Chapter-27 : Ballet

"Richard your hands are stiff during the spin... you need to loosen up more"...

"Richard, need grace, grace your too much loosen up."....

"Hands, need to be higher and sharp."....

.....

"Okay, that's it for now, but you have to try harder Richard."

"I am tiring Edward,

Gosh its so hard." said Richard siting on the ground exhausted.

"I know its hard, don't worry you will get this in no time. " Edward Cheered while siting beside him.

"Besides, your the one who wrote this script." Continued Edward

"I know, when I wrote the script, I thought it would be difficult but not this difficult. And I thought I will get hang of it in no time as i have been learning dancing in Broadway." replied Ric.

"I can see that, in-fact your are quite good for a beginner but ballet is not about dancing, it also have a grace in it, which your missing." he said and continued

"Don't worry your going there, just few more practice session." while patting Ric's back and finally said

"Now go home, take a rest and tomorrow we will start over.

After all Shooting is in few days." while standing up.

Ric also stood up and looked at Edward who he finds as an interesting ballet instructor.

Edward is the dance choreographer of this new film <Billy Elliot> who was send by Disney.

The Film is about the life of 11-year-old Billy Elliot, a coal miner's son in Northern England, is forever changed one day when he stumbles upon a ballet class during his weekly boxing lesson.

Before long, he finds himself in dance, demonstrating the kind of raw talent seldom seen by the class' exacting instructor, Mrs. Wilkinson.

But with Miners strike and the common misconception about male's Ballet, Billy's faces a furious opposition from the family to the point where the family was likely to be torn apart.

After a lot of twist and turns Billy finally managed to achieve this dream.

As he have appeared in multiple genre films like sci-fi, adventure, thriller, comedy etc. He decided to farther widen this, so he choose this family Drama coated Dance film.

After writing the script he contacted Disney, who love's this type of work and sure enough they contacted him within a few days and after a few meetings, it was decided that,

Ric will get 5 million upfront and 10% of the film share as the buyout price as well as the acting remuneration and with that done, they decided the film's budget as 10 million.

They went to production of the film with in 2 weeks after deciding the budget and got a Dance choreographer for the film and Ric named Edward. So, that while Ric be busy with ballet practice, the production team will organize the crew & cast of the film as well as the place,time & plan of the shooting.

If everything goes according to the shooting plan, its estimated the film will start shooting by the start of may and will be released a week prior to Christmas.

Such fast and efficient move by Disney even astounded Ric, as he saw the glimpse of the future Behemoth under the direction of Michael Eisner regime in Disney even though he had not become the tyrant he was yet.

Among all this preparation and rehearsal Ric's film <Lucas> was released in 1000 theaters across North America.

Its started with a 10 million first week release and grossed 30 million by time Ric film <Billy Elliot> started its shooting.

<Lucas> finished running after it ran for 6 months grossing a grand total of 201 million with 115 million in north America and 86 million worldwide.

Keeping and strengthening the reputation of low budget high box-office success.

While one film was finishing his run time, other film was in a good pace of shooting towards its end.

After the initial half of the shooting being bumpy due to Ric's ballet which he finally gotten hang of, which made the later part of the shooting smooth.

In the entire film, Ric had to show his Ballet skill three times, other than the initial practice scene. once in front of his teacher to show his improvement, another in front of his father to get his approval and finally in front of the judges of Royal Ballet audition.

Among this three, hardest part for Ric was the last dance, because by that time Ric entered in a good ballet dancing rhythm.

And during the last dance he have to show a semi-perfect dance, which was hard and he had to retake a lot of shots in order to make that scene perfect.

This was the first film Ric didn't went through sequence shots like his previous movies as the director took all the drama or none-dance scene first in order to have better concentration and time on the dancing shots as they where most important shots in the movie.

On the day in which shooting came to an end, Ric's another film <Matilda> writing by him, special effects done by his company <Feather Pixar's Visuals>, produced by 20th century fox and acted by Drew Barrymore was released in 1200 theaters across North America.

As this was his company's first film, Ric was a bit nervous with the result. But with the film earned 12 million on its first week which was the budget of the film made Ric relived and the big wigs of 20th century fox happy.

<Matilda> ran for over a 9 months making a total gross of 350 million of which 200 came from North America and 150 from world wide making it a blockbuster success.

The success of <Matilda> not only brought <FPV>and its special effects to the attention of the Hollywood but also gave Drew the necessary pedestal she needed after her success in E.T.

It also brought necessary weight to Ric's ability as a screenwriter. So that next time when he writes a script people will pay attention to it even if Ric doesn't play the role.