My Hollywood System

Chapter 49:

“Hey, have you heard of Will? I heard that he’s a really talented guy.”

“Yeah, I have heard of him, alright. I heard the dude got a producer to invest in his movie as soon as he finishes his studies at USC. There were many aspiring directors with some great ideas, but only his idea was selected.”

“They said he can turn out to be a really good director. I personally think he’s using the back door. Must be nice, eh? He’s rich and already has a bright future ahead of himself.”

Will heard the students chattering about him. He was used to this ‘unnecessary’ popularity.

He was born in a reputed celebrity’s house. Wealth, fame and respect, his family had it all, making it all easy for him to study and aim at becoming a director.

That was his fault. People thought that being poor was a sin, but being rich had become a sin for Will. No matter how much effort he put in and no matter how much passion he showed, his thoughts and hard work were never conveyed to people, and they just either treated him as a guy born with a silver spoon.

‘Someday, I’ll make you all respect me for my own works!’

Will thought inwardly as he walked out of the campus. There wasn’t really anything that he had to do after the classes, so he planned on going back home and starting to work on ideas for his first movie.

A car had come to pick him up, like usual. As he sat inside the car, the driver drove it off until they came to a halt at the red signal.

*Knock* *Knock*

Someone knocked on the side glass from the outside. It was a guy with wild blond hair dyed green in some places and two scorpion tail-like ear piercings. He was sitting on a bike behind another guy whose face wasn’t visible.

Will subconsciously slid down the glass as the guy opened his mouth, revealing a piercing on his tongue too.

“It’s nothing personal, dude; blame your parents if you gotta blame someone.”

The driver in the front seat tried to warn Will about something urgently.

*Click* *Boom*

By the time Will could react, the blond guy had already taken out a gun and shot directly on Will’s head.

***

“Haah….”

Will let out an exasperated breath as Jeffrey immediately patted his back.

“Are you okay?”

Jeffrey asked with concern visible in his eyes.

‘I fell asleep huh…”

Will thought as he felt his own heart thumping wildly as his forehead was filled with cold sweat.

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

Will said while trying to catch his breath. Since his transmigration, Will has dreamed about his previous world for the first time.

To be precise, it was the dream about how he had died in that world. As he was going to Krown Studios office with Jeffrey, he noticed the clear sky and fell asleep without realising, only to be woken up by this horrific dream.

“You must be getting tired from working so much every day. You should take some rest when you have the time, don’t waste your youth by just working every day.”

Jeffrey said with a bitter smile. According to him, Will was way too mature and serious about his work for his age. It was a good thing but not even resting would eventually tire him out, making his work performance drop significantly.

“Don’t worry. As I said, I’m perfectly fine. How long till we reach our destination?”

Will tried to change the subject.

“We are already there; that’s why I was trying to wake you up earlier. Don’t worry, we still have some time before the meeting starts.”

Jeffrey said as he got out of the car.

Soon, Will calmed down and got out of the car too.

Benjamin and Jason should have already reached the studio before them.

To acquire a company, an acquisition team was necessary, for that purpose, he had asked Benjamin to take over the role of a temporary agent.

There were several obvious reasons why Will had decided to acquire Krown studios. The first and foremost reason was that it didn’t have a single debt.

All the equity was with the real shareholders, and none of them had opted out to sell it yet. Secondly, all the departments and offices were well maintained even though the company had obviously fallen, or so Jeffrey had mentioned.

The various types of equipment that they used were obviously cheap, but according to Will, that wasn’t a big problem and could easily be solved with money.

Walking around, Will looked at the surroundings and couldn’t help but feel delighted. The rooms and offices around looked all new and cleanly kept.

Soon, Jeffrey found the board room as he knocked once before entering.

An old man around 60 years of age was sitting on a head seat with two other men sitting opposite to him on a circular glass table.

“Jeffrey, your habits just won’t go away, huh. I’ve told you many times to wait for a reply before barging in; what if I’m having an affair with my secretary and somebody caught me?”

The grey-haired old man said in a rather gruff tone, perfectly matching Jeffrey’s own voice.

“Shut up, you old fart; you really think some secretary would be blind enough to be having an affair with you? You aren’t even rich. Hahaha.”

Jeffrey said as both of them laughed and shook hands.

“This is Will, the guy I told you about. Will, this is Frank Winston, the Chairman of Krown Studios.”

Will shook hands with Frank as the latter measured him up with a gaze.

“Hello, I’m Will Evans. I hope we can come to a satisfying deal.”

“We will see about that.”

Frank said as he gestured for the two to sit down.

Will greeted Benjamin and Jason as he said.

“Let’s start the meeting.”

***

“You really overestimate your movies…. $3 million just for the copyrights; you might as well straight out rob us.”

Benjamin said with a look that showed how absurd this situation was.

As the meeting went on, Frank’s personality became clearer and clearer as both Benjamin and Frank entered a heated debate.

Frank was asking $3 million just for the copyrights of all the movies Krown Studios have produced.

As the movies produced by Krown Studios failed one after the other, Frank sold some movies through DVDs. The sale of those DVDs was the reason the Krown Studios wasn’t bankrupt yet and was still afloat, albeit barely.

“I think that’s pretty reasonable considering the ten years of history behind the studios.”

Frank said aggressively, to which Benjamin didn’t back down and countered.

“Reasonable? Bah! It’s way too high; we might as well go and buy some other studio. Hollywood doesn’t lack studios on the verge of bankruptcy, you know? Not to mention that this studio’s B grade movies without a single popular actor aren’t worth much. You have had enough chances to sell this sinking company before, but you let it go. But trust me, we won’t wait for you to make up your mind, we can just go and buy some other studio.”

As Benjamin said this, Frank hesitated for a bit.

The company was already in tatters, and it was all due to his stubbornness that he hadn’t sold it yet. But if he is delayed anymore, he won’t just be playing with his own life but the whole company’s life, including the employees.

The reason why he decided to sell the company now was due to a certain realisation. His company’s shares weren’t getting sold, and he had to buy back all the shares from the shareholders himself, emptying his pockets further.

Will hadn’t said much throughout the meeting and left much of it on Benjamin as he looked at him. A smile couldn’t help but form on his lips subconsciously as he looked at Benjamin aggressively, making points to lower the rates.

Such business negotiations and tactics were the reason why Benjamin was a senior agent at MCA. He was very clear about how to strike a nerve to gain an advantage in a debate such as this, which wasn’t the most likeable thing about him on a personal level, but in business, this was clearly an advantageous skill.

Even though Benjamin had struck a nerve, Frank regained his composure soon enough, proving his years of experience as he again engaged in the argument.

Although Frank had become a bit tamer throughout the meeting, his quirky self kept coming at conditions after conditions for Will to buy out the company. Will simply rejected each one of them and left everything else for Benjamin to handle.

As the meeting was coming to an end, Frank made one last condition: not change the studio’s name if Will wanted to buy it out.

“I would love to respect your emotions related to the company, but I think that names are also a defining factor of success, and I just don’t think this name would work out for me. I’ll be sure to make it something better than it is now, both the name and the company.”

Will said that as a reply to Frank’s demand. In the end, Frank conceded.

It was decided that the whole company would be transferred to Will’s name for an amount of $4.5 million. This included the building, and one of the conditions that Will had accepted from Frank was that he wouldn’t fire any existing staff; there were only a few of them left to begin with.

As the deal was finalised, Frank held his hand out, and Will shook it.

“Congratulations on the successful deal. I just hope you treat the staff well and take the company to heights that I was never able to.”

Frank said somewhat emotionally, and Will just smiled and said,

“Thank you. I will make sure of that.”

***

“What’s going on? Has Chairman Frank finally decided to sell the company?”

“What will happen to us? Are we going to get fired now?”

“I don’t think Chairman Frank would accept a deal where we would become unemployed.”

The employees of Krown Studios had gathered outside the hall, which was near the board room, as they chattered amongst themselves. An air of anxiety and uncertainty surrounded them as a handsome young man walked out of the board room and said.

“Hello, everyone. I’m the new owner of the company, Will Evans.”

…

//DreamNote//

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