Chapter 74: Screening Reviews

Currently seated on the stage in black leather arm-chairs, more than half of the entire auditorium had chosen to remain seated for the Q&A session as one question after the other flew at the crew.

Unsurprisingly, most of those questions were directed towards Niall. That said, there was enough variation to go around for everyone.

"What scene was the hardest to film?" a sharp-looking reporter asked, a curious light in her eyes as she held open her notebook to jot.

In response, the Harrison and Niall looked to one another, to which the young actor gestured for the man to take the ground.

"The very first hospital scene." the director simply replied to which the reporter then asked, her expression curious;

"Oh. And why was that?"

Having expected to hear that it was because the scene was emotional, the audience was treated to something else entirely;

"Well, you see, Jonathan Goodman, the actor who plays Henry Winters kept smiling mid-take. For whatsoever reason, he found Niall’s beeping remarks rather funny."

"We had to retake the scene quite a number of times because of him, though, admittedly, the beeping sounds were an improv from Niall." Harrison then gestured to Niall whose demeanor remained amusedly reserved.

As for the audience, a ripple of chuckles cascaded through them, everyone finding the tidbit rather funny. Movies did always tend to have funny behind-the-scenes like that so it was nice to hear.

Soon enough though, another reporter asked a question of his own;

"My question goes to Sam, Archie and Lucas. Now that you’ve shown us all that you’ve still got it, have you perhaps considered taking the show on the road. Reigniting your music careers, perhaps?"

Hearing that question, Tyler whom had stayed back subconsciously leaned forwards, watching as his former bandmates looked over to each other briefly and then had Sam speak on their behalf;

"Yeah. Yeah. We’re really considering it. We have a few tracks we’re also working on at the moment so, when the time is right, we’ll have them released."

Quickly, several reporters alongside the one who asked jotted that down, one that had Tyler uncomfortably shifting in his seat.

The next question however, came from Tom Jiggs of Starlight Magazines and was directed towards Niall;

"Amongst the screenplay, the acting and the performances, which one challenged you the most?"

Mulling over it a bit, Niall then raised the mic to his lips as he spoke;

"I’d have to go with the screenplay."

"Care to expatiate on why?" Tom politely requested.

In response, Niall nodded briefly and then said with a cordial smile on his lips;

"Well, [Silver Comets] was my very first attempt at writing a screenplay, so there was a lot I had to learn on my own. It took me about six months to get from inception to the final product."

In response to that, several individuals in the room had a genuinely impressed look on their features, a wave of applause following the reaction.

Then, as the session went on, the last question of the day was soon asked, this time from a popular, veteran reporter in Hollywood;

"Niall... a lot of the songs in the movie feels deeply personal. Which of those did you resonate the most with?"

Upon hearing that question, all attention turned to the young man whom was currently bottling up his bottle of water after taking a sip.

But none was more curious--or rather worried--than Callow.

Afterall, all Niall had to do right now was surreptitiously hint at him or his former workplace and he was instantly going to find himself put through the wringer.

Which was why, as he watched his former talent raise the mic to his lips after a brief while of silence, he couldn’t help but feel his chest rapidly beating in deep anxiety.

As for Niall...

"Well, if I had to say, I’d definitely go with..." the young man’s voice trailed off, his eyes finding Callow’s briefly, purely out of coincidence.

Not that it stopped a glint of amusement from sparking in them, a thin smile pulling on the edges of his lips as he finally answered the question.

*

The days following [Silver Comets’] Premiere at the film festival, waves upon waves of articles hit the internet regarding the film, as did several critic reviews across several different platforms.

-

The Hollywood Observer

★★★★★ (5/5)

"Every so often, a film comes along that reminds us why the magic of cinema isn’t reserved for hundred-million-dollar spectacles. [Silver Comets] is one such film."

On paper, Vrael Productions’ and Harrison Floyd’s latest feature sounds almost aggressively familiar. Afterall, it follows a group of struggling musicians entering a Battle of the Bands competition while battling their personal demons. Yet what could have been another formulaic underdog story becomes something profoundly moving through exceptional execution.

Niall Parker proves himself to be one of Hollywood’s most exciting triple-threat talents. Not only does he command every frame as Owen Winters with astonishing emotional maturity, but he also penned the screenplay and every original song featured throughout the film.

The final performance, [Heal You], is destined to become a defining musical moment for musical lovers all over the world.

-

CineScope Weekly

9.5/10

The thing is, [Silver Comets] doesn’t reinvent the wheel...

...instead, it simply reminds you why the wheel ever worked in the first place.

The film succeeds because it understands that audiences typically don’t fall in love with stories, but rather, the characters in the stories. By the time Owen, Simon, Alex and Luke step onto their first stage, they already feel like lifelong friends.

By the final act, they feel like yours.

And those songs... those songs are bound to be stuck in our heads for months to come.

-

ReelLine

A+

’The perfect movie to kick off the AFI Fest...’

Yet, the original songs deserve their very own review.

Nonetheless, we won’t be spoiling your experience. But, we will say one thing.

By the time the final credits roll, you’ll wish Silver Comets were a real band.

-

For as much as people started wondering if Hollywood had united to glaze a movie most of the general public seemed rather unaware off, it was the article written by a particular magazine that got a lot of people very interested in the movie.

One that went really viral on TweetTalk... especially because they were the only press outlet that managed to snag an interview with Niall, prior to the Q&A session and had attached the video to the article they’d written.

But for all the other media outlets, well they were forced to wait until much later before they could release soundbites and clips from the AFI Fest Q&A session, lest they violate the terms they signed.

-

Starlight Magazine

100/100

...

...

...

Before tonight, we believed we were interviewing an actor. After tonight, we’re more than convinced that we’ve met one of Hollywood’s rarest artists.

Actor. Writer. Singer. Songwriter. Performer. Niall Parker may as well decide to add a directorial skill to his repertoire while he’s at it and become a one-man army in his own right.

That said, [Silver Comets] isn’t merely an impressive movie. It’s a movie that’s bound to absolutely demolish the box office and Hollywood should be paying even more attention.

Because when all is said and done, people just want to watch something that’s beautiful and unforgettable. [Silver Comets] is just that. Beautiful, brilliant and utterly, unforgettable.

-

Having garnered well over ten million views, 100K likes, a little over fifty-thousand retweets and comments well over the ten-thousand-mark, newer comments kept piling into the post;

-

TroyInTheMiddle: Opens fridge. See’s Niall Parker mentioned. Licks lips! Rubs hands!! Grabs spoon!!!

Ryan Gooseling: Is it me, or is Hollywood trying to push this movie everywhere these past couple days. Everywhere I go online these days, I see something about it.

Tyler K Stan: It’s all rubbish @Ryan Gooseling! It’s probably a mid-movie tbh. PR won’t save it though, and neither will it stop me from seeing [Tyler Kingstone: Under the Lights].

BluntBellina: Ah, yes. Another rabid Tyler fan who’s unashamedly bashing a movie they probably haven’t even seen, just cause it’s set to clash at the box office with the movie of their favorite, shitty artist. Buzz off!

User6969: Alright, that’s it! I can’t take this anymore! My feed’s completely dominated by [Silver Comets] this, and [Silver Comets] that! I gotta see what the hell the fuss is all about! See y’all in theatres on October 20th.

Chronically Online: Holy glazing! This an article or a glaze fest?!

Danny Boi: It’s Niall Parker @Chronically Online. They ain’t glazing dogshit. In fact, they probably aren’t even doing enough glazing!

MayaTheWitch: Tell him @Danny Boi!

-

As more and more comments continued to pour into the post, it soon became very clear that the general public was becoming more and more aware of [Silver Comets].

Suddenly, the two trailers for the movie which had stagnated at three million and five million respectively, suddenly got a huge influx of views, hence bumping its views up to a respective five and eight million.

As one would expect, the PR and marketing team at Vrael Productions were feeling rather excited. Suddenly, all their projected prospects from before didn’t feel as far-fetched anymore.

Henry specifically, had a perpetually jovial smile on his features as he went about his days, a stark contrast to Joaquin whose frown was progressively getting deeper and deeper.

Upon having his own PR and Marketing team for Tyler’s movie review their projections, he noticed how so they were bound to suffer a 10% loss in returns in the first week alone.

Clearly, this was as a result of the traction [Silver Comets] was getting.

And though Joaquin had tried to sabotage the movie’s review scores by having a couple media and press ventures review it badly, the general review from much more renowned outlets was so positive, it had buried the fake reviews completely.

Now, he could only hope that Tyler’s core demographic of fans would be more than enough to rally people to the theatres to see the tour movie nonetheless.

Advance Chapters are available on Patreon!

/Caer07