My Hollywood System

Chapter 175:

After finishing off the few episodes of [Friends] that Will had agreed to do, he quickly flew back to Los Angeles to finalise the voice actor of Spiderman in the Ultimate Spider-man series.

Will learned that there already had been several rounds of the auditions. In addition, many voice-over actors who were famous in the industry had participated in the auditions.

Since there wasn’t much left for him to do with the rest of the things related to the Ultimate Spiderman animation other than finding a perfect voice for the main character, Will felt at ease knowing there would just be a little more.

His goal was to finish things off quickly and get a week worth of break to spend some time with June, because he was aware that June’s shootings in [Terminator] would end soon. A good break sounded nice to him and June. Considering how tiring must have been for her, Will’s plan sounded just perfect.

In relation to all the works that Dream Vision decided to start and carry on at the same time, there were two more projects that needed to start the pre-productions quickly; [Catch me if you can] and [Hitch].

Z studios and Dream Vision were in talks for [Catch me if you can] but Z studios wanted their own conditions instead of following what Dream Vision was offering. Negotiations were a part of any deal, but in the end, it fell out.

Kron studios used this to quickly agree to whatever condition Dream Vision was giving, just to get some connections with the current most popular studio in Hollywood.

On the other hand, the project of [Hitch] was with Foxstar. And, Amanda was currently negotiating things between them.

Since Will finished the episodes that he promised to direct, he had to find a new director to do the rest of the show. For that, he selected a TV director with quite a good amount of projects in his resume. Christopher E. Watson was known to be a very famous director who was very talented in TV show direction.

Will mainly chose Christopher knowing and reviewing some TV shows he had directed. He had almost 13 years’ worth of experience and knowledge which was a plus point in his selection compared to any other director.

After talking things with him and agreeing to arrange meetings every now and then for discussions on [Friends], Will flew to LA.

***

Will, Ross and Stan Lee walked in the corridor of Dream Vision where the final round of auditions for the voice actor for Ultimate Spiderman took place.

“How is everything coming in pre-production?” Will asked while walking with Ross.

“We already have the first few episodes written and now they are making the concept arts. Most work for the first episode is done,” Ross answered.

“That’s good. How have things been going around the office?”

“Very good, sir. Everyone seemed to be happy and enthusiastic. Of course, things would get stressed once in a while, but overall, they are fine,”

“Sounds alright to me. And… Let’s get this done,” Will said and opened the door where the auditions were going to be held.

The voice actors had to do a small performance of around 5 minutes. Most of it was just from the first episode of Ultimate Spider-Man.

When Will entered the recording booth, the screen for the animation and everything else was neatly set.

After explaining and giving each of the lines that they should say, Will started the audition quickly without wasting any more seconds.

The first voice actor to enter the recording booth was a middle aged man with long black hair. From what Will was told, he was a pretty popular voice actor.

Without wasting any time, the audition started.

He was dubbing the scene where Spiderman would look at J. Jonah Jamieson talking bad things about him. It was the first appearance of the famous head of the Daily Bugle in the series.

“And a good morning to you, J. Jonah Loudmouth.”

“Me? I get yelled at by a hundred foot tall cranky pants. Where’s a little love for the Spidey-guy?…”

The guy with long black hair continued talking like Spiderman.

The audition ended after five minutes and Will shook his head after the guy left. He had failed to impress him.

“We need something a bit less serious. And his voice doesn’t sound a lot like Peter’s voice in my mind. Moreover, he doesn’t give a teenager vibe in his voice. Not him,” Will said while thinking more and more reasons why his voice wouldn’t suit to dub over Spiderman.

“Oh, okay, we have plenty more in the line anyway,” Ross replied.

Another male came and stood in front of the mic. His head was bald, and he was a black guy.

“Hi, I’m John.”

He introduced himself while looking a bit nervous in front of Will.

“Get ready for the audition.” He said and the black guy nodded.

It was mandatory for voice actors to look at the scene once before starting the dubbing to get an idea how the character was behaving and shift their voice tones according to that.

The black guy saw the scene and started speaking.

“…I still have to pick up a cake for Aunt May before the first period. Then it’s some hang time with my best pals MJ and Harry, and maybe a nap between classes, but first I gotta save that cop from a skidding car,”

It was the opening scene in the series where Spiderman would come across a crime scene before meeting Nick Fury.

“Nick Fury, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. That’s the Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division. The super spies. You super spies make an appointment to sneak up on hard working heroes?”

After the audition was done, the black guy was told that he would get the results later. He left after that.

“How did he even pass the auditions to be here?” Will questioned the two people beside them.

The audition had not gone right at all. The black guy didn’t suit Peter Parker or Spiderman. He tried his best to read out the dialogues in a funny way but he just seemed like someone who was trying too hard.

“I have no idea,” Ross whispered.

“I remember the guy did so well the other day, I don’t know why he couldn’t even keep up with the pace this time. I guess it’s a case of nervousness.”

Stan Lee said, and Will sighed. There was no way to get another chance just because one was having a bad day.

There were two more auditions that happened after that, in which the voice actors who came had to do emotional and action situations of Spiderman. Both of them lacked one thing or another.

After the voice actors left, Will and Ross started discussing their auditions.

“That is a huge no, the actions sounded like Spiderman was getting stabbed over and over. What was even that?”

“The first bits of rage were good though,” Ross said while Will nodded in agreement.

It was then that a tall guy walked in the room.

Will turned to look at him and instantly froze. The guy has a clean face without any ounce of beard and his hair was short.

Seeing him, Will suddenly remembered a movie named [The Social Network].

The tall guy smiled as he introduced himself.

“Hello, I’m Andrew Griffin.”

***

Amanda was in the office of CEO, Foxstar. She was there to finalise the distribution deal with them.

“We are excited to work with Dream Vision again,” Colt Miller said. “But I still have the idea that Foxstar should invest in [Hitch],”

Colt Miller was someone who wanted to have control over things that would gain profit. He wanted to make sure that the projects that Foxstar has must be in his control.

But Dream Vision wanted the entire opposite of it.

“I’m sorry Mr. Miller. We are not open to getting investments in [Hitch]. It’s something that Dream Vision wants to work on without involving any external parties.”

Amanda was aware why Dream Vision wasn’t open to this idea. Investments basically meant having shadow control over the project and getting a power to voice out their opinions.

Recently, there were rumours of Colt Miller changing scripts of ongoing projects because he didn’t like them.

They were being careful with Foxstar due to these things.

Colt shrugged, seeing Amanda’s attitude and changed the subject to something else.

“So, when will things start for [Sherlock Holmes: A game of Shadows]?”

Colt questioned wanting to know their plans for the second part of the Sherlock Holmes series. Since the first movie was a success, it is guaranteed the next movie would come out great, breaking a lot of box office records but the movie hadn’t started yet.

Dream Vision and Foxtar had signed a deal for three movies. Since the first part of it was a huge hit, the second part is due to start but Robert was currently employed with other shootings.

Colt and other shareholders of Foxstar wanted the movie to start as soon as possible. But it was not possible so soon.

[Hitch] in a way was Will wanting to shut them up for a while. A kind of an incentive, so they don’t try to cause trouble.

It was because Foxstar still held a lot of influence in the industry as a big six. Yet, Will signed the agreement with his dad Spencer, but not Colt. Regardless, Dream Vision had no choice but to go with the option of keeping them away from business while giving them minimum freedom for a while.

“The shootings are supposed to start by the end of the year. And Will is currently busy with other things, which is why he couldn’t meet up with you,” Amanda said.

Hearing the words Colt nodded but a clear frown appeared on his forehead. He was not happy with the words, but he had no say in it.

“Yeah, looking forward to meeting him,” Colt added rather sarcastically.

…

//DreamNote//

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