Cassius felt a bit of sweat on his forehead.
He looked at Kristen, asking with his eyes:
"What do we do?"
Kristen was stunned for a moment, then a playful smile appeared on her face.
She walked to Cassius's side, nudged him gently with her elbow, and whispered in a voice only they could hear:
"Looks like the charm of a certain Eastern wizard is irresistible even to underage girls!"
"What now? Master Cass?"
Cassius glanced at her helplessly, then looked at the pleading Elle and the apologetic Dakota.
Letting an underage girl, Dakota's sister no less, sleep on the sofa or floor?
If word got out, what would the Hollywood tabloids write?
He dared not imagine.
"Staying is fine!"
Cassius sighed and said to Elle:
"You and your sister will stay in the guest room. No sleeping on the sofa, and definitely no sleeping on the floor. Listen to your sister!"
Huge surprise instantly blossomed on Elle's face, and she nodded repeatedly:
"I'll listen! Thank you, Brother Cassius! Thank you!"
She was so excited she almost wanted to pounce again, but Dakota held her back just in time.
Dakota also breathed a sigh of relief, looking at Cassius gratefully:
"Thank you, Cassius. Really sorry for the trouble."
Thus, the original duo world inexplicably became a quartet's temporary residence.
Kristen found it quite amusing and helped Dakota get settled in the guest room.
Elle followed Cassius like a little tail.
She excitedly looked around the villa, especially curious about the acting and scriptwriting books in Cassius's study, and the few training coins he casually left on the desk.
But she behaved well and didn't touch anything randomly.
In the evening, the four of them simply ate some takeout Kristen ordered.
At the dinner table, Elle's chatterbox opened completely.
She kept asking Cassius how those funny scenes in 2 Broke Girls were filmed.
Cassius answered as patiently as possible, occasionally interspersing some funny on-set stories, making Elle giggle incessantly.
Seeing her sister so happy and lively, which was rare, Dakota's gaze softened a lot, and she felt a bit more goodwill towards Cassius's attentiveness and patience.
[Dakota Fanning Favorability +5, Current Favorability 65]
[Elle Fanning Favorability +10, Current Favorability 75]
Two more attribute orbs dropped:
[Affinity +3]
[Power of Fan Belief +6]
One blue, one purple!
Cassius absorbed them quickly.
He discovered that since these two sisters got together, the timing of favorability increases and attribute orb drops seemed to be unified!
Could these sisters with several years age difference have telepathy?
Unfortunately, Cassius couldn't research deeply now; he could only wait for another chance later!
...
Smoke filled the conference room.
Besides Greg Silverman, Martin Campbell, and Sarah, who met Cassius before, several more senior executives and creative representatives from DC Comics were present.
The Green Lantern project plunged into an unprecedentedly fierce debate after Cassius's brainstorming session.
The previously relatively unified route of rebooting Hal Jordan was now forcibly split into two diverging paths.
"Mr. Cassius's idea is very creative!"
A vice president responsible for global market distribution, Robert Allen, attacked first, tapping on the table:
"But ladies and gentlemen, we must be sober! This is a crucial link in the DC Cinematic Universe plan, with an investment exceeding 150 million dollars!"
"This is our opening work! Using a character to carry the weight is too risky!"
He looked around, his tone intensifying:
"Look at the market data! Look at past cases! What superhero image are mainstream audiences, especially overseas markets, used to and recognize?"
"It's Christian Bale's Batman, Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man! It's a traditional white hero image!"
"Cassius is indeed funny in 2 Broke Girls, but that's a sitcom!"
"Letting an actor who plays a funny boss wear tights to save the universe?"
"Will the audience buy it?"
"Will theater managers buy it?"
Beside him, a DC Comics creative consultant also pushed his glasses and added:
"From the perspective of IP purity, Hal Jordan is synonymous with Green Lantern, with so many years of fan accumulation. Suddenly changing to a coder named Cassius..."
"This might enrage the core comic fan base! We cannot gamble the opening success of the entire DC Cinematic Universe on a non-traditional concept!"
A part of the people in the conference room nodded silently, obviously agreeing with this conservative and seemingly safe view.
In current Hollywood, an Asian lead carrying an A-list blockbuster?
It indeed sounded like a fantasy.
"I disagree!"
Greg Silverman stood up. He was a skeptic before, but now became one of the strongest defenders of Cassius's proposal.
"Times are changing! Audience tastes are changing too! The success of 2 Broke Girls proves exactly that this new Eastern image with cultural characteristics represented by Cassius can be accepted and even loved by mainstream audiences!"
"They like Han Lee not because he is Asian, but because he is real and charming!"
He pointed to the key points outlined by Cassius on the whiteboard:
"Look at this Rise of the Azure Dragon framework again! It's not as simple as just changing skin color! It provides a brand new perspective, fresh humor, profound cultural collision, and philosophical thinking!"
"This can allow us to open up a completely different path on the track already occupied by Marvel!"
Director Martin Campbell also spoke up, his voice steady with directorial authority:
"From a creative perspective, Cassius's version of the character has more layers, and the story has more tension!"
"How a struggling ordinary person uses his unique cultural background to understand and master cosmic power is in itself a highly attractive core conflict."
"This resonates more with modern audiences than a test pilot born fearless! As a director, I have more confidence in telling such a story!"
Casting director Sarah also added:
"And we cannot ignore Cassius's own rising popularity!"
"The audience base of 2 Broke Girls combined with his unique personal charm and this role tailored for him, the chemical reaction produced might be a 1+1>2 effect."
"Risks do exist, but the potential rewards could also be enormous!"
The meeting fell into a stalemate.
Conservatives worried about the market and tradition; reformists were optimistic about creativity and potential.
Both sides stuck to their guns, neither able to convince the other.
After arguing for hours until throats were smoking, another senior producer who hadn't spoken much, Megan Ellison, proposed a compromise:
"Since we cannot reach a consensus, and both sides' reasons have their validity, let's simply do this..."
Everyone looked at her.
"We prepare two plans simultaneously!"
Megan said calmly:
"One set based on the optimized Hal Jordan route of the original script, and the other is the Green Lantern: Rise of the Azure Dragon concept proposed by Cassius!"
"And then?"
Robert Allen frowned.
"Then we shoot test footage!"
Megan continued:
"For the original Hal Jordan, we can contact Ryan Reynolds to shoot a few key scenes! And the new version will have Cassius perform the core segments."
She looked at everyone:
"Let the camera speak! Let the finished effect tell us which version is more attractive, which character resonates more with the audience, and which story looks to have more potential!"
"We use facts and data to make the final decision, instead of arguing endlessly here!"