For the sake of Oscar promotion, New Yorker Natalie Portman did not hesitate to place the engagement ceremony in Los Angeles.

The engagement ceremony seemed very low-key, and not too many guests were invited, but the news had already been quietly released, and dozens of entertainment reporters gathered around a villa in Malibu to get the first hand.

Martin entered the villa and was greeted by Ali Emmanuel.

"That's a great idea!" He accompanied Martin to the lawn in the back garden, whispering as he walked, "Although the ballots won't be mailed until the end of the month, Nat's voice has outdone all the contenders." ”

Martin reminded: "This method can only be used once in a period, and it will not work so well next time." ”

Ali also understands this and said: "If you can win the best actress this time, Nat's next development will be biased towards the business side, after Julia Roberts, Hollywood has not produced a recognized first sister, maybe Nat can compete." ”

He made the key point: "Nate is still our own people. ”

Ali and Natalie Portman are all Jews.

Martin asked, "You're going to bring Nat to be the company's chief female customer?" ”

Ali nodded: "With this kind of thought, if you want to become a Hollywood sister, business is the key, and her post-Oscar works have also had preliminary contacts, and it is related to you." ”

If Martin thinks about it, several works related to him, whether it is "The Martian" and "Escape from Tehran", which he is sure to star in, or "Napoleon's Beauty Pass", which he invested, do not seem to have been in contact with Natalie.

Ali roughly said: "The highlight of Warner Pictures, the adaptation of Gillian Flynn's new work "Dark Land", the original book has seen it, and the work with the heroine as the core, "Gone Girl" is a big hit, and this one is very popular. ”

Martin said of the current situation: "Gillian is now Hollywood's hottest writer and screenwriter. ”

Ali asked, "Gone Girl grossed more than $180 million at the North American box office, right?" ”

Martin replied: "As of yesterday $185 million. ”

Ali exclaimed: "This will be another popular film with more than 200 million US dollars in North America and close to 500 million US dollars in the world, and the most rare thing is that it is also an R-rated film of non-comedy, non-horror and non-action genres, Martin, your vision and appeal are amazing." ”

Martin didn't expect Warner Pictures to work with Natalie, but there is no way to say this, and no one dares to say that "Dark Land" will fail.

Turning to the lawn, Martin saw Natalie and Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin.

He went over to send blessings and gifts, and sat down with Thomas, who had come over a long time ago.

"I met with Ridley Scott this morning at Warner Studios, and the post-production of Pharaohs and the Gods is in the final stages, and he doesn't have the final editing rights, and it's estimated that it will be done before February, and Ridley said that he can take a break of about ten days before he can devote himself to the preparation of The Martian," said Thomas. ”

Ridley still doesn't have the final editing rights like "Kingdom of Heaven", and Martin can already foresee the future of this film.

He didn't care about other things and asked, "Did NASA get a reply?" ”

Through the relationship between Washington and the White House, Martin sent a batch of sample books printed by Random House to NASA after Andy Weir completed it.

The filming of this film is indispensable for the support of NASA.

Thomas added: "Louise went to Washington to sign a partnership agreement with NASA. ”

Martin said, "I'll call Louise when I get back. ”

Ali came over at this time, sat on the other side of Martin, and said: "Ridley pushed Fox's new "Alien" backwards in order to direct your "The Martian", this film is hard sci-fi, can it work?" ”

Martin must give confidence at this time: "I'm 80% sure that I can succeed, Ridley is good at science fiction ......"

"No, Ridley's best thing is epic." Ali specifically reminded Martin: "This is something to remember, especially when you're facing Ridley, saying a few good things about him and epics can be more effective than anything else." ”

Martin understood, simply direct: "Ridley's epic film is my favorite. ”

Think about Lao Lei's epic films, except for one "Gladiator", don't mention the rest.

The engagement ceremony began, and the three Martins stopped talking and watched quietly.

The arranged photojournalists and videographers have been taking pictures and videos, which will then be sent to the media, causing another wave of enthusiasm at this critical moment when the Oscar ballots are about to be distributed.

The engagement ceremony was successfully completed, and the host then arranged a reception reception.

Natalie, who has a big belly, found Martin alone and thanked him personally: "Your creativity puts me far ahead of other competitors." ”

All of this has worked, and she is very happy: "Since the Gotham Indie Awards, I have won fourteen outpost awards for Best Actress. ”

"You're welcome, Nat." Martin smiled: "I watched 'Black Swan', your character is amazing. ”

Natalie is not modest at all: "I prepared a lot for this role, and I also put in a lot of ballet, and I practiced ballet alone for half a year, and I personally completed 90% of all the scenes about ballet. ”

Martin nodded casually.

This kind of publicity is normal at the Oscars, and if a lot of the dance scenes are done by stand-ins, it will be difficult for Natalie to even get a nomination.

As long as she wins this Oscar, Natalie will be the first actress born in the 80s to win this award.

The significance of this aspect is, in some ways, a symbol that she can become the first Hollywood actress born after the 80s.

She wanted the award so badly: "Voting will start soon, Martin, is there any other way you can get more votes?" ”

Martin felt that this was enough: "I can't think of it for a while. ”

"You're a genius, you choose the script, the acting, the publicity." Natalie looked left and right, no one paid attention to this side, and said in a low voice: "Tonight, I drove Benjamin away, right in my bedroom with Benjamin, how about I thank you so much?" ”

She held her upright stomach with her hand: "Maybe I'm not as beautiful and sexy as Elizabeth Olsen, but you shouldn't have experienced such a special time, right?" ”

Although Martin is often not a human being, he always has a moral bottom line, and he is unmoved in the face of Natalie's proposal.

And he had no grievances with Benjamin Mipayer, and immediately said: "Nat, we are friends, there is no need to do this, if you do what is in front of you, you have a good chance of winning the prize." ”

Natalie sighed secretly, not without regret: "It would be nice if I could have known you a few years earlier." ”

has money, beauty, status and fame, and will also promote marketing.

Martin was self-aware, and said in his heart that you could have looked up to me a few years earlier?

Talking alone, the topic would definitely be deviated again, and he casually found a reason to come to the place where Ali and Thomas were.

Ali asked, "What's wrong?" Frightened? ”

Martin shook his head, not knowing what to say.

Ali thought of Martin coming from Natalie's side, roughly understood, and said: "Don't care, Nat is sometimes more bold and wild, with high IQ, high education and indifference to fame and fortune are specially erected characters." ”

"Understood." Martin doesn't despise it, because so does he, and both Ali and Thomas know it, laughing at himself: "I'm still a sunny man and an American hero." ”

After the reception party was over, Thomas got into Martin's car.

Bruce drove to Burbank.

Thomas saw the huge poster of Leonardo outside the window and said: "This year's Oscars publicity PR is a bit strange. ”

He picked up the newspaper next to him, which had a photo of Leonardo's water gun: "Best Actress does not promote her acting skills and role, and she dangles in front of the media cameras every day with a big belly." Leo is even more interesting, he actually sold ugly, and it was the first time I saw Oscar publicity and public relations, and some actors sold ugly publicly. ”

"Harvey has fallen, and now is the time for the demons to dance wildly," Martin said. ”

Thomas shook his head: "But the direction of this Oscar PR promotion is too biased." ”

Bruce couldn't help laughing and said, "Martin single-handedly led the entire Oscar PR skewed!" ”

Thomas couldn't agree more: "That's true. ”

Leonardo sells ugliness, Natalie sells belly, James Franco declares to break his arm and sells his disability, Nicole Kidman sells his love of life Cruise......

The first Oscar of the post-Harvey-Weinstein era seems to have been led astray by Martin alone.

Martin thinks it's better to sell miserably than to sell LGBTQ or something.

Back at the studio, Martin called Louise, who was already talking to NASA.

In Los Angeles, Bradt and Andy Weir are co-working on a script that, according to the duo, is 50 pages long and will cover NASA's technical and operational details.

NASA, like the FBI and CIA, has a dedicated Hollywood office that handles filming with Hollywood crews.

They've worked with a lot of Hollywood crews in the past and don't mind working together again.

According to Louise's feedback, NASA's internal recognition of "The Martian" is extremely high, and several executives said that they have never seen a science fiction that can tell such a wonderful story and maintain a high degree of technical accuracy.

This can be regarded as the hard science fiction among soft science fiction.

There are relatively few hard-hitting sci-fi movies that have been commercially successful in the past.

Therefore, the project has not yet been officially prepared, Martin is already thinking about publicity, he asked Louise to discuss with NASA, the next time there is a space launch plan, see if you can bring a batch of special paper and posters to space, after recycling, whether it is to make brochures, or print commemorative posters, it is a good gimmick.

At the same time, the studio was also raising funds for filming.

With a production budget of $100 million, this is the first time that Davis Studios has operated a film project with an investment of hundreds of millions since its establishment.

Then, Christmas arrived, and after the Christmas holidays, Davis's studio had to move.

(End of chapter)