Chapter 167 - Preview Screening (1)

She said the theme park was the place Laila found during the shooting of SAW, where she put all the scenes from her horror movies for visitors to experience the fear the main characters went through in the film.

"You didn't say anything about it, and I almost forgot. How's the park's revenue?" Louise asked.

Louise smiled, "It looks good now. We have more visitors than expected, and our merchandise related to SAW is selling well, especially the dolls. Also, in the past few days, we've had more visitors, probably because of the association with Final Destination. However, we haven't opened the section related to Final Destination yet, and the visitors feel it's a pity. They hope to see it soon."

"Don't rush," Laila waved her hand, "We'll open it after the movie is released. There will be more visitors then. For now, let's focus on providing excellent service, not just selling tickets and merchandise. Let's come up with some thrilling packages for food as well. We can try eyeball, finger, and monster-shaped foods and some creepy-colored drinks."

"I've noted it down, and I'll arrange it right away," Louise said as she wrote down Laila's ideas in her notebook. She marveled at how Laila's mind worked so well and quickly came up with profitable ideas. Indeed, the visitors who came to the theme park for adventure and excitement would love those creepy-looking foods.

After discussing more business matters, Laila was finally alone in the office. She sat behind her desk, continued to browse through the recent newspapers, and found all the reports related to Final Destination and the Phoenix Film Company.

Watching the reporters gradually uncover the traps she set and how they eagerly publicized the bait she threw out in the newspapers, she felt a sense of satisfaction in strategizing. With her past experiences and the privileges of this life, she achieved tremendous success once again.

However, there's a saying, "The greater the ability, the greater the responsibility." Behind each success, she carried not only her family's trust and support but also an increasing number of people relying on her for their survival.

After the formal split of the Phoenix Film Company into two entities, the manpower became seriously insufficient, and they needed to hire more people. Meanwhile, her ambitious collaboration project was also progressing steadily. They now had composers, screenwriters, and the future directors she had identified. These people, whose life trajectories she had changed, would stand together with her, sharing both success and failure.

So, she had no reason to fail and must keep moving forward.

While she worked, the pushers arranged by Louise were also operating discreetly. Just like Laila's initial leak of the mysterious plane crash incident through a small newspaper that had no connection with the Moran Group, these pushers only spread rumors in places that couldn't be easily traced, such as the internet.

They spread stories like "someone I know told me about a confidential event" or "someone heard a particularly terrifying experience from someone on the set" whenever there was an exciting and thrilling event. With their guidance, more people unconsciously joined in digging deeper into the supernatural stories from other movies. Surprisingly, they found that haunted events occurred most frequently in places where horror films were shot!

As a result, the credibility of the curse of the plane crash in "Final Destination" movie escalated to terrifying heights in a short period.

But one thing bothered Laila, which was Cooper's silence lately. She didn't believe he was an enemy easily defeated, nor did she believe he would be content to stay quiet. Otherwise, there wouldn't have been incidents of people being bribed by him to smear her.

In her view, the most likely scenario was that he was planning something in the dark, waiting for an opportunity to defeat her.

The feeling of being secretly watched unsettled her. Unfortunately, he was also a useful resource, and if she were to deal with him right away, it would be difficult to find another "cooperative" partner like him in the future.

Regrettably, despite thorough investigation, she couldn't figure out what happened between Cooper and her cheap father, Reynolds, to make them split ways and make Cooper so hostile to the company that he would bite anyone like a mad dog.

Soon, April arrived quietly.

A week before the release of "Final Destination," Rush Hour was finally produced. It was Laila's fourth movie as a director and the only film she shot for another company. Although she brought in an investment that offset a significant part of the risks, many people still felt uneasy about the movie's quality.

After the film was completed, a small screening was essential.

To get firsthand feedback, Laila did not show the finished product to anyone after post-production. She waited until everyone gathered, and then they could discuss it together. Therefore, even the investors from New Line Cinemas and the lead actors didn't know what they had produced with $35 million in these few months.

Perhaps the most nervous person was Jackie Chan, who strongly recommended Laila as the director.

This was his most crucial movie in Hollywood. If it succeeded, the previous disastrous film he shot would become history, and he could establish himself in Hollywood. If it failed, he would have to wait for a miracle to open a new door for him.

When he chose Laila, he had already bet everything. Now, life or death depended on today's result!

As for New Line Cinemas and the investors, their feelings toward Laila were also mixed. They didn't have high demands, just hoping she could perform at her level and make the movie reach $100 million at the box office. As for her actual ability, they were not sure.

$35 million was not a small amount of investment. The reason they agreed to let her direct was not just because of Jackie Chan's face; another factor carried even more weight—the influence of the Moran surname. From their perspective, even if the movie failed, they might lose some money, but being associated with the Moran family would not be a loss.