Hollywood (我就是好莱坞) Part I

CHAPTER 19 - DIRECTOR WILLIAMS

"I don't like you, Mr. Williams." Taking advantage of his daughter going to the bathroom, John Aniston who was sitting opposite Eric suddenly said.

Although Eric was startled, he only shrugged and asked: "May I know why, John ?"

John Aniston said: "For so many years Jenny has hated me, and I always felt guilty about it. I kept wishing she'd forgive me, and last night she called me. She actually took the initiative to call me, you know ? I was so happy I couldn't sit still, and turns out, the reason she called was to help her boyfriend, a guy that was going to take my baby away from me."

Well, that reason wasn't too shabby, daughters were the apple of their father's eyes, and so they generally didn't have a good relationship with their son-in-law.

Eric only shrugged again, and the two men were suddenly stuck in an awkward silence.

Aniston soon came back from the bathroom, and smiled as she sat besides Eric, that intimacy only added to John's anxiousness, but his good daughter had taken the initiative to speak to him after so long, he wouldn't be stupid enough to ruin this.

With their reconciliation, the meal went fairly smoothly on the surface. When John took the air of an elder and reprimanded Eric for being too ambitious, Annie started to angrily glare at him, and he finally agreed to help him contract some actors.

With John Aniston's wide network of contacts in the television industry, Eric was able to soon deal with the majority of the roles, and thanks to the former's mediation, their pay wasn't too high which relieved him.

However, Eric was still hesitating between several candidates when it came to the two robbers duo, until Aniston introduced him to one of her classmates. Looking at that naturally declining face that had even been retouched in front of the mirror, Eric settled on it right away, because that guy was called Matthew Perry; one of the past six leads from Friends.

Then Eric and Jeffrey flew to Canada a few times, and ultimately settled on a home located in a small town as the filming location. They busied themselves day and night, so much that Eric even lost a few pounds in just one week, which made Annie both distressed and envious.

October 17th, Eric's first project as a director since his rebirth in Los Angeles, was finally starting. The crew sent a few people to the town they had decided on in Canada for the scenes that happened at home, the rest stayed in L.A to shoot the ones at the airport and police station as those didn't require any snow. With Hollywood being the world's largest movie base, shooting here was a lot more convenient.

The entire crew from the gaffer to the actors, didn't agree to be a part of the project because of the money, but were basically giving John and Jeffrey face. Although they had their misgivings towards Eric, they also had their own motives in mind.

They had learned about the Home Alone script's content, and were very glad that this young director wasn't like those other debuting snobs who would never film something so "cheap" as they didn't consider it as art. The likelihood of success for the movie was quite high, and it only costed 1 million to shoot it. Relying on Eric's 17 Again and Jurassic Park momentum, perhaps they might even earn a little extra as Eric had promised them a bonus if the film made it big.

In order to repay Eric who had provided his late wife's team a job, Jeffrey Hanson appeared on the set everyday on time, wanting to guide the "novice" with his years of experience. But after a day, Jeffrey began to seriously question life, or more precisely, God's fairness.

The kid didn't have the impatience of a first timer, he was more like a director with many years of shooting experience. He very orderly and methodically reorganized the set design and the props, he used professional terms to discuss shots with the cameraman, he directed the lighting division to get the desired effects, he was even patient with the dramatic actress that played Kevin's mother and who was ten years his elder....