Lance felt that his life was about to come to an end.

As the saying goes, dreams are alive, dreams are alive. He has been dreaming recently. Today, on the way back to Brooklyn by subway, he dreamed again, dreaming that he returned to the summer of 2002, when he was about to turn thirty, sitting in that narrow office space, the tight high pressure inside almost made him feel suffocated, so he irritatedly unbuttoned his shirt, trying to get more fresh air in his lungs.

When he raised his head, he could see the shaking incandescent lamp on the ceiling, sprinkling weakly. The pale light made him dizzy, and he couldn't help but close his eyes and breathe in big mouths. But even so, he still couldn't calm his anger. The endless words in his ears were fanning the flames, causing the surging anger to almost completely lose control.

"Shut up!" Lance gritted his teeth and tried to stop the endless nagging in front of him. He even wanted to tear the mouth apart and let all the sounds disappear completely. However, the noisy sound still did not stop, and just a few words were stuffed into his brain intermittently, like a spell, eliminating his last little self-control.

"Bang!" Lance clenched the fist of his right hand and slammed hard on the table. The sound of thunder like thunder on the ground calmed down all the sounds and finally became quiet.

Lance's muscles tensed up all over his body. This dream was really too real. The pain was so painful that it began to numb and soreness came clearly from his right hand. He could even feel the sharpness of his fingernails slowly piercing into his palms, and the cold wind blowing from behind him brought a thin piece of goosebumps.

Opening his eyes, the strange and familiar face entered his sight. On the ordinary face, there was a polite and formulaic smile. The panic in his eyes slowly dissipated and turned into a hint of ridicule and pity, but his expression was not moved at all. Obviously, he didn't care about Lance's reaction just now.

The memory is so long, but it is still vivid. Lance certainly remembers him, Roger Davis, the official representative lawyer of American Zoetrope. At first, he found Roger himself, and the two parties signed a cooperation agreement, but unexpectedly, he became the executioner who announced his verdict. It was such a huge irony.

Even in the dream, even if more than ten years have passed, the surging emotions in Lance's mind is still uncontrollable. He raised the contract in front of him, stared at Roger with his eyes tightly, trying to find any clues from his facial expression, "What is this?"

Roger only saw Lance's blue eyes narrow slightly, all his emotions were hidden in the mist, but the dangerous alarm in his heart suddenly rose to the highest level. He could even feel his neck tightening, which made Roger's throat dry. He had to cough twice, trying his best to keep himself calm and maintain his professionalism. "Lance, this is a contract, the content of the contract means that you voluntarily give up all 35% of the shares of Diorama Film..."

Lance shook his head gently and shouted calmly, "Roger." But this shout without any emotion made Roger swallow all his words and silence in an instant, "I was asking, 'What is this'?"

In Lance's gaze, Roger only felt like he was a prey falling into a fishing net. No matter how hard he broke free, he could not escape, and his heart began to slowly grow. After doing his best, Roger hid his emotions and maintained his poker face. He couldn't help swallowing, but found that his voice was dry, like a desert. "Lance, this is a contract you signed by yourself, which means you gave up on your own initiative..."

"My shares?" Lance directly interrupted Roger's words, and a disbelief sneered in the corner of his mouth, mocking and joking, but no one knew whether the object of his mocking was this contract or himself, "No, this is not the contract I signed! You are kidding me, right? Recently, I have only signed one contract, the final contract of the 'elephant', and other than that..."

Lance captured a trace of unbearableness in Roger's expression. In the flash of lightning, all memories surged into his heart, directly slamming his throat, all words completely disappeared, and the truth hidden behind them surged in.

Two weeks ago, he needed to go on a business trip to New York. Before the business trip, Ryan Kavanaugh came to him with a contract. Ryan was a close friend he had known for more than ten years. The two jointly founded Diorama Pictures. Ryan said that it was the final contract of the "elephant" and needed to sign it so that he could enter the production process as soon as possible.

The film "Elephant" was filmed by Diorama and Gus-Van-Sant. Although it only invested three million US dollars, the film was filmed and produced based on the shooting of the American Colombene High School campus that shocked the world in 1999. The film Lance attached great importance to it. He hoped to send this work to the Sundance Film Festival and then see if it could appear on the stage of the International Film Festival in Cannes or Venice, so as to take Diorama's career to a higher level.

Out of trust in Ryan, Lance simply read the contract in a hurry, roughly confirmed that it was the "elephant", and then signed it, and then left Los Angeles. However, when he came back from New York, Roger told him that he was no longer a partner of Diorama Pictures, and he voluntarily gave up all his shares.

Now, Lance realized that the first half of the contract he signed was indeed the "elephant" contract, but the second half was that he voluntarily gave up the contract of Diorama Pictures. He signed his own judgment in person. From then on, he had nothing, and his six years of hard work turned into nothing overnight.

Actually, things have shown signs long ago, aren't they?

Since founding Diorama Film in 1996, they have started their business with the release, bringing outstanding overseas works such as "train guessing", "two big smoke guns", "beyond silence", and "Central Station" to the North American market; when they began to enter the production field, they launched works such as "Three Kings of Gold", "Love is a Bastard", and "Death Prisoner Dance", including "Eleven Arhats" produced jointly with Warner Bros.

Diorama not only gained a foothold in Hollywood's second-tier film companies, but also made a big name. However, as the company's development became better and faster, their differences became more and more.

Ryan is more conservative and hopes to continue to move forward along the path of success and always be careful when entering the production field; but Lance is more inclined to take risks and hopes to make great achievements in the production field, because he clearly knows that just based on distribution, there is no way to go to the next level. If you want to improve the company to a higher level, independent production is the way out! And their in-depth understanding of the European and North American markets can become their advantage in the production field!

In 1998, Lance successfully obtained the copyright of the original novel "Harry Potter" and hoped that the company would take the lead in producing it. He firmly believed that this novel would be a huge success in the film market and become a closer opportunity for Diorama Film. However, Ryan believed that Lance was too risky and too radical, and they had no experience in film production and should slow down - for example, cooperate with large production companies.

At that time, Ryan successfully convinced the company's two other partners, Tucker Tooley and Jason Burkle. The isolated Lance was finally convinced and nodded to agree to cooperate with Warner Bros. to adapt the "Harry Potter" series of movies.

However, Ryan and Tucker, who were negotiating on behalf of Diorama, were persuaded by Barry Mayer and sold the adaptation copyright of "Harry Potter" to Warner Bros., and signed the contract on the spot, without even giving Lance a room to save it. This choice completely ignited Lance's anger, and the first irreconcilable conflict arose between the four.

This is the first signal.

Not long ago, Lance learned that Disney was interested in starting a Pirate movie - "Pirates of the Caribbean", and the differences broke out again.

Lance believes that this is not only a good opportunity to work with Disney, but also an excellent challenge; but Ryan, Tucker and Jason all think it is too risky. First, Pirate Movies have completely withdrawn from the stage of history. At a time when genre movies are diverse, making Pirate Movies is tantamount to suicide; second, independently shouldering a large production of $150 million, all of which brings too much pressure and risks, which is something that Diorama Films, which is gradually getting better, does not need or cannot bear.

The huge difference in ideas and concepts led to several quarrels between the four people.

The disagreement was stalemate for a while. Lance originally thought that they would eventually reach an agreement through discussion, and one party could convince the other party. But now it seems that he is not only naive, but even stupid. The world has changed and the world has changed. However, he still trusts Ryan unconditionally. Trust Tucker and Jason is simply foolish. After he came back from a business trip from New York, he was greeted with shameless betrayal, swept the floor and left the house with nothing.

Ten years of friendship, six years of hard work... but after a deception, there was only a mess.

This dream was so real that Lance could not tell the difference between dream and reality. At the last moment, he was sitting in the dirty and messy subway in New York, and at the next moment he appeared in the office of Diorama Film. The fierce and surging emotions still hit him hard, almost like Mars hitting the earth, smashing all his reason, all his self-esteem, and all his pride to pieces. He was not only stupid, but also ridiculous, and even pathetic.

Lance suddenly stood up. The pressure brought by his tall and straight body shocked Roger, and he subconsciously stood up. His hands were at a loss in the air, as if he was worried about Lance's extreme actions, but then he saw Lance turn around and push open the glass door open, leaving the office strode away, and then take a step straight towards the direction where Ryan is.
Chapter completed!