58. Media Craze and Scheming Enemies Aplenty.
Disclaimer: The story that I have written here takes on the names of real people, but this story is based in an alternate earth with some changes in its timeline.
This story does not intend to represent the celebrities/real people or make any commentary on them whatsoever. This story is entirely fictional, and it should be viewed entirely as such.
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Recap of the Previous Chapter -
After leaving the QnA with the media, Mark is called out by Rogers Ebert. He wants to have a little chat with Mark, they do and despite his earlier misgivings about Mark. Rogers feels that Mark would become a force for good in the industry and he looks forward to watching Mark's next movie.
Mark reaches the public side of the banquet, asks his event organizing team if all the preparations are done. He approaches the people and has a conversation about the movie. He finds out the 14 year old teenager is actually Ryan Reynolds, his future Deadpool.
He talks with more people, even meets Rian Johnson and his brother. Afterwards he offers all of them a chance to participate in a lottery and have the chance to win an all paid tour to a special event. Done with the QnA he leaves for the Knives Out estate to spend the night with his family.
He reveals to his father about one facet of his investment tactic which he used to build his huge real estate business that he remotely runs through a team of trusted managers and agents. He then shares a peaceful meal with his family talking about the past years.
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~ Third Person's POV ~
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Date: 2nd August, 1990.
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Location: At Eidolon HQ.
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Time: 08:28 pm.
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After Mark left for the public section of the banquet hall, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas were swamped by the questions of the media and critics asking about their opinion on the movie, how they know Mark, if they are collaborating for any future movie, etc.
The scene was getting a bit chaotic so the emcee stepped in and asked media personnel to calm down and requested both Steven and George to come on stage for a brief interview to satisfy the media's curiosity.
The two agreed and came on stage, they were each handed a mic and the MC left them to start their talks. It was Steven who went first as they asked for his opinion about the movie.
Steven said, "Oh the movie is great, it's even better than I thought. It's a visual treat and every step, the props are so well made and life-like. The authenticity of every scene as the whole house and family came to life on screen."
"This is definitely one of the best movies that I have seen in the past few years. Actually it is so good, that if I hadn't seen Mark direct it with my own eyes. Even I wouldn't have believed that he was the one who directed it. After all he is just 20 years old and has just graduated a few months back."
Quite a few people raised their hands at that statement to ask some questions. Steven was glad at least they were being polite this time. He choose the guy from the Hollywood Reporter, "Mr. Spielberg, could you please tell us what's your relationship with Mark Spencer? Are you both working on a film together?
Steven sighed, he didn't really want to detract the media attention from Knives Out, so he couldn't give them a straightforward answer.
He said, "Mark is a new friend I recently made and I will be directing a movie based on one of his books. It's what we have been working on together but the preparations for it will probably take years so please don't get too excited for nothing and just focus on the movie that's in front of you."
He asked again, trying to dig for details, "Can you please reveal the name of which book you would be adapting and which studio will produce this work."
"Sorry, I can't really reveal such details." Steven smoothly dodged that question.
They raised their arms again and this time the question was for Mr. Lucas. It was the hispanic lady from La opinion, she asked, "Mr. Lucas, how did you like Knives Out? What was your favorite scene from it?"
George decided to give the same answer he gave to Mark as it was the truth and it also because it saved him from thinking up another one on the fly. "Hmm, to be completely honest, Knives is definitely one of my favorite suspense thriller movies I have seen for quite some time now. It quite obvious where Mark drew the absurd name and accent, he truly is a fan of Agatha Christie's books."
"The most interesting thing which I liked about the movie was the changing events in the flashbacks due to different narrator's. Especially in the case of Walt who portrayed himself in a more positive light but is actually very indifferent towards Marta."
"As for my favorite scene, it was actually Harlan's will reading scene, the chaos, the drama and the reaction. It was really fun to see them freak out at being left with nothing in the will."
"Also the photos of the cast and crew at the end credits was a very nice touch. Normally these people don't get much recognition or credit left with just a name scrawling through the screen among hundreds of others in the end credits."
"I myself am now going to use this method to give proper credit to the cast and crew that worked so hard to make the movie into a reality."
The people present in the banquet clapped at his statement. Mark Spencer was a name that was definitely going to ring throughout America when this news hits the papers and channels tomorrow morning.
They talked about a few more things and then walked out of the stage when they felt they had said enough. It was a small favor to their new friend, who started out his journey as a director. The media did spot Mr. Coppola but his reputation and prestige made them behave.
They approached him politely and requested if they could ask him a few questions. Mr. Coppola was with his daughter Sofia discussing the scenes in the movie, asking her how Mark achieved this and that.
He knew that Sofia had shadowed Mark throughout the entirety of the shooting and post production. She had learnt a lot observing Mark on set, this was the conclusion he drew.
His introspection was broken by a woman who approached him to ask a few questions about the movie. Normally he wouldn't be willing enough to engage in conversation with the media.
Especially because of how they disreputed his daughter but this was his chance to pay back a little of what he owed to Mark.
He agreed and told her to ask her questions.
She asked him, "Mr. Coppola could please tell me how you know Mark Spencer?"
"No comments, I had been invited so I came to watch the screening." He didn't really want the media attention on her daughter again when she was finally doing well for herself.
She winced at his lack of response but didn't really let it bother her as she knew this would be the case.
"Who's your favorite character in the movie?" she asked him.
"Marta Cabrera." he answered, not explaining himself further.
"What was your favorite scene from the movie?" she asked moving on.
"I am torn between the scene of Harlan's death and the final scene where Blanc tells Martha about the placebo effect and how she is a good nurse. Both of them were phenomenal." he answered with an upset face.
"I see, thank you, last question sir. If you were to rate 'Knives Out' out of 10, how many points would you give it?" She asked her final question. A few other reporters were also eavesdropping, trying to listen in on their conversation.
"Hmm, It's a parody of a whodunit genre, executed exceptionally well. I would say around 8.3. The music, the aesthetics, the expert shot compositions and the nuanced performances really elevated the movie despite its simplistic and basic plot. But what would I know, I ain't a film critic."
"But if you were to ask me whether you should watch it or not. I would say, "I wholeheartedly encourage everyone that is a fan of suspense-thriller movies to give it a try." that should do it." He said as the short interview came to an end.
The rest didn't really want to disturb the legendary director any longer. So they left and discussed amongst themselves about the answers he gave.
But the question about why the hell, a figure like Mr. Coppola, who was present for Mark's test screening, still plagued their minds.
They asked around the staff of Eidolon for answers but only left empty handed as the loyal employees didn't want to reveal any personal details about their boss.
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Next morning Mark could be seen working out, he was lifting some heavy weights. He was glad for the small yet decently equipped gym at the estate.
His mother walked in with a protein shake she had made for Mark and asked him, "Why are you training so diligently again for? Your body is already in quite good shape."
Well mom, I couldn't really focus on exercising properly for the past month due to editing and being busy running Eidolon." Mark said as he grunted curling the dumbbell.
"So now that I finally have some free time, I have decided to put in some work. It's also because I have a special appearance to make in an event so I am preparing for that."
"I see, well I just came to give you your shake and also to remind you that you need to wrap this up quickly." she said as she handed over the shake.
"The news will be coming soon and the papers have already arrived, your father's already going through them with a big smile on his face." She said her peace and left him to wrap up his workout.
Mark drank the shake as he relaxed and then went back at it for a few more sets. Even though he already looked the part, a huge barreled arm man 'built like a brick shithouse.'
After a few more sets Mark was finally done, he took a quick shower to get rid of all the sweat he built up and went to the dining room for his breakfast and to see what the papers were saying about him and Knives Out.
He already had a talk with Mr. Meyer about shifting the release of Knives Out from mid to early September. After discussing they decided to go with 7th of September as the day of release and his appearance on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson would be moved up as well.
Mark didn't really have any problems with these changes at all but he still grumbled at Ronald for reducing the time his movie got for publicity. He knew the Knives Out had already become popular and the talk of the town, releasing it early is better as it would give rival studios less time to mess things up for him.
He was sipping on some coffee as he began reading the media reviews from the most prestigious New York Times.
'Knives Out' Review: A parody of a whodunit movie inside of a whodunit movie.
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By Brennan Lee Mulligan.
Aug. 3, 1990.
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Knives Out • Directed by Mark Spencer
• Comedy, Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller • PG-13 • 2h19m
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A sleek game of cat and mouse, "Knives Out" begins the hunt with a mysterious pool of blood and ends, well, telling wouldn't be fair. The test screening that I attended was preceded by a brief speech in which the writer and director Mark Spencer asked viewers not to spill the movie's secrets.
The request suggests how seriously Spencer takes his own cleverly deployed twists and the challenges of keeping ostensible spoilers under wraps. The twists are kinked and amusing, although far less striking than the obvious pleasure he had making this exactingly machined puzzle box.
Stuffed with seasoned and blurrily familiar faces, the movie takes the shape of an old-fashioned whodunit — the kind branded and perfected by Ms. Agatha Christie. Filled with mystery, suspense, entertainment, a corpse on an heirloom settee and a half-dozen or so shifty suspects milling about.
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Mark was pleased to see that they had taken his request seriously and not given away the secret twist ending. He read the rest of the papers as well as he ate some toasted bread, jam and eggs. The next one was by Michael Philips from the Chicago Tribune.
'Knives Out' review: A sleuth plays a ripping game of Clue, and a family of vipers wonders whodunit.
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By Michael Philips.
Aug. 3, 1990.
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Knives Out • Directed by Mark Spencer
• Comedy, Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller • PG-13 • 2h19m
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Writer-turned-Director Mark Spencer's movie - "Knives Out," will definitely be one of the more interesting and entertaining movies of 1990. It attempts something that has never really been done before: adapting the classic murder mystery, an inherently conservative genre, to modern progressive discourse rebuking casually expressed racism, latent sexism and classicism.
The film even expresses overt political resistance to the current administration's oppressive immigration policy. All while rattling your mind with subtle expressions of the same and teasing your brain with devious schemes.
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Mark liked how they all focused on something different about his movie. The review from New York Times, tells more about the parallels his movie had with Agatha Christie's and how his movie/book had clearly been inspired from it.
Whereas the tribunes review focuses more on his takes and displays of the casually expressed racism, latent sexism and classism shown in his movie. It's also an important facet of his work so he is happy that it is talked about as well.
The one from "La Opinion" focused a lot on Salma's performance and praised him about making a movie that showed the subtle discrimination the immigrants still face in the states.
He liked how they forgot that the movie is actually set in England but he guess it's close enough for them. After reading through all the papers and being satisfied that all of them gave a positive response to his screening.
He turned to the last month's sales reports of his books, which had been hand delivered by one of his secretaries, one Rose Allen.
When he first saw her he knew immediately why Eva had hired her for him, she had a striking resemblance to Eva. It was just that Eva was an even more beautiful and sexier version of Rose.
When he asked her about it, Eva shamelessly admitted that Rose was there to a constant reminder for herself, that he already had something way better. She was at his service whenever he needed any kind "stress" relief.
The most he had done with her was a neck massage, she had offered him a happy ending but he remained steadfast and politely declined saying that she didn't need to do anything that made her uncomfortable.
Focusing back on his reports he saw that Halo was doing exceptionally well. It had been only a few weeks since its release but the sales had been booming. The explosive rise in his recent popularity was definitely the biggest factor in the sales of his books rising.
Just this year he had released four books - the first and second volumes of Runeterra, The Vinland Saga and now the Halo series. But this was just the beginning; he also had the sequels of Ben 10 and Resident Evil in the works. They would be ready for release in a few months as well.
He was especially happy with the progress he had been able to make with his preparations for the special event he had been planning to join and take over.
The two studios he had hired and collaborated with to create the surprise gifts had pulled through. Kevin had been quite busy on that front ensure that all the preparations for the special event were completed on time.
He had checked out the results recently and found himself satisfied. It wasn't the best obviously but it was the best he could get out of them for the moment.
The plan to buyout the two studios were already in motion and by the time in October they both should be in his pockets.
He finished his breakfast and gathered the paper and reports and moved to the drawing where the TV was already on and a host was speaking about the recent hot topics in America.
His timing of arrival was lucky as just as he had sat down, the anchor finished reciting a story of a man fighting off 2 armed men trying to rob him at gunpoint and started talking about the test screening of Knives Out held last night at Eidolon Entertainment.
She gave a brief introduction of him and his past accolades, she quite successfully joked about how almost half of America now knew about him due to staring on the news for the back to back releases of his books almost every month. His acquisition of Marvel Comics made him only more infamous.
His movie, Knives Out has received unanimous praise and applause from both the critics and the audiences both being a near perfect rendition of the original story on the big screen. He had heard enough so he changed channels, now it was a middle aged man who was coming to the end of his monologue.
His praise for his movie was obvious to see and he changed again. He mostly focused on the local and public channels as those would cover most of the population. Most of the feedback had been positive but he could already see an unsaid remark.
His movie was good and very well executed but it wasn't remarkable, like sometimes one would remember for years to come. The performance Johnny gave at the end of the movie was phenomenal and might even earn him an oscar nomination.
But it still wasn't enough to stand the test of time. It was never his intention to make a super iconic movie with Knives Out. His intention was to film a better version of the original and make as much profit off of it as possible. But now that he had come so far he wanted more, the sin of greed truly was in his mind and would never leave him.
Yet it was this very sin that pushed him to improve, to grow, to become a better version of himself and to make himself worthy of the best things in life. After being congratulated by his parents he left for Eidolon HQ to see if they needed his help/guidance on any matter.
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Meanwhile, a middle-aged man sat in his office brooding over the declining power of his company over the industry. Just last month he had released 3 movies in the market, all of them having nearly 2000 theaters each and yet none of them even made it into the top 3 of the box office ranking list.
Number 3rd on the list was a movie named Ghost by Paramount Pictures, the most insulting thing about it was that ghost barely had 1700 theaters to its name and yet it outperformed all three of his movies. The top 3 of the list was dominated by Paramount and 20th Century Fox.
"Mr. Eisner" called out his secretary timidly.
"What!" he shouted, for he was in no mood for games.
"It's Mr. Harold, he is your 2 o'clock for today." She replied back bowing her head trying not to make eye contact with the man.
"Send him in." he replied and went back to watching the list but the more he looked at it the angrier it made him.
Rank - 1. Die Hard 2; Gross Box Office- $88,234,670; Theaters - 2,507; Release Date - July 6th; Distributor - 20th Century Fox.
Rank - 2. Days of Thunder; Gross Box Office - $61,163,372; Theaters - 2,307;
Release Date - June 29th; Distributor - Paramount Pictures.
Rank - 3. Ghost; Gross Box Office - $53,185,459; Theaters- 1,766; Release Date - July 13th; Distributor - Paramount Pictures.
Rank - 4. Dick Tracy; Gross Box Office - $36,207,374; Theaters - 2,332; Release Date - June 15th; Distributor - Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture.
Rank - 5. The Jungle Book; Gross Box Office - $27,085,405; Theaters - 1923; Release Date - July 13th; Distributor - Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture.
Rank - 6. Arachnophobia; Gross Box Office - $24,633,908; Theaters - 2005; Release Date - July 20th; Distributor - Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture.
He knew what propaganda was spread by the rival studios behind his back that, 'Disney is only good for making animated movies' and even those were becoming more expensive now due them still relying on hand drawing the art to animate.
As he was stewing in his thoughts Harold entered, he seemed a bit worried himself. He was in-charge of Disney's PR, but it was just a nice way to say that he was his attack dog and worked hard to taken down movies that are proving as a problem.
They exchanged greetings and Harold began telling him about his new finding. "Michael, it's not looking very good. The competition is only rising, paramount and the fox had already been choking us out at the box office. But now there's a new contender."
"Does it belong to other's?" he asked in curiosity as to where did this dark horse arrive from.
"No, it's from a newly established studio - Nirvana Pictures owned by the writer and now director Mark Spencer, the real name behind Mark Spector." he explained briefly.
"You mean Eidolon? The ones who foolishly bought out Marvel? So what is the matter?" He asked nonchalantly as he didn't think his movies could be threatened by a small newly built studio.
"Well his new movie Knives Out based on his novel has gotten rave reviews, the audience really loved it in the test screening but that's not what is surprising. It's the fact he is being backed by three of the most well known Hollywood directors with a massive fan following."
"Give me their names," he asked severely, his mood already worsening.
"Steven Spielberg, … George Lucas and … Francis Coppola. He replied and as Micheal heard their names one by one his temper only rose but he didn't lash out.
All he did was take a few deep breaths to center himself and then said in a stern tone, "I don't care who you target, whom you bribe, how many skeletons you dig up or even have to plant in their backyard. I want Knives Out to be a distant thought in everyone's mind.
He wasn't alone in his plight though as similar scenes had already happened or were happening in other studios of Hollywood as well. After all this was a hyper competitive space with people using every tool in their arsenal to get one over their enemies.
Mark had predicted these events and had even taken some countermeasures but they would play out and how effective they would be still remained to be seen. As the struggle to the peak of Hollywood, for our young protagonist had just begun.
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{Author's Note: So many people have asked if Mark will have enemies or will he just breeze through his path to the peak. Well I hope the ending of this chapter has given you the answer. The path is filled with thorns but Mark has high quality leather steel toed boots on.
It might hinder him a little but he will be crushing his opponents eventually. I hope people remember this is an OP MC and a wish fulfilling novel. Also my god is the One Piece live action TV show good. If you are a one piece fan like me, do check it out.
Anywhos, moving on, thanks for reading my work. I am entirely motivated by interaction, suggestions and feedback. So please leave a comment or review and I will probably write faster.
If you like my work please throw a power stone my way so my book can climb the rankings. Slurp some nice ramen and I hope you all have a beautiful day (｡•̀ᴗ-)✧
Update schedule for this book: 1 chapter every 2 days.}