Page 24
"$10, one test."
"Oh, hell."
Audition room.
Simon listened carefully to Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves auditioning this dialogue, and made a stop gesture: "Okay, that's all right here."
Both stopped.
Simon waited for Keanu Reeves to stand still again, and said, "So, Keanu, can you tell me why you are interested in this movie?"
"I think this is a very special movie," Keanu Reeves looked up slightly, thought for a while, and said, "A special model, a special story, if you can participate, I believe this will be a very special movie." experience."
Simon smiled and said, "Then, you also need to understand that this is an absolute heroine movie, and it won't have much effect on your career."
Keanu Reeves also smiled and said: "Compared with career, I want to try something interesting."
"Okay," Simon nodded, and said, "The last question, the male protagonist's hair must not be longer than the female protagonist's, so if you want to participate in this movie, you need to cut your hair off, is there a problem? ?”
Keanu Reeves shook his head: "No problem."
Simon said with satisfaction: "Then, thank you for coming today, Keanu, we will inform you of the result as soon as possible."
When Keanu Reeves left, Sandra said: "Simon, you seem to be very interested in this actor."
Simon glanced at Sandra and asked with a smile, "Don't you know Keanu? He's also from WMA."
Sandra rolled her eyes lightly, and said, "WMA has more than 3000 clients, how could I know all of them?"
Simon nodded in amazement.
In my memory, Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves have been good friends since they collaborated in "Speed", but I didn't expect that the two are still in a state of strangers.However, thinking about it now, it is not a coincidence that the two can cooperate. They both belong to WMA.In the 90s, the project packaging model should have been the mainstream operation model of several major Hollywood agencies.
Thinking of this, Simon looked at Ron McMillan on the other side again: "Ron, what do you think of him?"
"Well," Ron smiled, and said, "Simon, you should judge for yourself this time."
Simon felt that Ron's expression was a little strange, and said, "What's wrong?"
Ron shrugged without hiding anything, and said, "I happened to know Keanu's stepfather, Paul Aaron, and Paul just called me this morning."
Simon was a little puzzled: "Paul Aaron?"
Ron explained: "He is a director, but most of the time he is making TV movies for several major TV stations. We have worked together a few times and are fairly familiar."
Ok.
Simon complained a little in his heart.
Didn't it mean that Keanu Reeves almost starved to death when he was a child and experienced ups and downs when he was alone in Hollywood?
How did he become the second generation of Hollywood in the blink of an eye?
Shaking his head slightly, Simon put aside these messy thoughts, and simply relied on Keanu Reeves' performance just now to evaluate him,
This year's Keanu Reeves is just 22 years old. Although he has stubble, he can't hide his youthfulness. The whole person is far from the gloomy and stern temperament many years later. Although he looks too handsome as a gangster A little bit, but not too bad.
In fact, Keanu Reeves played a problem boy in the first Hollywood movie "The Edge of the River" in the original time and space.In the following years, Keanu Reeves also tried the comedy route.
It wasn't until "The Matrix" that Keanu Reeves' screen image was finalized, and it was difficult to get rid of Neo's windbreaker Black Mirror savior appearance.
After thinking about it for a moment, Simon quickly made up his mind.
After looking through the rest of the materials, there were still four copies left. Simon didn't stop directly, but signaled the staff to call the next auditioner to come in.
The day after the audition, the "Run Lola Run" crew officially confirmed Keanu Reeves as the actor.
As a rookie who has just entered Hollywood, although he has some experience in participating in TV dramas, the crew's salary for Keanu Reeves is still not high, only 2000 US dollars.
In addition to the leading actor, other roles in "Run Lola Run" were also quickly finalized in the days that followed.
On the other hand, "The Butterfly Effect" also completed the supporting role selection and preliminary preparations. During this period, Simon also attended several auditions for this film and provided some suggestions for the selection of roles.
At the end of September, according to the contract signed with Fox, Simon also retreated again to start the final revision of the script of "The Butterfly Effect".
In comparison, "Run Lola Run" does not have such a rigorous production process.
However, there is indeed no comparison between a low-budget production with an investment of $65 and a major production with an investment of $1000 million.
Peter Saunders, Fox's vice president in charge of "Butterfly Effect", learned that Simon was working as the screenwriter of "Butterfly Effect" while also taking care of "Run Lola Run", and even expressed his disapproval of Simon's "doing nothing" dissatisfied.
Both David Giller and Brian De Palma just offered up Peter Sanders like a Buddha statue, and Simon didn't pay much attention to each other.
9 month 26 day.
Friday.
Today is the last day of script revision. Simon rushed to Fox Studios early in the morning and held a full day of meetings with the main creators such as David Giller and Brian De Palma.
It wasn't until five o'clock in the afternoon that Simon drove home from get off work in a black Chevrolet SUV.
This is a car that Simon just bought recently. Compared with the boxy "Santana" shape of cars in this era, the same angular SUV barely fits Simon's aesthetics, and the price is not too expensive. All kinds of taxes and fees are only more than 32000 US dollars.
Simon can't afford the money now, so he has applied for three-year installment payments, and only needs to pay less than $1000 a month for the mortgage.
As soon as he returned to his residence in the Montana area, Simon received a call from Janet, who directly stated that they would have dinner together in the evening, and that Simon would treat her guests. She had already booked the restaurant, and she also expressed a little reluctance that Catherine would come with her. .
Chapter 044 Prepared Excuses
Simon drove to the restaurant near the Brentwood Country Club last time.
After waiting for a while, Catherine and Janet rushed over together.
Sitting down in the restaurant, Simon looked at Catherine, who was obviously depressed today, and asked tentatively, "Did the filming of "Blood Corpse Night" start to change again?"
Before Catherine could speak, Janet said, "I'm afraid it will be delayed until the next year."
Simon recently saw some news about De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, the production company of "Blood Corpse Night", and asked with concern: "How could this be?"
The restaurant waiter came over at this time, and the three of them suspended their conversation.
After ordering dinner, Catherine said: "The producer Edward Feldman called me this afternoon. De Laurentiis Entertainment has completely run out of money, and they have to wait until the end of the year to recover the share of several films released this year. My movie can start shooting."
Hearing what Catherine said, Simon was also a little silent.
There are many examples in Hollywood where a movie is delayed for several months or even years due to reasons such as funding and main creative, and finally completely aborted. Catherine's experience is really not surprising.
After a while, Simon said: "So, Catherine, have you lost your job again during this period?"
Catherine nodded absently and said, "Yes."
Simon said: "In this case, why don't you help me?"
Catherine raised her head uncertainly: "Huh?"
Simon said: ""Run Lola Run", this movie will start shooting next month."
"But, I probably still have to..."
Catherine raised her hand and gestured, but couldn't find a good excuse for a while, so she turned to Janet beside her.
When Janet heard what Simon said just now, her eyes began to blink, flickering.
Simon also looked over. Janet's eyelashes are very long, and she doesn't need to put on false eyelashes at all. They are very beautiful when they flicker: "Jenny, would you like to order another foie gras? People who blink a lot should be lack of vitamin D. Animal liver is just right. rich in these."
Listening to Simon's teasing, Janet stopped blinking immediately, grabbed the fork and poked at Simon with a resentful expression.
Catherine smiled and watched the interaction between the two, and said, "I think it's better to forget it."
"Why forget it?" Janet suddenly said again, reaching out to take Catherine's arm, and said, "Kate, let's all go. I'm the big investor. If necessary, maybe I can also take The director fired and let you come."
Listening to Janet's gnashing of teeth, Simon clasped his hands together in 'fear', lowered his head and begged for mercy: "Jenny, I was wrong, would you like to order two foie gras for you?"
Janet threw a stack of napkins over, smashed it on Simon's head, and said, "I'll hit you."
After laughing like this for a while, Catherine finally agreed with Janet's coercion and agreed to be Simon's assistant director.The final agreed upon 'remuneration' was that Simon would also help the crew of "Blood Corpse Night" for a period of time.
Janet was not interested in the production of "Run Lola Run" at first. Simon also suggested that a woman should be the producer together. It was not a nominal one, but the lazy Janet just took it to help Simon film in the casino. The job of painting a butterfly-themed mural, one of three hints of the 'Butterfly Effect' theme in the film.
With Catherine on board, Janet cheers up and gets involved.
then.
Early the next morning, Janet ran to 'work' enthusiastically.
It was eight o'clock in the morning.
Although Simon is used to getting up early, he has just had breakfast at this time.
Hearing the doorbell, Simon ran to open the door, and saw Janet dressed as an OL.
Seeing that Simon's gaze was about to look elsewhere, a pair of cool little hands stretched out directly, holding Simon's face to prevent him from turning away, and then Janet's aggressive voice: "If you continue to behave like this, I will be really angry Well, the consequences are serious."
Simon nodded stiffly under the woman's 'claw' before Janet let go of his head.
Following Simon into the villa, Janet couldn't wait to ask, "Little boy, what are we doing today?"
Simon came to the kitchen, took the tableware just now to the sink, and said concisely: "Rest."
Janet came over, dissatisfied: "How can this be, as an ambitious person, you are really not motivated."
Simon didn't explain.
Although there is still more than a week before the filming starts, Simon will not have any free time from next Monday to the completion of the film. This weekend is also the only chance to rest in the next few months.
After cleaning the dishes, Simon left the kitchen and went to the bedroom.
Blocking Janet, who was following her step by step, from the door, Simon changed his clothes, came out again, and said to the woman, "Let's go."
"what are you doing?"
"shop."
Janet suddenly became interested, and never mentioned the words to make Simon move forward. She reached out and grabbed his arm and said, "Do you want to buy clothes? I can just help you. Speaking of which, your level of picking clothes is really bad." Yes. But, hee hee, the little boy looks good in any clothes."
"Jenny, can I change my name?"
"?"
"Forget it, when I didn't say it."
"Ha ha."
When the two came outside the villa, Simon pointed to the Chevrolet SUV parked in the open space, and Janet turned to the co-pilot, touched the hood of the SUV affectionately, and said hello: "Hi, big guy .”
Simon opened the car door, and when he heard Janet's words, he stared helplessly at the woman on the other side.
It was so provocative.
Leaving the residence, Simon drove Janet around for a whole morning, but basically did not leave Santa Monica, just kept changing one bookstore after another.
After lunch in downtown, head back to the Montana area.
At the long table under the trellis in the garden in the backyard, Janet looked at the dozens of film-related books such as "Director's Fundamentals", "Movie Lens Design", and "Editing Techniques" piled up on the table, looking at Simon suspiciously. After looking over and over with the book a few times, he asked nonchalantly: "Little boy, you, you are not going to tell me that the filming is about to start, so you just remembered to learn some of these things, right?"
Simon casually picked up a book, leaned comfortably on a reclining chair next to him, enjoyed the afternoon sun shining from the vines above his head, nodded and said, "Yes, otherwise how would we make a movie."
This is actually a small problem that Simon has recently realized.
Simon intends to do a lot of the work in "Run Lola Run" by himself, so he can't tell others that his filmmaking skills are all from the sky.
Now, with this pile of books, it will be time to give those curious an excuse that they can barely get their hands on.
Self taught.
So inspirational.
Janet was the kind of woman who was very pampered and, to put it bluntly, lazy.On weekdays, the little brain can turn half a circle and never turn a circle, but in fact it is extremely smart, which can be seen from the few words Catherine said to Simon at the beginning.
Therefore, as she continued to look between Simon and the book, she faintly realized something.
Then I don't want to think about it anymore.
Seeing Simon leaning comfortably on the recliner, he leaned over like a cat, squeezed and touched, and found that Simon had no intention of squeezing a recliner with him at all, and ran out angrily.
In less than half an hour, another set of reclining chairs was delivered by the furniture store.
After spending a wonderful weekend with red sleeves and sweets (luàn), the shooting date of "Run Lola Run" is getting closer.
At this time, the crew of the film has also been fully formed.
Simon Westeros: Director, Producer; Brian De Palma: Executive Producer; Ron McMillan: Producer; Janet Johnston: Producer; Catherine · Bigelow: assistant director; Linda Vargas, casting director.
Sandra Bullock: heroine; Keanu Reeves: actor.