My Hollywood System

Chapter 59:

As Will walked inside the office of Foxstar with the script of [Sherlock Holmes] in his hands, various thoughts appeared in his mind.

The importance of the meeting and how he was going to move ahead with his movie.

In his mind, Will thought that his plan was a little crazy, and there was a little chance of it being successful.

But history had shown that a little craziness was needed for success, and it was not like Will was going to back out at this point.

He needed [Sherlock Holmes] to be a grand success, and for that to happen, he needed the connections and distribution channels of Foxstar.

As he reached the reception, the female employee there looked at him in wonder, recognising him. Due to [The Blair Witch Project], his face was something that most people working in Hollywood would recognise.

Will told the female employee about his meeting with James Dankworth, and she told him to go to the 12th floor.

After his promotion, James had not taken the office of the former head, Chandler Davies. Instead, he had transformed one of the rooms on the 12th floor into his new office.

When Will reached there, he was surprised to see James standing in front of his office. When the bespectacled man noticed him, he spread his hands and directly hugged him.

“Haha, Will, I was waiting for you.” He said with a beaming smile as Will awkwardly returned the hug.

‘What happened to him? The last time I saw him, he looked like a man who had never smiled in his life.’

Will thought as he looked at James. Unlike the last time, he was wearing an expensive suit, and a gold watch was on his wrist. Moreover, his hair was completely waxed, and he looked like he had gotten a complete makeover.

Soon, the initial awkwardness died down, and he followed James into his office. The man sat down as Will took a seat in front of him and put down the script on the desk.

“Sorry if I made you uncomfortable there. I was just so pleased to see you. My promotion to the head of the Distribution department was because of you, so I just wasn’t able to stop my happiness when I saw you.”

He said with a laugh, and Will asked back in a confused manner.

“What do you mean your promotion was because of me?”

“After our meeting last time, I was constantly thinking of [The Blair Witch Project]. Your movie had really managed to scare me off, and I was even sleeping with the room’s lights on. My wife was really annoyed due to that.” He chuckled, then explained further. “Anyway, as the movie managed to scare me that much, I tried convincing my boss, Chandler Davies, to rethink his decision, but he scolded me and the matter spread in the company. He proclaimed in front of some executives that the movie would never work and that he was looking for another assistant as, according to him, I had no vision. But things changed a lot after [The Blair Witch Project] released in the theatres.”

James’ last sentence was filled with contempt for his old boss. After all, no one liked being publicly insulted.

Sadly for Chandler Davies, his words came biting him in the back after the box office numbers of [The Blair Witch Project] were revealed.

“After the movie crossed the 100 million dollar mark, our chairman, Spencer Miller, called him into his office personally and fired him. As he had heard that I was in favour of distributing [The Blair Witch Project], he appointed me as the next head. It was all thanks to you and your movie!”

Will nodded his head as James’ story came to an end. Of course, he didn’t fully believe that his movie was the sole reason behind the firing of Chandler Davies.

In the past one or two years, more movies of Foxstar had flopped than succeeded. Moreover, their movies had hardly won any awards in famous film festivals, and even in events like the Oscars and Golden Globes, there were hardly any nominations.

The reason behind this was the conservative approach of Chandler Davies. [The Blair Witch Project] was merely the final nail in the coffin.

“Again, I would like to apologise for my behaviour last time. I acted too arrogantly for no reason.”

In the end, James made a stiff expression and apologised. Unlike his initial impression, he was not just another arrogant fool.

Especially after becoming the head of the Distribution department of Foxstar, he wanted to build a legacy, and Will was certainly in his plans.

Will also understood that and shook his head with a smile, “Mr Dankworth, that’s in the past. I don’t mind starting anew with you and Foxstar.”

“Thank you for that, and you can just call me James.”

With that done, they both quickly moved on with the reason behind their meeting. Will took the script that he had brought and passed it on to James.

James couldn’t help but read the title and look at Will with the script in his hands.

“I was pretty curious to know what type of movie you would direct, especially since you said you won’t do horror anymore. But I never thought it would be a detective story, and on top of that, a Sherlock Holmes story.”

“I just thought he was the most interesting character to make a movie around.”

“That’s indeed true.”

James nodded his head gleefully, thinking of the various Broadway productions he had seen around Sherlock Holmes. The portrayal of the character was always different, but every single one of those was fascinating.

Although it was surprising to know that Will was going for a Sherlock Holmes movie, there was still a problem that James felt needed to be addressed.

“Will, I don’t think you know, but the rights to Sherlock Holmes are with Z studios. Even if this script is good, you won’t be able to make a movie out of it.”

“That won’t be a problem,” Will smirked hearing that.

“What?”

“I have already bought the rights from them. You could try to verify it if you want.”

James didn’t pick up his phone to try to verify the information. By the tone, he could tell that Will wasn’t lying. After all, in Hollywood, it was just a matter of a call, and James would know if Will had bought the rights.

He knew that Will had bought a studio recently. He wasn’t surprised by this as many directors would do this after becoming big, trying to compete with the major movie studios.

But he certainly didn’t know that Dream Vision had secretly bought the movie rights of Sherlock Holmes.

“I have heard that Z studios chairman Josh Booth was still fretting over the debacle of the 90s Sherlock film. But I didn’t expect him to sell the rights so quickly.”

For the record, Josh Booth had been looking over Z studios since 1994, and in his career, [Director Sherlock Holmes] was the biggest flop. It had nearly made the company go bankrupt, and this was the reason why Josh Booth still fretted over it.

Due to this, it took him too much work and a long time to make Z studios a part of the Big 6 film studios in Hollywood.

“So, going by the fact, you bought the film rights, it seems like you are serious about making [Sherlock Holmes] a reality?”

James asked, and Will replied like it was obvious.

“I won’t waste my time writing a script if I am not serious.”

“Haha, I like your attitude.”

Saying that James started going through the script. The script was 168 pages long, and it took quite a while for James to read it.

In this span of time, his expression changed to anticipation, excitement, confusion and in the end, satisfaction. Will kept grinning while looking at those expressions.

It meant that his script had done its job, and James was fully invested in it.

Finally, after a long time, James raised his head and put down the script.

“It’s pretty good, and it gives me the same vibes that Sherlock Holmes novels give out. And the climax is something that would surely satisfy the viewers when Sherlock solves the entire case.”

“So, what do you think? Would Foxstar be interested in distributing the movie? I’m talking about both overseas and the North American market.”

Will asked, knowing full well by James’ reaction that he won’t reject. But the bespectacled man suddenly gave out an offer.

“We would be interested, but rather than that, how about selling the rights to Sherlock Holmes to us and this script too. Of course, you would be the director, but Foxstar would take the lead.”

That offer surprised Will a lot, but after a little bit of thinking, he could understand where James was coming from.

This world’s Hollywood lacked good movie franchises. There were some Western cowboy franchises in the past, and then there was a franchise of a fantasy film series based on a popular novel called [The Hunter’s apprentice].

But other than that, there was nothing.

Although Sherlock Holmes was regarded as a cursed franchise to delve into, James was seriously thinking about it after seeing the quality of Will’s script.

“I’m sorry, James, but this is not possible. [Sherlock Holmes] will be Dream Vision’s first movie, and I just can’t sell it to you. Maybe in the future, we can have cooperation like that.” Will rejected as he looked at James.

“How about the script and the movie rights for 20 million dollars? That’s quite a high price.”

“I’m sorry.”

As he stayed firm, James had no choice but to sigh helplessly. The young man in front of him was quite clear with his goals, and it looked like there was nothing that could make him think otherwise.

Clearing his throat, James changed the topic.

“Then, for now, I would be satisfied with having the distribution rights. By the way, are you going to be the sole producer? Or are you looking for investments?”

James asked, a little bit of greed in his voice. If he could get Foxstar to invest in the project, they would have more control.

“Yes, I will be the sole producer. You do know I got a lot of money due to Blair witch?”

Will chuckled, and James regretfully nodded his head. There was even a half-joke in the industry recently that horror movies are the way to go if you want to be a multi-millionaire.

It was all thanks to Will.

“So, how much is the budget exactly?”

“I think 90 million.”

….

//DreamNote//

This arc is slow, please understand that this is to set up the story for the next 100s of chaps and to add on the world building. This is necessary to do and after Sherlock Holmes arc, the story will be fast paced. And just to clear any doubts, there’s no NTR or cheating in the novel.

In the future, I will also increase release speed, however that is uncertain because one – my real life is not under my control and two – I will be very busy in the month of may, so I want to have enough stockpile so something like the last week doesn’t happen.

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