"Sorry, I was held up for a bit..."
Hollywood, Hughes Film Studio.
Hughes arrived at the studio and apologized to Colin and Roy.
"It's fine. In fact, if you hadn't said anything, we wouldn't have even noticed."
Putting down his coffee cup, Colin glanced at Hughes, who now stood before them in a fresh, clean outfit, and said with a smile.
Severe Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. This was another well-known fact about the later Howard Hughes, aside from being an Aeronautical Engineer, Entrepreneur, film director, and Playboy.
Of course, his Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder traits weren't obvious yet, far from the point where he would later become unable to have contact with people.
Hearing Colin's reply, Hughes gave a noncommittal nod.
Sitting down on the studio's sofa, he pointed a finger at the cigar on the coffee table and asked them, "Care for one?"
"No."
Colin shook his head.
At the side, Roy glanced at the brand on the cigar box and also hesitated before declining.
"You're missing out on a valuable experience."
Seeing them shake their heads in refusal, Hughes didn't try to persuade them. He picked a cigar from the neatly arranged box, struck a match to preheat it, and as he did so, he said to Colin, "So, regarding the screenplay for Titanic, what are your thoughts?"
"Love, a timeless theme."
Shifting his gaze from the cigar in Hughes's hand, Colin voiced the thoughts he had already prepared.
Although he didn't know much about cigars, he could easily tell that the box of cigars in front of Hughes was not cheap. Otherwise, Roy wouldn't have declined the offer. Sharing something too expensive could make a person feel burdened.
"Love?"
Upon hearing this, Hughes raised an eyebrow, put down the match in his hand, picked up a cigar cutter, and said, somewhat lost in thought, "What a cliché story."
As a famous playboy in Hollywood, his romantic history covered nearly half of Hollywood's beautiful actresses.
Yet, it was this very man who would die alone in his later years, without even leaving a single heir.
Skillfully clipping the cigar cap, Hughes reined in his emotions, his face returning to its usual nonchalant expression. He took a puff of the cigar and said, "But, who can blame Hollywood for loving stories like this?"
Influenced by his uncle, the playwright Rupert Hughes, Hughes was extremely familiar with the Hollywood industry.
In fact, the first audience for the first film he ever invested in, *The Playboy Hogan*, was his uncle Rupert Hughes. After watching it, Rupert told Hughes that if he released such a film, he would be laughed at by all of Hollywood.
After hearing this, Hughes burned all the film stock for the film, losing $80,000.
"In truth, stories are always repeating themselves. What's important is the person telling the story, and the angle from which it's told."
He lifted his coffee and took a sip.
Under Hughes's gaze, Colin began to speak: "Regarding the story of the Titanic, anyone who looks into it can find countless related details from past news reports, including survivor testimonies. It's a news event the public is already familiar with. What we'll do is take this story, which currently only exists in news reports and the memories of a few, and through the film's big screen exhibition, allow audiences who never experienced the ship's sinking to personally experience the disaster that occurred on the Titanic..."
"Personally experience the disaster."
Hearing Colin's description, Hughes lowered the hand holding his cigar and murmured the words.
"That's right. In fact, more than the love story element, I'm more inclined to define the film Titanic as a disaster film."
The disaster film genre, a type of film that uses terror, panic, tragic plots, and catastrophic landscapes for its primary viewing effect. This genre wasn't produced in large numbers until after the 1950s, and the term itself only became popular in the 70s.
In the Hollywood of this era, it was still a brand-new genre.
After all, it had only been a few years since films transitioned from silent to sound. Just a few years ago, audiences were still in theaters applauding black-and-white silent films on screen.
A disaster film, a type of film that needs to create atmosphere to stimulate the audience's fear for effect, would find it difficult to achieve its desired impact without the support of sound.
It would be like watching a horror film with the sound off.
This is also why the vast majority of films during the silent film era were comedies, because comedy can be conveyed through physical action. As for horror films, Hollywood was relatively successful in this area. The most famous American horror films of the silent film era were 1920's *Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde* and 1925's *The Phantom of the Opera*.
But the ones that truly became classics were Browning's *Dracula* in 1931 and James Whale's *Frankenstein*, adapted from Mary Shelley's novel.
Following the success of these two films, horror films began to pour out endlessly from the Universal Pictures assembly line.
In 1932 alone, a series of horror-themed films were produced, such as *The Mummy*, *The Invisible Man*, *The Black Cat*, and *Freaks*.
Universal Pictures would coast on this success well into the twenty-first century.
"Disaster film?" Taking a puff of his cigar, Hughes's mustache twitched. He affirmed, "A vivid name."
"I can't wait to be in the theater and see the audience witness the great ship sink with their own eyes."
It wasn't just Hughes; even Roy, who was listening at the side, was captivated by the scene Colin described, an appreciative look on his face.
Filmmaking itself is a profession rich with fantasy, and Hughes himself happened to be just such an idealist.
Once he entered work mode, Hughes showed a completely different side of himself.
In the studio, Colin and Roy witnessed him finalize the filming plan for the film *Titanic* in just half an hour.
At the same time, in order to perfectly replicate the scene from the news incident...
...he even had the wild idea of finding a real iceberg to use for the disaster shots in the film.
No, "wild idea" isn't the right way to describe it.
Because Hughes wasn't just talking. He actually did it.
In order to find the perfect iceberg in his mind's eye to sink the Titanic, he had already arranged an itinerary. He planned to take a film crew to the original Titanic Sinking Site to film the iceberg that sank the ocean liner.
(end of chapter)