Pushing open the office door in front of him, Lance found that there seemed to be more people in the room than he had imagined, which made Lance pause slightly, without hiding the doubts and surprises in his eyes.

Brad Gray greeted him with a smile, "You are still on time as always." Brad skillfully gave Lance a hug, then turned around and looked at the three people behind him, "Today our meeting welcomed several VIPs to join our discussion." With Brad's words, the three people who were originally sitting on the sofa stood up one after another, with a decent smile on their faces, and their eyes were facing Lance.

"This is Wade Russell, Tom's agent." Wade is a middle-aged man in his forties. His dark brown hair was covered with a lot of hairspray, and he combed it meticulously, with a polite smile on his face, as if every angle had been carefully designed, showing five teeth at all, like a mask.

Standing next to him is a vigorous old man, gray-haired but still full of energy, his face full of kindness, which makes people feel good, "This is Peter Giuliano, producer. He will take over my job next, work with you on the crew to complete the filming of the movie."

The wrinkles on the corners of Peter's eyes and forehead were piled up because of his bright smile, and his hoarse voice was filled with the magnetism of cigarette smoke for many years. "Haha, I can't wait to get into the work. When Shirley and I mentioned this project, I refused after reading the script. The previous version of the script was really disappointing."

"Peter nodded and agreed to come out again after reading your script." The woman standing in the innermost part took the initiative to come out, and concisely stretched out her right hand, and a black suit showed her neatness and ability. There was no clear smile on her face, but she had a cool and heroic posture. It was just a move of reaching out and talking, but it directly made people feel the charm of a heroic hero in her body. This is the helmsman of Paramount Pictures, Shirley Lansing. "Obviously, Peter and I have a consensus that your script is really eye-catching."

In just a few words, Shirley took the initiative.

Peter is a senior producer who has been in Hollywood for 20 years. He has released works such as "Ghostbusters", "Vampire Zombies' Four Hundred Years of Love", and "Four Brothers of Love". He has had a good relationship with Francis Ford Coppola, Barry-levison, Robin Williams, Dustin Hoffman and others. However, since the "Deep Sea Suspicion" in 1998, no works have been released in six years.

It can be said that producers like Peter have a deep experience, enough experience, and wide connections, and are definitely a difficult opponent. As soon as Shirley came up, she praised Lance with the name of Peter, and the subtext undoubtedly demonstrated their initiative.

With such a situation, such a meeting, and such a start, Lans immediately felt a huge pressure.

Today's meeting was to discuss the final version of the script of "Borrowing a Knife to Kill". If there is no accident, you can then work on the crew's preparations, the selection of actors, the arrangement of shooting locations, etc. Lance originally thought that only Brad was the only one. The appearance of the other three was already an accident. Now the postures shown by the three people are mysterious and make people confused.

In recent times, the chain reaction of the "day acquired" success has been caused by the huge success. Lance still knows a little. But even so, Lance doesn't think that the "killing someone with a knife" project is worth Shirley himself... Even with Tom joining, it is just a project with a budget of 60 million yuan. So, what exactly made Shirley attend this meeting?

Lance looked up at Brad, and Brad looked calm, as if all this was normal, and there was no information at all. Brad noticed Lance's gaze, turned his head and looked over, showing a polite smile, signaling Lance to sit down. However, this ordinary gaze caught a trace of abnormality: Brad's eyes flashed slightly, as if he was hinting him, but there was no further content. In the blink of an eye, Brad turned around and signaled everyone to sit down.

Although this was just a flash, Lance was very sure that he was not dazzled.

Lance suddenly remembered something: Paramount was in trouble at this time.

When the eight major film companies were discussing the warm cannon fodder of the first week of the summer, Paramount and 20th Century Fox and Universal Pictures were brothers in distress. Paramount has not had any works in the North American year-end box office rankings for three consecutive years. In the past three years, Paramount's highest-grossing work was the "Tomb Raider" launched in 2001. The 80 million investment only earned 130 million North American box office, and the decline was obviously equivalent to standing on the edge of the cliff.

Brad entered Paramount under such a background. If Lance remembers correctly, Paramount's management completed the transfer of power later this year - Brad replaced Shirley and became Paramount's new CEO. This decision caused an uproar, not only because Brad was only 45 years old this year, he was too young, and had no experience in managing large companies before, which caused a stir.

Then, the significance of Shirley's appearance here is worth pondering. On the one hand, Shirley is obviously unwilling to surrender easily, so she must effectively curb Brad without damaging Paramount's interests; on the other hand, Shirley must also prevent Brad from continuing to expand his connections, and the "Borrowing a Killing" project maintains two important figures, one is Tom Cruise and the other is Lance.

Tom naturally needs no further comment. From the current perspective, Tom's agent Wade seems to be on Shirley's side. As for Lance, he is a potential stock, representing the future and is also likely to become an emerging force growing up with Brad. Shirley will not want to see Lance and Brad get too close.

If Lance's idea was correct, it's obvious that today's meeting was definitely not that easy.

The chaotic thoughts flew in a flash. Lance walked calmly to the reception table and looked at everyone's seat. Shirley and Peter sat side by side on a three-person sofa, while Wade sat alone on the single sofa opposite. Brad had not yet sat down. He stood next to a double sofa on his right, but his eyes fell on Lance. On the surface, as the master, he naturally had to wait for the guests to sit before he could sit, but Lance knew that things were not that simple.

Lance's head was turning, but his steps did not stop at all. He walked to the side, dragged the boss chair next to him, and sat down in the open space near the door. In this way, Shirley and Peter were on his left hand, Wade and him sat face to face with each other across the coffee table, and Brad stood on his right hand.

"Killing with a knife" will be jointly performed by Chaos Pictures and Paramount Pictures, but Lance does not believe that he should participate in Paramount's internal power struggle. To be more precise, Lance does not think he has this qualification - maybe in the future, but not now. Now he is just a small director who has filmed two films. His cooperation with large companies is always a gap in survival, and getting involved in the power struggle only makes himself even more embarrassed.

This is not self-deprecating, but self-knowledge. Accurate judgment is also one of the necessary conditions for success. Compared with power struggles, Lance's attention must be focused on the work "killing with a knife".

Lance's seemingly ordinary seat fell into everyone's eyes, and everyone was thinking.

Brad's eyes flashed slightly, and the corners of his mouth were slightly loosened - in the eyes of many people, there was no need to think about choosing Shirley in the confrontation between him and Shirley. After all, Shirley is now Paramount's head, but Lance's decision is intriguing. Brad quickly concealed his inner emotions, sat down, and took the initiative to speak, "Lance, we have all read your script. This is a huge surprise, far from the original version, you have basically modified the entire script."

"Borrowing a knife to kill" has always been the main purpose today, and Brad's words immediately attracted everyone's attention.

Lance confidently outlined the corner of his mouth and shook his head gently, "No, you can't say that. The reason why you think the entire script has been modified is because I reset the dialogue based on the character's personality, that's all. But in fact, the framework structure of the entire story has been preserved."

"Oh? This is a fresh statement. I always thought that the so-called script is composed of dialogue, right?" Peter said, and he showed a curious expression, as if he was discussing with Lance seriously. But those wise eyes locked on Lance motionlessly, and the gentle smile invisibly disintegrated people's defense.

But Lance was still calm. Even in the face of such a situation and such pressure, he still smiled, elegant and gentlemanly, and said slowly, "Mr. Giuliano, you must be joking with me." After that, Lance laughed softly, then looked at Shirley, Wade and Brad, "The real script, the dialogue can only be said to be flesh and blood, but without a body, no skeleton, no soul. This cannot be regarded as a script, isn't it?"

Everyone chuckled, and the whole office seemed peaceful and harmonious.

Lance closed his mouth slightly and then explained, "However, I did reset and modify the character's personality, and changed the structure of the second half of the script." Lance was busy with the script "Borrowing a knife to kill people" for several months and devoted countless efforts, which is also his source of confidence.

No matter what Shirley and Brad are competing for, what Lance can be sure of is that he has absolute confidence in his script!
Chapter completed!