Hollywood (我就是好莱坞) Part I

CHAPTER 56 - MORONIC TO THE CORE

Kapoor looked over and said: "Well, it's probably because of the 1985 incident. Al Pacino starred in a 30 million $ production from the Warner, they invested so much but the movie only made about the same sum at the box office, so Al chose to temporarily withdraw from the screen because of the pressure back then. I recently heard he was trying to make a comeback though, so I added him to the list."

Thinking of Scent of a Woman and the wild, manly charm that Al had exuded then as a blind retired army officer, Eric couldn't help but ask: "Kapoor, is there anyway we can sign him ?"

Kapoor hesitated: "We can give it a try. But Al Pacino is one of the rising stars from the seventies, although that 1985 movie was a bust, there's nothing wrong with Al's performance. The guy was nominated four times for best actor at the Oscars so far. Since he has been hinting at a comeback, I believe that many agencies will be competing to win him over, and we have yet anything to show for us in terms of achievements."

Eric knew that what Kapoor said was true, but he still said: "Anyways, we need give it a try. Contact him as soon as possible and tell him about Pretty Woman, I'd really like him to play Edward if possible."

"Okay." Kapoor nodded, then pointed at the pile of files that Eric had singled out and said: "Should I also extend invitations to these people ?"

"Not for the time being, no. You first try to get in touch with Al Pacino, and if he refuses the offer, we'll contact these ones."

For the next few days, Eric held constant auditions for the supporting roles, had to scout for filming locations, contact those locations, and still wrote the script every night.

Meanwhile, he also took the time to contact a girls' only boarding school in L.A, readily becoming their sponsor. While there was less than ten days to Christmas, he had to convince the goblin at home to move out earlier. Living with her was seriously a headache, he had to be on guard against sudden nocturnal attacks all the time, he certainly didn't want something like the previous incident to happen again.

......

"Eric, I've got a good news and a bad news, which one do you want to hear first ?" It was a new day at the office, and Eric was sitting at his desk looking through a financial report when Jeffrey came barging in without even bothering to knock.

Seeing the middle-aged man undisguised expression of glee, Eric laughed: "The good one first."

Jeffrey pulled out a contract from his briefcase and handed it over to Eric. He said: "Lamborghini has agreed to our sponsorship offer, they'll provide us with their upcoming Lamborghini Diablo sports car. After I repeated to them everything you told me the other day, they scrambled to sign down. See here, that's the contract, a full 1 million $ ! Hahaha, once this news gets out, other movie companies will be green with envy, some can't even make one million at the box office."

Eric took the contract and went through it. It was true, Lamborghini had indeed promised to pay a 1 million $ advertising fee, provided of course that Pretty Woman's North American box office reached the 100 million $ mark. If its grossing was less than that, Firefly Studios would have to compensate them accordingly, while if it was higher, Lamborghini would be the one to make adjustments.

This was something common from where he came from, so Eric wasn't particularly excited, he chuckled at his friend: "Jeffrey, you're too excited, what if we can't reach the expected box office and need to return the fee ?"

Jeffrey calmed down when he thought of the possibility, and he anxiously said: "It won't happen.... right ? Didn't you say you had confidence the movie would do great ?"