Simon drove to the restaurant near the Brentwood Country Club where they'd been last time.
After waiting a moment, Katherine and Janet arrived together.
Once seated inside, Simon noticed Katherine's obviously downcast mood today and tentatively asked, "Has there been another hitch with starting Night of the Living Dead?"
Before Katherine could respond, Janet said, "I'm afraid it'll be pushed back until after the new year."
Simon had recently seen some news about De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, the production company for Night of the Living Dead. Concerned, he asked, "How did that happen?"
A waiter approached just then, and the three paused their conversation.
After ordering dinner, Katherine explained, "Producer Edward Feldman called me this afternoon. De Laurentiis is completely out of money—they have to wait until the end of the year to collect shares from the films they released this year before my movie can start."
Hearing this, Simon fell silent for a bit.
In Hollywood, it was all too common for films to be delayed for months or even years due to funding, key personnel, or other issues, sometimes fizzling out entirely. Katherine's situation wasn't surprising at all.
After a moment, Simon said, "So, Katherine, does that mean you're out of work for a while?"
Katherine nodded absently. "Yeah."
Simon suggested, "In that case, why don't you come help me out?"
Katherine looked up uncertainly. "Hm?"
Simon clarified, "Lola Run. The movie starts shooting next month."
"But I might still have to..."
Katherine gestured vaguely, struggling to find a good excuse, then turned to Janet beside her.
Janet had been blinking rapidly since hearing Simon's words, her eyes fluttering.
Simon glanced over too. Janet had long lashes—no need for falsies—and the fluttering was quite pretty. "Janet, want to order another foie gras? People who blink a lot might be low on vitamin D, and animal livers are rich in that."
Hearing Simon's teasing, Janet stopped blinking abruptly, her expression turning fierce as she grabbed her fork and jabbed it playfully at him.
Katherine smiled at their banter. "I think I'll pass."
"Why pass?" Janet chimed in suddenly, linking her arm with Katherine's. "Kate, let's both go. I'm the majority investor, after all. If needed, I could even fire the director and put you in charge."
Simon, hearing Janet's gritted-teeth tone, put on a 'terrified' face, clasped his hands together, and bowed his head in mock plea. "Janet, I was wrong. How about I order two foie gras for you?"
Janet tossed a stack of napkins at him, hitting his head. "You little punk, take that."
After the laughter died down, with Janet egging her on, Katherine finally agreed to join as Simon's assistant director. The final 'payment' they settled on was Simon helping out on the Night of the Living Dead set for a while when the time came.
Janet hadn't originally been interested in the production of Lola Run. Simon had suggested she come on as a producer—not just in name—but the lazy-natured Janet had only claimed the task of painting a butterfly-themed mural for the casino scene, one of the film's three hints at the 'butterfly effect' theme.
With Katherine joining, Janet perked up and got involved too.
Then.
The next morning, Janet showed up 'for work' bright and early, full of enthusiasm.
It was eight o'clock.
Simon was an early riser, but he'd only just finished breakfast.
Hearing the doorbell, he went to open it and found Janet dressed in full office lady attire.
Seeing Simon's gaze about to wander elsewhere, a pair of cool little hands reached out, cupping his face to keep him from turning away. Then came Janet's fierce voice: "If you keep this up, I'll really get mad—and the consequences will be serious."
Simon nodded stiffly under her 'claws,' and Janet released his head.
Following him into the villa, Janet eagerly asked, "Little boy, what are we doing today?"
Simon went to the kitchen, picked up his dishes, and headed to the sink. Concisely, he said, "Resting."
Janet leaned in, dissatisfied. "How can that be? As an ambitious person, you're being way too unmotivated."
But Simon didn't explain.
Though shooting was still over a week away, starting next week until post-production wrapped, he wouldn't have any free time. This weekend was basically his only chance to rest for the next few months.
After washing the dishes, Simon left the kitchen and headed to the bedroom.
He blocked Janet, who was trying to follow him in, at the door. Changing clothes, he came back out and said to her, "Let's go."
"What for?"
"Shopping."
Janet's interest piqued immediately, and she dropped any talk of motivation, linking her arm with his. "You buying clothes? I can help you pick some. Your taste in clothes is awful, you know. But, hee hee, you look good in anything, little boy."
"Janet, can we change the nickname?"
"Little punk?"
"Forget I said anything."
"Hehe."
They went outside the villa. Simon pointed to the Chevy SUV parked in the open space, and Janet headed to the passenger side, even affectionately patting the hood. "Hey, big guy."
Simon opened the door and, hearing that, shot a helpless glare at the woman on the other side.
That was way too provocative.
Leaving the house, Simon drove Janet around for a full morning, mostly staying in Santa Monica, just hopping from one bookstore to another.
They had lunch downtown before returning to the Montana district.
By the long table under the garden arbor in the backyard, Janet eyed the dozens of books piled on it—things like Directing Basics, Film Shot Design, Editing Techniques, all movie-related—with a suspicious look, glancing back and forth between Simon and the books a few times before stammering, "Little boy, you're not telling me the movie's about to start shooting and you're just now thinking to learn this stuff, are you?"
Simon casually picked up a book, reclined comfortably in a nearby lounge chair, enjoying the afternoon sun filtering through the vine leaves above, and nodded. "Yeah, otherwise how would I make a movie?"
This was actually a small issue Simon had realized recently.
He planned to handle a lot of the work on Lola Run himself, but he couldn't just tell people his filmmaking skills fell from the sky.
Now, with this big stack of books, he could give curious folks a passable excuse.
Self-taught.
How inspiring.
Janet was the type raised in luxury—bluntly put, very lazy. Her mind would turn half a circle if it could avoid a full one, but she was actually incredibly smart, as evident from the bits Katherine had mentioned to Simon before.
So, after eyeing Simon and the books a few more times, she vaguely pieced something together.
Then she got too lazy to think further.
Seeing Simon lounging comfortably, she sidled over like a cat, squeezing and rubbing against him. Finding he had no intention of sharing the chair, she huffed off in a huff.
Less than half an hour later, another lounge chair arrived from the furniture store.
After a lovely weekend of 'red sleeves adding fragrance' (and chaos), the start date for Lola Run drew nearer.
By now, the film's crew was fully assembled.
Simon Westeros: Director, Producer; Brian De Palma: Executive Producer; Ron McMillan: Producer; Janet Johnston: Producer; Katherine Bigelow: Assistant Director; Linda Vargas: Casting Director.
Sandra Bullock: Female Lead; Keanu Reeves: Male Lead.
Beyond the key creatives, after over a month of hustling, the supporting cast and behind-the-scenes staff were mostly locked in.
Then, September 30, a new Monday.
Though not officially shooting yet, Simon's schedule suddenly ramped up.
In one week, he had to finalize so many things.
Lead actors' makeup tests.
Coordinating with the animation studio for the film's inserted animations.
Scheduling the cast read-through.
Formally submitting street shooting applications to the Santa Monica city government.
Renting props.
Getting familiar with the crew.
And so on.
With all the busyness, Simon's daily sleep was squeezed to under six hours.
Come the weekend, while other staff rested, Simon was still personally setting up the set for Lola's room.
As the key crew members increasingly felt Simon's professionalism and dedication, they started to buy into Lola Run.
So, while Simon worked on the Lola's room set in an apartment building in the northwest corner of the Montana district that weekend, Katherine, Janet, and Sandra all showed up. Producer Ron McMillan came too, claiming he was just bored on the weekend and there purely to help—no need for overtime pay.
What surprised Simon was that male lead Keanu Reeves showed up as well. From their interactions these days, Simon realized Keanu's interest in the film still stemmed from those five broken legs Simon had caused.
Though two months had passed, the five young men's legs still hadn't healed.
Clearly to avoid too much attention, while Simon was still hospitalized at UCLA Medical Center, the five had quickly transferred out—supposedly to San Diego in southern California.
But this deliberate cover-up only sparked more interest in the incident. At the press conference for Fox's Project X, starring Matthew Broderick, a reporter boldly asked Broderick's thoughts on the event, making the scene incredibly awkward.
Simon, however, had completely stopped paying attention to it.
After another weekend.
October 7, Monday, The Butterfly Effect officially kicked off at the Fox lot.
Simon made a point to attend the startup ceremony that day.
Right after, October 8, Tuesday, Lola Run quietly began shooting in an apartment near the sea in the northwest of Santa Monica's Montana district.