It was then Wade who dropped some unexpected news. "Well Aiden wants to make his directorial debut". This news shocked everyone. Actors becoming filmmakers and producers was already common in Hollywood. But only actors who had acted in several movies and were touching late 50s or 40s would take up filmaking. Aiden was now the youngest A lister of Hollywood. He being interested in becoming a director shocked everyone present. Would he abandon acting and be a full time filmmaker . This was what everyone was thinking then.
Everyone wondered how good could Aiden be as a director, but then Aiden was someone who had shown multiple talents in signing, acting, writing comics and novels.
Soon the situation calmed. It was then that a Gravity Media Executive asked ehat the project was going to be and what would be his directorial debut.
Hearing them Aiden told "Actually I want my first directorial to be an adaptation of my novel Behind The Scenes ". Now everyone had a sense of realisation on their face and understood why Aiden had come to their office. They remembered that Aiden had sold the filming rights of his novel Behind The Scenes 2 years back to Gravity Media.
At that time Gravity Media was working on a new superhero franchise and also on two mid budget 40 million dollar films. The superhero movie was released last year and it had not worked. The market was already oversaturated with superhero films. Though the main reason was clash with another superhero film of a Big 6 studios which had several A Listers in cast and had several times more promotions. The 2 mid budget films were a cop thief movie and another a horror film. The cop thief movie had been released after Aiden's blockbuster " Black Saints 2". The audience having high expectations after watching Black Saints were not going to watch another cop thief film. So the box office collections were average and despite the ott and streaming deals they were in a loss. Their next project the horror film had average performance at box office and somehow just scratched the budget with ott earnings. So now the entire studio was in a mess on what to work with. Should they go for a high budget film next or a film festival low budget movie.
The Gravity Media Ceo then asked "So what type of a film work do you want. Do you want to go for a film or a webseries ". Aiden's novel Behind The Scenes had already been a bestseller. But Hollywood audience was different. They preferred more action, Vfx, and entertainment.
Aiden replied "I have not thought about it. I came today to discuss about the movie. But whatever be it I want to keep the film low budget probably below 7 million dollars. And I also want to co invest in the project.
The Gravity Media executives were all surprised on hearing the word co production. But one of them asked Aiden "Will you be the male lead". This was the question which everyone in the room had even Wade. If Aiden was going to be the male lead then they would immediately greenlight the project.
But to their disappointment Aiden replied "Probably not. But I would be one of the important characters". Hearing this somewhat their disappointment reduced.
They felt that if Aiden played an important role in the movie, and coupled with a good soundtrack the project would be able to get back the investment of 5 to 7 million even if Aiden was a crap director.
At that time Wade and the executives also started intense negotiations on the production. Although not finalised they had a verbal agreement of Aiden and Gravity Media investing about 40% of the project each and Aiden would have another 9% for being the director and an important character, the remaining 7 to 8% to be divided among other small investors.
The meeting ended. Aiden and Wade were returning. In the car while Tom was driving Wade asked Aiden "Do you want to go for a small film festival movie or a webseries. The novel can also be adaptated into a TV series."
Aiden was also wondering what they should go for. His next film Hex 2 would release after 10 to 11 months. So if they had to go for a movie they would have to release it within the next few months because it was always necessary to maintain a gap of 2 monthd between his 2 films to avoid overexposure.
Aiden returned to his bunglow near film university. At night he and Ava were at home together with both enjoying the dinner Ava had cooked. Aiden told Ava about his ordeal.