Chapter 277: This Reason Was Too Powerful
Chapter 277: This Reason Was Too Powerful
Eric handed the hastily written outline for the Basic Instinct script to Allen behind him and instructed his assistant to register the outline with the Writers Guild. Only then did he say to David Greenwalt, “Because I don’t like that woman.”
“…”
The two producers were speechless at the same time.
This reason was too powerful.
While David Greenwalt and Hans Whittle felt helpless, they also felt somewhat envious. When would they ever reach the point where one sentence, “I don’t like her,” could determine someone else’s fate?
Eric had no intention of explaining to them. He was not an extreme nationalist, nor was he so sensitive that he would boycott someone just because they said a few anti-something remarks. If you dislike me, then I dislike you too. That was all. Everyone was just an ordinary person, so there was no need to worry that much.
But a woman who could laugh and say the word “retribution” after a disaster where tens of thousands of innocent civilians died in his previous life could only be described as cold-blooded. No matter what political stance or other bullshit excuse was used to argue otherwise, it was hard to forgive.
Therefore, the moment Eric saw Sharon Stone’s information, he directly passed on her. Incidentally, while she was auditioning, he wrote the outline for Basic Instinct, the film that made Sharon Stone famous in one stroke. After all, it was a movie with a box office over one hundred million.
With Eric’s current fame, for the sake of his own image, it was impossible for him to personally produce such a controversial, explicit film. He did not even plan to use his real name in the screenwriter column when the movie was made in the future. However, this script was perfect to hand over to Robert Shaye. Robert Shaye was going to lead two major productions this year anyway. As long as it made money, Robert would definitely be willing to produce any kind of film.
As for the female lead, even the lead role of a television series could attract hundreds of women fighting over it. Would Hollywood ever lack actresses?
As Eric’s thoughts wandered, another pitiful woman was ignored by him, and the next woman walked in.
Eric looked up at her, then opened her file and checked the name on it. After confirming he had not mistaken her identity, Eric raised his head with a strange smile.
“Miss, have we met before?”
Hans Whittle and David Greenwalt, who had just been preparing to speak, closed their mouths in tacit agreement.
It seemed the female lead was settled.
At least they would not have to continue suffering for several more days. Although they got to see nearly a hundred pretty faces every day, after seeing too many, they naturally stopped feeling anything. Besides, with Eric above them, they had little authority over the role. These beautiful women were something they could only look at, not touch.
Famke Janssen, who had just sat down, saw Eric looking at her strangely. Still, she felt somewhat pleased. Being noticed was always better than being ignored.
“Mr. Williams, perhaps you saw me in some magazine advertisements. I’ve shot quite a few ads.”
Eric openly glanced at the woman’s long legs tightly wrapped in white casual pants and asked, “Miss Janssen, are you a model?”
Famke Janssen shook her head. “Not anymore. I just retired.”
Eric immediately asked again, “If you aren’t selected this time, what will you do in the future?”
The woman’s expression did not change much. After thinking for a moment, she said, “In that case, I may apply to a university and study for two years. Once I get a certificate, I can find another job.”
“Another job? Such as?”
Famke Janssen froze briefly, then shook her head. “I don’t know. I haven’t decided yet.”
Eric nodded and said to the two producers on either side of him, “I have no more questions. You handle the rest.”
“Not asking a few more questions? Such as whether she has a boyfriend?” Hans Whittle joked in a low voice.
Eric rolled his eyes at him, thinking, If I take an interest in a woman, so what if she has a boyfriend? I’ll just steal her.
“Eric, is it her?” David Greenwalt also asked quietly.
“Let’s finish the morning auditions first,” Eric replied without changing expression.
To be honest, there were not that many famous actresses born in the 1960s who had caught the wave of Hollywood’s rise. The more famous ones amounted to only twenty or thirty, and a few of those had only barely made the count by stepping onto the first bus of the 1970s generation. Famke Janssen counted as one of the more famous Hollywood women born in the sixties.
The deepest impression she left on Eric was not as Phoenix, the only Level Five mutant in X-Men, but as the fierce and beautiful Russian female assassin in GoldenEye. That method of killing men by crushing them with her long legs during sex was truly… indescribable. Since he had run into her, of course he had to personally test the strength of those legs.
Famke Janssen watched the three main judges whisper among themselves and felt somewhat uneasy, not knowing what they were discussing.
However, what happened next made her a little delighted, because the three of them examined her audition in unusual detail. Other auditionees usually took less than ten minutes, but her audition lasted a full twenty minutes.
After Famke Janssen left, David Greenwalt said, “Not bad. Her acting is slightly clumsy, but she can improve through practice during filming. She has a strong sense for the camera, worthy of a former model.”
Hans Whittle also followed with a smiling agreement.
Eric did not care at all about the teasing expressions mixed with envy from the two men. He simply filled in his comments on the form in front of him.
The morning auditions soon ended. Since the role had already been internally decided, there was no need for everyone to keep working. Eric packed up his things, gave a few instructions, and left with Allen.
As for Famke Janssen, he was not in a hurry. He could deal with that after finishing this busy period.
Time entered late December, and Christmas was about to arrive.
During the five weeks from the start of the Thanksgiving season on November 17 to now, the North American box office market had basically been led by Home Alone 2. In just five short weeks, Home Alone 2 had already reached 110 million dollars at the box office.
On the North American box office chart, aside from Home Alone 2, Warner’s Lethal Weapon 2 and Universal’s Back to the Future Part II followed closely behind. These three films occupied the top three spots, while The Others and Steel Magnolias repeatedly fought over fourth place, steadily earning more than ten million dollars every week.
After seven weeks of accumulation, The Others was also about to break one hundred million at the box office. Its final box office might exceed the original target of 150 million dollars, because over these weeks, The Others had almost never suffered a weekly drop of more than twenty percent.
Steel Magnolias had an even more stable box office trend. In five weeks, it had accumulated more than sixty million dollars, and since the film suited the Christmas-season atmosphere very well, it would almost certainly experience a box office rebound during Christmas. There was no suspense at all about it breaking one hundred million.
As for the Black comedy Harlem Nights, starring Eddie Murphy, which had achieved a decent opening-week box office, it was thrown out of the top five after suffering two consecutive weekly drops of over fifty percent following release. This once again proved the truth that Black films could not squeeze into Hollywood’s mainstream.
The dazzling performances of Home Alone 2, The Others, and Steel Magnolias also drew media attention.
Starting in early November, films produced by Firefly, or rather by Eric, began occupying the top of the box office chart. So far, they had held that position for seven weeks.
On December 22, Sleepless in Seattle was also about to release.
This was another film Eric personally directed. Under Fox’s vigorous promotion, almost no one was optimistic about Warner’s National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, which had been launched to compete against Sleepless in Seattle.
As the seventh week passed, December 22 finally arrived. After its premiere at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles, Sleepless in Seattle officially opened in more than 2,200 theaters across North America.
Opening at the same time was Scent of a Woman, starring Al Pacino and aimed at the Oscars. Robert Shaye followed the usual release pattern for many Oscar contenders and arranged only sixty theaters for Scent of a Woman, in order to secure an Oscar entry ticket.
After the female lead of The X-Files was finalized, Eric’s work for the year was basically complete. After attending the premiere of Sleepless in Seattle, he stayed in his Malibu mansion to rest. Each day, he read books and wrote scripts, living an extremely relaxed life.
Compared with Eric’s ease and comfort, the entire North American media was anxiously watching the opening-week box office of Sleepless in Seattle. Because if Sleepless in Seattle successfully took the weekly box office championship, then Eric’s films would truly achieve a grand slam of eight consecutive weeks as holiday-season box office champions.
Although many media outlets were not particularly optimistic about Warner’s competing National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, no one dared guarantee it one hundred percent. Perhaps this movie would create a box office miracle like Home Alone had. After all, although it did not star children, its style had many similarities with Home Alone.
Amid this anxious waiting, the opening weekend box office was released.
Sleepless in Seattle unquestionably won the weekend box office championship with 17 million dollars, while National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation only earned a little over 11 million dollars, not even surpassing Home Alone 2, whose box office had risen due to Christmas. The outcome was decided without any suspense.
A week later, Sleepless in Seattle earned more than 27 million dollars in its first week, taking over from Home Alone 2 at the top of the box office chart. With this, Firefly, through a relay of three films, successfully seized the box office championship for the entire holiday season.
The media began spontaneously hyping the event. Although the first Home Alone had won the weekly box office championship for ten weeks last year, that film’s box office could only be classified as a miracle. This year, Firefly winning eight weeks of box office championships through this relay method truly proved its strength.
Although Firefly itself only distributed Scent of a Woman, while the other films were distributed by Disney and Fox, almost no American media outlets credited this achievement to Disney. Instead, while praising Firefly, they overwhelmingly mocked the seven major film companies.
It had to be said that while Sleepless in Seattle took the box office crown, several other things also happened at the same time.
One was Scent of a Woman. Although the film opened in only sixty theaters, it earned over nine hundred thousand dollars in its first week, averaging more than fifteen thousand dollars per theater. This result far exceeded the ten-thousand-dollar per-theater threshold for a hit film.
Moreover, the film’s word of mouth was also excellent. The media described Al Pacino’s blind lieutenant colonel as the most classic role of his acting career.
The other matter concerned the videotapes of An Affair to Remember.
After Sleepless in Seattle was released, with Firefly’s appropriate promotion, the two-pronged effect caused An Affair to Remember’s videotape sales to surpass two hundred thousand copies in the first week, pushing it into the top ten weekly videotape sales chart.
One had to know that this was a film more than thirty years old. With first-week sales of two hundred thousand copies, total sales breaking one million copies afterward would be no problem at all. It might even reach two million copies. Eric remembered that in his previous life, after Sleepless in Seattle, the videotape sales of An Affair to Remember had indeed reached two million copies.
Calculated at a cost of less than ten dollars per videotape, after deducting the five-dollar profit given to distributors, Firefly could earn half the profit from each videotape priced around thirty dollars. If sales reached two million copies, Firefly could obtain thirty million dollars in profit.
This sum was equivalent to the total profit brought to a film company by a movie breaking one hundred million dollars at the North American box office.
While many uninvolved people marveled at Eric’s judgment, the Fox executive who had sold all rights to An Affair to Remember for 3.2 million dollars left Fox in disgrace.
Although the outside world was full of praise for Firefly, Eric discovered that many things were becoming increasingly wrong.
Originally, according to the contract, Columbia should have paid Firefly more than 88 million dollars in revenue shares from Sleuth. The advertising placement share from Friends should also have been settled in December. But both major companies repeatedly delayed payment using all kinds of excuses. Eric even went to Columbia and Fox several times in person, but failed to meet the heads of either company.
After that, when Eric had Firefly’s newly appointed CFO, Carolyn Elliott, apply to several banks for loans using Firefly’s film contracts as collateral, the loan applications were blocked within just a few days for all sorts of reasons.
On December 31, the last day of the year, Eric spent the entire day rushing around outside, but none of the matters produced any result.
Back at the Malibu villa, Eric sat on the sofa in deep thought for a long time, sorting through all the unusual details he had encountered recently.
Then he had no choice but to dial Jeffrey, who had gone to New York to spend Christmas with Chris.
After the call connected, Eric said in a heavy tone, “Jeffrey, something big may be about to happen…”