Chapter 125: Disney Park

Chapter 125: Chapter 125: Disney Park

Irene was startled. "Why? Bu Bu is so wonderful, why don’t they like her?"

"In their eyes, Bu Bu is an entertainer. The circle is too complicated, and there’s a gap between our family backgrounds." Edward’s voice carried a hint of self-mockery.

"They have always wanted me to find someone of equal social standing, not necessarily to help the family business, but at least a partner they can show off."

"..." Truly a wealthy family, indeed.

Seeing Irene didn’t react, he continued, "I had already prepared a gift yesterday, but then my mother suddenly called, saying she wasn’t feeling well and told me to come home immediately. After I returned, I realized she wasn’t sick at all. She just called me back on purpose, wanting me to break up with Bu Bu."

"There’s actually such a thing? How did you handle it? Did you argue?"

"We argued, and it was quite intense. But they were very firm, saying if I insisted on being with Bu Bu, they wouldn’t recognize me as their son anymore." He turned to look at Irene, his eyes suddenly becoming firm.

"But I love Bu Bu very much, and I don’t want to break up."

Irene looked at his serious expression, feeling slightly more at ease, and quickly asked, "Then what do you plan to do next? You can’t just keep staying at a stalemate with your parents forever, right?"

Edward’s lips curled into a mischievous smile. "What’s there to be afraid of? I gained access to the family trust fund after I came of age, which is enough for my daily expenses. Besides, aren’t I working for you? With that and my other income, earning millions a year shouldn’t be a problem."

"It doesn’t matter if my parents don’t agree now. I will use time to prove to them that Bu Bu is a good girl and that we will be happy together."

Afterward, he looked toward Britney in the restaurant, his eyes gentle and firm. "I won’t let her be wronged."

At this moment, Britney came bouncing out of the restaurant. Seeing the two standing on the balcony talking, she smiled and called out, "What are you two chatting about? Hurry in and eat. I ordered a lot of pancakes you like, Edward."

Edward immediately put away his serious expression, turned to face Britney with a gentle smile, and walked over quickly to take her hand. "Nothing, just talking about taking you to a great place after we eat to make up for yesterday’s birthday surprise."

Irene looked at their clasped hands and sighed silently in her heart.

She hadn’t expected such a wealthy family drama to happen around her. However, they were still young, and no one could say for sure what the future would hold, so worrying was just a waste of time.

That night, Edward rented out the entire Disney park to celebrate Britney’s birthday.

Loren and Vivian were also invited. The park, usually teeming with visitors, was now left with only them and the staff. Aside from the sound of the machines running, it was incredibly quiet.

Suddenly, with a "whoosh," golden fireworks exploded over the Disney park.

The fireworks and lights complemented each other, projecting various beautiful pictures onto the outer walls of the castle.

Irene and Loren sat on the grass in front of the castle, quietly watching the fireworks display.

In fact, this was Irene’s first time at Disney. After all, the current Disney park only featured themes related to various cartoons, so it mostly attracted children. As for adult-oriented attractions, they existed but were not yet a focus.

For example, the pirate ship not far away was just a general term. Without the boost from the movie Pirates of the Caribbean, this attraction didn’t attract many tourists.

Speaking of which, one has to mention the Pirates of the Caribbean project.

As Irene expected, after she finished the project proposal, she had Shelly submit the script to Fox Pictures, but they were somewhat negative after reviewing the subject matter.

According to Adelaide, the project needed to go through a systematic review by the production department first. The production department needed to analyze whether the script was novel, whether it had commercial value, and whether it fit the production company’s product framework.

If the project passed the review, the production department would also need to estimate the film’s production costs, tax costs, and so on.

Afterward, the project would have to go through a review by the distribution department, which would organize meetings to discuss where the project’s commercial value lay, who the target audience was, whether it was adapted from a novel, whether there was a fixed fan base, and whether there were any copyright disputes.

In short, there was a ton of preliminary work to be done, so they couldn’t give an answer quickly.

If Irene were just a director fresh out of school, she might have been fooled by these excuses, but she had already directed three films, and the co-production with Fox Pictures had only just finished editing.

Those excuses, which were obviously just pretexts, made her very annoyed, but she couldn’t change them. After all, in others’ eyes, the pirate theme was a huge minefield right now.

The disaster of Cutthroat Island in 1995 still hadn’t been completely forgotten. It cost 98 million USD, had a North America box office of 10.17 million, and a global total of only 15 million. Including marketing expenses, the film had a net loss of 105 million USD for the year, and 105 million USD at that time was an incredibly huge figure.

You have to know that Battlefield Earth earlier this year didn’t even lose to that extent. At least it recouped nearly 30 million USD at the box office.

Such a loss was simply unprecedented and directly led to the bankruptcy of Carolco Pictures.

Not only that, but action director Renny Harlin, whose career was booming at the time, and his wife—the film’s lead actress and popular Oscar-winning actress Geena Davis—had no more roles to play after this film.

The once-popular pirate theme was still regarded as a monster to be avoided, and all of Hollywood changed color at the mention of it.

And against such a backdrop, Irene wanting to reboot this theme was indeed very difficult.

If it weren’t for the foundation of cooperation she already had with Fox on two films, such a project submitted to Fox would just be put into storage to gather dust.

She had thought about giving up or changing to another project, but there weren’t many original IP series that were huge hits, and most projects available for adaptation had already been swallowed by the Big Six, and getting them out of their mouths was even more impossible.

Therefore, Irene was both annoyed and helpless.

Based on the principle of not putting all eggs in one basket, Irene had Shelly send the project proposal to Universal, Warner, Paramount, and Disney at the same time.

Among these, Irene felt that the chances of two film companies taking the bait were relatively higher.

One was Paramount, which had contacted Shelly more than once privately wanting to collaborate with Irene, and the other was Disney, the owner of Pirates of the Caribbean in her past life.

It’s just unclear who will express interest first.

"What are you thinking about? Do you like it here? I saw you staring at the pirate ship for a long time just now." Loren’s voice seemed even gentler in the night.

"Thinking about my new project, a movie related to pirates," Irene smiled.

"Oh, that sounds great. It seems like it’s been a long time since a movie related to pirates appeared in theaters." Loren was a bit puzzled, as he didn’t pay much attention to movies.