Chapter 176: Eye of the Storm
Chapter 176: Eye of the Storm
In the conference room on the seventh floor of The Movie Pictures, Michael was in turmoil.
In just a little over a minute inside the elevator, Ryu Sunho had carved himself deeply into Michael’s mind.
...Don’t waver. This is business.
As if trying to pull himself together, Michael slapped his own cheek hard.
Smack!
At Michael’s sudden outburst, Quentin’s brow twitched.
Then he glanced sidelong at Ryu Sunho and grinned.
Looks like he pulled it off. He shook up that picky old man’s mental state.
That was the sort of message his eyes seemed to convey.
“...Please, sit.”
Michael spoke without deliberately looking at Ryu Sunho.
He forced himself to scan only the documents on the desk, trying to recover his composure.
I can’t let emotion sway me. The most important thing here is money.
He was in a position responsible for the interests of thousands of employees and shareholders.
If Quentin’s film failed, Quentin would merely regret it and move on to the next opportunity. But a production company was different.
If a giant project failed, dozens of people’s jobs would be put at risk.
Of course, with acting ability at this level, we could probably arrange some kind of showcase and somehow persuade the investors...
But the promotional budget could not be ignored.
Quite often, publicizing a blockbuster film worldwide cost more than making the film itself.
And now they were supposed to cast a Korean actor with almost no name recognition in North America as the sole lead?
The marketing cost would rise to at least double, perhaps more than triple.
Risk hedging was necessary.
“Your acting was impressive. However...”
Michael tried to seize control of the conversation by bringing up the realistic risks, just as he had originally planned.
But this time, Ryu Sunho brought out the advertiser within him.
“I understand your concerns very well.”
Ryu Sunho pulled a tablet from his bag and began discussing promotion strategies for the film.
At first, Michael’s expression was defensive, but it gradually turned serious.
This was not just a list of ideas.
It was target-audience planning based on thorough data analysis.
From there, he went into viral strategies using different types of media, as well as participatory campaigns.
The more Michael listened, the more realistic and viable the ideas sounded.
“...Ha.”
Michael let out an empty laugh and leaned back in his chair.
Isn’t this better and fresher than most Hollywood marketing experts?
His grounds for refusing were vanishing like dust.
He had been overwhelmed by acting skill, then persuaded by planning ability.
“What exactly are you?”
Michael asked as though he truly wanted to know.
Ryu Sunho smiled faintly and answered, “I’m simply an actor who wants to work with you.”
In the end, Michael pulled out a one-page document from the drawer.
“This is not the formal contract.”
Then he added, “A deal memo. In other words, a kind of preliminary agreement. The more complicated procedures can be wrapped up with your agency.”
He paused briefly, then gave a faint smile.
“Let’s be seeing each other often from now on. In Hollywood.”
That was how they shook hands.
When I went back down to the lobby feeling a thrilling rush, Quentin slung an arm around my shoulder and said, “I’d love to know how you managed to win over that picky Michael. There’s an incredible place nearby that I know. Let’s go there and talk. My treat. Drinks too!”
With a solemn grin, Quentin led me to—
“Welcome! This is Burger Land!”
A hamburger franchise with a bright red sign.
I knew it.
It was widely known that Quentin ate nothing but cheeseburgers.
He really was the sort of person with iron-straight tastes.
That pair of suspenders he wore every day was the same.
Once something caught his interest, he seemed unable to see anything else.
“Two cheeseburger sets, and make the cola large as a special treat.”
The burgers came out.
While I sat at the table, sending a quick text to someone, Quentin took a huge bite of his burger and asked through the mouthful, “So, how did you open in the elevator? That bastard Michael looked like his soul had left his body.”
“Ah, that?”
Hmm.
Just like before, maybe it was better to show it through action rather than explain it with a hundred words.
I lightly reenacted the performance I had shown Michael in the elevator.
Of course, I dialed down the force quite a bit and only murmured the lines.
“Oho...!!”
Quentin slapped his knee in admiration.
“Hah! Brilliant! That bastard Michael saw that and still didn’t immediately pull out the contract? He really is one stubborn bastard!”
Quentin snickered and pounded my shoulder with a ketchup-smeared hand.
...From now on, I should avoid wearing white whenever I met Quentin.
Once things fully entered the pre-production phase, a production office dedicated to Check Mate was set up inside The Movie Pictures.
The walls were plastered with shooting schedules, candidate filming locations, and lists of staff to recruit.
At the center of it all, Quentin was passionately waving his hands as he spoke.
“Get Logan as director of photography. If it’s not him, this film’s tone won’t land. He’s the one who understands the boundary between light and darkness best.”
“But Director, Logan is currently committed to another blockbuster schedule...”
“Poach him! You think he won’t come if I call? Tell Michael to pay the penalty.”
Quentin was completely unreasonable.
But the production staff merely nodded as if they were used to it and started making calls.
Then came the meeting with the action director.
“The action should be rough and unpolished, like the storyboard you see here—”
“Forget it. What I want is calculated killing.”
Quentin replayed Ryu Sunho’s pickpocket-subduing video and his eyes gleamed.
“Look at this actor’s movement. There’s no wasted motion, right? If he moves like this in real life, imagine how well he’ll handle choreographed action.”
“...Then what kind of feel are you looking for?”
“Like a chess grandmaster placing moves, he should snap joints and strike vital points. Elegant, but cruel. Build the choreography to that level. I’m telling you now, I won’t accept anything mediocre.”
After the action director clicked his tongue and left, the casting director entered cautiously.
In his hands was a thick stack of profiles for Hollywood top stars.
Quentin studied the profiles for a while, then said, “Good. Contact all of them.”
“Yes? All of them?”
“Yes. All.”
“But these are all actors who can lead films on their own... Would they really take supporting roles under an unfamiliar Asian lead actor? They’re proud people...”
At the casting director’s concern, Quentin snorted.
“Send them the script. Then tell them this is a Quentin Marino film. If they want to be in my film, whether it’s a lead or supporting role, they should be grateful for it. Right?”
“...Understood. I’ll proceed.”
Under Quentin’s confident direction, the formation of Check Mate was rapidly taking shape.
Meanwhile, Hollywood insiders had begun to catch the scent.
[Quentin Marino’s next film, starring an Asian actor?]
Rumors spread quickly across American film communities and social media.
The Asian actor had not been named directly, but sharp-eyed netizens traced Quentin’s movements backward and soon identified the target.
Isn’t it Ryu?
└ Probably. When Quentin attended that Korean film festival, didn’t he hand Ryu his trademark red cap?
Oh? I watched Vacuum State recently, and he really was a good actor. He killed it with just his eyes and no dialogue.
He’s the actor who broke Cannes’s unspoken rules and even won Best Actor. There’s no room to doubt his acting.
Hmm... Even so, I’m not thrilled about the idea of an Asian actor as the sole lead in a Quentin film.
Can he even do English?
└ Search him on YouTube. His pronunciation is insanely good. They say he can do both British and American accents freely. He seems like some kind of language genius.
Right. Quentin has always succeeded while mocking our concerns. We should trust him this time too.
Before long, the topic had turned into a hot potato, with fierce arguments flying back and forth.
Then one paparazzi photo came up and drove in the final nail.
The background of the photo was a hamburger shop on a street in Hollywood, LA.
There, Quentin, the master director in his loose suspenders, and Ryu Sunho in a plain white T-shirt sat facing each other, both biting into hamburgers.
What caught people’s attention most was the expressions on their faces.
There was none of the stiffness of a mere business meeting.
That photo became proof that the rumor about Ryu Sunho entering Quentin’s next project was effectively a done deal.
At the same time, Hollywood’s giant agencies began eyeing Ryu Sunho.
“This guy gets more interesting the deeper you dig.”
One agent pointed at the screen with a laser pointer.
“He debuted just a little over three years ago, but his career is unreal.”
Ryu Sunho’s career was displayed on a timeline.
From his debut work to his most recent.
It had only been a little over three years, yet the density was abnormally packed.
“His acting career is short, but his range is insane. But do you know what’s even more surprising?”
“What?”
“This guy can sing. And not just sing, he’s incredibly good.”
The agent played the Doctor Princess OST.
“It’s a vocal tone with more than enough potential to make a run at the Billboard charts. In other words, he can shoot a film and sing the OST himself to create additional profit.”
“Oh?”
“But that’s not even the end of it. The most ridiculous part is this.”
A photo of Ryu Sunho lifting a trophy at Cannes Lions appeared on the screen.
“He won the Grand Prix at Cannes Lions, no less. He took an organ donation idea he planned himself and worked it into a drama. Not only that, he personally promoted the dramas and films he starred in and drew public attention himself.”
The eyes of the executives seated in the conference room changed.
They had seen countless stars in Hollywood, but never this kind of actor.
Singing, planning, acting, visuals.
He was the definition of an all-rounder.
“...He reeks of money.”
An executive muttered with a greedy smile.
With talent like this, the profit models they could squeeze out were endless—not just films, but albums, ads, brand collaborations, and more.
“Then should we contact the Korean agency? It’s a bit of a shame to have to split the profits, but at his level, it looks more than worthwhile.”
“Well, that’s the thing.”
The agent smiled meaningfully and put up the final slide.
On it, Ryu Sunho’s current agency contract term was highlighted in red.
“His contract expires tomorrow. And there hasn’t been any news yet that he’s signed a renewal.”
For a moment, silence fell over the conference room.
Then, like predators that had spotted prey, the executives’ eyes gleamed.
“...Oh? This is making my mouth water.”
An Asian star cast as the lead in Quentin’s next film, an actor on the verge of leaping into global stardom, was suddenly on the market?
That had to be seized no matter what.
“Get me Ryu Sunho’s contact information immediately. Then set up a meeting right away. As for the terms... tell him we’ll give him anything he wants!”
Hollywood’s giant capital had begun moving toward Ryu Sunho, the eye of the storm.