My Hollywood System

Chapter 44:

3 January 2011

East Street, Los Angeles

A 1268 sqft house on the east street of LA with a 0.25 acres Lot and 2 bedrooms, separate bathrooms attached to each of them.

It was Will’s new residence, which he had bought recently. He could have bought a better one but decided against it as he needed funding for his future movies.

*Yawn*

Yawning a little, Will woke and went to the kitchen to make himself a cup of coffee. The past month has been intense and [The Blair Witch Project] was about to hit the $200 million mark.

He had bought this house for $500k and was still getting used to living in it as it had been less than a week since he shifted here. The house was moderately furnished with a modern touch to it.

It had a parking lot and was enough for someone like Will, who didn’t have any family to live with. June had been busy as she had even gotten roles for some commercials, and she rarely visited, not that Will blamed her, he himself had been busy trying to keep up with all the e-mails and letters he kept receiving.

*Sip*

He sipped on the coffee and immediately regretted it as he wasn’t prepared for the burn that his tongue received.

Ruffling his hair with his hand, he went and opened his laptop like usual. It has become a habit of his to check and keep track of the daily news.

[The Christmas movie from Foxstar Studios ‘The Santa of My Dreams’ had finally crossed the $20 million mark…]

[US president to give a speech on 6th Janua…..]

There were many news and articles, but the one in the trending section was occupied with the all too familiar [The Blair Witch Project], causing a smile on Will’s face.

[The modern pioneer of the found footage technique, ‘The Blair Witch Project’, had been the talk of the whole country for the past 2 months. This camcorder trend has brought about many similar videos on MeTube with millions of views, but the originator of the trend, the youngest multi-millionaire director of Hollywood, Will Evans, is still on the rise.

Some youths from famous film schools have even started idolising him, and everyone has the same question in their minds, ‘What’s next?’.

According to the hints provided by Will on the famous talk show ‘Night Talks with Tuffin’, it was pretty clear that he would be working on some new movies, which had caused many speculations to rise from the audiences and experts alike.

Would he continue with his horror trend and release another horror movie? Or would he work in another genre altogether? If yes, then would he succeed in it or will his first popular movie become his last?

There are a lot of questions, and people are enthusiastically waiting for the answers.]

Will, who read through the article made by Hollywood Times, had a satisfied smile on his face.

As he was about to go bathe and start his day, his phone buzzed beside his laptop.

[1 unread message from ‘Uncle Ben’]

[Hey, Will. I just texted to remind you about our meeting. Come to the MCA office at 4 pm.]

Will, who already had the meeting in his mind, didn’t need the reminder but still appreciated it.

Benjamin had helped him a lot even though he wasn’t even his relative.

Will went to the bathroom and took a bath. After that, he dressed up in neat black and white clothes with his inner shirt tucked in and an unbuttoned black blazer on the top.

He went to the parking lot and started driving his Yundai Sailor.

On the way to the MCA office, he thought about the call Benjamin had talked about.

He had received the anticipated call almost a week ago. It was by Edward Friedman, the director who had taken up [17 Again].

He congratulated Will for the massive success of [The Blair Witch Project] and praised him for his excellent direction in the movie.

After that, he told him how he was impressed by the script of [17 Again] and wished to meet him for discussions.

After which, Benjamin took Will’s permission to arrange a meeting between Edward and him, to which Will gladly agreed.

The Hollywood industry was all about connections, and making a connection with Edward Friedman was a good opportunity.

Will reached the MCA office by 11 am and directly went to Benjamin’s office, meeting his assistant on the way, who gave him the most brilliant smile that he could muster.

As Will knocked, Benjamin’s lively voice came from inside.

“Haha, come in, Will.”

Will pushed the door open and entered. Both Benjamin and the middle-aged brown-haired man stood up, flashing a smile at him.

“Welcome, Will. Meet Edward; he’s one of the best directors here in MCA. Edward, this is Will; he doesn’t need an introduction these days, does he?”

Benjamin introduced jokingly.

“You flatter me, Uncle Ben. Hello Director Friedman, I’ve wanted to meet you for a long time. I’ve been a big fan of your works.”

Will lied through his teeth. Although it wasn’t a complete lie as he had researched him and watched many of his movies since he had transmigrated to this world.

Edward Friedman was one of the popular rom-com directors in Hollywood, and he had quite the achievements backing him up. His most famous works were [Your Eyes Are Lying] and [I’m (not) A Free Man].

These were both Hollywood blockbusters, and [I’m (not) A Free Man] had bagged many awards due to its funny yet realistic concept of an average modern man, who was free just in name but was tied down by parents, workplace, society, and love life.

As the introductions were over, Will said.

“I’m quite glad that you will be directing this movie. I would love to see my precious characters come into life. I just hope this movie would be profitable for both you and MCA.”

Edward smiled at that. He knew how much screenwriters cherished their characters and how annoyed they got if the actors didn’t live up to their expectations.

“We are quite confident in the movie as of now. It follows the current time travel trend and even has rom-com concepts touch to it. I would consider myself a failure if such a well thought out plot of my specialised genre becomes a flop.”

Everyone laughed at that as Edward continued.

“Honestly, though, I never expected someone this young to be this talented. I’m not going to lie, but we barely had to make any changes to your masterfully crafted script. To think that not only can you write such a script but also direct such a blockbuster movie, I see a clear star in you.”

Will just thanked him humbly, and they continued chatting. Edward revealed his plans for the movie and talked about the new crew he had gathered.

“The crew is very professional, and I’m putting in a lot of money in them. The lead role would be given to Drake Redcliff for the teenager Mike and Jonathan Smith for the 38-year-old Mike.”

Both were famous MCA exclusive actors, and Drake was even a rising star for his teenage movies.

Edward mentioned how he had yet to find some actors for roles like Mike’s daughter, Maggi and Mike’s son, Alex, from [17 Again].

“It’s nothing personal, but I would recommend you to try June out for the role of Maggi.”

Will put in his thoughts, Edward who heard this, recalled June and smiled.

“Why not? Isn’t she also from MCA? And I think her acting was very good in [The Blair Witch Project]. Since the scriptwriter had himself requested, how could I not say yes.”

Edward joked, but he was happy that he had finally gotten someone inwardly. June, who was recently getting popular due to Will’s movie, acting in his movie would be really good. Edward would surely give her the role if she did well in the auditions.

As Will recommended her, a sudden thought crossed his mind.

“Say, wasn’t Alex’s role empty too?”

He asked out, to which Edward immediately replied as he thought that Will would recommend one of the male leads from [The Blair Witch Project].

“If it’s not taken yet, I would like to audition for that role too.”

Will said in a friendly tone, surprising Benjamin.

“What?”

Both Benjamin and Edward asked at once as they thought if they had misheard something.

“I am saying if Alex’s role is still undecided, I would like to audition for the role.”

Will repeated calmly.

“You know how to act?”

Benjamin blurted abruptly, making Edward chuckle.

After some talk, Will said casually.

“Not like I’m asking for the role. Director Friedman can reject if he doesn’t like my audition.”

Edward thought for a moment and then laughed heartily as he patted Will’s shoulder.

“Hahaha, Why not. Why not. Since it’s like that, I would obviously like to see you act.”

Edward was very surprised and excited regarding Will’s declaration. If this genius scriptwriter and director turned out to be a good actor, too, he was sure to take Hollywood by a storm. And letting him audition for the role wouldn’t bite him, so he agreed to it.

Benjamin was still feeling surreal from the situation as he never knew about his best friend’s son as he kept showing one talent after the other. He seemed like a completely different person from the boy he had helped get admission at EUC back then.

He got a bit emotional as he thought about how Will’s dad would feel after seeing him do so well and how much must Will miss his dad.

The meeting came to an end after some time, and Edward left the duo for some other appointment he had. Apparently, he was really busy with the preparations of [17 Again] and had made some time to meet with Will. This improved Edward’s impression in Will’s eyes.

As Will was about to bid farewell to Benjamin, the latter informed him about something important.

“[17 Again] is getting distributed by Foxstar studios, and the new distribution head had told me that he was really interested in meeting you if you had any new projects.”

From Benjamin, Will found out that this new distribution head was none other than James Dankworth, the previous distribution head’s assistant.

Apparently, the previous distribution head was kicked when it was found out that he rejected [The Blair Witch Project] without even watching it, and James was appointed as the new distribution head with strict supervision on his head.

Will was quite surprised hearing all this as Foxstar Studios rejected him earlier. But he understood that the fault was Chandler’s, the previous distribution head, and James was just following his order, and even then, he was hesitating.

Will agreed to meet up with the new distribution head as in business; there were no real enemies, only interests.

After that, Will, too, remembered something very important that he had found out and took out his smartphone, and he opened an image and showed it to Benjamin.

“Isn’t this an actor contracted with MCA?”

Benjamin glanced at the photo and said,

“Oh yes, he is. If I remember correctly, his contract is going to end soon too. He had worked in a few films, but they barely managed to recover the budget cost.”

“Oh, is that so, hmm.”

Will was surprised after seeing this guy’s movie when he was binging through some movies by MCA. He was one of the biggest celebrities from his previous life, and now he was working on movies that didn’t suit him at all.

A smile crept at Will’s face as the plan to open his own production house had solidified in his heart.

The actor that Will mentioned was none other than Robert Downey Jr., mostly known for his role of iron-man.

The guy in the pic looked every bit like him, and after watching his movies, Will had confirmed that his acting style and voice were also the same, just his name was different. Micheal Elrod was his name on this alternate earth.

…

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