to the principle of creating news when there was no news and creating highlights when there was no highlights. He reacted very quickly and shouted: "Bale, the failure of Terminator 2018 proves one thing, right? The success of The Dark Knight was due to the actors, not you!"

The scene was chaotic, but all the words fell into Bell's ears. He suddenly stopped and stared at the reporter coldly.

The reporter continued to shout: "Martin's new film has earned a lot of income with a small budget, but what about you? Your new film as the leading actor has suffered a serious loss!"

The reporter behind followed up: "The Dark Knight brought you star power, but did you take advantage of Martin for all this?"

Another reporter's microphone penetrated the isolation fence and asked: "Bell, don't you think you don't deserve the reputation you deserve?"

Bell forced himself to turn back and walked forward step by step.

A reporter behind me asked, "Your not answering means you agree, right?"

Bell still said nothing and quickly left the roadshow.

The male lead left early and the roadshow ended abruptly.

The next day, the entertainment media in Los Angeles were unanimous in attacking Bale. To say that he did not deserve the reputation was polite, and some even directly called him box office poison.

Praising one and criticizing the other is the trick the media is best at. The American media naturally favors Martin, and at this time they seized on Bell's mistake and started to attack him.

An angry Bale then announced through social media that he would withdraw from the post-screening promotion of "Terminator 2018".

This action was not communicated to Warner, and Warner Bros. was extremely angry with Bale.

Many Warner executives directly blacklisted Bale as a co-actor.

…………

In June, the filming of "Inception" officially began at Astra Studios.

Nolan first shot all the indoor scenes.

In view of Martin's own characteristics, the crew slightly strengthened the action scenes, and of course they would not let Martin's character become a killer like Jonathan. In the set built as a Japanese palace, Martin was holding a pistol and killing people. Amid the sound of gunshots, he easily killed several black-clad gunmen and knocked another one away with his shoulder.

"Stop!" Nolan shouted to stop the filming.

Martin stepped forward and pulled up the stuntman, who was wearing protective gear under his suit, and asked, "Are you okay?"

"It's okay, it's okay." It was the first time the stuntman worked with Martin, and he didn't expect that such a big star would have such a good attitude.

Martin patted him on the shoulder and looked at Nolan who was walking over.

“There’s something wrong with the action scenes,” Nolan said.

Martin put away his prop pistol and asked, "Is there something wrong with my positioning, or is my movement not smooth enough?"

Nolan gestured and said, "Your movements are too neat and tidy, and you show too much skill in front of the camera."

Martin asked, "Is there a problem with being good at martial arts?"

When Nolan said this, his understanding of this aspect became clearer, and he simply called Martin to go to the director's monitor to watch the footage that had just been shot.

In the footage played, Martin looked like a tiger descending from a mountain, swift and powerful.

Nolan reminded: "Do you see the problem?"

Martin gradually understood and nodded slightly: "There is no problem with my makeup and positioning, and there is no problem with the literary scenes. The problem is the fighting scenes. The movements are like another Jonathan."

"That's right." Nolan emphasized, "Martin, you are Cobb now, not Jonathan. You are a dream thief with a certain level of force, not a super killer."

Martin listened to all these words.

Nolan said: "You should restrain your action scenes and make the character's skills weaker than your own."

Martin nodded: "I understand."

"This is not just your problem. The action director and I made wrong predictions." Nolan did not expect that Martin's skills would be stronger than he imagined. It should be because he had just played Jonathan and still retained some of his previous habits, which made him look particularly sharp in front of the camera.

It is very difficult for other crews to shoot action scenes, as the actors' level is far from the requirements of the roles.

When it comes to Martin, the actors are asked to be slower and weaker.

Nolan called the action director again, paused the filming, and together with Martin, the three of them discussed adjustments to the action scenes.

The most important aspect is that Martin’s fighting power cannot be much higher than that of the supporting actor Mene, and should even be similar to him.

Mene played with the gun with Martin to exercise his body, and by taking him out, Martin had a clear standard of measurement.

The filming resumed, and Martin slowed down. His movements were no longer clean and neat, but became sloppy.

Nolan still insisted on real shooting and would not use CGI if possible. Almost all the scenes of the crew, including this Japanese-style palace building, were built in real scenes.

After work in the afternoon, Martin removed his makeup and followed Nolan to another studio.

Mene is training for a crucial action scene here.

There is a fight scene in a dream corridor in the script, which will be presented in a rotating manner.

In order to achieve the ideal shooting effect, Nolan found a physics professor in Morocco and spent a huge amount of money to build a huge centrifuge.

This is a device often used by Hollywood in shooting space and weightlessness scenes, but no one has used it for many years. After the cost of CGI special effects decreased, this thing became expensive and time-consuming.

Only Nolan, a real-life shooting fanatic, has just created the brilliant achievement of "The Dark Knight", otherwise it would be a problem for the insurance company to get the completion guarantee.

When Martin came over, the huge centrifuge made of steel was turning.

This thing is more than ten meters high and nearly forty meters long, and looks quite amazing.

The rotating corridor used for filming is fixed in the center of the centrifuge, where Mene and several stuntmen are training.

An old man and his assistant are monitoring the operation of the centrifuge through instruments.

Nolan gestured over there, and the assistant director notified the actors inside, and the centrifuge slowly stopped.

Martin followed Nolan.

Nolan introduced Martin: "This is Professor Mordechai from the University of Casablanca, an outstanding physicist."

Martin was a poor student, but he respected knowledgeable people and took the initiative to shake hands with them: "Hello, professor."

Professor Mordecai, who has a completely bald forehead and a particularly large nose, was very enthusiastic: "My daughter is a fan of yours. Can you give me an autographed photo of you when you have time?"

He smiled and said, "I am helping an old father fulfill his daughter's wish."

Martin agreed immediately: "No problem, I'll get it done and have someone send it over later."

"Thank you." Mordecai thanked him and turned to look at the large centrifuge he had built. He said, "Such equipment should not be dismantled and cleared away as garbage after filming. Director Nolan, after the filming is completed, can I dismantle this equipment and take it back to Casablanca?"

Nolan thought for a moment and said, "You need to pay a garbage recycling fee."

Mordecai said quickly: "I will call the college right now. The college will definitely be happy to pay the money."

When he went to make the call, Martin said, “This professor is dedicated and conscientious.”

Nolan said: "The conditions here are limited. Many professors even have problems with research funding. If the crew hadn't paid him enough and Professor Mordecai didn't need research funding, we wouldn't be able to hire him."

(End of this chapter)