King of Hollywood
Chapter 407 - 129: A Different Game

Chapter 407: Chapter 129: A Different Game

"Two movies are likely to start production at the same time, but need the same producer, so whom should we assign him to take responsibility for?" The same words spoken to different people naturally carried different tones. Even though he smiled in both cases, he was obviously more casual when speaking to Liv, while he was much more serious with the person in front of him.

"I think, you should ask me which one I’m more interested in, right?" Brokheimer shrugged.

"I believe, you could see the commercial value in either script and it would be hard for you to part with either," Adrian said with a smile.

"Okay, that’s true," Brokheimer said, raising his hands in admission, "Though both have the hero complex, the first one has grand scenes set in an apocalyptic scenario that’s quite distinctive, and the ensemble cast helps engage more viewers, allowing them to overlook any plot holes; the second one takes the hero complex to the extreme, with a particularly prominent tough guy image, especially since he’s a tough guy who has made mistakes, and in the dynamics of saving and being saved, the audience can find their own place. Both scripts have potential, and as long as the director and producer are clear-headed, these will be very popular works."

"I plan to have Michael direct the first one, but you can see that while he would be a good director, he wouldn’t be an exceptional producer, so I’m worried without you steering behind him. As for the second story, Michael could also direct, but no matter who directs, I think you are the best fit to be the producer," Adrian spread his hands as he spoke. "So what am I supposed to do now, Jerry?"

"Why does it have to be me?" Brokheimer asked, suddenly interested after a moment of thought.

"Besides Don, you are the best, and you two have always been indistinguishable from each other," Adrian immediately answered. "I can’t think of anyone better than you."

"This praise really leaves me without a place to hide." Although he said this, faced with his compliment, Brokheimer still displayed a very pleased smile.

"Why can’t we shoot them separately? You already have the scripts, and when to produce them is just a matter of decision," he then said.

This statement seemed to be made from Adrian’s perspective, but in truth, Brokheimer was already interested. It’s normal, the "Miracle Director" title is extremely prestigious in the industry. Sherry Lansing, who once headed Fox as the first woman to lead a major film company, had a surprising record under her belt—80% of the movies she approved made money. But Adrian was far more than these achievements; movies he favored rarely failed to make money, and even if they didn’t make money, they often won significant acclaim, not to mention that he was also an excellent director and producer. Moreover, he made it clear that he allowed them to share in the spoils, so Brokheimer naturally hoped to take on both movies.

"The decision wasn’t realized initially. Now that several lead actors have been selected, although we can request them to coordinate with our schedule, there must be a limit," Adrian explained.

Brokheimer furrowed his brow and thought for a while before suggesting, "How about this, the producer’s responsibilities are not too extensive, the general tasks are basically handled by the executive producer, so why not try to stagger the shooting schedules of the two films as much as possible, that way I can manage both sides by leveraging the time difference."

"That’s not impossible," Adrian pinched his chin, "but are you sure you can maintain the pace and keep up, Jerry? Even I, who can produce three films in a year, have never tried to start two films at the same time."

"This would require cooperation from all sides, how to timely adjust and schedule, having more than one contingency plan besides expecting the unexpected, and maintaining an open channel of communication, this way I’m 70% confident I can use the time difference to complete both. More importantly, once the filming is over, it’s basically no longer concerning the actors, and then we can slow down our pace," Brokheimer talked confidently.

"But..." Adrian frowned as if he still had some concerns.

"Come on, Ed, isn’t this what you wanted to hear from me? I’ve already agreed, what more could you be dissatisfied with?" the other person bluntly interrupted.

"You rascal..." Adrian suddenly laughed, "Alright, then it’s settled."

He originally planned to let Liv rest for a while after "Wedding Crashers," but Liv kept chasing him for the surprise he had once hinted at; this surprise couldn’t be revealed just yet, but Liv couldn’t be left uneasy either. Considering the timing was nearly appropriate, he simply decided to move that movie up the schedule. Just then, another movie script was also completed, which he had also promised to someone, and in his memory, Brokheimer was the producer for both movies, thus creating a conflict.

This is not to say that without Brokheimer, these two films would have been terrible, as I’ve mentioned before, a director could create vastly different works from the same topic if they shoot without memory, let alone a producer? Maybe if someone else took over, they could produce something even better.

But the problem lies in Brokheimer’s definite knack for production. His title as Gold Medal Producer wasn’t earned through luck or cheating. Add that Don Simpson hadn’t accidentally moved on to Heaven, his clout and connections in Hollywood are also quite considerable; winning Brokheimer’s favor was entirely worthwhile.

Besides, from what I remember, Brokheimer would go on to produce many high-grossing films in the future. Even with the uncertainty caused by a "butterfly", it’s usually better to keep the original crew if possible. Moreover, given that Simpson was still around, it was exciting to see how far Brokheimer could go.

From my memory, in the last few years of the first decade of the 21st century, he also hit some reefs. Looking at it from Adrian’s accumulated experience, although he could continue to cater to the audience’s tastes in terms of watchability, he still inevitably fell into the pit of stacking effects. If it had been the steadier Simpson, he might have been more conservative, but he was spot-on with the "American Spirit" that Americans particularly love, which could be seen in projects from "Top Gun" to "The Rock."

Such a future was worth looking forward to, so making early investments was also a smart move. Anyway, with Adrian around, even if there were some bad signs, they could be corrected.

Well, these things were still a long way from being realized. Adrian continued his leisurely life, checking on the editing of "Eyes Wide Shut", dealing with some company matters, making phone calls and writing letters, yet taking time to play with his increasingly adorable daughter and her young mother.

"Pa... Pa-pa!" Lily, sitting in Adrian’s lap, babbled unclearly, happily waving her hands trying to grab his collar, her chubby cheeks all a healthy red, like a freshly ripened little apple, her big eyes squinting into crescents with joy.

"Hey, did you hear that, Kate? The little one called me again," Adrian said, proudly pinching his daughter’s cheek as if to cheer on his fatherhood, while the little one giggled out loud.

Kate, sitting with her legs curled up looking at a script, rolled her eyes at him but said nothing. Adrian then smiled at his daughter, "See, Lily, mommy is upset, she’s not happy you called daddy first."

The little one’s laughter got even louder, making matters worse, and Kate looked up to glare at Adrian once more, still saying nothing.

Adrian rolled his eyes, his smile turning more mischievous, "Hey, Kate, to be honest, I think Lily is much prettier than you were as a child."

"Adrian!" Kate finally shouted, "Have you said enough yet!"

"Isn’t it the truth?" Adrian shrugged his shoulders and then looked down at his daughter in his arms and sighed, "Oh, dear Lily, mommy is angry, she’s upset because you are prettier than she was as a child."

But the little one seemed to understand this remark, she stopped laughing and blinked at her mom, then opened her arms and vaguely called out, "Mom."

Kate’s feigned anger instantly vanished. She came over, held her daughter close for a while, and then reluctantly handed her back to Adrian when the girl leaned towards him but turned and walked away.

"Where are you going?" Adrian quickly asked.

"Playing a game." Kate rolled her eyes at him without enthusiasm.

"We agreed you’d finish the script today; we start shooting next week." Adrian reminded her.

"Having you around is too distracting, and since you’ve hogged our daughter, I might as well go play some games to kill time." Kate huffed discontentedly and ran out before he could respond.

"Really..." Adrian murmured, then put his daughter down on the bed, trying to coax her to sleep.

However, ten-month-old Lily, now full of energy, crawled about the bed and refused to sleep quietly, making excited noises like "eh," "ah," and "oh," which had Adrian, who was carefully watching over her, sweating profusely from worry she might fall off. Left with no choice, he lifted her up and placed her in the crib.

The little one immediately looked displeased, but perhaps she realized what her dad was trying to do. After enough activity, she used up her last bit of energy, calmed down, and finally lay in the crib, falling asleep to the sound of Adrian’s humming.

"Lily’s asleep." After entering the study, Adrian spoke to Kate, who was engrossed in front of the computer.

"Thanks," Kate’s tone still carried a hint of annoyance.

"Okay, it was just a joke earlier, if it upset you, I apologize. I know you also put in a lot of effort for Lily, whether she calls ’Dad’ or ’Mom’ first is totally up to luck." Adrian walked over, placed his hands on her shoulders, and spoke in a soothing voice.

That was actually true. Not to mention the earlier instances, just the few days when they were weaning Lily off breast milk had been hectic for Kate. The little one, no matter what, refused to take milk from the bottle. At that time, Adrian was busy running around for "Eyes Wide Shut," so Kate had to handle their daughter all by herself.

"Okay—I get it—" Kate drawled, still staring at her computer screen and didn’t turn her head. Adrian wisely changed the subject, "So, what level are you on?"

"Still on the second level, it will take a few more hours at least to get past it."

"Still? Isn’t that a bit slow?"

"I only play two hours a day, I’ve never played games on the computer before, getting to the second level is pretty good for me."

"Alright, alright, how does it feel?"

"Not bad, the controls are a bit complex for me, but I’m getting used to it."

"No, no, not that, I mean... are you satisfied with her portrayal?"

No sooner had Adrian finished speaking than Kate screamed out. He had bent down and sneakily slid his hands from under her armpits perfectly capturing her softness. The sudden attack flustered Kate, and on her computer screen, Lara immediately moved two steps to the left. The scene on the screen was a tunnel with a giant rolling stone trap that would be triggered, and the trick was to have Lara lean against a triangular corner and jump out after the stone got stuck. But now, thanks to Adrian’s antics, Ms. Croft naturally met her demise under the rolling stone.

"Damn it! I had just made it here! Because of you, I have to run it again!" An angry Kate was about to give Adrian a piece of her mind, but she forgot that Adrian’s hands were still on her softness. After taking a few punches from her, a couple of squeezes softened Kate right up.

"Let... let go! Otherwise... I’m going to..." Feeling the touch on her neck and the tingling sensations in front, Kate’s breathing suddenly became a bit rapid as she struggled.

"What are you going to do about it?" Adrian teased, though he stopped moving and brazenly squeezed in from behind the chair and held Kate in his arms.

"Can’t you just let me enjoy my game in peace?" Kate turned her head half way and watched him warily.

"Do you like the game, Kate?" Adrian asked, resting his head on her shoulder and staring at the character on the screen.

Although, in his opinion, the 3D model was a bit rough, it still bore a five-degree resemblance to Kate’s face, and the one on the game box looked even more like her. When initially he had the Eidos Studio create the game, Adrian explicitly stated that the image of the novel’s heroine, Lara Croft, was based on Kate and asked them to model the character as closely to Kate’s features as possible.

Since the boss had spoken, and he was also the author of the novel, plus it didn’t affect the core of the game, the developers had no reason to refuse, especially given this girl’s obvious special relationship with the boss. They analyzed tons of Kate’s photos and videotapes, and if it weren’t for Adrian wanting to surprise Kate, they almost invited her to model for them. In the end, although the finished product was somewhat simple, it still vaguely captured Kate’s essence, and her figure was quite impressive, especially those full breasts.

There are many theories about why Lara Croft had such alluring breasts, such as market considerations, or perhaps a slip of the hand during production that added a bit too much, but now...

"We just wanted to make your girlfriend a bit more perfect, boss," said the head of the modeling team, giggling. They all knew that this great boss and director was quite approachable in private.

Adrian found this both amusing and awkward. Alright, Kate’s figure was very perfect and well-proportioned, but her breasts were indeed a bit small, no wonder those guys talked like that.

"Hmm... not bad, I quite like it," Kate said, staring somewhat absently at Lara Croft on the screen, though Adrian’s hands became naughty again, she just symbolically twisted her body.

"It’s good that you like it." Adrian smiled, remembering clearly her surprised expression when he handed her the game box, which was even greater than when the novel was published.

Then Kate, who wasn’t much interested in computers, started playing the game with enthusiasm. If not for Adrian beside her and her responsibilities as a mother giving her a good measure of self-control, she might have gotten lost in it, after all, what could be more enjoyable than maneuvering oneself on an adventure in ancient tombs? Especially when countless others outside were doing the same—after the release of "Tomb Raider," and just as expected, the female version of "Indiana Jones" appealed to those who enjoyed gaming, with its easy controls and rich, thrilling, interesting decryption and action design, the game became quite popular.

"Unfortunately, your breasts appeared slightly larger than before, but still a bit lacking," Adrian sighed purposefully.

"Ed!" Kate responded with displeasure, her tone clearly showing annoyance.

"Why have they grown a bit?" Adrian acted as if he spoke to himself, "Is it because of giving birth to Lily? Or is it because of my frequent massages? Or maybe that so-called papaya soup?"

"Alright, Ed, can you let me get through this level first?" Kate said helplessly.

Adrian finally withdrew his hands, but before Kate could breathe a sigh of relief, he immediately reached under her clothes from below. Since they were at home, Kate hadn’t worn a bra and just had on a blouse, allowing their skin to touch without any barrier.

"Just keep playing," Adrian whispered in her ear as he blew on her neck, "Let’s see how far you can get in this situation."

Though Kate glared at him with a turn of her head, she began to control Lara again as instructed. The room was occasionally filled with soft moans, her erect nose soon covered with fine sweat droplets, her cheeks flushed, and her hand holding the mouse trembled occasionally. Although her eyes were focused intently on the screen, they occasionally clouded with fog, causing Miss Lara to have to repeatedly start over due to various mistakes.

After finally completing that segment of the game, Kate was able to save the game and then collapsed into Adrian’s arms, breathing heavily, her vest soaked through. Adrian then scooped her up in a victorious embrace and carried her to another room, how could he possibly let go at this point? (To be continued. If you like this work, please come to Qidian (qidian.com) to vote and subscribe. Your support is my greatest motivation.)