America Tycoon: The Wolf of Showbiz

Chapter 300: Chapter 297 Heaven and Hell

Parker Town, located near the Mexican border, has fewer than a thousand permanent residents and retains many buildings from the pioneering period. Hollywood often shoots some of its Western-style scenes right here.

The advertising crew set up by Coca-Cola arrived half a month ago to prepare for the preliminary matters.

As soon as Martin and Sam Mendes, the two key figures, arrived, the advertisement immediately started filming.

On the gravel road, Sam Mendes approached Martin on the set and said, "Forget your identity as a Sect Hierarch, you are now just a cowboy who has just established the Cola Cult and come to the West to spread the gospel. Show some cowboy spirit!"

Martin nodded in understanding, "No problem."

When filming Endless, he had meticulously studied the Old Cowboy in "Unforgiven."

Martin took the two old-fashioned revolvers that Bruce handed him and inserted them into the holsters around his waist, then had the stylist wrap a red scarf and a tattered red cape around him.

The Coca-Cola logo on them was partially missing, showcasing the protagonist's hardships along the way, yet it was still recognizable at a glance, clearly conveying what the protagonist represented.

A wrangler brought over a horse.

Martin had already become familiar with it after coming over yesterday and immediately took the reins.

Elizabeth Olsen, dressed as a cowgirl, rode another somewhat shorter horse and slowly entered the set.

She waved at Martin, "Hi, Martin."

Martin, seeing her adept handling of the horse, complimented her, "Nice riding skills."

Elizabeth smiled sweetly, "I've been practicing horseback riding for over five years."

As Martin mounted his horse, she said in a low voice, "I'll tell you a secret, my proficiency in horseback riding was key to landing this role."

Martin gave her a thumbs up, "Outstanding people shine wherever they are."

In today's society, unless one grows up on a ranch, city-dwellers—including many actors—who have the opportunity to practice horseback riding for extended periods are generally from wealthy families.

Elizabeth's cowgirl outfit and battle-scarred cape, with red as the base color, did well to accentuate her figure.

With red added, her combat power surged!

Director Sam Mendes's voice could be heard shouting, "Get ready to shoot!"

The wranglers came over, leading the horses for Martin and Elizabeth to the starting point.

The clapperboard snapped, and shooting began.

Martin spurred his horse into a trot, moving forward, with Elizabeth following from behind.

The horse hooves kicked up dust, which, under the effect of the wind machine, rolled over to the back.

Upon reaching the entrance of the old Western Bar, Martin reined in his horse and dismounted.

"Very good!" Mendes, a perfectionist, said, "Let's shoot it one more time."

The advertisement was divided into two versions: one for the web and one for television.

The former would be broadcast in the form of short videos on major portal websites and emerging video websites.

The latter would primarily consist of essential clips edited from the material to serve as standard television commercials.

Sam Mendes had an easy time controlling things, and Martin performed with ease as well.

By five o'clock in the afternoon, the crew wrapped up on time, and all outdoor scenes were successfully completed.

The indoor scenes still required at least one more day of shooting.

For now, Martin could only stay in the small town.

"Let's go have a drink," Sam Mendes invited Martin.

The Western Bar used for filming had been booked by the crew and would not serve customers other than the crew members. Martin responded, "Let's have a drink."

He followed Sam Mendes into the bar, "When I met Kate, you had just gotten married."

The two sat down at the wooden bar and ordered a whiskey each. Mendes said, "Kate has talked about you; you met her in Atlanta, and you even gifted her a crystal peach."

Martin had almost forgotten about this; back then, he did everything he could to seize even a one percent chance.

Later on, indeed, he had borrowed quite a bit of strength on Kate's side.

Martin openly stated, "At that time, Kate also invited me to visit London."

"Give us a call when you're in London," Mendes said with a smile. "Kate is currently on a road trip and will be coming from San Diego tomorrow."

Martin toasted with him, "That's cool!"

Mendes chuckled, "She mentioned wanting to talk to you a while ago and decided to come over when she heard you were here, seeing me is just an afterthought."

Martin had nothing he couldn't discuss with Winslet, so he openly said, "At the Oscars ceremony, she mentioned it to me, but lately I've been busy with two projects, and with Kate traveling, we haven't been able to meet."

He intentionally lowered his voice, "Sam, can you reveal a bit of news in advance? I won't tell Kate you said anything."

Mendes thought for a moment and then whispered, "It seems to be about the film and the role." He broadly hinted, "You know, Kate can't stop thinking about the Oscars, she wants to win Best Actress once, so she bought the film rights to a novel."

Martin nodded, remembering Kate had talked to him about that novel, which was about the Nazis.

Mendes continued, "You two should discuss the details when she arrives."

Spreading his hands, he added, "You must keep it a secret; don't tell her I let anything slip. Kate is super fierce, and I wouldn't dare provoke her."

Martin said, "The things men talk about, how could we tell women?"

The crew was staying in the only hotel in town, and the group quickly returned there for dinner.

Elizabeth Olsen with her meal tray sat across from Martin, "You're alone?"

Seeing Bruce coming in, he casually found an empty table.

"Yeah," Martin asked, "your sisters didn't come?"

Elizabeth said, "My agent came with me, my sisters know I'm working with you this time and they're very confident."

Martin thought to himself, am I really that reliable?

In fact, Elizabeth had lied because her sisters were collaborating with Coca-Cola, and they were confident in the Coca-Cola-managed personnel of the crew.

She especially reminded him, "You've forgotten, at Burbank Middle School, you saved me!"

Martin waved off the comment with an air of nonchalance, "A small matter, it's all in the past."

"You saved my life!" Elizabeth puffed up her chest proudly and said earnestly, "If you ever need anything from me in the future, no matter what it is, I'll do it."

Martin only glanced at her, then averted his eyes and changed the subject, "You're about to graduate from middle school, right?"

Elizabeth took a sip of soda water and said, "Next summer."

Martin had figured it out in his mind.

Seeing that Martin wasn't too interested, Elizabeth suddenly leaned in a little closer and said, "Wait until later, when it gets completely dark, you come to the rooftop, and I'll show you the view."

Martin was surprised, "What view?"

Elizabeth looked around mysteriously and whispered, "You'll see when the time comes."

After dinner, as the sky quickly darkened, Martin changed into shorts and a T-shirt and called Bruce to go up to the roof with him.

The hotel in the small town had only four floors, but it was the tallest building in town.

Upon arriving at the rooftop, Martin saw Elizabeth in denim shorts and a tank top.

Caucasian women often mature quite early, around seventeen or eighteen years of age.

Elizabeth waved at Martin, "Come over here quickly, it's starting!"

Martin was puzzled and hurried over.

Elizabeth opened her slung bag, took out a pair of binoculars, and passed them over, "Look across at Tijuana."

Before Martin could pick up the binoculars, about a dozen people came up one after another, including the crew's director Mendes, Coca-Cola's representative in the crew, Milner, the head of security, Paul, and others.

Each of them had brought binoculars as well.

Milner said to Martin, "You missed a lot of good stuff at last night's pre-shoot meeting. Look over there," he pointed south, "it's busy."

Martin knew he was talking about the other side of the border, the outskirts of Tijuana.

He raised the binoculars and faintly saw flames and what appeared to be explosions. One of the burning spots, which started as a jumping red dot, quickly turned into a blaze stretching across the sky.

"Every day there have been explosions and flare-ups since I came," Elizabeth said.

Martin saw even more points of fire.

On the south side of the border line, it was as if a small war had broken out.

On the north side, the whole of Parker Town was eerily quiet.

In comparison, it was almost like heaven and hell.

Paul, the head of security who hailed from a private military company, knew a bit about the situation over there: "Tijuana's been quite unstable lately, with several gangs fighting over trafficking routes and markets. They've been at it for almost a week now, and it doesn't look like it will stop anytime soon."

A burst of bright light suddenly appeared, followed by the distant rumble of an explosion.

Martin couldn't help but remark, "They don't seem like gangs, more like warlords."

Paul replied, "You could think of them as trafficking warlords."

Being relatively far away and only able to see fires and explosions, Elizabeth, a girl from a wealthy family, showed no fear and instead watched with relish.

Half an hour later, Elizabeth's agent called her away.

After watching for a while longer, Martin also came down from the roof.

Back in his room, he asked Bruce, "That Mexican gang that was troubling you, has it been wiped out?"

"The mid-sized and smaller gangs over there come and go so quickly, they're said to be gone," Bruce explained. "Gangs seek profits too; they won't easily engage in high-risk activities with no profit."

Martin went back to his room and slept soundly through the night.

Bruce sat in the living room, gun by his side, keeping watch all night long.

After Martin got up, he saw Bruce exercising and didn't say much.

The two men had faced robbers together, shivered in terror with Sophia, framed others, been framed themselves, and experienced the incident at Burbank Middle School.

Some things simply couldn't be expressed in words.

After breakfast, the crew started work on time, and Martin went into the trailer outside the bar to get dressed and made up.

Milner called the makeup artist for the supporting actors aside and asked, "Have you seen the Avalon Bar video?"

The makeup artist wasn't dumb, "The one with Martin and Pitt?"

Once he knew the other had watched it, Milner pointed at the Western Bar and said, "Don't you think this commercial is somewhat similar to that video?"

"The lead actor is Martin..." The makeup artist caught on, "I understand how to do the makeup for the supporting roles."

Milner nodded with satisfaction, "Good, once it's done, you'll get a nice bonus."

This advertisement was originally inspired by the bar fight at Avalon Bar between Martin and Pitt.

Enjoy new chapters from M-V-L

With Martin representing Coca-Cola, the villain naturally had to be played by someone resembling Pitt.