17 17. Writing [Redacted] and First Impressions.
Disclaimer: I own nothing but my original characters and works. If you recognize it from somewhere else, surprise, it isn't mine.
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Recap of the previous chapter –
Mark tells Steven his demands in exchange for Jurassic Park's movie adaptation rights. They come back to the estate, Mark writes out the first part of LOR Vol:1.
Evelyn informs him that the Analyst and Screenwriters team are available for a meet up. So he arranges to meet them the next morning at 10:30 am.
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~ Mark's POV ~
Date/Time: 15th April, 06:37 am
Next day morning, the day of the meeting.
Mark had just finished his morning run, albeit a shorter one this time, as he wanted to get back to working on the drafts for the screenwriters who coming in today.
After a quick breakfast of some pancakes and fruits, he started to working on the drafts.
'Hmm, this one is finally done,' Mark thought while looking towards the other draft he was working on. He had completed the rough draft, basically the plot for his second movie. Now all he had to do was get his screenwriters to fill in the dialogues.
Now he wanted to get working on the draft for his third movie, but it was going to be a slight challenge. Because he wasn't actually copying any existing fictional IP from his past world.
But instead, he was adding on to the already existing fictional world. He was trying to give a backstory and add lore and character depth to the story, and then start the actual plot of this movie franchise that already exists.
He was looking at the draft with only two words written on its cover page -
John Wick
However, it brought him a smile filled with nostalgia and happy memories.
To honor this cherished film series, he's planning to remake it with four original films, adding to the already existing four John Wick films he saw before his unfortunate passing.
He planned to start the entire franchise with a much younger John, with emphasis on his upbringing in the Ruska Roma crime family.
He planned on building the background of the underworld that John comes to inhabit, with all its different rules, factions and people. The audience will witness how this underworld operates through the eyes of John as he finishes his training and begins working as a mercenary and assassin to build his reputation in the underworld.
For the second movie he wanted John to meet Helen, his future wife and love. He will meet her on a mission, while he is injured during a gun shootout. He will be taken in by Helen's kind and compassionate nature as she helps him.
The audience will be introduced to more of the high table's lore and new side characters like Winston, Charon, The Bowery King, The Director, Viggo Tarasov, Marcus and Aurelio.
The movie will feature the scene where john will ascend from being just a mortal in the eyes of killers of the underworld. He will kill Babayka, the Boogeyman.
After that legendary feat, his name starts being whispered in the conversations of the underworld. He becomes known as a man of his word. A man of focus, commitment and sheer will.
In the third movie, Mark wanted to show John get closer to Helen, but still doing his best to keep her safe from the unsavory elements of the underworld.
His reputation as one of the best assassins in the world with a 100% death count will make him go international.
Meeting even more new people on his adventures and missions, like Santino D'antonio, his sister Gianna, Sofia Al-Azwar, Caine and Shimazu Koji.
By the end of the movie, John will realize that the only thing he cares about is being with Helen.
He just wants a peaceful life with Helen and wishes to leave the darkness behind.
In the fourth movie, Mark will finally play his ace. He will show John pulling off "the impossible task" to earn his freedom from the High Table.
He will approach Viggo to terminate his contract, so that he can leave the service of the high table. It will be a big ask because no one leaves the service of the high table.
Then the lore of the High table will be explained a little further in detail. Viggo possesses a marker, through which he can use to grant John his freedom.
But he can't just give the marker to him for free, no a price must be paid for such a hefty requested, so he will give John an impossible task to earn it.
Something no one could have pulled off, the mission if he chooses to accept; is to kill everyone of Viggo's competitors and their respective gangs in a single night.
He fully expects John to die while trying to finish the mission, it's a win-win for him John dies, so he gets to keep his marker, and he takes out at least a significant number of his enemies.
But against all odds, with his strategic planning and help from various friends, he is able to pull it off. Mark thinks about showing characters like Kaine, Shoji, Sofia and Charon who he befriended before to help him out.
He wins his freedom from the High Table, provided he never returns to his old life. He goes to Helen to tell her the news, they get married and John is finally happy, thinking he will get to live a happy, peaceful life with his wife.
But the blood of the enemies on his hands still haunts him. Helen is shown to be going to the hospital in glimpses throughout the movies in chapter 2 and 3, taking meds. It is later on revealed at the end of this movie that she is suffering from a terminal illness.
She is shown to be going through an operation, with John sitting outside praying for her safety whilst holding the cross of Ruska Roma.
Mark wrote with a smile on his face, reminiscing about the time he spent watching the movie with his friends.
John Wick was a great movie franchise, but he wanted to showcase a message of morality through the movie.
That no matter how deep one sink into the darkness, they can make their way out of it if their determined enough.
But that doesn't counteract the bad karma one gains, from the misdeeds they commit while drowning in that darkness.
He wrote down his intention for the series, the theme, message for each movie, the entire theme of the franchise as a whole and his vision for the future upcoming chapters.
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{Author's Note: I would like to express my special thanks to roronoa2 for this idea.
He gave the idea of making an origin story for John Wick with a few movies to build the lore and the backstory of the franchise. He gave me the brilliant idea of making 3 original movies before the actual John Wick starts but there is so much to explore, that I decided to make 4 original movies instead.
It is great ideas like this that I get from my readers that make me always encourage and request for any ideas, suggestions or feedback.
Feel free to leave them in the comment section or review. I would recommend the review section because it is easier for me to find them later on.}
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~ Mark's POV ~
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Same day, Time: 10:26 am, 4 minutes to the appointed meeting time.
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He was finally done writing the short draft for the first 4 John Wick films, he hadn't decided on the names yet.
But he was never decisive with choosing names anyway, he had an obsession with choosing a name that was not only suitable but also which had a hidden meaning behind it.
This quirk made it even harder for him to decide on a name. So sometimes he let others take care of that headache.
Mark thinks to himself enjoying a moment of leisure, 'Eva must be coming in at any moment now it's almost time for the meeting.'
Evelyn can be seen outside the door, she calls out to Mark as she knocks. "Mark, are you finished writing the drafts, your yet-to-be hired employees are here for the meeting.
He replies, "come on in, I just got done a few minutes ago, could you help arrange them please while I go wash my face."
He stands as Evelyn enters and then leaves for the bathroom. She watches him go and then makes her way to the messy pile of paper that Mark calls his draft pile.
She starts arranging them into separate files, thankfully Mark has labeled each page, so it doesn't take her long. She was almost done by the time he came back, looking fresh.
"Here, let me get that," he said, taking half of the folders from Eva to help her in organizing them.
He asked, wanting to know about the new hires, "did all of them come, or was there someone who rejected the offer?"
Evelyn said conversationally, "well your analyst and screenwriter team have shown up whole for the meeting, but a guy from your potential AD list dismissed the call saying you're not good enough to hire him, as you're just an amateur director yourself.
Mark showed no outward reaction, but inwardly he thought to himself, 'if he wanted to reject the recruitment call then it's fine, but why is this guy belittling me, when I got no animosity with him.'
"What was the name of this person? Also blacklist him from collaborating with Eidolon Entertainment in the future in any shape or form" Mark said, not even waiting to hear Evelyn's answer.
"Well, his name is Bryan Singer, and consider it done. He gave me a bad feeling anyway." Evelyn said conspiratorially.
Evelyn didn't know how on the money her intuitive deduction was. Bryan Singer would go on to be accused multiple times of sexual assault of a minor. He would be rumored to settle these allegations out of court as well.
So Mark actually dodged a bullet thankfully, he will later check through Vani to get a detailed outlook about Singer due to Eva's suspicion and be thankful that he didn't even come into contact with the guy.
He had almost reached the meeting room on the first floor, and he was feeling slightly nervous. Many questions were bouncing around his head.
Will he be able to make them see the benefit of joining his fledgling studio? Will they choose to trust him and join?
It all came to an end when he was standing at the door to the meeting room with Evelyn by his side. Taking a deep breath to compose himself.
He pushed open the door and entered slowly. Observing six people, as he entered, five men and one woman, sitting on the guest chairs on the opposing end.
Kevin is already there making himself a part of their group, making them feel comfortable.
He doesn't say anything and just makes his way to his chair. Putting all the folders in place and Evelyn taking her seat by his side, he sits and stares at them for a moment.
After a brief moment of silence, he says,
"Thank you to all of you for coming here for the recruitment call. My pen-name is Marc Spector, I am the one in-charge here. If you agree to work with me then we'll be close collaborators in future, so I will reveal me name after I hear all of your decisions."
He speaks further when he sees someone trying to get his attention. "Please wait till the end of my explanation to ask your questions, I would gladly answer all your questions." He requests at the end.
They all nod, willing to hear him out.
"As I have mentioned before my pen-name is Marc Spector. You might have heard of me, I have just graduated from New York Film Academy. And even though I haven't officially started out in Hollywood, I am quite familiar with its traditions and rules."
"And I will be breaking one of them, you see, I like to have full creative control over my work, till the very last clip is edited, and the film is completed in post production." Mark starts telling them about his situation
"I know it's a pipe dream for a new aspiring director to hope for such freedom and control over their work. But there is a way, it just completely violates an unwritten Hollywood convention as I have said before." He explained to him his idea, he knew it might cause them to not want to join him. But he wanted to be honest and upfront with them.
"Never invest in your own movies," he said it outloud looking towards the ceiling.
After a pause he gazed down, towards them and spoke, "to be honest, I never understood why people say that. If you, yourself, have the money but don't have enough confidence to put money into your own movie. Then why should a stranger be stupid enough to do that for you."
"I have been fortunate enough to amass a good amount of capital, I have enough to film at least two movies. I have full confidence in my first movie to be a box office success, but I always like to tread with caution, so I have prepared enough capital for producing two." They withdrew their apprehensive looks upon hearing that, Mark was slowly easing them in.
"Now, what I am going to share next with you all is something which I would like to stay between us. So here are some NDA's. I hope you would be kind enough to sign, so I can continue on with my explanation." Mark said, passing the 5 of them a few forms and pens to sign them.
They looked through it briefly, then signed it. All the while, Mark looked at Kevin to gage his opinion on the possible recruits. He gestures to Mark that they are alright, but he will have to observe more.
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Full Chapter Title - Writing John Wick & First Impressions.
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{Author's Note: And that's a wrap, here we see Mark write out the plot points for John Wick origins which he divided into 4 movies featuring a young John Wick. Then we see the first meeting with the potential recruits.
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