King of Hollywood-Chapter 208 - I Want to Make a Promise with You

Chapter 208: Chapter 208 I Want to Make a Promise with You

Soon, Natalie realized what Adrian’s cold laugh meant. Today’s shoot involved Matilda and Leon discussing love, and one of the lines was exactly what she had performed when she initially approached Adrian, which had earned her praise and laid the foundation for her to land this role.

However, no matter how hard she tried, Adrian was never satisfied once they started filming, and he insisted on doing almost ten takes for each shot before calling it quits. Natalie quickly understood why, but she couldn’t possibly retaliate, because after each NG, Adrian would seriously and sincerely explain what he wanted from the shoot, leaving her completely unsure what to say. What was most infuriating, there was a shot of her walking out of a room that should have been simple but took almost four takes. When she questioned it, Adrian innocently claimed that he had forgotten to turn on the camera for the first three takes!

Well, faced with such a situation, Natalie had no choice but to obediently follow Adrian’s demands. Since he didn’t mind wasting film and time, did she also have to imply an admission of error? Actors, after all, can’t contend with the director, especially when that director also doubles as the producer and financier.

Of course, this didn’t stop the young girl from grumbling in her heart non-stop: Damned Ed.

But for Adrian, this was just a bit of teasing, hardly even a punishment, and really didn’t warrant taking to heart. Besides, he hadn’t gone too far, only doing this with the scenes involving Natalie alone, and as soon as this part of the filming was finished, everything went back to normal.

What he was most curious about now was Charlize’s reaction. Although she had been quite devoted to applying a cold compress to his injured eye socket that morning, as soon as she arrived on set, she kept her distance as if afraid to see him.

This was not like her at all. Adrian joked to himself. If he really wanted to avoid someone, how on earth could Charlize hit him? However, to cheer up a woman, a certain degree of tolerance was necessary, otherwise, how could he show the attentive side of a man? But balance was key, to make her feel he was caring for her and loving her, not that he was spinelessly indulgent without limit.

This time, Adrian might have gone a bit too far, a black eye could easily lead to unfavorable consequences, like losing authority on set or becoming gossip fodder—and it seemed he had spotted a couple of reporters when he arrived on set. So, if he didn’t achieve the desired effect and get appropriate compensation, then it would be a substantial loss.

“This is the CZ company’s CZ750 police sniper rifle, equipped with a free-floating heavy barrel, and the stock has a thumbhole with an adjustable cheek pad and butt plate,” Adrian explained to Natalie on the rooftop balcony, introducing the prop gun they would be using next. After a long description, he suddenly changed the subject, “Of course, you don’t need to know any of this, you just have to pose properly when the time comes.”

“Who says I don’t need to know? Even if I don’t use it later, can’t I understand it?” Natalie was quite dissatisfied.

“You can read the manual; I believe that a girl who can read a newspaper without difficulty can certainly understand these complex gun manuals,” Adrian said with a raised eyebrow.

At this moment, Renault couldn’t help but laugh: “Don’t you think that the two of you are quite funny?”

“Do you think so too, Nata?” Adrian propped his fist under his chin and squinted his eyes towards Natalie, who responded by sticking out her tongue and turning her head away.

Renault’s laughter grew louder, while Adrian huffed coldly, and then Charli walked over, “Ed, Crow hopes you can call him back after work; he has something important to discuss with you.”

“Alright, I got it,” Adrian nodded, watching as Charli seemed about to say something else but then quickly walked away, head bowed as if afraid to look at him.

Watching the girl’s retreating figure, Adrian frowned momentarily, but then smoothed his expression. However, Natalie did not miss it, and immediately as if stumbling upon a new discovery, she asked, “Did something happen between you two?”

“Did something happen?” Adrian pretended to be puzzled.

Natalie watched him for several minutes, then her eyes curved up like a waning moon,

“Ed, your eye, it wasn’t caused by Charli, was it?” she asked, giggling word by word.

“Alright, Sherlock, better focus your energy on preparing for the shoot, unless you want to keep getting NGs!” Adrian pressed his hand on her head, half threatening and half warning, and stood up to walk towards the camera.

Natalie, though she made a big face at his back, obediently crawled down onto the blanket spread on the ground as told and picked up a prop gun to begin aiming gestures. Renault, who watched all this from the side, shrugged his shoulders and followed suit, getting ready.

Being a director was actually pretty simple, yet not so simple at the same time. A director himself didn’t really need to do too much specific work: there were cinematographers for shooting, makeup artists and prop masters for makeup and props, lighting technicians for lighting, and even editors for post-production. Besides those, you had the main director, the assistant director, the continuity person, and countless assistants. All a director had to do was macro-manage, blend all these people together, and make them understand what he wanted to shoot.

Simply put, a director himself first needed to be knowledgeable, know how to tell a story, and then be able to communicate well and synchronize everyone with his baton. If a director had nothing in his belly, even with the most luxurious cast, he could still produce a flop. That’s why even truck drivers and video store owners could be directors.

This was where Adrian’s strength lay. In this world, no one understood better than him how certain movies should be made. Although there were not many directorial experiences in his past life, with continuous learning in this life, coupled with the memory bank in his head, he had formed a series of advantages. Therefore, compared to directing, shooting was easy and efficient as long as the actors were in good form.

So, after a certain shoot had ended, Renault said to him, “I thought Luc was very impressive, but I didn’t expect you to be no worse than him, even better in some areas. I’m glad to be working with you, Ed.”

It wasn’t easy to get this Frenchman to say such things. Although Renault was humorous most of the time, he had his temper and carried that somewhat inexplicable French pride. However, he wasn’t one to dismiss everything, but getting his full recognition was not an easy task, especially since he had been working with Luc Besson for a long time.

“I’m glad to hear you say that, I hope to work with Luc in the future too,” was how Adrian responded. He wasn’t worried about this, for unlike the high compatibility with Matilda and Natalie, the role of Lyon was tailored for him. If he would mess up even with a reference, then Adrian was better off buying a block of tofu and smashing himself to death with it—Chinatown was full of tofu.

Therefore, Adrian’s attention when not working was still mainly on Charlize. Two more days had passed since the last incident, and his not-so-serious black eye had begun to fade, and he did not need to wear sunglasses to go out anymore, but Charlize would still rush away without an extra word after only discussing work. This coldness triggered by Monica’s arrival was different; she seemed more to be worried and hesitant about something.

“Look, look, Charli, look at what these guys are saying,” Adrian, sitting on the sofa, chuckled as he watched Charlize cleaning up the room, rustling the newspaper in his hands, “‘The Professional’ crew suffers accident, Miracle Director suspected eye injury. They really can make up stories, even putting a blurry photo on purpose.”

Updat𝓮d from frёewebnoѵēl.com.

Because of journalists coming and going around the set from time to time, and because on that particular morning, due to the suddenness of the incident, he didn’t disguise himself before heading to the set, someone managed to take a picture of him from afar. Although it wasn’t very clear, you could still make out the dark circles under his eyes. But from the beginning, all inquiries were handled by the crew, and when it came to these matters, the crew basically had no comment, so the journalists simply started speculating.

“Isn’t this great? You haven’t been in the media for a while, just use this opportunity to hype the new movie, right?” Charlize sat down on the sofa after tidying up and fell silent for a moment before speaking up.

“No, no, no, dear Charli, the publicity team will take care of the marketing, it’s not time yet. As for myself, it’s been less than two months since the Oscars, and I’ve already drawn enough attention. Continuing now would just tire the public,” Adrian shrugged his shoulders, grinning at her without blinking an eye.

Charlize’s chest heaved rapidly a few times, then she looked up and met his gaze, “Well then, I formally apologize for my behavior that morning, Ed.”

A few seconds passed before Adrian showed a surprised expression, “Just like that?”

“What else do you think I should do?!” Charlize suddenly glared at him with furious eyes, “Don’t forget, Ed, if it weren’t for your excessive behavior the night before, how could I have ever done such a thing!”

“I was helping you,” Adrian spread his hands innocently, “Besides, it’s not like we haven’t done it before, and you quite enjoyed that night, didn’t you?”

“You…” Charlize was at a loss for words, okay, if she was angry about Monica, then why had she tangled with Adrian before? She knew very well what kind of person he was.

“I just…” Charlize gestured trying to defend herself, but after running the reasons through her mind, she found they were too embarrassing to voice.

“Damn it, how did I end up with a boss like you!” she covered her head and exclaimed indignantly.

“It’s okay, Charli, if it will make you happy to hear me apologize, then I apologize,” Adrian said and hugged her into his arms. Charlize struggled only briefly before giving up.

After a few minutes of silence, she bit her lip and suddenly looked up at Adrian, “I want to make a deal with you!”

(To be continued. If you wish to know what happens next, please log in to www.qidian.com where there are more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!)