Chapter 016: A Bold Idea
Chapter 016: A Bold Idea
“Do you want something to eat? I have some... mm, chocolate, and apples?” Eric opened the somewhat empty refrigerator and asked.
Stuart Runkel sat on the sofa and shook his head. “No. Eating late at night isn’t a good habit. If you have milk, you can give me a glass. Drinking milk at night helps with sleep.”
Eric raised his eyebrows, poured Stuart a glass of milk, handed it over, and asked, “Who told you all this?”
“It’s written in books. Eric, can you not treat me like a little kid who doesn’t understand anything? I’m already seven.”
Eric laughed and nodded. “Alright, big boy. So, why were your dad and mom arguing today?”
“Dad resigned. He said he wants to start his own company. Then Mom started arguing with him. Sigh, women really are troublesome. Before Dad resigned, Mom was always nagging that the company Dad worked for was too small and had no future. Now that Dad finally made up his mind to resign, Mom immediately turned hostile and said Dad giving up a stable job like this was irresponsible toward the family.”
Eric leaned back on the sofa. He was not really concerned about the Runkel couple’s family affairs. While gnawing on an apple, he smiled and said, “I actually think you, little guy, have heard and seen too many things that aren’t suitable for your age.”
Stuart grinned, as if he had heard praise. His eyes shifted, and he jumped off the sofa, ran over, and sat beside Eric. “Eric, are you filming a movie right now?”
Eric nodded. “Yes. It’s almost finished. When the time comes, you can have your mom take you to watch it.”
“Then, Eric, do you think I can act in a movie?”
“Mm? Stu, why did you suddenly come up with that idea?”
Stuart’s eyes carried expectation. “I heard movie stars get paid a lot. If I become a movie star, I can earn a lot of money for the family. If we have money, Dad and Mom won’t argue anymore.”
If the Runkel couple were here now, Eric did not know whether they would feel ashamed after hearing these words.
After thinking about it, Eric still said, “But you’re too young right now. You may not know this, but children are one of the most difficult factors to control in movies. Many films try to reduce children’s scenes as much as possible. Even when filming, directors are extremely cautious, because once those children start crying or making trouble, the entire crew follows them into paralysis. Besides, you have the great Child Protection Act. Contracts signed by crews have absolutely no mandatory effect on children. So I think you should wait until you grow up. At least until you’re eighteen, like me.”
“Hey, Eric, I’m not one of those childish little brats. I’ll be very obedient. I heard you’re the screenwriter of the movie. Help write a role for me too. I’ll be very grateful.” Stuart looked at Eric with bright eyes. Although Stuart Runkel was overly clever for a child his age, he was still only seven after all. He naively thought that as long as Eric, the screenwriter, helped write him a role, he would be able to act in a movie.
Eric’s heart jumped slightly. He sat up straight and carefully looked at the little boy in front of him.
Just now, he suddenly thought of someone: Macaulay Culkin. That super child star who became famous worldwide through Home Alone.
At this moment, an extremely bold idea involuntarily emerged in Eric’s mind. Although it was not yet clear enough, Eric knew that if this plan succeeded, he could easily skip over the most difficult stage of primitive accumulation, directly break through a series of restrictions such as age, funding, and experience, and realize his ideals.
Although this plan was very difficult for his current self, who had almost nothing, how would he know without trying? Life rarely offered many chances to fight with everything one had!
Moreover, looking again at Stuart, whose intelligence was at least above that of a ten-year-old, the greatest uncertainty factor in the movie was gone.
“Well then, Stu, to be honest, I really do have a role here that suits you. And it’s the main character.”
Stuart climbed onto Eric’s legs with a face full of surprise, lifted his little head, and asked, “Eric, what’s a main character?”
“Uh, the main character is... the one who gets paid the most in the movie.”
“I’ll do it! I’ll do it!”
Eric said, “But we have to get your parents’ agreement. So, I’ll take you home and talk to your parents while I’m there.”
Eric had just walked out of his house holding Stuart’s little hand when he heard the voices of the Runkel couple from next door.
“I’m telling you, Charlison Runkel, if anything happens to Stu, I’ll divorce you!”
Charlison Runkel, who had always seemed somewhat weak during arguments, suddenly roared, “Shut up, you bitch! If you hadn’t started the argument, would Stu have secretly run away? Go check the basement first and see if Stu is hiding in there.”
Mary Runkel was stunned by her husband’s sudden roar. Adding to the fact that it was indeed her fault, she could only follow behind her husband timidly for a while. Just as they were about to search, Eric’s voice rang out from next door.
“Hi, Mr. Runkel. Don’t worry. Stu is here.”
Eric lifted Stu up. When the couple saw their son in Eric’s arms, they both breathed a sigh of relief.
After sending Stuart back to the Runkel house and hearing Eric’s rough account, the couple both felt somewhat regretful and promised not to argue in front of the child again.
“Actually, Mr. Runkel, there’s one more thing. Just now, Stu said he wanted to act in a movie. As it happens, I have a screenplay here that suits Stu very well. And with Stu’s intelligence, I think he’ll have no problem playing that role.”
The couple was somewhat surprised. If they had not known something about Eric’s recent situation, the two of them likely would have directly taken Eric’s words as a joke. But now, even the newspapers had reported news about Eric, so although they were surprised, they also carried some expectation.
The couple’s lives were both somewhat unsatisfactory. Otherwise, they would not have developed a midlife crisis. If their son could act in a movie and become a star, what that meant went without saying.
“Eric, can you roughly tell us what kind of movie it is?”
Eric said, “Of course. It’s a comedy film. Roughly speaking, it’s about a little boy who is accidentally forgotten at home by his careless parents...”
Eric spent five minutes roughly explaining the plot, then continued, “I chatted with Stu for a while just now and discovered that Stu’s current intelligence is even higher than the little boy in the movie. So if you agree, you can let Stu try.”
The others all looked at the boy sitting beside them, who appeared very well-behaved, or was pretending to be very well-behaved.
“Daddy, Mommy, I think I can do it. This story is amazing.”
“The child is still too young. I think...” Charlison had only spoken halfway when Mrs. Runkel secretly pinched him.
“Eric, can you let us consider it?”
“No problem.” Eric nodded and added fuel to the fire. “But you have to answer me as soon as possible. This movie is planned to be released during Christmas. If the results are good, it may very likely be made into a series. If you agree, then barring any accidents, Stu will be the lead in all of them.”
A film series. Even ordinary people knew that the lead actor’s pay would definitely become higher and higher.
At the same time, Eric very cleverly did not tell the Runkel couple that he would personally direct this film. Right now, everything was still uncertain. Eric was not even sure whether this plan could succeed. He did not want to hand the Home Alone screenplay to 20th Century Fox or any other film company. Instead, he planned to independently produce it entirely by himself. For him, who had only half a foot inside the industry, the difficulty of this could easily be imagined.
After returning home, Eric was too excited to feel sleepy. He sat in front of the typewriter, quickly typing the Home Alone screenplay while thinking about the specific implementation process of the plan.
First was funding. In terms of actors, apart from Stuart, the two stupid thieves were also extremely important. Eric did not plan to invite Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern from his previous life. Both of them were already relatively famous film actors now, and Joe Pesci had even received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. With Eric’s small amount of money, he could not even afford to pay the two of them.
Eric planned to find two television actors who acted in comedies. In this era, the status of television actors was completely incomparable to film actors. When greeting people, they were even embarrassed to say they acted in TV dramas, so their pay was quite low.
The filming location would definitely have to be Canada. Los Angeles had only just entered autumn, while many places in northern Canada already had snow.
There were also many other miscellaneous matters...
The light in the bedroom stayed on for the entire night. When sunlight spilled into the bedroom, Eric stood up and stretched.
After calculating for an entire night, in his previous life, the reported cost of Home Alone was eighteen million dollars. From Eric’s professional eye, that was entirely the filming cost plus publicity cost. The pure filming cost was only around several million, and most of that was the pay for the actors and director.
But now, since the complete finished version of Home Alone already existed in his mind, all Eric had to do was completely move it onto film, so he could avoid a great deal of unnecessary waste.
As for publicity, Eric had other plans.
But no matter how carefully he calculated, without one million dollars, the movie could not be filmed.
One million. Back to 17 would wrap in the next few days, and Eric would be able to receive five hundred thousand dollars in acting pay. Together with the approximately ninety thousand dollars left from his original screenplay fee, that added up to less than six hundred thousand dollars.
Mm, Jurassic Park was selling so well now. If he discussed it with Michael Klaus, perhaps he could get two hundred thousand dollars. In the end, there would still be a shortfall of two hundred thousand.
With the thought that when the boat reached the bridge, it would naturally go straight, Eric decided to first try preparing for it and see.