No matter how noisy the outside world got, Laila didn't care. The only thing on her mind was one thing: how to make this movie look even better, and how to break the 3-billion-dollar box office mark.
Filming a VFX-heavy movie meant that many scenes had to be shot in front of a green screen. The epic, high-stakes moments that looked so grand on the big screen would probably make people burst out laughing if they saw the raw footage. Acting against a green backdrop, while imagining terrifying monsters and reacting with the appropriate expressions, was no easy task. I mean, how are you supposed to show fear and hatred when your "enemy" is a plush toy being held up by a prop assistant?
Fortunately, the actors were already quite experienced, and with Laila's ability to adjust their mood and bring out their best performances, the shoot was going relatively smoothly.
The green screen scenes weren't the hard part. The real challenge was the latter half of the film—when the alien army was meant to wreak havoc in New York.
Filming in a city was always a headache for Laila. She still remembered when she shot The Dark Knight—the explosions she set off were so realistic that residents thought it was a terrorist attack and flooded the police station with calls.
That was nothing, though. Even during the city battle in Iron Man, massive crowds gathered just to watch the chaos. Laila didn't mind the crowd, but her newer and less experienced actors couldn't maintain their focus in that kind of environment. Once the atmosphere was disrupted, getting the emotional tone she wanted from a scene became ten times harder.
But all of that now seemed like child's play compared to what The Avengers demanded.
This time, the battle sequences weren't just happening in the streets—they also involved a massive number of extras. Large ensemble scenes were every director's nightmare.
Still, with Laila's reputation, getting a permit to shut down an entire block for filming wasn't difficult. After all, she had money. As long as she was willing to compensate them, none of the shops along the street would complain about taking a day off.
In between shoots, Laila finalized several design drafts. Chief among them was the Sky Carrier, followed by the appearance of the aliens, their weapons, behavior, and more—all of which had to be meticulously developed.
Aliens and humans should naturally be very different. Part of Avatar's huge success stemmed from the creation of a completely new world—one with distinct behaviors and a non-human culture.
Laila wanted the same. She didn't want her aliens to just wear alien "costumes" but behave like humans. That would be fake—and worse, it would feel lazy and insincere.
The original film had done a decent job in this area, but Laila wasn't satisfied. She wanted to push the concept further—to give the aliens more depth and individuality, rather than making them look like emotionless war machines.
She remembered that in her previous life, many film reviews had criticized the aliens for looking like oversized bugs. They didn't feel like aliens—they felt like space insects. So now she wanted to design something truly alien, not just a "Zerg reskin." But she knew that concept art and creature design weren't her strong suits, no matter how good her ideas sounded. That job needed to be left to the professionals.
And this couldn't be just a random visual design. Every species evolved based on its environment. Humans, for example, evolved from apes, and many physical traits faded as they became unnecessary. The same should apply to alien species. If they lived in darkness, maybe they'd have massive eyes or echolocation organs like bats.
If you ignore evolutionary logic just for the sake of aesthetics, then be prepared to be roasted by the audience.
Filming days were grueling. Laila often fell asleep with her eyes closed in the passenger seat while Roy drove her home. And if she wasn't sleeping, then she had film-related materials in her hands, always working.
Roy couldn't help but feel both sorry and frustrated watching her push herself like this. But aside from ensuring her meals and rest, he didn't try to stop her. He knew exactly how much this movie meant to her. Trying to pull her focus away for the sake of her health would only backfire.
After all, no one should use "it's for your good" as an excuse to control someone else's freedom, right?
Time flew by. In just a few months, the summer movie season in Hollywood had come and gone—with no new film from Laila.
This left fans feeling like something was missing and only made them more eager for her next release.
"I love big-budget effects-driven films, but none of the recent ones grab me."
"Only Laila's studio has put out anything worth watching this year. The rest? Maybe just a couple of decent animated flicks."
"I'm dying to see her next movie! Only she knows what I want to watch, and only her movies give me that rush. I hope it comes out soon!"
The year 2010 was, in many ways, a strange year for Hollywood—or perhaps more accurately, a disastrous year for live-action films. Half of the year's top ten box office earners were animated films: Toy Story 3, Shrek Forever After, Despicable Me, and others. The rest were mostly fantasy-style live-action films like Alice in Wonderland and Harry Potter.
In the original timeline, Christopher Nolan's Inception stormed its way onto the charts that year. But due to some changes in this world, the film hadn't been completed yet and would now be released the following year. As a result, this year's box office skewed heavily toward a younger demographic.
Of course, while animated films might seem "childish" to Eastern audiences, in the West, they were considered excellent family entertainment, which probably helped push ticket sales even higher.
Just because Laila didn't release a film during the summer didn't mean people weren't talking. Facebook was flooded with lamentations, as fans mourned the lack of her work.
This only went to show: Laila's influence in Hollywood and the film world wasn't something a few doubters could shake.
And the person who hated seeing this most?
Cooper.
Reading some of the comments online, he angrily slammed his keyboard aside.
"Why do so many people like her?!"
He genuinely couldn't understand. In his eyes, she was just some little girl, using childish tricks and crude films to swindle the attention of the masses. Just think—she shot her first movie at 18, and turned a $100,000 budget into a $300 million box office return.
Is that even possible?
Why couldn't people see that the whole thing was a setup?
Hollywood cranked out horror movies like a factory. Dozens, maybe even hundreds, were released every year if you included small indie titles. But out of all those, who else had turned $100,000 into $300 million?
No one.
Not a single one.