Chapter 101

5th September 2011

Will and Terry had another meeting. This time, it was to finalise the deal for Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone and sign a contract related to that. Will was currently going through the contract and checking the clause of contract.

After reading through the contract twice and taking his lawyer, Jason's consultation, Will finally signed the contract. After the signing was done, Terry held out his hand and Will shook it. It was the beginning of Terry's success story.

Ten years later, Terry would say that his little girl who had read Harry Potter first had become his lucky charm and because of her, he had gotten a book franchise that had become immortal.

***

The preparations for [1917] and [500 days of Summer] had already started. As Jeffrey had been given the role of producer by Will, he had taken over most of the work.

From finding a director for [500 days of Summer] to the pre-production of [1917], Jeffrey was doing a lot. Amanda was handling Dream Vision well and even Jennifer was taking care of all the new actors that DTA had signed.

For now, both Robert and Ewan's schedule was being handled by her and after a while, she was going to give it to other agents and focus on Natalie, Renly and Elijah.

It seemed like she wanted to work with new actors more than established stars.

On the other hand, the Harry Potter publication and advertising were left in Terry's hand.

All this gave Will some free time to think about the original movie he had to make. Since the quest was like a test from the system, Will wanted to ace it in his own way.

Will decided to take a break from work for a few days and spent those days reading various books and watching movies from this world. Most of the movies he watched were independent movies that had a unique take on them.

For the beginners, he started jotting down the ideas that he had in his past life.

These ideas spanned across a lot of genres. From rom coms to time travel movies.

Although most of them weren't helpful, they at least helped him in clearing his mind and thinking about different genres and such.

For his original, he wanted to keep the budget of it low as he had no guarantee whether the movie will work or not. A lot of money had already been used in relocating Dream Vision and making DTA.

Moreover, he was also producing two movies. Although [500 days of Summer] would take less than 10 million dollars to make, the story was completely opposite for [1917].

In between this, Will wanted to make an original that would shock everyone, including himself.

***

As he was trying to get an idea for his next movie, another report became famous in Hollywood Times, regarding the young director, Will Evans.

[The wonder boy of Hollywood, Will Evans, doesn't seem to be taking a break as he is spreading his roots in every direction of Hollywood. Sources have confirmed that Will Evans is buying off one of the famous comic companies from the 1940s. We are talking about Marvel Comics here.

Marvel Comics and DC Comics have been the childhood of many kids in America, but in recent years, Marvel Comics was barely coping with DC Comics. After their first superhero movie's flop, their shares, business and company value have been going towards an infinitely long downward slope.

Due to this, Marvel comics had been trying to reboot many of their famous superhero stories but none have seen a lot of success.

Taking advantage of this fact, Will Evans had decided to acquire the Marvel Comics Studios. Now the fact remains that if he wanted to make movies, he could have just bought the rights to the Marvel characters, but buying the whole company was an overkill. Not only that, it was said that DC had sold Batman rights to a studio called Zin Studios, which never produced the movie.

Will Evans had bought off the whole Batman rights in a packaged deal from Zin studios. The deal included the rights of the dark knight - batman, the infamous psychopath comic villain Joker and the sidekick of Batman - Robin.

Aside from these, there were also some more characters famously associated with the dark knight.

According to various reports and analyses, Marvel Comics' company valuation was $14 million at best, but Will had paid $20 million to buy it off completely. Not only that, he had paid a huge sum of $4 million dollars just to buy off Batman characters' rights.

It could clearly be seen that he was in a hurry to buy these creative properties. After starting the Sherlock Holmes franchise which had promised to give two more movies in the coming years, Will probably has his eyes on something bigger.

At least according to many analysts, Will's ambition won't let him stop before he cements his place in history books.

This makes one wonder. Is the young genius a fan of comic books? Or is something big coming? Is this a prelude to another of Will's big franchises? Or does Will want to enter the comics market? Only time would tell.]

***

Allen Studios was one of the big six studios of Hollywood. Not only that, they were always at the top 3 even amongst the big six. They have been the first ranked this year due to the sheer amount of profits they made from all their films combined.

The CEO of Allen studio was an old man named Ashton Banasiewicz. He was already 64 years old this year, but he had a body and physique that could easily make him compete with the healthiest people in their early 50s. He had a slim figure, short white hair combed on his left side with a short Hollywoodian beard. He wore clothes that gave off a professional vibe, with his usual attire being a slim coat and pants with striped line patterns of various colours.

In his early days, he was one of Hollywood's playboys and had affairs with a lot of actresses. Just him being married thrice says a lot about his character.

Currently, Ashton was on the topmost floor of the building that Allen Studio owned in Hollywood, California. Looking down from the glass wall towards the outside sky, he let out a contented sigh.

He had been Allen Studio's CEO for about 20 years now, and he had made some truly remarkable achievements in his duration as a CEO. One of the reasons why Allen Studios stood so high in Hollywood today was thanks to Ashton Banasiewicz. Not only had he contributed to bringing the company up, but he had gotten labelled as one of Hollywood's most important people 7 times during his career in the New York Times. That alone spoke volumes of his importance in Hollywood.

His assistant, Ayden Afify, currently held a tablet in his hand as he stood beside him.

'Sir.'

Ayden said politely and Ashton looked back. Without saying anything, Ayden handed over the tablet to Ashton.

Ashton brought the tablet up and there was a name written in bold letters on the tablet's screen.

[Will Evans]

Ashton was one of the people who had been keeping a close eye on the new hype in Hollywood, namely Will Evans.

Ashton had been paying close attention to Will's every move ever since the stunt he had pulled during the film festival where [The Blair Witch Project] was first presented.

Ashton opened his mouth as he asked.

'Have you confirmed it?'

His voice sounded as young as he looked, with powerful energy backing him up. Ashton was talking about the news of Will's recent acquisition of Marvel Comics.

'Yes, I have confirmed it. It isn't bogus news. Our contacts in Zin studios confirmed it.'

Ayden replied as he looked at Ashton. He had been working with Ashton for about 6 years now, and he still was unable to read his emotions or what went inside him.

'What are you thinking about?'

Ayden asked, his voice sounding curious. The last time he had seen Ashton like this, he was paying attention to some cinematographer. Currently, that cinematographer was a part of Allen Studios and had already won Oscars once.

'Nothing for now.'

Ashton replied in a contemplating voice. He really wasn't planning anything, for now, he was just lying in wait for an opportunity.

Ashton moved towards the glass window again and looked at the whole of Hollywood in one view.

'Hollywood is changing. In the near future, franchises will dominate Hollywood.'

Ashton said as he brought out a premium cigarette from his pocket and lit it up from the pen on his coat. As he smoked and let out a puff, he turned towards Ayden and said.

'Start acquiring any book, movie, or any form of entertainment media that can be turned into a franchise.'

Ayden nodded his head without saying anything as he left Ashton's office.

Ashton sat on his chair and connected the tablet to his laptop, soon, the information about Will filled his screen as he started reading through them thoroughly.

...