Chapter 58:

In Hollywood, rumours were abundant, and every other day, new rumours about celebrities would come out. Some would be fake and some true, but they would still get a lot of clicks on the internet.

These rumours would appear in tabloids or on movie websites on the internet.

L.A. Times was one such tabloid, and it was famous for topics such as sensational crime stories, astrology, celebrity gossip and television. They were prominent because they would often post some proof with their articles.

And today, there was a pair of new faces that had made it to the front pages.

The image was of a handsome boy and a beautiful girl kissing each other while getting wet in the rain. The photo and angle were so perfect and clear that one would doubt its credibility of not being scripted.

Just above the image were headlines in bold words.

[Famous rookie director Will Evans and actress June Roberts’ romantic affair caught on camera!]

Below the headline, there was a full-blown article.

[Last year, Hollywood had a lot of topics that blew out of proportion, but the most surprising of all of them was the black horse on the box office [The Blair Witch Project].

It was directed by a director that had dropped out of a famous film school and had a low budget. Coupled with the fact that the movie was shot on a camcorder, many people thought of it as a joke.

The movie would have been a flop in a simple world, and no one would have even heard of it, but it went on to make 200 million dollars at the box office. In just a few weeks, everyone went to the cinema to watch this unique horror movie.

It became a phenomenon at the box office.

The man behind this almost supernatural phenomenon was Will Evans, a young director who had hit it out of the park with just his first movie. After becoming a millionaire, he had stayed relatively low and hadn’t given many interviews or showed his face at any Hollywood parties.

But after so many weeks, there’s finally a scoop about him.

Yesterday, he was caught kissing June Roberts, the actress who played Heather in [The Blair Witch Project]. It was surprising because no one had expected the two of them to be dating.

According to our sources, they started dating after the shooting of [The Blair Witch Project] ended, and it’s already been some months.

Unlike most young relationships in Hollywood, theirs had just been getting better and better. It was to the point that Will Evans even joined the cast of [17 again], the next movie by Edward Friedman.

June Roberts is playing a supporting role in the upcoming teen comedy, and there are speculations that Will Evans joined the cast just to spend time with his girlfriend.

As Will Evans is also the movie’s screenwriter, he requested Edward Friedman for the role.

We were able to get in touch with an anonymous actor from [17 again] who gave us some comments about how they behave on the set.

“It’s not wrong to say that they don’t even try to hide their relationship. I have seen them kissing quite a few times on the set, and they would come and leave together. The relationship is quite different than what I have mostly seen in Hollywood and…”]

‘They really posted a long ass article in just a day.’

Will thought and looked at the tabloid in his hands. The front page had a picture of him and June kissing, and they wrote the headline in bold letters.

Frankly, he quite liked the picture, and he even wondered if he should ask the L.A. Times for a copy.

As for June, she had been quite worried after the article had been published. She had no idea that a paparazzi would end up following them and taking photos.

The thing she was worried about most was Will’s reaction.

She knew that they were both early in their careers, and these types of articles can easily affect people’s perception of them. That’s why she had called Will early in the morning, and he had told her that he had no problems with the articles being published.

There was no reason to hide their relationship, and it might even help June in her acting career. After all, Will was a hot topic, and anyone associated with him would come into the public eye.

Even M.C.A. would be happy that due to this, some attention had been directed towards [17 again], which hasn’t even begun its marketing.

Hearing all this from Will, she had been relieved, and they had talked for quite a while.

‘At least this is better than my relationship with June coming out during [Sherlock Holmes].’

He thought in his mind and got out of his car.

Raising his head, he saw a massive building. People were coming and going out of the building, and it all looked quite busy.

He had come here once when he searched for a distributor for [The Blair Witch Project]. Yes, it was the building of Foxstar studios.

Today, he had come here to meet with James Dankworth, the new head of Distribution. But unlike last time, he was the one getting invited.

Not the other way around.

As soon as he had told Foxstar that he had completed the script for his next movie, they had invited him for discussions. Particularly, James was quite keen to have him over.

It seemed like after the last time he had rejected him, he had been quite regretful, and the feeling had only increased after seeing [The Blair Witch Project] box office gross.

‘Our last meeting hadn’t gone well.’

Will thought to himself and chuckled.

At that point, James had continuously looked down on him and had acted arrogantly. Though, in the end, Will’s movie had managed to scare him a lot, and he still took it as his victory.

Even though their last meeting had left Will disappointed at James’ behaviour, he expected better things this time.

***

“Hello, it’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m Micheal Robert Elrod. But you can call me Robert.”

“Amanda Garcia, I’m the C.E.O. of Dream vision studios.”

Robert shook hands with Amanda and sat down. After thinking about it, he decided to look through Will’s offer. There was no harm in it, and he was surely interested.

A two million dollar contract was something that an almost unknown actor like him could only dream of.

That’s why he had come to the Dream Vision Studio’s Office, but to his surprise, Will was busy, and he was actually scheduled to meet Amanda.

“You must be wondering, what’s all this about? And what is the 2 million dollar contract Mr Evans talked about?”

Amanda asked, and Robert nodded his head. The information he had was not enough, and the only thing he knew was that Will wanted him to audition for a lead role.

But he didn’t know anything about the movie or the script to even prepare for the audition.

“Can you explain a bit more about the nature of the role I’m auditioning for and what type of movie it is?” He asked.

“Yes, I can, but before that, you need to sign this.”

Amanda said and took out a paper from below her desk. Robert took it up in his hands and read through it. With his eyes wide, he asked.

“An N.D.A.? I need to sign this?”

(A/n: N.D.A.’s full-form is Non-Disclosure Agreement. The name is self-explanatory.)

“Yeah, I’m sorry, but we need to protect the nature of the project. This agreement is just to ensure that anything about the movie doesn’t go out in public domain.”

Robert hesitated a bit after hearing that. He had heard that big studios would make actors sign N.D.A. for them to not speak about any of the movies they were working on.

But he never thought he would be asked to sign one.

After reading through the N.D.A., he signed it. Now, he was more curious to know about the movie than anything else.

“I signed it. Now, can you tell me more about this movie?”

He asked, and after checking through his signature, Amanda took out the script for [Sherlock Holmes]. She passed it to Robert, and after reading the front page of it, his eyes became round.

“[Sherlock Holmes]?!”

He ended up muttering out loud.

“Yes, this is the first movie that Dream Vision would produce. Unlike the 90s movie, it’s a massive production, and the script is way better too.”

Amanda explained, and Robert couldn’t help but get curious about some things. n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Can I know what the actual budget of the movie is?”

The 90s Sherlock movie was something that Robert had watched in the theatre with his father, and he had not enjoyed it much, mainly because most of the background in the movie looked fake and rather than a detective story, the movie gave the vibes of a bad comedy.

One of the main reasons for the failure of [Detective Sherlock Holmes] was its low budget.

“The estimated budget including post-production is around 90 million dollars.”

“What? Really?” Robert asked, shocked at the massive amount.

“Yes, I won’t joke with you. Dream Vision would handle the total investment of the movie, and it’s already been approved.”

Robert couldn’t speak anything for a few seconds after hearing that. He had heard that Will solely produced [The Blair Witch Project] project, and because of that, the latter had also earned an enormous profit from the box office collection.

But he didn’t know that it was this much that Will was able to produce a 90 million movie on his own.

Even though Will was a lot younger than him, Robert felt like he was already on a stage where he couldn’t overtake him. He couldn’t help but feel a bit of envy and jealousy.

…

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