The My Hollywood System
Chapter 4

Benjamin Charles was sitting in his office with a stack of papers in front of him. Just now, the other actors under him decided to quit the MCA without giving a proper reason.

All these stacks of low-output jobs put him under pressure.

First of all, the people above were in chaos for a long time now, failing to even stabilize his position. Second, their actors have not made a real hit lately, putting MCA shares down.

Just last month, one of the actors, Kyle Myers, a promising young actor, starred in a romantic comedy invested in by the MCA. But failed at the box office, did not even break even.

Sigh up!

Benjamin sighed for the umpteenth time after thinking about all this.

Shaking his head, he thought about the next appointment he had today and remembered that his late best friend's son, Will, would come to see him today.

Thinking of him, ******other* came out of his mouth.

He is a good boy with proper etiquette, only his pride does not allow him to take money from Benjamin as a favor.

Since he didn't take any financial help, Benjamin offers to introduce him to the film crew. So that at least he can work and earn a decent income, while gaining experience and one day finally can become a director.

But surprisingly, the boy refused his help and even asked to read the script and buy it if he liked the script.

Benjamin did not expect Will to be interested in writing the screenplay because he always dreamed of being a director and directing his own film.

So, Will's sudden statement to sell his own screenplay that he wrote surprised Benjamin.

Still, Benjamin had no hope for the script. Good screenwriters are always in demand, but that also means that there are very few good screenwriters.

So it would be foolish to expect anything good from a script written by a young dropout. He may even speed up the plot and will make a lot of beginner mistakes as well.

Still, Benjamin was willing to check it out, after all Will was the son of his dead friend. The best he can do is take care of her.

As Benjamin was busy thinking about things, he heard a knock on his door.

"Lake in."

He said while sitting in his chair. The door opened when Will came in.

"Uncle Charles, it's been a long time."

He said as he greeted Benjamin. With an average middle-aged American face and a distended stomach, his uncle was similar to most depressed middle-aged office workers.

"Will, how are you? Do you have a girl?"

Benjamin asked as he advanced to shake Will's hand. His eyes moved slightly towards the script in his other hand as Will sat down.

"Not found one yet and I'm not looking for one. It's too early for me to settle in."

"That's right. When I was your age, I moved from one girl to another. It was the best time of my life."

Benjamin smiled as he and Will did a bit of small talk. But in his head, he judged it as a vague curiosity about what kind of script Will would show him.

After a while, he finally started the main topic.

"certain."

Will nodded his head and gave the script to Benjamin.

Holding a thick document in his hand, Benjamin opened it and saw the name of the script that clearly made him curious.

"[17 again]?"

"Yes, that's the name of my story." Will began to give a brief introduction to his story. "The story is a romantic comedy at its core but there is a soft touch of science fiction and fantasy. It focuses on Mike, a star basketball player who gives up his dream to handle the responsibilities of his pregnant girlfriend. But twenty years later, he goes through a divorce and his life falls apart. A chance encounter makes him 17 years old again and he now has another chance to graduate High School."

Plot 17 is much inspired by time-travel movies but most of the plots are body regression.

Because the makers wanted it to be lighthearted and unlike the dark time travel movies, it primarily focused on love, relationships, regret, and the importance of family.

Will personally loved the film.

While there is nothing too surprising in it and the plot is even sometimes predictable, there is a lot to enjoy.

That's why the film emerged as a box office hit and became one of the best commercial films of the year of its release.

Listening to Will's brief explanation, even Benjamin was impressed. Even though he didn't try to show it on his face.

He quietly read the script and the first few pages were enough to make him see its potential.

'Time-travel film with teen drama. Perfect for the actors I've worked with.'

Just like any other Industry, Hollywood has a 'trend' and nowadays, time-travel movies sell much better than pancakes.

Just six months ago, a film titled [A leap in Time] earned 500 million dollars at the box office and even earned several nominations.

After that, many studios tried to replicate his success and Benjamin heard a lot about new films based on this concept that would be released in the next year or two.

Even he wanted to get his actors on a project like this because it was basically guaranteed success unless the story was too chaotic or the actors were not famous.

In fact, he was not lucky.

After all, it was very difficult to find a certain type of script in Hollywood and even if he found one, most of them could not be made into movies.

Just a revision in it will take a long time.

But now, there was a pretty good script in his hands and it came from a chance encounter. Who would have known that Will was capable of writing something like this?

After reading the first 15 pages, Benjamin was convinced that it was not just a mediocre script.

That's why glancing at Will, he put the script out of his hand and picked up the phone on his desk.

Then, he called his assistant.

"Cancel my appointment for the next two hours."

Sitting in front of him, Will silently smiled.