Bang—bang—
A tapping on the car window jolted Hallock awake. He looked up to see his partner standing outside with a cup of coffee.
He quickly rolled the window down, took the paper cup, gulped, and asked, 'Have Matthew Horner and Charlize Theron come out of the hotel yet?'
The man outside shook his head. 'Nope.'
Hallock opened the door and stepped out, glancing around; plenty of rivals had kept the same overnight vigil.
The sun was already up; shielding his eyes, he squinted toward the entrance. Guests trickled out, but the two familiar figures were nowhere in sight.
'Same species, different species…' Hallock muttered resentfully. 'Matthew Horner's fooling around with an oscar best actress winner in a luxury suite while we freeze our asses off outside.'
The gap in life's pleasures was just too wide.
'They're out!'
Someone shouted. Hallock spotted the pair, tossed his cup, snatched the camera hanging round his neck, and sprinted over. Within seconds he'd found the perfect angle, lens fixed on Matthew Horner and Charlize Theron as they left the hotel, shutter clicking nonstop.
Through the viewfinder Charlize glowed and Matthew looked invigorated—clearly neither had slept virtuously.
'Filthy pair,' Hallock cursed while shooting.
Photos of them entering together last night, now leaving arm-in-arm—solid proof they'd shared a room after the Oscars.
A night's graft like this would fetch at least a grand or two; after all, the subjects were Matthew Horner and Charlize Theron.
At the entrance Matthew and Charlize climbed into a car together.
'Where to?' Charlize asked. 'I'll drop you first.'
Matthew stretched. 'Angel Agency in Burbank,' he told the driver.
The car pulled away; Charlize raised the privacy screen. Matthew suggested, 'Wait for me at the agency? I'll grab something and we can head to my place.'
'After the marathon you put me through last night? I'm exhausted—I'm going home to sleep.'
Actually, one tipsy evening in Munich had been enough for them to end up in bed together.
She clearly recalled how her suprressed feeling for him exploded like a volcano after their one drunken kiss. They did not leave the hotel for two days straight in Munich. And she had only heard about his reputation in bed but after feeling his passion and power she really believed that even the rumours are underestimating his sexual prowess.He truly left her breathless with pleasure now she's actually thinking how would any man satisfy her in future.
Even with her extensive experience, none of previous partners come even close to the stamina of this guy.
The car sped out of Hollywood. Matthew changed the subject; fond of Charlize though he was, business came first. 'Don't forget—we're house-hunting together in a few days.'
All planned; Charlize merely asked, 'Most of your money's in stocks. You still have cash for a house?'
'Mortgage. pirates of the caribbean starts shooting soon—Walt Disney Pictures will pay my first installment by mid-April at the latest.'
Charlize considered. 'Fine. I'll check my schedule and let you know.'
'Great.' Matthew gave her a heads-up. 'I'm thinking Beverly Hills, Santa Monica Valley, or Malibu Beach.'
'Whatever. You're the buyer.'
'Remember, Sally—you're the lady of the house.'
Charlize gave no reply. The car stopped outside Angel Agency; after Matthew got out she didn't drive off immediately, watching his tall figure head toward the small building, uncertainty flickering in her eyes.
She rubbed her face. Was she really going to be Matthew's girlfriend?
Lowering the divider, she waved the driver on.
Watching until he vanished inside, she decided to take things one step at a time.
Marriage had never been on her agenda… Inside Angel Agency, Helen Herman wasn't in; Matthew greeted her assistant and collected the revised commercial script Mercedes-Benz Company had sent over again.
With Michael Bay confirmed as director and filming set for Disney Studios in Los Angeles, Bay had joined the planning, met the Mercedes ad director, scrapped the previous script, and drafted a new one himself.
The old script had been only a few pages; the new one Matthew now held was a pitiful single sheet with barely any text, giving no clue what Bay intended to shoot.
He guessed Bay wouldn't lock the content until the day of filming, then feed the actors their lines on set.
Some directors hate explaining, letting actors interpret freely; others spell out every beat.
From what Matthew knew, Bay was the latter type.
When he left Angel Talent Agency, Matthew picked up a few newspapers from the lobby. As expected, his high-profile appearance on the Oscar red carpet with Charlize Theron—officially announcing they were together—had snatched plenty of column inches. Some of the gossip rags even ran the photo of the two sharing a deep kiss in the press area as their front-page splash.
Back home he checked online; rumors that he and Charlize Theron had checked into a hotel after the Academy Awards Ceremony were already everywhere.
It had successfully drawn a flood of attention.
And the hype was far from over.
A week later TMZ reported that Matthew and Charlize Theron were house-hunting together in Beverly Hills, preparing to buy a mansion and build a love nest.
Then papers claimed the two might marry after mr. & mrs. smith opened across North America.
Thanks to the gossip swirling around Matthew and Charlize Theron—spreading last year with a heat rivaling Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie—the film they co-starred in, mr. & mrs. smith, also grabbed huge interest from movie-goers.
In one website's post-Oscar tally of the summer's most anticipated blockbusters, mr. & mrs. smith ranked third, behind only Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith and Spielberg's War of the Worlds, beating the rebooted Batman and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Of course, for mr. & mrs. smith to score big at the box office, marketing was crucial—but the movie also had to deliver a certain level of quality; otherwise, in a summer where almost every weekend saw a major commercial release, it would drown in the flood of films.
Summit Entertainment had pumped a hundred million dollars into the picture and first wanted 20th Century Fox to distribute it, but Summit aimed for the first half of May, and Fox already had kingdom of heaven at the start of the month and, mid-May, Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith; they simply couldn't spare major resources for an outside release.
In the second half of last year, with Helen Herman brokering the deal, Summit Entertainment, Akiva Goldsman, and Universal Pictures struck a distribution agreement: Universal would handle North-American and overseas release of mr. & mrs. smith.
The North-American release date was set for 13 May—a decent weekend slot with no strong competitors; the only wide opener of note was Unleashed.
That film, written and produced by Luc Besson and starring Eastern action star Jet Li, cost $45 million to make.
Summit and Universal, however, clearly didn't regard Unleashed as a threat.
In truth, films written or directed by Luc Besson rarely perform well in North America; a genuine breakout hit has never happened.
mr. & mrs. smith's real competition would come the weekend before and the weekend after.
The prior weekend, 20th Century Fox's kingdom of heaven, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Orlando Bloom, would arrive as scheduled; the following weekend, George Lucas's Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith would deliver the Skywalker saga's final chapter.
Matthew had tentatively asked whether they could shift the slot to Memorial Day weekend, since he had no memory of The Longest Yard opening then and figured it wasn't a major draw.
The attempt failed: he was only an actor, neither invested nor credited as producer, with zero say over release dates.
Akiva Goldsman had also explained that clashing with an Adam Sandler football comedy posed ten times the risk of bumping into something like Unleashed.
With commercial tent-poles landing almost every weekend, you naturally pick the softest target.
July did offer less competitive weekends, but Universal and Summit would never push mr. & mrs. smith that far out; gossip has a shelf life, and by July any new rumor about Matthew and Charlize Theron wouldn't carry the heat of a still-fresh May.
The entire hype plan was a chain of linked beats; too long a gap would blunt its impact.
The strategy from Universal and Summit was clear: blanket publicity to whip up fan and casual-audience interest and send as many people as possible to theaters in the first week.
Besides, market tracking and feedback suggested Revenge of the Sith wasn't as fearsome as imagined; Attack of the Clones had disappointed so many that George Lucas's finale would be dragged down by its predecessor.
Just as Matthew was mulling all this, national treasure ended its North-American run.