Versatile Superstar: Rise In Hollywood

“I think people would surely like it when the episode airs. The rookie didn’t disappoint.” Hilton, one of the main writers for ‘The Rory Chamber’s show’ said as he sat down in front of Jerry.

Both of them were currently in Jerry’s office, planning to go over some ideas for the next week of shooting. Normally, Rory Chambers would join them as the show was his and he was also one of the co producers. 

But he was busy with some things, so only these two were talking.

Before the talk of the upcoming episode, they began talking about the shooting of the last episode with the focus being the segment that Aiden had appeared in.

The shooting had ended a few hours ago and in the end, it had all gone pretty well. The episode was going to air next week around the same time when [Black Saints] would release.

“Yeah, he didn’t. Though, I was hoping for it.” Jerry chuckled. “Anyway, the audience reaction was pretty good when he was up on stage. When I saw the viral video of him, I really wondered about his personality but it seems like a lot of what I heard is true.”

“It seems like you like him.”

“He had good charisma and I don’t know about his acting skills, but if they are even a little good, he may work well in a skit show that I’m currently working on. It’s still at the pitch and the channel is still wondering if they want to give it a go or not.”

Hilton just gave a nod hearing that. He knew that Jerry had co produced a lot of shows in the last decade. He was one of the big names in the TV industry.

If he was really looking for a cast for a new TV show, then it made sense for him to be interested in Aiden.

“I think you would know if he’s a good actor or not by his next movie. He came on the show to promote it anyway and no studio would send him on the show if his role isn’t big.”

“I know that.” Jerry smiled, leaning on his chair. “I have been invited to the premier of [Black Saints]. I will go and check it out as the trailer seemed interesting. Would see if the rookie could act or not.”

“You think the movie would work well? Seemed like a common cop thriller to me.”_.

Hilton raised an eyebrow. According to him, Hollywood was already past the time when cop thrillers or buddy comedies would work a lot. As a writer, he felt like he needed to keep up with the trends.

“It does seem like that but the genre doesn’t matter if the movie is good and I heard some interesting things in some circles.”

As Jerry said with a smirking face, Hilton couldn’t help but be curious. Like with most people, curiosity was his enemy.

“What things?” He asked.

“Apparently, [Black Saints] are going to be sold to Xtra prime. They held a screening before the deal and one of my friends was invited to it. He told me that the movie is really good and could even delve into being a franchise.”

“It’s hard to truly get a franchise at this time. We have only had 2 of them in the last five years and both of them barely earned money after the third movie.”

“That’s true.” Jerry nodded his head. “But it largely depends on the ambition of the director and how much the first movie earns. The producers would never pour money into something they are not confident in.”

Hilton fully agreed with what Jerry was saying. Putting a hand on his chin, he tried to remember what movies were going to be released in the next two weeks.

Suddenly, his eyes widened as he remembered one of the major movies releasing in the next two weeks.

“Ain’t [The Last Wolf] releasing next week?”

[The Last Wolf] was a supernatural teenage romance franchise and this was the last part of it. Although the story was heavily criticised, it was very popular among teenagers.

Both Jerry and Hilton knew that many in the film circles had already declared it a big hit.

***

After the shooting of ‘The Rory Chamber’s show’ ended, Aiden resumed his work of attending small events and doing shows in bars and other places. 

There was only a week to go for [Black Saints] release, but he hadn’t stopped work to prepare for the premier or anything.

He had just bought a car and gotten into a better apartment, Aiden didn’t want to not work because he was low on money again.

Wade also liked it and they got into an usual routine but it was not like Aiden was not thinking of his future projects.

Singing at a lot of places was good for money and a bit of exposure but after a while, people would get bored of you if they keep seeing you too much.

It was important for him to keep moving up.

“So, I got you two auditions that you can try for. The scripts aren’t bad and one of the roles that got offered to you is even of a very important supporting character.”

Wade said, putting two scripts in front of Aiden. He was currently holding a pizza slice in one of his hands and his eyes shined seeing the two scripts.

It was evening and they were sitting in Aiden’s new home. It was a well furnished apartment which came with one bedroom. They were sitting in the living room when suddenly, Wade had pulled up two scripts and put them in front of Aiden.

“So, what’s the genre?” Aiden raised an eyebrow.

“One is a teenage romcom made for Zetflix. The role is of a guy who is basically an eye candy and you will get a lot of shirtless scenes for girls and some boys to drool over.” Wade chuckled seeing the hardened expression of Aiden. “I read the script and the character ain’t even half bad. He has some good scenes and you get a lot of teen fans if it’s a success.”

Aiden made an awkward smile hearing that. Shaking his head a bit, he looked at the script besides the teen romcom.

“That’s a thriller. About a guy who gets the power to kill anyone he wishes, just by looking in their eyes and how he murders people here and there. The role you are auditioning for is for a guy who gets killed quite early in the movie. Not a lot of dialogues and at most, you will be in one scene but it’s under Spiral works and they are pretty big names.”

He wasn’t able to stop himself from frowning hearing that.

“Aren’t there better projects?”

“There are not a lot in Actor’s guild and it’s hard to get any good role until you are established as an actor. You are one movie old and sometimes it takes dozens of roles for an actor to establish himself.”

“I know that…”

Aiden trailed off at the end of the sentence and just decided to use one of his skills to see which one of these scripts were better for him.

‘Script appraisal.’

He thought and for a second, his eyes shined before the information of both the scripts appeared in his mind. It was a quick process and he was able to know what was the score of the script.

[Name: The Summer of Boys

Script score: 29/100

-The plot seriously lacks any emotional connection of the characters with each other and is filled with various plot holes. The script would be more useful as ash than a movie.

-The script score doesn’t reflect if the movie would be popular or not.]

‘This doesn’t look good. The system even roasted it.’

Aiden thought and moved on to the second project.

[Name: Death on my Fingers

Script score: 56/100

-The plot is interesting but fails to take itself seriously and eventually, the story feels like a lot of things mashed together and tries hard to make a protagonist that people would relate to but fails. 

-The script score doesn’t reflect if the movie would be popular or not.]

‘This one’s a bit better but again, I don’t really like it a lot.’

Aiden thought. In his head, he didn’t really feel excited about both the scripts. For the latter one, his role being small wasn’t a problem but he felt like wanting to do a lighter themed movie this time.

After all, both [Shadows of War] and [Black Saints] were pretty serious when it comes to their characters and overall tone of the movie. But [The Summer of Boys] truly didn’t seem like his type of movie.

“I don’t think you like these a lot.” Wade said, seeing Aiden’s reaction which helped him came out of his thoughts.

“Not too much but I would first read the scripts and prepare for the audition. I know I can’t afford to be picky at this point.”

“Yeah.” Wade was a bit impressed by his answer and smiled. Thinking of something, he changed topics. “Anyway you heard [The Last Wolf] dragged their dates to be on the same day as our movie.”

Aiden made a confused expression as he didn’t know anything about it. He thought [The Last Wolf] was going to be releasing a week after [Black Saints].

“Why?” He just asked that. 

“I don’t know. Probably something about not wanting to get [Black Saints] time to build momentum. Studios are very wary of each other. They also have a very large fanbase, so I’m suddenly worried about [Black Saints].”

Wade sighed, making a worried expression. It was very important for the movie to work for Aiden’s career but now grey clouds were roaming on top of the release.

‘I have not watched any part of the Wolf trilogy.’

Aiden didn’t comment on Wade’s worried expression and thought. It was a popular teen franchise but he had never watched them. It seemed like a nice time to watch them now.

Thinking like that, he searched for the TV remote and connected it to the option of streaming services. He selected Zetflix and chose the first part of the wolf trilogy.

“What are you doing when I’m worried about the box office numbers becoming worse?” Wade asked and Aiden shrugged.

“Trying to know about our opponents. I never watched any movie of the wolf trilogy.”

“I never did too but as it’s a huge hit, I’m pretty sure it has a good enough plot. I don’t understand what teenagers like but it won’t be too bad.”

Wade muttered and without saying anything, Aiden played the first part of the trilogy and for the entire night, both of them watched the entire trilogy. 

Though, it was better to not comment on whether they liked it or not.