King of Hollywood
Chapter 494 - 215 Unparalleled

Chapter 494: Chapter 215 Unparalleled

After straightening his clothes and waiting a moment, Adrian guessed that Rachel must have reached the hall by now, so he headed outside. Reminiscing about the earlier burst and Rachel’s pitiable collapse on the floor, a slight smirk curled at the corners of his mouth—he wasn’t fooled by her act. If Rachel really wanted to avoid him, why would she come to this party after the Oscars? She knew all too well that he attended every one of them.

Besides, she had deliberately walked past him several times, pretending to be intimately engaged in conversation with other men. The hint of submissive satisfaction that flashed through her eyes when he’d tweaked her cheek betrayed her true intentions.

With a shrug, Adrian returned to the bustling hall where small groups were animatedly discussing various topics, either standing or sitting at the corners, the bar, and tables, as music flowed freely. But before he could fully step into the room, a figure approached with a fragrant breeze at the corridor’s entrance.

"Where have you been?" With a playful smile curling her lips and her azure eyes twinkling with a hidden seductive glow, her chin slightly lifted with an air of arrogance, much like a queen.

Adrian offered a faint smile about to speak when she leaned in and inquired in an insinuating tone near his neck, "It’s not Gwyneth’s scent. Which woman have you been messing around with then?"

"This is a public place, dear Kate," Adrian glanced around. Although a few people noticed them, they quickly looked away.

"Does it make a difference?" Blanchett quirked an eyebrow. "Okay, let me guess—except for me and Gwyneth, the others are still here, and those not present might not even show up soon. But a few minutes ago, a woman came out from the other corridor and left quickly. She seemed hurried and slightly weary, and more importantly, she was nominated for Best Actress in a movie you invested in the year before last!"

"You sure observe closely, Kate," Adrian chuckled softly. "Unfortunately, it was not her but you!"

"Me?" Blanchett’s face showed genuine surprise, clearly puzzled by his words.

"Indeed," Adrian’s smile turned playful. "Just now, while you were caught off guard, I intercepted her and pulled her into the corridor. You seemed reluctant, even struggling slightly, but followed closely behind..."

Blanchett knew he was playing games but listened involuntarily, even adding, "That’s how you like it, isn’t it? Seemingly resisting on the surface but actually quite compliant."

"I pulled you out to the stairs outside, then walked up a few floors and pressed you against the railing."

"A dangerous and exciting place, right?"

"My actions might have been a bit harsh, making your expression one of pain, but your legs gently rubbed against me."

"That’s exactly what you wanted to see, isn’t it? Plus, you are naturally rough; your tenderness is just for show."

Thus, Adrian described their rampant encounter in the corridor with Rachel, using a voice only the two of them could hear and replacing Rachel’s name with "you." His narrative was explicit, highlighting how it erupted at the end and your delicate reaction, sprinkled with plenty of crude language.

After his narration ended, Blanchett still maintained her previous expression, her cheeks flushing a light hue of pink, yet her ears turned a deep red.

"You really are a jerk," Blanchett’s voice wavered, her tone somewhat gritted, but her face was bewitchingly coquettish.

Adrian squinted his eyes slightly. If he hadn’t just been intimate with Rachel, he might have taken Blanchett inside. That thought spun around in his head briefly before leaving, so he smiled lightly, then bowed graciously, "Thank you for your compliment, Your Majesty. I must apologize, as tonight I plan to comfort a beautiful lady who is feeling down."

Blanchett looked surprised at first, then her expression turned to anger, "What does your comforting that lady have to do with me?"

No sooner had she spoken than she realized she had fallen for Adrian’s trick again. He had clearly seen through it and teased her that way, which was rather obvious. Sure enough, after her remark, a knowing smile appeared on Adrian’s face, accompanied by a hint of smugness, causing Blanchett’s chest to heave several times.

Obviously, he wasn’t too sure before, so he tested and teased her with those words. Then... Blanchett suddenly felt ashamed. Before this, even though he knew about their relationship exceeding that of normal female friends, and it was Adrian who initiated the threesome, now... But at the same time, an excited feeling surged in her, making her somewhat uncontrollable.

But it only lasted a few seconds, and Blanchett regained her composure, then snorted lightly, "Fine, go ahead. You didn’t comfort another disappointed lady last year anyway."

Although it was a bit ungracious and petty to bring up last year’s issue, she didn’t bother to care anymore.

"How could I," Adrian immediately feigned an exaggerated wounded look, "Even though there were many who needed comforting last year, I still managed to comfort that lady with others."

Blanchett immediately coughed dryly, pretending to be angry, glared at him, and then turned and left without a word. Watching her retreating figure, Adrian chuckled silently. Even though she maintained her uniqueness and charisma in films, privately, she had been shaped this way, and her increasingly close relationship with Gwyneth was very satisfying.

After diverting his gaze, he scanned the room briefly; just like moments ago, even when glances came his way, they quickly shifted. Whistling softly to himself, Adrian walked through the hall and started mingling with others—Julia, Monica, or Zetajones and, of course, there was plenty of time for Gwyneth tonight.

Julia and Monica didn’t say much to him. They knew exactly what kind of person he was. Even if they noticed his leaving with Rachel or the ambiguity with Blanchett, they would pretend it didn’t exist. For Julia, out of sight was out of mind, whereas Monica just didn’t care. As for Zetajones...

"I’ve never seen a man like you, Ed," she suddenly blurted this out with a complex expression in her eyes while Adrian was comforting her.

After Adrian asked a few questions to no avail, he didn’t pursue further. He could guess what Zetajones was thinking to some extent. But so what? Unless she was ready to decisively cut everything off and leave... But having already received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress and nearly reaching the status of a top Hollywood actress, plus an unfinished previous agreement, was it that easy to let go?

After a few rounds, Adrian finally reached his ultimate destination, the night’s biggest winner, the newly crowned Best Director Oscar winner, Cameron.

"You finally made it, Ed. I thought you had forgotten about me. Where did you go?" Cameron, his face flushed and clearly smelling of alcohol, clapped Adrian’s shoulder heartily.

Then he quickly thought of something and grinned mischievously, "Oh, I shouldn’t be asking this question, the answer is pretty straightforward."

"Alright, James, shut your mouth, or I’ll make you do it with a wine bottle," Adrian joked while playfully punching him, then added, "Congratulations, James. From now on, no one can shake your position in Hollywood."

"Of course," Cameron laughed heartily and then hugged Adrian, "Thanks to you, Ed. Although I was prepared, I definitely didn’t expect the ’miracle’ you mentioned to be like this!"

"That sounds good enough to fool the audience, James. Better drop it when you’re with me," Adrian said with a laugh, "Don’t forget who you are, the tyrant of the set. Do you think I don’t know how ambitious you are?"

"Yes, yes, you definitely know, we are a perfect match," Cameron laughed again.

"Damn, that sounded like you meant something else," Adrian rolled his eyes, unable to hold back a laugh as he looked at him.

"Don’t worry, don’t worry," Cameron waved his hand, lowering his voice with a grin, "Even if someone calls you gay now, no one would believe it."

Adrian rolled his eyes again, deciding not to dwell on this issue with him, "By the way, who were those people you were talking with? They looked somewhat familiar."

"Oh, of course, that was Yves Pascal from Paramount, Edward Wright from MGM, and John Aver from Fox," Cameron shrugged, "They hope to collaborate with me and are willing to offer attractive terms."

"Did you agree?" Adrian’s tone and expression remained unchanged, but he imperceptibly raised an eyebrow.

"I just said I’d consider it, but actually, I don’t really want to make movies right now. ’Titanic’ drained all my energy. I want to rest for a while, a year or maybe two. Thanks to you, I’m a billionaire now," Cameron joked, "I might even indulge in more luxurious activities."

It didn’t need saying; the guy was planning to go deep-sea diving again. But Adrian breathed a small sigh of relief internally. If there was a big concern for him after getting involved in the big ship, it was that Cameron might not focus on developing further. Knowing what had happened in the past life, if Fox hadn’t been driven to the brink of bankruptcy, how could Cameron have waited ten years to launch a new work after the unprecedented success of ’Titanic’? Though there were other factors, the excessive investment risk was most crucial, as no one knew whether they would be compelled by him to keep increasing their investment, eventually accumulating an astronomical figure.

This was precisely why Cameron, while working on documentaries and dabbling in production, had thoroughly researched film technology, leading to the creation of ’Avatar’. Though the plot of the film was cliché, the technology it showcased was truly incomparable. Now, executives from other film companies just saw the Miracle Director casually invest nearly 300 million and casually reap a global box office of 2 billion, unaware of the risks behind it, thus they might swarm to invite Cameron to direct.

Even though Cameron was good at selecting scripts, and having a work like ’Titanic’ under his belt largely increased his decision-making power in filmmaking, what if it bombed? For these sorts of unforeseeable events, Adrian always prepared for the worst. And what about the filming technology that was supposed to be born because of him?

Thankfully, Cameron’s head was still clear; he knew that no one could support him like Adrian did, so there was no need to worry about that now. As for a year or two later, there would be a suitable film for him to produce.

"We still need to do something related to films, at least to keep in shape," Adrian casually remarked.

"Of course, I have plans already. I plan to go back underwater to see the wreck of the Titanic, maybe make a documentary or something. Besides that... oh yes, there’s a TV show you might be interested in," Cameron suddenly brought this up.

"A TV show?" Adrian looked at him confusedly, wondering how the conversation had shifted to this topic.

"I have a friend, a friend who produces TV shows, and he has a science fiction TV show screenplay. He’s invited me several times to help oversee it. It’s currently in the sample production phase to send for TV channel approval, and I think you might want to consider it. I’ve read the screenplay, and it would make a great TV show," Cameron said earnestly.

A science fiction TV show? Could it be... Adrian stroked his chin, "Could you tell me the name of the script and roughly what it’s about?"

"It doesn’t have an official name yet. As for the content, it’s set in the near future where the United States is attacked by terrorists using electromagnetic weapons that disrupt communication and information systems, causing society to regress. The government secretly trains genetically modified soldiers, and a girl escapes from it, triggering a chain of events," Cameron carefully recalled.

"I see. Have them send the sample production here first after it’s made; I’ll review it personally," Adrian immediately responded, and then added, "If possible, let me see the screenplay beforehand."

"No problem!" Cameron replied joyously.

The United States, attacked by terrorists, genetically modified soldiers, a fleeing girl... It’s probably that TV series, which, though only broadcast for two seasons, wasn’t cut due to low ratings and could fully take over while also paving the way for two other TV dramas. Of course, more importantly, it’s been in the last two years, right?

As the Oscar Night party by Vanity Fair ended, the carnival provoked by the Oscar’s 70th anniversary finally concluded, but its repercussions were far from over.

"A miracle among miracles, after breaking the record with 15 nominations, ’Titanic’ broke another record by winning 12 Oscar statuettes, surpassing ’All About Eve’ and ’Ben-Hur’!"—Washington Post

"Cameron won Best Director for ’Titanic,’ proclaiming ’I am the king of the world’ on stage!"—Chicago Tribune

"’Titanic’ will become a miracle in the history of cinema, an insurmountable mountain! Miracle Director Adrian Cowell and tyrant James Cameron crafted all of this together!"—Yahoo United States

Everyone was astonished and celebrated the achievements ’Titanic’ garnered at the Oscars, and even though there were some criticisms, they retracted, not intending to provoke those fervent fans at this time. And the previously struggling ’Titanic’ rose again just like when it received the nominations, and after expanding to 800 more theaters, it triumphed with a $24 million box office in North America within a mere two weeks, successfully breaking the $800 million mark, and globally it amassed a $2.1 billion box office, standing at the true peak before it finally went offline with a bang.

"It will usher in an era, where no film can challenge its records for decades," predicted a critic in his column.

Though Adrian knew that a challenger to the box office record would appear within ten years, so what? ’Avatar’ might surpass ’Titanic’ in box office numbers, with 3D and IMAX’s higher ticket prices contributing significantly, so it wasn’t a fair defeat of ’Titanic’, even if Adrian had cheated in box office earnings.

This cheating wasn’t about falsifying box office data but involved investing $15 million directly to push North America’s box office to $800 million, thereby helping the global box office exceed $2.1 billion, much like Cruise spending millions to secure his movie the weekend box office crown. This small amount of money was nothing, considering the $2.1 billion global box office of the big ship, which, after all deductions and taxes, had a net profit of around $500-$600 million!

Keep in mind, the net income of an average middle-income family per year is just a few tens of thousands of dollars, and that of a major film company per year barely approaches a hundred million, yet one movie’s net income could match the net profits of the Seven Major Film Companies for a year... enough to make countless people gulp and feel envious.

"If I knew it would be like this, I should have invested in this film as well," Claude once complained and sighed to Adrian.

"Don’t say I didn’t invite you," Adrian responded proudly.

"Did you invite me then?"

"Of course, don’t tell me you forgot."

"I don’t remember."

"Aren’t you ashamed to say that?"

...

Despite much envy and jealousy, more was admiration and praise towards Adrian; after all, not everyone had the boldness to initially invest $200 million in a film, later adding close to $300 million. Achieving such rich returns was justifiable, and perhaps in the future, movies might break box office records, but surpassing the record of 15 nominations and 12 Oscars is almost an impossible feat.

Perhaps, after the Oscars are over and the movie goes offline, the hype around the big ship will gradually fade, but it will forever be one of the topics people talk about whenever cinema history is mentioned, impossible to skip over the big ship. This luxury liner, which sank on its maiden voyage in the Atlantic, added the most brilliant touch to the last splendor of the 90s. (To be continued. If you like this work, we welcome you to vote and recommend on qidian.com, your support is my greatest motivation.)