I am Hollywood

Chapter 818: Chapter 819: How Could This Happen?

Chapter 817: Chapter 818: Golden Globe Nominations

Chapter 816: Chapter 817: How Could Elves Not Be Beautiful



[Chapter 817: How Could Elves Not Be Beautiful]

After discussing Titanic with Katzenberg, Eric rode back to Liberty City Manor.

As dusk settled, he entered the villa, walked through the hall, and arrived at the glass wall where he spotted Nicole lazily sitting on the sofa, engrossed in a comic book.

Yes, it was indeed a comic book.

Around the sofa, where Eric often rested, there were thousands of various comics stacked high. Back in America, while working on the post-production of Casino Royale, Eric had also begun preparations for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Although the first Marvel superhero film, Spider-Man, wouldn't debut until around 2000, he needed to start strategizing for the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe plan. Eric was keen on avoiding the same mistakes that led to the rushed launch of the DC movie universe, which ended up with a string of box office flops and critical failures.

The main responsibilities for setting up the Marvel Cinematic Universe rested with Marvel itself. However, Eric wanted to be involved in its creation, so he needed to thoroughly understand the comic book characters under Marvel.

The thousands of comics before him had all been pulled from the New York Marvel archives. When Eric called for these comics, Stan Lee had repeatedly reminded him to return them after reading, as many had become valuable collector's items over the decades. Many Americans were avid comic collectors, and superfan Nicolas Cage had spent millions on his collection. Thus, this pile of comics, some appearing somewhat outdated, certainly could tempt any seasoned comic enthusiast into theft.

Noticing Eric's arrival, Nicole looked up, smiled, and removed the earbuds hidden in her hair, saying, "Eric, you're back."

Eric nodded, took off his coat, and walked over. Nicole shifted slightly to make room as they both squeezed onto a single-person sofa.

He put on one of the earbuds Nicole had just taken off and asked, "Where's Famke?"

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, that girl had been busy promoting Mission: Impossible 2. Eric was planning to spend Thanksgiving with Nicole and Famke. After Thanksgiving, once Mission: Impossible 2 was released, he would take the young girl to New York to enjoy Christmas with the women and kids.

Nicole recently had taken a liking to the new pocket-sized MP3 player developed by Firefly Electronics. She slipped the other earbud on and enjoyed the music, then said, "She went to the supermarket. By the way, before you came back, Ms. Haynes had someone deliver a few documents from New York."

Eric wrapped his arm around Nicole's slim waist, leaning back in the chair. "Let's leave them for now; I don't want to see any company documents today."

After hearing a string of bad news about Titanic that afternoon, Eric had no mood to deal with company affairs.

Nicole understood the immense pressure that Titanic had brought upon Firefly recently. She had noticed the fatigue on Eric's face and didn't bring it up again. She picked up the thin comic resting on her lap, leaned against Eric, and said, "Eric, I found something interesting: Peter Parker's parents were both CIA agents, and they even saved Wolverine!"

Eric knew Nicole was intentionally choosing a lighter topic and replied with a smile, "If you read all these thousands of Marvel comics around you, you'd find that almost every character in the Marvel universe can connect to one another. Creating plot crossovers for popular characters is a great gimmick used by comic companies to boost sales."

"That sounds a lot like MGM's spy movie universe," Nicole tilted her head and remarked. "Or maybe the inspiration for the spy movie universe came from the comic book companies?"

Eric nodded in acknowledgment. "That's right."

Nicole didn't expect her random guess would hit the mark and felt a bit excited. She waved the comic in her hand and asked, "So which superhero do you plan to shoot first?"

"Spider-Man has been confirmed, but in addition to that, I will collaborate with MGM and Fox to initiate several other projects. In the future, I plan to bring all the popular characters from the Marvel universe to the big screen."

As the most popular superhero in the Marvel universe, Spider-Man would certainly remain with Firefly. However, Eric hadn't figured out which superheroes MGM and Fox would each be responsible for yet. The allocation of Marvel superheroes in the original timeline couldn't simply be replicated, so a detailed plan would be necessary.

Compared to DC, which had already developed several successful live-action superhero films, Marvel had little to no popularity as a foundation in films. Thus, Eric had determined that bringing successful superhero characters from the original timeline to the big screen first -- like Spider-Man, Iron Man, and the X-Men -- would quickly open up the Marvel Cinematic Universe. After establishing sufficient market interest with these characters, new superheroes could be introduced, improving the likelihood of box office success.

Nicole didn't know Eric's detailed plans but couldn't help but exclaim. Although she'd only been casually reading comics recently, Nicole had developed some understanding of the Marvel characters. If Eric's plan could fully come to fruition, it would undoubtedly be grand in scale.

"Well, if all of them hit the big screen, it might be dozens of films," she said.

"Of course," Eric remarked, glancing at Nicole as her lips parted slightly in surprise. He reached out and gently touched her, laughing, "You've been reading comics for several days now. Are there any characters that interest you?"

Nicole pretended to bite his hand as he instinctively withdrew. "Not really," she said. "By the way, it seems Marvel doesn't have a female superhero as popular as Wonder Woman from DC."

"Popularity is built gradually. If a female superhero from Marvel had a successful TV series like Wonder Woman, she would definitely be quite popular now," Eric explained. He chose not to dwell on this topic further. Even if Nicole expressed interest in a female character, it wouldn't be so easy for her to join in. Nicole's current salary was already more than $15 million, the highest for actresses, which didn't align with Eric's plan for the Marvel franchise to primarily feature second- and third-tier Hollywood stars.

Suddenly reminded of something, Eric continued, "Speaking of which, I have a character I hope you could support."

Nicole displayed a puzzled expression, keenly catching a keyword in Eric's tone. With a teasing smile, she asked, "Support?"

"Yes, it's a trilogy series, which might evolve into a six-part series. There's a character with a key role, not much screen time, but crucial. Among all the actresses I know, I think you're the most suitable. However, I could probably only offer $3 million for it since it's an ensemble cast, and while your role is important, you're not the protagonist."

Nicole blinked her light blue eyes and smirked, "Three million for a trilogy? I think if I agree to this, Pat might go crazy. But since you say I'm the one you think is perfect for it, I'll accept. So, what role is it?"

Given Nicole's current value, her manager, Pat Kingsley, would indeed likely flip at the news. It wasn't just about the commission being significantly reduced, but the contract posed an unpredictable risk to Nicole's status as a top-tier actress.

Eric gently cupped Nicole's chin, admiring her flawless face. Nicole was 29 this year, at a woman's most vivacious time. Her long eyelashes, rounded face, petite nose, and luscious lips were all so perfect.

Unable to resist, Eric kissed Nicole's lips before saying, "Your character is an elf, Galadriel.

Know her?"

"Oh, it's from The Lord of the Rings," Nicole promptly realized.

Eric nodded. The actress who originally portrayed Galadriel in the films was Cate Blanchett. While Cate was certainly a stronger actress in terms of craft, Nicole's beauty far surpassed

hers.

To Eric, as the embodiment of nobility and elegance, how could elves not be beautiful?

"MGM will unveil their plans for The Lord of the Rings series next fall. The trilogy will be filmed back-to-back and will take over a year in New Zealand, but your scenes should only take two or three weeks, so it won't take too long."

From this summer's blockbuster season to next summer's premiere, MGM planned to release three heavyweight films as part of its spy movie universe. As long as these three films performed well at the box office, MGM would have enough confidence to announce The Lord of the Rings trilogy, an ambitious project involving $300 million. With the support of the spy movie universe's performance, other MGM shareholders wouldn't strongly oppose. Nicole had heard some rumors about The Lord of the Rings trilogy, but she hadn't paid much attention. Instead, she focused on Eric, curiously asking, "If I play Galadriel, who would play

Arwen?"

Eric didn't hide his answer, squeezing her chin. "Diane Kruger. What do you think?"

"You really have a thing for gorgeous women," Nicole teasingly retorted.

In the past couple of years, the Victoria's Secret Angels had frequently appeared in Hollywood films, sparking much conversation. Everyone knew who was pushing this, leading to countless versions of gossip and speculation about Eric and the Victoria's Secret Angels, with some exaggerated rumors claiming he had "captured" the whole group.

The woman next to him had teased him about it more than once, but Eric didn't mind. "I just

want this film to be perfect. Since it's about elves, they should ideally be beautiful. Plus, the earliest legends about elves were originally from Germanic mythology, and Diane is German. It fits the character perfectly."

"I really don't want to hear your explanations," Nicole shot him a look and took the earbud back from his ear, just as Famke Janssen walked in, carrying two overflowing shopping bags while clacking in her high heels across the hall.

Seeing the cozy scene of Eric and Nicole on the sofa, Famke teased, "I run out to get food, and

you two are cozy here."

"Ha, come on, let's get in on the fun!" Eric said, pulling Famke beside him as she set the bags

down.

Famke sat down on the armrest of the sofa on Eric's other side and asked, "So what were you two just chatting about?"

Eric casually replied, "Speaking of you, what plans do you have after New Year?"

The seventh season of The X-Files was airing on Fox, marking the end of this classic sci-fi series. Despite Fox offering generous terms, both Brad Pitt and Famke Janssen, the two leads, were unwilling to renew contracts. Brad wanted to seize the chance to enter film, while Famke had grown weary of the grueling schedules that required her to spend months in Canada each year as they filmed to save budgets.

Sci-fi TV shows were usually completed in one go, so even though the show was still airing, Famke had completed all her work and was in a resting phase.

"Not really any plans at the moment. I'm thinking about taking a year off to do some charity work. I plan to visit refugees in Africa with a charity team after New Year."

Eric immediately displayed a worried expression, taking Famke's small hand. "Honey, please don't go adopting any African kids like some Hollywood actresses do. If you want one, we can have our own--maybe next year?"

Famke's face flushed. Initially, she thought Eric was going to convince her not to go to Africa, feeling touched, but upon hearing his words, she smacked his hand away. "You heartless jerk!

I'm going to ignore you for the rest of the day. Nicole, could you help me take these into the

kitchen?"

"Of course, it's time to prepare dinner," Nicole shot Eric a gleeful look, got up, and grabbed one bag while Famke took another as they headed to the kitchen.

Eric watched the two women's tall figures whispering to each other as they walked away and

chuckled to himself. He leaned over and flipped through the comics until he found an

interesting one to read.

The cover prominently displayed a few striking words:

Phoenix Rising.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Jean Grey, the strongest and most complex female superhero in the X-Men universe, held

depths far richer than DC's Wonder Woman.

*****

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