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"That's it, Nancy."

After walking around the three-bedroom hardcover apartment, Duke nodded with satisfaction and said to the female agent, "I'll leave the rest of the formalities to you first, I still have an appointment." ”

He looked at his watch, waved his hand to Nancy Josephson, walked out, took the elevator straight down to the first floor, started the car out of this luxurious neighborhood in North Hollywood, turned two intersections, drove into Laurier Valley Boulevard, not far from the community, parked in the parking lot opposite Bank of America, got out of the car and crossed the road, and walked into the café that he had promised.

"This ......"

As soon as he pushed open the glass door of the café, a monotonous nasal voice came from the right, and Duke turned his head and walked over, sat down opposite Sofia Coppola, and said to the waiter who came with him, "A latte, thank you." ”

"You're late, Duke." Sophia took off her baseball cap and showed her long brown hair tied into a ponytail, "This doesn't look like your style of doing things. ”

"Nancy helped me find an apartment, and I was delayed a little bit."

With an apologetic gesture, Duke said to a confused Sophia, "Nancy Josephson is my agent. ”

"I know her." Sophia's connections in Hollywood far exceed Duke's," said Marvin, the founder of ICM. Josephson's daughter is a former entertainment lawyer. ”

"You're going to move out?" She asked again.

"yes." Duke thanked the waiter for bringing the coffee and nodded to Sophia, "I can't stay with my mother all the time." ”

Sophia didn't continue to dwell on these issues, she directly stretched out a hand, "What about the second script you mentioned on the phone?" ”

"...... here," Duke opened his handbag and handed her the bound script draft, "Although Nancy has invested in a number of companies, there is no news of the project yet, and if it can't be established, it will be difficult for me to pay your salary." ”

"I have faith in you."

replied casually, Sophia's eyes fell on the script, she knew Hollywood's strict project review process, Duke now has a movie with a North American box office of over 100 million as the base, as long as the creativity of the second work is not too bad, there is still a great chance of investment.

She opened the script and only read the first few sentences, knowing that this should be a standard man's action scene.

Time: Dawn. Exterior: It's dark.

Long shot: Six servicemen carrying a coffin into the cemetery.

Camera cut: In front of the mirror, the silhouette of a smoking man, his figure obscured by smoke, and in front of him are a picture of his wife and a blue dress of a Marine. (close-up) with medals hanging from the dress.

Voiceovers: gunfire, explosions, brutal battle sounds, panicked shouts - we can't hold on, General......

Camera transition: (first view) Surrounded by soldiers, the national flag is draped over the coffin.

Voiceover: General Hammer, we request an immediate retreat......

Camera transition: The man in front of the mirror stands up, solemnly puts on the dog tag, puts on the dress, the chest of the dress is full of medals, he takes off the wedding ring, puts it in front of the photo of his wife, and puts the hat on his head.

Big close-up: Marine Corps officer's eyes, eyes sparkling!

Voiceover: A qiē must be stopped

Fade in......

Exterior: Heavy rain pours.

General Hammer placed flowers in front of his wife's grave and said, "I miss you so much." There's one thing I have to do...... Whatever happens, please don't look down on me.

He pulled out a Purple Heart medal and placed it on the tombstone......

For more than an hour, Sophia barely looked up, frankly speaking, the script does not meet her aesthetics, especially the status of the female characters in it, which is completely dispensable, but after all, she has been in the crew of "Life and Death" for more than two months, and understands the temperament of the guy opposite, he is simply a saboteur and explosive maniac, and writing such a script is in line with his style, isn't it?

"It's not enough that you've ruined Santa Monica...... she closed the script, "and you're going to ruin Miè San Francisco next?" ”

"If it were possible, I would like to destroy all of North America." Duke put down his coffee cup, "In the movies, of course. ”

"Explosions, fights, sensationalism with action scenes," Sophia said as she returned the script to Duke, "It's really a typical Duke-esque script." ”

"But," she said when Duke took the script, "the role of General Hammer is interesting. ”

"Thank you." Duke put away the script, "I think he's going to be the biggest highlight of the film." ”

"When will I start working?" Sophia seemed to be in a hurry.

"You've just returned from Europe." Duke was a little puzzled, "Don't you need to take a break?" ”

"My expenses are relatively large. Sofia Coppola made a gesture you understand, "So ......"

"Well, we can sign the contract another day," Duke also needs an assistant to help him with chores, "You're working for me from now on." ”

He opened his handbag, took out a stack of materials, put them on the coffee table, and handed them to Sophia one by one, "This is the information of my lawyer and accountant, you communicated with them in time, Twentieth Century Fox and Lucasfilm and my share have not arrived." This is Nancy's contact information, she is in charge of following up on this script, we need to keep abreast of the dynamics, I don't particularly trust her, you have to pay attention. Also, in the last few days, if I have time, I will go to the newspaper or the screenwriters guild to post an advertisement, and sign a few screenwriters, and I have two script outline templates that need to be filled. ”

"I think I'm here to be your film assistant, right?" Sophia frowned.

"Hey, dear." Duke spread his hands and said, "Now that we don't have a film project, do you want to just take money and not do anything?" ”

"Okay." Sophia put the information away, then stared at Duke and said, "But you're going to pay me three months' salary in advance." ”

For most of July, Duke spent most of the year waiting, and the script entered the review process of several companies including Fox, Warner Bros., and Touchstone Pictures, and the minimum production cost of $50 million he marked on the back of the script will inevitably make these film companies cautious, even if he has a film to the bottom, the producer must also conduct a risk assessment before the project is established, and no one will recklessly decide on such a large investment project.

During this period, Lucasfilm's role was played again, and under their constant urging, Twentieth Century Fox quickly paid the rest of "Life and Death" in place, and Lucasfilm, which also made huge profits on this project, did not owe Duke and Mrs. Leah their share, and the money that belonged to them arrived not long after.

As for when Lucasfilm will pay for the share of other film funds, it will be a matter of waiting.

"Investing in movies is like gambling, and once you hit it, the benefits are huge."

Sitting on the sofa in the living room, Mrs. Leah looked through the financial statements sent by the accounting firm, and said to Duke, who was also looking through the information sitting opposite, "If you fail, you will lose ......"

She shook her head.

Anyway, as a mother, she successfully helped Duke, and Duke did not disappoint her, and created a large profit for her backhand.

"Investing in movies is risky," Duke was in a very good mood because all the dividends had arrived, and it was rare to joke with his mother, "You need to be cautious when entering the industry." ”

"Duke, there's a Bentley in the garage." Lady Leah ignored his joke, "It's yours." ”

"Is this my reward?" Duke looked up.

"What more do you want?" Lady Leah looked at him with pride in her eyes, "Just bring it up." ”

"Mom......" Duke was a little embarrassed, scratched the back of his head, and still said stubbornly, "Nancy called yesterday, my new movie has been preliminarily approved by Guò Fox, can you help me apply for a loan from the bank as a guarantee?" ”

"Do you want to invest in your own films?" Mrs. Leah looked up at Duke, "How much does it cost?" ”

"Three million to five million dollars ......"

"I haven't touched most of the revenue that Lucasfilm has remitted." Mrs. Leah tapped her fingers lightly, "That's it, $10 million." Duke, I want a 10% share of the proceeds when you repay, and if you lose, then go back to Santa Fea to work to pay off the debt. ”

"I understand, Mom."

Well, business is business, that's the rule of the Rosenberg family again.

Although he thinks so, Duke doesn't understand that his mother is reminding him that there is no free lunch in the world, and if you want to harvest, you must pay and so on, and his mother is obviously helping him, don't look at him now that he has a successful movie, if he goes to take out a loan, hundreds of thousands of dollars will definitely be no problem, if this number increases to seven figures, it is quite difficult, and there is no need to think about it at the level of tens of millions of dollars.

Yes, he is very popular, no one will not be blushing about the income of "Speed of Life and Death", and as a director and screenwriter, he can only get more than $400,000 from this huge income, and he must have an idea in his heart.

Through Guò "The Speed of Life and Death", Duke has been trained quite a bit, accumulated a certain amount of experience, and has more confidence in the second film, and this film is also the genre he is best at.

Among them, the most difficult to solve, and the most headache, is still in terms of funds, if you want to share enough revenue and have enough say in the future film production, this fund must not be a small amount.

Now, it is his mother who helps him solve this problem.

According to Duke's idea, if he could, the film would still work with Twentieth Century Fox - after all, the two sides had a successful foundation, and it seems that Townsend Rothman admired him more - he borrowed about $3 million to $5 million from the bank, and then converted his director's salary into investment, so that he could occupy the investment amount of 6 million to 8 million dollars, which was enough to give him a certain say.

As the clock ticked into late July, Nancy Josephson finally got the good news that Twentieth Century Fox would begin preliminary talks with Duke about a new movie, "Death Island."