Mei Man: I drew Superman during the Great Depression

Chapter 357
Regarding the arrangement of the Fox Film Company, we still need to wait until Colin formally accepts the arrangement.

But right now, there is a more important thing waiting for Colin to participate.

After a 99-day countdown, it was finally time for the giant ship in New York Harbor to sink.

"Howard Hughes' latest movie "Titanic" will sink in New York Harbor at 13:00 today!"

On August 8, the "Messenger of the World" published the news of the ship's sinking in the form of a front-page special issue.

The big ship has stayed in New York Harbor for more than one hundred days, during which tens of thousands of Americans have witnessed its existence. Although the "Messenger of the World" records the time of the sinking of the big ship in the form of countdown every day, but it has never really happened. Many people still couldn't believe it when they saw this news in the newspaper.

After all, although because of the filming, no one was able to enter the interior of the giant ship during the filming.

However, observing the giant ship in front of the port of New York, one can still see a bit of luxurious atmosphere, not to mention that during the filming of the film, Colin’s "Messenger World" sent a reporter to enter the interior of the giant ship in an exclusive interview. Judging from the published photos, it also confirmed the public's conjecture.

The gorgeous lobby, cafe and restaurant are a perfect replica of the layout of the Titanic.

Now, it seems that this huge ship will repeat the mistakes of the Titanic in New York Harbor.

At eight o'clock in the morning that day, the entire New York Harbor was crowded with American citizens from all over the country. Their purpose was surprisingly the same, which was to witness the sinking of the big ship with their own eyes.

……

"Ready, Hughes?"

On the ship not far from the giant ship, Colin looked at the giant ship in the distance, and turned his head to ask Howard Hughes beside him.

"of course."

Looking away from the camera, Howard Hughes replied eagerly while smoking a cigar.

"I've been looking forward to this day for a long time."

In order to be able to take a complete picture of the sinking process of the giant ship, he installed a special waterproof camera inside the entire giant ship, and arranged a special ship in the distance as a shooting angle, even the aerial shots were not missed. In the era when there was no aerial camera, he specially dispatched his Hughes No. [-] to take aerial shots of the giant ship sinking.

Even, in the original idea of ​​Howard Hughes, he originally planned to shoot the shot of everyone sinking into the sea directly on the giant ship.

It's just that his idea was unanimously opposed by actors including the heroine Katharine Hepburn, because it was too dangerous.They were just here to shoot the movie, not to really experience the sinking of the Titanic.

If it is another actor, Howard Hughes may directly use his strong position to let the actor shoot.

However, facing Katharine Hepburn, Hughes made a compromise for the first time in his life.

He did not force Katharine Hepburn and the others to accompany the sinking ship to film this dangerous process. Instead, he chose the editing method to shoot the pictures in the water in advance, as well as some frightening clips during the sinking of the ship. It will be inserted into the movie through editing in the later stage to simulate the scene of the passengers fleeing for their lives when the real big ship sinks.

"So, are we really going to sink the big ship to the bottom of the ocean?"

On the ship, after hearing Howard Hughes' answer, Katharine Hepburn also said in disbelief.

Although, she had already heard from Howard Hughes more than once that he was going to sink the big ship, but she never thought that all of this would be true.

Just like the tens of thousands of people gathered in front of New York Harbor.

"I never tell a lie, as I have always told you, Catherine."

In the face of Katharine Hepburn's suspicion, Hughes only expressed his attitude with a firmer tone.

"..."

Facing Howard Hughes' decisive answer, Katharine Hepburn fell into silence.

"Time is up……"

Looking at the silent Katharine Hepburn, Howard Hughes obviously had something to say, but Colin who was on the side reminded him in a timely manner.

Hearing Colin's reminder, Hughes had no choice but to suppress the imminent thoughts in his heart, turned his head to look at the giant wheel not far in front of him, raised his finger and started counting down loudly.

"Every department is in place, everyone, follow my instructions, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, detonate!"

With an order from Howard Hughes, the explosives at the bottom of the giant ship were detonated, and the big ship, which had been quietly docked on the sea far away from the port, began to shake with the naked eye. The giant ship began to sink into the sea bit by bit.

"It's sinking, it's really sinking!"

"OMG, this is actually true..."

"Howard Hughes, he's a complete lunatic who sank a ship to make a movie."

"I thought it was just a deceitful cover, but I didn't expect to actually blow up and sink the ship..."

"How much money is wasted, it just sinks like this, doesn't the government care?"

"Why does the government manage it? This is the personal asset of Howard Hughes..."

"Even so, but this is too..."

In the port of New York, witnessing Howard Hughes's act of sinking a large ship, even the people who had already known the news through the "Messenger World" still couldn't help but exclaimed.

After all, this is a genuine giant ship. When it was sunk into the sea like this, any normal person would be unbelievable. It is said that among the crowd in the port of New York at that time, there were also people who had experienced the sinking of the Titanic. Family members, after seeing the sinking of the big ship, many people began to cry and some even fainted because of it.

According to later investigations, it took a total of 2 hours and 40 minutes from the time the Titanic hit the iceberg to when it finally sank into the sea.

Although the giant ship bought and transformed by Howard Hughes is not as huge as the real Titanic, it is not a real iceberg after all that caused it to sink. It took about an hour and a half.

During this process, the people who came to witness near the port of New York also went from exclaiming at the beginning to accepting it later, and finally even began to ask impatiently when the big ship would sink completely.

Therefore, when the bow of the ship on the sea finally lifted and was swallowed by the sea, there was even a lot of cheers in front of New York Harbor.

It is worth mentioning that regarding the sinking process of the big ship, CBS Radio also specially configured a camera as huge as a cannon to broadcast the whole process on the spot.It is said that on the day when the ship sank, the beer business in New York more than doubled, and a large number of New Yorkers crowded into bars to witness the scene of the ship sinking from the TV.

……

"3, 2, 1, CUT!"

On the ship, when the last outline of the giant ship in the camera image was submerged by the sea, Howard Hughes finally let out his last breath and announced the end of filming.

Immediately afterwards, the rescuers on board began operations, arranging lifeboats to go to the place where the ship sank.

Naturally, they did not do this to rescue the victims on the ship. Howard Hughes had already emptied all the actors on the ship before the ship sank.

The job of these rescuers is to salvage the cameras on the boat.

At the same time, the Hughes No. [-] in the air also left quickly after completing its mission. It took longer than expected for the entire ship to sink. During this process, the driver of the Hughes No. [-] even left for a while. This is already the second time the other party has come to take pictures of the sinking in the air.

"ended."

During the nearly one-and-a-half-hour shooting process, even Howard Hughes, who was excited at the beginning, couldn't help showing a tired look.

However, he was a little bit excited when he personally built a huge ship that he transformed himself.

Of course, Howard Hughes was not the only one who was excited, but also Katharine Hepburn on the side.

Catherine knows that no matter how the box office of the final "Titanic" movie is, she is destined to become an insurmountable history in the history of Hollywood movies together with this movie.

After all, no one has ever been crazy enough to sink a ship in order to make a movie since the birth of the movie.

And Howard Hughes did it, no matter what his motives were, whether it was because of movies or purely personal ideas.

But no matter what, the moment the giant ship sank, the ending was already doomed.

Thinking of this, Katharine Hepburn hugged Howard Hughes beside her with some difficulty in suppressing her emotions, and the latter immediately kissed him after a moment's surprise.

Also on the ship, after witnessing the whole process of Howard Hughes and Katharine Hepburn embracing and kissing, Colin had a subtle expression on his face.

Unexpectedly, in the end, the two came together.

Of course, Colin was not too surprised by this. After all, Hughes had shown his affection for Katharine Hepburn more than once since the dinner.

However, from Colin's point of view, he is actually not very optimistic about the relationship between the two.

Howard Huster's maverick character is destined to have a very unique attraction on his body, but also because of this, it is also impossible for him to become a law-abiding existence. He cannot abandon his pursuit for a relationship, whether it is For the movie or for the sky.

Regardless of the outcome of the relationship between the two in the future, at least Howard Hughes is currently immersed in this relationship.

After the reluctant end and Katharine Hepburn's kiss, Howard Hughes refocused his attention on the movie in front of him.

After the initial actions of the rescuers, a camera fixed in a good house had been salvaged. Howard Hughes had checked the film on it and determined that there was no big problem.

In the next few days, rescuers will continue to salvage the camera, and Howard Hughes himself will also devote his attention to the post-production of the film.

"Titanic" is so far Howard Hughes's biggest investment in a movie, and he himself naturally has great expectations.

Especially since the heroine of this movie is still starring Katharine Hepburn, he naturally seems to be more concerned.

Although the news of Colin's acquisition of the Fox film company has not been officially announced, Howard Hughes has already learned the news from him.

Howard Hughes did not show too strong an attitude towards Colin's participation in Hollywood.

As I said when we first met, in fact, because of the Great Depression, Howard Hughes is generally not optimistic about the prospects of Hollywood.If it weren't for the script of "Titanic" in Colin's hand that moved him later, Hughes would not even shoot and produce this movie.

Today, although the filming of the movie "Titanic" has been completed, this does not mean that Howard Hughes will devote his energy to the development of movies again.

After experiencing the magnificent sea through the relationship of filming, Howard Hughes' originally suppressed yearning for the sky emerged again.For Hughes One, he has a lot of transformation ideas in his heart, and he is waiting to practice it after "Titanic" is released.

Although the thoughts about the film have gradually gone to the plane after the filming of "Titanic", but there are the theaters of the Fox Film Company in the hands of Colin and the movie theaters controlled by Howard Hughes himself. , It is also destined that the box office of "Titanic" will not be too bad.

"Now, the big ship has completely sunk. If the audience wants to see the appearance of the Titanic again, they can only go to the cinema to watch it."

Of course, Howard Hughes also has great confidence in the movies he shoots with his own hands.

This is what he said to Colin after the ship sank.

As for the box office of "Titanic", Colin actually doesn't care. After all, no matter how good the movie's box office is, it doesn't really have much effect on his collection of "faith".

Therefore, compared to the box office of "Titanic", Colin and Howard Hughes discussed more about theatrical arrangements and the "Superman" animated short inserted before and after the movie.

That's right, Colin has already thought of a way to arrange the TV animation produced by Walt, which is to use it as a short film to fill the blank time in the cinema, which is why the animation was first shown in the cinema, and compared with the normal film, as a The interspersed animations are played more frequently, which is also in line with Ke Lin's requirements for collecting [Faith].

(End of this chapter)