Chapter 89: His Luck Stat Is Seriously High
Chapter 89: His Luck Stat Is Seriously High
Virginia completely failed to understand what Eric was talking about and asked in confusion, “Malibu 10880?”
Eric nodded but did not explain further. Nor could he possibly explain it clearly to her.
In his previous life, Tony Stark’s Malibu super oceanfront mansion in Iron Man 3 had left a deep impression on Eric.
Later, just like many other movie fans, he had searched online for information about the mansion, only to discover that it was actually a fully CG model created by the film company based on a real Malibu location.
Later, some people claimed the mansion really existed, supposedly located in San Diego, and that the owner had even listed it for sale. Curious netizens quickly discovered it was merely a publicity stunt. The San Diego villa truly was a decent ocean-view property, but compared to the one in the movie, the difference was like a wild duck versus a swan.
The even flashier Stark Tower in New York was probably impossible to recreate. New York was already packed to the brim. But Iron Man’s Malibu mansion was still within Eric’s capabilities.
At worst, it was just a money problem.
And for the current Eric, money problems were hardly problems anymore.
Pretty Woman alone was expected to bring him over a hundred million dollars in revenue. That amount of money was enough to build a hundred villas in Malibu.
Turning his head to glance at the fragrant woman still leaning against his shoulder, Eric smiled and placed a hand over Virginia’s full soft mound, feeling the slick softness in his palm.
“Vicky, go make some breakfast for me. After working hard all night, I’m starving.”
Virginia cast him a seductive glance.
“With me here, do you still need breakfast?”
“Go on. Make some toast and fried eggs. Then put an apple in your mouth and lie on the dining table. I’ll come eat you afterward.”
“As you wish, Your Highness.”
Virginia laughed and leaned over, trying to kiss the corner of Eric’s lips. Just as her red lips approached, Eric suddenly remembered something and jerked sharply to the side.
“No.”
Bang—
The entire chair tipped over with him, and the stack of papers clipped together on his knees scattered across the floor.
Virginia hurriedly helped Eric up and dusted him off.
“What’s wrong with you? Why such a huge reaction?”
Eric pointed at her mouth.
“You ate that last night and still haven’t brushed your teeth, right?”
Virginia immediately understood and glared at him resentfully.
“You’re awful. You forced me to eat something so disgusting, and now you’re the one acting disgusted.”
“A tiger may be vicious, but it doesn’t eat its cubs.”
Eric laughed while helping Virginia pick up and reorganize the scattered papers before clipping them back together. After sending her off to prepare breakfast, he sat down again.
The order of the dozen or so pages had clearly become scrambled. As Eric sorted through them to rearrange the sequence, he casually glanced at the large letters at the top of one page:
Steel Magnolias.
Eric’s eyes lit up.
He quickly reorganized the pages and began reading from the first sheet.
Although these were merely audition excerpts rather than a complete script, and there was no information about the writer or director, Eric still recognized it immediately as the very Steel Magnolias he had been searching for.
The scenes in the script clearly belonged to the timid hairstylist Annelle.
“His luck stat is seriously maxed out. Maybe I should go try my hand in Las Vegas.”
Eric muttered with a smile.
Since the script had appeared in Virginia’s bedroom, the audition must have happened recently. Hopefully the role had not yet been finalized.
Holding the script, Eric walked downstairs.
Virginia had already changed into casual home clothes and was busy in the kitchen wearing an apron.
Noticing Eric appear behind her, Virginia turned and smiled.
“Eric, it’ll be ready soon.”
Eric raised the script in his hand.
“Vicky, when did you audition for this movie?”
Virginia flipped the sizzling eggs in the frying pan with a spatula and glanced back quickly.
“You mean Steel Magnolias? I auditioned on Friday. Well… the day before yesterday.”
“How much do you know about this movie?”
Virginia scooped out the fried eggs, turned off the stove, and said, “Sure, Eric. Let’s talk in the dining room.”
Eric nodded and helped her carry breakfast into the dining room.
Virginia poured Eric a glass of milk.
“My agent recommended this script to me. The director is Herbert Ross. I heard Tri-Star originally planned to invest in it, but because the acquisition talks with Sony started, they worried a box office failure from any produced or distributed films might cause the stock price to drop. So many projects at Columbia TriStar that weren’t viewed favorably got halted. Herbert Ross had no choice but to seek outside funding and produce it independently. The budget isn’t high, which is why I even got an audition opportunity.”
Because of Eric’s promise last night, Virginia no longer felt upset about losing the role of Annelle. Her tone was calm, as if casually chatting.
“Unfortunately, Herbert Ross thought I was… too old and not suitable for the role, so I failed the audition.”
Mentioning her age once again made the woman uneasy. She glanced cautiously at Eric.
She was about to turn thirty. She could no longer afford to waste several more years.
Across from her, Eric slowed his eating as calculations rapidly spun through his mind.
Since Tri-Star had abandoned the movie, perhaps he could pull the project over himself.
If Firefly wanted to continue growing, it could not rely solely on movies directed by Eric himself forever. Investing in more projects was necessary. Steel Magnolias might become a very good attempt.
Of course, Firefly would also need to gradually establish its own distribution channels in the future.
In his previous life, DreamWorks had been forced to hand its movies over to the Big Six for distribution because it lacked a complete distribution network, causing most of the profits to be swallowed by the major studios. Even though multiple DreamWorks films became huge hits, the company’s books remained in the red, and eventually it had to sell itself to Viacom.
DreamWorks actually did possess some distribution ability, but many of Steven Spielberg’s movies were large-scale productions with enormous budgets. If DreamWorks relied solely on its own limited promotional capabilities, a movie that could normally earn two hundred million dollars worldwide might only make back one hundred million.
That was also why Eric had not yet considered distributing his own films.
He willingly handed nearly half the profits to 20th Century Fox because only a giant like Fox possessed the promotional power to fully unleash the box office potential of films already destined to become hits.
If he distributed them himself, even with the same number of screens as Fox, he still could not achieve the same box office results.
There were simply too many complicated factors involved to explain clearly in a short time.
Gradually, Eric sorted out the development path Firefly should follow.
While continuing to use the major studios to distribute his own films and rake in money, Firefly would heavily invest in low-budget movies costing only a few million dollars. These films would serve as “cannon fodder” to slowly accumulate resources and experience.
Once the company developed to a certain level, distributing its own films would naturally follow.
The Weinstein brothers seemed to have taken exactly this low-budget route.
Meanwhile, high-and-mighty DreamWorks kept rising and collapsing before being sold over and over again. Yet the Weinstein brothers had always lived quite comfortably. Even after losing Miramax, the newly established The Weinstein Company still managed to secure a place in Hollywood.