Four Hundred and Thirty-Seven - All Stem From that Invitation Back Then

This weekend, Wayne stayed at the manor to rest peacefully. After more than a month of continuous promotion activities, even though his body is strong, he has accumulated too much fatigue.

While accompanying her daughter, she occasionally discussed the script with Naomi Watts. This woman is very serious about "The Dark Knight". As her return after giving birth to her child, this film is the best opportunity to prove herself. .

The only pity is that this film is not a heroine movie. The protagonists of the film are the Joker and Batman. To be harsh, there is only one absolute protagonist, and that is the Joker. As Batman's first love girlfriend Rachel, her presence will inevitably be overshadowed by the two male protagonists.

But Naomi Watts didn't care at all. She knew very well that the heroine of Wayne's movie was definitely the dream role of most actresses in Hollywood.

What's more, besides this movie, she knew that there was another project waiting for her. The story about the gorilla climbing the Twin Towers that the man seemed to be joking about had already polished the script and could be put into production at any time.

Maybe Warner Bros. executives don't know what projects and copyrights Wayne has in his hands, but as one of the people closest to him, they know it in more detail. After all, the conversations between Wayne and Nina are never deliberate. Avoid her.

And these plans only exist on paper. The main female character, Naomi Watts, believes that she is Diwayne's first choice.

During this period, Nicolas Cage came to the manor with his agent for a visit. After signing a confidentiality agreement, he successfully obtained the complete script of "The Dark Knight" in advance.

After watching it only briefly, Nicolas Cage fell into excitement. The film was very different from what he imagined. Even he did not expect that the clown was actually the absolute protagonist of the film.

"I will complete the weight loss as soon as possible, and then find a closed environment to find the state you need before the filming starts."

With only such a sentence left, Nicolas Cage hurriedly left the manor. Even though the film had not yet begun formal preparations, he was already in a state of excitement.

As three days passed this weekend at the end of July, the new weekly box office list in North America was released again. "Dawn Until Dawn" did not achieve outstanding box office results as the media expected. It only took the top three in the first three days of the weekend. To $7 million.

On the other hand, "A Time to Kill" released by Warner Bros., under constant complaints from movie fans, successfully took away nearly 40 million U.S. dollars from the theater market. It grossed 39.87 million U.S. dollars in the first three days of the weekend, which surprised countless people.

I thought that even if there was no close competition, the two films would not be too far apart. After three days of the first weekend, the winner was decided.

Due to the impact of the newly released "A Time to Kill", the box office of other previously released films have been affected to varying degrees. After "Independence Day" grossed more than $250 million at the box office, its growth has gradually slowed down. Despite this, this 20th Century Fox box office bomb is still moving towards the $300 million mark at the North American box office.

After the scale of "The Matrix" has been reduced several times in a row, it can hardly be seen in mainstream theaters in big cities. There are only less than 300 remote theaters in North America still showing it. However, compared with the 80 million production cost, For a U.S. dollar science fiction film, the North American box office is 170 million U.S. dollars and the global box office is 460 million U.S. dollars, which is an out-and-out huge success.

Compared with "Independence Day" which has been a hit at the box office for a whole month, "The Departed" is much more low-key. With a relatively strong reputation and the help of Will Smith and others, the film's box office has been approaching US$140 million. , the global box office also immediately exceeded the US$400 million mark.

Unusually for Wayne's new film, it has never had a box office hit on that weekend. The box office trend has been neither popular nor popular, but it has been surprisingly strong. Every weekend that passes, the box office decline is healthy and unconventional.

"The Departed" will continue to be in theaters for a long time, and no one can predict the final box office figures. Many third-party forecasting agencies have given up their predictions for this film. Because it is destined to go to the Academy Awards ceremony, whether it can win the statuette will have a great impact on the film's final box office figures.

Everyone knows the marketing effect of the Oscars. If "The Departed" can win major awards, Warner Bros. and the theater alliance will definitely expand the scale of screenings again to bring the film back into people's sights.

As other films are released after the summer season, the screening scale of "The Departed" will continue to be compressed, and the box office will inevitably grow more slowly. According to Wayne's own estimation, the North American box office of this film will most likely be around US$170 million.

It is definitely not a problem for the film to make a large profit, but it is obviously impossible for the North American box office to reach 200 million US dollars, even with the blessing of the Oscars.

Just after the weekend, Wayne received an unexpected call. He heard that he would also attend the alumni meeting organized by George Lucas for two days. Professor Andreessen Horowitz arranged a special lecture for him.

As the student who has developed the fastest and most smoothly after graduating from the University of Southern California in recent years, Wayne's legendary college life has been talked about by subsequent junior students. Professor Andreessen Horowitz hopes that he can Come to school a little early to share some experiences that cannot be learned in school with students majoring in television and video.

Faced with the teacher's suggestion, he agreed without hesitation. These things were not a problem to him. It was just a speech. If it didn't work, he would give it his all. He had no psychological burden at all in doing so. Anyway, in the mid-to-late 1990s, the chicken soup in people's eyes had not been poisoned, right? Early on Wednesday morning, Wayne and Naomi Watts returned to their former apartment and walked around. The narrow stairs, the somewhat yellowed and mottled corridors, and the two small apartments connected together, Almost nothing has changed from memory.

"You can always stay here if you want."

When she saw Wayne standing on the cramped balcony, looking at an old typewriter in trance, with a look of memories on his face, Nina, who had been following him, suddenly said: "Every half month here , Hela will find someone to clean and ventilate it.”

"Forget it, there's no need to find fault on your own."

Shaking his head, Wayne reached out and gently touched the typewriter in front of him, and whispered back.

Although he had authorized the purchase of this entire apartment building a long time ago, he had never thought of renovating it, and there were even many tenants living in the building.

Those who come to Hollywood to pursue their dreams, as well as USC students, never know who owns this apartment building. The reason why Wayne stayed here was to preserve the traces of his four years of college life.

"I remember when you first invited me over, there was a little misunderstanding."

Naomi Watts sat on the old sofa, turned around and said with emotion: "At that time, you had not left the apartment for more than a week. It was as if this place had been visited by a group of thieves."

Speaking of this, Wayne also smiled in memory. When I originally invited this beautiful neighbor, my intention was to find a cheap and beautiful actress, but the other party misunderstood it as an invitation to have sex. "It seems that my charm was pretty good at the time, otherwise you wouldn't have accepted the invitation to sit here."

"Hey." The Australian actress raised her white arm and waved her fist at him pretending to be angry. "Your place is like a garbage dump. If I didn't help you sort it out, no girls would be willing to come in."

Everything seems to have happened yesterday. Naomi Watts still clearly remembers that she and Wayne were just two unknown people at the time, dreaming of staying in Hollywood. At that time, no one would have thought that success would come. So fast.

They walked around the Avenue of Stars together, and she touched the stars and vowed to leave her name on them in the future. Her biggest wish at that time was to have a villa of her own in Beverly Hills, where the rich gathered.

Now these wishes have basically come true. Although she has lived in Greenberg Manor for a long time, she has already bought a house of her own in the mountains of Beverly. As for those damn stars on the Avenue of Stars, as she learned more about the industry, she didn't value them that much.

Six years later, she has successfully made her name known throughout the United States and even the world, and has become one of the representatives of Australian movie stars in Hollywood. All of this originated from that invitation.

"Okay, I know what you are thinking." Sitting on the sofa, Wayne gently patted the woman's shoulder. He was sure that the other person was almost the same as what he recalled at this time. "The reminiscence time is over. We can come back often to visit in the future. Let's go. I want to take a walk around the school."

"F**k, you ruined a great memory for me."

Naomi Watts hit him hard with her head, a little annoyed that her recollection was interrupted.

"Okay, if you miss the past." Wayne suddenly leaned next to the woman's ear, with a strange expression on his face, and muttered in a low voice. "You still have the leather jacket, collar and leash you used. When you go back, I will take you to reminisce about the past. You know, I like walking the most..."

"Wayne, you animal!"

The two left the apartment laughing and chatting, got in the car and drove towards the University of Southern California not far away. Wayne refused Sergey and Nina to follow him, and he and Naomi Watts looked like a young couple. , walking hand in hand through the campus full of memories.

Since entering the campus, it's like entering another world. There are a large number of oaks and palm trees in the retro buildings. A few couples are sitting sparsely around a fountain. On the lawn farther away, more than a dozen people are sitting. A big boy was passing a rugby ball, and a young man was sitting alone on the grass, holding a book and occasionally turning the pages leisurely. Everything seemed to slow down suddenly.