Catherine glanced at Eric when she heard him, and picked the corners of her lips but didn't speak, but the woman thought in her heart that she had caught him another age-appropriate moment, and he was still just a hairy boy in his early twenties after all.

Perhaps Catherine herself didn't realize that when she was with Eric, she always had a habit of capturing Eric's words and deeds that were more in line with his age.

Maybe it's just trying to remind yourself of something, who knows.

After Eric said that, he didn't say anything more, and the two quietly turned their attention to the big screen together.

At this point, the movie has been playing for about twenty minutes, and the first storm is about to hit, and the two teams rush to the location of the tornado.

Because she has been influenced (or poisoned) by too many European film masters, Catherine is not too interested in this kind of typical commercial film, and of course, living in Hollywood, she does not hate this kind of commercial film as much as European literary film directors. Catherine just subconsciously focused most of her attention on the good-looking blonde woman in the white vest in the movie.

The performance of the interaction between the woman and the hero's new girlfriend is excellent, although she is dressed up more plainly for the image of the meteorologist of the character, it is still difficult to hide the beautiful appearance of the woman.

Glancing at Eric in the dark, she knew that this person in the movie was called Joanna. Pakula's heroine is still the lover of the man next to her.

This greedy little bastard.

Feeling the woman's gaze, Eric looked over inquiringly, and Catherine quickly turned her head. Look at the big screen again.

Soon. The protagonist's convoy suffers its first tornado. Catherine was shocked to see the tornadoes rolling up trucks and tractors one by one with a terrifying momentum on the screen, and as a film director, she knew that no company had ever made such realistic tornado effects before.

The surrounding audience also let out a low exclamation at this time, and with the appearance of the first tornado, the pace of the film increased to the next ten minutes, and the hurricane special effects scenes that appeared on average every ten minutes were dizzying. The cool scene attracted bursts of exclamations from time to time.

Because "Tornado" appeared a few years earlier, before that, in terms of CG special effects, only "Terminator 2", which used liquid metal robot special effects, caused a similar sensation, and the audience has not yet experienced the impact of CG special effects blockbusters such as "Jurassic Park" and "Independence Day", so it will bring such a warm response from the audience.

When the film ended in a majestic symphony, the theater was already bursting with applause before the lights were turned on.

The two walked out of the cinema and walked slowly towards the parking lot when Catherine said, "The soundtrack of the movie is very good. ”

Eric said, "I have a sample of the soundtrack there. I'll send you a copy back. ”

"Thank you," Catherine did not refuse. After thinking about it, I couldn't help but say: "The heroine is also very beautiful." ”

"Ah, I can't give it to you," Eric joked.

Catherine smiled and the two walked to the car together, Eric thoughtfully opened the car door for the woman, watched her get into the car, leaned on the side of the car door and asked with a smile, "Are you really not considering letting me send you back?" ”

Catherine glared at him, did not speak, and took care of herself in her seatbelt.

"Otherwise, you can send me back, I don't mind," Eric continued to smile as he watched the woman's movements.

Catherine fastened her seatbelt, turned her head and forced Eric out of the way with her eyes, reached out and slammed the door shut, and with the sound of the engine, the white BMW sedan drove onto the road, first slowly for a short distance, and then suddenly accelerated, as if it was a second slower and would be held down by some giant beast.

Eric watched the woman's car disappear into the traffic before he shrugged, whispered to himself, and smiled as he walked to his car.

Driving back to her home in Beverly Hills' Coldwater Canyon, Catherine felt her heart beat a little faster, parked the car, opened the door and walked into the living room.

Hearing the sound of the door opening, a little fluffy guy meowed and ran over, presumably hungry.

Catherine took the cat food and poured it into the little one's basin before leaning back on the living room sofa a little tiredly.

I don't know how long it took, but after the yellow kitten with big ears had eaten his fill, he came over with small steps, jumped lightly on the sofa and leaned in.

Catherine took the little one over and put it on her lap, stroked it gently, and said, "Posey, do you think I'm a boring woman too?" ”

The little guy who was very comfortable to be petted just shrunk his furry body into a ball, found a more comfortable position and squinted his eyes, and did not answer his master at all.

Catherine looked at the little thing's lazy appearance, reached out and gently tugged at the kitten's big ears, and a faint sigh floated in the air.

……

After the last period of bombardment, the moment of the release of "Tornado" finally came, this is the first big-budget film launched by Firefly Pictures after the acquisition of Disney, and several other Hollywood film companies have set their sights on this movie, although "Tornado" has accumulated a very solid reputation after several rounds of screenings, but until the moment of large-scale release, no one knows what the box office potential of a movie is, After all, it is not unheard of when a movie was well received at the box office during its test screening, but it is not uncommon for it to hit the streets.

On the evening of June 4, "Tornado" held a grand premiere at the Central Theater in Hollywood, and officially opened in more than 2,600 theaters in North America.

“…… A breathtaking special effects movie, after two years of hibernation, Eric. Williams gave us a gorgeous visual feast. ”

“…… With a relaxed plot, amazing CG special effects, and a gorgeous and magnificent soundtrack, this young Hollywood tycoon has once again brought us a surprise. ”

“…… After watching this movie, I only have one worry, maybe in the future, our big screen will be occupied by this kind of realistic CG special effects. And the essence of film as a story carrier is lost. Digital special effects companies may be bringing Hollywood into a whole new era. ”

“……”

June 5th. After the midnight screening. Large-scale film reviews have reappeared in a variety of media, most of the print media have given "Tornado" a very high score, and countless film reviews have also praised the majority, although it is inevitable that some ultra-conservative film critics habitually criticize the film with fierce words, but under this general trend, it has no impact at all.

Under everyone's expectations, on June 6, the box office of "Tornado" was released on the first day. Although Firefly Pictures did not release specific data to the outside world, Hollywood studios and entertainment media, which have been paying close attention to this matter, quickly got detailed figures through their own channels.

$14.5 million on the first day.

Seeing this number, many people have an indescribable sense of numbness, feeling surprised, and taking it for granted.

According to the box office law of the first week of the movie, after Friday, the box office will climb once on Saturday, and it will fall again on the weekend, "Tornado" is expected to get about $45 million at the box office in the first three days of the weekend, and the box office on weekdays in the summer is generally about half of the three days of the weekend. Calculated in this way, the box office of "Tornado" may reach the cost line of $70 million in the first week.

In the office of the CEO of Columbia Pictures. Seeing the box office data in his hands, Peter. Cooper has already developed a bad feeling, according to the current reputation of "Tornado", even in the next week, the box office will not fall too much, and it will definitely remain between $40 million and $50 million, and the average weekly box office in North America in the summer season is only about $100 million, and "Dark War Prequel" is likely to compete with more than a dozen other films for the remaining $50 million at the box office.

After the early test screening, many critics and audiences generally expressed varying degrees of dissatisfaction with "Dark War Prequel", believing that this prequel movie completely lost the film style created by Eric in the first part and became a mediocre action movie, although the film's action scenes are not spectacular, and the big scenes are not gorgeous, but in the face of the realistic CG special effects of "Tornado", these do not seem to be too competitive.

What's more, a week after the release of "Dark War Prequel", Warner's "Batman Returns" will also be released. Cooper couldn't help but shudder.

Originally, Columbia also had a relationship with Tom. Cruise's production company signed a three-film deal, but now it looks like the partnership is going to be reconsidered. Peter. Cooper couldn't help but think of "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" in the making, he has been in Hollywood for decades, even if he can't make a good movie, but his vision for film is absolutely undoubted, such a novel plot and a new shooting concept to make a movie, as long as there are no big accidents, success is almost inevitable.

Peter. Cooper quickly figured out that if he wanted to keep his current position, he still had to cling to the cooperation with Firefly Pictures. Cooper picked up the phone on his desk and dialed Eric's number.

"Hi Eric, I'm Peter. Cooper ...... Of course it's fine, I just wanted to congratulate you......"

……

In the carnival of summer fans, the first week box office of the movie was finally released, and "Tornado" won a total of more than $65 million at the box office in seven days, plus the small-scale movies in the previous week, the total box office just exceeded the $70 million film cost line.

Many people who were still expecting the box office of "Tornado" to decline were dashed at the last glimmer of hope, and those who wanted to cooperate with Fireflies also put away the loss in their hearts, picked up the phone again and dialed Eric's number, Eric experienced a phone bombardment again, just like after the box office came out on the first day.

"Of course, Chris, it's good for you to have an idea about this matter, 2 million a year is 2 million...... Haha, I didn't say I had so much money that I couldn't spend it, I just believed that you wouldn't let me lose...... Well, of course...... To be honest, I still enjoyed hearing those people call me with envy and jealousy to congratulate me...... Okay, let's not talk nonsense with you, I'm busy here, if you want, you can fly over to participate in the celebration banquet of "Tornado" in the evening, it will definitely be more lively at that time...... Then I'll hang up," Eric hung up his phone and handed it to his assistant behind him.

After finishing a movie, Hollywood directors often take a vacation to take a good rest and experience the success or loss of the movie's release. But while "Tornado" almost broke Hollywood's first-week box office record, Eric didn't have much time to stop and enjoy the flowers and wine.

Chris, who is far away in New York, has just called to discuss with Eric about a donation to the World Wide Web Fund, and tells him that IE has been put up on the shelf, except for Tim, who is a consultant to the company. Berners. In addition to Li, Chris not only hired dozens of software engineers, but even recruited a senior manager from Oracle to serve as the director of IE. In order to facilitate interaction with the World Wide Web Consortium, IE is temporarily located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is located, and the beta version of IE is expected to be available by the end of the year.

In addition to IE, the other two companies are also preparing in an orderly manner, according to Eric's plan, these two companies will not officially launch IE as a platform until at least after the launch of the IE beta version, so Chris's main focus is still on IE.

Someone in the open space in front of him shouted something over the loudspeaker, waking Eric out of his thoughts.

This is a square in Firefly Studios, and the behemoth in the center of the square slowly moves after the shout just now.

foreground, leaning over, biting, growling......

When this Tyrannosaurus rex model, which took months of hard work by more than a dozen special effects artists in the digital field, successfully completed various test actions, everyone breathed a sigh of relief and cheered.

"How's that, Eric," Stan said. Winston ran over with great interest, with a hint of invitation in his tone, although he knew that the development center of the digital field was CG special effects, but after so many years of model special effects, Stan. Winston was still unusually excited and proud as he watched another model take shape in the hands of his team.

"It's great," Eric praised without hesitation, "and I'm sure this big guy will surprise everyone next year." ”

"Of course, it's definitely not much worse than the hurricane in Tornado," says Stan. Winston said confidently, and then said, "Then let's take a look at the model of the velociraptor again." ”

In Stan. Under Winston's personal command, the Tyrannosaurus rex model was carefully dragged back to the warehouse, and several models of the velociraptor that reminded them were quickly pulled out by the staff. (To be continued......)