Troublesome

After reading the materials sent back by the reporters under him, Eddie frowned deeply, his expression grim.

The investigation was even more troublesome than he had imagined.

The Life Foundation had originally only recruited homeless people from the streets of San Francisco, tricking them into signing agreements they could not understand in order to advance human drug trials.

But now, from the information sent back by his own people, Eddie learned that the Life Foundation had actually joined forces with the government to form a San Francisco Homeless Association.

The association was fully funded by the Life Foundation, with Carlton Drake serving as its honorary chairman.

In the most remote corner of San Francisco, a place no one was willing to go, they had built an enormous "cage" for the homeless.

A homeless settlement known as Homeless Home.

Under the Life Foundation's leadership, Homeless Home strictly controlled the homeless people's movements and entry and exit.

Homeless people driven there by the San Francisco city government had restricted access and lost their freedom of movement. To some extent, it was practically imprisonment.

The Daily Bugle reporters sent to investigate San Francisco found it difficult to sneak in under the Homeless Association's supervision, much less gather further intelligence.

After several days, they had obtained pitifully little useful information.

Even if they released those few useful pieces of information, they would not be able to shake the Life Foundation's foundations.

Such harmless attacks had no destructive power.

Without direct evidence and no way to deal the Life Foundation a devastating blow, even if the Daily Bugle exposed what the Life Foundation had done, it would be useless. Instead, it would damage the credibility the Daily Bugle had built up over the years.

"Carlton Drake..."

Eddie gritted his teeth. "What a cunning opponent."

Homeless Home had only been implemented in San Francisco for a short time, yet ninety percent of the city's homeless population had already been forcibly driven into Homeless Home by the San Francisco city government.

Of the remaining ten percent, some had left San Francisco, while others stayed constantly alert, avoiding the police patrolling the streets.

Now, homeless people were almost nowhere to be seen on the streets of San Francisco.

The city environment had been cleaned up to an unprecedented degree.

The San Francisco city government and the Life Foundation had earned the citizens' praise because of it.

Senior city officials took the opportunity to receive substantial political donations from the Life Foundation.

The Life Foundation, meanwhile, gained abundant resources for human experimentation.

Since the Homeless Association was under the Life Foundation's control, no one had meddled in its affairs yet.

One stone, many birds. The operation was practically flawless.

"Editor-in-chief, the investigation has hit a bottleneck. We have no way to proceed."

A young voice came from the other end of the call Eddie had answered.

He said bitterly, "The Life Foundation people patrol once every hour, and the streets of Homeless Home are covered in cameras. Even if we were willing to take the risk of infiltrating, we couldn't get in."

After a pause, the young voice continued, "There's only one way now. We could carry miniature cameras and disguise ourselves as homeless people to get inside. As long as we film the Life Foundation signing agreements with the homeless, or even using them for human experiments, the Life Foundation will have no way to deny it."

"No, it's too dangerous!"

Eddie rejected the suggestion. After considering it, he said, "We can try another direction. Since we can't find a weakness from the outside, we'll start from within."

"Within?"

The young voice suddenly understood. "Good idea. We'll act immediately."

Eddie hurriedly warned him, "Wait, Phil. Don't rush it, or you'll alert them."

"Understood."

Phil Urich nodded and promised solemnly, "Editor-in-chief, we won't let you down."

Meanwhile.

Anton began filming the movie.

Things did not go smoothly at first. The actors getting used to one another, the props, the lighting, and the extras getting coordinated gave him a splitting headache.

Fortunately, he had planned ahead. The dozen or so assistant directors he had hired were professionals.

The crew gradually got on track.

After seeing the talent of his assistant directors, Anton simply delegated authority and began filming on two fronts.

He was responsible for filming the male lead's storyline. He kept two assistant directors to help coordinate the crew and shots, while handing all the peripheral scenes and supporting-character portions of the film to the remaining reliable assistant directors.

Everything was for the sake of finishing the movie as soon as possible.

Filming a movie was an extremely tedious and complicated process.

Anton looked over the schedule.

The experienced Jim planned to complete filming in 120 days, finish post-production effects within 90 days while simultaneously promoting the film, then spend another 15 days editing it before release.

The entire cycle would take around 200 days.

For a special-effects blockbuster, that was already an extremely short timeframe.

Yet Anton was dissatisfied.

At that pace, he would have to wait at least half a year before he could redeem Batman's basic template.

It was unbearable!

Therefore, without compromising the film's quality, Anton pushed the schedule as frantically as possible.

After all, the finished film was vivid in Anton's mind. There was no need to shoot certain redundant and useless scenes at all.

Shooting backup takes, one or two at a time, was simply wasting his life.

He planned to finish everything within three months.

Jim sensed that something was wrong and believed Anton was messing around. Unable to endure it any longer, he had a fierce argument with him.

But Anton insisted on doing things his way, leaving Jim helpless.

As both investor and director, Anton had that kind of authority.

Thus, Jim decided that what he could not see could not bother him. He basically gave up control of the crew and let Anton do as he pleased.

Under those circumstances, Anton completed nearly half the work in only one month.

At Anton's firm insistence, the special-effects department joined the crew ahead of schedule and began working simultaneously.

The possibility of releasing the film within three months grew infinitely greater.

Seeing this, almost no one on the crew had confidence in the film's outcome, including the assistant directors behind the cameras and the male and female leads.

In their eyes, Anton was nothing more than an unprofessional rich second-generation kid.

His clumsiness when filming had first begun was still fresh in their minds.

Though he now looked so practiced that he hardly seemed like a newcomer, what he did still failed to reassure them.

Some of the actors even regretted joining the movie.

Anton paid no attention to the gossip within the crew. In any case, these people only dared complain in private. No one dared say such things in front of him, the director who held the greatest authority on the set.

Even the female lead who played "Rachel," the person closest to him, only dared whine to him at night.

"Today's filming is over. Assemble at seven tomorrow morning."

Anton made the announcement.

Then, rejecting the female lead's request to "discuss the script," he supported his aching lower back from "sitting too long" and returned to his room.

There was a missed call on his phone from the screenwriter Browning.

So he called back.

"Anton, the novel for Batman Begins is finished," Browning said after answering. "The manuscript has been sent to your email. Please check it. If you need any revisions, contact me anytime."

"Alright. Thanks for your hard work."

After ending the call, Anton opened his email and quickly skimmed through the not overly long original text. When he finished, he was extremely satisfied.

Browning truly deserved to be a top screenwriter who made his living with words.

Then he called Eddie.

Eddie answered immediately.

"Anton, what do you need?"

Eddie's weary voice came through the phone.

"I sent a novel to your email. Remember, find a section in the Daily Bugle and publish it as quickly as possible. Serialize it over a sixty-day period."

Anton spoke in a commanding tone. "This concerns the promotion of my movie. Make sure it's done perfectly."

"Don't worry."

Eddie gave him a definite answer. "That won't be difficult."

"Very good."

Anton changed the subject and asked, "Your voice doesn't sound right. Tell me, how many days has it been since you slept? As far as I know, the Daily Bugle's workload shouldn't have turned you into this. Did something happen in San Francisco?"