[Chapter 709: A Resounding Footfall]
After several months of excitent and fanfare, the 1995 award season finally brought its culmination with the 67th Academy Awards.
Under the influence of Eric, this year's Oscars looked significantly different from previous ones. The beloved classic known as Forrest Gump was delayed, while the groundbreaking indie film Pulp Fiction arrived early, and the iconic film that many deed overlooked, The Shawshank Redemption, had yet to even be made.
Despite these changes, the interest surrounding this Oscars ceremony was just as strong as in any prior year. The rivalry between Saving Private Ryan and Braveheart had been heavily publicized by the dia for months. The five supermodel ambassadors from last year's Victoria's Secret Fashion Show were set to present awards that night. anwhile, a certain short man with big glasses, who always appeared a bit eccentric and had previously been embroiled in scandals, was sweeping major nominations with his film Bullets Over Broadway. Of course, he would definitely not be in attendance.
Most importantly, this Oscars had the potential to feature the first-ever female winner for Best Director, with her nominated film being an exhilarating war movie.
...
On March 27, at 5 PM, the red carpet live broadcast by ABC began on schedule.
Outside the Shrine Auditorium, fans fortunate enough to get spots along the red carpet eagerly awaited to catch a glimpse of the stars.
Tom Hanks, Morgan Freeman, John Travolta, Tom Cruise, Helen Mirren, Susan Sarandon, Jodie Foster, Winona Ryder...
Each familiar face that appeared on the red carpet elicited cheers from the crowd.
A limousine pulled up slowly at the end of the red carpet. For Kathryn, this was her first ti attending the Oscars. Though she had garnered industry attention before with films such as Point Break and Blue Steel, the controversial subjects of those films ant she had never received significant nominations.
The limousine, arranged by her agency, was a stretch Lincoln, and she sat alone inside, giving the space an almost empty feeling. Glancing nervously at the sea of people outside, she suddenly felt anxious.
She had always struggled with public appearances.
When the door swung open, Kathryn hesitated for a mont but eventually stepped out, nervously gripping her clutch as she walked onto the red carpet.
She ultimately chose to wear the light gray silk gown Eric had gifted her. The dress featured an irregular heart design embroidered on the chest and was cinched at the waist. Its long hemline was beautifully complented by her tall fra, giving off an impressive impression of endless legs below the waist.
Though she felt montarily flustered, she straightened her back instinctively, hiding any signs of unease behind a composed exterior. This aura of confidence struck a delightful silence among the spectators, most of whom were left to wonder, "Who is this stunning star?"
It wasn't until soone called out "Kathryn" that the crowd collectively snapped back to reality, cheering enthusiastically in response.
"Kathryn, Kathryn, Kathryn..."
The blinding flashes of caras made her raise her hand instinctively to shield her eyes. She quickly realized that such a gesture was inappropriate and ended up waving gently to the crowd instead, her face breaking into an awkward smile. This only intensified the excitent in the air, and she even heard soone shout, "Kathryn, I love you, marry !" which was hilariously shouted by a woman.
Standing at the periter of the red carpet, her agent gestured multiple tis for her to move forward, prompting her to rember to start walking.
Feeling utterly alone.
She surprisingly missed that little guy. Even though he had scared her senseless that night, she thought that if soone like him were beside her now, holding onto his arm might sohow ease her nerves. A strong man always provided a sense of security; she used to think that was a ridiculous notion. Yet now, surrounded by a crowd, she suddenly recognized that she might actually need just a little bit of that support.
Her thoughts tangled, like a marionette completely following her manager's directions, she walked along the red carpet and joined the cast of Saving Private Ryan, finally letting out a breath. But she was quickly ushered away by her agent, who led her inside the auditorium to introduce her for an interview with ABC.
The content of the interview had already been briefed to her by her agent.
But when the female host complinted her on the stunning dress and asked which brand it was from, she found herself at a loss for words.
A certain shadow suddenly flitted back into her mind.
She heard he had caused so trouble at a Universal party a couple of days ago, allegedly trying to snatch so movie rights. He really was a handful.
Rumor had it, he was also tangled up with so won.
Sigh.
While she attempted to maintain her composure as an older sister worried over her little brother, she could not shake off certain emotions.
She just didn't realize that these feelings were resentnt.
Since he wasn't attending the Oscars, she had no idea what he might be doing right now.
...
Early in the morning, after sending off the five won from the Manor, Eric hurried over to Firefly headquarters in Burbank.
Katzenberg was known for his high efficiency. Although it had been the weekend a couple of days prior, by the ti Eric arrived at the office, Katzenberg had already prepared a rough collaboration proposal with Hasbro.
Eric wasn't well-versed in operational matters, so he listened patiently as Katzenberg and the head of the branding division explained things. They debated various points all morning.
Even during lunch, the discussions continued as Eric dined with Katzenberg, going over several film developnt details.
During their al, Eric shared his vision for the Arica's Next Top Model, igniting Katzenberg's enthusiasm. Katzenberg jumped on him with fervor, extracting every detail from Eric's mind. He strongly recomnded that the Arica's Next Top Model be placed under the Lifeti Entertainnt Services owned by A&E Networks.
A&E Networks had originally been a subsidiary of ABC, but at that ti it was jointly owned by Firefly Group and Hearst Group, with no controlling interest by either side -- each held 50% of the shares. The small network primarily featured basic cable channels, including a history channel, cri and psychology channel, and the Lifeti channel, which focused on content for won.
Basic cable channels, as opposed to premium channels like HBO and Showti, were available to viewers who paid for cable, giving access to nurous programming options. However, different cable packages offered varying channels. Other channels under Firefly, like Disney and ESPN, were also classified as basic cable.
Typically, subscribers would have dozens to hundreds of basic cable channels in their packages, so even the smaller A&E channels had a substantial viewership of 30 to 90 million. Yet, as they had to share audiences with all the other channels in their packages, their actual ratings could vastly differ.
Katzenberg suggested that Lifeti, even though it was still relatively unknown, had the potential for growth like a seed that needed nurturing. If you didn't water it or fertilize it, it would never flourish.
After lunch, this workaholic couldn't wait to get in touch with the A&E station manager in New York. The team held a long phone eting that lasted all afternoon, discussing how to further develop Lifeti. Given the professionalism of the television industry specialists in the room, it only took a few hours to draft a detailed developnt strategy and marketing plan.
The main strategy drew inspiration from last year's success of Survivor, focusing on transforming Lifeti into a channel predominantly featuring reality shows for won.
Prior to this suggestion, Lifeti mostly aired low-budget rom-coms and won's dramas, and lacked significant scale, primarily relying on purchasing rerun rights for popular shows from major networks, with minimal original production. Its programming barely qualified in comparison to the historical and cri channels available on A&E Networks.
But putting this strategy into place was the best course of action; they wasted no ti getting started.
First, the Arica's Next Top Model had to be secured.
Wow.
What a setup for the boss.
Although Eric silently criticized the idea in his head, he didn't lack the spirit of adventure. Seeing how driven everyone was after just an afternoon with Katzenberg, he was willing to take a chance too. After all, the Arica's Next Top Model had relatively low costs and simple format, aning the chances of losing money were minimal.
Later, most of the reality shows that took off in North Arica could trace their roots back to one show: Survivor.
From his scattered mories, he recognized that the Arica's Next Top Model was essentially the modeling version of Survivor, complete with the sa elimination chanisms and the inevitable tearful monts every episode, which mirrored the elents that Survivor had utilized.
But that was what Arican audiences loved to watch; otherwise, Survivor wouldn't have set all kinds of astounding viewership records.
Then Katzenberg took it a step further, leaving Eric thinking that this guy was more than worth his multi-million dollar salary each year.
Not only did he request the A&E manager to rush to Los Angeles tomorrow for more detailed discussions about this venture, but he also invited the heads of Firefly's television production departnt to join them in brainstorming the key production details for the Arica's Next Top Model.
By the ti all these tasks were completed, it was already 8 PM, 8 PM, 8 PM...
It seed like just a few days ago that Eric had complained about how so burdens wouldn't fall on him, yet ironically, in just a few days, he had beco a burden creator himself.
But as the boss, Eric couldn't very well tell his employees to "let's not push so hard" or "let's head out early."
So he stayed until night fell.
...
As the Oscars ceremony reached its halfway point, Eric and Katzenberg finally exited the conference room, hurrying to the cafeteria in their headquarters.
Though they were scheduled to attend a party after the Oscars, Eric, feeling famished, realized there was no way he could last until then. After a long day of intense work, most people's first reaction was usually one thing: hungry.
They ordered dinner and imdiately turned on the television in the cafeteria, fully aware of the occasion.
The announcent for the Best Original Screenplay was underway.
Both Saving Private Ryan and Braveheart had received nominations for Best Original Screenplay, yet Eric had won that award once before. He knew better than to expect another golden statuette so soon at his age. After getting a nomination, he entirely abandoned hopes for that award and decided not to attend the ceremony.
Listening to the presenter ramble on, he was initially distracted, but soon he perked up.
He heard a familiar na ntioned.
Of course, it wasn't Braveheart, Saving Private Ryan, or that eccentric man's Bullets Over Broadway. Okay, Four Weddings and a Funeral was out of the picture as well. While Eric had a vivid mory of the lead actress recounting her thirty-three romantic exploits in that film, he wasn't paying attention to the screenplay's writer.
What caught his attention was a film titled Heavenly Creatures.
This movie had two screenwriters, one nad Fran Walsh, who was more of a side character and unworthy of ntion. The other, however, had a na that rang out loud and clear: Peter Jackson.
Moreover, the two female leads in this film intrigued Eric. One, Kate Winslet, had managed to bravely navigate through the powerful butterfly effect to erge in Hollywood again, while the other lead actress was lanie Lynskey, whom Eric found morable as the quirky neighbor and stalker, Rose from Two and a Half n.
*****
/Sayonara816.
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