Chapter 176: The Seven-Colored Robbers
Chapter 176: The Seven-Colored Robbers
While shaking Eric’s hand, Quentin said, “Hello, Mr. Williams. I really liked your The Negotiation. Not only was the story excellent, but the soundtrack was outstanding too. Especially Silent Love during the bus encounter scene. I heard you personally composed that piece. That was truly surprising.”
Eric’s approachable manner quickly got Quentin talking freely. He immediately brought up The Negotiation, which was still in theaters. Although he greatly admired Eric’s achievements in film, Quentin had not felt much connection to Eric’s earlier movies, except for the uniquely styled The Negotiation.
Eric smiled modestly. “Actually, the composer contributed a lot too. I only provided some inspiration.”
“No, you can’t say that. For music, inspiration is the most important thing,” Quentin immediately countered.
Beside him, Lawrence Bender was getting anxious. He knew this meeting only lasted an hour. Looking at the surrounding crew members, he knew filming could resume at any moment. Under those circumstances, chatting about music might help build rapport, but they could not waste too much time. Still, he did not dare interrupt the conversation and could only subtly signal Quentin with his eyes.
Eric noticed Lawrence Bender’s anxious expression and did not continue chatting with Quentin. Instead, he said directly, “Let’s talk in the lounge. We can have a working lunch together as well. I assume you haven’t eaten yet.”
“Of course. Thank you very much, Mr. Williams.”
“Just call me Eric,” Eric replied. He glanced toward the distance. “Please wait a moment.”
After saying that, he hurried toward Drew and Aniston. The two little troublemakers looked like they were about to start fighting again. If they actually brawled here, things would become a disaster.
“Hey, Drew, Jennie, what are you two talking about?” Eric asked as he approached the two girls glaring at each other as though they were ready to throw punches at any moment.
The moment the little girl saw Eric approaching, she immediately gave up confronting Aniston and ran over first, hugging Eric’s arm while complaining, “She started it first, Eric. I only greeted her, and she got mad immediately. So petty.”
“It was you—” Aniston revealed an expression full of grievance and anger and glared at Eric.
That was right, she was glaring at Eric instead of Drew, leaving him rather baffled. He could only ask, “Kiddo, how exactly did you greet Jennie?”
Drew acted as if she did not notice Aniston’s furious appearance and shrugged. “Nothing much. When she came out of the room, I just walked up and smacked her butt, then said, ‘Hey, fatty, your butt got even rounder,’ and then she got angry.”
The corner of Eric’s mouth twitched. Without even looking at the little flames in Aniston’s eyes, he immediately understood why the girl was upset.
Drew’s words had been completely unintentional. She was probably only trying to tease Aniston for gaining weight or something similar. However, she had accidentally poked directly at an embarrassing incident the girl least wanted mentioned. Aniston had likely assumed Eric told Drew about it, which led to this teasing.
Thinking that through, Eric released Drew and stepped forward to hug Aniston, explaining softly beside her ear, “Alright, Jennie, Drew definitely didn’t mean anything by it. Don’t lower yourself to her level.”
“You promise?” Aniston blinked.
Eric patted the girl’s back. “I swear. That… how could I possibly do something like that, right?”
“Mhm…” Once the girl realized it was merely a coincidence, she pushed Eric away. “Those guests are still waiting. Go entertain them. I’m going to eat.”
“I’m going to eat too. Wonder how the lunch here tastes,” Drew said as her large eyes rolled around mischievously before she also turned and left.
“This is the set. Don’t cause trouble, okay? Behave yourselves,” Eric warned uneasily.
“Hmph!”
“As if you needed to say that!”
The two girls spoke without even turning back, each leaving in a different direction.
Only after seeing the two girls head toward different places did Eric finally feel relieved enough to bring Lawrence Bender and Quentin Tarantino toward the lounge. At the same time, he instructed his assistant to bring over three lunches.
“Drew already explained everything to me. So, can I see the script first?” Eric asked after they sat around a simple table in the lounge.
“Of course, no problem,” Lawrence Bender said as he took a thick script out of his shoulder bag and pushed it toward Eric.
Eric glanced at the script title. It was neither Reservoir Dogs nor Pulp Fiction, but something called The Seven-Colored Robbers. The moment he saw that title, his heart twitched slightly, though his expression remained calm as he opened the script.
Just from the title alone, Eric already understood this script definitely shared many similarities with the Reservoir Dogs from his previous life. “Seven-Colored Robbers” vaguely resembled the six robbers in Reservoir Dogs who used six colors as code names during the jewelry store heist.
Eric also understood that this sort of thing was common. Before many screenwriters finally completed a script, certain ideas had already been circling in their minds for years. However, scripts written at different times would definitely contain significant differences.
Ordinary people could not possibly experience such differences, but as a transmigrator, Eric was fortunate enough to encounter this situation. Thinking about it, he found it rather interesting.
The assistant quickly delivered the three boxed lunches along with several bottles of water.
“Quentin, Lawrence, go ahead and eat. Don’t mind me,” Eric said after glancing up at the two men staring at him expectantly.
“Of course, thank you.”
Quentin and Lawrence hurriedly grabbed their utensils and opened the lunch boxes, shoveling down several bites at random. Yet under these circumstances, neither of them really had much appetite. Instead, they resembled students anxiously waiting for exam results. Once Eric lowered his head and continued reading the script, the motions of their eating gradually slowed again.
Eric noticed their behavior as well but did not persuade them further and simply turned another page of the script.
The plot of The Seven-Colored Robbers was generally similar to the Reservoir Dogs Eric remembered from his previous life. It was still the story of a mob boss gathering several strangers together to rob a jewelry store, only to be ambushed by the police.
However, as the title suggested, the six robbers from the original had become seven.
As for the script itself, Quentin’s trademark talkative style revealed itself without restraint from the very beginning. Then came the failed robbery and the sequence of two robbers driving toward the rendezvous point while escaping.
Of course, in this script, Quentin had still borrowed several scenes from the Hong Kong film City on Fire just like in his previous life. Eric remembered hearing rumors that Quentin had personally gone to Hong Kong to explain the matter to the director of City on Fire, but in Eric’s view, those reports were merely tabloids trying to flatter themselves.
Because he had the original version in his memories for comparison, Eric finished reading the nearly one-hundred-page script in just over twenty minutes.
After putting down the script, he looked at the two men wearing anxious expressions and nodded. “Not bad. Let’s eat first.”
Quentin and Lawrence both let out sighs of relief at the same time. Since Eric said that, the possibility of him investing in the movie was already very high. To increase their chances of success, Lawrence had deliberately included the film’s budget estimate at the back of the script — roughly one million dollars.
Both of them believed this uniquely styled film should interest Eric. With a budget of only one million dollars, they were convinced that, given Eric’s current wealth, investing in the movie would pose absolutely no problem. In truth, if they had not been fighting for the right to personally direct and produce the film themselves, the two of them would not necessarily have chosen Eric.
After thinking it through, Quentin and Lawrence finally relaxed and began eating lunch in earnest. After waiting outside the Fox studio for two hours, both men were already starving.
Once lunch was over, Eric picked up the script again. “Drew told me you two intend to produce this movie yourselves?”
“Yes, Eric. We… we already have experience producing one film before, so I think the two of us can absolutely handle this script ourselves.”
Eric nodded noncommittally and flipped through several pages with a rustling sound before asking, “You currently have your own film company, right?”
The two men did not understand why Eric suddenly asked that. After exchanging a glance, Lawrence Bender nodded. “Yes. It’s called ‘Band Apart.’ Quentin came up with the name. The inspiration came from director Jean-Luc Godard’s early film Band of Outsiders.”
Eric knew Godard had directed the famous King Lear, but he did not know the film Band of Outsiders, so he had no idea what the company name was supposed to mean. Nor did he care to find out.
“Here’s the thing, Lawrence, Quentin. Are you interested in joining Firefly?”
“Hm?”
“Ah?” The two men simultaneously voiced confused sounds.
Eric explained, “I mean, your film company is only an empty shell anyway. Are you interested in joining my Firefly Pictures? You know my company is currently expanding.”
Quentin and Lawrence exchanged another glance. They did know a fair amount about Firefly. Although the company had been founded personally by Eric and most of its productions were also Eric’s personal films, its strength absolutely could not be underestimated. If they could join it, it would certainly be a good thing. The only issue was that the two of them were still complete nobodies. They simply could not understand why Eric would extend an olive branch to them. No matter how they thought about it, it made no sense.