Tomorrow's Star

After Aaron recommended Giuseppe Tornatore's Everybody's Fine to Disney, he began waiting for their response.

Meanwhile, to Aaron's surprise, CAA's young agent Richard Lovett had joined CAA's longtime rival, ICM.

Aaron wondered if it was because he had chewed him out on the hotel balcony that night.

CAA naturally would not care much about a young agent leaving. After all, CAA now had more than 150 agents.

However, Richard Lovett had taken newcomer Julia Roberts with him. Once Pretty Woman was released next year, she would become famous overnight—she would be even hotter than this year's Meg Ryan!

Heh, I really can't imagine what expressions Michael Ovitz and Ronald Meyer will have then.

Aaron muttered to himself, but he only paid it casual attention. By next year, he would probably have left CAA himself.

At the same time, Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather Part III had also begun casting. With Al Pacino's recommendation, Jennifer Connelly had come from the Bay Area to New York to prepare for an audition.

Moreover, on October 17, 1989, a magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck Loma Prieta in Northern California, and Stanford University suffered considerable damage as well.

"Your luck is pretty bad. You transferred schools this year and ran into an earthquake like this!"

In a suite at the St. Regis New York, Aaron sat on the couch flipping through the newspaper in his hands.

Jennifer Connelly stuck out her tongue. "That area was already in an earthquake zone."

"All right, the role you're auditioning for this time is the old Godfather's daughter. As for the specifics, that will mainly be up to Director Coppola."

"Quite a few actresses have auditioned already. Julia Roberts, Madonna Ciccone, and the others apparently failed to satisfy Coppola."

There was nothing Aaron could do about that. Italians liked to keep things in the family, and Coppola's The Godfather series included practically all of his relatives.

Jennifer Connelly was a little nervous. The Godfather Part III was about to start filming, and she did not have much confidence.

"Come on, let's head over early." Aaron patted her shoulder.

"Okay!"

When they left the hotel, Aaron also grabbed the script for Everybody's Fine, intending to ask Mr. Al Pacino to pass it on to Director Coppola.

Francis Ford Coppola had his own production company, and this was also an Italian arthouse film. If Disney was not interested, finding an American distributor would be far too easy with Coppola's abilities.

That was, provided Everybody's Fine could move Francis Ford Coppola!

Before long, Aaron drove Jennifer Connelly to the New York set of The Godfather Part III.

A staff member led the two directly into a lounge to wait.

"The Godfather Part III will be filmed in Italy as well as New York."

Although Aaron Anderson was not optimistic about Jennifer Connelly's chances at the audition, there were still some things he needed to tell her as they sat together.

"No problem. The first movie I starred in a few years ago was an Italian thriller."

"And I speak French and Italian too, so communicating will be easy!"

Aaron's mouth twitched. "Relax. Speaking English is enough. Al Pacino and Diane Keaton don't speak Italian either."

Those two were the male and female leads of The Godfather series.

As he spoke, Aaron looked Jennifer Connelly over and said, "Since you speak Italian, if you're interested, you could play the youngest daughter in this Giuseppe Tornatore script, Everybody's Fine."

Jennifer Connelly looked at Aaron. "Do you think I should?"

"You can give it a try. I'm just worried that you'll always be thinking about acting while you're at school. Rather than taking scripts like Boiling Point, you'd be better off joining an arthouse film like this."

The investors for Everybody's Fine were still being sought, but Aaron was not too worried. Even without American funding, it would not really be a problem. Europe had dedicated film support funds, and someone of Giuseppe Tornatore's standing should be able to apply for them.

There would be no problem having Jennifer Connelly join the project now, either. She had a certain level of fame, and Giuseppe Tornatore would not object.

After they waited for a while, a staff member brought in two more people: Winona Ryder and her agent.

Winona Ryder was now eighteen, while Jennifer Connelly was nineteen. They were indeed close in age, and they had previously run into each other at the Pretty Woman audition.

Winona Ryder's agent was also a CAA employee, a female agent with far more seniority than Aaron.

However, Aaron Anderson could now be considered the leader among CAA's newcomers. Ordinary agents could not compare to his performance.

"Aaron, what a coincidence. I'm Jessica!"

Winona Ryder's agent walked over to greet Aaron.

"Hello, Jessica." Aaron smiled and shook her hand. Then the two moved to a quiet spot.

"Winona just finished filming Edward Scissorhands, right? Tim Burton directed it, and Johnny Depp was the male lead!"

Tim Burton's Batman had been a massive hit this year, while Johnny Depp and Winona Ryder's relationship had also been the subject of endless gossip.

Jessica smiled. "Winona has already filmed two movies this year, but who could turn down an invitation from Director Coppola?"

Aaron nodded and discreetly glanced at Winona Ryder. Her eyes were deep, her face breathtakingly beautiful—yet she was dating a neurotic rock musician like Johnny Depp?

"She's a good actress, but young people are always so easily led astray."

Johnny Depp and Winona Ryder were now madly in love, and the news about them was endless.

Jessica was helpless too. Johnny Depp basically had every bad habit imaginable: women, alcohol, and hallucinogenic drugs without end.

Meanwhile, Winona Ryder had become one of the leading young actresses of the past two years with Beetlejuice and Heathers. Her career was on the rise, a tomorrow's star ascending brightly, yet she was dating a rock bad boy nearly ten years older than her?

What a pity. Women in love really were hard to judge.

"I didn't expect you to sign Jennifer Connelly. At the last audition, it was still her mother accompanying her."

"Couldn't be helped. Aside from Steven Soderbergh, who has a little fame, I don't have any artists under me. Jennifer is mainly studying right now and doesn't have much going on, so I decided to give it a try."

Jessica smiled. "You, Aaron Anderson, are now CAA's calling card for film sales and distribution. Do you really need to compete with little people like us for a living?"

Over the past half year or so, Aaron Anderson had gotten to know many producers and heads of film companies.

Everyone knew that his future lay in becoming a film producer. The identity of an agent could not hold him down for long.

At that moment, a staff member came in to call for them.

The audition was about to begin...