Chapitre 61: Chapter 61 - Get-together
"The Runkles didn't come?" At a corner of the party, Jeffrey seemingly casually asked while holding a glass of red wine.
The day after his return to L.A, Eric had decided to hold a get-together at his Beverly Hills mansion to thank everyone he had gotten to know in the past six months. He had invited James Brooks, Penny Marshall, Jeffrey Hansen, Michael Klaus, Edward Lewis, as well as the 17 Again and Home Alone crew, and several other acquaintances.
Since each guest was entitled to a plus one, there were around fifty people in total. It was fortunate that he had moved away, his old house probably wouldn't have been able to accommodate so many guests without feeling crowded.
Hearing Jeffrey's words, Eric indifferently shook his head: "I personally called to invite them. Charlie rejected me."
Jeffrey couldn't act as nonchalantly as Eric and said: "I heard that Stuart Runkle has signed with the CAA and that they've already arranged for him to act in three different movies by the end of next year. What are you gonna do about it?"
Eric reassured him: "Relax Jeffrey, the CAA wanting to keep Stuart away from Home Alone is simply wishful thinking. You'll understand once those movies he stars in are released."
In his past life, Macaulay Culkin had also taken up quite a few movies after his rise to stardom, but the results were absolutely mediocre. Some producers, who had granted him a huge paycheck thanks to his fame, had even lost tons of money.
"Are you implying that other movies that Stuart Runkle stars in won't do as well?" Jeffrey asked.
Eric nodded: "Everyone thinks that Home Alone was a miracle, and I won't deny this point. But Stuart Runkle is, all in all, a newcomer. He can't compare to those veterans in the industry. Wait 'til next year, he needs us to stabilize his fame. By then, whether it be the CAA or his parents, they won't have a choice but to turn to us. The Runkle couple…"
Eric slurred his speech, unable to hide his disappointment. When he had called to invite the Runkle family, Charlie's attitude had been chilling cold, even somewhat disdainful.
Eric could definitely guess what was on the man's mind, he probably thought that Home Alone's success was due to his son. Some people were like that, they felt like the world revolved around them.
"What if one of the movies he does, ends up becoming a blockbuster?" Jeffrey asked.
"Not mentioning the fact that it's highly unlikely, if it did happen, then good for him. Jeffrey, once Pretty Woman is released, you'll understand that I couldn't care less whether Home Alone gets a sequel or not."
At this moment, Eric caught a glimpse of Drew in her red dress, nonchalantly taking a glass of wine from one of the waiters' tray. He glared sharply at the girl, and she froze, before hastily putting the glass back and fleeing towards a group of young people.
Jeffrey chuckled when he saw this: "You're so good to her. It feels like I'm looking at a parent and his child. You'll probably be a good father one day."
"Hey, that's too far in the future. I'm only eighteen, you know? I'm in no rush to get married or have kids."
Right then, James Brooks along with a few other guests came over to greet them.
"James, thank you for doing me that favor," Eric said as he raised his glass towards the man.
James laughed: "Hahaha, that was nothing. Right, that photo of yours was also featured in the Los Angeles Times. You guys looked really good together."
Jeffrey also laughed and added: "Eric, are you sure you didn't specifically ask for it? I can hardly believe that a passing amateur photographer was able to capture something like this."
"Whether you believe it or not, it's a fact, I even had to spend 1,000 $ for the negative. But well, it did inspire me to write a new script."
James suddenly became interested: "Oh? Do you mind disclosing a bit about its content ?"
"Sure, no problem." Eric said: "It's a story about a single father and an already engaged female reporter."
Eric took a few minutes to narrate the synopsis of Sleepless in Seattle to him.
"It seems to me that you've also taken inspiration from An Affair To Remember." James said.
Eric didn't deny it: "The script will be written so that the heroine will have seen that precise movie and the theme song will pay it tribute."
James thought that if the script was really good, then the Fox could buy it over, or they could produce it jointly with the Firefly Studios. Since Eric owed him a favor, as long as he asked, he was sure to get his way. But after listening to the synopsis, he decided it wasn't worth it.
Eric hadn't gone too much into the details of the plot, so James saw it as an ordinary love story.
It's not that Hollywood had never done romantic comedies. It's just that they usually didn't do that well at the box office, at this point in time anyway. People preferred action or science fiction movies, even thrillers did better than rom-coms.
Noticing that the man seemed to lose interest after hearing the script's content, Eric breathed a sigh of relief. If James had asked for it, he really wouldn't have been able to refuse him. Sleepless in Seattle would do wonders at the box office, so he was very reluctant to give it up to the man just because of a small favor.
The topic of the conversation soon changed and Sleepless in Seattle was also put aside. It goes without saying, that when the movie was released and made over 200 million $ at the box office worldwide, James wept until no tears were left.
"Eric, I heard that you plan on releasing Pretty Woman on Valentine's Day. That would mean that you plan on wrapping everything up in five short weeks. If you include the post-production and the reviewing, I think you're taking a huge risk time-wise."
Eric confidently said: "Don't worry, I've already started the preparations two weeks ago, so we'll start shooting next week. There's really not that much to film either, we'll be able to submit the movie in time."
In his previous life, it had taken twelve weeks to shoot Pretty Woman, but the movie had then be subjected to lots of changes. The script had even been tweaked beyond recognition.
Normal directors usually used up dozens of hours of film rolls. Some even went past hundred hours, thereby wasting both budget money and valuable time.
However, Eric was different, he had seen the edited version of the movie and remembered each second of it. To him, shooting was simply a formality.
Granted, there was still the fact that some of the actors were different. But he was also confident that as long as they did their jobs correctly, he could at least reduce the used up film roll to about ten hours, therefore leaving enough time for the post-production.
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