Ch 21: A Wall to Climb

6th January, 2008

{1st Person POV}

"Cheers!" Shouted the drunk actors, standing in the middle of the room besides the table with alcohol.

They were drinking a lot of alcohol. And when I say a lot, I mean a lot. They were drinking like there was no tomorrow, as if this was the last time they'd ever get to drink any alcoholic beverage.

The group, which was really just three people, consisted of Eric Newman, Richard Evans and Keanu Reese.

Seeing people like Eric Newman drunk wasn't that big of a deal, he is a chill and laid back guy, after all. He's the type of person to pull pranks on you just because.

But seeing someone like Richard Evans drinking like an alcohol addict was something. 

I, and basically anyone who even knew Richard, either be it personally or just as a celebrity,  had an image of him  as someone who was mostly business and then enjoyment. He is an amazing actor, no doubt, but he wasn't someone who would go out of his way to get drunk as hell. 

Keanu, too, had drank some alcohol. Not as much as the other two, but still pretty quite a lot. He didn't really seem drunk, and that was a good thing for me because there really was no way I was going to take care of three drunkards.

Keanu was also pretty laid back, and seemed like the mother of the group wuth him repeatedly trying  to stop Eric and Richard from drinking too much.

How did they get to this point? Eric drank a ton of beer, wine, whisky and whatever else he could find his hands on, and then forced Richard to drink some too. 

Now, you may ask. "What are YOU doing, Oliver?" 

Well, I was drinking some fine wine in a quiet corner of the room. It was pretty cozy with it being right besides the window, and a pretty cool chandelier a bit to my left.

This was my first time drinking any type of alcohol, so the fact that I didn't immediately feel like throwing up was a good thing. 

I glanced at the System screen floating above my head. It read as follows: 

[Congratulations on your movie crossing $100M domestically!

Hidden Quest: 'Reach $100M Domestically' completed

Rewards: 60K Entertainment Coins, 2x Wheel Spin Coupons (Film/Any Genre) and 1x Sci-Fi film screenplay]

I hadn't gotten the time to look at the system screen, so it seemed that I missed the date this Quest was completed. 

'Accept all rewards.' I mentally ordered.

Sure enough, I got the rewards and the system went away,

'These are some good rewards.' I thought. 

However, there wasn't any reason to use them now. After all, I had some other plans in mind. 

That's why I came here well prepared.

I had a script with me, one that revitalised Keanu Reeves career back in my world.

I was waiting for my turn to talk with him, preferably when he was away from the others.

But it seemed like that moment won't come for some time, so I just decided to eat and drink till then.

***

It had been a few hours till then, and Keanu had finally left Eric and Richard. 

So, not wasting any time, I walked over to Keanu, who was sitting on a chair near the window. He was eating Beef Wellington in a cool looking plate with a cup of wine next to it,

"Hey, Keanu." I said.

Hearing his name, Keanu's head moved to look in my direction.

Seeing that it was me who called him, his expressions became more lively 

"Ah, Oli-, no, Director. Thank you for giving me a chance to act in this film." He started, and I took a seat next to him. 

"I've had so much fun, and had the opportunity to meet actors that I thought was never possible for someone like me. From the bottom of my heart, I thank you." 

He then grabbed my hands. "I want to repay you in any way. You've helped me immensely, and I just don't think it's right to not do something for you in return.

Those words really hit me like a truck. However, I didn't want to get all emotional. I had things to do after all.

"If you want to repay me, then I have an idea." Keanu looked at me with expressions that screamed he interested. "I have another role for you, this time as the sole main character. Here, have a look at it." I handed him the script.

Keanu looked at the sheets of paper in his hands, and then muttered the name, surprised at just how quickly he was offered another role.

"John Wick?" 

"Yep. Just sign on for this and you'll basically be repaying me."

Keanu's face's expression changed into that of shock. He just sat there quietly, with his mouth agape the whole time.

'I guess that's to be expected. Oh well.' 

***

17th January, 2008

{3rd Person POV}

'Halloween's theatrical run had come to an end, with it having an insane run. $27.4M opening weekend, $107.2M final domestic total. 

That is an insane Multiplier (aka legs) of 3.913x, which becomes far more impressive due to the fact that this was a horror film, and not an animated one, which generally have the best multipliers. While horror is the opposite, having generally terrible legs, which is especially true for franchise horror films.

(Note: Legs/Multiplier is a term used by box office followers like myself, where the formula for multipliers is - Final domestic (or worldwide) total ÷ opening weekend. Higher multiplier (3x+) is a sign of the longevity of a film, but it is becoming increasingly difficult to achieve.)

'Halloween' was also released in the UK, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, France and Brazil in late October and throughout November and December. All the territories above combined contributed about $54.6M, making the worldwide gross $161.8M.

This was a great amount for a horror film, and especially so for a directorial debut. 

Oliver had set his foot inside the film industry, but that wasn't enough, and that's why he went ahead with something like 'The Departed' over just buying a screenplay for a hugely popular film in his world: 'The Departed' is regarded as one of the greatest films ever, while most popular films from his world were just popcorn movies.

Studios would still be willing to work with Oliver as long as he created critically acclaimed films, even if they flopped. But that won't be true for the popcorn movies.

They were huge, expensive and mostly meh films, so much so that if the audience didn't have much fun watching the film, it would lose the studio far more than an auteur film would.

But Oliver didn't just want critical acclaim, he also wanted movies that would rake in money, and that's why he was using the Internet to market his films. 

They would be an essential part of the marketing process in the future, so hogging it all when it was still primitive and  no one was doing the same thing was a huge boon.

'The Departed', which had been sent for editing to a professional film editing team finished the editing process in less than a week.

Similarly, the final cut was sent to a trailer editing team, and they too finished the process quickly.

This allowed SkyMount to hold private screenings for the producers and actors involved, who lauded the film as a near masterpiece, and many gained trust for Oliver. Their reaction also allowed  the starting of Test Screenings.

"What are Test Screenings?" You may ask. 

Well, they were basically showing a version of the film and getting random people to watch it. Depending on their reaction, the studio would either A) move ahead with that version if the reactions were positive,  or B) 1. Re-shoot some parts or use a different version causing the film to be delayed till they finally get positive feedback, and B) 2. Just move ahead with film anyway.

Test screenings were mostly only held for Studio productions and not indie films, because they're expensive and anyone could leak the entire film and you won't be able to do much about it.

A studio provides protection from that sort of thing, and will easily sue someone over leaked footage. They also had money for that kind of setup, which an independent filmmaker wouldn't have.

But Oliver had a different plan in mind.

He wanted to record the audience's reaction and purposely leak it on the internet. This would cause interest to be generated and help the film greatly.

And so, he did. 

There were several Test Screenings held between late January and early February, with the audience reaction being recorded with consent of the people.

The trailer, which was released on 29th January, 2008,  garnered a lot of views. 

In 24 hours, it attracted 47k views on MyTube , a record for SkyMount. 

By the end of the week, 'The Departed' had garnered 288k views, and it was steadily growing. In total, it had 566K views including things like FaceAlbum and Sparrow. (A/N: Yes, I changed the name for the Twitter equivalent.)

The comments ranged from 'Wtf is this?', 'Mob films are boring. Pass', 'This looks great!' To 'I believe in Oliver Knight! Halloween was amazing!' 

During this period, Oliver had SkyMount purposely leak the Test Screening reaction on the internet, which were all positive. 

As expected, this caused a lot of interest in the film. The leaked reaction footages had more views than the official trailer did, sitting at 395K vs 288k on MyTube, and 723k vs 566K for total views. 

The advertisement method had been a grand success, and the Hollywood article writers just couldn't let this new development leave.

'Hollywood's rising Director, Oliver Knight and what the Road to Profitability for The Departed looks like' by The Hollywood Daily.

'Oliver Christopher Knight, a new figure in the industry, just had his second film, The Departed's, trailer released a few days ago. 

And boy did those views blow up. 47k views on MyTube, behind 1st place The Secret Service 4 and 2nd place Meet Me in New York's 82k and 63k respectively, as well as 288k total views, which were again behind The Secret Service 4 and Meet Me in New York's 608k and 404k respectively.

Keep in mind that both The Secret Service 4 and Meet Me in New York were two of the largest film last year, with The Secret Service 4 breaking the opening weekend record and grossing $756M worldwide, and Meet Me in New York becoming the highest grossing romance film worldwide with $483M.

These facts surely paint a positive future for The Departed. But the thing is, The Departed, unlike the other two, is an R-rated mob flick and not a PG-13 one. R-rated films have a limited audience of only people who are above the age of 15. This will certainly affect its box office gross, potentially even making The Departed a flop. 

However, the good thing is that gangster/mob films like The Departed barely have any potential revenue from younger audiences, so it wouldn't be affected much anyway. 

On the other hand, Oliver Knight's career would certainly not be over even if The Departed flopped.

The leaked test screening footage, which were most likely leaked on purpose, show the audience reacting very positively to the film, with a lot of cheering at the end scene, which was blurry.

Many people online were able to prove that it was indeed 'The Departed' and not some other film.

If the film is actually as great as the test audience's reaction, then we might have a potential modern Clinton Edwards in our hand.'

Oliver, who had read the article, had a grin on his face. 

Everything was going as he wanted. Oliver was sure that in no time he would be on the top of Hollywood, and later on the entertainment world.

*Bzzt* 

Surprising him, Oliver's phone buzzed. 

He checked his mobile phone, and it turned out to be an email.

Reading the name of the sender, he was shocked.

"The Academy Awards?"

~~~

A/N: Wooh! I'm back!

Yes, I know that you're all probably confused, so I'll explain.

Basically, my regional government (or was it the central government?) of India banned the Internet from Tuesday to Saturday because of fighting between Hindus and Muslims, and because of that this chapter was written on Tuesday. If the ban had been lifted earlier, then this chapter would've been published earlier too, and there would've been a 3rd chapter this week.

But there wasn't and I'm kinda still thinking what to do.

It took me like 6 hours to write this, with large breaks of 30 minutes, so it was more closer to 3 hours than anything, because while I had an idea on what to write, I didn't know HOW to write it.

Also, this is the first chapter to be edited heavily before being released, and the editing process also nearly made this longest chapter.

I've also decided to edit the chapters when Vol 2 is finished, which it isn't anywhere close to that. Infact, I think we're barely half way through.

Anyways, see you later! :P