Rise To Stardom - Chapter 214

Chapter 214: The Start Of Things
“I’m honored, but no thank you–– is what he said.” Donna, now back at Atlas, ended her report to her boss, her fingers lightly adjusting her glasses with composed professionalism.

To that, Lex, calculating as ever, gently rubbed his stubble as he inwardly remarked;

‘He’s a smart one, I’ll give him that.’

Almost immediately though, he calmly questioned;

“Do you think he’s malleable?”

“No.” Donna curtly responded.

“Well that’s a shame.” the multi-billionaire control freak commented, a casual air of disappointment in his tone.

Musing for a few seconds though, Lex then posed a curious question;

“From what you gleaned in the meeting, personality-wise–– would you say he’s grey, bad or ugly?”

“Good.” the secretary responded, her tone devoid of emotion.

In response to that, Lex, for the first time in a fairly long while, frowned.

Leaning back into his chair, the CEO fixed his sharp, steel-blue irises on his secretary who simply returned his gaze with unwavering professionalism.

“You’re sure?” he asked again, seeking proper clarification.

“Yes.” Donna confirmed with a curt nod.

‘Well, isn’t that curious. Wonder how he got this far in the industry then…’ Lex’s fingers, drummed lightly on his table as he considered her answer.

Good?

That was unusual.

Rare, even.

A good person making it far in an industry like Hollywood’s was an anomaly, to say the least.

The entertainment world thrived on compromise.

Morals were liabilities, and rules were easily discarded in the pursuit of fame, power, or fortune.

And for a good person who had a lot of rules keeping them from doing anything morally wrong in an industry as degraded as theirs, getting far was almost nigh impossible.

Yet, once in a blue moon, people like them existed in Hollywood.

And at the same time, they were the most annoying set of individuals for people like Lex to deal with due to their annoyingly, unwavering convictions.

‘Still…’ Lex’s expression returned to its typical calculated sharpness after a moment of introspection.

“What are the most recent projects he’s working on?” he inquired.

In response, Donna nodded briefly, already prepared;

“Information on Mr. Kestis’ projects are somewhat difficult to obtain since he maintains a very low profile, but, I did discover that Director Xavier Cage is planning to cast him in ChillFlix’s upcoming live adaptation of Martin O. Ronan’s [Stray Wolves].”

“Is that so?” Lex remarked, his tone deliberately neutral, though his mind was already spinning with a dirty move to wrestle off control for the IP rights of [Tech Wiz] from Kyle.

After a brief pause, he then issued an order.

“Contact Rob. Tell him Atlas International would like to discuss backing this film.”

Donna, knowing fully well Lex’s thought process, raised an eyebrow, waiting for the inevitable condition.

“Under the stipulation…” the CEO trailed off, a subtle yet devious smile curling his lips.

“…that Kyle Kestis will not be a part of the cast.”

“Understood.” Donna gave another curt nod, ready to carry out the order.

But, before she could head out, Lex spoke again, his tone curious once more;

“Speaking of live adaptations, how’s the pre-production of [Fables & Legends] coming along?”

“Swimmingly, although filming is planned to start at the third quarter of 2022.” Donna turned around, her stance poised as she inquired further;

“Would you like more details?”

“Hmmm…” the CEO thoughtfully mused for a few seconds, after which he then responded.

“Yes. I very much would.” Lex leaned forward in his chair, hands resting on the table as his secretary, walked over and pulled up the itinerary on her tablet.

Although [Stray Wolves] was one of Martin O. Ronan’s best literary works, it wasn’t even an argument that [Fables & Legends], was what he was well-renowned for.

And Atlas International, after many, many years of constantly barraging the renowned author, had finally, managed to persuade the man himself to allow for an adaption of his Magnum Opus on the big screen.

* * *

(A week later…)

Robert Iger was the CEO of ChillFlix.

At 47, he was a man of modest stature and on the slightly bigger size of an average build with his neatly combed black hair and light-brown irises.

Currently in a board meeting for [Stray Wolves] and dressed in a well-fitted black suit, Rob, just like so many other CEO’s around the world, was only after his own profits.

As a result, what should’ve been a smooth pre-production process for their upcoming film, especially since the cast literally just had a read through session a few days back, ended up going bust.

“What do you mean we can’t cast him?” Cassandra frowned in confusion as she added;

“You all saw the screening tape he sent, right? He didn’t need to, but he did anyway.”

“And also, you were all just as impressed as everyone else during the table read with him. Why then do you not want him casted anymore?” the lady requested as respectfully as she could to the board of executives.

Finding a new actor to take Damian’s role now wasn’t going to bode well for pre-production and with the board’s recently added requirement, Cassandra couldn’t help but think that there was something fishy going on behind the scenes.

“What, do you mean, I should split the script into two parts?” Xavier, seated next to his wife in the meeting room demanded, his stubborn expression, clear as day.

In fact, fearless as he was, the Director frowned directly at the board of execs, Robert Iger especially.

“Do I need to have a reason to not want an actor casted for something we want to produce?” the CEO, seemingly unperturbed by the couple’s individual demands, responded first to the wife.

Cassandra was obviously taken aback by this nonchalant response from Rob as her gaze, swept over the rest of the board members who simply remained tight-lipped, their professional smiles unreadable as ever.

“And as for your question Cage, we recently secured some extra funding for the movie and we figured it’d be more profitable to split it into two movies. Is that a problem?” he angled his gaze over to Xavier who simply shook his head with a disappointed smile.

“Of course it’s the profits…” he muttered underneath his breath, after which he then spoke out loud;

“Yes. It very much is.”

“You see that script, the way its written? Splitting it into two will ultimately destroy it. That won’t bode well, for any of us.” he stated, his tone honest to a fault.

“It’d be in your best interests to leave it as a single movie.” he strongly advised the CEO.

Instead, Robert simply let out a sigh of disappointment and then asked dismissively;

“So you can’t do it?”

Rolling his tongue around the insides of his mouth with a displeased smile, more or less predicting where this was headed, Xavier stood his ground as Cassandra, took in a deep, quiet breath;

“Not that I can’t. I won’t.”

“Well I guess we’ll just have to get a new director then, won’t we?” Robert smiled subtly, his lips curled in obvious mockery as Xavier, pinched the ridge of his nose for a few seconds and then, just to send a message that he wouldn’t be trampled upon, gave Rob the middle finger.

This as one would expect, pissed off the CEO to no ends and just like that, Xavier was booted off as the Director for [Stray Wolves] and so was an unaware Kyle Kestis for the role of Damian Wolf.

* * *

Kyle had just arrived home from his recording studio after a fruitful day.

And no sooner had he crashed onto his bed, he casually pulled up his status notifications and panel.

| You have completed another original song! |

| You have obtained a huge amount of exp. points! |

| 10,000 exp. points have been awarded! |

| Total exp. points available (81,025) |

| Composing has advanced from level 15 to level 16! |

| Advancement in Composing will become exponentially harder from here on out! |

| Keep composing to improve your skills! |

___________________________

{Kyle Kestis} – Exp. Points (81,025)

⸶Skills⸷

| [Soulful Vocals (P)], [Growth Spurt (P)], [Appraisal(A)], [Resonance (P)] – {S}], [Charisma (P)], [Polyglot (P)], [Deep Dive (A) – {S}], [Recollection (P)], [Scene Stealer (A)], [Action & Stunt Mastery (P)], [Bleeding Effect (P)], [Detoxification (A)], [Peak Human Conditioning (P)], [Flow (P)], [Choreography Master (P)]…

* Exp. Points can be used to create skills.

⸶Levels⸷

| Singing › Level 16

| Acting › Level 14

| Composing › Level 16

| Dancing › Level 14

| Instrument Mastery (Piano/Guitar) › Level 13/13

* Levels will increase in accordance to your growth.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––

[Your Odyssey], despite being one of the easier songs that Kyle had written, had ended up being a bit more complex for him to find the right tune for.

For the past few months, he and Jennie had constantly been mixing tunes, layering beats and overall, just generally experimenting till they found the perfect one that fit the song’s theme.

Added to that, Kyle himself hadn’t been in a hurry to complete said song as he had really enjoyed the opportunity of experimenting with electronica whenever he could.

All these reasons, could be attributed to why it took he and his audio engineer roughly three months to complete the song.

Currently staring at his panel in contentment though, his gaze lingering on his plentiful exp. points, Kyle felt his phone beep in his pockets with a familiar tune, one that he attributed to Oliver’s cell.

Casually dismissing his system panel, Kyle picked up the call;

“Hey Oliver. What’s up?”

A brief, frustrated sigh, came from the other end of the phone before his agent, finally replied;

[Kyle, unfortunately, you won’t be able to play Damian’s role in [Stray Wolves] anymore.]

A sense of betrayal.

That was the first wave of emotion that hit the young man as he sat upright from his bed.

Unable to understand why this was the case though, especially since everyone seemed content with having him on board at the read through a few days ago, Kyle asked, his tone laced with confusion;

“Why? What happened?”

[Well, according to ChillFlix’s Execs, they didn’t like your showing.] Oliver replied and then continued;

[But it’s hogwash really because, I ended up contacting Xavier myself and, guess what? He was also booted off as the director of the movie. And so was Cassandra, just a few hours after he was.]

Kyle’s initial feelings of betrayal, quickly devolved into a mix of concern and sympathy as Oliver kept speaking;

[Obviously, I figured there was something fishy behind the scenes so, I had a few contacts of mine, do a bit of extra digging.]

“And what’s the real reason?” Kyle inquired, his demeanor, now completely calm and rational.

[Atlas International. Apparently, Harlow, their CEO, wanted to back the film with the condition that you wouldn’t be in the main cast.]

[And if my gut serves me right, I’m pretty certain, that he purposely made it easy for us to have access to that information, just to make a point.]

“Accept our offer or I’ll make things hard for you.” Kyle rationalized with a light scoff of disapproval.

[Exactly.] Oliver commented in agreement.

For about a minute, silence descended on both ends of the line as Kyle’s thoughts, raced with a way to turn this around.

But unfortunately for him, none came to mind.

However, a more curious thought, soon bubbled to the surface as the young man, slightly widened his eyes in realization.

To that, he coolly admitted in response;

“Well, we’re not gonna play his games. We honestly can’t win against an industry juggernaut with our limited resources.”

Hearing this from the other end, Oliver curiously hummed in response;

[Hmmm…]

“That said,” the young man then remarked with a light cunning smile, one that his agent could palpably feel from the other end of the line;

“We’ll make the best of this misfortune Oliver. After all, when one door closes, another opens.”