Chapter 861: Chapter 267: A King Should Bear the Demeanor of a King
"Look at that swing, what a beautiful shot. A few more like that and they’ll save a lot on pond-filling costs." As the small white ball soared high in the air and inevitably plopped into the pond, sending up a splash, Claude, dressed in a casual outfit with a cap, exclaimed loudly.
"Shut up, Crow, or I’ll make sure my next shot hits your head." Adrian threatened, waving his golf club.
"If you actually hit me while aiming, I’d be willing to take the hit." Claude laughed heartily in response.
"Damn it... I don’t know what you guys are thinking. There are so many ways to have fun, why choose this one? Just to mock me?" Adrian grumbled, sitting down on a chair feeling vexed.
For all these years, his golf skills... can’t be said to have progressed, but they could practically be ignored. Not to mention Charlize, who had to practice because she joined ABC, even Kate, Sarah, or Sophie, Monica, all played better than Adrian, even relatively poor Julia managed to get at least half her swings flying towards the target.
So Adrian’s golf skills had become a joke, it’s no wonder he was so frustrated.
"Just to clarify, I didn’t say anything." Sitting on a chair, putting his golf club aside, and looking at something, Victor raised his hand at this moment and said.
"Yeah, said nothing, no bad or good words." Adrian chattered endlessly.
"Come on, Ed, you’re practically a legendary figure already, why worry about these things?" Also sitting on the chair, Claude said half-jokingly, half-comfortingly, "You’ve said yourself, no one is perfect. Given you’re such a genius in film and television production and operation, and have such foresight in IT, isn’t it normal for your golf game to be a disaster?"
"Legendary figure?" Adrian snorted with some dissatisfaction.
"Oh, of course, just look, over these years, how many outstanding, classic movies and TV shows have you created?" Claude said earnestly, "Not to mention many high-praise, high-box office, and high-viewership works are related to you. It’s a recognized fact that you’ve supported half of AC Media, and you’re able to boost everyone’s morale with a single word. There are two important TV series premiering this fall season, right? ’Lost’ and ’Desperate Housewives’. Just because you say they’ll be popular, everyone deems it well-deservedly certain. The summer blockbusters, ’King Kong’, ’Hulk’, ’Fantastic Four’, and ’The Bourne Identity 2’, all performed excellently, which ones didn’t have your backing?"
"Alright, I get it." Adrian raised his hand, if they continued he might really start to float on air.
’King Kong’ and ’Hulk’ aside, because he was involved in making changes, they at least surpassed the originals in box office. The ’Fantastic Four’, which premiered late last month starring Jessica and Joshua as siblings, was the same; after repeatedly stressing not to delay, to get into the role quickly and have it implemented—Paramount had a lot of respect for his opinions in this respect—the overall result was much better than the original.
Though there were still many loopholes and unsatisfactory spots, they were either negligible or common issues in superhero movies, which could be ignored. Jessica, who had already accumulated quite a bit of popularity, thus skyrocketed, becoming one of Hollywood’s sexy icons, especially following ’The Bourne Identity 2’ released in early August. Even though she had only over ten minutes of screen time, it attracted many fans, further solidifying her status.
As for the box office of ’The Bourne Identity 2’, with the foundation laid by the first movie, and Jason Bourne’s and Ethan Hunt’s, James Bond’s completely different special agent style, there was no need to say more. With all this accomplished, and his full support of ’Lost’ and ’Desperate Housewives’ airing in the fall season, it was foreseeable how high his reputation would soar both in the circle and within the group.
"Not to mention the IT field, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter are all very popular websites." Victor added leisurely from the side.
"Sometimes I really doubt you, Ed, do you really have foreknowledge?" Claude laughed again.
"What if I really do?" Adrian assumed a serious expression.
"Great, Mr. Prophet, please tell me how many daughters you’ll have before getting a son?" Claude immediately burst into laughter, and Victor beside him also snickered.
Adrian raised his eyebrows, feeling a bit annoyed and aggrieved, and after a moment "warned," "Watch out, Crow, maybe you won’t have a son either in the future."
Unfortunately, this only resulted in more laughter from the two.
"Speaking of which, I’m really surprised, Ed, up till now you have 8 daughters. From a probability standpoint, you should have a son by now, unless, as Kate said, God doesn’t plan on giving you a son." Claude then added fuel to the fire.
"Which Kate?" Adrian squinted his eyes and asked back. Claude opened his mouth to answer but found himself suddenly stuck. Although he knew which one, he couldn’t say why he couldn’t immediately come up with it. Who would have thought Adrian had three women named Kate, even if the spellings differed, and one was a nickname, yet they all sounded similar.
"From a probability standpoint, this situation is normal." Gaining a rare small win, Adrian finally smiled, "Actually, having a son or not doesn’t matter, having daughters is enough."
"Did you hear that, Victor? Ed is implying that the number of his daughters will continue to rise." Claude teased further.
"Alright, Crow, let’s stop this topic." Victor tried to mediate, although still laughing, "Where were we just now? Legendary figure, right?"
"That’s right, the Miracle Director has become a major attraction of our group, a truly eye-catching signboard." Claude nodded.
"So I plan to make this signboard even more dazzling." Adrian spread his hands.
Actually, this situation was something Adrian initially wanted to avoid. He had always been worried that if a group’s development relied too much on one person, it’s not a good thing. If this person possesses charm, capability, vision, and intellect, they can naturally lead everyone to race down the path, but once that person is gone, the group might face severe turmoil, like Jobs and Apple.
Furthermore, Adrian didn’t lack charm, his capabilities and intellect had been honed over the years, but vision could be tricky, and "luck" would eventually run out. So he was always worried about creating a situation where just one word of his made everyone below act without thinking, unwilling to analyze or verify more thoroughly. He always hoped to cultivate an environment where the group could continue even without him, fostering writers and various teams were all part of that.
However, while the idea was excellent, in practice, it wasn’t easy. The more he wanted the group to develop rapidly, the more he had to keep highlighting himself. After a long time, Adrian thought it over carefully and simply abandoned this plan.
Anyhow, this contradiction would be unresolved for a long time, so weighing the advantages, he decided to help the group dash forward as best as he could. As for the future, it didn’t matter; even true geniuses experience a dry spell at times, and he, who introduced various types of works year after year, wouldn’t escape the exhaustion either.
And, besides, the group had Claude. With his control capabilities, even if turmoil arose, he could keep it within a certain scope. If Adrian managed to grab enough resources, this turmoil might even diminish further. Of course, these were all ideal situations, but it’s worthy if for no other reason than to rule Hollywood, even for a decade.
So he had the current plan, and successfully achieved the first step, now he was about to start the second and third steps.
"What do you need me to do?" Seeing that they were finally on the main topic, Victor asked his question. He had already thoroughly reviewed the materials Adrian gave him and couldn’t see what the network group needed to do, unless it was about starting the promotion for his new works.
"I need confidentiality." Adrian provided the answer, "If possible, I hope from start to finish, the media and the public won’t know I did anything."
Claude and Victor both furrowed their brows.
"That’s not gonna be easy, other media groups aren’t obligated to cooperate with us, and..." Claude flipped through the materials on the small table under the sunshade, "You’re going to Europe for on-location filming and need plenty of temporary actors, unless local media go collectively blind, they won’t miss it."
"This is the situation I want to see most," Adrian shrugged, "At a minimum, the public can know I’m working on a new project and know the timeline of what’s being filmed, but they absolutely cannot know the theme, and this situation needs to be maintained at least until March next year."
"March?" Claude raised his eyebrows instantly, as Adrian’s close friend, he realized Adrian’s thoughts almost immediately.
"Yes, March." Adrian smiled slightly.
"Are you so sure that if it leaks out, it will have a huge impact on your plan?" Claude asked again.
"Trust my judgment on this, Crow," Adrian said.
"Alright, your ambitions are indeed big," Claude chuckled, then made a mouthing gesture at the still puzzled Victor; Victor chewed it over and then showed a look of sudden realization.
"Looks like Ed plans to set an unparalleled record," he said with a smile.
"As I just said, I’m considered to be the most eye-catching figure of the group, so naturally, I have a responsibility to make this figure even more dazzling, and..." Adrian stood up with a smile, and suddenly an air of ’being the king’ exuded from him, "A king should have the demeanor of a king!"
Since expressing his desire to Claude to conquer Hollywood, Adrian has always been progressing toward this goal. With continuous development and accumulation, he is now not far from that goal. To conquer this Vanity Fair, having massive capital is the basic requirement, while fame, ability, and recognition from insiders are equally important—this can be considered broad capital—and what Adrian intends to do now is to achieve a unique record, both past and future, raising his reputation to heights no one has ever reached before.
So he formally discussed and sought support from Claude, Victor, and even resorted to, well, playing golf with them.
After Adrian fully expressed his intentions, the matter was settled, and next? It was still about the summer film selection, which required considerable resources, with the media group and the network group needing to cooperate, and Adrian took time to prepare, so it would not start until at least the next two months had passed.
Even though the summer film selection is nearing its end, there are still many movies waiting to be released, such as Universal’s "King Kong" and "The Bourne Identity 2," both having sold well at box office, and still more big productions like "Van Helsing."
"A hodgepodge that brings all the monsters together, completely lacking novelty? Haha." Adrian chuckled softly as he browsed the newspaper.
Such comments can’t be fitting whether it’s this version or the original one. Of course, the plot of this version doesn’t differ much from the original, but in terms of story pacing, from a commercial standpoint, it passes and audiences seem to buy it. Previously it was mentioned that the box office failure of the original was largely due to poor distribution.
And now, Universal’s distribution ability has been completely revamped since AC Media took over, and Adrian has particularly focused on this film, so naturally, those issues are not issues.
"What are you smiling about?" Kate just returned from the garden, supporting Megan whose belly was protruding.
"It’s nothing, just some critics who are always very arrogant," Adrian smiled as he went forward to take Megan’s arm.
Jessica, as he said, was surrounded by attention and media after "Fantastic Four" and "The Bourne Identity 2," greatly reducing the times she went to Megan. Although Adrian intended to accompany her, it wasn’t possible every day, so he simply brought her over to stay for a few days from time to time.
Kate didn’t say anything, it’s not because she was generous, just numb; this was already the eighth child Adrian had with different women. If it were an ordinary woman, there’d probably have long been a cold war, but the women around Adrian were different; they had big hearts—or would grow one as long as they stayed by his side—turning a blind eye is a basic skill.
"Do you mean they’ve become more like you?" Kate huffed.
"Is that how I appear in your eyes?" Adrian looked surprised, as if he was hurt, "I’m speaking for you, Kate."
But this was of no use to her, so she shrugged and went upstairs. Adrian raised his hand and lowered it, finally sighing. He originally wanted to ask if he could enjoy a moment of intimacy with Princess Anna tonight, like in "Tomb Raider" and "Underworld," the movie costume had long been brought back.
"Do you guys often do this?" Megan, in loose clothing, asked curiously beside him.
"Yes, that’s why you definitely can’t be like this, Megan." Adrian said as he sat down beside her, wrapped an arm around her shoulders, and held her hand, looking at her with very sincere eyes.
Before Megan could speak, a chuckle reached Adrian’s ears, quiet as it was, if it weren’t for the just-perfect timing of silence when he’d just finished speaking, he might not have noticed it. From that, one could tell that the person speaking had been there for a while, and it surely wouldn’t have been Kate, Ivanka, or Yukie being bored, Sarah, Charlize weren’t back yet, so it had to be...
Adrian quickly turned around, seeing a shadow retreating behind the single sofa.
"Come out, Lily, I see you," he said leisurely, "Don’t make me come over, sweetheart."
After a bit of hesitation, the little one reluctantly emerged from behind, Deva and Juliet followed as usual.
"Hi, Megan, how are you?" Lily greeted Megan confidently, not sparing her father a glance, and the two younger ones had the same look, just not as composed as their elder sister, inevitably sneaking glances at their father.
Adrian didn’t take his daughter’s posturing to heart, pulling her over without hesitation and messing up her hair: "What are you doing sneaking into the living room at this hour?"
"Daddy’s so annoying!" Lily called in frustration, finally escaping his grasp. Then, with a snort, she turned away with her arms crossed, looking disdainful: "Mom hired me for 5 US Dollars to design a reasonable layout for her little cabinet; after creating it, I came to seek your opinion, but now it seems unnecessary."
Without waiting for her dad’s reply, she grabbed her two sisters’ hands, hopping towards the door. Adrian sighed without saying anything, only after a while did he focus back on Megan.
Then, Megan pouted: "You’re such a liar."
"Oh?" Adrian blinked in confusion, waiting for Megan’s response, but minutes passed without her speaking, leaving only a half-accusatory half-exasperated look at him.
"Alright, if you want, I would be willing to apologize again for my actions, even though it wasn’t intentional, objectively it did lead to your misunderstanding of the facts." Adrian said, then tightened the grip of the hand he hadn’t released, "Would you forgive me, Megan?"
"I have no choice..." Megan sighed, then felt her tone sounded a bit heavy, quickly trying to explain: "What I mean is... it’s just... it’s a bit strange; Lily’s still quite young... not even ten years old yet..."
"It’s okay, I know, such things can indeed be awkward, but don’t take it to heart; you’ll get used to it gradually." Adrian smiled, pushing her head into his embrace, then sighed inwardly—it’s nothing for her to be less than ten years old, there were even those only five years younger than Lily—hopefully... his strategy would work. (To be continued. If you like this work, feel free to vote with a recommendation ticket or monthly ticket on , your support is my greatest motivation.)