American fame and fortune

At Warner Studios, Davis Studios leased a small soundstage to serve as a training ground for Chad Stalski's projects.

Martin, Bruce, and Bradt stood on the sidelines of the training field, watching attentively as several people on the field practiced their routines.

Chad, holding a prop gun, as the hero, is besieged by a group of killers.

The leader, Chen Hu, with mid-length hair loose, rushed towards Chad from the front.

Behind, followed by stunt actors such as Lewis and Buck, who had served as Martin's stand-in several times.

Marcus, who has become Chad's assistant, is approaching.

Chad was changing the magazine, when Chen Hu rushed forward, the two fought in close combat and strangled together.

Buck and Lewis also rushed up.

The actions of several people were naturally planned routines. Chad broke Chen Hu's neck, elbowed Lewis in the heart, kicked Buck down, and completed the replacement of the magazine.

He turned around and made a shooting motion. Marcus, who wanted to shoot with his head out, seemed to be shot by a bullet, and fell to the ground with a thud.

The gun in Chad's hand was pointed at the heads of the four people, one by one.

Unlike previous Hollywood action movies, the action design of this project will never give the enemy a chance to fight back.

Those brain-dead plots that die from talking too much, or relax carelessly, allowing the downed enemy to take the opportunity to fight back, were all discarded during the action design stage.

Brandt came to Martin's side and said, "Head, we did a sample survey on the website and asked movie fans to vote for the most annoying movie plots, similar to the design of the two protagonists giving up the knife in the horror wax museum. In a very forward position."

Martin nodded: "I'm almost sick of such a design."

Chad, Chen Hu and Marcus came over at this time.

Marcus said: "On the battlefield, you must not show mercy to the enemy, otherwise you must be the one who dies."

Chad answered: "The protagonist is set to be a killer. If that kind of plot happens, the character will collapse directly."

Martin took the prop gun from Chad, made a few shooting gestures, and said, "What this film wants is the kind of refreshing feeling."

Chen Hu followed Yuan Heping for a long time, and asked, "Like "Blood Heroes" and "Hot Detective"?"

Martin said: "I have seen these two films, they are similar."

Chad has watched a lot of action movies recently and knows a lot about them. He took the words: "In terms of action design, we should not only be close to actual combat, but also not overly pursue actual combat for the sake of actual combat style."

Martin fully agrees: "This is a movie after all. On the basis of the actual combat style, we must take care of the audience's viewing experience. It must be fierce and fierce, and the action must be relatively good-looking."

Chen Hu is in charge of designing the melee fighting routines: "I agree. In this regard, some gunfight action movies in Hong Kong can be properly referred to."

Martin made a joke: "Don't design it as a routine like Jack Chen, after all, the protagonist is a killer."

Chen Hu answered, "It's not the God of War in the Furniture City."

Others didn't understand what it meant, but only Martin and Chad, who had watched too many Hong Kong movies, understood.

Afterwards, a group of people went to the film room to watch the video.

People like Chad have designed a lot of gun battles and action routines in recent months, most of which were recorded through rehearsals.

Halfway through, Chen Hu and Martin went to the training ground to practice.

Action directors also need to know what the actors can do.

Chen Hu asked Martin to practice several difficult movements according to his routine, and he had a certain understanding of Martin.

After he stopped, he said to Martin: "Your basic skills are much better than Keanu's. When filming The Matrix, I took Keanu and them to practice, and the teaching was even more difficult than what they practiced."

Martin has been a martial artist for many years in his previous life, and he has been doing physical training since Atlanta. He said directly: "I have practiced a lot of action fighting routines, and I have been exercising all year round. I have a certain foundation."

Chen Hu said, "Your foundation is very good."

Martin is only 26 years old now, and he often practices against Bruce. Not to mention the difficult movements, the completion of ordinary movements is not comparable to that of ordinary action actors.

"Let's continue." Chen Hu returned to the training ground: "I want to know more about your body, and design a more suitable fighting routine for you based on your characteristics."

Martin continued to practice the action routines according to Chen Hu's demonstration.

Chen Hu yelled to stop from time to time, and came over to communicate with Martin, talking about some ideas for action routines.

Martin used to play action, and sometimes put forward some constructive suggestions.

Of course, the action scenes at that time did not develop with time, but became more and more stretched, and it was those few who could really support the scene.

Later, the actors are too expensive, not to mention the agency, even the production crew dare not let the actors take risks easily.

After all, rubbing the skin with your fingers can cause a lot of public opinion.

After noon, Martin closed the door with Chad and Bradt again to discuss the script.

Bradt has already completed the first draft of the script. The main line of the plot is very simple, which is to use a small amount of literary drama to connect the action scenes designed by Chad's team.

Among them, there is also a blank for the sequel, which involves the killer world controlled by the high table.

Martin asked Chad, "When exactly can we start filming?"

"I plan to officially start preparations in October, and start shooting in March and April next year." Chad has already made a more detailed plan: "The cost of the first film will not be less than 30 million US dollars, and there are too many big scenes and action scenes."

Martin nodded to understand that the scene effects presented by action movies are always directly proportional to the amount of money burned.

Chad added: "There is also a premise that your remuneration is composed of basic remuneration and post-production share, otherwise an additional 10 million US dollars will be added."

Martin said directly: "I will plan the funds, and you will be in charge of the film production."

Chad felt an inexplicable pressure: "Martin, this is my first time directing a movie, don't invest hundreds of millions of dollars, I can't handle it."

"No." With Martin's appeal, it is not difficult to get tens of millions of dollars of investment from Kelly, Louise and Sophia.

He comforted Chad: "Don't worry, we will use 30 million US dollars as the investment baseline."

Chad breathed a sigh of relief. If he really wanted to invest more than 100 million US dollars, he would definitely suffer from long-term insomnia.

With Martin's current status and appeal, even if he messes up a movie, he can still bear it.

But as a rookie director, if his debut is over, his future will also be over.

Martin asked Bradt again: "Is there a problem on your side?"

Bradt said: "Time, I still need some time to polish the script carefully."

"Yes." Martin glanced at the electronic calendar on the wall: "The script will be finalized in December."

How to make the script more reasonable, at least in line with normal logic, is a test of the level of action film screenwriters.

That is to make the characters fight in line with the logic of the plot.

In the middle of the afternoon, Martin left the studio and went to find Louise in the Warner Building, planning to go to her house to spend the weekend together.

Entering the lobby of the Warner Building, he unexpectedly ran into an acquaintance.

Wu Maoting, an investor from Myanmar, took the initiative to shake hands with Martin and said hello: "Long time no see."

Martin shook hands with him and asked, "When did you come to Los Angeles?"

Wu Maoting said with a smile: "I came here last month. I first helped Dani, who is my daughter, and dealt with some school matters, and then came to Warner."

Although he no longer invested in Martin, he never thought of cutting off contact completely. He specifically said: "The investment in The Departed has benefited a lot. I am very grateful. It is you and Ms. Mel who gave me the opportunity to invest in Hollywood and establish cooperation with Warner channel."

Martin smiled: "You're welcome, this is a win-win investment, and Mr. Wu's financial support also helped me gain a foothold in the crew."

The two no longer cooperated, but they were not enemies either.

Wu Maoting added: "People from Warner Pictures went to Hong Kong City to find me, and tried their best to invite me to participate in the investment of the fourth part of the Terminator. The kindness is hard to refuse."

Martin said: "Warner Pictures invited me."

"Protagonist?" Because of the last success, Wu Maoting still trusted Martin, and asked, "Are you the leading actor in this film?"

Martin shook his head: "The schedule is not suitable, I rejected Warner Pictures."

Wu Maoting sighed softly: "It's a pity that we can't continue to cooperate."

"Maybe there will be opportunities for cooperation in the future." Martin couldn't say much, and asked instead: "When will the project enter the shooting stage."

Wu Maoting said: "I guess it will take a while. It is said that when the actor Bell was filming the last film, he was greatly emotionally impacted because of too much pressure..."

Speaking of this, he suddenly remembered: "Bell is starring in the same project as you?"

"The role is too stressful and mental." Martin's face suddenly became heavy: "I have seen a psychiatrist several times, but I am still often awakened by nightmares in the middle of the night."

He didn't need to exert any force at all, and suddenly raised his lips and smiled: "It's like a brand new personality was born in the body."

Rao was a warlord like Wu Maoting, when he saw Martin's smile, his heart skipped a beat, and he said, "If there is a situation, we should treat it in time."

Seeing that the smile on Martin's face became more and more weird and evil, Wu Maoting hurriedly ended: "It's almost time, I should go upstairs and talk to Warner people about the cooperation."

"You go ahead." Martin's voice didn't change, but the tone was rather weird.

Wu Maoting turned around and left, beckoning secretly, several subordinates came quickly and blocked his back.

Martin's cell phone rang, but it was Louise who called. He connected and said, "I'm in the front hall? Let's meet in the underground parking lot."

The two took the elevator to the underground parking lot.

Halfway through, Bruce asked, "Are you staying at Louise's tonight?"

"She won't let me back," Martin said.

Bruce said: "I'm free to move tonight, and I'm going to Venice to find gold."

"Man, good luck to you." Martin kindly reminded: "Don't be broken."

Bruce asked, "I remember you bought a body-worn camera that you could wear on your head?"

Martin said, "It's in the vault. Find it yourself."

Coming to the underground garage, Bruce drove the Escalade away alone.

Martin joined Louise and they went to Sherman Oaks.