I'm in Hollywood

Chapter 333: You Must Be Crazy #

With a puzzled expression on his face, Eric finished cleaning up the set and returned to his hotel. He found that the entire floor dedicated to the film crew was now completely deserted, and the lively scene that usually occurred after the crew finished work had disappeared. Just as he pushed open the door to his room, a pink figure floated over to him and clung onto him like a koala. It was Drew, dressed in a pink knee-length skirt with her hair styled in loose waves and a side-swept bang accentuating her doll-like face.

“Hey, Drew, what brings you to New York?” Eric asked, pulling her off him to take a closer look.

“I came to visit you,” Drew replied with a grin, pulling Eric over to sit down as she straddled his lap.

Eric quickly realized that today’s events were somehow related to the young girl sitting on his lap, who was now playfully rolling her eyes.

“Alright, spill the beans. What are you guys planning?” Eric demanded, giving Drew a slap on the butt.

“Hehe, I’m not telling,” Drew pouted and replied, trying to act cute.

Eric didn’t buy her act and tickled her sides until she finally relented.

“Okay, okay, you’ll find out soon enough,” Drew said, standing up and taking a deep breath before producing a blindfold from the coffee table. “Put this on, and I’ll take you somewhere.”

Eric took the blindfold and played with it for a bit before looking up at Drew and asking, “What if I don’t want to?”

“Then I’ll…cry,” Drew threatened, her eyes narrowing.

“Let me see you cry then,” Eric responded with a smirk, amused by her childish behavior.

Drew scrunched up her face and tried to force out some tears, but they never came. Instead, she let out a loud cry and jumped into Eric’s arms, scratching and clawing at him like a wildcat.

“Fine, fine, I’ll put it on,” Eric said, exasperated. Despite his annoyance, he couldn’t help but feel curious about what kind of surprise Drew had in store for him.

Putting on the eye mask, Drew immediately pulled Eric and walked out.

Eric only felt like he entered an elevator, and then was pulled into a car. Soon he felt the sound of the car starting.

“Hey, let’s make it clear first. Don’t play too extreme, or I’ll be angry.”

“Am I that kind of person?” the girl retorted discontentedly.

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“Aren’t you?”

“Hmph.”

The speed of the car was not fast, and Eric was not in a hurry. With the eye mask on, he leaned back on the seat and could close his eyes and rest for a while. He didn’t know how long had passed. Eric felt that the car was still driving and showed no signs of stopping, and he was already a little drowsy.

“How much longer?” Eric couldn’t help but ask.

“Don’t worry,” the girl looked at the pager she had been holding in her hand. In fact, the car had been driving around Manhattan Street to delay time, but Eric didn’t know.

Eric didn’t say anything and leaned back on the seat again.

The pager in her hand finally beeped, and Drew made a gesture to the driver. The speed of the car increased a bit, and it only took more than ten minutes to arrive at the destination.

Pulling Eric out of the underground parking lot, they took the elevator directly. A few minutes later, the girl pushed open a door and whispered “surprise” in Eric’s ear, then quickly took off Eric’s eye mask.

The sound of banging cannons and flying confetti came in their faces. It was obvious that the people in the hall had rehearsed well and spoke in unison.

“Happy Birthday!”

“Wow,” Eric exclaimed, feeling a bit at a loss. When he heard these words, he finally remembered that today was May 16th, the birthday of the original owner of this body. Eric didn’t pay much attention to birthdays in his past life, let alone now. Coupled with being busy these days, Eric couldn’t remember this event at all.

Familiar faces crowded up to him. Apart from the crew members of these days, the actors and directors he had worked with in the past year had also come. The executives of Firefly and Pixar also appeared here. Eric even saw Stan Winston, who should be in Los Angeles, and James Cameron, who should be preparing for Terminator 2.

Obviously, Drew must have put in a lot of effort to prepare this birthday party for him. Just keeping this a secret from him was not easy.

After frolicking together for a while, the people slowly dispersed.

“Hey, Jonah, how’s the post-production of ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ going… It’s pretty good, my movie? Of course, it’s about to wrap up too.”

“Wow, I didn’t expect you to be here too, Tom. What movies have you been working on lately? Of course, of course, what I said before still stands.”

“Hello, Julia… Hey, Liz, it’s my birthday today. You can’t treat me like an old mother hen.”

“Robert, how’s the filming of ‘Sleeping with the Enemy’ going? Well, after I finish ‘Ghost,’ I’ll go take a look… You should trust Julia, she has enough box office appeal now.”

“…”

“…”

After greeting the guests, Eric finally had a brief break and sat down on a sofa in a corner. The young girl who had been clinging to him attentively brought him a glass of juice.

At that moment, James Cameron, who had greeted him earlier with his wife Kathryn Bigelow, walked over again.

“Hi, James, and Mrs. Bigelow,” Eric stood up straight and James Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow sat down next to him.

Looking at this couple, Eric couldn’t help but remember some memories from his past life. Cameron was not to be mentioned, but Kathryn Bigelow was also a legendary woman director in Hollywood. The films she directed had nothing to do with other women in Hollywood, and it could even be said that Kathryn Bigelow’s films had very little to do with women at all.

Listen to the titles of her films, “Point Break,” “The Hurt Locker,” “K-19: The Widowmaker,” “Strange Days”…

And, most importantly, in the parallel time and space, Kathryn Bigelow was the first female Best Director winner in Oscar history. And at that year’s Oscars, Kathryn Bigelow’s biggest opponent was James Cameron, who was sitting beside her now. It was so exciting that it could be made into a movie, like “Ex-Wife’s Revenge” or something.

In his memory, James Cameron had sparks with Linda Hamilton, the female lead in “Terminator 2,” and he quickly divorced Kathryn Bigelow after “Terminator 2” was released.

“Eric, actually, I wanted to discuss something with you,” James Cameron said to Eric after greeting him.

“Hmm?” Eric looked puzzled, thinking that the best investment wouldn’t be happening so soon, the movie hasn’t even started filming yet?

Seeing Eric’s expression, James Cameron looked at his wife and Kathryn Bigelow took the initiative to speak, “It’s like this, Mr. Williams…”

“Call me Eric,” Eric interrupted the other party.

Kathryn Bigelow did not show any displeasure. She nodded and said, “Recently, I got a good script. It’s a story about surfers, but due to conflicts in casting, the original copyright owner, Columbia Pictures, abandoned the project. So now, I’m looking for investors.”

When Eric heard the word “surfers,” he vaguely remembered a certain movie in his mind, but he hadn’t seen it before. He had only come across some introductions in his previous life and remembered the male lead in the movie.

“Can you introduce the plot?” Eric asked.

“It’s roughly like this. A newly appointed young FBI agent, Johnny, is investigating a bank robbery case. After a lot of tracking, he finds that many clues point to a group of surfers. So Johnny goes to the beach in Southern California and explains the situation to the young surfing coach, Tyler…”

It took Kathryn Bigelow five minutes to briefly narrate the entire story and also gave her own opinions on filming.

“So, you want to tell the story in a darker way?” Eric asked.

Kathryn Bigelow nodded, “I think it can better question human nature and be more realistic.”

“Oh, you just said that you had conflicts with Columbia Pictures in casting. Who did you choose as the male lead?” Although Eric already had an answer in his heart, he still asked cautiously.

“Keanu Reeves,” Kathryn Bigelow said, “This big boy played Ted in ‘Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure’ last year. Columbia Pictures said that Keanu Reeves’s image is very different from an FBI agent, but I think Keanu Reeves can definitely become an outstanding action actor. He has this kind of potential.”

As expected, Eric thought in his heart. After briefly remembering the introduction about this movie in his memory, Eric was sure. Although he didn’t know how this movie would turn out, one thing was certain, Eric remembered very clearly that it would be best if this movie could be successful at the box office.

As long as this point can be confirmed, Eric has already made a decision.

“Ms. Bigelow, I need a detailed script and project budget information,” Eric said.

Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow both looked surprised. If Eric said so, it definitely meant that they had agreed to it. The couple didn’t have high hopes, after all, neither of them thought this was a commercial film. Otherwise, Columbia wouldn’t have given up on this project.

“Well… Eric, I didn’t bring this information with me today, but I can give it to you within three days,” Kathryn Bigelow said.

Eric nodded and asked, “By the way, who will be the producer for this movie?”

“Cameron already agreed to it, but now it seems that we need to find a new producer because we couldn’t confirm when we would get the investment. I thought it wouldn’t be too late for Jim to finish ‘Terminator 2,’” Kathryn said.

“Then let me personally be the producer,” Eric said after thinking about it.

“You?” Kathryn Bigelow immediately looked doubtful.

“Hey, Kate, don’t you believe in Eric’s abilities?” Cameron pretended to be unhappy and glared at his wife.

Kathryn Bigelow finally realized that although Eric was only 20 years old today, his achievements made over 90% of Hollywood directors feel inferior. Moreover, Eric now manages a movie company that is second only to the Big Seven in Hollywood. Being a producer for a movie should be easy for him.

“Okay,” Kathryn Bigelow nodded, “I was just thinking, Eric, don’t you need to shoot your own movie?”

“Of course I do, but it doesn’t seem to conflict. Just right, I haven’t done specific production work before, and I believe this is also a chance for me to learn,” Eric said. When he saw Kathryn Bigelow’s doubtful expression again, he quickly waved his hand and said, “Don’t worry, Ms. Bigelow, you should believe in my abilities. I think as long as people know enough about me, no one in Hollywood will doubt my ability, right?”

“It seems so,” Kathryn Bigelow finally nodded.

Seeing that things were resolved so easily, Cameron’s expression changed, and he wanted to push for more, such as adding more budget to “Terminator 2”.

But Eric clearly saw Cameron’s thoughts, and he knew that letting Cameron have his way so easily was not a good idea. Eric stood up directly and said, “Okay, that’s it for today, James. We’ll talk about the details later. Today is my birthday, let’s have some fun.”

After speaking, Eric let the little girl hold his arm and walked away towards somewhere else.

“Hey James, that little one definitely figured out what you wanted to say,” Kathryn Bigelow quipped with a hint of teasing after Eric left.

Cameron shrugged indifferently, “Anyway…he won’t be able to escape it sooner or later.”

Although Kathryn Bigelow wanted to persuade her husband to be more restrained, she gave up the idea when she thought of Cameron’s fastidious personality when making movies. She knew her husband would not listen to her.

“James, to be honest, how much money do you plan to spend on Terminator 2?”

Cameron calculated a bit and then looked around before surreptitiously extending one finger to his wife.

Kathryn Bigelow gasped, “One hundred million dollars?”

Cameron nodded.

“You must be crazy. That little one will be so angry with you,” Kathryn Bigelow said helplessly. After all, so far, there hasn’t been any movie investment in Hollywood that has reached one hundred million dollars, and an investment of more than fifty million dollars is enough to stir up the movie industry.

“He has the money. Isn’t money meant to be used to make movies?” Cameron argued righteously.