Hollywood Zenith

Chapter 551 Nearing Premier-2

Stephen Atkinson, the current president of the Warner Bros Entertainment branch, has always been a serious person, always keeping everything professional in every situation. He was known to be a hard ass among his peers, but he always took it as a compliment.

He was a successful entrepreneur who previously worked for Disney media empire as their CFO but switched recently simply because it wasn't presenting any challenges to him anymore. He was with them for over a decade and helped grow the company into a media conglomerate.

With their growth slowing down, he wanted to take on another endeavour, and hence, when he heard the previous president was retiring, he jumped at the chance. It was also a way to clear his existing spot for the younger generation.

It's not like he was that old still; he started managing that position in his mid-thirties, which was like a baby when such positions were considered in the business world.

One of the reasons for his switch was the studio's plan to expand further as the technology sector began kicking up its gear. Warner was an old corporation, but they were still living in the past; with his addition, they hoped to rejuvenate the upper echelons with a more modern vision.

He was excited about the prospect of leading their film business the most, especially the Harry Potter franchise. It was simply because it was becoming one of the greatest movie series in the history of cinema.

With five films released. they were already looking at north of four billion dollars in ticket sales. It was estimated that they would cross eight by the end of the series simply because the hype was still through the roof.

With new people still discovering about the franchise, they would have a massive following by the end of the last movie. But his expectations were shattered when he met the film crew. Not because they didn't live up to his expectations but because they were too relaxed about everything.

Hiring a rookie director? Spending enormous amounts of money on benign things that could easily be done by Computer? Erratic schedule of actors? And at the centre of everything was one man, the star actor Sam!

At first, he thought that Sam was doing it because he was the main lead, and everyone was afraid of upsetting him, knowing that after so many movies, there was simply no way for the studio to differentiate Harry from him. Even his acting was on another level, he knew because he had seen few things unfolding before his eyes.

He had to acknowledge how far ahead he was of every other child actor; it's like he had a wealth of knowledge from his past life or something with how effortlessly he controlled the flow of the scene and his emotions on camera.

Considering his young age, he might be too full of himself. Everyone had that growing-up faze when they think of themselves as the king of the world. Getting an unknown director to direct such an important film might be his way of showing who the real boss was here.

But everything changed when he approached a few people on site; his hiring was still a secret, and with him being behind the scenes for most of his life, not many people knew him. That's when he finds out what type of man Sam is; no, Samuel was.

He was shocked to learn about his background, but the more shocking fact was that he was a large investor in the franchise. It's always been a mystery who the people behind Alphabet Studios were, as their names would always appear next to Warner in every Harry Potter movie. Still, most of them could find that the company was registered a few weeks before the first movie was set to premiere.

There were many speculations that it was one of Warner's founders' relative companies, but it was strictly hidden from the public who the real owner was. What's more, few of the staff who had been since the first movie told him about the story in an enthusiastic tone.

Everything from Samuel's readiness to invest in the movie instead of taking the salary for the first film to his treating the staff as family members, there was not a single fault Stephen could find anyone pointed out about him.

It's like he was the second coming of Jesus, with how much each and everyone praised him as soon as they heard him mention his name. Honestly, Stephen was getting sick of it, but he endured trying to find that needle in the haystack, but no matter how much he looked, he was unable to find it!

He decided to talk to him directly; it was only necessary for him to get acquainted with him as the new 'sheriff' in town. The more he spoke with him, the more baffled he became. His demeanour, temperament, and the way he carried himself were enough to make him even a fan, but he would never proclaim it out loud.

Over a few months, they got to know each other pretty well, and with both sharing similar interests in business, they would often talk about the market and future outlook of the industry from time to time. Stephen began to drop by the set often during the filming of Half blood Prince and genuinely began to treat him as a friend.

Which was why it came as a massive surprise when he suddenly heard about him getting arrested in Paris. He literally saw it the first thing in the morning when he turned on the news; it was everywhere because of how popular he was.

They were running a full-hour segment dissecting everything while many media were outright slandering his name just to stir up controversy. From him being a druggie to him leading a cult due to his large fan following, they threw everything at him.

It lasted for two hours before everything mysteriously disappeared. What played after that was a secret video cataloguing everything that led to the event. The police department even issued a public apology and promptly released him without commenting on anything further.

Stephen knew that Samuel must have planned everything. What was the motive? He didn't care much. It was good that he was out, but in his mind, the damage was done. It was good to shut up the media with his influence, but what about people?

They were still talking about him, those who didn't like him were the loudest saying everything was a conspiracy with how fast the media changed its colours regarding the news. Stephen knew for people like them, it didn't matter what the person they hated did; they only learned to stand against him at every turn.

Thankfully, Samuel's massive fanbase came to his defence; they filled the forums with positive messages and fought back against baseless rumours. But for Stephen, it was an avoidable mistake no matter which angle he saw it.

With how many people he carried around, it was easy to get rid of one arrogant jerk if he wanted to do it quietly.

Immediately after the news broke out, he jumped at his phone. He saw many missed calls come from a few personals on the board of directors while others from his subordinates asked how they should respond as people were clamouring for answers.

It was natural for them to know where the studio stood about his arrest. Luckily, that, too, died down when the video was released. He ignored them and directly dialled Samuel's cellphone, but it was turned off, which he expected.

He dialled Emma and Rupert because he knew about their impromptu trip; they were, after all, going to promote the new movie, but again, there was no answer. He started to get worried when he received a simple text from them saying that they would be returning soon, but no update on Samuel's situation.

For the following day, Stephen had to do the damage control and cancel their trips to other countries. It was a risk, but with the current situation, he knew what type of question everyone was going to ask them.

On the second day, Rupert and Emma returned to London. He went to pick them up and heard their side of the story because they were present when everything unfolded. It wasn't much different from what he saw in the video, but the question still remained: where was Samuel?

He still hadn't heard from him in days, which was why he decided to contact his residence to find out if he arrived in the country or not, but the best they could tell him was that he was still away. Apparently, they were worried about his security, which was why they refused to say where he was.

The same day, he heard about some commotion in the city of Paris. No one knew how, but a bunch of armed individuals swarmed the impoverished sector of the city and even went as far as to kill a few of them in cold blood.

There were also a few clips circulating around in which gunshots were heard and one clip of people chasing each other down the street. It was a bizarre event that even the French government didn't know how to describe.

Stephen began to worry again; what if Samuel was still there? If he got hurt, it would be a disaster! He was glued in on the new channel when he saw a familiar figure. The recording was blurry, but he could recognize the silhouette of the person running.

" Isn't that Samuel?"