Chapter 301

He built a perfect stage for Captain America and his Howling Commandos.

Then came the Howling Commandos, who looked like mascots but were actually saviors, charging deep into enemy lines in a desperate situation to save the world.

Xu Can amplified the legendary story of the "Howling Commandos" from real history as much as possible and moved it to the big screen.

From art design, camera language, performances, to editing, he elevated every aspect,

and threw plenty of money at special effects. The original Captain America went from a six-or-seven-out-of-ten popcorn movie to an eight-out-of-ten quality popcorn movie.

With the Russo brothers' perfect coordination, the film's overall quality, placed in his previous life, would absolutely rank in the top tier of Marvel movies.

On par with Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Avengers: Infinity War,

better than the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy, better than Captain America: Civil War,

crushing Age of Ultron, and steamrolling Tom Holland's Spider-Man trilogy.

As for stuff like Eternals, Captain Marvel 2, and Black Panther 2 — they aren't even fit to shine the new Captain America's shoes!

After the film was released, the industry's response was basically the same as Xu Can had predicted.

IMDb opened at 8.8/10, Rotten Tomatoes freshness at 94%, Metascore critics' rating at 87,

and although it can't be called a masterpiece, it's at least a fine film worth two or three rewatches.

This was also reflected at the box office: opening weekend gross of $143 million, crushing all competitors without a doubt.

No wonder the Los Santos Times评价 this way:

"For other films, breaking $100 million on opening weekend is already a miracle worth popping champagne to celebrate, but for Xu Can, this is just his daily routine."

"It's truly unimaginable what heights the future works of the Marvel Cinematic Universe could reach."

"Perhaps a new era has already arrived."

"The superhero film era built by Xu Can!"

Only at this point did the Hollywood giants realize they had still underestimated Xu Can.

Before, they had only thought that Xu Can spending a fortune to acquire Marvel was just lucky gambling that paid off.

After all, only one Iron Man succeeded, and the success of the Spider-Man series was Sony's doing, not Marvel's own.

What if, in the massive film universe plan that followed, one or two movies flopped — the entire film universe would be affected.

But the explosive opening of Captain America made the Hollywood giants realize just how terrifying Xu Can was.

If every film could reach the billion-dollar box-office level,

just how terrifying would Xu Can's next ten years be?

Especially the original Marvel chairman Perlmutter — when he saw Iron Man's box office he didn't think much of it, but after seeing Captain America's excellent word-of-mouth and box office results,

he regretted it so badly his guts turned green!

According to Los Santos media reports, on the third day after Captain America: The Howling Commandos was released, Perlmutter suffered a cerebral infarction from emotional agitation and was rushed to the hospital.

He remains in a coma in the ICU to this day.

……

Under the double bombardment of Inception and Captain America, the entire late April and May of 2009 were completely dominated by Xu Can.

Yet at this moment, he was on a beach chair at Big Wave Bay on Hong Kong Island, facing a difficult choice.

"Xu, which one looks better~~?"

"Yeah, you have to pick one."

"Isn't mine the better-looking one?"

Before Xu Can stood Taylor Swift, Emma Stone, Scarlett Johansson, Kristen Stewart, and Ivanka Trump.

These four famous actresses and one Young Lady — any single one of them would be enough to draw a crowd,

and all five of them gathered together, wearing all kinds of swimsuits and standing in front of him — it was a scene he cannot even dream of.

The story has to go back one day.

After Captain America was released, Xu Can was preparing to start filming Pacific Rim.

Filming required location scouting in various places, so Xu Can planned to go out for a look around and treat it as a vacation.

After all, since Xu Can transmigrated to this parallel world, he had basically been rushing from one film to another — one project barely finished before he immediately started the next.

Even with his golden finger, under continuous uninterrupted work, he would feel tired.

Not physical fatigue, but mental exhaustion.

Moreover, the company still had a pile of decisions waiting for Xu Can,

because he was no longer an ordinary actor now,

Xu Can now had an ever-growing entertainment empire to feed.

Only now did he understand how ridiculous those female-oriented domineering-CEO novels were.

A CEO running a massive conglomerate — who the hell has nothing better to do every day chasing after some woman who has nothing going for her?

Clumsy and awkward, constantly throwing little tantrums to anger the CEO?

How could that possibly pique any interest?

At least Xu Can was like this — if Vanessa or assistant Jessica Rod didn't do their jobs properly, were clumsy, and caused him trouble all day long,

they would have been fired long ago, not kept around for a single day.

How could he possibly fall for them?

Fortunately, Vanessa was capable enough, having been trained by Xu Can to handle things on her own.

In addition, the company had executives like Happy and Kevin Feige, with big names sitting at the helm of every subsidiary.

Xu Can finally got to play the hands-off boss, heading to Hong Kong Island for location scouting and taking a vacation on the side.

He mentioned this to Black Widow, and Scarlett Johansson was very interested, suggesting they come along for the location scouting.

With beauties accompanying him, why would Xu Can say no?

So the location scouting turned into a group outing,

However, while Xu Can was chatting with Scarlett Johansson, Emma Stone happened to overhear the whole thing.

"You're going out alone with another woman behind my back?"

Stone Sis looked at Xu Can with a half-smile.

"It's normal work, where's your mind going? There's nothing between me and Scarlett Johansson."

Xu Can told it straight—he did have a bit of a thought about Widow Sis, and she seemed to have a bit of interest in him too.

He wouldn't rule out something happening between them in the future, but right now nothing had happened,

Xu Can's conscience was clear.

"I don't believe it."

Emma Stone was a bit suspicious. The few chance encounters on the Oscar red carpet before had made her instinctively feel Scarlett Johansson was a threat.

The way Widow Sis looked at Xu Can was clearly off!

The two of them going out alone to scout locations—wasn't that like dry tinder meeting a spark?

"You don't believe it, then come along."

Xu Can said he didn't care,

"We just finished filming 'The Blind Side,' didn't you want to take a vacation? Then let's go to Hong Kong Island together for a vacation."

Xu Can played a move of yielding to advance.

He knew Stone Sis's traits well—besides making movies, her biggest hobbies were working out, cooking, and reading.

She was quite the homebody; without a film assignment, she'd basically vanish from the public eye.

Trekking all the way to Hong Kong Island for a trip was something Stone Sis instinctively resisted,

It was far better to comfortably cook a meal in the mansion, brew a cup of black tea afterward, curl up with a book on the lounge chair, and enjoy a lovely afternoon.

How delightful!

Sitting on a plane for over ten hours to a foreign land—weren't you just lying down reading there too? Why bother?

Following the usual pattern, when Xu Can said it this openly and frankly, Stone Sis would surely say,

"Then you go, I'm too lazy to go, I'll just stay home."

But this time, Stone Sis didn't play by the script.

"Sure, I'll go too."

"Hmm?" Xu Can suspected he'd misheard.

"I said, I'm going too."

Emma Stone hugged Xu Can, nuzzling clingily against his chest.

"Alright, alright, if you want to go then go, no one's stopping you."