Versatile Superstar: Rise In Hollywood

A man in a hoodie was walking in a hallway with a tensed expression on his face. He was constantly frowning like there was something that was irking him. 

Suddenly, his steps stopped as he heard the conversation between two people. 

“Did you see the rating of [Disconnected]? It reached 7.7 after the release on Zetflix. It was not even 5 when it was in theaters.”

“They are two different versions. The executives are actually fuming because they lost out on so much money. The movie could have earned hundreds of millions and they only earned 5 million dollars from the Zetflix deal and are still in a loss when the movie is a raging hit online.”

“I think it’s just karma.”

“Huh?”

“Apparently, Seth Douglas was the one who wanted more scenes for himself to stand out. He wanted the story to revolve around him when his character should revolve around the story. It’s a classic case of ruining things because of wanting attention.”

The two people seemed unaware of the man’s presence.

The man listened to the conversation for a minute and clicked his tongue. If it was before, he would have gone there and insulted the two people but it was not the right time. 

There were more important things to attend to. 

‘It’s currently my bad phase. Just endure it.’

The man was Seth who had come to the SGA office to talk with Franco Li. These days, he wasn’t leaving his house and was just cooped up there. 

Franco had asked him to meet him and Seth was sure that it would be a discussion about the superhero movie that he had earlier talked about. 

If he was being honest, he would have been stressed if it was before as [Disconnected] had failed massively but due to the movie becoming a big hit on Zetflix, he was relieved. 

Seth made his way up to the elevator and talked to Franco’s assistant about the appointment. For some reason, the assistant was looking at Seth with sympathetic eyes but he ignored it. 

“Franco.”

Entering his office, Seth said and Franco looked at him with his fox-like eyes and gestured to Seth to sit down. 

“[Disconnected] is a huge hit on Zetflix with great reviews, both by critics and fans. It’s even getting International recognition.”

Franco started the conversation with that and Seth smiled.

“Yeah. I was scared that the movie would fail but it did find an audience on the streaming platform. I’m very glad it worked this well.”

“I’m not glad.”

“What?”

Seth made a confused expression and Franco Li’s eyes became cold. A heavy atmosphere set in suddenly as a bad feeling engulfed Seth’s heart. 

“Yes, the movie is an international hit due to Zetflix’s reach but we didn’t get any profits. The rights were sold to them for only 5 million dollars. We are still dealing with the heavy losses of marketing right now and at the same time, SGA’s credibility has been questioned due to a director who can’t keep his mouth shut. Tell me, do you think I should be glad that the movie succeeded?”

“No, I mean I didn’t know that we didn’t benefit from the deal with Zetflix.”

Seth tried hard to make up words in his mind, knowing full well that Franco was really angry. His face was cold and he was gazing at him like he was an ant that Franco was ready to crush. 

“You don’t know anything, Seth.” 

Franco frowned. The movie becoming a hit on Zetflix was just salt on his wounds and he had no one but Seth to blame for it. 

Giving Seth a glare, Franco continued. 

“All this happened only because of you.”

“Me?”

“Your ego. We wouldn’t have gone with such atrocious editing if you had not begged me to not let others steal the spotlight. If not for that, the movie would have worked at the box office.”

Seth immediately fired back at that. 

“You were the one who approved of it.”

“Yeah, I know that and that was my fault but it was only because I thought you have the talent to be an A-lister in Hollywood but you can’t even handle the burden of a movie on your shoulders. That’s why, I have decided something.”

“What?”

Seth asked and flashing a grin, Franco took out a few papers that looked like resumes. Seth looked at them, completely baffled. 

After looking at them for a few seconds, he realised that they were resumes of actors.

“These are the actors that I have chosen. One of these is going to replace you as one of my actors. You see, I have no use for you anymore and I don’t want to test my patience more, thinking that you are going to achieve something worthwhile.”

“Yo-you can’t do anything like that to me.”

Seth stuttered, looking up at Franco, hoping that he was just joking. 

“I’m doing it. The contract is over at this moment. You will be given a fee as I can’t wait for the contract to get over with time.”

Franco leaned over at the table, enjoying the expression of Seth at the moment. It was like he had lost his world. 

“I did everything for you. Every single fucking thing you asked me! Whether I liked it or not! You forced me!”

Seth said, his expression changing to anger. He had given far more than he had wanted to get under Franco but in the end, he was thrown away in a moment.

“I didn’t force you. You can’t prove that.”

“I could. I have the text messages that you—”

“Do it and the next day, your career will be over. Not only that, SGA would reveal every single thing about you. You may not be a creep but you have done some dark things and we know how to escalate it in a way that your entire existence is over.”

With those words, the conversation was over. 

The next day, Seth Douglas was out of SGA and it became the talking point for a day but a lot of people have already guessed that it was coming. 

His career was going to be a rocky ride after today and one could only say that in the game of life, Seth played his cards wrong. 

As for Franco Li, he was unaware that the whole plan to make the movie a hit on Zetflix was of Aiden. Even if he knew, he wouldn’t have been able to do anything about it other than just being bitter about it. 

But in the future, it was inevitable that Franco and Aiden would clash again. 

***

Despite Jeremy Hill trying to belittle Aiden from time to time, the script reading session was fairly successful. In a script reading session, one only had to read out their lines and it was more of a bonding activity to get used to the cast. 

Aiden introduced himself to the other cast members and tried to be accommodating to them. 

As a celebrity, one thing that he had learned was that he needed to make others feel special rather than thinking that he’s special. If he could do it, then they would have a good impression of him regardless of what happens. 

It was a quality he had learned from a celebrity in his home country. 

It also worked as he made a good relationship with the other cast members. Though he didn’t know if it was just because he was the lead of the series. 

At the same time, he also showed the track to Phineas like Ava had said and he had liked it a lot more than he had imagined. 

Actually, when Aiden had made the track, he wasn’t aiming for anything as it was a way for him to let out the inspiration but Phineas loved it so much that he immediately decided to use it for the show. 

He even asked Aiden to do the whole background of the series as in his words, “The track has a special quirkiness and creepiness to it. Perfect for the theme of the show. I feel like it could be iconic.”

Like that, Aiden had been finalised to give music to the series.

It was easy as Ava and Phineas were the two most authoritative people on the show and both of them liked the track. 

He also got a fat paycheck for the show as he was getting 200k dollars per episode which meant that he would get 1.2 million dollars for 6 episodes and an additional 300k for the music. 

It was a good enough amount for Aiden who had already started practicing for his character in the series. Before this, he only needed to get into the mentality of the character but in [Sherlock of the Shadows], there was a lot of action too. 

Finn Wheeler was a character that had a lot of hidden abilities because his father had trained him since childhood as he himself was a boxer who succumbed to his injuries after a fight. 

Because of that, Finn was physically fit alongside having a sharp brain and magical powers. Obviously, it was not like he was a Mary Sue character. 

He has his own struggles and his powers would just worsen it for sometime before he would get control over them. 

Because of that, Aiden was already exercising and learning boxing since getting the role. Actually, he wanted to train for a few months to actually look like a boxer but the schedule for [Sherlock of the Shadows] was tight. 

So, he was only able to learn some basics in a month. 

Thankfully, Phineas felt like it would be enough. 

…

//DreamNote//

Don’t forget to vote for this novel with your power stones and golden tickets 🙂