Chapter 729: Vin Diesel

"Compared to Fury Road, the earlier release of Fast and Furious 4 was just a bunch of sissies..."

In the spacious living room, the TV screen displayed comments from moviegoers. Similar voices and remarks appeared so frequently that it was hard not to notice them.

A bald, mixed-race man sat on the sofa opposite the TV, staring grimly at the screen. Tall, powerfully built, and heavily muscled, he exuded a cynical, maverick attitude.

He was one of Hollywood's most distinctive tough guys. Even just sitting on the sofa, he looked like a heavy motorcycle.

Nobody liked seeing their signature film constantly disparaged. Vin Diesel was no exception, especially when people called them a bunch of... sissies!

Had he not gone through enough ups and downs over the years to mellow his temper, he would have stood up and smashed that TV long ago.

But the word "sissy" was simply too harsh on the ears!

It seemed that in those people's eyes, Fast and Furious 4 was nothing compared to Fury Road, and he, Vin Diesel, was just a piece of shit next to Duke Rosenberg...

Had they all forgotten that Fast and Furious 4 raked in 70.9 million dollars at the North American box office in its first week?

Fury Road was just a slightly larger-scale B-movie. Even if it was Duke Rosenberg's work, could its first-week box office really surpass Fast and Furious 4?

Just as Vin Diesel was thinking this, the movie program on the TV switched to the weekly box office report, covering the North American box office trends from the previous weekend.

"Fury Road officially hit North American theaters in the early hours of Friday, pulling in 6.7 million dollars from midnight screenings. The film expanded to 4,050 theaters across North America early Friday morning. Including the midnight screening, it grossed 24.35 million dollars on its opening day, putting on a strong performance and ranking first for the day."

"Come Saturday, the film's daily box office saw a slight increase—a very rare occurrence for an R-Rated Film—raking in 25.37 million dollars. On Sunday, the film experienced a normal drop, taking in 24.11 million dollars. Its three-day North American opening weekend revenue reached 74.83 million dollars."

"This opening result has already set the highest North American opening record for a non-sequel R-Rated Film. Given the film's incredible word-of-mouth, it is bound to maintain a stable trend. Its final North American box office is expected to challenge the 250 million dollar mark!"

Vin Diesel's expression turned incredibly sour, but the program continued.

"Another major production released this week performed poorly. Distributed by Sky Film Studio and directed by Steven Spielberg, The Adventures of Tintin suffered a box office Waterloo. Plagued by poor word-of-mouth, the film only grossed 4.05 million dollars on its North American opening day. It continued to decline over the next two days, taking in only 11.48 million dollars at the North American box office over its three-day opening weekend..."

Grabbing the remote control, Vin Diesel turned off the TV, stood up, and walked over to the apartment's floor-to-ceiling window, gazing through the glass at the distant City of Angels.

In contrast to his rugged appearance, he had a rather sharp mind; otherwise, he wouldn't have become a producer for Fast and Furious 4.

Thinking of Fast and Furious 4, Vin Diesel felt a heavy tightness in his chest. Words like "sissy" kept jumping uncontrollably into his head.

After seeing the box office report, even though he disliked Fury Road, he knew very well that the box office for Fast and Furious 4 would likely not match up to Duke Rosenberg's work.

Through the first three movies as well as discs and Videotapes, the Fast & Furious series had accumulated a substantial fanbase in North America. It was precisely because of this that Fast and Furious 4 exploded with a 70 million dollar opening week box office upon release. However, the film's word-of-mouth was poor, and its second-weekend box office plummeted by over sixty percent. Even though it hadn't been pulled from theaters yet, its theatrical run was nearing its end. Even Vin Diesel had to admit that the North American box office for Fast and Furious 4 would top out around 150 million dollars.

In the face of Fury Road, this box office figure was likely nowhere near enough! Vin Diesel was certain of this.

But nobody wanted to be a sissy, especially when the surging waves of public opinion were forcing this label onto their heads!

Vin Diesel knew very well that public opinion was fickle, and right now he only had the Fast & Furious franchise to rely on. It was the guarantee of his career in Hollywood. He absolutely could not let this series become synonymous with sissies. Otherwise, since public consensus can melt metal, it would inevitably affect the series in the future.

The best way to shake off the "sissy" label was to produce an explosively thrilling Fast & Furious film, suppressing Fury Road in everything from box office to spectacle!

This idea became increasingly clear in Vin Diesel's mind, but realizing it would not be easy.

Setting everything else aside, there was the problem of investment. To produce a Fast & Furious film that was thrilling, explosive, and cool enough, a budget of over a hundred million dollars was absolutely essential.

But Universal Pictures, the copyright owner of Fast & Furious, had been affected by last year's economic crisis, and their financial situation was not good.

Originally, when filming Fast and Furious 4, he had proposed shooting two movies back-to-back, but Universal Pictures rejected the idea—all because of funding issues.

Fast and Furious 4 hadn't completely met Universal Pictures' expectations. Getting them to invest over a hundred million dollars into a sequel would be quite difficult...

However, this couldn't stump Vin Diesel. If he could find a suitable source of investment, he could bring the funds to Universal Pictures and negotiate the project. Right now, with both the banking sector and Hollywood generally tightening their purse strings, Universal Pictures likely wouldn't refuse this kind of cooperation model.

The problem was, where to find a suitable investor?

As someone who had worked in Hollywood for many years, Vin Diesel was still heavily influenced by the conventions of this circle. For example, producers and directors traditionally never invested in the movies they made themselves...

Besides, with his modest net worth, if anything went wrong, he would go bankrupt.

Then there were the actors. He needed to gather the original cast—this was the best gimmick to attract audiences. Paul Walker, Tyrese Gibson, and Michelle Rodriguez were not a problem. However, the original female lead would require some searching.

After all, he hadn't heard any news about Jessica Alba in years.

Gathering all the original main actors of Fast & Furious would not be an easy task either.

But Vin Diesel was a man of vision and firm resolve. He had already decided to work hard to push this project into the implementation stage.

Having just left Phoenix and arrived in Salt Lake City, Duke received the box office report for Fury Road sent over by Warner Brothers. Aside from the North American opening weekend box office, it also included roughly estimated global box office data.

The film had premiered simultaneously in 77 countries and regions. Excluding the North American opening week figures, it had grossed a total of around 140 million dollars over the three days of the previous weekend.

Surpassing 200 million dollars at the global box office in just three days was already incredibly rare for a non-sequel R-Rated Film.

This also met Duke and Warner Brothers' expectations for the film.

PG-13 and PG films were jokingly called fairy tales for adults by many people, but even Duke had to admit that the movies capable of truly selling phenomenally worldwide were precisely these types.

Looking across all of Hollywood, one couldn't find many R-Rated Films capable of achieving global explosive popularity like The Matrix trilogy. Moreover, the first week's box office for the first movie of The Matrix had not even been as good as Fury Road's.

The film's opening week could be considered a massive success, and the strong audience word-of-mouth guaranteed subsequent revenue. Warner Brothers naturally wanted to maximize their profits. They even submitted a preliminary plan to turn Fury Road into a franchise, primarily pushing for a spin-off featuring Charlize Theron as Furiosa.

Although Duke had balanced Tom Cruise and Charlize Theron's screen time relatively evenly, a tough, badass female character was naturally more attractive than a male character.

The level of attention the character of Furiosa received undoubtedly surpassed that of the male lead played by Tom Cruise.

When Duke went to Beverly Hills last week to visit his goddaughter, Tom Cruise had even complained to him about this. However, having become a father, Cruise was much more clear-headed than in his youth. He only complained a little bit; he knew very well that cooperating with Duke would bring far more benefits than making an enemy of him.

"Warner still wants Charlize to star?" Duke asked Tina Fey in the living room of the hotel suite.

"She is the first choice," Tina Fey replied.

Duke took a slice of apple handed to him by Scarlett Johansson, said a quick thank you, and told Tina Fey, "Let the people from Warner Brothers go negotiate with Charlize Theron themselves."

Frankly speaking, Duke wasn't even sure if Charlize Theron would continue to play this role.

Thanks to the role of Furiosa, Charlize Theron had received massive acclaim and firmly consolidated her current status. Taking her career another step forward wouldn't be difficult, and she even had the chance to make a mark again during awards season.

Inviting her to star again would require not just cold hard cash, but inevitably a hefty cut of the profits.

"There is one more piece of news..." Tina Fey also took a slice of apple from Scarlett and said before popping it into her mouth, "Mel Gibson has returned to North America!"

"He's back?" Scarlett stopped tossing an apple slice into her mouth. "Is someone actually willing to cast him in a movie?"

Tina Fey shook her head. "Not yet."

"Pat Kingsley's doing?" Duke asked.

"No..." Tina Fey thought carefully for a moment before saying, "A small talent agency called Leo brought him back. This agency works with many small film studios, providing them with B-movie actors."

She asked Duke, "Should we do something about it?"

"No..." Duke raised his hand and waved it dismissively. "We don't need to do anything right now. Some people will be paying much closer attention to Mel Gibson than we are."

After all, the target of Mel Gibson's attacks back then had been the entire Jewish community, and those old men held deep grudges.