Master of Time

Chapter 43: Sleepless in Seattle

Halle Berry looks quite overwhelmed as people crowds around her, working on her hair, clothing, nails and makeup.

They are making sure that she looks perfect for when the filming continues again.

It is their only job on set.

These people are her personal makeup artists and assistants, provided completely by Terra Production for the entire duration of the filming process.

They give her support in whatever she needed, including running across town to the homeless shelter to hand over a handwritten note.

Halle only needs to ask, but she rarely do. She didn't want to bother them more than necessary despite me constantly telling her that it is what they are paid for.

All the other cast members on set, especially the supporting casts are curious as to why so much works is being done on Halle while the her co-star, Keanu Reeves is by himself, reciting his lines and practicing a scene all alone.

While it is true that Halle Berry is getting more attentions than most main characters in other movies and productions, Keanu Reeves requests to be left alone whenever possible.

Keanu cites that he works better at his own pace.

The director did not mind, so I didn't either.

As long as Keanu produces results, he can request a bunch of stripers in his trailer after the shootings for the day and I would have probably still grant the request.

I am not being sarcastic.

Results is what matters most to me.

No excuses.

Interestingly, his agent is a shrewd of a man, managing to gain Mr Reeves a $500,000 payday for the role.

This is partially thanks to me demanding to have Keanu Reeves as the main character for the movie. I will not have anyone else playing the role.

I do not mind paying that much to have Keanu Reeves being in the movie, but I did wonder if I needed to hire some professional negotiators in the future to make things more interesting.

His pay is almost as much as the entire pay for the supporting casts.

Adding onto the cost of the villain, the entire cast for the movie Speed cost $1.4 million dollars.

Halle is not part of this initial cost since she has alternative revenue streams. She would earn about 4 million dollars once the movie hit the theatres.

An insane amount for a new comer like her.

If you added the director, the crewmen, the screenwriters, the managers and so on, then the cost will be around $2 millions dollar. Props, filming locations, and others push this number to $10 millions. It would be more after the post production, the distribution and publishing cost.

I expect the total cost for Speed to be around $40 millions in total, give or take a couple of millions.

Quite a bit of money in 1990, but not really that much considering the eventual returns.

It isn't really about the money. It is more about the exposure.

Speaking of exposure, my book on dinosaurs has finally hit the top selling chart while bringing quite a bit of money. People have finally notice the book after several weeks on the bookshelves. This includes a certain author. He is requesting legal advice right now for what he should do.

I am prepare for whatever legal trouble comes my way with my team of high paid lawyers. It will scare the pants off anyone.

Returning to my movies, I wonder why the production team decides to hire screenwriters since I have written the screenplay for the movie myself, but I guess they needed someone to adjust the dialogues on the fly.

They couldn't bother me if the are rewrites since I am too busy with everything else.

As for who the villain of Speed should be, I have suggested they try to cast Dennis Hopper since he did play the villain in the original version.

However, the man turns down the offer – which is bizarre.

That should not have happened, but whatever. He is unimportant.

An audition was called but cancelled in the last minute due to Liam Neeson requesting it personally.

Liam wants to try playing the villain while being the hero in the Fugitive. I check his public image in the future before allowing him to.

Speed and the Fugitive will be released months apart from each other so it did not really affected the public perception of him.

Liam is more memorable in the Fugitive due to being more relatable, but he is quite menacing in this movie due to his appearance as an everyday man. This just mean that you cannot really trust anyone you see, even your neighbours as they might turn out to be a maniac bomber.

Anyway, Liam is very relaxed on set despite playing one of the main casts. He is having turkey sandwich while talking to the director at the moment.

I also have a turkey sandwich since it tastes great.

Since there is nothing else for me to do here on set aside from looking over people's shoulder and making them feel very uncomfortable, I head to Sleepless and Seattle production.

Despite the movie title, it is not really filmed in Seattle. We could film it in Seattle, but that would not change the story in any meaningful way so we decided not to.

The title is chosen because of its alliteration sounding. Sleepless in Hollywood just didn't sound right.

"Hello Miss Stone. How are you today? And why are you here alone by yourself?"

I greet when I first arrive on the set. The woman nearly drops her script and makes a run for it. I would like to see she tries.

"Hello. Mr. Maxwell. I am... I am fine. I am...

please don't hypnotise me."

Sharon responses tensely, covering half of her face with the screenplay.

She is unsure how I manage to hypnotise her. And from the morning news almost a week ago, she is more than terrified of me.

Howard Weinstein has been found dead in the desert.

What led to his death stumps everyone since he fell from a great height. There is nothing around for many miles. There is also no record of him getting onto a plane or attempting to sky dive.

A lot of people from the audition were interviewed following his death, but the testimony just create more unanswerable questions.

I chat about some random things to Sharon to get her to calm down before asking how she is feeling and why nobody is filming the movie yet.

"I don't know, Mr. Maxwell. No one tells me anything due to what happen to... Howard."

Sharon swallows.

Everyone thinks she kills the man since she was the last person to see him. They did walk off together quite publicly after the audition. There is also rumours surrounding him and her.

The cops also question her, but she is unable to give a straight answer. She even admits to killing him since she did brutally beat him into a coma, but her testimony is not consistent with how he has actually died.

In the end, they suggest her to see a psychiatrist.

Since no one could figure how she did it logically, they stay away from her in fear that there might be something supernatural at works.

"We are still waiting for Miss Bullock, sir. We have tried to call her all morning, but it seems that her phone is off. The crew thinks Miss Stone has something to do with it. She did want the part after all."

One of the crewmen tells me, revealing the reason why Miss Sharon Stone is all by herself.

Everyone avoid her like a plague, thinking she might have also killed Sandra Bullock with her supernatural power like she did with Howard Weinstein.

That isn't my intention, but I suppose I will make it work somehow.

"I see..."

[Accessing Shield Surveillance Network. Locating Sandra Annette Bullock, born July 26, 1964. Unable to locate subject. Subject is not found.]

"What the hell does that mean?"