King of Hollywood-Chapter 576 - 297: The Unknown and the Known

The dance movie envisioned for Jessica wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment idea; Adrian had already thought of tailoring a movie for her when he decided to cast her in "Dark Angel." Generally speaking, a youth campus comedy would be most suitable for her now—youthful and beautiful, and as long as the screenplay was right, making her a star wouldn’t be difficult.

However, the problem was here, as it had been said long ago, youth campus comedies might easily create young idols, but transitioning to other roles later on could be very difficult. Many smart girls with foresight deliberately avoid movies of this genre. Jessica, for various reasons, had the potential to be a "vase," and if she actually became one, it would be even harder to transform her image.

Adrian didn’t mind if she became a vase, like Liv, but Jessica herself definitely wouldn’t like that, so if he still had any ideas about it, he could only put them aside for now.

Besides, Jessica’s experience with comedy wasn’t extensive. According to her original trajectory, she should have a role in "Never Been Kissed," but Adrian had given that script to Drew years ago. With "Dark Angel" airing a year earlier, Jessica’s agile figure had begun to be accepted by the audience; after thinking it over, a dance drama seemed more fitting.

After all, she would have a movie "Honey" in a few years, bringing it out earlier wasn’t a bad idea, much better than going into horror movies—several thriller movie producers had already been in touch with her. Of course, the script for "Honey" couldn’t be used directly; although Jessica was the highlight of the entire movie, its quality was quite ordinary.

Simply put, whether inspirational or romantic, everything was too bland, and the plot too clichéd to resonate emotionally with people. To put it harshly, it was a failed production. So, after Adrian wrote an outline, he handed it to the screenwriting team, who did not disappoint him, quickly producing a detailed screenplay.

The new story was quite good; the female lead was born into a middle-upper-class family in Brooklyn, New York, with a love for ballet from a young age—street dance wouldn’t completely catch on until after the millennium; it was still the era of traditional dances—and she was determined to get into America’s top dance school. By chance, she met a Black youth from Queens County. His uncontrollable passion for music and dance attracted her and introduced her to the beauty of blues music. However, when a sprout of love burgeoned between the two, they had to face countless obstacles due to skin color and social status. Despite their love for each other, continuing this way would only shatter their dreams.

Conflicts, climaxes, and turns were all there, along with intense emotional release. Add the crowd-pleasing narrative of a poor boy overcoming racial and class discrimination to achieve his dreams and win the girl, and, with the right handling, it might not be as commercially successful as a blockbuster, but it would be far better than the original "Honey," and it could give Jessica a significant boost in popularity and acclaim. But... this plot seemed eerily familiar.

Indeed, this script gave Adrian a strong sense of déjà vu; he felt he had seen it somewhere before. It shouldn’t have been at the company—after all, he had many future scripts in his mind, and as mentioned before, sometimes a slight cue could jog his memory, and this script’s familiarity came from there.

After searching his memory for quite some time, Adrian finally found the reason, and then he was dismayed. Why did the script written by the screenwriters based on the concept for "Honey" bear such a striking resemblance to "Save the Last Dance"?!

That’s right, there was at least an 80% similarity in the plot! The intertwining of ballet and blues, the interracial love stories, the variety of obstacles, the breakthrough for the sake of dreams. There were few differences, such as the main setting being Chicago instead of New York, the female lead moving to Chicago because of her mother’s death, a different way of meeting the Black male lead, and besides skin color, the main adversity included social status—which was Adrian’s suggested addition. Because Jessica was categorized as Latino due to her father, the intense conflict of the interracial love and the racial discrimination would lack believability.

But this was also good. Based on Adrian’s memory, the performance of "Save the Last Dance" was about the same as his estimation of what the screenwriters came up with for "Honey." So why not just call this script "Save the Last Dance"? Of course, keep what should be kept and modify what should be changed. The script was already in the works when he had traveled back to Los Angeles after attending "Entrapment," and it would soon start the search for a director and cast. Adrian had also taken the opportunity to tell Jessica about it.

Honestly, Jessica’s reaction was a bit intense; under those circumstances, it would be very simple for Adrian to take things further. However, during that passionate kiss, he discovered something very intriguing, which surprised him. Even for a few seconds, he thought his judgment had gone awry, but Jessica’s reaction dispelled his doubts.

It turned out that being raised in a Catholic family wasn’t such a bad thing, but that meant he had to be much more serious, so in the end, he had to stand up and leave, and not just for the sake of playing hard to get.

"I need to prepare well," Adrian said to himself after coming out of Jessica’s room.

In the following days, both he and Jessica tacitly avoided mentioning that day’s event, but they’d grown much closer. They were often seen walking together down the streets of Queenstown, and on their next visit to the ski slopes, Adrian was hands-on, teaching the young girl body-to-body. The members of "The Lord of the Rings" crew couldn’t help but sigh—another good girl had fallen into the clutches of the Great Demon King.

As for the "Dark Angel" crew, nobody minded. Despite being aware of Adrian Cowell’s playboy reputation, what others did was their own business. Moreover, the "The Lord of the Rings" crew hardly shared any stories about the women in New Zealand or the Miracle Director. The only one who was relatively in the know was Cameron who’d come over as a producer. He had left after two days because he received a call from his girlfriend—he had finally moved on from "Sarah Connor," the mother of the Resistance leader, to the granddaughter of "Rose Dawson," a Titanic survivor.

Even if he wanted to comment, Adrian would have rebutted: you remember wrong, Jessica is of age now. Besides, while they’d seemed intimate over these past few days, there had been no inappropriate gestures, he’d thought that after restraining himself, the young girl might take the initiative, but alas, every time she showed signs of such thoughts, she would instinctively divert her attention immediately.

It was not surprising, after all. She was born into a Catholic family and had a strict father, and until now... Besides, it made her all the more enticing, so Adrian was in no rush. Not to mention, there were gains; after the "Dark Angel" crew who came for the vacation left New Zealand, Adrian’s contact list had one more number that needed regular attention.

Of course, the new number required frequent, enthusiastic contact, while old numbers should not be forgotten.

"Are you really not planning to come take a look? It’s the Southern Hemisphere’s winter here, to suddenly transition from summer to winter, and all it takes is one sleep, isn’t that amazing?" Holding the phone to his ear, Adrian spoke admiringly as he watched the snowflakes flicker in the night sky outside. He almost could hear the car horns from the other end of the line, certain that the streets of New York must be bathed in sunlight.

"To be honest, I’d love to come, Ed. I miss you too. But you know, I still have preparations for getting into school, and I have many events to attend. Ever since ’The Phantom Menace’ was released, reporters besieged my house for a long time." Natalie’s voice was crisp, laced with helplessness.

"I can imagine," Adrian chuckled.

"You certainly can, you’ve faced this situation more often than I have," Natalie’s voice sounded playfully petulant.

"I’m sure with your clever mind you can figure out a solution, right?" Adrian continued to laugh.

"No great solution, just rented a small villa on the outside, that’s all. At least now I don’t have to deal with my parents’ nagging." Natalie laughed too, "Hey, Ed, even though I can’t come to New Zealand, you can at least come to New York. You recently attended two premieres and seem to have plenty of leisure time. This time I promise I’ll make time to come out—maybe you want to come see my new place?"

"Then it’s settled, let’s leave it at that. It’s already quite late here... oh, should be dawn soon. I need a bit more sleep, and once again, congratulations on your admission to Harvard," Adrian said before hanging up, then he sighed and furrowed his brows, only relaxing after a long while.

On the other side of the Earth, Natalie, who was walking down the street with sunglasses and carrying belongings, also let out a sigh after hanging up, then turned into her own villa.

"Who were you on the phone with just now, Nata?" Shelly casually asked as she took the bags from her daughter’s arms.

"A friend, congratulating me," Natalie answered very nonchalantly.

"Really?" Shelly laughed, proud and pleased. "Maybe you should throw a party and invite them over. Don’t mind your dad, this is your home."

"I’ll think about it, Mom," Natalie said with a smile, pushing her mother into the kitchen. "You better hurry up with lunch. I’m starving. Since it’s rare for you to come to my place, lunch is all yours to prepare."

"Okay, okay." Shari tenderly kissed her daughter’s head. "But you need to help. Otherwise, you’ll starve when I’m gone."

"No problem, I’ll be right there." Natalie rolled her eyes playfully at her mother and headed upstairs with the books she bought.

Reaching her bedroom and putting away the books neatly, Natalie stretched and took a deep breath, her gaze then falling on the neatly arranged clippings on her desk—all the reports about "The Phantom Menace" from the end of May, early June until now. She flicked through them, then placed her cell phone next to them, a smile emerging at the corner of her mouth.

Everything was going according to plan, although some unexpected things had happened, but overall, it was still smooth sailing. However... Natalie, at the door, turned around to look at the collection on the desk. Better wait a bit longer. She would check out Harvard and then decide; all factors needed to be considered.

While Natalie was planning for her upcoming college life, on the other side of New York, someone else was also arguing with their father over the same issue.

"You have to give me a reason, Innie. When there are better options, why choose something else?" Trump tried to contain his anger as he questioned his daughter. "Do you know what the Ivy League means? Okay, you don’t like Brown University, but Columbia University is good too, or even the University of Pennsylvania. I graduated from there, from the Wharton School."

"It’s not about the Ivy," Ivanka retorted anxiously, pacing the room. "I just want to choose the college I want to go to, the college I want to attend, not the one my dad wants me to go to."

"But the University of California is on the West Coast, and it’s a public school—although I admit they have a big influence—it’s too far, Innie. Why not choose a school closer to New York?" Trump sighed. "Like Georgetown University. I remember you said you liked it there because the White House is nearby."

"No, Dad, I said I’ll only go to the school I want to go to! I want to be more independent, not study and live in a place that’s just a few hours’ drive from home. Nobody can change my decision!" Ivanka refused outright.

"I will absolutely not allow you to go to the University of California! I won’t pay a penny for it!" Trump finally burst out in anger.

"That’s okay, I can earn it myself!" Ivanka stood her ground unyielding.

"Enough, both of you! Arguing won’t solve anything!" Melania, who had been watching from the sidelines, finally intervened, her stern shout quieting the father-daughter pair.

She walked over and shot Ivanka an understanding glance, then took the fuming Trump to the corner and began whispering to him. Whatever she said seemed to work; Trump eventually took a deep breath and calmed down. Then, Melania walked back towards the silently observing Ivanka.

"Innie... Ivanka, I know you don’t like me, but now I hope I can speak to you as a friend, on equal grounds. Is that okay?" she asked very seriously.

"Fine," Ivanka reluctantly nodded and honestly said, the woman wasn’t bad. In just a few months, her brothers had already recognized her. If it weren’t for that night in the closet... she might have accepted her as well.

Just thinking of that night’s events made Ivanka’s anger uncontrollably rise.

"Ivanka?" Melania, sensing something was off, showed an inquisitive look.

"It’s nothing, you go ahead," Ivanka managed to control her emotions and then hesitated before adding, "Call me Innie."

"Okay, Innie," Melania showed a smile, but her expression quickly turned serious again. "Your dad loves you, Innie, I believe you understand that. He knows he owes you in certain areas, so he has always been very supportive of you being independent and doing what you want, whether it’s modeling or hosting, right?"

After a pause, she continued, "Your dad hopes you can receive a better education. He wants you to be even more outstanding, and a public school can only offer limited help in this regard. You should understand, right? You want to go to the West Coast, you want a break from your home in New York, I can understand that, but the University of California is definitely not a good choice. Why not consider other universities? For example, Stanford, I’ve seen your grades, and applying to Stanford should be no problem."

Ivanka fell silent for a few minutes, then closed her eyes and took a deep breath before reopening them. "Alright, then Stanford it is."

She gave Melania a deep look, then glanced at her father in the distance with his back toward her, and whispered, "Please apologize... to dad for me," then she hurriedly left the study.

"Dammit!" Arriving in her bedroom, Ivanka closed the door, leaned against the wall, and clenched her fists, gritting her teeth. It doesn’t matter, although she couldn’t go to Los Angeles, Palo Alto is just a few hours’ drive from Los Angeles... Just you wait, Adrian Cowell, you bastard who ruined my life, I will make you regret it!

Completely unaware of all this, Adrian was still in New Zealand directing "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy. Although the winter prevented them from going too deep into the forest park, they could still manage to find some time whenever the weather was cooperative enough. The crew and actors, because of the increase in rest time, were also in very good condition, and many scenes were completed after just a few takes, and with the help of Jackson, the progress was not only good but slightly ahead.

This absence of problems meant there were problems elsewhere, such as after Liv, Gwyneth, and Blanchett came over again, Adrian suddenly realized that the three of them seemed to be getting closer. Moreover, Liv was either traveling with Gwyneth, with Blanchett, or with both of them, and was hardly ever alone. As for the private—certainly, in private—hugging, embracing, and even kissing that would sometimes occur in Adrian’s presence, it was now a frequent occurrence.

Even though this delighted Adrian, it also gave rise to doubts and admiration in his heart.

"How did you two get her to be like this?" he asked Blanchett, who was in his arms.

"Oh, you don’t know, Ed, what a great lubricant she is," Blanchett sighed in response.

(To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to come to Qidian (qidian.com) to vote and support it. Your support is my greatest motivation.)

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