Freedom-loving America—where there's a shootout every day!
Since arriving in this world, Zucker had always kept a low profile—or, well, that wasn't quite right. He'd been downright discreet. Yet in just two short months, he'd witnessed two street shootouts.
The first happened while Zucker was accompanying Big Sister Martha back from taking over California Standard Bank. They ran into three police cars chasing a group of fleeing criminals. Both sides brazenly opened fire right there on the highway, and the shootout took place less than 150 meters from Zucker.
It was his first time encountering anything like that, and all he could think was, MMP!
"Damn Americans~!"
The second shootout was even more outrageous.
It was a school shooting!
"Damn it! James and I were just playing basketball on campus during our break. How could we run into such a terrible incident?"
Afterward, he learned the shooting had started over yet another case of school bullying.
After years of being bullied, Peter Cech, a Black high school student, had fallen into despair. He bought an ordinary hunting rifle for less than $300 and went on a rampage at school. He not only shot the person who had bullied him for years in the head, but also gunned down several of that person's friends.
"Freedom-loving America—where there's a shootout every day."
The internet hadn't lied!
After encountering two shootouts in such quick succession, Zucker came to accept one reality.
Money was precious, but his life mattered more!
So, though it pained him, Zucker hired bodyguards—and hired two at once.
Sun Lei!
Zhao Wushuang!
That's right, both men were Chinese through and through, and both were former special forces soldiers. They'd also served together. After leaving the military, they'd worked as mercenaries in Africa, then immigrated to America and become bodyguards for a security company.
Sun Lei was the older of the two, at thirty-five. He was at the peak of his physical condition and had extensive combat experience.
Zhao Wushuang was younger, but at thirty, he was in his prime too.
Compared with American soldiers, Zucker felt more comfortable hiring elite soldiers from China.
Of course, they didn't come cheap!
But Zucker was more than willing to pay that price to keep himself alive.
Lately, Zucker had been extremely busy.
Wrong Turn 1 was about to hit theaters!
"Boss, there are only two days left before Wrong Turn's scheduled release date of October 11. Our advertising budget is limited to just one million dollars, so we've concentrated our promotional efforts into these last few days. So far, the results have been pretty good."
Victor reported.
Zucker nodded and smiled. "As long as the results are good, that's what matters. Our movie is low-budget, after all. There's no need to spend too much on advertising, and pouring money into it wouldn't be good for Wald Pictures' healthy development either."
By now, Wald Pictures had grown into a third-rate Hollywood studio.
For starters, its film distribution business now covered five states on the West Coast—California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and Oregon—as well as Kansas in the Midwest.
With distribution networks across six North American states, Wald Pictures was still a third-rate film company, but its rapid growth had already put it ahead of many others of its kind.
"Getting 820 screens on Wrong Turn's opening day is already a remarkable result."
Zucker couldn't help giving Victor a thumbs-up!
For a moment, Zucker had every reason to believe that, thanks to the film's appeal and a decent number of screens, it would do well at the box office during the Halloween season.
"Wrong Turn? Judging by the poster, is it some kind of gory splatter film?"
In an ordinary California household, Schmidt, who had just started college, happened to see a promotional poster for Wrong Turn online.
He stared at the wrecked car, the blood-soaked barbed wire, the creepy abandoned cabin, the axe, the pitchfork...
Wait!
Schmidt felt his blood start to race.
As an American thrill-seeker who loved living dangerously, Schmidt was exactly the kind of guy who enjoyed gory splatter films. Wrong Turn had clearly hit the spot!
"Looks pretty good. I can go see it when it comes out."
Kansas.
A group of horror movie fans.
"Wrong Turn?"
"Wald Pictures? I think I've heard of them."
"Haha! George, of course you have. Don't you remember Hard Candy, the movie we saw in theaters two months ago? Wald Pictures produced and distributed it."
"Damn it, Little John! Do you have to bring that up?!"
"Of course I do. I still remember how you jumped out of your seat while watching Hard Candy—especially when Hailey castrated Jeff. You nearly pissed yourself!"
"Fine, fine. If you stop bringing that up, I'll take you to see Wrong Turn. Deal?"
"Deal. We can invite Sally, Jenny, Teh, and the others too."
It had to be said that although Hard Candy had earned a measly five million dollars or so after coming out in late July during the summer season, its unusual story of Little Red Riding Hood turning the tables on the Big Bad Wolf—and especially the castration scene—had attracted a niche audience of movie lovers.
They would become powerful early promoters of Wrong Turn by word of mouth!
Zucker was quite pleased that Wrong Turn had been scheduled to premiere on October 11.
"This year, during the whole Halloween season, who do I have to worry about besides The Sleeper, which made over fifty million dollars at the North American box office?" Zucker began to feel invincible.
And, in fact, he had every reason to.
In previous years, Halloween had been dominated by sequels to famous horror movies like Halloween and Scream. But this year, for one reason or another, neither of those famous horror franchises had a sequel coming out.
How could Zucker not be happy?
Soon enough,
the two days flew by!
On the day Wrong Turn premiered, Wald Pictures didn't hold a premiere event, as usual. But the studio still rented out a theater in Los Angeles and invited the key members of the Wrong Turn crew to watch the film's release.
Joaquin Phoenix, who would later star in Joker 2019 and win the Academy Award for Best Actor in 2020, was now the leading man in Wrong Turn, so of course he attended the premiere.
Adriana Lima, who played the female lead, was also technically Zucker's girlfriend, so naturally she wouldn't miss it.
The film's director, M. Night Shyamalan, received a warm welcome from Zucker on the day of the premiere.
"Of course I have to treat him well. After all, I'm counting on him to direct The Sixth Sense, which will come in second at the North American box office in 1999."
"If the director and screenwriter of The Sixth Sense in the original timeline doesn't make it, am I supposed to direct it myself, with my half-baked skills?"
As Zucker let his imagination run wild, the first installment in the Wrong Turn series finally hit theaters!
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