Chapter 21: Adjusting
Thinking of IPs, Alexander remembered his new project at school today which was a perfect thing to store and own ahead of time.
"Grandpa, since you are planning to stories into movies, I have a new one I'm working on?" Alexander suddenly asked to give his grandfather an extra surprise. "Maybe you can make this a movie as well while not having to compromise with other people."
"You have another one?" Sullivan's eyes lit up as he looked at the boy with expectations. It seems that three stories are just a start for the boy's creativity.
"Wait here." Alexander gestured as he walked out of the dining room and carried something back from his bag. He, then handed it to Sullivan for him to see. "It is just that title though as I didn't have the time to complete it all."
"Top Gun?" Sullivan muttered questioningly as he looked at another poster-esque hand-drawn artwork but with a man wearing shades and uniform. The man was leaning his weight on something while carrying what looks like a helmet. "What is this guy leaning on?"
"That should be fighter jet." Alexander timely answered as he sat back down again.
Sullivan put two and two together. "Is this about piloting jets?"
"Yes. That guy's last name is Maverick. A word I got from the dictionary about not fitting in." Alexander explained while keeping a bit of childishness. "He's sort of the black sheep of an elite piloting school but that is all that I have for now."
Sullivan could only be impressed at the concept while inadvertently connecting the story to the boy that came up with the idea.
"Did you make this story because you want to be a pilot in the future, Alex?" Sullivan inquired with worry. It was a clear side effect from relating too much of Back to the Future into his life story.
"You could say so." Of course, Alexander would stir into the skid to make some truth with the misunderstanding. In fact, he already had an excuse prepared beforehand. "It was my answer to my 'who do I want to be in the future?' project at class."
If investigators wanted evidence for his 'pilot dreams', then they could refer to Miss Hansen's collection of things to check.
This option was better than outright saying that he knows most of the upcoming successful films in movie history.
"Alex, grandpa would support you but I would still advise you against it." Sullivan nodded in understanding while also advising his grandson against it.
"Why? I think jet planes are cool." Of course, Alexander knew of the old man's worries. He just had to ask to stay in character.
"It is a dangerous job. You should remember what happened to your parents." Sullivan could only bring out a taboo subject lest the boy really jumps into such a risky career. "Besides, don't you think storytelling and being an artist suits you more? I'd rather you chose to be a comic artist than a military pawn."
"I just think riding jet planes are cool. If it's as dangerous as you say it is, then never mind." Alexander understood like a good boy and nodded to assure his grandpa.
Inwardly, he can't help but comment about adults deciding the career of children; the correlation of flying incidents and his parents' car accident; and the scorn of society towards comic book creators.
Alexander had contradictions with his grandfather on career topics before and it was better to let go of the past and just enjoy what is present.
"Glad we agree on that." Sullivan was just gratified at the boy's obedience and had no idea of his internal commentaries.
"But can I still make the Top Gun story? Maybe you can also make it a movie so that I won't have to obsess much on it." Of course, Alexander didn't fail to manipulate his grandfather for his own good. He wouldn't be a student at Top Gun but they could still make some money from the idea.
"It is no problem to your old grandpa at all." Sullivan gave his preliminary agreement while handing the Top Gun poster page back to him.
In any case, the dinner ended with the final goal of Sullivan registering the Top Gun copyright ahead of time.
Alexander essentially helped his grandfather not negotiate deals again. People like Simpson and Bruckheimer were much harder to deal with than Zemeckis and Gale.
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After a quick wash and brushing of his teeth, he worked on the script for a while and then went to bed after making some progress.
As his young body was on its way to dozing off, Alexander had to add new considerations to his doing of things.
The fact that Zemeckis and Gale had already come up with the Back to the Future story since 1980 was already within his calculations.
It was fortunate that he finished the final product of the trilogy ahead of time while their's is just an unrefined script draft of the first movie.
It was also fortunate that he changed Marty and Doc Brown to Alex and Doc Sully, connecting the names with his family and Rick and Morty characters also helped out a ton.
The coincidence of having the same title and plot is barely within the realms of acceptable. If the names were also similar, then he'd have to explain things as the magic of fate or his blatant attempt of business espionage.
It was a good thing that his grandfather worked his business savvy to make quick work of everything and succeeding in the end.
If memory serves him right, Back to the Future would be in full attention after companies would have confidence after Zemeckis' Romancing with the Stone became a success.
The trilogy's viability to become their property is condensed within a time frame of days before the Zemeckis film release.
If his grandfather failed, Back to the Future would be left for Speilberg and Universal to play with.
It was all a matter of moving on and producing another successful movie in his memory to rip off.
It was a good thing that everything worked out and now, all that was hindering the entire project is the original idea being filed among Columbia Pictures stockpile of scripts.
Before all this, he was just a passive film watcher, who wouldn't care for film negotiation dramas. It was up to the people behind the scenes and the diehard fans to care about these matters.
Now, things were different as Alexander had to take a helm on most things. He was now somewhat of a plagiarizing screenwriter and a semi-producer of sorts.
He had to make sure that everything went right before things would go into disarray. Although his grandfather was at the helm of things, Alexander would probably be haunted if the finished product isn't as close to its previous glory had been.
Film production on a manipulator's seat was much more burdensome than he thought it would be.
With his adjusted identity, he also had to adapt by adjusting his methods accordingly.