America Tycoon: The Wolf of Showbiz

The image showed Martin's familiar face, seemingly not aged at all, just exuding a more mature charm.

Annie-Hathaway's lips, originally pressed tightly into a line, suddenly felt numb in her cheeks, and her throat seemed stuffed with something, causing her to instinctively open her mouth, just like she used to when she was with Martin.

A weird noise almost escaped from her throat, and she hurriedly covered her mouth.

That was close, Annie thought to herself.

But looking at the photo of Martin, she started to reminisce about the times when her mouth was always filled with sweetness.

It was because Annie saw the string of numbers listed on the leaderboard clearly.

"NO.3, Martin Davis!

— 82 million US dollars!

40 million US dollars from the salary and profit share of "Inception".

32 million US dollars from the salary and profit share of "Gone Girl".

10 million US dollars from the royalties of other old films."

Annie knew that this was just a rough estimate and there would certainly be a margin of error, but the error wouldn't be particularly large.

Had it been previous years, Martin's earnings would have been enough to rank first!

Following on, Spielberg, Leonardo, Nolan, and the others, none could match Martin.

Although her own annual income was also approaching ten million US dollars, a female star's expenses were too high, and this amount of money was not enough to cover them.

Annie vividly remembered that when she was with Martin, his annual income was just a few hundred thousand US dollars, having just gained some fame, and now in five years, he was already halfway to being a superstar.

James Franco noticed Annie zoning out and asked, "Are you okay?"

Annie snapped back to reality and replied, "I'm fine."

She returned the magazine to Franco and walked slowly toward the backstage alone.

She had always wanted to find a tall, rich, and handsome guy; there had been one right before her eyes, yet she had let him slip away.

At that moment, Annie really wanted to ask Martin if they could go back.

Entering backstage, she saw the newly elected Academy President Tom Sherak discussing the awards ceremony presenters with the director.

"We've locked down three candidates for the presenter of Best Picture," the director told Tom Sherak: "Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, and Martin Davis."

Tom Sherak nodded slightly, "All three carry enough weight, but Martin is a bit too young... The Oscars' influence has been waning these past few years, we must turn this tide."

The director felt a huge pressure all of a sudden.

Tom Sherak added, "Sandra Bullock injured her leg while shooting 'Gravity' and may not be able to attend the awards ceremony, I have talked to her over the phone, for the Best Actor presenter, I'm planning to have Jack and Martin go up."

The director immediately understood Sherak's intentions; these were the famous Trio of Scoundrels in Hollywood, and indeed the whole of America.

According to Nicholson, the three once fought side by side at the Santa Monica Pier, battling dozens of armed spies, forming a bond thicker than blood.

He ventured to ask, "What if Leonardo doesn't win the award?"

Tom Sherak stated, "Whether he wins or not, the attraction will be there!"

The director mentioned, "The highest-rated segment of the Oscars in the past five years was when Spielberg, Coppola, and Lucas presented the Best Director award to Scorsese."

"The Best Actor presenter is settled then," Tom Sherak, also under great pressure, said. The Oscars were the Academy's signature, and if its influence waned, the Academy would also decline.

He continued, "For Best Picture, let's go with Spielberg or Hanks, one of the two; see who wants to do it."

Annie, walking past them, pretended not to hear their conversation, yet internally, she pondered that Martin would definitely go backstage during the award ceremony, and she could find a chance to chat with him; perhaps their old flame could be rekindled.

She always felt that Martin was a man of loyalty and nostalgia.

......

In Burbank, at the Davis Studio's reception room,

Detective Geralt came for a visit.

Martin asked, "Do we have results for the case?"

"It's been identified," Detective Geralt, with a high efficiency in his work, opened the document bag he brought, took out the information inside, and handed it to Martin: "We've now established that these Mexicans are behind it."

The documents contained photos of six people, two of whom Martin vaguely remembered; thinking carefully, they seemed like the Mexicans who delivered the safe on moving day.

He looked at the documents again, and it was indeed the case, asking, "Detective, have you caught them?"

Geralt looked apologetic, "We tracked them down in a day, but by the time we went to apprehend them, we discovered they had fled to Mexico at noon. They might be in Tijuana by now. I've reported it to the police department, and through contacts in Tijuana, a warrant has been issued, but the situation there is complicated, and it's unrealistic to expect Tijuana police to capture them."

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"It's okay." Martin didn't care about these petty thieves and asked, "Is someone behind them?" Experience tales at My Virtual Library Empire

Geralt shook his head directly, "We haven't found any evidence of that. They've all run off to Mexico, so..."

Martin understood, and didn't give them a hard time. In Los Angeles, Detective Geralt's speed at identifying suspects could definitely be considered fast.

Geralt rose to leave, "Mr. Davis, if there's any new development in the case, we will notify you in a timely manner."

Martin saw him out, "Thank you."

After returning, he handed the documents to Bruce and asked, "Do you recognize them?"

Bruce looked over them carefully and said, "Four of them had delivered safes."

Martin couldn't help but speculate, "Could they have been instructed to use the delivery of the safes as a chance to scout out the place in advance?" He recalled, "That day, I was going through scripts submitted to the company, which were all piled on my desk."

"It's possible," Bruce said, pointing out the crux, "Who is the mastermind behind them?"

Martin replied, "Let's wait and see, we should find out soon."

He glanced at his watch, "Let's go to Brentwood. There's still a screening of 'Shutter Island' today, we've been watching Leo make a fool of himself for so long, we should do some PR for him."

Bruce thought to himself that these three scoundrels not only mess with enemies but also prank each other when bored.

......

Another screening concluded, and Leonardo was completely worn out. After all the guests had left, he plopped down on a couch, with no intention of getting up again.

This PR campaign was unmatched in the money and effort he had put in.

Martin had gone as far as to hype him to the point of looking foolish, and Leonardo had charged ahead with all his might, spending recent days either meeting with other Academy members or on the road to meet them.

He was almost sick of eating lavish meals, chicken and steak tasting like plastic.

Martin grabbed a bottle of water and tossed it to Leonardo, "Catherine Kennedy has promised that she will give her Best Actor vote to you as a priority. She's just been elected as vice president of the Academy and can influence many others' voting decisions."

Nicholson came over and sat on another couch, "With this Academy election, Sid Ganis stepped down voluntarily, Warren Beatty didn't run, and 65-year-old Tom Sherak was elected president, with Catherine Kennedy and Tom Hanks as vice presidents. The Academy is also getting younger."

Martin said, "Am I misunderstanding something about getting younger, 65 years old, younger..."

Leonardo laughed, "That's already quite young for the Academy."

"What, are you youngsters in such a hurry to take over while we old people haven't stepped down yet?" Nicholson adjusted his sunglasses and shifted the topic, "Martin's special PR efforts, combined with the changing of the Academy guard, are indeed a rare opportunity for you, Leo."

Leonardo said fiercely, "I'll see the selling out act through to the end."

Nicholson changed the subject, "How's your case going, any suspects caught?"

Martin was not concerned about the intruders but about other aspects, putting no pressure on the LAPD, "They found some leads that helped them identify six suspects, but they're all Mexicans. They aren't stupid; they left Los Angeles the day after the incident and ran back to Mexico. They could be in Tijuana, you know how complicated that place is."

"Need me to do some detecting?" Nicholson offered.

"Are you planning to deal with the Tijuana gangs?" Martin said, "It's not America there. If you get stuck, I can't save you."

Watching stuff like 'John Wick' and 'Taken' is all well and good, but when you have dozens of Tijuana gangsters bearing down on you, not just him and Bruce, but even a SEAL six-man squad could be brought to their knees.

Nicholson quickly shook his head, "Let's forget about Tijuana."

A single border line, a heaven and hell, is not just a saying.

The Tijuana gangs wouldn't care about the Trio of Scoundrels from Hollywood; if they went, they might even get held hostage and ransomed off for a large sum.

Leonardo asked, "Are we just going to let this slide? When have we ever eaten this kind of loss?"

"Of course not," Martin said earnestly, "I'm considering hiring a group of mercenaries to go to Tijuana and take them all out!"

Nicholson, ever eager for action, said, "That's a good idea, a few thousand dollars could get a lot of Mexicans to risk their lives."

He'd been working the California scene for decades and had wide connections, "Do you have their details?"

Martin nodded, "Yes, LAPD identified them and even got multiple photos of them in their daily lives."

Nicholson didn't beat around the bush with Martin, "Give me two hundred thousand dollars for the trouble-making expenses."

"Money is no object," Martin reminded again, "You don't need to go to Mexico yourself, it's not worth showing up in person."

Nicholson said, "I won't be going to Mexico." He grinned, "Detective Nicholson is off the case, now I'm the hitman-hiring Andrew!"

He stood up, swinging his arms dramatically, "No one can mess with the Trio of Scoundrels and still enjoy life freely! I, the head of the Trio of Scoundrels, will not allow it!"

Leonardo said, "No wonder I willingly acknowledge you as the boss."

Martin gave a thumbs-up, "That's the unique charm of the Trio of Scoundrels' boss!"

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