The desert stretched beneath an enormous blue sky, the sand shifting between pale gold, burnt orange, and deep red depending on where the sunlight struck it. In some directions, the land appeared almost perfectly flat, only for immense sandstone walls to rise abruptly from the earth miles ahead. Dunes rolled across everything else, one after another, their ridges carved smooth by the wind.
Matt stood well away from the production trucks and temporary camp that had been built for Dune.
Daniel had come to Jordan to check on the production and spend a few days with the cast and crew. Matt had come because he needed somewhere else to be.
His girlfriend Jessica had called it a creative break. He had been struggling to draw anything he actually liked for weeks, staring at unfinished pages until frustration eventually replaced whatever inspiration had brought him to the desk in the first place. When Jessica suggested he go somewhere new for a few days, Daniel's trip to Jordan had seemed convenient.
Now, with his camera hanging around his neck and a sketchbook beneath one arm, Matt understood what she had meant.
Every direction offered something different.
He photographed the long shadows cast by the dunes and the strange shapes carved into distant cliffs. Sometimes he stopped entirely, sat in the sand, and sketched whatever caught his attention.
A distant rock formation became a ruined fortress.
The lines of the dunes became the ruins of a city swallowed by the desert.
For the first time in weeks, ideas came easily.
So Matt kept walking.
Whenever something caught his attention farther ahead, he went toward it. Another dune. Another ridge. Another view that seemed better than the last.
He had no idea how long he had been doing it before something finally bothered him.
The silence.
Matt lowered his camera.
He could hear the wind moving over the sand.
Nothing else.
Matt turned around and the production camp was gone.
For a moment, he wasn't particularly concerned. He had walked down the far side of a large dune without noticing it. The camp was probably directly behind it.
He started climbing.
The slope was steeper than it had looked from below. His shoes sank into loose sand with every step, forcing him to work twice as hard for half the distance. By the time he reached the top, he was breathing heavily.
Matt straightened and looked ahead.
More dunes.
He turned left.
More dunes.
Right.
More dunes.
Nothing.
"Oh, fuck."
Matt slowly turned in a circle and everything looked the same.
He tried to remember which direction he had approached from, but he had spent the past few hours wandering wherever something interested him. He remembered a sandstone formation. A patch of darker sand. A tall dune.
There were dozens of all three around him.
"Okay."
He pulled out his phone.
No signal.
He checked the compass on his phone, picked the direction he thought led back toward the production, and started walking.
The first hour wasn't frightening.
Annoying, certainly.
Embarrassing too.
Daniel was going to be unbearable when he found out.
Matt could already hear him.
I told you not to wander off.
The second hour was different. He should have been back by now, but the sun was hotter, he was very thirsty, and he was beginning to feel dizzy.
Matt stopped repeatedly to check his phone.
Nothing.
He tried calling anyway.
Nothing.
By the third hour, annoyance had disappeared.
His mouth was even drier. Sweat soaked through his shirt, although the air was so dry that much of it seemed to vanish almost immediately. His legs had begun to ache from climbing through loose sand.
"Come on."
He reached another ridge.
Nothing.
That was when panic properly began.
Matt shouted.
"HEY!"
His voice carried for a surprising distance.
No answer.
"HELLO!"
Nothing.
He walked again.
Hours blurred together.
At some point, the light began to fade, and the temperature dropped.
He fell to the ground and barely slept. When daylight returned, so did the heat. After that, time became difficult to measure. Matt walked when he could.
He rested when he couldn't. Sometimes he thought he heard engines and forced himself over another dune, only to find nothing waiting beyond it. Once, he saw what looked like a line of vehicles moving across the horizon and nearly cried with relief before realizing there was nothing there.
By what he thought might have been the second night, he was dizzy.
By the next day, he wasn't sure.
Two days.
Three.
Maybe less.
Maybe more.
His lips had split. His skin burned everywhere the sun could reach it. His thoughts were all over the place.
At one point, he felt wonderfully cool.
Matt smiled at the sensation before his legs gave out beneath him and he hit the sand hard and lay there staring at the sky.
Night.
It had to be night.
Except the sky was blue.
The heat returned moments later, crushing down on him until even breathing seemed exhausting.
Matt closed his eyes and for the first time, he accepted that he might actually die here.
"I'm so stupid," he muttered.
His voice barely sounded like his own.
He thought about his parents.
Jessica.
His friends.
Then he remembered Daniel and their conversation before they had split up at the camp.
Daniel had pointed toward the open desert.
"Hey, man, don't go wandering off into the desert."
Matt had laughed.
"I'm not stupid."
Daniel had stared at him.
"Matt, you have a tendency to wander off."
"I do not."
"Remember Yellowstone."
"That was different."
"You disappeared for four hours."
"I knew where I was."
"We had park rangers looking for you."
Matt lay in the burning sand as the memory played through his head.
His eyes filled with tears.
"I'm fucking stupid," he whispered.
His voice broke.
"I'm fucking stupid, and I'm going to die."
.
.
.
Five hours ago.
Daniel POV
"Welcome to Arrakis," I said as I stepped out of the car and into the Jordanian desert.
Dune had started filming the previous month, and the production had been in Jordan for four days now.
The heat hit me immediately, and so did the view.
The desert stretched for miles beneath a cloudless blue sky, enormous dunes rising and falling between sandstone formations. Production trucks, temporary tents, camera rigs, and a lot of crew members occupied one section of the landscape, but beyond them there was almost nothing.
It was easy to understand why Denis had wanted to film here, and the man himself was already walking toward me when I approached the main production area.
"Daniel."
Denis Villeneuve smiled and extended his hand.
"Welcome."
I shook it.
"It is beautiful, yes?"
"It is. Hot as hell too, but beautiful."
Denis laughed.
"How's everything going so far? Any problems?"
"No, no. Everything has been good. The weather has cooperated, the equipment is behaving, and we are on schedule."
"Those are dangerous words to say during a film production."
Denis laughed once more as he led me into the camp.
It did not take long before I ran into the cast. Timothée Chalamet and Rebecca Ferguson were already in costume as Paul and Jessica, while Javier Bardem and Zendaya were nearby preparing for the scenes Denis intended to shoot with the Fremen. Crew members moved between them, adjusting costumes, checking equipment, and preparing the cameras for another take.
Everything looked to be in order and, most importantly, the production was on schedule. If everything continued going this smoothly, Dune would be ready for release the following year without any major problems.
Matt stood a short distance away with his camera hanging around his neck.
I walked over.
"So, what do you think? Are those creative juices flowing again, or have you permanently lost the ability to draw?"
"You have to tell me because I need to start looking for a new artist."
Matt looked at me.
"Shut up, Danny."
Then his attention shifted past me.
"Whoa. Look at that."
He pointed toward an enormous sandstone formation jutting out from the desert floor.
Matt immediately raised his camera and took several photographs.
"That's why Jessica told you to come."
"Yeah, yeah."
"I'm serious. We need to finish Invincible soon. We're getting close to the end."
"I'm planning to start developing an animated series for it too, especially now that the Percy Jackson series is getting close to its ending on Netflix," I continued.
That got his attention.
"Oh, wow. I can't believe it's been that long. You know, I remember when we started it, and now it's nearing its end."
I nodded.
Matt looked back toward the landscape.
"Seeing Invincible animated would be incredible."
"I think it'll translate really well."
Matt had already begun wandering toward another dune.
I called after him.
"Hey. Don't go wandering off into the desert."
He laughed.
"I'm not stupid."
I stared at him.
"You have a tendency to wander off, Matt."
"I do not."
"Remember Yellowstone?"
"That was different."
"You disappeared for four hours."
"I knew where I was."
"We had park rangers looking for you."
Matt rolled his eyes.
"Fine. Fine."
"Stay where you can see the production."
"Yes, Dad."
He laughed and continued toward the nearby rock formations while I headed back toward the set.
I spent most of the next two hours watching Denis work.
They were shooting scenes involving Paul and Jessica encountering the Fremen, which meant a great deal of time was spent positioning actors across the dunes, resetting footprints in the sand, adjusting costumes, and waiting for exactly the right light.
Denis was patient.
Very patient.
He would watch a take, sit silently behind the monitors for several seconds, then walk over and give one or two precise adjustments before doing it again.
Nothing seemed rushed.
Between setups, he showed me footage from the previous few days. The material looked incredible.
After another take finished, I checked the time.
"Shit."
I had a meeting.
Dave, Victor, and several members of the DC creative team were supposed to be meeting with me in person, but this trip to Jordan had been scheduled for the same day, so we had agreed that I would join remotely.
One of the production assistants pointed me toward the tent that had been prepared for it.
Inside, someone had transformed the tent into a small conference room. A long table occupied the center, along with a large monitor, speakers, and cameras.
I sat down and accepted the bottle of water someone handed me.
A moment later, the screen came alive.
Dave appeared first.
Then Victor.
Several members of the DC creative team filled the remaining windows.
"Morning," I said.
"For you, maybe," Dave replied. "We had to move this meeting to accommodate you."
I glanced through the open side of the tent at the Jordanian sun blazing across the desert.
"Oh, please. It's what, nine at night there? You'll survive."
The DCU was now building toward Justice League 2. The first phase had established the core heroes. Now we needed to widen the universe, introduce several new characters, and make sure they were in place before the next Justice League film.
And there had been some major issues over the past few months that had changed all of our plans.
Originally, Aquaman 2 was supposed to open in March 2019, followed by World's Finest in May and The Flash 2 in July.
Alan Ritchson's injury during the filming of Aquaman 2 had destroyed that plan.
Most of the film had already been shot when he was injured, but several important sequences still required him. Rather than shut the entire production down, the visual-effects teams and other post-production departments had continued working on everything they already had while Alan recovered.
Filming finally resumed this month and would finish soon.
That meant Aquaman 2 could be completed comfortably for July, but July had originally belonged to The Flash 2.
So we decided to move The Flash 2, and Edgar Wright, who was working on it, had no objections. He rather liked having more time with the movie in post-production.
So the 2019 DC slate was now set.
World's Finest in May.
Aquaman 2 in July.
The Flash 2 in November.
Kevin Feige had been especially pleased when I told him. Our previous scheduling agreement had been built around avoiding unnecessary clashes between major DC and Marvel releases. With Aquaman 2 moving out of March, the agreement concerning Black Panther was effectively void, and Marvel could move it back into the March slot they wanted.
Marvel also had Infinity War coming in April and Ant-Man and the Wasp in August.
The 2020 DC slate was already taking shape as well.
Shazam! would begin the year in March. That was probably the least expensive major film we had produced for the DCU so far, and the production had been remarkably smooth. Casting had gone easily, the schedule remained under control, and even if the box office was merely respectable, its lower budget gave us plenty of room to make a profit.
No movies in April or May, since Endgame was releasing then.
I had absolutely no intention of trying to compete with that. There was confidence, and then there was financial suicide.
July would belong to Green Lantern 2.
November would go to the supernatural ensemble film that, for the moment, everyone continued referring to internally as Shadowpact.
Then came the big one.
May 2021.
Justice League 2.
Unlike the first Justice League film, this one would bring together characters we had been quietly introducing across several different projects.
Man of Tomorrow had introduced Supergirl.
The Flash 2 would introduce Cyborg.
Green Lantern 2 would introduce Hawkgirl.
That became the main topic for the first hour, since I had just completed the Justice League 2 script.
Victor had notes on it after reading it. So did Dave and several others.
They all had their own suggestions and had already prepared a list of scenes they wanted to discuss.
Most were small.
I disagreed with some of the suggestions, agreed immediately with others, and marked several sections for another pass.
After nearly an hour, the topic changed.
"Del Toro has said nothing but good things about the script. Julian Cross helped write it, and we have two other excellent writers working with him," I said.
"Look, Danny," Dave said. "The only problem we have is that we still haven't agreed on a title. What the fuck are we going to call this?"
That had been the problem for months.
The film brought together Batman, Constantine, Zatanna, Doctor Fate, and several other supernatural characters as they confronted the Church of Blood and ultimately the threat of Raven and Trigon.
It was an ensemble film, partly another Batman movie, and partly the beginning of what would eventually become the Teen Titans in this universe.
"I still think my original idea works," I said.
Dave sighed.
"Marketing hated your original idea."
I continued. "Look, we give the movie another title for the initial marketing campaign. Something like Sentinels of Magic, House of Mystery, whatever we eventually settle on."
I leaned closer to the screen.
"Then, at the end of the movie, the team formally becomes Justice League Dark."
A few people nodded.
Dave remained unconvinced.
"And then?"
"Then we change the branding."
"You want to rename the movie after it releases?"
"Yes. Once the first audiences have seen it and the Justice League Dark name is established, we change the title to Justice League Dark. That should be the ending of the movie, the title itself changing to reveal the name."
Dave tapped his pen against the table.
"Marketing's concern is that people will confuse it with Justice League 2."
"I know. Which is why we don't market it as Justice League Dark before release. I mean, the presence of Batman, and hell, even Constantine, will be enough to get people to come and watch it."
Victor nodded.
"I think it could work. I'm serious. If we make the reveal part of the ending, like Daniel says, then yeah, it could work."
Dave rubbed his forehead.
"I'll talk to marketing again."
The meeting continued for another forty minutes.
We discussed several casting decisions for Shazam!, reviewed the availability of two actors being considered for supporting roles, and went over a few remaining production issues involving Green Lantern 2.
As the meeting ended, I stepped out of the tent.
In the distance, I could hear Denis calling for another take.
I headed back toward the set and found him behind the monitors, watching Paul and Jessica move across the sand as filming continued.
By the time lunch rolled around, I realized I had not seen Matt in a while.
At first, I assumed he was somewhere around the production camp taking photographs or sketching. That was what he had spent most of the morning doing.
Then I checked near the catering tents.
I asked a few crew members.
Nobody had seen him recently.
I had people look around the trailers, check the vehicles, and even went back toward the rock formation he had been photographing earlier.
Still nothing.
That was when the irritation started turning into concern.
"Has anyone seen Matt?"
One of the production assistants shook his head.
"When was the last time?"
"Maybe four hours ago."
"Fuck."
Within minutes, Denis had paused production and word spread through the camp. Security began organizing search teams while someone contacted the local support crews. Vehicles were sent out in different directions, drones went into the air, and the production helicopter was redirected to help search from above.
I stood beside one of the cars while people coordinated routes over the radio.
"Fucking idiot," I muttered.
I had told him.
I had specifically told him not to wander into the desert.
Of course Matt had wandered into the fucking desert.
I joined one of the search teams rather than remain at camp waiting for someone else to find him.
The vehicle bounced across the sand while two crew members watched the surrounding dunes through binoculars. Another man kept in constant contact with the drone operators.
Twenty minutes passed.
Then thirty.
A voice suddenly came through the radio.
"Possible sighting. West of the second search corridor. Person down near the base of a dune."
My stomach dropped.
"Go!" I yelled.
The driver accelerated.
A drone circled in the distance, marking the location for us. As we came over the next rise, I saw something lying in the narrow strip of shade cast by a dune.
The car had barely stopped before I opened the door.
"Matt!"
I ran across the sand with the medic and several others behind me.
Matt was lying on his side, his shirt soaked through and his face bright red. His camera was half buried in the sand beside him.
"Matt!"
His eyes opened slightly.
"Danny?"
He barely managed to lift one hand.
I dropped beside him.
"Yeah. I'm here."
Matt smiled weakly.
"I'm glad to see you."
"Yeah, well, I'm going to fucking kill you after this."
He gave something resembling a laugh, then winced.
"It's been days."
I stared at him.
"What?"
"Days." His voice was dry and slurred. "I thought... I thought you weren't going to find me."
The medic knelt beside him immediately, checking his pulse and temperature.
I looked toward the medic.
"He's severely dehydrated," the man said. "And he's showing signs of heat stroke. Confusion and distorted perception can happen. Do you know how much water he drank today?"
"Honestly? No. I didn't see him drink anything."
They began cooling him while another medic prepared fluids.
Matt grabbed weakly at my arm.
"I don't think I'm gonna make it. I've been out here for days."
"Five hours."
He blinked.
"What?"
"You've been missing for five fucking hours, Matt."
"Noooo…."
"Yes."
"No, no." He shook his head weakly. "I've been here for days."
"You haven't. You got lost this morning."
Matt stared at me as though I was the one who had become delirious.
"Five hours?"
"Five hours."
He closed his eyes.
"Oh."
"You're going to be fine."
The medics lifted him carefully onto a stretcher.
I walked beside them toward the vehicle.
"Can't wait to tell Jess and your mother about this. Oh and John he is going to love this."
Matt groaned in annoyance as I took a photo of him.
"I'm also recommending she put a bell around your neck."
A few people around us laughed.
"Or a GPS tracker," I added. "Actually, no. Both. Bell and GPS."
Matt groaned once more as they brought him inside the truck.
.
.
You can read up to chapter 347 here.
p.a.t.r.eon.com/Illusiveone (check the chapter summary i have it there as well)