The Maker: Hollywood

The drop happened at exactly noon on a Tuesday.

There was no accompanying press release. There was no carefully worded synopsis explaining the plot, the setting, or the characters. The official Miller Studios social media accounts simply posted a single image file across all platforms, completely devoid of a caption or a release date.

It took roughly ten minutes for the internet to realize what they were looking at. When they did, the reaction wasn’t just a wave of excitement. It was a complete, structural collapse of the entertainment news cycle.

The poster was a violent, unapologetic assault on traditional Hollywood marketing.

It wasn’t a heavily photoshopped, floating-head collage. It didn’t feature dramatic, moody lighting or sparks flying in the background. It was a piece of pure, stylized pop art. The entire layout was divided into distinct, neon-bordered panels, mimicking the structure of a graphic novel page. The artwork itself was heavy vector illustration—thick black outlines, flat but incredibly vibrant colors, and aggressive shading that gave it a distinctly retro, almost sleazy vibe.

In the top left panel, an illustrated Al Pacino stood against a hot pink background. He was wearing the cyan palm-tree shirt from the paparazzi leaks, holding a MAC-10 submachine gun casually against his shoulder, his eyes hidden behind dark aviator sunglasses.

In the top right panel, an illustrated Jamie Foxx leaned smoothly against the hood of a white Ferrari Testarossa, flashing a brilliant, arrogant smile.

The bottom panels featured Sharon Stone blowing a massive, translucent pink bubblegum bubble, and Robert De Niro slamming a fist down on a mahogany desk, his face contorted in illustrated, vein-popping rage.

And sitting dead center, anchoring the entire layout in a slick, cursive, hot pink neon font, was the title:

VICE CITY

Within an hour, the image had been retweeted, shared, and reposted millions of times. The sheer aesthetic shock of the vector art completely rewired the public’s expectations. They had spent months assuming Daniel Miller was going to make a massive, serious sci-fi epic, or perhaps a grounded historical drama.

Instead, he was throwing Al Pacino into a neon-drenched, 1980s fever dream.

By mid-afternoon, the major industry trades were scrambling to publish thought pieces, trying to interpret a movie that literally nobody had a script for.

VARIETY: Miller Studios Goes Pop-Art: The ’Vice City’ Poster Breaks Every Hollywood Marketing Rule.

IGN: Is ’Vice City’ an Unannounced Comic Book Adaptation? Analyzing the Easter Eggs in Daniel Miller’s New Poster.

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER: Neon, Guns, and Pacino: Why the Vector Art Poster for Vice City is a Stroke of Genius.

On Reddit, the r/movies megathread had to be locked and restarted twice because the sheer volume of traffic was crashing the server hosting the images. The fans were aggressively tearing the poster apart pixel by pixel.

u/FilmJunkie99: bro the artwork is insane. pacino with a mac-10 in vector art looks so cold. i literally want this framed on my living room wall right now.

u/NeonDreams: Why is it drawn like a comic book? Did Miller buy the rights to some underground 80s graphic novel nobody knows about? Or is it an original script just using the aesthetic?

u/CineSnob: look at de niro in the bottom corner. pacino and de niro in the same movie? set in the 80s? daniel miller is basically printing his own money at this point.

u/MiamiViceGuy: i honestly don’t even care what the plot is. if the movie looks even half as stylish as this poster, it’s going to make a billion dollars. the cyan shirt goes ridiculously hard.

u/RandomDude44: Is nobody going to talk about the fact that they just dropped this with zero context? No release date, no trailer, no press tour. Idk what kinda poster release is that.

The buzz was deafening, organic, and entirely free. Daniel had thrown a single match into a room full of gasoline, and the internet was happily burning the house down for him.

---

Sunday afternoon up in the Bel Air hills was completely disconnected from the digital hysteria.

The heavy iron security gates at the bottom of the driveway kept the paparazzi out, and the thick, manicured trees lining the property absorbed the distant hum of Los Angeles traffic. It was a rare, mandatory day off for the core crew. No production emails, no script revisions, and absolutely no talk about box office projections.

Inside the massive, open-concept kitchen of the villa, it was pure, unadulterated chaos.

They had decided, entirely on a whim, to attempt an authentic Indian food day. The problem was that none of them actually knew how to cook authentic Indian food. The massive white marble island was currently buried under a layer of all-purpose flour, scattered spice jars, half-chopped onions, and mixing bowls. The air in the house smelled intensely of toasted cumin, burning garlic, and rich garam masala.

Margot Robbie was standing at the end of the island, her blonde hair tied up in a messy bun, a streak of white flour smeared across her left cheek. She was wearing a pair of loose grey sweatpants and one of Florence’s oversized, knitted sweaters that kept slipping off her shoulder. She had both hands buried deep in a massive stainless steel bowl, aggressively kneading a sticky batch of naan dough.

”It’s too sticky,” Margot complained, pulling her hands up. The dough clung to her fingers like glue. ”Florence, it said two cups of water. Did you put two cups in here?”

Florence was standing at the six-burner gas stove, holding a wooden spoon like a weapon. She was wearing a simple black tank top and denim shorts, keeping a watchful eye on a massive, bubbling pot of chicken tikka masala.

”I put exactly two cups,” Florence shot back, using the back of her hand to wipe a bead of sweat from her forehead. The heat radiating off the stove was intense. ”You just have to knead it more. You have weak arms. Punch the dough, Margot.”

”I am punching it,” Margot sighed, driving her knuckles back into the bowl. ”It’s punching me back.”

Daniel was standing next to Florence at the stove, tasked with managing a heavy cast-iron skillet filled with sizzling, heavily spiced potatoes and cauliflower. He reached over, turning the heat down slightly, before grabbing a small handful of fresh cilantro from a cutting board and tossing it into the pan.

Sitting safely out of the blast radius, occupying a leather stool on the far side of the island, was Stan Lee.

He was wearing his signature tinted glasses, a casual polo shirt, and holding a tall glass of iced tea. He had a newspaper spread out on the clean corner of the marble, but he wasn’t reading it. He was actively enjoying the disaster unfolding in front of him.

”I survived the Great Depression,” Stan noted casually, taking a slow sip of his tea. ”I survived a world war. But I’m fairly certain this chicken is what’s finally going to take me out.”

”Have some faith, Stan,” Daniel laughed, shaking the skillet to flip the potatoes. ”The recipe had five stars online.”

”Yes, but the recipe wasn’t being cooked by three actors pretending to be chefs,” Stan retorted, his raspy voice full of amusement. He pointed a finger at Florence. ”That sauce is separating, kid. You have to lower the heat.”

”It’s not separating, it’s reducing,” Florence argued, though she quickly reached out and twisted the burner dial down a notch anyway.

The heavy front door of the villa clicked open, followed by the sound of footsteps in the entryway.

”Smells like a restaurant in here!” Tom Wiley’s voice called out.

Tom walked into the kitchen carrying a cardboard six-pack of imported beer. His girlfriend, Sarah, walked in right behind him, holding a large, bakery-tied box containing a chocolate cake.

”Don’t encourage them,” Stan warned Tom, not looking up from his iced tea. ”They’ve been throwing spices into those pots for two hours. It’s chemical warfare.”

”We’re making history, Tom,” Daniel smiled, walking over to grab two beers from the cardboard carrier. He twisted the caps off, handed one to Tom, and took a drink of his own.

”I brought dessert,” Sarah announced, setting the cake box down on a safe, flour-free zone of the counter. She looked at Margot, whose hands were currently cemented inside the dough bowl. ”Do you need help?”

”If you touch this, you will never be clean again,” Margot warned her, pulling a sticky hand up to demonstrate.

Tom leaned against the counter next to Stan, cracking his beer open. He took a long drink, his eyes scanning the kitchen.

Tom was a writer by trade. He observed things. He noticed the micro-expressions, the body language, and the unspoken rhythms between people. He had known Daniel for years, had worked closely with Florence since their very first movie together, and had spent the last several months watching Margot navigate the incredibly heavy, toxic dynamic of Harley Quinn on set.

But watching them right now, in the casual, messy intimacy of a Sunday afternoon, something clicked in Tom’s head.

It wasn’t a sudden, glaring realization. It was a slow accumulation of tiny details.

He watched Daniel step away from the stove to grab a jar of turmeric from the upper cabinet. To do so, Daniel had to reach directly behind Margot. He didn’t ask her to move. He just stepped in close, resting his left hand naturally, familiarly, on the curve of Margot’s waist to steady himself as he reached up with his right hand. Margot didn’t flinch. She leaned back against his chest slightly to give him room, completely unbothered by the contact.

A moment later, Florence stepped away from the simmering curry. She walked over to the island, picked up a clean kitchen towel, and gently wiped the smear of white flour off Margot’s cheek. Florence didn’t just wipe it off; she lingered for a second, resting her chin comfortably on Margot’s shoulder, looking down into the mixing bowl.

”It actually looks like dough now,” Florence murmured, pressing a quick, casual kiss to Margot’s temple before walking back to the stove.

Tom took another slow sip of his beer.

There was no awkwardness. There was no performative affection for an audience, nor was there any attempt to hide it. The physical boundaries between the three of them simply didn’t exist. They occupied the same space seamlessly, like an established, closed circuit.

Sarah, standing next to Tom, noticed it too. She elbowed Tom lightly in the ribs, offering him a very subtle, raised-eyebrow look. Tom just gave her a microscopic nod, confirming he was seeing the exact same thing.

Forty-five minutes later, by some minor culinary miracle, the food was actually edible.

They moved the feast out to the back patio. The late afternoon California sun was warm, casting a golden glow over the infinity pool and the sprawling hills of Bel Air. They sat around a large teakwood outdoor dining table, passing bowls of steaming rice, rich chicken tikka masala, and slightly misshapen but perfectly charred naan bread and a vegetarian dish called Aloo Gobhi.

”Okay, I take it back,” Stan admitted, tearing a piece of naan and using it to scoop up some curry. ”This is actually fantastic. You didn’t poison me.”

”Told you,” Daniel smiled, sitting back in his chair with a fresh beer.

The conversation flowed easily, bouncing between ridiculous stories from the Vice City set, Stan complaining about the traffic on the 405 freeway, and Sarah gossipping about Dante Ferretti overworking Sam to death.

As the meal started winding down and the plates were pushed aside, Tom leaned his elbows on the table. The beer had loosened him up just enough to bypass his usual professional filter. He looked at Daniel, who was sitting next to Florence, his arm resting casually across the back of her chair. Margot was sitting on Daniel’s other side, her legs pulled up into her chair, her knee resting comfortably against his thigh.

”Okay,” Tom said, gesturing vaguely across the table with his beer bottle. ”I’m going crazy. I have to ask.”

Daniel looked at him, raising an eyebrow. ”Ask what?”

”This,” Tom said, drawing an invisible circle in the air that encompassed Daniel, Florence, and Margot. He didn’t sound judgmental, just incredibly, deeply curious. ”The kitchen. The patio. You guys. What exactly is happening here?”

The table went quiet for a second.

Daniel didn’t panic. He didn’t look at Florence or Margot for permission, and he certainly didn’t try to pull Tom aside into a private room to whisper a confession.

Daniel took a sip of his beer, set the bottle down on the teakwood table, and looked Tom dead in the eye.

”We’re together, Tom,” Daniel said simply.

He didn’t elaborate. He didn’t offer a grand, philosophical explanation about non-traditional relationships or the pressures of Hollywood isolation. He just stated it as a basic, undeniable fact, using a tone of voice usually reserved for telling someone what day of the week it was.

Tom just stared at him, his mouth actually dropping open a fraction of an inch. He looked at Florence. She was smiling, taking a bite of her naan. He looked at Margot. She was completely relaxed, looking entirely unbothered by the sudden spotlight.

Sitting at the head of the table, Stan Lee let out a sudden, raspy, genuine bark of laughter.

Stan set his iced tea down, shaking his head slowly, a massive grin on his weathered face. He looked at Daniel, then looked at the two stunning, world-famous actresses sitting on either side of him.

”I’ll be damned,” Stan chuckled, wiping his mouth with a napkin. ”I didn’t know my godson was such a player. Good for you, kid.”

Margot burst out laughing, burying her face in her hands, while Florence reached over and affectionately flicked a piece of rice at Stan.

”It’s too complicated to explain over a dinner, Stan,” Daniel smiled, highly amused by the older man’s reaction. ”Just trust that we’re all happy.”

”Hey, I don’t need an explanation,” Stan shrugged casually, leaning back in his chair and looking out at the pool. ”You take care of each other, you keep the drama out of the house, and you enjoy your lives. At the end of the day, kid, that is literally the only thing that matters in this world. The rest is just noise.”

Tom was still trying to process the logistics of it. He was a writer; his brain naturally tried to dissect the conflict in any situation. Two massive A-list actresses and a billionaire director making a triad work in the middle of the most toxic, gossip-driven industry on the planet. It sounded like a recipe for a complete nuclear meltdown.

But as Tom watched them for the next hour, sitting around the patio in the fading sunlight, the shock entirely faded.

There was zero toxicity. There was no subtle jockeying for attention, no hidden jealousy, no quiet resentment. When Daniel got up to go inside for more drinks, Florence and Margot seamlessly continued a conversation with Sarah, leaning into each other, laughing loudly at a joke. They were anchored. It was, without a doubt, the healthiest, most grounded dynamic Tom had ever seen Daniel in.

Later in the afternoon, the group had migrated to the large, plush outdoor sofas situated around a sleek, modern fire pit.

The sun had finally dipped below the hills, and the cool California evening air was settling in. The fire pit cast a warm, flickering orange glow over the patio.

Tom was sitting next to Sarah on a loveseat. Daniel, Florence, and Margot were sprawled across the massive sectional opposite them, engaged in a highly competitive debate with Stan about the best mob movie ever made.

Tom, feeling a little bold after his third beer, leaned over. He rested his arm behind Sarah on the cushions and lowered his voice so only she could hear him.

”You know,” Tom whispered, a teasing, purely joking smirk on his face as he looked at the triad across the fire pit. ”Maybe we could... try something like that. Open things up a little bit.”

Sarah completely stopped what she was doing. She didn’t laugh. She didn’t smile.

She slowly turned her head, locking eyes with Tom. The glare she hit him with was terrifying, deadpan, and completely devoid of humor.

”Don’t even finish that sentence, Tom,” Sarah said, her voice perfectly flat. ”You are not Daniel Miller.”

Tom opened his mouth to defend his joke, but Sarah wasn’t finished.

She took a slow, casual sip of her wine, keeping her eyes locked on his.

”Besides,” Sarah added, her tone shifting to something dangerously casual. ”If we open this relationship up, I’m bringing another guy in. Not a girl. I’ve had my eye on the guy who cleans the pool at the gym. He has fantastic shoulders.”

Tom’s eyes went wide. His ego instantly slammed into a brick wall. The smirk vanished from his face as the theoretical tables were violently turned on him.

”Whoa, hey, okay, no,” Tom immediately backpedaled, waving his hands in front of his chest, completely dropping the idea. ”I was kidding. It was a joke. I love our dynamic. We are perfectly fine as a duo. Let’s close the borders.”

From across the fire pit, Daniel, Florence, and Margot, who had absolutely heard the entire exchange, burst into genuine, loud laughter.

”She got you, Tom,” Daniel called out, leaning forward to stoke the gas fire. ”You walked right into that one.”

”I flew too close to the sun,” Tom muttered, taking a long, defeated drink of his beer while Sarah patted his knee affectionately.

The patio was filled with the sound of laughter, the crackle of the fire, and the comfortable, easy warmth of genuine connection. For a few hours, the massive weight of the studio, the leaked posters, and the billion-dollar box office numbers simply ceased to exist.

---

The relaxing, domestic sanctuary of the weekend evaporated the second Daniel stepped onto the San Fernando Valley backlot on Monday night.

The air was humid, heavy, and smelled like fresh paint and ozone.

They were shooting inside Soundstage Four, and the production design team had completely outdone themselves. They had built the interior of Ricardo Diaz’s mansion.

It was a masterclass in aggressive, 1980s drug-cartel opulence.

The set was massive, featuring sweeping, double-sided marble staircases leading up to a sprawling second-floor balcony. The floors were polished white tile. Gaudy, incredibly expensive gold-framed portraits of Renaissance battles hung on the walls. Massive, imported crystal chandeliers hung from the lighting grid above, casting harsh, brilliant light over the room. Real tiger-skin rugs were thrown carelessly over the marble.

In the center of the main floor sat a massive, circular leather couch, wrapped around an oversized glass coffee table. The table was currently covered in several prop assault rifles, scattered stacks of hundred-dollar bills, and a massive, terrifyingly large mountain of fake cocaine.

Daniel stood behind the video village monitors, looking at the framing.

”Alright, bring Elias out,” Daniel called to his assistant director.

Elias Thorne walked onto the set.

A few months ago, Elias had played the dignified, terrified judge who had his face sliced open by Daniel in Joker. He had been quiet, restrained, and paralyzed by fear.

Now, Elias Thorne was playing Ricardo Diaz, the most explosive, paranoid, and violently unpredictable drug lord in Vice City.

The wardrobe department had dressed him in an incredibly loud, unbuttoned, burnt-orange silk shirt that exposed a chest full of thick gold chains. His hair was slicked back, but it looked messy, as if he had been running his hands through it all day. Makeup had applied a heavy layer of sweat to his face and dusted the very tip of his nose with a faint trace of white powder.

Elias stepped into the center of the room, rolling his shoulders, shaking his hands out, trying to physically build the manic energy the character required.

Al Pacino and Jamie Foxx walked onto the set a moment later. They hit their tape marks near the heavy wooden entrance doors.

”Let’s talk about the dynamic here,” Daniel said, walking onto the floor. He pointed to Elias. ”Ricardo is the king of this city, but he’s a king who hasn’t slept in three days. He is fueled entirely by cocaine and paranoia. He trusts absolutely no one. He has more money than God, but he’s miserable because he thinks everyone is trying to steal it.”

Daniel turned to Pacino and Foxx. ”Tommy and Lance are being brought into the mansion for the first time. Lance, you are trying to play it cool. You want to impress Diaz. You want the contract. Tommy, you are walking into this room and instantly diagnosing the guy. You see the gold, you see the guns, but mostly, you see a rabid dog that eventually needs to be put down. You aren’t intimidated. You are just observing.”

”Got it,” Pacino said quietly, slipping his hands into the pockets of his stonewash jeans.

Daniel walked back to the monitors. ”Let’s shoot the rehearsal. Bob, keep the camera low, shooting up at Diaz to make him look imposing, but keep the framing slightly tilted to make the room feel off-balance.”

The crew settled into position. The soundstage went dead quiet.

”Roll sound. Roll camera. Action.”

The heavy double doors pushed open, and two stuntmen playing cartel guards escorted Pacino and Foxx into the massive room.

Elias Thorne was standing near a massive, bulky 1980s television set built into a custom mahogany cabinet.

He didn’t turn around to greet them.

”You know what this is?” Elias screamed, his voice raw and echoing off the fake marble walls. He wasn’t talking to them; he was yelling at the television. He picked up a heavy, solid-brass paperweight from a nearby desk and violently hurled it at the screen.

The prop glass shattered with a loud crash, raining down onto the floor.

”It’s a piece of shit!” Elias roared, kicking the wooden cabinet. He spun around to face the room, his eyes wide, completely unhinged. ”Three thousand dollars for a VCR, and it eats my favorite tape! It eats it! Everything in this country is garbage! Everyone is trying to rip me off!”

Jamie Foxx swallowed hard, stepping forward slightly, raising his hands in a calming gesture. He played the slick, smooth-talking middleman perfectly.

”Mr. Diaz,” Foxx said, his voice buttery but laced with genuine caution. ”Lance Vance. This is my associate, Tommy Vercetti. We appreciate you taking the meeting. We heard you had a problem with a local distributor, and we are in the business of solving problems.”

Elias stopped breathing heavily. He wiped the back of his hand across his sweaty upper lip, staring at Foxx for a long, uncomfortable moment. Then, his eyes snapped to Pacino.

Pacino hadn’t moved. He hadn’t flinched when the glass shattered. He was just standing there, his head tilted slightly, watching Elias with the cold, detached interest of a scientist observing a rat in a maze.

Elias walked slowly toward them, his chest heaving, stopping just a few feet away from Pacino.

”I know who you are,” Elias said, his voice dropping into a paranoid, dangerous whisper. He pointed a shaking finger at Pacino’s chest. ”You’re the guy from up north. The butcher. You think because you survived fifteen years in a box, you can come down to my city and tell me how to handle my business? You think I need you?”

Pacino didn’t back up. He didn’t blink.

”I think,” Pacino said, his voice a low, terrifyingly calm rumble that completely anchored the chaotic energy of the massive room, ”you need a new VCR, Ricardo. And I think you need people around you who don’t flinch when a gun goes off. You have a lot of money sitting on that table. But you look very tired trying to protect it.”

Pacino held the eye contact, letting the silence stretch out, challenging the drug lord in his own home.

”Cut!” Daniel yelled, a massive smile breaking across his face.

The entire crew let out a breath. The energy on the set was absolutely electric.

”That is exactly it,” Daniel called out, walking rapidly back onto the set. ”Elias, the manic energy is perfect. The sudden shift to the whisper is terrifying. Al, you are a brick wall. Do not change a single thing. Let’s reset the glass on the TV and shoot this for real.”

As the prop department rushed in to sweep up the broken glass and reset the massive television, Daniel stood in the center of the opulent, gaudy mansion.

-----

A/N: Read ahead on Patreon: /AmaanS

P.S. Got a blood test today. Prayge.