48 48. A Dream Fulfilled - Marvel Comics.
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.
.
..
_________________________
..
.
Recap of the Previous Chapter -
The chapter starts off with a flashback and POV of David investigating the Olympic coaches and looking into the rumor of their wards being sexually harassed and abused. After weeks of investigation, with the cooperation of 7 other operatives. He finally finds the culprit behind the incidents and puts a permanent stop to it with the help of the media.
Mark is then shown to be working on the cover for the first of the Vinland Saga. He then goes to shoot a technical scene of the Knives Out. After which, he takes the day off and relaxes by watching "Batman forever" with his friends and Evelyn.
While watching the movie, he talks with Evelyn and makes sure that she gets the negotiation team ready to buy out Marvel Comics. They discuss how the negotiations will proceed and the highest price Mark is willing to pay for Marvel Comics.
.
..
_________________________
..
.
~ Mark's POV ~
.
Date: 11th July, 1990.
.
Location: At his office in Eidolon HQ.
.
Time: 04:43 pm.
..
.
Mark had just wrapped up the shoot of Knives Out for the day. They had finished the entirety of the stupid yet funny car chase scene. This time filled with more cars and chaos. He used a stunt double to drive for Salma, as he didn't want any mishaps to happen.
The progress they were making with the filming of Knives Out was definitely beyond his previous estimates. If they kept pace, the entire thing might be wrapped by a month earlier than his previous deadline.
This would allow him to release the movie in mid-September like the 15th, this will give his movie at least 3 more weeks to earn money at the box office. He knew why the filming was going so smoothly, it was actually the combination of a number of factors. Like -
His core team of handpicked super talented individuals, the veteran support crew from CAA, his hiring director Wendell picking out real good actors for the roles and last the most important of all the [Steven Spielberg Template]. After personally experiencing it, he realized just how much of a game changer it truly was.
He could see his original stats in the directing column rising as each day passed with him filming Knives Out.
'Vani, could you display the improvement in the scores of my directing skills till date by using the template.' Mark thought, wanting to see the overall rise from where he began to where he is now.
[Of course, Mark this is the rise in the stats of your directing skills, from the time you started using the template:-
♦ Directorial Skills -
1. Creative Vision: 78 → 81 {95}
2. Aesthetic Cinematography: 72→ 78 {92}
3. Crew Leadership: 83 → 86 {98}
4. Set Coordination: 65 → 77 {93}
5. Character Blocking: 73 → 79 {97}
6. Performance Guidance: 58 → 70 {96}
7. Artistic Communication: 61 → 67 {94}]
{A/N: This {**} in the above dialogue shows Steven's stats, which Mark has gotten by using the Character Template. This template is of Steven Spielberg from Mark's past life when he died in 2023.}
"Hmm," Mark hummed as he thought to himself, 'the progress I made with the template is definitely astonishing. But by comparing the stats, I can see that Artistic Communication grew the slowest, despite it being my lowest stat. Maybe it has something to do with it being the most complex and difficult to master skill out of the rest.'
'But if I don't manage to get a cumulative box office of $1billion dollars, this is the one skill I will definitely have to focus my points on. I hope it doesn't come to that, as buying Knowledge Scripts for movies and books is definitely the better way to use my points.'
He started reading the letter his mother sent him, she liked to stay in contact with him through them. She was asking about how his life has been going and if his work schedule is too hectic. Diane, his mother, had been his greatest support in his writing journey, always making him try ways to convey his story.
He wrote back a simple reply that even though the work schedule was hectic, he was taking proper care of his health, by following a healthy, balanced diet plan and was also getting at least 6 hours of sleep every day.
Mark also asked if they would like to visit him and maybe be there on the premier night of his first movie. He knew it was still over 3 months away, but he wanted to make some preparations in advance in case they decide to visit.
With the letter done, he picked the morning's newspaper his secretary had brought in. He wanted to see how the publicity for his books and Knives Out were being carried out. After speed reading through 4 big local and national newspapers.
He found that his books have been positively viewed by the media. Him coming out and revealing himself had really boosted the sales of his books, the public was just eating it up.
A successful author who started writing at just 10 years of age and had been writing for a decade with all of his books becoming bestsellers. Then suddenly they come to know that he also has the IQ of a genius who recently graduated with multiple degrees in the art of filmmaking and was in the process of adapting his own written book into a movie, to say the hype was real would be an understatement.
The hype surrounding his movie was building up with all the set pictures being released through the print media and his movie being filmed was becoming the talk of the town. Now all he had to do was create a movie that not only lived up to the hype but went beyond it.
PLUS ULTRA as they say, well no-one does for now but my hero academia was already in the works, and he was working on it himself, along with Naruto. He planned to release the two together on a special event that would be arriving in 2 more months.
He looked at the clock and saw that it was already 6 pm. Sophia should be arriving shortly for her bi-weekly classes with him. He had already taught her the basics and his theoretical knowledge on filming to the intermediate level. Currently, he was teaching her, "how to portray and build a strong female character in a movie."
Mark had big plans for Sophia; she would be the one to herald the feminist movement that was already budding in the society, with women taking a greater interest in jobs and becoming financially independent. He wanted her to become a voice for women in Hollywood and earn brownie points by having her be a part of Eidolon.
He was also currently to teach her the lesson of "setup" and "pay off" in the movie. A simple yet very important lesson that all directors must learn, to truly become good directors.
He didn't need her to learn writing, to create these set-ups and payoffs herself in her movies. But he needed her to understand why it's important and how to properly build it up, so it flows naturally with the movie's main plot.
As Mark waited for Sophia's arrival, he had a moment to think about the various important tasks that were being performed by the other members of his organization.
Like Tony Kushner, he took a leave and had gone into a retreat. Resting and researching on the Viking lore and history to create a better draft for the second volume of Vinland Saga.
After some communication between Ben and himself, the script for the first installment of John Wick had finally been finished, with Ben working on the lore and him working on the main plot of the movie.
He had decided for now to call it - John Wick: Origins. He would try to come up with a better name for it later on, but if he couldn't then this will have to do.
Not only that, but he had already given the final script of John Wick to Peggy, Joseph and Sarah to see how it performs in the current times and if there was an audience for such a film.
This was his standard vetting procedure even if it was a script written by him, it would need to pass the scrutiny of Peggy, Sarah and Joseph and be given the green light.
Melissa, who had been working on Runeterra: Yordles & Magic, had finally finished her part of crafting the lore and story of the Yordles. She had finally completed Tristana, Lulu and Poppy.
He had asked if she wanted a break or something else to work. Mel had chosen to start working on Warcraft, with a new employee that Mark had recently, after searching him through Vani's headhunting function.
It took so long because he didn't know the name of the person, and he also wasn't directly a part of Hollywood. His name - Chris Metzen. He had hired the guy to work on the storylines of his fantasy stories. Mark had read his file and knew about his future potential.
Chris Metzen would later on become a game designer, artist, voice actor, and even an author known for his work creating the fictional universes and scripts for Blizzard Entertainment's three major award-winning media franchises: Warcraft, Diablo and StarCraft.
Blizzard was currently not even officially established, he tasked Vani to find the people responsible for its creation, so he could invest in its creation.
He had also thought to task Harry to find him a video game distribution house and some talented game developers and designers for his future Video Game Development & Publishing companies.
He knew he still had a few years before the video game developers and publishers like Blizzard (1994), Epic Games (1992), Digital Extreme (1993) and Take Two Interactive (1993).
He wanted to establish Blizzard entertainment himself and create it into a studio to develop fantasy genre games with a top-down view, like Warcraft and World of Warcraft.
Epic games and Digital Extreme won't become too big in the short term but owning both of them would allow him complete freedom and control of the Unreal Engine.
It is the world's most open and advanced real-time 3D creation tool for photoreal visuals and immersive experiences. This would help him create first-person shooter games like Grand Theft Auto, Max Payne, Warframe, Counter Strike, etc.
Mark planned on funding Epic Games and Digital Extreme and ensuring that they focus their resources on the development of the Unreal Engine. This would allow him to be the first to create a first-person shooter game, it would be even better if he could market it with a movie.
Take Two Interactive was the game developer with most of his favorite video games under their belt like - Battleborn, BioShock, Borderlands, Mafia, Sid Meier's Civilization, WWE, Grand Theft Auto, Max Payne, Midnight Club, Red Dead, etc. Acquiring it is a must.
The best thing is that Mark would be acquiring a stake in these companies when they would be just starting out, so no anti monopoly laws would apply to him. And later on he planned to be so influential and powerful that laws won't matter.
His thoughts had derailed with him planning about the work to be done in the ESports and gaming scene. He jotted down his thoughts in a personal diary which he kept locked in a hidden safe, triggered to burn its content in case of outside tampering.
His thoughts went to Jessica who was writing the script for Matrix, she had gone through "the List", and immediately found herself drawn to the story of the Matrix.
The Matrix depicts a dystopian future in which humanity is unknowingly trapped inside the Matrix, a simulated reality that intelligent machines have created to distract humans while using their bodies as an energy source.
When computer programmer Thomas Anderson, under the hacker alias "Neo", uncovers the truth, he joins a rebellion against the machines along with other people who have been freed from the Matrix. Jess found herself drawn to the dystopian world, the horror of the intelligent machines and the bleak hope for survival.
He is broken out of his introspection by Sofia's calling out to him as she enters his office. He greets her and tells her to take a seat and be ready with her presentation. It was her homework that he had assigned her. It aimed to raise her outlook towards films and make her a better orator in front of others.
.
..
.
~ A few days later ~
..
.
The crew had gathered on set in Harlan's home, the scene they were shooting was where Harlan's will was going to be read. It was a divided into three parts, the first was easier with just a setup conversation between Benoit and the family members and the will being read by the family lawyer Mr. Stevens with the help of his assistant.
The second where the family members have to react to the contents of the will be harder to pull off and will be demanding on the actors. He hoped they could get a good shot in at most 10 tries, because after that the fatigue catches up.
The third part of the scene shows Marta escaping from the family members as they hound her, her car fails to start, and she is rescued by Ransom. It was going to be difficult both for the actors and first and second AC to weave between the actors as they came onto Marta.
This scene in the original was easier to shoot due to the technology progressing and the camera's becoming more lightweight and easier to maneuver and carry on a shoulder mount. He knew he was asking a lot from the AC's, but he believed in their skills.
Salma had definitely grown closer to him over the month, she had started spending more time with him whenever he was free from work. Going out on dates, exploring LA, they saw a lot of attractions and sights of the city.
On set, though, she behaved completely professional and didn't show any familiarity with him other than as an actress. She wanted to keep her relationship with him a secret, or else the media would show her in a bad light with stories like she slept with Mark to get the role of Marta Cabrera.
Mark agreed with the decision as well because he liked to keep his private life as private as possible. As the scene was done being set up, all the actors took their positions and the scene began with his call for action.
Despite the simple scene, there were always small changes that Mark thought could be done to improve the scene. Therefore, it took them eleven tries to get a shot that satisfied Mark.
For the second part, it took them over 19 NG's before Mark was satisfied with a shot. After every failed shot, he would explain his thoughts to Jon and Todd about why he dismissed it as NG.
He was trying to cultivate that sense of decision-making so that they could also identify which shots were usable and which shot had to be discarded.
The last scene was surely a miracle. It took them only 3 tries to get a shot that Mark thought couldn't be done any better. The scene was almost near perfect with the slight shaking of the camera to signify the chaos of the scene, the expressions, the emotions, it was just an excellent shot.
He called over Jon and Todd for a brief chat. "You guys are really doing some good work and picking up things even faster than I imagined."
"It's all because of the talented crew you have gathered, Mark. I don't know where you got 'em, but they are definitely a class above the people I used to work with before." Jon said, having worked before on a crew for a small budget movie. The disorganized chaos was difficult to work around.
"Exactly, Mark. Especially in the Make-up and Costume department, Ms. Mode is a legend in the industry. I don't know how you got her to work on this crew, but I am truly grateful, as working with her is a huge honor." Todd said, a bit emotional as she was the one that created the look for E.T's alien and the costumes for Batman and his villains when the franchise was just starting out.
Mark said that it was her story to share and changed the topic by praising them again for their quick uptake to the job of a director. He asks them if they would be up for finding and shooting location shots for his next movie in New York. Obviously after a well deserved month long break.
He also spoke with Jan and Chris and told them how happy he was with their progress in learning the ropes of the film crew, and told them that he was thinking of letting them shoot a small budget movie whose script he has written and perfected himself.
Jan and Chris are left emotional after the surprise, as they thought they would have to work for at least another 2 years before they got to try shooting a movie of their own. They both thanked Mark, while he just waved it off and told them that it was because he thought they were ready to try something on their own.
He would still serve as the executive producer and be constantly observing their performance. If they fail somewhere, he would pitch in to help them finish the movie. But only if he felt like they needed his help.
.
..
.
~ Ron Perelman's POV ~
.
Date: 15th July.
.
Location: In a meeting room in Eidolon HQ.
.
Time: 03:43 pm.
..
.
He had finally agreed to selling off Marvel Comics. Mark's people had contacted him out of the blue around a week after the disaster that was Batman Forever. He was a businessman through and through, so he had already realized that he had squeezed Marvel for all the profits he could, but he wanted to sell it for as high as possible.
He had been looking into some potential buyers to sell movie adaptation rights of the superheroes, but after the screening of Batman Forever, that venture felt like a dead end. After a week of drowning himself in alcohol to avoid thinking about the impending doom of Marvel.
He had been approached by the men of Mark Spencer, he didn't even get to see a glimpse of the man himself. No, all he got was a warm greeting from Harry, the one in-charge of the negotiations, from his stance and behavior.
Despite the warm greeting, he kept his guard up because Harry was a vulture. The ease and precision with which he shot down his demands made him wince, he knew he had almost single-handedly destroyed the reputation Marvel had with its readers.
In the following three weeks, he met them six more times, always trying to get a better price or deal out of them. Only to be ruthlessly shot down by them every time. He would have tried to sell off a few of the movie adaptation rights of a few heroes to earn a quick buck.
But the wretched Spencer through Harry had made it a requirement in their deal that he wanted Marvel in its entirety, with the right to adapt all its characters into movies and other media, remaining intact.
Now here he was to meet the man, behind the operations that led to this negotiation that had him feeling miserable for the past few weeks. He was here to meet Mark personally and try to get an edge on him, and wanted to try one last time to upsell Marvel.
.
..
.
Unaware that Mark already hired an overwatch operative to investigate all his business dealings and find dirt on him. Dirt that Mark would use to acquire Marvel from him for as low as possible if Perelman were to push his buttons like the Universal executives did at the Jurassic Park negotiations.
Mark kinda hoped that he did, after all, it would give him the excuse to go all out and show his true colors. Mark entered the meeting room with Evelyn and Harry by his side. The rest of the negotiation team had been left out, as their presence wasn't really necessary.
As this meeting was only a formality and Perelman had already agreed to sell Marvel Comics to Mark in this meeting and all that was left to decide was the price. He had tried to package the other companies he bought along with Marvel to upsell them to Mark, but he wasn't fooled.
The meeting started off with a round of introductions and Perelman trying to state his case of how he felt he was justified to be paid for Marvel Comics. Mark ruthlessly tore down his demand, stating that while he might have bought Marvel for a higher price in the past.
But now the company had fallen to new lows, declared bankrupt and having lost most of its credibility with its readers. It was but a husk of its former glory, so what Mark was offering to him was actually a very appropriate amount.
Mark then handed him some documents which displayed a reputed financial institutions' investigation and calculation about the current valuation of Marvel Comics and that value had come out to be around $66.7 million and Mark had very generously offered Ron $70 million to buy out Marvel.
Mr. Perelman stayed silent for a few minutes as he pondered on the options he had been left with. But no matter how much he thought about it, Mark's offer was the only viable option in his current scenario. After all, no one was willing to pay him more, and he really was in need of some cash for another investment.
He sighed as he realized that he had been read like an open book, he was almost certain that Mark knew about his dire need of cash for his other investment.
He looked Mark in the eye and said, "I accept your offer, Mr. Spencer, when shall we sign the documents?" He asked at the end and extended his hand for a shake.
Mark shook his hand and replied, "Oh, you sign them now, my team will take care of the paperwork in a few minutes."
Mr Perelman didn't let go of Mark's hand and just stared at him. After a moment of silence, he spoke with a tone of respect. "Well played, Mr. Spencer, you somehow found out about my urgent need for cash and played hard to get."
Mark just smiled and played the fool, his mask hiding his expressions and serving as a natural poker face. He said nonchalantly, "I have no clue as to what you are talking about. Please don't make baseless accusations Mr. Perelman, a respectable businessman, shouldn't fall this low."
"Goodbye, Mr. Perelman. It was a pleasure doing business with you." Mark said at the end and left the meeting room.
As he was leaving, he called out to Eva and told to send a notice to Marvel that even though he was the new owner, he wouldn't be firing or making any big changes before understanding the situation of the company thoroughly. So ask them to just sit tight and keep publishing going.
He told her to also let them know that he will be coming to give them a visit the day after tomorrow and would appreciate it if all the management and higher level employees could make themselves available for a meeting with him.
.
..
.
..
.
{Author's Note: This chapter was so god da** difficult to get through, not only because I had to tie everyone's work progress together, but also because I was busy thinking up possible Video Game Development companies Mark could buy a huge stake in and control.
The four I selected were Blizzard, Epic Games, Digital Extreme and Take Two Interactive. These four were the ones I found to have a good reputation and income. They were also the creators of some of my most favorite games - Warcraft, GTA, Warframe, Borderlands, Red Dead, Fortnite, World of Warcraft, etc.
And finally Marvel has been acquired WOOO!!! The dream, the hype, is becoming real. He would be getting an achievement out of this as well, but it will be shown in the next chapter. Stay tuned for more.
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
Update schedule for this book: 1 chapter every 2 days.}
