….
Next Day | Morning.
BUZZ–!
BUZZ–!
Regal's phone began vibrating at an ungodly hour.
It wasn't the polite, quiet buzz of a regular text message. It was the insistent, rattling violence of back-to-back calls.
Beside him, Gwendolyn stirred slightly under the sheets, her arm tightening around his waist for a second before she loosened her grip and blinked awake.
Regal grabbed the phone from the nightstand, still half-asleep, and saw Darren's name flashing across the screen–
"This better be good, Darren."
["I wish it were, but no."] Darren's voice was tight. ["We have a problem. A clip leaked from yesterday."]
!!Regal sat up immediately, and Gwondolyn had a similar reaction.
"What clip?"
["Stephen Sr.'s final scene."] Darren replied. ["About five seconds of it. Someone recorded it on their phone. It is already spreading on Twitter and Reddit. I am sending you the link now."]
The text arrived.
Regal opened it.
The video quality was poor - clearly shot on a phone from behind the monitors, shaky and poorly framed. But it was unmistakable:
Stephen Hawking Sr. in full Jonathan Kent costume, drenched and mud-stained, his face showing that devastating final look before the car struck him.
Five seconds.
That was the extent of the footage.
But it was enough.
"Fuck!" Regal said quietly - finally seeing the wary feeling come true.
On the bed, Gwendolyn also leaned closer to see the screen without asking for permission, her eyes narrowing at the grainy clip. Before Regal even finished processing her movement, she reached for her own phone on the nightstand.
["Yeah."] Darren's voice was grim on the call. ["It's been up for three hours and it already has two hundred thousand views and climbing. The entertainment news sites picked it up twenty minutes ago."]
All those meticulous preparations:
The small, highly trusted small crews. The stringent NDAs(Non-Disclosure Agreements) signed in triplicate by every single person. The careful control over who had access to which piece of footage.
None of it mattered anymore.
Someone had slipped their phone past security, recorded a monitor during playback, and uploaded it online before anyone could stop them.
While Regal rubbed his forehead, thinking, Gwendolyn got busy.
She began searching hashtags, checking trending tabs, hopping between Reddit threads, scraping every corner of social media for context, names, timestamps, any trace of where the leak originated.
Regal stood, pulling on clothes–
"I am calling an emergency meeting. Get everyone to the production office in thirty minutes. Legal, security, Samantha, Simon, and the core crew leads."
["Already setting it up, Regal."] Darren replied instantly.
"And Darren? Do not release any statement yet. Nothing confirming, nothing denying. Absolute silence until we figure out our play and know who did this."
["Got it."]
Regal hung up.
Gwendolyn didn't look up from her phone. "It's spreading faster than you think."
She said quietly, already scrolling. "Four separate uploads on Twitter alone. Reddit threads in two subreddits. And—"
She paused as a new notification popped up. "—entertainment blogs are starting to call it 'Stephen's emotional last day.' They are treating it like it's confirmed."
Regal exhaled sharply.
She finally looked up at him. "Go. I will keep monitoring everything. If the traffic spikes, you will know before you reach the office."
He nodded. They didn't need more words than that.
Within the hour, the footage had passed through movie forums, Metube, Subreddits, Facebook groups, news channels - transforming from a five-second pixelated leak into a wildfire.
….
| MovieBuff1994: IT'S CONFIRMED. STEPHEN HAWKING IS ACTING AGAIN. I'M LOSING MY MIND.
| CynicalCoyote: Yeah. Let's not forget we have had THREE fake "Hawking returns" videos in the last decade alone. I am not saying this IS fake, but I am also not believing anything until there's official confirmation from the studio or Hawking himself.
| BlueScreenSoul: Bro… the lighting, the camera grain, the set. This isn't fake. This is legit studio footage.
….
@FilmTheoryHQ: "If this is real, it's the biggest casting news of the year. Period."
@NotBuyingIt: "If the studio had Hawking, why wouldn't they announce it? Free hype. Something's off."
@GracieWrites: "Because maybe… he wanted privacy? Ever thought of that?"
….
Facebook.
u/GenZCinephile: Okay but like, genuinely asking? Is he THAT big of a deal? I have heard the name but never actually seen his films. (Don't come at me, I am 19.)
u/OldHollywoodFan: Imagine if all kinds of acting talents were combined into one actor who had been working since before your parents were born. That's Stephen Hawking Sr. He is not just an actor. He is a living institution.
u/GenZCinephile: Holy shit, okay. I just watched some clips on MeTube. THAT'S the same guy?? He looks so old now but the performances are... yeah, I get it now.
u/VFX_Artist_LA: Working in the industry, I can tell you this: the fact that footage leaked AT ALL means security on that set was compromised. That's a MASSIVE failure. Someone's getting sued into oblivion, and honestly? They deserve it.
| You don't leak footage from a production. Ever. Doesn't matter if it's five seconds or five minutes. That's someone's artistic vision being released without consent. It's theft.
u/FreedomOfInformation: Oh please. It's just a movie. People have a right to know what they're paying for.
u/VFX_Artist_LA: No, people have a right to see what the FILMMAKERS choose to show them, when they choose to show it. You don't have a "right" to stolen property just because it's digital.
u/ActualLawyer_Verified: As an entertainment lawyer: this. Whoever leaked this violated their NDA and likely several other contractual obligations. This is a slam-dunk lawsuit. They're finished in this industry.
….
.
[Back to Regal]
The conference room was packed with grim-faced professionals.
Regal stood at the head of the table, the leaked clip playing on loop on the projection screen behind him.
"First things first." Regal's voice was cold. "Legal, what are our options?"
The production's head lawyer, looked exhausted–
"We are pursuing DMCA takedowns on every platform we can identify. But realistically? The clip is out there. It's being re-uploaded faster than we can take it down. This is the Streisand effect in action - the harder we fight, the more attention we draw."
"What about the source?"
"We are reviewing security footage and cross-referencing phone activity during yesterday's shoot. Whoever did this was smart enough to disable location services, but we have narrowed it down to approximately fifteen people who had sight lines to the monitors at the time of recording."
"Narrow it further." Regal's tone left absolutely no room for argument. "And when you find them, I want maximum legal action. Breach of NDA, theft of intellectual property, whatever sticks most effectively."
Patricia, head of security, spoke up. "We are implementing new protocols immediately. No electrical devices on set, period. Anyone who absolutely needs their phone for work gets a production-provided device with meticulously locked-down camera functions. We are setting up multiple security checkpoints at every single entry point to the shooting area."
"Do it." Regal turned to Samantha. "What's the media saying?"
Samantha pulled up her tablet, reading from multiple sources with barely concealed disgust. "It's everywhere. Variety, Hollywood Reporter, Deadline - all running with some version of 'Stephen Hawking Sr. Returns From Retirement For Superman.'"
"They are not showing restraint whatsoever." Samantha's voice carried disgust. "Entertainment Tonight ran a segment this morning. TMZ has it as their lead story. They're not even pretending to care about spoilers, just milking the controversy for clicks."
"Expected." Regal said.
….
Media.
Headline:
STEPHEN HAWKING RETURNS TO CINEMA — EXCLUSIVE FIRST LOOK AT SECRET ROLE
….
Small Film Blog - "Ethics in Cinema"
Posted by Alexandra Chen - 47 views
Title: "The Superman Leak and What It Says About Modern Media"
"Whether the Stephen Hawking footage is real or fake is almost beside the point. What matters is how entertainment media has responded: with zero ethical consideration for spoilers, artistic intent, or audience experience.
Every major outlet has embedded the clip, analyzed potential plot points, and speculated endlessly - all without asking: 'Should we be doing this?'
The leak itself may have been wrong. But the media amplification is worse. They've turned one person's NDA violation into an industry-wide spoiler campaign, all in service of clicks and engagement metrics.
When did we decide that breaking news was more important than respecting art?"
.
….
[To be continued…]
★─────⇌•★•⇋─────★
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