The Maker: Hollywood

The sun beating down on the high desert of Palmdale was completely unforgiving. The temperature was hovering somewhere around a hundred and four degrees, and the heat radiating off the baked dirt was creating visible, shimmering waves in the air.

On the far edge of the massive, dusty backlot, a deafening explosion ripped through the afternoon quiet. A fireball plumed forty feet into the air, sending a shockwave of heat and pulverized dust rolling across the set.

Denzel Washington walked away from the blast, moving at a slow, deliberate pace. He was holding a heavy prop assault rifle in his right hand. His face was covered in a thick layer of fake sweat, mixed with actual sweat, and smeared with a sticky, dark corn syrup mixture that was supposed to be dried blood. He kept his eyes locked straight ahead, his expression a mask of cold, untouchable resolve.

”And cut,” the director called out over the megaphone, his voice echoing off the surrounding cliffs. ”That was great. We have it. Let’s reset for the wide shot, people. We need it in fifteen minutes before we lose this light.”

The second the word cut hung in the air, Denzel’s posture completely changed. The untouchable action-star persona evaporated, replaced immediately by the heavy, bone-deep exhaustion of a man who had just spent the last six hours running through the desert dirt. He let out a long, ragged breath, handed the heavy prop rifle to a waiting armorer, and gratefully accepted a cold, wet towel from a production assistant.

He wiped the grime off the back of his neck, savoring the brief chill against his skin. He was in incredible shape, but running away from controlled explosives all day was a young man’s game, and his knees were definitely feeling the impact of the uneven terrain.

He walked slowly toward the sprawling cluster of white pop-up tents that served as the craft services and staging area. The shade underneath the canvas was a welcome relief. Massive industrial fans were blowing mist into the air, trying to bring the ambient temperature down to something resembling tolerable.

Denzel walked over to a cooler, popped the lid, and pulled out a bottle of alkaline water. He twisted the cap off and drank half of it in a single, continuous swallow.

”Rough one, huh?” a voice said from his left.

Denzel lowered the bottle and turned his head. Standing a few feet away was Chris, one of his younger co-stars. Chris was playing the requisite tech-savvy sidekick in the movie. He was twenty-six, full of boundless, irritating energy, and currently scrolling through his phone while eating a handful of almonds.

”Just another day at the office, Chris,” Denzel said, his voice carrying that familiar, rhythmic cadence. He leaned back against one of the folding tables, resting his legs.

”Well, the playback looked sick,” Chris said, popping an almond into his mouth. ”You looked like a total badass walking away from that rig. I mean, nobody does the stoic walk away from an explosion better than you. It’s your signature.”

Denzel gave a polite, tired smile. He appreciated the compliment, but lately, the ’badass brand’ was starting to feel a little bit like a very expensive, very comfortable straightjacket. The studios knew what sold tickets. They knew audiences wanted to see him hold a gun, look dangerous, and dismantle a room full of bad guys. The paychecks were astronomical, but the actual craft of acting—the quiet, nuanced, character-driven work he had built his foundation on in the theater—felt like a distant memory.

Chris looked down at his phone again, his thumb swiping across the screen.

”Actually, speaking of stoic,” Chris said, a slight chuckle in his voice. ”I was reading the trades this morning. It’s crazy what Daniel Miller is doing right now.”

Denzel took another sip of his water. ”What’s Miller doing?”

”He’s shooting a 1940s prison movie,” Chris said, shaking his head in amusement. ”Just dropped a billion-dollar animated movie, and now he’s out in Ohio shooting a Stephen King drama about guys locked in a penitentiary. No action, no CGI. Just guys sitting around a cellblock.”

Denzel nodded slowly. He respected Daniel Miller. Everyone in the industry did. Miller was one of the few directors left who actually took risks and didn’t rely entirely on established franchise safety nets.

”That sounds like a good picture,” Denzel noted quietly.

”Yeah, I mean, I’m sure it’ll win awards or whatever,” Chris shrugged, completely missing the tone. ”But honestly, I totally get why you passed on it, man. It makes sense.”

Denzel stopped. The plastic water bottle froze halfway to his mouth.

The industrial fan hummed loudly in the corner of the tent. The sound of the crew yelling instructions to each other out on the dirt lot suddenly felt very far away.

Denzel slowly lowered the bottle. He looked at the younger actor, his eyes narrowing just a fraction.

”Passed on what, Chris?” Denzel asked. His voice was incredibly calm, but the underlying weight of it caused Chris to physically stop chewing his almonds.

”The... the script,” Chris stammered slightly, suddenly realizing he might have stepped on a landmine. ”The trades said Miller’s casting director reached out to your agency a couple of weeks ago for one of the lead roles. Some smuggler, I think? The article said your team passed on it because the role didn’t fit your current brand, and they went with Morgan Freeman instead.”

Chris let out a nervous, awkward laugh. ”I mean, I get it. Sitting in a cold prison cell reciting dialogue for two hours doesn’t really fit the whole action-hero vibe you’ve got going on right now. Morgan’s a better fit for the quiet stuff anyway, right?”

Denzel didn’t say a word. He just stared at Chris for three long, agonizing seconds. The young actor actually took a half-step backward, suddenly feeling like he was standing in front of one of the dangerous characters Denzel played on screen.

Denzel turned around, tossed his half-full water bottle into a trash can, and walked out of the craft services tent.

He didn’t walk back toward the set. He walked in the opposite direction, heading straight for the cluster of massive, luxurious trailers parked behind the staging area. His stride was long and purposeful. The exhaustion he had felt two minutes ago was completely gone, replaced by a cold, tightly coiled fury.

He reached his double-wide trailer, pulled the heavy metal door open, stepped inside, and slammed it shut behind him.

The air conditioning inside the trailer was running at full blast, keeping the interior at a brisk sixty-eight degrees. It was quiet. The walls were soundproofed, blocking out the noise of the production outside.

Denzel walked straight to the small kitchenette counter, grabbed a clean towel, and aggressively wiped the fake blood and dirt off his face and neck. He tossed the ruined towel into the sink, pulled his personal cell phone out of his jacket pocket, and brought up his contact list.

He tapped the name of his lead packaging agent at WME. A guy named Bryce. Bryce was thirty-two years old, wore suits that cost more than a small car, and liked to use words like ’synergy’ and ’demographic capture’ during lunch meetings.

The phone rang twice.

”Denzel!” Bryce’s voice came through the speaker, loud, cheerful, and entirely too enthusiastic for a Thursday afternoon. ”My man! I was just talking to the studio about your backend points for the international release. We are looking at a massive payout, I’m telling you, the projections are—”

”Bryce,” Denzel interrupted. His voice wasn’t loud. It didn’t need to be. It cut through the agent’s cheerful rambling like a scalpel.

Bryce immediately stopped talking. The silence on the other end of the line was thick with sudden apprehension. ”Everything okay on set, Denzel? Do you need me to call the producers?”

”I need you to answer a question,” Denzel said, leaning his hands flat against the kitchenette counter, staring at his own reflection in the small mirror above the sink. ”And I need you to think very, very carefully about the words that come out of your mouth next.”

”O-okay,” Bryce stammered, the slick Hollywood confidence instantly draining from his voice. ”Sure. What’s the question?”

”Did Daniel Miller send a script to my office?”

There was a pause. It was only a second long, but it was enough to confirm everything Denzel needed to know.

”Uh, yes,” Bryce said, his voice tightening. ”Yes, he did. About three weeks ago. The Shawshank Redemption.”

”And did you pass on this script without sending it to me to read?” Denzel asked, his tone dropping an octave.

”Denzel, listen, let me explain the strategy here,” Bryce started, his words rushing out in a panicked flurry. ”The script was a period piece. It was a prison drama. Your character, Red, he just sits around. He narrates. He trades cigarettes. There was no physical dominance to the role. Right now, you are one of the highest-paid action stars in the world. Your audience pays to see you be a badass.”

Denzel closed his eyes, taking a slow, deep breath through his nose. He could feel a headache starting to form at the base of his skull.

”We didn’t just pass,” Bryce continued defensively, trying to salvage the situation. ”We tried to negotiate! We told Miller’s producing partner that we loved the prestige, but we just needed a minor creative adjustment to protect your brand. We suggested adding a cafeteria brawl. Just a scene where you get to brutalize a couple of corrupt guards. Just to give the character some edge! But Miller is arrogant. He pulled the offer immediately. He wouldn’t even discuss it.”

Denzel opened his eyes.

”You asked Daniel Miller,” Denzel said, his voice eerily quiet, ”to put a cafeteria fight scene into a character drama.”

”To protect your demographic, yes!” Bryce said, mistaking Denzel’s quiet tone for understanding. ”We have to maintain the brand, Denzel. If you do a movie where you look weak or passive, it hurts our leverage for the next action contract.”

Denzel picked his phone up off the counter. He held it close to his mouth.

”Bryce, I want you to listen to me very closely,” Denzel said. He wasn’t yelling, but the sheer, focused anger in his delivery was terrifying. ”I am an actor. That is my profession. I built my career on a stage, reciting words written by playwrights. I did not spend thirty years perfecting my craft so that a kid in a tailored suit could tell me I’m only allowed to hold a gun and look tough for the rest of my life.”

”Denzel, I was just trying to—”

”You took a script,” Denzel cut him off, ”from a director who has not missed the mark in a decade. A director who makes actual cinema. And you told him his script wasn’t good enough because it didn’t have enough karate in it.”

Bryce didn’t say a word. He was smart enough to realize he was standing on the tracks and the train was already moving.

”You don’t protect me, Bryce,” Denzel said, his voice hard as iron. ”You work for me. Or rather, you used to. You are fired. If you ever try to contact me, my family, or my production company again, I will personally drive down to your office and make a scene that will ruin whatever reputation you think you have left. Do you understand me?”

”Denzel, please, let’s just talk about this—”

Denzel ended the call. He tossed the phone onto the small sofa in the trailer and let out a long, frustrated sigh.

He rubbed his face with both hands. The sheer stupidity of it was staggering. He had missed out on a Daniel Miller project because his representatives were too obsessed with algorithms and brand management to recognize a good piece of art.

He walked over to the sofa, picked his phone back up, and dialed his personal assistant.

She answered on the first ring. ”Yes, Mr. Washington?”

”Call Miller Studios in Burbank,” Denzel instructed, his voice tired but calm. ”Get through the switchboard, talk to whoever you need to talk to, and get Daniel Miller on the phone for me. If he’s on set, tell them I’ll hold.”

”Right away,” his assistant said.

Denzel hung up. He sat down on the edge of the sofa and waited. He knew Morgan Freeman had already accepted the role. The trades had already announced it. He wasn’t calling to try and steal the part back. He was calling because he was a professional, and he refused to let another professional think he was stupid enough to demand a cafeteria brawl in a drama.

Thousands of miles away, inside the massive, cavernous space of Stage 4 on the Miller Studios lot, the atmosphere was incredibly focused.

Daniel was standing near the video village monitors, holding a cup of coffee. The massive, multi-tiered prison cellblock set loomed in the background, beautifully lit by Bob Elswit to look harsh, oppressive, and depressing.

Tom walked over, holding his cell phone out, looking slightly confused.

”Dan,” Tom said, keeping his voice low so he wouldn’t disrupt the lighting crew. ”My phone just rang. It’s Denzel Washington.”

Daniel raised an eyebrow. He looked at the phone, then looked at Tom. ”Denzel?”

”Yeah,” Tom nodded. ”His assistant tracked down my direct line. He wants to speak with you.”

Daniel smiled slightly. He reached out and took the phone, bringing it to his ear.

”Denzel,” Daniel said casually. ”This is a surprise. I hear you’re out in the desert blowing things up these days.”

”I am,” Denzel’s voice came through the line, sounding exhausted but grounded. ”And I’m covered in about three pounds of fake dirt to prove it. Daniel, I’m going to keep this short. I just found out, about ten minutes ago, that my agency rejected a script from you on my behalf.”

”They did,” Daniel confirmed, leaning against the back of a canvas director’s chair. ”They had some very specific creative notes regarding my lack of hand-to-hand combat scenes.”

A heavy sigh came over the phone. ”I want to personally apologize to you for that. I didn’t see the script. I didn’t know they passed on it, and I certainly didn’t authorize them to ask you for a cafeteria fight. The agent responsible for that conversation is currently packing up his desk.”

Daniel chuckled softly, genuinely appreciating the call. In an industry built entirely on ego and blame-shifting, it was incredibly rare for a star of Denzel’s magnitude to personally call and apologize for a missed connection.

”I appreciate the call, Denzel,” Daniel said warmly. ”But you don’t need to apologize. I had a feeling the agency was acting as a gatekeeper. It happens. They see the box office numbers your action movies pull in, and they get tunnel vision. They forget you actually know how to act.”

”It’s a frustrating reality,” Denzel admitted. ”I heard you got Morgan for the role. He’s a brilliant choice. He’ll give it the weight it needs. I’m just disappointed I missed the opportunity to read the pages.”

”There will be other pages,” Daniel assured him. ”I’m not going anywhere, and neither are you. Next time I have a script with a proper explosion or a really intense cafeteria fight scene in mind, I’ll bypass the agency entirely and just bring it straight to your house.”

Denzel laughed, a deep, genuine sound that cut through his fatigue. ”I’ll hold you to that, Daniel. You make sure you give Morgan hell on set for me. Tell him he stole my Oscar.”

”I’ll pass the message along,” Daniel smiled. ”Stay hydrated out there in the desert, Denzel. Talk to you soon.”

Daniel handed the phone back to Tom.

”What was that about?” Tom asked, slipping the phone into his pocket.

”Denzel fired his agent,” Daniel said, taking a sip of his coffee. ”He just found out they hid the script from him. He called to apologize for the cafeteria fight request.”

Tom shook his head, amazed. ”WME is going to be in full panic mode by the end of the day. Losing a client like that because an agent got greedy. It’s a bloodbath out there.”

”Let them panic,” Daniel said, turning his attention back to the set. ”We have our own problems. Is Cillian ready?”

”He’s in the warden’s office,” Tom said, pointing toward the raised set built into the second tier of the cellblock structure. ”Ed is waiting in the hallway. Sound department has the playback cued up.”

”Good,” Daniel said. He set his coffee down and walked out onto the floor of the soundstage.

The set was a marvel of practical design. Dante Ferretti had built a fully functional, meticulously detailed replica of a 1940s prison warden’s office, complete with heavy oak furniture, a vintage record player, and a reinforced glass door that looked out onto the cellblock tiers.

Daniel walked up the metal stairs to the second level. Cillian Murphy was sitting in the warden’s heavy leather chair. He was wearing his faded prison uniform, his hair neatly combed. He wasn’t reviewing sides or talking to the makeup team. He was just sitting there in total silence, staring at the vintage record player on the desk. His posture was perfectly straight, his expression entirely unreadable.

Ed Harris was standing outside the office in the hallway set, pacing back and forth, muttering his lines under his breath. He looked furious, getting his heart rate up, preparing for the explosion of rage the scene required.

Daniel stepped into the office. ”Cillian. How are we feeling?”

Cillian looked up, his pale blue eyes calm and focused. ”I’m ready, Daniel. It’s a beautiful moment. It’s the first time he actually takes control.”

”Right,” Daniel said. ”Andy isn’t doing this to provoke the warden. He isn’t doing it to be a rebel. He’s doing it because for five minutes, he wants to remember what beauty sounds like, and he wants everyone else to hear it too. Once you lock that door and turn the music on, the rest of the world ceases to exist. Ed is going to be screaming at you through the glass. Do not look at him. Do not acknowledge him. He is a ghost to you.”

”Understood,” Cillian nodded, settling back into the leather chair.

Daniel walked out of the office and pulled the heavy door shut. He looked at Ed Harris.

”Ed,” Daniel said. ”When the music starts, you lose your mind. It’s not just insubordination. He has hijacked your prison. He has taken your authority. I want you to try and break the glass.”

Ed Harris stopped pacing. He looked at Daniel, his jaw tight, his eyes burning with the pious, terrifying fury of Warden Norton. He gave a single, sharp nod.

Daniel walked back down the metal stairs and took his seat behind the monitors in video village. He picked up his headset.

”Alright, everyone,” Daniel’s voice echoed through the massive soundstage over the PA system. ”This is a big one. I want total silence on the floor. Background actors on the tiers, when the music hits the speakers, I want you to stop whatever you’re doing. Look up. You haven’t heard music in ten years. Let it wash over you.”

Daniel looked over at the sound mixer. ”Cue playback.”

The sound mixer gave a thumbs up.

”Roll camera,” Daniel said.

”Rolling,” Bob Elswit confirmed, the heavy 35mm film whirring softly inside the magazine.

”Action.”

On the monitors, Daniel watched Cillian Murphy move. It was a masterclass in economical acting. Every movement was precise, deliberate, and calm. Cillian slid the bolt lock on the heavy wooden door, securing himself inside the office. He walked over to the record player, pulled the vinyl disc from its sleeve, and carefully set it on the turntable. He placed the needle on the groove and flipped the switches on the prison’s public address microphone.

Daniel nodded to the sound mixer.

The sound mixer pressed a button on his board.

Instantly, the soaring, impossibly beautiful voices of two Italian sopranos filled the entire soundstage. The aria from The Marriage of Figaro blasted out of the massive studio speakers rigged above the set.

The music was jarring against the depressing, rusted backdrop of the prison set. It was angelic, piercing, and overwhelmingly emotional.

On the set, the background actors genuinely froze. The music was so loud, so unexpected in the cold environment, that their reactions were entirely natural. They stopped mopping the floors. They walked to the edge of the iron railings, looking up at the ceiling, their faces softening.

In the hallway outside the warden’s office, Ed Harris exploded.

He sprinted to the door, slamming his open palms against the reinforced glass. He screamed at the top of his lungs, his face turning red, the veins in his neck bulging. He pounded on the door frame, yelling for the guards, completely losing his mind as the beautiful Italian opera drowned out his voice.

Inside the office, Cillian Murphy didn’t flinch.

He sat in the leather chair, crossed his legs, and leaned back. He closed his eyes. The rage and the violence happening three feet away from him on the other side of the glass simply didn’t register. His face was a picture of absolute, serene, untouchable peace. He reached out and turned the volume knob on the PA system up just a fraction.

It was perfect. The contrast between Ed’s terrifying rage and Cillian’s absolute stillness was cinematic poetry.

But Daniel wasn’t finished.

He turned to his right. Morgan Freeman was sitting in a canvas chair next to the video village, watching the monitors intently, listening to the opera music fill the room.

Daniel pointed to a live microphone set up on a stand next to the monitors. It was wired directly into the sound mixer’s board, feeding into the daily audio track.

”Morgan,” Daniel whispered, pulling his headset off so he could be heard over the music. ”Read it now. Live. Let them feel it.”

Morgan understood immediately. He stood up, moving with a quiet grace, and stepped up to the microphone. He looked at the monitors, watching the extras on the tiers staring up at the ceiling, listening to the sopranos.

Morgan leaned into the microphone. He didn’t speak loudly. He let the natural, heavy resonance of his voice carry the words, blending perfectly with the underlying music.

”I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singing about,” Morgan read, his voice smooth, warm, and thick with emotion. ”Truth is, I don’t want to know. Some things are best left unsaid.”

The sound of his voice, mixing live with the Mozart track, sent a physical chill down Daniel’s spine. Next to him, Tom stopped breathing, staring at the monitor in absolute awe.

”I’d like to think they were singing about something so beautiful, it can’t be expressed in words,” Morgan continued, watching Cillian Murphy lean his head back on the screen. ”And makes your heart ache because of it. I tell you, those voices soared higher and farther than anybody in a gray place dares to dream.”

On the set, the extras were standing perfectly still. The music swelled, hitting a crescendo.

”It was like some beautiful bird flapped into our drab little cage and made those walls dissolve away,” Morgan read, his voice dropping into a register of profound, quiet awe. ”And for the briefest of moments, every last man in Shawshank felt free.”

The aria slowly faded out on the speakers.

Morgan stepped back from the microphone.

Daniel stared at the monitor for three more seconds, letting the silence hang heavy over the soundstage, letting the actors hold the emotion.

”Cut,” Daniel said quietly.

The tension on the soundstage instantly evaporated, replaced by a collective exhale from the entire crew. Bob Elswit pulled away from the camera, wiping a hand across his forehead. Up in the warden’s office, Cillian opened his eyes and gave a small, respectful nod toward the glass where Ed Harris was currently catching his breath.

Tom let out a shaky breath, looking at Daniel. ”That... I mean, that was...”

”That’s going in the movie,” Daniel said softly, a massive smile spreading across his face. ”We don’t need to loop that in post. Morgan, that was unbelievable. Your voice is otherworldly.”

Morgan Freeman walked back over to his chair, a satisfied smile on his face. ”It’s easy to read the words when the music does half the heavy lifting for you, Daniel. That was a good take.”

”It was a perfect take,” Daniel corrected. He stood up, clapping his hands together. ”Alright, let’s take fifteen, everyone! Reset for the hallway confrontation!”

As the crew began moving lighting stands and adjusting the camera dolly, the heavy acoustic doors at the back of the soundstage swung open.

Marcus walked in.

He wasn’t moving with his usual relaxed, amused swagger. His posture was rigid. He was holding his tablet tightly against his chest, and his eyes were scanning the set, looking for Daniel.

He spotted the video village and walked over quickly, his dress shoes clicking against the concrete floor.

”Dan,” Marcus said, keeping his voice incredibly low as he approached. He didn’t offer a greeting. He just handed the tablet directly to Daniel.

Daniel took the tablet. Tom leaned over his shoulder to look.

The screen was displaying a real-time financial news feed from Bloomberg. The headline was printed in bold, urgent text.

AMAZON FILES PRELIMINARY PAPERWORK FOR HOSTILE TAKEOVER OF WALT DISNEY STUDIOS. DISNEY BOARD IN EMERGENCY SESSION.

Daniel read the headline. He read the bullet points underneath it. Amazon was leveraging their massive tech capital to circumvent the traditional bidding process, attempting to swallow the entertainment giant whole to bolster their streaming platform and acquire the legacy library.

”It’s happening,” Marcus said quietly, making sure the crew couldn’t hear him. ”The rumors were true. Amazon officially filed the intent with the SEC twenty minutes ago. Disney’s stock is currently in freefall as the institutional investors panic over the regulatory hurdles. The Disney board is cornered. They have absolutely no leverage left. It’s a bloodbath in Burbank right now.”

Tom looked up from the tablet, his eyes wide. He looked at Daniel. ”Dan. This is it. They are completely exposed. Their valuation is in the gutter. If Amazon gets tied up in FTC anti-trust hearings, Disney is basically a sitting duck. Do we move? Do I call Elena and tell legal to start drafting the buyout paperwork?”

Daniel looked down at the tablet.

He thought about the massive Disney infrastructure. The theme parks in Orlando, Paris, and Tokyo. The decades of legacy real estate. The sheer, monopolistic power of owning the Mouse. It was the ultimate prize in Hollywood. It was the final piece of the puzzle that would turn Miller Studios from an unstoppable production house into an inescapable global empire.

He could do it. He had the capital to do it. He could trigger a proxy fight, outbid Amazon, and take the studio.

Daniel locked the tablet screen and handed it back to Marcus.

”No,” Daniel said calmly.

Tom blinked, completely taken aback. ”No? Dan, they are bleeding out on the floor. The fruit is literally falling off the tree. If we don’t grab it, Amazon is going to buy a hundred years of Hollywood history just to pad out their streaming service.”

”Let them try,” Daniel said, turning his attention back to the monitor showing the empty warden’s office. ”You think the FTC is going to let a massive tech monopoly swallow a legacy media empire without a fight? That acquisition will be tied up in federal court for the next three years. Amazon is going to spend billions just on legal fees trying to force it through, and Disney’s board is going to fight them every step of the way just out of spite.”

”So we just watch?” Marcus asked, slightly frustrated. ”We have the capital, Dan. We could swoop in as the ’white knight’ buyer. Save them from the tech guys. The board might actually welcome it.”

”I am not in the business of saving people who tried to sabotage my movies,” Daniel said, his voice cold and resolute. ”And I have absolutely no intention of baiting the mouse right now. We don’t need them, Marcus. That’s the reality. They need a buyout to survive. We just need to keep making good movies.”

Daniel looked at the two. ”We wait. Patiently. If Amazon somehow manages to navigate the regulatory nightmare and acquires them? Fine. It’s no loss to me. Let the tech company deal with the bloated overhead and the failing park attendance. I don’t care. But I am not going to drag Miller Studios into a three-year corporate war when I have actual work to do right here.”

Daniel pointed at the rusted, beautifully lit prison set.

”That,” Daniel said, gesturing to the cellblock, ”is what matters. Not stock prices. Not Amazon. We control our own universe. Tell Elena to keep an eye on the filings, but nobody drafts a single piece of buyout paperwork. We stay completely out of it.”

Marcus let out a slow breath, nodding in concession. He understood the logic, even if the aggressive executive inside him hated leaving a wounded target alone. ”Understood, boss. I’ll tell legal to stand down. We remain observers.”

”Good,” Daniel said. He turned his back on the corporate crisis entirely, picking up his headset and putting it back on. He pressed the talk button, his voice echoing across the soundstage.

”Alright, everyone,” Daniel called out, perfectly relaxed, the billionaire studio head instantly vanishing, replaced once again by the focused director. ”Let’s get Cillian and Ed back to their marks. I want to shoot the hallway confrontation. And Ed? Don’t hold anything back this time. I want to see you try to break that door down like you mean it.”

As the crew scrambled to their positions, Daniel sat back in his canvas chair, completely content.

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A/N: Read ahead on Patreon: /AmaanS