Most men like sports cars and Eric was no exception, however he could only be at the training grounds the first day. He was so busy that he didn't have time to drop by again.
Beverly Hills, in a temporarily rented villa, Eric and Jeffrey were directing the staff in arranging the props for an upcoming scene.
Al Pacino's acting was book-standard, while Julia according to Eric's knowledge of his past life tended to play more based on feel. This time, Eric had her follow Al's method, which means she would first have to get into Vivian's character completely before shooting.
Filming scenes in disorder could affect performance results, so in order to prevent that and let the actors immerse themselves into their roles, Eric decided to shoot in chronological order.
In the original movie, Edward was first seen at his lawyer's party, Philip Stuckey, and through the latter and a few other guests' small-talk, the viewers learned a bit about the main character's ident.i.ty and personality.
Eric and Jeffrey discussed for a bit, and finally decided that, to shoot this scene, they would throw a real party to celebrate the start of Pretty Woman. They didn't even hire extras, instead inviting the majority of the crew's family to appear.
The scene wasn't a major one, so Eric didn't worry about it going wrong.
"I went to the Fox's headquarters yesterday to tell them that we wanted to release the movie on Valentine's Day, it took more than an hour to convince Carter Hunt that we would deliver in time before he finally agreed that he would launch a promotion campaign two weeks before d-day.
Honestly Eric, two weeks is a really short amount of time. Road House, the movie Richard Gere will star in, won't be out until march."
Eric was writing down something on a notepad when he heard Jeffrey's words, he said: "Don't worry, Jeffrey, right now the entire country's media circle is promoting my movie, albeit they do it with criticism and jeer.
I don't think there's a lot of people in the states right now who don't know about Pretty Woman. Besides, our biggest publicity stunt has yet to come."
Jeffrey curiously asked: "What publicity stunt ?"
Eric's lips curved into a confident smile: "Do me a favor, count for me, how many weeks has Home Alone been trending at the box office for, and how much will its final grossing be ?"
Jeffrey did a quick mental calculation, he reckoned that the movie had been screening for about 12 weeks, and that the box office was likely to soon reach the 200 million $ mark.
Seeing his friend relax a little, Eric said: "Do you understand ?"
Jeffrey nodded his head: "Home Alone is likely to pa.s.s the 200 million mark at the box office, which, according to an article I saw in Variety magazine, is a feat that no one in the country has been able to achieve for three consecutive years.
Once Home Alone reaches that milestone, the media will have a field day again."
"Exactly, so as long as I can make a decent movie quality-wise, there's no need to worry about it failing because of a lack of publicity. And for United Artists' to release Road House a month after Pretty Woman means that they won't even be able to ride on our coattails."
Since he had no recollection of the movie Road House, Eric wasn't worried at all.
Eric helplessly said: "I'm driving Drew to school, she got into some trouble last time and her princ.i.p.al wants to see me."
Jeffrey was stunned for a second before he smiled and shook his head: "Are you seriously thinking that the girl is your daughter ?"
Eric threw his hands up: "When I signed that contract with her mother, it was similar to getting Drew's custody, so I should at least take responsibility."
"Right, I read a flattering newspaper article about how you saving Drew from her mother's greedy hands and sending her to boarding school was a great act of heart-warming kindness."
Eric wore his jacket and casually said: "I paid a guy to write that, I was tired of people bothering me about Drew's issue. I'm a pretty okay guy, and I felt people should know that."
Jeffrey who was in the midst of taking a sip of coffee, sprayed it out: "You're really."
..
Drew's princ.i.p.al was a woman seemingly in her fifties with a gentle overall feel.
Eric sat alone across the woman as he listened to her: "Mr. Williams, we usually never give up on our students, however Ms. Barrymore seems to be quite the unusual case.
All of our ladies are from respectable and influential families, if their parents were to learn that their daughters had skipped cla.s.s, I'm afraid that the school would be the one at the receiving end of their ire. We cannot possibly take coercive measures against Ms.
Barrymore, so if this kind of thing were to happen again, I'm afraid we will be left with no other choice than to have her transferred to another school."
"Ms. Gillian, you can rest a.s.sured, I have severely reprimanded Drew."
"Good, good." Ms. Gillian nodded her head, and proceeded to ramble some more before letting Eric go.
Outside of the office, Eric looked at Drew who was dressed in her school uniform and said: "I got an earful thanks to you, do you plan on making me go through this a second time ?"
The girl smiled and grabbed Eric's arms as she said: "Don't worry, I definitely won't."
"I don't hear any sincerity in that statement." Eric smiled helplessly, not only did the girl not seem sorry in the slightest, she looked like she was enjoying herself.
At the entrance's door, Eric sighed. Sweeping his surroundings with his gaze to make sure no one was around, he whispered: "Don't get in trouble, I'll be busy from now on, and if you intend to skip cla.s.s again. at least don't get caught."
"Oh, Eric. you know me so well." Drew tiptoed and kissed him on the cheek.
Eric smiled and patted the girl's head. He went to his car, started it, waved good bye through his window, and drove away.