First Movies

Fortunately, he already had things prepared.

He had watched his grandfather's movie from his past life but the butterfly effect had already altered that trajectory.

Implanting a mutated matureness in Sullivan's coping heart must have tilted things. From 'Smoking Guns and Tires', the Batman fanfiction was born.

That old movie, 'Smoking Guns and Tires' was less on the artistic side of things than this new one and was much more inclined to the commercial route.

'Smoking Guns and Tires' was the alternate script that Sullivan prepared with Alexander choosing to brood instead of act.

It was the late 80s version of the Fast Franchise. Instead of drag racing and whatnot, it focused on violence and the masculinity of road rages.

It did not gain much attention and was a direct-to-videotape type but it was enough to trump the laziness of late 2010s movies.

As Sullivan was spouting his heartfelt regret about his cruel loss of innocence, Alexander ran out of the study to present the better alternative he had long prepared.

"Oh... where are you going?!" Old Sullivan inevitably halted, waited, and saw the stacked pieces of paper that Alexander brought back.

"Your movie idea is great and all, grandpa, but what do you think about this one?!" He stuff the papers to the old man and observed.

He saw how his grandfather was baffled at first, read and analyzed, furrowed his whitened brows, and got interested in the concepts being scattered in the pages.

The content of those papers was the simple idea of what could happen if you mistakenly leave your child alone.

The busy Christmas season, cartoonish thieves, and homemade defense against home invaders.

A misunderstood old man and a precocious and need-to-be-punched child.

There are even expansive and sequelable ideas.

There was the brain-dead plane to New York mishap and much more acceptable reasons for being left home alone.

Alexander was no professional filmmaker with script-making expertise but he could pride himself as an idea man.

As a pirate streamer and movie-binging critic, he was confident enough to be able to tell the flaws and highlights of films, so he would use that hindsight to guide his grandfather to better his project.

He just supplemented some scattered ideas and it would be up to his experienced grandpa to consolidate the rest into a workable script.

"Haha... This is even better!" Sullivan was out of his concentration and confronted his grandson with sentimental affection. "Alex, I now know you weren't too far gone!"

"What?" The boy could only say at that baffling outburst.

"This 'being left behind' thing is too childish." Sullivan grinned at his befuddlement.

"So..." Alexander needed much more clarification than that. "Is there anything wrong with that? I'll be blunt with you, grandpa! Your Batma... I mean your Richlet movie is too pedophile-y for me."

"I agree with that now. This childish concept is much better. Much much better for you." The old man iterated with a relieved grin.

"Why is that exactly?!"

"Because at least I know that your innocence is not gone." Old Creed became comically cringy at this point. "I know there is still hope for me to see your childish babble when giving you a gift for Christmas and birthdays."

"I'm too old for that sort of thing." Alexander was quick to rebut to maintain his mature development.

Unfortunately, his grandfather was too absorbed in his delusions and the script to care about his protests.

"So, what do you think, grandpa? Instead of working on one movie together, why not work on three?" He decided to get to the topic in his hands instead of debating on childishness and maturity.

"These many traps, mechanisms, and ingenious child antics would surely not fit into one." The production manager and business instincts kicked in Sullivan's old bones. "If we're resourceful and innovating enough, we could even make it up to four to five movies."

If Alexander was in the process of drinking water now, he would've spurted it out from what he is hearing.

His grandfather was too capitalistic that his line of thinking was probably aligned with those businessmen of the future.

"Grandpa, isn't five a bit much?" Alexander was quick to interject before the nauseating sequels would ruin a reputation that he still hasn't built.

"I'm eleven now with a tiny build. It would be okay to play an eight-year-old for the first movie. My future growth spurt is already compromising the sequels, so I suggest we don't get too far ahead of ourselves."

"We could use new actors and introduce new characters in the mix..." Sullivan said in solution and deliberation. "However, there might be no need for that. Well, we'll think when we get there."

The old man then stood up from his seat and gave a pat on Alexander's shoulders. "Alex, prepare yourself! We'll be busy for quite a while."

"Aye, sir!" The boy answered in a joking salute to ease the old man's agitated heart.

Alexander knew that he had manipulated his grandpa once again.

This movie directing was supposed to only be a passion project for old Creed to make up for his directorial regret.

When he deliberately scribbled dollar signs on those pieces of paper, Sullivan became infected by Mr. Krabs and saw profit from the project.

Home Alone became a key for him to jump to a higher level in the field of film entertainment.

Sullivan did not even question where Alexander got the creative and humorous concept from having his attention drawn to financial prospects.

It was a simple and hidden gesture but psychologically impactful for a greedy businessman.

After all, Creed is only one letter away from being the business-prevalent cardinal sin.

Greed wasn't that bad for Alexander Creed who wasn't all good.

John Hughes, Chris Columbus, and Macaulay Culkin were supposed to have their glory with these films. However, Alexander was too greedy to care about their fates.

When the script easily passed the copyright laws of the Screenwriter's Guild, Hughes had no chance to own his past masterpiece, at least he still had 'The Breakfast Club'.

It also helped that the Screenwriter's strike was creating all the distractions for Alexander to cover his sneaky tracks.