My Hollywood System

Chapter 196:

“Well, to be honest I really thought that you would end up dying, the wound was pretty deep, doctor said,” Robert said

“Yeah, me neither. Felt like I went to heaven and came back,” Will said jokingly but inside only he would know what he went through. Currently Robert and Will were talking while standing on the left of the set.

Robert had come around to meet Will twice while he was in the hospital. Now they were meeting once again and the former started the conversation by saying how he was worried, and then the rest of the discussion just started flowing.

After meeting Will twice, he had to fly away for some shooting—but as soon as he got time, coincidentally another photo-shoot was scheduled to take place in Los Angeles, right where Will was filming [Spiderman].

“Yeah, I don’t doubt you on that one,” Robert said. The entire conversation was flowing in a very light manner with no depth in it at all. Even though Robert was glad to see Will alive, he did not want to make things heavy by asking too many questions, or to make him feel uncomfortable with the questions that were ringing in his head.

“Oh damn! Are those fucking spiders?” Robert questioned suddenly seeing how a person was carrying the spiders in a glass container.

“Yes, they are. Do you have arachnophobia?” Will asked back at his reaction which sounded that he was genuinely scared of the animals.

“Not really. Although I doubt myself of not having any after seeing the spiders there, and now I’m not completely sure if I have such a phobia,” Robert said looking at how they were still being taken away. “More than anything, what makes my hands go numb is how poisonous they look from afar,” Robert said, shaking his head in disapproval.

“They are not poisonous at all. If they were, I would not be here, instead in jail.” Will said remembering how they had negotiated with the actors that any scene which would be a harm to themselves would not be taken without professional precautions.

The case with the spiders was a similar situation.

“It looks like the black widow, and I’m not even kidding,” Robert said, making Will laugh. “You tryna send Andrew to the hospital or something?”

Black Widow was a poisonous spider. The spider itself was seriously risky if triggered by any act. Therefore, Will would never give permission to have such a poisonous Spider kind to be around actors, and risk their health.

“If you are tryna create a buzz around Andrew with the black widow around him and all, trust me my friend, not everyone gets famous after getting nearly killed. I’m at least sure that Andrew would not,” Robert joked.

Will shook his head at the joke and explained that, “I actually had one of the experts in the field of Spiders find me some harmless spiders just to put them in containers for the scene. There’s a scene where one spider bite Andrew before going away, and for that I’m going to use a specially trained spider. Can’t risk anything,”

The question Robert asked made Will laugh internally due to the similar spider thoughts the director of the original movie had. Raimi in fact wanted to use a digital spider—yet the director had wanted to use black widow, and due to the level of poison the spider has, they agreed to use a ‘steatoda grossa’ spider, which was painted and trained by a specialist in the field.

In the original movie, Tobey walked towards the spiders, trying to get a picture while the bullies kept doing things to make him lose focus. Nevertheless, the jumping spider he wanted to get a picture of was an Avondale spider. At the same scene, there were so many spiders in the scene, and it had been exposed that some of the spiders they used were exported from New Zealand.

“Now that sounds considerate to me,” Robert implied.

“Yeah, the spider in the special scene is actually a trained one. For that, we had to go through a lot of spiders before selecting the perfect one. Not to mention, totally unrelated, but I have quite a good knowledge on spiders now,” Will shrugged after seeing the amused expression on Robert’s face.

Turning away from Will, Robert saw how hard Andrew was practising martial arts with Damon. Ever since the first day, they had gotten close to each other, and would practise martial arts which was something they both had been learning recently.

Robert walked towards him and made small talk. Andrew explained how enthusiastic he was regarding the filming, and how it had been going great.

“Good luck with everything,” Robert said before walking away from the set, but not before bidding Will goodbye.

***

“So, MJ, I need you to be totally cool in this scene as well. You were doing great during the last one. And you, Andrew, remember you have a crush on her, I kind of want to see it in your eyes, but at the same time, I don’t want you to seem obvious, okay?” Will questioned and both Andrew and Rachel nodded at the same time.

“Yeah, got it,” Andrew said.

“Let’s see it once then, quiet on set please!” Will said while walking to his director’s seat.

There were two cameras that were being held by two men. The man who was covering the lighting was beside the cameraman.

“…..Action!” Will gave the ‘go’ to the action as soon as the set was ready.

“Hey, could I take a picture? I kind of need a picture with you in it?” Andrew questioned showing the camera by one of his hands.

“Sure, yeah,” Rachel said with a smile.

“Cut! Why do you look so tense Rachel? I need you to calm down a bit, MJ is such a kind and sweet girl, don’t make me repeat it, but it feels forced when you say, ‘sure, yeah’, I need it to be natural,” Will explained.

“Okay, let’s take one more, ready?”

The scene went perfectly, while Will took a good shot of how it would be shown that Andrew got bit by the spider.

“I’m kinda freaking out, I’m sorry,” Andrew said while his gaze was focused on the spider who kept creeping down and onto Andrew’s shoulder. He shuddered visibly and the expert trainer ran immediately to take away the spider.

“Ah! Alright, give me five,” Andrew said and stretched his arms. “Let’s start,” He said in a few minutes.

“..Action!” Will commanded while Andrww got into the character agan.

The camera rolled on and caught how Peter was watching MJ through his camera lens and took pictures of her posing in front of the spiders.

The spider creeped down onto Andrew’s neck and bit him in a second which the cameras caught perfectly and then dropped to the floor. Andrew looked at the floor, questioning himself, ‘what the hell just happened’.

As soon as Will yelled ‘Cut!’

The professionals who were there to help with the spider scene joned Andrew on the set.

Two three men walked in and checked if he was alright. They confirmed he was alright, but Andrew had his hand on his neck.

“Are you okay?” Will questioned walking towards him.

“Ow, it kinda still stings though, are you sure it aint poisonous?” Andrew asked, the shock clear in his face.

Slowly, his face started to pale.

“It is poisonous,” Will moved closer, seeing the pale skin appearing over. Andrew literally paled in front of him. Seeing that, Will burst into laughter.

“I’m kidding,” He said and walked back.

“Nice joke!” Andrew shouted after him, and kept rubbing the neck which still slightly stinged from the contact.

Later on, after three shots of the same scene, Will felt as if the last one could be merged for the second last one, and that would be perfect.

***

“‘Who is Spider-Man?’ He’s a criminal, that’s who he is. A vigilante, a public menace. Why’s he on my front page?” J. Jonah Jameson said in a speedy tone.

The person who was acting the role of J. Jonah Jameson was Simmons himself—but the difference is not the same person.

“Cut! So the thing is, I want you to actually look mad. Your expression is a bit soft, and I want you to put all of it out. Like—crazily mad. The tone, speed of your voice and everything is totally okay. But in this matter, the character is kind of not normal. Someone who practically lives on impulse, and I seriously want to see you nail the scene,” Will said looking at him, and Simmons nodded.

“You know, the entrance of his appearance for the movie is practically somewhere his entire personality is shown off. Like how he is cynical, wrathful and is not afraid to show it. Also, how he is constantly very cruel and mean to his staff, regardless of who is around him. From the first scene his personality traits where the bossy, arrogant, short-tempered and controlling types could be see,”

“I’ll try one more,” He said and Will walked back to his chair.

Inside Will’s mind, he was thinking how the scene would be iconic. And this would be the perfect moment where he creates an iconic masterpiece, because in his world, the certain scene was worshipped over even after twenty years—not literally, but anyone would understand the idea.

The scene started smoothly, and Will felt as if he was getting there with time. Simmons perfectly nailed one of the favourite dialogues of J. Jonah Jameson.

“Aw, what is he, shy? If we can get a picture of Scarlett McJohn in a thong we can certainly get a picture of this weirdo. Put an ad on the front page. “Cash money for a picture of Spider-Man” He doesn’t want to be famous? I’ll make him infamous!”

“CUT!” Will said loud enough for everyone to hear.

Just then, Jeffery came over.

“Will, we need to talk.”

“Yeah?”

“It’s about the phone call.”

“Oh,” Will stood up and they walked out of the earshot of the other crew.

“What happened? Did you find anything?” He asked once they had reached a safe distance.

Jeffery nodded, “A few things. First, all those bodyguards at the scene were new recruits by the security company and they are now fired because of their incompetence.”

“Oh? Did you find anything else strange about them?”

“Well, apart from the fact that they were new, there’s really nothing else out of the ordinary. It was a dead end.”

Will frowned.

Seeing his expression, Jeffery added, “Are you sure the bodyguards had something to do with it? We checked the recordings too, although they reacted slowly, it was most likely because everything happened so fast.”

Letting out a sigh, Will nodded. He had his suspicion on Ashton, but then why would Ashton risk his own reputation by targeting Will’s life in his own party?

‘What was that old man thinking?’

…

//DreamNote//

The bonus chapter of last to last week will be written and uploaded on the weekend

However, for today, I have a special chapter which I will upload in a few minutes. be online.