The Best Movie Actor In Hollywood!

Chapter 270

"Ridley invited you to audition, too?" Matthew's expression was one of surprise, bordering on shock. He was certainly doing his best to look astonished. "Orlando," he said, "it looks like we're about to become rivals."

Orlando opened his mouth, unsure of what to say.

Perhaps it was his memories of filming Black Hawk Down together, but in Orlando's eyes, Matthew was the epitome of cool. He was a natural for the role of a hardened soldier, the quintessential tough guy. If they were really competing for the lead in an epic war film, could Orlando even stand a chance?

Moreover, he knew from their time on the set of Black Hawk Down that Ridley Scott had already offered Matthew a significant supporting role in the film.

That gave Matthew a massive advantage in the audition.

In an instant, Orlando's good mood evaporated. He immediately began to wonder if there was some way he could stop Matthew from getting through the audition.

He was certain there was a way. After all, he had managed to snatch the lead role in Van Helsing from under Matthew's nose without him ever knowing. Surely, there had to be a way to win this audition as well.

"So, you're auditioning too," Matthew seemed to mutter to himself.

Orlando looked at him, his easy smile never faltering. "Yes."

Matthew made a show of scratching his head. "This is a bit of a problem."He sighed. "Orlando, you're my friend..."

Orlando wanted to say that if he was truly a friend, he should step aside. But the thought of saying something so shameless made his stomach churn; such foolish words would never pass his lips.

But to his utter astonishment, Matthew declared good-naturedly, "Look, Orlando, I'll find a way to gracefully decline Ridley's invitation."

"Really?" Orlando could hardly believe his ears.

Matthew nodded. "Of course, it's true. You're my friend. I wouldn't steal a role from a friend. I have Ridley's number—I'll call him and put in a good word for you. You were in Black Hawk Down; I'm sure he remembers you."

Orlando was touched by Matthew's offer. "Matthew," he said, his voice trembling slightly, "I... I don't even know how to thank you."

"Don't mention it," Matthew said candidly. "I'm just an acquaintance of Ridley's, so I can't guarantee you'll get through the audition."

Orlando nodded quickly. "I understand, I understand."

He wasn't a newcomer to Hollywood; he knew that when it came to auditions, nothing was ever certain.

"Matthew," Orlando said, his tone solemn, "if you ever need anything in the future, just ask."

Thinking back on their last encounter and now this, Orlando was convinced: from this day forward, Matthew Horner was his best friend.

"Hey, you said it, not me," Matthew replied playfully. "I won't forget that promise."

Orlando laughed. "I'm counting on it."

Matthew laughed along with him.

...

Since the event was still ongoing, Matthew couldn't stay with Orlando for long. He soon rejoined the circle of the Pirates of the Caribbean cast.

"Orlando Bloom?" Depp asked, glancing curiously at him in the distance. "You know him well?"

Matthew nodded. "We were in a film together."

He didn't elaborate. After all, it wasn't wise to go into detail about such matters. He could hardly admit that he was deliberately setting a trap for Orlando, could he?

In reality, after Matthew officially signed his contract for National Treasure, Helen had used it as a reason to politely defer Ridley's audition invitation.

Thanks to the box office explosion of Pirates of the Caribbean, Matthew and Depp were undoubtedly the two most talked-about stars in Hollywood that year. Capital naturally flows toward success, and as a result, the Angel Agency was flooded with offers from studios.

Unlike her relationship with Michael Bay, Helen was on good terms with Ridley Scott. He had been a benefactor to Matthew early in his career, so neither of them wanted to damage that relationship.

Therefore, they needed a legitimate reason to turn down Ridley's offer.

His commitment to prepare for National Treasure was reason enough.

While Hollywood was strictly a business world, personal relationships were just as important.

As for the invitation from Michael Bay, after the 2004 New Year's holiday, the Angel Agency received an audition request from DreamWorks and Bay's production team.

Initially, they had only been given character sides, but while Matthew was filming Band of Brothers, Helen had forged good connections with several DreamWorks executives. She had unexpectedly managed to secure a full copy of the screenplay, which allowed Matthew to prepare much more thoroughly.

The script was a lean one hundred and forty pages. After his first read-through, Matthew was a bit perplexed. His English reading comprehension had improved significantly over the years, but it was still only average, and there were many parts of the screenplay he couldn't quite grasp.

Unlike Matthew, Helen read her copy and then sat back to contemplate it.

An agent's ability to help a client choose projects was fundamental. Countless factors influenced that decision: not just the script, but also the production company, the producer, the director, the size of the investment, and preliminary market research. All of these were just as crucial as the screenplay itself.

However, the script was one of the foundational pillars, and a good agent had to possess the ability to properly evaluate one.

Helen opened the screenplay and began to go over it a second time.

Matthew sat across from her, also reviewing the script. Both were reading with intense concentration.

The morning passed without either of them leaving Helen's office. They had lunch delivered and immediately returned to their reading.

Helen's educational background and reading comprehension were far superior to Matthew's. By the time she had finished her second read-through, Matthew was still only a little more than halfway done.

Rather than disturb him, she took the time to carefully consider everything.

Undoubtedly, the script met standard Hollywood conventions. The use of human cloning placed it firmly in the science fiction genre, and the fact that cloning was an artificial creation straddling the line between science and ethics provided a powerful central theme.

Then there were the attractive male and female leads, a certain amount of profound reflection on human cloning, and plenty of corresponding action sequences. After reading it, she felt the film had a bit of the same potential as The Matrix.

It took Matthew another hour to finish the script. This time, he had a much clearer grasp of the story and its context.

From what he gathered, the story was set in the mid-21st century. The hero and heroine lived in an isolated, high-tech facility with hundreds of other residents, all of them under the daily surveillance of a clandestine organization. This monitoring was supposedly for their physical and mental well-being, but behind the scenes lay secrets no one knew.

Their only hope of escaping this life of confinement was to be chosen to go to "the Island." They had been told that after a global ecological catastrophe, they were the only survivors on Earth, and that the Island was the last uncontaminated place on the planet.

In reality, all the residents of the facility, including the hero and heroine, were doomed. They were clones, existing only to provide spare body parts for their "prototypes"—their value realized only in death.

Faced with this crisis, the hero and heroine decide to escape their false utopia and enter the real world—a world they never knew existed. In the end, they manage to take down the organization and assume the identities of their prototypes.

Matthew understood perfectly that they were living in an age of technological explosion, where all sorts of technologies were developing at a breakneck pace. The advancements depicted in the film could very well become a reality in the future. In the last couple of years, incidents like the cloning of sheep had become so controversial that many organizations were petitioning governments to ban cloning experiments, fearing the technology would eventually be used on humans.

Hollywood loved to tackle controversial social topics, and this script was clearly tapping into the public's recent fascination with human cloning.

In fact, there was already a major Hollywood production that dealt with the subject of human cloning.

Matthew immediately thought of George Lucas's Star Wars saga. Hadn't the second prequel, Attack of the Clones, already come out? Even a pop-culture institution like Star Wars was incorporating clones, which just went to show how hot the topic had become in recent years.

He also recalled reading on a news program a while back that some medical expert had claimed human cloning was inevitable. Legal or not, it was just a matter of time before someone did it. And since it was now possible to grow organs ex vivo, making clones into organ donors was entirely feasible.

So, the script wasn't complete nonsense. It was science fiction, but it was grounded in a certain amount of reality.

Plus, it had plenty of action scenes featuring attractive leads in a spectacular setting.

No matter how he looked at it, it seemed like a pretty solid script.