Hollywood King

Ian was pretty exhausted just by trying to make Mason agree to his idea. After all, he had no other option, but to convince him because he had no connections within the industry. It took him two days to finally get an "okay" from Uncle Mason.

Ian, who was too used to being chased by people who wanted stuff from him, had to put all his ego aside just to make Mason agree with his idea. The thing was he didn't like pestering Mason so much. He had self-respect after all. But he knew that the previous owner of the body had a ruined reputation.

From what he knew, if this became a success, the rest of the things he would be able to handle by himself but he needed Mason's assistance for as long as he decided to work at Renner's.

He needed a whole crew and distributor which Renner films were able to provide. But the matter was, Ian, didn't know anyone except Mason. His 85% share meant nothing when he was new to the whole crew in a way.

After Mason agreed on doing the project with so many negotiations held, and so many negotiations left to be held in the near future, Ian asked him to act as the producer which Mason accepted without thinking about it much.

For the past couple of days, Mason has been in a huge battle with Ian. He kept insisting on letting somebody else be the director of 'Home Alone. Thinking about all the pros and cons, Mason couldn't find even a single good reason why he should allow Ian to direct it.

But what finally turned the tables was the notebook that Ian showed him. It was filled with sketches of various scenes. Different shots of 'Home Alone' and also how the camera placements are going to be.

This was something a professional director would often do to explain his view in mind and make someone understand it from the scratch. It was impressive how Ian pulled the right card just when Mason was going to reject it. He was highly impressed with this 'amateur' or so he called him.

But the challenges didn't end right there. In fact, it was just barely the start. Ian had only 2 million dollars remaining in his bank account. The former body owner somehow couldn't finish wasting those, but Ian was far away from complaining. But it would be a huge challenge for him to create 'Home Alone' just from 2 million dollars.

The major part which made the entire 'Home Alone' successful was its good writing and excellent performance. It depended on how each actor brought out the exact character they were playing. They either nailed it or failed, there wasn't something in between. He thought the money would be enough because it wouldn't cost much for the cast or filming.

-

It was the third day on which Ian met Mason, and also the first day he was a director. He just woke up and realized it must be sometime around 9 o'clock which meant he still had plenty of time left to meet with Mason. Dressing up with the suits of the previous Ian, the body owner got ready within minutes to meet Mason. He remembered how at first, he was only able to find comfortable clothes in his wardrobe but then he saw that several types of suits were neatly arranged in the behind. It was a pretty big walk-in closet and has not been cleaned in a few years. Ian knew why it hasn't, it was because the previous body owner enjoyed a lot of privacy. Which also meant no one was allowed inside his closet.

The suits were refreshingly new yet haven't been maintained just like it was as if no one has ever touched them in years. Just like the first day, he had to dust the suits off before wearing them.

He certainly knew it was going to be the very first day during which they would talk about the cast, film crew, and basic stuff related to their project.

[...] Reaching his destination, he went in without informing because now it has become a place where he spends more time than his own house.

"Good morning, Ian." Mason greeted enthusiastically. It completely showed how refreshing everything was suddenly for him.

"Morning, Uncle." Ian sat while taking out and placing all the documents in front of him.

Then they started talking about the crew, trying to plan each and every step ahead. While talking to his uncle, he learnt a few more new things related to the film industry in this new world. His memories did help a lot in knowing them, but listening to them from someone who experienced the ins and outs was a memorable experience for Ian.

As the budget wasn't much, Ian had decided to go with cheap actors. As long as their acting skills suit the character he was fine with them not having a huge name in the industry. After all, the film needed skills more than anything for this to work.

In the current world he was in, the actors were ranked by an organization called Global Celebs Guild. The other guilds such as the Directors Guild, Actors Guild, Writers Guild, and others cooperated with the Global Celebs in their missions.

In fact, every other country had this ranking system. Including countries like India and Korea which supposedly have a recognized movie and music industry. They have a local and global ranking in which they rank actors and celebrities.

With this, it was clear which actor was at the top. It should be noted that the rankings weren't based on skill entirely but on popularity.

The rankings were calculated by taking a lot of factors like popularity, social media searches, awards, movies, box office rankings, and other stuff.

Ian didn't know the exact formula but the rankings were accepted by Hollywood and the higher a person is on them, the more influence the person has.

This was not practiced in Ian's world but he liked this more than he should. Because this clearly showed the ranks of actors and made it easy to see where the actors stand in their own careers.

The rankings were of many types. Actor ranking, singer ranking, etc, and the overall celeb ranking. How the rankings worked was, that they had several types of ranks such as E-grade, D-grade, C-grade, B-grade, A-grade, and a special S-grade.

Much to everyone's surprise, only six actors were at the top of celebs' S- ranking. Furthermore, all the people in the industry kept fighting for years and years just to get to the top of their careers. The competition was extremely high.

For 'Home Alone', Ian was happy with E-graded actors. As long as they possessed the necessary potential, the rank didn't matter to Ian. But just for the role of the two thieves, he thought of selecting D-graded actors since it was a comedy.

From what he knew not everyone can be funny. The more they try, the less funny they are.

"I've listed some comedy TV actors that I think would be good for the roles of the thieves. Tell me what you think about them." He leaned in while turning the pages of the document which were right in front of Mason.

"Uh-huh. I see, these are some well-mannered actors who bring out the characters that they are playing."

"Exactly... But honestly, no matter how unpopular the actor is, if they make the cut we need, it'll be more than enough." Ian added.

"Take Kevin for example. Although there are plenty of kids who do roles and are D or C graded, Kevin is special. I researched some of the 8-year-olds in the industry. Yet more than half are not 'that'. The thieves play the next main role. Two of the burglars should really look and have that bond that we imagined them to have.

All these put together, we need a crew who can really be what the characters are, literally." He stopped himself trying not to get too far or sound too needy.

"Hmm… gotcha. I think we can find them soon enough." Mason's mind map started to draw lines.

"Do you have anybody in mind, uncle?" Ian questioned back.

"Yeah, I actually do. Don't worry, I can talk to them. It won't be that much of a big deal, because some of those few have worked with your dad a few years ago. They had so much potential and faith in our production house, I remember. Others would be easy to talk to" Mason said and sighed.

"What's wrong?" Ian asked while Mason shook his head.

"Just that, the ones who worked with your dad, it'll take lots of convincing for them to agree as well. I mean.. after his death, they certainly know how our studio has been running." Mason added. "But yeah, don't worry."

"I'll leave it to you, uncle." Ian had to say these words just to show that he trusted Mason. "The main role- Kevin. Do you have anyone in mind for that as well?"

"Uh- it'll take some time for that. We need a super-smart boy for that. If you did your research properly, I bet you saw it yourself."

Ian nodded in return.

"Yeah, honestly, I saw none to match the role. It'll be hard to find that 'one'. So it's fine to take time just for him. But, try to convince others as soon as possible."

"Yeah, I will see."

"Uh- it would be fine if I auditioned them myself, right?"

"Of course."

Ian nodded in return. They read over info on the actors one by one, discussing each of their traits. The way Ian explained, Mason couldn't be more proud of how thoughtful he was. Yet, he'd never know how he became like that.

"The real problem is not about actors, Ian. It'll be of the film crew." Mason added.

"Huh-" Ian sounded a little confused. Taking a while to think about it, he knew what his uncle said was right. The realization was clear in his eyes as they fell into complete silence.

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