Prequel Sequel
“Yeah, so he’s not a magician anymore.” The bigger man looks at your sketchbook, at the yellow tooth man with the snake emerging from his chest you’ve drawn. “Your guy doesn’t scream scary,” he says. “He definitely screams something, like woah, he is screaming, but he’s not exactly striking fear.” The man you've drawn has his foot on a diamond and has a third eye over his crotch. "The crotch eye thing is problematic -"
“Right, so we’re moving this to the mountains.”
“Oh right, to like India or something.”
"So still," he makes an air quote with two fingers, "dark arts."
"But, now more - Eastern."
“We’re still using the snakes,” the little guy says tentatively, gut checking the bigger guy.
“The snakes are a must have,” the big guy practically shouts.
“We totally want the snakes,” the little guy reiterates now, more confidently.
“But think he's more in a body wrap, or robe. But, not a suit.”
“Because of the Nazis.”
“Yes, we don’t want him to fight Nazis anymore.” They pause, hunched over your work looking at you.
“So," the little guy starts to move his hands back and forth like he's passing a basketball between them, "it’s more of a prequel now. In India. Get it?”
You don’t get it. You must look confused to them. He fought Nazis in the first movie, but he isn’t now, but that doesn’t help you come up with who he is fighting now, or what he looks like.
“Those are the notes.”
“The notes from the big guys.”
“Sorry,” you interrupt the men talking. “So, what is the direction?”
“Lose the purple robe, and the diamond, and the magic hat.”
"And the third eye."
“Keep the bunny, though, that’s good for the dinner scene. They’re gonna eat so many weird things at the dinner scene.”
“But he’s not there.”
“Right, right, right. He’s not at the dinner scene.”
“Indy is not at the dinner scene?” you ask, wondering who the he they're referring to is.
“Oh no, the villain. We’re talking about the villain. You’re not coming up with Indy.”
“We have Indy.”
“Obviously we have Indy. It’s just the villain isn’t there.”
"Right," you say, sort of understanding this confusion, "where is he?"
“In his volcano or whatever.”
“So… he’s sort of a dark.”
“We don’t want to say dark.”
“Well he’s not pale.”
“No. Not pale. You’ve gone too pale here.” He circles your drawing's hands and face to indicate these are the areas in which you've gone too pale.
“He’s Indian.”
“We can say Indian.”
“He’s like a fiery god.”
“He rips hearts out of chests.”
“It is awesome!”
"Very cool the way he takes hearts."
“So maybe he’s in a robe, but like a skirt, like with his chest exposed.”
“And fiery eyes.”
“Yeah, and a head wrap or something.”
“Yes, a head wrap or something.”
“Can you see him?”
You cannot. “I’m just a little confused,” you say. "So, before he fought Nazis and was an archeologist and now he’s fighting a volcano god?"
“Oh, this is a prequel, it’s before the Nazis. But, yeah, he’s still in search of an artifact.”
“Yeah, he’s still an artifact hunter. There's a whole thing about artifacts.”
“Just, that now… he’s helping a village of kids out of slavery from our volcano guy.”
“Yeah, like from an underground temple of dread.”
“That is probably what we’ll call it.”
“Sounds awesome, right? Underground Temple of Dread."
“Can you have it to us by Thursday?”
"Thursday would be great."
They stare at you waiting. You realize the meeting is over. You look at what you’ve drawn, and you think of what they’ve asked for. You stand and say, “Sure, heart stealing fire god. Got it.” Because what else are you going to say. This is your big break.