Chapter 84 - Lost in Los Angeles

"I want to know why you asked Kapoor to turn down all those film offers. If some people hadn't personally hand those scripts to me, I wouldn't even know I received those offers."

Julia grew more and more agitated, and finally pointed at Eric's nose and condemned: "Disney even offered a $6 million pay for a movie called Lost in Los Angeles. You didn't even ask my opinion and directly turned down the $6 million. Ah, how can you be so overbearing? I'm not your puppet, so would you please show me some respect!"

Eric leaned back against the sofa and allowed her to vent her anger as if she was a wild little cat. At the same time, he started thinking of Lost in Los Angeles, and couldn't help but laugh. Because the scriptwriter's name was J.F. Lawton, and he was the original screenwriter of Pretty Woman in his past life.

When he was in Richmond, many film companies ignored CAA's ban on UTA and directly sent scripts to UTA and several of the actors who starred in Pretty Woman. If UTA only had inferior small actors, the Hollywood studios may fear the influence of Michael Ovitz.

But now, with Pretty Woman on fire, UTA has two pillars in Julia and Al Pacino, and the supporting characters were also famous. Given their own interests, many film companies ignored the scruples of CAA, especially the big six film companies who hated the CAA. Eric even speculated, that the big six studios in an attempt to show that they don't fear CAA, issued a series of invitations to the UTA actors.

Al Pacino was waiting patiently for Eric's promised Scent of a Woman. So he directly declined all the offers he got.

But Julia could not be so rash. Among the scripts that were received, Kapoor screened them by excluding the scripts that had a very low offer price or looked like a bad film at a glance. The rest of the scripts were communicated to Eric by phone.

Eric had already seen the script of Lost in Los Angeles. When he heard the name of the screenwriter, Eric felt curious and asked Kapoor to send him a copy of the script.

J.F. Lawton obviously revised the original 3000 script again, into a love story with a male protagonist as the main character. As mentioned before, in the original timeline, Pretty Woman was at first a script called 3000, a black drama about a prostitute in Los Angeles living in bad conditions. In the filming process, it was modified into a romantic comedy.

But in this Lost in Los Angeles, the story was about a successful businessman who travels to Los Angeles. Not only does he get lost, but all his luggage was also stolen. The quite successful businessman, homeless by accident, is saved by a kind-hearted prostitute who gives him temporary shelter. After some twists and turns, like Cinderella and the prince, they fall in love and lived happily ever after.

Anyway, the new story and Pretty Woman's story are almost the same. But you cannot say that there's any plagiarism, because the story was modified in a very skillful manner. Otherwise, a giant film company like Disney would never let Eric catch them plagiarizing him.

In Eric's view, this story, which is very similar to Pretty Woman, will not lose any money if it is shot again with Julia. After all, the movie budget is not very high.

But if they want to achieve Pretty Woman's high box office again, then that's basically impossible. Just like when a person eats a bowl of steamed rice and gets full. If you then put an apple and a glass of juice in front of him, he might eat them, but if you put another bowl of steamed rice then...

"Hey, are you listening to me? Why are you laughing?"

The questioning voice rang in his ear, and Eric came out of his wandering thoughts, to see Julia standing close and looking down at him, a faint trace of anger on her face.

"Are you finished?" Eric looked into the girl's eyes and asked seriously.

"Well," Julia nodded, looking at his eyes. She suddenly realized her mistake and quickly sat back in her place.

These days she became accustomed to people trying to curry favor with her by using flattering words of praise. It was inevitable that her ego would grow big. But when she saw Eric's serious expression, she suddenly remembered herself. This guy doesn't need to curry favor with her, but she needed to please him...

Thinking of this, Julia involuntarily hugged her arm and rubbed it twice unconsciously. She slightly lowered her head and glanced awkwardly at Eric.

"I've been talking to Kapoor on the phone every day when I was at Richmond. The movie for Al Pacino has already been set, so the discussions were all about your next movie. As for Lost in Los Angeles, I also asked Kapoor to send a copy of the script by fax, and read it carefully."

Hearing that Eric paid private attention to herself, Julia felt guilty for her previous behavior.

"I'm sorry," she said in a small voice.

Eric waved his hand: "I'm not asking for acknowledgment. I just want to tell you that I haven't forgotten what I promised that night. I said I would take a girl named Julia Roberts, to the same heights as legendary Hollywood actresses like Vivien Leigh and Audrey Hepburn."

"I'm sorry." The girl's voice rang again.

"But I'm a little disappointed with you now. This is only the first success. It has made you so impatient. What do you want to do?"

As Eric scolded her in a calm voice, she couldn't help but want to refute: "I..."

Eric interrupted what she wanted to say: "Now, with the fame you have, as you said, Disney has made you an offer of $6 million. Few actresses in Hollywood can reach this level. If you are short of money, get a loan. The banks are quite generous to Hollywood stars. All you have to do now is to carefully consolidate your position. If you want to go further, you can't be too careful."

"I understand."

"No, you don't understand yet. I know you still feel like you've been wronged. 6 million dollars for Lost in Los Angeles is indeed a very high price. Last year, Tom Hanks starred in a movie called Big, and he was paid only $2 million. But if you take this movie, you will be consuming the box office appeal you got from Pretty Woman. This is not a problem of one plus one equals two, but a subtraction. Have you ever seen a star, film two completely similar movies in a short period, and have great success? Hollywood big movie studios know this. That's why, when they make a movie sequel or series, they separate them by a few years. They wait until the audience's expectations rise to the highest level, before shooting a sequel."