Chapter 84: Lost in Los Angeles
Chapter 84: Lost in Los Angeles
“I want to know why you had Kapoor reject all those film offers. If some people hadn’t directly handed the scripts to me, I wouldn’t even have known I’d received those invitations.”
The more Julia spoke, the more agitated she became. In the end, she directly pointed at Eric’s nose and began accusing him.
“Disney’s Lost in Los Angeles offered a six-million-dollar salary, and you rejected it without even asking for my opinion. Six million dollars! How can you be this domineering? I’m not your puppet, so please show me some respect…”
Eric leaned back against the sofa and let the woman vent her emotions like a little wild cat gone mad.
At the same time, he recalled Disney’s Lost in Los Angeles and could not help laughing a little.
That was because the screenwriter of the script was named J. F. Lawton, the very same writer of Pretty Woman in his previous life.
During the days Eric spent in Richmond, many film companies directly ignored CAA’s concerns, especially the six major studios that both hated and feared CAA. Eric even maliciously suspected that the six majors were intentionally sending invitation after invitation to UTA actors simply to make Michael Ovitz miserable.
Al Pacino was patiently waiting for Eric’s promised Scent of a Woman, so all his film offers had been directly declined, and Al himself had no objections.
Julia’s situation, however, could not be handled so casually.
Among the scripts she received, Kapoor first screened out the low-paying offers and the ones that obviously looked terrible. The remaining scripts were all discussed with Eric over the phone.
And so Eric naturally learned about the script for Lost in Los Angeles.
The moment he heard the writer’s name, curiosity got the better of him, so he specifically asked Kapoor to fax him a copy of the script.
After reading it, he almost laughed out loud.
J. F. Lawton had very obviously revised the original 3000 script again, turning it into a romance story centered around the male protagonist.
As mentioned before, in the original timeline, the earliest version of Pretty Woman had been a dark drama titled 3000, depicting the survival conditions of prostitutes in Los Angeles. Only later, during production, had it been rewritten into a romantic comedy.
As for Lost in Los Angeles, the outline went something like this:
The male protagonist traveled to Los Angeles on business, only to get lost and have all his luggage stolen. Though highly successful in his career, he was a complete idiot in daily life. By chance, he was temporarily taken in by a kind-hearted prostitute. After a series of twists and turns, another prince-and-Cinderella couple happily ended up together.
In any case, Eric immediately saw the unmistakable connection between the story and Pretty Woman. But he also could not call it plagiarism, because the story had been modified quite cleverly. A giant studio like Disney would never leave Eric an obvious handle for a plagiarism accusation.
In Eric’s opinion, if this story—so similar to Pretty Woman—were once again filmed with Julia as the female lead, it definitely would not lose money. After all, the movie’s budget was not high.
But if it wanted to achieve another massive box office success like Pretty Woman, that was basically impossible.
It was like someone who had just eaten a bowl of rice and was already full. If you offered them an apple or a glass of juice afterward, they might still be able to consume it. But if you served them another bowl of rice…
“Hey, are you even listening to me? You can actually still laugh?”
Julia’s accusatory voice rang beside him, pulling Eric back from his wandering thoughts.
He saw that Julia had already moved close to him, faint anger visible on her face.
“Finished talking?” Eric looked directly into her eyes and asked seriously.
“Mm.”
Julia nodded.
The instant their eyes met, she suddenly realized how inappropriate her earlier behavior had been and quickly sat back down obediently.
These past days, she had grown accustomed to hearing praise, flattery, and compliments. Naturally, she had become a little inflated.
But seeing Eric suddenly put on such a serious and stern expression, Julia abruptly remembered that the man before her was not someone who needed to flatter her.
Rather… she herself…
Thinking of this, Julia unconsciously wrapped her arms around herself and rubbed them lightly while lowering her head. She glanced at Eric guiltily.
“During the time I was in Richmond, I spent some time on the phone with Kapoor every single day. Al’s next film has already been decided, so all we discussed were the film offers you received.”
“As for Lost in Los Angeles, I specifically had Kapoor fax the script to me so I could read it carefully.”
Hearing that Eric had privately paid so much attention to her affairs, Julia suddenly felt a faint sense of guilt over her earlier behavior.
“Sorry,” she apologized softly, almost in a whisper.
Eric waved his hand.
“I’m not trying to claim credit. I just want to tell you that I haven’t forgotten the promise I made that night.”
“I said I would elevate a girl named Julia Roberts to the level of legendary Hollywood actresses like Vivien Leigh and Audrey Hepburn.”
“Sorry,” Julia whispered again.
“But right now, I’m a little disappointed in you. This is only your first success, yet you’ve already become this impatient. What exactly are you trying to do?”
The calmness in Eric’s tone gradually gained a reprimanding edge.
Julia could not help trying to argue back.
“I—”
Eric interrupted her before she could continue.
“Right now, you already have fame. Just as you said, Disney already offered you a six-million-dollar salary. Very few actresses in Hollywood can reach that level.”
“If you need money, then go get a loan. Banks are very generous toward popular Hollywood stars.”
“And what you should be doing is carefully consolidating your position. If you want to go farther, there’s no such thing as being too cautious.”
“I understand now.”
“No, you still don’t understand. To me, you still look wronged.”
“Take Lost in Los Angeles as an example. Six million dollars is indeed an extremely high price. Tom Hanks only received two million for Big, which grossed over one hundred million dollars last year.”
“But if you accepted that movie, you’d be consuming the box office appeal you accumulated through Pretty Woman. This isn’t a case of one plus one equaling two. It’s subtraction.”
“Have you ever seen a star film two almost completely identical movies within a very short period of time and have both become huge successes?”
“The principle is the same as Hollywood blockbuster franchises. They always wait several years between installments, allowing the audience’s anticipation to build to its highest point before filming the sequel.”