I’m in Hollywood

Chapter 1014

Waking up early in the morning, the three of them sat together on the cliffside terrace of the mansion on the top of the mountain for breakfast. The summer in Los Angeles is not too hot, but only the early morning hours are more suitable for basking in the sun for a while.

I recently found a script for Julia, a biopic about a female lawyer who won hundreds of millions of dollars in civil damages for her client, the largest civil damages in federal history.

Eric heard Elizabeth say this, looked up and said, Eileen Brockovich?

Elizabeth looked very surprised: How do you know?

Julia, who was silently beside Eric, also looked up curiously.

In 1993, Erin Brockovich represented the residents of the small town of Hinckley in eastern California to file a lawsuit against the American Pacific Electric Company, accusing the other party of illegally discharging heavy metal pollutants, causing a large number of residents in the town to get cancer, so she claimed 30 billion US dollars, a penniless woman. Lawyers are suing American corporate giants in a lawsuit that initially seemed like a joke to many.

However, after three years of persistent litigation, in 1996, the American Pacific Electric Company finally lost the case, so it compensated the residents of the town 333 million US dollars. Although the compensation was 100 times smaller than the original demand, it actually It is also the largest civil lawsuit in federal history.

I happened to read the report about Erin Brockovich two years ago, Eric replied casually. Although the lawsuit was deliberately played down by Pacific Electric Company, it did not cause too wide an impact, but as long as With a little attention, it's still easy to see a lot of relevant news reports: So, you're going to let Julia go to the Olympics?

Elizabeth did not doubt Eric's remarks, and nodded: Yes, the Oscar judges like this type of film very much, and we have the Weinstein brothers to help.

While Julia won the Best Actress Oscar for Never Compromise, Eric couldn't remember which other nominations and awards the film had received.

Thinking to himself, Eric said: Fundamentally speaking, the topic of environmental pollution does not have a profound social impact in North America. Therefore, I think the film is shot, in addition to the best actress, the possibility of winning other awards It's not very sexual, but with Julia around, the box office can still be guaranteed.

Compared with some developing countries, the environmental protection system in North America is very complete. In fact, there are few acts of enterprises that dare to pollute the environment maliciously, and there are more accidental environmental protection accidents. Living in such a social environment, environmental protection issues are not as profound as racial issues.

That's not necessarily true, Elizabeth said. However, this role has a lot of room to play. At least, Julia is still very likely to win the best actress. If Julia gets the golden statuette, you But we can no longer manage Julia's original money, and we still have a large balance to pay for the plane we ordered.

Eric nodded with a smile, and said, Okay, but I've exchanged all that money for Firefly Group stocks. You guys are short of money. In fact, you can use these stocks to make mortgage loans, and it would be a pity to sell them directly.

In order to make Julia no longer lazy, Eric took all the small vault of $30 million after Julia sold the equity of tg film company, and exchanged it for the reorganization after the Firefly Group acquired the abc group. Firefly Group's stock.

Naturally, Eric couldn't swallow Julia's money. In recent years, he almost forgot about it. The original batch of stocks was still in Julia's name, but it was represented by Firefly Investments. Custody, in a few years, that batch of stocks should have more than tripled in value, at least worth 100 million.

Due to the optimism about the development potential of Firefly Group and the fact that Firefly Group distributes very considerable stock dividends every year, since the merger of abc Group, few investors are willing to sell the stocks of Firefly Group. In recent years, the large and small shareholders of Firefly Group have The shareholding ratio has hardly changed.

Naturally, Elizabeth knew the popularity of Firefly Group's stocks, and said, Then we will mortgage it to you. I will ask Boeing to ask you for the balance of the Boeing 747.

Um, how much balance do you still have to pay?

Elizabeth smiled slyly and said, We just paid a deposit of $10 million.

Okay, Eric nodded very cheerfully, then shook the pot and said, You can discuss this with Drew. She is my little housekeeper.

Hmph, that's not sincere.

Eric didn't care either, Elizabeth was actually very good-natured, and it was impossible for him to come out with the money. In the past few years, the two women have invested in foreign exchange and technology stocks under his guidance, and it is more than enough to pay for a Boeing 747. Continuing to eat his breakfast slowly, Eric continued to return to the topic just now and asked, Who do you plan to direct that script?

We're reaching out to Martin Scorsese, you know, he's good at playing real-life themes in a realistic documentary mode.

Martin is not suitable, Eric shook his head and said, Although what you just said is correct, Martin's film gives people a too strong third-person perspective. Since it is Julia's one-man show, this film's The style should be more first-person, but you can try Steven Soderbergh.

The director of 'Sex, Lies, and Videotape'? Elizabeth asked rhetorically, and then added: It seems that since the original 'Sex, Lies, and Videotape', Soderbergh has not been good in all these years. works.

Eric explained: To be able to win the Palme d'Or in Cannes with his first feature film, Soderbergh's talent is unquestionable. Moreover, he is not as big as Martin, and a slightly weaker director can also give Zhu Leah has more room to play. If you let Martin do it, it must be a standard Martin Scorsese movie, and although he is often nominated, the Academy has never liked him very much.”

Elizabeth was a little moved. She was still convinced of Eric's suggestion in terms of the movie, saying: Then I will ask Harvey to contact Soderbergh to hear what the other party thinks. Speaking of which, the original Sex, Lies And the Videotape' was run for him by Harvey, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to get the Palme d'Or.

After breakfast, Eric bid farewell to the two girls and rushed to work in Firefly Studios.

Today's Spider-Man audition continues, but the target is only some supporting roles, and naturally Eric does not need to appear in person.

As for the candidates for Gwen Stacy confirmed yesterday, the crew will also conduct detailed analysis and evaluation of their audition tapes and other information. The follow-up process is very trivial, and the final round of small-scale auditions will require at least Wait a week or two.

After discussing the post-Iron Man for an hour with Joss Whedon in the morning, Eric got into the set of Gravity.

It has been almost a year since the plan to shoot Gravity was finalized last year, and the film has decided to start shooting next week.

The only twist in the plan was that Eric found that if he wanted the flexibility to mobilize the entire crew while keeping all the details in real-time during the shoot, it would be impossible to be the cameraman himself, a job that ultimately required Nick, who had worked with him for many years. Al Frank took it up.

Eric's ambition to win the Oscars can only be adjusted temporarily, unfortunately starting from the more difficult awards such as Best Picture and Best Director.

In the special studio for Gravity, Nickel Frank is demonstrating to Eric a difficult shot he just set up.

After many films, Nikkor is already one of the best photographers in Hollywood. In fact, photographers are similar to snipers. Except for some basic talents, excellent snipers are fed with bullets, and the same goes for photographers. in this way.

After Eric gave up the idea of ​​being a photographer himself, he described his shooting idea to Nikkor in detail. When Nikkor heard Eric's idea, he also felt a challenge that he hadn't had for a long time.

In the past few months, Nikkor's mind has basically been on the shooting method of Gravity, and he is now as proficient in the operation of the two high-precision robots from KUKA as some car assembly. The engineers of the factory can even be said to be more than that, because the robot operator in the assembly shop usually only needs to set a fixed operation program, but Nikkor needs to operate two robots to make ever-changing actions according to the needs of the camera.

Inside the light box, a robotic arm with a professional 35mm camera installed quickly approached the dummy on another rotating robotic arm at a high speed of nearly 50 meters per second.

However, the relative distance between the lens and the target is actually only three meters. With the high-speed operation of the robotic arm, the camera stopped abruptly at only one centimeter of the glass cover of the dummy helmet. Frightened, they realized that if they sat in the position of the dummy and saw a cold metal robotic arm hitting their face with a camera weighing more than ten kilograms, it would not be impossible for them to faint on the spot.

Next to the console not far away, Nichol held the robot remote control pda and skillfully repeated the action just now, five times in a row, and then said to Eric, who had been staring at the monitor screen on the desktop: How is it? Kuka The accuracy of this machine is originally at the millimeter level, but I asked KUKA engineers to add two more insurance measures, which can absolutely guarantee safety.”

In Gravity, many actors quickly fly to another target or the target is close to the scene of the actor.

A camera weighing more than ten kilograms, a metal robotic arm with a thick bowl mouth, and a relative speed of 50 meters per second. If he lost control, Eric would not dare to think about the consequences. This is not allowed to make mistakes, even once no.

After hesitating for a moment, Eric still said: When the time comes, let's swipe across as far as possible. If you can't avoid it, try shooting in slow motion.

In slow motion shooting, the film speed is slowed down several times, and the relative running speed can also be slowed down several times at the same time, and the effect of high-speed relative movement can still be formed during normal projection. The slower the pace, the higher the level of insurance.

Eric, it's definitely safer this way, but if it's a close-up of the front, the actor's facial expression is easy to wear.

Eric thought for a while and said, Then we will take another close-up of the facial expression and post it. We can't take risks.

In this case, you don't need to shoot slowly, you can just use a dummy.

Eric smiled and said, How does the dummy move?

Then substitute.

Eric still shook his head: A substitute is too dangerous.

While chatting, the crisp sound of high-heeled shoes came from their ears. Everyone looked for the prestige, and saw Nicole Kidman wearing a black knee-length dress and carrying a satchel, walking towards Eric. .

After greeting everyone, Nicole did not shy away from hugging Eric intimately, and then looked at the surrounding shooting props, with a little resentment in her tone, and said, You look amazing, you guy, but Don't ask me to play.

Eric smiled and motioned Nicole to sit down on the chair next to him, clicked the mouse to replay the scene just now, pointed to the robotic arm not far away, and threatened with a smile: Do you dare to act? ?

Nicole put the bag on the large console, watched the playback on the screen, and looked at the robotic arm not far away, saying: This is too dangerous, if it hits it, it will kill people, you Why do you want to take such a dangerous scene. Besides, it's just a dummy, if it were me, I would definitely hide back subconsciously, and you couldn't take the scene just now.

Nickel next to him said: Nicole, you can't avoid it. The actor's entire body is fixed on the bracket, and he wears a one-piece helmet on his head. Only his limbs can move at will.

Nicole said: The machine here looks so powerful, so why don't you design a device that the actors can avoid in times of danger?

Nickel said: These machines are very precise, and it is impossible to move at will. We thought about using bulletproof glass as a helmet, but if it really hits, the protective effect is not large.

Nicole thought about the scene just now, and knew that even if the mask glass was not broken, the consequences would be quite tragic, even squeezing the actor's head off. She couldn't help getting up, looked around, and suddenly pointed to the sliding track under the robotic arm outside the light box: Then why not install the sliding track for the machine inside, if there is a collision, even if the actor can't move, as long as The machine inside can just go backwards.

Eric just wanted to say that the space in the light box was too small, but he realized it in a blink of an eye, got up suddenly, hugged Nicole's slender waist, and kissed the girl's lips fiercely: You are really my baby.

Nicole also reacted at this time. The two of them have been trapped in the shackles of photographers and directors, but Nicole easily solved the problems that had plagued them for a long time from the perspective of her own actors.

The space inside the light box is indeed not large, but as long as an accident occurs, even if the actor bounces back even 20 to 30 centimeters of movement space, it is enough for the robotic arm to complete the emergency braking.

Hey, just come here in the morning, let the prop master come over in the afternoon and let's discuss it. After thinking about this, Eric said to Nikkor easily. After all, Eric wouldn't want to use special effects if he could be perfect.

After saying hello, Eric went to the restaurant for lunch with his arms around Nicole, who was blushing.

A few minutes later, in the luxury restaurant on the big ship, watching a script handed over by Nicole, Eric was surprised: Are you planning to go to Austria too?