....
Ross Oakley sat in a high-backed leather chair, staring at the man across from him as if he were a particularly stubborn stain on a pristine rug.
"Let get this straight, brat." Ross growled, his voice like gravel under a heavy boot. "You want to step into Richard Harris’s shoes and spend the next five years being a gentle grandfather to a bunch of children?"
Regal Seraphsail remained unfazed, he had anticipated the hostility.
Ross continued as he stood up abruptly, his chair scraping harshly against the floor. "You think I am a ’replacent’?"
He stepped into Regal’s space. "If we didn’t have a history, I would have shown you what a real nightmare looks like. Rejecting you is the kindest thing I can do for your career right now. Get out."
Regal knew Ross wasn’t just angry at the role; he was angry at the ’curse of comparison’ that had dogged him since the seventies.
"I will give you a role that will get you an Oscar."
He said, his voice dropping into that quiet, absolute certainty that had convinced Stan Lee to hand over his life’s work.
Ross paused, his hand already on the door handle.
He turned back, his eyes narrowing dangerously. "You think a gold statue is enough to buy my dignity? I have been nominated three tis, kid. I know how the Academy works. They don’t give Oscars to ’wise old wizards’ in children’s movies.".
"I am not talking about Dumbledore." Regal countered, leaning forward. "That role is for the world... but while we’re shooting Order of the Phoenix, I have sothing else in motion."
Ross didn’t interrupt this ti.
"I have been holding onto another script, waiting for the right mont, and Alexander Tobias is already attached to direct."
"Alex?"
Ross verified, he had already worked with him in [Whiplash] and he clearly trusts his capabilities.
"Yes, and I am confident it’s sothing you will want to hear."
"...well, let’s hear more about it."
...and it was [The Godfather] movie.
After hearing the premise of the story Ross spoke. "So let get this straight, you’re standing here, effectively telling that if I sign on for one, I am expected to commit to the other as well; bluntly put blackmailing?"
"You’re being harsher than necessary." Regal replied evenly. "I am negotiating terms, not forcing your hand. You’re free to walk away."
Ross gave a short, humorless laugh. "Like hell I am."
....
.
[A Week Later]
Regal had a preference about how he handles information.
It wasn’t exactly a written policy.
But everyone who had worked with him long enough understood it implicitly: control the narrative, or the narrative controls you.
For a project the size of [Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire], even a minor snippet of information - a costu fitting, a location scout, a car parked outside a studio gate belonging to an actor who wasn’t supposed to be there yet - could be photographed, uploaded, and dissected into a trending topic before his communications team had finished their morning coffee.
You could not keep secrets on a production like this.
Not for long, and that was precisely the problem with trying.
The mont official information isn’t being released on a regular basis, the internet began manufacturing its own.
And the particular danger of misinformation at this scale wasn’t that people knew it was fake.
It was that, given enough ti and enough repetition, the distinction stopped mattering. The false version beca the assud version, and by the ti the truth arrived, it was competing against a story that had already been living rent-free in people’s heads for weeks.
Regal had watched it happen to other studios and he had no intention of letting it happen to him.
So his preference.... was to move first.
Deliver the news himself, through official channels, on his terms, before the rumor cycle could get its footing.
Both contracts - Lena Crawford’s and Ross Oakley’s - had been finalized within the sa week.
The press release followed almost imdiately after.
LIE Studios’ communications team had spent good ti debating the announcent.
The options were straightforward enough: release them separately and risk the second overshadowing the first entirely, or release them together.
Regal listened to the argunts on both sides, and then made the call himself.
Release them together, and no one debated after that.
....
The first announcent landed early into the morning across LIE Studios’ official channels.
===
LIE Studios is pleased to confirm that Lena Crawford has been appointed director of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, currently in pre-production.
Crawford brings a distinctive vision and proven creative leadership to the franchise, and the studio has full confidence in her ability to bring the fourth Chapter of this beloved story to life.
===
The internet’s imdiate response was, essentially:
...who?
The question was not malicious intent, nor were they being dismissive.
Just genuinely, collectively blank.
Fortunately, the confusion didn’t last long. Within minutes, just after a few researchers through Google, people started to find her.
She was actually the director of–
[Friends]
The NBC sitcom that had been quietly dominating television for the past few months. Number one show in the country. 18.2 million viewers per episode and climbing.
The show everyone’s parents watched and everyone’s college roommate couldn’t stop quoting.
That Lena Crawford.
....
@tvjunkie: Oh wait. WAIT. She did Friends?? The Friends that basically owns NBC right now?? Okay I am listening
....
@filmbro: An indie TV director on a $150 million fantasy franchise. Regal Seraphsail really said ’this is my signature move and I refuse to apologize for it’
....
@potterhistorian: Let’s not forget Chris Columbus before Sorcerer’s Stone had essentially one major credit to his na and it was a Christmas movie about a child left alone in a house. Regal has done this before and it worked, so I am not panicking.
....
That last observation spread faster than anyone expected, and it refrad the conversation almost imdiately.
The Columbus comparison was too apt to ignore; another director plucked from a world adjacent to blockbuster filmmaking, handed the keys to one of the most anticipated productions in Hollywood, and ultimately vindicated by the result.
The skepticism didn’t disappear.
But it softened into sothing more familiar: a collective shrug, an ’I suppose we’ll see,’ the particular brand of resigned trust that Regal Seraphsail had sohow cultivated with audiences over the years.
Regal things, people were already saying in comnt sections. A phrase that had beco its own category. Its own disclair.
It ant: this looks strange, and it will probably work, and we will not be giving him credit for it.
.....
However, people weren’t that optimistic with the second announcent that dropped after it.
===
Ross Oakley will assu the role of Albus Dumbledore beginning with [Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire], currently in production.
The studio wishes to acknowledge the irreplaceable legacy of Richard Harris, whose portrayal of Dumbledore remains one of the defining performances in the franchise’s history.
Ross Oakley’s casting reflects our commitnt to honoring that legacy while carrying the story forward with the sa standard of excellence audiences have co to expect.
====
As expected, the news didn’t land too well with many fans:
....
@first_always: ROSS OAKLEY. ROSS. OAKLEY. AS DUMBLEDORE. I need soone to explain this to like I am five because I genuinely cannot process this information.
....
@hound: Look. LOOK. I understand the difficulty of recasting after Harris. I do. But Ross Oakley is not a warm man. He has never once played a warm man. Dumbledore is essentially cinematic grandfather energy and Ross Oakley radiates the energy of a man who has never once been anybody’s grandfather.
....
@that_one_ross_stan: Oh you people are going to feel so stupid in about eighteen months. Ross Oakley has been underestimated his entire career and every single ti he has made everyone eat their words. EVERY. SINGLE. TI.
....
The entertainnt press moved fast.
By noon, every major outlet had published a reaction piece. The headlines told the story of a fandom split almost perfectly down the middle.
Variety ran with: ["Bold or Reckless? LIE Studios’ Oakley Gamble Could Define the Franchise’s Future."]
The Hollywood Reporter: ["Ross Oakley Steps Into Hallowed Ground. Can The Industry’s Most Polarizing Actor Carry Dumbledore’s Mantle?"]
The Guardian in London was considerably less diplomatic: ["Ross Oakley as Dumbledore Is Either Inspired or Catastrophic. History Will Decide Which."]
....
.
[Sa Day | Regal’s House]
Regal had been surfing through online from morning, watching the first wave of reactions roll in.
Ring-!
Ring-!
[Ross Oakley]
He saw Ross’s na on the screen, set down his cup, and answered on the second ring.
He didn’t get a word in.
["You absolute brat."]
Ross’s voice was low; which was sohow worse than if he had been shouting. There was a particular register Ross Oakley operated in when he was genuinely furious, a controlled compression of tone that made every word feel like sothing being deliberately not thrown.
["You threw under the rock so you could protect your precious director."]
It wasn’t a question but a verdict.
Regal winced, genuinely, the kind of thing that happens before the brain has ti to compose a more dignified response.
Because Ross was right; Entirely, accurately, and infuriatingly right.
The sequencing hadn’t been purely strategic in the abstract sense.
Yes, controlling the narrative mattered.
Yes, staggering the announcents created a cleaner news cycle.
All of that was true and defensible on its own terms.
But the real truth behind the decision - the choice to let Lena’s announcent be overwheld by the next announcent - had other reasons.
Lena Crawford was a debut feature director stepping onto one of the largest franchises in Hollywood history.
She was already going to face scrutiny, and the industry would have opinions about her experience, her background, her gender, her age.
Also a significant portion of the fanbase would be spending the first forty-eight hours forensically dissecting every interview she had ever given and every fra of [Friends] she’d ever shot, looking for evidence to support whatever conclusion they had already reached before they started looking.
That kind of pressure, sustained and concentrated, on soone navigating their first major studio production; Regal had seen it break people with far thicker skin than Lena.
Ross, on the other hand, was not a man who broke under public scrutiny.
He had been marinating in it for fifteen years, and the controversies weren’t new to him. The comparative diminishnt wasn’t new to him.
He would read every negative reaction, file it sowhere cold and internal, and convert it into the specific fuel that had powered every performance of his career.
The choice was obvious.
It was also, Regal acknowledged privately, a touch ruthless.
He waited until he was certain Ross had finished.
Then he said, calmly: "Co on. Can’t you at least protect the new generation? I’m positive it will help her."
The silence on the other end lasted long enough to be its own kind of response.
["I am not letting this one slide..."] Ross said finally.
"So what do you suggest?"
["Fra it in the best possible light after the fact... say it was a calculated decision and that you used as a buffer, then own it instead of dancing around it."]
"I am owning it." Regal said. "I am also telling you it was the right call. Both things are true simultaneously."
Another silence but shorter this ti.
["She is that fragile?"]
"She is not fragile at all." Regal said. "She is talented and she is tough and she is going to direct an excellent film. But there’s a difference between being tough and being unnecessarily tested before you’ve even had your first production eting."
He paused. "You know the industry, Ross. What they do to new directors on projects this size. The second-guessing, leaks and the open letters from fans addressed to the studio asking why this person. She doesn’t need forty-eight hours of that concentrated entirely on her before she’s had ti to find her footing."
["And I do."]
"You’ve survived worse, before breakfast."
Ross made a sound that wasn’t quite a laugh and wasn’t quite a scoff - sothing in the precise middle, reluctant and involuntary.
["That’s not the complint you think it is."]
"It wasn’t ant to be a complint." Regal said. "It was ant to be an accurate assessnt of your threshold. Which is, by any asurable standard, extraordinary."
The line humd quietly between them.
Regal picked up his coffee, let the silence sit.
Ross, to his credit, didn’t make him wait long.
["She’d better be good." he said finally.
The fury had bled out of his voice - not entirely, but enough. What remained was sothing more like the low, steady heat of a man who had decided to bank his anger rather than spend it.
["I am not absorbing this kind of morning for a diocre production."]
"She will be good."
["You’ve said that before. About projects that weren’t."]
"Na one."
A pause, then, with evident reluctance: ["...I will get back to you."]
"I will be waiting." Regal said.
Ross hung up without a goodbye.
Regal set his phone down on the table and looked back at his tablet, at the numbers still climbing, at the headlines still multiplying, at the small controlled storm he had set in motion an hour ago and was now simply watching move through the world.
He took a long sip of his coffee.
....
.
[To be continued...]
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