King of Hollywood-Chapter 571 - 292: Truly... Admirable

"Aren’t there a few too few shots in this segment? These Undead Soldiers are all unruly guys, and even if Aragon is the heir to the Royal Family and wields the Holy Sword, recruiting them won’t be easy. Also, if we cut out the pirate content, doesn’t Aragon’s appearance with the undead army at White City seem a bit abrupt?" Jackson asked, his tone somewhat urgent.

"Yes, I admit, you make a lot of sense, Peter, but we have to consider the bigger picture," Adrian said without any dissatisfaction. This kind of conversation had happened countless times between the two, and Jackson was not the kind of person with low emotional intelligence; it’s just that he was too fond of Tolkien’s work—otherwise, he wouldn’t have left his work and shamelessly insisted on coming here—and right now he was just a director, not really needing to look at issues from a producer’s perspective.

"There are three novels for ’The Lord of the Rings,’ and a vast world is constructed. It indeed feels like an achievement to show this world piece by piece, but a movie has at most three hours. I’m not David Griffiths, and I’m not making ’Intolerance.’ I can’t expect the audience to bring a water cup, toothbrush, and blanket to the cinema; so necessary trade-offs are a must," Adrian said unhurriedly. "Do you know, when I decided to bring ’The Lord of the Rings’ to the big screen, some people suggested that the investment was too big. They said it would be better to compress the three books into one, make Rohan and Gondor the same country, combine Boromir and Farmer into one person, make Eowyn Aragon’s sister, and have King Elrond take over Celeborn’s parts."

"Really?" Jackson showed a look of surprise, obviously unable to accept this.

"Yes," Adrian laughed, of course, it was true, these were the real difficulties that ’once upon a time’ Peter Jackson had faced.

"I didn’t agree, it was too terrible. If we did that, the essence of the book would be completely gone, it would be an utter failure," he continued, and then received an approving look from Jackson, "But we still have to cut some parts because we can’t possibly shoot everything. And in the third part, the three key points are the Battle of White City, the Battle at the Black Gate, and the journey to Mount Doom. The three hours of the film have to serve these three points, so there’s no need to spend too much time describing the undead army and the pirates."

"...Indeed," contrary to the expectation of those listening around, Jackson did not insist on his own opinion and nodded after scratching his head.

But this hadn’t surprised Adrian at all; it had already been mentioned that such debates had occurred many times between the two, and although he was a few years younger than Jackson, no matter how much the opposite opinion, the latter always did as he asked, and did it quite well. Jackson, who had yet to experience great success and had not been swept up in unprecedented joy, had a more agile mind, knew better how to scrutinize moderation and adaptability, so naturally, he was more malleable.

So Adrian had always taken extra care of him, not only did he want to exploit labor but he genuinely wanted to lead him onto another path; therefore, appropriate encouragement was necessary.

"However, your opinion is worth considering, we could release a director’s cut on VHS or DVD later. At that time, we can add back those scenes that we had to reluctantly cut due to the length of the movie," Adrian stated, "So, give me a brief on this segment, Peter, concise and with trade-offs. "

"No problem!" Jackson’s eyebrows lifted in excitement, then he hesitated and lowered his voice, "By the way, Ed, I have a plan..."

A hesitant look appeared on that fluffy, chubby face, which seemed quite comical, but Adrian didn’t mind and he lifted his chin to signal him to go on.

"What do you think about ’King Kong’?" he finally asked after a moment of hesitation.

"A fine science fiction movie, achieving that level in the thirties was quite impressive, and it influenced many people, which is why there have been several remakes and sequels," Adrian’s eyebrows lifted, he had already understood what the other party wanted to say, "So, you’re planning another remake?"

"Yes," Jackson affirmed, nodding his head, he looked somewhat excited, "Just as you said, creating those effects in the thirties was an incredibile feat, but technology is always progressing, from silent to sound, from black and white to color, and now, CGI effects are more realistic and impressive. Why not give that movie more dazzling colors, to make it more spectacular and real?!"

"Sounds like you already have some preparation in mind, right?" Adrian asked, stroking his chin with interest.

"Yes, I had this plan in mind while I was still working on ’The Frighteners.’ I talked to many investors, and some film companies were interested, but at that time there were other monster movies being filmed, so with just a little contact with Universal, it was vetoed," Jackson sighed, a bit depressed, but then looked at Adrian with hope in his eyes. "I was thinking, maybe you would..."

He wasn’t a fool; he knew that Adrian had had high hopes for him since promoting him to lead the team. Coupled with the various rumors about the Miracle Director, that’s why he was working so hard and taking the opportunity to make his request now. More importantly, Adrian held the various rights to ’King Kong.’

Indeed, Universal Pictures had the name and usage rights to King Kong, while the Turner Broadcasting System had acquired the film library of RKO Pictures in the 1980s, thereby securing the rights to remake and create sequels for ’King Kong.’ The two companies had even fought lawsuits over the rights to ’King Kong.’ Now, after having been acquired by AC Media, they no longer needed to argue over this issue.

So, if Jackson wanted to remake the movie, all he needed was Adrian’s approval.

"I’ll consider it," Adrian said after thinking for a moment. "I promise you, once we wrap up ’The Lord of the Rings,’ we’ll find a time to talk about it in detail."

"Thank you." Jackson smiled again, trusting that since Adrian had said this, he would definitely consider it.

In fact, Adrian was also eager to see what kind of ’King Kong’ Peter Jackson, without the inflation from ’The Lord of the Rings’ and after being instilled with many concepts of special effects serving the story, could produce. At the same time, Naomi’s beautiful face flashed through his mind; she would still be the female lead.

The production of ’The Lord of the Rings’ continued, and with the addition of Fat Peter, the already decent efficiency improved slightly, which made Adrian hope to wrap up filming in October more active. However, it wasn’t possible yet; with the Southern Hemisphere’s winter coming, he had started to reduce the frequency of the teams going deep into the forest parks. If an accident happened in the middle of that, it would be terrible.

Therefore, in the upcoming month, most of the shots would be completed inside the studios in Queenstown, also giving the actors more rest time. Although Adrian had arranged the shooting schedule very well, allowing each actor to take turns to go home and rest, such as the three female leads who left the set once again, due to the need to shoot the trilogy all at once, those with concentrated roles—like Mortensen, Wood, as well as Davis and Silver—still had a heavy workload, so they were very pleased with this hard-earned rest time.

But new problems emerged. Gandalf had a lot of shots in these scenes, so McKellen was also in the cast; inevitably, the old man had to complain a bit during his rest time. Simply put, he frequented gay bars, but apart from him, hardly anyone else from the crew went to gay bars, so he felt a bit bored there.

Although he could have gone to regular bars with everyone, in the old man’s eyes, regular bars were equally boring and not open enough, so he often tried to persuade everyone to check out the gay bars with him. Adrian had been invited as well, even though in the past two months, his flirtatious interactions with several women were enough to tell everyone he wasn’t gay.

Surprisingly, a group of people did follow the old man to gay bars several times, including Adrian once. The gay bar wasn’t as mysterious or disorderly as ordinary people imagined, nor were there men in drag, so it wasn’t much different from regular bars, and there was no need for any fuss. Still, seeing Wood and Silver dance together in the dance floor left Adrian almost spraying his drink; the two were indeed the most... beautiful men in the crew—if you could describe men as beautiful—and they did look quite matched together.

Adrian had only been there once, not because he was the director and head of the crew, with many things to take care of, but because he had many visitors to entertain who were vacationing in New Zealand, like the Lavigne family.

"This is completely different from Canada, isn’t it?" Adrian asked John Lavigne after taking them around the volcanoes near Tongariro National Park.

"Yes, it’s beautiful, somewhat similar to Canada, but with a completely different charm," John replied with a nod before waving at Judi, who was not far away, gesturing and roughhousing with the three siblings.

"So, you invited us here on vacation," he then said to Adrian.

"It’s nothing. It’s just that winter has arrived here, and the shooting schedule has slowed down quite a bit, so I invited quite a few friends to come for a vacation," Adrian explained briefly. "Honestly, your daughter is really doing well; she’s making quick progress and might even consider releasing a single by the end of next year."

"Of course, she’s always had a talent for music," John said as he looked on at the playing siblings with a happy expression, seemingly proud of his daughter.

However, Adrian imperceptibly shook his head. To be fair, John had fulfilled the responsibilities of an ordinary father with regards to Avril. At the very least, he had bought her a sound system and agreed to let her sing at the market. But that was only the extent of a normal father’s duties. Avril had also tasted the bitterness of being a "sandwich cookie." But things had improved a lot for her now, especially after getting MCM record signings from Matthew and Michelle for her brother and sister, she strutted about quite proudly in front of them. As for the source of the improvement...

The Lavigne family didn’t stay too long in New Zealand. It was just a vacation, no need to stay for ten days or a half-month. Avril was lively and happy from beginning to end because, after all, it was because of her that Adrian had invited her family over. However, during that time, Adrian didn’t talk much with her; instead, he talked a lot with John, who had seen "The Lord of the Rings." Whatever his thoughts were, it wasn’t the time for them yet.

Then, the men of the film crew began to whine and complain again because the next visitors to the New Zealand film set were women, and they were women who had a flirtatious past with Adrian, although they were two Asian actresses.

Yes, Asian actresses. Who would have thought that this playboy liked all sorts of flavors? Luckily they didn’t come together, otherwise who knows how much gossip would have erupted from the men like women.

The first to visit was Nakama Yukie, who had made a promise with Adrian before he left Los Angeles. They had spent a few lovely days together as a couple, and the hot springs in Auckland made Yukie reminisce about Hokkaido and things back home.

"There will be a chance. I’ll go back to Japan with you to take a look. It’s been so long, and I miss it too," Adrian promised while in the hot spring, which earned him even more tender care from Yukie.

Naturally, the next to come was Lin Zhiling. Her role in the film version of "Resident Evil" wasn’t very big, and moreover, filming had already ended and now they were moving into post-production, set to release at year’s end. Thus, she was still undergoing acting training.

"You’ll have a good role soon, in the second half of the year, so you need to put in more effort," Adrian said to Lin Zhiling as the beautiful woman leaned half her body against the floor-to-ceiling window of the hotel suite, her hands bracing against the glass and one leg lifted high, performing a wide split on the man’s shoulder, heavily accompanying his words, especially after the phrase "need to put in more effort."

For a woman like her, being direct was always the best method, especially since she was of Chinese descent; in a place like Hollywood, making a name for herself meant attaching herself to him.

If the consecutive visits of Nakama Yukie and Lin Zhiling barely touched the nerves of the male crew members, then the next woman to arrive in New Zealand caused them to want to bang their heads against the wall.

"Your movies have a kind of magic that always seems to be able to showcase the beautiful and independent side of women," Mortensen said as he looked at the lady before him. freeweɓnovel-cøm

"Yes, whether it’s ’Pretty Woman’, ’Four Weddings and a Funeral’ or ’My Best Friend’s Wedding’, I’ve watched them several times," Austen immediately nodded, with many people echoing in agreement.

"Thank you, I’m delighted to hear your praise," Julia, sitting in the middle, modestly nodded her head with her legs crossed and her body slightly tilted to the side; her signature big mouth curved slightly upward, giving her an alluring charm, "The scripts of these movies are all pretty good, especially since the characters fit me so well, right?"

The last word was directed toward Adrian sitting next to her, laced with a hint of barely-there sarcasm, which Adrian seemed to ignore as he smiled, "Of course, these roles were designed especially for you, dear Julia."

A few faint sighs immediately arose around them, and the more astute among the group had already guessed the reason behind Julia’s sarcastic tone—a superstar who played independent women in romantic movies, yet her real life was a never-ending saga with a playboy. Could there be anything more ironic?

This was also the reason the men in the crew felt like banging their heads against a wall. Everyone knew Julia was the first Miracle Girl and the only one ever photographed in intimate moments with Adrian. Despite never having worked with him, it was clear she more than deserved the title—and it was absolutely impossible she hadn’t slept with Adrian.

But here lay the problem—if the two had just dated briefly or even had a one-night stand, that would be normal. But considering today’s situation, Julia obviously knew Adrian had other women, yet she still occasionally showed intimacy with him; that was just too...

Those troubled with these thoughts even suspected that Small Emma, introduced to everyone, might in fact be Adrian and Julia’s daughter. The story of Julia’s irresponsible brother and his girlfriend having a child and then neglecting it was maybe just an excuse.

"I have to say, Adrian is truly... admirable. He’s the man I respect the most!" Davis, who always liked to summarize topics about the Miracle Director, concluded once again.

Although only Julia, Blanchett, and Gwyneth had appeared so far, there was no doubt that every Miracle Girl was very likely the same—a charm and capability beyond compare.

However, some didn’t think so.

"Tell me, how many women have been here before me?" Julia asked while touring under the red hue of Australia’s Aels Giant Rock, wearing sunglasses, a scarf around her head, exuding the charm of a mature woman.

Indeed, they had gone to Australia, not limiting themselves to New Zealand. After all, the two countries are not far apart, and the private plane was always on standby. Moreover, the scenery in New Zealand was all on the South Island, which Adrian had practically explored throughout these months. Furthermore, AC Media, under their plan, had already started to reveal the filming locations of ’The Lord of the Rings’ to avoid a mass influx of journalists, so taking a trip to Australia was quite nice.

"Not many—do you need to worry about such things?" Adrian, holding her waist, laughed.

"Of course, it helps me understand your heart, your view of me," Julia huffed lightly, with a trace of imperceptible resignation and confusion.

Adrian had promised to make her the first Best Actress of the 21st century, but so far, there had been no movement. Although producing a movie in 2000 and then attending the 73rd Oscars was within his promise, why couldn’t it be earlier? He wasn’t lacking in ability, considering how he had pushed both Gwyneth Paltrow and Kate Blanchett into nomination spots at the beginning of that year, even helping Kate Blanchett take the crown! It was frustrating... not knowing how to describe it. (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, you are welcome to vote for it with recommendation tickets and monthly tickets on Qidian. Your support is my greatest motivation.)

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