My Hollywood System

Chapter 105:

After brainstorming for days, Will had finally made out two drafts that would work in the Box office, at least his instinct said so. But he was confused as to which one out of them to select and hence, the event with Jeffrey came to be.

“[Liberty City] a gangster movie.”

The one that Jeffrey selected was the other idea that Will had been working on. The first one was an original spy movie that would later connect to a spy universe that he had in mind.

With franchises like [Mission Impossible] and [Charlie’s Angels], there were a lot of things possible.

As the system had told him to make a completely original from scratch, he of course wouldn’t take any chances and make an original. But he could take inspiration from existing franchises in his world to make a completely original movie, and there was no such rule against it either. Hence, Will decided to take advantage of this fact and took inspiration from one of the most popular open-world game franchises in his previous world.

GTA, this name was so famous that it would be surprising if a kid hasn’t heard its name even once in his lifetime. It was the childhood of many people born in the 90s, including Will. Since the game didn’t exist in this world, Will wanted to make an original that was inspired from one of the game’s most famous cities, Liberty City. He would make his own storyline and characters and just take the city from the game while hinting at the other cities throughout the movie.

In the future, it was his plan to invest in the game franchise of many famous games of his previous world and gradually establish himself there too. But before that, he wanted to establish movies that could, later on, be connected to the game, giving a different level of immersion than they used to give.

Not only that, the main thing about these games was the sheer amount of profit they could bring. Just GTA 5 alone had earned over $6 billion over the period of 5-6 years after its release, making astronomical numbers of profits in a matter of mere years.

All these reasons prompted him to make an original that he could, later on, connect to the game. He decided to make use of Liberty City which was designed after New York City and leave hints about other cities like Vice City and San Andreas.

If this movie worked, he could easily sell the GTA franchise based on this. Another reason why he decided to make a gangster movie was that after the year 2000, there were very few directors or studios that made gangster movies. Since the new trend was sci-fi or rom-com, there weren’t many good gangster movies and the gangster genre had taken an unprofitable halt.

This was something common in any industry. As a particular genre will become the trend and producers would think of it as more profitable, there would be other genres that would take a hit.

Will imagined making a violent crime thriller movie, making the viewers go through continuous emotional roller coasters. It would be a story about how a villain was born and rose up to power instead of a hero.

“You see, that’s how it is.”

Will explained about the overall gist of the movie to Jeffery. He wanted to hear Jeffrey’s opinion about it since most of the things he said were useful and backed up his experience in the industry.

“Uh, well. The idea is good and I am sure many would want a gangster movie after they haven’t seen one for so long. But according to what you said, the movie might end up getting an R rating due to the amount of gore included in it.”

Jeffrey voiced one of the major concerns related to the movie. Will knew there were going to be many people who think the same.

In this world, the MPA (Motion Pictures Association) existed and they rated all the movies that required a rating. Just like in his previous world, there was no law that stated that a movie absolutely had to have a rating but it was more a willing act due to the cinemas. The cinemas would mostly never play a movie that doesn’t have a rating or is rated NC-17.

The rating of a movie indirectly affected the box office of the said movie due to the audience that can watch it. A normal movie is rated as G, which means anyone can watch it and it’s for the general people. A movie that required the parent’s guidance and concerns were rated as PG.

PG-13 is a movie that contains some things that require strong parents’ guidance and is inappropriate for kids below 13 years of age.

R rated movies are the ones that require a parent or a guardian along in the cinema house because they might contain sex, gore and such adult stuff.

NC-17 is aimed at just people who are 18 or above 18 years of age. No one 17 and under that is allowed at the cinema/theatre.

[Sherlock Holmes] had gotten a PG-13 rating due to the intense sequence of violence and action, some startling images and a scene of suggestive material. Or that’s how the MPA had phrased it. Anyways, if the movie gets rated as R, it would be troublesome for the box office.

“It’s actually fine even if it gets an R rating. But I will still try to reduce the amount of blood and gore. After all, the main focus of the movie should be the story and the thrill it gave, exploring the world of criminals and villains.”

Will said and Jeffrey nodded after some hesitation.

Will had taken inspiration from movies like [Scarface] and [Godfather] for this movie and wanted it to turn out good, as it would be his first-ever original.

“I will complete the movie script in the next two months and after that, I want to directly enter the production phase. Before that, I want you to finish the casting and other things and focus on both of the movies.”

“Yeah, don’t worry about it. I am going to challenge myself with both these movies.”

Jeffrey said enthusiastically as he was reminded of the movies he would be producing and doing the cinematography for. On top of that, [1917] scenes were so intriguing that Jeffrey felt that if he dealt with it well enough, he might end up bagging some awards.

“Okay then, I wish you luck.”

Will said as he chuckled seeing Jeffrey’s childlike enthusiasm.

***

“I came to LA to avoid going to the army. But in the end, my fate is really a bitch.”

Elijah Thomas, one of the two leads for [1917] said as he ran beside Renly. They were currently in a boot camp and undergoing training to look like soldiers.

After Lucas came on board, he had few meetings with Elijah and Renly and deemed them fit to play the leads. As Will was the head of their agency, he gave Lucas complete controls to make the two leads more like soldiers.

As a result, Lucas got Jeffery to arrange a boot camp for both of them so they could undergo real training to look like soldiers.

Many actors have gone through the same to get into the skin of their characters during war or army focused movies.

As a result, both of them have no ground to reject and now, It was already their second week here.

“Don’t talk. Just run. Like that, you will last longer…”

Renly said, in between breaths. His body was already giving away and it was hard for him to run for so long.

“If you stop, you need to do five extra rounds!!”

Their instructor, a retired soldier, shouted from behind and their steps suddenly gained new strength.

No matter what, they didn’t want that punishment.

In the end, they completed the whole course somehow. When they finished it, it was like their soul had already left their body.

They were too tired to even crawl into their beds to sleep.

Renley and Elijah just lay on the ground, their clothes were already dirty and their shoes had soil and mud in them.

“I hate this but I can’t even go back at this stage… Hey, are you even listening?”

Elijah turned his head to look at Renley who had his eyes closed. Opening them, he frowned.

“If you can still have a conversation, you really have a lot of energy. And just think of it as a test. If we pass it, we will be on the sets and after some months, we will debut as the leads of a multi million dollar project. This much is nothing for that prize.”

A smile naturally formed on Elijah’s lips when he heard that.

Debut as the lead of a movie – That was the dream of every aspiring actor and now they have it. He didn’t know if it was his luck or just a dream. But he can’t wait to see it unfolding in front of his eyes.

“That’s the only reason I’m still alive till now. Are you sure it’s not a scam?”

Elijah asked the same question that had plagued his mind for a long time. He was someone without any connections in Hollywood and was now suddenly playing a lead.

“No one spends millions in a scam. Moreover, you and I are not billionaires or even remotely rich. Just accept it.”

“Okay… I feel like I have some energy now…”

“Then go do another round.”

“Screw you.”

…

//DreamNote//

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