My Hollywood System

Chapter 98:

“So, do you get it now?”

Will asked as he looked at Natalie. He had been explaining the movie [500 days of Summer] and its basic plot to her.

“Uh, I think I got the basic gist of it.”

Natalie said, her voice still sounding uncertain.

“What do you think of Tom’s character?”

Will asked with a smile, and Natalie spoke.

“I think it’s very pitiful. It’s like he deserves the sympathy of the world.”

Will chuckled at her answer and changed his question.

“What do you think about Summer?”

“She’s the unnamed villain of the movie…?”

Will laughed hard at her answer. He was glad that the movie had the same effect it needed to have as the whole movie was from Tom’s point of view and made Summer feel like a villain because she broke up with him and left Tom heartbroken.

“Every story has two angles, and you will play the role of Summer, so think from her angle. The whole movie is based on Tom’s point of view, and he is the only one overly romanticising his fantasies with Summer. In reality, not every story comes to a happy ending, and that’s what happened in this story. Although the whole thing about him being devastated after the breakup is pitiful, in the end, he does move on.”

Natalie looked at Will with a bright expression after hearing this. What he said did make sense, and somehow, the vague character of Summer started clearing up in her mind.

“The movie’s message is that it’s fine to prioritise work over romance, it’s fine to be sorrowful after a breakup, and the concept of ‘the one’ doesn’t exist in a true sense. Just think how many hidden messages this story truly contains.”

As Will said that, he heard a knock on his office door.

“I am busy right now; come back later.”

Will dismissed the knock as he was about to continue talking to Natalie, but soon after, there was another knock on the door, and someone stepped in.

“Will, it’s important. Mr Miller had a heart attack! He was rushed to the hospital and is currently in a critical state.”

***

[That’s it for the weather news, I hope you all have a great day ahead.]

A woman was discussing the weather on the TV. Suddenly, her report ended halfway as the TV screen changed into another studio with another woman reporter giving out some emergency news.

[Breaking news, the Chairman of Foxstar studios, Spencer Miller, had a heart attack. He was rushed to the hospital and is currently in a critical state.]

This was the news headline, and then the woman started talking about it.

[Almost everyone in Hollywood knows who Spencer Miller is. As the chairman of one of the big six studios, he has quite the fame and a lot of friends in Hollywood. It is reported that Spencer had gotten a heart attack during his breakfast this morning. The details are still unclear, and the media cannot enter the hospital’s premises.

We have had reports that Spencer has had a heart condition for years now, but the news sources were unclear. On the other hand, it is still unknown whether Spencer’s condition has been stabilised yet.

One thing to note in all this is the presence of prominent celebrities. As an old player in Hollywood, there are a lot of famous individuals from Hollywood who are close to Spencer paying a visit to the hospital where he is admitted currently.

One of the new faces caught on camera is none other than the star of the year, Will Evans, himself!]

***

“How is he now?”

Will asked as soon as the doctor in charge of Spencer’s condition came out.

“We have done a bypass surgery, and he is out of danger now. No one is allowed to meet him unless he wakes up on his own.”

The doctor said as he removed his mask and moved away from the waiting area.

Will just took a seat on a chair in the waiting area. As time passed, he could recognise many Hollywood big shots coming and going from the hospital. As no one was allowed to meet Spencer yet, everyone just left a get well soon message to Spencer’s secretary and moved away.

The arrival of these big shots was a big thing, but when considering who Spencer was, it would be weird if no one came. He was a famous individual in Hollywood and the chairman of Foxstar, one of the big six studios. He had a lot of influence as an individual.

Soon, the daylight dimmed, and night arrived. Will was still sitting in the waiting area while everyone else was gone. Will wanted to make sure Spencer was fine and then leave, even though he had a lot of work that he had put on hold.

“You should leave now, Mr Evans. The visiting time for guests has long since gone, and Mr Miller won’t be waking up anytime soon due to the anaesthetic effects.”

A nurse came up and informed Will. She had an apologetic expression on her face, saying that she couldn’t do anything about it.

Will finally gave up on waiting and told the nurse to take good care of Spencer and contact him as soon as Spencer woke up.

***

Due to Spencer’s bad health, Foxstar’s shares became more volatile than ever. There was a risk of the share’s value decreasing based on how Foxtar moved next.

The other founding members and trustees of Foxstar are in chaos, and until a temporary chairman is assigned, Foxstar’s value will keep on decreasing.

This was a pretty normal thing. Be it Hollywood or any other business, even a change of CEO would cause the company’s stocks to fall, forget about the chairman, who was like the leader of the company’s founders.

No one knew when Spencer would get better and be able to return to Foxstar, making the investors sigh in defeat. After all, Spencer was already past his retirement, and now his health was catching up to his age, making it seem impossible for him to make a return.

Spencer was an essential part of Foxstar, and there would be a lot of difficulties if he weren’t around to oversee everything.

This was also a loss for Will as he wanted his next two movies to be distributed by Foxstar. Not only that, but Spencer was also a significant connection that he had, not just in Foxstar but in the whole of Hollywood.

Now, both of his movie’s distribution would be delayed, causing Will to sigh repeatedly. But he can only do so much about something he can’t control, and all he could do was wait for Spencer’s health to get better.

Currently, Will was meeting up with Lucas Amspoker, who had agreed to direct the movie [1917].

Lucas was a middle-aged man with black and white hair, and a black beard kept in Hollywood style. He looked pretty charming for his age and had an easy-going vibe around him.

Lucas agreed to direct the movie because he was captivated by the plot, especially since the story was set in a war background, which can be considered his speciality. While reading the script, he even had a vivid vision of how the story would play out. He liked the idea of dual leads, and most of all, the notes that Will had sent about the cinematography had opened up a whole new world for Lucas, making him want to work on this project.

Will and Lucas discussed the movie plot for a while, and after a while, the talk finally came to an important topic, the cast of the movie.

“About that, Mr Evans. I have some actors in mind for the cast, especially for the leads.”

Lucas said as he looked at Will. Will was already expecting such a thing from Lucas. After all, a director like Lucas would always want complete control over their movies. Especially regarding the cast, no director liked their producers to select the movie’s cast for them.

It was especially so for someone like Lucas, who had an Oscar nomination backing him. He wouldn’t like the idea of making the producer select the cast for his movie.

Will smiled a bit as he looked at Lucas.

“I understand your sentiments as a fellow director. But unfortunately, this is a packaged deal. You won’t be able to direct the movie unless you work with the cast selected by Dream Vision.”

Lucas’s expression ceased, and a frown couldn’t help but show on his face as he took in Will’s words. He very well knew what a packaged deal meant.

It was started by agencies in the 1990s in which they would let a director only direct a movie if they took their actors in it. Or, if a director wanted a certain actor, his agency could include other actors with him as a packaged deal.

This was a way to do business in Hollywood, and Will quite liked it, too, since it was working in his favour.

“Take your time and think about it. You have the option to reject it, and I won’t hold it against you. After all, I’m a director myself and can understand why you don’t like this deal.”

Will said, but Lucas still hesitated. It was a big decision for him, and he didn’t have a lot of information to conclude if it was worth it to take the offer or not.

***

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