Nicolas Cage, the Neighbor

Kevin laughed.

"Jolie, of course you're the female lead."

"But now that you're the female lead, you understand, right?"

Even during their intimacy, there were moves Jolie had not been willing to go along with.

But now, after Kevin had promised her the female lead role,

all of Jolie's shyness and reluctance were instantly eclipsed by overwhelming delight. At that moment, without Kevin needing to say a word, Jolie was already doing everything she could to send him straight to heaven.

At the beginning of December, Dawson, Kevin, Dean, and Jason, the Warner Bros. executive responsible for external film investments, gathered at New Line Cinema.

The four of them sat in New Line Cinema's reception room, studying Kevin's new film proposal with full concentration.

The story of Get Out was simple, and they quickly finished reading it.

Jason was the first to ask,

"Why use a Black man as the protagonist?"

"The reason is simple. If it were merely a standard horror film, its ceiling would be no more than twenty to thirty million dollars."

"But by making a Black man the protagonist and using this evil witchcraft as a metaphor for white oppression of Black people—"

"then having the Black protagonist kill every white person in the town at the end will greatly hit Black audiences right in their sweet spot and draw them into theaters."

"That will raise the film's box-office ceiling considerably..."

Of course, Kevin could not reveal in advance that the biggest reason was the Black riots sparked by the Rodney King incident.

All he needed to do was provide a reasonable excuse.

As for whether Jason accepted it, Kevin did not really care. The production budget was three million dollars, and Kevin himself would invest thirty percent in the film in exchange for a thirty-percent stake.

New Line Cinema and Warner Bros. would split the remaining seventy percent.

Jason nodded, accepting Kevin's explanation.

When facing a director who had already succeeded, Jason would not casually question him. Besides, this was merely a small production with an investment of less than three million dollars.

Warner Bros.' forty percent came to just 1.2 million dollars. Investing that amount in a successful director like Kevin did not require much thought.

Dean trusted Kevin unconditionally and had long since decided to invest.

Once everything was settled, Kevin had CAA contact his team. Filming was scheduled to begin after Christmas, on December 25.

During that time, Kevin needed to choose a suitable filming location for the town in Get Out.

April 31 was the deadline. In other words, including promotion and everything else, Kevin had at most three months to shoot.

But with the exact images already in his mind, Kevin felt that two months would be more than enough. As for the cast, he did not need to worry about that this time.

Aside from the female lead, which he had claimed in advance, CAA would handle every other role as a package deal.

Naturally, he had made one requirement: a Black man who looked right for the part.

"CAA package project: Get Out, the latest work by rising genius director Steve Kevin, needs a Black male lead!"

Will Smith, who had debuted as a rapper, learned of this news through a friend.

He immediately realized this was exactly the role he needed most.

As a Black man, he deeply understood Hollywood's exclusion of him.

Despite being so famous in music, when he tried to enter acting, the roles available to him were either villains, comic-relief supporting characters, or, more flattering terms, the second male lead.

But none of those were what he wanted.

He wanted to be the protagonist.

But he knew all too well that films with Black protagonists were far too rare in Hollywood.

As a famous singer who held his own film and television contract, Will Smith hurried to the CAA building as soon as he heard the news.

After introducing himself, he was the first person Dawson selected, since he fit the role's requirements, had no demands regarding pay, and already had name recognition.

When Kevin learned that Will Smith had come knocking, he decisively agreed to give him the male lead. In exchange, despite having won two Grammy Awards, Smith could only receive a meager one hundred thousand dollars in salary.

Will Smith had no objections to that.

As a major singer, he was not short on money. What he needed was an opportunity. After signing a film and television contract with Dawson and receiving the script for Get Out,

Will Smith decisively hired two veteran actors to start training his acting skills.

Cramming at the last minute was useful to some extent.

Far away, Kevin was enjoying Jolie's oral service without the slightest concern over Will Smith's acting.

As a future superstar, Will Smith naturally had a gift for acting.

And Get Out was a thriller that did not demand much acting skill.

Film was an art shot frame by frame. As long as Kevin was patient enough, he could always polish Smith's performance.

Ding-dong!

The doorbell interrupted Kevin's enjoyment.

After getting dressed, Kevin opened the door.

Outside, Nicolas Cage carried a pizza he had made himself and casually walked in.

At twenty-seven, Nicolas Cage looked impossibly cool and arrogant, intimidating at a glance. But after getting to know him over the past few days,

Kevin knew he was actually quite easy to get along with.

As neighbors, they had chatted a few times outside before Cage began dropping by on his own.

It could not be helped. He was extremely interested in Kevin, a director.

Deep down, Cage was an exceptionally proud man—so proud that, in order to prove himself, he refused to borrow even the slightest bit of his uncle's connections.

And who was his uncle?

The famous Francis Coppola, director of The Godfather.

The Coppola family had been rooted in Hollywood for a long time, so there was no need to mention the strength of their connections.

If Nicolas Cage used his real name, Nicolas Coppola, in Hollywood, countless opportunities would appear out of nowhere.

But again, he was too proud to do it.

A genius and proud man like him had still been impressed by Kevin's manner of speaking.

Of course, what truly impressed him were Kevin's achievements.

His first film alone had an estimated box office of 160 million dollars, despite an investment of just 1.3 million dollars.

That made Kevin feel a trace of admiration for this little brother who was around three years younger than him.

"Mm, this pineapple pizza is pretty good. But Cage, you absolutely must not show off this skill in front of Italians."

"Otherwise, the consequences will be extremely serious."

Kevin grinned as he enjoyed the pineapple pizza.

"My favorite thing is telling people who say I can't do something, no."