Chapter 70, "Dragon and Tiger Clash," officially begins.
Chapter 70, "Dragon and Tiger Clash," officially begins.
"Las Vegas..." Raymond Chow exclaimed in astonishment, "What on earth happened? This was a Pan Am charter flight! More than two hundred lives lost!"
He watched the live broadcast of the Santa Monica ring match and cheered for Qin Han's amazing kick, but he was unaware of the intricacies behind it.
"It's a long story..." Qin Han briefly recounted how he got Colonel Parker into prison.
"To those mafia members, two hundred lives are just a number."
At this moment, Qin Han's expression had returned to calm, only a cold glint flickered deep in his eyes:
"Are they trying to make us a cautionary tale... a warning to everyone who tries to take a bite out of their business, this is what happens!"
"A warning?" Fred Weintraub, who was standing nearby, jumped to his feet. His usually smiling, chubby face was now grim. "This is a fucking declaration of war!"
As a producer at Warner Bros., he knew better than anyone how devastating the losses were.
The entire batch of photographic equipment stored in the cargo hold was submerged in the red tide and completely destroyed.
The only saving grace was that the emergency landing was successful; although many people were injured, at least no one died.
"Several million dollars worth of equipment, at least a third of the staff are injured..." Fred grabbed his hair and said viciously, "The start-up time will be delayed by at least two weeks! Every day costs money!"
"Calm down, Fred. It's precisely in situations like this that you can't afford to lose your composure." Qin Han gripped his shoulder and shook him forcefully. "Contact Bill right now."
Upon hearing this name, Fred finally came to his senses.
"That's right." He said through gritted teeth, "Since those guys in Las Vegas broke the rules, this matter cannot be left unresolved."
"I'll go tell Bill right now that if he doesn't want his pension to go down the drain, he'd better call those Italians right now."
Watching Fred hurry out of the study, Raymond Chow sighed and turned his gaze to Bruce Lee, who had remained silent.
"Fortunately, all of you core members of the team are safe and sound. As long as you're alive, we can always overcome any difficulty."
Bruce Lee stood up and stretched: "A gentleman takes revenge even after ten years. We'll remember this."
"Right now, Las Vegas is a long way off, and Fred's operations will take time. Our priority is to finish filming the movie."
Qin Han nodded: "Mr. Zou, Warner Bros. has very high requirements for filming equipment, so we'll definitely have to wait for another batch to be sent over from the United States."
"But the preliminary preparations cannot be stopped."
He pulled a similarly soaked shooting schedule from his drenched briefcase:
"The extras auditions, originally scheduled for next week, have been moved up to tomorrow. The set construction in the studio also needs to begin immediately."
"We want the outside world to see that this air disaster not only didn't break us, but actually made Jiahe even more united!"
Raymond Chow took the schedule and finally smiled: "It's soaking wet... I'll have someone make a new one right away."
He looked at the young man in front of him, who had just experienced a brush with death, yet was able to adjust his mindset immediately, pull himself out of the rage of revenge, and focus on the current plan.
The new generation surpasses the old!
"I'll arrange it right away. Warner's money has already arrived in my account."
"Tomorrow morning, I want all of Hong Kong to know that the great ship 'Enter the Dragon' has officially set sail!"
……
In the following days, Hong Kong experienced a news storm.
First, the miraculous "Emergency Landing at Tolo Harbour" became the headline of all newspapers.
Immediately afterwards, Golden Harvest made a high-profile announcement: the first Bruce Lee kung fu film co-produced with Warner Bros., "Enter the Dragon," had officially started filming.
The film set needed to select a large number of extras, which attracted countless young people to apply.
Meanwhile, at Clearwater Bay, Shaw Studios.
Shaw sat behind his large desk, twirling two walnuts in his hand, a hint of irritation in his half-closed eyes.
"Sixth Uncle, have you read today's newspaper?"
Cai Lan pushed open the door and entered, holding a copy of Ming Pao in his hand.
Shaw glanced at the huge black-and-white photo in the newspaper—half of the plane was submerged in the sea, looking incredibly pitiful.
He snorted through his nose: "That traitor Raymond Chow is probably cursing me in his heart right now, isn't he?"
"As soon as the plane crashed, rumors spread that it was me, Shao Laoliu, who was behind it, trying to wipe out Jiahe."
"That's not necessarily true." Cai Lan put the newspaper on the table and sat down on the sofa. "Golden Harvest is currently in full swing preparing for filming and has not made any moves against Shaw Brothers at all."
"Oh?" Run Run Shaw stopped what he was doing. "They still have the mind to make a movie?"
"Yes, it's quite a commotion." Cai Lan clicked his tongue in amazement: "I heard that foreign director named Ridley Scott is going crazy on set."
"He dislikes Hong Kong photographers for not knowing what 'natural light' is, and he's having the newly built roof dismantled so he can borrow natural light."
They even hired a foreign director? Warner Bros. is truly generous with its resources!
Thinking of this, Run Run Shaw abruptly threw two walnuts onto the table and began to talk about another upsetting matter:
"These foreigners never follow the rules when doing business!"
"They sold 'The World's Number One Fist' to Warner Bros. for such a low price, and it's already grossed over a million dollars at the box office, right? They're ungrateful!"
"They've turned around and invested in Raymond Chow, trying to team up with that traitor!"
This is what has been causing Run Run Shaw's biggest worry lately.
He has always been known for his shrewdness, but unexpectedly, Warner Bros. picked up a huge loophole in "The World's Number One Fist".
However, things turned out differently. Golden Harvest and Warner Bros. started a "co-production, box office revenue sharing" arrangement, which infuriated him.
"Sixth Uncle, this matter cannot be entirely blamed on Warner." Cai Lan took out a photo from his pocket and pushed it in front of Run Run Shaw: "In this case, Raymond Chow had someone behind him giving advice."
Run Run Shaw picked up the photo: It was a bit blurry; it was taken from a television screen.
A young man in a yellow jumpsuit is leaping high into the air and kicking his opponent in the head.
"This is..." Run Run Shaw narrowed his eyes: "Qin Han, the one who defeated the Japanese in the ring? Bruce Lee's student?"
"That's right, it's him." Cai Lan nodded. "I asked my friends in America to check. This Qin Han is more than just a military man."
"He was the one who orchestrated Golden Harvest's connections with Warner and Universal. He was also responsible for the North American distribution of 'The Big Boss'."
"And... he started a company called 'Han Studio'."
"It's just a production company, isn't it? Hollywood has them everywhere." Run Run Shaw dismissively tossed the photo back to Chua Lam.
"Sixth Uncle, you're wrong again." Cai Lan shook his head and picked up the photos on the table: "He only signs contracts for the script, director, and actors, then packages them together and sells them back to those big film studios."
"The film studios provide the money and effort to make the movies, while he sits around and collects the money."
Shaw frowned, unable to process this "turning the tables" approach.
After a long silence, he looked at the young man in the photo with a complicated expression: "Isn't this... the kind of 'getting something for nothing' that's common in the underworld? Would those foreigners agree to that?"
"As long as the goods you're packaging are of high quality and can make money, the foreigners will definitely agree," Cai Lan remarked.
"Now, Bruce Lee is that trump card."
RPAGF