SF Chapter 175: Flight III
Daniel continued with his story. "The sales passed the million marks, and then everything became way easier... the school suddenly became very 'flexible' about the way I behaved."
"So, my high school life took off! And I had all the time I wanted to write, read, hang out with my bros, and flirt with girls," he remarked.
"Anyway," he continued, ignoring the stares he was getting. "Harry Potter inspired me to want to write something different. Percy Jackson."
"Finally, after having a few 'experiences,' I started coming up with new ideas for stories."
Amanda kept looking at him. "And how did you start writing screenplays as well as books?"
"I was getting to that part," Dani said, raising a finger. "I got inspired by Charlie."
Lisa, who was listening to the conversation, exclaimed, "Really? Charlie?"
"Me?" Charlie himself looked surprised.
"Yeah, bro," Dani confirmed. "One time, I asked why you don't write songs besides jingles. You said it was more difficult and took more work."
"Jingles were shorter and faster to do."
"And that's exactly what screenplays are! Shorter and faster to write since you don't need to go into as much detail or draw anything, like with Wimpy Kid!"
"Wow, that's really fitting," Lexi said flatly. "You became a screenwriter because you're a lazy bum."
"The youngest Oscar-nominated screenwriter... started because he was... trying to write less?" Lindsay was in total disbelief. One could almost see something breaking inside her.
Dani made a face. "I call it time efficiency. I also wanted to write something different. And a movie was pretty cool."
He went on with the story. "But then again, I ran into a small obstacle along the way."
Everyone was looking at him.
"The studios only offered me bad deals for the Mean Girls script I'd written!"
"So that's when I got the idea to do it myself!" he declared. "All I had to do was get my dad to take the script and somehow turn it into a movie!"
"Step one: come up with the brilliant idea to do it myself. Step two: convince Dad. Step three: ..." he paused.
"And step four: movie done!"
"How is that doing it yourself, Dani?" Amanda chuckled. "You dumped everything on your poor dad..."
"Oh, well... Dad had all the experience of starting a company and managing it," he argued.
"Mom wanted to get involved too. She had a contact or two from selling houses to some Hollywood executives."
"So Harper & Pritchett Studio was founded by the three of us, with only our money. When we founded it, I put in eighty percent of everything I had!"
[Daniel and Jay commentary]
"They offered me peanuts!" Daniel remarked again.
Jay turned his head toward his son. "The best offer was about six hundred grand, plus bonuses, Daniel."
"Exactly! Chump change!" Dani agreed with his father.
Jay sighed and looked forward, explaining, "It was a great offer for a writer who had never written a screenplay before. He only got that much because Daniel was a bestselling author."
"But I was still right!" Daniel pointed out. "I had no idea it could make $195 million at the box office, but I knew they were trying to rip me off!"
"I would've barely made two million including all the bonuses. But by doing it ourselves, the movie eventually made us about a hundred million in profit—seventy million being my share."
He was including the money that came in later from DVDs, television rights, and other sources.
"We had our fair share of good luck, but we were totally right, Dad," he finished.
Jay spread his arms but conceded. "Yeah, we were right!"
[Commentary ends]
"Oh, yeah," Daniel said, getting everyone's attention again. "The second horror movie, Paranormal Activity II, is already in production!"
"Huh, I liked the first one. It did scare me a bit," Amanda said with a smile, not embarrassed to admit that she'd found it scary.
Lindsay raised an eyebrow. Horror wasn't exactly the genre she liked, but she'd found the first movie surprisingly good. "What's the second one going to be like?"
"It'll take place before the first one," Dani stated. "It'll be about Katie's sister, Kristi, and her husband, Dan Rey, and their kids, Ali and Hunter."
He revealed, "The actors this time will be Charlie and Lisa, Haley and Lily. And some others in minor roles."
Seeing some people turn toward her, Haley shrugged. "Dani convinced me to do it. Mom also nagged me about it..."
"Charlie and Dani have been working together on some jingles and songs," Lisa joined the conversation. "He ended up convincing us to play the leads..."
"It's also because we can film it at my bro's house," Dani said with a smirk, not hiding one of his reasons.
He turned toward Amanda. "And Paranormal Activity is the best. It only took me ten working days to write it!"
He gestured with his hands, first spreading his arms wide, then gradually bringing them closer together. "There are books. Then screenplays. And now, horror screenplays!"
"What about my musical?" Amanda asked.
Dani squeezed both of her cheeks. "What do you mean, your musical? Don't be shameless, Mandy. I never promised you anything."
"But that's actually what I'm working on right now. I'm working on two scripts."
"The first one, I named Pitch Perfect, a comedy with a musical theme. Pretty much in line with the movies I've already written."
He went on, "As for the second one, I'm trying to do something different. Since I've never written a musical, I thought, why not adapt one that already exists?"
"And the one I'm working on is called Mamma Mia! I've already asked my dad to get the adaptation rights."
Amanda raised an eyebrow. "Mamma Mia? You know, I actually watched that musical," she grinned.
Dani was about to comment on that when he suddenly had an outburst. "Oh my God! I forgot to write something for Prudence."
"She let us use all this for free. I should at least write her a song." He immediately grabbed a pen and a small notebook.
[Dani and Lexi commentary]
"About Mamma Mia!..." Dani commented while sitting beside Lexi. "I thought I had a brilliant idea using material that was already written, but then I realized..."
"Wait! This isn't as lazy as I thought it would be! It's going to take a good amount of time before I finish adapting it!"
"Tragic," Lexi said in her usual flat tone.
But she did pull him into a kiss when she saw him pouting.
[Commentary ends]
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After a while, the plane landed in Houston.
When everyone arrived at the hotel, Prudence was already waiting outside. She jumped into Dani's arms.
"Missed you!"
"Missed you too, Prudence," he said with a grin.
But she soon got back down and gave Lexi, Mischa, and even Amanda a hug.
"Prudence," she introduced herself, holding out her hand to the last girl.
"Lindsay," the redhead replied, surprised by how beautiful she was.
Then everyone went inside to get settled into the hotel.
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