Chapter 471

Perhaps in order to expel the horror caused by the Los Angeles riots, when the crime action film "Lethal Weapon 3" was released on May 15, people rushed into the cinemas, and Warner's classic series got more than $40 million at the box office in the first week, which was a good start to the summer season of 1992, and also relieved many Hollywood studios who were worried about the impact of the Los Angeles riots on the summer box office.

On May 22, the third part of another classic series was released, however, "Alien 3" did not have such a good fate, and only got a box office of more than 20 million in the first week, only half of the box office of "Lethal Weapon 3", but the cost of this sequel is 1.5 times that of "Lethal Weapon 3".

Although he has an impression in his memory, Eric still took the time to go to the cinema to watch this movie in person, because "Alien 3", like the previous two, still has a famous director, David Fincher. As a director who started shooting MVs, David Fincher seems to have become a different person after picking up the movie director, although it is a film debut, but "Alien 3" has reflected David Fincher's classic dark thriller style.

The $20 million first-week box office was well below Fox's expectations, and based on the film's word-of-mouth, the sequel's North American box office is likely to fall short of the cost line. A week after the release of the movie, Eric heard that Fox had terminated his contract with David Finn, and at the same time, he was swept away by an executive in the production department of Fox who recommended David Fincher as a director.

Although Eric was interested in David Fincher, he was not in a hurry to get people to contact him. Anyway, for a short time. There will be no more studios inviting this rookie director who has just messed up the "Alien" series.

Originally, Disney planned to put the "Nuns Are Crazy" in the last week of May. However, after Eric's special advice, in order to avoid hitting the blockbuster released intensively in June, Disney rescheduled "Nuns Are Crazy" to July 10.

Since late May, Eric has taken the production team of "Tornado" to start the final promotion of the film, although Eric's films have not had a fixed style, but with the excellent quality of each movie, it has still accumulated a large number of fans, plus the film released after two years, and the visual impact of the trailer that was once on the Super Bowl. Fans are generally full of expectations for "Tornado".

At the end of May, after several rounds of screenings, film reviews about "Tornado" also appeared in the media one after another, although many film critics did not have a high opinion of this popcorn movie without any connotation, but it cannot be denied that the scenes in the movie are breathtakingly realistic CG special effects, and under the public relations of Firefly, "Tornado" has also won a good reputation.

With all was in place, May had finally passed, and the storm of the Los Angeles riots seemed to have completely subsided, both in the newspapers and on television. There is very little mention of this big event that shocked the world, after all. This matter is not too glorious to be internal or external.

However, it is not always easy to forget what has happened, and not only that, but there are also people who want to remember it more deeply in the hope that it will lead to some reflection.

For example, there is such a person sitting in Eric's office.

A woman.

He is tall, with a straight back, and a beautiful face with a bit of heroism.

A black slim-fitting jacket, dark blue jeans, and a pair of hard-soled leather boots on his feet seem to be always meticulous.

"It's a heart-wrenching upheaval, and a lot before it happened, and if we could have paid a little attention, this tragedy would have never happened again. But now it seems that no one is willing to reflect on the root causes of this tragedy, so I wanted to make a documentary about it, and the specific material is here. ”

Kathryn Bigelow said as she pushed a thick bag of documents in front of Eric, withdrew her hand, and then added with some hesitation: "This documentary will definitely not affect the production of "Saving Private Ryan", I will make the documentary between the end of the year, and only ...... Only a budget of $5 million is enough. ”

Eric nodded, opened the file bag, pulled out the thick printouts inside, and looked down at it.

Kathryn Bigelow couldn't see Eric's expression when he looked down, so he turned his attention to the hand that turned the page, Eric was not fast at turning the page, but he was not satisfied, Catherine Bigelow waited quietly for a while, and suddenly couldn't help but say, "You don't already know, do you?"

Eric glanced up at the woman, closed the project materials in front of him, opened the filing cabinet next to him, and quickly took out two similar file bags from inside.

For some reason, Catherine, who saw this, felt a little weak inexplicably, and rarely had the urge to bow her head to avoid Eric's gaze.

"I got this copy from Warner President Robert Daly a week ago, and this copy was given to me by Fox. It's sad, Catherine, I didn't think I was just your last choice, I always thought we were good friends," Eric deliberately gave a sad expression after noticing the subtle change in the woman's expression.

"No, the reason why I contacted Warner and Fox first is because Warner's CNN and Fox's Fox News have plenty of news material available," Catherine Bigelow explained in a slightly quicker tone, but she quickly noticed the unconcealable smile on the corner of Eric's mouth, and realized that the little man had begun to habitually tease himself again, and the woman immediately put away her expression: "Eric, you are like this again, you ......"

The woman was awkwardly searching for the right words of condemnation, and Eric had already raised his hand in surrender: "Alright, Catherine, no kidding, let's talk about the documentary." ”

Catherine was stunned, a little helpless, but still made an expression of please: "Okay." ”

Eric twhisked the page in front of him with his fingers. In a somewhat serious tone, he said: "Although some media blame this on the high unemployment rate in recent years. and Los Angeles' large population of smuggled immigrants. But in fact, everyone knows that the root cause of the Los Angeles riots is still deep-rooted racial conflicts, and this issue is so sensitive that even Bush Sr. did not dare to bluntly expose this issue in his televised speech, so what are you going to do?"

"I'm not going to say anything, I just want to put the cause and effect of this. From the perspective of a complete spectator in a documentary," Catherine said, suddenly remembering that the original intention of this idea was still from something that Eric had said to her about her film, and thinking of this, the woman couldn't help but look up at the young man opposite, and the moment she looked at each other, she quickly looked away.

Eric didn't seem to notice the detail, continuing: "The timing is sensitive right now, and it's going to be a presidential election, whether it's a Democrat or a Republican. None of them want to say too much about this matter, and everyone is trying to downplay it. ”

"Eric. I'm not a politician," Catherine said seriously.

Eric looked at the woman's determined gaze, sighed in his heart, and said, "Catherine, you should know that there are always too many people in this world who are used to speculating on the motives of certain things with the most malicious thoughts. ”

Catherine shook her head, "I don't care. ”

"Okay, let's do it," Eric stuffed back into his bag, "I'll help you contact Fox News and ask them to give you the news material they accumulated some time ago, and if it's not enough, I can try it on CNN." ”

"Thank you, Eric," Catherine was a little moved in her heart, this month in addition to preparing materials, she spent most of her time in contact with Warner and Fox, but she has been hitting a wall, both film companies are indifferent to her documentary plan, Warner is concerned about the impact of this matter, after all, if it weren't for Warner's CNN first released an incomplete law enforcement video, the storm would not have made such a big fuss, during this time CNN has been under tremendous pressure from all sides, and now that things have finally calmed down, Warner wishes everyone would forget about it。 Fox, on the other hand, can't see the profit prospects of this documentary, although the $5 million investment is not large, but Fox also feels that he has no hobby of taking money.

Eric put the information away and said with a smile: "Is it just a verbal thank you, I thought you would at least treat me to a meal, and now it's time to get off work." ”

Catherine thought about it, but nodded and said, "That...... All right. ”

Eric put the materials back in the filing cabinet and took out two more movie tickets from it: "In return, after dinner, I invite you to watch the movie, "Tornado" is screened." ”

"Ah, don't you need this," Catherine was stunned and found an excuse: "I don't like to go back too late." ”

"Of course I know, I won't delay your rest, and I can personally send you home. ”

"I ...... I have a car, I can go back on my own," Catherine said in an almost flustered tone.

Eric looked at his watch and said, "That's it, where you like to eat, I'll do whatever you want." ”

Catherine followed Eric to her feet and said, "A friend recommended a nearby Chinese restaurant where we could go." ”

The two of them left the Firefly headquarters and went all the way to a Chinese restaurant with a fairly fine decoration, but although Eric didn't see too many customers in the Chinese restaurant, after ordering the food, dinner was served after a long time.

Looking at the skinny dumplings on the plate and the other plate of scrambled eggs with tomatoes, Eric couldn't help but start complaining: "Catherine, I'm really a little skeptical, what is your friend's motivation to recommend this restaurant to you." ”

Catherine also had a little embarrassment in her expression, when she got along in New York last year, she vaguely remembered that Eric liked to eat Chinese food, so she deliberately brought the other party here, and now she herself has a feeling of being cheated.

"Maybe we didn't order the right food, not that many Chinese restaurants have some ...... The specialty dishes, the other dishes are often more ordinary, why don't you order something else?"

Eric looked around, if the food in this restaurant was very good at this time of the evening, it would be full, but now there were not even half of the customers.

"Forget it," Eric looked at the woman's somewhat embarrassed expression, shook his head, skillfully picked up a dumpling with chopsticks and tasted it, and said, "Actually, it's not bad, I'll order another one and I'll be full." ”

"Then order another one," said Catherine, beckoning to the awkwardly dressed waiter in a Tang costume not far away, and gave a few orders before she said to Eric, "I haven't been here either, and next time, I'll invite you to eat at a restaurant I'm more familiar with." ”

"Of course, don't forget, I remember it very well," Eric said with a smile.

"No," Catherine followed Eric's example, picked up the chopsticks next to her and tried to pick up the dumplings on the plate, but finally gave up and replaced them with the familiar knife and fork.

Perhaps distracted by a lame dinner, the two men slowly began to talk familiarly, and for more than a year, Catherine and a group had been collecting information about the Second World War, and regularly submitting the collected information to Eric. However, because Catherine deliberately avoided it, the two did not meet each other a few times.

Eric could only attribute the reason to the woman's hard guess, he could see that Catherine was not disgusted with her, but perhaps because of the big age difference between the two, they had always been a little estranged from each other.

After dinner, Eric and Catherine drove to a theater on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, with tickets for the show at eight o'clock, and when they arrived, it was still a quarter past eight, so they hurriedly bought some popcorn and walked in together.

Although there are still a few days before the release of "Tornado", however, in absolute confidence in the quality of the "Tornado" film, the small-scale screening has begun a week before the release. For a movie with poor quality, screening will only lose word of mouth from the audience in advance, but for a good movie, a proper movie will instead accumulate the audience's enthusiasm for watching the movie, although "Tornado" has no depth and connotation, it is a standard high-quality popcorn movie.

"The official release date is June 5, but so far, 'Tornado' has amassed more than $2 million at the box office, and it's only been screened in less than 50 theaters," Eric said with a little smugness as the two found their seats. (To be continued......)