Rewind With A Superstar System

<🎧 Song Recommendation: euphoria by Kendrick Lamar>

...

The Pinecrest estate was a construction zone the next morning.

"Push it to the left! No, my left!" Von grunted, his feet sliding slightly on the floor as he shoved his shoulder against the heavy dining table.

On the other end of the massive table, Max was pushing back, but his face was turning completely red from the exertion.

To make matters worse, Max was trying to help push while simultaneously holding up his heavy camera with his other hand, severely limiting his strength.

"Take it easy, Von," Max groaned, shifting his grip on the table and panting heavily. "I never signed up for manual labor. I’m a social director, not a mover."

Von stopped pushing. He stood up straight and fixed Max with a heavy, deadpan stare that made the cameraman instantly sweat under his collar.

"Sorry, sorry!" Max apologized quickly, carefully setting the expensive camera down on a nearby kitchen stool before returning to the table with both hands ready.

"Were you really trying to film us moving a table?" Von asked, raising an eyebrow at his friend.

Max smiled wryly, wiping his forehead. "It’s necessary, bro. When this music video drops and breaks the internet, the fans are going to want to see the BTS. And that’s where MadMax comes to the rescue. You’re welcome."

Von shook his head in exasperation, but he honestly couldn’t refute that he made a really good point. They went back to pushing until the massive table was entirely out of the intended camera frame.

A few feet away in the hallway, Naomi and Olivia were having a much better time. The two girls were standing on small step ladders, carefully fixing dark, patterned wallpapers over the normally bright walls. Naomi had spent the previous evening painting some custom props to make the background look gritty.

Unlike Von and Max, who were sweating and grunting, the girls were blasting music from a portable speaker, making jokes, and genuinely having fun with the chaotic process.

"You missed a spot right there, Picasso," Olivia teased, pointing at a corner of Naomi’s painted prop and making the latter laugh.

"Oh, shut up and pass the tape."

Just then, Emily walked into the dining area. She was holding a roll of thick tape, having spent the last hour in the guest rooms helping seal up the windows.

She stepped carefully over a messy maze of extension cords and floor lamps that Von had dragged up from the basement.

She stopped in the center of the room, taking in the chaotic state of the mansion.

"I still can’t believe we’re actually doing this," Emily sighed in tiredness, though there was a noticeable hint of relief in her voice.

"I mean, I love the concept. Mostly because you’re not planning to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars like you’ve been doing lately. But Von... black trash bags for blackout curtains?"

"It’s about being real, Em," Von said, walking over to one of the floor lamps and angling it toward the living room couch.

He had briefly activated his Director’s Eye skill earlier that morning. The skill had instantly shown him exactly where every single shadow needed to fall to create the perfect tension, and this specific lamp had been two inches out of place.

"People are stuck in their houses right now," Von continued, adjusting the bulb. "The video won’t really hit if it looks too and clean. It needs to look like I’m genuinely losing my mind in isolation."

"Well, you’re definitely nailing the losing your mind look," Emily joked. But then, her tone turned serious. "But I have to remind you, Von. If this doesn’t work out the way you envisioned it, we are scrapping it and hiring a real crew. Even if it’s just to help with the setup and lighting. Deal?"

"Deal," Von smiled confidently, turning back to look at her. "But it won’t fail."

Max walked over, caressing his chin as he looked at the lighting setup through his own eyes. "Actually, Emily, he’s onto something here. If Von drops a masterpiece and everyone finds out he directed and built the set himself with a zero budget... the attention is going to be crazy."

"See? Even Max gets it," Von grinned, clapping his friend on the shoulder.

For the next two days, the four of them, alongside a couple of the in-house staff Von already had on payroll, completely transformed the mansion.

By Thursday evening, the house looked entirely different. Even the walkway and the outside scene had been fully developed and tested. It was dark, claustrophobic, and exactly how Von wanted it.

Von stood in the center of the living room, looking at the giant TV where Aura’s pre-recorded video would be cast. Everything was ready.

***

While Von was plunging himself into the dark isolation of his Miami estate, somewhere in a sprawling, ultra-modern living area in Toronto, Leviathan was dealing with a different kind of Hollywood warfare.

The rap mogul sat behind a massive desk in his home office. Behind him, the wall was lined with Diamond and Platinum plaques, alongside several Grammys and other musical awards he had picked up over the years.

What was meant to be just a simple home office looked more like a museum of musical dominance.

But the grandeur didn’t matter right now, because Leviathan was focused on something much more important.

Just a few weeks ago, he had taken some time off to have some fun with the gaming community he once belonged to. Even though he didn’t win anything at the tournament, competing with millions watching had been a thrill for him.

It was a well-deserved break, but now it was back to work.

"He’s moving fast, Levy," Marcus warned via the Zoom call on the laptop.

Marcus, Leviathan’s lead production partner, sounded really stressed. He rubbed the back of his neck.

"I got off the phone with my guy at Paramount an hour ago. Rayan West is fast-tracking his own teen romance adaptation. He’s trying to corner the entire market while everyone else is paralyzed by the lockdown."

Leviathan’s jaw visibly tightened at the name. Rayan West.

Rayan was his greatest rival in the industry. Although the billionaire rapper was a lot older and from a completely different era of music, it didn’t make him any less of a rival to the fast-growing new generation. In fact, many in the industry would argue that Leviathan was the exact reason Rayan stopped rapping and focused entirely on the business part of creation.

It all stemmed from a legendary diss battle that happened five years ago. Leviathan had dissed the absolute crap out of Rayan, dropping a song that painted a lot of heavy accusations. It forced the older rapper to panic and try suing Leviathan in court, which massively backfired after the entire internet called Rayan a pussy for involving lawyers in a rap beef.

To add fuel to the fire, Leviathan’s diss track ended up charting at number one and was currently sitting at over 2.1 billion streams on Musicify.

But that was five years ago. Right now, Rayan West was a completely different beast. The diss did little to stall his wealth. He still remained the richest artist in the world, and both his music label and his Hollywood business were growing on a rapid scale.

Leviathan frowned at the webcam. "How’s that even possible, eh? The lockdown is still active across the border. Mans can’t do anything right now."

"That’s the thing," Marcus sighed. "It hasn’t hit the press yet, but the actors’ and directors’ guilds have been having secret meetings all week. They are trying to draft protocols for something called Bubble Filming. They’re going to start implementing it around late June."

"Bubble filming?" Leviathan repeated, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah. The studios are renting out entire hotels and private soundstages," Marcus explained quickly. "You test the cast and crew every single day, keep them locked inside the hotel, and shuttle them to closed sets. If we get our budget cleared immediately, we don’t have to wait until next year. We can literally start casting Perfect Ruins next month and start shooting the whole thing in a bubble by late Summer."

Leviathan rubbed his chin, his mind working a mile a minute. This changed everything.

If Rayan was able to shoot in a bubble, it would be incredibly stupid for him not to follow suit, even if it meant spending all his production budget on hotel rentals.

Everyone in the industry, even a greenhorn producer like him, knew that the theaters were going to fill up the absolute moment the lockdown was lifted. People were desperate to get out of their houses.

Whoever was able to release the better movie during that exact period of revenge buying would stand the best chance at earning hundreds of millions at the box office.

"Marcus, should we even be worried?" Leviathan asked, leaning back in his chair. "I mean, true say, this time we have the better resource. The Perfect trilogy is one of the biggest teen romcom stories in the past five years. Even Rayan might not stand a chance against a script this good."

But Marcus shook his head vigorously, disagreeing immediately.

"Don’t get arrogant, Levy. Rayan has been in the film business for a much longer time, and he’s famous for producing some of the highest-grossing movies of the last decade. Even though he doesn’t usually do romance, you can’t expect him to miss just because you feel your script is superior. He has the infrastructure."

Leviathan let out a breath, realizing his partner was right. He quickly apologized to the older man. "Sorry, man. You’re right. We’ll just have to do our best and be ready for the battle."

"And besides," Marcus added, his voice dropping slightly as if someone was listening. "I also got rumors about his potential cast. The male lead is special."

"Who?"

"Julian West."

Leviathan raised his eyebrow high. "Huh? Who’s that one?"

"He’s West’s son," Marcus explained. "And it isn’t just about who he is, but what he represents. Every single time he’s made a public appearance, he’s managed to garner the entire attention of the media. And from what I heard, he’s really talented. He even won some major TV singing competition a year ago. Since that time, aside from dropping a number one Christmas single with Aria, he’s been in complete isolation preparing for this exact movie."

Leviathan scratched his chin, processing the information. "He’s used months to prepare for a romance movie? Should we really be worried about a singer? He hasn’t acted in a real movie before. What makes you think he’ll turn out to be a prodigy on screen?"

Marcus just shrugged his shoulders through the screen. "I don’t know myself. But knowing Rayan West, the guy cares about his public reputation more than anything else in the world. He won’t cast a mediocre rookie actor as the lead just because they’re related. They’re definitely cooking up something big to make sure the movie succeeds."

"Well, at least I got my Niece," Leviathan smirked confidently. "She just won the Breakout Star award at Sundance. We’ll give it to him, eh? He wants a war, we’ll give him a war."

Marcus nodded slowly. "Hopefully... hopefully."

And just like Leviathan himself, despite the tough talk, Marcus wasn’t in any way confident in their chances against the Hollywood giant.