I am Hollywood

Chapter 403: Chapter 404: Casting



[Chapter 404: Casting]

When it came to the issue of producers, Kathryn Bigelow couldn't help but say, "Why look for another producer? I could handle it myself."

Eric chuckled in surprise. "That's a bold suggestion. For a project with a budget over $50 million, not many directors in Hollywood would confidently ask to take on producing themselves. That often results in losing their directing job."

Kathryn seemed to realize her request was a bit excessive. In Hollywood, the constraints that producers imposed on directors were a serious matter. The final cut of most films usually rested with the producer, to prevent directors from recklessly filming according to their whims, which could compromise the film's quality. This also protected investors' funds from being squandered by the directors.

Of course, this rule had significant downsides. Many excellent films were ruined in post- production due to producers' interference, and directors often bore the brunt of negative reviews from audiences. It was common years later for studios to release a director's cut, which would finally redeem those films. One of the most famous examples was Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in America.

After the woman made her bold suggestion, feeling a bit awkward, Kathryn ran her slender fingers over the storyboard paper in front of her. Eric smiled slightly and said, "Of course, the biggest advantage of Hollywood is its flexibility. If you really want to be the producer of Saving Private Ryan, I can make that happen."

Kathryn looked up, cautiously asking, "What about final cut rights?"

Eric raised an eyebrow. "Hey, lady, don't push your luck."

"Lady..." Kathryn repeated his term, elongating the last syllable. "That's discriminatory. Are you suggesting that if I were a man, I would get the final cut rights?"

Eric stared at Kathryn's beautiful face, untouched by time. "If you were a man, you wouldn't even get the producer's position."

Kathryn couldn't help but shrink away from Eric's unabashed gaze. "I warn you, little guy, don't test me like this, or I won't take this film."

"Are you feeling insecure?" Eric shot back suddenly.

"What?" Kathryn asked, confused.

Eric posed dramatically, looking at her, "I mean, are you feeling insecure? Afraid you can't handle my... charm?"

Kathryn's mouth dropped open in surprise as she glared at Eric's infuriating expression, momentarily frozen, then suddenly stood up and nonchalantly slapped the folder on Eric's head a few times. "You little brat, narcissist."

Eric leaned back leisurely in his chair, avoiding her playful hits, and laughed at Kathryn's rare moment of losing her cool.

They were already seated in a prominent spot in the restaurant, and Kathryn's sudden 'attack' on Eric drew the attention of all the diners.

Feeling the weight of those curious stares, Kathryn's cheeks flushed a deep crimson. Mechanically, she lowered her arms, embarrassedly putting down the folder, and hurriedly turned to exit the restaurant.

Watching her flee, Eric couldn't help but smile wider. Ignoring the hushed whispers from others, he picked up the folder and followed her outside.

...

Once back in her room, Kathryn hurried to the bathroom to wash her face with cold water. As the heat retreated from her cheeks, she looked in the mirror at her damp hair and gently patted her face, trying to hasten its return to normal. She mumbled to herself, "You annoying guy, little brat."

Lost in her thoughts in front of the mirror, she was jolted by a knock at the door. She dried her face with a towel and walked towards it.

Thinking it might be Eric at the door, she hesitated for several seconds. Then she thought to herself that she couldn't show weakness over just a few teasing comments from him, as that would only make him more smug. No, she absolutely couldn't give that little brat any more satisfaction, especially with all that... charm. So full of himself.

Gathering her courage, Kathryn yanked the door open, blocking Eric from entering, her expression icy, chin slightly raised. "What do you want?"

Eric, noticing her proud facade, handed her the folder with a smirk. "Your Majesty, you left this in the restaurant."

Kathryn glanced at the folder in Eric's hands but showed no intention of taking it. "You can give it to someone else. I..."

Before she could finish, Eric stuffed the script into her arms. As she fumbled to catch it and tried to push it back, Eric stepped back. "Alright, it was just a joke. Take your time with the script. Since you want to be a producer, you should quickly put together a detailed production plan. If there's nothing else, I'll take my leave."

...

This time, since he had prepared far more thoroughly than in August, Eric didn't need to stay long in New York. Given the clarity of the situation, Chris could handle everything, and Eric had many things to juggle, making remote correlation quite bothersome.

On February 5th, Eric returned to Los Angeles after spending more than half a month in New York.

However, given the preparations many agencies and investors had made this time, the $2 billion investment didn't yield returns as high as before due to the reduced leverage and an increase in players in the futures market.

According to Chris's statistics, this time the final profit from the crude oil futures market was around $4 billion. Adding the profits from last August, Eric would be left with nearly $8 billion after all transactions were complete. This amount was more than enough to fully acquire Disney and might even allow him to do some other things.

...

In Los Angeles, the annual awards season had reached its climax with the announcement of the Golden Globe winners since the end of last year.

Due to the war, Hollywood's awards season was not as lively as in previous years, and even the Golden Globes were held quite low-key for public image considerations. However, now that the outcome of the war had been determined, the Oscars, scheduled for March 24, would still shine as brightly as ever.

Although Eric didn't participate in the Golden Globes on January 19, he kept a close eye on the developments.

At the Golden Globes, the two most significant works connected to Firefly were Ghost and

Friends.

Whoopi Goldberg won Best Supporting Actress in a Musical or Comedy without a doubt, as

she had in the past. What surprised Eric was that Nicolas Cage, who replaced Patrick Swayze as Sam, won Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy. Eric thought that while Cage's acting was impeccable, this award was more focused on public relations. Apart from Firefly's lobbying, the Coppola family's connections surely played a significant role.

As for the second season of Friends, which continued to receive acclaim and high ratings, it not only won Best Musical or Comedy Series but also saw Aniston take home Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy. Sadly, Eric had not been able to attend; otherwise, he would have surely run into the long-missed little firecracker.

Elisabeth's production of The Silence of the Lambs was recognized as an Oscar favorite, even edging out Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather Part III in terms of buzz. However, the film seemed to not have gained much favor from the Golden Globe voters. Despite receiving a similar number of nominations as what would soon be revealed for the Oscars, only Jodie Foster nabbed the Best Actress award, while the rest of the nominations fell flat.

This result left Elisabeth anxious for a while, prompting her to call Eric in New York for a

discussion.

Nonetheless, the focus of The Silence of the Lambs' public relations had always been on the Oscars; the Golden Globes were not too important. Furthermore, while the Golden Globes were often seen as an Oscars precursor, the real reflections of Oscar standings were better seen in the Directors Guild, the Screen Actors Guild, or the Writers Guild awards.

In those awards, The Silence of the Lambs had already garnered a wealth of accolades, so Eric was confident that the Oscars wouldn't see too many bumps in the road.

Ordinarily, The Godfather Part III should have been a significant threat, but that wasn't the case

this time.

...

Due to Eric's inadvertent influence, Sofia Coppola, who had received criticism in his past life, voluntarily withdrew from The Godfather Part III's production. Francis Ford Coppola brought in the talented Wynona Ryder instead, but even such changes ultimately couldn't save the film, which felt somewhat like an unnecessary sequel.

Many knew that Coppola initially had no plans for a third Godfather film; however, after the Coppola family's film company saw massive losses in the previous two years, he had no choice but to agree to Paramount's production of the sequel.

Reportedly, Coppola had aimed for an Easter release the following year, but due to Paramount's repeated pressure, the film was moved up by over three months. Consequently, with the production period shortened, the sequel didn't shine in the same way

as its predecessors. To date, The Godfather Part III had only garnered $60 million at the box office, and with current attendance rates, it likely couldn't sustain itself to gain any post-

Oscar ticketing momentum.

For this reason, Paramount wasn't particularly enthusiastic about promoting The Godfather Part III for awards, and although Coppola didn't publicly express his dissatisfaction, privately, he was not pleased with Paramount's haste, which negatively affected the film's quality. This left him less interested in the promotional effort.

While the first two installments of The Godfather had won Best Picture, the quality of the third in comparison rendered its chances for that award quite bleak. Moreover, with Eric's move to secure Dances with Wolves, there were no films competing with The Silence of the Lambs at this

year's Oscars.

...

Back in Los Angeles, Eric only casually inquired about these matters before redirecting most of his focus to the reorganization of Firefly and the preparations for Twister. After all, even if The Silence of the Lambs won awards, it seemed superficially unrelated to Eric.

As for Ghost, although it gained a Best Picture nomination, Eric had no intention of campaigning for it. Firefly only put forth effort for Whoopi Goldberg's Best Supporting Actress and the Best Original Screenplay categories. While Bridget Fonda and Cage had both received Golden Globe nominations, neither made it to the Oscars.

...n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

After more than half a year, Ed Catmull had brought the development of the effects software Maya to its final testing phase. Of course, this only represented the traditional definition of a 1.0 version, and the primary functions were to cater to the relevant effects work on Twister, with ongoing investment for continuous enhancement throughout the film's production. Additionally, the fluid simulation software assigned to a research group at Stanford University had been completed and integrated with both Maya and the rendering software RenderMan. This software was designed specifically for creating fluid effects like hurricanes and waves, making such scenes appear more realistic.

With the effects issues preliminarily resolved, Twister began its initial casting process.

Of course, Eric had already confirmed Joanna Pacula for the leading female role, which was non-negotiable. However, the roles of the male lead and the second female lead, alongside many supporting roles with significant potential, became the targets of various talent agencies vying for involvement.

Even though many in Hollywood knew about the ongoing tensions between CAA and Eric -- especially since Home Alone 3 had stalled due to CAA's insistence on exorbitant fees -- CAA still actively reached out to Eric this time, eager to snag the roles of the male lead and the

second female lead in Twister.

Many could see this was CAA's way of trying to mend fences, as the current Hollywood talent agency landscape was characterized by a three-way standoff among CAA, WMA, and ICM. CAA was not as dominant as in the past; Michael Ovitz had slipped out of the top ranks on the Hollywood power list published at the end of the previous year.

Had this been two years prior, Eric might have been obsessed with past grievances with CAA.

However, now, he hardly cared about anything they did. His sights were set broader on the overall landscape of Hollywood, and CAA was no longer the behemoth that all studios feared.

In the past two years, there had been no rumors of CAA agents barging into major studios' executive offices.

So when CAA made their overture, Eric graciously allowed the casting director to accept the

resumes they offered.

Eric's films had come to be recognized as "star-making machines"; practically every film he had made had launched at least one Hollywood A-lister into the spotlight. With Eric's reduced output, competition for roles in Twister had reached a high level. After

news of the casting began to circulate, not only CAA but also WMA and ICM intensified their efforts, and even some smaller agencies joined in, hoping to land roles in the supporting cast. Thus, anyone who could even remotely connect to Eric's network was striving to reach him

directly, as he held the final say in casting decisions.

*****

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