The Nolan Brothers

"What's going on, Zucker? Do you know those two young guys?"

Candy was sitting nearby. She noticed Zucker watching the two young men fool around with interest.

At that, Zucker immediately denied it.

As if! How could he possibly know them now?

His past life didn't count, of course.

The brothers weren't famous yet, but ten years from now, there wouldn't be anyone in Hollywood who hadn't heard of them!

The older brother was Christopher Nolan;

the younger brother was Jonathan Nolan.

Christopher Nolan, especially, would go on to become famous around the world.

The Dark Knight trilogy, Inception, Interstellar, and so on—who hadn't heard of those movies?

Even in China, some netizens called him the Nolan god.

Of course, there was Dunkirk, which had been released in China. Better not mention that one. It was basically a story about the British suffering a humiliating defeat and fleeing, but it had been made to look like a victorious strategic evacuation. Many Chinese netizens had boycotted it. Zucker himself wasn't a fan, either.

His younger brother, Jonathan Nolan, was a writer and screenwriter. He wasn't as famous as his older brother, but his work adapting The Dark Knight showed that he was exceptionally talented.

"Wait..."

"Something's not right, Zucker!"

"I know you. You never lift a finger unless there's something in it for you. Those two brothers look like ordinary people. Why would they catch your attention?"

"Do they have some kind of special background?"

Candy began to chatter and speculate. Victor and Martha, sitting nearby, grew curious, too.

"Heh!"

Zucker deliberately shot Candy a disdainful look, his face saying, "You're so naive." The look nearly drove Candy up the wall.

Zucker ignored Candy and stood up, heading straight over to the Nolan brothers.

"Um... hello, sir. Can I help you?" Christopher Nolan asked, looking puzzled.

"Hello, you two. I'm Zucker Wald, the owner of a Hollywood film production company. I overheard you discussing movies and filmmaking. If I'm not mistaken, you hope to work in film production someday. If you're interested, I'd be happy to offer you both jobs. Oh, here's my business card. My number's on it. Don't look at me like that—I'm not a con man. You can call and check." Zucker said.

The Nolan brothers were both taken aback.

The owner of a Hollywood film company?

And he was so young?

Even after Zucker handed them his business card, the brothers still thought he might be a con man. It wasn't their fault for being suspicious. Zucker really was very young.

Anyone with common sense would have been wary.

"Um, it's nice to meet you."

The Nolan brothers suspected Zucker was a con man, but they didn't call him out.

The three of them made awkward small talk for a while. It wasn't until Victor, Candy, and Martha came over and explained things that the brothers believed Zucker really was the owner of a Hollywood film company.

He hadn't been lying to them!

From their conversation, Zucker also learned why the Nolan brothers were at the airport.

Twenty-five-year-old Christopher Nolan was studying English literature at University College London. His younger brother, twenty-year-old Jonathan Nolan, attended Georgetown University in Washington and had flown over from the United States to visit him.

A little later, Martha suddenly reminded him, "Boss, our plane's about to take off."

Zucker said regretfully, "Oh, damn it, the plane's taking off now of all times. It's a shame we can't talk longer. Um, forgive me for asking, but could I get your phone numbers? I mean, if you're serious about working in Hollywood, be sure to get in touch with me! Don't forget!"

"Thank you!"

The Nolan brothers thanked him eagerly, their faces full of excitement.

They were still young men, not the renowned filmmakers they'd become someday. Of course they were thrilled to have a Hollywood film company owner take such an interest in them.

If Christopher, the older brother, hadn't been making his film Following and still had his studies to finish, he probably would have gone to Hollywood with Zucker.

"Following? Once you've finished the film, come straight to Hollywood and find me. I'll help you get settled." Zucker sounded generous.

Following was Nolan's debut film.

Zucker remembered reading about it in his past life. It had cost less than $6,000 to make and earned only a little over $400,000 at the box office.

But after Nolan entered Hollywood in 2000, his first film there, Memento, had a budget of $500 and grossed over $39 million worldwide. It won the Saturn Award for Best Action/Adventure Film and received two Oscar nominations, making Nolan an overnight success.

The Nolan brothers thanked Zucker again for his generosity and promised they'd visit him in Hollywood someday.

After returning to Los Angeles, everyone went their separate ways.

Zucker stayed busy, too. He was doing everything he could to raise money for Spider-Man, using every means at his disposal to make as much money as possible.

Just ten days later, the rookie director Zucker had somehow churned out four scripts in one go: Wrong Turn, The Sixth Sense, Hard Candy, and Juno.

Of course, all four were rough drafts. The company's screenwriters would need to flesh them out and revise them.

With the system playing dead, Zucker had no choice but to grit his teeth and do it himself.

Those ten days of intense work had nearly killed him. The four films he'd picked all had one thing in common: they were low-budget, making them a good fit for Wald Pictures at the moment.

1. The Wrong Turn franchise was a classic example of the bloody horror films Hollywood made in the twenty-first century.

The movies all had roughly the same plot: a bunch of reckless young Americans went camping in the wilderness, ran into cannibals in the forest, and were brutally killed with barbed wire, tree branches, knives, and other tools—then eaten.

"I remember none of the films in the series cost more than $2 million to make. Some probably cost even less."

"We can put it near the top of the list."

Zucker didn't remember the box-office earnings of Wrong Turn 1, but before he'd transmigrated, he'd watched all eight movies in the series.

That was proof enough that the Wrong Turn franchise made money!

The Sixth Sense was even better.

Its production budget was higher at $40 million, but it was the second-highest-grossing film in North America in 1999. It earned $293 million in North America and $670 million worldwide, and was nominated for the Oscar for Best Picture.

"The box office is tempting, but I don't have the money! Better put it aside for now."

Hard Candy was another low-budget film. It could be made for less than $1 million.

It wasn't very well-known, and its final box office was only a little over $6 million. Still, it had made quite an impact as a niche film. It was a Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf story, except that Little Red Riding Hood turned the tables on the wolf and castrated him.

"Hmm. Low budget, not too difficult. Worth considering."

Juno was famous. It was about an underage girl who got pregnant out of wedlock, and when it came out in 2007, it sparked widespread discussion.

Its box office was astonishing, too!

The film took only 35 days to shoot and cost $6.5 million to make, but it grossed $230 million worldwide.

After thinking it over, Zucker gathered the four scripts and headed to Wald Pictures.