Chapter 130 - Little favors part 2

(TN Note: Hello everyone I'm still sick as hell, but not as before looks like the pills the doctor prescribed me have finally started to work.)

        Eric didn't care if Tom Cruise gets any award nominations for his performance, and he also didn't care if this film gets any awards, all Eric cares about at this point in time is the film box office.

As for the Oscar he promised Cruise, he really doesn't know if he can win it, he only told him he can win the Oscar, so he agrees to dress as a woman, and he really didn't feel guilty about tricking him. All directors, producers, actors, want to win the award but most of them don't. So that's why he is more concerned about the movie box office, after all, he is still young, he can still win it in the future, and for now, he will focus on making more money.

The theme of 《Running Out of Time》 is certainly novel, Only God knows if this film can get the attention of the Oscar judges?. In his past life, Andy Lau was able to win the Hong Kong Film Award for the Best Actor for his role in 《Running Out of Time》, but if you think about it, public relations probably helped a lot. Plus, in 1999 the Hong Kong Film Awards has been in full decline, so not many excellent films were competing for the awards.

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After repeating the shot for three times, Eric finally gave his approval, and the crew began moving to another room in the studio, this process took more than half an hour. When making a movie the time spent by actors in front of the camera is really short, most of the time is used to set the layout of the scenes.

Most of the scenes filmed in the first two days are Cruise's one-man show, he completed the scenes where he talks to 'Sean' the character played by Tom Hanks on the phone, as well as the scene where he dresses as a woman, as well as other scenes.

Although he had the entire original film in his mind, Eric still chose to design some new scenes himself, So that when the time for post-production comes he will have enough material, After all, this is a brand new Hollywood movie, he will have to add some changes.

According to the shooting schedule, this process will last three days, in the Fourth days Hanks and the other come to the studio. Eric was looking forward to the moment Tom Cruise and Tom Hanks interact and show their acting skills on the screen. Because, in his past life, the two superstars have never worked together on the same project.

Unlike in his past works, Eric has plenty of time to shoot the film, so on the fourth day Eric told the whole crew to pack up and leave after only eight hours of work, and told the deputy director to take the good film rolls to the editing room, and hurriedly left. In addition to shooting 《Running Out of Time》, he has other things to do.

The initial casting work for 《The Others》 and 《Scent of a Woman》 has been completed, but he still needs to attend the final selection process. Moreover, he also needs to keep an eye on the shooting progress of 《Steel Magnolias》 far away in Louisiana.

Herbert Ross has been filming 《Steel Magnolias》 for a month now, but he was very slow. In this month he only completed less than half of the film, and he will probably spend another month to finish filming, and at least another month for Post-production.

Moreover, the film may even face the risk of overspending, Eric was hoping this will happen, because Firefly isn't the only investor in 《Steel Magnolias》, Herbert Ross also invested three million dollars.

So Eric didn't mind spending another two million in the film, which will allow him to expand the shares of the Firefly, he was just waiting for Herbert Ross to ask.

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"Hi, Eric, is your head all right?"

Back to the Firefly's office, Eric found that Jonathan Demme was already in his office waiting for him, he could see the fatigue on Jonathan's face, but his voice was still full of energy.

thanks for your concern, I'm much better now, did you bring the information with you?"

"Here, I did what you said, and screened out the actors to a small list, that was exhausting." Jonathan smiled and said.

He's really had the hardest job these days, even though 《The Others》 only need two child actors, but because Eric was the one who wrote the script, Firefly received more than five thousand resumes.

Many of the resumes sent to the Fireflies showed that the children didn't have any acting experience. Because the parents who sent their children's resumes had the illusion? That their child can be the next Stuart Runkle.

Some unscrupulous parents even deliberately fabricated their child resume, saying that their child was a guest actor in a certain movie or TV series, so the staff had to spend a lot of time confirming the authenticity of these resumes.

So identifying the small actors who had potentials, was harder than they imagined.

Eric didn't want to rely on his past life memories to directly find the children who had potentials.

Although he can remember everything from his past life, he still can't remember a thing he didn't know, like the names of all the actors he saw in his past life, he can still remember their faces but other than the names of the big stars he didn't pay attention to the others.

He thought about telling the staff the names of the famous Hollywood star of the future, but he soon gave up on this idea.

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The files Jonathan handed him, include not only the resumes of the child actors that passed the audition, but also the list of the actors who will play the roles of the three servants and the husband.

Although for those minor supporting roles, Eric gave Jonathan the authority to decided, Jonathan still wanted Eric to see if they were right.

The first file he opened was the file which has the child actors information, glancing at the list of the little boys, Eric was surprised to see the name of Macaulay Culkin, as for the other boys he didn't know anyone of them.

Reading Macaulay Culkin information, he found that although 《Home Alone》 isn't on his resume, the boy still has acting experience in two films 《Rocket Gibraltar》 and 《Uncle Buck》, which explains why he appeared on the list. Seeing Eric go directly to Culkin's resume, Jonathan asked curiously: "Eric, do you fancy the boy?"

Shaking his head, Eric said: "No, he should be eliminated."

"Well, I think, the boy called Macaulay Culkin is one of the best child actors I have ever seen ...... "

Eric couldn't tell Jonathan, that he doesn't want Macaulay to become as famous as his past life, although 《The Others》 can't bring him as much fame as 《Home Alone》, he will certainly get a lot of attention.

Keeping that little boy out of the spotlight is for the best, at least until he became an adult, then he can choose his own way.

He didn't want history to repeat itself because if the little boy became famous, he was sure the boy parents will certainly destroy the poor little boy like they did in his past life.

"Jonathan, you forgot that in 《The Others》 the boy character is very somber, now look at the picture of this little boy, don't you feel he is very clever."

Looking at the picture, Jonathan quickly admitted his mistake: "uhh, I really overlooked that."

Eric smiled and continued looking at the remaining child actors, but suddenly he looked up and stared at Jonathan Demme who was sitting opposite him: "Jonathan, do you know any of these kids?"

Jonathan Demme face became slightly flushed, after stammering a little, he finally nodded and drew out a boy's information: "This ... ... This is Brian Beck the son of a friend I worked with, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done this, but I swear, I carefully interviewed the boy, and I can guaranty that he has the qualification to be on the list."

Jonathan was going to throw the resume in the trash bin, but Eric quickly stopped him, and took back the resume, after carefully reading all the information, Eric said: "Jonathan, give him the role."

"I'm really sorry, I didn't ... ... huh, what did you say?" Jonathan who was going to apologize looked at Eric in wonder.

Eric smiled and said: "I mean, if he is good, then it's okay. You know I don't have the time to interview all of them, plus, I believe you won't treat this film as a joke, right?"

"Of course, " Jonathan nodded in affirmation, he know this was his last chance. If this movie succeeds, then he will have a bright future in Hollywood. But if the film fails, then he will have to find another job.

"So, is there anyone else?" Eric asked again.

This time Jonathan firmly shook his head: "Absolutely not, Eric, all the remaining actors have nothing to do with me."

Eric decided to do Jonathan this little favor on the spur of the moment, only because he thought that Jonathan Demme has potentials because in his past life the guy didn't only direct 《The Silence of the Lambs》 he also directed 《Philadelphia》 the film that got Tom Hanks his first Oscar.

Now that the child actor was identified, Eric found that there was no need to look at the rest, so he quickly switched to the little girl's list.

The first two names he saw were Kirsten Dunst and Sarah Michelle Gellar.

...... ......

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