Chapter 62: Chapter 234 – See Off

On September 15, the 46th Venice Film Festival came to  a close.

Although the Venice Film Festival has repeatedly stressed its artistic character to distinguish itself from the increasingly commercial Cannes Film Festival and Berlin Film Festival, which have received significant media attention, it instead earned the label of being "anti-war" after The Others, a film set in the aftermath of WWII, won the Silver Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival.

After the results of the awards were released, thanks to Disney's efforts with publicity, The Others overshadowed A City of Sadness which had won the highest award i.e. the Golden Lion Award. Of course, most people admit that A City of Sadness, which depicts the massacre inflicted on the Taiwanese people by the Kuomintang government in the late 1940s, is far more artistic than The Others, but this is, after all, a world of capitalism. Although A City of Sadness won the highest honor, as a long and slow art film, it was doomed to not make a splash at the box office.

Although The Others failed to win the Golden Lion Award, thanks to the screening in Venice, film distributors all over the world have come to know about this commercial art film with a very exciting plot. Therefore, soon after The Others won the Silver Lion Award, filmmakers across the world were already swarming to negotiate with Disney. By the next day, Disney had sold the rights to distribution in 12 countries around the world, and was still in negotiations with filmmakers from many more countries and regions.

Of course, Disney will certainly not forget the promotion in the United States which was still the biggest market in the world. Although with the rise of Hollywood, the decline of European cinema became inevitable as the influence of the Cannes, Berlin and Venice film festivals on North American audiences has continued to decline, but being able to win awards abroad is still something that most Americans are proud of. After significant advertising in the newspapers, The Others had quickly become known to most Americans.

Immediately, Disney set the release date of the film on November 1, a day after Halloween. Although this is not the hottest period, and some people had even suggested that The Others should be released during the summer next year, after talking with Eric, Michael Eisner decided on November 1.

In fact, Eric's reasoning is also quite simple. The Others is not a traditional Western horror film which heavily rely on blood, gore and violence to attract audiences to the theater. Instead, it focuses on plot-driven suspense. In addition, thanks to its PG-13 rating, it will not hinder the whole family from coming to see the film together, so there was no problem with The Others being released during the holiday schedule. In fact, being the only PG-13 horror film in the midst of dozens of comedies would instead make it unique.

* * * * * * * * * *

In early September, most of the crew members of Sleepless in Seattle had already rushed to Seattle to prepare for the preliminary work of the film. By September 16, Eric had completely dealt with the recent turmoil within Firefly and was ready to go to Seattle to start filming. Sleepless in Seattle and Home Alone 2 will be filmed consecutively, therefore, after shooting Tom Hanks' important scenes in Seattle, Eric will rush to New York to shoot Nicole's important scenes, and then remain in New York to begin filming Home Alone 2. Since the sequel of Home Alone achieved great success in his past life, Eric did not intend to unnecessarily change the script. Although the time is very tight, Eric, who is used to this rhythm of shooting, doesn't feel much pressure. Instead, he feels more stressed now.

Eric is currently in the lobby of the Los Angeles International Airport. In addition to some of the staff who are going to follow Eric to Seattle, there are several beautiful women standing beside him. On one side is Drew, Elisabeth and Julia while on the other side is Jennifer and Nicole. Not far away, a few flashes have continued to shine from time to time. Besides the paparazzi who have been blocked by the airport security, even the onlookers raised their cameras and took pictures.

After all, among the five women, except for Elisabeth and Nicole, the other three are famous actresses and even Nicole had recently become quite famous due to widespread reports about her being the lead in Eric's new film. Although Eric has recently reduced his exposure with hopes of becoming someone like a "hand behind the curtain," his fame has continued to grow since the media have never left him alone, so it's not surprising that most of the onlookers at the airport know him. It is conceivable that tomorrow's headline will be something like "Playboy's at the Airport surrounded by Five Sweet Flowers."

Only, there's no sweetness to these flowers. If it were up to them, Eric would've already been stabbed with various weapons and even been cooked on the grill. Although all five of them were dressed in beautiful and bright colors, their expressions… Drew's eyes are narrowed like an angry cat, Jennifer's face is full of resentment, Nicole's face is full of helplessness, Elisabeth's face is full of schadenfreude, and Julia's expression is sometimes helpless, sometimes resentful and sometimes sad.

Eric can understand Nicole and Jennifer. Recently, many tabloids have been speculating on their friendship. They have been seen shopping together, eating together, and there are even a few photos of Nicole on the set of Friends. These tabloids further reported that Nicole only got the leading role in Sleepless in Seattle thanks to a recommendation from Jennifer to her boyfriend, and Nicole was smart enough to not issue any rebuttal to this claim.

In fact, Eric is also very happy with this situation. After all, among all the actresses who are tied to him, Eric and Nicole are the most "innocent" thanks to the cover of her being his former maid and Jennifer's friend. In fact, this might be the reason behind why Jennifer had become a good friend of Nicole. Eric even thinks that she had the thought of preventing Nicole from stealing Eric.

However, Eric was a little confused about the other three women. Elisabeth and Julia are clearly close friends, but why is Drew with them? Regardless, Eric decided to ignore it and focus on enduring the cold war between the two camps of women beside him. After half an hour, God finally seemed to have heard his plea as the airport broadcaster's loud radio rang and he was able to board the plane.

-TO BE CONTINUED-

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