Duke clearly understood that his mother was reminding him to proceed steadily. After thinking for a moment, he said, “According to the usual Hollywood pattern, after graduation I should join a TV or commercial crew, starting as an assistant director or even lower, so I can gain experience and wait for opportunities. But, Mom, time is really tight for me. I have a lot of ideas I want to realize, and I can’t wait endlessly.”

“Duke.”

As a businesswoman, Mrs. Leah always kept a cool head. “Right now, your chances of success are almost zero!”

“I understand. Ninety-nine point nine-nine percent of people in Hollywood fall on the road to success.”

Although he had never truly entered Hollywood, he did have experience striving in a similar circle in another country. Difficulties would never make Duke back down. “Mom, if I try, my chances of success are almost zero; if I don’t try, the chance of success is definitely zero!”

More than ten years of practical experience in his previous life, and more than ten years of study and practice in this life, had given Duke a certain confidence in himself, and it was worth making an effort for this. If he got an opportunity, it would be his luck; if not, he wouldn’t lose much—at most, he’d become a laughingstock for Hollywood companies and investors, or maybe not even be worth their gossip.

This was a road full of hardships, even harder than taking over his mother’s advertising company in the future, but Duke had long decided to walk this path, and wouldn’t back down even if he ended up battered and bruised.

First, he needed to come up with a script. Even though he agreed with his mother, only by trying his best would he have no regrets.

There were certainly precedents for success, and these were films that Duke had once studied in depth—of course, they were also the type he was best at directing.

Chapter Three: Finalizing the First Choice

The day after returning home, Duke temporarily organized his luggage, went to his mother’s advertising company to fetch a typewriter from the office, and set up the empty room on the second-floor balcony facing the sea as a temporary studio. After finishing all this, he made a cup of black tea and sat in a wicker chair on the balcony, enjoying the cool sea breeze as he began to consider what kind of film to choose.

A long time had passed since the other world in his memory. He didn’t have a brain like a computer’s storage; many things had already become blurry. Even those Hollywood movies he had once spent a lot of energy studying—while he still remembered the main plots clearly, he had forgotten most of the details.

Especially those movies he’d only seen once or twice—he had only the vaguest impressions, and without a prompt, he couldn’t recall them at all.

This limited his range of choices.

In addition, although he had accumulated over twenty years of study and experience across two worlds, and had even shot two experimental films in recent years, he had to admit that he had never independently directed any formal film project. He lacked real experience and was a complete novice. According to both his and his mother’s understanding, the chances of getting an opportunity were extremely slim. But to give himself enough hope, he had to choose the type he had filmed before and was best at.

That meant art films were out of the question. He had studied such films before, so he knew he wasn’t suited for that genre right now. Otherwise, even if he got lucky and landed a directing job, he’d completely mess it up.

Then there were horror films, the classic low-budget, high-return genre in North America. Unfortunately, he wasn’t a fan of horror movies and had seen very few.

Lightly tapping the armrest of his chair, Duke’s thoughts gradually shifted to the present. Movies are deeply influenced by the social environment. Even if a film that once succeeded was shot to its original standard, it could still flop in the early 1990s. The film he chose had to be popular now and acceptable to most audiences.

What was popular in Hollywood these days? Romantic love stories and explosive action films!

The former could be ruled out, but as for the latter… several movie titles and general plots immediately came to Duke’s mind.

Considering plot development, camera language, actors’ performances, lighting and set design, post-production editing, dubbing, and music, these action films he had once studied carefully were the most suitable choices.

After finishing his tea, Duke left his temporary studio, made a few appointment calls, went to the garage to get his used Chevrolet, and drove out of Santa Monica straight to the West Branch of the Writers Guild in Los Angeles. After paying a fee, he checked the scripts currently registered with the Guild. Fortunately, everything was now stored on computer, and the script titles and brief descriptions were clear at a glance.

After spending the entire afternoon, Duke finally confirmed that the scripts for the films he remembered were not registered with the Writers Guild, which greatly reduced the chance of overlap.

Of course, it was also possible that the scripts were still being written or simply hadn’t been registered with the Guild. But even if there was overlap in the future, it would just be a “coincidence.”

The remaining task for today was to choose the most suitable one from these films.