King of Hollywood

Chapter 148: Chapter 148 Deliberation

“Feelings? Let me think… Not bad, I’m an Al fan, I think the part where he dances the tango and the final admonishing speech were just fantastic!” On the TV, a young man wearing a baseball cap was excitedly speaking to the camera.

“Thank you, thank you for your response,” the reporter said to the cameraman after getting an answer, gesturing to move away from the guy who still wanted some screen time and toward another young black man coming out of the cinema with his girlfriend by his side.

“Hello, may I know your names?” the reporter was the first to ask.

“Uh… my name is Woody Andrews, and this is my girlfriend Mia Harrison,” the young black man seemed a bit shy, but his girlfriend was lively in greeting the reporter: “Hello.”

“Was the movie you just saw ‘Scent of a Woman’?” the reporter continued, and upon receiving an affirmative answer, she immediately followed up: “Can you tell me, what do you think about this film? Why did you bring your girlfriend to see it?”

“It’s a great movie, especially when Al is dancing tango, it’s really very appealing,” the black girl named Mia answered first, and after some thought, the young black man said, “It’s a stirring film, especially Al’s speech at the auditorium at the end, which resonated with me. At that moment, I and the people around me couldn’t help but applaud. When I was in high school, I also experienced something similar, and luckily I made the same choice as Charlie. The reason why I came to see this movie with Mia is because it’s not unrelated to the fact that I was able to ask her out back then.”

“That sounds great, thank you for your answers,” the reporter said, giving them a thumbs up and then, bringing the microphone to her mouth and looking at the camera: “Okay, George, now I have good news and bad news for you. The good news is that 80% of respondents think ‘Scent of a Woman’ is an excellent movie; the bad news is, after such a long survey, I’m exhausted and need a rest, so let’s switch back to Billy in the studio.”

“Thank you, Todd, and thank you for your fieldwork,” the host’s voice followed, and the TV screen returned to the studio, where the news anchor was smiling, “Clearly everyone really loves this movie from the heart. As a director and producer, Adrian must be very proud, after all, this film had been shelved for a long time and was not seen favorably by many. He must have put a lot of effort into it. Well, that’s all for today’s program, we’ll meet again next time.”

With a soft click, the TV screen turned black, and Claude put the remote control on the coffee table, looking at Adrian sitting across from him with a half-smile: “Feeling proud now, genius director?”

“Of course, why not?” Adrian shrugged, as if to say it was only to be expected, “But now is not the time to be most proud; once ‘Howards End’ is released next month, I’m going to surprise even more people.”

“Still so confident,” Claude said with a laugh, standing up to pour himself a glass of whiskey and then turning to Adrian, “You’ve already surprised quite a few people—care for a drink?”

“No, not for now,” Adrian, looking through files on the coffee table, shook his head.

“Come on, have one. Let’s consider it a celebration,” Claude insisted, pouring another glass and placing it in front of him.

“A celebration?” Adrian looked up, somewhat puzzled.

“Yes, a toast to your debut film crossing the one hundred million mark in North America,” Claude said, lifting his glass with a smile.

Adrian arched an eyebrow, then picked up the glass and smiled, “That, indeed.”

Although ‘Pulp Fiction’s’ box office had been modest yet persistent, with consistently around two to three million in weekly revenue, it even saw a small surge during the Halloween holiday, returning to the top ten in the North American box office rankings with $2.6 million. So, after 22 weeks in theaters, the film finally earned over one hundred million US dollars in North America! A long theatrical run means a higher share of earnings for theaters by this stage, but compared to the movie’s nearly ten million investment, that didn’t count for much loss. Especially now, as the film faces being pulled from theaters and the busy movie season approaches, ‘Pulp Fiction’s’ ability to still draw one to two million in weekend box office is nothing short of miraculous.

“Box office, critical acclaim, and honors all count as a bountiful harvest. The Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or is not so easily obtained—I didn’t understand that until two months after you won it,” Claude’s tone carried a hint of emotion.

“That’s just the icing on the cake,” Adrian seemed nonchalant, “For Americans, the Oscar is the most important thing. As for the Palme d’Or… unless someone is really unable to get anything at the Oscars and is anxious to regain waning popularity, directors and actors might consider European film festivals, but if they want to take it one step further, they ultimately have to return to Hollywood.”

“It’s surprising to hear you say that, considering you’ve participated in all three major European film festivals once,” Claude joked.

“That’s the way it is; that place is heaven for low-budget films, producing self-indulgent movies in the name of ‘art,’ never caring about—the majority of—the audience’s opinions. If there’s no balance, decline is inevitable,” Adrian said, his brows knitting together as if he were recalling something.

“Alright, let’s not talk about this. As long as ‘Howards End’ is released smoothly and meets expectations, then I’ve accomplished a big part of my goals for this year,” he then waved his hand dismissively.

“The Oscars?” Claude raised an eyebrow.

“Yes, Oscar,” Adrian smiled and made a gesture, “I told you so.”

“I must say again, Ed,” Claude sipped his whiskey, “the ideas that pop out of your head have been more numerous in the past few months than the sum of the last 20 years. As far as I know, the screenwriters at the movie company have been busy turning your ideas into scripts, and they seem to be different from the ones you originally told me.”

“They were actually always there, just surfacing now,” Adrian pointed to his head, “Before, I just focused on other things.”

“Well, let’s leave that aside,” Claude didn’t dwell on the topic, “Let’s talk about the film company. Frankly, I think we are slightly over-invested in the movies we’re currently funding and planning to fund.”

“Is that your view, or?” Adrian gestured as he looked at him.

Claude was taken aback for a moment and then laughed, “What, has Laverne said the same thing to you? Oh, of course, he’s an outstanding CEO, it’s not surprising he has the same view as me. Although I don’t understand filmmaking, I understand the market and risks. Think about it, Ed, if…”

“Alright, Claude,” Adrian immediately raised his hand to stop him, gestured a few times and after pondering, he sighed, “I know, I definitely can’t convince you on this, but I want to ask, how many of the movie investments or productions that I agreed to haven’t made a profit?”

“None,” Claude gave the answer without much thought.

Adrian didn’t say anything more, just spread his hands open and looked at him.

“Can you guarantee it will always be like this?” Claude raised an eyebrow and asked, “For instance, ‘Schindler’s List’?”

“That’s unpredictable, and I’ve told you that ‘Schindler’s List’ can bring us more than just monetary gains,” Adrian retorted.

“But what you just mentioned were economic benefits,” Claude said with a chuckle as he wagged his finger.

Adrian looked as if he wanted to say something, but in the end, he simply spread his hands, “Not one hundred percent, but I can achieve eighty percent. In this regard, I believe my judgment is much more accurate than yours because you need to oversee everything. And, as we both know, without a vast library of high-quality films, it’s very difficult for a film company to expand its scale.”

True enough, one reason the Big Seven remain on the throne of Hollywood is that they possess massive libraries of movies. This is also why Adrian wanted to gather all the excellent films of the 1990s into his collection.

“Besides, weren’t you complaining about having too much liquid capital? Why not invest it in movies?” he continued.

“Alright, alright, you’re always right,” Claude conceded the argument.

Adrian laughed and moved on to another topic, “Speaking of surplus liquid capital, how about acquiring another film company? How about acquiring one larger than Bossworth Film Company. Let me think, Miramax Films? Or New Line Cinema?”

“I want to ask, why do you suddenly want to acquire a new film company?” Claude inquired.

“Because of distribution,” Adrian raised his hands, “if we had two film companies, many low-budget movies could be produced by one and then distributed by the other, like the big companies do, passing profits from the left hand to the right, and this would also help establish our own distribution channels.”

“Well, that’s indeed a good reason, but Ed, if you acquire another film company, where will your main focus be? On Bossworth Film Company or on the newly acquired one?” Claude asked with a reminder.

Adrian paused and furrowed his brows, not saying anything, until after a few seconds, Claude continued, “Also, you mentioned the two film companies, they are currently negotiating with Disney and TBS, and based on intelligence, it’s quite possible they’ll be acquired by them respectively.”

“You mean…” Adrian’s eyes brightened.

“From previous encounters, ABC had negotiated with many companies, and the one showing the most interest was Disney, so I would lean towards acquiring TBS,” Claude explained briefly.

“That sounds pretty good,” Adrian nodded in understanding, but vaguely felt there was something not quite matching his memories, and he couldn’t immediately recall what it was. (To be continued. For more, please visit www.qidian.com. The story will be updated with more chapters. Support the author, support genuine reading!)