My Hollywood System

by Cui Shi yi

1 - 242

5. 129

My Hollywood System #Chapter 129: - Read My Hollywood System Chapter 129: Online - All Page - NOVEL NEXT

Chapter 129:

The release date for [500 days of Summer] had been decided to be on the 15th of January, 2012. Will had been of half a mind, to wait another month and release the film on Valentine's day, but thought better of it, as he wanted to speed up with his other projects. The only thing slowing him down was the original that the system had decided to dump on his head, plus right after the release of [500 days of Summer, he wanted to finish with [1917] and [Liberty City, as well. And then, he had to start the production for [Sherlock Holmes 2, as well. He had many project ideas that he wanted to implement and too little time to give them proper justification.

Based on the premiere of [500 days of Summer, the estimates suggested that it would make a solid 50 million USD, at least, and considering that Will's name in and of itself was a selling point in Hollywood, he was pretty sure, it would break its original record of 60 million and land safely somewhere in the low 80 millions, at minimum. OP Studios had already worked out promotional advertisements and had established a specialized marketing team, just for this movie alone.

The main cast, Clark Reed and Natalie Bergmann, were invited to many talk shows, and promotional events to promote the movie. Will had worked out a strategy to show Natalie in the same light as Robert, promoting her as the next big thing in Hollywood. He had intentionally leaked snippets of her audition, her life story, and other interesting details, at her consent, to generate more hype behind her as an actor. DTA and Dream Vision had worked up a special marketing team, just for her, to create a better image for her in the industry.

The crew that had worked on [500 days of Summer, had gathered once again to take the initial screen test of [Liberty City]. After many sleepless nights, martial arts practices, and pacing in front of the mirror, like a mad man, Leo had managed to build himself a respectable physique and had also managed to memorize his lines.

He was dressed in a black long coat, with a pinned-up tie. He had his hair oiled slick, and had the proper gangster attire, from the eighties. The scene that he was going to be playing was inside of a bar, where he has a meeting with Tommy Vercetti.

"Alright, whenever you're ready Leo," Will said, as he watched him give the screen test beside Amanda. At Leo's nod, he motions to the tech handling the sync slate and calls "Action!" and the temporary actors, alongside Leo, started the scene.

Tommy Vercetti raises a glass. He and four of his men, along with Mario have gathered for drinks, at one of his bars. Mario is on one side surrounded by Vercetti's men.

Tommy looks at Mario and slowly says, after taking a gulp of beer "There's an inherent threat in that one commanding syllable. It's the only word some need to hear."

His statement confuses Mario, who questions "What's that mean, the only word?"

"You're like Grotti. Nagasaki. Pegassi. A Brand." Vercetti elaborates.

Mario mulls over the information "Brand. Interesting…"

Vercetti takes a small pistol in his hand and fiddles with the muzzle and trigger as he continues "Di Mario is a brand. And an established reputation needs less maintenance. Less violence. People fall naturally in line. Clubs are asking for our protection before we even offer it."

Mario slowly nods, trying to figure out where he was headed, looking at the gun in his hand "That's true. They are. I suppose it leaves us with less straightening out to do."

Vercetti confirms, as he places the gun in his pocket again and takes out a large hunting knife, with silver engravings etched on it. "That's right."

Mario's mood is slowly plummeting, as he considers the glass in his hand, as Vercetti continues "I happen to like a good straightener. Obliging someone on the cobbles. What's wrong with that?"

Vercetti finally looks him in the eye, as he places the knife on the table and one of his arms on Mario's shoulder and says "I just think you could do better, Mario. It'll keep you all out of prison, I mean, none of us are getting any younger. And you've got your lovely broad to think about. She's a sweet little thing, isn't she? I wonder, what would happen to her if you end up in jail? But don't you worry, I will take good care of her." He finishes as he places a few pictures of Mario's girlfriend on the table.

Enraged, at the insinuation, without warning, Mario smashes his glass into Tommy's face. As Vercetti falls to the floor, A few of the men try to grab Mario and brandish their knives. Mario flips the table he was sitting behind and kicks his seat back into the crotches of the two men, who were trying to stab him. The men drop the knife one of which Mario snatches and throws into the arm of Vercetti, who had pulled out his gun, again. The gun falls to the floor, as Mario vaults over the flipped table, kicking the recovering men in the head again, knocking them out due to his steel boots, and clambers for the gun.

Vercetti kicks the gun away, and uses his knife trying to slash at Mario, who dodges, but gets knicked on his cheek. Mario punches the hand with the knife, in Vercetti's arm, loosening his grip, and then pulls Vercetti into a chokehold.

Leo then exclaims in his ear "I'm marking your card! This is the mafia and I'm a player, understand? It's not fucking Pegassi!"

Vercetti tries to kick Mario in the groin but fails, and claws at his eyes instead, and successfully gets out of the chokehold. Getting to his feet, he looks to his two remaining men again and says "Surround him, I'll serve you up, you fucker! And then, I will have a little five on one with that dame you're lolling around."

Mario hurls a broken wooden chair at the two men trying to get behind him, knocking them out, and rushes Tommy who was clambering for his gun. He successfully tackles Tommy, to the ground again, and tries to get him in a stronger chokehold. Tommy grabs the knife that Mario had thrown at him, and shoves it into Mario's shoulder, making him scream and loosen his grip.

Mario claws at the knife, pulling it out, and charges Vercetti, who was again reaching for the gun. Mario stabs the knife into the back of Vercetti's throat, making him bleed and claw at his neck. Mario slowly catches his breath, and fails to notice that Vercetti has gotten hold of the gun, and was aiming it at him.

BANG.

"And Cut!" Will calls out.

There was total silence in the studio. After a few seconds of staring, Amanda breaks the silence and says "Where in God's name did you find this guy?"

Will just chuckles and replies "It's my specialty. So, what do you think?" He looks to the prop department that was taking the retractable knife away from Leo and nods at him.

"What do I think? Will, this kid just did an entire action sequence perfectly while remaining in character. This is fantastic!" She exclaims, getting up from her seat. She looked like Christmas had come early.

"I told you, didn't I?" Will said.

"Yes, I can see this working out. This can really work out." She breathes, as she again looks at Leo, who has finally managed to catch his breath and was looking at Will and Amanda, with hope written in his eyes.

Will got up from his seat, walked over to Leo, and said "You did good kid. The role is yours." At his celebratory look he continued "But, I want the same dedication and passion that you have shown moving forward. I don't want to see you slacking off."

Leo quickly shook his head as he gave Will a strong hug and replied "I won't let you down, Will"

…

/DreamNote/

Don't forget to support me with your powerstones

Report chapter Comments

Chapter 130:

Will Evans was browsing through the list of profiles that his Uncle Ben had sent him, that he thought would do good in the remaining cast for [Liberty City]. The DTA was now, a fully autonomous company, under the umbrella of Dream Vision Studios, it no longer needed input from him, as its chairman to function anymore. His company was slowly becoming the giant that it needed to be before he could start work on his larger projects. And with the appointment of Benjamin Charles, his uncle as the CEO of DTA, it was able to handle the casting of most Dream Vision affiliated movies, and shows.

As the main role for Mario Di Mauro, and the eventual antagonist in the form of Don Vulpe, was settled, with Leonardo De Le Rosa and Michael Robert Elrod, in the respective roles, DTA had sent Will an entire list of A-ranked actors, that they had originally poached from MCA, to be cast for [Liberty City]. While Tommy Vercetti was going to be one of the antagonists of this film, Will wanted to later introduce Tommy Vercetti's story in GTA Vice City, with him as the protagonist. [Liberty City] happens a few years after the events of GTA Vice City.

Will had just about finished selecting the entire cast, only a select few were still pending when he heard his intercom buzzing, pressing the answer button, he said "Yes, Alexia?"

"Sir, Mr. Charles is requesting permission to enter your office." She said through the intercom.

"Send him up, Alexia." He replied, wondering what his Uncle wanted to discuss.

After a couple of minutes, a knock followed by the opening his office door, Will saw his Uncle walk into his office, with a smile on his face.

"Will! Good morning. I just came by, because I had forgotten to attach Natalie Bergmann's file to the available candidates, and maybe help you out in the selection of the final roster." He informed, as walked towards him.

Will got up from his chair, gave his uncle a warm hug, and said "That's kind of you, Uncle. Please take a seat. I have almost finalized the casts. You came just in time, I think I can give Natalie a support role in this film. Please, take a seat." He pointed to the seat opposite his desk, as he returned back to his chair.

"Yes, with the release of [500 days of Summer, her fame should skyrocket, and people will research for more of her works, which will help you with [Liberty City]." His Uncle pointed out, as he placed the file on his desk.

"That's a good idea. What role do I give her though?" Will pondered, going through her file, and reading her personality profile and talent description.

"Well, based on your script, I think she would fit perfectly as Mario Di Mauro's girlfriend. Her betrayal of Mario, and later death would give her a more varied role in her portfolio, and I think she would be perfect for the role in general. The role looks to me, to be of a demanding and challenging woman, and she's ambitious too, it would fit her perfectly." Benjamin advised.

Will nodded, as he finished looking through the file, and looked at his Uncle "That sounds like a perfect fit for her, I will curate a small section of the script and send it to her. Let's see her take, on the character later."

"That is fine, based on her performance in [500 days of Summer, she's a versatile actress, she will be perfect." Uncle Ben reassured Will.

"I know." Will said "Now, I have to select the roles of the two corrupt police officers and the Police Chief. And finally, the role of Wilson Manfredi and Tommy Vercetti."

Uncle Charles thought over each of the roles and then asked "Let's start with Wilson Manfredi. Who do you have In mind?"

"Well, I was thinking of James Moore, actually. He has had a few roles as an older man, and he's half Italian, so I think he can pull it off." Will replied.

"James huh, I have worked with him, once or twice, he is dependable, and for the short scene, he would do fine. Though his Italian descent is just for show, he will have to work on his accent, but he will pull it off. Good choice, that leaves the cops, we have Officer Daniel Brown and Officer William Phillips, what are you thinking for those?" His uncle asked, moving on to the next set of characters.

"Well, as this is the hippie 80s, and it is New York City, I wanted a very generic face, not too handsome, not someone who will stand out in a crowd, yeah? They're police officers, looking to make money, while double-crossing almost everyone in the plot, so dirty cops that will fit undercover as well. So, I was thinking of Ian Campbell for Daniel Brown, and Patrick Stevens for William Phillips." He revealed.

Benjamin processed the names, trying to remember the actors from his previous interactions, and then shook his head "Ian, while a good new actor, is not suitable for a police officer, he's too thin and frail. While he doesn't stand out much, his acting is good, but I would suggest someone else. Jacob Poole would be good for that role. Patrick Stevens and him have worked together previously, and they are friends, as well. So, it will work out." He advised.

Will nodded and attached the files of Jacob Poole, and Patrick Stevens to their assigned roles. "Now, the chief of Police, and finally Tommy Vercetti. I was thinking an older man, for the Chief, he doesn't really have that many roles, but he does play a vital scene, so I was considering William Abrams, he fits nicely, and he doesn't have to change much in his appearance either. The white hair and his mustache should be a good addition to his character and fits with the era. What do you think?"

Uncle Ben nodded and said "Yes, he would do well, in that role, and being an A-lister veteran actor, he would draw a crowd all on his own. That is a good idea. Finally, all that remains is Tommy Vercetti."

Will wanted a good actor for Tommy Vercetti, as the character was going to be given a prequel in the form of Grand Theft Auto Vice City. Will wanted to establish the Grand Theft Auto universe in video games and on the big screen, and given this film's results, would set the center stage of further installments of the franchise.

Will was considering Ethan Silva, for the role of Tommy, as his voice and characterization, somewhat resembled the characterization of Tommy Vercetti that Will remembered from GTA Vice City.

Ethan Silva could basically be considered the Tom Cruise of this reality, while he looked a little different from Tom Cruise, his portfolio of films was similar to the films done by Tom Cruise in the other reality.

During the bar fight, Tommy would die due to Mario's stab through his neck, and Mario would pass out due to the gunshot wound puncturing his lung, he would be rescued by Don Vulpe's men. Don Vulpe would eventually use the power vacuum that Tommy Vercetti would leave behind, and try to take control, while hiring Mario as his enforcer, now that Tommy was dead.

Unbeknownst to him, Tommy would use the opportunity to finalize his control over Tommy's businesses, lying to Don Vulpe and selling him to the cops. The movie would end, with Mario stuffing a tied-up Don Vulpe in his Pegassi Infernus, and throwing him into the ocean while he watches, and smokes a puff of cigarette from the mountain top.

"I was thinking of giving the role to Ethan Silva, he would fit for Tommy Vercetti, his voice and looks would be perfect for the role. And I want to later develop this film into something more, and maybe give Ethan the role of Tommy in a future project." Will said finally.

"That is a fantastic idea, he would be able to do the various fight scenes appropriately. That is it then. All the cast is chosen? Then I will inform the agents we have for these actors, you've already spoken with Leo and Robert, we can finally consider [Liberty City] entering pre-production." Uncle Ben announced, and Will smiled at him.

A large group of girls were walking outside a cinema, having just left the bar nearby, they were celebrating girl's night and wanted to select a good film to end their night on, before heading home.

"I say, we should watch [500 days of Summer, it was written by Will Evans, it will be wonderful, I am sure!" One of the girls said to the others.

"Rachel, you always select the movies, let me select this time. Why don't we go for [Zinon's love, I heard Zen acts as the lead." Another girl replied.

"You're obsessed with Zen, Monica. Plus, the movie isn't even good." Rachel replied. Their argument devolved into a cat fight and the third girl interjected.

"Ladies, cut it out! Cut it out! We'll head over to the cinema and whichever movie and decide there, capiche?"

"Yeah, that is fair Pheobe."/"Alright, I can agree to that."

They trio walked over to the cinema entrance, where one show had just ended, and the audience were exiting the show.

They heard a man say to his companion "Man, [Zinon's Love] is just a bad attempt at [Love me, Zinon]'s sequel, I feel like my money was wasted."

"Eh, at least we had fun, right babe?" The woman asked "Right?"

"Uh, right of course" The man replied nervously, and they walked off.

"Well, that was awkward," Pheobe commented, and they yet again could hear another group discussing the other film [500 days of Summer].

"I liked this movie, though it was sad to see what happened to Tom, poor guy. Good movie, nonetheless. Thanks for bringing me here gals, this was fun. I think watching this has given me the courage to finally dump Ross." One of the girls in the other group interjected.

"Poor Ross, but I guess we're watching [500 days of Summer, in the end." Rachel commented, and the trio purchased the tickets to the movie and entered the cinema.

…

/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 131:

[Romantic Comedy, reinvented

We, at the Weekend Tribunal, expected that "500 Days of Summer" will unfold like every other romantic comedy that Hollywood gives us…somehow, someway Tom and Summer will weave their way through their many obstacles and will end up happily ever after.

Hollywood loves 'happily ever after', after all.

Yet in "500 Days of Summer," one of the most delightful and intelligent romantic comedies since "Love Actually," it becomes obvious rather early on that director Carlson Duckstein, and celebrity Scriptwriter, Will Evans, is opting for authenticity over Hollywood formula and the final result is a film that somehow manages to seamlessly blend hopefulness with heartbreak and the magic of love with its mundane realities.

Much of this is accomplished in a way that some will find maddening, yet it unfolds perfectly within the context of the lives of Tom and Summer. "500 Days of Summer" flashes back and forth throughout the film between the early days of the awkward first meetings, the fumbling days of getting to know one another, the celebratory days of transcendent love, the bitter break-up, the unfathomable grief and, yes, the resolution that is happy and satisfying and simply feels right for everyone involved.

We highly recommend viewers and cinema-goers to give this movie a try, as this adds yet another fantastic cinematic, and theatric success in the repertoire that Will Evans, has brought to the scene.

And we are observing a trend with last year's Hollywood's biggest new star, as he brings another new name directly onto the big screen, in the form of Natalie Bergmann, who played the role of Summer, in [500 days of Summer]. Will this be a recurring theme with Will Evans, as he searches for hidden talents to drag onto the big screen?

8/10 Weekend Reviews, are richly deserved for the new installment from Dream Vision's latest entry] – The Weekend Tribunal.

There were many such articles that praised [500 days of Summer, as it brought another successful movie into Hollywood. It had already broken even with the initial investment for the film and had hit a respectable 43 million USD, at the box office, in under two weeks, and after adjustments from previous estimates, it is expected to earn at least a solid 85 million at the box office. Some analysts claim the movie may run till it hits an even 100 million.

Natalie Bergmann was the recipient of the highest praise for her acting and talent that she had shown in the movie. Everything from her dialogue delivery, to her emotional expression, was picture perfect, and she was finally celebrating the fruits of her labor. Rumors of her receiving awards for work in the movie were already making rounds. The DTA and Dream Vision couldn't be happier with the film's success.

There was a black Maybach G900, that was stuck in the heavy traffic of Los Angeles, California. It was stuck in a slowly creeping traffic on route 60, heading back into the city, taking its passenger back home, having finished a long day's work at the studio.

The passenger seats of the car were occupied, by Ethan Silva and his agent, Johnathan Stevens. They were discussing the latest script that they had received, this one being from Dream Vision Studios, Hollywood's latest up-and-coming star director, and scriptwriter.

Ethan Silva, was a talent that was contracted with Jenkins Talent Agency but liked to work mostly in the free market. He would work with most studios, provided they had a script that he liked.

But as his career had grown, he had became more picky towards script and won't do any roles or scenes which won't cater to his image. It was common in celebs as they become more of a star than an actor after reaching top.

As the Tom Cruise equivalent of this world, he also had a pretty boy image that had changed into an action hero one later on.

Still, Ethan also didn't wanted to lose a chance to work with Will Evans.

Ethan had heard a lot of gossip from his colleagues and other agents from his agency, and he had stayed in touch with the goings-on in Hollywood, he knew about Will Evans, and he mused that working in one of his movies would do his career a lot of good.

"Sir, Will Evans' involvement with the Big Six of Hollywood, and the drama generated by his previous interactions with MCA, have made him into a hot commodity at Hollywood, he already has a large viewer base in America, Europe, and in Asia." Johnathan informed him.

"And he is known to complete the shooting of his films rather quickly, so if we do take this role, it would be a good addition in your portfolio. Especially after the average showing from your previous sci-fi action flick [Locked and Loaded, 2100.]"

That was true, Ethan desperately needed a movie that showcased his acting skills, [Liberty City, from Dream Vision Studios, may just be that film for him.

His other projects were in pre-production and based on Will Evans' short shooting time track record, he could fit this in, before he started work on his other films.

The other studios won't mind it as they needed Ethan more than he needed him.

"Yes, it would also be a good opportunity for us to gain some connections with him, it will be good for us, even when you are at the top of the industry, new good connections are never something to frown upon." Ethan mused aloud, and Johnathan nodded. "Let me read the script." He said as he extended his hand to take the file from his agent.

Ethan perused the script that he had been offered, and he had to admit the dialogue writing, and plot were in line with the kind of action films that he usually works in. And the plot twists and action sequences that the script indicated to are very chaotic. He would do well, in taking part in the film. But, he could see a small caveat.

"It is a good story. Chaotic, emotional, captivating, thrilling, everything that you want from an action film, but the role that I have been offered, of Tommy Vercetti, seems like it's will be second best to Mario Di Mauro, I am a little worried that it will hurt by lead image. I haven't played a support role, in a movie since ages. Can you negotiate for the lead in this movie?" Ethan asked.

It's been so long he had had done any role other than the lead. His fans would already think of him as being in the lead if he's in any movie at this point.

"It is doable, but you should keep in mind, that Jared Morgan, from ICM, was offered a supporting role in Will Evan's [Sherlock Holmes, and he had a similar problem with being asked to act in support of Michael Elrod, and as he was a new actor, Jared and his agent refused. Well, Jared is no longer being offered lead roles in any considerable movies, anymore. And directors refuse to work with him for anything other than small roles in romantic comedies." His agent, Johnathan cautioned.

Ethan nodded and said "Still, try and negotiate for the role of Mario, and if Will Evans already has a lead in mind, find out who he is. If he is a newbie, like Michael Elrod, then I will think about what to do next."

Johnathan searched Ethan's face for something and nodded "That can be done, that isn't a problem. Will you take the role of Tommy if it is a newbie?"

Ethan thought over the question and nodded "It will be interesting to work with a new guy on set, but let's see, if he is as good as it needs to be for the lead, I won't have much issue."

Ethan still had considerations but he at least wanted to hear the directors thoughts and how the movie would come to life. That was an important thing.

As Ethan's car was reaching Dream Vision's office, one car was stealthily following it. It was a black van that was deliberately keeping a safe distance.

"Where are you going, Ethan?"

The driver of the car, Freddie muttered.

He was a paparazzi that was in the industry for a long time. These days, he had been following Ethan Silva, hoping to get some leak out of him.

But despite paying attention to him most of the hours a day and sleeping in his car, he had gotten nothing.

Today, he had a feeling he would get something.

After all, it was rare for him to go somewhere early in the morning. As the car entered a street, Freddie immediately got an idea where it was going.

'Is Ethan going towards Dream Vision office?'

He wondered, putting two and two together in his head. Will Evans next movie rumors were all over Hollywood and this might indicate that Ethan was going to be a part of it.

If it was true, then it might very well pay him 2000-4000 dollars from a good newspaper.

…

/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 132:

Ethan Silva and his Agent had just arrived at the Dream Visions Studios, Headquarters and were guided to the Company conference room, by the front desk, where they awaited the arrival of Will Evans and Amanda Garcia to commence the meeting.

In under five minutes, Amanda followed by Will entered the room, and Will could see the strong resemblance that Ethan Silva had with Tom Cruise from his previous reality. He had brown hair, angular jawline, and was of decent height. The major difference that Will could note, was that Ethan had blue eyes.

"Welcome to Dream Vision Studios, Mr. Silva, we were delighted that you responded positively to our offer. Why don't we start the discussion of your role post-haste?" Amanda started the meeting, after they had finished exchanging pleasantries, and had assumed their seats.

"As you might have identified from the script that we sent to your agent here, we are offering you the role of Tommy Vercetti in our upcoming film [Liberty City, for 1 million USD, considering it is a small role, in the movie." Amanda continued on, once she realized that she had everyone's attention.

"The role that you have offered my client is a very well fleshed out role, and while he would be delighted to work in that position, we want to enquire about the lead role, the one of Mario Di Mauro. We believe, Mr. Silva would make an excellent candidate for that spot, unless you have another name in mind." Johnathan interjected smoothly.

Will had a severe case of de ja vu from the direction the conversation was heading, and he immediately pointed out "I am sorry, I already have an actor in mind for the lead role, the role of Tommy Vercetti is one that I believe would be perfect for Mr. Silva."

"May I ask, who it is that you have selected for the role, or have you brought a new talent yet again?" Johnathan prodded further.

Will pursed his lips and take a moment before replying "I have searched for a new talent for the role, so that role is already filled, that cannot be changed. Is your client amenable to the role of Tommy Vercetti, do keep in mind that we have further plans for that particular character, so there are chances that he may return in a future installment, provided [Liberty City] does well at the box office, and the story comes out as I am intending it to." Will tried to incentivize the role further.

Johnathan and Ethan looked at each other and then Ethan nodded. "Alright, I am ready to take on the role of Tommy Vercetti, though I need to understand the character a little better. And I was wondering if the overall screen time could be increased." He finally said.

Will clapped his hands once and then said "Tommy Vercetti is the head of the Vercetti Crime Family, which is initially based in [Vice City, which is another aspect of the giant world we are trying to build. His story is something that we would like to eventually explore if this does well, at the box office. He is wise, respectable and a man that worked really hard to get to where he is in the movie. There is obviously a lot of blood on his hands, and he is the biggest mob boss that you can think of."

Will had taken inspiration to cinematize Tommy Vercetti using the works from his previous life.

"He is a hot-tempered man, that is very quick to resort to violence when provoked. He likes to do his work himself, even though he has an entire gang at his beck and call, he isn't afraid of getting down dirty to get the job done. Yet, at the same time, he is extremely sensitive and emotional and is quick to trust people. If you have his loyalty, you have it forever. He is a moral gangster." Will elaborated.

Ethan mulled over the picture Will was painting of Tommy and nodded. "The scenes that you have included for Tommy, do not really put emphasis on his character traits. In his death scene, the one where Mario stabs him in the back of his neck, he is seen insulting and threatening the main lead's character, which is not really the character trait of a sensitive, emotional, or moral man. Plus, I also have an image to maintain in Hollywood, so I wanted to give him an extra scene where an action sequence purely defines him, I hope that can be done."

Will thought over the argument Ethan put forth, ignoring the request for an extra scene for now, and replied "While that is true, there is another scene in the script where Mario has a chat with a retired gangster, Wilson Manfredi, where Wilson describes that with the life of a gangster, a person loses his character over time, and is finally left as a broken shell of a man. Tommy, in this movie, is at that final stage, and he loses that touch of humanity that he had, by the end of the film. That is why he is quick to threaten outside of his moral boundaries."

Ethan nodded and then returned back to his request "I can understand the character development that you are trying to give him. In that case, it would be beneficial for the character if his increasing bouts of violent tendencies were shown using action scenes in the movie that solely focus on him, right?"

Will could see what he was trying to do, and while it did have merit he couldn't add more than two minutes to his character, he replied, "I have a maximum of two minutes to stretch for your character, I could lengthen the final bar fight at the end to give Tommy a larger edge, if that is what you like."

Ethan shook his head "I was thinking something along the lines of a solo action sequence."

Will thought over the idea, and he figured he could include a good scene for Tommy if Ethan insisted, he did have a good scene for him in mind. He nodded his head In acquiescence and said "That can probably be done. I will make the necessary adjustments to the script and forward it to your agent, Johnathan."

"In that case, let us finalize the deal. Ethan Silva for the role of Tommy Vercetti, in [Liberty City] for 1 million USD." Amanda said, rehashing out the document that she had prepared and sent a copy to Will, Ethan and his agent.

Freddie had been waiting outside Dream Vision Studios for well over three hours, and it was about to be sundown in half an hour. He had gotten himself a large Cheeseburger from the burger shop, around the block, and he had almost tripped himself when he came back, thinking that Ethan had left the studio during his brief break.

Seeing the actor's Maybach outside had calmed his nerves significantly. Though he desperately wanted to quit, thinking that it was talking too long, and the actor may yet leave after another few hours. The natural light was quickly receding and he wouldn't get a clear shot, at the distance that he was from the main entrance of the studio.

If he did manage to get a shot of Ethan Silva exiting Dream Vision Studios, he would get paid good money for the photo from most major tabloids in the city, and if he got the money shot, with Ethan Silva and Will Evans in the same frame, he was sure that he would be able to pay this months rent and have spare to gamble in Vegas if he desired, with the amount that the papers would pay.

Deciding that he should get a little closer to the entrance, Freddie took a bite of his burger, and took a sip of coke, and started the engine of the van. The sun was just above the horizon and would set any minute, and he wanted to be in a more advantageous position should he need the smaller distance due to the poor lighting. And a parking spot had just freed up at a good distance from Ethan Silva's Maybach, and he could see that he would get a better view of Dream Vision Studio's main entrance from there as well.

Quickly driving over, Freddie occupied the empty parking spot, not caring that he cut off the Volkswagen that some old lady was driving that was clearly going to park there.

Ignoring the horn from the Volkswagen, Freddie took out camera, and he was just in time too. For by the entrance, he could see Ethan Silva, his agent Johnathan who were being led by Dream Vision's chairman, Will Evans and its CEO Amanda Garcia.

He took the pictures, the moment Will and Ethan shook hands, which he could easily sell as a gossip photo for a finalized deal between Dream Vision and the actor Ethan.

'Oh! Vegas! Here I come baby!' He thought as he checked the pictures in his camera library.

Vacating the parking spot to the annoying lady in the Volkswagen, Freddie happily drove towards The Weekend Tribunal Main office, to collect his payday, and plan a trip to Vegas as well.

…

/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

You can also read next chapters of this novel on /dreamthree

Report chapter Comments

Chapter 133:

[Ethan Silva meeting with Will Evans – A start of a new partnership!

Images by Freddie Kreuger

On the 26th of January, Ethan Silva was spotted alongside his agent, meeting Dream Vision Founder, and director Will Evans and the CEO of Dream Vision, outside the Studio's office in Los Angeles, California.

According to leaked reports, and anonymous sources, Will Evans is working on yet another script, that he intends to produce and direct himself. His latest endeavor, this time into the Gangster Genre, title [Liberty City, which would be released after [1917, directed by director Carlson Duckstein, has hit cinemas.

This meeting could lead to the rising of the ever-growing excitement for a Will Evans produced and directed movie, since the success of [Sherlock Holmes]. Fans that follow the young Hollywood celebrity, have been waiting in anticipation for a work that is purely Will Evans. And now that Ethan Silva has been rumored to be a part of the cast of [Liberty City, would mean that [Liberty City] would become one of the most highly anticipated movies of 2012.

Although Ethan Silva's role in the movie, is up to speculation, there is a high chance that he would be in a lead role for the film, unless Will Evans continues the trend of finding new talents like Michael Robert Elrod, made famous due to Will Evans' [Sherlock Holmes, and Natalie Bergmann, who debuted in the recent Will Evans' written romantic comedy [500 days of Summer, and placing them as leads of high budget projects.

There are also rumors that many studios in Hollywood, have shown interest in being a part of the production of the film, and due to the confirmed status of the relationship between Dream Vision and Foxstar, due to the change in leadership, [Liberty City] maybe a production of another studio partnering with Dream Vision.

One thing is certain, that fans around the world, including us, At The Weekend Tribunal, are looking forward to the future of Will Evans and Dream Vision, and are looking forward to watching both [1917] and [Liberty City] on the big screen.] – The Weekend Tribunal.

Looking at the image that seemed to have been taken from outside their office, Will couldn't help but sigh. He would have to get Amanda to increase security around the company, and look to hiring more guards around the building.

"Looks like the fine folks at the Weekend Tribunal are still happy with the donation that I made for them, that they are giving me free publicity." Will joked to Jeffery. They were seated in Jeffery's office and were discussing the props and requirements for [Liberty City, when Alexia had come in to deliver the day's newspaper. Will had finally gotten his Doraemon back, and he wanted to discuss everything there was about [Liberty City, with him so that he could be sure that he had covered all his angles for the pre-production and start with the filming.

"Well, no publicity is bad publicity, and this is free publicity. Why don't you make them your go-to News Paper for press releases and press conferences? They seem amenable enough to listen first, and provide our perspective to the public." Jeffery said, after looking at the paper.

Jeffery had just returned from England, after finishing the filming of [1917, which was now in post-production. He had taken a week off from work, and visited Hawaii with his wife, and had returned with gusto to start work on another project. Director Lucas Amspoker wanted to give the finishing touches to [1917] himself, and it was expected that the movie would release around mid-march, which was during the filming of [Liberty City]. Will was just fine with that timeframe.

"Well, that's good for us. How are Renly and Elijah? I hear they are touring Europe." Will asked.

"Yes, they have gotten offers for a modeling gig. They are also doing photoshoots all over the continent, which gives us more free publicity in the end. They will be here in the states by the end of next month." Jeffery informed him. "I hear Natalie Bergmann is getting more famous. I haven't been to see [500 days of Summer, yet. I might go this weekend."

"Natalie got invited on Tuffin, I remember when we had our invite back for [The Blaire Witch Project, we were all so excited. June couldn't believe that she gotten an invitation." Will reminisced. "Well, I think she has gotten invites to many talk shows, and she is also the main guest for, I believe, Make A Wish foundation's cancer charity event in Chicago next week. So she will be quite busy for now."

"After you left England, Robert finished his scene for [1917, and had wasted no time, in returning back here. He is quite excited about working with you again. Speaking of which, [Liberty City] will need a lot of period pieces and set building. Director Lucas had quite the team prepared in London for on-location set building. We should hire them, and have them flown here to the states. They were very authentic and thorough with what they had produced." Jeffery advised.

Will nodded and said "Alright, you get in touch with that team, while I need to get the prop department we had used for [Sherlock Holmes, again. We will need a lot of authentic guns and machinery from the eighties, as well as period clothing so they should be an excellent addition to handle that."

"That leaves the CGI and VFX. I heard from Amanda, that you wanted a team In house for future projects. Are we going to wait for that to set itself up? Or are we hiring a separate team here in Los Angeles?" Jeffery enquired.

"I was thinking we hire a professional team, and later if their work is good enough, I will buy the studio entirely, and add them to our umbrella" Will explained.

Jeffery nodded and said "That seems like a good plan, if you have the necessary capital. What have you done for the cast, I have seen the main roster and I approve of the main lead, but you will need extras and small roles that need to be covered here and there. Grunt work, The Vercetti and the Vulpe's men etc."

Will mused the question and said "I was thinking of hiring from my alma mater, even if I had to leave the film school, they had a lot of talented artists. If we hire from there for the extras, we will not only get to meet new talent, it will fill the need for the extra artists we would need to hire. Plus, we won't need to dish out a very large sum to get professional extra artists, the rest we can fill from the DTA."

Will had also given June a role in [Liberty City, now that she had joined DTA. He wanted to work alongside her again as they had worked for [The Blaire Witch Project]. He had given her an audition, and she had performed well, to be given a small role in the film.

Raegan Norris was also given a supporting role, as the second in command for The Vulpe Crime Family, alongside Robert. It would satisfy the deal that they had made, and he would get a role in a film that would easily make 100 million dollars at the box office.

"Well, that leaves stunt doubles, and stand-ins." Jeffery finally pointed out.

"We will be hiring from the Hollywood Parkour and Stunts, their work in Ethan Silva's other action films has been exemplary. They should do good for our film too." Will answered.

"They are expensive too, you will need to get a good law firm to cover all accidents that can happen, in the contract." Jeffery said, worrying a little.

"Don't worry, I will get the best to look through all the detail, and we will hire their best team. Thanks for helping me again, Jeff" Will said as he finally got up, seeing that they had covered all their corners for this film.

"Anytime, Will. I will get my team prepped and ready to start filming by next week." Jeffery said as he nodded to Will.

On exiting Jeffery's office, Will noticed Amanda walking toward him with a file in her hand.

"Hello Amanda, what can I do for you?" Will said as he realized she probably wanted to inform him about something.

"Will, I just got a request for a meeting from Abraham Hayes, the CEO of Mega Works." Amanda said as she handed the file to him. "They want to meet with you personally, and are offering a partnership for [Liberty City]."

…

/DreamNote/

Don't forget to support this book with your powerstones

Report chapter Comments

Chapter 134:

"So, you're telling me that all I need to get this role is to innovate?" Leo asked Robert, who was sitting opposite him, on the red chair, in the Hollywood Boulevard Coffee shop.

"Look, since I started working with Will, I have practically zero regard for the writing in a script, and while his scripts are generally very good, you will notice that they are nothing more than loose guidelines for us, as an actor and artist to bring out their own definitions, their own understanding of their character. Will might have told you this as well, his scripts are meant to give a general guideline for the plot. They aren't solid, written in stone texts or scriptures. The more you innovate, the more you get in touch with your inner character, the better the result you will achieve." Robert replied after taking a sip of his coffee.

"But, this is my first big movie. I don't want to take a big risk and potentially ruin the film." Leo pointed out.

"Leo, I have been in the exact same situation as you have. During the filming of [Sherlock Holmes, and later [A Bullet to Kill, there were dialogues that I was meant to read and enact, and while I could do them, rote, and go word for word, so could the next guy. Our job is to give life to the character. Taking risks is the name of the game. You miss every single shot that you don't take. And Will's job, or the director's job isn't to make sure that you have blurted out every line that you have memorized. No, his job is to make sure that you are following the general guideline of the script that he has envisioned and bring out the plot of the overall story." Robert elaborated, he had become something of a mentor to Leo, recognizing the similar situation that the young actor had found himself in, as to himself.

"Okay, I think I can see what you're trying to get me to understand. So, now that I have gotten the role of Mario, I need to bring out my own definition of what Mario is to me, and play him on set." Leo said after pondering a few seconds.

"Exactly, and don't worry. Both Will as well as I, will be on the set, and we will help you go through with this. You've got this in the bag. All you need is to run home with it." Robert tried to calm his nerves. "You know, my aversion to memorizing the script is something Will told me to nurture, he wanted me to develop my own sense of the character. I initially thought that it would be a problem, then one day Will comes to me and says 'I have figured out!' and I was a going through a very rough take before [Sherlock Holmes, then and I was thinking of just memorizing the lines as it is, so I asked him 'What did you figure out?' and then he looks me in the eyes and says 'You, Robert, hate paper. I like that about you, it's a good thing. I will have to write less, and give you the source material to become the character yourself.' And that is what I did, I read through a ton of Sherlock books, and I got that shot done at the audition. And I got the role."

The two of them had fallen into a very easy rapport with each other, and Robert had taken it upon himself to guide Leo, through all the pitfalls and pre-shooting jitters that Will had done for him. The two of them continued talking and discussing their roles for the rest of the day, as Robert gave Leo ideas and set scenarios for him to innovate and build on.

"Kiss Me, Close Your Eyes" June walked down an abandoned Spanish street, as she held onto a purple wrapped chocolate. The walls of the building beside her were painted blue, red, and light orange, with

"Miss Me, Close Your Eyes" She unwrapped the top portion of the chocolate, and brought it to her lips, while closing her eyes.

"And Kiss Me," She took a small bite, as she took a turn and came upon a bright street that was covered with a lot of posters of the chocolate that she was holding, in purple background.

"I Can Read Your Lips" She smiled, taking another bite of the chocolate.

"On Your Fingertips" She licked off the melted chocolate that was lathered on her fingers.

"I Can Feel Your Smile, Come On My Lips" She smiled, as she tasted the chocolate, as she walked toward the sunset.

"And Happiness In Your Eyes" She finished the chocolate, and twirled in the middle of the street, making her dress create a beautiful pattern with her motion, and she laughed a tinkling laugh.

"AND CUT! That's a wrap. Good Job" She heard, and she walked off the set, toward the director of the advertisement that she was given, right after she joined the DTA. "That was a good shot. This will go well, during our pre valentine's ad lineup. That is all for today, Thank you, June. I think your agent was looking for you. We will call you again next week, for another two shots for valentines and post valentine advertisements." The director informed her. She thanked him and walked to the exit of the studio, where her agent John, was waiting for her.

"That was a really good take, June. Congratulations." John said to her as she walked up to him.

"Thank you, John. What's next on my agenda?" She asked as she continued walking past him, and she could see that John followed her in step.

"Well, Will has sent a role for you in his next project [Liberty City]. It is a small role, but after your audition, he thinks you will be a great supporting actor in the film." He informed her, and she couldn't repress a smile. She had swallowed her pride, in the end and made her move as soon as the contract with the MCA had reached its end. They had tried to stop her from jumping ship as well, but after Will's secret exposé, they had lost most of the resources that they could have used to make things difficult for her.

"Alright, I will go over the role tonight, with him. What else do I have?" She asked as she reached her car, and turned to look at him.

"Well, I have emailed you the offer that you have received from a European Director. The DTA arranged a meeting between me and him. The director is very talented and has a lot of accolades in the industry. He is currently looking to start working on a project with a female lead, and wants to give you that role. This director is very passionate about this film, and apparently, he sold his house to gather the funds for the project." He elaborated, still not giving a hint as to what the project was, or who the director is. June thought that the director was a little reckless. While Will would take risks with his projects, and he was just as passionate, something she really loved about him, he wouldn't go to the lengths as to put his entire livelihood on the line for a film. He was smarter than that.

"Alright, did you give him my profile? Who is the director?" She finally asked him, as she opened the door of her car, she wanted to get home early after having shot seven consecutive small advertisements throughout the day, with the chocolate ad being the last.

"It's directed by James Cameron."

Getting out of his new Bentley Continental GT, outside of Mega Works office, Will gave his car keys to the valet that was waiting for him.

"Sir, Miss Baker here, will guide you to the CEO's office." The valet said, pointing to the formally dressed woman that was waiting beside him.

"Good evening, Mr. Evans. Mr. Hayes is waiting for you, follow me." She said, shaking his hand. She turned around and led him inside the building.

Heading up the elevator, up to the eleventh floor, Will wondered what this meeting would be about.

"Right through this door, sir." She said as she guided him through the lobby to the only room on the top floor.

She knocked once and opened the large wooden door, which had gold engravings on it. Inside was a wood-furnished office, which had an elegant mountainside view of the Hollywood sign that tourists around the world come to visit.

On the large mahogany desk, was a Well Built Albino man, wearing a three-piece tux. He was smoking a cigar. Will knew this man to be the CEO of the last of the Big 6. Abraham Hayes.

…

/DreamNote/

Hey guys, today is quite a reminicing day. Years ago, when I was just a kid, my elder cousin introduced me to video games and the first one I played was called Vice City. It's still one of the only two games I have ever completed, and it holds a special place in my heart, and you must have noticed it too when you read about the [Liberty City].

[Liberty City] is based on Vice City, and it's one of my favourite arcs. The game's voice actor is Ray Liotta, but last night I came across a mournful news.

Ray Liotta has passed away and has gone to a better place.

On this note, I want to tell you that I am planning a small tribute to him in this novel, and I hope you guy like it.

Press F for the Legend.

Report chapter Comments

Chapter 135:

"Good evening, Mr Hayes, It is wonderful to meet you finally. I have to say I was surprised when I received your invitation." Will greeted as he walked toward the Albino man to shake his hand.

Abraham Hayes shook the offered hand and said, "An excellent evening to you as well, Mr Evans, and it is hardly a surprise that a company like mine would like to get in touch with Hollywood's biggest topic. I really enjoyed watching [Sherlock Holmes]. It was exciting to see how you brought a legendary character to life, especially after the rest of us had given up on ever being able to produce a good movie out of the titular character. Please take a seat."

"I am glad that you liked it. It was a passion project of mine. Mainly because I was disappointed with how my predecessors handled the series. I was an Avid reader of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's magnificent works." Will said as he took the offered seat.

"Would you like some tea?" Abraham Hayes asked after he had sat down.

"That would be delightful, two sugars, please." Will requested.

Mr Hayes nodded and pressed a button on his intercom "Susan? Would you please send us two cups of tea? Two sugars, each." He requested his assistant.

Will admired the various posters of the many movies that Mega Works had worked on. Mr Hayes' room was adorned with posters on the wall to their left. His eye caught the poster of their latest movie [Extraction Point: Charlie].

"I must congratulate you on your latest entry into the action genre, [Extraction Point: Charlie, which was artfully executed. I particularly loved the non-dramatized and glorified fight scenes in the movie. They were especially captivating." Will congratulated the man.

"Ah! Yes, [Extraction Point: Charlie] was our latest endeavour into the military action genre. I hear you're working on a period piece, [1917] if I recall correctly. [Extraction Point: Charlie, while it was able to do good enough at the box office, it was not able to help us achieve one of our main goals. That is also why I have requested this meeting, Mr Evans." Hayes said, looking at Will.

"Oh, how may I help you and Mega Works, Mr Hayes?" Will said as he became curious.

A knock on the door cut off his reply, and a brunette dressed in formal attire came in with a tray with two steaming cups of tea in her hand.

"Ah, Susan! Please, place the tray on the table. Thank You, Susan." Hayes said as she placed the cups on the table. Mr Hayes offered one of the cups to Will and took a sip from the other.

"As I was saying, [Extraction Point: Charlie] could not help us achieve one of our main agendas, with the movie. What we wanted was to establish a reliable franchise out of the title. But, based on the response from the viewers, it won't survive another sequel. You have recently started work on another title, [Liberty City, if my sources are right. Mega Works would like to invest in the film. We are ready to put forth half the initial estimated budget for the film, and we are ready to distribute the film once it is complete." Hayes said, getting to the crux of the matter. "We would like to enter a partnership between Dream Vision Studios and Mega Works for the coming film."

This whole situation seemed too good to be true, and Will was highly sceptical of the reasons behind Mega Works' interest in working with Will.

He asked, "If you will excuse my boldness, why me? I don't just think it is because I have a good history in the industry until now or just because of my talent. So what is the caveat?"

Abraham Hayes looked straight at Will for a few seconds and then laughed, "You are direct. That is good. Most people in our industry like to weasel their way around a deal. To be honest with you, I called for this meeting mainly because my company's shareholders wanted it to happen. And with the way things are headed for this company, I am nothing more than a figurehead following their instructions." He explained.

Mega Works Studios was a part of the conglomerate that was Mega Corporation. The entire company was in rough waters because of the poor production history that it had endured in the past three years. In the last year itself, only three out of the seven productions could perform adequately at the box office, and out of those three, [Extraction Point: Charlie] was the only noteworthy title in their lineup of films. It was no secret that Mega Corporation's shareholders were slowly shifting towards liquidating the company, and there were rumours of them having entered talks with a middle east based company to do just that. This gambit with Will might just be their last move before they decide to entirely sell the company and dust their hands with the film industry.

The CEO of Mega Works was a figurehead who owned negligible shares in the company. Usually, companies offer their CEOs stock options to subtly align the CEO's interests with the company shareholders. It usually often devolves into many illegal practices like insider trading to reduce corporate control over the company, which seemed to have been the case with Mega Works. Abraham Hayes had only 1 – 2 percent fixed shares in the company that he retained. He had sold all the stocks that he owned in the company and let the stockholders do whatever they wanted with the company. Which meant that if their last gambit didn't pay off, and Will either refused to enter a partnership with them or [Liberty City] didn't meet its mark, then within a year or two, Mega Works Studios would be liquidated, and the Big Six would be reduced to the Big Five.

Their other option would be that they are interested in using Will and many other directors in attempting the last gasp by producing the last few films that they can before two years end, and they reach their agreement with the Middle East firm to increase the value of Mega Works Studio's stock value. Thereby increasing the overall liquid assets that they would generate once the deal went through, which was probably their actual motive. If they were adamant about liquidating the company, Will could use their resources to fund [Liberty City] and soften the workload on himself.

"Mr Hayes, what are the terms of your proposal?" Will asked, trying to establish their true motive.

"We are ready to fund forty-nine percent of the film's initial budget and distribute the film, both locally and internationally. You would retain proprietary ownership. We just want to enter a temporary partnership with your company." Abraham Hayes informed him.

That meant that Will's hunch was right. With Mega Work's not angling for proprietary ownership in the film or in the IP, the Shareholders were using Will Evans to increase their stock value before ultimately liquidating the company. That was something that Will could very easily use and take advantage of. They were desperate to increase their value, and Will acquired investment for his film. But, Will saw yet another opportunity here.

"The terms that you have proposed are extremely attractive. Tell me, Mr Hayes, are the rumours of the eventual liquidation of Mega Works Studios true?" He asked directly.

Abraham Hayes laughed yet again and said, "Yes, yes they are, Mr Evans. I knew you would catch on to that, eventually."

Will smiled and said, "Well, I am interested in going through with this deal, provided the contract includes a clause that after [Liberty City] is complete, Dream Vision acquires the rights to your VFX and CGI department. We are looking to expand, and Mega Works will have no use of your VFX and CGI departments after liquidation. If we acquire a part of your company outright, right after [Liberty City, you will be selling it to us at least five percent higher than the current stock value after the movie, plus you will have shares and box office returns from the movie as well."

Abraham Hayes was surprised at the counteroffer and paused. He slowly nodded and said, "I will have to discuss with my Shareholders, but you can rest assured, they are more than likely to jump at the offer, Mr Evans."

Will then got up. "It was a pleasure doing business with you, Mr Hayes. Please send the final copy of the contract to my CEO, Amanda Garcia, and send a copy to me as well. I wish you luck in your future endeavours." He said as he shook his hand.

"It was a pleasure doing business with you as well, Mr Evans."

…

/DreamNote/

Don't forget to vote with your powerstones

Report chapter Comments

Chapter 136:

Exiting 'The Bar with No Name' Leo could already tell that he was being followed out. He checked his pockets. Unfortunately, he only had a knife.

Walking out and into the streets of East Harlem, he looked back and saw that four men, each carrying a variation of either a club, a bat, or a machete, were looking right at him. He continued walking ahead, increasing his pace, not wanting to alarm the police car of the motives of either him or the men that were chasing him.

Taking a turn down the street, he had to stop. On the other side of the street were similarly dressed men that were briskly walking their way. Turning around and into an alley, Leo ran at the full sprint at the wall at the end of the alley.

He ran up a few steps of the wall and jumped off of it onto the fire exit. He could see that the men had followed him and ran his way now.

"Get him!" He heard as he climbed up the ladders of the fire escape.

The ladders rattled as he looked down at them, slowly gaining on him. Reaching the top of the exit, he banged his head on the entrance to the building's roof. It was locked.

Looking down, he noticed the men were only two stories away from him, and he needed to find a way on the roof.

Vaulting over the railing of the top part of the fire escape, he balanced himself as he tried to gauge the distance he had to jump to latch on to the fire escape of the building opposite him.

Seeing that the men were just one story below him, he sent a quick prayer to god and jumped.

He caught the ledge of the fire escape of the opposite building and climbed his way onto the roof.

As soon as he was on the roof, he heard a loud voice saying, "AND CUT!"

Looking around him, on the roof, Leo could see that Will was waiting for him, and he had a wide smile on his face.

"That was a really good shot. You have gotten really good at monkey jumping your way up ladders and across narrow buildings. If not an actor, you would make a really good stunt artist." Will complimented.

Leo couldn't keep the smile off his face. He had elected to do most of his stunts and fights in the movie himself, despite Will's offer to hire stuntmen for him. He had done that in lieu of Robert's advice. Robert also had elected to do most of his stunts himself, and he wanted to follow in his friend's footsteps.

Will was really happy with the way that this scene had turned out. He had set up cameras all around the alley, from the entrance of 'The Bar with No Name' that they had set up to the ledge of the building's fire escape, to capture footage of the scene that he wanted to build.

He wanted to get raw footage that he would later edit in sequence to build his entire scene.

They had acquired permission from local authorities in Upper East Harlem, from the local Police, with the help of Mega Works. Their deal had gone through, and after getting the document with the extra clause that Will stipulated, he had his legal team go through the document to check for any hidden loopholes. After finding none, he had signed it, and Mega Works was on board with [Liberty City, and the shooting had begun with extreme fervour.

Dream Vision wouldn't have been able to acquire the filming permit as quickly as they did, block Harlem's busy streets, and set up their on-location set without Mega Work's help. They would have eventually acquired it, but the soft power that Mega Works brought along with its name was something that Will could easily utilize.

They were able to use the help of city officials to set up lights, clean the streets a little to make them just a little bit more presentable, and import fake models of period vehicles. The local community of Harlem had helped set up extras, and Will made sure to invest in the local community to help it develop along the way.

They helped Jeffery do odd jobs on the street while his Cinematography team took care of the heavier workload.

Shaking his head, Will got back to discussing the continuation of the scene that they had just shot, which was to be on foot chase scene with Leo over the rooftops. The entire scene would take upwards of three days to complete and accurately takedown. Will knew that Leo was extremely excited to get it done with.

"Alright, Robert. I want you to show your character, Don Vulpe's violent side, mixed with his irritably patient personality." Will said to Robert, who looked to be thinking the role over in his head. Will turned his head to look at Reagan and said, "Your reaction to his movements is what will sell this shot. He will aim his gun at you. I need genuine fear from you, but still, show complete loyalty to him. You must fear for your life while trying to get out of the situation while simultaneously looking like your brain is working overtime to find solutions to the problem here."

"At the start of the scene, I have to show that while I am patient, I get easily irritated and work hard to maintain my cool over having to wait. I was thinking of adding a twitch to his movement. Like a quirk, something like tapping his foot, or tapping his fingers on the table or his cane." Robert interjected.

"Robert, you can do whatever you think is necessary to sell this character. Just make sure that you can enact his increasing anger throughout the scene." Will answered.

Robert was dressed in a black vest with a white shirt. A gold pocket watch was in his trousers, and its chair was connected to his breast pocket. He was wearing a gold ring on his right finger and had a mahogany walking stick in his left hand, which was due to his slight limp in his left leg.

Reagan was dressed in a white T-shirt, whose sleeves were rolled above his elbows. His arms were covered in tattoos depicting skulls, snakes, and wolves in a triad. His hands were covered in white gloves, and he was wearing brown trousers to complete his outfit.

"Alright, I will get Jeffery to set up the lights, and we will start the shot. Why don't you both go over the scene, and I will call when we start, okay?" Will said, and with their nods, he walked over to Jeffery, who was fiddling with the camera.

They were in the studio for this shot, and they had built an office room to take the scene. They had built the office to be a little darker but elegant in its design, with wooden flooring and a bookcase by the side. The window blinds were down, and there was an ashtray on the table, slowly rising smoke showing that someone had recently stubbed a cigarette.

"Jeffery, is the set ready? I want to take the scene." He asked as he reached his friend.

"Yeah, I am just adjusting the settings here, and I have instructed my team to get both clear audio and video in this scene. The props are ready, the gun is ready, with blanks in the magazine. Whenever you give the signal, we will start rolling." Jeffery informed him.

"Alright then, let's get this show on the road."

"Boss, we have a problem," Reagan said as he entered the office.

Robert, who was writing in a few documents, sighed, looked up and said, "Did you know, Alfie, that my ex-wife once said those exact words to me. 'We have a problem'. She said those words to me because apparently, shit wasn't going according to how she wanted it to. Do you know where she is now?"

Reagan stopped, noticing that the tension in the room was increasing by the second. He could see that Robert was tapping his fingers on the desk as he stood up from his seat. He shook his head and said, "No, sir, I don't."

"She's on the beach, in the Bahamas," Robert said as he looked at Reagan. "She's there with her family. I gave her exactly what she wanted."

"I- I don't understand, boss." Reagan stuttered.

Robert chuckled and walked to Reagan as he said, "She wanted to enjoy her life, have fun, enjoy. You know, I too wanted that for sure, but I told her to wait for a while. She didn't want to, so I sent her and her family to the Bahamas permanently." He finished ominously, "So, you better say the next few words carefully, Alfie or I will arrange a similar holiday destination for you to enjoy permanently. What is the problem?"

Reagan gulped, and he said, "Sir, T-Tommy Vercetti's men, t-they…"

"They what, Alfie?" Robert frowned as he brandished his gun.

"S-sir, they torched our warehouse and killed our delivery boys; we had no drugs delivered for the past four days." Reagan squeaked out.

Silence. His words were met with complete silence.

He watched as Robert took a deep breath, as he continued tapping on his cane, and walked to the cabinet. Robert opened the cabinet and took out a box.

BANG!

There was a loud noise as Robert fired the gun from inside the box, the bullet impacting just inches away from Alfie's face, and Alfie ducked for cover, checking his body for injuries.

As he looked at the splintered wall, Robert sighed and said, "I want all the men involved in that hit caught. Their families, tailed. If Ol' Vercetti wants to go to war, We will give it to him. NOW GET OUT!"

"And Cut!"

…

/DreamNote/

Bonus Chapter…? ? Start voting, I will prepare it.

Report chapter Comments

Chapter 137: [Bonus Chapter]

Bonus Chapter for No.1 Weekly Powestone Ranking!

…

June thought that climbing the stairs to the old apartment was the easy part as she glanced at the cracked, plain cream walls covered in dirty marks. The black metal handrail was cold to the touch, and she looked at John and asked, "Are you sure that the director lives here?"

"This was the address that I found, but I made sure to bring pepper spray with me, just in case," John replied, and she could hear the slight tremble in his voice. She sighed, she carried one in her purse as well, but she had expected John to at least verify and have come here once before. "Also, don't take his appearance too seriously. He is going through a rough phase, divorce, and on top of that, he is finally getting out of his habit of making festival films and entering the commercial market. He may be a little too focused on his work, so he may come off as a bit rude."

'Great', she thought internally.

"Alright, but please tell me you have already met the man, at least once." She asked.

When she got no reply, she looked incredulously at her agent and sighed but continued walking up the stairs anyway.

Her steps came to a halt when she reached the door, labelled 301, and pressed the doorbell.

When nothing happened, she went to press the bell again, and then she realized that it made no noise. So, sighing to herself, she loudly knocked on the door.

She heard a faint yell of "It's open" coming from the inside, and she looked incredulously at her agent.

Shaking her head, she subtly rechecked her purse for the pepper spray and pushed the door open.

The creaking noise that it made was not a welcoming sound to June, and she clutched the Pepper spray tighter in her hands.

Once the door was open, June saw that the inside of the apartment was as dirty as the outside. There were sheets of paper strewn about everywhere, a half-eaten pizza on the stool near the couch, the cabinet by the couch was broken, and some books were hanging out, threatening to fall. It seemed that there was only a studio apartment, as the room didn't lead into any other rooms which could have been inside.

On the couch sat a haggard old man who looked like he hadn't slept for days. He was bald, and his white-grey hair gave away his age. He was wearing a simple grey t-shirt and pyjamas, and he was looking at June and her agent with a little bit of confusion before he clicked his tongue in annoyance.

"June Roberts? I totally forgot that you and your agent were going to be coming here today. I am sorry about the mess. I don't exactly have the money to hire cleaners anymore, and I was way too busy to do it myself. Please, just wait a minute, I will clear out some chairs, and we will get on with reading the script that I have prepared." He said, getting up and opening the lower drawers of the cabinet by the couch. He pulled out two foldable chairs, placed them in front of both June and John, and sat back down on the couch.

"Uhm, Are you James Cameron?" John asked finally, breaking out of his stupor and trying to make sense of the situation.

The old man confusedly looked back from the papers that he was searching through. "What? Of course, I am James Cameron; who else would I be?" he asked rhetorically.

June was already nursing a headache and said, "Sir, are you James Cameron, the man known worldwide for his film festival entries? That James Cameron?"

"How many James Camerons do you know? Look, I don't have time for this; I will give you the script, and you can go over it right now or take it with you home. I want to know what you think, max by three days." He said irritably, handing her a large stack of paper.

Looking at the script's title, she read 'The Terminator'.

"Your role, if you accept it, would be of Sarah Connor." The old director explained.

"Cut, Leo, I need to be able to see the internal conflict in your character. You need to doubt yourself. I don't want you looking as if you are deciding whether you are rethinking about the type of Pizza you ordered." Will exclaimed when he had to stop the filming for yet another bad take by Leo.

Leo had been giving a lot of bad takes, as he couldn't correctly capture the emotion of insecurity and uncertainty that a person would feel when he is embroiled in the life of a gangster.

"Take a break for a moment, Leo. We will retake the scene again, let's say, in half an hour. Robert, why don't you help him a little while I go get some fresh air outside." Will said as he looked pleadingly at Robert.

Robert, still in his Gangster get up, looked at his pocket watch and chuckled. Then, he waved Will off and reassured, "Don't worry, I've got him."

Will walked off the set, and Robert looked at Leo, who seemed a bit down due to his recent streak of failure.

"Hey, none of that. I don't want to see you looking like Teen-angst over here. Every good actor has their moments, and trust me, when I was filming [Sherlock Holmes, I screwed the pooch many times. It happens; all you need is to rethink the character a little and get your head off the shooting for a while. Want to get coffee outside? We will be back in fifteen minutes." Robert offered.

Leo nodded slightly and sighed, "Yeah, I think coffee would be good." He said.

"All right, let's go, sour patch," Robert said as he led Leo to the room's exit and the coffee house that served in the building.

"Sourpatch?" Leo asked as he walked in step.

"What? Don't like it? You were being all mopey over here, really soured the mood a little, so you're sourpatch." Robert explained.

Leo cringed slightly and shook his head a little.

"I have better nicknames if you don't like that one. How's Meryl Streep? No? Ooh! I know one, from now on, you're "Sir Lawrence Olivier, the third"!" Robert exclaimed as he mock knighted Leo while walking backwards to the shop.

"Why the third?" Leo asked curiously.

"I really liked Richard III, and I thought it sounded nice," Robert explained, shrugging his shoulders.

Leo laughed a little, his previous gloomy attitude all but forgotten.

They reached the bartender inside the coffee shop, and Robert ordered two cups of coffee for them.

"That should help you get right back in the game, it's not too bitter, and neither is it too sweet. It will help you focus again." He said, handing Leo the cup of piping hot coffee.

They drank their coffee in companionable silence as Robert let Leo relax a little and get his mind back in the game. After about five minutes, he broke the silence. "Come on, let's go, Sir Lawrence Olivier The Third. We should head back; I will help you rehearse a little and let us see if we can't get the shot down."

Leo nodded and followed Robert back to the set after downing the last of his coffee.

As soon as he was back on the set, Leo and Robert motioned him to try again.

Leo took the prop pistol, and he kept it by his hip for the moment. He walked toward the car that they had set up and faced the extra actors that were helping him rehearse.

"Don't point that gun at me, man. Don't point that gun at me." Leo said as he assumed the character of Mario again. He could see the man on top of the car fiddling with the bolt action of the gun he had brought. "Come on, man. We've fought side by side, don't make me do this. I-I don't want to have to do this. Man!"

He could see that the man fumbled with the bullet that had fallen out of the chamber, and he tried pleading once again. "Please, don't do this!"

The man finally reloaded the bullet into the chamber. As he went to take aim, Mario unloaded his pistol into the man, followed by shooting the other two men in the car, hesitating only slightly.

He kept staring at the car for over five seconds and then threw the gun at the sidewalk as he screamed in rage, and he fell to his knees. He kept sobbing for what could have been an eternity.

"You see, that's what Will wants in the shot. I think that was perfect." Robert commented from the side.

"It was." Will's voice echoed in the room, and Leo turned to look at him. "That was perfect. Let's get the cameras rolling! Jeffery!"

Leo gave perfect shots for the rest of the day, and the filming picked up with extreme fervour.

…

/DreamNote/

Ahem, that was just bromance, not geh.

Also, keep on voting for next week's bonus chapter!!!

Report chapter Comments

Chapter 138:

"This whole scene will need a lot of miniatures and scaled models. The number of explosions you are talking about is, frankly, absurd." A tall grizzly man wearing a neon vest said to Will. He was Charlie Wesley, the Pyrotechnics expert they had hired for the film.

"I understand, and I will get Mega Works', and my own CGI department to handle the rest. I really need this scene to look good." Will said.

The man nodded and continued, "We already have the green screen ready for the single shot. We have set the small explosions along the path, as well as the sparks, to simulate the ricochets of the bullets. And we have fit it such that the spark will go off whenever Mr Silva presses the trigger of the prop gun that he will be handed."

"Alright, Jeffery, are the extras ready? Do they know what they have to do?" Will asked, directing his next question to his cinematographer.

"Yeah, we have informed them. They will give chase to Ethan and Leo, and slowly peter off, once we start giving the signals." Jeffery replied.

"And is the camera crew ready? This will need to be done with precision. Ethan and Leo will have it easy this time. Most of the effort will be by the CGI and Camera department." Will be questioned again.

"Yeah, my team is ready, and we have the line ready, and the camera is mounted on the wire. We will get it done easily enough," Jeffery reassured him.

They were going to be shooting a chase scene in between a falling and simultaneously exploding five-story building. They had set the studio to replicate the building and had the green screens set up wherever necessary.

Leo and Ethan will be moving to escape the exploding building while being chased by guards and men who are also trying to escape as well as catch them.

Pyrotechnics in Hollywood usually depend on building scaled models of a realistic environment, and then those models are made to explode. Some small-scale explosions are used to generate movement of static objects, but real explosions are almost never recorded directly, as they are both a safety hazard, and environmental regulations strictly deny lighting large things on fire for filming purposes.

Alan Will's assistant director had managed to point out that with the number of explosions in this particular shot, it would be necessary to pan the cameras wide in order to fit the massive destruction that they intended to portray. So while Ethan as Tommy and Leo as Mario would try to run through the building, escaping both the explosions and the men chasing them, the final scene where the entire building explodes would have to be either CGI or a miniature building model actually made to explode with added CGI for realism.

"Alright, I want to finish this scene in one take, and it shouldn't be difficult. Most of the focus is on you, Charlie. We need to time the explosions perfectly, with Leo and Ethan's movements, the gunshot ricochets are automatic anyway. Let's get the camera rolling, people!" Will said, giving his last-second emphasis on the importance of precision.

Modern Hollywood films have generally let go of the use of Pyrotechnics in favour of CGI, mainly due to the precision and accuracy required to get a good take for a pyrotechnics show. The other reason was due to the push from environmentalists that denounced Pyrotechnics use in movies entirely, along with the safety hazards it generally brought with it. Will wanted to capture the scenes using a mix of Pyrotechnics and CGI for the added realism effect.

"Action"

"Come On, Ya Cocksucker, we gotta run!" Tommy Vercetti said as he pulled Mario up and out of the room. "This place is about to explode. Ol' foxy will get a big payday with my dick smeared all over it."

BOOOOOM!

"Let's move! Let's move!" He said as he sprinted out of the room.

As soon as Tommy and Mario were out of the room, they were fired upon by a barrage of bullets, but their attackers mostly hit the pillar they ducked behind. The bullets stopped when yet another explosion sounded from the other side of the corridor.

"Holy! Fuck!" Mario exclaimed, covering his ears.

"Get your shit together, kid!" Tommy said as he pulled Mario up again after he had recoiled from the explosion. "You see that window at the end of the corridor." He said, pointing down the corridor, which was slowly getting filled with smoke.

Mario nodded, "Yeah, I see it."

"We have to make a run straight for it and jump out! Don't stop! You hear me?! Don't stop! On three!" Tommy said.

Another explosion went off behind them, and they could hear men running their way.

"OH FUCK THIS! THREE!" Tommy screamed and made a run for it.

Mario quickly started sprinting behind him. He could see that the men behind him were shooting bullets at him, but he couldn't stop anymore, or he would get shot or get caught in the explosion.

Another explosion went off, and Mario glanced back, stumbling a little at the wreck behind him. The entire ceiling had fallen down, and the men that were chasing them were being licked slightly by the flames. They wouldn't make it.

Stumbling a little, Mario used his hands on the floor to steady his footing as he kept on sprinting.

He reached the window at the end of the corridor, and both he and Tommy jumped out the window together and fell down the few stories of the building. Immediately after they were out the window, flames erupted from the window, signifying that all other people in the corridor had been burnt to a crisp.

"And Cut! That's perfect," Will's voice sounded, signifying the shot had been captured.

Leo and Ethan fell on the soft foam mattress that the team had erected for when they would jump out of the fake corridor that they had built for the scene.

"FNN sources suggest that Dream Vision may acquire parts of Mega Works under a deal proposed by the former. This comes after rumours previously suggested that a Dubai-based company was in talks with Mega Works to acquire all assets that belonged to the film studio. What this entails for the future of Mega Works and Dream Vision, stay tuned to find out." Will was watching the television inside his hotel room at The Plaza in New York City.

He had just returned after a day of filming at an on-site set and wanted to relax for a while. He was browsing through the various channels that were available on the TV in his suite when his phone started ringing.

to do, to do, to do to do to do to do to doooooo to do to do*

Seeing that it was a video call from [1917] 's director Lucas Amspoker, he switched off the TV and picked up the call.

"Hello!" He said, picking up the call.

"Will! It's good to see you!" He could see Lucas smiling on the screen.

"It's good to see you too, Lucas! How can I help you?" Will said, getting up from the bed and walking to the window to open the blinds and look at the nighttime view of Central Park.

"Listen, I have finished all that I needed to do with [1917]. We can have a private screening for the company whenever you're back in Los Angeles. I just received invites to the Cannes Film Festival, and I thought it would be the perfect opportunity for us to do the first public screening there. We can enter it into the competition, and based on its quality; I am sure we can attract a large crowd and get some awards for it. What do you think?" Lucas said.

It had been a month since [Liberty City] had started filming. If they did go ahead and submit [1917] They would be postponing their release by two weeks, which was fine by Will. By the time the film festival rolled around, the filming of [Liberty City] would be complete, and he could take time to relax and go there. He could also take June along with him.

"I think that is a great idea. Plus, it is your movie. You directed it. So it's your call on when and where you want to do the first screening. After that, we will release the movie to the general public, after the film festival." Will said finally.

"Will you be at the festival?" Lucas asked him.

"Yeah, I did receive an invite, and I am sure it would be a fun event to attend. I will probably be there, alongside June." Will said, plus the Cannes festival would be a fantastic opportunity for Will to meet many new directors, both young and old.

"Great! I will see you when you're back in Los Angeles, and we will go over the private screening of [1917] then." Lucas said enthusiastically.

"Alright, I will see you then." Will nodded and cut the call.

He sighed as he turned away from the window and decided to head down into the city for a nighttime stroll to clear his head from work.

…

/DreamNote/

Don't forget to support me with your powerstones!!

Report chapter Comments

Chapter 139:

"That was a good shot today, Robert. I think we will be done with the shooting by next week." Will said as he sat down in front of the Star, who was dressed in his Don Vulpe attire.

"Yeah, I had fun shooting this film, I am looking forward to seeing the final product after the wizardry of modern technology is done with this," Robert said, sipping his coffee and shaking his head. "Well, either way, I am sure this will be a fun movie in the end."

Will laughed and said, "Wizardry is an apt word for what they do, isn't it? Anyway, I wanted to go over the last scene with you again. Are you sure that you are okay with being stuffed in the back of a sports car? We have fitted its trunk with a roll cage and padding, and it won't fall any more than half a story. The wizards at the CGI department will make it look like a higher jump later. But it's still a risk."

Robert nodded immediately. "Yes, I have checked the padding and the roll cage in the trunk, and I am sure I will be able to handle it. Being locked up inside will help me generate a sort of real scream, in the end, so yes, I am sure I don't mind."

Will nodded reluctantly, looking at Robert with a lot more respect. "Well then, I suppose if you're sure–"

"I am"

"-then, your final scene will be done by tomorrow, and then I suppose I will see you next at The Cannes Festival." Will continued, smiling a little at Robert's reassurance.

Robert hesitated a little and then said, "Oh, uhm, about that, I will miss this year's festival. Not really been one to enjoy parties anymore, especially after, you know."

Will nodded, and Robert continued, "plus, I met this beautiful brunette that I told you about, Susan Levin, she finally agreed to go out with me, and we've been dating for some time. Just keep that on the down-low, yeah? I am planning to go on a vacation with her after this movie's filming."

Will nodded as he tried to remember their conversation about Susan. "Ah, yes, I remember you told me about her. You met her during the endorsement advertisements DTA sent you on, yeah? The small-time producer? Well, enjoy your vacation, Robert. If there is anyone in this agency that deserves a vacation, it's you. You have managed to turn your life around completely and have given it your all." Will said honestly.

Robert smiled at Will and said, "Will, you enabled me and helped turn my life around. I don't know where I would be if you hadn't made that offer for Sherlock to me. I was probably dizzy enough not to know my left hand from the right or behind bars again."

Will shook his head furiously and emphasized, "No, don't do that, Robert. Everything you've achieved till now is your own merit. You deserve it. I am sure that if I hadn't met you that day, some other director or talent searcher would have eventually found you. You would have landed well on your own two feet. You're a talented artist, don't belittle your accomplishments and put me on a pedestal."

Robert looked at Will for a minute and nodded. "Yeah, you're right. All that self-pity thing is not my deal anyway. But thank you, Will."

They continued chatting with each other for a while, while both June, who had arrived to film her short scene, and Natalie, who played Leo's girlfriend in the film, were getting ready for their roles and rehearsing the script with each other.

They were interrupted when Ethan Silva, who had arrived on set a few minutes ago, attempted chatting Natalie up. He had a very wide grin on his face, and Will could see that he was putting on all the charm at the moment.

"There is a reason why he has been divorced twice. And by the looks of it, he's well on his way to a third one." Robert joked from his seat, noticing Will's gaze on the pair.

"You don't say," Will deadpanned. Ethan had been flirting with Natalie for a long time throughout the filming. It had become a little uncomfortable on set, and Will had to play interference between the two actors.

Natalie still did not feel secure enough in her career, having only done one feature film and a few advertisements that resulted from said film. She wanted to stave off any emotional attachments until she was secure enough in her chosen career.

The attempted flirting from Ethan Silva had caused a little uncomfortable tension to develop between both the actors and Leo had to navigate the awkwardness at moments, as Natalie was his in-film girlfriend of Leo. Will had supported him nonetheless, and he had managed to establish himself as a talented actor on the set, and was able to interact and socialize very affably with his colleagues.

"It's a good thing the kid, Leo, had your support during this shooting. He's slowly coming out on his own, and eventually, he won't need that extra support to stand out on the set as he does right now. Speaking of, let me say, Wow! That kid has talent. I'd wager he will be better than me!" Robert complimented Leo, which made Will smile.

"I think he will go far in this industry given the right support, just like you, Robert," Will affirmed. "Anyway, I think we should get back on with the shooting."

"Yeah, alright. Let's go." Robert nodded, finishing coffee.

"Action!' Will shouted.

"I know, I-I know the location. I know what's required. I do. I can do it." A man wearing a beanie said to his friend while fiddling with a packet containing green leafy powder.

"How many times… do you want me …. To repeat myself? Huh, Marco?" His friend questioned.

"I am just saying what I am thinking, that's all, Frank," Marco said quickly.

Frank sighed and turned his head to stare appreciatively at the woman who entered the warehouse the gang was working in.

"Look at that hot piece of ass," Frank said, nudging Marco on the shoulder.

"Get your head back in the game. Don't you know who she is? That's Emmaline, that is. She's the chic that struts around with the new boss." Marco said after taking a glance at the woman.

Just behind the woman, a man dressed in a long black coat, black pants and white gloves, with a golden pocket watch, walked in.

"That's the boss. Everyone thought he was a kid, and he wouldn't go far. From what I know, he blew up Don Vulpe in his own damn car by rolling him off a cliff." Marco continued, building a big image of Mario in his head.

Mario and his girlfriend, Emmaline, walked over to the table the two men were sitting at, and Mario said, "Well, now that you boys have established who I am, you probably also know, Frankie, that you're already dead!"

Marco and Frank tensed as Mario placed a single bullet on the table. They looked at each other, and then at the bullet, and finally at Mario with a little fear and confusion.

"However", Mario continued as if nothing was wrong and pulled out a revolver whose chamber popped open and had no bullets inside.

"What's he doing with that gun?" Marco asked, edging away from his seat.

"Ah! We are playing a game with gravity!" Mario replied, smiling.

Frank shook his head and muttered, "Fucking gravity." His eyes strained to the woman who was standing beside Mario, staring intently at the Tommy Gun in her hand.

Mario smiled, noticing his gaze and then looked at Marco. "When I place this bullet into this chamber," He explained like a professor, "and rotate it, Gravity pulls the bullet down here." He said, pointing to where the chamber met the barrel. Then he tilted the gun vertically. "But when I rotate it this way, it gives us all equal odds. Doesn't it?"

Mario then looked at Emmaline and winked, "Here, sweetheart, spin the barrel."

The woman smirked and took the gun from him as she whispered seductively in his ear, "With pleasure!" adding a soft purr at the end.

She spun the barrel and handed the gun to Mario, who immediately pointed to his own temple and emptied two chambers In his head while he laughed as he placed the revolver on the table.

The other two men were frightened out of their minds as Mario continued, "Heh! I lowered the odds for both of you, fellas."

Frank finally asked, "W-why are you doing this?"

Mario laughed. "You stole! This," he said, pointing at the gun, "Is making it right!"

"W-we didn't steal anything."

Mario just laughed. "Oh, of course! It was the invisible man!"

"Y-yeah, that's right!"

"Or was it your boyfriend? You could have invisible friends too?" Mario asked rhetorically.

Emmaline snorted at that. "Oh, yeah. All his friends are imaginary."

Mario laughed and continued, "Way I see it, I have given you boys a three to one chance to walk outta here, so who's first?"

When no one made a move, Mario said, "Let's empty our pockets."

Marco asked, "huh, pockets? Why?"

"Oh, to incentivize the game, of course!" Mario said, emptying his pockets. Slowly the other two emptied their pockets as well after Emmaline cocked the Tommy gun at them.

"Now, you. Wimpy boy." Mario said, handing the revolver to Marco. "It's your turn. It's alright. That's it"

Marco took the gun in his shaky hand and then looked at the Tommy Gun that was pointed at him. He slowly, shakily brought the gun to his temple and spilt a tear before pressing the trigger.

Click. The sound indicated another empty chamber, and Marco breathed a sigh of relief. And he gasped to catch his breath.

Mario smiled as he finally handed the gun to Frank. Who stared at it hard.

"Now, the odds are two for me, one for the wimpy one, and zero for you. Smart says sooner is better than later." Mario said.

"Come on, kid, pull the trigger. You've still got another chance!" Emmaline commented.

Frank looked at her angrily and shouted, "SHUT YOUR FUCKING TRAP!!"

Mario chuckled and oohed at his bravado, but the Tommy Gun in Emmaline's hands reassured him about him.

Frank breathed deeply to calm his nerves and mumbled, "what do you want?"

Mario sighed and said, "Now would be a good time to give me the key."

Frank looked up sharply at Mario and asked hesitantly, "How do you know about the Key?"

"How do I know about the key to the shed with 5 Million dollars worth of coke? Did you think we're stupid?" Mario asked, finally getting serious. "Press the trigger, or give me the key."

Looking again at the Tommy Gun in Emmaline's hand, Frank pointed the gun at his temple and held it there for a long minute, his hands shaking.

Mario stared straight into his eyes, and Frank cried. He quickly got up as Emmaline went to pull the trigger of her Tommy Gun, but she noticed Frank instead pointed the gun at his friend and pulled the trigger.

Click. The sound of an empty chamber indicated that the bullet didn't go off.

Marco immediately pushed the gun away from his face and knifed his friend repeatedly in the gut as Mario watched on smiling.

"YOU FUCKER!" Marco kept repeating. "YOU BACKSTABBING COCKSUCKER!" as he stabbed his friend.

Finally, Marco returned to his seat exhausted and looked at Mario.

"Now be a dear, Marco. Take the key from his neck, hand it over to me, and then fuck off."

Marco procured the key from the corpse and gave it to Mario, and hastily left the warehouse.

"Are you sure it was a good idea to let him go?" Emmaline asked.

"Don't worry, sweetheart. His hands were full of blood, and his weed was poisoned. He'll die by tomorrow or get caught by the police, and they will blame all this on OD." He reassured her. "What we should be worrying about is the invisible man."

"What the hell are you talking about?" She asked.

"There's another chamber left, and we have one more player." He said, looking at the camera in the studio.

He picked up the gun, smiled directly at the camera, pointed it at the camera and shot the gun.

"And Cut! Perfectly done! We're finished with the filming! Wrap it up, people! Party tomorrow at The Plaza!" Will shouted as everyone in the set whooped in joy.

…

/DreamNote/

Don't forget to vote with your powerstones for this super long chapter hehehe

And why haven't you joined discord? The link is in synopsis!

Report chapter Comments

Chapter 140:

Cannes is one of the most popular towns on the French Riviera.

Its beaches, Mediterranean climate, and exceptional geographical location near Nice, Monaco, and Saint-Tropez attract around three million visitors from around the world each year.

Of course, when talking about Cannes, we inevitably think about the International Film Festival and la Croisette, the unmissable seafront promenade. An English politician and writer, Lord Henry Brougham, fell in love with the town in 1834 and subsequently introduced it to his compatriots.

Today, Cannes is no longer the fishing village as it was before. Instead, the capital of cinema is known worldwide for its trade fairs and its prestigious luxury hotels (Le Martinez, le Carlton…) frequented by film stars and other wealthy tourists. In Cannes, the famous Palais des Festivals rolls out the red carpet every year for the stars of world cinema.

It is here that the International Cannes Film Festival is going to be held. Will had just arrived with June and the rest of his crew in the beautiful Mediterranean city and had booked a Yacht for himself and June to stay in for the nights. They wanted peace and quiet, away from the jam-packed hotels and beaches, while enjoying themselves to the fullest in the city and away.

They had all received invites to the prestigious occasion and were here for the event. Dream Vision Studio's new film [1917] was going to premiere the very next day, and Director Lucas Amspoker, who had arrived earlier than scheduled, was ecstatic. For Renly and Elijah, the film would mark their debut in Hollywood, and for it to be premiered during the prestigious event, they were certainly over the moon.

Amanda had elected to stay back in Los Angeles. She was a single mother, who wanted to enjoy time with her kids, and wanted to get some work done while most of the upper echelons of the Studio were away on vacation.

Will was confident that [1917] would sweep many awards under its belt here, and he was hopeful that the 'Palme d'Or' would be one of them. The movie did win seven awards at the BAFTA film festival in his previous reality, so he was looking forward to its showing here.

"Are you nervous? You don't have to be. The movie will do wonderfully." June said to Will as they made their way out of the jet that they had used to arrive in France. "Plus, we're here in Cannes; you should relax. Why don't we head on over to the yacht, and have some food, then we can tour the city for a bit?" She said, squeezing Will's hand.

In truth, he was a bit nervous, for despite being reassured and confident about the film, due to its accredited nature from his previous life, there was always that niggling sense of uncertainty that remained at the back of his mind. He was quite appreciative of the support that June showed to him.

He smiled at her and said, "Just a few jitters, nothing much." And helped her into the car that was waiting for them on the tarmac of the airport where they'd arrived. Their customs and regulations were to be done privately away from the general public that used the airport.

He was looking forward to enjoying his time at the festival.

Taking a walk down the allées de la liberté alongside June, he could see the hustle and bustle of the city, as it had become more crowded than it normally was due to the increased celebrity presence in the city. It was a surprise no one had recognized either him or June yet. But he didn't want to look a gift horse in the mouth and decided to enjoy the moment.

"You've lost all nervousness about tomorrow's premiere. That's good. I am glad I joined you on this trip." June said as they walked down the street, admiring the city's streets and taking in its vibrant atmosphere.

"Yeah, this takes me back to [The Blair Witch Project, it too had premiered at a film festival. We were so nervous back then too. The whole idea about the marketing stunt we pulled back then had given me so much anxiety; it's kind of the same now. But, a little diluted." Will said as he guided her to where he knew a good restaurant that he had booked for the evening.

She smiled fondly at the memories, "Yeah, that was a really fun shoot. We had so much both with the filming and during the release." She said as they reached the end of the street and waited at the intersection.

Will gently took her hand and guided her down a few narrow streets, and they reached a quaint little place in the heart of the city, which was named "Gusti Italiani".

"Italian restaurant in a French City?" June commented.

"To be honest, I have heard that Paris has some of the best Italian food and restaurants in the world." Will shrugged.

Will walked up to the attendant who was waiting at the entrance, and said "Bonsoir, j'ai une réservation sous le nom de Will Evans."

The man who looked at Will, widened his eyes as he recognized the star director but slowly regained his composure. He nodded to Will and June and said "Oui s'il te plaît. Attendez un instant, et je vérifierai notre liste de réservation. " and checked his computer, for the name in the list "Ah oui. Une table pour deux, oui ? Suis-moi s'il te plait. "

He guided them inside the restaurant to their reserved seats and handed them the menus for them to peruse.

"Since when do you speak French?" June asked, not having known that Will knew the language.

"Oh, didn't you know? They taught that as an added language back in my university. I thought it was a beautiful language to know how to speak, so it stuck." Will replied nonchalantly.

June smiled at him, impressed yet again by him. "It is a beautiful language, true."

The attendant returned a moment later and said in clear English, with just a hint of an accent, as he placed the warm cutlery on the table, poured them each a glass of water, and placed some bread on the table, "Good evening, Mr Evans, I am Angelo, I will be serving you today. I hope you're having a wonderful time in Cannes and at the festival. Would you like some drinks to start things off?"

Will looked at the attendant, "Good evening Angelo; Cannes is a wonderful destination, some Vernaccia di San Gimignano would be a good starter for us."

Angelo nodded and asked with a smile, "And would you like more time to decide on your choice of the meal? Or are you ready to order?"

Will looked at June, who nodded, and then he said, "I would like Risotto ai Frutti di mare alongside constelette D'Angleo grigliate, would be wonderful."

Angelo wrote down Will's order and turned to June. "And what about you, mademoiselle?"

June looked at the menu and finally said, "I would like a Risotto ai Frutti di Funghi, with a tagliata di Manzo, please."

Angelo wrote down their chosen orders and smiled at the two of them. "I will bring your food to you in a moment; please feel free to call on me any time during the course of your stay with us." He said, bowed slightly and left.

The duo sat and talked for a while as they waited for the food to arrive.

In under a few minutes, Angelo returned as he brought them their selected wine.

They conversed among themselves as they sipped their wine. Their conversation slowly moved towards June's latest project and her encounter with the irritable European movie director.

"Oh, I was frightened when I opened the door. I had clutched my pepper spray so tightly that I was sure that I would have dented the bottle. Then we talked for a while, and the old director said that he was impressed by my acting and looks; he said he wanted me to work on his new project. Apparently, John said that he's recently diversified into commercial films, and he was taking a major risk. I am still a little hesitant about the whole thing, but reading the script, I quite like it. I think it will be a good movie if he does it right." June said.

Will listened, enraptured by the tale she was telling, and he finally asked, "Who is this director? What is the film going to be called."

The answer he received shocked him to his core. "Oh, it was Director James Cameron, and he is making a sci-fi flick called Terminator."

…

/DreamNote/

Let me know if I have butchered any french. I will really appreciate it.

Don't forget to vote with ps

Report chapter Comments

Chapter 141: Poll.

Hey guys, something's been bugging me in the recent days and I have come to listen to your opinion. Click on the below link and spare a few second to vote. Ty

Poll: /posts/67199742

Short link: rb.gy/u2ifhu

Ps. Ahem, it's regarding Marvel.

The link is also in comments. The poll is open for one week.

Vote and make your opinion count!

Report chapter Comments

Chapter 142:

Will had to exercise tremendous amounts of willpower not to perform a spit take when he heard the name of the movie and the man who would be directing it.

He mused that if actors and actresses who were famous in his previous reality were present in this one too, then there was nothing remarkable about a Director also showing up on his radar.

He could see that June had somewhat noticed his reaction and would ask questions. Shaking his head, he wiped the little wine that had spilt out of the corner of his mouth with a napkin and looked at June.

She was looking at him questioningly and asked, "Have you heard of director James Cameron from somewhere before this? Have you seen his movies?"

After a moment of thought, Will replied, "I haven't seen his work in this industry yet, but I have heard of him. He is a talented director. I would certainly like to see what he does with his film. What is it about? May I see the script sometime later?"

June nodded, putting his reaction out of her mind. She took a sip of her wine and replied, "Well, I quite liked the script. It was well written. As far as I can glean off the script, it's a sci-fi action flick with a robotic cyborg, called The Terminator, who travels to the past to kill a woman, Sarah Conner. I will be playing her role. Anyway, Sarah's son leads the fight against an AI Overlord called Skynet. I will show you the script later if you like."

Will nodded and asked, "What do you think about the director?"

June looked at Will askance before she replied, "Well, he's an old man, and I would say he is quite passionate, if not more so, about his work, like you. Unfortunately, though, I think he takes it to the extreme. Based on his previous history, I would also say that he is a little reckless. He divorced his wife, sold his home, and there is apparently more stuff like this, just for this single film."

Will nodded as he thought about the description she provided. From a certain viewpoint, he could see how people would describe James Cameron as reckless. Still, he knew that he was talented and that The Terminator had the potential to be every bit the multi-billion-dollar blockbuster saga if it was done right.

In Will's previous reality, The Terminator stood as one of its era's most important efforts. It stood as a monumental achievement for who and what is introduced to modern moviemaking. But that did not discount its inherent entertainment value. In 1984, Hollywood had never really seen anything of The Terminator's calibre. Replicating it in the era of modern CGI and technology and still retaining its thrilling, realistic factor while simultaneously enrapturing the audience would be a tall task for James Cameron.

The movie was so well received during its time that it developed into its own franchise, with several tie-ins to various other pieces of pop culture, like comics and other shows. Skynet was a name that defined Artificial Intelligence for decades and led to many conspiracy theories that popped up on its behalf. Only the development of more advanced forms of technology and time subsided the fear it had generated of Artificial Intelligences and Robot uprisings.

The T-800 and T-1000 had practically become household names at one point.

Will shook his head of the thoughts and said, "Well, if the script is as good as you say, then a good director may be able to pull it off."

June nodded but said, "The movie is still in its early pre-production stages. I think Mr Cameron is still looking for more funding. Based on the script, it would require a lot of computer work and CGI, and you know how expensive that is. Are you thinking of investing in it?"

Will looked at June and asked, "What made you think that?"

June inclined her head at her wine and said, "Well, your reaction upon hearing the Director's name, so I thought you were interested in the movie."

Will could see how she could have made that error. He furrowed his brows slightly and replied, "I am not sure yet. If I like the script, I would certainly love the opportunity to be a part of the project. What do you think? Should I invest in it?"

June thought about his question and said, "Well, it is certainly an interesting movie. It depends on whether you want to get involved in a project not written by yourself. You wrote all your movies till now. Yet, at the same time, I think it's an opportunity for you to diversify and potentially be a part of a good project. As you said before, you want to produce more creative movies for Hollywood. This seems like a good opportunity to further that goal, just with a less hands on approach this time."

Will nodded as he took another sip of his wine and said, "Well, I will think about it after seeing the script. And I would also like to meet with the director, as well. I want to see what he's like and if he's amenable to a third-party investor in his film."

June nodded and returned to her meal after saying, "Alright, I will have John email you my copy. You can also help me rehearse the lines later if you're up for it."

Will smiled at her and said, "Of course, I will help you however I can." Placing his hand over hers and gently squeezed it.

She smiled in response, and the two continued to enjoy their date. They quickly finished their meal and decided to take the scenic route back to the pier to get on their harbor to get back to their yacht and enjoy their night in the ocean's calm with each other.

After a lot of fanfare and pomp, the cast, crew, and the media took their seats inside the theater that was a part of The Palais des Festivals et des Congrès, the convention center at which the Cannes Film Festival was organized.

Many of the prominent members of the media and celebrities had arrived for the film, which had been hyped due to the combination of the duo of Will Evans, Hollywood's brightest new star, and Lucas Amspoker, the leading military action movie director.

The media was also excited to yet again be introduced to new talents in the name of Elijah Thomas and Renly Warren. They were also excited about Michael Robert Elrod's rumored involvement in the film, though his absence at the event had left many members of the media disappointed.

June sat beside Will in the gallery of the theater. She was also excited about witnessing another one of Will's works.

The movie's director, Lucas Amspoker, was seated in the next gallery over with Elijah and Renly. He had been extremely ecstatic about the final product, even after witnessing it prior at the company screening with Will and Amanda back in Los Angeles.

Elijah and Renly were in similar moods. They felt very proud of their work. Their tour throughout Europe with the various modeling agencies had done them a lot of good.

The media was sat in a lower gallery, and there was a general aura of anticipation in the air among everyone that was present. They included many critics who wanted to taste another of Will Evans' masterpieces, and they were getting impatient, anxiously waiting for the film to start.

They didn't have to wait long though. As the cinema lights went dim, the screen showed the Giant Logo of Dream Vision Studios, with a camera that pointed into the far distance. It faded slowly, and was replaced by the ICM logo, the film's distributor, which was again replaced by a singular line stating "A Will Evans and Lucas Amspoker Presentation" which was slowly replaced by the final heading stating April 6, below which In a larger font was written 1917.

That too slowly gave way to a picturesque shot of a green grassy field, which was covered in yellow and white flowers. Then, the shot zoomed out and showed that two soldiers in World War One uniforms were on the field by a tree and were resting with their eyes closed. As the audience quickly identified the two soldiers, their attention was finally enraptured on the screen as the movie started playing out.

…

/DreamNote/

Read next 12 chapters on /dreamthree!

Don't forget to support me with your powerstones

Report chapter Comments

Chapter 143:

Crying. The only thing that Lance Corporal Schofield could do was cry and sob as he kneeled by the river bank that he had just dragged himself out of.

He cried for the river, for his friend, Blake, and cried for the baby he had come across when he traversed behind enemy lines.

Through his sobs, he noticed that the first light of the morning sun was slowly forming behind the foliage of the trees, of the forest he had found himself in. He is slowly losing all hopes of ever reaching the encampment of the Devons. He cried for the 1600 lives that will be lost due to his failure.

His sobs are broken by the soft and distant melody that reaches his ears. He looks around, trying to find the source of the music.

He slowly dragged himself up on his feet as he made his way towards the melody. He stumbled a little due to his limbs' cold and frozen nature, having survived being adrift in the freezing river water.

"…there is no sickness, toil, nor danger/In that bright land to which I go…" He listened as he made his way over the woods and peeked into the clearing.

The music has a source, at last, as he noticed a young soldier in British military uniform, standing in the center of the clearing, singing for what looks like an entire company of British soldiers.

"I'm going there to see my Father, And all my loved ones who've gone on." The folk song that he was singing continues.

Hope rose in his chest, and Lance Corporal Schofield closed his eyes to enjoy the intoxicating feeling.

Faintly, in the background, he listened as an officer barked out, "D Company, Move out!" Just as the final verses of the song reach him.

"I'm only going over, Jordan! I'm only going home!"

His reverie is broken by a voice that comes from directly in front of him.

"You alright, pal?" The voice said.

Schofield opens his eyes. He sees a pair of legs before him.

Another voice quickly asks, "Where are you from?"

"He's probably got the wind-up."

"Well, he's not one of ours."

"He's bloody soaked."

"Fuck it, let's just pick him up and take him with us."

Realizing the men were talking to him, Schofield faintly mumbled, "Have to find the Devons."

"What's he saying?" A soldier questioned the group.

"What's that, mate?" Another asked him.

"The Devons. I have to find the Devons." He said clearly, as he gazed at the men around him.

There is a pause as the men look at each other, and then one of the privates' replies, "We're the Devons."

Schofield looks up at them, disbelief on his face. "You're the Devons."

The private answers, "Yes, Corp."

As the movie reached its ending stages, Anthony Macy couldn't keep the smile off his face. He did not have huge hopes for the Dream Vision production film premiering at the Cannes Festival. But, he had shown up, as his job required nonetheless.

He was glad he did. Because he could see that [1917] was going to redefine military action films and cinematography in general, he had been skeptical over the meteoric rise of Will Evans in the industry. Still, after witnessing The Piece De Resistance, which his studio had masterfully produced, he finally became a believer.

'This is going to change everything. After this reaches the screens, the industry will not be the same again.' He crowed internally. He couldn't wait for the award ceremony, for he was sure that this movie would sweep a lot of awards under its belt.

He watched as the film continued, and Lance Corporal Schofield hurriedly made his way through toward the front line. The chaotic preparations of the battlefield, the men lining up by the edge of the trench, portrayed the urgency under which the foot messenger was working.

The tension was palpable, and Anthony Macy could see that his colleagues, the other journalists from around the globe, were sitting on the edge of their seats, waiting for the meeting between the soldier and the mysterious colonel McKenzie to finally happen.

He watched as the soldier fought his way through what seemed to be the barracks, and he finally made his way into the guarded command center. The faint sound of artillery fire and the crowds of charging soldiers that he had made his way through, giving credence to how close the soldier was to be unable to stop the bloodbath that threatened to follow, should he fail his mission.

After much struggle, the terrified yet determined soldier breaks his way into the barracks.

"Tell Ivins and Murphy to direct their men to the left flank. Concentrate everything there." He listened as the officer, who had his back towards him, gave orders to the other men standing around the singular table in the barracks.

"Colonel McKenzie!" Standing at attention, Schofield finally announced his presence.

Listening to the intrusion, the enigmatic colonel finally turns around, and to the delight of everyone in the hall, the rumor of Michael Robert Elrod's cameo finally plays out.

Anthony Macy smiles, yet again, as he knows that this will be one of his highest-rated films yet, and he was sure that the reviews his colleagues would give it would be no less than his own.

Sitting in the gallery of The Palais des Festivals et des Congrès, alongside his team, Will couldn't keep the excitement off of his face.

June and everyone else in the cinema had absolutely loved the film. Lucas Amspoker had cried because of the standing ovation it received after the film had ended. And he could clearly see the sincerity with which people genuinely respected the movie and the work that went behind its production.

He had been uncertain about the awards ceremony, and Will had to calm him down lest he pops a blood vessel due to his involuntarily putting himself under stress.

Will knew that the film would win many awards at the prestigious ceremony, but secretly, he too had been nervous about it. After seeing the reactions of the audience after the movie, he had lost a little bit of his nervousness, and he became hopeful for this ceremony.

The host of this ceremony was Bobby McTaggart, a British comedian and late-night show host.

"Welcome! Welcome to the 2012 Annual Cannes Film Festival! We are all gathered here, something that we all love and enjoy! Cinema! Or that's what the show organizers want you to believe. But we all know why we are all here." The comedian began as he tried to lighten the atmosphere with jokes.

"We're all here for the food, of course. Nothing else. What? Did you think I was going to say that we're here to show the world our extravagance? Well, that too, but food comes first. That is a fact of life." He joked.

The audience laughed, and they got comfortable with what was slowly shaping up to be a great show.

"Speaking of extravagance, we have modern Hollywood's latest big star amongst us tonight. Will Evans! Give it up for him, everybody!" He said as the spotlight was placed on Will for a second. The gathered celebrities applauded the young director as he stood and waved at them, bowing a little. Then, retaking his seat, he listened to what Bobby McTaggart had to say.

"This man has stayed away from the parties and galas like it's the plague, only showing up if at select occasions like this one. At his age, I was jumping from one party to the next, like I was selecting what T-shirt to wear. But, man! Do I know why he avoids parties so much? He's always working. I mean, [The Blair Witch Project, followed by [Sherlock Holmes, [500 days of Summer, and then yesterday's piece de resistance, [1917]. He's even written a book, [Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone, and all this in just one year of his debut in the industry. I am more than certain that the piece de resistance featured yesterday will be winning many awards in today's award ceremony. Speaking of which, let's get this show on the road. Please put your hands together for today's awards will be presented by the one and only Marilyn Morse!"

Will saw that the beautiful blonde actress who descended from the foyer to the left of the stage was something of a legend in the industry. He could easily resemble Marilyn Munroe, the legendary Hollywood actress famous during Hollywood's golden age, from Will's previous universe.

She stepped beside Bobby McTaggart, giving him a light hug on stage as she stepped to the podium. "Good evening, everybody. It is wonderful to be hosting the awards ceremony of this prestigious event. It feels wonderful to present awards to newer and fresher faces of this ever-evolving industry. Let us start today off with the first award for the day, the Prix du scénario." The sound of drum rolls was heard as she unfolded the envelope in her hand.

"The Winner of Prix du scénario, for the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, goes to the fantastic war movie, [1917]. Please give them a round of applause!"

Will couldn't keep the smile off his face as the movie won its first award for the evening. He was sure that it would win many more.

…

/DreamNote/

Don't forget to vote with your power stones

Report chapter Comments

Chapter 144:

[Piece De Resistance, 1917, steals the show at Cannes!

Dream Vision Studio's latest masterpiece directed by Lucas Amspoker, 1917, stole the show at Cannes International Film Festival. Having won the Prix Du Scenario, as well as the Prix de la mise en scène, as well as the Palme d'Or at Cannes, the film is rocking waves around the world as fans get hyped at yet another Dream Vision Production.

World War I ended almost a century ago, and there can now be no one left who remembers it. Most of the world's current population probably has no idea why it was fought and what the conditions were like. 1917 has no interest in addressing the former question but is passionately devoted to describing the latter in visual terms that sweep you into the story and carry you along as if on wings, albeit ones that occasionally stop flapping and leave you in a bloody, muddy hell.

The brutality and urgency of the war were masterfully portrayed the film's plot and format, which could scarcely be simpler: Two young lance corporals, Schofield (Elijah Thomas) and Blake (Renly Warren), stuck with 1,600 other British soldiers in trenches on the Hindenburg Line on April 6, 1917, are dispatched to deliver a letter by General Erinmore (Clark Reed). The missive, to be handed personally to Col. Mackenzie (Michael Robert Elrod), commander of the 2nd battalion, contains orders not to proceed with a planned advance from the front because of intelligence confirming that it's an enemy trap. The journey entails a high-risk overnight trek across dreadful, pock-marked terrain until very recently occupied by the Germans, which means booby traps and other dangers certainly lurk along the way.

The simplicity of the setup for cinematic purposes possesses an undeniable elemental appeal, and Amspoker and Dream Vision cinematographer Jeffery Houslton have set for themselves the challenge of telling it seamlessly, without any jumps in time or visible edits, in order to depict the entirety of the men's journey without skipping over a thing.

Schofield is a serious, fair-complexioned, rangy lad of the type often associated with young Englishmen of the time, while Blake is shorter and black-haired, more a fireplug of a guy. As they head out on their perilous mission, the fairness of the spring day is overtaken by mud and overcast skies, and accompanied by music that too laboriously stresses the ominous. It's a lifeless, barren landscape, one festooned with barbed wire.

The two men find that the Germans have indeed abandoned their trenches, although it's quite noticeable that their subterranean structures are far neater and better constructed than those of their British counterparts. Even the German rats are bigger and healthier than what the Brits are used to. As Houlston's camera glides, swoops, pivots, turns, and seems keen to investigate all the space between heaven and hell — even as it mostly seems like they've reached the latter already — the incidental wages of war are everywhere to be seen.

But the new film outdoes them all in terms of absolute immersion in an inescapable environment, one dominated by misery and the continuous threat of death by any number of means. And while for some time it's hard to take your mind off the complexity of what the cameraman and director have achieved here, at a certain point you begin taking it for granted and become more involved in the specifics of the journey's completion.

There are a few moments of sad respite with a young woman and baby who is not her own and, with all the chaos, one fleetingly wonders how it's possible for such a journey to end at its desired destination. Still, the manner of storytelling remains at one with the aesthetic approach of the entire project, which is to show and not tell, and the fate of all the men ultimately rests in the hands of the colonel the two voyagers were sent to find.

This film continues with the pattern that Will Evans has shown in his endeavors in Hollywood, by introducing completely new faces directly onto the big screen. He has yet, never failed to deliver with his skill of finding talent, as the new actors, Elijah Thomas and Renly Warren, who are now promoting the film in talk shows like Tuffin, and Bobby McTaggart's shows, were able to enrapture the audience with the maudlin, yet thrilling masterpiece, enhanced by their phenomenal acting talent.

Their story is now taken by many aspiring artists around the world, as an inspiration for them to achieve their own dreams. Many of these artists are now lining up DTA's front gates to land a shot just as similarly as they did.

It is rumored that the film would easily break 300 – 400 million USD, at the box office, as is the estimate, that an anonymous source from Dream Vision Source claims, for the film made by the film's production studio.

We recommend the audience to give this movie a go, as it reinvents military and war histories in a way that has never been done before.

A solid 9/10 is a well-deserved rating for this masterpiece.] – Insider Hollywood, Anthony Macy.

There were many such articles that praised and showered accolades for the film. It was already generating a Buzz on Social media. Fans were looking forward to watching the movie. Will had amassed a fan following of his own, and movie-goers were lining up to watch movies written and produced by him.

As for Will himself, he was in a meeting with Amanda and his marketing team, for [1917].

Mark, one of the first people to have opposed Will's risky moves in the industry, while being part of the company executives, had now become one of his most staunch supporters. He was leading the marketing team for [1917]. "We are continuing with hiring your 'keyboard warriors' to generate a level of hype behind the film as usual. While the traffic generated by the films showing at Cannes was on an unprecedented level, we are still going ahead and organizing more events and talk shows with film's leads, Elijah and Renly have already been to Tuffin and, if I remember correctly, they will be hosted on The Late night show with Bobby McTaggart, which aires tonight."

Amanda, who was sitting at the head of the conference table nodded and said "That's good. We want to spare no expenses for marketing this movie. We want to maximize revenue generated for this film, and by getting access to cheap social media marketing, and invites to Talk Shows, the film should be able to exceed our expectations yet again, at the Box office."

Will, who was sitting beside her, nodded and said "And let's not forget our plans outside major cinemas in Hollywood, will generate the word of mouth necessary between the casual cinema-goers. Apart from this, does anyone have any other ideas for increasing the reach, and hype behind this movie?"

Mark nodded and said "If Mr. Robert Elrod could promote the movie, on his social media handles and maybe on some shows, then this will boost the hype and awareness for the film."

Will shook his head and said "I could ask him to post a short post on Sparrow, but I don't want to disturb him any further, during his vacation." Apart from that, he wanted to get started on a major project with him soon, so he wanted him as fresh as possible. His vacation with Susan Levin, was doing wonders for him, based on the last time they had talked.

Amanda quickly carried the meeting and brought it to close soon after that, having discussed the budget that they needed to allocate for the marketing of [1917].

"Ladies and Gentlemen, please give a round of applause for Elijah Thomas, and Renly Warren! Everybody!" Bobby McTaggart said, as he hyped the audience in his studio.

Elijah and Renly walked down the foyer, from behind the curtains and onto the set, as they shook hands with the host of the show. They were dressed in immaculate Navy Blue Three-piece suits. They were here to promote their debut film [1917].

"Please, have a seat! Welcome to our show, Elijah, Renly. It must be really exciting having debuted in such a fantastic masterpiece for the both of you. I mean, Will Evans followed in his trend of hiring new talents for his movie productions, how's it like being called an unknown for the both of you?" Bobby said, as he led them to their seats on the sofa, that was placed under the spotlight in the studio.

"It's really life changing, to be honest. We are unknowns, in the industry, and what Will Evans has given us, this life changing opportunity, we were initially overwhelmed." Elijah said, as Renly nodded beside him.

"Yeah, one moment we were giving yet another audition for a movie, we didn't even know each other, and in the next few months, we're going through military boot camp, and shooting a big movie in England. It was surreal." Renly added.

"I would imagine it would be. Your stories are now being portrayed as inspirational tales, for aspiring actors around the world, alongside the stories of Robert Elrod, and Natalie Bergmann. What would you say to these actors?" Bobby asked.

"Well, I'd say keep working hard for your dreams, and wait for any opportunity that life presents to you. Once you do get that opportunity, knocking at your doorstep, don't let it go. Oh, and join DTA. You never know, Will might cast you in a movie like [1917]." Renly said in reply.

Bobby laughed and said "There's a high chance of that happening huh, Will likes to cast new talents in his movies, so joining the DTA might just be the way to go for new talents in Hollywood. You play Lance Corporal Schofield, and Blake in the movie, and the cinematography suggested that you gave long shots, some suggested nine minute shots in single takes. How did that feel for the both of you?"

Elijah took the lead on the question "Well, it was similar to performing a piece of theatre, on Broadway. Everything was so chaotic, yet they're all playing a symphony of roles, and it all felt like it was real. Well, except the giant cameras. But, everything from the smoke explosions, bullet ricochets, traps etc was real. There was a point, I remember, where the camera operators were dressed in soldier uniforms as they carried the camera ahead of me, as I ran across a field where other soldiers were charging. They had to mount the camera quickly on a wire which carried in a single take, and they ran and joined the extra actors on the battlefield. It was all very realistic."

Renly nodded "Yeah, there was a scene where a plane from the era was used to film a crash, our reactions were quite real in that moment, because we genuinely thought that the pilot would crash on top of us. They kept that raw reaction in the film. It was a very good learning experience. We enjoyed the filming. Director Lucas Amspoker, and the cinematographer Jeffery Houlston deserve much of the credit for making it all happen. As does Will Evans for coming up with the idea behind the project."

Bobby caught onto that and said "Yes, Will Evans has made a very big splash in Hollywood, after his debut in this industry. Where do you think he will try his luck next?"

Elijah furrowed his brows, as he shook his head "We can't really say, he's a talented artist. But he is also unpredictable. Whatever it will be, we're certain it will be another magnificent entry by him."

The show continued for quite some time, after that with Bobby cracking jokes, and creating an overall fantastic vibe while building more hype behind [1917].

…

/DreamNote/

Don't forget to vote with your power stones

Report chapter Comments

Chapter 145:

Amy was surfing through her MeTube feed. She liked watching dance videos and random cat videos on the website, and she generally frequently fell into the rabbit hole of MeTube's horrendous algorithm.

Apparently, MeTube had decided that she should watch a review video on some Hollywood movie, released by Dream Vision, called [1917].

She was too lazy to switch and find a different video. 'Oh, what the hell, might as well watch it.' She mused as the video started playing.

[1917 – review.

EGN.

The video showed various clips of two soldiers traversing and walking through various different scenes, like barracks, a broken home, a no man's land etc.

"Set over less than twenty-four hours on the western front, the harrowing 1917 is both simple in its story and breathtaking in its execution. Intimate, yet epic. Director Lucas Amspoker has delivered a completely engrossing survival thriller, written by Will Evans, about two young British soldiers, Schofield and Blake, on a perilous mission behind enemy lines."

The scene shifts, showing them standing at attention in front of a commanding officer.

"Your orders are to deliver a message calling off tomorrow morning's attack. If you don't we will lose 1600 men. Your brother among them." Orders the officer.

The narrator again picks up, showing more short scenes from the movie "Neither soldier is written to be particularly exceptional, upon their introduction. They're just two of the countless everyman troops in the First World War. It's their ordinariness and almost anonymity that lends this duo immediate sympathy and relatability. These two could be anyone, but they've been tasked with doing something that seems extraordinary and heroic, but was a common feature of the horrific war.

The movie depicts the vicious cycle of a soldier that wants to rest but is ordered to perform a perilous task. The conceit of the movie 1917 is that it is presented to us with a single tracking shot. With fantastic cinematography from Dream Vision's lead Cinematographer Jeffery Houlston, and Director Lucas Amspoker, the viewer really feels that they're really there, with the soldiers on the frontlines.

The beautifully crafted movie is emotionally very heavy on the viewer, with one of the lead characters, Lance Corporal Blake, dying halfway into the movie, and the various cuts and bruises that the other lead character, Lance Corporal Schofield, which are later exposed to decayed corpses, rats and muddy bandages leading us to believe that he too would die off-screen, despite his desire as well as an aversion to returning home, to his wife and daughter.

Having no dialogues in large part of the film, the director, following Will Evans's trend of using new actors, uses phenomenal and emotional acting, alongside both picturesque and grotesque scenery mixed into a symphony of emotions for the audience to enjoy. The new actors Elijah Thomas and Renly Warren's performance is phenomenal to experience, with raw emotions laid out on the battlefield, clear for us all to see.

1917 firmly places what is human, in such a dehumanizing environment, by not glorifying the horrific war and accurately portraying the ground reality that soldiers had to face on a daily basis.

This is certainly one of the best films of 2012."

The video ended with an infographic labeled "9.5/10 – Reviewed Amazing" as the screen faded out.]

Amy hadn't realized that she had gotten so engrossed in the video that she had seemingly sat up on her bed, on which she was previously lying down while surfing the website on her laptop.

Her interest had been piqued, and she was very intrigued by going to watch the movie.

"Jake! Honey! Are you free tonight?" She shouted out into her home.

A muffled yell of "Yeah, why, do you need something?" came as her reply.

She smiled and immediately leaped off her bed and scrambled into the living room, where her husband was lazily reading the newspaper. He looked up at her questioningly, and she continued, "Well, I was thinking, why don't we go out to the movies tonight? We can let the kids go to Charles' place for a few hours."

Her husband blinked and titled his head, folding the paper in his hands. "Yeah, sure. He'd get to be Uncle Charles to Mac for the night. A movie sounds fun. We could go out for dinner later too. Do you have a movie in mind?"

A dinner and movie date sounded fun to her, and her excitement was visible. "Yeah, I was surfing through MeTube, and came across the review of [1917]. It was rated 9.5/10, and I thought we could go watch it."

Jake got up from the table and walked toward her. He said, "Okay, I will book our tickets for tonight and then book reservations at a good restaurant. How does CZN Buraq sound?"

She smiled, wrapping her arms around her husband, giving him a lingering kiss, and said, "That sounds wonderful; it's a date then!"

Jake chuckled as he watched his wife run back into their bedroom to get dressed for their date later that night, his eyes lingering on her ass for a few seconds.

He shook his head and started surfing his phone to look for a nearby theatre and book the tickets for the night.

14th March 2012.

Buttoning up the last buttons of his dark greyish black Suit, Will looked into the mirror that was inside his walk-in closet. He was dressed in a single-breasted dark grey formal jacket with two buttons upfront. Underneath the jacket was a dark grey vest with simple light greyish-silver embroidery. It was adorned with a set of high-rise dark grey trousers. The look was completed with a thin dark greyish black tie, alongside black shoes, a black belt, and dark Jet Black Cufflinks.

It was a simple choice of style, modeled after the style of clothing that John Wick was known to wear most of the time.

Will finally finished dressing up and strapped on his Carl F. Bucherer Manero AutoDate, timepiece to his left hand, and walked out of the closet.

The first thing he did was head back to his bedroom, where June was lying down. He walked beside her and placed his hand on her forehead, and said, "The Yacht must've been really bad for you, especially the dives you took into the ocean. Your temperature isn't showing any sign of coming down."

She turned around when she felt his hand on her forehead and subconsciously smiled.

He looked into her eyes and said, "If you'd like, I can forego going to the Oscars tonight. I can make you some more soup, and we could watch something together."

She shook her head, got into a seated position a little, and said, "No, I thought of sleeping the fever off anyway. The soup you made me was good. It helped a lot. Plus, I know that the Oscars will be important for you, so you go on without me this time."

Will searched her eyes and sighed, "Alright, but give me a call if you need anything, and I will come straight back. Okay?"

She nodded and said, "Okay, remember to have fun."

Will smiled as he bent down, kissed her forehead, and said, "I will, goodnight, love." And walked out of the room, leaving a tired yet smiling June behind him.

Getting out of his metallic grey 1979 Ford Mustang, Will stepped out onto the red carpet at the Dolby Theatre, Los Angeles. A flurry of flashes indicated that cameras went off as the surrounding Paparazzi scrambled to take his photos. He handed the keys to his car to the valet at the, who was waiting by the beginning of the rolled-out carpet.

"It's Will Evans! Hurry, take some good shots."

"Is he with someone?"

"Where is June Roberts?"

"Sir! Do you think your movies will win any awards tonight?"

"What about your other movies?"

"Will 500 days of Summer win anything?"

Questions of all kinds were bombarded at him by the surrounding media, even though they couldn't get past the barricade that separated the path to the entrance of the theatre.

Will quickly made his way down the red carpet, pausing only when he noticed the crew of Weekend Tribunal struggling to take a few pictures. Quickly giving them a chance to take some pictures, he made his way into the venue of the 2012 Oscars show.

He knew his movies would at least be nominated for a few awards, if nothing else. Taking his seat in the VIP section of the theatre, he watched as the event began.

He kept his alcohol consumption to a bare minimum, choosing to take a seat among familiar faces, with Jeffery and his team from Dream Vision rather than with someone else.

Natalie Bergmann had won the award for Best Actress in a romantic comedy. She gave a short speech crediting Will Evans for most of her success.

Ewan Rees won the best actor award for [Birdman, where he yet again awarded substantial credit to Will for coming up with the story and making it possible for him to work in it. Robert was nominated for the award as well, for his work in [A Bullet to Kill, but the award was eventually given to Ewan Reese.

Will just smiled and socialized with his colleagues throughout the event.

He stayed for the after-party for some time, as well, and just as he was about to leave, Amanda came up to him and said, "Will, the CEO of OP Studios wants to have a word with you. It sounded like it was urgent. Do you have time for him, or should I schedule a meeting later?"

He looked at his watch and sighed, "I will see what he needs. Where is he?"

"He is waiting by the bar. If you'd like, I can arrange a private room for you both to discuss whatever it is he needs." Amanda offered.

Will nodded. "Alright, please arrange the room for us. I will wait for him there."

…

/DreamNote/

New week!

Vote while I prepare your bonus chapter ?

Report chapter Comments

Chapter 146: [Bonus Chapter]

Waiting inside the Private Lounge of the convention center, in which the after-party of the Oscars was held, Will sipped on his bourbon as he gazed outside the window down at the people enjoying themselves at the after-party of the Oscars. While he would have loved nothing more than to head home and rest for the night, he had decided to humor the CEO of OP Studios. He was almost certain about the topic of discussion that the CEO would be broaching when he arrived.

His musing was interrupted by a knock at the door, and he turned around just in time to see an immaculately dressed old man enter the room with a glass of alcohol in his hand. The man looked around the room and spotted Will. A giant grin became visible on his face, and he approached Will, extending his hand forward for a handshake.

"Ah! Mr. Evans! I've been looking all over for you. What are you doing here? Your company's CEO said you're over here, so I came to check." He said as he shook Will's hand.

This was Michael Williams, the CEO of OP studios. He was known in the industry for his upbeat personality, which masked a very cunning business mind.

Will smiled and replied, "Actually, I was just getting ready to head home, my girlfriend is not feeling well, and I wanted to go back and check up on her."

The man nodded and took a seat by the poker table in the room. "Oh, I hope she's feeling alright. I won't hold you for long then, I merely wanted to corroborate something, "My friend Lucius Wolf from ICM told me recently. I believe the two of you have met."

Will nodded, taking a seat in front of the man and placing his bourbon glass on the table. "Yes, I did meet him some time ago. It was about loaning Clark Reed for [500 days of Summer]."

The man smiled and then continued, "Yes, fantastic movie, and congratulations to you for writing another fabulous screenplay. Please pass on my congratulations to Miss Bergmann as well. She was magnificent in the movie. Getting back on the topic, Mr. Evans, I believe you and Lucius also discussed a program we want to air on our latest endeavor, the RBO TV channel?"

Will nodded and said, "Yes, we did. And as I said to Mr. Wolf previously, I have no disagreements with producing a screenplay for a show to air on the program. However, it would have to wait, my current project [Liberty City] has finished filming, and I am a little preoccupied with finishing the rest of the work behind it. Once it is finished, I will be able to divert my attention to the promised TV show."

Michael Williams nodded and said, "Lucius did inform me about the promise. I merely wanted to move ahead and establish something more concrete, like a contracted agreement for one season of the show, perhaps? Do you have any idea what the genre of the show would be?"

Will thought for a second and said, "I will have to consult with my CEO before I finalize anything. Why don't we schedule a meeting this week? Dream Vision Studio office?" He proposed.

He knew that this was a fantastic opportunity to delve into the TV show market, so he didn't want to let the opportunity slip. The TV Series market would develop quite rapidly as it did in his previous reality, and Will had access to many resources to have his own streaming service, as well eventually. So this opportunity was basically a good opportunity to make headway in that area.

Michael Williams smiled and drank the rest of his drink and said, "That's perfect. Lucius and I would like to meet with you this week. Your office sounds perfect. Thank you for giving me your time, Mr. Evans, and I hope Miss Roberts recovers quickly."

Will shook the man's hand one last time and left the venue so that he could rest for the evening.

If one were to ask a filmmaker what he thinks is the most important aspect of a movie, he would first say story, and then he would say music. Music gives life to a story. It gives it emotion, elegance, and empathy. Without music, a movie will feel hollow, incomplete, bland, and uninteresting.

The mission Will had received from the system required him to produce the movie's score all by himself. It was a daunting task, for even if he had cheated his way through getting the required skill and knowledge for being a good musician, using the system previously, he had no clue whether his audience would like the music he was going to produce.

He had picked music that matched the changing pace of the movie, with the music being light and inviting at the beginning of the story, which would play in the background around the time, Mario sets off on his journey in [Liberty City, but it would dramatically pick up, and alter in nature after his interaction with Wilson Manfredi when he is introduced to the harsh reality of the gangster life and is made to come to terms with his choices.

He had just finished recording music for his fight scenes, which incorporated real sounds of bullets and gunfire for the beats of the song, and was reviewing the beats in his studio. He had to add a few segments with an electric guitar to complete the tune and finish the final segments of the music when he was interrupted by a knock on the studio, and his secretary walked in with a folder in her hand.

"Sir, I am sorry for interrupting you, but you have an upcoming meeting with Director James Cameron in thirty minutes. I have received the box office reports and analysis of [1917, here with me," Alexia said.

Will waved off her apology, saying, "Not a problem, Alexia. I was going to take a break anyway. When Mr. Cameron arrives, would you please guide him to the waiting area outside my office? I will be there in twenty-five minutes either way. And thank you for getting the report for me."

She handed him the report. "It was my pleasure, sir. Would you need some tea for the meeting?" she asked.

Will nodded and said, "The usual Alexia, two sugars. Have them ready in my office when I get there. Thank you."

She nodded and left as Will started to go through the box office reports of [1917]. The movie had exceeded his expectations, as it made over 300,000 $ on its first day of release and, within a week, had crossed over 1.3 million dollars. It was sitting comfortably now, having already broken even with its initial budget of 92 million dollars and climbing steadily.

His team had estimated that it would make around 400 million dollars as its final figure, and that figure still had room to spare for more.

Amanda Garcia finished compiling the finishing notes of the report made by the accounts team and called for Alexia.

As soon as the young woman arrived in her office, she said, "Alexia, please take this report to Will, I won't be in the office today, so would you be a dear and take my calls for the day? Charlie has football practice in a few hours, and I promised him that I would be there."

Alexia hesitated briefly but nodded, "I will do it, Amanda, don't worry. Say Hi to Charlie for me, will you?"

Amanda smiled at her, "Thank you, Alexia, this means a lot. Hey, why don't you come over to my place this weekend? We girls should hang out more often. I should probably invite Jeffery's wife Emma, and June, as well. So we can have a girl's night out."

Alexia smiled, excitement showing on her face. "That sounds like a wonderful idea, Amanda. I will text you tonight, then."

Amanda nodded, smiling at her, as she left the office. She looked at the calendar on her table.

Her schedule was becoming increasingly more packed, but she still made time for her children. It was one of the things she had with her ex-husband.

Shaking her head, she cut that line of thought. She did not want to go back into the self-pity line of thinking, she had come out of her divorce, and she was better for it.

Getting a job at Dream Vision was one of the best career decisions she had made. She had a respectable job, and people respected her, for her achievements, personality, and talents, not for her looks. In addition, her children were cared for, despite the absence of their father.

Her boss, Will Evans, even though he could be quite unpredictable, was perfectly respecting her decisions in the running of his company. He listened to her advice on most decisions and helped her as well, whenever she thought she needed it.

Her son, Charlie, was slowly becoming a football genius, and her daughter, little Mary, was slowly coming out of her shell, and she had taken up singing. She reminded herself that she had to attend her audition at her school next week.

Making a note in her calendar, she finished up her work and turned off her computer.

Life, for Amanda Garcia, was looking up, thanks to Dream Vision studios and Will Evans.

…

/DreamNote/

Bonus chapter for maintaining Rank 1 in powerstones in the preceding week.

Continue supporting this novel for next week's bonus chapter!

You can get privilege access to next 12 Chapters on /dreamthree!

…btw, we are back to longer chapters from today. thank you for your patience.

Report chapter Comments

Chapter 147:

Will was sipping on a cup of tea, with his legs folded elegantly as his other hand held a tablet where various articles were on display.

At this point, Will could say that he was slowly getting addicted to the taste of tea. It always freshened him up no matter the circumstances.

'Maybe the brit inside me is stronger than the American side.'

Will chuckled at himself after thinking that.

Knock

"Come in."

As soon as he heard the knock, Will immediately gave permission to come in. A rugged old man with a somewhat messy look yet sharp eyes entered his office.

Will immediately unfolded his leg and stood up, so as to not seem rude to the guest. After all, for Will, James was still one of the best directors of Hollywood in his previous life.

"Welcome, Mr Cameron. I have been anticipating your arrival."

James' expression looked somewhat annoyed and there were eyebags under his eyes. Right now he looked more like a panda than a human.

"Yeah, okay. If you are done with the pleasantries, let's get down to the business."

James said in annoyance. He already hated the attitude of people in Hollywood who spilt sugar from their words but held a knife instead of a tongue in their mouth.

And this young lad, who hadn't even hatched out of his egg was trying to give him pleasantries. James' annoyance lies more in the fact that Will had asked him to come to his office instead of personally coming to meet him when he was the one who requested the meeting himself.

Will just smiled at James' behaviour without paying it any heed.

"I read the script of [The Terminator] and I have to say that I am thoroughly impressed. I am very excited about the work and would be very happy to get the movie under Dream Vision's investment."

Will said bluntly. Since James didn't want to talk in a roundabout manner, Will would be more than happy to oblige.

James gave a sceptical look to Will. He was very unsure about all the current development. And if not for the fact that Will had established himself in Hollywood and didn't lack movie ideas, James would think that Will was trying to steal his project.

Even right now, his thinking lies along the lines of Will trying to either scam him or tie him to a deal where he would take control of most of the movie.

"Is this related to June? I heard she's your girlfriend. Are you investing in the project because of her?"

James asked, his tone clearly rough and would sound rude to most listeners.

Will shook his head.

"Nah. It's not anything related to June. It's about the movie itself. I think [The Terminator] has a lot of potential and would be a big hit. I want to be a part of its success. I am very confident about its storyline. If my hunch is correct, the movie is going to earn a lot. Trust me, I would get whole different marketing for the movie depending on the final product."

Will was saying the truth. Forget about his world's box office. Just taking the potential of the story alone, there was a high chance of it being a hit rather than a flop. Since the first Terminator came out in the 1980s, there would be a big technological difference between the original terminator and this world's terminator, with the latter being better than the former in many aspects, including the graphics and VFX.

The way Will termed it out, James almost believed him before getting his guard up again.

"Let me get something straight first. I am not going to let anyone get involved in the direction or the story. Everything would go according to me."

James again put his point bluntly. He had literally risked everything for the movie and didn't want a third party to suddenly join and ruin it by their involvement. If he was going to accept Will's investment, it would only be on the condition that nobody gets involved in the story or the direction.

Will chuckled at James' face hearing that. He was well aware of James' nature. Even in Will's previous world, James was famous for not getting along with most of the directors. His antics weren't something just anybody could handle.

Even Will felt offended by his unnecessary hostility, but Will wanted [The Terminator] to be a part of Dream Vision Studios, and hence he promised himself in his mind that he would bear with the old guy for a bit longer.

Tap Tap Tap

Will was continuously moving his hand from the keyboard buttons to the mouse. He was currently seated in front of his computer and was editing some parts of the movie himself. Since the laptops couldn't handle the burden of such editing, he was using the computer in his bedroom to do the work.

After a while, Will limped back into his chair with his head dangling backwards.

His hair was falling backwards too, giving a view of his broad forehead. He was wearing computer glasses behind which lay his tired eyes, dead closed.

Sigh

Will sighed as he took out the glasses and rubbed his forehead, still in the same position.

Traces of dissatisfaction can be seen on his face as he suddenly sad up again and wildly ran his hands through his hair.

"What am I missing…"

He muttered slowly. He felt that something was amiss in the movie, but couldn't exactly pinpoint what it was.

After some struggling, he had decided that maybe it had something to do with the editing, and so he was rechecking everything himself. But nothing seemed amiss from the editing, yet that feeling of something lacking in the movie stayed.

After hours of struggling, something finally clicked in his mind.

Thinking back to the first iron man movie, he remembered what made the movie so special wasn't just the entire movie, but the end credits scene when the movie was about to end.

As soon as he thought that, he didn't waste any more time as he got up from the chair and ran towards his phone which was in the other room.

He was just wearing a three fourth below his waist and was entirely naked otherwise as he got his phone and dialled Amanda's contact number.

After a ring, Amanda picked up the call.

"Hello, Amanda?"

– Yes, Will? What made you call so late at night? Everything alright?

"Yeah, everything is fine. How was Charlie's selection match? Did it go well?"

A happy Amanda replied in a cheerful voice.

– Yes! It went great and he has been selected as the team's captain too! But don't tell me you called so late at night just to ask about Charlie's selection match. What's the matter?

"Ahaha, well. Call Ethan's agent and let him that we would need Ethan for some unfinished shoot. We need to reshoot some scenes. Ah, and also, try to look up a good game development company and contact them. I need all this done as early as possible."

– Alright. Got you, now sleep and let me sleep too. I'll do the work first thing in the morning.

Although Amanda had a lot of questions, she knew better than to speak them out. She was well aware that her questions would be answered soon, by Will's actions instead of his mouth.

"Alright, thanks! I couldn't ask Alexia for this because of the contract clause, and you should know I trust you more with such stuff. Alexia herself is busy dealing with my other works."

– Yeah yeah, I know. No good night.

"Good night."

According to a secretary's contract clause, the employer can't ask for the help of the secretary after her defined work period, and Will wasn't much close to Alexia to ignore that clause. On top of that, he treated Amanda more as his first secretary than Alexia.

After putting his phone on the table, Will jumped onto the bed and slept in the same posture he had jumped in. Since June was out of the city for a commercial ad, he had the whole bed for himself.

Roseline Bar, East Street, Los Angeles.

Inside the dimly yet colourfully lit bar, Los Angeles's nightlife was at full display.

Young and old people alike were coming and going, dancing and drinking like there is no tomorrow. On one side, there was a counter at which the bartender kept serving shots after shots of various kinds of alcohol to the middle-aged man that had been drinking for the past hour.

The bartender, Judy, was an old man who had basically worked in this bar his whole life. Recently, the man in front of him had become a frequent customer at the bar, and always drunk a lot.

"What happened? You had been coming here a lot recently. Is it a break-up? Crying about a breakup? Or did your wife leave you for some other man? Getting sad about such things at this age isn't good. You look like my younger brother right now, and trust me he was a pathetic man."

The old bartender said and the other guy couldn't help but raise his head. With drunk eyes and a gibberish tone, he muttered a word.

"Was?"

"Is… He's now behind the bars after attempting to murder his own wife. I am worried about their pet dog, who must be feeding him these days?"

The bartender said as a chuckle escaped from the drunk man.

"Nah, I am not as pathetic as him… yet. I had just faced huge losses in business due to someone."

As he said that, the TV in the private room that was separated from the bar showed Will Evan's pictures and reported that Dream Vision's recent movie [1917] had finally crossed $100 million at the box office.

"Ah, how life changes so fast."

The bartender said in an emotional tone as he glanced at the TV.

"What do you mean, old man?"

The drunk man enquired.

"Nothing, this Will kid used to be my neighbour and lived in a rented apartment in the nearby building complex. Now see his life. He has got it good. But I gotta give it to him. He worked real hard to get where he is today. Wish I had a kid like that, life would be so much easier."

The drunk man looked a bit surprised when he heard it.

"Really? What more do you know about Will Evans?"

"Why do you ask?"

The old man asked curiously.

"Nothing, he is just someone I admire. I would like to meet him one day."

The old man nodded his head contently. After all, there was no reason to not admire someone like Will. What he failed to notice was the ominous smile of the drunk man.

The drunk man was none other than the CEO of MCA, Matthew Collins.

…

/DreamNote/

Don't forget to vote

Chapter 148:

Dream Vision Head Office, Santa Monica, California.

In the huge meeting room of the building, every important figure of Dream Vision was seated.

They all had confused expressions on their faces as they waited for Will, who was busy scribbling down on the huge whiteboard of the meeting room.

He put down his marker pen and everyone can finally see what he wrote on the board.

[GTA: Vice City]

The hope of getting the context of why they were summoned here was shattered when everyone in the room read those unfamiliar words.

"As every one of you is well aware, [1917] has just been released and is doing very well in the movie theatres and cinemas. That means we can't release [Liberty City] for at least one whole month. Otherwise, it would bucket the profit that would otherwise go to [1917]."

After sweeping a glance at everyone and seeing that everyone was listening and had an expression which said 'go on', Will continued.

"So, I had this awesome idea to make [Liberty City] forever memorable for the future generations."

Will finished and waited for everyone to take in his words and voice out their thoughts.

The first one to speak was his uncrowned secretary, Amanda.

"First of all, what does this… [GTA: Vice City] even mean? What is it?"

Everybody nodded their heads in unison as if saying that's what they wanted to ask too.

"GTA means Grand Theft Auto, a term for car robberies. Vice City is a city from the same universe as [Liberty City]. It's the place from where Tommy Vercetti came from."

Then Will turned around and stuck a piece of paper into the whiteboard. There was a pre-drawn sketch of Tommy Vercetti on it, just a younger version.

"It doesn't look like Ethan…. Is that really Tommy Vercetti?"

The head employee from the PR department pointed out.

"Yes, it isn't Ethan. [GTA: Vice City] isn't a movie like every one of you is taking it to be. Instead, it's a video game."

Hearing that, gasps of wonder and dumbfoundedness could be heard from people as whatever they were thinking till now froze in their minds. On the other hand, Amanda, who Will had entrusted with the task of contacting a game company, finally realised something as she connected the scattered dots.

"Don't tell me… are we going to invest in a video game now?"

Amanda's words sounded weird to herself, as she thought that the talk about investing in a game in a Hollywood movie studio was absurd.

"Bingo!"

Will exclaimed, affirming the suspicions everyone was slowly gathering in their hearts.

Amanda saw a headache coming to her as she slowly rubbed her forehead and asked.

"So, what is all this about? Do you have a plan…? Well, you know what? Sorry for asking. Of course, you would have a plan. Just tell us what the plan is exactly."

Everybody gave a helpless smile at Amanda's words. Will was as eccentric as anyone could be, not only did he make absurd plans and strategies, but they also worked. Every. Single. Time.

At this point, anybody asking him whether he had a plan for something he had blurted out would be making fun of themself. In the eyes of Dream Vision and DTA employees, Will Evans always had a plan.

Will smiled and took one of the chairs lying around, turned it towards the direction everyone was seated and sat on it, as he started explaining his plan to everyone.

California was considered a giant that stored the most gaming companies in the USA. And from the more than three hundred big and small companies scattered around California, more than 100 of them were from San Francisco alone, making it downtown for game creators.

EC Games Studios Headquarters, San Francisco, California.

EC, also known by its elaborate name, Electronic Crafts, was one of the leading video game companies in the world. Not only did it develop and distribute many PC and mobile games, but it also had its own ES (Electronic Switch), which was popular throughout the world as a gaming console.

EC's reach spread far and wide, to the point that it had even managed to establish itself in countries like China and Japan, which were known to be leading in games and technology.

Inside the office of Arnold Rival, the head of EC Studios, Arnold was sitting with Jay Lincoln. Jay Lincoln was a man famous for being the brain of [Tales of Gartiya]. It was a single-player Action/Adventure video game that had boomed the market like nothing else. Kids loved it and almost everyone in America had heard about the game.

Currently, Jay, as the man heading the IP of [Tales of Gartia] had come to Arnold Rival, the distributor and heart of the game. WIthout Arnold, it wouldn't have been possible to launch and manage the game on such a large scale. But today, these guys weren't here to talk about their previous success. Instead, they were here to discuss their current failure.

"Jay, you know how much I like your work. When there was no one who believed in your game, I did. I put my belief in it and we succeeded together. But you should know the current state of the sequels."

Arnold said with a tinge of bitterness in his voice. The game had worked splendidly when it was launched. So much that everybody demanded a sequel.

EC Games complied with their consumers' wishes and released the sequel. It was a hit too, but nowhere near on the scale of its prequel. As the profits from the game started to get lower and come close to the cost of maintaining and updating the game, Arnold requested Jay to release another sequel as a quick money-grubber.

After months of effort, another sequel was launched and the market that it met with was as hard as a rock. The third sequel was a total failure, instead of profit, it only increased the losses of the company.

Not like the only game that EC had was [Tales of Gartia, but it was undeniable that a big chunk of its income came from the aforementioned game, which was now slowly dying.

"It's a disappointment, but we can't do much about it."

Jay said, knowing full well that there was no way to get up a horse that had already died.

"I know. But we can't stay as it is now. The stockholders want us to start a new IP."

Arnold said, somewhat annoyed. It was always the same with the major shareholders of the big companies. They would always boss around people because of the fear of losses while enjoying the profits from the sidelines.

"They want us to, but you should know better. Even if we start a new IP, it won't even be close to what [Tales of Gartia] was. And that would just make them angrier."

Jay rebuked. He himself wanted to work on something new, but he wasn't confident enough to claim that it'll work on the same level as [Tales of Gartia].

"We don't have much choice either way. We have to start a new IP and I want you to head it. I don't know a better person to trust with this."

Arnold said. As if raising his hand and giving up on the matter of negotiations totally.

"But still-"

Jay wasn't able to finish his sentence as there was a knock on the see through glass door. Arnold, who saw his secretary knocking, gestured for her to come in.

"Sir, we just received a call from Dream Vision Studios."

Johnathan had come to Ethan's house after getting the call from Amanda, regarding the reshoot.

Since it was an urgent matter, he didn't want to leave behind any loopholes that could lead to complications and any type of conflict later on.

"So, what is it about?"

Ethan asked as he took a large sip from his coffee mug.

"Well, I got a call from Dream Vision's CEO personally regarding a reshoot. Will wants to reshoot some of the end credits parts as he wants to add a scene in it."

Johnathan said as he looked at Ethan.

"Man, no, please no. I had finally planned a week's vacation. Tell him to leave it as it is."

Ethan said, clearly displeased that he was asked to shoot again.

"It is better to reshoot because it's something Will Evans is very excited about. And don't forget that normally a shoot can drag on for half a year. You were lucky it was Will's film that has a track record of having fast shooting. Not only that, but I've also heard that some of the industry insiders are labelling the film as a blockbuster."

Johnathan said in a convincing manner. Ethan suddenly thought about the box offices of both [1917] and [500 days of Summer] and decided that it would be in his best interest to remain in Will's good shoes.

"Alright, I will do it. Just inform me about the shooting schedule, and tell Will to complete this shoot as soon as possible."

Ethan conceded and Johnathan sighed in relief. It was always troubling being the agent of an A-lister, but it also paid well so what could he even complain about.

Johnathan took out his phone from his pants right pocket and called Will's secretary, Alexia.

"Yes, yes. Mr Silva has agreed to the reshoot, just inform us about the schedule and try to finish it as early as possible."

After discussing with Alexia, Johnathan hung up the call.

"Wanna drink some mojito? Since the vacation is postponed for good, let us just enjoy it here. I know how hectic an agent's life could be, after all, I was one myself."

Ethan said as he chuckled.

"No way! Are you kidding me?"

Johnathan said as he looked like his eyes would pop out. He had never heard about Ethan's past of being an agent.

"Yeah, it's a short story, but let me tell you in detail….so it went something like this…."

And hence, the Actor and his agent bonded for the first time ever since their first meeting.

…

/DreamNote/

Don't forget to vote this book with your power stones

Report chapter Comments

Chapter 149:

12th April 2012.

Dream Vision Head Office, Santa Monica, California.

Jay and Arnold had received a call from Dream Vision studios a few days ago. The famous new star of Hollywood had personally invited Arnold to talk about something important.

Although Arnold was a big man in the gaming industry, the gaming industry was still a lot smaller than Hollywood, and he himself was a fan of Will Evans, so he gladly accepted the invitation.

He told Jay to tag along with him since he was present during the day they were invited, and they had more of a friendly relationship than that of an employer and employee.?

Entering the six floors of the large building, they didn't have to wait even a second before a beautiful woman with red hair and office clothing came to pick them up.

"Hello, Mr Rival. Welcome to Dream Vision. I am Will Evans' secretary. I have been instructed by Mr Evans to guide you to his office room. Please follow my lead."

Politely saying so, Alexia walked up ahead, and the two men unconsciously followed her. Arnold was a married man. He had a beautiful wife and two kids and was very content with his life. But even his nerves flared up after watching Will's secretary.

Even Jay was having a hard time keeping his eyes off of the beautiful back of Alexia.

Soon, they entered the modern elevator while being guided by Alexia and seemed to have reached their destination.

Looking around the vast office and separate divisions with people actually smiling, talking and cheerfully working amongst themselves. It was an unimaginable sight that can't be expected in most corporate offices. This just spoke levels of the man named Will, who led this company.

After walking a few more divisions, the clear glass office door came into view, behind which one could locate a working table, above which a laptop was placed, successfully managing to hide the face of the man sitting behind.

Knock

"Get in, Alexia."

A clear voice came from inside just after one knock.

Entering the office room, one could see that every corner of the office was very tidy and well kept. There were trophies and certificates decorated on one side of the wall, while the other side had movie posters of famous movies like [The Blair Witch Project, [Sherlock Holmes, [1917, etc., plastered on the wall.

A handsome and honed face greeted them. Will Evans, the young brand of today's Hollywood, gave them a light smile as he stood up and held his hand out for a handshake.

"Hello, I am Will Evans. Nice to meet you two."

Arnold shook his hand.

"The pleasure is all mine Mr Evans. I am called Arnold Rival."

"Jay Lincoln. Nice to meet you Mr Evans."

Jay shook his hand, too, as he smiled.

"Please take a seat. Would you like to drink something? Tea? Coffee? Or anything cold?"

Will asked, still with the same smile.

"A cappuccino, if you would."

"Same for me."

Jay said as Arnold followed.

"Two cappuccino and a cup of tea for me, Alexia. Ah, and don't forget two sugar."

Will said to Alexia, who was standing beside them, as she nodded and left the room right away.

"I hope there wasn't much trouble on the way."

Will started the chat with the light questions so as to make the two comfortable with him.

Arnold was already thoroughly impressed by Will's amazing first impression.

'He is way more enigmatic than the media shows him out to be.'

Arnold and Jay both had this same thought as they kept talking about various things with Will.

Soon, Ethan and Johnathan also came to Will's office and joined in on the chat.

Will finally started telling Arnold and Jay about the game franchise he had thought of. From the game's basics to its mechanics, he tried to explain everything he could.

"First of all, the game is going to be an open-world gangster game…."

For Will, even without the system, this task was quite easy. And he was sure that most of the later 90s and 2000s kids from his old earth would find it a rather fun and easy task. After all, Will knew Vice City like the back of his hand.

He started telling how it would start, what the world background was, what the major goals were and what the missions were going to be.

"The view should be third person, and it should strictly follow all the plot points that I give. Apart from that, you have to make sure that the player can feel and experience the life of a gangster through the game."

Will continued to speak as Arnold, Jay, Ethan and Johnathan all listened to everything attentively.

From Jay's and Arnold's perspective, they had never heard or thought about such a game, yet it had so much to offer that they wondered why their R D and innovation department hadn't yet thought of such a type of game.

The detail with which Will talked about the game almost seemed like it was an existing game, and Will had played it himself.

The duo from EC games were again impressed by Will.

On the other hand, Ethan couldn't hide the excitement on his face. He was known throughout Hollywood as a game fanatic, and after listening to the idea of Will's game, his heart couldn't help but pump blood furiously, making it rush all over his body.

"Vice City is the city where Tommy Vercetti hails from. Vice City is a prequel to [Liberty City] and would be based on the life of Tommy Vercetti. The game would feature murder, robbery, and many other things, but the most important one of them would be the car robbery. We need to have various models, and types of cars, minivans, mini trucks, bicycles, motorbikes, etc., featured in the game, making it one of the biggest and the most appealing parts of the game."

Will continued along, getting somewhat excited in his heart as he remembered the old days of GTA. If he really pulled this off, then he would be able to see another one of the masterpieces from his world that boiled the blood of the younger generations.

Then Will said that Ethan could do the voiceover of Tommy Vercetti, which just made him even more excited. He felt like it all was a great idea, but it would all depend on the success of the movie [Liberty City].

It seemed like Ethan wasn't the only one with such worries as Arnold questioned.

"All this is only going to work if [Liberty City] does well in the box office. Otherwise, making a game franchise on a movie that was a flop would be suicide."

Will smiled at that and turned around his laptop, which reported the graphical data of estimations regarding [Liberty City].

"[Liberty City] is currently considered as one of the most anticipated movies of the year, and it would have no problem crossing the $100 million mark. My estimate is that it would earn at least $200 million, and that should be more than enough to back up the game. On a side note, I am confident that both [Liberty City] and [GTA: Vice City] would do well, and there is a reason why I still haven't released the movie."

Will assured Arnold.

"I want to do a mid-credit scene of young Tommy Vercetti in Vice City. He would be doing the stunts and actions that will be used in [GTA: Vice City] later on. At the end of the movie, we can show the game title and the young Tommy Vercetti's animated version."

As if something clicked inside their brains, everyone showed a sign of surprise as Will continued without waiting for anyone to ask any questions.

"If [Liberty City] works well, [GTA: Vice City] will eventually become the most anticipated game of the year. After all, what better publicity than a movie? Now tell me what are your thoughts Mr Rival."

Arnold and Jay looked each other in the eye, and as if talking without saying a word, they nodded their heads as Arnold coughed and said.

"Honestly speaking, I absolutely love the idea and wouldn't want anything else other than to dive right into this project. But I would first like to know about the terms and conditions of the contract and partnership from Dream Vision's side first before giving a definite answer."

It was an obvious choice to not be in a rush and possibly fall into an unfavourable contract, so Arnold requested to learn more about the partnership conditions.

Will picked up his phone, dialled on it and talked to someone shortly. After a while, Amanda knocked and entered the room.

"Well, about all that complicated stuff, I will leave it to her. She would explain and tell you everything, and you could freely voice any concerns you have. I want this partnership to last long and be a win-win for both the parties."

Will said as he pointed toward Amanda.

Soon, Arnold and Jay left his office, following behind Amanda to talk about the deal. Will told Ethan about the reshoot, and Ethan happily agreed, more enthusiastic than ever after finding out why the reshoot was happening.

Soon, both Ethan and Johnathan left the room as Will finally slumped back into his chair.

Sigh

He sighed out loud as he felt a back pain incoming. He was standing throughout the meeting while the others had the leisure to sit. Not only that….

Will looked towards the cup of tea and two blocks of sugar placed beside his laptop.

"Man, what a waste."

He got so engrossed in the work that he forgot about the tea.

For some reason, he felt extra annoyed at the loss of good tea. It was to the point that even a box office failure would seem smaller to him than this loss of tea.

Will put a hand on his face as he lay backwards on his chair, falling asleep without realising.

…

/DreamNote/

Don't forget to vote with power stones

Read next 12 Chapters on /dreamthree

Report chapter Comments

Chapter 150:

15th May 2012.

It was an important day for Will today. The premiere of [Liberty City] was decided on this date and everyone was preparing themselves to join the grand premiere.

Unlike other movies of Will, this was getting a proper solo premiere because of the fact that [Liberty City] was considered as one of the most anticipated movies of the year.

Added to the fact was that Will was now considered as a properly established director, unlike his previous movies where there were tons of doubts about him and his movies.

It has already been a month since they decided on the [GTA: Vice City] game's idea and EC Games had officially signed a win-win contract with Dream Vision. As long as the movie earned more than $200 million, the game was expected to become a success.

Will had even said that if the game didn't work because of his movie instead of them not being able to come up with the game that he described, then he would bear all the losses. Of course, that just added to the fact that more than half of the game's profits would go in his pocket if the game succeeded.

In the last month, they had finished the reshoot that Will had planned and it came out perfectly, added to the fact that the animation part that they were aiming to add in the end came out fabulously too, making Will more delighted and content.

Since there was quite a larger time gap between the original GTA release than this world's, Will could proudly claim that the graphics were coming out much better and more realistic, although they were still nowhere near the era of 2020s that Will had witnessed.

Today's premiere was for the media, Mega Works, Dream Vision, and some of the guests from various studios and talent agencies. A lot of famous critics were invited and to Will's surprise, many had said that they would attend the premiere.

Will was still at his home. As soon as he came out of the bath, he went in front of his dressing table. Today's suit was especially prepared by a famous fashion designer called Carl McLord.

It was a black designer overcoat with just a black shirt inside. Jeffrey and Alexia both have suggested Will get a personal dressing team but he said he would be fine for now. After getting ready, Will got down and met with June who was also ready.

She was wearing an exotic purple long dress that had a cut near her left leg and some kind of flower embroidery at her right shoulder.

They both walked out and got into Will's Bentley, as Will drove off into the distance.

Grauman's Chinese School, Los Angeles, California.

The theatre has especially booked for the premiere [Liberty City]. It was a famous theatre that shared deep history with Hollywood and was one of the 3 major movie premiere locations of the United States.

Will's Bantley made its way to the theatre and as soon as it stopped, camera shuttles and flashlights started coming from the crowd of paparazzi.

Will got out of the car and handed the keys to the pre-appointed chauffeur. June also walked out as they started walking inside the theatre.

"Sir, sir, please sir one question."

"What do you think about the movie premiere?"

"How much would the movie make according to you?"

"Mr Evans, what do you think about the current situation of MCA?"

"Are you…."

Questions sounded out as the crowd of paparazzi crazily started to ask questions. Even a slight reaction out of will could be worth thousands of dollars worth of content.

Will just walked silently without replying to any questions as he already had an interview planned after the movie premiere was over.

Sweeping a light glance at the crowd of paparazzi, he walked forward. Suddenly something clicked in his mind as he turned his head immediately and looked around the faces of paparazzi, without finding what he was looking for.

He decided not to make a scene and went inside, but something kept bothering him in his mind.

'I think I saw a familiar face in the bunch of paparazzi… who could it be?'

He thought as he finally reached the venue.

The main hall was filled with people, from influential Hollywood stars to the crowd of critics and media. People from Mega Works, and ICM were present too. Someone or the other from the big 6 studios were present, making it quite the scene.

The whole cast and team of [Liberty City, [500 days of Summer] and [1917] was present too, as everyone formed small groups where they talked.

"You guys are here."

Amanda was the first one to notice Will and June's entrance and came to pick them up.

"Yeah. You look beautiful today."

Will commented as they started walking towards Jeffrey's group in the near distance.

Amanda was wearing a low cut burgundy colored dress and looked much younger than she actually was. And she had a certain sexy charm to her today that usually wasn't noticeable in her office lady clothes.

"Thank you Will. You look handsome too, as usual. You too, June. You look absolutely stunning in that dress. Wow, did you get your nails done?"

Amanda started talking to June as the girls got so engrossed in their talk that they forgot about Will. Will walked up to Jeffrey, who was talking to Abraham Hayes and Micheal Williams.

"Look at who has decided to show up, welcome Mr Evans."

Abraham said in a cheerful voice as he raised he did a handshake.

"The premiere is of my own movie, of course I'd have to show up."

Will said as he laughed a little.

"What can anyone say even if you didn't attend? After all, someone is popular for rarely attending any event they're invited to because they're always working. Hahaha."

Micheal said teasingly and everyone chuckled at that.

"I hope the premiere goes well. I am really excited and nervous about the media's and critic's reactions."

Jeffery said, excitement and the fear of the unknown clearly displayed on his face.

"I don't know, but I'll leave the worries to you guys. It's a Will Evans' movie, I would be sure to sit tight and watch the movie, lest I miss out on fun."

Abraham said, trying to act like a fanboy.

Everyone laughed at that and finally, after 10 or so minutes, everybody started moving inside the theatre.

The movie would be premiered soon and the rush of important people made it seem like any other housefull movie's cinema, but with a twist of audience. The audience being famous celebrities, critics and media personnels.

[Yet another masterpiece and blockbuster by Will Evans.

Today, one of the most anticipated movies of this year, [Liberty City] , a movie by Will Evans, was released. Fans from around America and even many other European nations were eagerly waiting for the movie's launch, and what greeted them was a movie so thrilling that it broke all their expectations.

The movie witnessed a phenomenal record of continuous housefull of every theatre in the US on its first day. Not only that but the amount of tickets booked confirms that the whole next week has been booked out by people.

The movie was about the life of a gangster, which not only managed to capture the essence of such movies, but also the heart of the audience.

From the rise of Mario Di Mauro to the fall of Tommy Vercetti, everything was so thrilling that at the end of the movie, it leaves no room for dissatisfaction.

Apart from the movie itself, the audience is more excited about what was hinted at the end of the movie. There was a scene of young Tommy Vercetti fighting with his enemies and mid fight, the real scene turned into animation and the animated version of Tommy Vercetti completed the scene.

As the scene ended, there was a credit scene with bold fonts reading [GTA: Vice City]. According to the movie, Vice city is the city from where Tommy Vercetti hails from. Is this a prelude to a prequel movie starring the young Tommy Vercetti? Or is it something else entirely?

One thing is for certain. There are a lot of questions, and according to Will's interview after the premiere, these questions would be answered soon.

With all that said, will we be seeing another movie with similar box office like [Sherlock Holmes]? That's the real question.] – The Weekend Tribunal.

[Liberty City] was released and caused a big stir. It earned more than $3 million dollars on its first day of release. The fans from around the world had gone into total chaos. There were a lot of new articles solely based on Will Evans and his movie. There were many who were comparing it to existing gangster movies and said that it was one of the better gangster movies done extremely well.

On a famous online forum, the title alone gathered a lot of people.

[R/Liberty City

u/averagestudent: You shouldn't move even after the credits roll, because something special would come!!

u/cute.as.duck: I totally agree with the OP. Don't leave your seats till you've watched the credits.

u/google_was_my_idea: Man… what even happens? Why is everyone making a fuss about credit scenes? Don't you all have something funnier to do on the internet? For example, post memes to entertain me. xD

u/BadKarma: I second the guy above me. I haven't watched the movie yet since I don't really like all this criminal stuff. Yet people be making a fuss about a simple credit scene. Man, get a life.

u/fast_and_the_curious: The dudes above me, you should get a life. The movie was f*cking epic and the end credit clearly left a title. Everyone's saying its a movie prequel but trust me, my curious guts are saying that it could be a game. If what I said is true then I really am fast. XD

u/fedora_the_explorer: I think what you said might really turn out to be true! OMG! I am so excited / ]

…

/DreamNote/

Don't forget to vote with your powerstones

Read next 12 chapters on /dreamthree

…

IMPORTANT NOTE??

Remember the poll we had last week? Guys, I think there's a misunderstanding regarding the poll. well, it's my fault for not being clear enough. The thing is, I was talking about the Spider Man 2002 movie, not Tobey Maguire. Because I have plans for a different actor as spiderman, Tobey will not be part of the story. I hope I have made things clear for you

Report chapter Comments

Chapter 151:

22nd May 2012.

Ever since the release of [Liberty City, there has been a lot going on, both on the internet and inside Hollywood.

The movie was breaking records as it successfully collected more than 3 million dollars on the first day of its screening. It had earned $7 million on its second day, and the figures just kept on exploding like firecrackers, with the first week's total box office being $49 million.

[Another Box Office Juggernaut by Will Evans

The movie [Liberty City] was released on 15th May 2012 and is a movie directed by one of Hollywood's most up and coming influential directors, Will Evans. Not only had he managed to outdo himself, but he had also even opened up a path to a whole new genre that had been closed years ago.

[Liberty City] is being taken as a movie that is but a small part of a franchise that Will Evans genius had planned out. As the movie keeps getting popular day after day, it has gathered a lot of critics, and there are a lot of controversial topics from some of the critics.

The famous critics of Hollywood commented on their Sparrow.

@CriticCye: Simply marvellous. With [Liberty City, Will Evans had proven himself as a man of many talents. Not only did he introduce another young and talented star, but he had also even managed to come out with such a masterful story that can easily mark an era. For people who don't know, all of the music of [Liberty City] is composed by Will Evans personally with his team. 5/5.

…

@iAmARichMaggot: Utterly shameful and undisguised disregarding of law. The movie projects scenes and language that are truly hateful. Instead of showing the life of a criminal, it shows more of the life of a crime city and how to give wind to that crime. It contains strong messages that your children should be kept away from. The movie's actors did a great job at portraying such disgraceful characters. 1.2/5. Not Recommended.

…

@ThePersonAboveMeSucks: One word, Brilliant! I have already watched the movie two times, and I can confidently say that this is one of the best movies in the last five years. It introduces you to the life of a criminal, but it also sucks you in, making you feel like you're a part of all this. The direction, the acting of the actors, the cinematography, and the music. Everything was perfect. The Only small thing that I felt uncomfortable with was the extremely foul language. But without that, it wouldn't feel as realistic! 4.9/5. Absolutely recommended.

As we can see above, there are different types of opinions about the movie itself, but that just means how deserving it is. There are tons of fans making thousands of online threads and posts regarding the same topic, and that is [Liberty City].

The post-credit scene has left everyone guessing about what Will Evans is planning again, but one thing is certain: people are eagerly waiting for it!

…

We at the Weekend Tribunal would personally recommend you to watch the movie once before forming your opinions. Our rating for the film is 5/5. A masterpiece.] – The Weekend Tribunal.

The movie in itself caused a lot of reaction from the audience. However, when everyone thought about the end credit, they weren't left wondering for long as one of the top game companies in the USA and even the whole world, EC Games' head, Arnold Rival, posted on his Sparrow, which not only reached the eyes of gamers but the whole of the USA.

@Arnold_Rival: The [GTA: Vice City] trailer, a part of [Liberty City] universe, would be released four months later at the San Francisco gaming convention. It's a game written and brought up by @Will_Evans, and we will do our best to bring it to beta testers as soon as possible. Sign the beta testing form below.

Form Link- https//form-for-beta-testing-of-gta-vice-city.html

Everyone couldn't believe what they were seeing, and some were even asking if all this was a prank. But it was all cleared out as soon as Will Evans replied to Arnold Rival's tweet on Sparrow himself.

@Will_Evans: Thanks, man! I hope that this collaboration is on for a long time and that people receive that game that I have always dreamt of delivering to them.

As soon as Will replied to the comment, the netizens immediately went into an uproar.

@iAmYou: Holy Shit! I just checked his profile. It's the real Will Evans!

@NotYourMom: I am a huge fan, sir! Please reply to my comment!

@ReadMyOtherBook: Man, what am I even seeing now? I think I be trippin.

@PleaseReadMyOtherBook: [GTA: Vice City] let's go!! Can't wait!!

@PleasePleaseReadMyOtherBook: I was wondering why the credit scene turned into animation instead. A game with those graphics? I get to be a gangster? I am down!

@Its5amAlready: Guys, check my MeTube account! I make entertaining videos!

@IStillHaven'tSlept: Are there going to be other movies of the same franchise? Or the games would continue the story?

27th May 2012

As the tweet of EC's head went viral, Will told Robert, Leo and Ethan to retweet it. It just garnered an even more enthusiastic response. Will's strategy to promote the game even before its beta launch was paying off with flying colours. Both professional and casual gamers were eagerly anticipating the game's arrival.

Not to mention, EC studio received more than a million forms by the end of the week, making their website's server freeze for two whole hours. Arnold had underestimated Will's strategy to use his and his actors' popularity, and now EC's team were struggling to check out applications of people with no end. They had already closed the form for any further applications.

As the USA was busy waiting for Will's next move, Will waited for something else.

Yesterday's box office collection count came out as $98 million, and Will was waiting for it to reach a hundred million, which could be anytime now.

Suddenly, a chilling cold engulfed Will as an ice-like screen formed itself in front of Will.

[The system has been restored]

[Hollywood System 2.0 has been installed]

[Every unusable function is usable now]

Will smiled as he saw those texts, and jolts of ecstasy passed throughout his body as he saw the next texts.

Allen Studios Head Office.

Ashton Banasiewicz, the CEO of Allen studios, was currently looking at his laptop, lying back in his chair with his legs folded and putting on his other leg.

Ayden Afify, his secretary, was standing beside him as they talked about the success of [Liberty City].

"[Liberty City] has already crossed the $100 million mark, and it's estimated that it'll easily break through the $300 or even $400 million mark with some more time."

Ayden said as he looked for a reaction in the old yet vigorous man sitting on the recliner chair.

Allen Studios had released their action movie [Recovery Agent] on the same day as [Liberty City, and it was starred a famous A-list actor, Parker Hardmeat. So not only had Allen studios spend a lot of money on the making of the movie, but they've also spent quite a sum on the promotion of the movie.

But the movie had failed to show any signs of performance at the box office as all the audience had been tanked by Will Evans' [Liberty City].

Unfazed by the failure of the movie, Ashton smiled and asked.

"Can you tell me what is one thing that is the same in every Article, every media news along with [Liberty City]?"

As one of his longest-lasting secretaries, Ayden was used to the old man's antics and immediately answered.

"Maybe how the media is praising it as the best, over the top action movie that has come to theatres after years?"

Ayden replied with uncertainty. He knew that answering with the wrong answer was always better than not answering at all. At least in this old man's case.

Ashton shook his head at his answer and said as he took a puff of his premium cigarette.

"The movie featured Ethan, a well-known star. Then there was Robert, one of the fastest actors to reach the A-list and filled with talent. And to top it off, there was Leo, a young yet talented actor that managed to pull off a gangster's style with a scrawny body, definitely someone who would be a big star in the industry. But instead of talking about these people, the media and articles all focus on Will."

Saying till hare, Ashton smiled as he continued.

"Will is a bonafide superstar now. Someone who can rule decades, a whole era. He is probably the only one to come out as a superstar ever since the last decade."

"What do you mean by a superstar?"

Ayden asked curiously as Ashton replied.

"A superstar can bring in a large crowd to the theatres, no matter what the movie is, and Will is such a superstar."

"With [The Blair Witch Project] he was a newbie, [Sherlock Holmes] turned him into a reliable director, [500 days of Summer] cemented that belief and [1917] would probably tie an Oscars to his name. And now [Liberty City] is nothing but a cherry on the cake, to make everything look more beautiful and elegant."

Ashton finally finished as he seemed to be looking far into the distance.

"Then…sir.. What should we do?"

Ayden asked.

"Don't worry. I have plans for Allen Studios myself. I never thought I would have to take them out so early."

Taking a last puff of smoke inside, Ashton put out the cigarette by crushing it on the ashtray beside him.

"Hn… Will."

…

/DreamNote/

Don't forget to vote with powerstones

Report chapter Comments

Chapter 152: .

[Quest – Write, Produce and Direct an Original movie with your own original soundtrack that had never existed in your previous world or this world.

Quest Clear Conditions –

Earn $100 million dollars from your own original movie during the first four weeks of its run.

The system will remain non-functioning during the quest duration; you can use the existing Skills.

All the Fame Points collected can't be used to buy skills or be withdrawn during this period of time.

Quest Clear Rewards –

System Upgrade

Quest Duration – 8 Months

Quest Failure Penalty – The system upgrade would stop. You would still be able to use the existing system.

Time Remaining – None.]

[Congratulations! You've successfully completed the quest.]

[The system has been restored.]

[Hollywood System 2.0 has been installed.]

[Every unusable function is usable now.]

[Hidden rewards on the completion of quest:

New items and Skills added to the shop.

Clairvoyance (Skill)

Pirates of the Caribbean (Script)

Titanic (Script)

The Lord of the Rings The Hobbit (Book Series)

Status Screen (Evolved)

10,000,000 Fame Points. ]

[You have established yourselves and made a solid foundation in Hollywood. Fame Points can no longer be converted into money, new items and skills have been added as compensation.]

[Various functions can be unlocked if some specific conditions are met.]

[Name – Will Evans

Alias – Evans W.

Age – 22

Skills – {Advanced Directing} {Intermediate Acting} {Intermediate Instrumentalism} {Advanced Writing} {Advance Musical Arts} {Clairvoyance}

Fame Points – 10,000,000

Inventory – {Pirates of the Caribbean (Script)} {Titanic (Script)}]

Gasp

Will gasped as he looked at the bunch of screens in front of him. It has been so long without the system that at one point, he was starting to doubt if he would ever get it back.

But not only did it come back, but it had also come back with a total bang!

Touching the new system screen, which was more of an icy screen than the previous blue coloured screen, Will couldn't help but feel a bit nostalgic.

"Titanic… Pirates of the Caribbean…"

These words unconsciously escaped from Will's mouth as he saw the various types of rewards from the system.

He didn't even bother about the fact that he could no longer get money from Fame Point's conversion, as deep down, he was still scared that someday, somebody would find out where all that money comes from.

Not only that but also the fact that Will was a proper multi-millionaire that he wouldn't be needing the dubious money from the system.

'What's this Clairvoyance skill? Is that what I am thinking?'

In Will's previous life, he had of course heard about the term, but he couldn't believe if such a thing could be real. As it was too unrealistic and broken for a person to have it.

As soon as Will thought about the Clairvoyance skill, a description of it came right in front of Will's eyes.

[Clairvoyance

Type – Active Skill

Cooldown – 72 hours.

Get a glimpse of the future!

Use this skill to look into 5 minutes of the future.]

"What the actual f…"

Will was a man of absolute decency. He rarely cursed or acted out of control, until he saw the skill description of Clairvoyance.

He couldn't believe he had gotten his hands on such magical powers. Will's heart screamed inside his chest as it begged to break out of his rib cage.

After a while, Will calmed down and decided to use the skill. In the skill, he saw himself regretting the fact that he wasted his skill when there was no one around and that there were no major moments going on.

The vision lasted a split second, but Will clearly knew the things that happened in the next 5 minutes.

'Why did I waste the skill like this?'

Will thought as he looked at the cooldown of the skill which showed 71:59 minutes remaining until the next use.

After a while, Will decided to check the shop, and what greeted him were more surprises.

[Wonder movie of the year!

You all might have already guessed what this article is talking about. Yes, it is the newest addition to Will Evams' portfolio and one of the biggest movies of this year, [Liberty City]. Not only had it crossed $130 million in just the second week of its release, but it has also successfully managed to enamour its audience by captivating their hearts.

The movie's cinematography and the acting of the major roles are still receiving bouts of praise from famous critics.

The handsome yet devilish Leo, who had played the role of a gangster and the protagonist of the movie, Mario de Mauro had succeeded in entrapping the hearts of the audience with his brilliant acting.

Ethan's role was widely claimed as the second protagonist of the movie, even though he had played the antagonist. And ever since the news about [GTA: Vice City] was released, this belief was solidified.

We got to see another side of Robert that we had yet to discover in the movie as he played the Vulpe character.

Natalie Bergmann had solidified her position in Hollywood after acting in two hit movies back to back. Her acting itself is praiseworthy and has garnered hundreds of thousands of fan following.

There was even a June Roberts cameo role in the movie that garnered fans' attention.

Overall, the movie and all its characters are a hit and the movie is expected to cross the $300 million mark by the end of its screening.

All this was possible because of one person, and that person is Will Evans. Not only had he brought back to back masterpieces to Hollywood, but he had also introduced new faces that had ended up becoming the stars of today, overshadowing many old faces!

How many more movies would Will Evans put his hand into? Is there ever going to be his downfall?] – The Daily Dropout.

It's been months since the release of [Harry Potter: The Philosopher's Stone] yet the book was still selling well in the market, surprisingly. The book wasn't just sold in the US but also around the whole world, bringing about hoards of fans, along with many unanswered questions.

The sequel of the book, [Harry Potter: The Chamber of Secrets] was already in talks with Walden publishing house confirming the news.

Since the book's sequel was supposed to be released half a year after the first book's release, Will was working his ass off to write it down. Although it was easier to write compared to the first book he wrote due to all the skills that he had gotten. He still felt overworked as he had to jot down the scripts that he had received from the system too.

He had decided to put the other books on hold and just focus on the Harry Potter series along with writing the scripts for the newly received movies.

Dream Vision Head Office. Santa Monica, California.

The large meeting room was filled with important people from various departments of Dream Vision. This can be counted as the first official meeting of Dream Vision as there was never an official meeting that included people from all departments.

Will was sitting on the podium of the room, waiting for everyone to settle down as he began to talk.

"First of all, congratulations to everybody on the success of [Liberty City]. It wouldn't have been possible without you all."

Will said as everyone clapped. Most of these people from various departments rarely get to see Will. So he was as much of a celebrity for them as he was for the general people.

"I would have loved to celebrate the moment with you all, but it's the initial phase of the company and I want everything to be done perfectly."

Looking around for the expressions of his employees, Will continued.

"First of all, I've invited you all to talk about the future of this company. I already have another movie's script planned out and I would like some feedback from all of you on how to evolve the company for a better place."

Will smiled as he waited for people to take in his words.

A discussion broke out amongst the employees as they chatted and talked about the company's future.

"Anyone have any ideas?"

Will asked as immediately a lot of people raised their hands.

'This is the reason you should employ smarter people than yourself.'

Will happily listened in on the ideas that his employees gave out and waited for them to finish them.

After everyone gave out their ideas, Will clapped and finally attracted everyone's attraction to himself.

"So, onto the big news. We will be having our own OTT app and releasing all our movies and promotional videos on it after some time. We would partner up with various small and medium-sized studios to make this endeavour a success."

Will said as everyone calmly took his words in first then raised their eyebrows in surprise. For them, getting an OTT was only natural after a while, but partnering up with other studios seemed absurd,

What they didn't know was that this was the rise of the biggest OTT platform, something that was extremely famous in his previous world.

"What are we going to call it?"

Amanda asked curiously, she somehow sensed that the smug Will wanted someone to ask that question, and she was sure this was the case when she saw that look on Will's face.

"It'll be called Netflix."

Chapter 153: [Bonus Chapter]

"It'll be called Netflix."

Will said as if it was something obvious, forgetting for a moment that on this earth, there was no such thing as Netflix.

Ignoring the latter part, Amanda mused.

"Netflix…hmm. That does sound quite appealing. But anyway, what is with you suddenly wanting to get an OTT?"

Amanda asked as everyone focused their eyes on Will, having the same question.

"It's not sudden. I always wanted to get an OTT later on. But since Dream Vision is expanding so fast and continuously keeps getting good movies, I thought it was about time I pre-pone the idea. Otherwise, we would be missing out on a potentially big market."

Will said as he strolled around the meeting room's podium. After taking a glance at the faces of people sitting in the meeting room, he continued.

"Most of you should already know, but for those who don't, let me tell you something. I've already promised an OTT series to OP pictures, but I don't want to continue this trend in future and let them reap all the benefits. That's why I have decided to get my own OTT platform for any of the possible series' in future."

Will finished his monologue and Amanda, who had been waiting for him to finish immediately pointed out one of the major worries of the plan.

"Getting an OTT platform is all good and well but you should realise that we will have to invest billions of dollars to get it done. We would need blockbuster movies on the platform. Not to mention that getting the rights for those movies would take a big chunk of money."

Amanda finished mentioning her worries and everyone couldn't help but nod. After all, what she mentioned were legit worries that the movie will face.

It takes billions to get streaming rights for blockbuster movies and many other OTT sites already have it.

Including the Fame Point that he had converted into money, and the box office of [Sherlock Holmes] Will had gotten a lot of money. He spent almost $10 million dollars on the office rent, which he would have to renew in August again.

Not only that, but he also had spent time on many movies. He had spent around $7 million on [500 days of Summer] and around $90 million on [1917]. Apart from that, he had spent 51% of the total budget of [Liberty City]. The other 49% was paid by mega works.

[500 days of Summer] was distributed by OP Pictures and grossed $157 million at the box office, earning many times more than its initial budget. Will had earned around $38 million from the movie, recovering the budget as well as making many times the profit.

As for [1917, it was distributed by Foxstar and the movie grossed 370 million dollars and became the first movie to break the $300 million mark at the box office this year. Will had earned 155 million dollars from the movie.

[Liberty City] was distributed by Mega Works and had just been released 2 weeks ago, already crossed the $100 million mark, currently grossing at $135 million and still counting. The first month's profit from this movie won't come for at least two more weeks.

Will had earned more than $10 million just from [Harry Potter: The Philosopher's Stone]. Bringing his current bank balance to a whopping $470.8 million.

That much money was enough to buy 470 small islands and Will could peacefully live without working his whole life, having anything a man can desire.

(A/N – Never buy an island. The taxes would be enough to make you island-less in 10 years. Speaking from experience.)

But opening an OTT and making it go big scale was still a far stretch in that amount.

"My plan is to get 3-4 series in pre-production in the upcoming 2 years as a Netflix exclusive series. Apart from that, all the Dream Vision movies would only be available at Netflix some months after their launch. We'll also make deals with other studios to get their movies and series on Netflix for a year.

They can take their movie's out after a year. This way, we'll have to pay a lot less than the estimate. It's better to contract other studios for a year than to buy every movie's streaming rights for a lifetime one by one. Secondly, we'll try to get series and movies from other industries too."

In this world, OTT's only had Hollywood movies and series and people still hadn't thought of the idea to sub from other countries' movies and series. There were many famous subbed and dubbed movies and series in Will's world where the dub version had earned more than the original.

One of the biggest examples were series like Money Heist, Squid Game, etc. Anime also covered a big part of the dubbing and subbing market.

Just thinking about how popular anime could be and how big the market was enough to make Will anticipate the future.

Since no OTT had this feature yet, Will wanted to use this as his edge, something to make Netflix stand out from other OTT platforms.

As everyone listened to Will's thorough plan, they couldn't help but be shocked inwardly as Will kept on explaining about how they would make the app, how much should it cost, why should people use it and why is it worth it. Amanda, Jeffrey and Alexia were shocked to their cores, what Will was talking about can very well end up becoming the world's number one OTT platform if executed well, and the thought alone was scary.

'What a monster in sheep's clothing.'

Alexia thought as she finally realised that there was no end to the depth of a monster like Will Evans. On the outside, he looked every bit like a charming young man, who wouldn't be the smartest, but would be well accepted in the society. But what lies inside him was what had made him come so far, and everyone realised for the first time.

'This man's goal isn't just to earn big. It's to become the best in the world.'

It was a crazy thought which was unbelievable as no one in the world would think that 'I want to be the best man in the world'. But Will Evans' actions spoke more than his tongue. He had proven time and time again that he wasn't just a random wonder of Hollywood, but a carefully and well planned Miracle.

"When exactly do you want to start working on the platform?"

Emily Featherton, the head of the technical department, was a woman in her thirties. She stood up and asked this question. For her, this sounded like a world changing project, and being a tech geek, she couldn't want anything more than to be a part of it.

"I want to start working on it as early as possible, so that we can release it by the start of next year. It's been 7 month of time. I would hire more professionals and software engineers to join the technical team, but I want the app ready before the next year, with no bugs and all testing done."

Will replied as he suddenly started drawing something on the white board that was on the wall adjacent to the podium.

Will's drawing was always good, and even his random scribbles didn't feel like they'd been put out randomly. He drew an 'N' that had folded in its corner and wrote the word Netflix that was in a small crescent arching shape.

He finally put down the marker and pointed towards the logo.

"This logo. In the upcoming 10 years, I want to make it so that any random person you stop and ask 'which logo is this', should be able to answer without hesitation that it's Netflix's logo."

Will finally finished his speech as he waited for everyone to take in his words.

In his mind, he was also thinking of Netflix's iconic tune of Tadump!

Pin drop silence.

This sentence could easily sum up the atmosphere of the meeting room. Emily was the first one to regain her consciousness as she started clapping her hands. Everyone slowly regained their composers and started following after Emily.

Clap Clap Clap

Rounds of applause filled the meeting room as Will's respect in the eyes of every employee present increased ten folds, or even more.

"Brilliant boss!"

"Just wow!"

Such comments filled the room as clapping slowly subsided.

Amanda and Jeffrey went near him as the former smiled and said.

"What's with your ambitions? That was so childishly cool."

She chuckled after saying that.

Will just rustled his hands through his hair, as if embarrassed.

"So, what are your next goals? I am talking about your current to-do list instead of the world domination plan."

Jeffrey asked jokingly and Will and Amanda laughed at that.

"Well, first of all. It's going to be the series for RBO as well as [The Terminator]. Other than that, there is [Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows] and some other movies. We would also be expanding on DTA and start headquarters in different countries next year. On that note, those other movies are also going to start my dream of creating the world's most successful franchise."

Will said and both Amanda and Jeffrey got curious.

"What are you talking about exactly?"

Jeffrey asked, unable to contain his curiousness.

Will looked at him and then smiled mischievously as he said.

"Superheroes."

..

/DreamNote/

Thank you supporting this novel with your power stones

This was bonus chapter for keeping this book at Number #01 in the Power stones rankings!

But, our meeting tonight is not over yet!

Scroll to the next chapter, I have something interesting to tell

Report chapter Comments

Chapter 154: Important Announcement!!

Hi guys, it's Dream.

First of all, let me know in the comments how have you been liking this webnovel.

Now, as most of you would have known by now, I am also writing another showbiz novel, Versatile Superstar, which is fully original and is currently being uploaded daily on my webnovel.

However, with all the showbiz, are you now interested in reading a whole new genre? A new book?

In fact, it will be my last book of this year and there won't be a new one until I finish the one you're reading, My Hollywood System.

And what is this whole new genre?

Video Games. MMORPG.

MONSTER MMORPG to be more specific.

Experience a whole new writing style by me and trust me, you will surely like. Tho, I did take some inspiration from Overgeared, my fav. mmo webnovel, but that's just to start the story.

Here are the details

…

Novel Name: [ MONSTER MMORPG: Mayhem Online ]

…

Synopsis:

In 2106, [Mayhem Online, a fully immersive VRMMO game, was released. Soon, it dominated the world's economy when people could exchange the in-game currency with real-life currency and vice versa.

In the year 2107, Flynn Grey, a 22-year-old college dropout with an ambiguous history, joined in the fray of billions of people that had already started playing [Mayhem]. Hoping to uncover the game's secret and earn a fortune, he spent months on adventures without fruitful results.

For better or worse, Shura, Flynn's in-game character, ends up in a great Wyvern's den, acquiring a hidden class and a monstrous race. Join him as he defeats his past and paves his way into becoming a true legend in both worlds.

…

Tags: VRMMO, Video Game, Male Protagonist, Handsome Male Lead, Beautiful Female Leads, Fantasy, Friendship, Monster Protagonist, Races, Classes, Misunderstandings, Comedic Undertone, Slow Romance, Multiple Love Interests, Older Love Interests, Devoted Lovers, Polygamy, Marriage, Demons, Mythology, Cults, Church, Gods, Legends, Kingdom Building, Guilds, Wars, Tournaments, Money Grubber, Enemies Become Allies, Enemies Become Lovers, NPCs, Lucky Protagonist.

…

/DreamNote/

This story features a volatile protagonist due to his mysterious past. He's not evil, but not righteous either, and does anything he feels like doing.

This story will feature his real and game life, although, for most parts, the focus would be on the game world.

He doesn't start as a monster protagonist from the get-go. It'll be shown in the story how and why he turns into a monster in the game [Chapter no. 20-30].

The story's pacing would depend on the arcs, but I'll try to keep it at the fast-mediums.

This story WILL have a harem, but the focus would be on the character-building more than the romance. Romance is going to form later and will be slow-paced.

…

If you're worried about this novel affecting MHS or VS, don't be. MMORPG novel is something I have slowly been working on and it's the second genre that I know how to write.

Please ADD THE NEW NOVEL TO YOUR LIBRARY, and give it a try. Ten chapters are already up, and all of them are longer than any MHS chapter ever.

Remember, [ MONSTER MMORPG: Mayhem Online ]

You can visit my profile for instant access, follow my reading list to have all the books at once place

This book is built different.

Report chapter Comments

Chapter 155:

Will and Amanda were currently in an elevator that was moving down from the third floor to the ground floor.

The meeting regarding Netflix and his future plans had just finished and Will had dragged Amanda to the elevator saying that they needed to go somewhere.

"Where are we even going?"

Amanda asked. She had been dragged along with Will without any proper explanation as to where they were going.

"It's been months already since I've bought Marvel Comics. But I still haven't visited its office as I was continuously busy with so many other things. Since I'm creating my future plans now, I've to go pay them a visit. After all, Marvel is going to be a big part of it."

Will said as they walked out of the elevator.

Amanda, as if enlightened, couldn't help but ask.

"Are you going to create a superhero movie next?"

"Nah, why would I do that?"

Will said, and Amanda's facial expressions finally relaxed, thinking that nothing big was going to happen. That's where she was wrong.

Will continued his sentence from where he left it off.

"I'll be creating a superhero franchise."

"What!?"

"I'll be creating a superhero franchise."

"I heard it clearly the first time. My 'what' was more of a surprise reaction than a question."

Amanda said as she felt another headache coming. Superhero movies have been a big stigma in this world as even the best ones just barely broke even. So when Will talked about creating not only a movie but a whole franchise regarding the same thing, she couldn't help but feel nervous.

"You do know that a superhero franchise would come with a big risk? It's not going to be like [Sherlock Holmes]. First of all, selecting a superhero that would work or not is already a big task."

Amanda said, trying to put her point. She had given up on trying to change Will's mind regarding something he became adamant about a long time ago. All she could do was give 'suggestions' that he might or might not accept.

"See, that's why I repeated myself. You didn't hear me clearly. I said I'm going to be creating a superhero franchise. Superheroes! Not one, but every superhero."

Will finally said and his face looked a bit excited and proud. After all, he was going to step into the Marvel cinematic universe soon. Recreating every movie and enjoying the reactions of people from every walks of life.

"…."

Amanda looked at Will like he was a madman. She couldn't believe what he was talking about. Looking at her reaction, Will just shrugged.

"You'll see soon."

Will said as they had reached his car. He opened the car's passenger seat where he sat and gave the keys to Amanda.

"…."

Amanda again looked at him, speechless.

"What? You don't know how to drive?"

Will asked, raising his eyebrows.

"…..I know."

"Then what are you waiting for? Can't you drive for a friend?"

Will asked smugly at which Amanda just shook her head. Without saying anything, she got in the driver's seat and started the car.

Even after the car had started for almost a minute, Amanda didn't put on the accelerator.

"What now?"

Will turned to her side and asked.

"I don't know where Marvel's office is located."

"….You know what? Let me drive."

Will shook his head. After a while, they finally left the company's premises.

Marvel Comics, Los Angeles, California.

Unlike in Will's previous world, this world's Marvel headquarters, and now currently the only office, was situated in Los Angeles instead of New York City.

It was an old two-story building on east street. The insides of the office looked old and most of the departments looked unkempt.

The CEO's office was the only place that looked a bit different than the rest of the junkyard. It was a bit cleaner, and looked more like an old English government office than a junkyard.

Currently, Jimmy Spark, the CEO of Marvel, was busy scolding an old man with grey hair and moustache. Jimmy Spark was as old as the old man in front of him, but looking at both of their bodies, there was a clear difference.

Jimmy Spark was a fat man, as if he had only eaten pizzas and burgers his whole life, on the other hand, the other old man was a lot slimmer. His eyes looked tired and his expression was one of bitterness and anxiety.

Marvel comics was once the best of the best even in this world. It had earned in the 70s, 80s, and even till the early 90s. But now what remained of it was the shadows of its past glory. It was just barely surviving somehow after getting thoroughly trampled over by DC comics.

Not only that, even other comic companies that started later than they had gone way further than where Marvel currently was.

The current CEO and even all the existing employees of the company were the same even after Will had bought the whole company. The reason was simple, he was a very busy man.

He had decided to leave things be and told the existing managing staff to function till he officially takes over the company. The staff was more than happy to not lose the job for a few more months.

"Fuck. How long do you think we will survive like this? Don't you have anything better to offer to the readers?"

Jimmy shouted with spit coming out of his mouth every time he spoke a word. The person in front of Jimmy was the head of the comic book creation department. The latest comic series had again become a failure and Jimmy was currently taking out his frustration on the poor efforts of the marketing team on the old creation head.

"You know what? Just -"

Just when Jimmy was about to say to the old guy that he was getting fired, Jimmy's assistant, Ross, came to the office.

Jimmy made an unpleasant face as he asked.

"The fuck is it, you fuckface? Don't you know that you shouldn't enter without knocking?"

"B-but sir.."

The young assistant stuttered. He was a newly appointed assistant as no assistant of Jimmy lasted more than 3 months.

"But? But what? Huh? You better have a good reason for barging in like this or consider yourself fi- suspended."

Jimmy held back from saying the word 'fired'. He knew that it was getting difficult to appoint anyone as his assistant with every passing day, and if he kept firing everyone then he would be the only person left in the company.

"S-sir, Will Evans is coming to the office."

Ross stuttered again. He felt like he had made his life's biggest mistake by becoming the assistant of this psycho. It was very clear as to what one of the biggest reasons behind Marvel's downfall could have been.

"What? Will who?"

'Fuck your ignorance fatty!'

Ross cursed internally as he replied.

"Sir, it's the new owner. The new owner of the company, Will Evans. He's finally coming today to take control of the company, officially. You do remember he bought the company, right?"

"Ri-right…. Of course, I remember."

Jimmy had completely forgotten about it. The only thing he remembered was that Will was too busy to take over the company immediately, even after buying. So they can continue to function until he comes back to take control.

Jimmy finally started sweating after realising that his days of bossing around people might be coming to an end if he didn't do anything to impress his new boss.

"The fuck are you waiting for? Go and call everyone over for a meeting."

He shouted at the assistant again, who somehow built up some courage and replied.

"I am not as slow as you, I've already called everyone over for the meeting in the main hall. Come and join if you want to."

Jimmy watched slack-jawed as Ross left his cabin like a lion that had finally pulled out his fang. Since Ross already knew that most of the employees from this sinking ship of a company would be kicked out as soon as proper management returned, he no longer had any reasons to be scared of the so-called CEO.

Still, as soon as he shut his cabin door and walked a bit further away, he placed his hand on his heart which was loudly beating. Beads of sweat formed around his forehead and neck as he tried to calm his heart down.

"Wow, that was…scarily thrilling."

An awkward smile formed on Ross's face as he was shocked at himself about how he had talked to his boss in a loud voice. The boss that had given him PTSD after just three months of working here.

"Take that you old fatty."

Ross gave Jimmy the middle finger in his heart. But before he could celebrate much, he heard a shouting noise coming from Jimmy's cabin again.

He could already guess what was ensuing inside. For some reason, this old bastard would always try to find reasons to humiliate the poor creation head.

"Bastards like you don't deserve such a position. I hope Will kick's your ass out first. I would rather see the creation head as the CEO than you."

Ross muttered to himself. He was just taking out his frustration from months of mistreatment but he couldn't help but feel sad for the old guy. He was always nice to people and always replied to everyone with a bright smile, but when nobody was talking to him, he would always have that long face.

One of the only two cleaners of the company came running towards Ross as he said while trying to catch his breath.

"Sir….. Will Evans has arrived."

…

/DreamNote/

Don't forget to vote with your power stones

Report chapter Comments

Chapter 156:

Will entered into a meeting room after being guided by the assistant of the CEO of Marvel. The old meeting room was just two steps short of being extremely shabby.

Amanda was following just beside Will and couldn't help but give Will signals that the office was way too shabby. Will didn't say anything and followed inside.

In a medium-sized room– the meeting room, roughly 40-50 people were sitting on chairs that were falling apart. Even the tiles in the meeting room had cracks in places.

Most of these people were old men and women who had worked here their whole life.

As soon as Will entered, most of them had surprised expressions on their faces. Every single person here had watched Will on TV at least once or twice, so they couldn't help but feel blessed.

Some of the only young employees even had faces that showed signs of worshipping.

Most people here knew that the company had been sold to someone, and they had no future here. But they still kept working to the bitter end because they couldn't leave this job. They were too old to be hired anywhere else.

Will looked around at the faces of all these people. Most of them were old and at an age where they should have retired and enjoyed their lives instead of working like this.

The heavy atmosphere and dark circles just showed more of the work environment and how stressed these people were.

As Will was glancing around at the faces of people, two people suddenly entered the meeting room, the creaking noise of the door notifying Will of their entrance.

A fat old man whose face screamed 'he's the bad guy', entered the room with a fawning smile on his face. His body was sweating like a pig, and his breathing was heavy due to running here from his office.

"Mr Evans! What a pleasant surprise it is. To think you would personally visit this place, you should have just informed me earlier, and I would have come running to your office with all the files and details you wanted to know."

Jimmy said as he pushed his fat hand forward for a handshake.

Even after seconds, his hand was still hanging in midair. Then, awkwardly pulling his hands back, he looked at Will's eyes that looked not at him but behind him.

'Hmm, I should have expected.'

Will thought after calming his nerves down. As he advanced in his life, unexpected things kept popping up one by one without fail. So although he was a bit surprised, he also knew deep down that there was no Marvel without one particular guy, just like there would be no kids without mothers.

Stan Lee!

This legendary comic writer, editor in chief, publisher, and producer of Marvel comics was standing right in front of him.

He was called 'The Man', 'The King of Cameos', and many such names. Will's brain was currently thinking about many possible case scenarios, but seeing the look on Stan Lee's face, Will couldn't help but feel angry.

He remembered the past emotions he felt after knowing how Stan Lee was abused by his own family and others. And his current condition didn't seem any better.

"You, sir, please come here."

Will called out to Stan, who almost jumped in surprise.

"Y-yes?"

Stand Lee replied, his old and tired voice flowing out of his mouth with great bitterness.

"What's your name, sir?"

"It's Stan Lee. Although it's a pseudonym, I have been called that my whole life."

Will couldn't help but feel a bit nostalgic as he heard that.

After a while, Will had finally composed himself and sat down on a chair. Then, looking at Jimmy, he demanded.

"Bring me the last five years' income file and the comics and characters that are currently popular in the market."

More and more sweat trickled down Jimmy's face as he told Ross to bring the files.

'We are doomed.'

That was the current thought that was reigning supreme in the minds of most of the employees. After all, there were no marvel characters in the market that were extremely popular, and there were too many failed characters and comics.

After a while, Ross had brought all the necessary files, and Will started going through them.

"Go get back to your work. What are you all waiting for? We'll call you if Mr Evans needs you."

Jimmy shouted at the employees, trying to make an impression on Will that he doesn't let people slack.

"Stay, everyone. No need to go anywhere."

Will said as he raised one of his hands and gestured everyone to sit down as he turned towards Jimmy.

"If you really cared so much about their work, you shouldn't have called them here in the first place. And after seeing these files, I can tell that working and not working for a day wouldn't really change anything."

At Will's remarks, not only Jimmy but everyone else from Marvel comics got scared. This just meant that he was not happy with the condition Marvel was in right now, which was a pretty natural reaction after he had bought the company.

Every employee right now was just waiting for Will's final verdict of kicking them out.

Will went through all the files in great detail for a whole hour and found out that only the comic characters such as the fantastic four, Captain America, Hulk, Doctor Strange, and Wolverine, were slightly popular and profitable.

There were too many characters that Will couldn't even recognize. Not only that, the actual big shots like Spiderman, Daredevil, Iron Man and Thor were missing.

Avengers was filled with characters Will had never even seen before, and major characters like Thor and Iron Man were missing.

Wondering what had gone wrong, Will looked at Stan again.

"As far as I know, you create these stories, right?"

Will asked, and Stan couldn't help but feel surprised. There was no way Stan Lee was popular or even much known, and not many people remembered that he wrote the stories.

"Yes, I do."

"What happened to Peter Parker? What about Iron Man, Thor, or Daredevil?"

Will asked curiously, and this time, not only Stan but also everyone else in the room was surprised. How Will knew about all these characters and how he had bought Marvel, some things finally started making sense to them.

'He's a childhood fan of Marvel!'

There couldn't possibly be any better reasoning to sum up this situation.

"Uh, Peter Parker died five years ago in the comics and never returned to any more issues. As for the others you are asking about, most of them never came to life in front of people as the CEO and editors never supported the decisions to bring them to the market. So most of these characters aren't used much or are shelved."

Stan replied, thinking about the past where the characters that he worked so hard to make were thrown away by the CEO.

Will stared at Jimmy, who seemed to be shrinking with every passing second.

Stan told how the past CEO and then Jimmy, who took over, both controlled the creative team's processes, and hence not many characters that could work out were marketed enough, nor did they have as much life into them as Stan was planning to bring them in.

Will rubbed his forehead for a moment, thinking about the number of changes that they would have to bring, and couldn't help but see a headache coming.

"Hey, Mr Spark, right? Contact my secretary to collect the forced termination amount, if there is any mentioned in your contract. You can leave now."

Will said, and everybody in the room got scared out of their wits.

The first thing he did was kick out the company's CEO. What chances did they have of surviving?

"No, sir, no. You can't do this! I have got a family to run. Sir, boss, please don't do this."

Jimmy immediately fell to the ground as he held on to Will's leg without an ounce of shame as he begged for Will to change his mind.

"But sir, aren't you a widower? You don't even have any kids as far as I remember!"

Ross chimed in, putting on an innocent face while trying to suppress his laughter on the inside.

"Th-that….aah, ohhhh, ughhhh."

As he was trying to figure out what to say, Jimmy suddenly held both his hands on the left side of his chest as he started to groan.

"Stop right there. Are you trying to mock me? I've worked with A-list actors and given birth to A-listers. Do you seriously think you can fool anyone with that third-grade acting? Wait, I just feel like I insulted the third-grade actors by comparing them to you."

Jimmy immediately stopped his actions and tried to suck up to Will more but to no avail.

"Ross, right? Kick him out for me."

Will said as he sat down on the chair again, watching Jimmy get dragged out by Ross.

After the room's atmosphere calmed down again, Will looked at everyone's faces as he thought about what to do next. Soon, an invisible light bulb formed on his head as he went to Stan Lee.

"I am a big fan, sir."

…

/DreamThree/

Don't forget to vote this book with your power stones

Read the next 12 chapters on /dreamthree

Report chapter Comments

Chapter 157:

"I am a big fan, sir."

Will said as he held out his hand for a handshake in front of Stan.

Stan was bewildered. He had always liked watching television, and recently, he would just dig up the channels that talked about Will Evans and watch them.

For him, watching Will was like watching himself. People often like imagining themselves as the protagonist of the novel they read, the hero of the movie they watch, and such, and that's why people can successfully relate to the joys and sorrows of the character.

In this way, Stan watched Will from the time he had made [Sherlock Holmes]. Stan was a big fan of the original Sherlock Holmes novel, and when he saw Will's recreation of the same character, he couldn't help but jump in joy.

Stan was often depressed and overworked, and the bitterness inside him kept growing. But he was a positive man. Watching Will's meteoric rise, he motivated himself to do better. Because one day in the future, he wanted his dreams to shift from 'being able to pay monthly rent' to 'being able to watch his characters come to life.

Now, suddenly hearing 'I am a big fan' from a man he himself admired, a sense of accomplishment washed over Stan. His heart shivered, and he couldn't control himself from getting emotional, as eventually, droplets of tear formed in his eyes.

This was the first time in life anybody had ever acknowledged him. Although Stan was the type to brighten others' days with his smile, there was no reason for him to smile otherwise till now. All he had were scorns from his family for dedicating his life to a lowly job, his office that treated his previous characters like replaceable characters.

As Stan grew old, the hope of one day getting recognized by everyone for his work was slowly diminishing.

"Sir, why are you crying? Don't do this. I am not lying, I am genuinely a fan of all your works, and I couldn't be any less happy to meet you."

Will suddenly got agitated after seeing the man that always appeared with a smile on the screen. He didn't know what to say, so he started saying things like how he was a big fan of the man.

"Ah, haha. Don't worry about it. I just got a bit emotional there, I guess? Sorry for showing you such an unpleasant sight."

Stan said with his old voice, now a bit scruffy due to his emotions rampaging inside of him. He wiped the tears on his wrinkled eyes as he grinned with his teeth.

"No, no. It's totally fine. It's really a pleasure to meet you. I've been waiting for this day for years."

Will said, and he wasn't even lying at this point. He loved all the characters and stories Stan had made since his last time, and he couldn't be any happier to meet this legend in person. It was already hard enough to keep his blood from boiling.

After a while, Stan finally calmed down, and Ross was back after kicking out Jimmy from the office.

"Sir, I love all the characters you have created, and the company's characters didn't give any value. As a fan, I would love to recreate these characters and bring them into life."

Will said, and this time, Stan really couldn't control his trembling lips. He had just calmed down when Will dropped another euphonious bomb.

Will didn't want to wait any longer, so he turned around and looked at everyone before announcing.

"My next movie will be related to Marvel characters and their stories. But before that, we have a lot of work to do. For starters, making Marvel comics available online."

Hearing Will's words, everyone in the room was dumbstruck as a feeling of suppressed excitement filled the room.

"I-"

Stan Lee's current expression was worth watching. Will, who saw everybody getting excited, continued.

"Before that, I want to announce something about the company's employee retention. Since I've taken over the company, I have full rights to keep or kick any employee at Will. But, of course, that also means you have full rights to leave as you please in the next one week."

Everyone listened in on Will's words and couldn't help but take their thought train in a positive direction. Till now, they had only thought that Will would kick them out because of the current status of the comics. But after seeing the event with Stan Lee, they couldn't help but be a bit hopeful.

"I will keep everyone who doesn't want to leave on a trial period of three months. If you prove your worth in that time frame, your current wages and commissions will increase. I'll also be renting an office near Dream Vision Studios so that Marvel can officially join in as a company subsidiary."

Everyone almost jumped in joy from their seats after hearing Will's words. As every single one wanted to keep the job, especially after Will was taking over, they couldn't help but be more excited. Not to mention that they would be shifting to a new office!

"And I appreciate that the old people here have a lot of experience and talent in the industry, but overworking you guys at this age would be the last sin I would want to commit. So I'll start hiring more young and capable employees for Marvel Comics to lend you all a hand."

"Apart from that, the first character whose movie I am going to create would be Peter Parker, a.k.a. Spiderman. So I would love it if Mr Lee could reboot the whole comic and bring back Spiderman. Not only him, but I've also prepared a list of characters which I want to return to the comics. I hope you can do something about it."

Will spoke as he looked at Stan at the end of his sentence.

Stan was currently bubbling with joy, and he had had so many joyous in one day that he felt he hadn't been this happier anytime before in his career. Not to mention Spiderman was one of his most beloved characters. Bringing him back to the series was something that he always wanted to do but couldn't because of the old CEO.

"I would gladly reboot all those. It won't be a much hassle as I always wanted to bring them back, and I have the stories already prepared in the draft. It's better to do a reboot in the timeline than to bring them back from the dead."

Stand started talking excitedly. It was common to change timelines in comics, and Stan Lee was someone who could easily pull all these off. Will smiled as he said.

"You can do whatever you think would make the comics better, and I won't be interfering with the creative team. Apart from that, we need to scanlate all the current popular comics and bring them to an online platform, where they can be exposed to a much larger audience."

Will said, and Ross nodded his head from beside well. As a young man and someone from the online generation, he always wanted to make this suggestion to the CEO, but the CEO was such an asshole that he couldn't gather the courage for it.

Amanda, who had just been watching everything till now, finally spoke.

"Maybe we can make a separate website for it? But that way, we would miss out on many mobile platform users."

Will rubbed his chin hearing that and finally shook his head.

"We can always make a multi-platform app. Although it's just going to cost more, it would increase the revenue and exposition of the comics in the long run."

Amanda nodded, hearing that. She said,

"Maybe we can make something like a Netflix for comics?"

"Nice! Something like that might actually work. We can discuss the details later after we have settled down the immediate problems first."

Will commented, thinking it was a really nice idea. Maybe, later on, they can officially get translators for Mangas, Manhwas, and Manhuas too, and get them on the app.

"But first of all, releasing the movie directly would be a big risk. So I have got a better plan for it to gain a base audience first."

"What is it?"

Stand asked after hearing Will's remark.

"To make Marvel characters popular amongst kids and teenagers, Spiderman alone won't be enough. So we will start an animated series on Marvel characters first."

Will commented as he thought about all the old animated marvel series before the movies.

Jixar Animation Studios, Los Angeles, California.

It was a mid-sized animation studio in LA making enough profits to not run out of business. But what they currently lacked was capital.

This studio was just four years old and had grown rapidly due to the CEO of the company. It was a young 24-year-old boy named Jerry Leopard. He had started this company even before he graduated from animation school and succeeded in getting an investor to invest in his company. The investor became one of the company's major shareholders because the company was in the initial stages and got the right to vote on matters of the company.

"I am telling you, making a short film is much more profitable right now. You should listen to me, kid. You wouldn't be here if I didn't recognize your talent early on."

Jaidyn Smurf, a 54-year-old African-American man, remarked. He was the major shareholder of the Jixar Animation Studios. Currently, the CEO and chairman of the company, Jerry Leopard, and Jaidyn were in a heated debate.

Jerry insisted on raising more funds for the company to get investment for a big animation movie, and Jaidyn refuted this by saying it was better not to take risks and invest in short films. Both were right from their point of view, but they had to conclude this debate because the company's next projects were getting delayed because of this.

…

/DreamNote/

You can read the next 12 chapters ahead on /dreamthree

Don't forget to vote this book with your power stones

Report chapter Comments

Chapter 158:

"No, I am telling you. We won't be able to grow if we keep investing in small-time projects like this. We have to take a bigger step and make a whole movie instead of just continuously investing in small time short films."

Jimmy said, trying to make his point.

Jaidyn shook his head as he said.

"Jimmy, you're a genius through and through, and I really appreciate your talent. But you don't understand the business world well enough yet. It's all about profits, be it big or small. Only a privileged man can take high risks for high rewards, but Jixar isn't that big yet. We need to go one step at a time to slowly rake in the profits while slowly expanding ourselves. If we go according to your plan, the company will shut down in no time."

He tried to make him understand. Jaidyn wasn't a bad guy, but he wasn't good enough to take loss slaps on his face without retorting. To him, Jimmy was a bright kid, intelligent and talented in his own field, but he had yet to learn much about business.

"No, you must try to understand. I don't want to be a small-time entrepreneur my whole life. And it's not possible to become successful without risks in life."

Jimmy retorted again. He wanted to become the head of one of the biggest animation studios in America but it wasn't possible with the amount of investment Jixar was making. They needed to enter the big leagues, and for that they needed big capital and investment.

'Sigh. At this rate, it's better to sell my shares to someone than to handle this headache everyday.'

Jaidyn thought. He was tired of listening to this kid's ambitious talks without him paying attention to his own circumstances.

In a famous morning show in America, called 'Morning Americans', Leo was currently sitting on the set's sofa with a man and woman accompanying him.

The man's name was Marlo and the woman's name was Camilla. They were a duo who hosted 'Morning Americans'.

Currently, they were asking a few interview questions to Leo, that they had prepared beforehand.

"Tell us, Leo. Both of us, and I am sure the whole of America is very curious as to how Will ends up picking talents like you. Where does he even find you and what process did you go through to be selected for the movie."

Camilla asked, and the cameras zoomed on Leo's face. Leo had already gotten too used to the spotlight and hence, he wasn't nervous at all.

He laughed as he said.

"Trust me you don't want to know that."

His laugh alone could gather the admirations of many. His boyish charms were playing their part in making the audience even more engaged in the show.

"Oh, then you should surely tell us. Everyone likes a good laugh."

Marlo laughed as he said that. He was a black guy but he was a native American.

"Well, Will had come for some photoshoots and when he was out for a walk, I ended up stalking him. I mean, I knew it wasn't the right way to approach someone and I didn't even realise I was stalking him. To me, I was just following my favourite idol and trying to make an impression on him. Although the stalking didn't last long as I was caught. Will told me not to do it again and then asked why I was following him.

I told him that I just unconsciously ended up following him after seeing him and that I am also an aspiring actor. I don't know what he saw in me. He brought me back to his hotel, then to Dream Vision, where he took my audition and said that although I needed a bit of work, everything else was fine. After that, fate did its part and here I am. Haha."

Marlo and Camilla both had dumbstruck expressions on their faces. Marlo stared at Leo, then at the camera, and he did a few times before both Marlo and Camilla couldn't control their laughter. They laughed out loud and the audience followed.

"Like. Bro, what the heck?! Is this really how Will finds talented superstars? A stalker? Seriously? Hahaha. I can't!"

Leo chuckled seeing their reactions. After all, it was just as absurd to him as it was to them.

After they had calmed down, Marlo looked at the camera as he said.

"So ladies and gentlemen, now you know how to get selected in Will's movies. You just need to stalk him until he notices you. On a serious note, don't try that, it's a criminal offense. You would find yourself in prison before even getting a chance to audition. DTA hirings are always notified on the website, and Natalie Bergmann was hired from there too. So go with the traditional way. This whole ordeal of stalking is Leo's special. Don't try it in real life."

Everyone again let out a chuckle after that.

"What about your experience of working with Will? How was everyone at the set during the time of the shooting?"

Marlo asked and Leo happily replied.

"As it was my first ever movie, and that too as a lead role. I have to say I was very excited. Rather, I was too excited that I almost ruined some of the scenes. Will has that mentoring charm to him and believe it or not, Will is the best actor I've seen till now, even if counting all the movies I have seen. Everybody respects him on the set and nobody dares to ruin a scene, unless they want to see Will's 'director side'.

Also, Robert is very nice. He taught me every time I failed at something and he was very patient with me. He treated me like a younger brother and we even went out to eat ice-creams together. All in all, the shooting was very fun and memorable and it taught me many things that I had yet to learn about life."

Leo reminisced about the past and how happy he was, a genuine nostalgic expression forming on his face, enhancing his charms by two-folds, which the cameraman didn't forget to capture.

"That sounds really nice. Well, it's as expected of Will, of course his team and ways are different than the norms. Can you tell us anything about [GTA: Vice City]? Do you have any part in the game? And what about your next projects? Have you signed any other movies yet?"

Camilla asked as Leo shook his head.

"I haven't been informed of any such thing yet. And the story in [GTA: Vice City] is about the young Tommy Vercetti, so it would be weird if Mario, who was a kid at that time, would have any significant role. As for your other question, no. I still haven't taken up any roles on future projects for now."

"Ah well, thank you for coming to our show and maintaining such a good chat with us. I am sure you've successfully charmed the hearts of many girls in the audience."

Marlo said as Camilla followed after him and they ended the show together.

Exhausted, Leo finally came backstage, where his agent, Anderson Palmer, was waiting for him.

"Are you alright?"

Anderson asked and Leo nodded his head.

"Are there any more shows and interviews to attend?"

Leo asked, clearly tired.

"Apparently, yes. There are two more shows. And one of them is Tuffin's show, so there's no way you can miss out on it."

Anderson declared. He was a new employee and was only 23-years-old, almost the same age as Will. He was a fan of Will and was from the same film school Will came from. After joining DTA, he eventually worked his way into becoming the agent of the rookie star, Leo.

"Okay okay. I really wanna end this all and get back to preparing for new movies. Sigh. Is there any news about what roles I am going to get next?"

Leo asked, a bit of hope reflecting in his eyes. Anderson didn't wait any longer and replied.

"Yep, I just got a call from Jennifer. She said that Will has prepared a few movies for you to sign already."

After the ordeal with Marvel comics, Will left details and everything else to Amanda, after all, Marvel was going to be integrated with Dream Vision.

Will was currently in his office, typing down his plans for the future on his laptop. He wanted to expand Dream Vision since his goal was to become one of the big 6 and eventually even surpass them at some point, so an expansion was necessary.

On the laptop, he was noting down points like getting his own distribution channel, which was very important since his Dream Vision Studio was well established in the market, and he can't always depend on others for distribution.

The second thing was to acquire an animation studio, and merge it with the VFX department that he would obtain from Mega works. Thirdly, and lastly one of the most pressing matters right now. He had to set his foot in the series industry and get established there.

It was too big of a market to lose out on, not to mention that later on, there can be a lot of series on Netflix that can dominate the entire entertainment industry.

Will was already a big earner in the movie market and every movie by Dream Vision was marketed well and had the brand named 'Will Evans' behind them, which made them a hit at the box office.

But the series market was very different and the only way for Will to enter it as a big player was through Netflix.

Thinking about this, Will decided to make his next big move.

[Script Purchase]

[Friends (Series)]

[Cost – 1,000,000 fame points]

[Are you sure you want to purchase this script?]

[Yes] [No]

…

/DreamNote/

There have been some changes in the future plans and now I have question for you.

Q: Who do you want as the lead in first Spiderman? The movie will be Sam Raimi's Spider-Man (2002).

The options are in paragraph comment of this sentence. Vote by tapping the like button. Most like before the next chapter will win.

…

Don't forget to vote with your power stones

Report chapter Comments

Chapter 159:

OP Pictures, Hollywood.

Currently, in the office of Micheal Williams, the current CEO of OP Pictures, a middle-aged bald man was sitting on the chair opposite Micheal as he sipped on his tea and listened to Micheal's report.

"It's funny how Will Evans rose to the top in such a short time."

Micheal said in a cunning and sarcastic voice. Obviously, he didn't seem to be very happy about Will's rise.

The bald man, Richard Persons, was one of the major shareholders of OP Pictures, and ultimately, one of the bosses above Micheal Williams.

Micheal had been ranting about Will's current meteoric rise to the top ever since Richard came here as if he was trying to suggest something.

"He became too big too soon, to the point that it's become a problem now. Insider news' are already telling that some of the Hollywood bigshots have already started planning out what to do with Will."

This time, Micheal gave an even clearer signal, but yet again, Richard ignored all this as if he didn't even hear a thing.

"I heard many of the big shots also want to work with him, including the big six. Is that true?"

Richard asked something else entirely. Micheal, although displeased, answered his query.

"Yes, they do want to work with him. Even OP Pictures has talked about a deal with him for which they have received a confirmation already. But that doesn't mean that nobody is scared of his talent and his current upward climb in Hollywood. Some people are already thinking of dealing with him and cutting down his wings to bring him down. So that he doesn't grow a lot in such a short time. They know that if he grew too much, then they could only do so-so about it later on. So it's better to take action earlier."

Again, Richard ignored everything from the latter part as he asked.

"Which project has OP Pictures signed with him? What's the name and what is it about?"

"We received confirmation yesterday that the official title will be [Friends, and it's going to be written by Will Evans himself. He calls it a sitcom or something."

Micheal replied, clearly unenthusiastic about the project and more interested in talking about Will's rise and downfall.

A sitcom means a television series that involves a continuing cast of characters in a succession of comedic circumstances

In this world, the concept of a sitcom was yet to be invented, which just gave more reasons to Will to make [Friends, which could mark the start of sitcoms in this world, as it was a phenomenon in Will's previous world.

"Will has personally pitched the idea in a meeting, but that's what worries me. I am worried about the contract now."

Micheal said as Richard raised an eyebrow, finally seeming interested in something else other than Will's project talk.

"Why are you worried about the contract?"

He asked, curious.

"Well, with Will as a brand backing the series, the series is surely going to get a lot of approval. But some fresh rumours say that Dream Vision is planning to expand a lot now and it won't be just the movie market they're going to aim for. According to some insider info, Will Evans is going to enter the series and animation market too. With all this on the table, it hardly seems impossible that Will won't add his own terms and conditions in the contract, which, I dare say, wouldn't be in our favour."

In Will's office, he was currently sitting with Leo as he handed over the script of the next movie that he has specially prepared for Leo.

The script was for the movie [Catch Me If You Can].

The story was about a teenager from 1963, Frank William Abagnale Jr. who lives in New Rochelle, New York with his father Frank Abagnale Sr., and his French mother Paula. During his youth, he witnessed his father's many techniques for conning people. When Frank Sr. encounters tax problems with the Internal Revenue Service, the family is forced to move from their large home to a small apartment.

One day, Frank discovers that his mother is having an affair with his father's friend Jack Barnes. After his parents' divorce, Frank runs away. Needing money, he turns to confidence scams to survive and his cons grow bolder. He impersonates a Pan Am pilot and forges the airline's payroll checks. Soon, his forgeries are worth millions of dollars.

News of the crimes reaches the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and agent Carl Hanratty begins tracking Frank. Carl finds him at a hotel, but Frank tricks Carl into believing he is Secret Service agent Barry Allen. He escapes before Carl realizes that he was fooled.

Frank begins to impersonate a doctor. As Dr. Frank Conners, he falls in love with Brenda, a naive young hospital worker. He asks her attorney father for her hand and also wants his help with arranging to take the Louisiana State Bar exam, which Frank passes. Carl tracks Frank to his and Brenda's engagement party, but Frank escapes through a bedroom window.

Before escaping, Frank asks Brenda to meet him at Miami International Airport two days later. There, he sees her, but also spots plainclothes agents and realizes she has given him up, then drives away. Re-assuming his pilot identity, he stages a false recruiting drive for stewardesses at a local college. Surrounded by eight women as stewardesses, he conceals himself from Carl and the other agents walking through and escapes on a flight to Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport, Spain.

In 1967, Carl tracks down Frank in his mother's hometown of Montrichard, France. He is incarcerated in a French prison in Marseille where he becomes very ill due to its poor conditions. Carl takes Frank on a flight back to the United States. As they make their approach, he informs him that his father has died. Grief-stricken, Frank escapes from the plane and reaches the house of his now remarried mother who has a daughter. Frank surrenders to Carl and spends 12 years in a maximum-security prison.

Carl occasionally visits Frank. During one visit, he shows him a fraud check from a case he is working on. Frank immediately figures out that the bank teller was involved in the fraud. Impressed, Carl convinces the FBI to allow him to serve the remainder of his sentence working for the FBI bank fraud unit. Frank agrees but soon grows restless of the tedious office work.

One weekend, Frank prepares to impersonate a pilot again and is intercepted by Carl, who allows him to carry on his act, assuring him that no one is chasing him. As Frank returns to work and discusses another fraud case with Carl, the post-script indicates that Frank has lived for 26 years in the Midwestern United States with his wife, with whom he has had three sons, remains friends with Carl, and has built a successful living as one of the world's leading experts on bank fraud and forgery.

All in all, it was a very great movie and one of the movies that cemented Leonardo Dicaprio in Hollywood.

(A/N – It's honestly good, if you haven't watched it, then you should watch.)

"It's a script that I specially prepared with you in mind. And only you can perform the best in the movie with great charms."

Will said as Leo was busy reading. Suddenly, Leo frowned as he asked.

"First a gangster and now a conman, I am not really getting morally good roles, you know?"

Will laughed hearing that as he tried to put some sense into this kid.

"It's not just a conman, it's a stylish conman. The audience won't think anything bad about you, they would even laugh at times. The movie will go into production soon, so you should take your time to familiarise yourself with the script."

Leo happily nodded his head as soon as he heard it was a stylish role. After all, teenagers could sell their souls to the devil to look cool.

Robert had also gotten roles in two original movies. One being a rom-com and the other being a drama about the relationship between a father and a son.

"Oh one more thing, I have another role that I think will suit you a lot."

Will said as Leo gave him a questioning look.

"Well, it's the role of Spiderman."

"Spiderman?"

"Yep!"

Will confirmed as he told Leo about how Spiderman was a character from Marvel comics and that he thought that Leo would be perfect for the role. In Will's previous life, it was a known fact that Leo was offered the role of Spiderman but he rejected it.

"Uh, well. I am not really sure."

Leo said, somewhat nervous.

"Well, it's not something like I don't want to play in a movie offered by you. But it's a superhero movie and it's sure to have a whole franchise rather than just one movie. As a viewer, I like watching many parts of different movies, but as an actor, I want to end the journey of a character in one part, and not go back to it again, which will surely happen in a franchise."

Will didn't comment anything on that as it was a decision based on Leo's artistic side. Will was sure Leo would play the role if he insisted but it would be difficult to get him to play all three Spiderman movies, not to mention after his popularity rises.

"It's fine. It was just an idea, you don't have to play it if you don't want to."

Will said and Leo smiled. To Will, keeping the current Leo happy was very important, so as to maintain an extremely good relationship with him in the future.

…

/DreamNote/

Andrew Garfield won.

Don't forget to let me know if you support the winner or not by voting with your power stones.

Report chapter Comments

Chapter 160:

Conference Room, OP Studios.

"So, as I said, the entire premise of the show, [Friends, is about six friends, who live in New York in the 90s and go about everyday life. That includes romance, friendship, marriages, jobs, etc. The idea is to make the whole thing relatable, and funny at the same time." Will said as he ended the pitch he presented to the gathered executives from OP Studios and ICM.

Amanda had been crucial in making the meeting happen.

He had to brainstorm the contract details for the temporary collaboration between their firms, and her expertise in navigating the corporate side of the pitch was essential if he wanted to remain crucial to the success of the show after the idea was presented to the people in the conference room.

"The idea certainly has merit, but are you sure about this sitcom? Is it? Since it needs a live audience, what about the action scenes? Won't it have any of that? Performing action sequences live in front of an audience will be difficult." Michael Williams interjected.

Will looked at him incredulously for a second, and replied "Well, that's the thing, isn't it? There is no action throughout the show. It is not meant to have any action at all. It is meant to be funny and relatable. It's a situational comedy, a sitcom. And the live audience is, essentially, to gauge the reactions of the people to certain jokes, and their responses. We can then tweak the script or situations based on their feedback."

He could understand why Michael Williams had asked about action sequences in the show, as this world did not have the concept of a TV show that didn't operate on some direct conflict or mystery, or action.

The entire idea of a relatable sitcom was new, and just like how [Friends] had introduced the idea, in his previous reality, Will wanted it to retain the honour of doing so here as well.

Richard Persons nodded, looking a little excited over the prospects of the idea that Will was proposing, and as he asked.

"To be frank with you, Will. The idea of a live audience is certainly lucrative, could you give me a brief example of the kind of scenarios that the show is going to portray. I will have to agree with my company's CEO, that the lack of direct conflict or an overarching plot seems a bit difficult to grasp.

How the show is supposed to hold the audience's attention after a certain number of episodes in the show, it could eventually seem that we're trying to sell the audience on the boring lives of six people, why would they care about the lives of these people?"

Will thought over the question and replied.

"That's the charm of the show. I want to portray the life of six friends in New York while making it comedic, witty, and funny. I want to tackle everyday problems that people face and reel them in with familiarity, rather than conflict. The main conflict in the story isn't some giant labelled 'enemy', rather it's their own feelings and emotions.

The audience, over a period of time, will see the development of each of my characters, as they learn, adapt, and tackle problems that Hollywood, in general, hasn't tackled yet. We don't need a big 'enemy' to make a good show, or tell a good story."

Will could see that he had convinced the shareholder of OP Studios with that. But for some reason, Michael Williams seemed annoyed. He didn't know if he'd done something wrong, and frankly, he didn't care.

It was then that Lucius Wolf interjected.

"Okay, I can see where you're trying to go with this, but could you clarify why you want a three-season contract from us? We could let it go for a test run for one season and then decide if we want to continue with the show like we usually do. Why the three-season clause?"

Will looked at Amanda, as he let her handle that question. She nodded to him and said.

"[Friends] is a Dream Vision, OP Studios, and ICM's joint production. But ultimately, Dream Vision intends to hold onto the proprietary rights for the show. We are providing the licensing rights to RBO, for them to stream the show on their platform. The three-season contract clause is essentially a way for us to guarantee that the show stays alive for a minimum of three seasons. The idea is fairly new to the industry, we would like to stay afloat for three seasons before we decide on extending that contract further or not."

That was a half-truth that Will had decided to provide them with. In essence as a way to mollify them. He intended to use the already established fanbase of the RBO program, and entice them into watching his show.

Eventually, after three seasons, once his own Platform, Netflix, was up and running, he would withdraw the streaming rights from RBO and stream the rest of the show on his own platform. Holding onto the proprietary rights would keep that nice and legal for him.

"Okay, I suppose. I can understand that you're treating the entire show as an experiment on our platform. What about this clause here? It says 'The immediate casting of the show will be decided upon by a team from Dream Talent Agency'. I think we should have the opportunity to use some artists from our agency too."

Michael Williams cut in a little harshly. Actually, he wanted to use actors from ICM mainly so that he could maintain shadow control over the show, which was only possible if their artists filled the casting.

Will stared at him for a few seconds and replied, "You can go over the finer details of the contract with Amanda later. Unless you're giving the green light from your side for the pre-production of the show to begin, that is."

He could see Amanda nodding slightly beside him.

"Actually, you can consider the project given the green light by me. You have a remarkable history in Hollywood, and your record reflects that. I am sure, [Friends] will provide similar results."

Richard Persons said pleasantly, cutting off all other arguments from Michael Williams for the moment.

White Ruby.

This restaurant has almost become a playground for Dream Vision and DTA employees. The manager of the hotel had given a membership card to most of the department heads of DTA and Dream Vision.

They would come to this place for most of their personal meetings and enjoy the high-quality food for a lower price than regular customers.

Currently, an unusual guest was sitting with two other people in this very restaurant. It was a black and skimpy man.

Marcus Brown was finally recovering as signs of buffing were showing around his face and body. While overall, he still had a very skimpy look.

The other two people sitting with him were Jeffrey and Jennifer. They were currently having lunch as they talked about Will's next project.

A script was put on the table near Marcus.

It was the script that Will had prepared for Marcus to make his comeback. Will was sure if Marcus made a popular movie, his past would be dug out and the media would try to attack him. The best way to retort to this situation was to make a movie where his exceptional performance leaves no room for anything else to be said.

Will wanted to take out the script to Marcus personally, but he didn't have much free time on his packed schedule. So he sent Jeffrey and Jennifer to deal with this issue.

The movie that Will had selected for Marcus's return to Hollywood was a movie from his previous world named 'Hitch'.

It was a movie in which a famous slapper from his previous life acted. The movie was about Alex 'Hitch' Hitchens, a professional dating expert, who helps men woo the women of their dreams. However, a gossip columnist soon begins to challenge everything he thinks he knows about romance.

"We are in talks with Foxstar for this movie. They have demanded the script and would most likely half-produce the movie with Dream Vision if they like the script. They would also be the distributors."

Jennifer said as Marcus excitedly nodded his head while eating the food. He ate like he hadn't eaten properly for ages. Even though the current role and deal were important to him, the food still took a large portion of his attention at the moment.

"Yeah, I just hope that the new hatchling doesn't flap his wings too hard. It won't make him fly, and would get dirt on him instead."

Jeffrey said. He clearly had a bad impression of Foxstar's new chairman.

Currently, Will has decided to work with Foxstar due to Spencer's request. He wanted to give the old man some face as they had known each other since the start of Will's career.

Apart from Foxstar, Dream Vision was also trying to get into a partnership with Z studios for Leo's next movie, [Catch Me If You Can]. Will's aim was to expand his contact and influence to expand, and the best way to do so was to work on projects with the big six.

Kron Studios had also shown their interest in the movie as Leo was currently considered a star after his first movie.

Without people realizing, Will was slowly becoming the goose who laid golden eggs for the big six, making them dependent on him with his projects spread in almost every studio.

Even Mega Works wanted another partnership with Will, even if it was a small one.

Report chapter Comments