Wednesday, August 30, 2023
"It's starting," Owen called from the couch, raising his voice slightly.
"Coming," Jenna replied from the kitchen.
She appeared a few seconds later with a cup of tea in her hands and carefully sat down beside him, making sure not to spill it. Their bodies pressed together on the couch as Jenna gently blew across the surface of the drink. A thin column of steam rose from the cup and slowly dissipated in front of her face.
On television, Jimmy Fallon finished the introduction with his usual enthusiasm, [Our first guest is a two-time Tony Award-winning actor, whom you know from Malcolm in the Middle, Your Honor, and numerous films. You can currently see him in the massive hit Good Will Hunting, which just finished its theatrical run with more than three hundred and thirty-six million dollars. Please welcome Bryan Cranston!]
The studio audience erupted into applause.
The camera turned toward one side of the stage, where Bryan appeared walking out with a broad smile. He wore an elegantly tailored dark blue suit, paired with a white shirt without a tie and brown leather shoes. The outfit looked formal without seeming overly stiff.
Bryan greeted the audience by raising one hand, then shook Jimmy's before sitting down on the armchair while Jimmy took his own.
Owen leaned slightly forward, focused on the screen, while Jenna settled against his shoulder without taking her eyes off the show.
The Tony Awards, created in 1947, were the most prestigious honors in American theater. They recognized excellence in plays and musicals presented on Broadway, the heart of New York's theater scene.
Bryan had won the award for Best Leading Actor in a Play twice, first in 2014 and again in 2019. They were no small achievements.
Although Breaking Bad had never existed in that reality, Bryan's talent had not disappeared along with it.
His acting ability had allowed him to build an equally respected career.
On television, he had achieved enormous popularity thanks to Malcolm in the Middle, where he demonstrated an exceptional command of comedy, and years later he had earned renewed praise for Your Honor, a crime drama in which he played a judge willing to cross increasingly dangerous lines to protect his son.
On top of that were numerous supporting roles, voice work, and appearances in various productions.
However, the place where his career had been given the fewest opportunities to shine was the big screen.
Bryan had several films on his résumé and had taken part in major productions, but none had managed to define his film career in the same way Malcolm in the Middle had on television or his Broadway work had in theater.
Until now.
Good Will Hunting had not only become the biggest commercial success of his film career.
His portrayal of Sean McGuire had changed the way part of the public and the industry perceived him. He was no longer simply a great television and theater actor who occasionally appeared in movies.
For the first time, he had a film role that seemed destined to remain associated with his name for the rest of his career.
[It's always good to have you here,] Jimmy said as the applause began to die down, [How are you?]
[Very well,] Bryan replied with a smile, [A lot calmer now that all the craziness is over.]
He was referring, of course, to the past few months and everything he had experienced with Good Will Hunting.
For several weeks, it had seemed like not a single day could go by without some new clip, interview, reaction, or comment about the film appearing.
Now, with its theatrical run over, the atmosphere was different.
The initial frenzy had died down, but the film remained very much part of industry conversations, especially as it was beginning to be considered one of the movies with the strongest chances of appearing throughout awards season.
[I can imagine,] Jimmy said, [Do people stop you a lot because of Sean?]
Bryan nodded, [A lot more than I expected,] he replied. [I mean, I saw the numbers, I knew the movie was doing very well… but knowing it is one thing, and walking down the street and hearing someone shout, "Sean! Sean, can I get a picture!" is something completely different.]
The audience laughed.
Jimmy laughed as well, [I can picture people coming up with their phones, taking a picture with you, and then saying, "Now that we're here… I have some issues with my father. What do you think I should do?"]
Bryan burst out laughing, [Now everyone thinks I'm a therapist too.]
[Well, after that movie,] Jimmy replied, [I think half the country wants to sit down with you for forty-five minutes and tell you about their problems.]
The audience laughed again.
Jimmy let a few seconds pass before continuing, [Although it's not exactly new for people to ask you for pictures. People already knew you as Hal, from your television work, Broadway… you have two Tonys. You were already used to it, right?]
Bryan nodded, this time with a slightly more serious expression, [Yes, of course. Especially because of Hal,] he replied. [Malcolm in the Middle was probably the work that reached the most people for many years. Even now, there are still people who recognize me because of it.]
Jimmy nodded as he listened.
[Then there are other projects that perhaps had a different audience. Theater, for example, is huge and means a great deal to me, but it doesn't have the same global reach as a television series. You can win a Tony and still run into someone who has never seen a Broadway play in their life.]
A few people in the audience laughed softly.
[And Malcolm ended quite a long time ago,] Bryan continued. [So yes, if someone recognized me at a restaurant or while I was walking down the street and wanted a picture, it was never unusual. But this has been different.]
Jimmy raised his eyebrows slightly, [In what way?] he asked.
[The frequency,] Bryan explained. [Now I feel like, if I go to the grocery store, there's a pretty good chance someone will come up to me and say "Sean." Before, it could happen. Now I almost expect it to happen.]
Jimmy laughed and said, [So you can't even buy milk in peace anymore.]
[Exactly,] Bryan nodded with an overly serious expression that made the audience laugh.
Jimmy rested one arm on the desk and looked at him curiously, [What's the strangest reaction you've gotten from someone who saw the movie?]
Bryan thought for a few seconds, [I don't know if I'd call it the strangest…] he began. [But there was one that still makes me wonder.]
Jimmy leaned slightly toward him.
[A guy came up to me and asked me to record a message for a friend of his named Brad. And he said, "Just look into the camera and tell him, 'It's not your fault, Brad,' but do it like Sean."]
The audience began laughing before Bryan had even finished.
Jimmy looked at him, amused, [What did poor Brad do?]
[I don't know, I didn't have time to ask. But there I was, standing in the middle of the street, looking into a stranger's phone and saying, "It's not your fault, Brad. It's not your fault."] Bryan replied, shaking his head.
He paused briefly, then added thoughtfully, [Ever since then, I've wondered whether there really was something that wasn't Brad's fault... Or whether he was simply a fan of the movie who wanted his own personalized version of the scene.]
[Let's choose to believe Brad had been carrying something for years and you finally set him free,] Jimmy said with a smile.
Laughter spread through the studio once again.
As it began to die down, Jimmy shifted slightly behind the desk, [It's only natural that you have people asking you for pictures, messages, and for you to talk to them in Sean's voice, because... this movie just finished its theatrical run with more than three hundred and thirty-six million dollars at the box office… after costing less than fifteen million!]
The audience immediately erupted into applause and whistles.
Bryan smiled and began nodding, but Jimmy raised a hand, [No, no, wait. I'm not finished yet,] he said.
That drew some laughter as the applause tried to die down.
Jimmy looked at a card on his desk, [It's the fifteenth highest-grossing movie worldwide so far this year. Which is already incredible. But listen to this... It made twenty-five point eight eight times what it cost. Making it the movie with the best ROI of the year so far.]
Now the audience erupted into applause once again.
It was not easy to compete in absolute box office revenue during a year like that.
Barbie, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Oppenheimer, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Fast X, and Mission: Impossible belonged to massive franchises or had budgets several times larger than that of Good Will Hunting.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie, for example, had cost around one hundred million dollars and ultimately gone on to gross well over one billion at the box office.
It was a difference in scale that was impossible to ignore.
However, when comparing how much each film had cost to produce with how much it had managed to earn, Good Will Hunting entered an entirely different conversation.
Within the industry, there was a rough rule that a film needed to gross around two and a half times its budget before it could begin to be considered truly profitable after exhibition, distribution, and marketing.
Making more than ten times its budget was already extraordinary.
Crossing the twenty-times mark was the kind of result that turned a movie into the year's unexpected financial phenomenon.
When the applause finally died down, Jimmy picked up something he had prepared on the desk.
It was a promotional photograph from the film.
In the image, Owen and Bryan were sitting side by side on a bench, with a background covered in golden and orange leaves. Owen, in character as Will, was leaning slightly forward, his hands clasped together and a broad smile on his face. Beside him, Sean was looking at him with a warm, almost paternal expression.
It was not a dramatic image.
At the bottom, the title Good Will Hunting could be read, while above them appeared small promotional quotes from the campaign.
Jimmy held the poster in front of the camera for a few seconds, [And all of this was created by this guy right here,] he said, pointing at Owen's figure in the photograph.
Bryan looked at the poster and immediately smiled.
Jimmy then turned it toward himself, moving it away from the camera so he could look at it more closely, [It looks like you two are just sitting there having a good time.]
[It was probably one of the few moments when Will didn't want to insult me or hit me,] Bryan replied.
The audience burst into laughter.
Jimmy smiled, still looking at the image, [This guy wrote the movie, financed it, and starred in it too,] he commented. [It sounds strange when you say all of that one after another.]
He let out a brief laugh before continuing, [Owen was already here a few months ago, for Paranormal Activity, and it feels like a lifetime has passed since that interview.]
Jimmy remembered that interview perfectly.
Owen had come onto the show after Paranormal Activity surpassed one hundred and forty million dollars at the box office. He had originally been the second guest of the night, with a relatively short segment, but the conversation ended up running longer than expected.
It had been so entertaining that when the show uploaded several clips to its YouTube channel, some of them ended up going viral.
Even so, that movie had been a very different case.
Paranormal Activity had cost only a few tens of thousands of dollars. It had been shot over the course of a few weeks, with a small crew, practically two main actors, and a found-footage style that allowed them to work with minimal resources.
In a project like that, although it was still impressive for someone so young to write, finance, produce, and star in the film, the idea was easier to understand.
It was a small production that had unexpectedly exploded.
Good Will Hunting was something else entirely.
The budget exceeded ten million dollars.
There was a much larger professional crew, weeks of filming, locations, full production departments, and actors with established careers like Bryan Cranston and Ethan Hawke.
And on top of that, it was not a horror movie built around a simple, easily marketable premise.
It was a drama.
Owen had needed to write a script capable of convincing actors of that caliber, have the money to produce it, put the entire project together, and then stand in front of them to play the lead role.
Jimmy finally set the poster down on the desk and looked back at Bryan, [What was it like working with Owen?] he asked.
Bryan thought for a few seconds, [Weird.]
Jimmy's eyes widened immediately and he turned his head toward the camera, [What!?] he exclaimed. [You know this could get back to Owen, right?]
The audience began to laugh while Bryan smiled with complete calm.
On the couch, Jenna slowly turned her head toward Owen, "He called you weird," she commented in an amused tone.
Owen glanced sideways at her, but did not get the chance to respond.
Bryan was already explaining himself, and he did not want to miss what he was about to say.
[I mean, you just said it yourself,] Bryan continued. [He was the screenwriter, the producer, and the lead actor. It was the first time I'd worked with an actor who had written the movie and, on top of that, was financing it entirely himself. That's unusual.]
Jimmy nodded, finally understanding what he meant.
[You have your boss, your scene partner, and the guy who wrote every single word your character is going to say standing right in front of you,] Bryan added.
[When you put it that way… yeah, it must feel like more pressure, right?] Jimmy commented.
Bryan nodded.
And that was coming from him. An adult actor with decades of experience and a solid career. For a younger or less experienced actor, that situation probably would have felt even stranger.
[You know this kid is risking millions of dollars,] Bryan said with a slight smile. [It took me many years to earn enough money to be able to look at a major investment without feeling like I needed to check it five times.]
The audience laughed.
[So at first you think, "All right... I'd better not screw this up. This kid could lose a fortune if I do a bad job."]
Jimmy burst out laughing, [Now that's pressure!]
[A little, yeah,] Bryan admitted with a laugh.
Then his expression became more serious, [But that feeling disappeared very quickly once I started working with him.]
Jimmy settled back into his seat and listened closely.
[Owen never acted like he owned the movie when we were performing,] Bryan continued. [He showed up on time, knew his scenes, worked incredibly hard, and followed Derek's direction just like the rest of us.]
He paused briefly before adding, [That's important, because it would've been very easy for someone in his position to try to control everything. But on set, he was just another actor, and an extremely talented one. That helps too.]
A few members of the audience applauded.
[It was a genuine pleasure working with him,] Bryan concluded.
This time, the studio's response was even warmer.
On the couch, Jenna lifted her head slightly from Owen's shoulder and looked at him for a moment.
Then she leaned in and kissed him.
Owen, who was still watching the television, blinked in surprise and turned his head toward her, "What was that for?"
Jenna smiled, "I'm proud of you."
The answer managed to leave him silent for a second.
For Jenna, it was not simply about hearing an actor as respected as Bryan praise her boyfriend's talent.
There was something more.
Bryan had just spoken about precisely one of the things she valued most about Owen: that even though he had more than enough reason to behave like the absolute owner of his productions, he never felt the need to remind anyone of it.
He listened to the director, respected his co-stars, and worked harder than anyone on every take.
The fact that someone like Bryan had noticed exactly that made her feel proud.
Owen eventually smiled faintly, "Thanks."
He could not deny that it felt good to have the respect of someone like Bryan, an actor he admired.
This time, Owen was the one who leaned in to return the kiss.
The interview continued for several more minutes.
Jimmy talked with Bryan about different anecdotes from filming. Some involved Ethan, others Jacob, and several inevitably ended up circling back to Owen. There were also stories about dinners after shooting, mistakes during certain takes, and moments when the serious atmosphere of a scene completely disappeared the instant Derek called cut.
After that, the conversation focused more on Sean.
Jimmy asked how Bryan had built the character, what had been the most difficult part to portray, and which of all his scenes he considered his favorite.
He also wanted to know where Sean ranked among all the characters Bryan had played throughout his career.
The answer was serious enough that the audience remained almost completely silent for several minutes.
Until Jimmy decided to solemnly ruin the moment.
He asked Bryan to look directly into one of the cameras and say the famous line.
[It's not your fault,] Bryan said, staring straight into the camera in Sean's gentle tone.
The moment he spoke those words, the studio erupted into one of the biggest ovations of the entire interview.
Even Bryan ended up laughing at the overly enthusiastic reaction.
Jimmy then took the opportunity to ask whether he was already preparing his suit for awards season, prompting another round of laughter and a carefully evasive answer from the actor.
Finally, the interview ended and the show moved on to the next segment.
Owen stopped paying much attention to it.
He turned his head toward Jenna.
She barely had time to look at him before Owen resumed the kiss they had interrupted a few minutes earlier.
Only this time, it was not so brief.
Jenna set the nearly empty cup down on the coffee table and turned back toward him while the sound of the television continued in the background.
The kiss lingered, and then others followed.
Until whatever was happening on The Tonight Show stopped mattering to them entirely.
Much later, the house was quiet.
The room remained almost completely dark, except for the faint light filtering in from outside through the curtains.
Jenna slept pressed against Owen beneath the sheets, one arm wrapped around his torso and her head resting on his chest.
Her breathing was slow and steady.
Owen, on the other hand, was still awake. He had one arm tucked behind the pillow and his eyes fixed on the dark ceiling, thinking.
Fifteen million dollars had already entered his account as part of the income he was owed from Good Will Hunting's box office revenue.
His net worth had taken another considerable leap, although part of that money would still have to be set aside for taxes, which were not deducted immediately.
Even so, that first payment alone already exceeded everything he had personally earned from Paranormal Activity's box office run.
And it was only the beginning.
According to the preliminary settlements, Owen was entitled to a little over one hundred million dollars in total from his stake in the film. The money would not arrive all at once, but in different payments over the following weeks and months.
The inevitable question appeared in his mind.
What could he do with all of it?
For the first time since he had started financing his own projects, money no longer felt like the main limitation.
The possibilities seemed almost endless.
'Pan's Labyrinth? Beetlejuice?' he thought.
Those were not names that had appeared out of nowhere.
Pan's Labyrinth had been one of Guillermo del Toro's most important films in his previous life and, in fact, he would be meeting the director within a few hours.
In that reality, the film had never existed.
The same was true of Beetlejuice.
One of Tim Burton's most iconic works, another director whose original filmography did not exist there either.
Owen had ended up thinking about Burton because of a conversation he had with Jenna.
When he told her that Guillermo del Toro wanted to meet with him about playing the creature in Frankenstein, she had reacted with even more enthusiasm than he had.
Jenna loved those kinds of stories.
Gothic horror, monsters, dark tales, and strange worlds.
Frankenstein, in particular, appealed to her even more than it did to Owen.
During the conversation, the two of them had inevitably ended up comparing Guillermo del Toro with Tim Burton, a director Jenna had been working with since Wednesday season 1.
They were not identical filmmakers.
Their visual styles had clear differences, but they shared enough elements for the comparison to feel natural.
Both had a special fascination with monsters and outsiders.
Both frequently used a dark, gothic aesthetic.
And both had a deep appreciation for practical craftsmanship: physical sets, makeup, prosthetics, creatures actually built in front of the camera, and stop-motion animation.
If Owen had to choose between those two films, Beetlejuice seemed to have greater commercial potential.
He remembered that the original had grossed more than eighty million dollars in 1988.
For that time, it had been a massive success.
Its concept was also much easier to sell to a general audience.
A supernatural comedy, eccentric characters, ghosts, dark humor, and a visually unforgettable protagonist.
It could become very popular.
Pan's Labyrinth, on the other hand, operated in a different territory.
It had also been a commercial success, especially considering its budget, but its greatest strength had been prestige.
Owen still remembered its reception at Cannes, its Oscar nominations, and the three statuettes it had ultimately won.
An auteur film that had also managed to reach a considerable audience.
Beetlejuice was more easily mainstream.
Pan's Labyrinth had a higher artistic ceiling.
At least, that was how things had played out in his previous reality.
The problem with Beetlejuice was time. Nearly forty years had passed since its release in his previous timeline.
Audiences and humor had changed.
He could not simply take a script from 1988, film it exactly the same way, and assume it would have the same impact in 2023.
It was riskier. Pan's Labyrinth's script, on the other hand, was much safer in that regard.
Owen pushed those thoughts aside.
It was not yet time to decide what his next project would be.
He had other priorities first.
He needed to finish Curve, and after that, all his attention would have to focus on Chronicle.
That was a movie he truly wanted to do right.
Not simply repeat the version he remembered from his previous life, but surpass it in practically every possible aspect.
With the money he had now, he was willing to invest between twenty and thirty million dollars if necessary.
More shooting time and better visual effects.
The only problem was the schedule.
If everything went as expected with Frankenstein.
Owen had practically taken it for granted that he would end up accepting the role of the creature. He still had to meet with Del Toro, negotiate the contract, and finalize the dates, but after reading the full script, he found it difficult to imagine a strong enough reason to turn it down.
According to the preliminary schedule Larry had received from Netflix, filming would begin sometime between February and March of 2024.
That left him about six or seven months.
It was not an eternity. But he had enough time to prepare and shoot Chronicle before joining Frankenstein, since he already had the script finished and had given it to Matt, who was already working on it.
As for Babygirl, he had turned it down.
He had read the script. It was not bad, not a masterpiece, but nowhere near the level of Fifty Shades of Grey either.
He could perfectly understand why Nicole Kidman had agreed to do it. There was interesting material, a rather unusual power dynamic, and an interesting female character.
It simply was not for him.
Movies whose central focus depended so heavily on eroticism and sexual relationships had never been the kind of project that interested him most.
And Samuel had not managed to change that either.
The character had some interesting moments, but not enough to justify everything else.
Much less when accepting meant setting aside a large part of December 2023 and January 2024 for filming.
Two months that were worth far more to Owen than whatever additional millions A24 might offer him.
He would devote that time to Chronicle.
It had not been a particularly difficult decision.
With that finally settled, Owen closed his eyes and did not take long to fall asleep.
A few hours later, the sound of the alarm broke the silence of the room.
That morning, he had to go to Bleak House.
He was going to meet Guillermo del Toro.
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