The Best Movie Actor In Hollywood!

Chapter 574

Dozens of police officers were hunkered down behind their cars, pinned by a dense hail of bullets that kept their heads down. On the other side of the street, through a glass door, the silhouettes of figures wielding automatic rifles shifted menacingly.

Matthew descended from above as a cinematographer filmed him with a Steadicam rig.

He glanced around, spotted an officer, and asked, "What's the situation?"

"Bank robbery," the officer said quickly. "There are at least eight hostages and four perpetrators."

The officer pointed to one of the police cars, the one furthest out, where a blonde female officer was taking cover. "I've got an officer caught in the crossfire," he explained. "They've been laying it on her all morning."

Matthew nodded, about to step forward, but the officer reached out and stopped him. "They've got big guns," he warned. "Fifty-cal, maybe bigger. I don't know if that makes a difference to you."

Matthew replied, "It doesn't."

He started to move again, took a single step, then retreated, adding with a touch of awkwardness, "Um, good job."

The officer stared, frozen.

Matthew turned to the other officers around him. "Good job, everyone," he announced. "You're all doing a good job!""Cut!" the director, Peter Berg, shouted. He stopped the filming and gestured toward Matthew. "Great! Let's get ready for the next scene."

There was another shot, one where Hancock flew over a car, that had been filmed by a stuntman earlier.

The entire set remained as it was while the crew adjusted the cameras and lighting. Peter Berg approached Matthew and pointed to the blonde female officer hiding behind the police car. "You're going to save her," he instructed. "Don't run. Just stroll over there."

Matthew nodded. After more than two weeks of filming, he was settling comfortably into the role.

The stunt team was also ready. Peter returned to the director's monitor and yelled, "Action!"

The quiet set instantly erupted with noise as shouts and gunfire rang out. Matthew headed toward the police car parked directly in front of the bank, the smell of smoke thick in the air. He occasionally glanced down, as if the bullets whizzing past him were no bother at all, and reached out to brush some dust from his clothes.

All the gunshot effects would be added in post-production; he just had to perform the motions.

As he passed an SUV, Matthew made a casual, pre-planned gesture. The next second, the vehicle went flying with a deafening crash.

Matthew reached the back of the police car and helped up the female officer, who was lying on the ground, grimacing in pain. Over the sound of gunfire, he shouted, "Good job!"

The actress just shook her head, unable to speak through the agony.

"Can I touch you?"

"Yes!" the woman cried out.

"I'm not having any dirty thoughts, not trying to hit on you or anything, although you are very attractive—" Matthew began, but the actress, her face contorted in pain, cut him off. "Just do something!"

With that, Matthew lifted the actress into his arms.

"Cut!" Peter Berg's voice boomed across the set.

He gave Matthew a nod, then turned to the stunt team. "Get ready! You've got twenty minutes!"

While the actors took a break, he didn't relax for a moment. He reviewed the footage they had just shot, coordinated camera positions with the cinematographer, and then went over to the stunt team to inspect their equipment.

The next shot involved Hancock grabbing a police car to use as a shield. Of course, the actor couldn't actually lift a car; the entire sequence had to be carefully coordinated by the stunt crew.

Peter Berg was meticulous, leaving nothing to chance. It wasn't just today's shoot—throughout the entire production of this film, he had been giving it one hundred and twenty percent, if not two hundred.

For a director at his level, the chance to helm such a massive production was exceptionally rare.

When he was first working as Michael Bay's assistant, he hadn't thought much of it; the actors and the studio were all polite to him for Michael's sake. But ever since he had left to direct on his own, he had truly come to understand just how difficult the path of a new director was.

Before this project, he had only been able to direct small independent films, with the largest investment being just a few million dollars. It wasn't that he didn't want to direct a major, A-list picture; it was that no one was willing to give a new director that kind of opportunity.

After a few small productions, he had made a name for himself. Through a recommendation from Michael, he had met the influential Akiva Goldsman. Though he’d had some hesitation, he knew this was a chance he couldn't afford to miss.

Perhaps there were directors who were content to stay in the world of independent film and dedicate themselves to art for their entire lives, but the vast majority were like him. Who would want to remain in that narrow circle when given the chance to direct a major commercial blockbuster?

After checking in with the stunt team, Peter said to the supervisor, "Run through it one more time. We'll try to get this in one take."

"Got it," the stunt supervisor replied.

Only after the supervisor had double-checked everything to ensure there would be no problems did Peter return to his director's monitor. His gaze drifted toward the actors, finally settling on Matthew.

"I'm really lucky," he whispered to himself.

"To go solo with Michael's help and break into commercial filmmaking with Matthew Horner starring in my first feature."

He had worked in the independent film scene, a world that was a mandatory starting point for many new directors. The resources and opportunities available to most of them were so meager, they might as well have been a world apart from his own experience.

Before taking on this project, he had read a survival study on new directors conducted by a friend who studied the film market. One figure had struck him: of the sixty new directors surveyed who had already made a feature film, 38% had self-funded their debut, and only 21% of them had secured funding within a year. Most of those films had taken one, two, or even three years to begin shooting. Of those who had seen their projects fall through, 58% cited investment problems as the primary reason—the highest of all factors.

No one readily trusts a new director, just as no one readily trusts a new screenwriter.

Peter Berg knew this all too well. Fortunate people like him were few and far between.

In fact, beyond those sixty respondents who had already made a feature film—the "lucky ones who got the money," thanks to survivorship bias—not even the most professional film research institutes knew how many truly talented directors had walked away simply because they couldn't raise money for their projects.

It was a paradox: if you wanted someone to give you money to make a film, you needed to have a film to prove your ability. But finding investment for that first film was incredibly difficult.

How hard is it for a new director to find investment? Peter Berg had experienced it himself: professional companies were afraid to invest, private funding was impossible to find, no one would buy the pre-sale rights, and crowdfunding was harder than ever.

For example, when Christopher Nolan was just starting his career, he supposedly had to humble himself in a movie theater and ask the audience for crowdfunding to finance his new film.

Even if other new directors had a smoother journey, Peter Berg had felt the full weight of the struggle.

When he first left Michael, he had approached a company that made art-house films, seeking investment. The executive had yawned as he listened to his painstaking pitch and then said, "Listen, we make Oscar-quality films..."

In short, he was rejected without them even reading the script.

Later, thanks to Michael's connections, his project found funding and earned the production company a small profit. But the company that had rejected him that year felt no regret for missing out on a profitable film; to them, turning down a debut from an unsupported director was simply a professional move.

He knew from experience that when you were a newcomer, how well-written your script was often didn't matter when you were standing in front of investors.

Even the same script could have a completely different fate under different circumstances. With Michael's recommendation, he had secured investment for this project. Without Michael's help, he might still be looking for funding even now.

***

Twenty minutes later, filming resumed on schedule. Peter Berg sat behind the director's monitor, his focus entirely on the scene unfolding before him.

The sound of gunfire erupted once more. The filming of "Hancock" had drawn a large crowd of press and onlookers. Many had gathered at the periphery to watch, and a few fans who spotted Matthew held pens and notebooks at the ready, hoping to get an autograph later.

Francis Lawrence emerged from the entrance of the Death Star building to meet Paula Patton, who was waiting by the door. She, too, noticed the film shoot nearby.

"A movie starring Horner..." Paula remarked, her tone heavy with meaning.