Ex left on the front foot, and Sam Raimi, the director of the film "Spider-Man" on the back foot, broke into Joel's office directly despite the assistant to the president, and Joel was reading the script brought by Ex at this time.

Seeing Sam Raimi with an angry face, Joel, the president of Sony Pictures, waved at the assistant who was standing at the door with an embarrassed expression, signaling him to go out and close the door.

"Sam, I'm getting ready—" He was interrupted halfway through his sentence.

"From the time I got the script to now, the start of filming has been postponed, and I want to know, when are you going to wait, next year or the year after?" Sam Raimi just received a notice from Sony Pictures this morning that the start of filming for the sequel to "Spider-Man" was postponed again, and he finally came to the door when he couldn't bear it, "If you don't plan to start filming a sequel right away, then why did you bring me in early?" Watching you and the actors fight each other over salary? ”

"Sam, I can understand your feelings, now the crew is spending money every day, and we are also in a hurry. It's not our sole responsibility to delay filming for a long time, and Tobey Maguire's stubbornness has forced us to seriously consider finding a suitable replacement for Spider-Man. I know you admire him, but do you think he's really worth $20 million in this movie? Joel was annoyed by Sam Raimi's unreasonable attitude when he came up, and he was going to make him a cup of coffee, but he ended up pouring only his own.

"Then who are you going to change, is it really Felix Lin?" Sam Raimi also realized that his attitude just now was a little reckless, after all, the other party was the president of Sony Pictures, out of scruples about Joel's identity, his tone finally softened: "I don't think he can play Spider-Man well, although I admit that he is not bad in every movie, but I can communicate with Toby and try to persuade him to make concessions!" ”

"$15 million, this is the salary that Felix Lin is willing to accept, and it is also the highest price we can accept, if Toby Maguire agrees, we will cooperate, and if we don't agree, we will change!" Joel temporarily put the script written by Lin Mingyang into a drawer, and he decided to give Tobey Maguire one last chance.

――――"Spider-Man 2" star Tobey Maguire finally attracted the attention of the media because of the "quarrel" with the producer because of the salary problem, and the spread of this role change turmoil finally involved Lin Mingyang. Hollywood reporters got the reserve price of the two of them out of nowhere, and then made a big competition in the newspaper, and even launched a campaign called "Who is the Spider-Man in your mind?" Readers' votes.

In this round of confrontations, although Lin Mingyang's reputation and popularity helped him a lot, the preconceived concept still made Toby Maguire get a higher vote than him in the end. As soon as the voting results came out, the Hollywood media, which was originally a wall-to-wall grass, basically favored Toby Maguire, and the situation seemed to be developing in a very bad direction for Lin Mingyang.

The support of this media review made Tobey Maguire's agent Kevin firm in his determination to fight Sony Pictures to the end, but a phone call from Sam Raimi made Tobey Maguire waver again.

"Mr. Remy told me that $15 million was an ultimatum from Sony Pictures, and if you don't accept them, you will be replaced immediately!" Tobey Maguire worriedly told his agent the news.

"Ultimatum!" Kevin sneered, "I think Joel must not have seen today's newspaper when he said this, the media and the audience are on our side, and now we have the upper hand." ”

"Will this make the relationship with Sony Pictures too stiff?" The agent's explanation didn't completely dispel Tobey Maguire's concerns.

"My dear Toby, as long as you can bring them green dollars, who cares what you have done, all they care about is the end result." Kevin patted him on the shoulder, "You've been too nervous for this time, maybe you should take a good rest and then welcome our great victory." ”

-- Joel, the president of Sony Pictures, did see the results of the media selection, and the day before, he had received a reluctant phone call from director Sam Raimi, and Tobey Maguire refused to accept Sony's offer! The two pieces of bad news stacked together and made him drop something in his office for the first time. After losing his temper, Joel remembered the script he had forgotten in a drawer, but when he looked for it, he found that the script that Ex had brought was missing.

"I put that script in this drawer, but where is it now?" Holding back the anger in his heart, Joel called his assistant in, and now he needed to figure out what was going on.

The assistant looked at the angry boss with an aggrieved expression, "But didn't you ask me to send that script to Mr. Sam Raimi yesterday?" ”

Being reminded by him like this, Joel remembered that yesterday he got the final revised version of the original plot of "Spider-Man 2", and then he put that script in the same drawer as Lin Mingyang's script, and his assistant obviously got the wrong script.

Joel leaned back in his chair and threw the real script on the table: "You go get that script back, that's what Sam Raimi wants!" ”

"He didn't send it wrong!" At this time, Sam Raimi pushed the door and walked in without warning, holding the script Joel had been looking for before, "This is the sequel story I want for Spider-Man!" ”

"Did you read the newspaper this morning?" There was no knock on the door, no appointment, and Joel watched helplessly as Sam Raimi walked in and out of his office as if no one was there. He was holding back a fire in his heart just now, but now it was finally completely ignited, and he laughed angrily: "This result satisfies you and Tobey Maguire, right?" ”

Sam Raimi looked at him confused: "I did read today's paper, but I don't understand what you're talking about?" ”

"Don't play this game in front of me, you and Tobey Maguire think this will bring the company to its knees?" There was a hidden anger in Joel's voice: "I can tell you very clearly now that Tobey Maguire is officially out!" ”

Sam Raimi finally understood that Joel had completely vented his dissatisfaction with Tobey Maguire on himself, and in the face of the angry president of Sony Pictures, the big director, who has always had a bad temper, unexpectedly calmed down, "Is this your personal opinion, or the final resolution of the board of directors!" ”

"I will immediately announce the convening of an extraordinary board meeting to discuss this issue, and I think the vast majority of directors will not tolerate such a serious provocation by Tobey Maguire. I'm going to make him pay for his stupidity! ”

"What about me, are you going to be expelled together?" Sam Raimi asked with a sneer.

Joel had a very direct showdown and said: "Either accept the new lead actor and we continue to work together; Either I'll suggest to the board of directors that the film director be reconsidered! ”

"One last question!" Instead of making a direct choice, Sam Raimi held up the script in his hand: "I wonder who wrote this?" ”

"Felix Lin, the guy you think can't play Spider-Man!" Now that his face has been torn, Joel doesn't need to speak politely, and the irony of the gun and stick in his words is very obvious.

Sam Raimi was patient at this time: "Are you really going to replace Tobey Maguire with him?" ”

"That's right, unlike Tobey Maguire's idiot, Felix obviously knows his own situation. The script you have in your hand can prove that he's worth that $15 million! Since he wants to suppress Toby Maguire, Joel naturally wants to elevate Lin Mingyang's status.

"I'm willing to accept the adjustment of the cast selection!" This sentence came out of Sam Raimi's mouth calmly.

"What?" Joel thought he had misheard, "So you agreed?" ”

"I still say the same thing, Felix Lin is not the most perfect person in my heart, but he is the least bad choice in this situation!" Sam Raimi squeezed a very reluctant smile into the corner of his mouth: "The main reason is that I like his script!" ”

-- Sony's silence did not arouse Toby Maguire's suspicions, but director Sam Raimi's silence sent him a dangerous signal, and he took the initiative to give an interview to the TV station: "My attitude is completely wrong, I should have joined the team earlier, but I feel very tired, and in the end I hope to learn a lesson from it, cinema is always the most important thing." ”

This speech was edited into an entertainment news piece, which Lin Mingyang happened to see when he passed by the living room, Catherine, who was sitting on the sofa, pressed the pause with the remote control, and judging from the freeze-frame TV footage, Tobey Maguire seemed to be in a somewhat anxious mood.

"I heard from Mr. Ex that you're also a candidate for the new Spider-Man?" Catherine, who has never cared much about this kind of news, asked Lin Mingyang such a question for the first time.

Lin Mingyang looked at his mother with some hesitation: "You didn't like to care about this before?" ”

"Your mom was also a Spider-Man comic book fan when she was your age. The first time I ran into her on the school bus, she had a copy of the Spider-Man comics in her hand! When his father Lin Qinghai walked into the living room, he happened to hear the conversation between Lin Mingyang's mother and son, which reminded him of the scene when he and Catherine first met.

"Is this true?" Lin Mingyang's mouth opened wide in surprise.

Lin Qinghai smiled and nodded, looking at his wife's eyes full of tenderness: "In the locker in the basement, there are still two big boxes full of comics that she finished reading but was reluctant to throw away!" ”

"But I never knew that!" In Lin Mingyang's previous records, they were all about himself.

Mother Catherine pretended to be angry and glared at him: "Of all the superheroes in Marvel Comics, you said that you like Iron Man the most!" ”

"Do I have one?" Lin Mingyang really can't "remember" at all.

"I can testify to this!" Lin Qinghai nodded with certainty, "When you were born when you were 6 years old, what we gave you was an Iron Man toy!" ”

Although he has not personally experienced the interesting things about Lin Mingyang when he was young, from the memories of his parents, he can still feel the warmth flowing in his heart. At the end of this family discussion, the conversation returned to Spider-Man.

"Are you really going to play Spider-Man?" Because after the news just now, Catherine looked a little worried.

"Do you really want me to play that role?" Lin Mingyang is very curious, because his mother has not been very positive about her own acting.

"Why not?" Catherine shook her hand, "Imagine if you actually played Spider-Man in a movie, I could show off to my former friends, you see, Spider-Man is my son!" ”

Just when Lin Mingyang began to seriously consider whether he should fulfill his mother's wish, the doorbell rang at home. Catherine skillfully pointed to Lin Mingyang on the stairs, "You go up first, if it's a reporter, I'll deal with it with your father!" ”

This kind of situation has long been accustomed to Lin Mingyang and his family, everything is like a rehearsal, Lin Mingyang went upstairs to his room, Catherine looked out through the door mirror, and then she saw a middle-aged man with a somewhat decadent temperament on his face, this is not the situation that should appear in the "drill".

Catherine hesitated, but seeing that her husband was beside her, she opened the door.

"Sir, who are you looking for?"

"You're supposed to be Felix's mother, right?" The visitor nodded politely to Catherine, "I'm Sam Raimi, the director of the film "Spider-Man"! ”

"Oh my God!" Catherine looked at each other in surprise, "Felix and we were just talking about Spider-Man. ”

Sam Raimi shrugged, "I'm also interested in this topic, and if you guys don't mind, I can join the discussion." ”

Catherine, of course, didn't mind, and within half a minute of opening the door to meet, Sam Raimi was sitting in the living room of the master's house. Although Catherine seemed to know what her son's conversation with the director of "Spider-Man" was, her husband Lin Qinghai patted her on the shoulder, and the two went upstairs together, leaving space for their son.

"Surprised?" Sam Raimi likes the surprised look on Lin Mingyang's face now, and his own directing style is good at setting up suspense and surprises in films.

Lin Mingyang nodded unabashedly: "It's very unexpected!" ”

"You're taller than I thought!" Sam Raimi said seemingly out of tune.

Lin Mingyang asked curiously: "Is there any way to say this?" ”

"Because we'll have to rebuild a new Spider-Man uniform!" Sam Raimi looked at Lin Mingyang's eyes as if he was looking at a "prop", "But this time the designer doesn't need to add muscle padding to the clothes, I have seen your previous performances, and the muscle lines on your body are already perfect!" ”

A key message is revealed from Sam Raimi's evaluation, the change of Spider-Man's starring role is already a sure fact, and Tobey Maguire is going to be disappointed this time.

"If you can, I would advise the designer to make the crotch more comfortable, I've heard that my ex, Tobey Maguire, complained about this during the previous episode!" Lin Mingyang added a little.

"You know about it, too?" This time it was Sam Raimi's turn, and it was a bit of a surprise.

"During this time, the entertainment news on TV has been broadcasting things related to the sequel to Spider-Man!"

Sam Raimi didn't answer, "Know why I chose you in the end?" ”

The atmosphere in the living room became a little delicate, and then Lin Mingyang smiled lightly: "Giving up the original foundation and starting everything from scratch, such a choice is indeed a bit difficult for you." ”

Sam Raimi nodded, "I'm glad you're aware of this, so from today onwards, forget Tobey Maguire, you're not going to be his stand-in, we're not going to make a sequel to a movie, if I'm going to make a brand new Spider-Man!" ”

(To be continued)