Chapter 332: Incredible
Chapter 332: Incredible
In the shot, the woman clung to Sam like a koala, kissing the man passionately as the two of them slowly fell together onto the nearby sofa.
“Good, we got it,” Eric finally called out after more than four hours, staring at the footage behind the monitor.
Everyone present, including the two leads who had just climbed up from the sofa, let out a sigh of relief.
A scene that lasted less than four minutes on screen and occupied barely a single page in the script had taken a full four hours to shoot. It was impossible for people not to become irritable.
However, even Eric, who had the most reason to explode, had shown no sign of frustration. Naturally, no one else on set dared reveal any impatience either. They simply repeated the scene over and over again.
Eric glanced at his watch and said, “That’s it for today. It’s already very late. You don’t need to clean this place up for now. Go back and get some rest as soon as possible.”
Before everyone could cheer for the director’s thoughtfulness, Eric added, “Don’t be late tomorrow.”
A chorus of groans immediately rose around the set, though no one dared complain. After all, they were receiving plenty of overtime pay, and Eric himself still had work to do afterward. He was far more exhausted than any of them.
The crew quickly dispersed.
By the time Eric and the assistant director finished checking the filmed footage once more and locking it inside the safe, another half hour had passed.
Filming in Manhattan had unknowingly already continued for nearly a month.
Because Eric had a finished version of the film in his mind as a reference, his shooting pace was always much faster than that of most Hollywood directors.
After just one month, Ghost had already completed two-thirds of its filming schedule. At this rate, another ten days or so would probably be enough to wrap production.
News also frequently came from Los Angeles that the film’s visual effects work was progressing smoothly. Eric had even watched some of the completed effects through a video phone connection.
Meanwhile, filming for Basic Instinct in San Francisco had not gone nearly as smoothly.
The issue was not with the male and female leads, whose performances were both excellent, but with other matters.
As everyone knew, San Francisco was one of North America’s largest gathering places for homosexual communities. Because one controversial lesbian scene from Basic Instinct had been exaggerated and sensationalized by the tabloids, it triggered protests from San Francisco gay rights organizations. At one point, some radical activists even attempted to obstruct the film’s production.
Jeffrey ultimately had to personally contact the San Francisco Police Department for assistance.
These days, Basic Instinct had been filming under the full-time protection of over fifty police officers, and for that, the production had no choice but to pay a considerable sponsorship fee to the local police departments.
As for Firefly’s first summer release, The Silence of the Lambs, filming had already wrapped over a week ago.
Reportedly, in order to finish the film as quickly as possible, the production had split into three separate units.
By the end of May, the film’s post-production work would be entirely completed. However, due to the rush schedule, the original production budget of under twenty million dollars had risen to twenty-five million.
Eric still had not seen the finished cut, but he believed that with Jonathan Demme directing just like in the original version, and with the two leads also unchanged, the film should not differ too greatly from the version in his previous life.
According to schedule, the film would begin critic screenings and limited preview showings in early June, with the official release date set for June 8.
However, Robert Shaye had arranged only 1,500 opening theaters for the film.
Although Eric knew this was because Robert Shaye was diverting resources toward Sleeping with the Enemy, which he personally oversaw, Eric did not say much about it.
Being able to release during the summer season was already fairly good for The Silence of the Lambs.
After all, it was an R-rated bloody horror thriller, and according to Hollywood convention, films of this kind were usually either released during the Easter season or toward the end of the summer schedule. Being squeezed into the prime summer season was already fortunate enough.
As for 1,500 theaters, that was not considered too small a number for a horror film.
Besides the films, Eric gradually realized that more and more matters were piling up around him.
Not only did he have to oversee Firefly’s operations, but Pixar, Digital Domain, and even Cisco frequently had matters requiring his personal attention.
Although he always kept his focus on Firefly, Eric had never reduced his attention toward those companies.
Thanks to ample financial support, Toy Story had already passed the halfway point of production.
It probably would not make this year’s Christmas season, but it would certainly catch next year’s summer season.
This version of Toy Story was far more refined than the one Eric remembered from his previous life. Many additional details had been added, and its runtime was no longer the original eighty-one minutes, but had expanded to a more standard ninety minutes.
Eric believed that the appearance of Toy Story would absolutely shock Hollywood.
As for Digital Domain, Eric felt comfortable leaving it largely in Stan Winston’s hands.
Aside from assigning a financial director to supervise the company’s finances, he rarely interfered in other aspects.
Since Cisco went public in February, its stock price had soared all the way upward.
Although the momentum slowed somewhat after more than a month, Cisco’s stock rose again once the company’s first-quarter earnings report was released.
The seventy million dollars Eric had invested was now worth more than two hundred million dollars, and it showed no signs of stopping.
Many investment firms had already begun regretting transferring their original subscription shares to Firefly Investment Company.
While paying attention to all these matters, Eric also gradually noticed over the past few days that the people around him had begun acting somewhat strangely.
Occasionally, they would even look at him with peculiar expressions, as though secretly planning something.
The feeling was subtle, and he could not quite determine whether it was merely his imagination.
For example, today, members of the crew all found excuses to request leave one after another, hoping Eric would end filming an hour earlier than usual.
At the same time, they all claimed to have things to take care of.
If it had only been one or two people, that would have been fine. But when everyone behaved this way, Eric would have had an intelligence problem if he still failed to notice something unusual.
Because of everyone’s firm and unified insistence, Eric ultimately had no choice but to compromise.
In any case, after working so intensely for so many days and with the film nearly completed, he was also willing to go along with public opinion for once.
However, after filming wrapped, Eric still stopped cinematographer Nickell before he could leave.
“Nickell, tell me honestly. What exactly is going on?”
Nickell looked at Eric with a strange expression, as though trying to remind him of something, yet also finding the situation unbelievable.
Faced with Eric’s questioning, Nickell glanced around, saw many people looking toward them, and quickly shook his head. “Eric, I can’t say it. I’ll get killed.”
“If you don’t say it, I’ll kill you right now,” Eric threatened.
The cinematographer stiffened his neck with a fearless expression, clearly knowing Eric could not really do anything to him.
Eric punched Nickell lightly in the chest. “Alright, get lost then. Just don’t let whatever you people are planning turn into a mess.”
“Definitely not. Absolutely,” Nickell replied with a grin.
After walking several steps away and confirming Eric could no longer hear him, Nickell finally could not help muttering to himself:
“Incredible. Truly unbelievable. Forgetting something like this… definitely worthy of a workaholic.”