บท 90: Chapter 90 Changing Roles
Ecks left on the front foot, and on the back foot, Sam Raimi, the director of the movie Spider-Man, directly barged into Joel's office despite the president's assistant's obstruction, and at this time, Joel was looking at that script that Ecks had brought with him.
Seeing the angry Sam Raimi, the president of Sony Pictures, Joel waved his hand towards his assistant who was standing at the door with a difficult expression, signaling him to go out and close the door.
"Sam, I was just about to..." he was interrupted in the middle of his sentence.
"The start date for the movie has been pushed back ever since I got the script, and I was wondering, when are you going to wait until, next year or the year after?" Sam Raimi had just been notified by Sony Pictures this morning that the start date for the Spider-Man sequel had been delayed once again, and unable to hold back he finally approached him, "If you guys aren't going to start shooting the sequel right away, what's the point of bringing me in early? To watch you and the actors rip each other off over paychecks?"
"Sam, I can understand your feelings, right now the crew is spending money every day and we are in a hurry. The delay in starting filming is not unilaterally our responsibility, Tobey Maguire's stubbornness has forced us to carefully consider finding a suitable replacement for Spider-Man. I know you admire him, but do you think he's really worth $20 million in this movie?" Joel was a little irritated by Sam Raimi's brash attitude right off the bat, and he was about to make the other man a cup of coffee, but ended up pouring only his own.
"So who are you guys going to replace, is it really Felix Lim?" Sam Raimi also realized that his attitude just now was a bit presumptuous, after all, the other party was the president of Sony Pictures, out of concern for Joel's identity, his tone finally moderated: "I don't think he can play Spider-Man, although I admit that his performance in every movie is not bad, but I can communicate with Toby and try to convince him to make concessions! "
"15 million dollars, this is the fee Felix Lin is willing to accept, and the highest price we can accept, if Tobey Maguire agrees, we work together, if not, we'll replace him!" Joel temporarily put away the script written by Lin Ming Yang into a drawer, he decided to give Tobey Maguire one last chance.
----
Spider-Man 2 star Tobey Maguire because of the pay issue with the producers "pulling" things, finally attracted the attention of the media, the spread of this casting fiasco ultimately Lin Mingyang was also involved in it. Hollywood journalists do not know where to get the bottom price of the two, and then in the newspaper to make a big comment, and even launched the name of the "who is your idea of Spider-Man? and even launched a reader poll called "Who's Your Spider-Man?
In this round of exchanges, although Lin Mingyang's reputation and popularity helped him a lot, but the preconceived notion still made Tobey Maguire's final vote was higher than his. Once the voting results came out, the Hollywood media, which was originally a wallflower, basically favored Tobey Maguire, and the situation seemed to be moving in a very bad direction for Lin Ming Yang.
The support of this media review made Tobey Maguire's agent Kevin firm in his resolve to fight Sony Pictures to the end, but the phone call from Sam Raimi made Tobey Maguire waver once again.
"Mr. Raimi told me that $15 million is the ultimatum given by Sony Pictures, and that if they don't accept it they'll replace him immediately!" Tobey Maguire worriedly told his agent the news.
"An ultimatum!" Kevin sneered, "I think Joel must not have seen today's newspaper when he said that, the media and the audience are on our side, we have the upper hand now."
"Would that be too much of a stalemate with Sony Pictures?" The agent's explanation didn't completely assuage Tobey Maguire's concerns.
"My dear Toby, who cares what you've done as long as you bring them greenbacks, all anyone cares about is the end result." Kevin patted him on the shoulder, "You've been overstimulated this whole time, maybe you should get some rest and be ready for our great victory."
----
Joel, the president of Sony Pictures, did see the results of the press selection, and the day before, he had received a reluctant phone call from director Sam Raimi that Tobey Maguire had refused to accept Sony's offer of a paycheck! These two iterations of bad news combined to make him drop something in his office for the first time. After throwing a tantrum, Joel remembered the script he'd forgotten in a drawer, but when he went to look for it, he realized that the one Eckles had brought in was gone.
"I obviously put that script in this drawer, but where is it now?" Joel held back his anger and called his assistant in, he needed to figure out what was going on now.
That assistant looked at the furious boss with an aggrieved face, "But didn't you tell me to send that script to Mr. Sam Raimi yesterday?"
Being reminded by him, Joel then remembered that yesterday he had gotten the final revised version of the original plot of Spider-Man 2, and then he had put that script in the same drawer as Lin Ming Yang's script, and his assistant had obviously taken the wrong script.
Joel leaned back in his seat disheveled as he threw the real one onto the table, "You go get that script back, that's what Sam Raimi wants!"
"He didn't send the wrong one!" At that moment, without warning, Sam Raimi pushed his way in, holding the same script Joel had been looking for earlier, "This is the story I want for the sequel to Spider-Man!"
"You read this morning's paper?" Without knocking on the door or making an appointment, Joel just watched helplessly as Sam Raimi came and went freely in and out of his office like nobody's business. He was holding a fire in his heart just now, and now it was finally ignited completely, and he laughed back in anger: "This result satisfies you and Tobey Maguire, doesn't it?"
Sam Raimi looked at him in confusion, "I did read today's newspaper, but I don't understand what you're talking about?"
"Don't play that game in front of me, you and Tobey Maguire think that's going to bring the company to its knees?" Joel's voice held hidden anger, "I can tell you very clearly now, Tobey Maguire is officially out!"
Sam Raimi finally realized that Joel was taking out his dissatisfaction with Tobey Maguire completely on himself, in the face of the furious president of Sony Pictures, this big director who had never been in a good temper was surprisingly calm, "Is this your personal idea, or is this the final resolution of the board of directors!"
"I'll immediately announce an interim board meeting dedicated to discussing this issue, I think the vast majority of the directors, will not tolerate this serious provocation from Tobey Maguire. I'm going to make him pay for his stupidity!"
"And what about me, are you going to fire them all together?" Sam Raimi asked with a sneer.
Joel was very direct in his showdown, "Either you accept the new lead actor and we continue to work together, or I'll suggest to the board of directors that we reconsider the choice of the movie's director!"
"Last question!" Sam Raimi did not make a direct choice, but held up the script in his hand, "I want to know who wrote this?"
"Felix Lim, the guy you thought couldn't play Spider-Man well!" Since he had already torn his face off, Joel didn't need to be polite when he spoke, and the irony in his words was very obvious.
Sam Raimi instead seemed patient at this point: "Are you guys really going to replace Tobey Maguire with him?"
"Exactly, and unlike that idiot Tobey Maguire, Felix is obviously going to be very aware of his situation. That script you've got in your hand is proof that he's worth that 15 million dollars!" Since he wanted to suppress Tobey Maguire, Joel naturally had to elevate Lin Mingyang's status.
"I'm willing to accept adjustments in casting!" From Sam Raimi's mouth came out this sentence in a calm manner.
"What?" Joel thought he had misheard, "So you agree?"
"I still say that Felix Lin isn't the perfect candidate in my mind, but he's the least bad choice in this current situation!" Sam Raimi squeezed a very forced smile out of the corner of his mouth, "The more main reason is that I like him as a script!"
----
The silence on Sony's part didn't arouse Tobey Maguire's suspicions, but the silence of director Sam Raimi sent him dangerous signals, and he volunteered to be interviewed by the TV station, "My attitude was totally wrong, I should have joined the team earlier, but I felt very tired, and in the end I hope to learn a lesson from this, that the movie is always the most important thing. "
This speech was edited into an entertainment news item, Lin Mingyang happened to see this when he passed by the living room, Catherine sitting on the sofa pressed pause with the remote control, from the framed TV screen, Tobey Maguire seemed to be a little anxious emotionally.
"I heard from Mr. Echolls that you're a candidate for the new Spider-Man as well?" Catherine, who had never cared much about this type of news, asked Lin Ming Yang such a question in an unprecedented manner.
Lin Ming Yang looked at his mother with some hesitation, "You didn't like to care about this before?"
"When your mom was your age, she was also a Spider-Man comic book fan. The first time I ran into her on the school bus, she was holding a Spider-Man comic in her hand!" His father, Lin Qinghai, walked into the living room just in time to hear the conversation between Lin Mingyang's mother and son, which reminded him of the scene when he and Catherine first met.
"Is this true?" Lin Mingyang's mouth opened wide in surprise.
Lin Qinghai smiled and nodded, looking at his wife with tenderness in his eyes, "In the basement locker, there are all still comics that she finished reading back then but couldn't bring herself to throw them away, two big boxes full of them!"
"But I never knew this!" In those diaries Lin Mingyang used to keep, all that was recorded was about himself.
His mother, Catherine, glared at him in mock anger: "Of all the superheroes in Marvel Comics, you said you liked Iron Man the most!"
"I did?" Lin Mingyang really couldn't "remember" anything at all.
"I can testify to this!" Lin Qinghai nodded with certainty, "On your 6th birthday, what we gave you was an Iron Man toy!"
Those anecdotes from his parents' mouth about Lin Ming Yang's little moments when he was young, even though he hadn't personally experienced them, from his parents' memories, he could still feel the warmth that flowed through his heart. At the end of this family discussion, the topic returned to Spider-Man.
"Are you really going to play Spider-Man?" Because after that news just now, Catherine looked a little worried.
"You really want me to play that role?" Lin Ming Yang was curious because his mother's attitude hadn't been very positive on the matter of his acting.
"Why not?" Catherine shook her hand, "Imagine if you did play Spider-Man in a movie, I could brag to my former friends, you guys, Spider-Man is my son!"
Just as Lin Ming Yang began to seriously consider whether he should fulfill this wish of his mother's, the doorbell of the house rang. Catherine skillfully pointed to the stairs to Lin Ming Yang, "You go up first, if it's a reporter, your father and I will deal with it!"
This kind of situation for Lin Mingyang and his family has long been accustomed to, everything is like a rehearsal, Lin Mingyang went up the stairs to his own room, Catherine looked out through the door mirror, and then she saw a middle-aged man with a somewhat disheveled look on his face, which is not a situation that should occur in the "drill".
Catherine was a bit hesitant, but seeing that her husband was right beside her, she opened the door.
"Sir, who are you looking for?"
"You must be Felix's mother?" The visitor nodded politely to Catherine in greeting, "I'm Sam Raimi, the director of the movie Spider-Man!"
"Oh my God!" Catherine looked at the other man in surprise, "We and Felix were just having a conversation about Spider-Man."
Sam Raimi shrugged, "I'm interested in that topic as well, so if you guys don't mind, I can join the discussion."
Catherine certainly didn't mind, and within half a minute of opening the door and meeting Sam Raimi was smoothly seated in his host's living room. Although Catherine was eager to know what her son was talking about with the director of Spider-Man, her husband, Lin Qing Hai, patted her on the shoulder and the two of them went upstairs together, leaving the space for their son.
"Surprised?" Sam Raimi loved the unexpected look on Lin Ming Yang's face right now, his own directing style was good at setting up suspense and surprises in his films.
Lin Mingyang nodded unabashedly, "Very unexpected!"
"You're taller than I thought!" Sam Raimi said seemingly out of tune.
Lin Ming Yang asked curiously, "What does that say?"
"Because we had to have a new Spider-Man uniform customized!" Sam Raimi looked at Lin Ming Yang as if he was sizing up a 'prop', "But this time the designer doesn't need to add muscle padding to the suit, I've seen your previous performances, the muscle lines on your body are already perfect!"
From Sam Raimi's comment reveals a very crucial information, Spider-Man's starring role change is already a nailed on fact, Tobey Maguire this time to be disappointed.
"If you can, suggest that the designers make the crotch more comfortable, I heard that my predecessor Tobey Maguire had complained about this during the filming of the previous episode!" Lin Mingyang added.
"You know about this too?" This time it was Sam Raimi's turn to be a little surprised.
"The entertainment news on TV this whole time has been broadcasting things related to the Spider-Man sequel!"
Sam Raimi didn't pick up on that, "Know why I ended up choosing you?"
The atmosphere in the living room became a bit subtle, then Lin Ming Yang smiled easily, "Giving up the original foundation and starting everything from scratch, such a choice is indeed a bit tough for you."
Sam Raimi nodded, "I'm glad you realize that, so from today onwards, forget about Tobey Maguire, you're not going to be his stand-in, we're not going to make a sequel to a movie, I want a brand new Spider-Man!"
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