American fame and fortune

Beverly Hills, Hilton Hotel.

The Oscar night party is going on, and as one of tonight's winners, people keep coming over to congratulate Martin.

Cheers, clinking glasses, and discussions were endless.

Leonardo raised his glass and said: "Congratulations to Martin for winning the Oscar for Best Actor, cheers."

Mene shouted: "Boss, congratulations!"

"Thank you!" Martin raised his glass and took a swig, and then said, "I'll go to my house later. Elizabeth went back to prepare for the celebration party. I got a lot of good wine."

The people surrounding Martin responded with a bang.

Leonardo put his arm around Martin with one arm and Nicholson with the other, laughing and saying, "Now, we both won the Oscar for Best Actor!"

Martin smiled freely, tonight was a moment of celebration.

Nicholson said, "Another problem of the century has arisen. The three of us have six Oscars. How many do each of us have?"

Martin asked: "Leo, you are the best at doing math problems, please give me the answer!"

Leonardo looked at Martin: "You bastard, why do you always ask me to do math problems?"

Martin was happy: "Because I am a mathematician, please call me Martin Goldbach."

Mene reminded at this time: "Tom Sherak is here."

The current president of the college must be respected no matter what. People like Martin put an end to their nonsense.

Tom Sherak came over, briefly greeted everyone, and said to Martin: "Congratulations on joining the ranks of Best Actor Oscars."

"Thank you to the college for recognizing me." It's easy to say a few good words. Martin's business praise is like the night wind outside at this moment, whistling: "Without the advice of many seniors in the college, I wouldn't be where I am today. In terms of performance, the college will always be the benchmark in the industry.”

Tom Sherak likes Martin better than Leonardo next to him: "If you are interested someday, come to the executive committee and let's have a good chat."

"It's an honor," Martin said.

The people here are so mischievous that after a few brief polite words, Tom Sherak left.

His assistant came over at this time and said: "ABC's preliminary ratings statistics are out."

Tom Sherak asked: "How are the ratings?"

The assistant said: "When the best actor was awarded during the highest viewing period, the peak audience was 39.4 million, which was 1.4 million more than last year."

This is good news for the Oscars, whose ratings are declining year by year. Tom Sherak couldn't help but nod: "Martin Davis's appeal and influence are already at the top level in the industry."

Last year's highest-rated time was also for Best Actor, and the winner was Leonardo DiCaprio.

After telling the good news, the assistant added the bad news: "The average number of viewers of the awards ceremony was 31.4 million, which was 1.2 million lower than last year."

He lowered his voice: "The average number of viewers of this year's Grammys exceeds that of the Oscars."

Tom Sherak's face looked a little ugly. A few years ago, Oscar had always stood out among the four major award ceremonies: Oscar, Grammy, Emmy and Tony Awards.

This year it was surpassed by the Grammys.

Tom Sherak frowned.

This news could not be kept secret, and some people who were relatively well-informed soon found out.

Nicholson was quite emotional: "Ten years ago, who would have thought that the Oscars would one day be surpassed by the Grammys."

He looked at Martin and Leonardo: "In these two Oscars, you two, the best actor with huge influence and strong market appeal, supported the stage and increased the number of people during the highest viewing period. Otherwise, the average Ratings figures will be even bleaker."

Leonardo actually knows very well: "The audience for films nominated for major awards is too small."

Martin agreed: "That's true." He pointed at Nicholson: "Most of the films competing for awards are not so much made for the audience as they are for you."

Nicholson does not deny this: "Today's Oscars are a typical example of judges forcing creations."

Martin nodded slightly.

The core composition of the old white men at the Oscars basically determines what kind of films can win major awards. The producers will naturally do what they like and shoot films that focus on nostalgia and tribute.

Harvey Weinstein, in particular, is a typical example in this regard.

In these two sessions, the film that Martin did not see almost took nostalgia and tribute to the extreme.

A black and white silent film, can you imagine this being the Oscar winner in the 2010s?

Leonardo asked Martin: "If you are asked to be the chairman of the executive committee, can you reverse this trend?"

"No." Martin said truthfully: "Unless most of the judges are fired, but many of these judges are our friends and collaborators."

"Anyone with a clear eye can see where the crux is," Nicholson said.

After discussing privately with his two best friends, Martin had no scruples: "The rise of entertainment methods such as video games has caused movies to no longer be the main entertainment method for teenagers. If the Oscars no longer pay attention to the needs of young people, if they don't rush to let When he gets younger, Oscar is bound to turn himself into a plaything of the minority and rot day by day."

According to his memory, the Oscars are bad now and will be even worse in a few years.

Because after the decline of the old white male group, Oscar chose a more niche path.

Martin drank a lot and went to the bathroom.

Coming out of the door, a middle-aged man came over and greeted him proactively: "Hi, Martin."

Martin didn't recognize the other party, so he nodded with his usual smile: "Hello."

The middle-aged man finally got a ticket to Oscar night. He was just promoting himself. He happened to meet Martin, so he simply didn’t go to the bathroom and introduced himself: "I am Denis Villeneuve, a screenwriter from Canada. and the director.”

He knows big names are busy and needs to interest them quickly: "I'm the director of Scorched Earth, which was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film."

Martin has not seen the movie, but he just attended the Oscars ceremony, and he is impressed by the title.

The other party approached him proactively, and Martin could roughly guess the purpose and asked directly: "Dennis, do you have a new movie project in hand?"

Villeneuve smiled: "Can I spare you a few minutes?"

Martin pointed to the resting area where there were not many people: "Let's chat over there."

The two sat down and Villeneuve said: "A friend of mine wrote a script about drug control on the US-Mexico border. The two of us found several companies, but they were not very interested. It happened that I met you tonight. .”

New directors are also difficult to get along with, and their difficulties are no less difficult than those of actors.

Villeneuve received the first draft of the script for "Scorched Earth", which was nominated for the best foreign language film, as early as 2003. When he wanted to make it into a movie, he approached multiple producers and production companies, and the script was approved by them. I changed the draft several times at my request, but what I got was red lights again and again.

It was not easy to reach a cooperation with Albatross Pictures, but the latter's capabilities were limited. Needless to say, there were difficulties in raising funds.

More than eight years passed before "Scorched Earth" was released in Canada.

Villeneuve is so ambitious that he no longer wants to cooperate with Albatross Pictures, which lacks funds.

Martin owns a studio and has long been accustomed to this situation. He reached out his hand and said, "Have you brought the script?"

Villeneuve opened his bag, took out a part of the printed manuscript, and put his business card on it: "This is the beginning of the script. The other part is with a friend. If you are interested, I can inform him."

Martin nodded and accepted. Tonight is not the time to read this: "After I read it, I will give you a clear answer whether it works or not."

Villeneuve nodded repeatedly: "Okay."

Leonardo, Nicholson and others were still waiting for him. After Martin passed by, he handed the script and business card to Bruce, looked at the time, and said loudly: "Guys, go to my place now and continue to celebrate."

"I'm going to empty the boss's wine cellar," Mene said.

Leonardo gave him a thumbs up: "You are awesome."

There are at least hundreds of bottles of fine wine in the wine cellar of Davis Manor.

The group left the Hilton Hotel and drove to the Davis Manor located in the North District of Sunset Boulevard.

A large number of paparazzi reporters followed.

Even if you can't enter the community, you still have to take photos of what happens along the way.

Hollywood's top stars always lack recognition from professional awards. Leonardo spent more than ten years transforming himself from a handsome boy into a greasy middle-aged obese man, using the strategy of looking ugly to win the Best Actor.

Martin Davis, however, seemed to have easily won this award through his science fiction film.

Reporters desperately pursued news about Martin.

Around 10:30 p.m., more than a dozen cars entered Davis Manor one after another.

Elizabeth is ready for the party.

Charlize Theron and the Stewart family next door have already arrived.

Kristen Stewart also brought the Stallone family's three thousand gold.

Saoirse Ronan and her mother send congratulations.

"Congratulations, Martin!" Lily took the Oscar statuette, looked at it, handed it to Saoirse Ronan, and hugged Martin with both arms: "You bastard actually became an Oscar winner! When you were in Atlanta, you I laughed at you when you said you wanted to be an actor in Hollywood."

Martin felt two big balls of soft things pressing on his chest. He was too familiar with Lily and knew that these were the fruits of twigs. He patted her back gently and said deliberately: "This award also belongs to you. If you didn’t laugh at me, I probably wouldn’t have come to Los Angeles.”

Lily pushed him away: "Tsk, only a ghost will believe you."

Only then did Martin discover that Lily's hair had a beautiful bow tied with shiny plastic strips, and asked, "Why is it tied with such a strange decoration?"

"I won't tell you!" Lily winked playfully: "You'll know in a moment."

Elizabeth came over and said, "The guests are waiting for you."

Martin took the wine glass she handed over, came to the banquet hall, and said a toast.

"Hey guys, let's set off the fireworks!" Saoirse Ronan shouted to the girls who couldn't drink and took them to the yard.

Soon, the sparks trailing the flames continued to fly up into the night sky of Beverly Hills with a roaring sound, blooming into colorful lights.