Chapter 234: Sending Him Off
Chapter 234: Sending Him Off
On September 15, the 46th Venice Film Festival officially concluded.
Although the Venice Film Festival repeatedly emphasized its artistic nature in order to distinguish itself from the increasingly commercialized Cannes Film Festival and the politically focused Berlin International Film Festival, after extensive promotion by various media outlets, The Others, which had already been firmly labeled as an anti-war film, ultimately won the Silver Lion Award amid the current turbulent global climate.
After the awards results were announced, thanks to Disney’s tireless publicity campaign, the fame of The Others unsurprisingly overshadowed that year’s Golden Lion winner, A City of Sadness.
Of course, most people acknowledged that A City of Sadness, with its portrayal of ordinary people’s joys and sorrows against the backdrop of a great historical era, far surpassed The Others in artistry and possessed a much richer humanistic atmosphere.
But this was, after all, a profit-driven world.
Although A City of Sadness won the highest honor, as an art film, it was destined to achieve little commercially.
Meanwhile, through its screenings in Venice, distributors from all over the world could clearly tell that The Others was a commercial movie, and a highly compelling one with enormous box office potential. Therefore, after it added the Silver Lion Award to its accolades, distributors from numerous countries who had already begun negotiating distribution rights with Disney rushed forward eagerly.
On the very day the awards results were announced, Disney successfully sold distribution rights in twelve countries, while negotiations with even more countries and regions remained underway.
Naturally, Disney also did not forget domestic promotion within the United States.
Although with Hollywood’s rise and the decline of European cinema, the influence of the three major film festivals in North America had been steadily weakening, a Hollywood movie winning awards overseas was still something Americans took pride in.
After relentless bombardment from newspapers and media outlets, the name of The Others quickly became known everywhere.
Soon afterward, Disney announced the film’s release date: November 1, Halloween.
Although this was not considered a prime release window, and some people even suggested moving The Others to next year’s summer season, after discussions with Eric, Michael Eisner forcefully overruled all objections and finalized the release slot that many people did not favor.
In truth, Eric had his own considerations for making this recommendation.
The Others was not the type of traditional Western horror film that relied on gore and violence to attract audiences into theaters. It focused more on psychological suspense and story. Combined with its PG-13 rating, it would not prevent families from going to the cinema together during the holiday season, so releasing it during the New Year period posed no problem at all.
Besides, who said horror movies were unsuitable for holiday release windows?
Eric remembered very clearly that the famous film Scream from his previous life had been released during Christmas and earned over one hundred million dollars at the box office from a production budget of only a little over ten million.
That had been a genuine R-rated horror movie built around violence and bloodshed. Poor someone had even been killed within the first few minutes…
In early September, most of the crew members for Sleepless in Seattle had already departed for Seattle in advance to prepare for the film’s pre-production work.
It was not until September 16 that Eric finally finished handling Firefly’s recent mountain of business affairs and prepared to leave for Seattle to begin filming.
Sleepless in Seattle and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York would be filmed back-to-back.
After completing Tom Hanks’ scenes in Seattle, Eric would head to New York to shoot Nicole’s major scenes. Once Seattle wrapped, production would immediately continue with Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.
Since the sequel had also been a major success in his previous life, Eric had no intention of changing the script.
Although the schedule was extremely tight, Eric, already accustomed to this pace of filming, did not feel much pressure.
What he felt more strongly now was discomfort.
The setting was the departure hall at Los Angeles International Airport.
Aside from some staff members accompanying Eric to Seattle, several women had also gathered around him.
On one side stood Drew, Elizabeth, and Julia.
On the other stood Aniston and Nicole.
Not far away, flashes from cameras constantly lit up. Besides the paparazzi who kept stubbornly returning even after being stopped several times by airport security, ordinary travelers watching nearby had also raised their cameras to join in.
After all, among these women, aside from Elizabeth, the other four were all famous actresses.
Although Eric had always tried to reduce his media exposure and move toward the role of a behind-the-scenes mastermind-type figure, his fame only kept growing larger. Media attention on him had never decreased, so it was practically impossible for travelers in the airport not to recognize him.
One could easily imagine tomorrow’s newspaper headlines:
“Playboy Director Departs with Crew, Sweet Farewell Surrounded by Five Beauties” and similar ambiguous tabloid titles.
Of course, there was absolutely nothing sweet about it.
If looks could physically materialize, he would already have been skewered by various weapons and could be placed directly onto a barbecue grill.
Just look at the women around him.
All of them were beautifully dressed and pleasing to the eye, but those expressions, those gazes…
The little girl wore a mischievous grin.
Aniston looked full of resentment.
Nicole’s teasing had already overflowed from her heart into plain sight.
And Elizabeth — if you were going to pretend not to care, then at least commit to the act. Why were you stepping on his foot? Did she not realize she was wearing high heels?
Then there was Julia.
What kind of expression was that supposed to be?
At times helpless, at times resentful, at times downcast. She had just managed to put on an indifferent look before another trace of sadness appeared again.
Was she trying to demonstrate that among all of them, her acting skills were the best?
Although they had come to see him off, the women had seemingly coordinated beforehand to leave him isolated while they chatted among themselves in two separate groups.
Eric could understand Nicole and Aniston.
The newspapers had been heavily promoting the two as best friends recently. There had already been countless photos of them shopping together, eating together, and of Nicole visiting the set of Friends.
Many newspapers had even credited Nicole obtaining the female lead role in Sleepless in Seattle to Aniston recommending her to her boyfriend.
Nicole cleverly never denied any of it.
Naturally, Eric was rather happy to let the rumors continue.
After all, among the female leads connected to him recently, because the maid incident had been covered up extremely well, Nicole was considered the “cleanest” in terms of rumors involving him.
Perhaps because of that, Aniston had become good friends with Nicole.
Eric even suspected that the little woman had intentionally done this to keep him from sneaking around behind her back.
But the other three women left Eric confused.
They seemed unusually familiar with each other.
He understood Elizabeth and Julia, but what was going on with the little girl?
After enduring the suffering for half an hour, the wonderfully pleasant voice of the airport announcer finally rang out.
Boarding had begun.