Chapter 403.Worldwide fame
The shooting for [Hex] was over and Aiden had actually completed two movies for the next two years with this. With ‘Project Dream’, he had three movies planned to be released in the next two years.
But Wade wanted him to do two more alongside this to consolidate his place as an A lister. If not two, at least one more in the next two years.
Aiden also agreed with that, so after shooting ‘Project Dream’, he was planning to have another release in the year.
Though, both [Hex] and ‘Project Dream’ were big budget extravaganzas with the former being touted to be a fantasy blockbuster and the latter a risky project which would either be a big hit or a flop.
So, the next movie needed to be something small.
Something more innovative. Something that could fit in the two big extravaganzas. Something that would be more of a risk project.
A small movie that Aiden could be proud of.
Wade and him were not in a rush to sign such a project, at least in the current year, so it was still a plan for the future.
Aiden was actually thinking of doing something like a comedy or a parody. Genres that he never tried before. He had been playing more serious characters in his whole filmography.
The only characters that were a bit more playful were teen characters and even then, it was not a rom com most of the time.
Though for now, Aiden was busy with something else.
“Hey, Aiden, do you think I can get something like a laser in the game for my character? You know the red one from that machine human movie. It looked very cool and flashy?”
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A few people in the studio chuckled seeing him like this. Other actors that were standing at the back also smiled among themselves.
It was kind of refreshing to see old people being so vibrant.
“No, Uncle, your character is of a Draconian blacksmith. They don’t shoot lasers from their palms?”
“Then, can I make the gesture of a fire breathing dragon?”
“No, in the game, the Draconians evolved to control their fire, so only their bodies got heated up and they could conjure up small flames to help them with tasks. That’s the description for them.”
Aiden explained, looking at his Uncle who looked like he was just happy to be here.
Currently, they were standing in a studio to shoot a few scenes for the game <God’s World>. His Uncle was in a mocap (Motion capture) suit and looked to be having the fun of his lifetime.
There were other actors also in the studio and Cory was also present.
“Your uncle is a pretty interesting guy. Can we keep his personality in the game too? The character was going to be more stoic but this is fun. We need characters like that.”
“Go on. Not like he was much of an actor anyway. He will have a better chance playing by himself.”
Aiden said and just nodded. He went back to his seat and leaned against the wall as he saw his uncle having fun.
‘The last week has been fun.’
Aiden had taken time to get off the character of Blaze and it had worked for most part. These days, he was just having fun and was now accompanying his uncle during his motion capture scenes.
His rest days were actually over today as he had a meeting in the afternoon about his next move as a celebrity. As he was thinking about that, his phone rang.
It was Wade.
“Aiden, you would be able to come for the meeting right?”
“Yes, I will be. It looks like Uncle Sam will be in the studio the whole day. So, I will just come right now and we can start it.”
“Okay.”
The phone cut after that and Aiden stood up. He said goodbye to his uncle and Cory and left the studio.
Sitting in his car, he thought about his career in recent years. It has been one big step after another.
But in that process, he wasn’t able to focus on certain things. He had only been focusing on his acting and it showed in his system as his acting skills were just increasing.
Though, due to a majority focus on acting, his other skills like writing and singing were left behind.
Although he liked acting the best and was living a dream life as an actor, he knew that the other stuff was equally important as it gave him a choice to be more than just an actor. A versatile superstar.
Aiden didn’t want these skills to be wasted. So, today’s meeting was about it.
One more agenda was also Aiden’s rising stardom and a need to go out of Hollywood, especially countries in Asia with a lot of population.
When Aiden reached the office, most people from his team were already present in the meeting room. After some greetings, he sat down and Wade started.
He was the one presiding over the meeting.
“As you know, in recent years, thanks to your movies and a low-key social media presence, you are able to become a sought after actor that is now being counted as one of the biggest stars in America. Most of your fan base consists of young people. Though a lot of fangirls are there, there are a good number of boys.”
“That’s obvious since I sang a lot of pop songs and a lot of my movies were a hit due to students and just people in their early 30s.”
Aiden said and everyone nodded. A movie like [The Black Saint] was extremely popular with young people as they liked the gore stuff better and it also managed to click with older people due to the messages of society in it.
Though, that was a rare case as his other movies like [Action Hero] or series like [Sherlock of the Shadows] are focused on teens from the start.
No matter how good these projects are, teenagers are way more likely to watch them.
“Still, with the current trends, you have reached your limit on social media and you are not getting exposure like before to people to follow you or be your fan. Most people in America already know about you.”
Aiden had reached a limit and he needed to break the current wall in front of him. But it was hard. After all, being an A-lister means that you are already one of the most popular faces in the country.
“The strategy you have used till now could be done in Asian countries too which means we would go for a more worldwide fanbase. It will surely help. The same is true for Europe. Although places like the UK get a lot of American shows, they do have their own series and movies too. It’s the same in lots of parts in Europe and you have never truly broken out there before as you need to compete with their celebrities.”
Wade said and Sasha nodded her head, agreeing with his points.
“In Asia, the competition is harsher. India might be a good place as it’s your home country and they get a lot of American content online but the same can’t be said about Korea or China.”
“China is a huge market but it’s just getting closed in recent years.”
“Yeah, a lot of our movies earn hundreds of millions there, so the producers are worried it will get totally shut down.”
A few people discussed and for a while, it looked like the topic was shifting but it soon went back to Aiden’s popularity and ways to break in different markets.
“You can try working in films around the world but that’s a strategy that’s never going to work. You can’t work in 6-7 movies a year and at most, you could do cameos.”
“Asian cinema is mostly closed for people outside the native country anyway. People don’t accept others.”
Aiden nodded his head.
Even in India, although there were popular actresses from outside India who would learn the language, the actors were always Indians because the stories were more male centric in nature in the mainstream cinema.
Though, that was changing with time.
“I don’t think I should go the movie route anyway. I have enough movies in my line and Hollywood movies generally get famous in other countries too. I doubt I need to do roles in other countries’ cinema for now.”
Aiden said and Wade nodded. Tom, who was just listening to the conversation till now, opened his mouth.
“Then, what are you going to do to break out in other countries?”
“I have plans.”
“Like what?”
“I was thinking of making another mini album. It’s been a long time since my debut album.”
Aiden said and everyone in the room was a bit surprised. After all, Aiden hadn’t talked about singing in recent years. He was not even seen with a guitar or something, so the perception was that he was over his singing career.