Junior Year Box Set

“We’ve been given a working title for the movie, Devil May Care. I was offered to direct this one based on an idea I have that I need a special person to help me pull off. Mark has labeled it the ‘Million Dollar Shot.’ You know that the opening sequence of each James Bond movie seems to be something more outlandish than the previous one. In the last film, Spectre, they plopped you right in the middle of a wild scene of a carnival-like atmosphere as the Bond character pursued the bad guy. Then they dropped a building on him, and eventually, he ended up in a fight in a helicopter. That shot alone took six months of planning. Sam Mendes, the director, set the bar pretty high.

“I want to do something that will outdo him. My idea would have it start in an airplane, and the son would be involved in a fight. Of course, you’d be tossed out of a plane without a chute and have to catch one of the bad guys and steal his.” Chubby said.

“That doesn’t sound safe,” Saul said from his corner.

“Shut up, Saul,” Mark warned.

“You would land and chase the bad guy. You’d end up snowboarding down the side of a mountain and have to jump a ravine. There would be a switch to snowmobiles, and then finally four-wheelers. I want to do it in one continuous shot with a camera on you. We’d have cameras set up all the way down the mountain to take establishment shots and different angles. We’d want you to do the stunts,” Chubby said.

The room was suddenly silent, and Caryn and Saul looked sick. This was the sort of thing that might end my life. My experience on Star Academy underlined that there was a reason they had stuntmen. I’d seen most of the James Bond movies and those chase scenes and knew that jumping out of an airplane could be dangerous. I’d seen some films where the hero jumps out without a chute. Hell, I’d almost died doing an ad for Range Sports!

I was willing to bet that Chubby had glossed over some details. When he said I would jump over a ravine, I could only imagine what that meant. I looked Chubby and Mark both in the eyes, and could tell they were worried I would turn them down.

“Okay, but you have to tell my mom,” I said.

Chubby looked at Mark and smiled.

“We can’t officially offer you the role until we finish our other auditions, but I think we’d like you to play the part,” Mark said. “I’ll be in touch with Saul when I can make an offer. I appreciate you coming in, and I look forward to working with you.”

Saul waited until we were in the parking lot before he did a victory fist-pump.

“Yes!”

“Do you have any idea what David will make on this?” Caryn asked.

“I would guess somewhere in the ten million range. That shot alone is worth a fortune,” Saul said. “It would also be perfect timing. They want to start filming not this summer but next. You should have three movies released by then. Combine that with your two Star Academy movies, and you should be able to choose what you do from there on out,” Saul said.

“Don’t forget the young Han Solo project,” I said.

“My grandmother used to have a saying: ‘To Wish Impossible Things.’ It meant that if you dreamed big, good things could happen. Without wishing for the impossible, it would never happen,” Caryn said.

“You just keep wishing for the impossible, and we’re going to be very rich,” Saul said with a big smile.

Yep, it was all about Saul.

◊◊◊

When we returned to the studio, it was time for our first scene with Hannah. We had an establishment scene that introduced her to the audience. She was teaching us history. The baseball-player character I’d initially been selected for made an ass out of himself hitting on her. He’d also been aggressive with Cassie and Faye. In the film, he would be found hanged in the boiler room by the end of the day. I was glad not to be in that role, now that I saw how he came off in the film.

The one downside to having Hannah Minacci and Adrienne on the set was that the studio execs found an excuse to drop in. When I returned to my trailer after a scene, I found Hannah and Adrienne there, hiding.

“I thought you had a trailer,” I said.

“I couldn’t seem to get a free minute to think in mine,” Hannah said.

“We knew you wouldn’t mind,” Adrienne said.

“You do know that it’s time for naked yoga in my trailer,” I tried.

“Don’t even challenge him. He’ll be naked in an instant if we so much as pretend like we’re interested,” Adrienne warned.

“Guess who’s going to play James Bond’s son in the next movie,” I said to try another angle.

I received a group hug from both Hannah and Adrienne as my reward. If Chubby had known, I might have worked for free.

I was disappointed when the studio pervs figured out Hannah was in my trailer. She and Adrienne left to hide in Halle’s.

◊◊◊

I was done for the day, so I twisted Fritz’s arm to take me surfing. Caryn would get a ride home with either Rita or Halle. She had ‘things to do.’