American Fame and Fortune Chapter 664

 Chapter 664: The most difficult actor in Hollywood

 Disney Studios, in the soundstage of "The Martian".

Martin wore a gray uniform and came to the planting warehouse where soil was piled, preparing to become a Martian farmer.

  Ridley Scott came over and reminded: “You have to use primitive farming methods.”

 Martin nodded: "Don't worry, I'm ready."

He was quite good at growing vegetables in his previous life in a rural area. At that time, his hometown was a well-known vegetable province in the country.

 On this planet, there are very few people who are better at growing vegetables than his hometown.

 A prop master came over with a bag full of sealed bags.

 Martin took a bag and squeezed it.

 Ridley told him: “For the sake of filming, it's all real human feces.”

 Martin put the bag back and clapped his hands: "No problem."

With all departments of the crew in place, Ridley returned behind the director's monitor, and with the script notes, filming began.

Martin transformed into a farmer, leveling the soil and digging ridges with simple tools. During this period, he faced the selfie device and kept making risqué lines from his mouth.

 If you want a one-man show to be exciting, it is inevitable to laugh at yourself.

 The filming has just started and is not going very smoothly. Martin is looking for form, and Ridley is also looking for form.

 After experiencing the disastrous failure of "Pharaohs and Gods", Ridley, a veteran director, knows very well that if he screws up another front-line production with an investment of hundreds of millions of dollars, the future situation will not be good.

 So, from the beginning of the filming of "The Martian", he strictly required all personnel, including himself and Martin, to set high standards for filming.

 In the past two hours, the crew only shot four shots.

During this period, Ridley left the director's chair several times to coordinate filming.

 Compared to the crew, he did not have many demands on Martin, because Martin could always make adjustments in time to perform the effect he wanted.

 The last scene started filming before noon.

Martin blocked his nose and opened a bag of feces and put it into the soil.

This thing may have been packaged for a while, and the weather in California at the end of May was a bit hot, and the smell of fermentation still penetrated the forehead even if it blocked the nose.

 In recent years, Martin has been quite pampered. The taste is very strong and nauseating, but he can bear it.

When he helped his family with farm work in his previous life, he had personally processed the fermented chicken manure. The taste was sour and refreshing.

Martin was quick on his feet, handling bags of manure after Ridley-Scott's instructions in preparation for planting potatoes.

According to his experience, farmyard manure cannot be used in this way, especially farmyard manure that is buried deep into the roots.

 At that time, the collected cattle and sheep dung and other things were piled together for natural fermentation and retting and were not used directly.

 He still remembered what the old man had taught him, that fresh excrement would easily burn the roots.

 But Martin didn't say much. What is shown in the movie is different from real life.

 Five scenes of the male protagonist using manure to grow potatoes, Ridley went back and forth for nearly an hour to film the scene before it was approved.

The result of this was that Martin couldn't eat anything during lunch, and every meal smelled like shit.

During the afternoon shooting, Martin finally got rid of the feces and moved to another studio with the same layout to show off the planted potato fields to the selfie camera.

In order to shoot this scene, Ridley asked someone to plant potatoes in the studio a long time ago, and now they are basically grown.

Although the crew initially filmed one-man shows that were difficult to perform, Ridley and Martin quickly got into work mode after a brief adjustment.

 The former is an experienced director, and even if there is an emergency situation on the set, he can resolve it as quickly as possible.

 Martin's professional attitude and quality are beyond doubt, and no director who has worked with him can say that he is bad.

Hollywood has also proven over the past few years that as long as the management doesn't mess around and the big-name actors don't make trouble, the filming of the crew tends to go smoothly.

 More than 80% of the filming will take place in the studios of Disney Studios.

 The crew of "The Martian" come in and out every day in an orderly manner.

Across the main road from the studio, in the studio opposite, is the crew of "The Lone Ranger".

 After several months of preparation, the film officially started shooting in June.

In the morning, a battery car drove over and stopped at the entrance of the studio. Megan Ellison jumped out of the car, but did not enter the studio of the "Lone Ranger" crew. Instead, she stood on the roadside and looked diagonally across.

 She had a great time teasing Martin last time. It was great the first time, so naturally she wanted to do it a second time.

She has been busy recently and has not met Martin. Today, she came here not only to watch the crew filming, but also to see if she could meet Martin and have fun again.

Meghan looked at it for a while. The door of the studio diagonally opposite was closed. Several security personnel were guarding the door. It was obviously in filming mode and no one was allowed to enter or exit. After waiting for a while, the door of the studio over there never opened. Megan lost patience and walked towards the studio where her crew was.

When she came to the door of the studio, the door was open normally. When she entered, she found that the studio was brightly lit and the crew members were sitting or standing together chatting, just like employees fishing at work.

Meghan became very popular immediately. As an excellent employer, she absolutely cannot stand this kind of waste of money!

But she did not act rashly. After all, the production team had given Jerry Bruckheimer a commitment and was entirely responsible for Jerry's team.

Megan walked inside and saw Jerry Bruckheimer and director Gore Verbinski. The latter was exchanging opinions with the director of photography, and the former kept dialing the phone.

The two people had anger and a bit of helplessness on their faces.

 Looking at the actors, they are all sitting in the rest area.

Meghan frowned slightly because she didn't see the actor Johnny Depp.

Yesterday, she asked her assistant to confirm with the crew that there would be a scene with actor Depp this morning, and then she came to visit the crew.

Meghan waited for a while, until producer Jerry finished the call, but there was still no sign of Depp.

 Furthermore, after such a long time, the crew still has no intention of starting filming, and is still in the idle state as before.

Every minute and every second of this is wasted on her Megan Ellison's investment!

Jerry saw Megan Ellison and hurriedly came over to say hello. On the surface, he still respected this female investor with a lot of money.

Meghan asked directly: "Jerry, why hasn't work started? The crew doesn't need such a long break, right?"

 In his heart, Jerry looked down on this outsider and responded: "We will start shooting in a moment."

Meghan was not easy to fool and asked, "Where's Johnny Depp? I've seen the crew's shooting schedule today. There were many scenes with the male protagonist in the morning. Why didn't I see him?"

　　Hearing Depp's name, Jerry had headaches one after another. The veins on his forehead kept bulging, and the blood vessels in his brain seemed about to explode at any time.

Meghan knew something must be going on with Depp and asked again: "Where is Johnny Depp? Where is my leading actor?"

There was a financial officer from Annapurna Pictures on the crew. If you inquire carefully, you will find that the situation cannot be concealed. Jerry said bravely: "Depp is late and has not come to the set. The crew is ready for filming. Waiting for him to come."

“Late?” Megan was surprised at first, and then looked at her watch. It was almost eleven o'clock in the morning. She laughed angrily, pointed at the watch face, and said, “Do you think this is late?”

 Jerry was equally irritable, but this was his crew, and he didn't want management to interfere too much with the crew's work. He said, “I will communicate these small issues with Depp...”

While he was talking, seven or eight people came in at the door of the studio, two of whom were holding dogs.

Johnny Depp, walking in the middle, has sunken eye sockets and dark circles, as if Captain Sparrow has come to the real world, and he even staggers when he walks.

Before Megan Ellison could say anything, director Gore Verbinski exploded: "I said, don't let dogs enter the set! Take the dog away immediately, now! Now!"

 The hungover Depp burped: "If my baby leaves, I'll leave!"

 After speaking, he waved his hand and called his followers to prepare to leave.

Verbinski's face changed with anger.

Jerry quickly came out and said: "John, let someone take the dogs to the break room of the office area. There are many people and equipment here, and it will be bad if they are hurt."

Depp could hear this and said a few words to the attendants, who led the dogs to the lounge on one side.

　　When working with Depp on the first "Pirates of the Caribbean", although his temper was weird, it was still within the tolerance of Gore-Verbinski.

By the time they collaborated for the second time, Verbinski was full of opinions about Depp. This eccentric with capital quickly transformed into one of the most difficult and unprofessional actors in Hollywood.

But Captain Sparrow is so popular that Disney pinched its nose to cooperate with Depp, and the same goes for Verbinski.

No one can live with huge profits.

Verbinski glanced at Depp and said, "I can't shoot in the morning, and I don't even have enough time for styling."

It is quite troublesome for the male protagonist to put on makeup.

Jerry frowned and said, "I'll go communicate with him and ask him to do the styling first and sober up at the same time."

Verbinski couldn't help it anymore and reminded: "This is not the way to go. He will torture the crew to collapse by himself."

Depp is now the top star in the industry. With the addition of the Caribbean series, his popularity is unparalleled. Even a gold medal producer like Jerry has to negotiate with him.

Jerry found Depp and communicated.

Verbinski Judging from Jerry's expression, it is not difficult to guess that the communication was not smooth. Depp, who was drunk and confused, seemed unable to understand what others were saying.

Since the filming of this film started, everything has been difficult. With Megan Ellison having sufficient investment budget, almost all the difficulties are related to Depp.

Verbinski vowed that this would be the last time he would work with Depp unless someone offered him a director's salary of $30 million next time.

Meghan resisted saying anything and just watched with cold eyes.

 (End of this chapter)

Chapter end