Once Hunter left, it was just Vanessa and her sister Scarlett alone, free to dive into some private girl talk.
"So, where'd you guys go last night? A hotel?" Vanessa asked, her curiosity bubbling over like a little kid.
"Nope, his place," Scarlett replied, her face lighting up with excitement. "His house is huge and gorgeous—it's like a full-on estate! I'm telling you, even the mansions in movies don't look that luxurious. This morning, when I was leaving, I'd have gotten totally lost if Anne hadn't helped me out."
"Anne?"
"Anne Hathaway! You know, the one from The Princess Diaries—we watched it together, remember?"
"What?!"
Vanessa's jaw practically hit the floor. "She lives at Director Walker's house too?"
Scarlett hesitated for a sec, then lowered her voice. "Actually, besides her, there are two others. I think they're Australian actresses or something—I'm not too familiar with them."
Vanessa was so stunned she could barely speak. "They… all live together?"
Scarlett sighed, a mix of frustration and resignation in her tone. "The three of them were chatting and laughing like old friends. Honestly, they get along great. Natalie totally knows about it—she can't even do anything about it, so what am I supposed to do?"
Vanessa felt a chill run down her spine. The lives of these mega-rich folks were seriously beyond anything she could wrap her head around.
She'd read some gossip about Dunn in the papers before and always took it with a grain of salt, figuring half of it was made up. But hearing Scarlett spill the tea like this? Wow—Dunn was even wilder than the rumors!
Scarlett, though, seemed to have already made peace with it. "Natalie doesn't care, so why should I? She gets to play the good guy while I'm stuck being the bad guy? No way!"
Vanessa nodded fast. "Exactly, you can't meddle! Don't mess things up and lose his favor over something small."
"That's what I figured," Scarlett said. "Anyway, Dunn told me those girls are just temporary flings. Give it a year or two, and they'll all be gone."
Vanessa let out a relieved breath, then fixed her sister with a teasing, eager look. "So… you two did it last night, huh?"
Scarlett didn't even flinch, though her delicate brows furrowed a little. "Yeah, we did, but it felt awful! I'm still sore down there. Do you think I should see a doctor?"
"A doctor? For what?" Vanessa laughed, half amused, half exasperated, shooting her a look. "It's your first time—everyone feels like that. It'll get better. Oh, did you bleed?"
"Yeah, I messed up the sheets," Scarlett said, pouting a little, clearly not thrilled about it.
Vanessa chuckled. "Silly girl, it's just a bedsheet! The important thing is it made him happy. Didn't Miss Coppola say on the phone yesterday that he's got this medieval right-wing religious vibe? I looked it up, and it all clicked."
"What clicked?"
"A girl's first time—it's like a symbol of purity to him. He's definitely into that!"
Scarlett didn't seem too interested in that angle. She just grumbled, "I don't know. He was with me for, like, ten or maybe twenty minutes, then he just left."
"Left? What do you mean?"
"I was crying from the pain, and he went off to another room."
"What?!"
Vanessa stared at her sister, wide-eyed and speechless.
What kind of move was that?
He ditched her halfway through to go find another woman?
Dunn's antics were so outrageous that Vanessa's entire worldview felt like it was crumbling. She pressed a hand to her forehead, practically dizzy from the shock.
But Scarlett? She just smiled dreamily. "He came back later, though. Held me close and whispered all these sweet nothings—super gentle. I ended up falling asleep in his arms."
Vanessa's expression flickered like a TV screen with bad reception. Her mouth opened and closed, but no words came out.
The life Scarlett was stepping into—the environment, the lifestyle—it was all so far removed from Vanessa's world. She had no clue how to offer her little sister any seasoned advice.
Then Scarlett grabbed her arm, all excited again. "Oh, sis! Dunn told me yesterday to tell you to start looking for a house. He says this area's too sketchy. Somewhere like Beverly Hills would be perfect—it's close, so I could pop home to see you guys anytime."
"Beverly Hills? The prices there are insane! Forget buying—I couldn't even afford the rent!" Vanessa shook her head hard.
Scarlett grinned wide. "Oh, come on, you don't have to pay! He said it's a gift for you!"
"What? A gift… a house for me?"
"Yup!" Scarlett bobbed her head proudly, practically glowing with smug satisfaction. As the little sister bringing this kind of perk to the family, she felt like a hero. "Just don't pick anything too pricey, though. One or two million dollars should do it. Anything more, and the property taxes would be a nightmare—talk about embarrassing!"
"One or two million…"
Vanessa swallowed hard, her throat dry as a desert. A one- or two-million-dollar house in Beverly Hills might not be the cream of the crop, but compared to the life she'd known? It was paradise!
Last night was Dunn's first date with her sister.
This morning, he'd already sent Hunter a Lamborghini supercar and was gifting her a mansion. Talk about generous!
"Sis, you've gotta step up your game and keep his favor," Vanessa said, her earlier doubts about Dunn completely gone. "Especially since he's so big on reputation—you need to be extra careful about that."
Any woman by this guy's side could only feel one thing: happiness.
So what if he had a bunch of women? You'd get used to it. Didn't all big shots live like that?
Love? That's just a comfort for broke people!
Scarlett nodded eagerly. "I know, he laid it all out for me—eighteen rules to follow."
"Eighteen rules? That many?" Vanessa gasped.
Scarlett shrugged like it was no big deal. "They're mostly the same stuff. Basically, just don't mess around with other guys, and I'm good."
Vanessa went quiet for a moment, then smirked. "Oh, and he's definitely gonna make you a star, right?"
At that, Scarlett's face lit up like a sunrise, her chin tilting up as she mused, "He said he's gonna turn me into everyone's dream girl!"
---
Meanwhile, Isla Fisher sulked as she stepped into Dunn's office.
"What's up?" he asked.
"It's that new friend of yours, isn't it?"
"Scarlett?"
"Who else?"
Dunn chuckled. His little secretary was tight with Natalie and clearly couldn't stand his new girlfriend.
Too bad for her—he kinda spoiled Scarlett anyway, letting her do whatever she wanted.
Isla scoffed. "She's handing out gifts to everyone like she's the queen of Dunn Films or something."
Dunn grinned, half annoyed, half amused. "She's my girlfriend—of course she's the queen of Dunn Films. What's the problem?"
Isla shot back, "But Natalie never did that! She's just trying to win people over!"
"Enough with the nonsense," Dunn said, giving her a look. "Scarlett's not as scheming as you think. And stay out of whatever's between Natalie and Scarlett. If you notice anything, just let me know."
Schemes or cunning—those things scaled with smarts.
Plenty of ditzy actresses got played by directors and producers because they were all looks, no brains.
With Natalie's IQ, if she decided to play the jealousy game, Scarlett wouldn't stand a chance—not even with a whole team of advisors!
So Dunn let Scarlett have her fun. As long as she didn't break the "eighteen rules" or mess around with other guys, he'd turn a blind eye.
Her little tricks weren't enough to dethrone Natalie anyway.
Isla huffed. "It's gonna blow up eventually!"
"Alright, drop it," Dunn said. "As long as it's not messing with work, it's fine. Oh, what's the legal team saying about the Lord of the Rings rights?"
After nearly two months of negotiations, Dunn Films had finally struck a deal with the Tolkien Estate, snagging the TV rights to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
At first, little Tolkien tried to stall, waiting to see how The Fellowship of the Ring movie did before talking. But Dunn Films had a simple strategy: throw money at it!
Five million, eight million, ten million, twelve million… fifteen million!
Little Tolkien caved under the cash onslaught and took the offer.
Fifteen million dollars—what did that even mean?
Right now, even the hottest, bestselling novels didn't fetch more than five million for movie rights—and stuff like Narnia or Harry Potter had multiple sequels to pad the deal.
Back in the day, Tolkien sold the movie rights to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings for a measly ten grand total.
By standard logic, TV rights should cost less than movie rights. Dunn Films dropping fifteen million for the TV rights to both novels? That was astronomical!
And that wasn't all—once the show was made, little Tolkien would get a 3% cut of DVD sales profits.
A deal this insane? Nobody but Dunn could've pulled it off!
Was it a loss?
At first glance, maybe.
Even the red-hot Harry Potter series wouldn't command that kind of price right now.
But Dunn wasn't thinking short-term—he was playing the long game!
Amazon shelled out $250 million for The Lord of the Rings TV rights to create a masterpiece to rival Game of Thrones.
The Lord of the Rings was the godfather of Western fantasy—an untouchable, timeless classic!
No matter what, securing the rights was step one!
"Legal's still reviewing it," Isla said. "The contract's insane—over 300 pages just for the basics. But Mr. McNick's still questioning your call. These rights don't come with merchandising."
The merch rights for The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit were long gone—even the trademarks were locked up.
Dunn Films couldn't profit off tie-ins—no games, no toys, no theme park characters…
Dunn just smiled faintly. "Didn't little Tolkien budge and let us use some of Tolkien's unfinished manuscripts? Plus, we can create original adaptations based on The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings plots. That's enough!"
The stories from The Hobbit to The Lord of the Rings weren't seamless.
Dunn's plan was simple: use Tolkien's leftover drafts, fill in the gaps himself, and tie it all together!
This had to be a long-haul, epic series!