"Which bastard is messing with our filming schedule?"
Kazir's face was flushed with anger, and his roar echoed through the set.
After wrapping up, Kazir slumped down heavily, like a deflated ball.
Reese Witherspoon sat quietly beside him, pretending to be engrossed in the script, but secretly she was worried, fearing something might go wrong during filming tomorrow.
In the film, she plays Jade, a call girl with a child.
She got this role partly because she was beautiful and sexy, with a charming and alluring smile.
The other reason was that her ambiguous relationship with Kazir also helped a bit.
"It's alright, calm down."
Reese smiled, gently placed the script on the table, then tenderly reached out and held Kazir's hand, hoping to soothe his anger.
"Because of the Children's Association, our schedule has been delayed by two whole days! Their demands are absolutely outrageous! The baby can't even eat vegetables, but they insist on a vegetable meal.
They're deliberately causing trouble, they're crazy!"
Kazir was seething with unvented frustration, getting angrier with every word he spoke.
He refused all their demands, which were completely irrelevant to the baby's actual situation.
But they were relentless, throwing tantrums and causing a scene, which severely slowed down the filming progress.
Fortunately, tomorrow was the last scene with the baby, and once that was done, they could speed things up.
"Relax, you're a big director, you need to be composed," Reese said softly to comfort him.
"I'm already composed enough," Kazir retorted grumpily.
"I know, but you can be even more composed," Reese was amused by his demeanor.
In her impression, Kazir usually seemed calm and calculated everything meticulously, but when it came to making movies, he became as earnest as an ignorant child.
"I never expected this side of him privately... it's quite cute."
Reese secretly smiled, finally realizing that Kazir wasn't a perfect person; beneath his mature exterior, there was still a touch of childishness.
"How about this," Reese leaned in, gently kissed Kazir's neck, and said coquettishly, "We go to the casino to relax first, and then go back to your Room for some 'exercise'?"
Kazir looked at the beautiful woman in front of him, his heart stirred, and he gently kissed her forehead, saying, "Okay... but I've never gambled before."
"There's a first time for everything, I promise it'll be fun.
But a word of caution, don't get addicted to this; gambling never ends well," Reese said with a playful wink.
"Got it," Kazir said, smiling and nodding.
"Then... how about a quick round first?" Reese pressed closer, intentionally letting Kazir feel the softness of her chest.
"Alright."
Kazir grinned.
After messing around with Reese for a while, all his worries had long been thrown to the back of his mind.
As it turned out, the two of them didn't go out that night; the casino trip was put aside, and they had a solid night of "exercise" instead.
Early in the morning, Kazir started work with renewed vigor.
The crew had prepared the cars for the three main characters, and everything seemed to be in order.
At this moment, producer Enrico walked over, his expression somewhat grave: "I inquired with Warner Bros., and it's Paramount Pictures, Orion Pictures, and Miramax Films causing trouble—they have films coming out this summer, and they're probably afraid our film will steal their thunder."
"But we haven't even set a release date yet?
Is it really necessary to go to all this trouble?" Kazir frowned, looking puzzled.
"I'm not sure.
Actually, New Line Cinema also wanted to cause trouble, but Terry Semel warned Robert Shaye, so they didn't get involved," Enrico explained.
Kazir stroked his chin, pondering thoughtfully: "These companies wanted to buy the rights to napoleon dynamite before, but it didn't work out... I expected something like this, after all, it's a competition, and they certainly won't let us off easily."
"Got it," Kazir said, then walked aside to call his agent.
"Hello? Kazir?"
His agent's voice came from the other end of the line.
"Salvatore, help me find out what Paramount, Orion, and Miramax have been busy with recently," Kazir said directly.
"Okay, I'll fax it to you later," Salvatore knew why Kazir wanted to investigate these things without even asking.
"Thanks! Oh, by the way, if they contact you... just tell them I have a script they might be interested in," Kazir had his own plans.
In his opinion, there are no eternal enemies; as long as there are benefits, everyone is willing to cooperate, and he understood this principle very well.
"Okay," Salvatore readily agreed.
These companies were all very shrewd and wouldn't go too far.
Even Warner Bros. and Fox might trip each other up when they weren't collaborating.
However, Fox was hoping he would direct "napoleon dynamite 2," so they definitely wouldn't get involved in causing trouble, and Warner Bros. wouldn't jeopardize its own 35 million investment; they understood that much.
Sure enough, as soon as Salvatore mentioned that Kazir had a script to sell, these companies immediately backed off.
The script Kazir offered was called "ted," a name that sounded like an experimental work.
Salvatore provided two-thirds of the content, and after Paramount Pictures and Miramax Films saw it, they immediately came knocking, wanting Kazir to direct, but they weren't willing to pay for the project upfront.
Like Fox, everyone was waiting to see the box office performance of the hangover.
If the hangover became a hit, a scramble for the script was inevitable, after all, with Se7en and napoleon dynamite under his belt, no one doubted Kazir's creative ability.
"There's no need to make enemies with any company; this circle is only so big," Kazir knew this well; he deeply understood that in this complex industry, it was always better to have more friends than enemies.
Ultimately, that day's filming went exceptionally smoothly; the Children's Association people were like transparent figures, not saying a single unnecessary word.
Ahead of schedule, the scenes with the baby were finally completed on the seventh day, and Kazir breathed a huge sigh of relief.
After that, the filming schedule noticeably sped up.
Next week, they were preparing to shoot the scenes with Mike Tyson and the tiger.
It's worth mentioning that the tiger in the film was Mike Tyson's own pet.
Mike Tyson had only recently been released from prison, and Kazir was actually a little afraid to meet the legendary boxer, as he had heard many stories about Mike Tyson's ruthlessness in his youth and knew how powerful and fierce Mike Tyson was back then.
[P.S. I originally intended to schedule this, but I clicked publish instead, so it went out early.
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