Hollywood: Head-Hunting System

Hey, we meet again. So this is the 2nd part of the chapter 120 and this one's for all fans of the Terminator. I hope you like it.

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Last time on chapter 120. Part. 1 —

"That's only if everything goes to plan, and I don't care about your guarantees that I won't lose money on this deal, what I want is a guarantee that I'll be making money on it." Hearing that really hurt his pride and ego, but James still reigned in his anger and didn't lash out.

"We are done here, Mr. Cameron. Thank you for the offer. If you have a more reasonable one, then we can meet again later." Peter said dismissively as he waved off James and walk away, not knowing that this rude dismissal of his would cost Fox studios hundreds of millions of dollars in the future.

Now Continuing —

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Date: 23rd, March, 1991.

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Time: 08:21 pm.

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James just stood there with a forlorn look on his face, as he contemplated about what to do next, as he had already exhausted almost all the options before him.

He was broken out of his reverie by his friend Arnold calling out to him, "How did it go, James, did you find someone who would be willing to finance us?"

"Nope, the moment they hear about the huge budget and having to buy out the rights to the script. They immediately just say no and walk away." The frustration in James' voice was clear as day.

"You know with this last guy I even lowered the budget to $75 million which is the absolute lowest I am willing to go, but he still rejected me straight out."

"Damn it.. it was the same for me.. it's like nobody believes in our ability to make the box office. I tried speaking to the producer's of Fox, Disney, and Universal, all of them rejected me straight out."

"But I can't even blame them, with around $10 to $15 million spent acquiring the rights and $90 to a $100 million for the budget, which we both know you'll be exceeding."

"In total 100 million dollars at the bare minimum, just to break even we'll have to at least get 250 million dollars at the box office."

"I know.." James said in a sad tone, he knew he was drowning, if they didn't find a producer soon they will have to close shop and move on to a different movie.

But then his eyes lit as he saw someone across the room, someone who could be their lifeline on this sinking ship.

"Arnie, come, let's try our luck one more time, I believe this time we might just hit the jackpot." James spoke in a hopeful and excited tone, as he pulled him along.

"Who are we going to meet?" The bodybuilder turned actor asked, feeling puzzled, as they had already talked with the executives of the Big Six of Hollywood and even the mid-tier film studios.

Even Marc Spector wasn't anywhere to be seen in the banquet hall as far as he knew, he had tried to find him after all. But all he heard from the people who had seen him was that he had entered a private booth.

"No, it's not Marc Spector. It's the one who's even above him." James said with a grin as he spotted Nicholas Crown. 

The man whom James and the entire world had been fooled into thinking of as Mark's financial backer and friend.

James pointed towards Nicholas, who was talking with his assistant, while standing next to a balcony that was close to the booth Mark was in. He was waiting there so he could know whether the deal worked out or not between Mark and Jim.

James patiently waited for a gap in the conversation between Nicholas and the other guy, before he introduced himself and Arnold. 

"Mr. Crown, hi, I'm James Cameron, a director, this is Arnold." He didn't elaborate any more about Arnold when he saw Nicholas' eyes light up in recognition.

"Oh.. yeah! I know of you. What can I do for you?" Nic asked, though just by reading their body language, he could tell that James wanted to pitch a movie to him.

"Mr. Crown, could we have a chat? Alone.." He said the last word after leaning in a bit.

"Ah, this Dave, he's my assistant." He said, introducing the man beside him. 

"You see, I'm not really familiar with how things are done in Hollywood. You could say he's my guide, so I don't shoot myself in the foot and end up embarrassing myself." Nic replied, as he introduced the assistant he had specifically hired for when he was in such settings.

"So, what did you want to talk about?" He asked again calmly, playing unaware.

"Have you seen the Terminator?" James asked carefully, testing the water.

"Yes, I do have a tape of it. Unfortunately, I wasn't that big on movies when it came out, and I hadn't even heard of it." Nic replied, casually, not mincing his words.

"I see. How was it, did you like it?" James asked again, this question was carrying his hopes.

"I liked it, it was entertaining," Nic said with a plain look on his face, then he turned to his assistant and asked, "how much was its budget"

"It is estimated to be around 6 to 7 million, sir." Dave replied seamlessly.

"It was 6.7 million dollars." James said, wanting to provide an accurate quote.

"Ah, then I must give you my heartfelt praise, for how much you achieved in so little. The movie was good and definitely entertaining, except for a few mistakes I noticed."

"Most of them were almost unnoticeable when I watched it the first time around, except for one, which was pretty jarring."

James didn't feel insulted or incensed with Nicholas' remarks, as he felt that the criticism was rather justified, for he had seen his own movie. Quite a few times in fact, and found all the mistakes that he made, even this one that Nick mentioned that was jarring to him.

And even though James already knew which scene Nic was talking about, he still gestured for him to go ahead, as he didn't want to come off as rude. 

Nic explained that it was the scene where the Terminator had arrived at the wrong Sarah's door and shot at her after he had gone inside with his shotgun. 

But in the next scene when he is actually shooting he is shown as standing outside the door, which couldn't be possible as he had already entered the house.

James nodded in agreement. Nic then politely asked him to speak what he wanted to talk about.

"I have a film.. that you might be interested in investing in, it's the sequel to The Terminator. We are looking for a producer who could finance our film." James said, explaining his situation a bit.

"I am a total novice when it comes to Hollywood movies, Marc has the eye for discerning which movies would be worth investing in." Nic replied casually, not worried because what he just said was already speculated by all in Hollywood.

"But still, how much money are we talking about here? You made the first one with just 6.7 million." He asked again, wanting to know what kind of budget James was looking for.

James winced upon hearing that, as the amount he was going to be asking was astronomically higher.

"I hope to make this one way better than the original, for that.. I'll need around 90.. I mean 95 million dollars in budget." That number immediately made Nic's eyebrow rise slightly.

 Nic looked down thoughtful for a few seconds and looked back at him in the eye as he asked. "Hmm, that's a lot of money. Tell Mr. Cameron, what's your highest grossing movie till date?"

"It was Aliens, made on a production budget of 18.5 million dollars. It earned 131 million dollars." James said proudly, it was his most commercially successful movie till date.

"A return of 7 times is not bad." He said, stroking his chin.

"Actually, sir, the producer makes around 40 to 45% of the box office." Dave chimed in.

"Oh.. so that's why Mark told me that a studio needs to earn at least 2 to 2.5 times its budget in box office to break even." He said with a thoughtful look on his face, while he contemplated whether to introduce James to Mark, as he knew his friend's schedule was already pretty full, and he had a lot of people to meet.

"Yes, sir." Dave replied in confirmation.

"I see, thanks." Dave smiled at that, he gave a small nod and fell back again.

"James, what was the latest movie you directed?" Nic asked, as he remembered a phrase Mark had said before, it was a harsh one. But in the world of entertainment, it was followed almost unconsciously like a Golden Rule.

"You're only as good as your last performance." He told him that nobody will remember or care about your previous accolades or achievements if you fail once, because once you fail, you'll be pushed back to square one.

As far as he knew, it was this mentality that drove Mark to be a perfectionist, that's why it didn't matter whether he was writing the script of a multi-million dollar movie or even just a $1 comic book. He always gave it his very best.

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"James, what was the latest movie you directed?" Hearing that question just made him wince internally, as he knew what were the questions it would follow. "Tell me about its budget" or "what was its box office."

"The last film I made was The Abyss." He said, and then answered Nicholas' unasked questions as well. "It was made with a budget of $43 million and earned $90 million at the box office."

"Not bad, you broke even and must've made a decent profit from the peripheral sales." 

Hearing that almost felt like an insult, and the worst thing of it was that he could tell that Nicholas was being genuinely appreciative of his success.

However small it was, it was this thing, this mediocre box office performance, that had been haunting him for over a year now. His ex wasn't the old reason he hadn't made a movie in over a year now. It was the lack of confidence of the Big Six studios in his movie's ability to earn money.

Most of them had turned him away, suggesting him to stick to low budget movies for a few more years, before he tried directing a high budget film like the Abyss again. If he didn't get a producer by the end of this month, he would have to give up on Terminator 2 and write a low budget action to direct.

But he didn't want to give up soon, he knew that Terminator 2 could be his chance to make a comeback. Here and now, he swore to himself to make a movie that will earn over half a- no. A movie that will earn over a billion dollars at the box office, even saying it in his head sounded absurd, but he wasn't one to give up that easily.

"James, your movies might have been very profitable for the producer and studio you've worked with in the past. But I'm sorry to say this, you still fall short.. for Knives Out, Mark poured in 30 million in production and 20 marketing." 

"I won't even mention how much he earned. You haven't even reached a quarter of that figure. And you can't even say it was because you didn't have enough budget."

"The budget for your movie Abyss was more than what he put into Knives Out. I am sorry James, but you—" Nic tried to dissuade him but didn't get to finish.

"How could I match him.. I am not Marc Spector. But I can't afford to stop here and before you reject me. I have one more thing to say. Most producers have looked at it as a disadvantage point about my offer, but I beg to differ."

"Do tell." Nic replied with an intrigued look, at seeing James' confidence being restored.

"Mr. Crown, on top of a $90 million budget, I also need a producer who would be willing to buy out the rights to the franchise from the previous producer."

"So you would own the franchise and can make money off of it for decades to come through more movies, maybe a TV and even toys."

"And what would it cost us?" A voice asked from behind them.

James turned around to see Marc Spector walking towards them, he was already a tall guy at 6'2 ft (1.88 meters), but he found that Marc stood even taller than him with a solid body that's built like a tank.

"It would cost.." He tried to say but then fell silent as his ex's wrathful face came to his mind, "I'm sorry, I don't know how much or what she would ask for.."

Mark's eyes glinted as he caught what James didn't say out of embarrassment, he went and stood beside Nicholas and gave him the all good signal before addressing James.

"She." He said with a teasing smile, having some fun, "looks like there's some story there." but he knew he couldn't entertain this thought any longer.

"Look, James, we—" this time Nicholas was stopped by Mark, who was gesturing for him to come aside for a moment.

He told James and Arnold that they'll be back in a few seconds and left them with Dave.

Upon hearing that, James breathed a sigh of relief because just from the tone he could tell that Nicholas wanted to reject him. But maybe Marc, his friend, might get him to reconsider. At least, he hoped so.

Back with Nic, he had only walked a few steps away, and then he couldn't help but ask, "Does he take me for a fool? Mark, you made a movie like Killing Joke for just half the price he is asking for, and on top of that we have to buy out the Terminator IP if we want to make this sequel." 

Mark just kept mum and listened patiently.

"Does he think my money grows on a tree?!" He started pacing back and forth as he complained.

"What is he even trying to pull?!"

"Mark, what do you think?" He finally turned to Mark to ask for his opinion on the matter.

"To me, he just seems like a guy at the end of his rope.. grasping at straws." Mark replied calmly.

"But before we get to him, tell about what happened to us getting the ownership of [Victoria's Secret]." Mark asked with narrowed eyes.

"I thought I would surprise you later with the news." Nic whined at ruining his surprise, but internally he was happy as his real surprise was still safe.

"Yeah, well, not with my memory. So what happened?" Mark asked, casually waving it off.

"Obviously we got it, though we had to buy the stake for 20% above market price" Mark just shrugged at that statement, not really caring about it. 

"But now the [Crown Consortium] owns over 77% of [Victoria's Secret]." He ended with a winning smile.

"Perfect." Mark replied, as did a fist bump.

"Mark, why even buy that brand, it has no synergy between your other businesses?"

"It doesn't, but it does have perfect synergy between the two industries we are now operating in." 

"Hollywood and modelling?" Nic asked, feeling skeptical.

"Yup," Mark replied as he grabbed his shoulder and gestured at the crowd. "Look around at this party, what do you see missing? Or in a movie?"

"Most low to mid-budget movie have a sexy lady in it to draw in the crowd. You tell me if there are any woman more sexy and premium than model, no.. More than a supermodel."

"I see, that makes sense." He replied with a nod, but still maintained his skeptical look.

"Also, this way, I get easy access to supermodels who are willing to sleep with me." Mark finally admitted with a shrug and a smug smile that could be felt even through his mask.

"I knew it!" He exclaimed with a teasing smile.

He coughed and let out a sigh to get back to business. "Getting back to this Terminator business, what are you going to do about it? He is asking for a 95 million dollar budget and even more to buyout the script."

"Do you think we should help him? Will he even prove worth the investment? Or should we just leave him to his fate?"

Mark remained silent thinking about his future plans, getting a great director like James Cameron in his group would be a gift. 

But he knew how willful and arrogant James could be, so he needed to establish the pecking order between them from the very beginning, or else James might feel like he is the one who is the superior.

Thankfully, his one of his two new perks would help with that, it was unlocked when the [Harem King] skill was evolved due to him buying so many businesses. And him doing charity seemed to unlock a kind of perk that he couldn't really imagine would be possible to be derived from the HK skill.

He couldn't help but mentally pull up the perk one more time to look at it. His mind wanting to be certain that it really existed because it was one of the more powerful kind of perks he had seen so far.

[ «New Perk» Beholden To The King — 

When the people believe that day over the user or that the user has done something to help them, whether directly or indirectly. They will feel a sense of gratitude and that towards the user.

This feeling unlike normal human emotions/feelings will not fade with time. Instead, as the user grants them more and more help, this feeling will instead strengthen. They will increasingly become more determine to pay back the user in any shape or form.

The deeper they believe the debt to be, the further they are willing to go to repay the user's kindness.]

This would ensure that James would never forget the act of kindness that he was about to do for him.

"We will be accepting his offer, but we'll do it on our terms. I'll go and have a chat with Ms. Gale later."

Seeing Nic's raised eyebrow and the questioning look he sent his way. Mark explained that this Ms. Gale is Cameron's ex and the person he cheated on. She is also the one who was the producer of Terminator and is currently holding the rights to the IP.

"Wow, that lady surely got him by the balls." Nic chuckled as he glanced back at Cameron.

"Now I'll have to see just how big of a favor, she is going to ask of me to agree to let go of the grudge she holds against James over there." Mark said, pointing towards Cameron as he let out a sigh.

"Marriage trouble." He asked, intrigued, when he heard the word ex.

"Yup, but they're divorced already." Mark replied with a shrug.

"Oh.. well, let's go give him the good news." Nic said with a nod and patted his back.

"Oh, I don't think it will be that good for him." Mark replied with a huge smirk on his face that would have made the Joker file a copyright claim on him.

"Huh?" Nic was confused, as Mark had just agreed to give James what he had been desperately looking for.

"Because the pound of flesh gale is going to tear off of me, I'm gonna be taking it from him." Mark replied and patted him on the back this time and said, "Let's go."

While Nic was following him from behind, he couldn't help but unconsciously feel glad that he was friend's with Mark rather than his enemy. He genuinely felt a little bad for those poor bastards, for they didn't even know, what was coming for them.

– To be continued..

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Word Count: 3.3k words.

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{Closing Author's Note: Once again I apologise for the lack of uploads, also I would like to announce that I will be releasing a new fanfic. It's called Naruto: Road To Kage. Please add it to your library if you like Naruto fanfics. It's first 3 chapters are available for free on my patreon, and it will be updated every 2 to 3 days.

On my patr eon you can read up to 4 advanced chapters of Hollywood Head-Hunting System. 13 chapters of Naruto: Road To Kage and also the rest of my stories that are still in development.

My patr eon and discord link will be in the author's thoughts section at the bottom of the chapter. I hope you have a beautiful day}