[Marshall White: Aiden, are you free? Can we talk?]
Reading the message on his phone, Aiden wondered why Marshall had texted him. The sales of <Behind the scenes> had dwindled down in recent weeks, but it was still a good hit, having been featured in the New York Times bestselling list.
After that, they had not talked.
[Aiden: Yeah, sure.]
As soon as he texted back, a phone call came, and he picked it up. Marshall's silvery voice came out from the other side.
"I didn't disturb you, right? I heard you were shooting for another project."
"Yeah, but the shooting for the day has ended, so I'm free. Why did you want to talk to me? Is it something about <Behind the scenes>?"
Aiden got straight to the point, not wanting to spend too much time on pleasantries. He was tired after a long day of shooting and just wanted to rest.
"Yeah, it's about <Behind the scenes>."
Marshall's voice suddenly became serious, and Aiden tensed.
"What about it? Something bad?"
"No, it's actually good news." Aiden relaxed, and the next few words he heard made him widen his eyes. "A film studio wants to buy the rights of the novel. For a movie adaptation, obviously."
"Really?" Aiden's voice became higher in pitch.
"Yeah, it's a good studio. Not one of the Big 6 or anything but a good studio that we have done business with in the past. They really like the novel and think that it could be adapted into a good script. Anyway, the novel focuses a lot on Hollywood, so they probably want to use the setting."
"So, it's really going to be a real movie."
For a second, Aiden wasn't able to hide his excitement. Something he had created and worked hard on was going to be adapted and find a bigger audience, he couldn't help but be happy about it.
Marshall smiled, hearing his excited voice and quickly calmed him down.
"Calm down. The studio is just interested in buying up the rights for now. They don't even have a director for it yet, and there's no guarantee that the movie would be made in the next two years."
Aiden's smile faded away hearing that.
He immediately realised that a studio buying up rights didn't equate to the movie becoming a reality. A lot of studios would just buy up the film adaptation rights of popular novels early on but won't immediately make the movie.
They would first see where the industry is heading and what type of movie is popular among the audience before deciding whether to start on it. Then, finding the right director, cast and crew was a difficult job itself to get the movie right.
'The current trend in Hollywood is just big budget blockbusters full of special effects. <Behind the scenes> comes more under the banner of small budget movies that are screened at festivals.'
He thought in his mind.
"I understand that, but what's the name of the studio?"
"Gravity Media."
"I know them."
Aiden had heard about them as they had created a few underrated movies that had found their own audience slowly. He had also watched them and made sure to remember the director and the studio.
"Yeah, we have worked with them in the past, so we are going to negotiate a deal with them and see how it goes. I just wanted to inform you about it. You could join the meeting with Gravity Media too."
Marshall said, and Aiden nodded his head.
"I will need to see the schedule, but I will probably be there."
"That's good and… yeah, one more thing."
"What?"
Aiden raised an eyebrow, wondering if there was something else.
"Are you working on another novel? Like, have you thought of it yet?"
Marshall asked, and Aiden understood where this was going. As his first book had worked well, there were going to be expectations on his second work and Vikings publishing wanted a hand on it as they already had a partnership.
More than that, Marshall wanted to see Aiden's growth as a writer, having a good opinion of his creative talent.
But Aiden's answer disappointed him.
"No, not yet. I've just been busy with a lot of things in the past few months. I have not really written anything. Not even a word."
"Oh." Marshall's voice was clearly a bit disappointed. "So, do you have any idea about your next book? Are you going to continue writing, especially with your celebrity career going so well?"
"Yeah, I'm going to continue it, and no, I don't really have any ideas for now."
Aiden was sure of it and assured Marshall, who finished the call with one last sentence.
"Take your time with the next book. I know you are busy but if you get an idea for your next book, discuss it with me. You have a good hit this year, and it was your debut too, so there are a lot of expectations on you. So, don't rush, just give your best whenever it may come."
***
Aiden thought a bit about the whole conversation with Marshall after it ended.
He was happy about his book becoming a movie. At least getting the rights bought, but the thing he thought more about was his next novel.
Aiden was sure that he wouldn't be working on any songs in a while, as he was exhausted in that regard after his album and wanted to focus more on the acting projects but on the other hand, he didn't mind writing another novel. It was a pretty fun thing to do, after all.
But he had no ideas in his mind.
His first novel was easier to write as it was set in Hollywood and was just the story of a struggling actor, something which Aiden had himself gone through. Richard's suggestions in the end also helped to fine-tune the characters, making it a better product.
In the end, the novel had also become a bit dark.
For his second novel, one thing was sure, Aiden wanted to take a lighter theme. He wanted to do a fun story that people would laugh about while reading.
'I could just try a children's novel and hope that the adults would like it too because it's too simple to read and even get a whole movie franchise of it in the end.'
He thought in his head but wasn't able to decide. There were a lot of genres he could try, and he would need to lock down on the theme of the novel first before starting.
For the time being, Aiden just decided to focus on the shooting. It was already July, and the shooting was going to go till early September, so he was only going to be free after that to write the novel.
Every day on the set was pretty great, as the shooting was progressing very smoothly. One common thing in the shootings was that the actors would get close to each other or grow hostile toward each other.
Either one of the two was going to happen for sure, depending on the cast involved but in the case of [Sherlock of the Shadows], the cast was getting along quite well.
At first, many young actors were envious of Aiden since he was the same age, yet he had bagged the role and even gotten Jeremy's recognition. Envy was apparent as they wished to be in his place.
But as the shooting continued, they soon realised that Aiden was a good person. Jeremy was already not a problem, so it was a pretty great atmosphere, and it was helping the shooting.
Currently, some of the actors were sitting together as the crew was setting up props for the scene. Jeremy had struck up a conversation about how they had begun acting.
"Well, I dropped out of USC (University of Southern College) in the last year because I was offered a role in a movie and was like fuck college, I'm going to become a movie actor. It just appealed to me a lot more, and those days, I was finding a reason to get out of college."
Jeremy said, and everyone looked at him in wonder. Dropping out of USC, a big college, was a daring move, and just the Oscars on Jeremy's trophy cabinet would tell that it had turned out quite good for him.
Though in those days, the atmosphere was completely different as there was no internet.
"What about you, Aiden? You studied acting too?"
Jeremy asked, and a few glances gathered at him.
"No, I didn't. I was in a famous theatre group back in my hometown. Started from the bottom and learned as I observed the more experienced guys there. I also learned a lot from the movies since my childhood and just tried to emulate them."
His answer surprised a few as he looked like one of those guys who would top the grade in an arts school.
'So, he's a natural. God is truly unfair.'
A few actors thought like that as Jeremy raised an eyebrow.
"So, you never really studied acting or gotten classes on filmmaking?"
"No, I didn't. Not formally. I did learn about the basic things an actor should know. As I worked as an extra here and there on small, indie ventures, I asked the professionals there more about it, and the internet helped too."
His answer didn't seem to satisfy Jeremy as he frowned.
"That's a pity."
He muttered, and Aiden wondered what was wrong. Why was Jeremy frowning just because he didn't have a formal education in acting?
….
