Dreams of Stardom (Hollywood SI)

Steve didn't call back for two more hours. It was only Evan's presence that stopped me from going mad. When it finally rang, I literally ran all the way over to the phone. Despite my every effort to grab it, Kathy was the first one to reach it and held it close to her ear with a grin on her face as she talked on the line.

"Uh-huh," She nodded seriously over the phone before not speaking for a few minutes. My patience was running low, and I was nearly ready to shout at her when finally she turned to me.

"Troy, your Dad wants to speak with you," Kathy said while offering me the receiver.

I snatched it from her haughtily and immediately put it on, going directly to the main part of the conversation, "Well?"

"We won!" Steve exclaimed happily, "We won two prizes, one is the Audience Award, Festival Favorite, and the other is the Short Film Grand Jury Prize."

"Yes!" I shouted loudly. Then I turned to Evan, "We won two awards. One Audience Award for the Festival favorite and one Grand Jury Award!"

"Yes!" Evan yelled out loud. I high-fived him. He probably didn't even understand the importance of these awards but I do. They will go a long way to secure us a distribution deal.

"That's not all," Dad's voice cut off my premature celebrations. "I sold all rights to HBO for $150,000. You remember Peter from Warner, right? He got me in contact with a friend of his from HBO which is also a subsidiary of Warner. They liked the response that our film got and purchased broadcasting and further distribution rights." He told us proudly.

"Yes!" I turned to Kathy, "Dad sold the broadcasting rights to HBO."

That was indeed very good news. From a purely financial perspective, we spent somewhere between 1-2 grand on the whole film. Obviously, it is much less than what a director of Steve's caliber should be paid but that's not the point. Keeping that in mind, we already made more than 100 times what we had spent.

But the biggest point was marketing it out to the world. At this point it doesn't matter if we make money or not, but that more people see our work and can appreciate it.

"I'll be coming back tomorrow morning," Steve's voice rang out from the receiver, "then we'll go out and celebrate in the evening. And tell your mother to invite Bobby and Amy as well."

"Will do."

I hung up the phone and relayed the message to Kathy. She nodded but had a thoughtful expression on her face.

"What's the matter, mum?" I asked.

"Do you realize how rare it is for a relatively short film like yours to win the Audience Award at a film festival?" She asked back.

I scratched my head in confusion, "Is it really? I mean the film was good, wasn't it?"

"That it was," she said. "But it is still unusual. Most of the winners are feature films. Documentaries and short films don't win. In fact, ours is the first film to do so. You can't just chalk it up to coincidence."

"Our super awesome luck?" I offered an explanation of the reason for our win.

"Most likely," She agreed before turning to Evan, "Evan, we'll be celebrating the success of Troy's first film tomorrow, would you like to come along? I'll talk to your parents if you'd like that."

"Yes, I want to come!" Evan exclaimed excitedly.

Seriously this kid was in real need of some Adderall.

(Break)

It was a lovely dinner we had at this upscale restaurant called Providence. Probably the best seafood I've had in both my lives. Can't be sure about my past life but that was the feeling I got when I had the first bite of that awesome sushi.

Dad had given Amy and Bobby a $5,000 check each as a bonus for making the movie. For broke college students, they were more than happy with the amount.

"What about me?" I asked Steve with a big pout. "You gave so much money to them, and nothing to your star? That's unfair."

Steve chuckled, "You can ask for anything you want. Within reason of course."

"I want a skateboard," I said without needing to think it over. I wanted one so badly for quite some time, but for some reason, I didn't feel like asking for it until now.

"Done," Steve agreed easily.

It wasn't until a week later that Steve told me an even bigger news.

"Are you fucking serious?" I asked giddily.

"Language!" Kathy rebuked from the kitchen where she was preparing the dinner. Only a few seconds later she came rushing out.

"I'm sorry, Mum," I said with a shit-eating grin on my face, "Now Dad, are you serious or is it a joke?"

"Yes, I'm serious," Steve said with a smile of his own. Seeing the confused expression on Kathy's face he explained again, "I got back from HBO today. They held an internal screening of our movie and were very impressed with the quality of the script and acting, particularly yours."

Here he meaningfully turned towards me.

"They think it would be a great idea if we could make it into a TV movie or a mini-series. They have offered me the job as its primary writer, director, and producer. And I have the option to select another producer if I so desire. Here he looked meaningfully toward Kathy.

"You're offering me that position?" She asked, her own excitement shining through her eyes. She had written many pilots before but none of them had been picked up by any network, thus being a producer of an HBO movie was a good opportunity for her.

Steve shook his head, "I didn't say yes."

"Why not?" I and Kathy asked at the same time, our eyes met for a moment as we smiled at each other, and then we turned to Steve in unison.

"For one, if we do make this TV film, then it won't be eligible for an Oscar. That's one of the most basic Oscar rule," Steve clarified.

That was a bummer. While I don't know if the film was good enough to qualify for an Oscar, but knowing that you had a chance to do something so big, yet you blew it to make a TV movie...

"Not just that," Steve continued, "HBO's first condition for greenlighting this project was that Troy would be the lead actor."

"I accept," I said immediately. To be frank I'd be disappointed if they chose someone else for the role that was built around me. It would be a little sad that we won't be eligible for an Oscar, I couldn't decline such a massive opportunity to act, just like that.

"It's not that simple Troy," Kathy answered this time, "while we would love it if you get good roles like the lead one here, but remember that your on-screen role defines you for other people."

I hummed in thought, "You think I'd be stereotyped with sex?"

"If the film does well, then I'm afraid, it's possible," Steve answered. "They have offered for me to develop a script first before we could further our plans. If you don't want to act, then that's fine, as they have bought the rights to it, they will make a production on their own with their own writers and actors."

How could I deny that? I know that at the moment, we aren't fully financially secure. At least until we can sell the adaptation rights of Harry Potter. So it would be the smart decision to just accept HBO's offer and make the series.

Even if I get paid the lowest salary as per the actors guild, I believe I would still make some money from the movie, as I play the lead. And obviously, the salary of the director and producer will be much higher. The lowest by my estimate should be a hundred grand each. So if we make the film, it would be upwards of $200,000. Not to mention that this is the absolute lowest value. It could be much higher based on the success of the movie and if Steve and Kathy could negotiate for a subsequent raise based on the TV ratings.

If we count the negative effect, if I do the show and it becomes popular, Warner Bros. or other studios may refuse to cast me as, say, Harry Potter. But I don't want to change myself or my work because of a role.

"I'll do it," I said with finality.

"Are you absolutely sure?" Steve asked again.

"Yes."

"Very well. I'll tell them, we accept." Then he turned to Kathy, "Honey, we need to start work on the script soon. You have more experience on TV screenplay so you take the lead. I've been told about a few inconsistencies in the original script like Troy is British but his sister seems to be American…"

I tuned them out at this point and thought about the implications of what had transpired in a matter of a few minutes. This one small deviation in the timeline could potentially change everything that I knew, or maybe nothing at all. Only time will tell what will happen after the release of this film.

(Break)

It took them two whole months to complete the script and complete negotiations with HBO. They agreed with a salary of $75,000 for me and $300,000 and $180,000 for Steve and Kathy respectively.

With this, we'll be making a total of $550,000 (pre-tax) for the movie as a family. A further bonus for Steve and Kathy as producers, if ratings exceed a limit and a certain percentage of disc sales, will be shared with them every year.

"Isn't HBO being too generous?" That's the question I asked my parents.

"Indeed they are," Kathy agreed. "Currently, they are trying to expand their user base to compete with network channels so they are getting more quality programs out there. From what I've heard in the circle, they have a very grand plan for an upcoming series that will be launched next year."

If only it was Game of Thrones I could've played Bran Stark.

Yes, I remember the series because I read this book lying around in the house called 'A Game of Thrones' by G.R.R. Martin. So of course I remembered its adaptation that became one of the biggest shows ever made. Until the last season, that is.

If I were to guess, HBO must be launching [The Sopranos] or [Sex and the City] at this point. I wasn't exactly sure about their TV premiere date, only knowing they were released in the late '90s.

While my parents had agreed to let me act, they had placed some conditions. The biggest one placed on HBO was to wait until the summer to shoot the film or hire a private tutor for me for the time I spend away from school.

Personally, I preferred the former. Getting too much attention was never good. At least in class, I could act like a lazy genius but one-on-one tutoring is just asking for trouble.

Luckily for me, HBO agreed with this as well. Accordingly, we will begin shooting in June 98 and finish by July 98. Steve and Kathy had come up with a production plan of 40-45 days.

HBO planned to premiere the movie in mid to late November, giving us enough time for post-production and marketing. In the meantime, Steve along with a casting director of HBO would select the major cast members.

Of the cast, the major roles were my character's (Mark's) parents who had shifted jobs from England and had settled in America. The father is from London and while the mother settled in London for love, she is an American. Next would be the sister, Jenny, who is mostly an American as she was living with her mother's sister and was on a scholarship program in an elite private school. She has recently joined university.

Then the babysitter and to-be-abuser, Dylan, who after some deliberation was turned bisexual. My school teacher whom my character is supposed to torment and finally my two friends in school, Peter and Joe. There are other side characters like Dylan's girlfriend and Jenny's boyfriend, some neighbors, etc.

As it was meant to be rated TV-MA and with the nature of the subject, scenes of sexual nature with nudity were also included in the script. Kathy still thought she was protecting me somehow when she tried to give me a redacted version of the script.

I laughed out loud and asked Steve for the correct script. Thankfully, he acquiesced.

The script was quite good actually. It was in the format of a comedy movie, although it had quite a few dramatic moments as well.

Steve and Kathy had adopted a mockumentary-type approach that I remember from a few future shows, like [The Office] and [Modern Family], where I am the narrator of the series, and between scenes, the camera will cut to me and I'll narrate my thoughts at that particular moment. I wanted to do the Ferris Bueller type breaking the fourth wall, but they vetoed it. Apparently, the tone of the film would become inconsistent if you add that.

So they decided to go with what worked in the original version, and at the end of the movie, Mark will give a monologue about Sex education. That was the most liked part of the original script and everyone at HBO expected it to be a part of the film. 

There are some other great funny moments in the script as well. There is a running gag where I'll make some great dirty joke in front of my teacher during class while pretending to not understand what I just said and making her very uncomfortable.

Steve and Kathy have made my character a smart and cunning kid who knows more than he should but still acts like the perfect angel in front of unsuspecting adults.

But at the end of the day, he is still a kid, and his knowledge about sex is incomplete. He thinks he knows everything and that leads to hilarious situations.

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