As it was already December, [30 days of Happiness] was already running in the theatres for over one and a half months. It would have gotten collections in the holiday season if not for big franchise releases.
Even then, analysts were saying that by the end of December, the movie was going to cross 100 million dollars at the box office.
It would run till Jan end before coming to streaming platforms, so the total collections were going to be off the charts.
Until now, the movie had earned around 81.9 million dollars at the box office. It was one of the sleeper hits of the year which had really made a mark at the box office.
Because of the movie's success, a lot of streaming platforms like Zetflix and Dream + have shown interest in acquiring the rights to the movie but Omar was still busy negotiating a good deal.
As all this was happening, a strange news suddenly started coming out from a few meds websites.
It was about Aiden winning a prize in the contest held by Vikings publishing. Those who were present on the scene had quickly posted articles on the topic.
<Aiden Silvereye's new talent came to the public eye as his book <Behind the scenes> won 'Vikings New book of the year' award. Are we seeing a real life genius showcasing talents one by one?>
<After winning the award, Aiden Silvereye said, "The book is partly inspired by me but another actor helped me plan the main storyline of the book and what I wanted to show in it.">
<What's next for Aiden Silvereye? Direction? Joining a boy band? Painting? The multi talented celebrity seemed to have a long list of talents that he's slowly revealing to the public.>
<Vikings publishing senior editor said, "<Behind the scenes> always seemed to be a special book to me and the other editors when we read it. It was something that truly impressed us and it was only in the award ceremony that I got to know that Aiden is a celebrity." He was all praises for the book and mentioned that they were going to sign the contract with Aiden as soon as possible.>
<Aiden Silvereye's book another addition to a long list of celebrity books? Or something better? The award says that it's most likely to be the latter.>
As those headlines came out, it came off as very unexpected to people who were following Aiden. He had written a book and even won the prize? It looked like fake news.
A lot of people just thought that Aiden had published his autobiography. But then, what would he write when his career was not even two years old properly?
When they checked, it turned out that he had actually written a novel and Vikings publishing was even going to publish it.
It was very big news and although it didn't blow up like other viral things related to Aiden, his fans were still very excited.
Particularly, his fan group was buzzing with messages after this news came out.
[Rugby not football: Is it true that Aiden is publishing a book? That really came out of nowhere? Is it fake or he's actually trying to get into the writing field.]
[Harry Potter's wand: Man, my respect for him would go down a lot if it's just another bad book because a celebrity was like 'Let's make easy money by writing a book. Who cares if I don't know the spelling of literature.'.]
[Corny talks: Yeah, I'm still regretting buying a biography of a porn star. My wife saw me reading it and beat me up with the same book. The worst part was that I wasn't using incognito back then.]
[Daoist Z: No, guys, he won a pretty good contest with it. I follow Vikings publishing and they don't have below average novels and have a good record. I'm pretty sure the novel would be good enough. I'm going to buy it as soon as it releases.]
[Dao of not giving a F: Let's hope it's at least average. Going by the name, it could be a story set in Hollywood. Don't get a lot of stories like that these days.]
[My name is Fuk Yu: <Behind the scenes> sounds like a cool name but he entered the contest with the pen name 'Aiden Silver'. I guess he spent most of his time thinking about the novel.]
[Reporter Huff: If it's a success, then I'm pretty sure a lot of media houses will talk about it. A lot of actors pick up writing or directing by the end of their career. Rare to see someone take it so early.]
[Lucifer is Balls: I'm kinda curious as to how it would be when the book comes out. Aiden does seem like a storyteller. His songs have nice stories and he portrays them well.]
Like that, his fan group talked about this news. Not a lot of them looked excited as they were still sceptical if the book would even be good but most of them were still going to buy the book when it comes out.
***
"It looks like the media is doing the job properly. The news is spreading quietly."
Sasha, the social media manager of Aiden said as she looked at the articles on her screen. Besides him, Lia was also working on something.
Both of them were working on the ground floor as the first floor and basement was currently getting renovated.
"I already sent some information to some of the media channels I knew of and they were soon going to release the article." Lia said and Sasha tilted her head.
"Should I promote it a bit more? It could get interest from a lot of people easily and then copy articles are going to come up, spreading it even more."
"No, I don't think we should do that. A lot of people already complain about celebs doing heavy PR. We need to keep it natural and not make it seem like Aiden is everywhere all the time."
"Yeah, news about him is still floating around due to [30 days of Happiness] and [Searching for the One]."
Overexposure was something that a lot of new age celebrities suffer from. Partly, it was their and their PR teams fault as their Skygram and Sparrow would be filled with too many posts and pictures.
The PR Team would literally push for the celebrity to be everywhere on the internet and it would significantly reduce any interest in them in the longer term due to overexposure.
It would become harder to create interest in their new projects.
That's why, both Lia and Sarah wanted to avoid that for Aiden. He already was someone who did a lot of projects every year, making it into entertainment news a lot. In the past year, he has trended a lot of times.
It was fine if it's natural but they can't push him otherwise. There needs to be a bit of mystery to him as all celebrities that were labelled as superstars have an aura about them like they were from a different world.
"Just monitor it, then. For the book release, a lot of people are going to doubt and be sceptical until it releases."
Sasha said, feeling like this new chapter in her life had started on a very interesting note.
"Do you think the book would do well?"
Lia asked as she turned to work on her laptop.
"I think it would have good sales but it matters more if it got good critical reviews. We need people to take Aiden seriously as a writer as he made it clear that he will write more books going forward."
"He's a weird person, ain't he?" Lia suddenly said.
"Why?"
"He doesn't stay with one thing. It's like he's a kid who's jumping from one thing to another. It could very well be a disaster for us because people have already started seeing him as a genius and it's hard to top expectations when they are high."
Lia was thinking very logically about it. It was certainly not a normal case in Hollywood and that scared her.
But Sasha just smiled.
"It's fine if people are taking him as a genius because I think he might actually be one."
***
"Hey, Harley, you want to get drinks together. I know a good bar."
A guy called out Harley as he was leaving the set of a movie he was working on. Turning back, he saw it was another extra actor.
"No thanks. Last time you said the same thing and it turned out that you brought me to be your wingman as you hit on a waitress. I am not interested in that tonight."
Saying that, he quickly left, ignoring the shouts of the actor. Making his way out of the set, Harley wondered what to do next.
It was already evening and he didn't have any other job today. Maybe he could just go home and rest, watch a game with beers.
'No, there's another place I should visit. It's been a while.'
Thinking like that, he got on a bus that took him to the area where one of the most prominent guilds in Hollywood was located — The screen actors guild.
Harley was a member for a long time and he was here to see if there's any notices about independent projects that he could go for. Normally, indie projects would allow new actors to audition.
So, he would come here often to look for a project.
As he entered the guild, he saw that it was noisy as usual. He walked towards the notice board, trying not to bump into someone. It was then that he heard some strange words.
"Did you hear about it? Aiden Silvereye's book got an award. He's now being published."
"I don't think it's true. He must have paid to win. He's in the big leagues now with a blockbuster."
"Maybe. We don't know for sure."
It was the conversation between two actors and he couldn't help but stop in his tracks hearing that.
He still recalled the guy that had asked him about his life story for his book.
'It seems like he finally wrote the book.'
...
