Chapter 234: Farewell
The 46th Venice Film Festival closed successfully on September 15th.
Despite the Venice Film Festival"s insistence on its artistic nature to set itself apart from the increasingly commercial Cannes Film Festival and the politically-oriented Berlin Film Festival, "The Others" which is firmly labeled as anti-war, has eventually won the Silver Lion Award of the Venice Film Festival thanks to a series of promotions by various media amid the current turbulent world situation.
After the announcement of the award results, with Disney"s relentless publicity, there was no doubt that "The Others" overshadowed "A City of Sadness", which won the Golden Lion Award this year.
Most people agree that "A City of Sadness" is far more artistic than "The Others" in depicting the joys and sorrows of small characters in the backdrop of a large era with a richer humanistic atmosphere. However, this is still a profit-driven world, and although "A City of Sadness" won the highest honors, it was destined to have little commercial success as an art film.
Although 《The Others》 won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival, distributors from all over the world knew it was a commercial movie with great potential, as long as they had seen it at the Venice exhibition. Therefore, after 《The Others》 won the Silver Lion, the distributors who had already started negotiations with Disney for the distribution of the film in all countries of the world rushed to it.
On the day the award results were announced, Disney successfully sold the distribution rights in 12 countries around the world, with more countries and regions in negotiations.
Of course, Disney would not overlook domestic promotion in the United States. As Hollywood rises and European cinema declines, the influence of the three major film festivals in North America is becoming lower and lower, but for Hollywood movies to win awards abroad is certainly something for Americans to be proud of. After a media blitz, the fame of 《The Others》 spread quickly throughout the country.
Immediately, Disney announced the movie"s schedule. November 1st, Halloween Although this was not the most popular schedule, and even some suggested that 《The Others》 be put in the summer schedule next year, after communicating with Eric, Michael Aisner decisively determined that many people did not look favorably on this schedule.
Actually, there were Eric"s considerations behind why he proposed this suggestion. 《The Others》 is not a Western traditional horror film that relies on gore and violence to draw audiences into the theater. It focuses more on psychological suspense and plot, and with its PG-13 rating, it won"t prevent families from going to the movies together during the holidays, so it will be perfectly fine to release it during the new year"s season.
Not to mention, who said horror movies are not suitable for the new year"s file? Eric remembers very clearly that the famous 《Scream》 in his previous life was released during the Christmas period, and it achieved more than 100 million box office receipts at a cost of more than 10 million. That is a real R-rated horror movie that relies on violence and bloodshed as its selling point, and even the poor person who opened the scene was killed within a few minutes...
By the beginning of September, most of the cast of "《Sleepless in Seattle》 had already rushed to Seattle to prepare for the filming of the movie. It wasn"t until September 16th that Eric had completely dealt with the recent affairs of the Firefly and was ready to go to Seattle to start filming 《Sleepless in Seattle》 and 《Home Alone 2》. After shooting Hank"s scenes in Seattle, Eric would rush to New York to shoot most of Nicole"s scenes, and then start on 《Home Alone 2》. Since the prequel of this sequel had been a great success, Eric didn"t plan to change the script.
Although the time was tight, Eric, who had gotten used to this shooting rhythm, wasn"t feeling too much pressure. Now he was mostly just feeling uncomfortable. The location was the lobby in the Los Angeles airport, and in addition to some of the crew members who were accompanying Eric to Seattle, there were several women who gathered around him. On one side there was Drew, Elizabeth, and Julia, and on the other side there was Aniston and Nicole.
Lights flashed intermittently in the distance, and even the onlookers raised their cameras to join in the fun, aside from the pesky paparazzi, who had been stopped by airport security several times but still wouldn"t give up.
After all, other than Elizabeth, the other four girls are all famous actresses. Eric has always been trying to reduce his exposure and move towards being a behind-the-scenes figure, but unfortunately his fame has only been growing and the media that follows him has never been less. Therefore, it would be impossible for the pa.s.sengers at the airport not to recognize him.
Tomorrow"s newspaper will almost certainly have headlines like "The cast of the playboy departs, five beauties bid farewell sweetly," and other suggestive flowery t.i.tles.
course, there"s no sweetness, if eyes had a tangible form, he would already be skewered with all kinds of sharp implements, ready to be put on the grill.
Take a look at these women, all dressed up and looking so pretty, but their eyes and expressions tell a different story. Little Nellie looks suspicious, Anniston is full of resentment; Nicole"s inner mockery is all over her face; Elizabeth just pretends not to care; and what kind of expression is Juliet wearing? Sometimes she looks helpless, sometimes resentful, sometimes downcast, then suddenly she switches to a nonchalant look with a hint of sadness. Is she trying to show off her acting skills in this group?
Although they were there to see him off, the women all seemed to have agreed to leave him aside and split into two groups, chatting among themselves.
It is understandable that Nicole and Anniston Eric are being hyped up in the newspapers as being close friends, going shopping, eating together, and pictures of Nicole visiting the set of 《Friends》 were taken in abundance.
Many newspapers attribute Nicole"s role in 《Sleepless in Seattle》 to her boyfriend"s recommendation. Nicole cleverly refrained from refuting this. Of course, Eric is also pleased to hear this, after all, among the female protagonists of several movies related to him, due to the very good cause covered by the maid experience, Eric and Nicole are probably the "most innocent" ones.
It is probably so that Anniston and Nicole became good friends. Eric even thought that the little girl did this for sure with the intention of preventing herself from stealing.
But the other three women, Eric, seemed confused. They seemed to be very familiar with each other. Elizabeth and Julia he was clear about, but what about the little girl?
After bearing it for half an hour, the melodious voice of the airport announcer finally sounded out, announcing that it was time to board the plane.