"Hey, Wayne, I hope I'm not disturbing you?"
"No," Wayne instinctively stopped in his tracks and smiled as he responded, "You're calling me at this time, don't tell me the post-production of *Gifted Girl* is already completed?"
On the other end of the phone, Susan couldn't help but roll her eyes and replied helplessly, "How could it be finished so fast! But the first cut is done, and we just wrapped up the internal screening. I called Sarah, Bauer, Sarandon, and Naomi to participate in the screening, and they all gave pretty positive feedback on the film."
"So, what about you? What's your evaluation of the first cut?" Wayne asked again after hearing this.
"Me?" Susan was stunned for a moment and then said, "I'm the producer of this film, so my evaluation is bound to be subjective. It's hard to give a fair assessment."
"Then set aside your producer hat for a moment and try to see if this movie can captivate you purely as an audience member."
Susan was silent for a few seconds, then nodded and said, "I got it. I'll try to do as you suggested. But are you really not planning to take a look at it? I can have an assistant bring a copy on a flight over to you."
Wayne touched his chin after hearing this.
If he didn't have to go through the hassle of flying back and forth himself, and given that there was plenty of time until the scheduled official screening, he might consider watching it.
But just as he was about to speak, there was a sudden exclamation from Jessica not far away, causing him to frown.
"No need, Susan. You have to trust yourself, and I need you to quickly become a producer who can stand on her own! Not just someone who's an executive producer for Mia or me. So, keep up the good work!"
With that, Wayne didn't give Susan another chance to speak. He hung up the phone and walked quickly toward Jessica and Hannah.
He saw Jessica clutching her limited edition Chanel handbag in shock, while next to her, Hannah and two bodyguards had pinned a Black couple to the ground.
"What happened?" Wayne ignored the Black couple's curses and asked with a frown.
"These two were trying to steal Jessica's handbag, but I caught them!" Hannah said with disgust, letting go of one of the thieves and leaving the task to the other bodyguard.
Wayne, after hearing this, also showed a look of disgust.
Two incidents of robbery and theft in a row, and the second one happening to them directly, made his impression of both the Black community and the city of Paris plummet.
And things got even more unexpected.
The Louvre security guards arrived upon hearing the commotion. After understanding the situation, they took everyone, including the two Black thieves, to the security office.
There was surveillance footage, so the two thieves had no grounds to dispute their crime. Yet the guards used the excuse that the thieves were injured by the bodyguards to demand $3,000 in compensation for them. This infuriated Wayne.
"A bunch of snakes and rats, huh? You want to mess with me?" Wayne thought angrily.
Any thought of being kind was long gone.
There was no way he was going to pay that money, but he didn't want the hassle of involving lawyers either. So he directly told the bodyguard from the local PMC company to handle it.
The bodyguard agreed quickly, resolving the matter in less than ten minutes with just one phone call.
But was that the end? Not at all!
Still feeling angry, Wayne immediately offered $100,000 for the PMC company to provide the four troublemakers with a half-year stay in the hospital.
Faced with such a generous employer, these guys, who usually worked as bodyguards and were more ruthless than terrorists in private, naturally agreed without hesitation.
After all, such a sum of money could usually hire them to take out a small gang leader of 20 or 30 people.
So, later that evening, when Wayne returned to the hotel, he saw photos of the four people blindfolded and tied up in an alley full of garbage and rats. One unfortunate guy even had his shin bone shattered and exposed, which would likely leave a permanent disability even after treatment.
Wayne finally felt satisfied.
However, his impression of Paris had plummeted to rock bottom—after all, that was the Louvre!
Even in the U.S., the general quality of Black people might not be high, but at least at the Metropolitan Museum, you wouldn't see such collusion, right? And even if it did happen, they wouldn't be so foolish as to target him, right?
"Honey, what if those guys have gang connections and seek revenge on us?" Mia asked worriedly after learning about the incident.
She grew up in a single-parent family but was well-protected by Sarah and hadn't been exposed much to this darker side of society. Her concern was understandable.
Wayne pulled her into his arms with a smile, kissed her cheek, and softly comforted her, "If that's the case, I'll show them the power of money. And if the local PMC isn't reliable, we still have Old Hart, right? I'm sure he'd be more than happy to take on this job."
Being one of the special action coordinators for the film crew, Mia also knew Old Hart, a former CIA agent. Hearing this, she felt reassured.
Seeing this, Wayne changed the topic, continuing, "By the way, I should thank them."
"Thank them?" Mia and the others looked at him in confusion.
"Yeah, thanks to them, I've already decided what my next movie will be. But I'm never coming back to this damned city of Paris again, so I'll leave the main character to someone else." Wayne explained with a smile.
Obviously, the movie he was thinking of was *Taken*, starring Oscar winner Liam Neeson, which paints a very dark picture of Paris.
It's worth mentioning that the scriptwriter Luc Besson and the director Pierre Morel of this film are both French, so it's truly a case of "your own people hitting you the hardest!"
In this life, Wayne planned to bring this action blockbuster, which was both critically acclaimed and a box-office success, to the screen earlier—not for any other reason but to let the world know sooner that Paris was no longer the City of Romance but a city riddled with crime.
Without exaggeration, his actions could indeed save many innocent girls, a merit of immeasurable virtue.
Additionally, the petty Wayne moved some of the scenes originally planned for Paris, but which could also be shot elsewhere, to Germany.
Not for anything else but to contribute less tax revenue to this incompetent government.
And by doing so, he could also cancel the hiring of some local Black actors who were originally planned.
From now on, in his movies, except for Morgan Freeman and Will Smith, whom he found relatively agreeable, no other Black actors would ever play any positive roles.
Fifth update delivered, please subscribe ~~~~