The old man makes a wild claim and ask for a ridiculous amount of money in his prison account for the full story. Reporter refuses till the Old man gives him map coordinates for the reporter to dig in. Paper sends a detective out to investigate, and finds a mass grave w/Scooby Snacks in the grave
What follows is a gritty mystery, a frame up, and the unknown tale of a cult, a crime syndicates, and the first job that brought Mystery Inc together. The Scooby Doo cartoons exist in this reality, and Mystery Inc uses the royalties from the cartoons to finace their operations.
The cartoons are a kid friendly PR tool for the True Detetive-esque Scooby Gang that the cartoons are based on. In the end, the whole story told by Old Man Jenkins was just a con to get the reporter there so that he could pretend to be the reporter and escape.
Old Man Jenkin's plan looks like it is about to succeed but then the Scooby Gang appear to recapture the escapee. I was envisioning Shaggy as a severe introvert that can only manage the condition through a combo of cannabis gummies and his emotional support animal, Scooby Doo.
In this version of a Scooby Doo, Scooby only speaks when Shaggy is around because him speaking is only in Shaggy's imagination, but you don't realize it until closer to the end of the movie/show. Their 1st case bringing them together was Fred, Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby rescuing Daphney from a cult.
Rescuing Daphney from the cult was what put the crime syndicate on Mystery Inc's radar, and every case they solved since then were all associated with the criminal syndicate. What you think? Sound interesting?