The Best Movie Actor In Hollywood!

Chapter 551: The Wachowski Brothers

"To Hollywood!"

As David Ellison raised his glass, everyone in the ballroom followed suit, lifting their own glasses in a unified toast: "To Hollywood!"

The champagne loosened the atmosphere in the ballroom. Having already exchanged a few words with Matthew, the Warner Bros. executives moved on to greet other guests.

Warner's head of production approached Matthew, greeting him with a smile before turning to Helen. "Could we have a word in private?" he asked.

Helen replied instantly, "Of course."

She leaned in and whispered to Matthew, "I just got a call. Something came up at the foundation. Amanda couldn't make it, but she sent her driver to pick up Anna. She might be here later."

Matthew nodded without asking any questions. Amanda was the one in charge of the foundation, and since the news hadn't been delivered with any urgency, it probably wasn't a serious problem.

Helen walked away, leaving Matthew and David by themselves for the moment.

"You didn't bring a date tonight?" David asked.

Matthew handed his empty glass to a passing waiter. "She hasn't arrived yet," he replied.He changed the subject. "Any progress on the script?"

"We've just started," David said, looking composed. "We've only settled on the characters. No need to rush."

Matthew gave a slight nod. "True. The better the prep work, the greater the chance of success."

The character lineup for "The Fast and the Furious" was mostly set. Paul Walker and Jordana Brewster were confirmed to return for the fourth installment, which would set the stage for Matthew's character and a revenge plot centered around the late Dominic Toretto.

Tyrese Gibson, the star of the second movie, was slated to return for the fifth, where he would be joined by a new Latina character.

"See him?"

In a corner of the ballroom, not far from where Matthew was standing, a man named Corin gestured subtly to Brad Pitt. "That's Matthew."

Pitt brushed back a strand of his long blond hair that fell over his shoulders. "I know," he said.

In the ten minutes since the party had begun, he'd watched a steady stream of people approach Matthew to greet him, most notably the executives from Warner Bros. The importance they placed on him was clear to anyone watching.

He used to command that same kind of attention...

Just then, Corin added, "The man with him is David Ellison, Larry Ellison's son. He's Matthew's partner."

Pitt said nothing.

Corin lowered his voice slightly. "Several producers have already gone up to him, talking about wanting him for their new films."

Pitt remained silent, but he knew how it went. He'd experienced the exact same thing just a few years ago.

Corin added, "And we're talking big-name producers and major studios."

Pitt finally spoke. "I'll be keeping an eye on what Matthew does next, see which projects he picks."

Corin seemed satisfied with that answer. Seeing Natalie Portman make her way toward Matthew, he said, "I'm going to circulate."

"Alright," Pitt replied.

***

On the other side of the room, David had just excused himself when Matthew saw Natalie approaching.

"Hi, Matthew," she greeted him.

Matthew smiled back. "Hi, Nat."

He remembered accompanying Keira Knightley to meet Natalie once before, an encounter that had ended in a small spat between the two women.

Natalie asked casually, "Have you seen Keira?"

Matthew shrugged slightly. "No, I haven't seen her in a while either."

He glanced at Natalie's short, barely-there hair. "Why'd you cut it all off?"

"I shaved my head for 'V for Vendetta,' and it still hasn't grown back," she smiled.

Matthew nodded in understanding.

He'd seen "V for Vendetta," in which Natalie played a character whose head was shaved by V.

"Matthew, I have a couple of friends..." she began, still smiling, "who'd like to meet you. They asked me to come over and see if you'd be interested in talking to them."

"Of course," Matthew readily agreed.

Natalie turned back the way she'd come. "This way."

She took the lead, heading toward a less crowded area on the left side of the ballroom. Matthew followed, weaving through the guests to a small round table in an alcove where two people were waiting.

They were a man and a woman with similar features. The man was tall and looked strong, while the woman was somewhat heavyset.

"I'd like to introduce you, Matthew," Natalie began, gesturing to the man. "This is Mr. Andy Wachowski."

Then she introduced the woman. "And this is Ms. Lana Wachowski."

"Hello, Matthew."

"Hello..."

Matthew shook hands with Andy Wachowski and then Lana Wachowski, taking a seat with them at the round table at Natalie's invitation.

His right hand, however, dropped below the table and wiped itself almost imperceptibly against his trousers.

He knew who they were, of course. Plenty of people in Hollywood knew the Wachowski brothers... or, more accurately, the Wachowski sisters.

He'd seen the entire "Matrix" trilogy, which the Wachowskis had written and directed. He had seen their work before, and now he was seeing them in the flesh in this life.

Back in his day, there were very few directors of the Wachowskis' caliber whose names he'd known. His knowledge had been limited to iconic figures like Steven Spielberg and James Cameron.

But the Wachowskis had also achieved enormous cult status; otherwise, he never would have remembered their names.

But his memory of them had nothing to do with "The Matrix" or any of their other films. It stemmed from something else entirely...

Because, as far as he knew, they were the only pair of famous directors in the world to go from being brothers to being sisters.

That was the reason he remembered the Wachowskis—he'd read about the whole scandal online.

And now that he was meeting them in person, something else came to mind.

The old gossip columns he'd read had mentioned that the Wachowski sisters' behavior grew increasingly eccentric, and their films grew increasingly bizarre. Apart from "The Matrix" trilogy, every other movie they'd directed had been a box office bomb.

He glanced at Natalie, wondering how she had gotten involved with them.

As if sensing his confusion, Natalie explained, "I worked with Lana and Andy on 'V for Vendetta.' They produced and wrote the screenplay."

Matthew commented with a neutral expression, "It was a great film. Very impressive, especially the final scene where the Palace of Westminster gets blown up."

Lana Wachowski smoothed her long hair, a smile on her face. "With that shot, we were trying to express the yearning for freedom."

Andy added, "We infused the film with a great deal of political and philosophical reflection."

Matthew nodded. "I could tell."

In truth, he hadn't seen any of that. All he'd taken from it was the film's flawed glorification of anarchism.

At this point, Natalie chimed in, "It has a depth that's hard to find in a mainstream project."

Hearing this, Matthew felt he was on a completely different wavelength from these three. It was no wonder "V for Vendetta" had been banned in some countries and performed so poorly where it was released; in his experience, "depth" and "philosophical reflection" were, 99 percent of the time, powerful tools for alienating audiences.

He suddenly thought of the last two "Matrix" films, and looking at the Wachowskis again, he had a realization. The success of the first "Matrix" had probably instilled in them a certain prejudice against purely commercial films, which led to their subsequent string of failures.

While Matthew was lost in thought, chatting with the Wachowskis and Natalie, Corin approached from the side, asked a waiter for a glass of water, and settled at a small round table nearby.

The move was subtle, but it put him well within earshot of Matthew's conversation.