Unable to sort out all the complicated issues surrounding surrogacy, Simon simply shook his head and dismissed Janet's suggestion outright.[1]
Whatever thoughts he had, things concerning the future could wait until the future.
Early the next morning, the Dume Point estate began preparations for the midday baby shower.
A little after ten o'clock in the morning, Simon was sent by Janet to personally pick up the Johnston family members from the airport. The noon party was lively and bustling. Then in the afternoon, Janet drove him out.
Along with all the other men who had attended the party.
The reason was that the afternoon was girls' time.
Of course Simon understood Janet's thinking. The woman did not forbid him from interacting with other women, with one single exception. [TL/N: Her Aunt]
After taking Patrick Johnston on a half-tour around the Daenerys Film Studios, Simon directly sent him off to entertain himself. He had no interest in babysitting a kid.
He spent the afternoon idly in his office, and when he returned home in the evening, Janet was kneeling directly on the carpet in one of the villa's living rooms sorting through the gifts the guests had brought that day. She was surrounded by a huge pile of gift boxes and seemed to be in a good mood.
Simon sat down on the carpet as well and helped open the gift boxes while casually chatting with Janet about trivial matters.
He picked up a pretty music box with a cartoon style, examined it for a moment, and complained that Sandra didn't know how to pick gifts. Janet suddenly spoke again. "I discussed something with my aunt this afternoon."
Simon kept his head down as he untied the ribbon on a gift box. "Mm?"
Janet said, "Auntie agreed to help us look after the child in the future."
Simon's hands paused. He looked up at Janet and asked, "Why would you come up with that idea?"
"Auntie can't stay single forever. So I thought, if I let her help take care of Melbourne for a while and let her experience what it's like to be a mother, maybe she'll find a man and get married."
Simon's eyes flickered. He resumed casually fiddling with the gift box in his hands.
A small hand reached over from the side and poked his shoulder.
When the man didn't react, it poked him again.
Simon suddenly turned his head as if to bite it. Janet immediately giggled and pulled her little paw back, then changed the subject. "Darling, what are we having for dinner tonight?"
"I'll cook for you personally later."
Janet pouted and told the truth. "Actually, your cooking doesn't taste very good."
"Pregnant women should eat lighter food. Carrot and white rice porridge is perfect."
"But the baby needs nutrition."
Simon turned to look the woman beside him up and down and smiled. "You're already over-nourished right now."
Janet couldn't tolerate that. She glared with wide eyes and said unhappily, "You're actually calling me fat!"
"I didn't say that."
"You're clearly disgusted that I'm fat."
"All right, I'm disgusted that you're fat."
"Wah..."
Janet leaned over and bit down on one of Simon's arms.
Naturally a pregnant woman would gain some weight, especially since Janet had always lived a life of luxury.
However, Janet's foundation was too good. Even though her body appeared fuller due to pregnancy and she was already seven months along, she still couldn't really be described as "fat."
He let Janet grind her small teeth on his arm for a while. Seeing that she didn't seem inclined to let go, Simon reached over, gently grasped one of her wrists, and squeezed lightly. It was like flipping a switch. The woman's body instantly went soft, her teeth loosened, and she melted against him.
A soft, muffled voice sounded. "Mmm, you're bullying me."
Simon picked up another gift box and began opening it, smiling. "Do you like being bullied by me?"
"Mm-hmm."
"So..."
Janet rubbed her head against Simon, then suddenly asked softly, "Would you... um, bully other people like this?"
"Who else could make me want to bully them like this?"
"Anyway, you're absolutely not allowed to do it."
"Mm, I promise."
Veronica Johnston was staying in the villa on the east side of the Dume Point estate, the one that had originally belonged to Janet. Patrick Johnston had taken his girlfriend into the city and obviously wouldn't be returning tonight. Dinner was once again just Simon and Janet.
He spent all of Sunday accompanying Janet. The new week of work began.
The first weekend box office numbers for the Halloween season were also officially released.
After three days of release, Scream 3 ultimately earned 27.11 million dollars over its opening weekend. Given its 2,672-screen opening, it achieved strong per-screen averages exceeding ten thousand dollars.
Although the concluding film had been carefully produced with a 30 million dollar budget, using the same formula three times naturally resulted in only average word of mouth.
Moreover, although the opening was decent, neither inside Daenerys Entertainment nor in the outside media were people very optimistic about the film's box office performance going forward.
Releasing alongside Scream 3 was John Hughes' new film Curly Sue, which told the story of a homeless man and an orphan girl teaming up to "swindle" their way through life. It was still filled with John Hughes' usual tropes and clearly followed the style of Home Alone, which had been a huge hit the previous Christmas.
Thanks to Home Alone's success, John Hughes' status in Hollywood had risen another level. Although Curly Sue didn't have any major stars, its budget had still reached 30 million dollars.
However, the film's quality was obviously mediocre. Otherwise, a movie more suited for the year-end season wouldn't have been dumped by Warner into the relatively weaker Halloween slot.
In the end, Curly Sue failed to bring Warner any surprises.
On 1,634 opening screens, it earned only 4.97 million dollars over its first three days. The first-week total was probably only around 6 million dollars, with North American totals expected to fall between 20 and 30 million dollars at most, roughly matching the film's production budget.
After Home Alone's success, John Hughes had hurriedly churned out two similar children's films this year. The summer release of the other one, Baby's Day Out, performed even worse. With a 17 million dollar budget in the hot July period, it only earned 4.6 million dollars in North America.
The consecutive failures of these two children's films had basically exhausted the halo John Hughes had gained from Home Alone.
John Hughes had signed very generous profit-sharing contracts for both films. Now that both had ended in losses, aside from his base salary, there was no profit sharing to speak of. This filmmaker who had relied on one successful formula was now shifting more attention toward producing Home Alone 2.
In the original timeline, Home Alone had been both John Hughes' peak and the beginning of his decline in the 1990s. Some filmmaking techniques used for too many years had finally caused audience fatigue.
With the opening of the Halloween season, the full slate of major year-end releases was also finalized.
For the Thanksgiving and Christmas periods, Daenerys Entertainment, including the now-integrated Universal Pictures, would release a total of four films: Toy Story and Cape Fear for Thanksgiving (opening November 22 and November 29), and The Piano and Fried Green Tomatoes for Christmas. The Piano would have a limited release on December 6 as was typical for awards contenders, while Fried Green Tomatoes was scheduled for December 27, the final week of 1991.
Toy Story and The Piano were films produced in-house by Daenerys Entertainment. Cape Fear, starring Robert De Niro, and the female-driven comedic drama Fried Green Tomatoes, starring Kathy Bates and others, were projects taken over from Universal.
After Cape Fear and Fried Green Tomatoes, Universal's distribution department would be officially dissolved, leaving only the Universal Pictures production label.
Moreover, a few years later, even the Universal Pictures production label would be fully integrated into Daenerys Entertainment.
Although it was a classic label that had lasted more than half a century, the current Daenerys Entertainment now possessed the strength to replace the brand.
In this world, after all, nothing lasted forever.
Malibu, Daenerys Film Studios.
After discussions over this period, the director for The Ring had finally been decided. His name was Phillip Noyce.
Simon briefly reviewed the box office report from the just-concluded weekend, then spent the entire morning discussing the production details of The Ring with this director.
When he had previously instructed Danny Morris that he could select some promising new directors, Phillip Noyce could be considered a newcomer in Hollywood, though he was not young. The director was already 41 years old this year.
The main reason Simon had chosen him was because of the director's resume.
Phillip Noyce was from Australia. He had developed an interest in film at a very young age, shot his first movie at 18, and had remained active in the Australian film scene until two years ago when he first connected with Hollywood by directing the ocean drift thriller Dead Calm, produced by George Miller and starring Nicole Kidman.
That's right. Choosing Phillip Noyce still involved some personal favors from George Miller and Nicole Kidman, along with Simon's deliberate support for the Australian crew.
However, if the director lacked sufficient ability, Simon naturally would not have used him.
Phillip Noyce possessed both a formal film school education and practical experience accumulated since the age of 18. His personal ability was unquestionable.
Moreover, in the original timeline, Phillip Noyce had also directed successful blockbusters such as Patriot Games starring Harrison Ford and Salt starring Angelina Jolie. Although those had not happened yet, it was enough to prove the director's solid filmmaking foundation.
In addition, Phillip Noyce had tried his hand at horror films over the years. Although they were not Hollywood productions, they were more than enough for directing The Ring.
As a "newcomer" who had only directed one Hollywood film, Phillip Noyce greatly cherished this opportunity.
After Danny Morris contacted him, the director had specially flown to Japan and spent several days discussing the film's plot and style with the original novel's author, Koji Suzuki. He had also done extensive research on Japanese horror films.
Many famous directors produced stunning early works only to gradually become mediocre later on. In Simon's view, running out of talent was only a small factor. The key reason was that once a director achieved fame and success, their mentality often changed, and they would no longer invest as much effort into their work.
After more than two hours of discussion, Simon instructed Danny Morris that he could begin contract negotiations with Phillip Noyce.
Once that matter was handled, Simon had just opened the patent list from San Francisco that would soon be placed into the World Wide Web Consortium foundation when the female assistant knocked on the door. "Boss, Ms. Johnston is here."
Simon didn't immediately register it. "Mm?"
The female assistant explained, "Veronica Johnston."
Simon paused, then nodded. "Let her in."
The female assistant withdrew from the doorway. The door was pushed open, and Veronica Johnston, dressed today in her usual black women's business suit, walked in.
Looking at Simon, who did not stand up behind his desk, Veronica stopped a short distance from the entrance and said softly, "My flight is this afternoon."
Simon met Veronica's gaze, gestured toward the sofa in the reception area, then continued flipping through the patent list in his hands.
Veronica no longer held any hope that Simon's attitude toward her would change much. She walked to the sofa and chose a seat facing him.
A moment later, the female assistant brought in coffee. Sensing the strange atmosphere in the office, she shot the man behind the desk a white-eyed glare for his cold treatment of Veronica, set down the coffee, and sat down in the reception area herself.
After chatting with Veronica for a while and still having work to do, the female assistant had no choice but to stand up. As she left, she once again used her eyes to signal Simon not to be too cold toward the guest.
The female assistant naturally did not understand why Simon and Janet's aunt had such a strange way of interacting. However, she instinctively felt that Simon should be warmer.
Once Jennifer left, the atmosphere in the office remained largely unchanged.
Veronica quietly finished her cup of coffee. After hesitating for a moment, she asked softly, "Do you... know about the thing I promised Janet?"
Simon nodded.
Seeing that Simon wasn't going to speak, Veronica didn't know how to continue for a while.
At least he hadn't spoken coldly or sarcastically to her this time.
Janet's suggestion yesterday for Veronica to help take care of the child had been a momentary impulse. Veronica had agreed, but deep down it came from a sense of guilt or a desire to make amends.
She had once failed to take on her responsibilities.
Now, this was a small form of compensation.
Even though...
After another stretch of silence, Veronica set down her empty cup. She had originally planned to leave but suddenly could not hold back a question that had been buried deep in her heart for a very long time.
"Back then, why did the Levinsons disappear? How... how did you end up alone in San Francisco?"
Behind the desk.
Simon mechanically flipped through the documents in front of him. His brows were slightly furrowed, as if recalling memories he did not wish to remember.
The lighting in the office was very bright.
However, for one instant, Veronica felt as though Simon, sitting not far away, had been swallowed entirely by some cold, scorching shadow. The feeling was so intense it nearly stopped her heart.
Snap.
The sound of a pencil breaking rang out.
The strange atmosphere vanished instantly.
Yet Veronica remained sitting there dazed. She didn't know how much time had passed before a voice came from what seemed both very far and very close. "You should go."
For some unknown reason, tears once again welled up uncontrollably in Veronica's eyes.
She covered her mouth with her hand, trying desperately to stop herself from crying out loud.
But the tears could not be held back. They quickly formed a line down her cool, elegant face and slipped through the gaps between her fingers.
Simon silently continued reading the documents in his hands until he had finished all dozen or so pages. Only then did he look up again at the woman on the sofa, who had calmed down somewhat. "Have lunch with me."
She answered softly, "Mm."
After speaking, Simon stood up and walked toward the door.
Veronica carefully kept her distance as she rose and quietly followed.
She realized that she might have overlooked, or perhaps never truly known, too many things.
It was impossible to make up for them now.
How could they possibly be made up for?!
Deep in her heart, she secretly made up her mind. She would never, ever, bring up certain things again.
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