[Owen POV]
"Instead of focusing on the Universal contract, the media was focusing on another matter," David told me with a heavy heart.
Two weeks had passed since the scandal.
Hold On Tight was already in its fifth week in theaters. It had earned more than 90 million dollars domestically, and over 70 million worldwide.
Because the movie was kid-friendly and carried a strong moral lesson about the relationship between a father and son, it had gained powerful word-of-mouth support.
The single also sold very well—over 500,000 cassettes were sold, earning me a solid 1 million after the label, 4CLOVER MUSIC, took their cut.
The Universal contract scandal had also pushed my name into the spotlight. That, in turn, helped the movie rise even higher. People were curious why Universal had done what they did.
"I already know about it." I smiled teasingly at the dejected teenagers around me.
Elena, Bayani, and Micheal all thought they were exposing the dirty side of Hollywood. But the media quickly moved on to another topic after a week.
Nothing really happened with Universal—except Maury and Goldstein being fired for creating a contract without the board's supervision.
Universal reached out to offer me a nice deal for another project, but I had already signed with George for his next movie. I rejected them softly.
"What do you expect? They basically controlled the media right now. But they did help me a lot too. So don't be so disappointed." I placated Elena.
Without social media, it was easy for Universal to cover up the news since traditional media worked on connections and lobbying.
When the Universal Secret Contract Scandal hit the press, the government couldn't completely ignore it. The story revealed how the "Big Six" studios could control actors with exploitative long-term clauses, including image rights, residuals, and project approval.
After the story broke, the Department of Labor made a very public statement:
"We will be reviewing entertainment contracts within major studios to ensure they comply with fair labor standards and freedom-of-work laws."
A mid-level official from the Senate Subcommittee on Labor announced they would "look into" Hollywood's labor practices.
The news made headlines for two or three days. Everyone in the industry knew it was mostly symbolic—a gesture to calm the public.
The matter ended there with no further follow-up.
Elena bit her lower lip in frustration. She sighed and then put on a witch's hat. Micheal wore a Frankenstein mask. Bayani went as Hercules.
It was Halloween's Eve, and we decided to walk around trick-or-treating.
All of the sect members were older teens now, but they had never done this before, so they wanted to try it.
"What are you wearing?" Elena asked, curious why I was in casual clothes.
"Nothing," I told her. "I'm not interested in dressing up. I did that every single day anyway."
A car entered the gated Montecito apartment parking lot. Sarah M. Gellar joined the kids, wearing an angel costume.
She looked at me and asked, "Aren't you going to wear a costume for the party?"
"I am. I'm going as Owen Chase. Sarah M. Gellar's hot boyfriend," I said cheekily.
She furrowed her eyebrows in annoyance.
The scandal that now made the front pages, instead of my contract, was the rumored relationship between me and my co-star.
The tabloids exploded with stories after a blind item claimed Sarah had been spotted at my apartment building several times.
"As your tabloid girlfriend, go change into a costume. It's lame to host a Halloween party without one," she said, pausing when she noticed Elena and flinching.
"So—sorry. I'm just playing with what the media said about us. I'm not claiming I'm his girlfriend—you're his girlfriend," she stammered and quickly clarified.
Elena gave me a short look before telling Sarah, "I was never his girlfriend."
"What?" Sarah and I were both taken aback.
Elena explained simply, "He only did that to make sure no one would bother him. He doesn't really like being around other people."
"Why?" I rubbed my forehead in frustration. Sarah fumed in anger and asked, "Did you guys really never date?"
"Um… yeah." I replied warily.
"Son of a bitch." Sarah cursed, turning around to grab Elena's hand as she pulled her away from the house.
I didn't follow her, though, since I was waiting for Maya to arrive. When the eight-year-old finally came with Jessica, I brought her out to trick-or-treat around the neighborhood.
…
The party at the Montecito apartment. Sarah invited some of the younger celebs she knew. I also invited some of them—the kids from the Halloween movie.
The courtyard was filled with teenagers now, all enjoying the party. There was no booze, but there was music played by Bayani.
"Hey!" Alison Brie tapped my shoulder as I was talking with Elena. She took the chance to interject after we finished a conversation.
I turned to her and said, "Hey Cheese."
"Stop that." She grimaced. She wore a gown and carried a wand, dressed as the Fairy Godmother for Halloween.
"Did you see my movie?" she asked excitedly.
I had cast her as one of the side characters in the Halloween movie. She was the love interest to the protagonist, and also the damsel in distress later on.
"I love it. I like the twist," I told her. She betrayed him at the end and turned out to be working with the Big Bad Villain the entire time.
She grinned and said, "I'm so nervous. I don't know how well it's performing in the theater right now."
The movie was released in limited theaters. It started with 600 theaters only two weeks ago, but it surprisingly did well.
It was a DTV movie, but it didn't look that way. The song slapped, and the story was filled with a lot of morals.
Too bad we were only running it for a month in theaters since Disney's 101 Dalmatians have dominated the kids' market.
Disney's release had nearly 4,000 theaters nationwide, while our little movie with 4CLOVER barely reached 1,500 screens at its peak, but that was already a big victory for an independent film.
"It did very well. It made 25 million on a 3 million dollar budget," I told her, sounding impressed.
Her expression, however, faltered. "It only made that?" she muttered with disappointment.
She knew my movies had pulled over 700 million in total at the box office, with both movies having a small budget– under 10 million each.
So she expected her movie to do well too.
"Believe me, that's already really good," I said with a chuckle.
Maybe I was slipping into studio head mode without realizing it, because Alison looked at me strangely. She probably expected to get teased instead of being comforted.
The marketing for the movie had been only around 5 million, which meant we already earned our budget back and made a solid profit. Still, it didn't break out the way it deserved to.
The truth was simple. The director was unknown, the cast was full of fresh faces, and we had no existing franchise name to lean on.
Disney's 101 Dalmatians, on the other hand, was backed by a decades-old brand, a $25 million marketing blitz, and the full power of their distribution network.
Compared to that, our small Halloween movie, no matter how heartfelt or well-made, was drowned out by Disney's sheer noise.
"Should we go to the theater, all of us, and buy all the seats to increase what we made?" Alison said jokingly.
"Who's paying?" I asked.
"You are. You're the richest one here." She said with a grin.
I grimaced and then turned to the crowd, shouting loudly to the group of 50 people, "Who's here wants to go watch a Fantastical Halloween movie! I'll pay for the ticket!"
Everyone shouted in excitement. Alison was taken aback, and then she jumped up and down, squealing in excitement.
From afar, Sarah and Elena were staring daggers at me. I ignored them both.
Then, we drove to the nearby theater which was screening it, using car pools. I drove Alison, Maya and Jessica Alba who were also in the movie.
Maya was excited to be watching the movie again. She had been watching it for 3 times since it came out.
Surprisingly, all of the seats inside the theater were filled. We had to split into two groups just to watch it.
When the lights dimmed, the audience went quiet. Then, as soon as the title card—A Fantastical Halloween—appeared, the kids in the front rows started cheering.
I caught Alison stealing glances toward them, her nervousness showing in her hands fidgeting with the hem of her dress.
The movie starts with the protagonist, the 16-year-old Ryan Gosling, speaking with the Principal about his father's death and how it impacted his studies and personality.
He became reserved and quiet, not really talking with anyone, even his parents. He shut down after the family tragedy.
Then, the scene continued when the kids were released from school. Ryan met with several kids, his close friends.
One of them was a self-proclaimed ladies' man who creeped out the girls he talked to. The other was a cowardly kid with glasses. The third was an arsonist—a delinquent everyone was afraid of.
Ryan met with Alison, who invited him to study together, but he rejected her even though it was clear he liked her back.
They were crossing the streets, walking back home in that small town, when they came across an old blind lady.
They ignored her at first, but then her fruit bag tore open, and she fell down on the street. All four of them immediately went to help her.
They picked up the oranges for her, helped her cross the street, and even brought her to her destination—an antique store with two more blind ladies inside.
The ladies wanted to repay the favor and gave them a D&D game to play since they said they had played it before. The tone was eerie, the music unsettling.
Inside Ryan's house, they met another character: a 12-year-old annoying kid who wanted to play with them. But Ryan shooed him away.
When they started the game, they found the characters already set up for them.
Like the premise of Jumanji, the board game floated into the air, and the kids all turned into their characters in the game.
The coward became a Barbarian Orc. The arsonist became a Valiant Paladin. Ryan became a Bard. And the misogynist actually turned into a thieving elf—a female elf, played by Jessica Alba.
"What?" Jessica asked, her ears now pointy. She wore an elven battle dress that combined sophistication with femininity.
The others looked at her in disbelief.
Many pre-teens and teens had their awakening watching Jessica Alba in this scene.
The outfit was made by Jasper, my sect member with the molding esper power, which made all of the costumes feel very high quality. Even the extras' costumes looked great. It really elevated the visual of the movie.
"The only way for you to return everything back to normal is to finish the campaign," a spooky voice told them.
It started out adventurous and fun. They met monsters, used their powers, and became more confident with their characters—all of them, except the Bard, who still wasn't sure what his role was.
Then, they entered a tavern where they met Alison Brie as the barmaid.
This was the first time the Bard sang—a bardic battle against an Ice Elf, who turned out to be his little brother trapped in the game.
He almost lost until his friends intervened and discovered the Ice Elf was cheating.
By the time the first song kicked in, the theater was alive. Kids laughed at the slapstick scenes, gasped when the villain appeared, and sang along—badly but enthusiastically—during the chorus.
Parents seemed pleasantly surprised too; a few chuckled at the subtle jokes written for adults.
When the villain was introduced, the entire tone of the movie changed.
The Principal had grown a beard and was transformed into the final boss—Dracula.
He entered the bar the heroes had just left and spoke to Alison Brie. His fangs lengthened as Alison turned her back, exposing her flawless neck beside him.
The screen went dark, and the story continued with the heroes' journey.
"Why is the villain so handsome?" Sarah muttered with disbelief.
He had slicked-back hair, red eyes, and a scruffy beard—like a younger version of Johnny Depp. He played the villain with charisma and a meta awareness that made him magnetic.
The villain jumped on a tavern table and sang his big, bad, evil song:
🎵 "I'm the demon you conjured from the corners of your thoughts
I'm the tension and the terror you pretend that I wrought
Ah, but then who else would I be if not draped in your gloom?
No crowd craves a hero if there's no villain in the room." 🎵
The soft-rock number, mixed with his theatrical energy, became a fan favorite.
As the story went on, each hero confronted their flaws and grew stronger.
The misogynist learned what it felt like to be objectified and uncomfortable. He began to see women as people, not romantic targets.
At the bar, Alison asked him to come to the girl's bathroom with her.
Jessica Alba showed a sleazy and perverted smile, which was something I made using puppetry skill since she couldn't pull that off on her own, and followed Alison from behind.
However in the toilet, Alison was crying instead, which made him taken aback and he saw how his action– which was mirrored by the same people who were messing with Alison, affected the girls.
As a girl himself in the campaign, he felt saddened by it and even cried with her, which made for a funny yet satisfying scene.
The delinquent learned discipline and restraint from the Paladin's code.
The cowardly kid learned to take risks and face his fears.
But the Bard's growth seemed stagnant. He grew more despondent as the story went on, feeling everyone else had surpassed him.
Then came the final battle. The Principal played Dracula to perfection. Alison was turned into a vampire too, transforming from an innocent barmaid into a seductive, dangerous figure.
All the Bard's friends were captured by Dracula's goons, leaving him alone to face the final boss.
Instead of killing him outright, Dracula treated the fight like a twisted therapy session, mocking his escapism and offering to "help" him move past his pain.
The campaign neared its end. Dracula caught the Bard and was about to strike, when suddenly, an ice arrow hit him.
It was his brother, the Ice Elf, who saved him.
"We're family," his brother said. "We'll fight, but we always have each other's backs."
Then he added softly,
"You don't have to go through a scary thing alone."
Those words broke through to Ryan. Tears welled in his eyes as he looked around the battlefield, his friends bound and fading.
He said, voice trembling but full of resolve, "You're right. In tough times, I should lean on my family and friends."
As the music swelled, a warm golden light radiated from his lute—the long-awaited Bardic Inspiration.
One by one, the light reached his friends. Their eyes opened.
The Paladin's chains shattered. The Barbarian roared and broke free. The Elf landed gracefully beside him, bow drawn.
Together, they faced Dracula in a dazzling final sequence filled with flashes of light, swirling magic, and rising chorus vocals from all their character themes.
The final battle alone accounted for 50% of the movie budget. It has no CGI, but a lot of practical effects.
Dracula tried one final strike—but the Bard blocked it with a burst of music so powerful it shattered the illusion of the world itself.
Then, silence.
A white flash—and they were back in the basement. The board game lay still, its dice frozen midair before clattering down.
Ryan looked around, breathing hard. His friends were there, safe. The boy who had turned into Jessica was patting his body all over, seemingly disappointed that he had turned back.
The next day at school, everyone had changed for the better. The bard boy no longer felt the need to repress his emotions.
The misogynist kid finally spoke respectfully to girls, even joining in when they were gossiping.
The cowardly kid volunteered to become class president.
And the delinquent decided to help people.
The principal? He decided to keep the beard.
As we walked out of the theater, I asked one of the employees—a high school senior who recognized me from my movie.
"You know, this is the third night in a row this theater's been packed for that movie. We've even had to restock the soundtrack cassettes at the counter twice this week."
That made Alison's jaw drop. "Really?"
"Yeah," he said. "It's not Disney numbers, but people are coming back for second viewings. Word of mouth's been great."
"See? I told you the movie's good." I smiled at Alison.
D&D has always been for a niche audience. To make $25 million in the domestic market alone proved that the movie was good.
It was set for a worldwide release tomorrow. Hopefully, it will be received just as well.
There had been a couple of articles about Lucky Clover Studio before the movie's release. They mentioned Jack Kennedy a few times, praising him as the sixteen-year-old Harvard dropout filmmaker.
As the movie proved to be a hit, Jack's name grew even more. Hopefully, it would create a following so that the next film would be received even better.
But part of me wondered if I was moving too fast. Most directors made one film, then waited years for it to ripple through audiences, to let their name sink into the culture before the next one arrived.
"Hey." Alison called me. "Thank you for recommending me to the director." She said sweetly.
I grimaced and said, "I only did that to make you stop hanging around my restaurant."
She froze and argued, "I'll make sure to go there a lot more times now!"
"Sweet. I can still get a profit from that." I muttered teasingly which made her grumbled in exasperation.
…
The party ended around 10, since the partygoers were all teenagers and young adults. Except for a few people, everyone else had left.
Sarah approached me privately. I expected her to be angry, but her expression showed pity instead.
"Elena told me why you did that. So, I don't blame you," she muttered.
I was a bit confused. "What did she tell you exactly?" I asked.
Sarah said, "She told me how your mother and father are always cheating on each other, which made you scared of relationships. I understood it partially, since my dad left my mom too."
She held my hand gently and said, "I hope you'll get past it in the future, and never close your heart to the people around you anymore."
Then, she hugged me and left.
I looked at Elena with extreme confusion.
Elena avoided my eyes for the rest of the night.