America Tycoon: The Wolf of Showbiz-Chapter 961 - 883 Clapping Can Also Turn into a
Chapter 961: Chapter 883: Clapping Can Also Turn into a Business_2
Chapter 961 -883: Clapping Can Also Turn into a Business_2
Nicholson tossed the book to Leonardo, “I’m just being nice, you should marry Lorraine.”
Martin couldn’t be bothered with him and responded with a raised middle finger.
The film adaptation of this novel was no issue when it came to investment for Leonardo’s Pave Road Entertainment; as long as Leonardo was billed as the lead, all the big studios would be clamoring to get a piece.
Nowadays in Hollywood, there were hardly any superstars worth mentioning.
Even at his peak, Johnny Depp could only claim dominion in “Pirates of the Caribbean,” and once he stepped away from the pirate’s shelter, he immediately lost his magic.
Will Smith, for the past few years, focused solely on promoting his son; with the obvious outcome being that he no longer had the prestige from the first decade of the new millennium.
Brad Pitt could still be considered a superstar, albeit only in the San Fernando Valley.
As for Robert Downey Jr., he seemed more like an accessory to Iron Man in the real world.
The day after the Oscars, the Los Angeles media mourned as if they had lost their own parents, frantically advocating for the black community and “Selma,” believing “Selma” should at least have received a nomination for Best Actor or Best Director, if not the Best Picture Oscars, more deserving than any other film.
In Los Angeles, this city akin to a saint, political correctness seemed to be the mainstream. Seeing this, other LGBTQ groups also started their own series of campaigns.
There were constant protest rallies in the bustling areas of the city.
After Martin and Elizabeth had joined Lily at an art exhibition, they encountered several protest groups on their way home, and a string of cars was stuck on Sunset Boulevard.
Although there was a group of normal people confronting the demons and monsters, they were significantly outnumbered and clearly at a disadvantage.
Lily, resting her chin on her hand, looked curiously out the car window and said to Martin, “The Pandora’s box you’ve opened is crazy. Other industries are somewhat okay, but people in the art world are going nuts.”
Martin curiously asked, “Crazier than Hollywood?”
Lily replied, “Those in the arts are naturally crazier than those in the film industry.”
“I can testify to that.” Elizabeth grabbed one of Lily’s hands and raised it, “Take Miss Lily Carter, for example.”
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Martin said, “Make sure to have bodyguards with you when you work.”
“They always do.” Lily twirled her carving knife in her hand like a dancing butterfly, “I can protect myself too.”
Martin had already arranged bodyguards for them, so he wasn’t worried.
Suddenly, a noise came from outside; Lily put away her carving knife and turned to look toward the congested area of protesters. The LAPD had sent more personnel, but it seemed they were helpless in front of the numerous media reporters.
This was the outcome pushed by mainstream society.
Lily curiously asked, “Why does the mainstream force keep pushing these powers, making the entire United States a laughing stock to the world?”
Martin kissed her forehead and then kissed Elizabeth, “You tell her.”
Elizabeth simply said, “In my understanding, it’s political and economic needs; the former needing votes, the latter, referring to Hollywood movies, the purchases of tickets and merchandise by those groups increase income. Another key aspect is to effectively divert social tensions.”
Lily wasn’t stupid; after hearing this, she quickly thought of something, “As wealth disparity grows, wealth and power concentrate further toward the upper class, making life increasingly difficult for the middle and lower classes, who are, however, in the absolute majority by number. Instigating conflicts at the social level between genders and between special groups and ordinary people can effectively shift societal conflicts.”
Martin pretended to be enlightened, “Sounds like you’ve got a point there.”
Lily rolled her eyes and continued, “Ordinary people’s attention is focused on these shenanigans, hence, fewer people pay attention to the actions of the rich and politicians.”
Elizabeth added, “Although Martin, you opened Pandora’s box, these demons and monsters completely gained momentum after the Michelle Black incident.”
At that moment, Martin’s phone rang.
Elizabeth picked it up from the seat and handed it to Martin, “Seems to be Thomas.”
Martin answered the call, “What’s up?”
Thomas said, “The Cannes Film Festival committee has sent you a letter of intent; they faxed it to the office half an hour ago, and I called there to check.”
Martin said, “I’m on my way home, come directly to the estate.”
Thomas replied, “Alright.”
Half an hour later, Martin met Thomas at home.
The latter handed him a faxed document bearing the emblem of the Cannes Film Festival committee.
Martin set it aside, “What is the specific matter?”
Thomas quickly said, “The Cannes Film Festival committee would like to invite you to be the Jury President for next year’s festival.”
“Next May,” Martin, who had attended the Cannes Film Festival and even won the Best Actor award, asked, “Do I have any schedule conflicts?”
Thomas, who had roughly scheduled Martin’s calendar until 2016, replied, “We should be able to squeeze in ten days.”
Martin nodded and then asked, “When does Cannes need a definite response?”
Thomas said, “Normally, within three months of this year’s festival ending, the committee will announce the selection of the next jury president.”
Martin thought for a moment and said, “Let’s confirm the schedule for next May on our end before giving a definite response to Cannes.”
Thomas agreed, “I will coordinate well with the Cannes side.”
If the schedule was suitable, Martin didn’t mind serving as the Jury President at the Cannes Film Festival.
He had attended the Cannes Film Festival several times, many aspects of which were quite interesting—the commercial nature and excitement were comparable to the Oscars.
Moreover, nowadays, the Oscars were even incorporating some of the advantageous features from Cannes.
The most typical example was selling red carpet tickets.
Compared to the Oscars ceremony, Cannes unabashedly sells tickets, from the opening to the closing ceremonies to the premieres of the films in competition, all with openly priced red carpet tickets.
Actually, the most interesting part was the famous clapping sessions at Cannes.
Like how film reviews and word of mouth can be marketed, clapping had also turned into a business at the Cannes Film Festival.
Initially, films that received five to eight minutes of applause from audiences after screening always caught media and fans’ attention, and once the festival ended and they were released publicly, they achieved decent commercial profits.
Some things were inevitable—clapping for films had become a business at Cannes.
Just like how areas concentrated with film studios always produced groups of temporary actors, during the Cannes Film Festival, a special group would emerge each year, specifically getting paid to clap.
Clapping for love was common, but turning clapping for films into a business, Cannes was rightfully the premier of the three major film festivals in Europe.
Whether the films were terrible or not, as long as one was willing to spend some money, they would never lose in terms of clapping.
Today, if clapping from the audience didn’t last over ten minutes after a film screening, the creators would feel embarrassed to greet their colleagues.
After Thomas left, Martin thought, had it not been in Atlanta, but in Cannes, organizing clapping during the film festival probably could have also earned him the startup funds.
Shortly after the Oscar ceremony ended, “Shark Beach,” which had been screened in North American cinemas for seven weeks, had exhausted its last potential in the theatrical market and was completely removed from North American cinemas.
The North American box office had settled at 138 million US dollars.
The film’s overseas market was still expanding, gradually heading towards a global box office of 300 million US dollars.
Martin had leased a temporary office on Grand Avenue and held several preparatory meetings for the “Joker” project, which Daniel and Louise both attended.
The production budget for the project was 100 million US dollars, with Louise serving as the producer and Martin attempting to direct and act.
As soon as the film studio was established, Martin exercised his financial power and began assembling an experienced filming and production team.
He still chose to work with Steve Downton for his first assistant director.
This individual had not yet considered directing a film independently, and among all directorial clients at WMA, belonged to the top tier of assistants.
Due to the film’s production concept and theme, Martin also needed a different kind of real-life experience.
In this regard, the Trio of Scoundrels had long been arranged.
