Absolute, stunning quiet filled her ears. No hustle. No bustle. No hungover electricians rubbing their eyes in the sunlight. No extras in outlandish costumes. No men hitching utility belts on their waists. No craft services. No glorious yet lukewarm coffee. The massive structure might as well have been a storage space. Just peace and quiet and a pleasant morning breeze. Anna hated it. A lead actor demanding weed and a fresh green smoothie would have been a welcome sight.

She hadn’t expected a parade at her arrival, but she’d anticipated some interest in the new director, the one the producers had hired less than forty-eight hours ago.

“Uhhhh,” Jenny said, walking up behind her. “This is different.”

On the flight to Rome, Jenny and Anna had read the script again, making notes and planning their first day on set. Jenny had added conversational scenes providing needed character development and, more importantly, a cost-effective way to shoot the extra footage, with less CGI and fewer extras. And she’d reduced the number of battle scenes, making for a less expensive postproduction that would help Anna stay on schedule. The changes made sense from a budget perspective, but they would also shift the original plan for the movie.

Anna’s first order of business was to have a table read of the new script. Jenny’s rewrites were better than the original, but it was going to be a big change from the movie that the cast and crew had arrived in Rome to make. The sooner Anna learned who was going to have a problem with her, the sooner she could get them on her side. The table read would bring together the heads of the various departments and the actors with speaking parts. And she needed to have the table read this morning to get this thing back on track. The production might be a mess, but it was her mess to fix.

“The producers told the cast and crew I took the job two days ago.” Anna’s voice echoed ominously. She raised her eyes to the ceiling, praying for patience she didn’t have. “The existing bedroom set should’ve been gone by now.”

Jenny’s version of the movie didn’t require the extravagant, gaudy room that stood in front of them. An imposing four-poster bed, a black-and-white-tiled floor, and a fireplace and mantel large enough to walk into stood on the raised set. Garish black and gold accessories decorated the three walls of the room. Paneled windows with heavy gold drapes completed the vampire-lair-on-a-budget look.

The electrician shrugged.

Anna stepped up to the tiled floor of the set, careful not to leave marks. Jenny and the electrician followed her, walking gingerly. The man knew his way around a set if he understood to be careful not to scuff the floor, even if the carpenters would hopefully disassemble it soon.