The Best Movie Actor In Hollywood!

Chapter 802: Hard Science Fiction

After attending the charity dinner, Matthew traveled to the United Nations Headquarters in New York. To a great extent, his reputation as a social activist and an advocate for women and children was steadily catching up to his status as a Hollywood superstar.

At the UN Headquarters, he participated in a press conference organized and led by the Secretary-General, further elevating his profile.

Matthew once again called upon society to help children worldwide realize their fundamental rights to survival, development, protection, and participation.

Thanks to his status as a Hollywood superstar, Matthew commanded immense global recognition, and these charitable activities helped to further enhance his social standing.

Over the years, Matthew had successfully cultivated several other facets of his public persona beyond that of a Hollywood superstar.

As a result, Matthew was quite sought-after.

He had Helen politely decline an invitation from Elizabeth Holmes, but what Matthew hadn't expected was that upon his return to Los Angeles, the Angel Acting Agency received a formal offer from her.

"The other party offered a salary of $10 million as a condition."

In the living room of the Horner Estate, Helen told Matthew, "And there's still room for negotiation."

Matthew sank into a rattan chair with a slightly lazy air and sighed. "What a lucrative deal." He asked, "Did you look into her and her company?""Well..." Helen gathered her thoughts. "It's a startup. She's a future super-billionaire, but she's desperate for investment right now."

She didn't beat around the bush, getting straight to the point. "I suggest you turn it down. It falls into the medical products category, which is best to avoid if you can."

Matthew nodded. "I agree."

Aside from maintaining his existing endorsements with Rolex, Armani, and Mercedes-Benz, he had stopped taking on new promotional deals for the past two years.

Helen added, "Elizabeth Holmes's objective is obvious. She wants to use your fame and influence to create a sensation and then attract more venture capital."

Matthew considered it for a moment, then decided, "Turn them down."

Helen didn't press the matter, saying instead, "Elizabeth Holmes's company is based in California. When she spoke with me on the phone, she said she wanted to find time to talk to you privately, so I expect she'll be in touch."

"Alright," Matthew said.

Helen prepared to leave, but before she did, she reminded him, "Be careful when dealing with a woman like Elizabeth Holmes."

Matthew suppressed the urge to roll his eyes. "Don't worry."

Besides, was he the kind of man who lost his head the moment he saw a beautiful woman?

A woman who started a business before she was twenty and could now secure funding from Rupert Murdoch... how could he possibly take her lightly?

"Right, there's one more thing." Helen remembered something else. "Starting in May, you need to cooperate with Warner Bros. on the promotion for Inception."

Matthew nodded.

Like Christopher Nolan's previous commercial blockbusters, Inception was scheduled for a July release this year, landing the prime slot: the weekend before the Independence Day holiday.

Given the reputations of Christopher Nolan and Matthew himself, no other major film was opening wide that same weekend.

However, as with all summer schedules, the weekends surrounding Inception's premiere were crowded. The following weekend would see the release of Universal Pictures' Despicable Me, while the preceding weekend featured The Karate Kid from Sony Columbia Pictures.

From the title The Karate Kid, Matthew also gathered that this was the film where Jackie Chan played the teacher to Will Smith's son.

Perhaps Inception would manage to surpass The Karate Kid's box office numbers in its second weekend.

It wasn't that Matthew was aiming for it, but for the past several years, every film he had released over the Independence Day weekend had been a massive success. This track record created a certain expectation, and while Hollywood wasn't governed by superstition, everyone acknowledged that sticking to a winning formula increased the odds of success.

That being the case, Warner Bros. had every reason to choose the premium Independence Day slot. After all, the combination of Matthew Horner and Christopher Nolan was incredibly appealing.

Matthew never considered the films opening on the surrounding weekends a threat to Inception. Despicable Me had a completely different target audience, and as for The Karate Kid...

Will Smith, who hadn't had a truly outstanding film since The Pursuit of Happyness, was in a much weaker position than before in terms of both fame and box office appeal. Otherwise, he wouldn't be taking on superhero roles.

His son, Jaden Smith, commanded even less attention.

Matthew was more concerned about the film that would be released on the weekend before it, John Carter, directed by Andrew Stanton and starring Brad Pitt and Natalie Portman, than he was about The Karate Kid.

The blockbuster, which had cost $250 million to produce, was finally set to be released this summer.

Matthew was eagerly awaiting the film's release. Would John Carter elevate Brad Pitt and Natalie Portman to the peak of popularity, or would they crash and burn? At this point, no one could say for sure.

But there was one thing Matthew understood perfectly: because of the massive financial crisis and the debt incurred from the failure of Cloud Atlas, a merely average success for John Carter would do nothing for Brad Pitt.

If he wanted to escape his dilemma completely, Brad Pitt had to bet on John Carter becoming a massive box office hit.

At the very least, the film's box office earnings needed to match those of this year's Alice in Wonderland.

Without outstanding box office numbers, there would be no chance of selling the merchandising rights—which accounted for the bulk of the revenue—at a favorable price.

Perhaps Brad Pitt's Plan B Entertainment wouldn't even last another year?

Like the previous year, this was shaping up to be a big one for Matthew in terms of films. Besides his leading role in Inception, May would see the release of Iron Man 2, a project he was involved in. Then, around Halloween, a film by James would hit North American theaters, followed by The Twilight Saga: Eclipse in the Thanksgiving slot.

All of these films were crucial for him, and for Matthew today, Hollywood was the foundation of everything.

After seeing Helen out, Matthew got on the phone with Christopher Nolan to briefly discuss the pre-release publicity for Inception. After he hung up, he suddenly remembered something.

The novel that Andy Weir had given him—he still hadn't read it.

Matthew called Bella. Right after returning to Los Angeles, he had given the flash drive to her and asked her to make a copy for him.

"It's a pretty interesting novel." Bella had obviously read it and spoke highly of the unfinished work over the phone. "I think it has definite adaptation potential."

She also added a specific reminder: "I found some background information on Andy Weir and sent it to you."

After the call, Matthew went straight to his study, opened his computer, logged into his work email, and saw the message from Bella.

First, he opened Andy Weir's profile and looked it over.

Andy Weir had been writing online since he was twenty, though his work hadn't attracted much attention. He was currently employed at Blizzard Entertainment, where his writing experience had led him to head the writing for some episodes related to Blizzard's signature masterpiece, Warcraft.

He was also a tech guy.

To date, Andy Weir had never officially published any of his work. His influence remained confined to the internet, and his most famous credit was none other than the Warcraft storyline he had helped write.

Initially, Matthew had thought Andy Weir wanted to sell him the film rights to Warcraft. But now, opening the file in his inbox, he realized it had nothing to do with the fantasy game. It was pure science fiction.

Unlike the superhero comics of Marvel and DC, this was hard science fiction, a genre rarely seen in the modern film industry.

Currently, science fiction films had long been in decline, gradually disappearing from Hollywood's commercial mainstream. It was rare to see a sci-fi film in the annual top-ten box office list, and even the film rights to science fiction novels were not highly valued by Hollywood producers.

It was no wonder Andy Weir had taken the initiative to come to him directly.

On one hand, he had no track record of past success; on the other, it was due to the overall market climate.

Seeing that it was hard sci-fi, Matthew's interest waned slightly, but since the file was already open, he started to read.

Many people, himself included, were intimidated by science fiction, especially hard sci-fi, mainly because they felt it was filled with too much scientific jargon and concepts that were too advanced to fully grasp.

But in this novel, Andy Weir cleverly circumvented that problem. He established the backstory and theme very early on: an astronaut, stranded after an accident, must survive alone on Mars for a year and a half.

The entire plot, including the timeline and the technology used for Mars exploration, was grounded in the reality of various versions of NASA's Mars program. The hero's survival hinged on methodical, step-by-step problem-solving.

Every time the hero faced a challenge, he followed a consistent routine: analyze the problem, form a hypothesis, test it on a small scale, determine a solution, and then execute it.

As a result, even Matthew, as a reader, found every detail incredibly realistic.

This sense of tangible realism was probably the most captivating aspect of the novel.

They say the greatest compliment for a science fiction novel is that it's "written as if it were real."

Furthermore, the male protagonist wasn't an arrogant show-off, but an exceptionally down-to-earth person.

No matter what dire circumstances the hero faced, even when they were desperate enough to induce despair, humor and optimism still shone through in his dialogue.