Hollywood (我就是好莱坞) Part I

CHAPTER 54 - PRODUCT PLACEMENT

The conference room's door was pushed open, and Jeffrey Hanson and Kapoor came in. Once they saw Eric's gloomy face, they knew things had gone haywire.

Kapoor was certain this was related to him, otherwise there was no way Richard Gere would reject Eric's offer.

"Eric, it's better if I quit after all. I can just go to Europe. Although, their movie industry is in recession, it won't be hard for me to find a job with my abilities."

Eric rubbed his somewhat stiff cheek, and said: "No, I will not make any compromises, just do what you're supposed to do without minding the rest, Kapoor. Right, I wanted you to manage Julia, so what do you think of her ?"

"I specifically went to see Ms. Roberts' Mystic Pizza, and also met with her to talk for a short while, but to be honest with you Eric, I'm not optimistic about her potential. The girl has only had short-term performance training, and whether it be her acting or her appearance, they are both average...."

Kapoor's tone was low and slow as he looked at Eric's face from time to time. He knew that Julia was recommended by him, and judging by the tabloids' gossips, the relationship between the two couldn't be ordinary. He was afraid that, if he was too blunt, the youth would be angered.

However, once Kapoor finished, Eric nodded in agreement: "Right, I think so too."

"Then why are you letting her star as a lead ?" Jeffrey asked, he had always wanted Eric to change her to a more famous actress.

"Hm, should I say intuition ? That in the future Julia's fame will blow up, that she'll pile up awards and become famous throughout the world...." Eric hadn't even finished that Jeffrey and Kapoor looked ready to call the loony squad on him.

Eric smiled: "Alright, just joking. For Pretty Woman, although the female lead needs to be beautiful, it can't be at the level of destroying nations, and so Julia seems like the perfect fit to me. If the female lead is too much of a beauty, the audience will easily focus on her face and ignore the majority of the plot. In the future, when people watch the movie, they'll only think about the 'pretty face' that starred in it, and it will be counted as a failure."

Jeffrey and Kapoor had already read the Pretty Woman's script, and listening to Eric's analysis, they couldn't help but agree that the youth had a point.

"Now, the most important thing is to cast a male lead." Eric looked at the two men before saying: "Although I really wanted Richard Gere, since the other party refused, we'll have to choose someone else. Do you have any suggestions ?"

"How about Michael Douglas ?" Jeffrey took the lead and suggested: "He played a stock market's tycoon in last year's Wall Street, the image he gave off then seems quite similar to the one Edward's gives off in Pretty Woman."

Eric was in the middle of reminiscing about Wall Street when he heard Kapoor softly caution: "Eric, Michael Douglas is a signed artist of the CAA."

The three of them stayed silent, before Eric said: "Kapoor, you are the professional here, so you do it. Sort a list of actors that would suit Edward's image and set up auditions as soon as possible, our time is tight."

Kapoor acquiesced: "No problem, if there's nothing else, then I'll get to it right away." At Eric's nod, the man hurriedly left the conference room.

Glancing at the disappearing figure of Kapoor, Jeffrey softly sighed: "Eric, do you think this is worth it ?"

"You mean about Kapoor and the CAA's stuff ?"

Jeffrey simply nodded.

"It's not about it being worth it or not, Jeffrey, I'm different from other people, you'll understand in the future. Perhaps other movie companies will fear giants like the CAA, but I won't, I don't need to."