Eva Green lay soft and limp on the bed, gradually awakening with memories of last night's moments of tenderness lingering in her mind. The sound of fabric rustling came from her ears, as a ray of sunlight seeped through the crack in the curtains, casting a contrasting glow on the peaceful moment.
She turned over and looked at Lyman, who had dressed and was sitting on the edge of the bed.
"Lyman," Eva spoke, but she found her voice somewhat hoarse and her throat incredibly dry.
Lyman merely glanced at her with a questioning look, as if asking, "What's the matter?"
"Can I..." Eva mustered the courage to continue, "Can I accompany you to the premiere of "Fury" tonight?"
Paramount Pictures and EuropaCorp had agreed to simultaneously hold a premiere for the film in two locations.
As an insignificant and replaceable character in "Fury", Eva naturally hadn't received an invitation and didn't have the opportunity to attend. But with Lyman, it was different. He was the director of the film and naturally attracted media attention... If she could be his companion on the red carpet tonight, the allure would be tremendous...
Eva braced herself and revealed her deepest and most genuine thoughts, nervously looking at Lyman.
"No," Lyman replied without hesitation, rejecting the somewhat excessive proposal. Everyone knew that the media loved sensationalism, and Lyman didn't want his private life to become fodder for idle gossip.
As soon as these words were spoken, the atmosphere in the room immediately became strange. Eva's gaze became complex, mixed with resentment. She sat on the edge of the bed, partially covered by the quilt, her delicate and fragile collarbone exposed, and her soft, flowing hair scattered helplessly on her shoulders, appearing increasingly pitiful and forlorn.
He thought she was smart enough, understood the situation clearly. Was there any emotional connection between them? Why did she have to push it further? Maintaining a distance should be the wise choice. But clearly, this woman wanted much more than he had anticipated.
"You can go alone, I will have someone send you an invitation," Lyman's voice suddenly became distant, with a cold and detached tone, like the sudden drop in temperature, making Eva, enveloped in the warmth of the bed, shiver.
"I thought I could be with you," she said calmly.
"I never thought of marrying you."
"That's okay, I just want to be with you."
Looking at her increasingly fragile figure, Lyman couldn't help but think that the more beautiful a woman was, the more she would lie. That look, that posture, as if she could truly endure a lifetime without marriage, without any official recognition.
Lyman shook his head, said no more, but his actions had already made the verdict. He turned around and intended to leave directly.
"Lyman," Eva shouted, her voice sounding hoarse and full of despair. Lyman's steps stopped at the doorway, he turned back, calmly looking at her.
"I really... I really want to..."
Eva opened her mouth, attempting to say something, but the thought surged to her lips and yet refused to come out fully. She felt an inexplicable emptiness in her heart. "I thought... I thought we were different now."
She raised her hands, gesturing in the air, seemingly expressing her viewpoint, but also trying to increase her persuasiveness. Perhaps she didn't even believe it herself.
"That's your illusion, there's nothing different between us."
With an extremely simple and clear statement, all the imaginary threads of emotions were severed. After speaking, Lyman opened the door and left the apartment without any hesitation.
A muffled sound of "bang" blocked out all the commotion and emotions from the room, and everything quickly returned to calm.
Eva sat at the edge of the bed, hugging her legs, in a daze.
"Damn it," she murmured softly, as if not venting anything, but rather teasing her lover with words of affection. But the room was empty, so who was she speaking to?
Yes, there were no real fools in this world. Lyman was right; she shouldn't have entertained unrealistic thoughts. Not even a bit. Because from the very beginning, she knew this would be the outcome, didn't she? Again and again, fantasizing about going further only resulted in more resolute avoidance.
No expectations, no desires, unattainable... She should have known, understood, and grasped these truths long ago. But why did she still lose her composure in front of him, thinking he would be different, thinking she would be different, thinking there would still be room for both of them to calmly coexist?
This illusion that emerged from who knew when, like a moth to a flame, finally turned into ashes beneath the raging flames today.
...
For this premiere, Paramount Pictures had put in a lot of effort, and the venue was set at the Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard.
As evening approached, Bella had already reached an agreement with the event service company involved. With the joint efforts of the company and Paramount, the streets on both sides of the theater's entrance were crowded with over 500 people. They waved various support signs, each looking like loyal movie fans. This was the scene Bella witnessed upon arrival.
Thanks to her previous film review columns on "3 Idiots", which had received recognition from the editor-in-chief and the audience, she gained some reputation in the newspaper industry. Now, she had made a special trip from Salt Lake City just to catch a glimpse of Lyman's new work.
Although she was somewhat surprised by the large crowd of onlookers, Bella quickly walked towards the main entrance of the Chinese Theater.
There was still about an hour before the premiere officially began, but most of the news media reporters had already arrived, creating a bustling and lively atmosphere.
Bella glanced around and noticed that most of the space near the red carpet had been allocated to the media reporters, while the fans holding various support signs were positioned behind the reporters and dispersed along the sides. With so many people gathered together, the theater entrance was incredibly lively. The loud conversations and chatter created a cacophony that could be heard from afar.
Standing among the surging crowd, Bella could clearly sense the emotions of her fellow journalists, surging and repressed. Everyone was looking forward to the box office performance of this year's Christmas season, which was the biggest carnival in the film market. How could it lack traffic and topical news?
Because regardless of whether a film achieved great success or dismal failure, it was destined to be a feast for media coverage. The intense audience attention would also boost the sales of newspapers and magazines.
Just like the mission entrusted to Bella: Before the editor-in-chief left, he specifically told her to write a good film review column, finding talking points regardless of whether they were positive or negative.
"Hey, you're here too." A colleague who had arrived at the scene greeted Bella with a smile.
Bella waved at the person and smiled, "Lucy, long time no see."
Lucy was a film critic under the Chicago Tribune.
Upon hearing this, Lucy shrugged, smiled, and approached casually, asking, "So, what do you think? Do you think this movie will be profitable? Does it have prospects?"
Before the release of every film, industry insiders would analyze its market prospects. If the film had a large investment and high topicality, major newspapers might even provide their own predictions. For example, "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" had already been predicted by more than six authoritative data analysis agencies to earn over $870M worldwide, with an estimate near $900M.
"It should be able to recoup its costs, but I can't guess the final box office results," Bella replied, light-heartedly joking, "It seems you're quite optimistic. You should know that a market analysis agency released an official announcement today, predicting that the film's North American box office would be around $50M. Considering their significant expenses, it's obviously not very optimistic."
In recent years, the chain reaction of market response had become increasingly important. "Cutthroat Island" had directly killed the previously popular pirate theme, becoming the most unpopular choice; the disastrous failure of "Waterworld" made many film production companies cautious about science fiction works...
And "Windtalker" was still experiencing pre-release cooling, which naturally made various market analysis agencies genuinely pessimistic about the market performance of "Fury", which had a similar theme.
They believed that releasing the film at this time, when the audience had not yet recovered from the negative word-of-mouth surrounding "Windtalker", would easily lead to immediate rejection of "Fury". This was not conducive to the audience's choice.
Sometimes people were blind and subconsciously followed external opinions. That was the reason why many people had a negative outlook. However, Bella inexplicably had a lot of confidence. She believed that the film's market performance would not be as dismal as predicted.
Lucy looked at Bella with a smile. "Why? Do you have high expectations for this film?"
Bella nodded naturally. "I think it should be able to recoup its investment costs based on the North American market alone. Look at the intensive promotion in the past few days. There will definitely be an audience showing up."
Lucy shook her head. "Promotion alone won't cut it. At most, it can fool the audience into entering the theater initially. Ultimately, it's still the quality or word-of-mouth of the film that matters."
"Yes, I believe the quality of this film will be excellent."
"..."