NOVEL WEB Chapter 20: Rushed Negotiations
Is Back to the Future a mistake to start with?
Alexander's mind churned with all the possible points he missed only to stop with himself when he saw the joking glint in his grandfather's eyes.
"Don't lose hope yet, Alex." Sullivan seems to have timed everything and said with a smile. "It would seem that your picture book won't be published for a while because it would spoil the movies."
"Books? Movies?" Alexander asked with childish curiosity to hide his inner embarrassment of overthinking. He remembered his grandfather's knack for tricking him and it seem he fell for it again.
"Haha! Your grandpa here is going to make the Back to the Future trilogy into movies." Sullivan laughed with confidence and then gave the boy a look of pride. "If I had known you were quite the storyteller, I wouldn't have struggled to find those shady screenwriters."
Alexander had pretty much eased his pessimism and played along with his grandfather by acting out a reluctant creator. "I just wanted to make something for mom and dad. Why did you have to think of making some picture book or movie? I'm just a kid. Who would even want to read or watch something that I wrote?"
"Oh. Don't be down on yourself. You'll be surprised to know that other people were already planning to make a movie about the idea but yours was much more detailed and cohesive that they had to humble themselves." Sullivan remembered his encounter with that Bob Gale and he can't help but laugh with pride. "How could they even think of comparing themselves to my grandson?"
Alexander's eyes lit up as he finally got a bit of detail from the originators he plundered the idea from. "What do you mean by other people, grandfather?"
"Oh, some Hollywood guys named Robert and Bob are looking for investors and greenlights to make their idea happen." Sullivan recounted and said with relief. "It is a good thing that Universal hadn't bit the bait yet and I was the one to hook it. I even heard that they were considering that Spielberg kid which could have been another mess."
Alexander inwardly smiled as he listened. Those words were enough to tell him that his perfect trilogy trumped the idea men into submitting.
When Sullivan recounted the ups and downs of the day, Alexander could only commend the old man's persuasion skills and opportunity grabbing.
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Right after Sullivan vowed to make a Back to the Future movie happen, he drove to the Screenwriter's Guild to register the picture book as a script.
It was there that he found out that a Back to the Future script had already been registered and it had striking similarities to Alex Creedster and Doc Sully's story.
The name's Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis came up and Sullivan knew that he had to go through them to make his grandson's vision come into life via a movie.
Although the duo had the idea first, Sullivan had the leverage of a detailed script with two perfected sequels to add to the table.
Without delaying much, he used his connections to find either Bob or Zemeckis.
Not long after, the empowered old man found Zemeckis who was busy working on a film called Romancing the Stone.
Sullivan pulled the poor director over for a chat and handed the work pristine works of his grandson.
Zemeckis wanted to call for security but a top page that showed a familiar title with detailed images stopped him in place.
He read the first stack page by page and could only wonder at the perfected version of their vision.
When he read part 2 and part 3, he could only applaud the storybook author for thinking ahead.
When he saw the detailed timeline of time travel events on the final pages, he couldn't help but mutter at its perfection.
Zemeckis quickly called over Bob Gale and the rest followed suit with Sullivan taking the lead with everything.
It had to be said, that their plans for Back to the Future had only been an imperfect movie pitch that had been rejected so many times by studios.
To face the fact that their conceptual movie finally had someone willing to greenlight production was a happy thing.
To confront a script that is many levels ahead of them to come from a boy's imagination was surreal.
With bits of delay and tiny slivers of hesitation, the duo negotiated with old Sullivan in front of them.
The catch is that Zemeckis be the director and Bob being able to alter some parts of the script. They weren't too fond about the names Alex and Doc Sully after all.
Sullivan wanted to defend that it reflected his family's life but he was much in a hurry to close the deal and close the deal so he had to compromise
The writer-director duo had the advantage of coming up with the concept first and their established connections were something he had to get around.
Having Spielberg and the major studios taking part in his own business was not within Sullivan's plan.
Each had their own compromises and the deal was closed within the day. All that the trio had to worry about was buying the script rights from Columbia and Zemeckis fulfilling his contract with his current movie.
Conveniences and inconveniences were in place but all three of them were pretty much set on making Back to the Future happen.
The duo kept getting rejected and wanted to prove doubters wrong while also moving away from the influence of Spielberg, so they were also in much excitement as Sullivan is.
Sullivan also drafted up an unofficial written agreement that would make the deal happen and have no invasive third parties meddling with their cooperation.
Hence, the movie production process was booked and the new timeline's Back to the Future was set to sail.
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The Creed duo went on with the recollection even while they were enjoying dinner.
Sullivan was in a good mood as taking a script from Columbia's pile of thousands shouldn't be too difficult.
His mind was much more preoccupied with production matters and building up funds. His dream of mainstream film production and making his grandson's vision come to fruition was at the top of his priorities.
While Zemeckis is preoccupied, he and the Gale writer would already be starting with preparations so that everything would kickstart as soon as possible.
Alexander's thoughts were centered more on his manipulative achievements while just drawing on his school desk. He also had to commend his grandfather's quick thinking to resolve the complications within the span of a day.
Back to the Future was now within grasp and he needed to be much surer with the next stuff that he is going to plagiarize and pirate.
Repeating a rushed negotiation with other Zemeckis and Gale's he would rip off is not a healthy practice.
Alexander just had to adjust his strategy so that a pirated property becomes his earlier on than usual. Old Sullivan just had to sit at ease as a steady supply of intellectual properties is in his film company's reserves.