Chapter 337: Top Guns I
Just like the crowd, Alexander was more than satisfied with what he saw.
Unlike the crowd, he saw things from a different perspective.
Not known to others, he had the enviable viewpoint of being someone that once lived a different timeline. Allowing him to compare and contrast many things.
In a clash between the old Top Gun and this new Top Gun... the new one undoubtedly has the better romance narrative.
The romance between Cruise’s Maverick and Kelly McGillis’ Charlie as it's shown in the original Top Gun is less on the good and more on the bad.
On the good side is that sexy, shadowy kissing scene set to Berlin’s Oscar-winning song "Take My Breath Away".
On the bad side is pretty much everything else about their relationship.
From when they first meet and Maverick is so cocky and aggressive with Charlie that he violates her privacy and follows her into the women’s restroom. To the fact that she neglects to tell him that she outranks him and is one of his instructors.
Things between Maverick and Charlie, and his treatment of her, don’t improve despite his declarations of love and lust.
Alexander's self-censorship actually helped with that. Sublimating the whole love story to become a bit better than what it was.
Of course, the other thing that had been an improvement of the old Top Gun... is the overall cinematography, direction, and storytelling.
Not to say that Tony Scott and his team were bad. James Cameron is just better.
Who better to direct Top Gun than one of the top guns of commercial filmmaking?
It also just so happens that the new baseline script is not so disjointed and Alexander had his picture book to thank for that.
Instead of sharp cuts and expository dialogue to convey what's happening in the hops and dogfights... the new production was able to procure smoother shots, flowing reels, and spectacular recordings of what was what.
It goes to show that having a clear vision of the finished product is so much better than blindly splicing what they could record during production.
Anyways, it may just be biased due to his ownership but Alexander did not doubt that the Creed version of Top Gun was great.
Perhaps congratulations are in order.
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The first round happened to come from sandwiching sources though.
"Congratulations, Alex!" Milla was quite excited. If anything, this was also a congratulation to herself. Her song had been quite distinctive in the backdrop.
"Yeah!" Not to be left out, Drew voiced her praise. "It was awesome."
There were plenty of scenes that weren't exactly child-appropriate like the Neg-G Mid-Finger and Goose's gruesome death... but shaky PG rating from the MPAA guidelines and Hollywood upbringing can be pretty desensitizing.
"Well, it should be congratulations to you two." Alexander deflected while shaking his popcorn container for emphasis. "You guys really cleaned me out. Just leaving behind crumbles, pinches of salt, and unpopped corn ears."
"It's her fault!"
"No! It's her fault!"
And so it begins...
Again.
If there ever was a next time for these uncomfortable premiere seating scenarios, he'd best remember to bring separate popcorn for all of them.
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"Haha! Must be tough." Courteney could only laugh at the little guy's plight. It was also great that Milla had someone else to be jealous of.
"Kudos to your acting." Alexander went out of sight-out of mind again and just conversed with Cocky Cox.
He honestly didn't know that someone like Courteney Cox could do that. At least, the biased choice to go with a Creed Animations acquaintance wasn't too bad.
Ditching youth for professional maturity plus exhibiting range to fit the Charlie character must have been quite the achievement.
"Thanks." Of course, she couldn't take much credit. "The pressure from tyr... terrific Director Cameron can't be taken too lightly."
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"I'm pretty sure she wanted to say tyrant." James Cameron happened to be closing in and heard what he heard.
Poor Courteney was grimacing from embarrassment now.
Apathetic Alexander didn't share her plight and just greeted the new Top Gun director. "It's a great film, Mr. Cameron."
"Of course, it is!" His confidence in the final product he made remained unshaken.
Fortune must really favor the bold. Now, Alexander could see why this man was able to proclaim himself as the king of the world.
With regards to the king of the world stuff, the two of them did have to do a lot of worldbuilding to do.
The Terminator comic book wouldn't make itself, after all.
Then again, Cameron was about to be busy with a stalled Aliens production while Alexander himself was quadruply busy, so scheduling and whatnot have to be discussed for that.
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Anyways, Alexander had to mingle with the rest of the incoming Top Gun cast after that.
Tim Robbins, Meg Ryan, Anthony Edwards, and most of the cast's nine yards. Even someone like Val Kilmer was here and he had mellowed out compared to how he was on set.
It was mostly the repetition of the same usual stuff though.
For an introvert that hates socializing, it was tedious work that he'd rather skip.
Unfortunately, he can't. It was torture that was hard to escape from.
Who made him the producer's grandson, the credited screenwriter, the half-boss of the Creed production slash entertainment company, and just an overall anomaly?
It was himself to blame for that, so he had to pay the price.
Then again, an interesting thing did pop up from this whole greet and greet.
The top gun of the Top Gun film cast list, Mr. Tom Cruise, had a courtesy talk with Alexander and this was when the man introduced his date for the premiere.
It would seem that with the Cher girl out of the picture, Mimi Rogers swooped in.
Adrenalinist Tom had long been unlocked during Top Gun filming.
Pre-Superstar Tom would most probably turn to Superstar Tom after today's screening.
Scientologist Tom seems to not want to be left behind. Miss Mimi Rogers's presence here must be to make sure of it.
Anyways, Alexander wasn't nosy enough to meddle with what was going to happen.
Creed Pictures' Top Gun lead star status was already good enough, so best of luck to the man till their next collaboration.
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After that, Alexander still had to meet with some of the Base Miramar folk that he worked with.
Old Sullivan more than made sure of it by dragging him along.
Without a doubt, this San Diego-based premiere was filled with uniformed elites and it would be hard to dismiss their support and contributions to the whole thing.
They surely were a big help in quite a lot of things. Mainly for this film's productions and inadvertently so with the film's distribution.
In any case, this whole collaboration with the Fighter Weapons School and some aspects of the military could prove more instrumental in the future than it seems.
Creed Picture's tentative next project is another army-esque or military-esque film, after all.
If Cameron was going to be working on Aliens, then its cinematic rival can't be that far behind.
Anyways, Un-Ratty Pettigrew was mostly the point guy and he was quite a big help when it came to socializing with the true top guns behind the true blue TOPGUN.
As it turns out, there were a lot of them in this premiere, so the un-socializing Alexander had his work cut out for him.
His work was more than doubly so when one of these TOPGUN top guns handed him a special correspondence.
Which was intriguing, to say the least!