Another Sensational Crime Fiction?

Question

William Herschel III, heir to the Herschel Paper Company, is dead. His body was found in fishing gear, discovered near the family estate's lake by his Labrador. Police immediately suspected foul play. CCTV footage proved that his death took place around 3pm the previous day. Eight suspects were called, each had a personal grudge with Mr. Herschel. As the case was coming to a dead end, you tried to scan through Mr. Herschel's family photos and discovered something: he always wore a gold chain that said "WAKE" whenever he would go out fishing. However, the chain was not found at the crime scene. Dedicated house searches by police found that the chain was in the room of Jack, his personal flight attendant. Pressed, Jack finally confessed that he was the son of Mr. Herschel and an unknown maid, and murdered Mr. Herschel in a rage after Mr. Herschel never acknowledged Jack as an heir.

The case seems to end here, but there's another meaning behind this. Can you find it out?

Hint:

Who was dead? Where and how was his body found?

Hint 2:

A Fountain of Colors

Hint 3:

movies

Answer 1

I’ll take the second clue and try to stretch it as far as:

"William Herschel III, heir to the Herschel Paper Company", is...

the original script (hence paper) of the eighth Quentin Tarantino movie, "Hateful Eight". The script was leaked online prior to the start of the filming, causing the movie to be initially "killed" by Tarantino.

"His body was found in fishing gear" —

fishing gear is a "net", reference to the Internet, where the original script was leaked.

Another way to look at it, a murder of William Herschel III is...

A reference to "Kill Bill". There were already 2 parts of the movie and the 3rd one in the works, hence "III".

And the Paper Company is a...

reference to "Pulp Fiction"

"lake" and "Labrador" —

reference to "Reservoir Dogs"

"Eight suspects, each had a grudge" —

reference to "Hateful Eight"

"chain was not found" —

reference to "Django Unchained"

"son of Mr. Herschel and an unknown maid" —

i.e. a bastard, a nod to "Inglourious Basterds"

"CCTV footage proved that his death..."

a reference to "Death Proof"

"Jack, his personal flight attendant" —

a reference to "Jackie Brown", whose heroine was a flight attendant.

"his death took place around 3pm the previous day" —

basically he was lying dead "From Dusk Till Dawn".

The name of the puzzle, "Another Sensational Crime Fiction" —

reference to "Pulp Fiction".

And the name "William Herschel" is...

also a name of a famous astronomer, which by a long shot could be a reference to the upcoming "Star Trek" by Tarantino.

Did I forget something?

Answer 2

Not quite a complete answer, but I think this is the gist of it:

William Herschel III is the planet Uranus, as it was indeed discovered by Mr. Herschel and nearly named for King George III. This planet would have been more or less between the constellations Pisces (fish caught on a line) and Canis Major (the Great Dog) when it was discovered, though by today it has moved far enough in its orbit to be within Pisces, and hence is tangled up. (Part of me feels that "Labrador", as it is capitalized, refers to the Canadian island somehow, but I can't find a way to work it in.) The eight suspects could be a reference to the now-eight cosmic bodies (even though Uranus was only the sixth planet out of the eight current when it was discovered, if you count the other two main objects people associated with the night sky- the sun and the moon- Uranus would have been the eighth). The reason that Uranus was suspected to have been a planet was because it was missing its "wake", just as the murdered Mr. Herschel was missing his- the planet was thought to be a comet until it was noticed that the tail was missing, and so it didn't leave a "wake" behind it. Not sure how Jack fits into this- he could be a red herring, but his name is a bit similar to the real Mr. Herschel's only son, John. John did pretty well for himself, though, so maybe Jack generically symbolizes how the astronomer William Herschel's legacy isn't really known? I've heard that Uranus was also almost named "Herschel", too, so that would have been a real missed opportunity for him to become very famous.

Answer 3

Long shot but I think

Mr Herschel is Pluto (astronomer reference, III implying going 3 from Uranus -> Neptune -> Pluto) He was killed (stripped of status of planet) and had 8 'suspects' (the rest of the planets). Jack, I'm guessing, could be Charon.