The three most important roles in the film are the male lead Sam, the female lead Mikaela, and Lennox, the representative of the U.S. military. Duke had long released word that the main roles would be filled by newcomers, attracting a large number of young men and women dreaming of fame to audition. Just the number of actors who submitted resumes to audition for Sam and Mikaela exceeded two hundred and fifty. All the agents who believed they had connections with the production team were running around seeking opportunities. Even if they couldn’t win Duke’s favor, simply participating in the audition would be a kind of credential, or even a means of self-promotion. However, quite a few of the candidates who passed the first audition for the three roles came from Nancy Josephson’s ICM. Duke didn’t mind this. Nancy was one of the core members of his team. As long as it was within reasonable bounds, he wasn’t a stickler. Besides, the actors Nancy Josephson sent to the crew for auditions were generally of top quality. But when Duke opened the file folder and flipped through the audition materials, the first photo that appeared was an extremely familiar face—Steven Spielberg’s godson, Shia LaBeouf. "This one was introduced by Spielberg," Tina Fey said at the right time. Duke nodded, but in his heart had already basically sentenced Shia LaBeouf to death. Unless no suitable candidate could be found, he would definitely not be used. People naturally have their own circles of closeness. If he had been recommended by George Lucas, Duke would have given him priority. After roughly scanning through the male lead candidates’ materials, he saw quite a few familiar names, like Chris Hemsworth, Andrew Garfield, Robert Pattinson, Chris Pine, and even James Franco. Actors born in the 1970s were definitely not within Duke’s consideration. He closed the materials for the male leads and set them aside for now. Then he picked up the female candidates’ portion. The requirements for female actors were actually simpler besides basic acting ability, they needed to have attractive looks and hot bodies. After all, this was a popcorn movie aimed at teenagers. After browsing briefly, he found that more than half of the female candidates had ICM noted as their agency. Thinking of the names he had just seen, Duke couldn’t help but nod. Nancy Josephson’s eye for talent was indeed quite decent. Among them were quite a few names that seemed familiar, like Emma Stone, Blake Lively, Emma Roberts, and Emma Watson... But Duke wasn’t very satisfied with these people, mainly due to their appearance—they were still a bit lacking in terms of having a bombshell figure. On the contrary, two newcomers recommended by IMC seemed pretty good based on their physical attributes. One was named Amber Heard, and the other Margot Robbie—both were typical blonde girls. Although he felt the names were a bit familiar, Duke really couldn’t recall what roles they had played. He made notes on the materials of the two women, then said to Tina Fey, "Have Anna pay special attention to them in the next round of auditions." "What about the male actors?" Tina Fey asked. Picking up the male actors’ materials again, Duke thought for a moment, then marked the names of Andrew Garfield and Robert Pattinson. Then he grabbed the last file and took a look, marking a model named Channing Tatum as a focus. After briefly organizing the materials, Duke handed them to Tina Fey. "Give them to Anna. I may be heading to the Pentagon in a few days. You and she will be in charge of the second round of auditions." Duke wanted to do on-location filming at the Pentagon, but ever since 9/11, no Hollywood crew had shot scenes at the Pentagon. This required coordination and communication between both parties. As Tina Fey was preparing to leave, Duke remembered something else and said, "The candidate for Lennox should be finalized as soon as possible. The male and female leads can take their time." The leads didn’t require special training, but the actor playing the special forces officer had to undergo professional military training along with the other actors playing soldiers, under the guidance of a military-assigned team. Every major Hollywood production involving specialized themes did this. It had even become an unwritten rule. For example, after finalizing a few key actors, James Cameron had recently taken both the actors and production staff to a Maori tribe in New Zealand to experience primitive jungle life. Making a film has never been a simple task—especially for big commercial productions. Before heading to the Pentagon, Duke attended the priority audition for the role of Lennox, then finalized Channing Tatum for the part. The model-turned-actor had the physique and muscles to fit the image of a soldier. His biggest flaw was his stiff face, but that wasn’t a problem for a military character. After assigning Channing Tatum and the other actors to Colonel Daniel and his team for training, Duke flew to Washington, D.C., to meet with senior officials at the Pentagon and finalize a series of filming-related matters. While Duke was busy, David Ellison, who had snatched The Man from Earth from him, was also busy working on the film. After spending $2 million to purchase the rights, David Ellison naturally wanted to push the film into theaters. His Sky Flim Pictures’ distribution department was actively contacting theater chains to arrange for the movie’s release as soon as possible. Since he had already spent $2 million, David Ellison didn’t mind spending another $2 million to promote the film. If the movie could gross over ten million dollars at the North American box office, he would have a reason to mock Duke the next time they met. Two million dollars sounds like a lot, but in this era, trying to promote a film with that amount was like tossing a pebble into the ocean it could only create a barely noticeable ripple. The film’s ads could only appear on the internet, newspapers, television, and radio in some unimportant sections or time slots, making it quite difficult to attract audience attention. But David Ellison wasn’t a fool. After adding another $1.5 million to the promotion budget, he capped the spending. After all, this was just a niche indie film. Even in the most optimistic estimate, David Ellison didn’t think the film’s North American box office could exceed $30 million. His expectation was $10 million, which would be enough for him to sneer at Duke. After increasing the promotional investment, The Man from Earth began to stir up some waves. In North America, even though niche films have a limited audience, there is no lack of enthusiasts. Every off-season, these movie fans become the most active. However, while the promotion of The Man from Earth attracted some attention, its distribution encountered considerable difficulties. Distribution isn’t something that can be done just by setting up a department and hiring some experienced staff. North American theater chains are deeply intertwined with the old Hollywood studios. Under the same conditions and with the same investment scale, resources from theaters are naturally inclined toward traditional, long-established companies. For a new company like David Ellison’s, just starting in distribution, theaters offered only a very small number of screens, and most of them were in relatively remote locations. If it hadn’t been for him paving the way with money, The Man from Earth might have been pushed back to next year by the North American theater alliance... However, in this country, money can always work wonders. Though the number of screens was limited and locations were remote, The Man from Earth was finally able to land in the North American market in late September with a release across more than 120 theaters. In David Ellison’s view, this wasn’t entirely a bad thing. He treated it as the film starting with a limited release. As long as the limited release performed well and the word of mouth was good enough, even for commercial reasons, theater companies would expand its screenings. But releasing a film still required considerable expenses—for example, prints. Over 130 prints cost Sky Flim Media $300,000. The film’s production quality was rather average. If shown using high-definition digital projection, it would be a disaster. Only traditional 35mm film prints could be used. Nowadays, the cost of digital technology has dropped significantly, while the price of film stock keeps rising... After investing nearly $5 million, David Ellison finally waited for the film’s release. His expectations weren’t high he just hoped that over the course of seven days, The Man from Earth could achieve over $5,000 per theater. That kind of performance during the off-season would earn it some attention and the chance for expanded screenings, eventually reaching the goal of $10 million in North American box office revenue. However, between imagination and reality lies a vast gulf. In the eyes of niche film lovers, The Man from Earth was indeed a good film. But just like The Shawshank Redemption, which still failed at the box office even when re-released with loads of sympathy and attention, not every good movie is suitable for theatrical release, and not every good movie is destined to earn high box office returns. The day after The Man from Earth premiered, David Ellison received a report. "125 theaters, a total of 426 viewers, single-day box office: $2,556..." Seeing the numbers on the report, David Ellison already had a bad feeling, but he still held onto some hope. After all, it was only the first day of a limited release. Perhaps with time, and the spread of word-of-mouth, the film’s performance would improve. On IMDb, this film had a very high rating. Even after a full week of release, its rating was still as high as 8.6. At the same time, some fans posted reviews in the comments section, saying that The Man from Earth was a great film, a mind-blowing masterpiece... But on the other hand, the attendance rate and box office figures were shockingly low. Hi For access to additional Chapters of Director in Hollywood (40 chpaters) Made In Hollywood (60 Chapters) Pokemon:Bounty Hunter(30 Chapters) Douluo Dalu: Reincarnated as Yan(40 Chapters) Follow current novels on 𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭⚑𝓯𝓲𝓻𝓮⚑𝕟𝕖𝕥 Hollywood:From Razzie to Legend(40 Chapters) The Great Ruler (30 Chapters) Join pateron.com/Translaterappu