Waking up very early in the morning, the three of them sat on the cliffside terrace of the mansion on the top of the mountain and had breakfast together. The summer in Los Angeles is not too hot, but only the early morning is more suitable for basking in the sun for a while.
"I recently found a script for Julia, a biopic, telling the story of a female lawyer who won hundreds of millions of dollars in civil compensation for her client. This is the largest civil compensation in federal history."
Eric heard Elizabeth say this, raised his head and said, "Irene Brockovich?"
Elizabeth's expression was very surprised: "How do you know?"
Julia, who was silently beside Eric, also looked up curiously.
In 1993, Erin Brockovich filed a lawsuit on behalf of the residents of the town of Hinckley in eastern California against the American Pacific Electric Company, accusing the other party of illegally discharging heavy metal pollutants and causing a large number of residents of the town to suffer from cancer. Lawyers are suing corporate America in a lawsuit that initially looked like a joke to many.
However, after three years of persistent litigation, in 1996, Pacific Electric lost the case and paid the townspeople $333 million. It is also the largest civil lawsuit in federal history.
"Two years ago, I happened to read reports related to Erin Brockovich," Eric replied casually. Although this lawsuit was deliberately low-key handled by Pacific Electric Company and did not cause too wide an impact, as long as With a little attention, it is still easy to see a lot of related news reports: "So, you plan to let Julia go to the Olympics?"
Elizabeth didn't doubt Eric's words, she nodded and said, "Yes, the Oscar judges like this type of film very much, and we have the Weinstein Brothers to help."
Although Julia won the Oscar for Best Actress with "Never Compromise", Eric can't remember what other nominations and awards the film has 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 that apart from the best actress, it is possible for the film to win other awards. It's not very sexual, but with Julia here, 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 malicious environmental pollution by enterprises, and more accidental environmental accidents. Living in such a social environment, environmental 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, the possibility of Julia winning the Best Actress is still very high. If Julia gets the statuette, you But we can no longer care about the money that Julia paid at the beginning, there is still a large amount of final payment to be paid for the plane we booked."
Eric nodded with a smile, and said: "Okay, but I have exchanged that money into the shares of Firefly Group. You are short of money, and you can actually use these shares to make mortgages. It would be a pity to sell them directly. "
In order to stop Julia from being lazy, Eric took all of Julia’s small treasury of 30 million U.S. dollars after she sold the shares of TG Films at that time, and exchanged it for The stock of Firefly Group.
It is naturally impossible for Eric to swallow Julia's money. He has almost forgotten about it in the past few years. The original stock is still in Julia's name, but it is replaced by Firefly Investment. Trusteeship, after a few years, the value of that stock should have more than tripled. According to the current market value of Firefly Group, it is worth at least 100 million US dollars.
Due to the optimism about the development potential of Firefly Group and the fact that Firefly Group distributes very considerable dividends every year, since the merger of ABC Group, few investors are willing to sell the shares of Firefly Group. The shareholding ratio has hardly changed.
Elizabeth was also aware of the popularity of Firefly Group's stock, and said, "Then we will mortgage it to you. I will ask Boeing to ask you for the final payment of the Boeing 747."
"Um, how much of the final payment do you have yet to pay?"
Elizabeth smiled slyly and said, "We just paid a deposit of 10 million dollars."
"Okay," Eric nodded very readily, then shook the pot and said, "You should discuss this matter with Drew, she is my little housekeeper."
"Hmph, it's really dishonest."
Eric didn't care either. Elizabeth was actually very strong-tempered, and it was impossible for him to pay the money. Over the past few years, the two daughters have invested in foreign exchange and technology stocks under his guidance. The accumulated wealth is more than enough to pay for a Boeing 747. Eating his own breakfast slowly, Eric continued to return to the topic just now and asked, "Who do you plan to direct the script?"
"We're approaching 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 strong third-person perspective. Since it is Julia's one-man show, the film's The style should be more towards the first-person perspective, you can try Steven Soderbergh."
"The director of "Sex, Lies and Videotape"?" Elizabeth asked back, and then said: "It seems that since the original "Sex, Lies and Videotape", Soderbergh has not made any outstanding works in recent years. Works."
Eric explained: "Being able to win the Cannes Palme d'Or with his first feature film, Soderbergh's talent is beyond doubt. Moreover, he is not as big as Martin, and a slightly weaker director can also give Julie Leah has more room to play. If you put Martin in it, it’s going to be a standard Martin Scorsese movie, and he’s always been nominated, but the academy never liked him.”
Elizabeth was a little moved. She still believed in Eric's suggestion in terms of movies, and said: "Then I will ask Harvey to contact Soderbergh and listen to the other party's thoughts first. Speaking of which, the original "Sex, "Lies and Videotapes" was run by Harvey, otherwise he would not have won the Palme d'Or."
After breakfast, Eric bid farewell to the two girls and rushed to work in Firefly Studios.
The audition for "Spider-Man" is still going on today, but the objects are only some supporting roles, so Eric doesn't need to appear in person.
As for the candidates for Gwen Stacy identified yesterday, the crew will have to analyze and evaluate their audition tapes and other information in detail. The follow-up process is very trivial. Wait a week or two.
After discussing the post-production of "Iron Man" with Joss Whedon for an hour in the morning, Eric got into the studio of "Gravity".
From finalizing the plan to shoot "Gravity" last year to now, all aspects have been prepared for almost a year, and the film has been decided to start shooting next week.
The only twist in the plan was that Eric found it impossible to act as a photographer himself if he wanted to flexibly mobilize the entire crew while controlling all the details in real time during the shooting process. Earl Frank took it up.
Eric can only temporarily adjust his ambition to win all over the Oscars. Unfortunately, he will start with the more difficult awards such as Best Picture and Best Director.
In the special studio of "Gravity", Nicole Frank is demonstrating to Eric a difficult shot he just set up.
After many films, Nichols 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 by bullets, and so are photographers. in this way.
After Eric gave up the idea of being a photographer himself, he described his shooting concept to Nicole in detail. When Nicole heard Eric's concept, he also felt a challenge that he hadn't had for a long time.
In the past few months, Nicole has basically focused on the shooting techniques of "Gravity". Now he is as proficient in operating the two high-precision robots from KUKA as some car assembly machines. The engineers in the factory can even be said to be worse, because the robot engineers in the assembly workshop usually only need to set a fixed operating program, but Nikkor needs to operate two robots to make ever-changing actions according to the needs of the camera.
In the background light box, the robotic arm with the 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 running 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 a place only one centimeter away from the glass cover of the dummy helmet. Terrified, they realized that if they were sitting in the dummy's position and saw a cold metal mechanical arm hitting their face with a camera weighing more than ten kilograms, it would not be impossible to faint even if they were frightened on the spot.
Next to the console not far away, Nicole held the robot remote control PDA and skillfully repeated the action just now, repeated 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 at the millimeter level, but I asked Kuka’s engineers to add two more insurance measures, which can definitely guarantee safety.”
"Gravity" has many shots where the actor flies quickly to another target or the target is close to the actor.
With a camera weighing more than ten kilograms, a metal mechanical arm with a thick mouth, and a relative speed of 50 meters per second, Eric would not dare to think about the consequences if he lost control. no.
After hesitating for a moment, Eric still said: "When the time comes, let's try to slant it as far as possible. If you really can't hide, try to shoot in slow motion."
For 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 high-speed relative movement effect can still be formed during normal projection. The slower the speed, the higher the degree of insurance.
"Eric, this is indeed safer, but if it is a frontal close-up, the actor's facial expression will easily be misleading."
Eric thought for a while, and said: "Then we will take another close-up of the expression and post it, we can't take risks."
"In this case, there is no need to shoot in slow motion, just use a dummy directly."
Eric smiled and said, "How does the dummy move?"
"Then a stand-in."
Eric still shook his head: "The substitute is too dangerous."
While chatting, the crisp sound of high heels came from their ears. Everyone looked for prestige, and saw Nicole Kidman, who was wearing a black knee-length dress and carrying a satchel, walking towards Eric.
After saying hello to everyone, Nicole hugged Eric without hesitation, 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 act."
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: "Do you dare to act?"
Nicole put the satchel on the large console, sat next to Eric, watched the replay on the screen, looked at the robotic arm not far away, and said: "It's too dangerous, if it hits, But it will kill people, why do you want to take such a dangerous shot. Besides, it’s not just a dummy, if it were me, I would subconsciously hide back, and you can’t take the shot just now.”
Nicole next to him said: "Nicole, you can't avoid it. The actor's entire body is fixed on the bracket, and there is a one-piece helmet on the head. Only the limbs can move freely."
Nicole said: "Then why don't you design a device that allows actors to escape in times of danger?"
Nichol said: "These machines are very precise, and it is impossible to move at will. We have thought about using bulletproof glass as a helmet, but if it really hits, the protection effect will not be great."
Nicole thought about the scene just now, and knew that even if the mask glass was not smashed, the consequences would be quite disastrous, and the actor's head would even be squeezed out. She couldn't help getting up, looked around, and suddenly pointed to the sliding track under the mechanical arm outside the light box: "Then why don't you install sliding rails on the machine inside? If there is a collision, even if the actor can't move, as long as Just move the machine inside back.”
Eric just wanted to say that the space inside the light box is too small, but suddenly realized in a blink of an eye, he stood up suddenly, put his arms around Nicole's slender waist, and kissed the girl fiercely on the lips: "You are really my little baby. "
Although Nicole didn't hide her relationship with Eric, when she was kissed suddenly in front of everyone in the studio, she still blushed and reached out to push Eric away.
Nicole also realized at this time that the two of them had been trapped in the shackles of the photographer and director's thinking, but Nicole easily solved the problem that had plagued them for a long time from the perspective of her own actor.
The space inside the light box is indeed small, but as long as an accident occurs, the actor bounces back even 20 to 30 centimeters, which is enough for the mechanical arm to complete emergency braking.
"Hey, let's come here in the morning, and let the prop master come over in the afternoon and let's discuss it." After thinking about this, Eric said to Nicole with ease.
After all, if it can be perfect, Eric doesn't want to use special effects and the like.
After saying hello, Eric took Nicole to the restaurant for lunch.
A few minutes later, in the luxurious restaurant on the big ship, Eric saw a script handed over by Nicole, and Eric was surprised: "Are you going to go to the Olympic Games too?"