America Tycoon: The Wolf of Showbiz

Martin's impression of "Sicario" was quite lasting because the film was indeed unique. Among the cast were not only Thanos and a werewolf, but most importantly, the female lead. Emily Blunt portrayed the heroine who, at first, seemed to be the absolute protagonist, but ended up just hanging around idly for most of the film, with the lead role shifting to someone else midway through. Even this female character had no role in advancing the plot whatsoever. Perhaps it could be described as dragging out the dark world of the US-Mexico Border for the audience to see, from a woman's perspective. Martin carefully put away the script and business card, recalling again. He wasn't sure how the film did at the box office, but he remembered one thing: "Sicario" had a sequel. Like all Hollywood investors including himself, a movie that didn't make money would never get a second investment. This was the best proof of commercial value. Martin dialed Denis Villeneuve's number directly and said as soon as it was answered, "This is Martin Davis; we met last night." In a standalone house by the sea in Santa Monica, Villeneuve scrambled out from a pile of women. He elbowed his way through arms and pushed aside legs, and finally toppled the mountain that weighed on his head and struggled out from the fleshly forest, hurrying to say, "Sorry, Mr. Davis, please wait a moment." A few women's hands reached out, groping around. Villeneuve protected his privates and left that spot to go to the window, saying, "Mr. Davis, have you read the script?" Martin said, "The rest of the script? Is it with you? If you're available today, you could come to my studio in Burbank." Villeneuve, a rising director, seemingly glimpsed the ladder to Hollywood's upper echelons opening up the most crucial gateway, and said, "I'll be right there, at most two hours… no, one hour!" "I'll wait for you," the other side hung up the call. Villeneuve glanced at the number on the phone and saved it quickly, then let out a loud yell. From within the heap of women, someone shouted, "Denis, have you gone mad? Let me sleep a bit more!" Villeneuve took two leaps over and yelled, "Taylor Sheridan, get up, hurry up!" He pulled someone out of the pile of women. After too much drinking at the previous night's wild party and vigorous activities, these women, groggy and unwilling to wake up, caused Taylor Sheridan enveloped among them to close his eyes again. Villeneuve got angry, went to the bathroom, grabbed a basin of water, and splashed it down. A chorus of shrieks erupted in the room; five bare women and one man scrambled up amid F-bomb laden exclamations. Taylor Sheridan, seeing the basin in Villeneuve's hands, thought to square up with him. The other women cursed him as a lunatic. But Villeneuve stopped Sheridan with one sentence, "A company has seen your script and wants to see the rest, let's go immediately." Sheridan halted, his anger redirected at the women, "Get out, all of you, the party's over." "Fuck you!" A few Western women flipped him the bird. Sheridan found his trousers, dug out his wallet, and pulled out a stack of cash, shoving it into the hands of the lead woman, "That's all I've got." The woman took the money and signaled, "Sisters, let's go." Once the women had left, Sheridan, while putting on his pants, asked, "Which company? Who called you?" "Martin Davis! The very superstar and producer/investor who just won Best Actor last night!" Villeneuve briefly said, "I met him at the Oscars night party and casually handed him a photocopy; after so many rejections, one more didn't matter to you, but Martin responded." He hurriedly dressed, "Quick, quick, I promised Martin I'd be at Davis Studio in an hour." Sheridan quickly dressed, saying as he did, "The script isn't completely finished yet, and you've been pitching it around, getting rejected so many times, yet you're still not giving up." Villeneuve used himself as an example, "I got the script for 'City of Scorching Sands' back in '03; how long did it take to finally make it into a movie? Life doesn't have many eight-year spans; we must seize the time, seize the opportunity." That struck a chord with Sheridan. He'd been an actor in Hollywood for over a decade, always playing very marginal roles, with little progress in his acting career. Since the year before last, he'd switched tracks and tried his hand at writing scripts. By a stroke of luck, Sheridan met Villeneuve, hit it off right away, and planned to collaborate on this project. Each carrying a briefcase, they left the house, got in the car, and headed straight for Burbank. Over half an hour later, Sheridan and Villeneuve appeared in Martin's office. Martin, in the meantime, had someone check on screenwriter Taylor Sheridan's background. Taylor Sheridan was an actor whose earliest work in his resume dated back to 1996, and his most famous works were "CSI" and "Pretty Detective," with roles that were very marginal bit parts. Villeneuve made introductions for both sides. Martin didn't beat around the bush and directly asked, "What about the rest of the script?" Taylor Sheridan opened his file bag and placed a stack of bound printed pages on Martin's desk, saying, "This is just a draft, it hasn't been finely edited yet." Martin said, "Take a seat, I'll have a look." Taylor Sheridan knew very well, that having spent over a decade in the industry, whether he could change tracks and make a breakthrough halfway was crucial today; after sitting down, he kept glancing towards Villeneuve. The latter, having experienced the big scene of an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film, was much more composed than Sheridan despite having shorter tenure in the industry, giving him a patient waiting look. In fact, Villeneuve was also anxious, as this mattered for his future as well. Martin quickly flipped through the script; although he didn't quite remember the specific scenes of the film, the main storyline was essentially the same. After about ten minutes, he directly flipped to the ending, briskly skimmed through it, and looked at Sheridan and Villeneuve, "The script is quite interesting, are you willing to work with Davis Studio?" Sheridan and Villeneuve had previously submitted to quite a few companies, either receiving no reply or outright rejection. Mr. Davis, do you plan to turn it into a movie?" Sheridan, having been slogging in the industry for many years, knew that many companies, upon finding a decent script, would buy the rights only to toss it into a script vault for many years without ever filming it. If Davis Studio did the same, Sheridan would definitely not cooperate. Martin Davis could afford to wait; a small player like him couldn't. Villeneuve glanced at Sheridan as if to say, have you forgotten what we agreed on? Sheridan pointed to himself and added, "During the scripting, Denis gave me a lot of feedback, he's the best fit to direct." Martin said, "I just watched 'City of Scorching Sands', it was filmed with a very distinctive style, a very good movie." Villeneuve said, "Thank you." Martin said, "Have your agents come over, let's talk about the specifics of the cooperation." This type of film, even if well made, was unlikely to be a huge commercial success. Villeneuve did not want to experience another long eight-year ordeal like with 'City of Scorching Sands', and he nudged Sheridan with his foot. Sheridan was not hesitating; rather, facing a top-tier industry figure like Martin, he felt severely lacking in confidence. He hurriedly said, "I'm willing to work with Davis Studio, but I need to clarify one point ahead of time, the script is only a draft, I need to further refine it, and I can't start preparing for filming immediately; it may take a few months... or even longer." Martin was not surprised by this, "Those aren't problems." Sheridan breathed a sigh of relief and took out his phone to call his agent. Villeneuve did the same. With Davis Studio extending such a sturdy support, they hastened to grab hold of it, not knowing when the next opportunity would come along if they missed this one. Then, Martin discussed the script with Sheridan and Villeneuve for a while and realized that to get the film ready, it would take at least until the second half of the year or even longer. Sheridan's agent was the first to arrive and went to negotiate specifics with Jessica. Martin stopped Villeneuve, remembering something; he and Graham King had been looking for a suitable director to helm the "Prince of Thieves" project. He directly asked, "Denis, aside from preparing to direct this current project, do you have any other jobs?" Villeneuve, being a smart man, said, "Not at the moment." He smiled helplessly, "Although 'City of Scorching Sands' received a Best Foreign Language Film nomination, my situation hasn't improved significantly, and I haven't received any other offers." Martin rummaged for the script of 'Prince of Thieves', "I have a project here, about a group of bank robbers, here's the script." Villeneuve took the script and started reading it carefully, saying, "This is adapted from a novel, right? I've read the original novel." Martin roughly introduced, "That's correct, it's adapted from the novel of the same name by Chuck Hogan, and the project has already started preparation, with producers Graham King and Louise Mel." After looking over it for a while, Villeneuve looked up at Martin, "May I direct this project?" "I can only assure you an interview opportunity," Martin replied, acknowledging he wasn't as professional as Graham and Louise in this regard, "You'll need to go through an interview by the two producers." Villeneuve considered the schedule of Sheridan's script and said, "I'd like to give it a try." Martin sent a message to Graham and Louise respectively and also gave Villeneuve their contact information, "The studio for this project is at Disney Studio, you arrange an interview time with the two producers." Villeneuve quickly secured the note, "I'll call them right away." Both Graham King and Louise Mel were top-tier producers in the industry, dream collaborators for a small director like him. Suddenly, Villeneuve's agent also arrived at Davis Studio. The negotiation proceeded very quickly, and Martin, worried about repeating a situation like with Megan Ellison, cut through the chaos with a decisive strike and bought Sheridan's script outright for $100,000. The script was officially named "Border Killer."