King of Hollywood

"'Memento,' this was Adrian's new work. Following Guy Ritchie, he turned his attention to the director of the 21st century most adept at storytelling—Christopher Nolan!

This film, made by Nolan in 2000, burned quite a few brain cells of movie fans back then. The entire story wasn't really complex or that remarkable, but under Nolan's editing, it turned into a film that people could savor over and over again.

The movie had two threads, one a flashback told in color, the other a straightforward narrative told in black and white. The two types of scenes alternated every five minutes and eventually merged at the end, illustrating that the beginning was also the end, and also the start. Such an interwoven method of presentation, along with numerous details in each scene—for example, when Leonard narrates about an insurance client with similar short-term memory loss, the scene shows a slightly chubby middle-aged man sitting in a wheelchair. However, when a nurse passes by and the scene quickly shifts, the person in the wheelchair becomes Leonard himself!

Adrian, upon first viewing, didn't notice this point. The scenes switched too quickly, and the numerous clues prevented him from analyzing everything in time. After watching the film two or three times, he finally noticed these details, which left a deep impression on him of the movie.

In summary, people were amazed by it. Although the complex threads resulted in the movie earning only around $40 million at the box office—still considered a significant profit given the $5 million cost—it garnered high praise, establishing Nolan's position in Hollywood. In a past life, Adrian had heard such an appraisal: if Spielberg was the best storyteller at the end of the 20th century, then Nolan was undoubtedly the best at the beginning of the 21st century. As previously stated, while the quality of the story itself is important, the method of storytelling is equally crucial.

Therefore, Adrian had no hesitation in choosing this movie for his second project. Regarding Nolan, he could only apologize. Making this decision didn't make him feel uneasy or anything else. As he had said when he first copied the script, he had been through too much and didn't care anymore. Adrian knew very well that 99% of people in the world, if faced with his current circumstances—with a movie library in their mind, possessing certain filming and production skills, knowing many things about the future, and having start-up capital—would make the same choice as he did.

Soon, Halloween in 1990 passed, and 'Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels,' which had garnered a lot of attention in the movie market, went offline, taking with it a box office tally of just over $40 million. Three days later, it also went offline in the United Kingdom, almost setting a box office record with around £30 million. Together with the opening in other several European countries, the global box office might approach $100 million!

This was the early '90s, and the US dollar was far more valuable than 20 years later. Although Hollywood wasn't short of low-cost, high-gross films, few works achieved a return ratio of 1:90 like this one. This was a result surprising enough to amaze many people. Even Adrian was initially surprised since he had chosen this movie as his debut and naturally remembered its related information very clearly—this film grossed about £20 million in the UK but only a few million in the United States. Now, the North American box office had increased more than a hundredfold, which was simply unbelievable.

Upon careful thought, he realized it made sense. The United States had an interesting feature; non-North American films generally did not have high box office earnings there, as Americans seemed uninterested in films from other countries. This was not surprising since, at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the North American film market was dominated by European movies, people all chasing after films from France and Italy. The US government eventually had to issue laws prohibiting theaters from showing European films while heavily supporting local ones, thus leading to Hollywood's rise. Over nearly a hundred years, as national power grew and the Hollywood film industry developed, Americans naturally became proud and stopped respecting films from other countries.

This is the biggest advantage Adrian had over Guy Ritchie, he was American, he had his own film company, and he had an excellent general manager. Not to mention, he had also participated in the Venice Film Festival, winning the award for Best Debut. In addition to all this, another important point, it was 1990! A film with a lot of information and a multi-threaded narrative that wasn't too complex had far more appeal to the public than it would nine years later. Moreover, it was a great story without any elements that people couldn't accept due to differences in time or environment. All these factors combined, achieving such high box office earnings was quite normal.

Accounting for all expenses—cost, distribution fee, cinema share, taxes, etc.—Adrian could at least receive about $20 million, directly doubling his personal wealth, no wonder Claude called it profiteering. Because of this, after the Venice Film Festival, Adrian, who had somewhat faded from the film company executives' view, was once again noticed. People in the circle also started to take interest in this young director, mentioning him occasionally at gatherings and chats.

Only, they hadn't found the opportunity to contact Adrian yet, as he had already brought his team to a small town in the suburbs of Los Angeles before 'Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels' went offline, beginning to shoot a new film.

'I need you to carry a sense of suppressed emotion, understand, Dan?' Adrian explained to Dennis about the content to be filmed, standing at the door of the town motel, 'You think you already know who the murderer of your wife is, and now you just want to take him out. Of course, when he calls you, you still need to remain calm and mildly friendly. If you can let a flash of shadow pass through your eyes when looking at him, that would be even better.'

Finishing his explanation, he turned to a short man beside him: 'Joe, as for you, I need you to carry a hint of anxiety. You have already sensed something is wrong, but you are not sure how bad it might get, hoping to continue deceiving Leonard as before.'

'In simple terms, this character's state is now hesitance with a bit of wishful thinking, is that right?' Joe Pantoliano, rubbing his chin, thought briefly before answering.

'That's it,' Adrian nodded, 'If there are no issues, let's get started—oh, by the way, Bowen?'

The photographer quickly came over: 'I'm here, director.'

'I need you to move from here to here...' Adrian formed a frame with his hands to explain to the photographer, '...then pull out and capture a full-body shot of the two, got it?'

After the photographer nodded, he clapped his hands and looked around: 'Everybody, take action. Also, to the gentlemen and ladies watching, could you give us some space, please?'

The crowd gathered at the motel door chuckled and dispersed in twos and threes.

'"Memento," scene 24, shot 112.' With the slate's clapping sound, the camera started operating.

***********************************

"Have I mentioned my condition to you before..." Leonard gestured, speaking to the manager behind the window.

"Every day without fail." The manager shrugged, looking at him with an amused expression.

Leonard seemed accustomed to this situation, directly holding a photo in front of him: "Has this person been here?"

"Just arrived." The manager replied after closely observing the photo, as if responding to Leonard's question. A warm voice came from the main entrance: "Hey, Lenny."

Leonard turned around to see a short man wearing glasses, half opening the glass door, smiling at him.

"It's Lenny." Leonard corrected expressionlessly, striding over: "I think I should have mentioned my condition."

"Always mentioning it." The short man continued to smile.

**************************************

"Cut!" Standing behind the camera, Adrian shouted loudly.

"Dan, your expression still lacks something," he said loudly to Dennis, "Leonard isn't straightforwardly expressionless. He just hides his emotions underneath. Do it again!"

Then, within less than three minutes, he called stop again: "Cut! Restraint! Where did your restraint go? Again!"

"Cut! Restraint was enough, but the shadow in the eyes was too much, too overt, again!"

"Cut! You need to have doubts, understand? You harbor doubts about everything around you because of your memory issues, again!"

"Cut! Again!"

"Cut!"

At the start, Adrian would try to explain things to Dennis, but after several N.G.s, he stopped doing so, repetitively calling 'Action!' and 'Cut!' In the end, even partner actor Joe felt it was a bit excessive, but Dennis always remained calm and kept filming without any extra expressions despite the repeated takes.

Finally, after the 76th consecutive N.G., Adrian finally called it a pass. However, not allowing everyone to breathe a sigh of relief, he immediately took the camera from Bowen's hand: "Let's do it one more time, I'll handle the camera myself this round."

This decision almost knocked everyone down, but seeing Dennis and Joe quickly returning to their positions, the staff had no choice but to muster up the energy to continue working.

Fortunately, because Dennis maintained the successful state from earlier, this shoot didn't take much effort and was completed in one take. Judging from the slight smile on Adrian's lips, the result was quite good.

"Now, let's take a 30-minute break." This delightful announcement finally sounded, and almost simultaneously, a sigh of relief echoed on set. Even Dennis, who had remained calm throughout, showed signs of fatigue once seated. After all, anyone would be exhausted repeating the same scene nearly a hundred times in succession.

"Why is Ed more stern today than the previous days? Was your previous film the same?" Joe Pantoliano asked, holding a plastic water bottle, as he approached Dennis. Having agreed to the role, he had done a little research on Adrian and maintained a good rapport with everyone after entering the crew. As an actor who had been in the industry for 10 years, appearing in many supporting roles, he was tired but fared much better than Dennis.