Hollywood King

There still were two weeks left till Christmas. The Renner's Studio was trying to market the movie even though their budget was small. To do the movie, it had taken them 800k. He was planning to do the movie with one million dollars.

Therefore, he was investing around 200k dollars to market the movie. What he knew was, that it wasn't as much as what other studios might spend, yet it would help at least a little.

Ian came to the office early morning to have a little talk with Mason who was already busy handling the studio business.

"How is it going, uncle?"

"It's good. The team is already on the marketing, with just a few more things left to do. Take a break for the next two weeks. Not like there's much left for you to do here,"

"Yeah, I know. But won't be resting. Got work,"

"What work? Are you going back to your playboy ways?" Mason asked teasingly. Ian chuckled in response, while they talked a bit more, then he went home.

[...] For the next two weeks, he didn't wait in the house idly.

As he had a whole library of all Hollywood films, series, and stories, he decided to aim for a genius image in the industry. He was planning to release a lot of things, so starting off with a book seemed pretty good for him.

Since people thought of him as an amateur director, what he wanted to achieve was way ahead of him. A director who was young yet who create masterpieces was what he wanted. With all the 'resources' he had, he wanted better things that can lead people to think of him differently.

His memory library gave him so many suggestions.

He sat in front of his laptop and typed the headline, 'Resident Evil'. He always thought the plot would look good in a book. And then, he started writing the plot of Resident Evil.

[In his Memory Library]

Resident Evil is a Japanese horror video game series and media franchise. It consists of survival horror, third-person shooter, and first-person shooter games. This expanded into a live-action film series, animated films, television series, comic books, novels, audio dramas, and other media. Basically, Resident Evil is an action horror film released in 2004 and is inspired by the video game series of the same name. A sequel to Resident Evil,  as the original film follows, the main character Alice (the sole survivor of a zombie outbreak at a classified research facility) attempts to escape the city as the virus outbreak spreads.

Ian, who knew all of this, took out the plot and made a story from it. From how the virus outbreaks to explaining how they escape. While writing, he couldn't stop thinking of how good the game actually was.

The graphics which can never get old made Ian wonder if he really should just go into creating the Resident Evil gameplay. But since his goals are different, he decided against it.

He was writing scenes from action to horror, horror to romance, and back to action. Although many critics say Resident Evil was such a bad movie that degraded the quality of the video game, Ian knew better.

He created something from both of them. Even in the real world, 'RE' novels existed which basically provided so much information from backstories to action. But, he made his novel exceptional.

He started writing…

The Hive: a subterranean genetic research facility owned and operated by Umbrella, an immensely powerful corporation with interests in everything from human longevity to biowarfare. With computerized defenses and heavily armed human backup, the Hive is impregnable and invulnerable. Or so Umbrella believes. But something has gone fatally wrong. The Hive has lost containment of its most lethal and horrific creation: a virus that kills and reanimates human life, reducing the entire facility staff of five hundred men and women to mindless creatures with a single driving force—hunger. And the key to stopping them rests with one young woman who cannot even remember who she is.

-

It took him more than a week to complete the book after so much editing. At some points, he'd write two chapters and then erase them all over to write a single chapter, which is better than the first two. Likewise, he spent so much time writing the book.

He even spent three nights in a row without sleeping just to write. It was hectic at first, but when he come closer to the end, he felt satisfied with his own efforts. After writing the entire book, he took an entire day to read it from the beginning to experience the thrill of what a reader would feel.

He was gratified.

Then, he sent it to some major publishing houses hoping they'd like is work. The hardship of traditional publishing is, that there's a high chance of getting rejected in the initial stage no matter how good the novel is. They aim for more about, the current trends in the industry, good writing skills, etc. The major challenge for them is marketability.

But if the manuscript can land a good deal, it would be a massive success.

On the other hand, Renner Films was working hard to do more screenings of the movie. One of these screenings was a media screening. Mason used his connections to invite a lot of critics. It was nerve-wracking for Mason to know that the comments would go to the public not long before the movie is yet to be released.

Ian came to the studio after he sent his manuscript to the publishers. When he entered the studio, he was welcomed by Mason and two-three more people who has smiles plastered on their faces.

"What are you guys so smiley about?" He asked.

"Good thing you came here, we were actually waiting for you. Come, see this. We had a screening yesterday, with the critics and the media. The reviews were awesome! I mean, they all were telling how 'home Aloned' they wish they could be and stuff."

"Oh wow, what about the public? And what the hell is Home Aloned?" Ian asked amusingly, sitting in the chair, while he joined the discussion.

"So many comments. Many of the followers of the critics are already waiting in line, tickets pre-booked. Home Aloned is basically the new adjective of the year." The editor, Steffen added.

"Honestly, this was always a dream of the studio. Especially your father's," Mason said in a low tone while Ian nodded and gave a smile.

"Show me the comments,"

Steffen took the laptop and placed it in front of Ian. For a popular review, there were many public comments. The website, 'It's A Movie (IAM) is a small website for new movies. Many critics that Mason invited were from it, and they posted their reviews there. Fans around the local theatres where Renner's was known for some years are active on the website, which is why they had known The Renners.

'Is it really that good?'

'Been so long since I last saw an actual comedy Christmas, let's see how this turns out! better payback if I'm not satisfied'

'Woah, this is a paid comment, isn't it?'

'Can't wait to watch!'

'Renners hasn't released something worth the watch in years, wonder how this will be'

'Is this paid?'

'These reviews make me doubt what I've seen from Renners. #lookingforward'

"No wonder why people think these reviews are paid," Ian said while scrolling down the screen, to the end.

'Just a few days away from the premier, good luck #lookingforward'

'New director? #lookingforward'

"Hashtag was pretty popular in the website, the Home Aloned one, oh and the lookingforward one. Gotta pay whoever made them up, for real," The youngest among the crew, Daniel added. He was working as the transportation driver of the crew.

He joined the Renners because he had no other job qualification but after he heard from someone he knew about The Renners, he told the entire story of his life and how he wanted a job, if it was any other one, it's positive that he won't get the job, yet Mason's kindness offered the job.

"Can't wait for the real premier, everyone who 'thinks' that we paid and all, they are going to be proved false," Mason said.

He was disappointed with how he did things in the studio. The main reason why the public assumes weird stuff was the recent history of The Renners. This movie is going to be a history changer, he thought.

They were all laughing and enjoying while they read comments one after another. From the reviews Ian knew, that the few people who watched it, loved it, and from the comments, he understood, that those few fans are going to love The Renners, maybe not at the moment, but as soon as they watched the movie.

"Let's see how much we can earn from this," Mason said.

"Yeah, not like all the crowd we need are on the website. Let's just think… This is just the beginning," Ian said.