Versatile Superstar: Rise In Hollywood

A chilly wind blew by. 

On the streets, people have been tucked into warm clothes and were covered from top to bottom. Most of them were walking quickly, wanting to escape the cold weather by going into their homes. 

Cars were as usual and the traffic was minimal. 

“LA is pretty good in winter. The atmosphere is certainly something different than the summers.”

Aiden remarked, looking at the man next to him. From the last time he had seen him, the man seemed to have gained some weight and his eyes were a bit sunken. 

He was Leo, the director of [30 days of Happiness] and one of Aiden’s friends. 

“Yeah. It’s one of the hottest cities in the US in the summer. Ah, see, that’s your holding.”

Leo suddenly stopped in his tracks and pointed at one of the holdings. It was one of ‘Spirit’, the energy drink company that Aiden was signed with. 

“You must be earning in millions with just that.” Leo remarked. 

“It’s not that much.”

“Are you trying to look humble?”

Aiden shook his head without saying anything and walked ahead. It was January and Aiden was in LA for an ad shoot for a clothing brand. Wade had negotiated with the brand in December and had gotten a good deal out of it. 

Here, he had come across Leo who has apparently moved to LA as most of the big studios are situated here. They were just having lunch together. 

“So, are you working on any scripts at the moment?” 

Aiden asked as they walked. From time to time, a few people turned to Aiden but seeing celebrities wasn’t that big a deal in LA, especially in the streets where a lot of studios are located. 

“Not really. You do know how my last movie went.”

“It was good though. Heard it passed the breakeven point. It was a great achievement as rom coms hardly work these days.” 

“Studios these days don’t care about it. I pushed for a theatre release and they were happy about it as [30 days of Happiness] made a lot of money but this one didn’t really connect at that level even though the reviews were nice. I’m lucky I’m still in demand to direct a project.”

Leo frowned. His second movie had released last year and like his debut one, it was a lighthearted rom com with similar themes but the results were not the same. 

“So you are seeing the market, studying up stuff and then, would you start the script for your next?” Aiden asked, a bit disappointed. 

“Yes, I am not the type to take chances. I have scripts ready but none of them are movies that I feel like would work in the current market. They are so nuanced that people won’t want to go to the theatre for it.” Leo muttered, almost like he was complaining about the current state of cinema. “You still haven’t found a good script to sign?”

Leo looked up at Aiden as they passed by a cafe. 

“Not yet.” Aiden sighed. “I feel like I’m too choosy these days. Even if I like the story and writing of a script, I reject it as I feel like it won’t work at the box office.”

“There’s certainly a difference between a good project and a successful one. You need to choose one that could be both.”

Aiden nodded his head. 

This was something that he had understood very well. There are so many good movies every year but are they all successful? No, they are not. 

A good movie could easily flop in these times. 

A lot of the scripts have high ratings by the system but Aiden felt like those were the type that people would more likely watch on their couch instead of driving to the theatre. 

Having no luxury to choose a project without thinking of box office, Aiden was being very careful, so much so that he was hurting himself by wasting time. 

It was already January and by this time, he would have started on [Stars on the Ground] if the scandal hadn’t happened. 

Both Leo and Aiden passed a few more buildings as Aiden talked about the various scripts that he had read recently. Thrillers, mystery, a kids fantasy, dramas, more thrillers. It was endless if he was being honest. 

The problem was that the scripts he was getting weren’t those from the big studios as they are more tight lipped about stuff unless the director or the writer wanted him. 

After listening to Aiden’s worries, Leo thought for a bit before asking. 

“What are you doing after this?”

“I will go back to the studio and complete the photoshoot. I’m free in the evening, so I was thinking of just reading over the scripts that I have again. I could have missed something in them.”

“Then go meet Omar.”

Aiden raised an eyebrow for an explanation. He hadn’t been much in contact with Omar in the last couple of months other than the normal small talks. 

“Why him?”

“He was talking about a script last time we met. It was a month ago. He said that he’s in a dilemma because the script was ‘problematic’.”

“Problematic?”

“Yeah, I don’t know a lot about him. Just go and meet him.”

***

Like Leo suggested, Aiden drove to Omar’s office after the photoshoot was done. Wade wanted to take him to a meeting with some writers and studio employees but he told him that he had something else to do. 

After the success of [30 days of Happiness] and Omar’s second production, he had opened up an office in LA too. 

It wasn’t grand or anything compared to bigger studios that Aiden had visited but it was still a place where people could focus on making great entertainment. Omar had given more emphasis to the comfort and making the office more environment friendly. 

After talking to his secretary, Aiden directly entered his office. 

“Omar.”

Aiden called him out. Omar was busy in a pile of papers and there was a different look on his face than usual. It was like he was in some sort of dilemma and it was affecting him a lot. 

It was very different than seeing the happy go lucky Omar. 

“Ah, Aiden. You are here.” He said, standing up. His eyes seem to shine a bit, looking at him. “Sit down. Do you want some iced coffee?”

“Sure.”

“Let me get it then.”

He sat down as Omar prepared two iced coffees from the coffee machine. Aiden just looked at him with a discerning eye. 

After Omar placed the iced coffee, he sat down. 

“How’s everything going for you? Heard you survived the Wilde scandal by the barrest of margins.”

“Yeah, I was almost scratched by it.”

“You have a knack for handling those types of situations. I still remember how you handled Tyler back then. You surprised me with your witty charm and—”

“Stop.”

Aiden interrupted him in the middle of the sentence. 

“What happened?”

“Don’t act so weird. It’s sending chills down my spine. Your compliments only work against drunk girls.” Omar widened his eyes hearing that but his facial expressions soon relaxed.

Shrugging his shoulders, he took a sip out of his iced coffee. 

“Are my compliments that bad?”

“They are but I knew from the time you offered to make iced coffee for me. You are not the type to do something like that. More like, you are the type to hire people for the smallest of jobs. You were even fumbling your way through making this coffee.”

Aiden took a sip. He was observant, a trait that had benefited him a lot. Omar was a privileged guy who always had people doing things for him. 

“You sometimes feel like a superhero with those weird skills of yours.” Omar remarked, acting like he was in awe of his skills. 

“Leave all that. Why were you acting so nice with me? What do you want?”

“Well, it’s a long story.”

“I have time.”

“Okay. Well, I heard you were looking for a script from Leo. So, this might help you too.”

Omar said and pointed at the wall on the side. It had two posters on it. One was of [30 days of Happiness] and the second was of his streaming movie called [Night Assassin.]

Both the movies have done extremely well and were pretty safe projects for Omar as the producer. 

“What about them?” Aiden asked. 

“Those are my first two movies. Both were very successful and I got a lot of profit. Now, a few months ago, I wanted to move above them and get a way better third movie and I did get one of the scripts that I felt would do extremely well in the era of turbulent box office.”

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

“It’s going to be very risky.”

“You just said you are confident of it doing well at the box office. Now risky? Are you going for a 200 million dollar blockbuster that would be hard to get back the money?”

Aiden asked. Omar wasn’t making much sense to him. He was easily contradicting himself. 

Sighing, Omar opened his mouth. 

“It won’t take a lot of money. The risk is that the movie is very problematic. At least, I’m very sure the media would try to portray it as that.”

“How exactly? 

Aiden was very curious by this point. A problematic movie in Hollywood? Unlike other industries like in his home country, Hollywood wasn’t very strict. In a few movies, even nudity is allowed and in a few R rated movies, there were scenes that were full of gore. 

…

…

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