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With the successful debut of The Rock (Brave Through Alcatraz), and the buzz generated by the joint momentum of Charlize Theron and Cruella De Vil, the women were doing everything they could to increase their exposure in their respective fields.
By comparison, Henry—who mostly played a supporting role—was far less busy. In fact, aside from cheering from the sidelines, if he tried to get too involved, he'd just earn annoyed looks from both of them…
Cruella's strong personality went without saying.
And Charlize, as if competing with her, had become equally proactive in every aspect.
She clearly had no intention of being labeled by that irritating designer as a woman who relied on men.
As for President Brown—what could he even say? He simply settled into the role of cheerleader and logistics support, staying out of the line of fire and idling away in his office most of the time.
It was during such a moment that an expected yet surprising heavyweight figure came knocking—
James Cameron arrived at Stark Pictures.
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"Mr. Brown."
"Director Cameron."
Henry personally went down to the lobby to receive him, greeting the director with a handshake.
Such courtesy left Cameron—once a truck driver turned filmmaker—somewhat flattered.
Because lately, his reputation could best be described as… widely disliked.
The reason was obvious.
That massive ship project.
Industry insiders were already predicting another Cleopatra-level disaster. And the failure of Kevin Costner's Waterworld the previous year was still fresh in everyone's mind.
A $175 million production budget, plus unmentionable distribution costs—
and a global box office of only $264 million.
It didn't even cross the basic break-even threshold.
Universal Pictures' executives had practically cried themselves unconscious.
Hollywood had seen countless studios collapse because of a single disastrous film. United Artists—once one of the Big Eight and founded by Charlie Chaplin—was one such casualty, eventually acquired by MGM.
And now—
Before filming had even officially begun, the early investment in Titanic had already pushed 20th Century Fox to its limits.
Yet James Cameron was still chasing Fox executives for more money.
Fortunately—or unfortunately—the project had been initiated by Cameron himself. No one else truly understood what he intended to do.
In other words, you couldn't just fire him and replace the director. The project would collapse.
To avoid turning that full-scale ship replica in the Gulf of Mexico into a useless wreck, Fox had no choice but to grit their teeth and let Cameron continue… while praying for another miracle like The Terminator.
They wouldn't replace him.
But additional funding?
Absolutely not.
The board had unanimously agreed:
not another cent.
So from Fox, to producer Jon Landau, to Cameron himself—everyone was scrambling to secure new financing.
And Henry, during Stark Pictures' celebration banquet earlier that year, had given Cameron a hint.
So now—
He was here.
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Just as Henry was about to invite him to the office, Cameron spoke first:
"Mr. Brown, would it be possible to take a look at Stark Pictures' supercomputer… and the departments using it?"
Henry didn't hesitate.
"Of course. Come—I'll show you around personally. Let you see the pride of Stark Pictures."
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The supercomputer—"Hollywood Kid"—wasn't something that could be reverse-engineered just by looking at it.
Its true value lay in brute-force hardware investment.
A money-burning monster.
The server facility wasn't inside the main building, but it wasn't far either.
On the way there, the two discussed performance metrics. Cameron, being deeply invested in film technology, could keep up with the conversation.
Once inside, Henry walked him through everything—from the core systems and maintenance staff to the various departments using terminal access.
Currently, "Hollywood Kid" supported several major divisions:
1. Digital Restoration Department
Restoring archived films
Commercial services for wealthy clients: restoring old photos and home videos
2. Digital Editing Studios (Rental)
External studios rented computing power
Many small-budget B-movie companies preferred renting over building their own systems
Including… quite a few adult film studios from the Valley
3. Core R&D Team (Henry's project)
Film-grade digital imaging technology
Encoding systems
Development of digital cameras and projectors
Bridging digital and traditional film workflows
Digital restoration itself had been born from this philosophy.
4. White-hat Hacker Team
Managing virtual machines
Internal cybersecurity (including distributed version control systems like Git)
Actively battling hackers worldwide attempting to breach the system
As for Tony Stark's private virtual machines—and Henry's own—
Those were strictly off-limits.
Even system administrators might not know about them. And Henry certainly wasn't about to tell Cameron.
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After the tour, the two returned to Henry's office.
Cameron suddenly asked:
"Mr. Brown, have you considered establishing a dedicated software division?"
Henry didn't answer directly.
"Oh? What do you have in mind, Director Cameron?"
Cameron leaned forward slightly.
"I need computing power to simulate—
wind, ocean waves, sunlight, refraction, vortices, physical collisions."
Henry raised a brow.
"That sounds similar to what Steve Jobs' Pixar is doing."
Cameron immediately shook his head.
"No. Not cartoons."
"I want true realism. The kind of visuals that make people believe they're watching reality itself."
"Pixar can't do that."
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Steve Jobs had originally acquired Pixar to promote the Pixar Image Computer.
Toy Story—in this world as well—had effectively been a five-year, high-budget advertisement in collaboration with Disney.
But its unexpected success, combined with the emergence of the "Hollywood Kid," had shattered Jobs' hardware ambitions.
Pixar pivoted earlier than expected.
And once it did—
There was no turning back.
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But what Pixar had achieved…
Was not what Cameron wanted.
So he came here.
To Henry Brown—
The man pushing Hollywood toward true digital cinema.
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