My Hollywood System

by Cui Shi yi

1 - 242

4. 97

My Hollywood System #Chapter 97: - Read My Hollywood System Chapter 97: Online - All Page - NOVEL NEXT

Chapter 97:

"Uh, I am fine now. I guess."

Marcus replied shortly and Will stared at him. Marcus sighed as he said.

"I am really fine now. I've been here for months and my drug addiction is gone. I have been clean for 3-4 months already. The only reason I haven't left this rehab centre is due to fear. My career is completely done for and I don't think any director would want to work with me now."

It was true. Marcus was fairly unknown and getting into drugs just crumbled the little reputation he had gotten from [The Blair Witch Project]. Will already praised Marcus in his heart for not attempting suicide yet. After all, people with a weaker heart would have tried to end it all if they were cornered from every direction of life.

"Hmm. What do you plan to do now?"

Will asked a simple question from Marcus. What was he going to do from now on? Obviously, he wouldn't give up on acting after coming this far. But Will was sure he won't be able to get a role anytime soon with just himself.

"What can I even do? I will go and look for a job. Not like people with drug cases never get a job. Just, Hollywood would be harder for me. I will do some kind of a job, and will try my luck by auditioning from time to time."

Marcus replied with a bitter smile. He never wanted this day to come. He didn't have any talent apart from acting and acting was now out of the option due to his own deeds.

Will looked at him in sympathy. It was one of the basic emotions that made Will feel human-like. He felt like he should have taken better care of the people he worked with. But how many can he even keep tabs on? He was one person after all.

"I have an offer for you."

Will said and Marcus looked at him confusedly.

"What is it?"

Marcus asked, with confusion clear in his voice.

"I want you to join DTA."

Will said as he started explaining that he had opened a talent agency recently and he was inviting Marcus to join it. As long as he joined, Will would promise several movie roles to him.

"I don't know if you have heard about DTA or not. But I genuinely hope you join us. It will help you recover your image and you can rebuild your career from there. You can take your time to think about this offer."

Will explained the pros of joining DTA, especially for someone like Marcus whose career is supposedly over.

"I know about DTA. This is rehab, not a prison. They have a TV in the common room and I have been seeing all the news recently. Honestly, I can't believe where you are right now, Will. There was a time when you were struggling to get a distributor for the movie we made."

Marcus chuckled as he thought. Although Marcus thought that he had struggled a lot in the industry, he had a view that Will had struggled a lot more than him, and that's why he stood where he was currently. Of course, luck was a factor too.

"Marcus, you should really accept Will's offer. I am not trying to force you, but as your ex-colleague, I really wish you make the right decision and get out of your current situation. It's really heartbreaking to see you like this."

June chimed in as she laid down her thoughts. She herself was a very prideful woman and hadn't joined DTA so no one can say she had taken Will's help to rise in her career. But even someone like her thought that the option Will currently laid out was the best way out for Marcus. After all, there was no saying when Marcus would get a second chance in Hollywood on his own.

Marcus hesitated for a bit thinking that he would be a burden to Will. But after seeing Will's and June's expressions, he smiled in defeat.

"Yeah okay, fine. I will join DTA. I hope I don't bring any trouble to you."

The Dream Vision office had been getting more and more famous lately. With a few paparazzi always lurking around outside the building. The reasons varied for everyone, but the top reason was due to the recent visitors to Dream Vision. Famous directors would come one after the other and this had caused an uproar due to the paparazzi that are always on famous people's tails.

Although, if someone had to mention, one of the most remarkable directors that had entered the office had to be Lucas Amspoker.

Currently, in the conference room of Dream Vision Studios, Jeffrey was in a meeting with Lucas Amspoker. Lucas was a famous director and was famous due to his blockbuster movies. He got into fame after the launch of his famous movie [Black Sky] and even managed to get an Oscars nomination for the same movie.

It was a movie set in the warring times of the 1940s but had a lighter take on the war with the protagonist being a kid.

The movie was from the eyes of a kid living in the Nazi Germany and him trying to make friends while trying to understand the ideals of the Nazi.

It was a heartwarming movie that had made people question their morals and gave a perspective on kids who were brainwashed by Nazis.

It was the breakthrough movie which had turned a normal director like Lucas into an Oscar-nominated director.

After that, he made movies just once a year or once in two years, and all his movies had been profitable up till now. That was a great feat in itself. He had even directed a serious war drama and a crime thriller and both of them had been a hit.

Jeffrey was currently meeting up with this director for the sake of getting him for the [1917] movie. As Jeffrey was going to be the producer in place of Will in both [1917] and [500 days of Summer, he was taking his job quite seriously and doing his best to be active in every way possible.

As Jeffrey was busy in a meeting with Lucas, Will was also busy holding meetings with the lead roles he had selected for the movie [1917].

"Renly Warren and Elijah Thomas."

Will said as he looked at their profiles in his hand. Both of them confidently stood in front of him as Will went through their profile. Both Renly and Elijah had worked in other movies previous, albeit their roles were either extras or just some other small roles.

Although both showed a confident front, inside their minds were a bundle of questions as to why they were personally summoned in front of Will. Renly had a vague idea but wasn't sure, on the other hand, Elijah was completely clueless about it.

"So, the thing is. I was thinking of giving you guys the lead roles in a movie. But you have to audition for the movie separately once, apart from the auditions that you guys had taken to join DTA. I called here to let you guys know about the script."

As Will started talking about the script, Elijah's and Renly's faces brightened up like light bulbs. After all, this was a once in a lifetime chance. In the previous few days, Elijah and Renly had become friends due to both recognising each other's talent in acting. After all, birds of a feather flock together.

"I accept."

"Me too."

Elijah was the first one to reply and Renly followed suit. Will looked at them and smiled contently. People who knew how to take an opportunity when they had a chance were people that succeed in life. Since both of them were quick to decide, Will just reminded them that they had to pass the audition for the movie and both of them nodded their heads furiously.

Both Renly and Elijah had left Will's office and Natalie was currently standing in their place.

"The two that left just now, they had gotten a chance to play the lead roles of Dream Vision's next movie."

Natalie was surprised to hear that and then thought about why Will was telling that to her.

"I've two movies planned for now. I want you to act as the female lead of the other movie."

Natalie's expression brightened up and she immediately replied.

"I will do it."

"Don't be so quick to decide that. Always listen to the movie details, and especially the role details first, ask questions about the things you think are not appropriate and only then make up your mind whether or not you want to do a movie. There are many people who would take advantage of you if you don't change that habit."

Will pointed out seriously although he knew she just accepted the deal without thinking much due to her lack of experience and the fear of losing out.

"I will keep that in mind. Thank you. Can you tell me about the movie's outline and what role you have thought of for me? Does it have any nudity?"

Natalie asked with her cheeks flushed red. She was embarrassed at herself for losing her calm in front of someone younger than herself, yet she couldn't help but peek at Will from the corner of her eyes as she spoke.

"Yep, sure. But remember, you will have to give a separate audition for the movie role. It's completely irrelevant to the audition you gave to get hired in DTA."

Will said while playing with a pen between his fingers.

"Yeah okay. I understand."

Chapter 98:

"So, do you get it now?"

Will asked as he looked at Natalie. He had been explaining the movie [500 days of Summer] and its basic plot to her.

"Uh, I think I got the basic gist of it."

Natalie said, her voice still sounding uncertain.

"What do you think of Tom's character?"

Will asked with a smile, and Natalie spoke.

"I think it's very pitiful. It's like he deserves the sympathy of the world."

Will chuckled at her answer and changed his question.

"What do you think about Summer?"

"She's the unnamed villain of the movie…?"

Will laughed hard at her answer. He was glad that the movie had the same effect it needed to have as the whole movie was from Tom's point of view and made Summer feel like a villain because she broke up with him and left Tom heartbroken.

"Every story has two angles, and you will play the role of Summer, so think from her angle. The whole movie is based on Tom's point of view, and he is the only one overly romanticising his fantasies with Summer. In reality, not every story comes to a happy ending, and that's what happened in this story. Although the whole thing about him being devastated after the breakup is pitiful, in the end, he does move on."

Natalie looked at Will with a bright expression after hearing this. What he said did make sense, and somehow, the vague character of Summer started clearing up in her mind.

"The movie's message is that it's fine to prioritise work over romance, it's fine to be sorrowful after a breakup, and the concept of 'the one' doesn't exist in a true sense. Just think how many hidden messages this story truly contains."

As Will said that, he heard a knock on his office door.

"I am busy right now; come back later."

Will dismissed the knock as he was about to continue talking to Natalie, but soon after, there was another knock on the door, and someone stepped in.

"Will, it's important. Mr Miller had a heart attack! He was rushed to the hospital and is currently in a critical state."

[That's it for the weather news, I hope you all have a great day ahead.]

A woman was discussing the weather on the TV. Suddenly, her report ended halfway as the TV screen changed into another studio with another woman reporter giving out some emergency news.

[Breaking news, the Chairman of Foxstar studios, Spencer Miller, had a heart attack. He was rushed to the hospital and is currently in a critical state.]

This was the news headline, and then the woman started talking about it.

[Almost everyone in Hollywood knows who Spencer Miller is. As the chairman of one of the big six studios, he has quite the fame and a lot of friends in Hollywood. It is reported that Spencer had gotten a heart attack during his breakfast this morning. The details are still unclear, and the media cannot enter the hospital's premises.

We have had reports that Spencer has had a heart condition for years now, but the news sources were unclear. On the other hand, it is still unknown whether Spencer's condition has been stabilised yet.

One thing to note in all this is the presence of prominent celebrities. As an old player in Hollywood, there are a lot of famous individuals from Hollywood who are close to Spencer paying a visit to the hospital where he is admitted currently.

One of the new faces caught on camera is none other than the star of the year, Will Evans, himself!]

"How is he now?"

Will asked as soon as the doctor in charge of Spencer's condition came out.

"We have done a bypass surgery, and he is out of danger now. No one is allowed to meet him unless he wakes up on his own."

The doctor said as he removed his mask and moved away from the waiting area.

Will just took a seat on a chair in the waiting area. As time passed, he could recognise many Hollywood big shots coming and going from the hospital. As no one was allowed to meet Spencer yet, everyone just left a get well soon message to Spencer's secretary and moved away.

The arrival of these big shots was a big thing, but when considering who Spencer was, it would be weird if no one came. He was a famous individual in Hollywood and the chairman of Foxstar, one of the big six studios. He had a lot of influence as an individual.

Soon, the daylight dimmed, and night arrived. Will was still sitting in the waiting area while everyone else was gone. Will wanted to make sure Spencer was fine and then leave, even though he had a lot of work that he had put on hold.

"You should leave now, Mr Evans. The visiting time for guests has long since gone, and Mr Miller won't be waking up anytime soon due to the anaesthetic effects."

A nurse came up and informed Will. She had an apologetic expression on her face, saying that she couldn't do anything about it.

Will finally gave up on waiting and told the nurse to take good care of Spencer and contact him as soon as Spencer woke up.

Due to Spencer's bad health, Foxstar's shares became more volatile than ever. There was a risk of the share's value decreasing based on how Foxtar moved next.

The other founding members and trustees of Foxstar are in chaos, and until a temporary chairman is assigned, Foxstar's value will keep on decreasing.

This was a pretty normal thing. Be it Hollywood or any other business, even a change of CEO would cause the company's stocks to fall, forget about the chairman, who was like the leader of the company's founders.

No one knew when Spencer would get better and be able to return to Foxstar, making the investors sigh in defeat. After all, Spencer was already past his retirement, and now his health was catching up to his age, making it seem impossible for him to make a return.

Spencer was an essential part of Foxstar, and there would be a lot of difficulties if he weren't around to oversee everything.

This was also a loss for Will as he wanted his next two movies to be distributed by Foxstar. Not only that, but Spencer was also a significant connection that he had, not just in Foxstar but in the whole of Hollywood.

Now, both of his movie's distribution would be delayed, causing Will to sigh repeatedly. But he can only do so much about something he can't control, and all he could do was wait for Spencer's health to get better.

Currently, Will was meeting up with Lucas Amspoker, who had agreed to direct the movie [1917].

Lucas was a middle-aged man with black and white hair, and a black beard kept in Hollywood style. He looked pretty charming for his age and had an easy-going vibe around him.

Lucas agreed to direct the movie because he was captivated by the plot, especially since the story was set in a war background, which can be considered his speciality. While reading the script, he even had a vivid vision of how the story would play out. He liked the idea of dual leads, and most of all, the notes that Will had sent about the cinematography had opened up a whole new world for Lucas, making him want to work on this project.

Will and Lucas discussed the movie plot for a while, and after a while, the talk finally came to an important topic, the cast of the movie.

"About that, Mr Evans. I have some actors in mind for the cast, especially for the leads."

Lucas said as he looked at Will. Will was already expecting such a thing from Lucas. After all, a director like Lucas would always want complete control over their movies. Especially regarding the cast, no director liked their producers to select the movie's cast for them.

It was especially so for someone like Lucas, who had an Oscar nomination backing him. He wouldn't like the idea of making the producer select the cast for his movie.

Will smiled a bit as he looked at Lucas.

"I understand your sentiments as a fellow director. But unfortunately, this is a packaged deal. You won't be able to direct the movie unless you work with the cast selected by Dream Vision."

Lucas's expression ceased, and a frown couldn't help but show on his face as he took in Will's words. He very well knew what a packaged deal meant.

It was started by agencies in the 1990s in which they would let a director only direct a movie if they took their actors in it. Or, if a director wanted a certain actor, his agency could include other actors with him as a packaged deal.

This was a way to do business in Hollywood, and Will quite liked it, too, since it was working in his favour.

"Take your time and think about it. You have the option to reject it, and I won't hold it against you. After all, I'm a director myself and can understand why you don't like this deal."

Will said, but Lucas still hesitated. It was a big decision for him, and he didn't have a lot of information to conclude if it was worth it to take the offer or not.

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Chapter 99:

"This is certainly a difficult decision for me."

Lucas muttered and scratched his beard, a habit that he often displayed when in a pressuring situation. If he agreed to Will's condition, then he felt like he would lose control over his own movie.

He didn't want Will, a young director, to control the movie from behind just because he was the producer. Giving up control was not something a lot of directors liked.

Truth be told, no director liked it.

Will, who sensed the concerns in Lucas' eyes, spoke.

"You can take your time to think. But you don't have to worry about me trying to come in between the shooting or giving you orders. I just want you to cast the leads I have chosen and aside from that, you will be the head of the movie."

"A lot of producers have told me that. In the end, they all tried to shift the movie in the way they wanted. A guy even threatened me to edit it in a certain way. The movie worked but I am always sceptical about producers after that."

"Was the movie [Black sky]?"

"I can't tell you that."

Lucas laughed, then shook his head. His eyes glossed over Will's office and he couldn't help but feel envy. At such a young age, he was already a producer and acclaimed director.

In Lucas's eyes, he himself had achieved a lot but one thing he had lost was time. It had taken him a lot of years to truly master his craft.

"Tell me one thing. Why are you not directing [1917]?"

He asked this, thinking of Will's stature as a director. One of the reasons that Lucas thought was that he was too young to properly direct a war movie.

But then again, Will was also too young to direct a movie which crossed 1 billion dollars at the box office.

So, the curiosity in his eyes was pretty evident.

"I wrote it thinking of producing it. It was never my intention to direct it. I know the story is one of the best I have ever written and I even thought a lot about how one can shoot this movie. But currently, I'm not in the mood to direct."

That was half an excuse that Will gave out. In Lucas' eyes, [1917] was probably the best story that Will had written and it would stay like that for many years. But in Will's eyes, it was just one of the great stories from his world.

Lucas also didn't doubt him. After all, Will had shot [The Blair Witch Project] and [Sherlock Holmes] simultaneously and it was obvious for him to take a break.

"So, what do you think? I really want you on the board as the director."

Will asked, coming back to the topic.

"I have some things that I should clear first." Lucas thought for a bit and then put out three of his fingers. "One, if the actors you have selected aren't up to the mark, I will change them. Second, this movie will cost a lot to be made really well. The cinematography style and everything else will make it unique but still, it's going to take a lot of money. Maybe even more than your last movie. I hope you understand that."

"I'm not stingy with my investments, Lucas. And what's the third point?"

Lucas smiled before revealing.

"I want to make this movie for the Oscars, so I want you to back the movie up."

His last movie [Black sky] had only been nominated for the Oscars and Lucas had lost out on the prestigious award in the end. This was also partly due to the fact that the winning movie was backed by Allen Pictures.

The influence of the Big 6 studios was overwhelming in Hollywood and even The Academy wasn't left out of it.

Though, they can't use their influence a lot. Something was still better than nothing.

"That's fine with me. I want [1917] to do well at the Oscars too. But before that, you need to make a movie that holds up."

"Leave that to me, young man."

Lucas shook hands with Will. Though there were still reservations in his heart, he decided to trust Will and Dream Vision for now.

Moreover, he just didn't want to lose out on a movie like [1917].

As Lucas agreed to get on board for [1917, one of Will's projects started. Pre production began behind the doors with Lucas in charge and Jeffrey helping him out.

With this, one of his projects was finally running. As for the distribution contract, Will needed to wait till Spencer's health got better.

But as soon as he returns to work, this won't be a problem.

For [500 days of Summer, there were three directors that were available. Two of them were acclaimed ones with a wealth of experience in directing comedy and romance movies. While the third one was a newbie who had won an award in a film festival a few years back but was struggling after that.

Dream Vision had sent a proposal to all three of them and was now waiting for the response.

If everything went according to Will, he would be able to release [500 days of Summer] at the end of the year.

Aside from all these, Alexia had notified him that many publishers who she had sent a copy of Harry Potter and the Philosophers stone to had not replied back.

It was something that Will had also expected.

After all, even JK Rowling had initially struggled with it. As he had not revealed his real identity, they obviously had treated him as a nobody and his story as something which didn't have any potential.

But on 31st August, Alexia knocked on his door and said that Warden books had sent an email, requesting a meeting.

'Oh, so someone is finally interested.'

Will thought as it had been nearly a month since Alexia had sent the manuscript to various publishers.

He told her to give him all the information about Warden books and for a day, he looked through it.

Warden books was a medium sized publisher that was doing relatively well for itself. They focused on publishing fantasy and sci-fi books mostly and they have gotten quite a bit of success with it too.

After getting all the necessary information he could about the publisher, Will finally met Terry Warden in a cafe.

"Hello, nice to meet you. I'm Will Evans, the author of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone."

When Terry, a middle aged man with a bit of a pot belly saw Will enter the cafe, he was not able to hide his surprise.

One of the novels that he had published was going to be a movie and as he knew how much potential Hollywood has for writers, he always kept a close eye on it.

So, he obviously knew Will, the rising star in Hollywood.

"You… you are the writer?"

Terry stuttered, finding it a little absurd. But thinking of the pen name written in the manuscript which was Evans W, he knew it was not a joke.

"Yes, so shall we talk business."

Will said and sat down. Terry followed suit, still a little shaken. But he also regarded it as an opportunity.

As an old fox who had seen all sorts of bigshots and people who have potential to be a bigshot, he knew that getting a connection with even one of them was very good for his business.

So after the initial shock, he flashed a smile and started to talk.

"I am quite surprised this book is yours, Mr. Evans. I was expecting an unknown author to show up."

"I'm an unknown author too, at least in the novel industry. And you can call me Will."

He said and for the next few minutes, Terry told him the story of how this book was first liked by his daughter which made him read it personally.

Thinking it has immense potential, he sent an email asking to meet.

"I want Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone to be published by me. We can discuss the content of the contract right now too."

Seeing Terry like this, Will gestured to him to stop talking. Although his excitement was nice, they needed to discuss more about the book first.

"Terry, first of all, I want you to know that Harry Potter isn't my short term project and if we are going to be doing business together, Warden books need to be a great cooperating partner."

"What do you mean?"

Terry asked, baffled by his words.

"Harry Potter is a series that I have been plotting for years now. And I have already completed the plot for the whole series. The second book in the series Harry Potter and Chamber of Secrets is something I'm already writing."

As Will said this, the gears in Terry's mind began to turn. He quickly asked.

"How many books are there going to be?"

"Seven books in total. It's going to be a long journey. I would also be making a prequel set way before the events in Harry Potter."

"This seems like something you have thought about for years."

Will nodded his head.

For the first book, it was almost the same as the original version. Will hadn't changed anything in the context of the magic or Hogwarts academy.

There was a little change in Harry's character and few other characters. But apart from that, there was not much change. Although he had thought of many changes, he took them back after thinking how they were going to take away the teen fantasy elements.

After some thinking, Will came to a conclusion that as Harry would attend Hogwarts in the 1990s, there wasn't much to change about it. Will wanted to maintain the mysteriousness of the castle as it was one of the features of the whole series.

Though, slowly at the end of the series, he was planning to add a little science into the magic. Though, it would just be an untested concept.

With this, Will was planning to build on it by creating a half original series taking place in the future with a new protagonist.

Though there was Harry Potter and Cursed child set in the future, Will hadn't liked it much and it had played a lot with time travel.

Rather than that, he wanted to make an original that takes place in the Wizarding world but was his at the same time.

…

/DreamNote/

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Chapter 100:

"As you can tell yourself, I have been planning this book for years, with all its sequels and prequels in mind. So I want Warden Books to be a cooperative partner with whom I can work and publish all my books through."

Terry reigned down on his assertiveness after hearing that. He was finally able to understand why Will was so successful at such a young age. He didn't let the excitement of short term profit get to his head and wanted to clear out the details before proceeding.

His act of not mentioning his name in the manuscript alone was enough to check out the sincerity of many publishers. If they had known it was Will Evan's book, at least some of them would have agreed to publish it, just based on his current fame.

"What do you want? What will be the interval of the sequels that you are planning?"

Terry asked, this time thinking of Will as more of a business partner than a random author to coax.

"I want all the sequels of the book to be published within the upcoming three years, excluding this year that has almost passed. I want the first book to hit the shelves as soon as possible. Apart from that, I want the sequels to be released after an interval of six months. You can use my name for publicity to extract the maximum potential from the books."

Will replied. To Will, both the books and the movies were equally important, as the book would create a fanbase that would help the movie and vice versa.

"You do know that I can get the top publishing houses to publish the book for me as long as I reveal my name, right? What can you offer me that I don't opt-out to those publishers?"

Will ask with a charming smile on his face. To Terry, it seemed more devilish than charming.

Terry shook his head as he said.

"You clearly don't have much experience in the writing industry. I have worked in the industry for 20 years now. For 10 years, I had worked in top publishing houses as their department and regional manager. I had read tens of thousands of words per day of tons of manuscripts, and only a handful of them was selected for publishing. Of course, considering your fame, most publishers would agree to publish as long as you reveal that you're behind this book."

Terry said with a confident smile as he continued.

"But the thing is, even a mid-sized publisher like me publishes at least a thousand books per year, forget about those giants that can even go to ten thousand per year if needed. You yourself can think how much attention and publicity every book gets if so many books are published throughout the year. Only a handful of them become mentionable and even in them, only some become famous."

At this point, Will already knew where Terry was going with his talk, but he still waited for him to finish his talk.

"I can guarantee that I will pour in a lot of resources to publicize the book and let it gain fame, especially on your name. With every bit of effort, I can put in. As long as you let us publish your book, it will have a higher chance of making it into bestsellers. While if you give it to other publishers, I am not sure if it will receive the same attention we can give, even when considering your own fame in the game."

Terry finally finished talking and looked at Will with a confident smile as if saying that he had laid out all his cards.

"You're promising a lot, what guarantee is there that whatever you promise here will actually be implemented?"

Will asked. He already knew Terry wasn't the type of person to be scheming about something like this, still, he wanted to get a confirmation.

"We can sign a contract based on all these points and you can reject it if you find anything that is not to your liking."

Terry said, with a knowing smile forming on his face as he guessed that the deal was already done, they just need to sign a contract.

"Now, let's talk about the royalties."

Will said, and Terry nodded. It was an important topic because this was going to be the main source of income for Will from this book. The higher the percentage of the royalties he gets, the more earnings he would get.

"I am not going to beat around the bush. Since we both know what the normal royalties are, 20% should be a good call. I am just talking about the first book's rights."

Terry said, and Will was surprised inwardly. 20% was actually more than he had expected. But something suddenly clicked in Will's mind.

"Is the movie rights included in that? As a director, you should know I won't be selling the movie and merchandise rights."

Will said apprehensively. The normal rates of royalties for the average authors were 8-12% at most. Of course, it was different for famous authors. Hence, the 20% that Will was offered was quite good.

"No. I don't include the movies and merchandise rights, they'll stay with the author. Of course, if you are willing to give up on those rights, the royalties would increase."

Terry said. He was indeed an old player, and had already taken into account that Will won't be selling the movie rights.

"Well, 20% would be a good call indeed. But it's for your average authors. I even told you, you can use my name for promotions and publicity. Let's make it 30% and we would have a deal."

Will said, his eyes looking for Terry's expression. Terry knitted his eyebrows a bit, yet his smile remained.

"You know, most of the royalties will go to the actual book stores and sellers. Just so you know, this also includes the royalties from e-books and trade paperback, not just the hardcover."

And so, the talk proceeded and after some negotiation, the deal was decided at 25% royalties from everywhere, without the movie rights and such. As Terry left with the promise of finalising the deal at their second meeting, Will was extremely pleased with the deal he had made.

For Terry, this was an opportunity that can bring him near the top publishers if he played his cards right, and hence, he promised a big chunk of the total revenue to Will.

3rd September 2011.

In one of the top tabloids of Hollywood, Hollywood Daily, another article regarding the famous young director was posted. The article was as follows.

[A new agency has recently gotten winds about Will Evans' next projects. As all of us know, Will is currently one of the hottest commodities of Hollywood, especially because of his young age and his never ending and versatile talents that don't seem to take a breath.

As most people know, he had opened his own studios and after the baffling success of his movie [Sherlock Holmes] which had broken many records worldwide, he had even opened a Talent Agency. The initial predictions were that it wouldn't be much successful considering the competition in the market from top players like ICM and MCA. But after it was announced that both Micheal Robert Elrod and Ewan Rees had joined Will's agency, most of this changed. Now there are young people from all around the corners of the country and the whole world aspiring to join Will's agency and someday, become a youth sensation like him.

According to our sources, it was determined that Will has at least two movies already planned out and one of them would most probably be directed by Lucas Amspoker, one of the famous Oscar-nominated directors. Lucas had even mentioned how he liked some of the new actors that DTA had signed, clearly hinting to the point that he was going to work with Dream Vision with DTA's actors.

Apart from that, there are many speculations about the relationship between the chairman of Foxstar and Will Evans. It is said that Will was one of the earliest to arrive when the news of Spencer Miller's heart attack got out. Not only that, he was the one to leave the latest, hinting at a deeper relationship between these two.

It's speculated that it's due to the [Sherlock Holmes] movie's deals and Will's other future movies. Spencer's bad health might stagnate the actual deal, hence Will went to meet Spencer earlier than everyone else.

Apart from that, there are many rumours surrounding Will, some are crazy enough that even a kid won't believe them, and some are so detailed that they would seem like the real deal. But the fact remains, that the star rookie director of the past is no more a rookie, but a full-fledged Hollywood sensation.

Will Evans' popularity is still rising every day and his current followers on Sparrow have crossed more than 10 million.

Everyone is expecting him to bring out another wave and shock Hollywood again. Although the wait is long, fans are willing to wait. With everyone's expectations at the stake, it would create somewhat of a burden for Will Evans. Everyone is waiting to see what his next moves are going to be.

…

/DreamNote/

100. ?

Chapter 101:

5th September 2011

Will and Terry had another meeting. This time, it was to finalise the deal for Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone and sign a contract related to that. Will was currently going through the contract and checking the clause of contract.

After reading through the contract twice and taking his lawyer, Jason's consultation, Will finally signed the contract. After the signing was done, Terry held out his hand and Will shook it. It was the beginning of Terry's success story.

Ten years later, Terry would say that his little girl who had read Harry Potter first had become his lucky charm and because of her, he had gotten a book franchise that had become immortal.

The preparations for [1917] and [500 days of Summer] had already started. As Jeffrey had been given the role of producer by Will, he had taken over most of the work.

From finding a director for [500 days of Summer] to the pre-production of [1917, Jeffrey was doing a lot. Amanda was handling Dream Vision well and even Jennifer was taking care of all the new actors that DTA had signed.

For now, both Robert and Ewan's schedule was being handled by her and after a while, she was going to give it to other agents and focus on Natalie, Renly and Elijah.

It seemed like she wanted to work with new actors more than established stars.

On the other hand, the Harry Potter publication and advertising were left in Terry's hand.

All this gave Will some free time to think about the original movie he had to make. Since the quest was like a test from the system, Will wanted to ace it in his own way.

Will decided to take a break from work for a few days and spent those days reading various books and watching movies from this world. Most of the movies he watched were independent movies that had a unique take on them.

For the beginners, he started jotting down the ideas that he had in his past life.

These ideas spanned across a lot of genres. From rom coms to time travel movies.

Although most of them weren't helpful, they at least helped him in clearing his mind and thinking about different genres and such.

For his original, he wanted to keep the budget of it low as he had no guarantee whether the movie will work or not. A lot of money had already been used in relocating Dream Vision and making DTA.

Moreover, he was also producing two movies. Although [500 days of Summer] would take less than 10 million dollars to make, the story was completely opposite for [1917].

In between this, Will wanted to make an original that would shock everyone, including himself.

As he was trying to get an idea for his next movie, another report became famous in Hollywood Times, regarding the young director, Will Evans.

[The wonder boy of Hollywood, Will Evans, doesn't seem to be taking a break as he is spreading his roots in every direction of Hollywood. Sources have confirmed that Will Evans is buying off one of the famous comic companies from the 1940s. We are talking about Marvel Comics here.

Marvel Comics and DC Comics have been the childhood of many kids in America, but in recent years, Marvel Comics was barely coping with DC Comics. After their first superhero movie's flop, their shares, business and company value have been going towards an infinitely long downward slope.

Due to this, Marvel comics had been trying to reboot many of their famous superhero stories but none have seen a lot of success.

Taking advantage of this fact, Will Evans had decided to acquire the Marvel Comics Studios. Now the fact remains that if he wanted to make movies, he could have just bought the rights to the Marvel characters, but buying the whole company was an overkill. Not only that, it was said that DC had sold Batman rights to a studio called Zin Studios, which never produced the movie.

Will Evans had bought off the whole Batman rights in a packaged deal from Zin studios. The deal included the rights of the dark knight – batman, the infamous psychopath comic villain Joker and the sidekick of Batman – Robin.

Aside from these, there were also some more characters famously associated with the dark knight.

According to various reports and analyses, Marvel Comics' company valuation was $14 million at best, but Will had paid $20 million to buy it off completely. Not only that, he had paid a huge sum of $4 million dollars just to buy off Batman characters' rights.

It could clearly be seen that he was in a hurry to buy these creative properties. After starting the Sherlock Holmes franchise which had promised to give two more movies in the coming years, Will probably has his eyes on something bigger.

At least according to many analysts, Will's ambition won't let him stop before he cements his place in history books.

This makes one wonder. Is the young genius a fan of comic books? Or is something big coming? Is this a prelude to another of Will's big franchises? Or does Will want to enter the comics market? Only time would tell.]

Allen Studios was one of the big six studios of Hollywood. Not only that, they were always at the top 3 even amongst the big six. They have been the first ranked this year due to the sheer amount of profits they made from all their films combined.

The CEO of Allen studio was an old man named Ashton Banasiewicz. He was already 64 years old this year, but he had a body and physique that could easily make him compete with the healthiest people in their early 50s. He had a slim figure, short white hair combed on his left side with a short Hollywoodian beard. He wore clothes that gave off a professional vibe, with his usual attire being a slim coat and pants with striped line patterns of various colours.

In his early days, he was one of Hollywood's playboys and had affairs with a lot of actresses. Just him being married thrice says a lot about his character.

Currently, Ashton was on the topmost floor of the building that Allen Studio owned in Hollywood, California. Looking down from the glass wall towards the outside sky, he let out a contented sigh.

He had been Allen Studio's CEO for about 20 years now, and he had made some truly remarkable achievements in his duration as a CEO. One of the reasons why Allen Studios stood so high in Hollywood today was thanks to Ashton Banasiewicz. Not only had he contributed to bringing the company up, but he had gotten labelled as one of Hollywood's most important people 7 times during his career in the New York Times. That alone spoke volumes of his importance in Hollywood.

His assistant, Ayden Afify, currently held a tablet in his hand as he stood beside him.

"Sir."

Ayden said politely and Ashton looked back. Without saying anything, Ayden handed over the tablet to Ashton.

Ashton brought the tablet up and there was a name written in bold letters on the tablet's screen.

[Will Evans]

Ashton was one of the people who had been keeping a close eye on the new hype in Hollywood, namely Will Evans.

Ashton had been paying close attention to Will's every move ever since the stunt he had pulled during the film festival where [The Blair Witch Project] was first presented.

Ashton opened his mouth as he asked.

"Have you confirmed it?"

His voice sounded as young as he looked, with powerful energy backing him up. Ashton was talking about the news of Will's recent acquisition of Marvel Comics.

"Yes, I have confirmed it. It isn't bogus news. Our contacts in Zin studios confirmed it."

Ayden replied as he looked at Ashton. He had been working with Ashton for about 6 years now, and he still was unable to read his emotions or what went inside him.

"What are you thinking about?"

Ayden asked, his voice sounding curious. The last time he had seen Ashton like this, he was paying attention to some cinematographer. Currently, that cinematographer was a part of Allen Studios and had already won Oscars once.

"Nothing for now."

Ashton replied in a contemplating voice. He really wasn't planning anything, for now, he was just lying in wait for an opportunity.

Ashton moved towards the glass window again and looked at the whole of Hollywood in one view.

"Hollywood is changing. In the near future, franchises will dominate Hollywood."

Ashton said as he brought out a premium cigarette from his pocket and lit it up from the pen on his coat. As he smoked and let out a puff, he turned towards Ayden and said.

"Start acquiring any book, movie, or any form of entertainment media that can be turned into a franchise."

Ayden nodded his head without saying anything as he left Ashton's office.

Ashton sat on his chair and connected the tablet to his laptop, soon, the information about Will filled his screen as he started reading through them thoroughly.

…

/DreamNote/

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Chapter 102:

Will was currently in his house in Beverly Hills. It has already been several days since he stopped going to work and was just either reading books or watching movies.

Currently, he was in the theatre room that he had made in his house. On the 96 inch screen in front of him, a cowboy movie was being played from the video projector that was placed on a table just beside the sofa Will was sitting on.

The movie featured a lone wolf type of cowboy who takes on dozens of enemies alone in a gunfight. Currently, the climax of the movie was going on with the main character of the movie being cornered into a gunfight in the alleys.

It showed how cleverly and unrealistically the main character keeps taking down his opponents without getting a scratch on himself. He jumps from the ground to a dustbin and then metal stairs to the roofs, making it alive out of the hundreds of bullets from his enemies.

There was even an unbelievable scene where the main character shoots down 2 people with one bullet. To Will, it seemed like Hawkeye was a failure of a superhero if even a cowboy can do stuff like this.

Click*

Will turned off the projector and let out a long sigh.

Till now, he was unable to get any ideas that he found would break the normal standards and come out as something really good and worth watching. For the first time since he came to this world, he was struggling with a movie, making him chuckle at himself as he was slowly realising how much of a help the system was.

Will plopped his head to the side on the saw, noticing the photo on the frame hung on the wall. It was a picture of Will and June that they had taken on Valentine. Even during that time, Will was so busy that he was only able to give an hour of his time to June.

"Brings back memories, huh."

June's voice came from behind Will as he looked back lazily. June was standing with 2 cups of coffee in her hand. Her hair was tied in a bun and she was just wearing a long white shirt, over her underwear, giving her a sexy and alluring vibe.

June handed over one of the cups to Will and sat beside him on the sofa as she sipped on the coffee.

"How many movies have you watched till now?"

June asked. Will had been busy inside the room without going out for days. The only time he moved was when he was eating with her, taking a dump, or when he was exercising. Apart from that, he even slept in this theatre room.

"I don't really know. It's been like 22-23, I guess? It's somewhere near that number, more or less."

Will said as he rubbed his eyes a bit and sipped on the coffee. The room was dark, just a small night bulb illuminating it with dim lighting. June put her cup on the table and moved herself to where Will was seated, bringing him to the ground between her legs as she sat on the sofa.

She slowly massaged his head with gentle presses and rubbed his temples with her fingers. Recently, June had been busy doing Indie Movies. She had finally managed to bag some roles, due to her own, and her agent, John's combined efforts.

John had been trying his best to get June some supporting roles in big production movies but had been unsuccessful so far. June had told him to put the role hunting on a pause for now as she'll focus on indie movies. And if her luck worked out, one of the movies might become popular.

"It's weird how you can come up with amazing ideas so easily, but now you're having trouble with a movie. Feels kinda unreal."

June said as her hands moved to his shoulders and started massaging them with a sweet smile on her face.

She recently always did this whenever she came back from home. Although she herself was tired from shooting or something else, she won't forget to make coffee and massage Will's head and shoulders. She would encourage him and tell him it's fine to take his time for the next movie. It was already beyond normal that he came back with so many scripts back to back for the last 1 and a half years.

Will's expression turned a bit complicated as he found it difficult to explain his thoughts in words. After a while, he said with a smile.

"You can say that this movie of mine is going to be special for me. I don't have to prove to anyone about my capabilities with this movie. On the other hand, with this movie, I want to prove something to myself."

June giggled at the confusing words as she got down from the sofa and snuggled into Will's embrace.

"You don't need to prove anything to anyone. Oh, actually, there is something you need to prove."

June said as she frowned cutely at the end of her sentence.

"What?"

Will asked curiously as he looked at June in her emerald green eyes.

"Prove me that you love me!"

June giggled and stood up, showing her tongue to Will and running out of the theatre room, the latter immediately chasing after her while laughing.

9th September 2011

J Hospital, Hollywood, California.

In-room no 2 of private ward 13, an important Hollywood bigshot was hospitalized just days ago. It was none other than the chairman of Foxstar studios, Spencer Miller.

His hospital room looked luxurious and clean, had a TV and there were fresh fruits placed on the table just beside Spencer's bed. The room only had 1 bed and a few chairs laid around, indicating that it was a private room for wealthy people.

Currently, 2 other people apart from Spencer were present in the room, talking to Spencer who was lying on the bed which was held at a 150-160 degree angle.

Spencer's condition was finally stabilizing and he was recovering slowly, but his body looked weak and his age was clearly showing on his face. There were wrinkles all over his face and hand.

Some of the veins in his hand were visibly turned green and blue due to the presence of insulin.

"Hah, you almost scared me to death."

One of the two people, who looked around the same age as Spencer, but slightly on the healthier side, said. His expression was warm and he talked to Spencer like an old buddy. He was Spencer's old friend and his name was Rahim Memon.

"So you survived? Tsk. You are old enough, you should have just gone to heaven when your turn came."

Spencer said teasingly, but his dim and weak voice didn't help much to lift the mood.

"What are we going to do about Foxstar? You had a big responsibility and everything is currently on a hold. If things go like this, I am afraid we will suffer huge losses."

Chester McBerry, one of the shareholders of Foxstar and an old friend of Spencer asked. His eyes were clearly looked concerned and he talked about the thing that concerned him the most.

"The doctor had told me to take retirement. I am too old and my body needs rest in order to function properly. Sigh."

Spencer replied and Chester just got more anxious as he said.

"You don't know but there is a lot of power struggle in the company right now. Not only that but many are wishing for your retirement so that they can take over as the chairman. If you retire suddenly, there will be competition for the chairman's seat and the company will fall like this."

Spencer clearly understood Chester's reaction. He was someone who wished to stay away from all this power struggle and just wanted to see Foxstar succeed.

"There is nothing we can do about it. We have worked so hard for the company to get where it is now. And after the success of [Sherlock Holmes, the company was finally on the right track to make it to the top of the big six after a long time. This will all crumble if the company has a power struggle now."

Spencer said as he reminisced about the past when he and his fellow colleagues worked hard every day and brought Foxtstar into the big six studios.

There was a clear level structure even in the big six studios, where it was divided into the top three and bottom three. Foxstar had always stayed in the bottom three, fluctuating from the fourth place to sixth place from time to time. The other two Studios that accompanied foxstar in the bottom three were Z Studios and Kron Studios.

The top three were made up of the absolute best of Hollywood, which consisted of Allen Studios, OP pictures and Mega Works. This structure was calculated based on how much profit a studio makes during a financial year, and Allen Studio had been in the first position this year, with Mega Works and OP pictures following it closely.

Now with the success of [Sherlock Holmes, there was a good chance that Foxstar could have entered the top three if they kept up with this pace, but Spencer's sudden retirement would totally upturn this.

Rahim, who had been listening from the sidelines finally chimed in.

"Spencer, don't you have kids? Why are you acting like you are all alone in this world."

Spencer chuckled hearing that as he said.

"Yeah, I will give over the chairman position to Colt. I am just not sure whether he would understand the responsibility he is getting."

Colt Miller was the eldest son of Spencer. He had studied in a famous management school and was one of the shareholders of the company. It was only natural for Spencer to give his chairman seat to his son so that nobody can make a fuss about it. He was just uneasy that the years of work he had put in Foxstar would go down the drain if something bad happens to it.

For now, he can only place his hopes in Colt and hope that his son would do something even if he was unable to.

…

/DreamNote/

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Chapter 103:

Manhattan, New York.

In a dimly lit room, a man who looked like an evil necromancer at a glance was furiously typing and drawing something on his computer.

His current appearance, which consisted of a loose black t-shirt, black trousers, messy hair and an unkempt beard gave off an impression that he was some beggar from the slums.

He was Carson Duckstein, an independent director who was almost 37 years old. His current appearance can be blamed on 2 things. Firstly, lack of work, and secondly, lack of sleep. Although he was a workaholic, what use was it when he didn't have any work?

All these years, every movie he created barely made the break-even. And the worst thing was, he never got any actor he wanted to work with, frequently ending up with half-assed and fringe actors. Be it bad luck or misfortune, Carson had never been able to come out from the hoard of other independent directors, always being stuck at a place where he thought he didn't belong.

Currently, Carson was making a storyboard for a movie he had been offered recently. Usually, he won't compromise his sleep for such a thing and would only work during the daytime. But this time, the movie and the company that offered him the movie were both special.

Carson was one of the directors who had been invited to direct [500 days of Summer] by Will. When he first received the invitation, he almost couldn't believe his own eyes and rechecked the mail twice just to see if it was spam or was mistakenly sent to him.

After he wrote back to them, he got a confirmation mail with proof of Dream Vision's stamp, making his heart thump loudly. Carson was sure he wasn't the only one given such an amazing opportunity and that's why he decided to give up on his sleep to make the best storyboard possible. He was even provided with the movie script, which he couldn't help but admire every time he thought of it.

In Carson's eyes, although he was the older one, he felt that Will was way above his leagues. After all, he was someone who had gotten high up in Hollywood based on his own abilities. And he was even younger than most directors, making him stand out amongst the normal crowd of directors.

Having been working in independent movies with fringe actors, Carson didn't want to lose out on this heaven-sent opportunity. That's why he was willing to sacrifice everything in order to grab this opportunity and direct the movie, which might be his last hope of getting a break in Hollywood.

Ring* *Ring*

As Carson's thoughts started drifting, his cellophane rang. He immediately picked up his phone and answered the call in a hurry.

– Is this Mr Duckstein? I'm Alexia, Mr Evans' personal secretary.

Carson gulped. It has finally come! The call that he had been waiting for.

"Y-yes. I'm Carson Duckstein."

Carson answered while trying to sound as confident as possible, which backfired with him stuttering on his first word.

– Mr Evans wants to have a meeting with you, what would be a preferable time? I will arrange a meeting accordingly.

Alexia, the secretary, asked Carson.

"Anytime is fine with me."

Carson said hurriedly, clicking his tongue again. He was talking so fast that he would seem impatient and could end up ruining his impression. He just prayed that Will at least talked to him once. He was confident in his directing skills, but just the thought of talking to big shots made him anxious.

tap* *tap* *swipe*

In his office, Will was currently playing a game similar to Temple Run from his precious world. Instead of monkey-bat like monsters chasing him, there were various kinds of giant snakes chasing him with the character running around here and there, jumping and avoiding obstacles as he desperately kept running, without an end goal.

Will somehow felt that many strugglers in every kind of industry were playing a game like this with life. Just managing to dodge dangers and making sure that they stay safe, without an actual goal in mind as to where they want the happy ending of their game.

Tringg* *Tringg*

At that moment, the telephone on his working table rang. Will kept playing the game as he put the telephone on his ear and grabbed a hold of it with his shoulders as he answered the call.

"Yes, what is it?"

"It's Carson Duckstein. He has arrived at the office and is currently waiting for his meeting with you."

The person who called was Alexia and she was currently informing him about the arrival of one of the directors that he had picked based on their abilities that he himself had judged through their movies.

Will suddenly remembered how Carson's direction of the movie was great but most of his movies were ruined by average or bad actors. Even the plot of most of these movies was average, and Carson's effort at improving little scenes into something good was clearly visible, making him a valid choice amongst the other directors of his calibre.

"Send him in."

Will said as he stopped playing the game and hung up the call.

Knock* *Knock*

Soon a doorknock was heard, which was followed by the arrival of a shabby looking Carson after getting Will's permission to enter.

As soon as Will saw Carson, he couldn't help but be bewildered. It was common sense to look one's best self when going for a meeting or an interview. But Carson here was dressed normally and his eyebags made him look like a sleep-deprived monkey that had become closer to being a panda.

"Take a seat."

Will gestured to Carson to sit down on the chair in front of him, to which Carson obliged.

"Good morning ….. Carson Duckstein? Although your morning doesn't seem to have turned out that great."

Will said as he stared at his appearance. Carson scratched his unkempt beard as he said embarrassedly.

"I didn't get much time to prepare and I had something to show, so I thought I would do the grooming after getting the deal."

Will was surprised to hear his reply. Not because of how he thought that the person didn't give much importance to his appearance but how he sounded when he talked about getting the deal. It was almost like he was so certain in his skills that he would get the deal. It was even weirder coming from a director that hadn't had a break in the industry yet.

But that's what improved Will's impression of Carson. After all, Will himself was no one to talk to. He carried himself around with confidence even when he was just a film school dropout without any movies or any kind of success backing him. It was the same for other people.

People who believed in their talent and were confident about it were the people that made it big sooner or later. Otherwise, there is no lack of talented people, but they lack the confidence to bring out their talents and show them to the world while being confident about them.

Having scored some brownie points in Will's eyes unknowingly, Carson brought out some storyboards immediately and started showing them to Will, even without him asking for them yet.

"These are some of the ideas I have been working on ever since I got the script."

Carson said as he continued on his own.

"This movie talks about a basic concept called expectations versus reality. It starts off with the typical rom-com setup and soon delves deeper, showing how these scenarios aren't realistic and completely destroy the happy go lucky rom-com plot, which in fact, is a hooking point of the story, instead of being the bad part. But the thing depends on the director on how he portrays these scenes. I am quite confident I can work this up to my level best if I get a chance to direct this movie with some good actors backing it up."

Carson finally concluded and realised he had been talking alone without giving a chance to speak to the other party. Realising that he had made a mistake again, without intending to, he cursed himself in his mind as cleared his throat.

"Ahem…. So ….yeah. This is basically what I have thought of so far."

Will chuckled suddenly and laughed openly for a while. He had never seen someone so passionate about directing a movie and he somehow felt a connection with Carson as a fellow director.

Apart from Carson, there were three other directors that had been sent an invitation to direct the movie.

One of them was an old player in the industry, with many hit movies backing him up, although he hadn't made any spectacular movies in his recent years. The other one was a rookie who debuted with a hit movie recently, and the third person was someone recommended by Jeffrey. He was someone who had made a lot of thriller movies and had made a hit rom-com last year.

Will had already met with the first person and he had thought that the firsts person should better retire, as he wasn't very optimistic and seemed to have rusted with time. The other two he had yet to meet were taking their time deciding whether they should accept the invitation or not. Some part was also a waiting game meant to make Will desperate to hire them.

Power struggles were spread around every nook and cranny of Hollywood after all.

Apart from these three, the fourth person was Carson, who had succeeded in greatly impressing Will, just with his burning passion alone. Although there were some things that Carson would need to work out on, especially his appearance. But those were minor things compared to how good of a director he was.

"You know what, I ain't gonna beat around the bush. You got the movie. A few things you need to note is that the actress of the movie is already decided and she's someone who will be doing her debut movie. She is from DTA. We will get a top actor to perform the role of the male lead. Of course, you can recommend it if you have someone in mind, but the final decision depends on Dream Vision. With that said, welcome onboard. I hope for a successful movie."

As Will started and finished what he had to say, Carson first got excited and then his expression turned so emotional that he seemed like he would cry at any moment. Thankfully, he held back.

And hence, Will succeeded in procuring a director for his second movie just on the first day after his break.

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Chapter 104:

12th September 2011.

Making a script for an original movie was an arduous task. In the first place, it wasn't about lack of ideas, but having too many ideas to be selecting one of them. Brainstorming through a bunch of ideas while thinking which one would work the best was a task worth complaining about.

Will, who was currently going through another such brainstorming session, was having a headache thinking about what to do and what not to do. There were just too many options to select from. He could go with a rom-com or even a fantasy genre. He could even opt-out for a mystery thriller, which can be considered his speciality after [Sherlock Holmes] made a name for itself.

If he did decide to go with a mystery thriller, then he can just add a bit of fantasy element to it to make it more interesting. As he kept on thinking, he couldn't come to a conclusion as to which idea would work and which wouldn't.

He wanted to make a movie that he could direct and feel great about it and that it also connects to his future projects. Will didn't want to make a movie that wouldn't connect to his future projects. In fact, he would feel bad about it.

After all, Hollywood was all about franchises. Not only that, but in Will's precious world, not only franchises but different universes also existed, making a room for a large amount of story connectivity and thrill. The most famous ones were of course universes that consisted of Marvel and DC heroes.

As Will kept thinking about such things, he kept typing and deleting his words on his laptop. His days passed by in agony with him not being able to come up with any outstanding idea that would be a surefire hit. After all, it was very hard for Will to think of an idea and stick to it for a long time because he thought that this and that can be better in this and that.

Of the many ideas that Will thought about, there was an idea about a time loop story. A man would go through an unfortunate event in which his daughter was killed in a car accident, but after every time he reaches her funeral, he would go back in time and try to save her and would end up failing every time, because he later finds out that he wasn't the only one time travelling back in time, it was the same for his daughter's killer who was doing the car accident with the intent to murder his daughter.

Apart from this, there was another idea for a musical about the life of a comedian, but that idea was soon scrapped too. In the end, he finalized two ideas that seemed to have an equal amount of potential and risks while scrapping all the other ideas. He would select one of them and make a movie out of it, he was short on time, to begin with.

After a rough draft of both the ideas was completed, Will called Jeffrey to ask for his opinion. Although Will knew Jeffrey was busy and all, he wanted Jeffrey to pick one idea for him so he can continue with them.

Knock* *Knock*

After knocking once, Jeffrey entered the office without waiting for Will's permission to enter. They were close enough that he could do such things and Will wouldn't mind. Unless, of course, Will was busy in a rendezvous in his office and Jeffrey came and caught him in the act. Which was quite unlikely considering Will's personality.

Will looked at Jeffrey and couldn't help but chuckle at his run down and haggard appearance.

"Yeah yeah, laugh all you want, brat. I am just too tired from producing movies and being a cinematographer."

Jeffrey said in a complaining voice, although his smiling face betrayed it. He was currently so busy with everything related to [1917] that he would consider himself lucky if he was able to sleep 4 hours a day without any disturbance. Will himself knew how hard Jeffrey was working and was very appreciative of him.

Though, his wife kept complaining that he wasn't giving time to family. But work was work.

After [1917] ended shooting, Jeffery was already planning a holiday.

"How is it going, Lieutenant Jeff."

Will acted like the chief of an army asking for reports of the battlefield. He was currently referencing [1917] and was talking like that to help Jeffrey lift his mood.

"Aye, Captain. It's going well. Haven't had proper sleep for a week now but I think I can still function for a few days even if I am out of gas."

Jeffrey said sarcastically, playing along with Will's chief and lieutenant act.

"Really though? How are the preparations coming along?"

Will asked seriously this time.

"Well, the preparations are progressing smoothly. The sets are taking longer time than expected due to how realistic you want them to be. Apart from that, the casting for the other roles is going on too, not so smoothly."

Jeffrey said, his brows knitting at the end of his sentence.

"Why? What happened?"

Will asked curiously. Since [1917] didn't have any major roles apart from the main roles, Will had advised getting famous actors to play a cameo for the other roles. Robert had even agreed to play the role of General Mackenzie.

Coincidentally, that role was played by Benedict Cumberbatch in the original.

"Yeah well, Neil Williams is asking for half a million just for a 1-minute cameo role. Negotiations are still ongoing but yeah, I am really speechless at some of these big actors and their agencies' shamelessness."

Jeffrey said with stress visible on his forehead.

"Hahahaha. This is a common thing. They are not really serious and are trying to see what's the most you would go for. Don't bother too much about it. And Neil Williams isn't required if his agency is like this. Not like the movie can't work without him."

"I know. Some of the other actors agreed without much negotiation. But this guy is one of those arrogant guys."

During the casting, many big actors have even said that they won't take payment for small roles.

This was not the actor's intent but of the agencies behind them. As [1917] was Will's movie, the agencies were trying to get in his good shoes. Like this, their actors will have a better chance to work in his movies in the future.

And the agencies can even look to cooperate with DTA.

"Like I said, just stop the negotiations on your end and he will quickly give out his true value. And if he gives more trouble, just go to another one. Hollywood doesn't lack stars."

"Yeah, okay. So, why did you call me here? It must be something urgent?"

Jeffrey asked, changing the topic. He was busy and couldn't give much time to this meeting.

"Yeah, well, I want you to help me out."

Will said and opened a drawer, revealing two drafts that he had made.

He put them on the table and Jeffery's eyes fixed on them, wondering what Will was trying to do.

"Choose one from these."

"What are these anyway? Scripts?" He asked, taking a guess.

"Drafts. I will start working on the scripting once you select one. One of these is going to be my next movie."

Jeffrey had earlier thought that Will was going to take a break from directing after he had told him he wouldn't direct [500 days of Summer] but now, he had prepared two new stories.

He wanted to frown thinking about his workaholic nature.

"Okay, let me read them and then I will say."

He said and tried to grab the first draft but Will quickly shook his head.

"Ah, no, you can't do that."

"What?"

"You need to select without reading."

Jeffery looked at him like he was saying something absurd and Will hurriedly explained himself.

"The reason I'm asking you to choose is because in my eyes, both these stories would work well in the box office and they both connect well with my future plans. Just I don't know which one to do next, so I'm leaving this on luck."

"And you want me to decide based on my instinct. What If I made the wrong choice?"

"I won't blame you. Just choose."

Jeffery sighed after hearing those words. For a second, he felt like he should argue against Will's reckless words but decided not to.

He knew enough of him to not do something like that. Will was stubborn.

The best thing here was to just get it over with.

"Okay, let's see…"

Jeffery looked at the two drafts. Both of them didn't have any title written on the front and they both looked the same. But contained different stories that would have different fates at the box office.

In the end, he just grabbed the second draft and gave it to Will.

"This one. I don't know what type of story it is but let's bloody hope it works."

Will smiled hearing that and opened the draft. On the first page of it, the title of the movie was written.

"What is the name of your next movie then?"

Jeffery asked, seeing Will's smiling at the draft.

"See it for yourself."

He passed him the draft and Jeffery made a strange expression reading the title. It didn't give him any idea about the movie.

"What genre is it?"

"A gangster movie."

On the front page of the draft, the title was [Liberty City].

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Chapter 105:

After brainstorming for days, Will had finally made out two drafts that would work in the Box office, at least his instinct said so. But he was confused as to which one out of them to select and hence, the event with Jeffrey came to be.

"[Liberty City] a gangster movie."

The one that Jeffrey selected was the other idea that Will had been working on. The first one was an original spy movie that would later connect to a spy universe that he had in mind.

With franchises like [Mission Impossible] and [Charlie's Angels, there were a lot of things possible.

As the system had told him to make a completely original from scratch, he of course wouldn't take any chances and make an original. But he could take inspiration from existing franchises in his world to make a completely original movie, and there was no such rule against it either. Hence, Will decided to take advantage of this fact and took inspiration from one of the most popular open-world game franchises in his previous world.

GTA, this name was so famous that it would be surprising if a kid hasn't heard its name even once in his lifetime. It was the childhood of many people born in the 90s, including Will. Since the game didn't exist in this world, Will wanted to make an original that was inspired from one of the game's most famous cities, Liberty City. He would make his own storyline and characters and just take the city from the game while hinting at the other cities throughout the movie.

In the future, it was his plan to invest in the game franchise of many famous games of his previous world and gradually establish himself there too. But before that, he wanted to establish movies that could, later on, be connected to the game, giving a different level of immersion than they used to give.

Not only that, the main thing about these games was the sheer amount of profit they could bring. Just GTA 5 alone had earned over $6 billion over the period of 5-6 years after its release, making astronomical numbers of profits in a matter of mere years.

All these reasons prompted him to make an original that he could, later on, connect to the game. He decided to make use of Liberty City which was designed after New York City and leave hints about other cities like Vice City and San Andreas.

If this movie worked, he could easily sell the GTA franchise based on this. Another reason why he decided to make a gangster movie was that after the year 2000, there were very few directors or studios that made gangster movies. Since the new trend was sci-fi or rom-com, there weren't many good gangster movies and the gangster genre had taken an unprofitable halt.

This was something common in any industry. As a particular genre will become the trend and producers would think of it as more profitable, there would be other genres that would take a hit.

Will imagined making a violent crime thriller movie, making the viewers go through continuous emotional roller coasters. It would be a story about how a villain was born and rose up to power instead of a hero.

"You see, that's how it is."

Will explained about the overall gist of the movie to Jeffery. He wanted to hear Jeffrey's opinion about it since most of the things he said were useful and backed up his experience in the industry.

"Uh, well. The idea is good and I am sure many would want a gangster movie after they haven't seen one for so long. But according to what you said, the movie might end up getting an R rating due to the amount of gore included in it."

Jeffrey voiced one of the major concerns related to the movie. Will knew there were going to be many people who think the same.

In this world, the MPA (Motion Pictures Association) existed and they rated all the movies that required a rating. Just like in his previous world, there was no law that stated that a movie absolutely had to have a rating but it was more a willing act due to the cinemas. The cinemas would mostly never play a movie that doesn't have a rating or is rated NC-17.

The rating of a movie indirectly affected the box office of the said movie due to the audience that can watch it. A normal movie is rated as G, which means anyone can watch it and it's for the general people. A movie that required the parent's guidance and concerns were rated as PG.

PG-13 is a movie that contains some things that require strong parents' guidance and is inappropriate for kids below 13 years of age.

R rated movies are the ones that require a parent or a guardian along in the cinema house because they might contain sex, gore and such adult stuff.

NC-17 is aimed at just people who are 18 or above 18 years of age. No one 17 and under that is allowed at the cinema/theatre.

[Sherlock Holmes] had gotten a PG-13 rating due to the intense sequence of violence and action, some startling images and a scene of suggestive material. Or that's how the MPA had phrased it. Anyways, if the movie gets rated as R, it would be troublesome for the box office.

"It's actually fine even if it gets an R rating. But I will still try to reduce the amount of blood and gore. After all, the main focus of the movie should be the story and the thrill it gave, exploring the world of criminals and villains."

Will said and Jeffrey nodded after some hesitation.

Will had taken inspiration from movies like [Scarface] and [Godfather] for this movie and wanted it to turn out good, as it would be his first-ever original.

"I will complete the movie script in the next two months and after that, I want to directly enter the production phase. Before that, I want you to finish the casting and other things and focus on both of the movies."

"Yeah, don't worry about it. I am going to challenge myself with both these movies."

Jeffrey said enthusiastically as he was reminded of the movies he would be producing and doing the cinematography for. On top of that, [1917] scenes were so intriguing that Jeffrey felt that if he dealt with it well enough, he might end up bagging some awards.

"Okay then, I wish you luck."

Will said as he chuckled seeing Jeffrey's childlike enthusiasm.

"I came to LA to avoid going to the army. But in the end, my fate is really a bitch."

Elijah Thomas, one of the two leads for [1917] said as he ran beside Renly. They were currently in a boot camp and undergoing training to look like soldiers.

After Lucas came on board, he had few meetings with Elijah and Renly and deemed them fit to play the leads. As Will was the head of their agency, he gave Lucas complete controls to make the two leads more like soldiers.

As a result, Lucas got Jeffery to arrange a boot camp for both of them so they could undergo real training to look like soldiers.

Many actors have gone through the same to get into the skin of their characters during war or army focused movies.

As a result, both of them have no ground to reject and now, It was already their second week here.

"Don't talk. Just run. Like that, you will last longer…"

Renly said, in between breaths. His body was already giving away and it was hard for him to run for so long.

"If you stop, you need to do five extra rounds!!"

Their instructor, a retired soldier, shouted from behind and their steps suddenly gained new strength.

No matter what, they didn't want that punishment.

In the end, they completed the whole course somehow. When they finished it, it was like their soul had already left their body.

They were too tired to even crawl into their beds to sleep.

Renley and Elijah just lay on the ground, their clothes were already dirty and their shoes had soil and mud in them.

"I hate this but I can't even go back at this stage… Hey, are you even listening?"

Elijah turned his head to look at Renley who had his eyes closed. Opening them, he frowned.

"If you can still have a conversation, you really have a lot of energy. And just think of it as a test. If we pass it, we will be on the sets and after some months, we will debut as the leads of a multi million dollar project. This much is nothing for that prize."

A smile naturally formed on Elijah's lips when he heard that.

Debut as the lead of a movie – That was the dream of every aspiring actor and now they have it. He didn't know if it was his luck or just a dream. But he can't wait to see it unfolding in front of his eyes.

"That's the only reason I'm still alive till now. Are you sure it's not a scam?"

Elijah asked the same question that had plagued his mind for a long time. He was someone without any connections in Hollywood and was now suddenly playing a lead.

"No one spends millions in a scam. Moreover, you and I are not billionaires or even remotely rich. Just accept it."

"Okay… I feel like I have some energy now…"

"Then go do another round."

"Screw you."

…

/DreamNote/

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Chapter 106:

After his talk with Jeffrey and finally deciding [Liberty City] to be his next movie, Will started focusing on writing the script.

Unlike his previous scripts where he had just written it due to the help of his system, creating an original script was harder and more time consuming.

Will had decided to complete the script in two months time and start the movie in the first quarter of 2012.

In the meantime, both [500 days of Summer] and [1917] would be released.

In the two of them, [1917] had already begun the pre-production and most of the roles had already been casted. Due to Will's new found influence, they were able to get some famous actors in cameo roles and the construction of the set was also moving along at a brisk pace.

Lucas was also having acting workshops with both the leads and going by the progress report that Will had gotten, he was sure they would do very well.

As for [500 days of Summer, both Dream Vision and Carson were going over a list of actors and actresses to choose from.

They already have the female lead with Natalie and the male lead Tom needed to be a famous actor to garner some interest.

Without a famous male lead, the movie would take some time to pick up its pace at the box office. Will had decided to get a male lead from MCA to appease it as there were tensions growing between them.

It was due to how Robert had become famous.

People in Hollywood had inflated egos and it was not a myth but a fact. And Will had managed to hurt the ego of the senior executives of MCA.

If he was honest here, he had not done anything wrong.

Robert's talent was wasted in MCA and he signed him after his contract had ended. There was nothing MCA could do legally.

But as Robert had become an A lister in a couple of months, MCA, who was seriously lacking big stars at the moment, felt like Will had backstabbed them.

After all, it was not wrong to say that they have given him his first break by buying his first script. With that money, he was able to make his first movie.

Maybe because of that or because of Uncle Ben still being a part of MCA, Will didn't want their relationships to sour.

His relationship with ICM was already not good and although unstable, MCA was one of the big players in the agent market.

There were more benefits if they continued to be in mutual cooperation.

That's why, he had himself tried to give them something to ensure that there's no bad blood.

Otherwise, he could just get Ewan or Robert to play the role of Tom. Though, the role wasn't well suited for both of them.

Playing the role of Tom would be a great inclusion in any actor's filmography. The character was relatable and although it could be argued that he wasn't really the nicest guy, he was a great character no matter how you look at it.

For the other roles like Tom's younger half sister Rachel, Tom's friends McKenzie and Paul and even Tom's boss, Vance, he was going to take most of the actors from DTA.

They could also find some actors from other agencies easily as any movie associated with Will would be something that no one would want to miss out on.

Aside from the matter of casting, there was one more thing that occupied Will's time – Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone launching was going to happen next week.

Just a week before Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone was about to release, there wasn't much noise about it.

The main reason was that Will hadn't participated in the marketing of the book due to him being occupied with other work and the entire thing was handled by Warden Books.

They have tried to use Will's name to garner interest but their resources were limited. Another thing was that Terry was pretty confident in the book and felt like it would pick up pace by itself.

But a week before the book launch, Will posted about the release of his upcoming book on his social media and just an hour after that, Hollywood Times posted an article about it.

[After there was a reveal sometime ago about Will Evans buying Marvel comics, now there's another interesting thing that had happened with him in the center.

Apparently, Will Evans is now debuting as a fantasy story writer with his novel Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone releasing next week. The director's Sparrow account confirmed this news.

From the reports, the book is a children's fantasy story revolving around a boy named Harry Potter who would find himself on the doorstep of a wizard academy.

This is a pretty interesting detail as Will's previous works had been a mystery thriller and a horror movie. Now, he seems to be moving to being a children novel writer.

Hollywood Times tried to get in touch with someone from Warden books, Harry Potter and the Philosophers stone publishers and the only comment we got was that the publisher was extremely confident of the book doing well and it would exceed all the expectations.

These were very interesting comments and…]

After the article was published, a lot of other news agencies and tabloids also published their own version of it. Some even copy pasted Hollywood Times articles by changing some words.

But Warden books didn't seem to care.

It was free publicity for the book. Just one post from Will had done more than the marketing team of Warden books.

Terry Warden didn't even got time to think about the incapability of his marketing team. He was too busy in handling calls from media houses and newspapers for an interview.

When the media houses had got to know that Will had not cooperated with a top publisher but a medium sized publisher to publish his book, they found it a lot strange.

When Hollywood personalities would write a book, they would often collaborate with top publishers. But Will hadn't done this.

This made people curious and as a result, Terry started getting more and more calls for an interview. Many people wanted to know how his company had gotten this deal.

But he didn't accepted even one interview.

He was waiting for the release date before taking any interview. Saying anything at this point would just be taken as being overconfident, so he was being patience.

As someone who had complete faith in Harry Potter, he was sure that it would be a big success. It wasn't just because of Will's big reputation or anything.

He just trusted his gut feeling and there was enough substance for him too believe in the book.

The story was written very well and the villain was only revealed at the end and at the same time, the book was able to keep the reader interested in his identity.

Moreover, it definitely made Terry believe in the world. The mystical Hogwarts seemed to have its own history and there was an interesting take on pureblood wizards and the others. There was also quidditch, a game that helped expand the world even more.

With all these points, Terry was sure that the book would be something special.

At least Will was confident enough to already have planned an entire series on it.

Now, it was only time that was going to tell Terry if he was right or not.

As all this was going on, the secretary of Matthew Collins, The CEO of MCA knocked on his door.

"Sir, Senior Agent Benjamin Charles is here to see you."

"Is it something important?"

Matthew raised his head from the pile of papers on his desk and asked. He had a lot of work today and didn't have much time to meet anyone.

"He said it is something important." The secretary replied.

"Then, send him in."

Matthew sighed and glanced at the screen of his computer. Tired eyes looked back to him and he felt like the wrinkles on his face were just increasing.

He was not that old, only 53 this year and had a lot of years left as a CEO but handling MCA with an unstable management had made him do overwork. At the same time, most of their famous stars moved over to other agencies and they never improved since then.

Matthew still remembered the good old days when they were ruling Hollywood and every studio needed to cater to him for his actors to work in their movies.

Now, everything was gone.

"I didn't disturb you, right."

As he was thinking about all that, Uncle Ben walked in, holding a file in his hands.

"It's fine, Ben. Just make it quick."

Matthew said coldly and Uncle Ben took a seat. Despite knowing each other for a long time, their relationship was pretty stern.

"Take a look at this. A studio wants an actor to be the lead of their next movie."

A frown appeared on Matthew's face as he heard that. This was not something that would require a meeting with him.

"Then, just give them one of your actors. Why are you even asking me?"

"That studio is Dream Vision."

"Ah, so the movie is…"

Realisation was apparent in his voice and Uncle Ben nodded.

"Yeah, it's one of the movies Will is producing."

…

/DreamNote/

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Chapter 107:

"The movie's name is [500 days of Summer]. It's a romantic comedy and they need one of our A listers for the lead role. I read a bit of the script and it's pretty good. And it seemed like they would collaborate with Foxstar on this too. At least that's what the rumours say. You do know it's hard to find any reliable info on Foxstar these days."

Matthew calmly listened to Benjamin but his eyes wasn't calm. A rage was in his eyes and black lines were forming on his forehead.

"Why are you telling me all this?" He asked.

"You very well know why I'm telling you this. The last time you caused a scene at the monthly meeting due to Dream Vision and Will."

After Robert had become a big star acting in [Sherlock Holmes, causing Matthew to be really angry. He felt like he had missed a big opportunity.

The thing that MCA desperately wanted was a big star and someone with the potential to be one had been taken away from him right under his nose.

He had even fired the agent that was handling Robert.

At first, he wanted to acquire Robert by filing a lawsuit. But after going through his lawyers, he had realised that they wouldn't be able to present a solid case and it was far too risky.

In the end, Matthew had lashed out at the management during the monthly meeting. To be honest, he knew his anger wasn't justified but he would never accept that.

By nature, he was a stubborn man.

"I caused a scene because I didn't like what the kid did. He's in the industry because MCA bought his script but he doesn't know how to be grateful."

Benjamin found it difficult to control his emotions hearing that. This nature of Matthew was also a factor behind MCA's fall.

He had changed important core members of the management because he didn't like them and he was painfully stubborn in some matters.

Hiding his emotions, Benjamin tried to persuade him.

"Now, he's trying to make sure the relations between him and us don't reach a point where there's no solution. I think this role will suit Reagen a lot and would help stabilise his place as an A-lister."

Reagen Norris was one of the few famous actors MCA still had. He had passed the ranks of Hollywood for years before cementing his place on the top.

Benjamin felt like the role of Tom would really suit him well and a romantic comedy was always a safe venture in Hollywood.

"Ben, a lead role just isn't enough for MCA's forgiveness. I'm not so easy and don't you think that you are taking that kid's side too much. I know he's your friend's son but don't forget who you work for."

Those words were said with an icy tone. Matthew clearly wasn't happy with Benjamin's attitude.

He was still angry at the fact that it was Benjamin that had set up a meeting between Robert and Will. The only reason he hadn't gotten the same fate as Robert's ex agent was because he had been working for MCA for a long time and was trusted well.

Matthew still knew the importance of his skills and connections, making him control his rage against him.

"I know who I work for very well." Benjamin shifted in his seat and said, "I'm only informing you because this can be a good venture for us. The last time we collaborated with Will, it brought us a lot of profits and making an enemy out of him isn't good. He's now one of the young stars of Hollywood. We are pretty lucky to have good ties with him."

Matthew softened his expression. The final box office collection of [17 again] was 120 million dollars and it had earned MCA quite a lot of profits.

And it was true that Will was counted as a good connection thanks to his talent. He had earned millions of dollars with each of his projects.

"I know that well…"

"Then, I hope you agree to me sending Reagen's profile to Dream Vision and hold an audition. I feel like after this movie, we could present Reagen as MCA's face."

Benjamin said but Matthew wasn't focusing on him. His eyes were looking outside the window and a thought was looming in his head.

'I can't just let anyone walk over me without major repercussions.'

Thinking that, a plan formed in his mind and he smiled.

"Okay, I won't have any problems with this. But during the contract negotiations, I want you to add something."

"What?"

Benjamin asked, having a bad feeling about this.

"You sure this looks good on me? Feels too flowery."

Robert asked, looking himself in the mirror and feeling uncomfortable in his clothes. He was currently getting ready for his photoshoot.

Looking at himself wearing a shirt with all sorts of colours mashed together, he wondered how people would see him.

"We can't do much about it. They are paying you millions to wear it and advertise it. And the designer is used to coming up with wacky fashion choices that are apparently very famous."

Alvin, his agent said, standing next to him. He was a senior agent that had joined DTA and was directly given the role of working with Robert.

Compared to his former agency, it was a hundred times better work environment for him.

"Yeah, okay."

Robert took a deep breath and closed his eyes. As he opened them, his body language changed a bit and he found himself being more confident in the clothes.

'Clothes don't make me, I make the clothes.'

He thought inwardly.

Confidence – A thing that was missing in him before doing [Sherlock Holmes] but after the success of the movie, he had really reinvented himself as an actor and a person.

"What's the shooting schedule for today?"

While removing his shirt to try out a new one, Robert asked his agent.

He was currently in the middle of shooting his next movie [A Bullet to Kill].

After the initial auditions were done, he had started the shooting quickly, not wanting to waste any time. Earlier, movies had been scarce for him and now that he was getting the chance to play the lead in them, he wanted to do as many movies as he could in the next 3-4 years.

"They are shooting indoor scenes today, so we need to reach by 6. It's a midnight schedule."

"Okay, let's finish this first then."

"Is the schedule too hard for you? We can cancel it for today if you want to take a day off."

Alvin said, knowing full well how much Robert was working these days. As his popularity grew, many sponsorship offers came towards him.

He had carefully looked at them and selected some of them, making Robert one of the few actors who was earning millions of dollars in just sponsoring deals.

"No, it's fine. I feel like I'm understanding my character more and more everyday. No need to take a break."

"Okay."

Robert shrugged his shoulders and tried out another pair of clothes.

Work was a lot but it was the best he had felt in a long time.

"How's the press release going?"

Terry asked one of the editor in chiefs as he cupped his hand. They were having a final meeting before the book launch tomorrow.

"I completed it and sent it to some news agencies. I went with the title 'A fantasy adventure that will leave you wanting more'."

Jack, the editor in chief answered and Sarah, a junior editor sitting next to him opened her mouth.

"The bookstores had also told us to be ready to send more copies. They are expecting a nice response."

"Let's see how it goes." Terry said before moving on to another topic. "How is the response of the authors we sent the book to?"

Normally, publishers would send books to famous authors for a review. Then, they would use their comments to market it.

"Most of them gave good reviews. I attached some of them in the press release too. The author of the Hunter's apprentice franchise was particularly impressed with the book and even promoted it on his own."

Jack said with an excited expression.

"Yeah, but many authors also refused to give out a review."

Sarah replied, sighing but Jake shook his head.

"There are always those there. Some authors would just discriminate based on the fact that it's a children's fantasy novel and some are just busy."

Terry nodded his head.

"We have already done everything from our end, so only the public reception is left. Let's hope a lot of people buy the book."

"Did you call Will Evans and get him to agree to do some promotions?"

Originally, Warden Books had to rush the release of the book a bit because Will wanted to get it out as soon as possible and also because no famous authors were releasing their books at this point of time.

It was a safe period.

Moreover, Will's busy schedule meant he hadn't really promoted the book a lot.

"Yeah, he said he's handling some stuff these days but he can do some interviews to promote his book and go on talk shows and radio shows.

…

/DreamNote/

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Chapter 108:

It was a Sunday morning, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone had just recently hit the shelves in Book stores around the world and was already being picked by readers Young and old alike. But in his Beverly Hills mansion, Will Evans the author of said book was oblivious to the happenings of the world outside of his four walls, as he typed the beginning sequences of the script for the movie. He had just finished brainstorming the idea needed for his original movie [Liberty City, taking inspiration from the GTA video game franchise from his previous life. He had taken heavy literary liberties in capturing the essence of GTA in a movie platform, even going so far as including elements from other famous Gangster films and shows like [The Godfather] and [Peaky Blinders].

Will had decided to establish the movie to be based in Liberty City, which was going to be modeled after New York City, as it had been in the eighties.

In The 1980sn NYC was an altogether different city from the safe, clean (for The Most Part), Cosmopolitan Urban Playground, it is today. Homicides were at near-record highs, the crack and drugs epidemic was raging, and NYC had not yet experienced the wave of gentrification that has marked it in modern times. Drugs, prostitution, gambling, you name it, NYC had it.

It was the ultimate breeding ground for Gangs and the Mafia to flourish. It was this time period, of modern American history, that Will wanted to capture in his new movie, and reimagine and set as the center stage for [Liberty City]. He had already decided on the lead character, Mario Di Mauro, a Gangster of Italian descent. He had based him on Michael De Santa, and Don Corleone from [The Godfather].

Mario was portrayed as an opportunist, with an over aggrandizing personality, who had come to [Liberty City] in hopes of making it big, among the Mafia families and businesses in the city. He would take a job as a waiter at a small restaurant, which unbeknownst to him is nothing more than a front for the money laundering business run by one of the largest crime syndicates in the city, the Vercetti's.

The story goes on and shows how Michael uses the information he collects from the Restaurant and sells it to the Vercetti's direct competitor, The Vulpe's, as well as the police, while simultaneously using the money to set up his own illegal business in drugs and liquor, on the other part of the city under the radar of the cops.

As Will took a sip from his morning coffee and set it down on the table he failed to notice the door to his bedroom opening and June stepping inside, holding a covered package.

"Will, you've got a package here, it says it's from Terry from Warden Books" she tried to gain his attention.

When Will did not react to her, she shook her head and smiled fondly at him, feeling endearment towards his passion and involvement in his latest project. June stepped behind the desk he was working on and place a soft kiss on the side of his neck, successfully eliciting a small smile from him, and getting him to turn his chair around and pull her into a deeper more passionate kiss, which lasted a few seconds.

Separating from each other, June took a glance at his laptop screen, while simultaneously getting comfortable on his lap. The screen was displaying document with a half-written dialogue "Somebody messes with me, I'm gonna me-"

"What are you working on Will?" She asked him, becoming curious over the incomplete dialogue that she'd just read,

"Oh, I am writing the beginnings of the Script of my next movie, [Liberty City]. What is it that you're holding?" he asked, focusing on the package she was still holding in her hands.

"Oh, this just came in from Warden Books, it was labeled to you." She said, handing him the rectangular package.

Taking the package from her hands, Will unsealed the stamp on the cardboard and cut open the package. Looking inside, he found that it was one of the first editions of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone. This was the paperback edition. They had hired an artist to design the cover for the first edition of the book, and he'd done the work magnificently.

Even June, who was sitting comfortably on his lap, couldn't take her eyes off the cover of the book.

"Is that the book you've written? The cover is beautiful, it's going to attract a lot of eyes, just by sitting on the displays." She remarked.

And she was right. The cover was designed especially with the intent to attract children's attention. It was colored with bright contrasting colors, that stand out when seen from far. There was the Giant Red Steam Train, with the letters 'Hogwart's Express' emblazoned on the front. Steam was shown billowing from its exhaust, and Kings Cross Station was marked with Platform 9 , right beside it.

The platform showed a family of redheads, which Will knew to be the Weasley's and there was the dark-haired, emerald-eyed protagonist of the book, with his famous lightning bolt scar, admiring the train standing beside the Weasley family, holding on to a snowy owl and suitcases emblazoned with a small crest In gold.

At the top of the Cover, "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone" was Written in jagged lines, that depicted the lightning bolt, and right below it, was the Author's name "Evans. W".

On turning the book around, there was a depiction of an Old Man, wearing half-moon spectacles, dressed in flamboyant robes littered with Stars, moons, and even a tiny bird, who seemed to be giving prospective readers the synopsis of the Story inside.

Will felt elated, at once again holding a copy of the book that defined the childhood of so many children, and adults alike, from his previous life. He was sure, that it would do similar now that it'd been introduced to the new world, he'd found himself in.

Looking at June, she'd taken the opportunity of his open computer to browse through the online News about the book and from her smiling face, Will could already see that the book was making waves in the literary community around the world.

"It's trending on Sparrow already. It's fifth on the trending list! Congratulations Will, I am proud of you, your book is already being nominated for the Best Seller among the Children's books, for this month!" June exclaimed, twisting on his lap and pulling Will into another chaste kiss.

It was Sunday afternoon, and Linda McArthur couldn't quite understand why there was such a huge rush at the Border's bookstore, in Pasadena, California. She had just finished working on the project she'd been working on for the month and she was looking forward to treating herself to a new book, from the bookstore. She's always been a fan of mystery novels, ever since she had been a child. To be fair, the Border's bookstore is almost like her home away from home, with how much time she spends here perusing the new books that are released daily.

Stepping into the well air-conditioned, Library-Esque book store, and quickly greeting May, who works the weekends at the counter, she noticed that the bookstore is predominantly filled with children and teens today. While young children and teenagers being at the store is nothing new, the number of children present today is not what you'd notice in bookstores these days.

Putting the thought out of her mind, Linda made her way toward the mystery aisle of the book store. She loved reading mystery novels, The Sherlock Holmes book series by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, which she'd read as a child, had cemented her as a mystery novel enthusiast. She'd been very thrilled when she'd gone to the cinema to watch [Sherlock Holmes] at the cinema. It was a fantastic film and in Linda's opinion, it easily captured the essence of Sherlock Holmes and portrayed it on the big screen.

"- Potter and the Philosopher's stone. Yeah, Jerry really liked the book" a low voice reached her ears.

"Yeah, I've heard about it, my friend bought a copy to class. Did you know Will Evans wrote that book?" another answered, gossiping with her friends by the children's aisle.

"Yeah, I really want to read the book, it's about magic, and magic school, which is in a castle, and you go there by train and it's all so wonderful" a third voice chimed in.

"Yeah! I know, Harry and his friends go on this wonderful adventure solving this mystery involving a stone that make you really rich and immortal!" the first voice elaborated.

And that was enough for Linda's interest to be piqued. Will Evans had already shown himself to be a talented mystery movie director, and if he can write a children's book like the one she's hearing about Linda has to be one of the first to get her hands on the book.

Making her way through the group of children that are crowding around the shelf designated for Children's books, Linda goes through the Brightly displayed book labeled "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone".

Based on the cover art, depicting a bespectacled young boy, admiring a red steam train, labeled Hogwarts Express, she's become fascinated by the premise of the story.

Reading the synopsis given the funkily dressed old man with the long white beard, Linda couldn't help the smile that bloomed on her face. Looks like she's diving into the mysteries of magic, monsters and castles for the nearby future.

…

/DreamNote/

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Chapter 109:

[Everybody's wild about Harry Potter]

[Will Evans's latest literary blockbuster, has been nominated for the fifth position in the New York Times's best sellers, for this week. "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" follow the exploits of an orphan delivered on his aunt's and uncle's doorstep and forced to sleep in a closet until his 11th birthday.

On that glorious day, Harry is rescued from a life of ill-treatment at the hands of his odious relations by an invitation from wizard Albus Dumbledore to attend The Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry, delivered personally by a giant named Hagrid, who rides a flying motorcycle.

Not only that, but Harry quickly finds out that the people of the wizardry clique (usually invisible to plain muggles like you and I) consider him a modern-day hero because as an infant he was marked for death by the evil wizard known most commonly as You-Know-Who (they don't even like to say his name!) and yet he survived with little evidence of the attack other than a lightning bolt scar on his forehead.

The book is a richly written masterpiece that brings together childish naivete, drama, mystery and magic in a beautiful orchestra of events.

Like his own character, Will Evans' life has the luster of a fairy tale. Orphaned and made to sell scripts to movie agencies like the MCA, while struggling to build a name for himself in Hollywood, he began writing "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" as yet another attempt at greatness, this time in the literary world. Using his accredited fame Will garnered, from the motion picture productions, namely [The Blaire Witch Project] and [Sherlock Holmes, Will Evans has once again unraveled another facet to the mystery behind the talent shown by the genius artist.

Having already sold more than twenty-thousand copies, on the first day when it hit the shelves in the UK, and by now it has sold over 1.5 million copies worldwide. The e-book market, being organized by Warden books, is being overwhelmed, with just as many digital copies that distribution companies like Oranzon, had to set up separate servers to host the gargantuan number of requests.

"Harry Potter" is already in the race for nominations for awards the British Book Awards, Children's Book of the Year and The Smarties Prize. Rave reviews have appeared on both sides of the Atlantic, and book rights have been sold in England, France, Germany, Italy, Holland, Greece, Finland, Denmark, Spain and Sweden.

A second book, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets," has already been teased by Warden Books, and only time will tell what else is in for the future of the brightest new star, coming out of Hollywood.

-FNN, World's largest news network]

A man walking down the streets of Hollywood boulevard read, on his phone. He was wearing plain black T-shirt, on a Black leather jacket. His hair was covered by a cap, with the symbol of a lightning bolt etched on it, and most of his face was covered by the Polaroid aviator sunglasses that he was wearing. This man was none other than Will Evans himself, who had taken it upon himself to take a stroll through Hollywood Boulevard and the surrounding areas, where he was just exiting a bookstore after taking account of the number of children, young adults, and teens, who were reading the first few editions of the "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone".

He could listen to the audio being played on the giant television screen where a famous Monday Morning TV show, was showing a discussion about the topic, as he was walking across the theatre on the Hollywood Boulevard.

"I am telling you, Larry, this is just another stunt from a new person in Hollywood, trying to build an image of an author, playing to the mindset of people that he's a talented artist. But he's not, he's just a fluke show, that's grasping for attention at this stage. I mean, sure he did great in his previous films, [The Blaire Witch Project] and [Sherlock Holmes] were fantastic, I admit that. But, his actions after both the films, opening his own talent agency and production house? That shows that he's not taking the risks into consideration, and is riding on the coattails of his success. This book is also the exact same thing, he's milking his success for everything it is worth." Harold McTavers, the co-anchor of the show had commented, and Will couldn't keep the amusement from forming a smile on his face. While he admitted, that to a normal person, moving so fast, especially in Hollywood, Will was anything but normal. The only thing Will wanted was to get the movies and artistic masterpieces of his old world, out into this one. The money was a welcome side effect.

"Harry, if you're saying that, then you haven't read the book at all. My daughter practically squealed in delight when she finished reading it and she's twelve. She hasn't squealed in ages, not even for her doll collection or the Tiara that I got her for her last birthday. Will Evans is a talented artist, one of the most talented people to come out of Hollywood. I mean come on, there are rumors of The British mounting another expedition to the states to, quote on quote, 'Extract one of their own!'" Larrison Worthington, the show's other co-host continued.

And what the anchor said, that was true. Well, not in exactly the same words. But there were talks of inviting Will, to speak at Cambridge University, in regards to proper story writing. Will though was amused by the reactions. They had justified him being British due to his mother's British heritage.

Smiling to himself Will continued his walk down the beautiful Star-Studded walkway, past the bookstore and the Giant Television set, whistling Hedwig's theme merrily as he slowly made his way back home.

Dream Vision Studios, Los Angeles, California

The CEO of MCA, Mathew Collins had sent, Jacob Woodsworth, the Agent representing Reagan Norris, to negotiate the deal between the Dream Vision and MCA, in order for Reagan Norris to work as the lead actor for [500 days of Summer].

Jacob was seated opposite Jeffery Houlston, the lead cinematographer of Dream Vision and Carson Duckstein, the director of [500 days of Summer]. They were just about to finalize the deal for Dream Vision to secure the position of Reagan Norris as the lead actor.

"My client really liked the script sent by your company and is looking forward to working with you, please send my compliments to Mr. Evans for yet another fantastically written script, I am a fan of his writing. And give congratulations from MCA, for the success that he's achieved along with our help, we really liked the new book that he's authored. I think we can establish a longstanding relationship among our companies, The MCA is ready to send Reagan as the allocated artist for this movie at 3 million USD." Jacob tried to sweet-talk his way into the negotiations, while subtly exaggerating MCA's role in Will Evan's colossal success.

Jeffery knew what he was trying to do, and was pointedly ignoring the sweet nothings that Jacob was trying to sell them. Though he did admit, that 3 million USD was a good deal for an actor like Reagan. But he still negotiated for less, "We are ready to part with 2.5 million USD, as the payment for hiring your client for our film, and we will also include a promise for including more Actors from MCA for projects that we undertake in the future."

"Yeah, based on his acting In previous films and the talents at MCA, we can make some really good movies." Carson chimed in.

"That is an acceptable rate, but there needs to be an extra clause in the deal, it is non-negotiable." Jacob looked like he was hesitant to mention further, so Jeffery motioned him to continue. "MCA wants ten percent of the box office share for [500 days of summer]."

That was an outrageous demand from the MCA, and the rage that erupted on Jeffery's and Carlson's faces must have been palpable for Jacob hastily added "That was a demand set by our CEO, Mathew Collins for this movie, he would like to establish a more friendly partnership through this deal, by using that as an apology for past transgressions from Dream Vision's side." Even Jacob had trailed off at the end of his statement, his voice coming out in a bare whisper.

The incredulity must have shown on Jeffery's face and his next words summarized his feelings aptly.

"What!?"

Chapter 110:

"What!?" Jeffery's voice contained the barely veiled fury and incredulity at the demand set forth by the MCA.

Trying to gain control of his rage, Jeffery took a calming breath looked at the face of the agent and then at the director of the movie, slowly trying to comprehend the insult as well as the blatant unprofessional clause that they tried to set, and then he spoke, in a clipped tone. "I hope you realize that you're asking us for ten percent box office share, on top of a fee, for an actor that just broke through the A-list rankings, right? There are many in that category that will, frankly, perform better, at a much lower price. Every time before now, Reagan Norris has been cast at a fee, not a cut of the box office. You must understand, we cannot accept this."

Jacob looked like he was chewing through a lemon as he said "That clause was put forward by our CEO himself, we believe that Reagan has the potential to be the best of the best, and the CEO believed that for an actor like him, after our shared history, a percentage of the gross is the perfect incentive for us to lease him for work here."

Jeffery and Carlson couldn't believe that the CEO of MCA, could be that egotistical and petty.

"Are those the final terms for this deal?" Carlson asked.

"Yes, I believe those are the final terms, that last clause is non-negotiable," Jacob affirmed.

"Then, I am sorry to say, we respectfully reject your terms, we cannot in good faith let this insult be set aside, we hope that we can work more amicably in future opportunities, have a great day." Jeffery dissolved the meeting with the bland statement of platitudes, his mind working in overdrive trying to contain his fury and rage.

Seeing that the meeting had reached its conclusion and that he was no longer welcome in the office, Jacob Woodsworth packed up the documents, buttoned up his suitcase, gave a final nod with the polite nod to the two angry businessmen in front of him, and took his leave.

While actors in the upper echelons of the A-list category occasionally did ask for shares in the box office, it is generally backed up by their incredibly renowned acting prowess. And even then, Production companies generally frown on actors asking for the percentages of the gross. There have many instances where actors demanded similar terms to act in various high budget films, and in retaliation production houses attempted, what is generally known as Hollywood Accounting, by tallying up the accounts in a way that on paper, the movie would have earned nothing, giving the actors who demand such shares next to nothing as payment for their work. Jeffery knew that he couldn't attempt Hollywood accounting for that was something, Will wouldn't resort to, he couldn't help but think of the sweet retribution he would have gotten had he gotten away with it.

Reigning in his more destructive thoughts, Jeffery decided that he needed to inform Will of the new developments.

Having sold over 10 million copies, 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone' at around 7.99 dollars a copy, grossing around eighty million dollars worldwide, in just under a month. While Will knew that the books were bound to make a good amount of money, he had underestimated how much his own fame and renown, along with the impeccable quality of the books would go in boosting the sales of the book. As an author, he himself had received sixteen million dollars from the cut, and Will was extremely happy with those numbers.

There were many critics that gave extremely positive reviews on various sites, ranging from those that were purely literary in nature, to those that were following Will and were involved in Hollywood as well.

On Sparrow there were many users that had decided to post their own comments like –

[ AnnaMarie

@Rogue_marie

I don't like fantasy books. This is my one time I have to go against it. Harry Potter is in my top 2 favorite books of all time. It's amazing with all the unique things that you see around the magic world. You will have to think again when you chose a favourite book.

10/10, would recommend]

[ ItsPatsy

@Trish_talk

One of the best book series ever!! Charming and Witty, you just cant put the book down.

you should all give it a read ]

[ WiggleWiggle

@prettygurlwiggles

It's very good because I enjoy it and it makes me wanna read it a lot and see what happens next.

Waiting for the next installment, luv you Will!]

[ PriyankaC

@itsPriyaBitch

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is one of my favourite books in the Harry Potter series. Reading this book has made me crazy about Harry Potter and I wish to be one among the magical community. I can't imagine how thrilled I would be if I get a letter from Dumbledore saying that I am admitted to Hogwarts! What can't that man, Will Evans, do!??? ]

Will was reading through many such comments on Sparrow of fans that had read his books while waiting in the backstage for the radio show host, Joe Slogan.

Joe Slogan was the producer and the host of the podcast, Daily Talks with Joe Slogan and had invited Will to his studio to shoot a podcast episode featuring Will and talk about the book.

He had decided to take a break from writing the script for [Liberty City] and do something new when Amanda had informed him of the invite for the show. The show had previously been host to various famous celebrities and personalities, and Will thought that it would be a nice change of pace from the increasingly hectic schedule that he had started to pick up.

"Sir, we've set the room, we just need to tape this mic to the collar of your shirt, and you'll need to wear the headsets near the large mic, and then we'll take it from there." A lab tech came forward and informed Will that the preparations were complete.

Will followed the lab tech into the interview room, which had a few cameras set up and in mounted positions so that the faces of both the host and the guest could be seen clearly in the video that they'd release later. In one of the leather chairs of the room was the Host himself, Joe Slogan.

Joe had a bald face, with wrinkles that made him look rugged and a well-built physique. He looked to Will and smiled and put his hand forward for a handshake "Hello, its so good to have you here. Please, take a seat and we'll begin."

Will nodded, smiled and took the offered hand "Its good to be here, I am a huge fan of your podcasts."

"That's always nice to know that a big up and coming star like yourself watches my show, shall we begin"

Will nodded, and took his seat. In front of him were a jar of hot coffee and the large headsets that would play the voice of the people speaking and the audience, should they give a call to talk to the guest of the show.

It was Will that started off the show "Hi everyone! This is Will Evans and we're bringing you another episode of Will Evan's podcasts, Yes that's right, I've taken over the show, and we have here with us today, the man, the myth, the legend, Joe Slogan"

Without missing a beat, Joe plays along with the opening "Thanks for having me Will, how is the podcast business working out for you man?"

"I have to say, its difficult work, I might give just give it back to you, I think I like movie making better."

"Well, in that case, I will gladly take the show back off of your hands!" Joe joked, and then diverted the attention back on Will "But movie making isn't all that you do, is it? My son loved your book, how did you come up with the idea for the book?"

"I am glad your son liked it, I wrote it mainly because I've always been fascinated with the idea of magic and mysteries, and being an orphan myself, my own story was something that I thought, I could write about. Harry Potter is a character that I wrote off myself, it is about a child who didn't have anything and was then thrown into this wondrous world, where he had to learn and match people's expectations, solving mysteries and battling his parent's murderer while making some very cherishable friends along the way."

"Yeah, now that my daughter's read it, I think I might as well, do you have any other books in the works?" Joe asked.

"Uhhm, yeah. I have a few ideas regarding Harry Potter, I am already playing around with what I want to do with the second part of the book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, you can already probably guess it will have Harry interacting with this mysterious chamber. And not only that I have many ideas that I want to bring and show to the people, my main goal is to provide artistic and quality content for the people to thoroughly enjoy." Will replied.

"Is that why you've recently acquired Marvel Comics? To produce better content?" Joe once again redirected the line of questioning.

"Well, I've always been a fan of Marvel Comics in general, I mean back in the 60s my dad used to read the Captain America comics as soon as they came out, I was disappointed with what the movies for the studios were turning out to be, and now that I have the resources to do something about the poor quality there, I figured, why not just do it myself?" Will answered.

"I am sure most of out listeners will be delighted to hear that, why don't we take a few questions from them?" Joe indicated that they were accepting calls from the audience at home.

The phone rang, and Will and Joe waited for the call to connect. Once it connected a woman's voice was heard from the other side.

"Hi, I am Judy, and I have a question for Will Evans……."

The podcast continued for well over three hours where both Joe and the audience asked many questions, not only about his future projects but also about his life before Hollywood, his relationship with June, and what other part of the entertainment industry Will was going to take a step in. While Will had answered most of the questions honestly, he had remained mysterious and aloof about the future, trying to entice the audience in keeping a close eye on his career.

Walking out of the studio after shaking hands with Joe, Will was smiling from ear to ear. That was when he got a call from Jefferey.

"Will, we need to talk." What followed ruined Will's good mood.

…

/DreamNote/

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Chapter 111:

Hollywood, as we know it today, started its life in the second decade of the 20th century with the rise of the production facilities in South California. They were created there by the numerous filmmakers who moved their business from New York in search of a more consistent climate for round-the-year film shooting. With the advent of technology, production companies focused in on a city that provided them with both, the perfect weather and easy access to new and improved technology. Los Angeles thus became the heart of modern-day Hollywood.

The influx of immigrants into the United States quickly forced this new workforce to find new ways of running the business, and the popularity of movies quickly gave birth to a new kind of movie entity – movie studios. Most modern-day movies are usually produced by the movie studios that were established and flourished during that time. Nowadays, they are called the Big Six.

One of these major studios includes MCA, which was founded by a Jewish Immigrant, Martin Collins, in the year 1923. The agency went ahead to produce many timeless classics, during what is commonly called 'The Golden Age of Hollywood', which lasted from the early 1920s to the late 1960s. With the success of MCA as an agency, came the greedy money-grabbing nature of market investors, who saw a golden goose, in the form of the movie studio. These investors, through the cunning use of the stock market, attempted to wrench control of the studio from William Collins, who retaliated using heavy-handed Nepotistic business strategies to distribute the company shares inside of his own families.

Anyone who did not have the last name Collins attached to his own was not given consideration for positions of power inside the company. That is how Matthew Collins found himself in the seat of CEO and Chairman of MCA.

Matthew Collins led the MCA, as its CEO, from the late 1970s and 80s and after struggling initially in the ever-evolving market, found himself a very comfortable niche in the indie and romantic comedy movie genre. But as the era of modern computers arrived, in the early 2000s, the company faced a severe loss of resources and manpower due to the nepotistic nature of the upper echelons of the company. The company lost its position as the leading agency in the Big six of Hollywood. And it slowly lost most major film stars that were poached, if not entirely antagonized toward the MCA, by the other Agencies in the market.

Will Evans knew this dark secret of the agency. It wasn't altogether very rare in his previous world either. He understood that Matthew Collins must have felt threatened by Will, because he compared the loss of Robert to be synonymous to the poaching of stars from his agency, after Robert become an A-list superstar, because of [Sherlock Holmes]. Will knew, his hubris and ego would not let him see past the picture he has painted of the situation and see the opportunity Will had provided for him. But he had hoped he did.

That was why when he heard his cinematographer, and personal Doraemon, Jeffery narrate the happenings of the deal, he wasn't surprised. He was disappointed, yes, not surprised.

"What are we going to do Will? That was a blatant insult if there ever was one, plus we still need a good actor for [500 days of Summer]" Jeffery ranted, and Will could hear the rage he was still trying to subdue.

"Nothing, Jeff, we do nothing. We will inform them, they are not getting a cut from the box office, and wait for them to fold. We don't need them, they need us, remember." Will replied in a soothing tone, trying to allay Jeffery's anger.

"We can't just do nothing! Will!"

"Don't worry Jeff, if in the next two weeks, they don't reach out to us with more favorable terms, in the negotiation, we will move the spot of Tom in the movie to someone else, in a different agency." Will pointed out.

After a moment of silence, Jeffery's voice came through the phone "You realize that if we do that, we will be cutting off all the bridges with MCA, and that means they will try to pressure your uncle."

Will was saddened by the idea that he was going to be bringing problems to his uncle, but he consoled himself, that he would invite his uncle to the DTA as soon as the time was right.

"Yes, I know. And if there isn't an actor available for Tom in the movie, I might just do it myself."

"If you're sure about this, then alright. We will wait two weeks for new developments, I will keep you updated. I will see you tomorrow at the office, I think Director Lucas wanted to discuss some things about [1917] with you, so how about we meet after that?" Jeffery said after breathing a sigh.

"Sure, Jeff, see you tomorrow."

Will also feared for June, she was still part of the roster of talents that were dependent on the MCA and its agents. He worried that the management would isolate and target her, to get back at him, or they would try to harm their relationship. He decided that he would offer a job at the DTA, as he knew that the resources that would be allocated in his company would be far more beneficial to her than what she could potentially utilize at the MCA.

The problem was, that June is a stubborn and prideful woman. He did not know whether she would accept the offer. She did not want to be known in Hollywood as someone who used him as a ticket to her fame, she wanted to stand out on her own, and Will immensely respected her for that. But he would still try regardless because he knew that if the MCA doesn't change the terms and take the role, they will be playing all the underhanded tactics that they could potentially find.

During the week that Dream Vision had decided to wait for a possible change in the terms from the MCA, Will had attended various meetings with Director Lucas, who was working on [1917]. Originally, the movie had included various historically accurate elements that defined the life of a soldier on the battlefield of World War 1.

The war was treated as The War to end all wars, and almost every able-bodied man was conscripted in the senseless conflict. This included men from parts of the world that had no relation to European politics, and that was depicted by the Sikh, turban-wearing Indian man, who was conscripted into the British military, while India was under the rule of the British empire.

This was a nod to the era of colonialization depicted in the movie, and Will wanted to remain as accurate to the history of the world as possible, and using Lucas's eye for cinematic detail, they had hashed out various subtle scenes to properly represent all major aspects of life from that horrifying time.

There were various scenes that were completed in just a single take, the longest take lasting for more than eight minutes. They had also decided to use a motorcycle retrofitted with a mounted camera for scenes that were shot out in the open, like the scene where Schofield traverses the ruins of the city at midnight, under the light of the flare between the enemy lines, surrounded and being hunted by the enemy military.

Will was also constantly working on the script of [Liberty City, having completed almost half of the script. He'd had to revamp and rewrite multiple parts of the story, in order to better encapsulate the mindset of the opportunistic, self-aggrandizing nature of Mario Di Mauro.

He had to come up with various dialogues that would suit the character while staying true to the essence of the character while referencing other films and media.

In one of the scenes, he had written about Mario's actions getting exposed by the Vercetti's. He had just been betrayed by his girlfriend, Tracy De Santa, in exchange for a promise of wealth and power in the city. The Vercetti's had then proceeded to kill Tracy and due to that, Mario had set their drugs warehouse on fire, while on a call with the head of the Vercetti family, saying "Yippie Kay Yay, Motherfucker!"

There were many action-packed scenes that he had decided to include in the film, which tied the story of [Liberty City, into a neat package, completing the viewers' need for drama, action, violence, and adrenaline. Will was sure that the movie would do phenomenally in the cinema.

It had been two weeks, since Jeffery had attended the meeting with Jacob Woodsworth, about hiring Reagan Norris, to act as Tom in [500 days of Summer]. After the disastrous meeting, MCA had remained adamant about taking 10 percent of the final box office share, from the movie. And Will had reached the end of his patience. He had decided to take the next step, which would essentially cut all ties with MCA, and further propelling Dream Vision into a brand of its own.

He was currently dialing Jeffery's number having recently edited parts of the script of his original movie [Liberty City, from his home.

"Hello, Jeff, have you sent out the casting offers to the other agencies?"

"Yes, I have. I sent them two days ago." Jeffery replied.

"What was the response?"

The reply that he got, had the wheels in Will's head spinning in overdrive, trying to determine where such an action will take the future of Will and his studio.

…

/DreamNote/

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Chapter 112:

Despite what the media claimed, Dream Talent Agency and ICM were not truly enemies. They were rival companies. In business, no relationship is permanent. They change constantly, with changing agendas and changing times.

The power of money and opportunity necessitated that fact. And that is why businessmen around the world, who follow the treatises written by Sun Tzu, know that in Business keeping your friends close, and enemies closer, really just meant keeping a close relationship with everyone in the field.

If a businessman follows that, opportunities would come knocking from the most unexpected of places.

"We have offers for the role, from ICM and Jenkins Agency, I have carbon copied the emails to you," Jeremy said. Both him and Will, were seated in Will's office, they had just finished discussing the details that were to be shown in [1917] with director Lucas, and now they were going over their next possible step, that the company would take with [500 days of summer].

"Okay, I want you to go over the profiles from both ICM and Jenkins and select a suitable candidate from the list. And schedule a meeting at the earliest with the CEO of ICM." Will replied.

"Are we moving towards a more friendly relationship with ICM?" Jeremy asked uneasily.

Will shook his head and said "No, any relationship that we build with ICM could only be in the interest of cooperation. They have their agendas, we have ours. Their ambition is to be at the top of Hollywood, and so is ours, but that does not mean that we can't use the opportunities provided to us while keeping a closer eye on the ground situation of their employees and talents there. And I am sure, they will be doing the same to us. One of their agendas will be to poach possible talents from our agency and ours will be similar, if not the same thing. A relationship of apparent cordiality will go a long way, in achieving that for both of us, while simultaneously we can work on improving the public image of our relationship as well."

"So basically, keep your friends rich, and your enemies rich and then find out which is which?" Jeffery asked him, after a moment's pause.

"Technically," Will affirmed.

"Alright, Will, I'll let Amanda know about setting up the meeting, and I will go through the listings, let's see where this takes us. I will trust you on this one." Jeffery sighed.

Saying that, Jeffery nodded to Will and left his office. Will sat in his seat, contemplating while looking at the picturesque sunset outside of his window.

In the conference room of the MCA building, in Los Angeles, California. A meeting between the board of directors and other executives was taking place.

Matthew Collins, the CEO of the MCA was chairing the proceedings. Beside him was his nephew Steve Collins, the head of the Public Relations, to his other side, was Christine Collins, Steve Collins' wife, who was the head of the finance department. These three together constituted the majority of the shares of the company. Besides them, in the room, was Benjamin Charles, The leading Agent, and along with him were the other agents who worked for the company.

They were discussing the final deals of that fiscal quarter, and the future projections for the company.

"As you can see, we had to lay off fifteen more employees from the HR department, and we're going to have to moderate the budget we allocate for our D-rank stars, we really need to find better investment opportunities for this company, we're rapidly losing our roster of clientele. And the influx of new talents has come to standstill, people are just not showing up to our doors to find work anymore. If we don't do something about our public image and credibility now and show another movie with a box office like [17 Again] in the next fiscal quarter, I fear we will lose whatever dependable talents we had and we'll have to shift our goals inwards towards much lower budget films, and TV shows." Christine Collins was explaining the charts on the screen.

"Surely, the actors realize that we're still as good as we've ever been? I mean, we still did have a turnover of over 400 million this year." Matthew interjected.

Christine shook her head and pointed out "Of that 400 million, twenty-five percent came solely from [17 Again] and that is easily associated with Will Evans, he's being considered as an anomaly in the numbers by most companies in the industry. And the actors know that. They are looking past the works associated with him and looking for information and data provided with him out of the picture."

"But we did the work on [17 Again, it was just written by the boy!" Matthew demanded.

"Well, when I said that he's being treated as an anomaly, it includes everything that he has touched, and that includes the script he wrote for our film. The only way out of this, is if we show that either we can still produce films that guarantee good returns at the box office, or we associate ourselves with Will Evans and his company. His image will be a game-changer if we can establish that he's partnered with our company." She advised.

Matthew's face went through a series of emotions that Benjamin could classify as annoyance, and disgust, followed by anger, and he didn't have to think too hard to know that the next questions would be directed to him.

"Alright, we do have a few projects we were propositioned to work with by the boy's company. Benjamin, what happened at the meeting? Did your team finalize the deal?" As he'd thought the next set of questions were for him.

Taking a deep breath, Benjamin surveyed the room around him, he could already see the looks of pity that were being thrown his way. They were empty of course, he knew that, and neither did he want them, but they were there. Looking to the CEO, he replied in as professional a tone, as he could muster "I did send one of my best agents, Reagan Norris' direct agent, Jacob Woodsworth, to meet with Will. They rejected the terms, they consider the ten percent box office clause, too high a price for Reagan Norris."

It was then Matthew's nephew, Steve interjected "I have information from credible sources that DTA has approached every other company in the Big Six, and they've agreed to start meetings with at least two, one of which, is the ICM. The role that was offered to our actor, is now in the open market."

The look of Matthew's face was now akin to resentment, and Benjamin had to swallow the surge of anger at the CEO's blindness, caused by his hubris, that was threatening to flow through him. He instead calmly tried to pacify "If we remove the ten percent box office clause, we may still get the role for Reagan. I did tell you previously that the clause was too steep, they wouldn't accept it."

Matthew cut him off "No, this is too much. The kid doesn't know how to maintain good business relationships. Sometimes, you have to accept a raw deal to pacify a sleeping tiger. Now he's trying and aiming too far out of his station, and he's shown us his fangs. Well, a kitten can snarl all it likes, but they're usually very careful around the tiger. Now the tiger has awoken and this one is ready to roar. If he wants to destroy all possible relationships with us, then so be it. We will hit him back with everything we have as well."

Benjamin couldn't believe the level of ignorance the CEO was showing. His hubris, ego, and pride, supported by his record of constant success due to a niche in the industry had blinded him to his faults. He could see that the other people in the room, including his nephew's wife were feeling the same way as Benjamin was.

He tried again to pacify the CEO saying "Sir, just give me one more try. I am sure, if I go have a meeting with Will, we could reach a more favorable outcome."

Matthew looked at Benjamin and for a moment, it looked like he wanted to snarl, but he reigned in his emotions and let out "Fine! One turn, Benjamin. And only because you're one of my oldest and most efficient employees. I will give the kid one chance. After this, we burn all the bridges and prepare for whatever fight we have ahead of us. We've come out of things worse than this, we will do so again."

'We have come out of things worse before, Matthew. But in those times, we had a reliable team on the board making decisions, not a family ruling over a company like a dynasty.' Benjamin internally retorted as the meeting ended. He had to make for his office, and call his wayward nephew to arrange a meeting now. He wondered if there was a different way for him to get out of this.

…

/DreamNote/

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Chapter 113:

"Bravo Six, Going Dark!" A figure clad in SAS military uniform said, as he put on a pair of night-vision goggles.

"Aaaand Cut! That's a wrap, perfect shot Robert!"

The director of the movie [A Bullet to kill] announced, and Michael "Robert" Elrod, who had just completed the shooting for the final scene of the movie, nodded to the prop assistant, who came and collected the airsoft gun and military equipment from him.

Everyone who was part of the movie started celebrating having worked very hard throughout the shooting. Robert quickly got changed into more casual clothing and said his goodbyes to the director and exited the Krown Studios facility.

Outside, there was an elegant, brushed-up gunmetal Rolls Royce Phantom waiting for him. Walking up to the opened door of the back seat, he saw that it was occupied by two people, one of whom he knew very well, and the other just happened to be a famous director who happened to be working on a movie produced by Will's agency.

"Hello, Robert. Congratulations on finishing the shooting of [A Bullet to Kill]" Jeffery said, passing him a glass of chardonnay after Robert had taken his seat inside the luxurious car.

"What's this? Are we in some super-secret spy agency, and now you're going to assign me my mission?" Robert snarked.

"Something like that…." Jeffery smiled mysteriously.

Shaking his head and rolling his eyes, he took the glass from Jeffery and smiled while peering at the document that was in the hands of the director.

"Wait, seriously? That better not have an action report for me, and tell me you're not shipping me off to the isles." He remarked playfully.

The two men just looked at each other, chuckling a little, and then, Lucas informed him "We have a scene for you, in [1917, a cameo. It's of a British Commanding Officer, Colonel McKenzie, why don't you read it over while we drive?"

"So, I am being shipped off to the isles, aren't I! Alright, hand it over. What's Will working on now, anyway Jeffery?" Robert asked, after finishing his chardonnay.

"Will has a new project that he's been working on for some time. But, for now, I think he's taking care of a few small issues related to business. What do you think of the script?" Jeffery redirected his attention back to the matter at hand.

Nodding to Jeffery, Robert perused the script and then said "A little uptight, and prideful huh? I will have to brush up on my world history and military rankings, I don't know the order, but I can do this, when is it?"

"The shooting starts in December, we can take that first if you like." Lucas offered.

"I will be done with preparing for this by then, and you don't have to adjust your shooting schedule for me, but thanks for the gesture, if there's another gig up for me, call me, I will be there, no need for the special treatment." He affirmed while trying to remain humble.

"We will send you the contract for this, and you can go through it with your team later then." Jeffery relaxed, taking in the passing city skyline around them.

On the top floor of the office building of Dream Vision Studios, Los Angeles California, Will Evans was completing the company-wide email that he had to send out the next morning when his secretary Alexia buzzed in the office intercom.

"Sir, your Uncle Charles is here, and he's requesting a meeting." She informed him.

Sighing in his seat, while looking forlornly at the work that was still pending for the day, he replied "Send him up, Alexia. Thank you."

Turning his computer to sleep for a moment, Will turned around at gazed at the nighttime skyline of the city that was visible from his office. He knew what the upcoming meeting would be about. It was a bitter pill for him to swallow, knowing that his actions had put his uncle on the spot at his job. He had a few plans to remedy that, and it all depended on this meeting.

Hearing a knock and the opening of his office door, he turned around and looked at the man, who had helped him through the start of his journey. He looked stressed and overworked. The lines and wrinkles forming on his face clearly showed that. The man looked at Will and smiled, a half-smile.

"Good evening, Uncle. Please, take a seat." He said.

"Thank you, Will. It's been too long since we've met." Charles remarked.

"Yes, that it has, tell me, uncle, you're here about the role of Tom in [500n days of Summer, aren't you?" Will asked.

"Yes, Will, I am. I know that we've said some very untoward things to you and your company, and I apologize, but I think we can make a concession for five percent at the box office, my CEO wouldn't settle for less." Charles sighed.

"I don't like it, uncle. Your company's CEO blatantly insulted my credibility and tried to take more credit than he was due. But, I digress, uncle, I agreed to this meeting for you, not the MCA. I know you're sticking with MCA due to your loyalty and seniority in the company, but that hasn't given you a powerful position, despite having worked there ever since my father and you started working together after film school, and I don't think you will ever get one because of the nepotistic nature the company has based its upper hierarchy on." Will informed him.

"Will, can nothing be done about the deal?" Charles pleaded ignoring Will's remarks about his company and its workings.

Will sighed and said "No uncle, I am afraid we already have a few favorable actors in mind, Jeffery, has an entire list of actors waiting for the role, from at least two of the Big Six studios, we only approached your studio for Reagan Norris, because while he did fit the position well, it was more a choice made due to our shared history and your involvement in the company."

"I see, if that's the case, what will you have me do Will? With this, the CEO of my company has already made remarks about 'Showing fangs, and tigers and dragons and what not' and while he may be blinded by ignorance, his threat is not a joke. Your company and my employer's company will be at odds for the foreseeable future." Charles pointed out.

"I don't know Uncle Ben, the only thing I do know is that your company is run by parasites like the Collins family and your CEO's autobiography says that his biggest fear is 'seeing my grandfather's company fall, because of my own blood.' That clearly implies that no one apart from a Collins would ever be responsible for running that company. Take that as you will uncle, but I would look to move on from there if I were in your position." Will revealed.

"It's not that easy, Will. I have worked there for almost my entire life, I can't just leave everything behind!" Charles exclaimed.

"And why not? What is it there, that's left? All of your colleagues from the time my dad was alive, have moved on to bigger things, other companies. Only you are left and are hanging there holding on to the last remnants of a past that's no longer visible!" Will rebuked, and while it may have been a little harsh, Will believed it was necessary to be able to reason with his uncle. "You are wasted there, Uncle. They do not value your work as would others. And if you disregard my company entirely, there are much better alternatives for you to find work where your value and potential is respected for exactly what it is worth."

A silence followed Will's statement and Charles sighed as he stood up and said "I… I will think about it, Will. First, let me inform the news to my CEO and we'll see how he reacts. Though I have no doubt it will be something big. Thank you for meeting me."

"You're welcome in my office anytime, Uncle Charles. I will see you soon." He promised.

Will watched as his uncle stood and left his office. He wondered what more will the future hold for him, as he turned on his computer and went back to finishing the company-wide email he still had pending, before he could return home to June and forget about the day.

It was two days later and Will had just arrived at his office, after spending a very lovely morning with June at his mansion.

He was just about to call on Alexia via the intercom, for some tea, when Amanda barged in his office holding what looked like a copy of the local Tabloid Reuters.

"Will! You have to see this" She demanded, slamming the paper on his desk.

"Calm down Aman –" He tried to say, but was cut off.

"Read the headline Will!"

Taking a glance at the headline of the Tabloid, Will knew exactly how Matthew Collins had decided to retaliate against his company, for it read.

"Hollywood has its own Judas, Will Evans backstabs the MCA!"

…

/DreamNote/

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Chapter 114:

[ Hollywood has its own Judas, Will Evans backstabs MCA

MCA CEO, Matthew Collins made a statement in an interview speaking out against the recent deal made between Will Evans' Dream Vision Studios and ICM.

In an interview made, on Monday during which MCA teased their latest entry into the Romantic Comedy Genre, with promises of reinventing the genre entirely, a reporter from the Tabloid Reuters questioned the Company's CEO, Matthew Collins about ICM's collaboration with Dream Vision and he had this to say "The MCA opened the door of opportunities for the boy. We gave him direction, we gave him the guidance necessary for this industry. We gave him the resources and he used us to make a name for himself. Then he goes and stabs us in the back. We've faced us, yes. But, the boy had no regard for his own family, his own uncle even, who gave him the motivation to start his work on [The Blaire Witch Project] and introduced him to Michael Elrod, our actor, for [Sherlock Holmes]. He met June Roberts on our set, used our money to make his company, and then spat on the hand that fed him."

"While I am all for the boy, making bigger and better movies, he should have the common decency to not make backroom deals with our biggest rival. We assumed him to be a talented artist, looking to stand out on his own, but he turned out to be cut from the same cloth as Judas, or Brutus. But, its alright. We don't mind, when he faces betrayal again, he will have to return to us either way, and we will be the last ones laughing."

There have been confirmed reports of ongoing deals for projects between the ICM and Dream Vision, and it is safe to say, that the betrayal by Will Evans' Dream Vision will leave a lasting impact on his future in Hollywood. Will his meteoric rise continue? Or will this be the start of the downward spiral for Hollywood's brightest star?] – Tabloid Reuters

Will couldn't help but laugh when he read that article, but Amanda didn't find it amusing.

"Will! This tactic of theirs will severely damage the respect and image we've cultivated for us in the industry. It is no laughing matter!" She exclaimed.

Will took a moment to gain control of his amusement, and replied "It's Hogwash, Amanda! You know that!"

"I do, Will, but the public doesn't." She pointed out.

"Well, Amanda, It doesn't matter. Matthew Collins owns the controlling shares for this news agency, and going to court for defamation and libel will just add fuel to the flames, that he is trying to ignite. Yes, he's trying to control the narrative, but at the end of the day, after the dust has settled, it is us who has the quality product for the public to enjoy." He tried to allay her fears.

"Will, this will hurt the ratings and box office of our next projects." She said "We have to do something about this, we can't stay silent."

"Well, like I said, we can't sue the MCA, neither can we sue the Tabloid Reuters, its what he would want and expect from us. Don't worry Amanda, I will handle it. You take care of the company, my image on social media will be divided for a while, but that is fine. It will settle down eventually."

Amanda searched Will's face for something, that she apparently found and nodded "Alright Will, I will follow your lead on this. I was just worried because a big company like MCA had openly attacked us. I will take my leave, sorry for barging in like that."

"Think nothing of it, Amanda. And please, tell Alexia to get send someone with Tea please." He requested.

"Alright, good day, Will." She got up and exited the office, leaving the paper she had brought with her behind on Will's desk.

Will sat down on his seat, and sighed "Now, what to do with you…"

He continued pondering the possible course of action throughout the remainder of the day, for the MCA had crossed a line that was not meant to be crossed, and as Amanda had said, something had to be done. One thing Will had in abundance at that point, was money. And money opened doors in Hollywood, and it was time for Will to make use of that money, to bring some change in one of the foundations of Hollywood itself.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone was selling like hotcakes around the world.

Warden Books was printing new editions of the books en masse. It had been nominated as 'The Children's Book' of the year, by the British Literary Society. And with the millions of copies, various Harry Potter affiliated products started to rise in demand among the consumers. People wanted wands, they wanted Flying Broomsticks, they wanted anything and everything that was Harry Potter in their homes. And Will, was almost too happy to provide. Dream Vision and Warden Books had been approached by many manufacturing companies to produce miscellaneous Harry Potter items to sell in the market.

Having sold over 100 million copies of the book worldwide, the book was already starting to resemble the household phenomenon that it had been in Will's previous life. The disparity among the consumers about Will's image, both online and in Hollywood, just fueled the success of the book to higher degrees. The people loved drama. And inadvertently, the MCA had provided it for Will in the most opportune of moments. People who had no idea about the book's existence found it, just because they were motivated to learn all there was about Will Evans and Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone reaped the benefits of the added internet traffic.

Amanda had been fielding calls for product licensing and supply creation from at least fifteen companies in just The United States. The ones from China were almost thrice that number. As for Will? He had been enjoying quite a few leisurely afternoons in the arms of June, in his Beverly Hills mansion.

He had almost completed the script for [Liberty City, having finalized the various dialogues and plot that were to be followed in the final rendition of the movie. He had just about achieved encapsulating the essence of GTA, in a cinematic format. He had attempted at constructing a balanced mix between action scenes, and storytelling. He had tried not to rely on cliché action sequences and physics-defying moments in the film, for while those were there, he wanted to tell a story of an ambitious man trying to climb the social ladder in a city synonymous with the hippy haven, New York City had been in the eighties.

The pre-production of [1917] was also almost complete. The lead actors Renly and Elijah had just completed the boot camp with an ex-soldier of the British military, and they had formed a natural comradery that is difficult to portray by actors who don't know each other in the truest sense of the word. Director Lucas seemed extremely happy with their dedication and progress and was confident that they would perform magnificently.

Sparrow's trending page was filled with various hashtags about the drama that the MCA had tried to create.

There were various hashtags like #JudasEvans or #EtTuEvans; which were equally counterargued by sparrow users with hashtags of #HypocracyAtMCA or #NepotismIsMCA etc.

Will wasn't much affected by the ongoing online debate, for he knew that it was bound to happen. His image wouldn't have remained perfect forever, and he would have to weather many challenges in Hollywood. So, he had decided to remain quiet for the most part, and enjoy his retreat at his home in Beverly Hills, with June to keep him company and adequately occupied.

It was on one such day, almost three weeks after the MCA had released their article in the Tabloid Reuters, June had just left the bedroom a minute ago, to head to the kitchen and Will's mind was drifting off to the various things that he had to accomplish in the day, when she came back in the room, with a newspaper in her hand.

"Will, you have to read this!" She exclaimed, as she helped him up and handed him the newspaper.

It was a copy of the Weekend Tribunal, he absently noticed as he read the headline, and Will knew what had her shocked, though he was anything but, as his efforts had borne fruit, as the article's headline read.

[The Dark truth of the MCA, and the Collins Family]

…

/DreamNote/

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Chapter 115: Unlocked MHS –

[ The Dark Truth of the MCA, and the Collins Family

Reagan Norris leaves MCA!

Almost three weeks ago, MCA CEO Matthew Collins spoke out against an alleged deal between Will Evans' Dream Vision Studios and the ICM, in an interview with the Tabloid Reuters during a routine teaser press conference for their company's upcoming changing strategies. He accused Will Evans of 'making backroom deals with their biggest rivals.' and 'spitting on the hand that fed him.' But after conducting interviews with company employees and officials, as well as ex-actors, who have elected to remain anonymous, we have found that the bigger picture, is something far more disturbing.

Matthew Collins, through a series of well-maneuvered stock market deals, managed to distribute the controlling ownership of the company inside of his own family. And in doing so, he sidelined old and far more deserving employees for promotions, in order to create openings and positions inside the company for members of his own family.

Reagan Norris, who is just another A rank star in a series of famous celebrities to have left the MCA had this to say "The deal that Mr. Collins was talking about was for a role that I was originally offered. My agent Jacob, showed me the script and I was looking forward to taking part in the film, but Mr. Collins demanded a cut from the box office, which was not the terms that I usually agree to. Not many studios agree to share cuts for their films. I didn't like it, because of course, why would you want to share the fruits of your work with someone else, without them doing anything to earn it? So, anyway, I confronted the management and they told me that they'd handle it, but things fell out between Dream Vision and MCA at the end as they didn't agree to the clauses of profit sharing. I don't think there was any backstabbing involved."

Many other employees of the film studio spoke about similar problems with MCA, one ex-employee, Grace Allen, who was once a shoo-in to become the Head of the PR Department, had this to say "I had worked there for well over ten years, I was there when the company introduced their first Romantic Comedy, I was there when they made their first 100 million dollar film, but I was overlooked for Steve Collins, who worked in my team, under my guidance, and now he is the head of the PR Department, and I quit the company. Luckily, I landed a job at OP studios and I am the Head of PR there, so I guess you win some, you lose some."

There were many similar statements made by ex-employees of the MCA, which brings into question the credibility of the alleged betrayal perpetrated by Will Evans, did he truly 'backstab' the MCA? Or did he refuse a raw deal put forth by the MCA?] – The Weekend Tribunal.

As June finished reading the article to Will, she couldn't help but narrow her eyes at Will suspiciously, and due to his non-reaction to the article, she was almost convinced that he had his hand behind this, so she asked "Did you get this article published?"

She knew him better than most, and she'd known that Will wouldn't let anyone walk all over him.

Will smiled playfully and replied in a sing-song tone "Maybe"

And truly he hadn't done much. He had just orchestrated the meetings between certain individuals and the rest played out on its own. He had provided sufficient "motivation" to the right parties and gotten them interested in conducting their own investigations, by interviewing people that Will pointed out to them. The fine journalists at The Weekend Tribunal and many other online channels were happy to be "motivated" to do their job.

"Don't play coy with me, mister! I know you; you wouldn't allow anyone to walk over you as they'd tried." June mock glowered and then asked, "What's going to happen next?"

Getting up from the bed, Will walked over to the balcony window, that overlooked the city and gazed at the sunrise. "Now? Now the house of cards on which the MCA was standing on, for so long, will crumble. There's no better way to overpower a trickle of doubt than with a flood of naked truth, don't you think so?" He asked rhetorically.

There was pandemonium at MCA Studios. Their PR Department was running around trying to put out the various fires the article had lit. Their own tactic had come to bite them in the ass. The public's focus had shifted from Will to the MCA. They were going through their entire history, with a fine-toothed comb. And a lot of their skeletons were coming out of the closet.

For the next couple of weeks, the employees that worked at the studio, both new, and old had read the article and had realized its veracity to be true. They had started to send their resignation letters and were choosing to move to better prospects en masse. Dream Vision, which was prepared for the eventual large number of people that would enter the job market, opened its doors for prospective workers to work in the company, while simultaneously providing much better salaries, and incentives to the employee. It had successfully poached a giant chunk of the MCA's workforce into its own.

Dream Talent Agency also signed various new C to A rank stars in their roster. Many low-ranked stars were looking to ride on the coattails of Will's success and land themselves at positions better than what the MCA had offered, and the higher B and A grade stars were promised roles in future projects with the studio.

One such A rank star was Reagan Norris, for despite having lost the opportunity for the role of Tom in [500 days of Summer, he knew that Dream Vision could keep their promise for movie roles that would do well at the box office.

And in all of this, Benjamin Charles, Will's uncle, was also one such employee who had come to the doors of the DTA in hopes of better opportunities. He had seen the reactions of his colleagues to the articles, he'd succumbed to Will's persuasions and had finally asked for another meeting in his office.

"You'd said that we'd meet again soon. I didn't realize that it'll be this soon." Charles started. They were both sitting inside Will's office.

"Well, I do always try to keep my word." Will answered noncommittally.

"How did you do it?" Charles asked finally, after a few seconds of silence. At Will's confused expression he elaborated "How did you convince Reagan Norris, to jump ship? He's far too stubborn to have come here by his own volition."

"Ah! Reagan. He was easy, Uncle. Everyone has a price. His was a promise of a lead role in three movies with more than 100 million dollars at the box office, and he was happy to give a statement against the MCA to The Weekend Tribunal, and join the DTA." Will explained.

Charles pondered that information for a moment and then asked. "I asked you three weeks ago, Will, and I will ask you again. What will you have me do? I have quit my job at the MCA, I couldn't stay there after finding out what they did to some of my old friends, but you don't need me here, do you? You have my daughter Jennifer working at DTA for you. And I am happy with that."

Will shrugged and replied "Well, it's up to you, honestly. Jennifer is doing magnificently as a senior agent at DTA. And Jeffery, my cinematographer has been handling the Chair position for DTA for some time. I was looking for ways to free him up from there. If you're up to the task, then the Head position, its CEO position, is yours."

And just like that, Will proved that in Hollywood, when one door closes, another opens, one only has to look in the right direction and take the opportunity that they are presented with.

…

/DreamNote/

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Chapter 116:

[ r/Hollywood gossip]

[Posted by OrangePanther]

-I don't know why Matthew Collins is being vilified. All he's done is promote family values at the MCA, almost as often as he's promoted Family Members, true. But at least the message was good?.. no? I'll shut up now.

[u/tcululu. replied]

-Just when I think, this sub has an original joke, I find it's a standard nepotism joke from google images. Well, to be fair, Hollywood is all about corruption, so I guess we can add plagiarism to its jokes as well.

[u/KlyIsTheBest. replied]

-I've lost all hopes for the sub, I just browse through it for the occasional really funny ones.

[u/BeeBee. replied]

-Matthew Collins must be crying tears of blood, for his greed right about now.

[u/MimicReads. replied]

-This is just another example of the underbelly of Hollywood. It's not all sunshine and roses as it is made out to be.

[u/AKOA. replied]

-The real MVP of this whole situation is Will Evans, I am damn sure that he got the article in The Tribunal published. Man's been on fire since his debut.

[u/LuciferMorningstar replied.]

-Will Evans is almost like an unstoppable bulldozer this year. He hasn't stopped making waves ever since he showed up, and now just when people thought his reputation would take a hit, due to MCA's accusations of backstabbing, my man pulls out their own skeletons and nepotism is now front and centre.

[u/OrangePanther OP. replied]

-I know right, and apparently, he's bought off marvel comics, I loved their comics back in the day, too bad they bungled FF4, hope he makes good use of the Comics, they have lots of potential.

The internet was a mosh pit of speculation, memes, theories, and conspiracies about what happened between MCA and Dream Vision. Thousands upon thousands of memes, about the MCA employees' mass migration to Dream Vision, were posted online. Some came very close to what happened, some didn't, but one thing was certain, Will's image in Hollywood had weathered a storm and come out of it brighter than it was before.

Will himself was preparing to attend his meeting with ICM CEO, Lucius Wolf, on the top floor of the ICM office, by West Pico Boulevard, Los Angeles California. He had just arrived by the pier side office building and had been guided to the office of the CEO, and he was going through the document that he'd brought along with him, containing the final statements of the deal he wanted to close with the ICM.

Knocking once on the door of the office, Will stepped inside. Lucius Wolf, a tall African American man, with grey hair, and a very deep, soothing voice greeted him. "Good Morning, Mr. Evans! It is wonderful to finally meet you. I loved [The Blair Witch Project] by the way, and [Sherlock Holmes] was magnificently executed, too bad we couldn't have worked on that together, we'd have already been partners.!" He said, getting up and shaking hands with Will. "Please, take a seat, what would you like? Tea? Coffee? Or something cold?"

"Tea, with two sugars, would be wonderful!" Will replied, with a nod of his head.

"Ah, you British do love your tea!" He commented, and pressed a button on his intercom "Evelyn! Send in two cups of tea, please, two sugars. Thank you, Evelyn" He requested, and cut the connection. "I would like to, first of all, inform you that Jared Morgan's agent had views and opinions that did not align with the interests of ICM, we would have loved nothing more to have started work with you back then, maybe you'd have avoided the fiasco with the MCA entirely. But as they say, hindsight is twenty-twenty, so let us look to the future."

"It is all in the past Mr. Wolf, there is nothing to clarify about then. I would be delighted if we can close the agreement about [500 days of Summer] and maybe establish a working relationship between our companies." Will replied.

"About [500 days of Summer, Mr. Evans. ICM is ready to lease any A-grade actor from our roster for a fee of 2.5 million dollars and that is very clearly indicated in the contract that I see you've brought along with you. I will sign it right now if you like. This meeting is not about that, this is for another proposition that I have for you if you're interested." He bluntly informed Will, and he was momentarily taken off guard, by the straightforward acceptance of the contract terms.

Before Will could reply, the door to the office was opened, and a woman with blonde hair and business attire came in, with two steaming cups of tea. "Ah! Thank you, Evelyn! Place the cups right here on the table, that would be all!"

She placed the cups on the table in front of them and took her leave. Taking a sip from the delicious Tea, Will nodded and said "I am listening, Mr. Wolf."

"Well, as you'd probably know, ICM is a subsidiary of OP Studios. Our parent company has recently launched its RBO program. Do you know about it?" Lucius Wolf asked.

Will nodded, it was a recent endeavour from OP Studios. "I've heard that it's a television network, launched by OP studios and ICM." He replied.

"That would be correct, Mr. Evans. You see, we are facing an issue with the content of the network. While it has a fair amount of viewership, it isn't able to attract new viewers solely on the basis of the content it provides. Most use it to watch old reruns of Movies and Shows. ICM and OP studios would like to invest in you specifically, developing a show for RBO to air on its network."

"Why me, Mr. Wolf? There are many talented artists and scriptwriters that will give you a good plot for a show, so why me?" Will asked as he handed the final documents of [500 days of Summer] with a pen to the man in front of him, indicating that he'd talk about the proposition as soon as the deal was signed.

Understanding the gesture, Lucius Wolf nodded, took the pen, gave a cursory final glance at the terms in the contract, and signed his signature with a flourish on the document, indicating the closing of a deal between ICM and Dream Vision. He then looked at Will and said, "Will, I have to be honest with you. In under a year you have managed to build yourself an image that is very rarely seen in Hollywood. ICM and OP want to be a part of that. And RBO intends to use that image while providing quality content that not only attracts new viewers but makes them stay. People are watching movies, just because your name is attached to it. And we want to take advantage of that."

Will pondered the information he'd been given. Frankly, he thought it was too good to not have a caveat, but seeing the situation he has to admit, it also shows a certain honest down-to-earth need from the ICM for their television studio. He could understand their motives behind the blunt proposal.

"Mr. Fox, I would love to work on a project alongside your company. Dream Vision and ICM working together would make for a fantastic selling point for the public, especially after the MCA fiasco. But, it would have to be on hold, for now. I am working on a project that I cannot abandon. Once the project after [500 days of summer] is complete, I will be able to take up any other projects." He replied.

Another reason for Will rejecting the proposal, was because his system wasn't working and wouldn't work till after [Liberty City] was shown in cinemas, and he wanted to put all his efforts into that project.

"I see." Wolf looked a little put out at the rejection but carried on nonetheless "In that case, we could at least set something in the books for our teams to go over, I would very much appreciate a promise of collaboration in the future."

"You have it, Mr Wolf." Will acknowledged.

…

/DreamNote/

A short chapter, I was sick on the day it was written, I hope you don't mind. Here's more hollywood if you want to read:

My friend TC just release a fanfic, it's their version of Showbiz Hollywood Genre fanfic.

Add it to library and give it a try: Hollywood King

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Chapter 117:

The ICM hadn't wasted any time and had quickly sent a highly respected actor, Clark Reed, over to Dream Vision, along with his agent Mathias Pereira to go over the script of [500 days of Summer].

Clark Reed was a Caucasian man, with a well-built physique. He was known in Hollywood for his upbeat and jovial personality. He could easily be described as the guy people would invite to a party with a second's pause. He had worked in Hollywood as an actor for well over ten years, since 2001, and was known to have taken part in predominantly comedic films with a few fantastic standouts in the Mystery and Sci-Fi flicks.

Both Clark and his agent were highly satisfied with the role of Tom in [500 Days of Summer, as it gave Clark an entry into a new genre of films. With him being finalised for the film, both [1917] and [500 days of Summer] were nearing the end of their pre-production time and were soon to head to the actual shooting. The directors of both the films, Director Lucas, and Director Carlson were going to be filming both the movies simultaneously. This was mainly done so that Will could get some time free for the finalisation of the script of [Liberty City] while his other two projects were completed in the process.

OP Studios and Dream Vision were already starting the talks for the distribution rights and the scope of the marketing necessary for [500 days of Summer, and considering that this was the first film that Amanda was taking care of by herself, she was doing a fantastic job. She had thought of going to Foxstar for the distribution rights again, but with Foxstar's internal management change and with Spencer Miller, still in the hospital, they had not received any word from them in a while. As far as Will knew, Spencer's son was set to take the CEO position from him soon, but they had gone quiet as of late.

Due to the sudden silence from Foxstar, Amanda had elected to broaden Dream Vision's contact list and had shifted to OP Studios for the rights of distribution of [500 days of Summer]. It was a way to ensure that their position isn't threatened if they lose contact with any part of the process in the industry.

The script of [Liberty City] was almost complete. Having rewritten the entire thing at least twice, Will was both anxious and excited for his first original work in the industry. He'd tried learning from the storytelling qualities of many movies from his previous life like [The Godfather, or [Goodfellas, or [The Irishman] and had tried to weave a good story around Grand Theft Auto. The movie's main character, Mario Di Mauro, was going to learn firsthand the vices of a city like hippy New York City, and try to make a name for himself among the criminal underbelly of the city. He was set to face betrayal, grief, action, and drama all tied together with inspired dialogue writing from Will's previous life.

Will had started making Storyboards for each shot in the film and was trying to imagine how each shot in the film was going to take place. He was satisfied with what he had come up with and hoped that the audience liked his brainchild as much as it liked the works he'd brought over from his previous life.

This movie was going to test his mettle as no other film had yet. He was both excited and nervous.

23rd November 2011;

"What a lucky bitch."

"Give me all the opportunities that she's got and I will make twice the larger name for myself."

"What did she do to deserve a straight ticket to stardom?"

"Some people have all the luck"

Whispers of all kinds reached June's ears as she finished shooting the final scene of the day for the independent movie that she had landed. She had grown accustomed to

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Chapter 118: MHS –

[Dream Vision unveils its upcoming project, shares a first look behind the scenes

On Sunday, December 2nd, in a press conference and on their Sparrow Handle, Dream Vision unveiled its long-awaited upcoming project, which has been rumoured to be in the works ever since the famed Hollywood director Lucas Amspoker, known for his impeccable directing, especially in wartime action movies, was seen visiting Dream Vision Studio's office in Los Angeles, California. Dream Vision's next film, [1917, is set around World War 1. This is a new direction that Dream Vision is taking with their projects, with the film's scriptwriter, once again being the company's founder, Will Evans.

On their official Sparrow Handle, Dream Vision posted a picture of the film's lead actors, Elijah Thomas and Renly Warren, both wearing uniforms that soldiers wore in the British Military during the First World War. Dream Vision is once again introducing fresh faces in Hollywood directly in a 100-million-dollar budget film. While the film's director, Lucas Amspoker, has been known to use many famous faces in Hollywood, this decision, just like their previous casting decisions, seems to be made directly by the company's founder, Will Evans. In a move synonymous with [Sherlock Holmes, Will Evans is looking to introduce more fresh talented artists to the industry with another gigantic gamble.

[1917] is set to be a film that shows the ground reality of a trench-based battlefield instead of the glorification of war that most Hollywood films tend to portray. Director, Lucas Amspoker, has called the film's script a "fresh change of pace" to the military history movie genre. We can only speculate on the direction that Will Evans' Dream Vision is taking for the future, and wish them all the best in keeping on providing us with quality content on the big screen.] – The Weekend Tribunal

The shooting for [1917] was moving with extreme gusto. Director Lucas had started taking long shots with his lead actors, Renly and Elijah, with Jeffrey and a few of his team following the actors playing their parts on motorbikes, with mounted cameras to take seamless shots for the movie. As the movie used little to no CGI in its production process, every shot that Jeffery was working on with his team had to be impeccable, as everything that they were filming was going to be added into one large shot.

The camera was never to be leaving its focus on either of its two lead characters. The entire filming process was moving ahead like a piece of Broadway theatre, where if something went wrong, the actors just had to improvise and carry on with the shot, or else everything had to be done all over again. Renly and Elijah had to be integrated into the filming process, and the movie was meant to make the audience feel that they were part of the group, as the third person present on the field, as an observer.

Camera operating teams had been taught how to operate cameras on jeeps, bikes, wires that lead into trenches etc. The prop department had dug trenches in an entire stretch of land in which entire scenes were to be shot. They'd built broken down buildings for one scene and a fake war-ridden town for another. Each scene was produced with the length of the land in mind. Elijah and Renly were asked to measure the time they would take to walk across a particular trail, and the scene was eventually built around it.

Both Lucas Amspoker and Will were extremely pleased with the way the filming was going on. They had estimated that they would finish the entire filming process in under two months, and that worked perfectly for Will and his other future plans.

New York City, or the Big Apple, is the home to the largest, most diverse cultural and ethnic population on the planet. It is a melting pot of people from all corners of the globe that go there in search of opportunity and liberty. With the large amount of culturally diverse people that live in the city comes a rich theatrical background that revolves around the city. The theatre that's centred around Broadway shows and cinemas brings with it a fantastic taste in fashion.

Will had chartered a cross-continent jet from Los Angeles to the Big Apple, where he had been invited to take a photoshoot for Guess's latest line of designer clothing. While he had no intention of becoming a model, he appreciated the 5 million dollar offer for a photoshoot. It not only helped take his mind off of movie-making, it also granted him the opportunity to travel and visit the Big Apple and explore all on his own. He had finished writing the script of [Liberty City] and wanted to spend December in a much less stressful environment.

He had just finished taking the shots for the photoshoot and had decided to take a walk up 5th Avenue in midtown Manhattan towards central park. He was wearing a long trench coat, with shades and ear mufflers that completely covered his identity while providing him with the adequate heat in the chilly temperatures of December New York. He had just walked past one of the famous Halal Hot Dog vendors when he felt like he was being followed.

Looking around and behind him, he couldn't see anyone suspicious in the vicinity. If there had been, the paparazzi would have already swarmed him. Shrugging, he continued his trek up the street towards the slowly visible tree line of Central Park. He crossed the street, where he saw the famous St. Patrick's Cathedral with its white marble Gothic Architecture, symbolizing purity and harmony of design. He admired the structure as he walked past the church, and he could once again feel the presence of someone following him. He again stopped and looked down the street, past the hot dog vendor, but yet again, he could not see anyone following him.

Keeping his guard up, Will continued walking up the street for a couple of more blocks. The feeling of being followed increased even more. He constantly kept checking his pockets discretely for signs of pickpocketing while checking his shoulder for his tail, but he kept getting the same result.

Instead of continuing toward Central Park, Will took a left from West 53rd Street, trying to figure out whether his tail would follow him down a different street. The feeling remained, and Will decided to step into an alley after taking a sharp right at the end of the street. He waited for his tail in the alley, and after a minute of waiting, he saw a man looking down In the alley. The man was wearing a long black coat, with grey mufflers, over blackish-grey trousers. His hands were covered with gloves. Taking note of no apparent weapons on the man, Will shoved him against a wall and pulled down his muffler, pinning his arms behind his back and face against the wall.

"Why are you following me!" He shouted in his ear.

"Hey! Let me go! I am sorry!" The man pleaded.

"Tell me! Why are you following me, or I will have to take you to the cops!" Will shouted again, his hands reaching for his phone in his pocket.

"Wait, Wait, I will tell you. I recognized you from the photo studio; you're Will Evans, the founder of Dream Vision. I just wanted to talk and maybe see if I can get a chance to work with you. I was at the photoshoot there. Please, let me go!" He replied.

'Who tails a person up four blocks to talk to them?' Will thought but still slackened his grip.

Loosening his grip on the man, Will took a good look at the man's face and had to work really hard from gasping in shock, for it was a face he instantly recognized.

He had just been tailed up four blocks by Leonardo Di Caprio.

…

/DreamNote/

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Chapter 119: MHS –

Staring at the face of Leonardo Di Caprio, Will couldn't help but gape for a few seconds. He even reached out and pinched Leo's cheek to check if he was real.

"Dude! Are you Gay?! I thought you were in a relationship with June Roberts!" Leo exclaimed, not being able to step away because of the wall behind him. Snapping out of his daze, Will realized what he'd done and stepped away from Leo but continued looking at him.

"What is your name, kid?" He asked, ignoring his previous question.

"Uhhhh, Leonardo, sir. Leonardo De La Rosa," Leo replied, fumbling for his words, a little weirded out by Will's reaction.

"How old are you?" Will asked again.

"Why would you tail someone up to four blocks just to talk to them?" Will asked, finally regaining his composure from the momentary loss he'd faced due to seeing yet another famous face from his previous life.

Leo chuckled nervously and scratched the back of his head, fidgeting a little "Uhmm, yeah, uhhh, I am sorry, I didn't mean to, you know, stalk you or anything, I mean, I did. But not like that. Ugh, I am messing up, aren't I? Please don't hand me over to the police." He asked rhetorically.

Will just had an amused face at seeing someone as charismatic and talented as Leonardo Di Caprio fumbling over his sentences just because he was talking to him.

"Breathe! I will not hand you over to the cops, and I just need an honest answer." Will tried to calm him down.

Leo breathed a sigh of relief hearing that and replied, "I saw you outside the photo studio, I work opposite the studio, in the café. I just finished high school, you see. And I saw you exit the studio, and despite the heavy clothing, I recognized you, I am a big fan, by the way. I wanted to become an actor, and so I thought that if I got to talk to you, I might have a chance at, maybe, possibly, working with you. I mean, I am not expecting a big movie or anything, just something small, maybe, I don't know. I didn't think this through, did I?" He trailed off in the end.

Will looked at him again, and he could see that Leo did look like he did during [Titanic, which meant that he'd need a lot of work before he could potentially match the talent he'd shown in later films like [Wolf of Wall Street, [Django Unchained] or [The inception]. But he could certainly, potentially pull off the boyish charm that had launched him to stardom after [Titanic].

"You know what, kid. Follow me, I want to see if you have the talent in acting required for this industry. I will give you one chance; I have a script back at my hotel." Will informed him.

Leo's face brightened immediately, and you could see that he was both shocked and hopeful about getting an opportunity to potentially start his career in Hollywood.

"And kid, don't follow people up to four blocks, if people found out, your whole career would be finished before it even begins," Will informed him, making Leo go pale.

Walking to The Plaza hotel, Will kept asking Leo about his life and why he wanted to be an actor. He'd found that Leo actually had worked as an extra in some Hollywood movies, mostly movies made by Krown Studios and ICM. He had hoped to land a big role in the industry, but when he didn't, he returned to finish high school and his education and then take another shot at Hollywood. Unfortunately, he didn't have money to keep attempting to land a shot at big movies and he had plans of starting a restaurant if it didn't pan out.

Will wanted to check if he had the same talent that he had in his previous life. He wanted to exploit the boyish charm that so easily skyrocketed him to stardom in his previous life in the early 90s and 2000s.

Walking up to the front desk of The Plaza, Will called for the hotel manager. He was immediately answered by a tall man of Italian descent.

"Good Afternoon, sir! How may I help you today?" The manager asked him.

"Good afternoon, I have a suite here in The Plaza, Suite 7; I wanted to check whether the conference rooms of the hotel are empty and maybe book a conference room for the evening today." He asked.

"Certainly, sir, the conference rooms are available now, and for this evening, would you need a catering service for the guests in the conference room?" The manager asked after confirming Will's hotel card against the Suite registry.

"No, if they're available now, please guide the gentleman beside me to the Conference room and send a busboy with me. I want to send a few documents to him in the room from my suite." He requested.

"Certainly, Sir." The manager nodded, looking at Leo, and then called for a busboy, "Istaban! Please guide this gentleman to conference room 23, and then head to Suite 7; Mr. Evans will give you further instructions there."

The Busboy, Istaban, immediately stood by Leo and Will, waiting for them to finish their talk.

"Leo, I will send a script with the busboy to the conference room. I want you to work on it, for two hours and prepare whatever you think is necessary. I want to see the best performance that you can muster in two hours. I will see if you're good for a role in one of my next projects based on the performance." Will informed Leo.

Hearing his words, Will could see that Leo had become extremely nervous, but there was a glint of determination in his eyes. He knew he was placing Leo on the spot with the small amount of time he had given him, but he wanted to measure the actual talent this Leo possessed and see how versatile he could be at the moment. Based on that, he would decide how much work would be necessary for nurturing the talent within Leo.

Leo nodded to Will and said, "Thank you, sir, you won't regret giving me a shot!" And then motioned the busboy to lead him to the Conference room.

Will watched him leave for a second and wondered whether he had hit yet another jackpot like Robert. To him, it seemed many talented actors and actresses of his previous life were still struggling to make a name for themselves in the bland Hollywood industry of this life. While Hollywood here did have some fantastically written and directed movies, over the course of the year, he had come to realize that due to the drastically different political structure in Hollywood, many aspiring actors and actresses couldn't achieve their dreams. He intended to find as many hidden gems that he could recognize from his previous life and try to help them make a name for themselves in this version of Hollywood as well.

Heading upstairs to his Suite, which gave a rather elegant view of Central Park. He quickly searched his laptop for the final version of the script of [Liberty City, that he wanted Leo to act out. He had realized the Italian actor would make a perfect candidate for Mario Di Mauro, should he possess the same acting prowess he did in his previous life, no matter how rough it may be as of yet.

Quickly creating a separate document for Leo, removing certain scenes that he didn't yet want him to know of, he curated a scene that should last at least five minutes while giving a good detailed picture of who the character was supposed to be. Getting the document printed, he waited for the busboy to ring the bell while he once again admired the view of Central Park from his Suite window, wondering whether he would find more talents like Leo in the coming future.

As soon as the bell rang, he opened the door and instructed the Bus Boy to hand the document to Leo and then get him a steaming cup of tea. He wanted to clear his mind and prepare for the future, if Leo performed well, he could already see [Liberty City] turning into the start of something really big for him and his company.

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Chapter 120:

Heading over to The Plaza's conference room, Will couldn't keep the excitement from showing on his face. The scene he had curated for Leo was a two-person scene, and he was going to act out the part of the second man in it. The scene was a conversation between Mario Di Mauro and an old retired gangster inside a coffee shop. Mario had been sent there to kill the gangster but chose to have a chat with him first.

Entering the conference room, Will could see that Leo was concentrating on the lines written in the script and trying to set a character persona in his head.

"Alright, Leo, you have gone through the script; it's time for us to act out the part. I will play the old gangster; you are Mario, Capeesh? I want to see what you make of him and how refined your dialogue delivery is. I want to feel like I am talking to an up-and-coming mob boss. So, let's begin." Will didn't give Leo much time. After he entered the room, he wanted to see if the latter would be able to assume character at a moment's notice.

Taking his seat at the conference table, Will saw Leo instead walk right by the room entrance.

"Hey! Are you Wilson Manfredi?" Leo asked in a loud voice with an Italian lilt to his accent.

Taking a few seconds, Will sighed and said, "I am. Who's asking?"

"My name is Mario; I want to talk."

"Take a seat, mio figlio. Want some fries?"

Leo took the opposite seat to Will on the conference table, declining his offer of fries. Will could see that he'd added a slight swagger to his steps, but his shoulders were hunched like he was making a big decision at the moment. Will said his dialogue next.

"So, ol' Vercetti finally sent someone to do me in, huh? This your first hit, kid?" This dialogue was meant to signify that the Manfredi knew exactly what Mario was here for but didn't care and didn't want to beat around the bush. Will noticed that Leo's shoulder tensed. His eyes darted toward Will's hands and the exit looking for weapons and the possible exit point. That was good attention to detail from Leo, and he internally applauded him for taking up the character almost flawlessly.

Leo finally looked Will in the eye and said, "I've been in a fair few fights."

"But none, where people died. And you and I both know that a fight and a hit is a totally different ball game. Trust me, kid, you don't want to be a part of this life; you're still young, walk away. It's all fun in the beginning; there's all kinds of amazing things, drugs, sex, money, you name it. But slowly, it all starts blinding you to what's happening around you, and then your brothers start dying or turning on you, and you're left as a paranoid broken shell of a man. Turn around kid, you don't want that, I would know, I have been there." Will finished.

"I know, but I can't turn around. I promised my mom that one day, I'd make it big here, in Liberty City, and I know I am no genius. I can't do it legit; if I could, I would've. But I can't; I don't know how to run a legit business here or work a normal job, shit; if I could, I still wouldn't. The Maggia families here want protection money from every legit business either way. All I know is how to survive a barrage of bullets, lie to the cops and print more cash. I can shoot a gun too, I know it's no good, and I don't like it, but I am good at what I do." Leo explained, finally relaxing in front of Will.

Will looked at where the gun was supposed to be with Leo and said, "I see, Mario, coraggioso, mio figlio, I just want you to know, after this, there is no turning around. You will have a mark that will follow you no matter how hard you try to clean it."

Leo looked at Will and assumed an apologetic "I know, and I am sorry, you deserve to die with your family by your side." Leo had a single tear running down his face, and he pulled out a stapler that he was using as a gun for the scene; the stapler was shaking in his grip.

"Don't be sorry about that; my family is already where I am headed," Will replied somberly.

'Click' Leo pressed the stapler, signifying that he'd shot the gun, and the scene ended.

Will and Leo just sat at the conference table, looking at each other, for a couple of seconds. Leo could feel the tension rising in the air; he was searching Will's face for any emotion or sign of how he felt about his acting. Will finally broke the tension and smiled, "Leo, you have a lot of talent. It's a little rough around the edges, sure, that tear was a little overkill, but hey, you're learning. Would you regret it terribly if you quit your job? I want to take you to Los Angeles."

Director Carlson Duckstein had begun the shooting of [500 days of Summer] right alongside Director Lucas Amspoker had begun the shooting for [1917]. As neither movie used little to no CGI, the shooting for [500 days of Summer] was much simpler, relying heavily on the actors' capabilities and range of emotions instead of the mastery of the Camera by Jeffery's cinematography department. While Jeffery himself was more focused on [1917, his team had taken it upon themselves to still give their best for [500 days of Summer].

As the movie was a romantic comedy, Will wanted its shooting to be complete as soon as possible so that the camera crew of that film could back up the monumental workload taken up by Jeffery in England. Will had followed through on his promise to Leo and had brought him alongside him back to Los Angeles after he had quit his job. He had set him up in a room, right inside Dream Vision's office, for now, as he didn't know anyone in Hollywood, and Will worked on arranging a living space for him somewhere in the city.

Leo didn't complain about the arrangement as he got a lot of time working on the script of [Liberty City, and he also got to meet a lot of famous faces in Hollywood that frequented the building to meet their agents. He considered it better than what he had in New York City, as he didn't have to work, and he got free food from the building's pantry and café. He was offered a role in [Liberty City] by Will, and he was ready to live in the office till the entire shooting was complete, if he had to. He did not want to let this chance go from his hands.

While the shootings of [1917] and [500 days of Summer] were ongoing, Ewan Rees' [Birdman] had started screening on the big screen, and the reactions from the audience were mixed. While the movie was really well-made, and the critics were looking forward to its standings both at the box office and at the Oscars, it was a big change of pace from Ewan Rees' previous film [Sherlock Holmes, with the movie being shot mostly indoors. Either way, it was expected to do really well at the box office and at the Oscars.

At the same time, Michael 'Robert' Elrod's latest movie [A Bullet to Kill] had hit the cinemas. The people had been anticipating the next movie Robert would star in after his success due to [Sherlock Holmes, and they were not disappointed. Robert had again delivered and showed the world his fantastic acting prowess in [A Bullet to Kill, which had already amassed 80 million dollars at the box office, easily matching Kron Studio's investment, in under two weeks. Krown Studios had even sent invites to Will for their Success party. While Will didn't generally like attending parties in Hollywood, he would attend this one as he had a few days free before New Year's rolled around, and he had heard rumours that Spencer Miller's son, Colt Miller, would be present at the event. So naturally, he wanted to meet the man, and in the past few months, all they'd gotten from Foxtstar was silence, both to him and to Hollywood in general, and he wanted to find out the reason behind the sudden silence from the most likely source itself.

…

/DreamNote/

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Chapter 121:

For a while, everything was going smoothly for Will. His fight with MCA had turned into the downfall of the latter and now DTA was benefiting from it.

The best thing was that he had gotten Uncle Ben to join DTA because of this and he had even persuaded June to join his agency with her agent, John.

His trip to New York had resulted in him finding Leo and now, he would be able to make some iconic movies that otherwise would have been lacking without Leo as the lead.

But just because everything was going smooth for him, it didn't mean that Will was becoming lazy.

The main reason stuff was going smoothly was because he was cooperating with big shots of Hollywood. Aside from [The Blair Witch Project, all of his projects have been with a Big 6 studio and this has saved him a lot of trouble.

And he wanted to continue this at least for a while.

There was no way Will didn't know that major Hollywood big shots were keeping an eye on him because of his rapid growth but until he kept providing them with benefits, he would be safe.

He needed to play it like that until he was strong enough to trample over the Big 6.

Thinking of these thoughts, he parked his car outside Black Diamond hotel, the place where Kron studios had held the success party of [A Bullet to Kill].

Getting out of his car, he made his way inside with paparazzi taking photos of him from a distance while whispering among each other.

"It's really Will Evans! I didn't know he would come here."

"Heard rumors he was in New York for some work? Guess, he's back."

"Hahaha, I will get 500 dollars just for his one photo."

He ignored the mumblings of the paparazzi and made his way inside. The sound of music reached his ears as he glanced around to look at all the people that were gathered here.

'There's a smell of alcohol in the air.'

He thought, thinking of the nature of Hollywood parties.

Directors, actors, producers and even some pop stars were in front of him.

It was a famous bunch, displaying the connections of Kron studios. He could even see some executives from rival studios.

Infamously, Hollywood parties have been all about meeting new people and making connections. But many people would also come here to find someone to go home to, especially younger actors who just wanted to enjoy life and party.

In the end, these actors would be on the front page of some paparazzi magazine the next day.

He had arrived particularly early and even the star cast of [A Bullet to Kill] wasn't here. From what he knew, Robert was having dinner with a childhood friend of his and would arrive late.

Seeing Will, many actors and producers wondered if they should go and talk to him. He was a rare person in Hollywood and was known as a workaholic who would seldom come to such events.

It was a great opportunity to make a connection. If an actor gets his number, it would be a golden opportunity to star in a big budget movie and if a producer gets to work with him, it means a lot of profits.

At least, until now, his record was as good as it gets.

But these people waited. They have been in Hollywood for far too long to know that having some patience was an essential thing. It was the new actors, especially younger actresses who had just been in some movies who approached him first.

"Hello, do you want to go grab some drinks?"

One red haired girl wearing a low cut dress asked him with a smile. But he shook her head and quickly rejected her.

"Sorry, maybe later."

He left after saying that, not even giving a good look to her. With dejected shoulders, the girl returned to her group of friends, frowning upon a lost opportunity.

Not minding such things, Will made his way towards the table where some people from Foxstar were seated.

He could see a middle aged man sitting in the centre.

He had blonde hair, a square face and he looked a bit like Spencer. At least one side of his face did.

Compared to the old grandpas surrounding him, he was rather young but there was a confident, almost arrogant grin on his face.

He was Colt Miller.

"Hey, Will. I didn't expect you to really come here."

From the group of Foxstar executives, the first one to notice him was James Dankworth. He was also the one who had told Will that Colt would be present here.

"I was just a bit free, so I decided to show my face around."

"You free? That's as rare as seeing a UFO."

James said as they shook hands and hugged. Several other executives noticed him and came to greet him.

Despite his age, he was seen as a long term partner for Foxstar and Spencer had stressed these points a lot in the meetings.

"Will Evans, I'm a huge fan. It's our first time meeting. My dad has told me a lot about you. You can call me Colt."

Colt was the last one to walk up to him and he patted Will's shoulder like they were old friends that were just reunited.

"Nice to meet you too. I hope most of the things Spencer told you would be good."

"It is. It's a bit strange because it's Hollywood but it's extremely hard to find something not nice about you."

Colt said with a smirk, then looked behind him for a second before gesturing towards the balcony.

"Let's go talk somewhere private."

"Oh, sure."

Will didn't mind as he was at the party to meet Colt. But he could see the odd faces of Foxstar's executives. They certainly didn't like this.

'He has a lot to learn.'

They walked towards the balcony and once there, Colt took out a packet of cigarettes from his pocket and offered him one.

"Want one?"

"I don't smoke."

"That's a pity. I like smoking."

While puffing out the smoke, Colt leaned on the balcony. Will didn't wait for him to speak and directly asked.

"How's Spencer? The last time I saw him, he was on the hospital bed."

"He's still there. Just a bit better. The doctors advised him to retire. He's way past a working age."

"So, you took over."

Colt looked back and grinned before replying.

"I'm in the middle of it. Companies don't work on the whim of one person and there's a lot of opposition."

"That's always there."

"You are lucky in that case. You are the sole owner of your company. It was your investment and you took every major decision and they gave great profits. It's quite convenient. Almost like you are a king of your own kingdom."

"You can say so."

Will said, wondering in his mind about the kind of person Colt was. Clearly, there was an air of arrogance around him and he was naive, not used to fighting for the top position in a company.

But he seemed competent too. Almost like he was prepared for this role all his life. If Will resembled a king, Colt was more like a prince.

The question was what kind of prince he was? The stupid one or the cunning one?

"I don't like going round and round talking about things that don't matter. So, let's just talk about the reason why you came to this party to meet me. It's about Sherlock Holmes right?"

Colt turned to look at him and Will shook his head a little.

"Not fully. Just a part of a reason. It's more to see what kind of a person the next chairman of Foxstar is."

For now, Dream Vision had only cooperated with Foxstar on a successful project. With [500 Days of Summer, they were getting into a partnership with OP studios but the end result was still something to see.

That's why Will valued Foxstar and didn't want it to end like MCA.

"Well, I don't know if I will impress you or not but for now, I can only talk about some stuff." He said, taking a breath and then suddenly said, "I read the deal between Foxstar and Dream Vision for the next two movies. It seems like you are not going to direct them."

Will shook his head. He didn't want to direct the next part because there's just a lot he wanted to do. A lot of other movies were waiting for him.

"I didn't feel like directing it. I already tasted success with it, so there's no point. Though, I would be the one doing the script, so the essence will be there."

Hearing that, Colt threw the cigarette on the ground and crushed it with his shoe. Looking up at him, he said.

"I'd rather you direct it than any other person. You very well know what happened to the Blair Witch franchise after you sold off the rights."

…

/DreamNote/

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Chapter 122:

After Dream Vision had sold the rights to [The Blair Witch Project] to Wheel Works, they had invested heavily in creating a sequel to Will's first movie. Will had heard rumors that the movie had been highly anticipated by viewers but had failed to meet expectations and had just broken even with the initial investments at the box office.

Critics around the world blamed the failure of the film on the absence of Will Evans in the production of the film, and that sentiment was easily shared by many moviegoers around the world. Colt Miller wanted to avoid a similar situation unfolding with [Sherlock Holmes] movie sequels. He was highly apprehensive of Will not being part of its direction and production, apart from Script Writing.

"Don't worry about the quality of the plot for this movie. I am still writing its script, and I will also choose a competent director for the movie, so it shouldn't be a problem. The cast is almost entirely returning for either sequel, so that isn't an issue either." Will tried to assuage his fear.

Colt turned to look at Will, his body language indicating that he was now giving his full attention to Will. He leaned forward a little and asked, "When do you plan to start the filming for the next instalment of the series?"

Will pondered the question for a bit, staring at the nighttime skyline of Los Angeles that was visible from the Hotel Balcony, and said, "I believe that if we start the production somewhere during the second or third fiscal quarter next year, we would gain the maximum time needed between the sequels for the hype around the project to simmer a little, while not letting it completely die down. So it will be perfect for the franchise."

Colt could see the sound reasoning behind that and then said, "Alright, but unlike last time, Foxstar wants to have higher involvement in the production process. Last time, my father let you take the reins for the project, but I can't allow that; we want to get involved with the pre-production and filming of the movie."

That was not something Will was willing to allow, and neither was it something they could enforce, as Will was the sole investor in the sequel, while Foxstar was just the distributor. He had made that clear with Spencer before he was admitted into the hospital. While the filming process would be fairly simple, and their oversight on it wouldn't hinder the process much, as most of it would be in the hands of the director, whoever it be that Will eventually chose, he would not budge in order to allow Foxstar oversight over the production and selection process.

Considering that Colt was still relatively new to the industry and he had yet to learn the ropes, Will bluntly said, "I am the proprietary investor in the project; while I have no issues with Foxstar overlooking and helping the filming process, I cannot allow Foxstar to get involved with the pre-production, I already have most of the cast from the original returning, and as I have said, I will select a competent director for the filming, and even after that I will keep a close eye on the filming as well."

Colt pursed his lips, and while he knew that he couldn't change much with the way that the investment and ownership were divided, he didn't like it. Will had 42 percent share in the local and 20 percent share in the international box office for the next two instalments of the franchise. That meant that Foxstar had a minimal share in the final product, he didn't understand why his father allowed such a one-sided contract to be signed, and he desperately wanted to change that, but he knew he couldn't.

"I wanted to discuss the distribution rights for one of my upcoming projects, [1917]. I am again the proprietary investor in the project and wish to have Foxstar distribute the project both locally and internationally." Will tried to move on from the clearly uncomfortable topic.

This was a chance that Colt could take and negotiate more balanced terms for the final shares. "We will have to go over the contract details, [Sherlock Holmes] has gotten away with a contract unfavorable to Foxstar, mainly because it is a highly profitable and high box office returns from its first movie, I believe [1917, by its rumors of it being a World War One era war drama, will be a standalone film, and thus the terms that were applicable to [Sherlock Holmes] will not stand for this."

Will shook his head and pursed his lips. He finally turned from the railing of the balcony, giving his full attention to Colt Miller, who he noticed was standing right next to him, almost hovering over his head. Straightening himself, and matching his gaze for a couple of seconds, he said, "Why don't we decide that discussion after we have finished with the production and filming of the movie. Director Lucas Amspoker is already in England with the filming, and I am sure, once you have seen what we have come up with, you will be able to make a more informed and wise decision for the distribution rights of the movie. Provided that you're still in the chair, and Spencer is not back with a gusto, that is." He joked.

And apart from that, Amanda was already in talks with OP Studios for talks of distribution rights for [500 days of Summer, and if those talks reach a favorable conclusion, he could easily divert [1917]'s distribution rights there. If Colt remained adamant and stubborn over getting more involved with the production and filming of his films, that is. It was a great alternative, it was a smart move by Amanda to create more inroads and networks that Dream Vision could exploit, given the need.

Colt laughed a boisterous laugh at the jab and replied, "Don't count on it. My old man is retiring, and while I think he will occasionally show up at work to help around, he can't continue working at his advanced age. Come, let us head back to the party, I hear they have a great Crème Brulee at the bar!" and started walking back towards the party.

Will stared at his back for a moment and sighed. He leaned over the railing of the balcony, loosening his tie a bit, and thought about the change in stance from Foxstar. He could understand the direction from which Colt was coming. He was new to the work, just like he had been a year ago. He had a lot to learn. He was basically groomed from an early age to take up the position that he was now chairing, and he knew the basic understanding of the job that he had undertaken, but he was inexperienced and a by-the-books kind of person. [Sherlock Holmes] and [1917] would be his first major project in the industry, and he wanted to use it to show that he was competent at his work. But, he had a long way to go before he would be able to match the competency and credibility that was shown by his father, Spencer.

Turning around, Will returned to the party, his major agenda for attending the party now complete, and he was also a little intrigued by the Crème Brulee that Colt had hinted at. He also tried to socialize with the various actors and directors at the party, who were curious about his next project but were in no position to finalize anything else there due to their inebriated state. So, he decided that he would enjoy the food and drinks at the party and then take an early exit, as he didn't want to get too knackered as he had to drive home as well.

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Chapter 123:

The vacation from work that Will had decided to take for himself stretched through the chilly snowy climate of Christmas and New Year. He had almost all the capable people in his office working on the various projects that his company had undertaken like [1917] and [500 days of Summer, and he wasn't needed in the production of either anymore, and he could sit back and relax while the work was done for him.

He had also spent most of Christmas and New Year's Eve indoors with June, celebrating the festive occasions with each other and with Uncle Ben and his family. He preferred a nice and cosy atmosphere for festivities instead of lavish parties and a family holiday was the perfect opportunity for him to establish a better relationship with his Uncle, especially after the strain he had involuntarily put it under due to the fiasco with the MCA, and the Collins family.

He had used the time off to ponder over what he should do with the ever-expanding pool of money that was lying in his bank account. While intrinsically, he knew most of it would go back into producing and developing new movies but the amount that he had generated gave birth to opportunities and opened doors to possibilities that were previously both outside his imagination and capabilities. With the capital he had amassed, he could afford to be a little bit riskier with his investments and potentially produce content that was far superior to the standards that were set by the industry in which he worked.

When he had first gained a large sum from the box office share of [The Blair Witch Project, he had used it naturally for self-betterment and had gotten himself a brand new car and a better place to call home. And the rest had been reinvested into movie making with the production of [Sherlock Holmes]. He decided that some of that money would be better donated to charity. While it would be a fantastic way of helping people in need, it would also improve his already pristine image in Hollywood, should it become known anonymously to the right people.

Some of the rest, he decided, would be better used to help himself learn the various musical instruments and about music in general. For a while, he had the system to quicken the process and grant him suitable skills, he would need the practice to hone those skills and make them his own. As they say, Hard work trumps talent, and while the system gave him the talent, if he didn't work to better and nurture it, the talent would be useless.

During the days he spent in his office during his vacation, he would join Leo, watching movies mostly around the action gangster genre. He wanted to establish a rapport with Leo that he hoped would eventually develop into a mentor-mentee relationship, he wanted to rope him into DTA eventually, and while a contract would secure him as a talent at DTA, an established relationship and Leo's debt of gratitude would ensure that he wouldn't want to seek work elsewhere after he becomes famous in Hollywood. He and Robert had a similar relationship, and he was sure Robert would stay with DTA throughout his career in Hollywood. Unless something seriously major happened between him and Robert, that relationship would stay as solid as it already is.

As soon as Christmas had passed by, the filming process of [500 days of Summer] was almost done, as it required almost no CGI and no extra special effects, it was a fairly simple filming process. The only nuance that director Duckstein had was to focus on the different facial expressions and raw emotions that the actors had to work hard to show. Natalie and Clark had managed to build a chemistry that was visible on set and on the final shots that the director had sent forward to Will to review.

Similarly [1917] was halfway through its filming too; while the movie had no CGI either, it had a very theatrical and artistic need to shoot long scenes in one shot whilst perfectly managing special effects, like explosions, bullet ricochets, barbed wire etc. all the while the shots are being taken on from a non-stationary camera. Elijah and Renly had to take multiple shots of the same scene, and the scene where the plane crashed into the barn had almost turned into an actual crash, but the pilot managed to avoid the barn and fly over it at the last second. After which, the wooden wall was blown apart using light explosives, and a fake crash site, based on the plane, was created for them to continue.

Will was extremely happy with the progress that both of his projects were achieving, and he was immensely satisfied with the work Leo was putting in for [Liberty City, he had managed to get the character that he was to play eventually down, almost perfect and he was capable of showing the development of the Italian gangster adapting to the culture of the country and city that he was setting out to make a name for himself in.

In the meantime, Will had received word from the Hospital to which Spencer was admitted that he was finally in the condition to accept visitors.

Heading up the elevator of the Hospital, Will adjusted his collar as he prepared to finally once again meet Spencer Miller again. As soon as the elevator door opened, he walked up to the receptionist and asked the lady behind the counter, "Uhm, excuse me, could you guide me to the room Spencer Miller is located in? I am Will Evans, here for a visit."

The nurse who recognized him stuttered for a bit before assuming a professionally calm mask and replied, "Certainly, sir, Mr Miller is inward 4B, just down that hall on the right."

"Thank you!" He said and walked down the hall toward ward 4B.

Reaching the wooden door labelled 4B, he knocked and pushed it open. Inside he could see that the curtains for the bed were pulled open, and Spencer, who had been watching the ward television, turned to look at him. He was still attached to a catheter on his right arm, which was dripping saline constantly into his bloodstream. He was wearing a hospital gown underneath his white blanket that looked like it had been freshly changed. Spencer smiled as he saw Will and exclaimed, "Will! I did not think that you'd come to see me. It's good to meet you again!"

"Hello Spencer, How are you feeling now?" He asked about his health.

"Oh, don't worry, I will be fine and fit as a horse in no time, you tell me, how is the movie industry treating you? I heard you met with Colt." He said with a thin smile on his face.

"Ah! Yeah, I met your son at the gala by Krown Studios. He was a good company after the business that we conducted there was concluded. I am sure he'll do good."

"You think so?"

Spencer laughed like he didn't believe it. Then, with an expression that said he was reminiscing about something, he said.

"He's different from me. That kid, he and I have a personality that's not similar. I invest in people and let them do their own work and just see the results while he invests in himself and wants everything to go his way."

"Which way is better?"

Will asked, but Spencer shook his head.

"I don't know. Anything is fine. In my career, there were many who messed up when I didn't interfere, while there were people like you who exceeded my expectations. So, I don't know. Just, I hope you have a little patience with my son."

"I will try my best."

After that, they talked about Sherlock Holmes. Spencer was quite keen on it as it was actually the last movie in his career, and he wanted the franchise to become the best in Hollywood.

Will and he discussed some ideas for it, and then he asked Will about his next ventures and how if he needed any help, Will could ask him.

…

/DreamNote/

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Chapter 124:

The end of the New Year week marked a return to everyday work for Will Evans. He was excited and hopeful regarding the prospects of the coming future. Many ambitious, bold, yet creative plans for the future and the year 2012, were passing through the mind of the transmigrate. He wanted to establish multiple large franchises in the film industry, that were the centre stage of the modern film industry in his previous life, and he was sure that they would do similarly, if not better, than what they had been in the other world.

But, before all that came to fruition, there was the colossal task of doing right by [Liberty City]. His excitement for his first truly original movie in Hollywood was palpable. He wanted to be able to prove to himself that he could produce a good original film, despite it being based on major inspirations, he wanted to prove to himself that he could write a good story on his own merit. While he knew, he was not in the same league as the titans that were J. K. Rowling and George R. R. Martin, he still wanted a story that was his own to do good in modern cinema.

It was the morning after the week of New Year's, and he had a meeting with Amanda regarding the turnover and profits of the previous business year. Will was seated in the office conference room, with Amanda and she was presenting the charts to him that showed the return of investments, profits, expenses, and future projections for the coming year to him.

"As you can see, we had a fantastic first year at Dream Vision, and most of the success is attributed to [Sherlock Holmes] and [The Blair Witch Project]. Apart from the box office returns of either film, we have received endorsement money for [500 days of Summer] and the independent advertisements in which Robert and Ewan have been featured." Amanda pointed out the graphs on the screen.

They had not attained any money to endorse products in either [The Blair Witch Project] or [Sherlock Holmes, with the latter being a period film, but they had received offers for [500 days of Summer]. Careful product placements, where the logos of symbols of certain products, in common things like a mug in the background, or a vending machine the character is waiting beside, is a good way to endorse products without actually having to add a special sequence in the film for the product and make the endorsement subtle and non-obtrusive.

"After we remove the expenses and salaries of our employees, we are still left with a sizable amount for reinvestment into projects like [1917] and [500 days of Summer]. Some of the capital was redirected towards the conception of DTA and its workings as well, and yet we have plenty of capital remaining to work on at least two films of the same scale as [Sherlock Holmes, and this is still considering that both DTA and Dream Vision are in its initial phases." Amanda finished.

"That is good. I am expecting good returns for both [1917] and [500 days of Summer] and I have plans of expansion and acquisition of new departments, mainly in VFX, CGI, and animations in general. I also want to reduce the workload on our filming crew and hire more skilled artists from film schools or poach talents from the open market. Jeffery's team is stretched thin between [1917] and [500 days of Summer, and I want to improve productivity and flexibility in that department." Will informed her of his plans.

"Sir, I would advise taking things a little slow, expansion at this stage is a risky endeavour, plus we are not guaranteed commercial success from all of our projects. There is a high chance that [500 days of Summer] would have a very low return, and big projects like [Sherlock Holmes] have a very heavily reduced margin of profits as the distribution channel and independent theatres take a large portion of the cut." She advised him, a little apprehensive with the lofty and ambitious plans that Will was putting forth.

"I know, but I have faith in most of our current projects, plus that is also the reason why I want to expand as well. I want to have separate departments working on small budget and large budget films. So that we don't have to allocate resources individually for each project. I have a lot of ideas for more films for this year, and beyond." Will said, in order to placate her worries.

He wanted a separate department in Dream Vision, to work on high-risk high-reward movies, that had a small initial investment, but huge returns like [The Blair Witch Project]. Director Carlson Duckstein's [500 days of Summer] would have been a product of this department, had it already been established in Dream Vision.

The other department would work on Big Budget films, that were larger than life, and had a high potential to become giant franchises in the future, like [Sherlock Holmes, and his next project under [Liberty City]. Segregation of all his future projects in either department would help him organise and evaluate the worth of each project for his company and the amount of involvement he would need personally, for them to be successful.

"Alright, I can see the need for a larger filming crew. Do you have plans of producing animated films in the future?" Amanda asked about the VFX and CGI department that Will was intending to establish.

"Yes, eventually, this year, I will have a need for a reliable animation department for both Live Action and animated movie production. I have plenty of ideas to make forays in that area." He affirmed.

"You could just hire an independent team if that is the case." She tried to point it out.

"No, it would not work, with the number of ideas that I have, I would need a special department, just to handle that." He revealed.

Amanda's eyebrows creased, and she knew that Will wasn't going to elaborate further. "Alright, I will give you a rough estimation of the initial capital that would be required for this endeavour, latest by next week." She informed him.

"We still own the Blaire Witch as our IP, (Intellectual Property) right? If I remember correctly we had sold the sequel rights to Wheel Works, yes?" He asked as an idea came to his mind.

At her nod, he continued "See if you can work out a deal for merchandising a few products based on Blair Witch, I want to see what kind of a response we get from the general public, now that Wheel Works has botched the sequel. I would like to know how marketable the product still is if it is being sold by us."

She searched Will's face, trying to work out his intentions with this, but nodded nonetheless. It would not be a big challenge for her to get this done, and neither would it make a scratch on their overall budget.

Will had already thought of another experiment that he wanted to conduct with the camcorder that he had used for [The Blair Witch Project]. He intended to donate the camcorder, and follow its history and market price to determine his own marketability a few years down the line. He was sure that movie enthusiasts would go crazy for the camcorder, but he wanted to know the value that they were willing to pay some years down the line.

For now, though, he had to start working on [Liberty City] and wanted to enter the pre-production stage with the film.

"That just leaves the reports and work behind your new project, [Liberty City]. Based on the script, I would suggest starting the casting process as soon as possible, and if you're wanting to direct this, I can start sending out feelers in the open market and other studios, and our own agency for suitable casts. What do you have in mind?" She asked finally.

…

/DreamNote/

Hi guys, I have a message for you and although I have mentioned it earlier too, but I will type it here for one last time: I know these chapters have suddenly gotten shorter but it's not because I have purposely done so. But the thing is, these chapters were written during the time of Ramadan, had a very important personal matter and I was also sick because of lack of energy, and these three factors affected my work life a lot and thus I had no other choice but to write smaller chapters.

However, worry not, the future chapters will soon resume back to 1600-2000 words from these 1300 word chapters. I hope this has clarified your doubts, if any.

As usual, please don't forget to support this book with your powerstones.. ahem, if you have more than one, please drop one on my new book, I really need your support for that book to become a success similar to this.

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Chapter 125:

"That just leaves the reports and work behind your new project, [Liberty City]. Based on the script, I would suggest starting the casting process as soon as possible, and if you want to direct this, I can start sending out feelers in the open market and other studios and our own agency for suitable casts. What do you have in mind?" Amanda asked finally.

Will mulled over the information that he wanted to give to her in his head for a few seconds and replied, "Well, I already have a few ideas for the lead role, as well as a few ideas regarding how the actor for the antagonist roles are meant to be like, and I already have an idea for an actor in support, I believe Wilson Francis, whom I met at Krown Studio's Party would do perfectly in the support role."

He had met Wilson Francis at the Krown Studio's success party for [A Bullet to Kill] after he had his talk with Colt Miller. Wilson was a Caucasian man, with brown hair and brown eyes. He was a little on the shorter side, and he would do remarkably as a supporting actor in [Liberty City]. He intended Wilson and Leo to show a good friendship in the film. They'd form over in the Vercetti's money laundering business, and Wilson's character, Carlo, would introduce Mario to the Vulpe's eventually.

Amanda had a weird feeling in her gut when Will danced around mentioning his pick for the lead character, and she was sure she knew who he was talking about, but she had to be sure. "You're casting the kid that you've let sleep at the office on the third floor to be the lead for this film, aren't you? Will, he doesn't even look like a gangster! If his acting is up to par, he would fit in a romantic comedy at best. He is way too skinny for the gangster role you're setting him up for." She tried to change his mind.

Will shook his head. He should've known that Amanda would figure it out, "I know he is too skinny for now, but that will change. Robert was skinny for [Sherlock Holmes, and we got him up to snuff. Leo will do it, too, I have faith in the kid. Not only that, the fact that he is nothing like a gangster in appearance is what I want to show to people. The first idea is to not judge a book by its cover; the other is that his innocent appearance is what will make people underestimate him in the film when he takes up the mafia life." He explained.

Amanda tapped her pen on her clipboard for a few minutes trying to envision the image Will was trying to paint of Leo as his lead, and then reluctantly nodded. "Alright, Will. Though I don't understand why you like to cast newbies in big films, right off the bat, it has worked till now, as it did with Robert, I will trust you on this too. Though I would like to reserve judgment on the kid until after I have seen him act, and he has at least done a few screen tests and an audition."

Will nodded his head in affirmation but said, "Before the screen tests, I want you to look for a suitable martial arts trainer for him here in Los Angeles. I would have rehired the trainer we had acquired for Robert, but it will be a hassle to fly him out here from London. I want him to retain his boyish look while hiding a well-built musculature underneath, that is the character trait, I am looking for."

Amanda nodded while noting down the requirements in her notepad and asked, "What about the antagonist roles?"

"I was thinking of placing Robert as the lead antagonist, as the head of the Vercetti crime family. I want to see how he would do like a rich multi-millionaire, based on his performance, I might have a role for him in another project in the future. He has to be likeable, understandable, and a villain who has a conscience. These mafias back in the 80s had rules that they didn't break, so he should be respected too. I think he will do magnificently." Will revealed.

Amanda looked at Will for a moment, nodded again, and said, "I will inform him and send him a copy of the script once he has finished with [1917] 's cameo shooting in England."

"No, I will be heading to England in a few days. I wanted to meet with Jeffery either way. I will give him the copy myself and explain the role to him personally." Will denied.

"Alright, that is all for today's meeting. I will get all the things in this list done by the earliest and email you the progress." She said, finally wrapping up the meeting.

"Thank you, Amanda. That would be wonderful." Will said as he got up, buttoned his suit and took his leave from the conference room.

Natalie Bergmann had her entire life turned around when she was selected as the lead actress for [500 days of Summer]. She couldn't believe that she had been selected for a movie role. She was sure that she would face another rejection during that audition with Will Evans, but it was anything but. When she had screwed up initially, her heart had already sunk, and she was ready to head home and finally take up the teaching position at the high school back in Pasadena. Will Evans had guided her through the audition after calming her nerves. He had been so gentle with her and calmed her down, and she was able to give a good audition. She had to repress a smile, remembering that day.

And now that she had been given a lead role in [500 days of Summer, she couldn't be happier despite her work life becoming more hectic. Also, she was working alongside Clark Reed! She had squeaked the first time she had found out and had taken a few minutes to calm her nerves again before she finally met him on set. Thankfully, she hadn't done that again and was able to be perfectly professional while acting alongside him.

She was also given an agent from Dream Talent Agency after she had signed a contract with the agency. Everyone on set treated her respectfully, and while the director, Carlson Duckstein, could be a little harsh on everyone on set while filming, the professional nature, and respectful air on set, made her feel that she had made the right choice in joining the DTA.

She had been invited to dinners by her colleagues on multiple occasions, and she had accepted the invitations some of the times, but she had not let it devolve into anything else, as she remembered Will's advice on getting a stable career first and then focus on relationships and other things in her life. She appreciated the advice he had given her, and her respect for the talented star had soared exponentially, knowing that he was looking out for her, even when she had lost all hope of ever landing a respectable role in the industry.

"I will need a little more expressive emotion in this next shot from you, Natalie. Your character needs to show that she is hiding a little remorse while she points out that Tom was right about soulmates in the end, but he was wrong about her. You need to keep your palm over his hand for at least five seconds before you take your leave and maintain eye contact with him when you say that you're happy that he's doing well. Clark will take care of the rest." Director Carlson explained, breaking her off from the reverie.

She nodded and got back to rehearsing and rehashing her lines. She was right; she couldn't be happier about how her life had turned out. And it was all thanks to Will Evans.

…

/DreamNote/

Don't forget to vote with your powerstones!

If you have more than one, drop some in my other book, really need them right now

And give it a try if you haven't, I assure you I have put my soul in those songs.

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Chapter 126:

Sitting on his chair, inside his office, on a Tuesday afternoon, Will scribbled the finishing touches on the sketch that he was working on. The sketch was of a man, wearing a long black raincoat, with a gun in his left hand, which had a star tattooed on the wrist. The right hand had a spiked club, and the rain was falling on his form. The street behind him showed a line of bodies and a shop whose front window had been smashed in, and smoke and flames were erupting out of the broken window. The man's face was angular, with a hairline that looked wet because the raincoat's hood had fallen off.

Will was just shading the last remnants of the man's shadow, which was visible in front of the man because of the fire behind him, when Will heard a knock on his door, which was immediately followed by the sound of a door opening. He knew exactly who had come to his office, as Alexia had informed him after he had asked her to send the office's resident border to his room. Looking up from his artwork, he could see that he had made a few errors in perfectly sketching Leo's face in his work. He put the thought out of his mind as soon as it hit him though, as that was unimportant as of now.

"Leo! Please take a seat, and tell me what you think of my sketch." He invited him, turning the sketch over to him.

Leo took a seat opposite his desk and peered over at the sketch. Will could see that his eye's furrowed slightly, "This is a sketch of me. It looks great!" He said, his voice gaining a touch of excitement, for he had a feeling of what the conversation that was going to be taking place here was about "I-Is this…..?"

"That is Mario di Mauro, the main lead of my next project [Liberty City]." Will affirmed his hunch. "The same character you auditioned for, back at The Plaza, in New York City."

Leo's face must have shown his disbelief and hope, and he would stutter while trying to reply, "D-does t-this mean …"

"That you're the main lead of [Liberty City]?" Will completed the sentence for him.

At Leo's enthusiastic nod, Will tilts his head sideways and says, "Maybe." Leo's smile threatened to split his face in half, but Will immediately brought him back to reality by adding, "You're not ready yet. You can't even throw a proper punch, and if you want to secure this role, I want to see you at your best. There will be screen tests, and Amanda has arranged a martial arts and gym instructor for you. I want you in shape before the auditions. Your instructor has been informed of the requirements, and he will whip you into shape. But I will need your best, as I said. I am giving you the whole script for this movie. Read it; Memorize it; Eat it; I don't care. I want you to know everything there is for you in there, memorized. I want you to become Mario by the time filming starts. I will see you again once the screen test starts. Go!"

Leo got up from his seat, stumbling slightly as he said, "Don't worry, Will! I will give this everything I have!" And he practically fled the office, clutching the script like it was his only lifeline.

Will wanted to show him the severity of the situation. Hence he didn't beat around the bush and cut through all the bullshit with him. He sighed, and looked at the setting sun, visible outside of his office, hoping that the project he had undertaken did well when it finally started production.

He then got ready as Alexia informed him that his chauffeur had arrived, and he had to take a flight to Jolly Old England again.

There were explosions everywhere, with bullets and shrapnel fire seemingly flying in all directions. Men wearing brown combat uniforms were lined in the trenches as they crawled up the side of the white, salted trench and took charge across the battlefield. Inside the trench, a tall soldier was running along the frontline, narrowly avoiding the charging men as he made his way to the bunker. He was being followed by a large camera hanging from a thin wire, with most of its body inside the trench, right behind the soldier.

The soldier, played by Renly Warren, falls but catches himself again and reaches the barracks, which was guarded by two more soldiers; he falls once again as he reaches the soldier but is caught by one of the captains that exited the barracks.

"Colonel McKenzie?" He asks as he once again steadies himself.

"He's in there." So came the reply, as the man turned towards the line and walked away shouting "B Company, two minutes!"

"Let me through!" Renly shouted as the guards stopped him.

"Hey, hey…!" The guards wrestle to hold him back.

"Let me through!" Only drops down a few steps before he is grabbed by the collar and pulled out.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" The second guard shouts.

"I have to get through. I have to see Colonel Mackenzie!" As he finally breaks through the guards and into the barracks.

"Anand Cut! Perfect Shot! Take a rest for a few minutes, everyone, adjust the camera's inside, and set the lighting to medium brightness. I don't want it to be too bright, the lamp should be the only thing illuminating in the final shot, apart from a little sunlight." Director Carlson announced, and Jeffery, who was by the camera crew, watching the operator take the scenes with the wire-mounted camera, turned around and headed back towards the seats to get himself water.

He had just reached the chair when he heard the rumblings of a motorbike, and he turned his head to see who had been allowed near the filming location by their security. He noticed the man getting off of his Harley Davidson chopper bike. He was wearing a black leather bomber jacket, on top of a white T-shirt, on black trousers. His hands were covered by fingerless gloves. The man took off his helmet, and Jeffery instantly recognized his friend Will Evans.

Will first exchange pleasantries with the Director. Jeffery could notice that every eye on the location was on Will as soon as he had arrived. He spoke with the Director for about a minute. Jeffery gulped his water and watched as Will finished talking and made a beeline to him.

"What are you doing in Queen's England, again, Will?" He japed as he reached him.

Will smiled and said, "Why, Jeff? Can't a man show up across countries to meet his old friends?"

Jeffery shook his head and retorted, "They could, but knowing you have another gamble that will either set my heart on edge but will be fun nonetheless."

Will chuckled and replied, "Focus on the second part then. Having fun is all that matters; if you're enjoying yourselves, the risks would all be worth it in the end."

"Too true, my friend," Jeffery acknowledged, giving Will a short hug.

"Well, anyway. I need to talk to you and Robert. Let us walk." Will said as he headed towards where the barracks were built.

Jeffery quickly followed his step and asked, "So this about [Liberty City]? Did you finish the whole script?"

Will nodded in affirmation and said, "Yeah, and I was thinking of giving Robert the antagonist's role in this movie. I think he would do magnificently in that role."

Jeffery mulled it over. "The Villain, huh? That's a new direction for Robert. Trying to give him variety?" He finished as they reached the barracks.

"Not quite, this role would be a feeler or a test for something else that I have in mind for him later," Will replied, and Jeffery thought about what Will could have in store for Robert yet again after this.

Inside the barracks, they could see Robert accompanied by Renly Warren and a few other support actors. They were all dressed in standard infantry military uniforms, from World War One, with Robert having the highest rankings marked on his shoulder.

As soon as they stepped inside, all eyes turned to them, and Jeffery could see that Robert and Renly's face had a smile that subconsciously bloomed on them. He could understand, for Will had technically made them and their careers into what they were today.

…

/DreamNote/

Don't forget to vote with your powerstones!

If you have more than one, drop some in my other book, really need them right now

And give it a try if you haven't, I assure you I have put my soul in those songs.

You can also read next chapters of this novel on /dreamthree

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Chapter 127:

Will, Robert, Jeffery, and Renly were also joined by Elijah, as he had a few scenes pending which were to be shot after Robert's cameo was taken.

"Finally, the General himself shows up; what are you doing, soldiers?! Don't you know that you're supposed to salute a superior officer when he enters the room?" Robert snarked off to Renly and Elijah as he mock-saluted Will before giving him a big hug.

Will was accosted with handshakes and hugs from the other actors in the room as well, while the supporting actors, who were all dressed as military officials, just watched on Star Struck.

"Our boy, Lance Corporal Elijah here, broke his ankle last week, so Brigadier General Jeffery had General Amspoker send him back to the camp for a week while I had to pick up his slack, and now it seems the big five-star general himself has come to look after the work, Lance Corporal, you seem like an important fella, for him to have shown up." Robert continued his joke at Elijah as everyone chuckled in amusement. Will wasn't surprised that Elijah had been hurt. It was common in action movies, especially ones like [1917].

"Well, Colonel, I have another posting for you, for after this assignment is complete, why don't we discuss this over lunch? After your mission here is complete?" Will said, carrying on with Robert's Joke.

Robert straightened and mock-saluted again, "Sir! Yes, Sir!"

"Are you two going to stay in character all day?" Jeffery interjected, "I can feel a headache coming along."

"What are you on about, Brigadier General?" Will mock scolded him.

Jeffery groaned as Elijah and Renly chuckled in amusement. Will finally deflated and "Well, I will be around here till this scene is complete, and I will help out however I can. It's not too difficult or anything, is it?"

"Elijah and I almost had a few scares with some scenes. I thought we would die when that plane almost crashed on top of us, but it gave a good scene." Renly answered, with Elijah nodding by his side.

"Well, It seems you guys had a few adventures. Anyway, it seems Director Lucas is ready for the next shot. I will be with him." Will commented, seeing that the Director had arrived by the camera crew again.

The others nodded as Jeffery left, closely followed by Will, as the Director prepared to start Robert's cameo scene in the movie.

Will stayed around, mostly as an observer. He didn't want to interfere with the Director's work in any way, as being a director himself, he knew that they don't take well to others interfering in their work, no matter who it be. So, he just watched the proceedings, by his chair, underneath the tent they'd erected to shield them from the sun.

Will followed Jeffery and Robert on his Harley Davidson as they drove in their Mercedes to The Company Shed in the Suffolk countryside. They had selected the restaurant as it was nearest to the filming location and provided quality meals for them at the same time.

Dismounting his bike, Will followed Jeffery and Robert into the restaurant, where they were quickly guided by the attendant to a private spot inside, and they took their seats around the round table. They ordered their meals quickly and decided to finish their conversations before the meal arrived.

"So, Robert. Now that your cameo scene is complete, I have another script ready and waiting for you. This one is a project that I will be directing and producing. It's called [Liberty City, it's a gangster action drama based in the hippie 80s. And the role I am offering you is that of the antagonist here. A rich multimillionaire is the head of the crime family known as the Vercetti's. I have the written script with me; I will hand it to you to read and discuss with your agent after we're done with the food here." Will informed Robert.

"I don't think discussing the script with my agent will be necessary. If you're leading the direction and the scriptwriting, I want to be a part of it. I trust you." Robert replied as Will smiled at him. "Though I thought I would do a [Sherlock Holmes] sequel next, what gives?"

"Sherlock Holmes is on hold for some time. I believe somewhere around August or September will be a good time. For now, I want to give you a new direction and experiment with the stories shown in mainstream Hollywood. Have you ever seen a movie that gets your blood pumping, or your adrenaline coursing, and makes you sit on the edge of your seats throughout the movie?" Will asked them, and at their denial, he continued, "Hollywood and cinema, in general, have the potential to become anything and everything you can imagine. I want cars exploding, planes crashing, monsters and aliens, spaceships, and everything you can imagine. That's what Hollywood lacks right now. There is a severe lack of imagination right now. Horror movies are cliché, and my [The Blair Witch Project] was the only change in the genre in decades. Similarly, the unimaginative nature of Hollywood today has almost destroyed [Sherlock Holmes, by making it comedic instead of thrilling. I want to change that and take Hollywood into an era where magic itself is in the heart of filmmaking." He finished his impassioned speech.

He could see that Robert was interested in the direction that Will was describing, while Jeffery was sceptical, yet even he could see that it was not about the stories and the creativity that he wanted to show but something else. Will motion Jeffery to speak his opinion. Jeffery replied, "That is all well and good, Will, but all this needs more talent. You directed [Sherlock Holmes, and that was a magnificent work. We would need directors that can build on that and improve. Actors that can encapsulate and imagine the story, and VFX, CGI, Animation, etc. There are many different things you will need before you can aim to try what you are proposing."

Will nodded and pointed out, "I am rich, Jeffery. I will find that talent. I will find the resources and bring them into the fold. And it all starts with this project. [Liberty City] will change films as we see them. I will introduce action in movies as we've never seen before. I just need your support. I already have a lead actor for this. He's just like Robert here. The same hidden potential, the same talent. He and Robert will make it a success, I can see it."

He could see that his words had the desired effects on both of them as he spoke about Leo. It was then that their food arrived. And they continued their discussion over the delicious meat pie and treacle pudding that they'd ordered.

"Think about a scene where the main character is in a bar fight, and he's up against ten people. Do you think he will survive?"

Will asked, and Jeffrey shook his head.

"There's no way that's possible. The main character isn't a superhero. He would get beaten up badly."

"Yeah, but my main character will not only defeat all those thugs, but he will also even do it with style. The stuff that makes people think it's impossible, but it's so cool."

Robert made a snarky remark hearing that.

"The critics are going to say you missed the class on physics."

"A movie doesn't need to go by that. A movie can make a walk in the park cool if it wants to. So, why not fight scenes? Think of the main character as a game character. The audience doesn't have to think whether his actions are plausible or not; they just need to enjoy them."

Robert liked what Will was saying. Anything was possible, and it was theirs to decide how to show it. It was an interesting proposition.

"Who will be able to make an action scene stylish? I don't think Antonio can do it. He never worked like that."

Jeffery said, pointing out something obvious. Antonio was the action director, but he didn't have experience or skills good enough to choreograph a set of stylish action scenes.

"We can hire a foreign action director. We have money, so anything is possible."

…

/DreamNote/

Don't forget to vote with your powerstones!

If you have more than one, drop some in my other book, really need them right now

And give it a try if you haven't, I assure you I have put my soul in those songs.

You can also read next chapters of this novel on /dreamthree

Report chapter Comments

Chapter 128:

"Bribery? Screw bribery! I'll show you how to make 'em scared! I'll be back here in five minutes…" Leo repeated his dialogue for the fifteenth time. He was holding a small window wiper, that he was substituting for a gun, in his left hand. He had been practicing his lines throughout the week, and he had gotten them memorized almost entirely. His Italian American accent was perfect, and he had started to attend the martial arts classes that Amanda Garcia had arranged for him. There was already a significant improvement in his grappling and judo throws, and he had learnt how to properly throw a punch, though he was still a long way off from making himself look believable while beating down any more than three people, but he was getting there.

"I run this town now! ME!" He said, as he pretended that he was on top of a burnt car, shooting his fake pistol in the air. If anyone had walked into the small office he had occupied, they would probably think that he had gone crazy.

But for him, this was all a blast. He was finally doing what he loved, and despite the immense amount of hard work, he enjoyed every second of the things he did to prepare himself for his first big role. He even enjoyed the beatdown his trainer gave him the first time they had sparred. He thought he was slowly turning into a masochist.

"Who are these pricks anyway? Lawyer pricks, rug-wearing pricks! I'm surrounded by pricks!" He screamed in his room again, as he started to rehearse another scene.

He again shifted to another scene "un cappuccino, per favore" as he pretended to walk to a table, where there should be a member of the Jury drinking his coffee. Sitting opposite the non-existent Jury member, Leo placed his window wiper on the table and quickly covered it with a magazine, his hand staying nearby, he looked at where the Jury member's head is supposed to be and whispered "Giorgio sends his regards. Remember, guilty is a dirty word. Innocent until I say otherwise. You know he's not guilty. You remember Giorgio? You remember he's innocent. Not guilty, understand? Good." He elucidated each sentence while tapping the gun, underneath the magazine repeatedly.

Leo kept practising his lines for the rest of the evening, and he was sure he was labelled as touched in the head by at least three different interns, who came to give him his food.

The Premiere of [500 days of Summer] was taking place at the Chinese Theatre, and most executives from OP Studios and ICM had lined up to watch the film, with them being the distributors of the movie. Selected members of the general public were also invited to the event, the tickets to the event were sold as a fundraiser to a charity being donated to the Make A Wish foundation. Doing so, provided Dream Vision real time feedback for their movie, enabling them to build a better picture for the projections that the movie may hit, in the box office.

[500 Days of Summer] is a film based on the relationship between a man and a woman in their mid-twenties. In the opening scene, the omniscient narrator warns the audience of the outcome of the story by stating, it is not a love story. The main characters, Tom, played by Clark Reed and Summer, played by Natalie Bergmann, both work at a Greeting Card Company. Summer is a new employee, and Tom begins to fall in love with her quirky personality and physical attractiveness. Summer only wants to be Tom's friend with no commitments, but she treats him as if she has more intentions. Tom and Summer become the best of friends, but they also act as if they are lovers.

Because of this, Tom begins to fall even more in love with Summer. Summer tells Tom that they should have distance after a while but throws in the phrase, "But you are still my best friend." This breaks Tom's heart. After some time, Tom meets with her again, and he still has hope that they will end up together. To his disappointment, he finds that she is engaged to another man. Towards the end of the film, Summer finds Tom at the park, and she tells him that she is now married. At the very end, Tom is attending a job interview, and he asks a girl on a date whose name (coincidently) happens to be "Autumn".

The whole movie is based on what is going on in Tom's mind.

Christopher Orr observes in Atlantic magazine says, "We see the central relationship through Tom's eyes exclusively, with Summer ultimately remaining as unknowable to us as she is to him." Tom never gives up on believing that he and Summer were meant to have a fantasy kind of love until he finally encounters Summer as an engaged woman. He only rides on the highs of the relationship, and this leads to his own downfall.

Tom won't accept Summer's lack of commitment and desire to be in a true romantic relationship. Or summarizes this by saying, "We leap from Day 28 to Day 303 to Day 167 to Day 408, oscillating between early hope and ultimate despair, the sudden, unbidden revelation of love and the slow, crushing realization that it is not requited."

Despite the film having two main characters, the cinematography only correlates with the emotions of Tom. The relationship between Tom and Summer is very confusing and uncertain, and Tom's emotions were a dizzying roller coaster.

The cinematography displays all of Tom's conflicts with the different styles of images within the flashbacks, drawings, music, and picture. When Tom is high on the idea of love, the colors of the film are brighter. Summer's wardrobe always consists of blue, like the color of her eyes, until the end when she is married and she is wearing gray. The blue clothing is a reference to the way that Tom is caught up in the appearance and beauty in the idea of Summer. In his mind he is under the illusion that she is "the one." There are many ways to interpret the whole psychological theme of the film, but the general theme is that loving someone doesn't necessarily mean that it is "meant to be" between you and that person.

The film is directed towards the complications and inconsistency of a relationship. It shies away from the typical Hollywood theme that "love is a fantasy," and directs itself towards the reality that a relationship doesn't always turn out the way a person intends it to.

Clap! Clap! Clap!

After the movie finished screening, everyone woke up to give a standing ovation. There were a lot of speculations about how the movie would turn out to be but it was one of the best rom coms in recent times.

As the premier finished, everyone swarmed Natalie – the female lead, Clark Reed – the main actor who had played Tom and Will – The mind behind this project.

The executives of OP studios were very happy with the project and were sure that this movie would cross 100 million dollars at the box office. At the same time, Carson couldn't help but let out a tear.

His years of work were finally becoming something big and he was sure that he would be seen as a big director after this movie was released.

'I should let them enjoy this.'

Will thought seeing the expressions of Natalie and Carson.

Both of them looked like it was the happiest day of their life. They have always wished to be here but now, it was finally a reality.

It was their night and he should not stay in the limelight for long.

So, after talking a bit with ICM and OP executives, he left the theatre.

…

/DreamNote/

Don't forget to vote with your powerstones!

If you have more than one, drop some in my other book, really need them right now

And give it a try if you haven't, I assure you I have put my soul in those songs.

You can also read next chapters of this novel on /dreamthree

Report chapter Comments