The three partners of SLW Apocalypse rarely gathered together. James Wan proactively offered to host a team-building event.
In addition to the two lead actors, Anya and Holland, other core crew members were also included. A total of more than forty people went to a barbecue restaurant in the center of Buffalo.
Texas barbecue is one of the few culinary symbols of the United States, and compared to it, the fame of Buffalo barbecue is much dimmer.
As the terminal station for the migration of American bison, the beef cuisine here has a history of several hundred years.
Not long after Leon and the others sat down, the restaurant waiters served portions of smoked grilled ribs.
Just looking at the ridiculous size of the plates, one knew the portion was astonishing. Even the food exuded the roughness and wildness of the prairie.
"This tastes really good." Leon was amazed just after taking a bite.
The ribs were slow-roasted at low temperature for 10 hours, smoked at 100 to 150 degrees Celsius throughout.
This made the originally tough beef extremely soft and juicy, emitting a pleasant fruity wood flavor.
"Since coming to the Buffalo crew, Miss Anya has gained two pounds." James Wan smiled and pointed at Anya. "Can you believe this girl can eat two pounds of beef? Simply incredible."
Anya's action of cutting meat froze, and a flush spread upward from her neck.
Eating 2 pounds of pure beef in one go is difficult for an adult man, let alone a little girl weighing only 110 pounds.
She explained, "It's all because the diet in New York is too monotonous. I thought the food there would be very rich... but it turned out to be similar to London."
The British's greatest contribution to world cuisine is fish and chips, and Americans have burgers and fried chicken.
The national dishes are all fast food categories; that's why they are called conjugate father and son.
But in fact, the variety of food in New York is indeed very rich. You can find cuisines from any country or region in the world here.
Little-known African cuisines still have a market here.
However, because the pace of life in New York is too fast, even faced with such a rich choice, most people choose to fill their stomachs with a BEC almost every morning.
BEC (Bacon, Egg, and Cheese) has become a totem of this city.
Compared with Anya's amazing appetite, the voluptuous Dennings basically didn't move her fork much, drinking mixed vegetable juice the whole time.
"Does the food here not suit your taste, Miss Dennings?" Leon asked.
"Of course not. I am Jewish and grew up eating beef and mutton." Dennings held her forehead and smiled slightly. "My fans always remind me to pay attention to weight management. I must control my mouth."
The first Kosher rule of the Jews is related to animals. They can only eat mammals that chew the cud and have cloven hooves.
Under the strict rules, beef and mutton became the few meats they could eat.
"I think those are fake fans. You don't need to lose weight at all."
"Really?"
Dennings subconsciously glanced at her chest. Such a figure did not conform to the traditional aesthetic of Hollywood.
"Of course, you don't need to be anxious about your figure. Your figure is already perfect now." Leon told the truth.
Dennings's voluptuous bombshell figure made her stand out among a pile of stick-thin female stars.
With the hit of 2 Broke Girls, the image of that sharp-tongued, glamorous, optimistic big-breasted girl has been deeply rooted in people's hearts.
At least when Leon watched this show himself, he always unconsciously moved his gaze to her chest.
"You are right! I seem to care too much about other people's opinions." Dennings tilted her head, cut a piece of thick beef, and put it into her mouth.
The grease made her red lips more glistening.
After getting familiar, she changed her previous slightly socially anxious posture and showed the same outgoing enthusiasm as in the TV series.
Jeff held a glass of beer and asked, "The Oscar nominations will be announced next month. Have you talked to those old guys in AMPAS?"
"Not yet."
"Damn it." Jeff slapped his head. "Don't you even understand this little rule of the game? Hold a celebrity party, invite those old guys over, find some women to make them happy. Is this difficult?"
"Not difficult." Leon shrugged. "Do I have to do everything personally? Your connections in Hollywood are much stronger than mine. Since you thought of these things long ago, why didn't you do them?"
"..." Jeff choked and couldn't utter a single letter.
Oscar selection is a long and complex job involving more than 7,000 voting members and hundreds of qualified films and filmmakers.
PwC, one of the Big Four accounting firms, has served as the designated vote counter for more than 70 years because no other institution can fully understand and execute this mechanism.
In late December or early January, PwC sends the "Qualified Film List" certified by the Academy and ballots to voting Academy members.
After the ballots are recovered and counted, the Academy generally announces the nomination list in mid-to-late January.
This process has two obvious window periods: one is the half-month from sending out the ballots to recovering them, and the other is the one month from the announcement of nominations to the start of the awards ceremony.
This is the critical period to win the favor of the jury.
PR master Weinstein operated The King's Speech, winning 12 nominations at the Oscars earlier this year and finally winning 8 awards.
After the nomination list was announced, he immediately arranged a series of unconventional PR activities, holding orgies in Miami, sending third-rate actresses to sleep with old white men, etc...
The most famous of these was the grand banquet held by the Weinstein brothers at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles.
The dinner was hosted by big stars such as Ridley Scott, Jennifer Lopez, and Mick Jagger, the lead singer of the Rolling Stones, inviting more than 500 AMPAS members.
After nearly a minute of silence, Jeff explained helplessly, "You know Warner has also submitted multiple films to compete for this year's Oscars. I can't do PR work for two companies at the same time."
Investing in SLW Apocalypse had already put him under a lot of pressure. If it weren't for Warner Bros.' outstanding achievements in the past three years, he probably wouldn't be able to sit firmly in the president's seat.
"I can't handle this pile of things alone. You must do something!" Leon knocked on the table.
Relying on his personal appeal alone, he probably couldn't even organize a small party of dozens of people.
The notoriety of "Street Jesus" alone was enough to make old white men keep their distance.
"I can help with this, but the event must be held in your own name." Jeff said, "Straight Outta Compton has a good chance of being nominated. In the past, this would have been impossible..."
Straight Outta Compton not only performed well at the box office but also received critical acclaim.
Rotten Tomatoes freshness rating 87%, IMDb rating 7.9.
The Chicago Sun-Times gave it 88 points and considered it "the best music biopic in the last twenty years."
But even so, in the past, this excellent movie wouldn't even touch the shadow of the Oscars.
The all-black cast alone would have been sentenced to death by the jury composed of "old white men."
Then, as the political correctness strongly advocated by the Democratic Party became a hard indicator, Straight Outta Compton not only had hope of being nominated for "Best Original Screenplay" and "Best Picture."
Even winning the trophy wasn't completely impossible.
"No problem, provided you arrange everything." Leon said, "Including girls. I don't have the ability to persuade so many actresses to sleep with old men."
"You guy..." Jeff shook his head while laughing.
"This is your duty. Don't forget SLW Apocalypse is also your company." Leon raised his beer glass and probed the other party's views on Warner copyrights. "Marvel's The Avengers is scheduled to be released on May 4th next year. Disney calls it a nuclear weapon..."
"Nuclear weapon? Those guys only use this kind of gimmicky rhetoric to attract attention."
Jeff said so, but the small action of touching his nose betrayed his true inner thoughts.
A super blockbuster with a budget of $220 million, gathering Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, Thor, and other IPs.
Disney made it clear that it was throwing a heavy punch to counterattack, announcing that the superhero movie market for the next decade belonged to them.
"I mean, hasn't Warner thought about how to respond?" Leon asked.
Jeff raised his eyebrows, seemingly unwilling to talk more. This involved trade secrets.
After hesitating for a few seconds, he finally relented. "It depends on the market performance of The Avengers. A superhero movie costing hundreds of millions of dollars isn't something you shoot just like that."
"Well, I can't understand why Warner wants to keep so many IPs rotting in their hands, letting competitors seize the opportunity." Leon said.
The Justice League project was put on the agenda after Disney officially announced the filming of The Avengers, but the execution capabilities of the two sides were completely on different levels.
The latter was about to hit theaters, while the former showed no signs of even starting filming.
One step behind, and every subsequent step would be led by the nose by competitors.
"Do you think Warner doesn't want to shoot it?" Jeff shook his head.
He intentionally didn't speak too bluntly, but in summary, it was two words—"no money."
Warner Bros. has an annual revenue of $10 billion, backed by media giant Time Warner.
But compared to the Walt Disney Company with an annual net profit of over $8 billion, it was far behind.
They built Disneyland parks all over the world and invested heavily in filming movies.
Then put those hot IPs into Disneyland. This perfect business model made this company a veritable money-printing machine.
Every year, parents around the world hold their children's hands, scrambling to stuff banknotes into Disney's pockets.
"Maybe you should consider selling some IPs, just like Marvel sold Spider-Man to Sony." Leon pretended to say casually.
"What did you say?" Jeff cocked his ear, suspecting he heard wrong.
"Keeping these IPs in your arms won't make them lay golden eggs proactively. You said this yourself."
Leon looked around. The crew members were discussing the script with James Wan.
Dennings was drinking beer and chatting with Anya. She seemed to have a lot to talk about with this British girl ten years younger than her.
Making sure no one was paying attention here, Leon lowered his voice and leaned closer. "I'm very interested in superhero movies. Are you willing to do me this favor?"
These words were so blunt that Jeff almost shivered. After looking around, he said, "I don't know what you are talking about."
"No, you know!" Leon leaned closer and closer. "Listen, this isn't just about me alone. Think about it. The Dark Knight box office was one billion dollars, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 box office was 1.34 billion dollars. People never thought about who stood behind these magnificent numbers!"
"It's you!"
"That hero is you!"
Jeff pretended to drink to calm down.
He wouldn't be easily subdued by a highly inflammatory PUA.
Having been in Hollywood for many years, he didn't know how many animals in suits he had dealt with.
But a greedy voice inside was eroding him repeatedly. Doing so would bring him tangible benefits!
He was the second-largest shareholder in SLW Apocalypse. The huge commercial value contained in superhero movies made it hard for him not to be tempted.
After a fierce battle between his left and right brain for a minute, Jeff finally opened his tight teeth. "The board of directors cannot agree to do this. Even if this company goes bankrupt one day, it is impossible to sell Batman..."
"I don't want Batman, nor Superman, nor even Watchmen which has been proven a failure!"
"Then what do you want?"
"Joker, Penguin, Black Adam, Catwoman..." Leon said, "Those villain IPs with no hope of independent films at all!"
"Hmm..."
Jeff lowered his head again into deep thought, but the exam question had changed—could these valuable villain IPs really make money as independent films?
The highly anticipated Watchmen project in 2009 only harvested $185 million at the box office, nailed to the pillar of shame of superhero movie box office.
"You'd better trust me, Jeff, although this is a big gamble." Leon crossed his arms. "But if you don't get on the table, you will never have the chance to be a winner. Are you satisfied with the tips from gamblers?"
"You are such a greedy bastard that it makes one's hair stand on end!" Jeff grabbed the wine glass and drank it in one go, slamming the glass on the table.
"You agreed?"
"Why not? Fck..."
"Great!" Leon snapped his fingers.
"But a third person cannot know about this, not even Wan. I don't trust that guy's mouth."
"Rest assured."
"Wait until The Witch is released; I will try to handle this matter..."
Jeff found the only remaining trace of reason in his brain. Only seeing the report card of The Witch first could make him completely make up his mind.
At 8 PM, the party atmosphere became increasingly fiery. James Wan took the initiative to open two bottles of strong liquor, and Leon had to give up the plan to fly back to New York tonight.
Dennings' face was flushed, exactly the same as Max she played in 2 Broke Girls, getting tipsy as soon as she touched alcohol.
She secretly moved her position towards Leon.
Tucking her big wavy black hair behind her ear, her eyes blurry, "You guys have been chatting for so long, didn't you notice there are two ladies here?"
"My negligence."
Leon raised his glass to her, his gaze uncontrollably moving towards her chest.
Whether it was intentional flirting or real heat, Dennings pulled at her collar with her fingers from time to time.
Hollywood hasn't produced this type of female star for many years. Monica Bellucci is also famous for sexiness, but with a height of 1.73 meters, she looks just right.
Dennings is only a little over 1.6 meters tall but has an overly ample bosom.
Even the artificial Kardashian looks tiny standing in front of her.
The distance between the two became closer and closer, and Dennings' chest completely fitted Leon's arm.
"They all say I can never play the leading lady on the big screen. do you think so too?"
"Who said that?"
"Producers and directors." Dennings shrugged. "Even some screenwriters say so."
"Bullsht. Those fools know nothing. You have proven yourself excellent enough." Leon said, "What Natalie Portman can do, you can do too."
"I'm so happy to hear you say that!" Dennings became more proactive. "I look forward to cooperating with you one day. Even playing in your MV would satisfy me."
Saying that, she leaned the deep cleavage closer.
Leon felt a visual impact like naked-eye 3D and casually PUA-ed: "MV? No, maybe one day you can be the main heroine in a superhero movie..."
The interaction between the two became more intimate, completely unaware of Anya's burning gaze less than a meter away.
She kept her head down pretending to fiddle with her phone, but her gaze was actually locked on Leon's position.
She stood up suddenly and approached from behind Leon.
Leaning into his ear, she whispered, "Take me back to the hotel, please. I'm a little tired."