Chapter 592

Many years later, Private Ryan, who was already in his twilight years, came to the Normandy Memorial Cemetery again, where 120,000 lives were buried, and touched the name on the white tombstone that made him unforgettable, as if he had returned to the old days.

The sound of the waves around the landing craft was like the uneasy cry of a soldier before the battle, the habitually trembling fingers unscrewed the aluminum kettle, Captain Miller poured a mouthful of water, and his deputy shoved a ball of chocolate into his mouth, everyone tried to keep themselves calm.

As the helmsman was about to land, Captain Miller and his lieutenant Horvath began to reinvigorate the soldiers in a hurried tone to take precautions when landing, however, these words did not seem to have any effect, the hatch opened, and the rapid sound of machine-gun fire immediately caused a large number of soldiers in the cabin to fall before they had time to react.

This tragic scene, which did not give any buffer room in the slightest, immediately made many audience members in the screening room gasp, and the constantly shaking lens of the hand-held camera gave people the illusion of being there.

The next picture makes people's heartstrings tense even more.

Some struggled to jump into the water, but were hit by bullets and never resurfaced, some struggled to make their way to the shore, but before they could get close to the beach, they fell on the way, and some dragged their wounded comrades unabandoned, only to find that only half of the body was left in their hands after the sound of the cannon......

Eric saw that a female executive from the distribution department sitting not far from the left hand side had covered her eyes unbearably, and most of the others also showed solemn expressions.

Glancing at Catherine beside her, the woman's fingers were tightly grasping the armrests of the seat, and her mood was obviously not relaxed.

After the end of the twenty-minute Normandy landings. As the camera cuts to the mailroom. Eric clearly felt a great relief from everyone in the screening room. Someone raised their hands as if to applaud the war scene that had just been successful, but soon realized that a film of this genre was not suitable for such a reaction, so they put it down.

Eric looked at Catherine, who was not relaxed at all, patted her hand, leaned over and whispered, "Why don't we go out for a walk?"

This is the first internal preview after the final cut of "Saving Private Ryan", Catherine shook her head and said, "Isn't that okay?"

Eric stretched out his hand and drew straight down, and said softly, "Your back is so straight." It's all in the way of other people's sight. ”

Catherine's mood was already extremely worried, hearing Eric's slightly joking words, she relaxed a lot, and felt Eric directly take her hand and want to pull her up and leave, Catherine quickly broke free, but the whole person had already left the seat, and had to walk out of the screening hall with Eric.

The screening room was on the first floor of the administration building of Firefly Cinemas, and the two left the screening room, closed the door to block the sound of the movie, and the surroundings immediately fell silent.

Because it's Saturday. Although there are still many crews working on the studio, there are not many people working overtime in the administrative building. Eric put his hand in his pocket, looked at the slender Catherine in a black leather jacket and jeans, and said, "Why don't you go to my office for a coffee?" ”

Catherine dared to be alone in a room with this little man who always made her mind turbulent, pointed to the cement corridor outside the floor-to-ceiling glass window, and said, "Let's go outside." ”

"OK," Eric said first.

The Preavista Studios campus is generally rectangular in a northeast direction, parallel to the Belona Canal, which flows through downtown Culver.

Eric looked at Catherine, who walked out of the administrative building, still looking back with some concern, and found a topic, and said, "Catherine, I've always been curious, what does the name of the Belona Canal next to the studio mean 'Ballona', do you know?"

Because of her deep understanding of classical oil painting, Catherine is very familiar with some of the Western mythological characters involved, although she is a little absent-minded, she blurts out without hesitation: "That's a tall and beautiful god of war in ancient Rome......" After saying this, the woman immediately realized something, and glared at Eric, but there was no annoyance in her eyes, but there was a trace of imperceptible shyness.

Eric laughed: "I think the name Bellona is quite nice and suits you, but Catherine's name is too popular." ”

"Then did you know that Bellona's counterpart in Greek mythology, Enio, is a very bloody and cruel woman, after the Trojan horse slaughtered the city, Troy was bloody, but she took advantage of her drunkenness to drink the blood of the city. ”

Eric innocently spread his hands: "This kind of thing, you don't need to study it so deeply, I've never heard of such an unpopular side plot." ”

Catherine smiled at the corner of her mouth, with a faint smile, and said, "You were the one who provoked this topic first." ”

"Well, my bad," Eric laughed and shook his head, "Then let's talk about something else, what are you going to do next?"

Catherine said, "Take a break, walk around, and then come back to work, remember Becky, she said Columbia University is going to have a pop art exhibition next week, and I'm going to check it out." ”

Eric only vaguely knew that some pop art was a representative of pop culture, and he didn't delve into what it was.

"Maybe I'm going to New York soon, will you still stay at that hotel in Soho?"

Catherine remembered the time when the two of them were together at the Sixty Soho Hotel three years ago, and everything was as clear as yesterday, and she couldn't help but say, "Maybe, but it's also ...... Probably staying at Becky's house. ”

"It's not good to bother people, I have a high-rise apartment at the exit of Sixth Avenue with a view of Central Park, maybe you can live there. ”

Catherine stopped, stared at Eric fixedly for a few seconds, and saw that the little man did not have a weak look at all, but she was embarrassed: "You, you still have to stay, I'd better go to the hotel, so that no one bother." ”

Eric still had a faint smile on his face, and said calmly, "OK, call me when you stay here." Maybe we can still be neighbors. ”

Catherine felt the urge to run away. This little bastard. How can you be so stubborn, it's such a scoundrel.

The woman picked and chose in a panic, and finally thought of a trick to 'change the topic', and said: "When the movie is finished, what are you going to do when you ask me to save all those props, and those things are stored in a warehouse in Ireland, and it costs a lot of money every month to keep them?"

In order to shoot "Saving Private Ryan", the crew prepared thousands of sets of military uniforms from various countries during World War II. There were also landing craft, off-road vehicles, and countless other odds and pieces, all of which cost tens of millions of dollars, and Eric certainly couldn't dispose of them after the movie was finished like many movies.

What's more, he has a better way to recycle it in his heart.

While it was funny to watch the woman clumsily change the subject, Eric didn't continue to tease Catherine, in case she was scared away: "I was going to use these things to make a mini-series that would reflect World War II films, and in the same vein as Ryan, which is a story about a company fighting behind enemy lines after the Normandy landings during World War II." Catherine. You've done so much preparation before, and you must know more about the history of World War II than I do. Would you be interested in being a producer on this miniseries?"

Catherine asked, "The cost of the war drama should be high, how much money are you going to spend on filming?"

"With these props and the production team of "Ryan", the production cost of each episode will not be higher than 10 million, and I plan to make ten episodes first. ”

"That's 100 million US dollars, "Ryan" only spent 70 million, and I'm still worried about whether I can recover the cost, but you have to use 100 million to make a TV series. Catherine shook her head, then laughed, looked at Eric and said, "I almost forgot, you are now the richest man in the United States, and you are not short of money at all." ”

Eric has recently become accustomed to the words of the people around him teasing him, and said with a smile: "I am the richest man in the United States, but I am not a fool." Rest assured, after the release of "Ryan", it will definitely cause a wave of war film craze, take the opportunity to launch such a mini-series, there is no problem in recovering costs through multi-channel operations, I just want to buy a TV network, and I can also enhance the brand effect of the TV network with such a mini-series. ”

Catherine shook her head, "I don't understand this, but I've heard some news that your negotiations with ABC have broken down?"

Eric said: "There is no break, but it is also at the last minute, it depends on whether ABC is willing to take a step back, if it goes well, I will go to New York next week to attend the signing ceremony." ”

"It's the 12th, and the Oscars are on the 21st," Catherine said, suddenly wondering whether to be relieved or disappointed, if that were the case, Eric would have to come back after spending less than a few days in New York: "I heard that they invited you to present the Best Picture award this time, which has rarely happened before." ”

Because of the influence of the butterfly effect, "Schindler's List", which should have appeared this year, was advanced by a year, and this year belongs to the Oscar year, and none of the well-known directors has released their own works.

For the sake of ratings, at the beginning of the year, the Oscar organizing committee personally invited Eric to participate in this year's awards ceremony, at first they hoped that Eric would be the first to appear to boost the popularity of the awards ceremony, but in March, the new issue of "Forbes" After the magazine came out, the other party changed their minds, hoping that Eric would appear last and award the heavyweight Best Picture, this kind of award is generally given by a respected Hollywood celebrity, but with Eric's current strength and reputation in Hollywood, no one will think that he is not qualified to award the Best Picture Award.

"Speaking of Oscar, ICM is hosting a warm-up party at the Sunset Tower Hotel tonight, Kapoor called me to invite me to make an appearance, your brokerage contract is also at ICM, do you want to come with me?"

Catherine shook her head and said, "I still don't want to, I plan to go home early to rest." ”

Eric saw a flash of excitement in Catherine's expression, but then refused, pondered for a moment, and thought of a possible reason. Not only Catherine, but because of her cooperation with Firefly Pictures, Cameron's brokerage contract is also in ICM, and Catherine obviously doesn't want to meet Cameron, so Eric doesn't say anything anymore.

The two walked around the corridor of the serious park, drank a cup of coffee in the café, and felt that "Saving Private Ryan" was about to finish, so they walked towards the administrative building.

When I walked into the screening room, the fluorescent lights in the screening room had been turned on, and the employees of the publicity and distribution department who participated in the internal test screening were whispering, and when they saw Eric and Catherine walking in, everyone stopped chatting, and after a moment of silence, everyone applauded in unison.

Because the negotiations were suspended, Katzenberg, who had just returned from New York to attend the internal test screening, came over and said, "Lady Catherine, congratulations on making a great film, I would never have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes." ”

Catherine knew that Katzenberg didn't say it all, and he must have meant that he would never believe that it was a woman's shot. Catherine didn't mind, though, and shook Katzenberg's hand with a smile and said, "Thank you for your affirmation, Jeffrey." ”

Katzenberg nodded, then said to Eric: "However, Eric, there are two very important problems with this film, one is the duration, 170 minutes, close to three hours, I suggest it is better to edit it again." In addition, there is the issue of ratings, if the film cuts out the overly bloody parts, although it will be able to get PG-13, it will lose the authenticity of the scene, but if it is not modified, the R rating is certain. ”

Eric knows Katzenberg's character very well, as a workaholic, although Katzenberg has a lot of executives' sociable side, but for work, he often becomes straightforward, so he doesn't mind Katzenberg's confession, said: "Jeffrey, the rough cut of this film is four and a half hours, Katherine and I have done the maximum trimming, and I don't think it can be shortened for 170 minutes." As for the R-rate, "The Terminator" has proven that an R-rated film doesn't mean a box office failure, so there's nothing to worry about at all. This is a war movie after all. ”

Katzenberg himself was aware of this, and after hearing the confirmation from Eric, he did not continue to dwell on it, as a professional filmmaker, he also felt that the plot of this film had become so compact that it could no longer be modified, but he was in professional instinct and put forward his opinion to Eric. (To be continued.) )