I'm in Hollywood Chapter 107

"I just said it offhandedly; you don't have to follow me all the time." Eric drove the car and helplessly glanced at Drew, who was sitting in the copilot seat.
Drew was mercilessly chewing gum, and playing video games with her Game Boy, the annoying beeping sound of the video game console was driving him crazy.
"At the end of the month, Jennifer will return to Los Angeles, and will probably move to live with me."
"Uh huh," Although she said it in a loud voice, she didn't mind.
Drew from the beginning wasn't optimistic about Eric and Aniston's relationship. He is the kind of man who has a dominant character, and although he was usually friendly and pleasant, and it seems that you can discuss anything with him. But sometimes he can be arrogant and rude, and won't allow others to go against his will. As for Jennifer Aniston, she is a stubborn girl with a strong inferiority complex, and great dignity, getting along together in the short term is OK, even if friction between them happen they will both compromise.
But for the long term, their state of mutual tolerance cannot be maintained for long. What's more, Eric is a playboy; it's impossible for someone as prideful as Aniston to endure.
Drew often fantasize, that she is probably the most suitable girl for Eric, She can tolerate or even indulge in his perverted personality. For her to better get along with him, she deliberately started reading a lot of Psychology books to the point that she sometimes get dizzy, all of that just to better understand him.
Although she loves him and can give him all the things he wants, she knew he would not belong to her alone, thinking about it always make her sad.
The reason she was clinging to him today, wasn't because she's jealous, well, maybe a little bit.
The real reason is, she just wanted to be a little bit closer to him.
... ...
Today was the first time Drew visited the company, she grew up in front of the camera, but she doesn't know a lot about how companies work. She was curious about everything in the office building, so she spent this weekend exploring every nook and cranny in the building, lead by a dedicated female staff member, she visited the dubbing room, editing room ... ..., she also got to manipulate some of the equipment, but because Firefly wasn't a big movie company, after just 10 minutes in the tour she found herself going in a circle, after that she obediently stayed in the small screening room watching some videotapes, and didn't go to harass Eric.
After adding the names of the people Drew had given him to the audition list, Eric looked at the roster of actors who passed the first screening round.
After reading a few pages, he found that all the actresses on the list have passed the basic conditions he established before. He was sure that some of them probably don't fulfill all his conditions, but he acted like he didn't see anything. They probably were added by other people in the company, even he himself has added the actresses on Drew paper to the list, so he didn't want to make things hard for them.
He was sure that by using some tricks in the auditions some good actors were eliminated from the list, but as long as the employees don't make a Blunder, he won't say anything. It is unfair to the actors who have no connections? But, this world has never been fair.
He knows that with the rapid growth of the company size, it's impossible for him to put all the power in his hands alone, so picking minor characters will slowly be given to other people.
The employees responsible for the casting will not joke about their career, once the selected actor does not meet the requirements and impact the filming, the person in charge will probably lose his job. So, if an actress had the delusion of going to bed with the casting director to get a role, and her acting isn't up to the mark, the two of them will end up empty-handed.
After reviewing the auditions list, Eric was in no hurry to leave, now that he's here, he was going to look at the detailed budget of the three films. Because Columbia is responsible for 《Running Out of Time》 investment, Eric set the budget to $40 million, for a movie that doesn't have any Special effects, this an extra high-cost production. But Eric isn't going to save money for Columbia. If he doesn't spend all the money, Columbia won't put the rest of the money in his card.
So Eric shifted his spending target to the actors. The role of the female Interpol supervisor, he directly sent invitations to Sigourney Weaver. The other side also accepted the role, of course, her fee wasn't small. Anyway, if you don't spend, you can't earn, plus he isn't even spending his own money.
As for the Chief Inspector of the Crime Unit, Eric took fancy to Joe Pesci, as in the original thief named Harry in 《Home Alone》. When Eric was preparing to make 'home alone' he wanted to invite him, But unfortunately, the budget wasn't big enough, so he could only make do with TV actors. As a result, the role was taken away by Matthew Perry, his version of the performance wasn't as good as Joe eye-catching performance.
Joe Pesci had also received another big movie invitation from Warner Bros., a blockbuster movie series called 《Lethal Weapon》, in his past life this film series had four movies and a TV series, he was hesitant between the two films, but after receiving fireflies paycheck offer, he accepted without hesitation. Of course, Eric also specially designed an audition for him, which he passed easily, he just doesn't know if his acting can keep up with Tom Hanks?.
As for the other candidates who weren't selected yet, Eric set the standard for second or third line actors. If they didn't have the experience of acting in two or three films and have no connections, then they should be directly swept to the side, and not even qualify them to the auditions.
As for the films he invested in, he set 《Scent of a Woman》 budget at $10 million; the film goal is to win some Oscar awards, Al Pacino only took a $3 million paycheck. 《The Others》 only had $5 million as a budget. Jonathan Demme fee is $500 thousand, and Virginia got paid only 300 thousand dollars, just like Julia in 《Pretty Woman》. And because they were going to shoot the whole movie in an old English house, the remaining funds were more than enough to complete the shooting.
... ...
After reading the three films budget files, Eric stretched out and looked at his watch; it was already six in the afternoon. After asking a staff member about Drew whereabouts, he learned that she had already left in advance. That girl knows how to manipulate him; she knows Eric was going to feel guilty if he didn't go back home tonight. So he called Virginia and apologized to her, as he drove back to his Beverly Hills mansion.
Drew was glad to see him back, but he still had to eat pizza this night. Because Eric was busy all afternoon, he was too lazy to cook, as for Drew she has no gift for cooking, if he insists that she cook him something, she may poison him by mistake.
"Eric, maybe we should employ a chef?" Drew was apparently getting tired of eating reheated pizza.
Eric took a Bite out of his slice of pizza and nodded: "It's better to have a few more maids, I prefer Japanese maid costumes, what about you?"
"I like ... ..." she said at the beginning, but then she closed her mouth and gave Eric a curious look: "Hey, I think you have a possessive personality disorder, you can't even let another male enter your territory."
"Oh my god" Eric looked in shock at the girl sitting opposite him: "I thought I would never be able to hear such big words come out of your mouth."
Drew bowed her head and said, "Jerk" and continued eating her dinner, no longer paying attention to him.