A newspaper tycoon, desperate to be number one, contrives catastrophic events in order to increase readership and further her ranking.  However, when she falls in love, everything changes, and she must sacrifice her world to save the one she loves.

SYNOPSIS:

before dawn

Great fortunes are often built on illicit foundations

Proposal for a Web series or a Movie (Budget Moderate)

The Story – Gemma Zessar, a billionaire newspaper tycoon, desperate to be number one, contrives catastrophic events in order to increase readership and further her ranking. However, when she falls in love, everything changes, and she must sacrifice her world to save the one she loves.

The lead character—Gemma’s character arc depicts her transformation from a lonely, murderous villain to a good, samaritan, and warm-hearted spouse. Walter’s selflessness and love contribute to this change, allowing her to realize the importance of love and rectitude. Choosing to make the protagonist a heartless villain from the beginning allows for a complex main character and a fascinating anti-hero to transform. This is truly a story about fake news that happens to be deadly, or better yet, manufactured. It has a strong premise, full of internal and external conflicts.

Novel Link - Before Dawn: Great Fortunes Are Often Built on Illicit Foundations - Kindle edition by Shriharsh Sonar. Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.

Detailed Synopsis

Gemma is a ruthless CEO of a 12-billion-dollar media conglomerate, with its flagship newspaper Before Dawn, the 2nd largest in circulation. However, always loathing to be number-two, Gemma struggles desperately to increase readership, making Before Dawn top in circulation against its rival Morning Rituals.

The prologue starts with a small paragraph in chapter 26 of the book, where the anarchy in Syria is shown from the POV of Gemma's bodyguard, Sherbo, a devil himself, nominated for a complete severance of head from the body but Gemma saves him, rather buy his life from a transnational extremist Salafist militant group. It denotes his regrets for not being able to help Gemma, to come to save his savior.

Chapter beginning - A piece of news of a major chemical spill out by Morning Rituals entices Gemma to create some sensational news, but not before reproaching her CXO executives including Nigel, her fatherly Mentor. Resorting Remeez’s help, a potent mafia favored in the past, by not exposing a mafia pharma syndicate. Gemma derails America's fastest, much controversial train. The news of derail and Before Dawn’s fight for the rights of victims with the ruling party elevates Before Dawn's image to a record high, making it a top-newspaper, mounting up the share prices, getting exclusive broadcasting rights of a sports channel, and a high-value contract with a major Hollywood studio.

Six months later, Gemma fires Michael, heading the politics division of Before Dawn for not covering a piece of political news bearing corollaries on forthcoming elections. To recoup the imaginary loss to Before Dawn’s repute, Gemma plans another catastrophe. On a business trip, to raise commercial paper from cunning Rodrigues Sibs from Spain, Gemma comes across a neighborhood of fifteen-hundred wooden homes (inspired by The Great Chicago Fire, a conflagration that burned in the American city of Chicago during October 8–10, 1871). Resorting Remeez’s help, she sets the neighborhood on fire predicting the casualties and losses to properties, and publishes the news hastily. The headline covers a lamentable tragedy of a little girl, Sarah on her birthday detailing the loss of her parents. Gemma recalls having met Sarah in Woodsville having a resemblance to her miserable childhood. Guilt finds a mole in her heart and she begins to look for Sarah secretly. The actual losses appear much lesser than the hastily published numbers and Before Dawn, humiliated, invites inquiries from agencies probing into its affairs besides rolling down its position to number two again. In addition, its second IPO goes under-subscribed—Gemma’s world turns turtle.

Walter, a crime reporter of another newspaper, under pressure to bring blockbuster news, learns through (now jobless and frustrated) heavily drunk Michael that probing into Gemma’s affairs could help him. Vowing to trouble Gemma, Michael informs a police officer Taylor to investigate her affairs. To make her live in guilt, Michael sends some petty criminals to disfigure Gemma’s face with Acid. However, Walter spying on Gemma holds them, and saves Gemma— rather she saves him from the vile clutches of one hood. When Gemma’s security arrives, and the aggressors scram away. Gemma notices a slight spillover on his skin as well as finds him suffocated and takes him to hospital. However, Gemma… the raw mind likes the raw handsome. In love with him, she visits him in the hospital daily. Ruthless Gemma punishes Michael and others with life in a 1500-degree Kiln at Remeez’s ceramic factory—a façade of a legitimate businessman.

Never experienced love and romance make Gemma go for Walter at all costs. His selfless love makes her regret past acts. While enjoying romantic moments with him, she recollects about buying footage from Remeez, covering the assassination of the President at city hall by people interested in global terrorism. She confesses her nefarious sins and asks Walter to leave her. Loving her truly, he refuses and asks her to correct all the consequences aroused from the past evil deeds. They vow to protect the president resorting to Taylor’s help, Walter’s friend. She recalls having instructed Remeez to kill Taylor too for sticking nose into her affairs.

Mentally prepared for the worst, Gemma takes Walter on her private island as her first and last gratification… before beginning another chapter of actions. They spend a whole week alone, without a sign of any other human. The couple has a good romance, while the past deeds continue haunting Gemma, not letting her enjoy fully. Another stratum of maturity convinces Gemma that life is all about love, sacrifices, living for the good of mankind, and she even starts dreaming of having a small, beautiful, content family life, feeling nausea of her glossy fortune with blood-stains.

Walter takes Gemma to a poverty-stricken childcare, where Gemma finds blind Sarah (from Woodsville). Regretted, Gemma adopts all the childcare in the United States. Gemma tries to stop Remeez from affecting both malefactions, but he attacks her with life. Gemma escapes successfully. Aabid kills Remeez for revealing their plans and orders his men to kill Gemma and Walter.

After Taylor tipoffs, President’s security chief advises him not to attend the Children's Bravery Award, but the President refuses to be a coward. After the attack, while Taylor and Security Chief and other agents stop enemy tangos (destroying their tacticals with their technicals) Walter and Gemma escape with the President and his daughter, Ginny (Polio stricken) in Gemma’s High-Tech Car… lately customized with heavy armor in Antonov-cargo aircraft. While driving she admits to the president her deeds and locking them all inside the car, (to be auto-driven by satellite technology) jumps off and faces the enemy in pursuit with High-End weapons. However, a single mistake ends her life taking a fusillade of bullets.

After Gemma, Walter completes the Ge-Walt foundation, Gemma's last wish. The foundation shoulders several social responsibilities and opens hospitals (for Walter’s mother is died on account of it). Nigel brings Sarah to soulless Walter, whom, Walter finds, Gemma has donated her eyes. Walter, solely weds himself to work, takes care of Gemma’s business as if he's just a guardian of everything. Soon it becomes the Top-selling newspaper. Subsequently, Morning Rituals, once America's top circulating newspaper, plummeting quickly merges into Before Dawn making it the largest newspaper worldwide. Walter proves to be an ideal entrepreneur in America. He takes the business size to 20 billion dollars which Gemma could never have achieved by employing all her evil strategies. It denotes a win-win strategy sometimes plays a better role in business, than cut-throat competition.

The movie ends with a song similar to ‘I’m alive’ by Celine Dion.

What one can expect? – It’s a motley mix of several dimensions—attitude, authoritative language, and the Criminal mindset tone that of The Godfather, corporate life crime of The Wolf of Wall Street, romance and a love story like Twilight, actions-fight sequence w.r.t. the White House and the POTUS as in Olympus Has Fallen, cars, technology, actions, and AI as in Bond Movies, Gemma's emotional journey, the mended relations with her father as in The father of the bride, and a promise that the novel is attempted to be written in the most stylish way including dialogues, that would work as Quotes as in The Godfather, or like the Joker Quotes.