Hollywood (我就是好莱坞) Part I

CHAPTER 64 - DON'T GET CAUGHT

Most men like sports cars and Eric was no exception, however he could only be at the training grounds the first day. He was so busy that he didn't have time to drop by again.

Beverly Hills, in a temporarily rented villa, Eric and Jeffrey were directing the staff in arranging the props for an upcoming scene.

Al Pacino's acting was book-standard, while Julia – according to Eric's knowledge of his past life – tended to play more based on feel. This time, Eric had her follow Al's method, which means she would first have to get into Vivian's character completely before shooting.

Filming scenes in disorder could affect performance results, so in order to prevent that and let the actors immerse themselves into their roles, Eric decided to shoot in chronological order.

In the original movie, Edward was first seen at his lawyer's party, Philip Stuckey, and through the latter and a few other guests' small-talk, the viewers learned a bit about the main character's ident.i.ty and personality.

Eric and Jeffrey discussed for a bit, and finally decided that, to shoot this scene, they would throw a real party to celebrate the start of Pretty Woman. They didn't even hire extras, instead inviting the majority of the crew's family to appear. The scene wasn't a major one, so Eric didn't worry about it going wrong.

"I went to the Fox's headquarters yesterday to tell them that we wanted to release the movie on Valentine's Day, it took more than an hour to convince Carter Hunt that we would deliver in time before he finally agreed that he would launch a promotion campaign two weeks before d-day. Honestly Eric, two weeks is a really short amount of time. Road House, the movie Richard Gere will star in, won't be out until march."

Eric was writing down something on a notepad when he heard Jeffrey's words, he said: "Don't worry, Jeffrey, right now the entire country's media circle is promoting my movie, albeit they do it with criticism and jeer. I don't think there's a lot of people in the states right now who don't know about Pretty Woman. Besides, our biggest publicity stunt has yet to come."

Jeffrey curiously asked: "What publicity stunt ?"

Eric's lips curved into a confident smile: "Do me a favor, count for me, how many weeks has Home Alone been trending at the box office for, and how much will its final grossing be ?"

Jeffrey did a quick mental calculation, he reckoned that the movie had been screening for about 12 weeks, and that the box office was likely to soon reach the 200 million $ mark.

Seeing his friend relax a little, Eric said: "Do you understand ?"

Jeffrey nodded his head: "Home Alone is likely to pa.s.s the 200 million mark at the box office, which, according to an article I saw in Variety magazine, is a feat that no one in the country has been able to achieve for three consecutive years. Once Home Alonereaches that milestone, the media will have a field day again."

"Exactly, so as long as I can make a decent movie quality-wise, there's no need to worry about it failing because of a lack of publicity. And for United Artists' to release Road House a month after Pretty Woman means that they won't even be able to ride on our coattails.&r
dquo;

Since he had no recollection of the movie Road House, Eric wasn't worried at all.

It will be difficult for Richard Gere to rise back again after missing the Pretty Woman's opportunity though, after all, as Eric remembered, the actor's acting wasn't even good enough to warrant him an Oscar nomination in the past.

"Right, Eric, when I went to the Fox yesterday, Carter Hunt raised the issue of a movie adaptation for Jura.s.sic Park. And they're also interested in the book Resident Evil that you just published, I just avoided the topic."