Chapter 86 - Throw yourself at me

After a toast with champagne, the party officially began. Pretty Woman was a film that could bring Fox hundreds of millions of dollars in profits, including revenue from peripheral videotapes. Thus even Fox's current President Barry Diller personally attended the party.

In addition to the Pretty Woman crew members, Fox also invited dozens of big and small stars. The party scene could be described as star-studded. Even though there were a lot of big shots attending, the banquet hall with hundreds of people was orderly. The guests gathered in groups of three to five to discuss their own topics.

"Eric, on the matter of the Super Bowl Trailer, Fox's promotion department was indeed too conservative. I guarantee that for the next movie release, Fox will fully cooperate with you."

Why wait till next time, this time can also be included in your declaration and reimbursed to me.

Eric groaned in his heart and said with a smile on his face: "Mr. Diller, don't mention it. The $1.5 million for the Super Bowl ad was really expensive. Fox was naturally cautious."

Barry Diller chuckled and didn't mention it anymore.

This old fox!

The topic was once again moved to Eric's next film. After Pretty Woman, Fox had already decided to publish the film in the summer, although not even drafted yet.

This summer, many big movies would be released. Warner's Batman, Paramount's Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and Colombia's Ghostbusters II were all destined to be huge at the Box Office.

Because Fox shifted too much attention to developing their television network this year, their number of film productions and distributions totaled little more than a dozen movies. Ranking them last among the big six movie studios list.

In order not to be in the bottom, Fox was bound to give full support to Eric's film. Especially after the success of Pretty Woman.

The summer season is a big deal, and it is not easy to get a high box office. Eric didn't want to risk the highly anticipated sequel of Home Alone in competing with those blockbusters in the summer file. He took a long time to think about it before deciding on a thought that had occurred previously.

"I already have a preliminary outline of the plot for the next film. I intend to invite Tom Hanks and Tom Cruise as the stars. It will be a rivalry play between two men."

Barry Diller's eyes twitched slightly. If successful, just the name appeal of Tom Cruise and Eric are enough to boost the box office to over 100 million dollars. And with Home Alone's sequel also promised this year, Fox will have three big hits. So Fox no longer needed to worry about their film's performance, and can now safely focus on the development of their TV network.

"Eric, if you want to invite the two Toms, then their pay will be no less then $10 million each. What is your budget?"

Eric thought for a moment: "The budget should not exceed $30 million. This is a drama and doesn't need any big sets, or any special effects. The movie runs entirely on the two actor's personalities, so $30 million is already a high budget, and we probably won't be able to finish it."

"I heard that you just spent a lot of money to buy Steve Jobs's studio?"

Although Barry Diller was talking in an indifferent tone, Eric immediately understood his intent. Fox still wanted to play a part in the new film's investment.

"Yes, I had Pixar make the logo for my film company. After seeing it, I was quite satisfied with their work. When I heard that Steve Jobs wanted to sell the studio, I bought it. However, the time it takes to make an animation film is very long, and 3D animation is still in an exploratory stage. So I don't know when the first animated movie will be made."

Eric ignored the slightly frustrated look on Barry Diller's face. Anyway, if he was going to beat around the bush, Eric was going to do the same too.

Barry Diller had no choice but to clarify: "Eric, I meant that, if you don't have enough funds to produce the film, Fox can invest part of the budget, which will also reduce your risk. Do not worry, Fox will not link the cost of investment with the sharing agreement we signed previously."

Barry Diller stated his intentions bluntly, and Eric didn't directly reject the offer. Of course, he realized what Barry was thinking of, but he would not let his own interests be affected. If he succeeded in inviting the two Toms, the film would never fail with the box office appeal for the cooperation of the three people.

Finally, Eric could only say: "No problem, Mr. Diller, if we need external investment, Fox would definitely be my first choice."

When Barry Diller heard Eric's halfhearted answer, he understood that the chances of Fox investing in the movie were almost zero. But he would not make the same mistake as Columbia did previously. Now the cooperation between them was still in the honeymoon period. Although following their previous agreement, Eric would earn a little more than them, Fox would also make huge profits that made others wish they were in their place.

After talking about a few other topics, the two separated to socialize with other people. When Barry Diller moved away, Eric instantly felt a lot of eyes focus on him.

Okay, girls, the first one to throw herself at me, will get a role in my next movie. A ridiculous idea emerged in Eric's head, as he enjoyed this feeling of being noticed. After all, he was a common man until recently, if he didn't experience any vanity, there must be something wrong with him.

Soon he welcomed the first player.

Bald, six feet long, with a sturdy frame, and a crooked smile on his face. Ah... it's a man.

"Eric, you finally came back, I want to know what you're thinking. Julia got a lot of movie offers, and I think quite a few of them are good. But why did you reject them all?"

Eric had finally decided to indulge himself for once but was helplessly pulled aside by Kapoor.

"Kapoor, don't you have a sense of daggers piercing you?."

"What?"

"Would you look around?"

Kapoor, with a puzzled look on his face, glanced around uncertainly and found several beautiful girls looking at him with hostility in their eyes.

Although Kapoor was a workaholic, he was still very skilled in worldly affairs, or he wouldn't work as a broker. He shrugged and said: "I'm sorry, Eric, I don't mean to delay your hunt. But if you don't explain this to me, I won't be at ease."

Eric also wanted to tell him that most of Julia's successes in his past life were romantic comedies. As they had just released Pretty Woman, she temporarily can't take any of those movies. He felt that the most suitable project for Julia right now was Steel Magnolias. The work that let her win her first Golden Globe award, and made close to $100 million at the box office.

Unfortunately, when he did inquire about the film, he found that TriStar Pictures haven't yet started the project. He felt it must be either because of the butterfly effect caused by him, or they just didn't start working on it.

It was also not possible for him to write the script again. In his previous three movies, he was 100% sure that the original movie scripts had not yet appeared. Even if one popped up, it didn't have a close resemblance to his film, like in the case of Pretty Woman. So he used them with ease. But he can't guarantee the same when it came to this movie.

"Kapoor, wait a few more days. I will go to the Writer's Union to see if any good scripts have been registered, and pick one for Julia."

"Eric," Kapoor said: "do you know how many registered scripts the Writer's Union has? Thousands! It's like going to San Francisco to scour for gold."

It's easy to know where the gold is buried. All Eric had to do was find the screenwriter of Steel Magnolias and check if he registered the script yet.

"Trust me, Kapoor, be patient. I'll give you an answer soon."

Eric also made up his mind. If he can't find Steel Magnolias' script, he will pick another high-grossing movie for Julia from his memories. Anyway, with Julia's current fame, as long as the character suits her image, and she intended to participate in the movie, no director would reject her. He believed that many production companies would not hesitate to raise their budgets to get her in their projects and would pay generously.