Hollywood Zenith

Chapter 550 Nearing Premier-1

While Samuel was busy handling business, his presence in the entertainment sector was missed. Over the years, he had already finished the lord of the Rings books, which tied up the story neatly, along with his first book, Hobbit. The natural question arose: when would they see a full-length adaptation of his works?

He had left everything to Thomas, who was still working as the head of the publishing department. He was competent enough and had ensured the hype was still at its peak by teasing some cameos in games and movies.

There were also talks about Samuel writing another book; it was only fan speculation on online forums and fan groups. The main reason was that no one still knew the true face behind the author Abel. Samuel never bothered to announce it.

It was on his mind, but after the last book's release, he abandoned the idea. It was best for his readers to keep his identity elusive. They only knew he was a young boy because he had written an author's note, and the editor at the firm made a mistake with pronouns.

Samuel was thinking about spreading rumors about potentially hiring actors, but he kept getting delayed for different reasons. He wanted to be as true to the source material as possible and was ready to invest heavily to give fans what they wanted, but he knew it was a massive undertaking.

He had to hire the right actors and someone outstanding to direct the movie. Because he was also an actor, he knew how hard it was to find the right person. There was bound to be someone who didn't like the casting, but he wanted their numbers to be at the minimum.

His production company was also doing good; they had invested in many successful franchises, including partially in Harry Potter, but a solo film would be daunting for his subordinates.

He honestly had forgotten about his writing career, but after he settled things with Park, he was cornered by a sudden visit from Thomas.

" Young master, you promised to visit me if when you returned."

" How do you know I was here?" He was baffled because, typically, people would say he was not at home if he was visiting the residential area around the estate.

" That's not important! You know how worried I was when I saw the news! It was fortunate that nothing happened." Thomas was genuinely worried about him. He had seen Samuel grow up to be an impressive young man, and being associated with the police was really a shock.

" I feel like that was ages ago, and don't worry, it's not like I blindly walked in there. Everyone had my back, but that's for worrying about me."

" That's a given. You know I am one of the people who have been dying to see you play one of the iconic characters from your book. With your name added to the franchise, I am sure it will be a smash hit! How are you going to do that if you went to jail?"

" Old man, looking at you, I don't know if you are messing around or serious." Samuel was stumped hearing him joke around. Thomas laughed, looking at him; they had gotten much closer over the years, which was why he could joke around even though he was his boss.

" Why are you here, really?"

" Why else? I need you to sign these. I can't act upon important matters without your approval."

" Right, more documents for me to sign. Honestly, why don't you take care of it like always? You are the president, after all."

" It's because I am getting old. I never thought Penguin would be a successful company when I first started it, but after getting under the Rothschild Consortium, I began to have some hope. But other than Master Donald's renowned books, no one seems interested in our other published material."

" It wasn't that bad. You had few best-seller books over the years."

" I know, but that barely covered our large operating cost. Seeing loads of printed books just sitting in the warehouse without seeing the light of day isn't easy. But everything changed when we started working together."

" You are giving me too much credit. That's hardly your style."

" That's because I am thinking about retiring." He dropped a bombshell on Samuel out of the blue. Thomas was getting old over the years. He was in his golden years when they first met, but after a decade, his body was definitely getting older as he was pushing fifty.

" Have you already had this talk with your family?"

" Not yet, although my wife had been nagging me for years. Since I made a lot of money these past few years, she wants me to have a more relaxed outlook. You know, like going on vacation or something."

" If you need time off, I can give you a paid leave or better yet, I can arrange fully paid however many days you want holiday from my pocket. I am not exactly short on money, just good people like you." Samuel spoke his mind. Thomas was one of the most reliable and honest people he had ever met; he wanted people like him to run his subsidiaries so that he could focus on another thing with peace of mind.

" It's not certain, just something I have been thinking about. I still have a few more years of work left in me, but if you start making adaptations of your books, I might think about sticking around longer. Just to ensure you don't botch anything from the source material!"

" I will not! I still have one more year with the Harry Potter franchise; after that, we can talk about it, but I have too many things on my plate right now." Samuel felt like he was meeting a fanatic fan!

" Alright, fine, I will not pester you more about it."

" Good here; I have signed everything. Next time, just send the document to someone else; you don't need to visit me for such menial work. It might have been common in the past, but we have a lot of people to do that job now; let them run around and gain experience."

" Experience? What would they learn from here?"

" There are plenty of things but first and foremost, I will be able to avoid your nagging."

" I am afraid you can't escape that. I could ask when you will be free but from the looks of it you wouldn't be for next few days." Thomas said as he looked at his desk which was filled with different kind of paperwork.

" Why?"

" Just cause, I wanted to invite you for dinner. You know how my wife is? She will always remind me to remind you about it. It's been months now."

" I will remember to drop by, but don't blame me, as you can already see."

" Alright, I will tell her that."

They talked for a few more minutes before Thomas left his impromptu office. Jane tactfully went out when she saw Thomas entering her office just to give them some privacy. She knew of Thomas but they never talked before but they were aware of each other's existence.

Samuel relaxed a little and felt that he was tired for the first time in a while. Usually, his body would heal before he could feel it, but recently, with all the 'activity' that he had been doing a lack of sleep began to pile up, not to mention all the mental stress was making him hungry.

As he started to get up for a light snack, he saw Jane entering the room with someone unexpected. He felt a little awkward meeting him here.

" So this is where you holed up after arriving in the country. You don't even have decency to at least call me and tell me that you were okay." The middle-aged man walked with a straight back while looking around the messy office.

He adjusted his suit and promptly took the seat opposite to Samuel's desk. He was expressionlessly looking at him but for some reason his stare looked cold.

" You know that I was right in that fiasco! I just wanted to show that he couldn't just bully anyone."

" Save your excuses. You know that the Premier was in a month. Don't tell me you can't simply ignore a arrogant prick; it's was in the damn new feed for weeks! Those bastards leaked the video online for everyone to watch."

" Wasn't it good though?"

" Seriously! I have to be in the meeting for a whole week with other investors! I can't even get through to you then; just imagine how I managed to calm them down. As an actor, you must maintain your pristine image; you can't go around hitting other people in front of the camera!" He raised his voice in frustration. He knew with Samuel's influence, there was no way he didn't have any other choice. He could have simply ignored him!

" I made sure that it didn't affect the release. Don't people say that any publicity is good publicity even if it's bad?"

" You brat!" Samuel laughed, looking at his angry expression. He knew he had to lighten the mood, or else the man before him would explode!