Chapter 336: A Million-Dollar Salary
Chapter 336: A Million-Dollar Salary
For anyone, turning twenty was a fairly important birthday, and Eric’s twentieth birthday naturally attracted even more media attention. In addition, many major Hollywood figures had appeared at the birthday party, so after the party ended, the media inevitably hyped it up heavily.
The entertainment tabloids focused all their attention on the actresses attending the party. After the huge reversal in that scandal earlier in the year, the actresses who had originally been attacked all publicly clarified the facts regardless of what they privately thought. Combined with Eric’s breakup with Aniston, the identity of Eric’s next girlfriend became the new target of the tabloids’ pursuit.
Back in Los Angeles, Eric had always been very careful about protecting his privacy, so the paparazzi had never managed to dig up much information.
This time, however, the situation was very different.
Many actresses had specifically rushed over to celebrate Eric’s birthday. On top of that, this was New York rather than Los Angeles, and the crew was currently filming a movie. Under those circumstances, keeping many things secret was almost impossible.
However, the first person uncovered by the paparazzi was not Nicole, Julia, or the other women who had specifically left the set to celebrate Eric’s birthday, but rather Joanna Pakula, who had only recently appeared by Eric’s side.
After all, Joanna’s beauty was in no way inferior to any actress who had previously been linked to Eric in rumors. Under the paparazzi’s powerful digging efforts, Joanna’s detailed personal background quickly appeared in the media.
For a time, the woman’s momentum in the media directly overshadowed quite a few first-tier actresses. Her fame skyrocketed. Because of the public’s intense curiosity about Joanna, the production companies holding distribution rights to several of her earlier films promptly released videotapes of movies she had appeared in, earning huge profits over the following period.
As for the outside public opinion, Eric did not have anyone make any response at all. Instead, he strengthened the security work around the Ghost crew.
In any case, the film would be finished in at most another half month, and many scenes were indoors, so although paparazzi surrounded the area near the crew every day, filming itself was not affected very much.
Charlie Walker sat on the sofa in Eric’s hotel room living room, staring at the tightly shut bedroom door while letting his imagination run wild.
He was the agent ICM (International Creative Management) had assigned to Joanna Pakula.
Because of the media frenzy over the past several days, Charlie Walker had received quite a few film offers inviting Joanna Pakula to star in movies, including several major productions from the Seven Major Studios.
Originally still in Los Angeles, Charlie Walker had excitedly called over here, only to fail to contact even his own client. The only response he received was from Eric’s assistant, Allen Fissman, who relayed a single sentence from Eric:
“Reject them all.”
Charlie Walker naturally could not accept rejecting so many offers.
One of the films from Warner Bros. had directly offered a salary of one million dollars. As Joanna’s agent, that meant he would receive a commission of one hundred thousand dollars. For Charlie Walker, whose clients consisted of only a few second-tier actors, that was a substantial income.
Although Charlie Walker also realized Eric very likely intended to personally push this stunning Polish beauty, Eric’s current film had not even finished production yet, and there was not even the slightest sign of his next movie. Charlie Walker felt that letting Joanna Pakula take another film first definitely would not cause any scheduling problems.
Seven or eight minutes later, the bedroom door finally opened.
Having changed out of the dirty clothes from a day on set, Eric was now wearing a simple white shirt and casual pants, while Joanna Pakula followed behind him carrying several pieces of clothing in her arms.
Seeing the two emerge, Charlie Walker immediately stood up and greeted them with a smile.
Eric shook hands with Charlie Walker, while Joanna merely nodded toward her agent before turning to Eric.
“You two talk. I’ll go wash your clothes for you.”
Under the agent’s somewhat dumbfounded expression, the woman turned and left the room.
Once the door closed, Charlie Walker looked toward Eric with intense envy.
If he could have a breathtaking beauty like that washing his clothes, cooking for him, folding his blankets, and making his bed, he felt it would be worth giving up ten years of his life.
“Sorry, was it Mr. Walker?” Eric gestured for the agent to sit and asked somewhat uncertainly.
Naturally, Charlie Walker did not dare get angry just because Eric had failed to clearly remember his surname. He immediately nodded and respectfully handed over his business card.
“Yes, Mr. Williams. My name is Charlie Walker. This is my business card.”
Eric accepted it and glanced over it. Although he did not really care much inwardly, he still politely tucked the card into his shirt pocket before saying to the agent:
“Mr. Walker, I remember asking Allen to reply to you already.”
Charlie Walker nodded. “Yes, Mr. Williams. However, I still think it would be best to let Miss Pakula personally read the scripts. Giving them all up directly would really be a pity.”
After speaking, the agent pulled a thick stack of seven or eight scripts from his briefcase and placed them on the coffee table in front of Eric.
Having nothing else to do, Eric casually flipped through them.
Charlie Walker watched Eric nervously and expectantly.
Because of Eric’s string of successful films, his eye for scripts was already something universally recognized throughout Hollywood.
If Eric nodded in approval, then even if he did not choose the Warner film offering the highest salary, Charlie Walker could still use “Eric liked this script” as leverage to negotiate with the production companies. He believed they would definitely be willing to provide a satisfactory offer.
It took Eric more than ten minutes to go through all the scripts before him.
He mainly looked at the story summaries. Only if something interested him would he briefly skim the contents. However, after going through all seven or eight scripts, Eric did not see a single screenplay connected to any movie he remembered. None of the stories before him gave him any sense of excitement either.
He lightly shook his head.
If there truly had been a good script among them, Eric would not have minded letting Joanna take it.
“Sorry, Mr. Walker. None of these will work. I’m afraid you made this trip for nothing.”
Charlie Walker felt deeply disappointed and unwilling to give up.
“Mr. Williams, I think Tremor is pretty good. Besides, Warner Bros. offered a one-million-dollar salary. Why not let Miss Pakula give it a try?”
“One million?” Eric repeated.
He pulled out the script Charlie Walker had mentioned and glanced at the notes attached to it. As expected, it was a screenplay sent over by Warner Bros., with a budget of around thirty million dollars. It told the story of a wife who divorced her scoundrel husband and, in order to fight for custody of her daughter, was forced to take desperate measures.