….
The morning sun reflected off the glass tables of LIE Studios, but inside Regal's office, the atmosphere was completely dialed in.
It was Oscar nomination morning.
Unlike the Golden Globes, which the Hollywood Foreign Press Association handled with a mix of prestige and chaotic star-worship, the Academy Awards were the definitive bedrock of cinematic legacy.
If the Globes were a dinner party, the Oscars were the history books.
Samantha Cross swiped down on her tablet, refreshing the Academy's live press feed.
Simon stood behind her, nursing his obligatory black coffees.
Regal sat behind his desk, reviewing concept art for [The Dark Knight] without seemingly paying any attention to the broadcast.
"They're posting the final lists." Samantha announced, her voice tight but professional. She scrolled quickly, her eyes darting across the screen. "Okay... Best Adapted Screenplay. [Deadpool] made it."
"Yes!" Simon pumped a fist. "Ryan is going to buy a billboard just to rub it in the industry's big shots."
"Best Makeup and Hairstyling for [Deadpool] as well." Samantha continued, before taking a slightly deeper breath. "Moving to the major categories. [I Want To Eat Your Pancreas]."
The room went completely silent.
"Best Cinematography, Leo Martinez. Best Original Score, Ludwig." Samantha read. "Best Actor in a Leading Role... Tom Holland."
Simon let out a low whistle. "Damn… I am actually jealous of this new generation. Getting nominated for an award like that in your twenties is already insane, but pulling it off with your very first major film role? What are the chances of that happening?"
"Best Actress in a Leading Role, Zendaya." Samantha smiled broadly now. "Best Original Screenplay, Regal Seraphsail. Best Director... Regal Seraphsail. And Best Picture."
Nine Oscar nominations across two of the most polar-opposite films released that year.
Regal finally set his pen down.
A slow, satisfied smirk crossed his face.
He had built Pancreas with a microscopic budget compared to his superhero epics, deliberately stripping away the spectacle to prove a point about raw, emotional storytelling.
The Academy had heard him loud and clear.
"Alright." Regal said calmly, standing up. "Samantha, coordinate with Red Studios for the campaign push. Keep Tom and Zendaya grounded; they are going to be overwhelmed by the press circuit. Samantha and Simon, excellent work. But celebrate quickly. We have night shoots for [The Dark Knight] starting tomorrow."
"Never stops, does it?" Simon grinned, finishing his coffee.
"Never." Regal agreed.
Simon, however, lingered as Darren and Samantha stepped out of the office to make their calls.
He looked down at his phone, his expression shifting from celebratory to thoughtful.
"Regal." Simon started, looking up. "Before we dive back into Gotham... do you have a minute to look at something else? It's about DJ."
Regal paused, his eyes narrowing slightly in recognition.
DJ. The MeTuber.
The guy who had been painstakingly deciphering Regal's cinematic universe moves since the post-credits scene of [Iron Man].
Regal had authorized Simon to establish a back-channel with him years ago, feeding him tiny, unverified rumors to test the waters of public opinion.
"What about him?" Regal asked.
"He just uploaded a video." Simon said, holding up his phone. "After being completely offline for a month. You're going to want to see this."
….
For the past thirty days, the online film community had been experiencing a very specific, low-level panic.
DJ had vanished.
There had been no warning, community posts or cryptic tweets.
He had simply missed his usual Friday upload.
Then a second Friday and third.
His channel members had flooded his social media platforms.
Subreddits dedicated to movie theories were full of threads titled #WhereIsDJ and Did DJ get sued by a studio?
Then, exactly thirty-two days after his last upload, a notification pinged across millions of devices.
….
New Video from DJ:The Truth About My Absence. (And Why I Owe 'A' Studios My Channel).Length: 15:42
Within an hour, the video had crossed half a million views.
The video opened not with DJ's usual energetic intro, upbeat music, or flashy graphics.
It was just him, sitting in his familiar computer chair, wearing a plain gray hoodie.
He looked exhausted, but there was a profound sense of relief in his eyes.
["What's up, everyone."] DJ began, his voice quieter than usual. ["It's your DJ. And... yeah. It's been a minute."]
He offered a weak, self-deprecating smile to the camera.
Initially, there was a flood of comments rushing down the live chat replay.
@User_Alpha: "DJ never disappoints" ❌ ➡️ "DJ disappoints" ⚠️ Bro looks like he just got out of the trenches.
@CinephileSam: Wait, the channel name is DJ (Dynamic Journal)... is it now "DJ Has To Explain"? 😂
@MovieBuff99: Bro, the hair... did you lose a fight with a lawnmower or did the stress do that? Lookin' rough but glad you're alive.
@PixelPerfect: The plain gray hoodie of corporate apology videos, but it's just a rant. I was terrified for a second.
["First off, I just want to say thank you. The amount of messages, emails, and tweets checking up on me... I saw them. Though I couldn't reply. Your support means the world to me. It really does."]
He took a deep breath, adjusting his posture.
["This won't be like my usual live... I just want to rant a bit... hope you don't mind and I also believe I can't read your comments now…"]
The comments didn't stop.
@GamerGuy: It's okay king, take your time!
@FanGirl_01: WE DON'T CARE READ READ READ !!!
@TheoryMaster: Is it a breakup?? 💔 Wait... when did DJ even get a girlfriend? Did I miss a lore chapter?
Meanwhile, he just continued.
["I know there have been a lot of crazy theories about where I went. And no–"] He chuckled dryly. ["-luckily, no major studio sent a hit squad to get rid of me because I kept predicting their storylines with my theories. Though I won't lie, for a second there, it felt like it."]
The faint smile vanished, replaced by a raw, uncomfortable honesty.
["A month ago, I woke up, checked my email like normal, and immediately saw that my channel had been hit with two consecutive copyright strikes, not simple claims but actual strikes."]
The chat replay on the side of the screen exploded as the viewers processed the gravity of those words.
In the MeTube ecosystem, three strikes meant permanent channel deletion.
Six years of work, thousands of hours of editing, an entire community; gone, irrecoverable, erased.
["They weren't even for recent videos."] DJ explained, rubbing the back of his neck. ["They were for reaction and review videos I did three, almost four years ago. Two different studios had retroactively decided that me pausing a trailer to analyze a frame was 'infringement.' I was one strike away from losing everything. I panicked and completely froze. If I uploaded anything new, if a bot flagged even three seconds of audio, my channel was dead. So... I went silent."]
@Cap_Obvious: TWO STRIKES?! On 4-year-old trailer reactions?! MeTube's copyright system is an absolute joke. Six years of work could have vanished because a bot felt spicy.
@JusticeForDJ: Imagine being a guy in a bedroom with a mic getting bullied by multi-billion dollar corporate lawyers over a paused frame. Disgusting behavior.
His audience was obviously angry about it, and the speculation started immediately. Who might it be? Which studios? The big names popped up sequentially in the scrolling chat.
@StudioWatcher: Wait, he said two different studios. Time to play detective. Who are the culprits? 🕵️♂️
@ReviewRiot: Vista Crown's International? 👑 They strike everything. Apollo Pictures? 🏛️ Whitebridge Studios? 🌉 Pixy Studio? 🧚♀️ Or even Red Studios and LIE studios?
@Response_Bot: Definitely Vista Crown. They'd copyright strike their own shadow if they could.
@FilmNerd: Don't count out Apollo. They've been on a warpath lately with independent reviewers.
Looking at all this, DJ didn't clarify it, he looked directly into the lens.
["I didn't know what to do. I am just a guy in a bedroom with a microphone. I can't fight corporate lawyers. I felt completely clueless and, honestly, terrified. My entire livelihood was about to vanish."]
DJ paused, taking a sip from his familiar coffee mug to steady himself.
["But then I remembered I had a contact, a direct line to a particular studio I had spoken with a few times before, though I am sorry, I can't name them."]
….
Simon watched the video playing on Regal's monitor, recalling the frantic, late-night direct message he had received from DJ four weeks ago. It had been desperate.
["I had nowhere else to go."] DJ continued on the screen. ["I sent a message, fully expecting to be ignored. I mean, why would the studio behind multiple Billion dollar films care about a MeTuber getting bullied by copyright bots from other companies?"]
DJ shook his head, a genuine look of awe washing over his face.
["Less than an hour later, I got a response, and not just some generic 'we will look into it' reply either. They actually listened, asked what steps I'd already taken, and then… they stepped in themselves."]
DJ leaned forward, his voice thick with emotion and disbelief. His comment section now was completely wild.
@BlockbusterBrain: Hold on... DJ sent a blind DM to a massive studio and they responded in under an hour? With a literal task force of corporate lawyers?! Who is this mythical entity?
@Fanatic: "A studio behind multiple billion-dollar films..." Wait. "A" Studios? Simon? Regal? Guys... IT'S REGAL/LIE STUDIOS. It has to be! 🤯🤯🤯
["Guys, they literally hired a team of professional IP lawyers to represent me completely free of charge. They contacted the MeTube executive team on my behalf and then reached out directly to the studios responsible for the strikes on my channel."]
But it was pretty clear what studios DJ was referring to. The communication section was currently losing its mind as DJ spoke.
@LegallyBlind: Imagine being the copyright trolls at those other studios receiving a legal cease-and-desist from the biggest studio in the industry on behalf of a MeTuber. The absolute panic they must have felt!
["The legal team argued that reaction content and critical analysis fall under Fair Use. They explained that creators like me aren't stealing content, we're generating word-of-mouth marketing by sharing our passion for these films, which directly leads to more people buying tickets. They even presented analytics to back it up."]
@FairUseWarrior:"Creators aren't stealing content, we're generating word-of-mouth marketing." FINALLY A STUDIO SAYS IT OUT LOUD. Put that on a t-shirt!
DJ smiled, a bright, victorious grin breaking through the exhaustion.
["Finaly as you can see my channel is safe."]
But DJ held up a finger.
["But that's not even the craziest part. The studio didn't stop at saving my channel. They recognized the entire system was broken, so for the past three weeks the executive team has been lobbying MeTube and several major Hollywood studios to create a brand-new platform-wide policy, basically a unified Fair Use framework for reaction and review content."]
DJ stared directly into the camera, letting the weight of the statement settle before continuing.
@IndustryInsider: Wait, lobbying MeTube for a unified Fair Use framework platform-wide?! This doesn't just save DJ, this saves every single movie commentary channel on the internet. This is history in the making.
@GigaChadStudio: Whoever is running "A" Studios right now deserves a statue. They aren't just playing the game, they are changing the whole ecosystem for creators. Massive respect.
["Because of that, creators on this platform could finally have real protection moving forward. People won't have to live in fear of losing their entire channel just because they reacted to a trailer or shared an opinion on a movie."]
DJ let out a long, shaky breath before leaning back slightly in his chair.
["I have always said these studios, and especially the people leading them, were changing the environment around this industry. I just never realized that change would end up protecting creators like us too. So to everyone involved in this fight… thank you. Honestly, I owe you everything."]
Then, as if realizing he had ended on a note far too emotional for his usual style, he cleared his throat and slipped back into familiar territory.
["Oh, and before I go… I heard the John Wick trailer is supposed to drop in a couple of weeks, so make sure you're subscribed if you want to see my theories once it's out."]
@MemeLord:DJ: "I owe them my life, the industry is changing, thank you all..." 🥺😭 Also DJ 5 seconds later: "Anyway, John Wick trailer drops soon, subscribe for theories, peace out!" ✌️🚗💨 Never change, man. Never change.
@WickFan: The king is back. The strikes are gone, the channel is safe, and we get John Wick theories. Best Thursday ever. Peace out! 👑🔥
….
Regal leaned back in his chair, folding his arms.
"The new Fair Use policy was officially ratified by MeTube this morning." Simon said quietly. "It goes into effect globally tomorrow. The internet is treating 'the one' backed DJ like some kind of digital crusader."
Regal looked out the floor-to-ceiling windows of his office.
When Simon had brought him DJ's desperate message a month ago, Regal hadn't hesitated. It wasn't just about saving a useful PR asset; it was about the fundamental principle of the modern entertainment ecosystem.
In his past life, Regal had watched archaic copyright laws crush independent creators, stifling the very communities that kept films alive in the public consciousness.
Studios would wage war on YouTubers, entirely blind to the fact that those creators were providing millions of dollars in free, organic marketing.
Regal wasn't going to let that happen in this world.
He didn't just want to make movies, but to cultivate a world where the conversation around those movies could thrive without fear of corporate retaliation.
"Let them talk." Regal said softly. "The old studios want to control the audience. They want to dictate how people consume media. We just proved that if you protect the audience, if you protect the creators... they will build your empire for you."
Simon nodded, looking at his tablet as the social media metrics began to skyrocket.
"Draft a brief press release confirming our involvement with the new MeTube Fair Use policy." Regal instructed. "Keep it professional. We champion free speech and the transformative nature of fan engagement. That's all we need to say."
"On it." Simon said.
….
.
[To be continued…]
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