"Everyone, get ready!"
"Lighting team, okay!"
"Camera team, okay!"
"Cast in position!"
"Run Lola Run, scene one, shot one, action!"
At Zucker's command, the entire crew sprang into action. Today, Zucker was in an unbelievably good mood, practically buzzing with excitement.
"I've finally started shooting my first movie in this life—and the first one from my previous life, too."
Scene one, shot one.
It was the argument between the male lead, Manni, and the female lead, Lola.
The male lead, Manni, was played by Professor X—no, wait, by James McAvoy, for a salary of $45,000;
The female lead, Lola, who was also the film's main protagonist, was played by Charlize Theron, for a salary of $9,000.
That's right, just $9,000.
"The boss is ruthless. If the Screen Actors Guild didn't have a minimum pay standard for principal actors, the boss would've paid her $2,000 at most."
Victor, CEO of Wald Pictures and the film's producer, watched Zucker shoot from the sidelines, his heart giving a slight tremble.
He couldn't help remembering something Zucker had said a few nights earlier: Damn the Screen Actors Guild! They actually have a minimum pay standard. An inhumane organization like this, one that holds back Hollywood's development, should be shut down without mercy!
Today's shoot was quite something.
With a rookie director, a rookie male lead, and a rookie female lead—a trio of walking disasters—even with Victor's experienced professional crew on hand, they couldn't manage to take the tower. The entire shoot was a bumpy affair.
One thing went wrong after another!
"Damn it, Charlize, please tell me you know how to scream hysterically!"
"Cut! You look awful when you cry. With that icy face of yours, do you think you're playing a queen or something? Can we keep shooting or not? If not, get out!"
"And you, James McAvoy—you're playing a lowlife who owes someone money and is about to get killed, not a high school kid going to prom. Could you please act like a professional?"
"Lighting! Lighting! Lighting team, what are you doing?"
"Could you please make the lights brighter? We're not shooting a horror movie, okay?"
Zucker spent the entire day in a foul mood.
He kept losing his temper.
In fact, Zucker usually had a pretty good temper. Even though he often swore, most of the time he was joking and rarely got genuinely angry.
But today, Zucker was truly furious!
"Fuck!"
"Making a movie is no job for a human being. This is exhausting!"
"If I worry too much, I might go gray or even lose my hair. I could even shave years off my life. This is terrifying."
Along with his anger, Zucker also blamed himself.
Why had he decided to direct the movie himself in the first place?
"Shouldn't a boss spend his days playing golf, drinking red wine, eating steak, and taking a beautiful woman out every now and then, all while making money without breaking a sweat? Wouldn't that be nice?"
Why had he taken on all this stressful, exhausting work?
Besides, whenever he thought of some classic movies from the future, he knew he didn't have to remember every detail. He could have a screenwriter fill in the gaps, and he even had the system's help. Was he really worried he wouldn't have great movies of his own in the future? He should've hired professional directors to make them. They'd help guarantee a good box office. Well, he could hire cheap directors, or even recruit the future up-and-comers and superstars!
For example, Christopher Nolan, the director of Inception;
James Wan, the director of Saw and Aquaman;
Peter Jackson, the director of The Lord of the Rings;
And Joss Whedon, the director of The Avengers.
And so on.
None of these future greats were famous yet!
"Next time I make a movie, I'm never directing it myself again. I'll just hire them. They won't charge much, and they'll help me earn a reputation as a talent scout."
Wouldn't it be great to hire future great directors to make movies?
Wouldn't that be awesome?
"I'm such a clever little genius. Heh!"
Zucker was still confident about shooting Run Lola Run.
He knew he was a rookie director with no particular talent for directing, but at least he'd watched the finished version of Run Lola Run more than once. He knew what the result was supposed to look like. Yes, Zucker knew his own limitations.
Since his directing skills weren't up to scratch, he'd just follow the original as closely as possible.
Sure enough, once he adjusted his attitude, the rest of the shoot went much more smoothly.
It was the classic case of, "If you can't pass the exam on your own, can't you at least cheat?"
Run Lola Run was mainly about a small-time gangster in Berlin named Manni, who called his girlfriend Lola—the film's heroine—and told her he'd lost 100,000 marks. (That must be worth four or five hundred thousand yuan. How did you not lose yourself while you were at it?) If he didn't get the money back within twenty minutes, the gangsters would take him out.
The rest of the plot was pretty simple.
Lola traveled through time!
Three trips through time, three runs!
On her first run, Lola tried to borrow money from her father, but he refused. She and Manni then robbed a supermarket, and Lola was accidentally shot dead by the police, sending her to the underworld.
After time turned back, she began her second run: Lola held her father hostage at the bank and got the money, but unfortunately, Manni was hit and killed by an ambulance, sending him to the underworld once again.
On the third run, things finally ended happily. Lola won money at the casino, and Manni recovered the money he'd lost. Not only did they solve their problem, they also made a fortune. In the end, they walked away hand in hand.
After hearing that, does it sound like just another romance about a beautiful woman saving a hapless guy? And that was enough to earn a Golden Lion nomination at the Venice Film Festival?
No, Run Lola Run had much more going for it than that.
Feminism!
In Run Lola Run, it was practically the woman who saved the world.
Over the same twenty minutes, the woman—Lola—ran around, actively trying to solve the problem. The man—Manni—just passively waited for fate to decide his future. Like in every feminist movie, Lola actively changed everything, even the flow of time. The way men and women switched roles in the face of fate highlighted how much the roles and positions of men and women had changed in the modern world.
"To hell with feminism? I'm not one of those guys!"
"But if this gimmick gets plenty of female viewers to pay up willingly, then why not?"
Well, Zucker really had no shame!
Run Lola Run was one of the few female-led movies of the nineties. Yes, that was right. In his previous life, Zucker had just been an ordinary nobody, worrying every day about when he could get off work and how much bonus he'd get that month. He was no feminist, but as long as there was money to be made, he didn't mind selling one thing under the guise of another.
A month!
A whole month had passed.
Zucker, a rookie director who'd never made a movie before, had somehow managed to finish shooting Run Lola Run. Not only had he done it quickly, he'd done a pretty good job, too.
The entire crew was stunned. They couldn't believe it.
"Oh my God!"
"Who said this was the boss's first movie? Have you seen how beautiful the shots are?"
"This is unbelievable!"
"Mr. Wald is a film genius!"
Everyone marveled at Zucker's astonishing work.
CEO Victor: "Boss, you belong in Hollywood. You're a genius!"
James, who played Professor X: "Director, please allow me to call you Hollywood's most outstanding young director!"
Charlize: "Zucker, you have to cast me in your next movie. I'll even do it for free!"
"Heh, you foolish mortals!"
Well, Zucker himself was feeling pretty smug, too.
Shooting quickly and still getting good results?
Of course. If you'd watched the finished film more than once and been forced to write fifty film analyses, you'd do just as well.
It was like taking an exam. Other people racked their brains over the questions, while you walked in with the answer key. You'd finish a perfect paper in ten minutes, easy. Well, even if this movie wasn't perfect, Zucker felt it was close to the original, with at least a ninety percent match.
Cheating?
Who'd know? Heh!
Chapter one is here! I'm pretty busy today, so the second chapter will come a little later than usual.
Before you continue