Demon CEO's Hidden Love: Mr Grayson Stole Me From My Abusive Husband-Chapter 25: A Female Lead To Bewitch The Nation

-Pocket Change Productions-

"President! Owner! we have a problem!" Announced a tall man in black fitted pants and a white shirt, holding a phone to his ear.

Hearing his voice, two men disrupted their conversation and turned to him. The one on the right had striking blonde hair, and a youthful charm to his features. Whilst the man on the right had dull gray hairs and a dark circles underneath his eyes.

"What is it Ryan?" Asked the blonde haired man, his gaze fixed on the woman walking briskly behind the production manager, trying to catch up.

Ryan Jenkins, the production manager turned to the woman behind him and took the folder off her hands.

"We just got word from some of the agencies on our shortlist." Ryan went on to say, his eyes scanning the list Lily, the production coordinator had compiled. "It’s not looking good."

The old man tensed up. "What happened?"

Ryan looked reluctant to say it, but the younger man urged him to, "Did some reject the script?" The president of the company, Lucas Slade asked. He and the director by his side had predicted something like this happening, and braced themselves for it.

Ryan sighed, "All the major leads have rejected the roles we sent out!"

"What?!" Director Flynn nearly fainted on the spot.

Lily tipped her glasses up the bridge of her nose and inserted, "After Cassie crane rejected the offer, like a chain reaction all the other leading actors followed suit. Even the ones we had gotten a green light from."

The producer clenched his fists, "And Damien? Did he also reject it?"

Ryan quickly ran his eyes through the names on the shortlist. "We haven’t heard back from his agency. But I doubt he’ll consider now that Cassie has rejected the script-"

"That wench!" Director Flynn cursed, "It wasn’t like I ever wanted her in the first place! How dare she?!"

"Calm down old man." The president patted his shoulder, "We more or less expected this. Just because we were able to raise the funds for an A level cast, didn’t guarantee they’d accept." He sighed and dropped his shoulders. "We’re just a small time production company after all."

But his words only seemed to crush the old man even more. "But still, the budget was good, the script is amazing, this team has poured their blood, sweat and tears thus far. What do we do now?"

President Lucas inhaled sharply, sucking up the pain of rejection he was feeling. If anyone could break down, it couldn’t be him. He had only one choice now.

"If we can’t get an A level cast to lure people in, then we’ll just have to ride on talent instead!" He announced.

Ryan and Lily exchanged glances.

"President, that goes without saying. What do you mean by talent?" Lily asked.

"I mean, we find a female lead whose acting will take the country by storm! Instead of using the bigwigs let’s find the hidden gems just waiting to be polished!" Lucas announced with enthusiasm in his voice.

Ryan interjected. "But without big names the film won’t generate much recognition. It’ll just be swept under the rug after a few weeks of airing-"

"Nonsense!" The old man cut in, "Since the golden age of film, phenomenal acting has been the backbone of entertainment. These so called A level actors were just nobodies until they got fame." He turned to the president, with hope in his eyes. "Let’s do it! Let’s deliver a film that’ll drag these A level bastards off their thrones!" His grin matched that of the president.

President Lucas declared, "You heard him! We’ll hold in-house auditions! Contact casting directors and all the promising agencies! Spare no expense! And find me a female lead that’ll bewitch this country!"

-Premiere Talent-

Manager Nia stared at the script sent from Pocket Change Productions, which had been sitting on Damien’s desk for the past two days. He had only read it once and hadn’t said anything back.

"D-Damien, the boss has asked me twice already, are you going to take the role?" His manager asked, a bit frightened.

Damien was an eccentric actor who hated when people rushed his ’creative process’ and most of the time Nia got chewed out for disrupting him.

She went on, "Cassie Crane has already rejected the offer-"

"Really?" Damien tore his gaze from his phone, the video he had been watching was of some angry Cassie fans throwing eggs at a printed picture of ’Brooke’ the villain on everyone’s lips. freewēbnoveℓ.com

Nia nodded, "I think the word got out and the other leading actors rejected their parts. Now if you’d just give your opinion-"

"Or it got leaked you mean." He flung a leg over the other and hissed. "It sounds like the so called prodigy is throwing one of her fits- ’If I’m not in this film, no one else should.’ What a hassle."

Nia who had suspected something similar piped up, "But why would she act this way if she was the one who rejected the offer?"

Damien pinched his chin, "That’s a good point." He looked at the script, "Although the production company is small, their budget certainly isn’t. I can tell they scraped all their resources into production one hit film. Furthermore, the script is one of the most decent ones I’ve seen in years. Hats off to the script writer."

Nia was stunned, this was the most praise Damien had given to a script.

"If I’m being honest, I’d love to play this role, especially now that that fraud actress won’t be in it. But there’s one issue." He picked it up script and held it to his face.

"What?" Nia questioned, stunned to see how invested Damien was.

"After reading this script I can deduce that this film will ride on acting talent. That fraud actress couldn’t have pulled off that kind of acting, she’d only reduce the quality of this script. But-" he sighed hopelessly, "She has a leg over the others. I don’t think I’ve seen a single actress in this country who can match my acting or pull this off."

Nia gulped, "I-Is that a rejection then?" The president had been breathing down her neck to get Damien’s response. He had a long line of films to star in from big name companies.

Yet he had put the script reading on hold, just for this small production company.

Damien stared intently at the script, he initially wanted to reject it once he found out Cassie was the leading role. But now...

"Let them cast the female lead first. Only after I’ve seen who it is will I make my decision." He announced, giving the script one last chance.