Versatile Superstar: Rise In Hollywood

[The Black Saint] was shot intensely as it reached the middle of its filming schedule. One third of the film was already shot and it was all going pretty great. 

Though, as the shooting progressed, Aiden was finding it harder and harder to get out of his character after a shot. 

He would feel like he was possessed at one second and in the next, he would feel weak. A feeling like Kai was taking over his body as he went with the shooting. 

Immersion was starting to have a weird effect on him. He was sure that it had something to do with his high affinity. 

He had not turned off the security protocol, so he was sure that no accidents would happen. But he still needed to deal with the overwhelming feeling. 

Sometimes, he would get out of the set after a shot to cool down and smoke a cigarette. Even though he wasn’t a smoker and was only doing it because it was a habit of Kai, he still felt like it was helping him a bit. 

His co-stars were pretty worried seeing him like this but he told them that he was fine. Despite this, he still went with the shooting without any tantrums. 

“Are you really okay?”

“I don’t know but I’m handling it. It’s just I am feeling more and more like my life doesn’t have any meaning. There’s nothing moral and how I need to find a meaning. I think it’s a symptom of nihilism.”

“You are really not fine.”

Wade shook his head with a frown while Aiden just shrugged. Actors getting affected by their characters was normal and Kai was anyway the personification of people’s dark desires. 

He was highly influential. 

“Like I said, I’m handling it. I will probably take a break after the shooting is over and get Kai out of my mind.”

Aiden sighed. His body was taking a toll due to Kai and it was only because of his willpower that he was still standing straight. 

“You should do that. Will get you your psychologist too. Just don’t attack someone like yesterday. It could become a big deal if an accident happened.”

“I didn’t mean to do it.”

“I know but it could have spread into a bad rumour about you easily.”

Yesterday, Kai was doing a scene which was a bit of a violent one where he had to beat up two people. Those were extras. 

He had gotten so immersed that he hadn’t heard the cut signal from Zavier and had almost beaten up the extras in a desperate fight. 

Thankfully, it didn’t go past a certain point. Aiden later apologised to the extras and everyone on the set. But it was a reminder for him that he needed to have a better sense of control. 

“Don’t worry, I will be careful. Anyway, I need to go check up on the next scene.” 

Aiden said and walked towards the cinematographer. Wade’s eyes followed him for a while. 

***

[The Black Saint|8 March-2019|Act 4|Scene 1|Take 1]

Kai looked down at the cars passing on the road. The cloud of smoke blurring his sight a bit and the wind brushing past his neck. 

It felt peaceful, boring and dead to him. 

A thought suddenly crossed his mind. What if he jumped off the roof? Would that bring any excitement in his life? A sense of purpose? Though, he dismissed it after a while. 

His purpose can’t be to just die. Not like this at least. 

“Maybe I’m not special either. My great depression is really my life.”

He muttered and at that moment, the door to the roof opened. He turned back to look at the person who had just walked in. 

It was Georgie, his manager. A guy who was shorter than average and because of that, he liked to be rude to everyone working under him that was taller than him. An insecurity of his had made him a very simple person. 

“What are you doing here when you should be working?”

Georgie asked, looking at Kai with contempt on his face. 

“Smoking.” Kai replied in an obvious tone. 

“I can see that. Why are you wasting time here doing nothing?”

“I wasn’t doing anything in the office either. It’s just the same boring work.”

Kai said without batting an eye. 

A frown appeared on Georgie’s face but at this point, Kai didn’t care. He hadn’t slept for a week and his life looked bleak. Every prospect looked bleak. 

“Do you want to be fired? Or are you just drunk? You know what could happen with you talking like that. Who did it before? Joseph. Now, he lives in his car down the parking lot in a convenience store. Do you think you can afford to talk to me like that? In this inflation.”

He didn’t know why but Kai laughed at that. It happened suddenly, like it was on reflex. The whole thing sounded funny to him. 

Georgie’s eyebrows ceased seeing him like that. 

“Why are you laughing?”

“It’s, it’s just funny, you know. Hahahah.”

Kai kept laughing as he held the railings of the terrace. Georgie just kept staring at him with an angry expression. 

Finally after a while, Kai stopped and walked close to him. Holding the cigarette, he took a puff out of it, blowing it in Georgie’s face. 

“You know the city, it’s really like this smoke. Poisonous. And you people, the elites as you call yourself. You all just blow it on our faces, think of us as cockroaches. You see it as your purpose to trample over us because you all are weak. Every moment, you need to do something to remind yourself that you are in power. “

Kai said, each word feeling more and more liberating. His thoughts that were roaming in his mind for so long finally touched his tongue.

He liked the expression on the face of his boss. He enjoyed it, savoured it. 

Until Georgie opened his mouth again. 

“You bastard. How dare you—”

The next moment, Kai’s body moved on his own. He shoved the cigarette onto Georgie’s eyes. He let out a sharp cry but the next second, Kai punched his gut. 

“You know I don’t give threats. It seems like a waste of time when I can do this.”

Kai spoke as he pushed Georgie’s face on the wall. He kept slamming it as blood painted parts of his face.

He did it in a vicious fashion as parts of Georgie’s head splashed on the wall. While doing so, a smile kept hanging on the face of Kai. 

***

While the shooting of [The Black Saint] was going on, a lot of other things were also happening around Hollywood. LA was bustling everyday with new rumours, scandals and stories. 

Studios were working towards new movie projects and agencies were looking for new ways to promote their actors. Not to promote art but fill their pockets but that was one of the most obvious things about Hollywood that everyone knew. 

One of the studios who was trying to do this was Titan studios and today, a major meeting was taking place there to discuss the future goals of the company and in which direction they want to go. 

“As you all know, in the last twenty years, the genre of superhero movies and in a whole, franchise movies have earned the most profit, becoming part of pop culture around the world and earning billions. Unfortunately, we have fallen behind in this regard with our approach to make more sustainable movies with controlled budgets.”

A man said as he looked at the people in suits sitting in front of him. They were all big executives and others who held significant voices in the company. 

“It’s not like that has been a negative for us?”

An old man said, taking attention to himself. 

“Yes, our profits are good but compared to other studios among the Big 6, it’s just not enough. Dream Light pictures were nowhere in the bigger spectrum 20 years ago and now, they hold 35 percent of the market. Their yearly revenues are off the charts due to franchises. One more thing is that the pop culture power they have generated is unprecedented. Something we don’t seem to have.”

Everyone nodded hearing the explanation. This was something that they knew more or less but it was the first time a serious discussion was going on in this topic. 

“We do have plans to take a similar route, right?” 

A man asked and the person who was presiding over the topic nodded. 

“We do. More like we are trying to have a concrete plan for a long time now. In the past 5 years, we have 3 superheroes and 2 big VFX movies that were planned but they all fizzled out due to not having a vision in the planning department.”

As they heard that, several opinions came out. 

“Well, Other studios benefitted from source materials that were already present to them. Making something out of nothing is way different here.”

“Yeah, we need to look more towards the novels and comic books that are already present in the market.”

“I don’t think that will do anything. The ones that have a following behind them are already in the hands of other studios. Then others aren’t good enough.”

As people talked with uncertainty in their tones, a confident voice sounded out. 

It was of Ava.