HOLLYWOOD WHAT IF

[Pujimaki]

Hollywood What If Chapter 300


[Damn, I didn't expect this novel to get this far. I started this novel as an experiment, I even thought of dropping this novel, but here I am. I want to thank all the readers and supporters who have supported this novel. Your support gives me motivation and reason to keep writing and maybe achieve my dreams. It means a lot to me].

++++++

The news of Robert Ludlum's death gave The Bourne Supremacy the boost it needed to collect more tickets.

Out of curiosity, people who knew nothing about Robert Ludlum and The Bourne Supremacy decided to follow the crowd and see the movie.

It was a good thing that The Bourne Supremacy was a great movie. The audience has no problem because the movie entertained them.

Even the critics, who are slowly losing their jobs because of the Internet and bloggers, praised the movie. To be precise, they praised Robert Ludlum, who was a veteran writer.

Critics write for a living, and they respect their fellow writers. So they obviously support Robert Ludlum's work.

Even the novels started to attract readers again after so many decades. The Jason Bourne series (novels) started appearing in bookstores.

Two weeks after Robert Ludlum's death, the box office of The Bourne Supremacy made more money.

On July 18(Thursday). The North American box office for The Bourne Supremacy was already $160.45 million.

The production cost of the movie was $75 million and it easily recouped the investment. And that was just in North America.

If a movie does well in North America, it usually does well internationally. Sometimes even more than the North American box office.

Stella Willow worked with 20th Century Fox to achieve this promotion.

Kazir admitted that the woman was talented and deserved the position. Once Grey Pictures had a board of directors, Kazir would make sure that Stella got the CEO position because she deserved it.

"Babe, are you ready?"

Angelina entered the room and found Kazir struggling with his tie. She smiled gently and helped him.

"All right, looks better." She said after fixing his tie. Then she looked at her boyfriend, who was taller than her.

The atmosphere between them was hot, or so they thought, because they both felt it.

Angelina wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. Her lipstick smeared Kazir's lips before they pulled apart.

"Let's go... Or we might not make it."

She hinted that both of them could stay in the house all night if they did something more.

Kazir chuckled and followed suit, seeing that Angelina was blushing so much that even her blush-on seemed non-existent.

Angelina and Kazir were invited to attend Meet The Fockers, the sequel to Meet The Parents. A comedy Kazir wrote himself.

Actually, only Kazir was invited by Paramount, but Kazir was allowed to bring another person. As if Paramount would say no to Angelina Jolie.

After all, How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days was also invested by Paramount and it would be good promotion for the movie if Angelina showed up.

Another thing was that Lara Croft: Tomb Raider was produced by Paramount and they have no problem with Angelina supporting their movies.

The only way to stay relevant in this industry was to be remembered by the audience. As long as the actor/actress was famous, jobs would keep coming their way.

For this premiere, Kazir decided to use his Mercedes Benz. Yes, the famous director, who was known for being cheap, bought a Mercedes Benz two years ago and it became his go-to car since then.

His Honda was still in his garage but he rarely used it. However, he still cherishes it.

The driver of the car was Erica, who worked overtime just for this premiere.

Angelina and Kazir rekindled their love and it seemed that their relationship was stronger, Erica was happy for her boss.

A happy boss means a happy bonus, right?

Anyway, the couple had a playful time in the car while Erica kept her eyes on the road... She had to be professional and do her job.

The car reached its destination and followed the line to the red carpet. Kazir and Angelina were not part of the cast, but Kazir was the scriptwriter, so he had the privilege of walking the red carpet... He was also famous.

No big things happened this time, just the usual red carpet. Summer season was usually the time when a lot of blockbuster movies were released. So this was the busiest time in Hollywood.

Kazir was not shocked that he had to attend a lot of movies premieres during this time. In fact, he also had to attend the premiere of Mr. And Mrs. Smith, which opens in theaters on August 7.

After some hustle and bustle, the two found their way into the theater holding hands.

Some of the cast of Meet The Fockers like Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman and Ben Stiller were already in the theater.

As for Brianna Evans, the film's female lead, she did not appear to be in the theater yet.

A few minutes later, Kazir saw Brianna and Salvatore walking into the theater together.

Kazir smiled at first before realizing that something was wrong. The expressions on their faces were strange.

Salvatore seemed concerned and serious.

As for Brianna... She was cold, no, she seemed like a psychopath. Kazir could not explain it well, but the aura around the actress was cold and indifferent.

Salvatore saw Kazir and immediately spoke to him, sweating a little.

"What's going on?" Kazir asked curiously. Kazir knew that Brianna was a method actor, and she could get so deep into her character that she becomes the character.

"How should I put it... Brianna was interested in a script and said she wanted the leading role. I was against it because it didn't fit her current image. But I couldn't stop her from doing what she wanted, so in the end I agreed. This is the result." Salvatore sighed.

"What's the name of the movie?"

"Monster. The director is Patty Jenkins."

Monster. A movie based on a true story. It was about a prostitute serial killer who murdered seven men...

 

[Pujimaki]

Hollywood What If Chapter 301


Monster is a 2003 American biographical crime drama film written and directed by Patty Jenkins in her feature film directorial debut. The film follows serial killer Aileen Wuornos, a street prostitute who murdered seven of her male clients between 1989 and 1990 and was executed in Florida in October 2002. (Wikipedia.)

It was quite sneaky that the movie of this woman's autobiography would be released a year after her death. As if someone decided to make a movie out of her after knowing she was going to die...

The female lead of the movie was actually Charlize Theron. She put a lot of weight into the role and even resorted to shaving her eyebrows. She sacrificed a lot just to give the best performance in Monster.

Why did she do that? Because Monster was a movie made for the Academy Awards. The plot, the characters, everything was designed to be nominated for the Oscars and other film festivals/awards.

And it did. Monster was nominated for many awards.

At the Academy Awards, Charlize Theron won the Best Actress award. The biggest award an actress can get in her whole life. Charlize may have sacrificed a lot for the role, but the achievements she received were worth it.

At the Golden Globes, Charlize Theron also won the Best Actress award. Another big award show in Hollywood.

Screen Actors Guild Awards.

American Film Institute Awards.

Berlin International Film Festival.

And on and on.

Charlize Theron won so many awards by portraying a prostitute serial killer, which was actually a difficult thing to do. Charlize Theron was a beautiful actress, but she decided to destroy her image just for this role.

The Academy Awards saw her dedication and gave her the Best Actress Award, the golden statue that represents her achievement in the industry.

But from the looks of it, Brianna Evans was interested in the project as well.

Kazir's eyes narrowed as he stared at Brianna Evans. He could see that Brianna was in the state of method acting... And she was deep into it.

Someone like her could lose herself if she continued to play this psychotic role.

A lot of actors/actresses were traumatized by the roles they played, and someone like Brianna who did method acting was susceptible.

Shelly Duval in The Shining.

Adrien Brody in The Pianist.

Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight.

These people suffered from their roles. One of them even died.

If Brianna continued down this path, her fame would not last.

"Babe?" Angelina sensed that Kazir was staring at Brianna too much, so she squeezed his arms.

She didn't like him staring at other girls...

Kazir came to his senses and apologized to Angelina. The woman sulked but let it go.

Then Kazir talked to Salvatore, who was waiting for his answer.

"Did she get the role or is she just going to audition?"

"She's going to audition, but from the looks of it, the producer is interested in casting her," Salvatore replied based on the information he got.

"Salvatore, don't let Brianna take that role. I say she fits into bubbly girl roles and sweet girl type roles. Not something serious like as a serial killer."

Kazir didn't want to hear a news that Brianna killed a man because she couldn't perceive reality.

"That's what I told her, but she said she was tired of it. She said she wanted something serious, something that would challenge her acting."

"I understand. If I find a role that suits her, I'll let you know."

"I'm up for anything, as long as it's not a serial killer... I'm afraid of Brianna right now, to be honest."

Kazir nodded and agreed. He looked at Brianna and found the woman talking to Ben Stiller, but her demeanor was not cheerful. Ben Stiller felt uncomfortable and didn't know how to act. He also felt that Brianna was acting differently.

The premiere of Meet The Fockers went on and nothing much happened. They just watched the movie and did some interviews.

Paramount was the investor and distributor of Meet The Fockers and they were serious about making money.

Meet The Parents was written by Kazir and Paramount got the script in exchange for distributing three movies. Meet The Fockers was also part of the deal. In exchange for the three-movie distribution deal, Kazir had to write the Meet The Parents trilogy for $500,000 each.

I'd say they both earned in that exchange.

Grey Pictures successfully launched the Continental Cinematic Universe because Paramount distributed three of their films. In return, Paramount got a franchise that made them a huge profit.

The script was written by Kazir, everyone had high expectations for the movie.

And their expectations were met, the first weekend of Meet The Fockers made $31.55 million.

Brianna Evans and Ben Stiller along with the rest of the cast toured North America to promote the movie. However, they only went to Canada and the United States because those were the two countries that spent the most on tickets.

Stuart Little 2, produced by Sony-Colombia, was also released on the same day as Meet The Fockers. The film grossed $15 million in its first weekend.

This made Meet The Fockers the box office champion of the week.

However, the movie had a strong opponent next week.

Austin Powers in Goldmember, produced by New Line Cinema, was one of the most anticipated movies of the year. The movie was funny and made a lot of people laugh.

On Sunday, July 27, Austin Powers in Goldmember grossed $55.65 million. In fact, Austin Powers was one of the best comedy franchises of all time and its box office showed why.

As for Meet The Fockers, well, it just made $132.85 million after ten days in theaters...

Indeed, Meet The Parents(Fockers) was one of the best comedy franchises of all time as well, and its box office showed why.

+++++

[There is a typhoon here in the Philippines. So yeah, we lost electricity and are just using candles to light the house.]

 

[Pujimaki]

Hollywood What If Chapter 302


Harvey Weinstein took a deep breath and sat down. But his mind did not settle.

'Why is this happening to me? I haven't done anything wrong. Why do people hate me?'

Harvey Weinstein was one of the major shareholders of Miramax, he was the current CEO. He started the company with his brother, and so far their business has been good.

They couldn't compete with the Big Six, but most of the movies they produced won Academy Awards, which gave them a good amount of profit in the DVD market.

Videotapes were becoming obsolete, and most people had been using DVD players since the turn of the century.

For Miramax, as long as their movie won an award at the Oscars, they had a sure path to profit.

All they had to do was put "Award Winning Director/Actor" on the cover of the DVD and it would get people's attention.

The influence of the Academy Awards was strong at that time and people respected the Academy's taste in movies.

The last time Miramax promoted Good Will Hunting, they expected a good Oscar haul. But in the end they only got Best Supporting Actor. No big deal, the movie still made money on the DVD market.

Matt Damon and Ben Affleck distanced themselves from him after Good Will Hunting. Well, a lot of people distanced themselves from Harvey after The Blair Witch Project.

But Harvey could not get over the fact that this was the nth time Grey Pictures had screwed him.

Harvey Weinstein had a strong connection in Hollywood and he found out that Grey Pictures was the reason why his identity as the investor of The Blair Witch Project came out to the public. He was still angry about it... He actually wanted to hire a hit man, but he knew the consequences if he did.

'I am not an evil person. I will never do anything bad to another person._

Harvey said to himself. He was not a bad person, he strongly believed.

Maybe he was just horny, so he did things to women? Or maybe he thought he was a saint who would never hurt anyone. Maybe he was delusional.

The #MeToo movement showed the true color of Hollywood, and Harvey Weinstein suffered the most.

It was actually sad that a bunch of news about sexual harassment, sexual abuse, and r*pe culture came to the surface in the 2010s, when this kind of stuff had been happening for a couple of decades. As if people were just hearing about r*pe for the first time... Well, the media just turned a blind eye to the injustice of little people in Hollywood.

The Internet was the reason the #MeToo movement was successful in the first place.

Actress Virginia Rappe was sexually assaulted in 1921. The rapist lost his career.

Director Roman Polanski raped a 13-year-old girl. The director fled the United States. He was filming The Pianist this year. It was a mystery how the Academy allowed the director to participate in the Oscars.

Patricia Douglas, a movie extra, was r*ped by an employee of MGM. The actress was blacklisted in Hollywood after this incident.

Injustice at its finest.

These are just some of the information about sexual harassment in Hollywood. If we were to list them all, this chapter might not be enough. I just wanted to say that Hollywood was never a paradise. A lot of creepy people lived there. Epstein Island and Diddy's parties were probably just the tip of the iceberg.

You know, the Internet was a fucked up place, but it did some good. At least people had platforms to speak their minds. Unlike the news networks that were bought and would never tell the truth.

Too bad a lot of social media platforms got filtered in the next decade. One day, people were no longer allowed to express their feelings.

"Fucking shit--!"

Harvey Weinstein pounded his fists on the table. No matter how much he tried to calm down, he could not get over the fact that Grey Pictures had screwed up his business again.

Grey Pictures and 20th Century Fox announced that they would release Mr. And Mrs. Smith on August 7, 2002.

That sounds about right... But this would be a disaster for Miramax. Because their movie would also be released on the same day.

Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams was produced by Miramax. Mind you, the production cost of this movie was $38 million. Obviously, Miramax had put a lot of money into this project.

However, Grey Pictures decided to release their movies on the same day. This would hurt the box office of Spy Kids 2 tremendously.

CCU movies always have a good opening.

It was impossible to change the release schedule because Miramax had already talked to the Cinema Alliance.

Their initial agreement was that Spy Kids 2 would get 4000 theaters, but earlier Cinema Alliance told him that Spy Kids 2 could only get 3300 theaters.

Cinema Alliance decided to support Mr. And Mrs. Smith instead of Spy Kids 2. They gave it 4000 theaters on opening day.

This was enough to ensure that Mr. And Mrs. Smith would make a lot of money on its first day.

This fact made Harvey Weinstein furious.

Out of spite, he decided to contact his usual middleman to bring young, unknown actresses to his office... He wanted to cool off.

He knew the shit had hit the fan and it was impossible to change it, so he might as well calm down... Despite the blood boiling anger.

Most of the time, Harvey would promise these young actresses that he would give them roles in his next projects to entice them, and it worked.

.........

......

...

Kazir had five movies scheduled for release this year. Three of them have already premiered and are currently making money at the box office.

The Hangover Part 3 just grossed over $360 million worldwide. It looks like this will be the last installment of this franchise for the time being. Warner Brothers could no longer afford the cast.

The Bourne Supremacy grossed $190 million at the North American box office and its international release would start next week, in August.

Meet The Fockers was in its 15th day of release and the movie made $172 million.

So far, the three movies have done well... They actually did great.

++++

[Author's note: Yes, I'm back. The typhoon left the country, but it had a chance to come back for some reason. What the hell, this typhoon almost ripped the siding off our roof and now it's asking for round 2? How can a motherfucking typhoon turn around and make a comeback? What the hell is a Fujiwara effect anyway? This isn't nice at all.]

[This typhoon is probably the most devastating typhoon we have seen in recent years. The wind is so scary that I feel like our roof is going to be blown off, I'm not kidding. Some of my relatives also suffered from the flood because their house is near the river, luckily they are all fine. I feel sorry for the people and families who lost a lot in this disaster. I was hoping that this damn typhoon will never come again... But from the news report, Typhoon Kristine will probably return, fuck!].

 

[Pujimaki]

Hollywood What If Chapter 303


Most of the big movies have already been released and so far only one movie has been a massive flop worldwide.

Yes, Walt Disney was still delusional and couldn't accept that their movie failed miserably. So they ended up promoting the movie, John Carter, in different countries.

In total, they spent over $200 million on promotion. Together with the production costs of $150 million, John Carter wasted $350 million.

So what was the worldwide gross of the movie? The answer was $284 million... Yes, Walt Disney just lost their money.

Even with DVD sales, it would take them decades to recoup their loss. They screwed up very badly.

So to make up for it, Walt Disney decided to join the acquisition battle to get Grey Pictures.

Unlike Warner Brothers and Sony-Colombia, Walt Disney offered a stock swap instead. There were already a bunch of shareholders and adding one was no problem.

Steve Jobs, Harvey Weinstein, Roy Disney and even Michael Eisner had shares in Walt Disney, so adding Kazir Grey was not a problem.

For 30% of the stock, Walt Disney was willing to give Kazir 1.2% of Walt Disney stock.

Mind you, Walt Disney's total assets were huge and their net worth was $105 billion. Walt Disney owned ABC Studios, ESPN, Disneyland, part of Pixar since Steve Jobs was still alive, Touchstone, part of Miramax, and Hollywood Records.

In some ways, Walt Disney was comparable to Time Warner and News Corporation. Moreover, this company would become stronger once it acquired LucasFilm, Marvel Entertainment, and 20th Century Fox itself.

If not for Kazir's bad experience with Walt Disney, the director might agree.

However, Kazir was still waiting for another party to join the fun. Kazir felt like another studio was cooking.

.........

......

...

The release of Mr. And Mrs. Smith was extravagant as many actors from CCU showed up. Most of them were there to promote their own movies, and Kazir had no problem with that.

In fact, that was the reason why he attended the premiere.

After the reconciliation, Kazir and Angelina became close again and showed their affection to each other in front of the public.

They were holding hands when they attended the premiere of Mr. And Mrs. Smith.

"Kazir!"

Brad Pitt greeted Kazir and his partner Angelina.

... Actually, Kazir felt uncomfortable seeing Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie together. He knew he had changed the timeline, but he could not forget that they had actually become a couple and gotten married.

Anyway, Kazir was mature enough to understand. Brad Pitt didn't stay long after greeting them. He knew that Kazir and Angelina wanted their own time.

Brad Pitt met Kazir in 1994. At that time, Kazir was nothing more than an unknown director/screenwriter.

Honestly, Brad Pitt accepted the role in Se7en because the salary was enticing. He also knew the consequences of joining Se7en, a mystery thriller.

But he didn't expect his choice to be the right one. Se7en was a success.

Since then, every project Kazir has touched has been a success.

Everyone in Hollywood had high expectations for the man, and Kazir always made sure to deliver. Once his name was attached to the movie, the chances of it being a box office hit were higher.

Kazir also saw Jennifer Connelly in her dress... He immediately looked away when he felt that the woman next to him was staring at him with a cold gaze. He smiled and kissed Angelina's forehead to calm her down.

Kazir felt bad that Angelina was not part of Mr. and Mrs. Smith. After all, Angelina was the original female lead in the movie. But since Kazir added this movie to CCU, and since Angelina and her role in CCU was Fox, it would be impossible to cast her as another character.

Kazir promised to make it up to her. He knew that How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days would be a box office hit and that Angelina would keep her fame.

The theaters went dark and the movie began. The Grey Pictures and 20th Century Fox logo greeted the audience first.

On the other side of Hollywood, at Grauman's Chinese Theater, Miramax was in crisis. Just like Mr. And Mrs. Smith, Miramax began the premiere of Spy Kids 2: The Island Of Lost Dream.

Based on audience reaction, the movie was mediocre at best. Miramax invested $38 million in this movie and it would be a disaster if it failed.

Miramax was not Walt Disney, which could shoulder hundreds of millions in losses. In the first place, Miramax used a safer way to make money.

As everyone expected, Mr. And Mrs. Smith easily won first place that week.

On August 7, 2002, Mr. And Mrs. Smith grossed $17.47 million on its first day. Something that made 20th Century Fox and Grey Pictures very happy.

As for Spy Kids 2, the movie made $4.67 million on the same day. Considering the fact that Spy Kids 2 had a strong opponent, this kind of result was already good.

By the first weekend, both movies were doing well on their own. Spy Kids 2 earned $25.04 million, while Mr. And Mrs. Smith earned $50.34 million.

In a way, Miramax was worrying for nothing. Even though both movies were about spies, their plots and genres were different.

Spy Kids focused on family comedy and a light-hearted plot.

As for Mr. And Mrs. Smith, it was more of a serious action movie with a dash of romance and comedy. Maybe that's why the two movies didn't have much of an impact on each other.

Even though August was the last month of the summer season, the release of movies didn't stop. Next week, a strong contender could trouble Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

The title of the movie is xXx.

It sounds like a porn site or something, but I swear it's a real movie.

xXx is an action movie starring Vin Diesel.

 

[Pujimaki]

Hollywood What If Chapter 304


For those who think otherwise, xXx was indeed a movie. Some might mistake it for another triple x...

xXx was produced by Sony-Colombia and starred Vin Diesel as Xander Cage. A daredevil who became a spy for the National Security Agency. This movie was a box office hit, grossing more than $277 million. The production cost of the film was $88 million.

Actually, Kazir thought about including the movie in the Continental Cinematic Universe, but he decided not to. Simply for the reason that CCU already had a lot of movies to focus on.

Kazir knew that he could not acquire all the promising scripts in Hollywood, or else the Big Six might get together and attack him.

Besides, Vin Diesel was already cast in Fast and The Furious. If they decided to add xXx to the CCU, they would have to find another actor to play Xander Cage.

Ice Cube was the protagonist of xXx: State Of The Union, the sequel to the first film, and State Of The Union grossed $113 million. It's not a bad performance, but it's not that good. Maybe the audience wanted to see Vin Diesel instead of Ice Cube. Which was right, because the third movie, xXx: Return of Xander Cage, grossed $346 million.

xXx was actually a good franchise, but Kazir felt that CCU was already bloated. So yes, Kazir passed on the project.

Now that Kazir thinks about it, Vin Diesel had some good franchises under his belt, even though many audiences hated the guy.

Fast and The Furious

xXx

Pitch Black/Riddick

Guardians of the Galaxy

Vin Diesel was able to keep his career going as long as he was involved in one of these franchises.

On its first weekend, xXx grossed $50.34 million.

As for Mr. And Mrs. Smith, the movie grossed $96.69 million after ten days in theaters.

So both movies had their fair share of tickets sales. There was some friction, but in the end it all came down to audience choice.

Sony-Columbia could have sabotaged Mr. And Mrs. Smith by spreading dirty rumors about the cast, but Sony-Columbia held back. It was not worth it, especially when they needed Kazir to direct Spider-Man 2 in 2004.

Kazir had already proven that he could make billions at the box office, and Sony-Colombia didn't want to end their relationship because of a small dispute.

Another thing was that Vin Diesel was also a cast member of CCU and Sony-Colombia's feelings towards Mr. And Mrs. Smith were complicated.

After the release of xXx, nothing big happened in August and most of the movies that were released were mediocre and nothing surpassed $100 million at the box office except Spy Kids 2, Mr. And Mrs. Smith and xXx. The latter two dominated the month.

By the end of August, Mr. And Mrs. Smith had earned $146.08 million, while xXx had earned $117.26 million.

Of course, the cast of Mr. And Mrs. Smith had to travel around the world to promote the film, even though it had only been in North America for a month. The international screening was a serious money.

If Sony-Columbia's home court was Japan, then Australia was 20th Century Fox's home court. In fact, most of the movies 20th Century Fox invested in were filmed in Australia because the studio could get a tax break there. After all, Rupert Murdoch was Australian, and he could snap his fingers to make way for 20th Century Fox.

September came and the cold treatment in theaters obviously happened. Most students and people went back to their usual things.

.........

......

...

After almost half a year of waiting, Sony-Colombia has already made its payment to Kazir Grey. Calculating the worldwide box office for Spider-Man took a long time because the movie made a lot of money.

After some math-thingy, Sony-Colombia confirmed that Spider-Man actually grossed $1.09 billion.

Now, do not be shocked, but Kazir actually earned $294.3 million as his box office share! This was just one project, but he made that much.

Of course, Sony-Colombia paid this amount per round and not as a single payment.

Kazir already received $27 million from them as his salary and the $294.3 million was his box office share.

In the contract, both parties agreed that Kazir would receive $27 million as his salary and 27% of the worldwide box office, he also had a 7% peripheral profit share.

The amount he received from Sony-Colombia was already over $300 million.

It may seem that Sony-Colombia lost a lot in this deal. They sacrificed their short-term profit for the long-term.

Fortunately, after the success of Spider-Man, Sony-Colombia earned $300 million from peripherals such as DVDs and action figures. The peripherals they could sell with Spider-Man were endless.

They could sell toy cars with Spider-Man design, then boom, easy profit.

They could sell t-shirts with printed Spider-Man, boom, easy profit.

Hell, they could sell a toilet bowl with a Spider-Man design and crazy people would buy it.

That was the power they got after hiring Kazir. They didn't regret hiring someone like him. His value was equal to the amount they pay him.

No one could guarantee that a superhero movie like Spider-Man would succeed in theaters, but Kazir made sure it did.

... Although they admit that it was a bit painful to give Kazir that amount of money. After all, $300 million was a huge amount of money.

On top of that, Marvel Comics also had their share, so Sony-Colombia couldn't take all the profits.

Still, everyone was sure that Spider-Man 2 would happen. Sony-Columbia wanted to make it a trilogy and they wanted Kazir to make it.

A single movie grossing 1 billion dollars? Are you kidding me? Of course Sony-Colombia would milk this franchise for all it was worth! Spoiler alert, Sony-Colombia had three different franchises of Spider Man with three different actors. They were MILKING it.

This was also the reason why Sony wanted to buy Grey Pictures. Grey Pictures could make profitable movies and Sony wanted them. More specifically, they wanted to continue working with Kazir Grey.

+++++

[Author's Note: Yeah, I'm just here promoting my P@treon and Ko-fi. If you want to read more, you can subscribe to my P@treon or Ko-fi.]

P@treon link: https://www.patreon.com/Puji_maki

Ko-fi link: https://ko-fi.com/pujimaki

 

[Pujimaki]

Hollywood What If Chapter 305


Sony-Columbia knew that their most formidable opponents were Warner Brothers and Walt Disney.

If the other studios were willing to bleed to acquire Grey Pictures, then Sony-Columbia was also willing. Sony-Columbia was the weakest of the Big Six and they could turn it around once they acquired Grey Pictures.

If Walt Disney was willing to trade 1.2% shares for 30% of Grey Pictures, then Sony-Colombia was willing to trade 2.3%, and this amount had already been approved by Sony's chairman, Nobuyuki Idei.

Akio Morita, the last chairman of Sony, died in 1999 and Nobuyuki Idei became chairman.

Sony and Sony-Colombia understood that they needed someone to continue to produce high quality films and Kazir fit the bill.

.........

......

...

The Toronto International Film Festival was one of the most prestigious and largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, founded in 1976 and held every September. Many movies are released every year at this festival and people love to attend this festival.

The film festival was a way for small directors to present their projects to the public.

Movies released at the festival were mostly arthouse films and only a few were lucky enough to get distribution deals from some studios.

The Toronto International Film Festival gave out awards, and many of its winners went on to make box office hits when they were released in theaters.

Some of these films were:

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Slumdog Millionaire

The King's Speech

12 Years A Slave

La La Land

Green Book

These movies won the festival's People's Choice Award, and these movies made a name for themselves at the box office.

And guess what? All of these movies received nominations/wins at the Academy Awards (Oscars).

In a way, for a movie to get Oscar nominations, it had to participate in film festivals and award shows like the Golden Globes.

This was the method used by Grey Pictures. Like the others, The Revenant had its first screening at the Toronto International Film Festival. This was the beginning of their knock on the door of the Academy Awards.

Even Tom Cruise attended the screening. Mind you, the Toronto International Film Festival lasted 12 days. From September 5 to September 17. The actor knew the importance of this film festival, so he attended the 12-day festival even though their movie would be released on the last day. You know, a kind of promotion and publicity.

Not going to lie, Tom Cruise did a lot of selfies and autographs for the fans within 12 days.

Tornado International Film Festival hosted 343 movies this year and it was a lot of movies. Why 343 movies? Because many movies from different countries were screened in this film festival. Different languages, different regions and different races. The Toronto International Film Festival was for everyone. One of the reasons why this film festival was famous all over the world.

Also, one of the reasons why the Toronto International Film Festival was famous was because of the superstars who came. This year the biggest actor who showed up was Tom Cruise.

The opening film was Ararat, while the closing film was Brian De Palma's Femme Fatale.

As for The Revenant, it was the second to the last movie.

Kazir had already finished post-production on The Revenant and made sure it would be at the Toronto International Film Festival. Kazir followed the usual procedure.

He knew film festivals were biased against Hollywood movies, but that didn't stop him.

Their goal was to win the People's Choice Award and gain positive recognition from the members of the Academy Awards.

The days passed and the festival went well. Many viewers stayed throughout the festival, appreciating the art they saw.

However, the last day was quite crowded and almost all the seats were taken.

Kazir Grey and Tom Cruise sat in the front row with the cast, waiting for their movie to start.

Both were confident in the film, they had seen it before the festival and were pleased with it.

But confidence was not enough to win the Oscar. After all, the Academy was biased against blockbusters, movies produced for the sole purpose of making money. And Kazir was known as a director who pursued money.

It was unknown whether they would accept The Revenant. One of the reasons they wanted to test the waters at this film festival and see what the audience reaction would be.

The logo of 20th Century Fox and Grey Pictures appeared on the screen saying that the movie had started.

[The Revenant is an epic survival drama set on the American frontier in the 1820s. The story revolves around Hugh Glass (Tom Cruise), a frontiersman and fur trapper who faces a series of harrowing challenges. The story begins with a brutal bear attack that leaves Glass badly injured. Fighting for his life, he is betrayed by his own expedition team, led by John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy).]

[Left for dead, Glass defies the odds and embarks on a treacherous journey through the unforgiving wilderness. Battling harsh weather, hostile Native American tribes, and a quest for revenge against Fitzgerald, Glass's resilience becomes a testament to the strength of the human spirit.]

[The Revenant] is a gripping tale of one man's struggle to survive against the brutality of nature and the betrayal of those he trusted, creating a visceral and emotionally charged cinematic experience.

The audience clapped at the end of the film, and Tom and Kazir were happy. Judging by the audience's reaction, the film was promising.

Well, they were both veterans of the industry and knew how to make great movies.

Since The Revenant was second to last, Femme Fatale was released after their movie ended.

While this was happening, some of the audience had already decided which movie they were going to vote for.

Movies made by Hollywood were usually high quality, and The Revenant fit the bill. They were entertained. So the audience voted for the movie.

Many expected this year's winner to be obvious. You see, many people know Tom Cruise. This actor was a superstar, famous all over the world. To make it even better, The Revenant was also a great movie.

So the winner of the People's Choice Award was undoubtedly The Revenant. There was no acceptance speech, but Kazir Grey and Tom Cruise were happy with the results. After this event, The Revenant has a good chance to be nominated for an Oscar.

++++

[Author's note: I used Chatgpt for the summary of Revenant with a little editing.]

 

[Pujimaki]

Hollywood What If Chapter 306


It was obvious that The Revenant would win the Toronto International Film Festival People's Choice Award because Hollywood movies are made to please the audience.

Even though The Revenant was made for the Oscars, Kazir made sure that the audience would like the movie as well.

This movie was actually different from the usual subjects Kazir filmed. His filmography was mostly about comedies, action and horror. His first three movies were horror movies that he already forgot.

The Revenant was more about adventure and drama, where a man tried to survive in a harsh environment.

Fortunately, Kazir knew what he had to do and he produced a great movie, he believed. The fact that the film won the People's Choice Award was enough to satisfy his ego.

Besides, the protagonist of his movie was none other than Tom Cruise, the man himself. Their tag team was enough to secure the victory.

Their victory at the Toronto International Film Festival found its way into the newspapers and people realized that the great director Grey had actually made another movie for the year.

The guy had fans all over North America and they were excited to see his movie. All of Kazir's movies were interesting and they knew the director wouldn't disappoint them.

Well, Kazir has never had a flop movie since 1995. All his movies have been successful and profitable.

After winning the People's Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, the team wanted to fight and make sure that the movie would also win awards at the Golden Globes.

Too bad, because the Berlin International Film Festival, Cannes Film Festival and Venice International Film Festival had already ended, and their movie could only participate in the Toronto International Film Festival.

Well, the crew was breathing a sigh of relief because their movie had won an award at this film festival. Winning an award was a requirement to be nominated for the Oscars.

Requirements to be nominated for the Oscars (source: Google)

1) The film must have won an award at a qualifying film festival.

OR

2) The film must have completed a one-week theatrical run in a commercial theater in a qualifying metro area (LA County, New York City, the Bay Area, Chicago, Miami or Atlanta).

In addition, the film must have been released to the public between January 1 and December 31 of the previous year.

The Revenant was already eligible, and all that is left is for the members of the Academy to vote for it to be nominated.

And for that, Salvatore Barlowe and Pat Kingsley had already prepared a PR plan.

Both Kazir and Tom were willing to spend money just to get their respective awards. Because honestly, the only way to get nominated for an Oscar was to use money and connections.

And yes, the members of the Academy could be bribed, but people don't usually give them money. They gave them gifts instead.

The Academy had to keep the image that they were partial and fair. They want to keep the 'artistry' of Hollywood, even though they cannot help but be biased sometimes.

Another fact was that Tom Cruise and Kazir Grey were actually members of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences(AMPAS).

Membership in the Academy is by sponsorship, not application. Nominees must be sponsored by two Academy members from the branch in which the nominee seeks membership. In addition, Academy Award nominees are automatically considered for membership and do not require sponsorship. (Google)

Since they were both nominated for Awards a few years ago, they were automatically members of the Academy. Obviously, they could vote for themselves and their film.

However, their two votes were not enough to secure nominations. In the first place, there were more than 9000 Academy members, so two votes didn't matter at all.

So yeah... Your vote doesn't matter at all, so stop voting, ahem... Nah, I'm just joking.

Anyway, they passed the first hurdle and their movie met the requirements to be nominated.

.........

......

...

September and October were relaxing months for Kazir. What he did in September was to attend the 12-day movie Toronto International Film Festival, but after that everything was relaxing.

He was not busy as he had already finished most of his work. Sometimes he visited the company, but most of the time he spent his days with Angelina, who was not as busy as he was.

Of course, the Big Six still found a way to annoy him. Most of them wanted to talk to him about Grey Pictures and whether he would agree to their proposals.

He was being courted by the giant studios and Kazir was waiting for the best option. He knew that the right moment would come and he just had to wait.

So far, after valuation, the net worth of Grey Pictures has risen to 7.5 billion dollars.

So 30% of his shares in the company was worth $2.25 billion. The giant studios could afford it, but it was also something that could hurt them.

In a way, it was a gamble for them as well. The difference was that once they acquired Grey Pictures, the chances of them winning were very high.

Just like that, October 31, 2002 came and The Revenant premiered. The premiere night took place at the TCL Chinese Theatre, colloquially known as Grauman's Theatre.

Since it was Halloween, some of the audience were wearing costumes, which made the event interesting.

The cast of the movie waved their hands as they stood on the red carpet. The cast of the movie was very small, it didn't even reach 20 actors.

Despite the small cast, many celebrities attended the premiere to support the movie. People like Liam Neeson, Pedro Pascal and Matt Damon showed up as guests.

In addition, many critics and some members of the Academy came to see the movie. They were invited, of course.

In fact, the critics didn't just get invitations, they got money. Obviously to promote the movie and make sure that The Revenant would have a positive reputation.

 

[Pujimaki]

Hollywood What If Chapter 307





Orlando Bloom lit a cigarette as he left the theater. He saw The Revenant and thought it was good, but not great. Perhaps the selling point was Hugh Glass wrestling with a grizzly bear, and Orlando admitted that it was terrifying.



His heart was pounding as he watched that scene. The grizzly bear was a dangerous beast and Orlando witnessed Hugh Glass almost being ripped apart by the creature.



Kazir was a great director, but that didn't mean he could always make great movies. The CCU movies and Spider-Man were great, but Kazir also directed the first John Wick and Napoleon Dynamite. Both movies were middling at the box office.



Even someone like Kazir could never get consistent box office success.



Orlando Bloom wore sunglasses despite the dark night. He was a famous actor now that Lord of the Rings had become successful. People easily recognized him, although they usually called him Legolas... This was the curse of getting unforgettable roles.



Matt Damon was known for being Jason Bourne, and people sometimes call him Jason Bourne.



Even Robert Downey Jr. was sometimes called Iron Man/Mr. Stark.



Some people recognized Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow. He was better known as Jack Sparrow.



This was the current problem that Orlando Bloom was facing. He was grateful that Lord Of The Rings was successful and he had a better position in the industry. But he also understood that his career was just beginning and he hadn't proven anything except being a good-looking guy.



He needed another role that could get him out of his predicament. He knew that The Lord of the Rings was only a trilogy and his fame would disappear once the Lord of the Rings trilogy was finished.



Smoking a cigarette, his heart stirred a little, knowing that his time in this industry would be over if he didn't do something.



He remembered his co-star Viggo Mortensen. Viggo's status in Hollywood was much better than his. Lord Of The Rings and John Wick gave the actor the opportunity to increase his salary, and now he was getting many jobs with a starting salary of $10 million. How great was that?



The Lord of the Rings may be over, but John Wick was different. This franchise could be milked for many years to come. When Viggo started to lose his clout, he could just start another John Wick movie... Orlando was jealous of that fact.



Because he didn't have a franchise to hold on to. Once he made a mistake, his career was over. The cast of CCU was very lucky because they could have jobs whenever they wanted.



"Continental Cinematic Universe..."



Orlando Bloom muttered after stepping on the cigarette he had just finished puffing.



Orlando actually had a chance to be part of the CCU, but he didn't get the part. He auditioned for the role of Wesley Gibson and he thought he had a chance, he was very excited and happy about it.



Unfortunately, Ben Affleck took the role and the result made Orlando jealous.



Actually, Orlando Bloom was also a cast member of Black Hawk Down just like Tom Hardy. But now Tom Hardy had a chance to work with director Grey and Tom Hardy's performance in The Revenant was amazing.



'Wanted and The Revenant...' Orlando shook his head.



Wanted became the 3rd movie to gross over $1 billion at the box office! It was a great movie and people loved it.



If given the chance, Orlando wanted to go back in time and correct his mistake. He didn't care if he lowered his salary to $100,000, Wanted was his gateway to stardom and he was willing to sacrifice his first salary just for that.



Now Orlando heard that Wanted 2 was in pre-production and that the director would be Fremont Smith.



Orlando could not help but sigh. He was jealous and he admitted it. This year he only had Legolas as a source of income... The amount was great, but he wanted more. You know, as a person living in the expensive city of Los Angeles, he knew he needed more money to survive.



He rented a nice apartment, but he still didn't have his own house.



He thought of signing any kind of commercial just to make more money. Shampoo commercials, shaving cream, jeans, anything that could make him money.



As he pulled into the parking lot, he noticed his phone ringing. It was from his agent. Orlando hoped it was good news.



"Frank, yeah, it's me. Hm, I just left the theater. Of course I'm wearing sunglasses... Yes, some people are confused why I'm wearing sunglasses, but they didn't bother me. What? You think I look like a junkie because I'm wearing sunglasses? Nonsense, with my handsome face, no one will think that. So? What's the reason you called me late at night?"



Orlando had just opened his car when his agent told him something interesting.



"A script? What kind of script? A pirate movie!? Frank, I know I only started acting 5 years ago, but that doesn't mean I'm clueless. I know that pirate movies are cursed movies, no one in Hollywood is crazy enough to make this genre. So why did you even tell me about this useless pirate script?"



Orlando's brow furrowed because his agent called him for something useless.



But the next statement his agent said to him caught his attention.



"You're not kidding, are you? Director Grey wrote the script and he wants me to audition for a role?"



When Orlando heard this, his attention was immediately rekindled.



He knew that pirate movies were bad, so he wanted to read the script before doing anything. However, he admitted that he was interested in working with Kazir Grey.



He got into his car and decided to go to the WMA headquarters to talk to his agent and read the script. By the way, WMA stands for William Morris Agency and everyone knows that Kazir and WMA had some bad blood...



[author]


[Author's note: It's the first day of the month and you know what that means... I want to promote my Patreon and Ko-fi. If you want to read more chapters, you can subscribe to my Patreon of Ko-fi. Some supporters can't use Patreon, they can use Ko-fi as an alternative].

[By the way, I don't recommend people to subscribe using the iOS app if you want to subscribe in any Patreon creator because Apple extort 30% of the payment].

P@treon link: https://www.patreon.com/Puji_maki



Ko-fi link: https://ko-fi.com/pujimaki



[/author]

 

[Pujimaki]

Hollywood What If Chapter 308


The Revenant was released in North America and its premiere was held at the TCL Chinese Theater. Many celebrities attended the premiere. Film critics were curious if Kazir had what it takes to make an art film. Because let's face it, Kazir was best at making box office hits, but definitely not art films that focused more on human psychology.

The critics knew the reason why CAA invited them to this premiere, they were not stupid. Grey Pictures rarely invited so many critics to a premiere, they usually invited 5 to 10 critics and these people were usually not that famous.

But now the situation was very obvious. Kazir Grey asked for help so that this movie would get positive reviews. He wanted to be nominated for the Oscars, maybe compete for the Best Director Award.

Kazir had already won Best Original Screenplay, the highest award a scriptwriter can get. And now the great director wanted to get Best Director. Well, with his race as a card, he might get a chance...

The critics watched the movie and were surprised that Kazir changed his usual style. There were no hype action scenes or heart-stopping fights.

Still, the critics felt that the movie was too mainstream... You see, movie critics really hate mainstream movies. As long as the people like the movies, the movie critics would hate them.

Movie critics hate any kind of movie that does well at the box office. And from the looks of it, this movie might do well at the box office.

Fortunately, CAA, Grey Pictures and even Tom Cruise worked together and gave them "gifts" so it would be bad if they wrote anything negative. If they broke their promise and wrote something bad, then they would never be invited and no more "gifts" would be given.

The movie ended and the audience reaction was good, but not great. After all, The Revenant was different from Spider-Man and Wanted. The Revenant lacked heart-pounding scenes, perhaps the movie's selling point was Hugh Glass wrestling a grizzly bear.

Tom Cruise really took this role just for a nomination, huh? The actor even has a beard and never shows off his handsome face. He looked old in this historically accurate movie.

The interview followed. While the TCL's Chinese Theater had its premiere, the other theaters all over North America started their rounds of screenings.

.........

......

...

The Santa Clause 2 was a movie produced and distributed by Walt Disney. It was a heartwarming movie about Santa Claus and his family. You know, the usual formula of Disney movies. A movie the whole family could enjoy.

The movie had a budget of 65 million dollars and Walt Disney believed that this movie would do well at the box office... The company suffered a huge loss after the release of John Carter. At the time, executives wanted to roast Michael Eisner alive.

Unfortunately for them, The Santa Clause 2 had a strong opponent.

Both The Revenant and The Santa Clause 2 were released on the same day. The Santa Clause 2 had an opening of 3,350 theaters while The Revenant had 3,375 theaters.

The two seemed promising because the former was a sequel while the latter was directed by a famous director and the male lead was a superstar.

24 hours later (November 1, 2002), the results were tallied.

The Santa Clause 2 grossed $7.51 million at the box office. A good start, Walt Disney thought this movie would have a lower box office since its competitor was The Revenant.

The Revenant grossed $15.90 million. Compared to Wanted and Spider-Man, both of which grossed over $30 million on their first day, The Revenant was very weak. Perhaps that is why The Santa Clause 2 had room to breathe.

For Grey Pictures and Tom Cruise, this result was already in line with their expectations. The Revenant was not meant for the public, it was an autobiographical film for the purpose of competing at the Oscars.

Three days after the premiere, which was Friday, November 3, the results of the two movies were counted again.

Only these two movies were promising that were released this week, and they did well at the box office. Everything else that was released this week was mediocre and didn't make enough money.

The Santa Clause 2 grossed $29 million after three days in theaters. It came in second place this week.

As for The Revenant, the movie got the first place this week as the highest grossing movie with $41.38 million.

.........

......

...

"Congratulations on your new movie, it's an interesting one. I thought you were doing another action movie this year. Don't worry, I'll be sure to vote for you."

"Thanks George, that's great to hear." Kazir appreciated it, having the support of a famous director like George Lucas was an honor.

Tonight, 20th Century Fox and LucasFilm threw a party to celebrate the success of Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Clones. After six months in theaters worldwide, the film has grossed $656 million at the box office.

Normally, Kazir didn't like going to parties, but he had no choice. He had to attend at least one party a week. Hollywood was always active and parties were everywhere, Kazir just didn't like to attend them.

In fact, Kazir received so many invitations, but he rarely attended unless he was close to the person in question.

He was never the party type. It was a miracle if he even entered a formal party, let alone one filled with drugs and naked people. Kazir did not feel comfortable at those kinds of parties. He would rather watch the 3 hours of The Godfather. At least that movie was worth seeing.

"Let's talk later, I have to greet some people."

"See you George."

George Lucas apologized after their conversation. The director also had a lot of people to greet.

 

[Pujimaki]

Hollywood What If Chapter 309


The reason why he went to this party was because some members of the Academy would be there. This was the time to make a better impression so that they would vote for him. So far, he had already met 8 members of the Academy. This was a tiring night for him as he was not an outgoing type.

Also, Angelina was busy tonight because a magazine hired her to model.

Tom Cruise was also absent, the actor was at another party tonight. Even though CAA supported the two, it was better that they did their parts.

If there was one thing that made Kazir uncomfortable, it was the fact that an old man almost touched his butt. Kazir dodged the act and stepped back before the old man could squeeze his ass...

There were a lot of gays and lesbians in this industry, but Kazir didn't expect this kind of sexual harassment to almost happen to him.

'Brendan Fraser, your life has never been easy. I understand why you suffered from long-term depression. These people have no respect for you.' He sighed.

For the record, Brendan Fraser was a victim of sexual assault. In fact, there were a lot of unreasonable and obnoxious people in this industry. They thought they were the king of the world just because they had a high position in the industry, they thought they could bully people.

If something like that happened to Kazir, he knew what to do, he would break the old man's jaw without hesitation.

'Although it might hurt my chances of getting a nomination. But I'll never be bullied like that, then fuck the Oscars.'

The old man realized his mistake and left. Kazir decided to let it go since nothing was going to happen anyway.

"Um, good evening, director."

Kazir turned to find a young woman staring at him. The woman was blushing, perhaps because she was holding a wineglass of alcohol.

From the looks of it, the woman was already 21, which was the legal drinking age in California.

The woman in question was none other than Natalie Portman, the Padme Amidala of Star Wars.

"Hi. We met last time, right?"

Kazir recalled meeting her when he visited Industrial Light & Magic.

"I'm Natalie Portman, nice to meet you." The actress gave the sweetest smile she could and seemed very sweet and cute. The young actress extended her hand for a handshake, which was quite trembling.

"Nice to meet you too."

Kazir shook her hand.

"I'm a fan and I've seen all your movies, even your horror movies like The Haunted Potatoes and Zombie Pajama Dance Party--"

"Okay, okay, you don't have to list them all."

He stopped the woman immediately because he was never proud of his horror movies... They were something he didn't want to remember.

Hearing their titles, Kazir wanted to drown himself in embarrassment. In fact, he also wanted to forget a certain horror movie that Sony-Colombia was still trying to acquire from him. Kazir wrote the script back in 1994 when he was thinking about his first movie after his regression. He listed a lot of horror movies, but decided on Napoleon Dynamite instead.

Kazir was talking about Final Destination. In this timeline, Final Destination was never made. Kazir used his knowledge and wrote a lot of scripts to horde, so Final Destination never saw the light of day.

Recently, Sony-Colombia and New Line Cinema tried to contact him about the script... Kazir just didn't want to do it because his feelings about horror movies were complicated.

It was the genre he had pursued but not succeeded in. He could sell scripts, but horror movies were a different story.

Funny, because he didn't know why he had that feeling.

"Can this be called trauma?" he asked himself.

New Line Cinema bought Se7en from him and they were interested in Final Destination because it was a movie that had a good chance of becoming a franchise with at least a trilogy.

In fact, New Line Cinema regrets that they ended Se7en with only one movie. Maybe if they consulted with Kazir, the director would come up with something interesting.

"Huh? Oh yeah, I understand director." Natalie Portman was confused as to why Kazir was ashamed of his filmography, but she decided to let it go.

"Um... Umm..." Natalie didn't really have anything in mind to talk to Kazir about.

She was a little drunk and her body just decided to greet Kazir after seeing him. The best greeting she could have planned was to start the conversation by saying that she was a fan and listing all his movies to show that she was a real fan.

But her plan failed and now her brain was trying to process the best move after that.

"I'm a fan..." That was all she could say and her face turned red.

"Thank you, Natalie. I also like your acting in Star Wars and Leon: The Professional."

Leon: The Professional was Natalie Portman's debut film, and she has been getting steady work in the industry ever since.

Natalie was of Jewish descent, which is probably one of the reasons why she has had a steady career.

"I-I, this is my card. Please call me, I mean, please call me if you have a suitable role for me. Director, I want to work with you." She stuttered, she knew she was not doing well in this conversation.

"Okay, Natalie." Kazir accepted her card. He didn't mind Natalie's comments because he thought it was because of the alcohol.

"I think you should stop drinking and contact your agent or parents instead."

From the looks of it, Natalie was still not used to drinking alcohol.

"Yes... Yes!" Natalie left embarrassed, scampering like a cute little hamster.

Kazir put the card in his pocket, he was not sure if he would contact Natalie since he had no role for a young actress like her at the moment. His next project was Pirates of the Caribbean, and Grey Pictures had already contacted the actors who had major roles in that franchise.

Yes, Kazir was confident that this movie would become a franchise.

 

[Pujimaki]

Hollywood What If Chapter 310


Since the release of The Revenant, the cast has obviously had to promote the movie. Kazir Grey and Tom Cruise understood that they would be busy for the next few months. They have to promote the movie while meeting with Academy members, basically begging for their votes.

It may sound bad, but it was true that the outcome of the Oscars would be determined by the members of the Academy.

So while the cast of The Revenant was traveling back and forth between Canada and the United States, their respective PR teams began their work.

The PR teams were paid by Kazir and Tom, they invested a lot of money just for the nominations. They knew it would be impossible to compete at the Oscars without spending money.

.........

......

...

Martin Ariel sighed as he stretched his sore back. He was too old to move, but he couldn't sit still all day without doing something. So he decided to check his mail.

He was surprised to see that someone had actually sent him a thick letter.

"Ah, is it that time already? It's still November."

Martin Ariel was an old veteran director who retired a decade ago. He had been nominated for the Best Director Award in the 60s. Since then he has been a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). He was still part of the committee that voted on the nominations. He had the power to list the movies he wanted to nominate.

Every once in a while he would get some packages from Hollywood. He knew that this kind of thing was not allowed because it was an obvious bribe.

However, the PR teams usually identified these as nothing more than "gifts". Of course you had to accept the gifts, why are you so bitter?

Gifts were a common thing, and everyone had an agreement to keep quiet about it. At least they received gifts every year.

Martin returned to his house and decided to open the "gifts". It was four tickets for The Revenant, which would expire in two weeks.

"As expected..." Martin shook his head. Giving money was not allowed, but sending gifts was allowed, especially gifts related to the nominated movie.

"Well, my grandchildren might like it. These tickets are for The Revenant? Hmm, Director Grey? Who is this person? Never heard of him. Maybe I will ask my grandchildren about this movie."

Spoiler alert, Martin's grandchildren were all fans of Kazir Grey, and they were happy that Martin had given them four tickets.

Martin was old, and he was happy to see his grandchildren happy. So he decided to vote for The Revenant to get it nominated. Of course, it also depends on how the other committee members would vote for The Revenant.

.........

......

...

"This is interesting..." Kazir muttered after sipping a hot coffee in the morning.

He was in an expensive hotel room because he had a local TV interview last night.

While reading the newspaper, Kazir noticed some interesting news.

Apparently, News Corporation had decided to buy Marvel Comics. As for the details, Kazir had no idea how the negotiations went.

Such a thing had never happened in his previous life, and he understood that he was one of the factors in the outcome.

Instead of being acquired by Walt Disney, this time Marvel Comics was acquired by News Corporation.

"Is this one of the reasons why 20th Century Fox is keeping quiet?"

So far, four major studios have tried to acquire Grey Pictures. Only Universal Pictures and 20th Century Fox remained silent.

Universal Pictures had an obvious reason, Grey Pictures never really liked the company.

But 20th Century Fox was different. Grey Pictures and 20th Century Fox were very close. In fact, the current distributor of their films was 20th Century Fox.

'I think Tom Rothman is going to leave Fox this year or early next year. Someone will take over as CEO of 20th Century.'

With this acquisition, Kazir realized that 20th Century Fox could start its own Cinematic Universe with Marvel Comics... Though there were some problems.

Most of the known Marvel characters were in the hands of Grey Pictures. Marvel Comics would have to buy back the copyrights if they wanted to start a successful Cinematic Universe.

Or Marvel Comics could create another batch of superheroes and use them as movie characters, but this method had a low chance of success.

The reason Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, and the X-Men were successful in the first place was because they were famous.

Kazir stood up and looked out the window. The city was very foggy, even though it was early in the morning.

"Was Washington this foggy, or perhaps this very city was a foggy one?" He wondered.

Suddenly his cell phone on the table started ringing.

At first he thought it was Angelina Jolie, because his girlfriend liked to call him in the morning when they were apart. He laughed and grabbed the phone.

His smile faded when he realized it was not Angelina.

"Hello, Salvatore? Is there a problem? Huh, me? Yes, I'm in Washington right now... Okay, I'll be back in Los Angeles today."

His expression became serious. It seemed he was wrong this time. 20th Century Fox was still interested in Grey Pictures, they were just going after the weakest link first.

Kazir heard from Salvatore Barlowe that Tom Rothman wanted to talk to him personally. They wanted to negotiate with him about Grey Pictures. From the looks of it, News Corporation was the one that wanted to make this venture happen.

Grey Pictures and 20th Century Fox could do a stock swap and both sides would make a deal to distribute the films.

Kazir contacted Tom Cruise and the rest of the cast and told him he had to return to Los Angeles. Tom Cruise didn't have a problem, but Kazir had to promise to attend at least one party a week. You have to communicate with people, especially Academy members, to get nominated.

+++++

[Author's Note]

[I can't remember if Martin Ariel is a real person or an original character. Anyway, I'm here again to promote my novel because my brother's exam is coming up and we have a bill to pay... I apologize if I have to beg people on the internet to help me pay our bills. I'm a shameless person and I have to do it because I have to. You may think I'm using my brother as an excuse to siphon off money, but I'm not. I'm not doing it for me, I'm doing it for the betterment of my family.]

[I won't lie, I'm actually proud of myself because I helped fix our roof and our house. Also, our house now has tiles and a shower... If you're a Filipino (poor Filipino to be precise), you'll understand how happy we are whenever we have a chance to use a shower. And now our house has shower too! I can shower every day now! I'm really happy about this little success.]

[Haha, galawang squatter. Tuwang tuwa kapag may shower!]

[All this happened because you supported me. There's even pictures of our roof in my Patreon if you want to see it, I posted it a year ago.]

[If you subscribed to my Patreon or Ko-fi, you can read up to chapter 478. If you use math-thingy, it means you can read 168 advanced chapters. Thanks guys, your support means a lot to me.]

P@treon link: https://www.patreon.com/Puji_maki

Ko-fi link: https://ko-fi.com/pujimaki

 

[Pujimaki]

Hollywood What If Chapter 311


Dealing with something as big as the acquisition of a billion-dollar company was something to be taken seriously.

Kazir knew how important this venture was. He was tired of trying to find a distributor every few years. He wanted a stable partner to distribute his films worldwide.

Honestly, sometimes Kazir thought about buying distribution channels instead so that his problem would be gone. But he also knew that this was just a dream. First of all, acquiring and maintaining distribution channels costs a lot of money.

Not even Grey Pictures or Kazir Grey had the financial means to do that. Unless they got a loan from the bank, but that would be detrimental to their upcoming plans. Remember, Grey Pictures wanted to make two successful Cinematic Universes. The first was the CCU and the second was the MCU.

The MCU was actually only a second thought. But it seemed that Kazir was now interested in making it happen.

The competition for Grey Pictures intensified now that 20th Century Fox had entered the fray.

That fact alone increased the net worth of Grey Pictures to $8 billion. And why? Because 20th Century Fox made them a higher offer than the others could match.

Previously, Sony-Columbia had been willing to trade 2.3% of its stock for 30% of Grey Pictures.

But 20th Century Fox was different, they would pay $300 million to buy 3.75% of Grey Pictures. Not only that, but 20th Century Fox would exchange 3.38% stock for another 30% of Grey Pictures.

The net worth of 20th Century Fox was $71 billion. That means that 3.38% of the stock was worth $2.40 billion.

If the deal went through, 20th Century Fox would own 33.75% of Grey Pictures.

If this was a normal acquisition, 20th Century Fox wanted to buy the company outright, but they knew that would be detrimental to their plan because the real value of Grey Pictures was Kazir Grey. So they stopped at that amount.

"So I get $300 million and 3.38% stock?" Kazir asked curiously. That was not bad. Especially when 20th Century Fox promised that Kazir would get $300 million in cash in one payment...

He really didn't know what to do with that amount of money. Maybe he would invest it in stocks... Or maybe buy a mansion or an island in the Pacific.

"That's right." Vance Goodhood nodded. He had been Kazir's financial advisor long before the dot-com bubble burst. Vance worked for Goldman Sachs now, and Kazir was still his client.

For this job, Vance and his small team of elites would receive a 4% commission when he closed the deal.

Kazir would be a major shareholder in 20th Century Fox, if this acquisition went through. He had the power to be part of the board of directors and make a decision for himself and 20th Century Fox.

The largest shareholder was still Rupert Murdoch, and the guy had just bought Marvel Comics last week.

"Vance, I think we know where this is going," Kazir grinned.

"I understand." Vance understood immediately.

20th Century Fox was lighting the dynamite, and that dynamite would affect the other major studios. Even if one of them was interested and increased the offer, it would be great for Grey Pictures.

"Secretly spread the word that 20th Century Fox is willing to buy 30% of Grey Pictures for $300 million and 3.38% stock. I know Goldman Sachs had their ways of making it look like this information didn't come from us."

It was actually 33%, but that little difference didn't matter, did it?

"I understand."

The two shook hands. This was an important deal that Vance didn't want to miss.

Just three days after 20th Century Fox extended its willingness to partner with Grey Pictures, rumors began to circulate in Hollywood that 20th Century Fox was willing to buy 30% of Grey Pictures for $350 million and 3.50% of the stock.

Apparently, Goldman Sachs upped the ante for their own agenda... Bigger numbers mean bigger commissions.

Kazir just chuckled when he heard the news and decided to go back to bed. Angelina, who was in bed, giggled when she saw how active Kazir was lately. The guy was satisfying her in and out of the bedroom.

As everyone expected, one of the Big Six also made an offer. It was none other than the desperate Walt Disney. This company had lost a huge amount of money this year, but it seemed they were willing to bleed even more just to acquire Grey Pictures.

Chairman Eisner called Kazir personally. The old man offered him a seat on the board, he would also receive $375 million and 2.4% of Walt Disney stock. Keep in mind that Walt Disney's net worth was $105 billion.

Those 2.4% shares were worth $2.52 billion.

If Kazir's calculation was correct, then Walt Disney's offer was higher.

20th Century Fox offered only $300 million plus 3.38% stock ($2.40 billion).

As for What Disney, it was ready to give Kazir $375 million plus 2.4% shares ($2.52 billion.).

Now, 20th Century Fox could withdraw from the competition because something happened and their offer was leaked. But it seemed that 20th Century Fox was also serious about Grey Pictures.

Instead of stopping, they continued to contact Grey Pictures and Goldman Sachs about the matter.

.........

......

...

While this was happening, November was slowly passing by. 8 Mile starring Eminem was released on November 8th and did well.

8 Mile grossed $51.24 million in its first weekend. By that time, The Revenant had already grossed $95.70 million. The Revenant was close to $100 million.

However, a lot of people knew that The Revenant's third week gross would be affected. Why was that? Because Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets would be released on November 15th.

That movie was one of the most anticipated movies of the year. Surely the sequel would make a lot of money at the box office.

+++++

[Author's Note: I know that my pricing for the net worth of the Big Six are far from reality. Sad to say, I can't edit it anymore because the whole math-thingy in the next 50 chapters will be affected.]

 

[Pujimaki]

Hollywood What If Chapter 312


Since Harry Potter had a loyal fan base all over North America, it was obvious that many people wanted to see the sequel. Especially since the first movie was a huge success, grossing $974 million at the box office.

Realizing the potential of this franchise, Warner Brothers decided to help J.K. Rowling expand the influence of Harry Potter. The novels were published in many countries and promoted in front of many bookstores.

This was one of the methods to ensure that the Harry Potter franchise would be successful at the box office. Warner Brothers was not cheap when it came to investing in the second film.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets cost $100 million.

The release date arrived and many theaters were filled with moviegoers. Most of them were young people who had seen the first movie or read the novels.

At that time (2002), J.K. Rowling had already written 4 novels and this was the foundation of the success of the franchise, a complete source material to use... Unlike some authors who could not finish their novels.

George R.R. Martin failed to finish A Song of Ice and Fire before Game of Thrones season 8 ended... Probably one of the reasons why the last season was disappointing was that there was no source material to use.

So for the writers who were struggling to finish their novels, they had to stop procrastinating and keep writing, no matter how shitty the writing was. Because that was the only way to finish their novel, to keep writing.

On November 15, 2002, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets grossed $29.63 million in just 24 hours.

Audiences didn't leave the theaters disappointed, the second film did well. There were a lot of cuts since the movie could not include all the content of the book, but it was still entertaining.

Word of mouth was influential as many people recommended the movie to their friends and family.

The first weekend of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets ended with $88.35 million. An amazing performance. As expected from Harry Potter, one of the biggest movie franchises in the history of cinema.

Even the first weekend of The Revenant could not compare to Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. The Revenant's first weekend grossed only $41 million.

Some articles made fun of Kazir Grey because of this result. His movie this year was nothing compared to Harry Potter.

Kazir's last two movies grossed over $1 billion at the box office and the expectations for his next movie were higher.

However, Kazir Grey decided to deliver a biopic movie. The movie had its highlights, but it was mediocre compared to Wanted and Spider-Man.

For some people, art was important. For others, the box office was more important.

In this situation, Kazir decided to focus more on the art because his goal for The Revenant was to win at the Oscars. As long as The Revenant was not a box office flop, it was fine.

As of this writing, The Revenant has already grossed $115.57 million. The total budget for The Revenant was $135 million, plus the promotional budget.

Even though the box office hasn't surpassed the budget yet, The Revenant has already done well, and only fools would believe that The Revenant is a flop.

If some newspapers bashed Kazir, most film critics praised the director instead.

The Revenant was different from the usual movies Kazir made. It was inspiring to see someone as talented as Kazir step away from mainstream genres.

Biopics are based on real people and real events, sometimes not historically accurate, but it still sends the message.

One week after the release of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, 007: Die Another Day was released by MGM. The movie grossed $47.07 in its first weekend.

Unfortunately, the box office champion of the week was still Harry Potter, as the movie grossed $148.35 million after ten days in theaters.

No promising movies were released after 007: Die Another Day and the days passed by until December arrived.

Grey Pictures was already preparing most of the props for Kazir's next project. Kazir Grey, Tom Cruise and the cast of The Revenant were out of the country promoting the film internationally. Harold Witsend was in charge of prepping Pirates of the Caribbean while Kazir was gone.

They spent almost three weeks flying around promoting the movie.

Of course, Kazir and Tom would return to Los Angeles on December 19, as the Golden Globes would announce the nominations for the 60th Golden Globes Awards.

The Academy Awards and the Golden Globes were highly respected in the industry.

On December 18, the day before the Golden Globes nominations were announced, the last most anticipated film of the year was released. It was none other than The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.

Just like Harry Potter, this franchise has gathered so many fans after the success of the first movie.

Both Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings were adaptations of novels. In this case, it shows that novels should be taken seriously. Because they can be an important source of profit.

The first 24-hour box office for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers grossed $26.15 million. New Line Cinema and Warner Brothers were the clear winners this year.

While the opening day results of Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers was released, the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California was packed with people, and these people were mostly celebrities and people who worked in Hollywood.

Kazir and Tom were sitting at a table, laughing and talking. They looked professional in their tuxedos.

Everyone was waiting for the announcement.

+++++

[I know it's not related, but I've already finished a novel with over 500 chapters. I say I'm not one of those writers who can't finish a story because I've already finished one... I will also make sure to finish this novel as long as I'm alive. So yeah, thanks for all the support. ]

 

[Pujimaki]

Hollywood What If Chapter 313


The party was not that extravagant. In the first place, they would only stay in this place for at least an hour. They were just waiting for the nominations to be announced. There were few fruits to munch on and drinks to get tipsy.

Most of the personalities attending the meeting were part of the movies that have strong contenders to be nominated. The Golden Globes may be a level lower than the Academy Awards, but it was still a prestigious institution.

Tom Cruise has won Golden Globes in the past. Most of the time, the Golden Globes were like the People's Choice Award.

The Golden Globes, like the Oscars, favors art films, but the winners and nominations could be influenced.

The voters who decide the winners are all entertainment journalists for recognized media organizations... So yes, they could be bribed.

Kazir and Tom didn't forget about this ceremony, they also spent some time and money to convince people to nominate them.

CAA, Grey Pictures, Tom's PR team and even 20th Century Fox got involved. 20th Century Fox was the current distributor of The Revenant, and they would be happy to see the movie win awards, which could increase box office and DVD sales. Another reason was that 20th Century Fox wanted to score points with Kazir.

If Kazir won the Best Director award, he might come to an agreement with 20th Century Fox.

So far, the highest bidder was Sony-Colombia, which offered $2.70 billion for 30% of Grey Pictures. Kazir was waiting until next year to make a decision.

Since Kazir and Tom were at the meeting, their partners were also there.

Angelina Jolie sat next to Kazir, while Penelope Cruz sat next to Tom Cruise... Now that you think about it, Tom and Penelope have almost the same last names.

The two women seemed to have a good relationship, there was no reason to be angry with each other. They even talked about going shopping this weekend.

Tom Cruise thought they would get nominations tonight, so he invited Kazir to go fishing in the ocean later. Tom Cruise had a yacht they could use.

"It all depends on whether we get nominated."

"Come on Kazir, don't be so negative. We both know we will be nominated. You were even nominated six years ago in the Best Director category for Taken."

"I didn't attend the nominations or the award ceremony because I knew I wouldn't win," Kazir muttered... Actually, he forgot. He didn't even remember who won that year. He was too busy to even think about winning an award.

Maybe Kazir never took the Golden Globes seriously.

"But this time I think we have a chance," Tom told him and Kazir nodded. Their movie and their performance was better this time... The fact that Taken won Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay was very puzzling. Well, it was true that the movie influenced a positive movement in society, so it deserved to win the awards.

And this time Kazir and Tom were prepared. They didn't mind spending money as long as they got their long-awaited awards. The two were rich anyway.

"Babe," Angelina whispered in Kazir's ear. "If you don't get a nomination, I'll do my best to make you happy tonight." She giggled weakly and kissed him on the cheek.

Kazir smiled and nodded his head. He knew that the Golden Globes were not their goal, so even if he didn't get a nomination, it would be okay. But it would be a different matter if he didn't get nominated for the Academy Awards. That would mean that all his hard work was for nothing.

"Tch, she's coming," Penelope muttered and everyone understood what she meant.

The four saw a tall and beautiful woman approach their table... It was none other than Nicole Kidman.

Tom Cruise kept his jovial smile on, but it was clear that he didn't like the fact that Nicole was getting closer.

"Our divorce just ended and now you're dating someone." Nicole smiled. She was also there to hear the nominations.

"Nicole, we are already divorced. I'm allowed to date whoever I want."

"I'm not even sure you were faithful to me before we divorced. I'm sure you met this woman before our divorce."

Nicole Kidman was here for her role as Virginia Woolf in The Hours. The movie had a chance to be nominated and possibly win some awards. By the way, The Hours was produced by Miramax Films.

"Nicole, you don't want to make a scene here."

As expected, Harvey Weinstein showed up. He turned to Tom's table and glanced at Kazir before eyeing Nicole, who returned to her seat.

Nicole Kidman was composed and smiled as she excused herself. For some reason, however, she seemed indignant.

Harvey Weinstein then left. He didn't bother to say hello to Tom or Kazir. Miramax never made a big investment, so it was impossible to hire someone like Tom Cruise.

Miramax was good at making art films and their films won many awards every year. Miramax basically cracked the code in winning Awards, or maybe Harvey Weinstein's influence in the Oscars was strong.

Maybe Kazir Grey and Harvey Weinstein would have a face-off at the Oscars. Because both of their movies had a chance to compete at the Oscars.

Some celebrities watched the scene but kept their silence. They hoped that something interesting would happen, but they were disappointed when Nicole Kidman left after a few minutes. Nicole and Tom's separation was never peaceful and many rumors were circulating.

Kazir didn't care, because he knew that Tom Cruise would remain popular in the 2020s. The actor was still healthy when the old Kazir died in a road accident.

As for Nicole Kidman... Let's just say that her popularity was nothing compared to Tom Cruise's.

This little scene ended and the people responsible for the announcement appeared.

 

[Pujimaki]

Hollywood What If Chapter 314


The list was this:

--------------------------

[BEST PICTURE]

Chicago – Martin Richards, producers

Gangs of New York – Alberto Grimaldi and Harvey Weinstein, producers

The Hours – Scott Rudin and Robert Fox, producers

The Revenant – Kazir Grey, Harold Witsend, producers

The Pianist – Roman Polanski, Robert Bunmussa, and Alain Sarde, producers

----------------------------

[BEST DIRECTOR]

Roman Polanski – The Pianist

Rob Marshall – Chicago

Martin Scorsese – Gangs of New York

Stephen Daldry – The Hours

Kazir Grey – The Revenant

-----------------------

[BEST ACTOR]

Adrien Brody – The Pianist as Władysław Szpilman

Nicolas Cage – Adaptation as Charlie Kaufman / Donald Kaufman

Tom Cruise – The Revenant as Hugh Glass

Daniel Day-Lewis – Gangs of New York as Bill "The Butcher" Cutting

Jack Nicholson – About Schmidt as Warren R. Schmidt

--------------------------

[BEST ACTRESS]

Nicole Kidman – The Hours as Virginia Woolf

Salma Hayek – Frida as Frida Kahlo

Diane Lane – Unfaithful as Constance "Connie" Sumner

Julianne Moore – Far from Heaven as Cathy Whitaker

Renée Zellweger – Chicago as Roxie Hart

----------------------------

[BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY]

The Pianist – Ronald Harwood (based on the book by Władysław Szpilman)

About a Boy – Peter Hedges, Chris Weitz, and Paul Weitz (based on the book by Nick Hornby)

Adaptation – Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman (based on the book The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean)

Chicago – Bill Condon (based on the play by Maurine Dallas Watkins)

The Revenant – Kazir Grey (based on the book The Revenant by Michael Punke)

------------------------

Aside from that, there were still a lot of awards that the Golden Globes offered, such as Best Supporting Actor/Actress, Best Makeup, Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing, Best Animated Short, etc.

From the looks of it, The Revenant was nominated for four major awards. The film was also nominated for Best Film Editing and Best Costume Design. In total, the movie was nominated for six awards. Something to celebrate.

Getting nominations was an accomplishment in itself. Note that only a few select films could get nominations, and The Revenant was nominated in six categories.

The crew of The Revenant had a reason to celebrate this week... Yeah, another party to mingle with, something Kazir was uncomfortable with. Well, a party was a way for him to communicate with the other Academy members. CAA and Grey Pictures must have a lot of people to invite.

And yes, Nicole Kidman also received a nomination. The actress was happy, of course. Like I said, getting a nomination was already an accomplishment. To get one was already a hard thing to do.

Out of all the movies, Chicago got the most nominations with 13 nominations in different categories. By the way, this movie was produced by Miramax...

Gangs Of The New York came in second with 10 nominations. And yes, this movie was also produced by Miramax.

The Hours came in third with 9 nominations... surprise, surprise, this movie was also produced by Miramax.

Wow.

The Pianist received seven nominations. It was not produced by Miramax because the director of this movie was Roman Polanski and the guy was not allowed to set foot on the soil of the United States... Frankly, it was a mystery how he got nominated in the first place.

Frida was another movie produced by Miramax and it got 6 nominations. Obviously Miramax was doing some kind of quantitative shit to make sure they had a chance to win awards in different categories. Despicable.

Road to Perdition also got 6 nominations and was produced by DreamWorks Pictures.

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers also received 6 nominations and was produced by New Line Cinema.

The Revenant, produced by Grey Pictures and distributed by 20th Century Fox, also received 6 nominations.

Other films received 4 and 2 nominations.

Tonight was pretty satisfying for a lot of people. Although Harvey Weinstein was a little disappointed that The Hours wasn't nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay. Well, at least a lot of their movies have more nominations than The Revenant. Harvey Weinstein felt good knowing that.

As for Kazir, he was happy too. Having 6 nominations was an accomplishment. He didn't even care about the other movies that were nominated. He was just happy tonight.

After this brief celebration, Tom and Kazir parted ways. Kazir sensed that Penelope Cruz was uncomfortable because Nicole Kidman was nominated for Best Actress. They were both actresses, but Nicole Kidman had already been nominated in prestigious institutions like the Golden Globes.

..........

.......

...

December 19 just passed, and more people were interested in Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers than the nominations for the Golden Globes. They were only nominations anyway. That day (Thursday), The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers earned another $13.87 million.

On Friday(December 20), which usually has a strong box office, the movie made another $19.22 million.

On Saturday (December 21), another $22.75 million was added to the box office.

On Sunday (December 22), the film made $20.03 million.

Combined with the first day's $26.15 million, The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers has grossed $102.04 million. The movie had a midnight premiere on Tuesday, so the box office was huge.

A movie could have a premiere any day of the week. Most people just premiered their movies on Thursday at midnight to maximize their box office performance. Because Friday through Sunday had the highest number of moviegoers.

From the looks of it, the champion this year was Warner Brothers, since they technically own New Line Cinema... Second place might be taken by Grey Pictures/20th Century Fox.

Even though Grey Pictures only released three movies this year, they have already crossed the $1 billion mark.

+++++

[Hey, I just want to promote my Pat reon and Ko-fi. For $10 you can read 171 chapters of HWI and other content about my Pat reon and Ko-fi].

P@treon link: https://www.patreon.com/Puji_maki

Ko-fi link: https://ko-fi.com/pujimaki

 

[Pujimaki]

Hollywood What If Chapter 315


December was the last month of the year... Many people already knew that. This month was merry because you know, Christmas. And next month would be happy because, you know, New Year's... Ahem.

While many families were preparing for Christmas, Grey Pictures had a Christmas party to celebrate their success this year. They had a party on December 21, and a lot of workers attended the party, because the company spent a lot of money on this party... Too bad, because Kazir was never a fan of party drugs. The party was too formal.

Some of the crew members used drugs, and Kazir couldn't stop people from doing what they wanted. As long as he didn't see them doing it, he never reprimanded them.

Of course, he didn't tolerate that kind of behavior in his crew either.

Grey Pictures released three films this year, but their revenues exceeded $1 billion. The company was an A-list production studio at that point.

The Revenant was nominated for many awards at the Golden Globes. The movie was released on October 31, 2002. Currently, the film has grossed more than $169.57 million after 52 days at the North American box office.

Also, the international box office for The Revenant was approximately $173.52 million. The total worldwide gross was $343.09 million.

International distribution was much faster now because of technological advances. Back then, production studios had to move tons of film reels and distribute them across the country.

Then, when the local run was over, the Big Six (the six studios that can distribute movies internationally) would pick up all the film reels and send them to other countries. Sometimes they have to make thousands of copies and send more internationally.

However, the invention of memory cards/SD cards and DVD discs changed the way studios distributed their movies. Film reels were thick and heavy, but memory cards and DVD discs were small, thinner and lighter. This made distribution much easier and the cost much lower.

Once the Internet became the norm, distributing movies worldwide would be a click away. But that was another story.

So far, there was a rumor that 20th Century Fox intended to release X-Men 2 in 25 countries on the same day. This would change the game even more. Releasing movies worldwide on the same day would no longer be a dream.

The second movie released by Grey Pictures was Mr. And Mrs. Smith. It premiered on August 7, 2002.

The movie completed its worldwide release after five months. Mr. And Mrs. Smith grossed $487.28 million. Too bad, because the movie didn't cross the $500 million mark before it was put down by theaters. But honestly, that amount was already amazing.

Just like Mr. And Mrs. Smith, The Bourne Supremacy finished its worldwide run and the movie grossed $710.68 million. An amazing performance. The performance was affected positively because of the death of its creator, Robert Ludlum.

Sequels to a successful movie usually do better at the box office because there was already a fan base for the movie.

In the case of The Bourne Supremacy, the series was part of the Continental Cinematic Universe and the whole franchise was very hot at the moment.

This had a positive effect on the performance of The Bourne Supremacy. Some fans were even hoping that John Wick or Bryan Mills would face off in the next film. That would be exciting to watch.

The Revenant has now grossed over $343.09 million!

Mr. And Mrs. Smith finished its run with $487.28 million at the worldwide box office!

The Bourne Supremacy has also grossed $710.68 million worldwide!

Together, the three movies grossed a whopping $1.54 billion. A huge amount of money...

Unfortunately, Grey Pictures only got about 40% of that amount. While Cinema Alliance and 20th Century Fox got 60% of that amount.

If the calculation is correct, Grey Pictures could possibly get $616.40 million. Still a lot of money.

Unfortunately, the IRS would definitely want at least 30% of that $616 million, because the IRS is a daylight robber, I mean, a daylight blessing.

Furthermore, if you subtract Grey Pictures' investment in the three movies, the company's profit would probably be around $250 million at best.

So far, 20th Century Fox has only paid for Mr. And Mrs. Smith and The Bourne Supremacy.

Even though 20th Century Fox was only the distributor of their movies, it was obvious that 20th Century Fox made money as well. Their pure profit just from distributing three movies was probably around $100 million.

20th Century Fox wanted to show that they would be a great partner for Grey Pictures because they were quick to pay the money.

Grey Pictures had a lot of money at the time. One of the reasons why the Christmas party was a bit extravagant.

Another reason why Grey Pictures made the party high class was because CAA used their connection to invite some Academy members. After all, the Academy still hasn't announced the list of nominees for the 75th Academy Awards. Grey Pictures had to work hard to make sure their film would be nominated.

Kazir and Angelina greeted the old men of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The Academy Awards was founded in 1929 and has gathered 10 thousand members after 8 decades of continuation.

Many of the members were old people, over 60 years old. Another fact was that many of them were Jewish. Millions of Jewish people immigrated to the United States when World War II happened, and some of them lived in Los Angeles, more precisely in Hollywood. These Jewish people slowly created their brand in Hollywood and reached a dominant position.

Since Kazir was also Jewish, CAA devised a plan to ensure that he would be nominated for an Academy Award by mingling with the old members. All Kazir had to do was show that he was proud to be Jewish.

CAA was founded by a Jewish man, so after so many years in the business, he had a lot of ties to Jewish members of the Academy.

This may sound offensive, but Kazir was simply taking advantage of his race. He knew what he was doing and was not ashamed of it. Humans are selfish creatures.

Kazir had never been close to his Jewish side, but tonight he was proud to be one. He had to be. Otherwise he wouldn't win the Best Director Award.

 

[Pujimaki]

Hollywood What If Chapter 316


"This is the screenplay for 21 Jump Street."

Kazir gave the script to Lee Himura, one of the producers at Sony-Columbia. Lee Himura was the producer who made a deal with Kazir in exchange for four movie distribution deals.

"Thank you, director." Lee Himura read the script seriously.

Sony-Colombia acquired Bruce Almighty, Anchorman and Horrible Bosses from Kazir. The studio paid Kazir $3.5 million and four film distribution deals just to close the deal. Kazir was also required to write a script for Sony-Columbia for $1 million.

Sony-Colombia, or more specifically Colombia Pictures, at the time had a successful TV series called 21 Jump Street. The show had 5 seasons and its ratings were quite high, starring Johnny Depp as Tom Hanson Jr. The main reason why the show ended after 5 seasons was that Johnny Depp became a superstar after the success of Edward Scissorhands.

Now Sony-Colombia wanted to revive this series as a movie franchise and they asked Kazir to be the screenwriter. Kazir Grey was a famous comedy screenwriter and all the movies he wrote were successful. He has never had a flop. So Sony-Colombia was confident about this project.

Sony-Colombia gave him two years to finish the script. Quite a long time, but this script was an adapted screenplay from a TV show, so Sony-Colombia gave Kazir the time to watch the TV show to get an idea of what to write.

"Pfft-haha! I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to laugh." Lee Himura apologized for his behavior. He read the script seriously, but he didn't expect to laugh instead.

He realized that Kazir was indeed a talented screenwriter. The story was just on paper, but it already made Lee Himura laugh. The scenes where the two male leads fall into drugs and have hallucinations were very funny.

"Actually, I don't know why you decided to make this movie a comedy. If I remember correctly, 21 Jump Street is a police, crime, drama TV show. May I know who thought of making it a comedy?"

Kazir was quite interested.

"About that, it was actually the head producer, Jezebel Salome."

"Her? I didn't expect Jezebel was the one who came up with that idea."

Jezebel Salome was the producer of Spider-Man. She was a workaholic woman and you could tell by her demeanor. For some reason, this producer was very strict with women. Kazir didn't expect someone like her to come up with the idea.

"CEO Frank Price heard her idea and decided to try it. However, we can't find anyone to write the script, so we decided to ask you instead."

"I see..."

Fortunately, Kazir saw the two movies, 21 and 22 Jump Street. Both movies were funny. Too bad the trilogy never happened. Kazir didn't know the exact reason, but he heard that the cast didn't agree. But he was not sure.

When Lee Himura realized that he was disturbing Kazir, he excused himself. He wanted to read the script in a comfortable place. He could just ask Kazir later if there was anything Sony-Colombia wanted to change about the script. However, Lee Himura felt that the script was already perfect the way it was.

.........

......

...

Christmas Eve was an important date for many families in the United States. They celebrate this holiday. Many parents prepared gifts for their children to surprise them. Most of the time, the parents would tell the children that Santa Claus visited their homes to give them presents.

Like many young children, Alissa believed that Santa Claus was real.

"Sister Angel, will Santa bwing me a pwesent tomorrow?"

The little girl asked Angelina Jolie about Santa Claus. Her speech was very adorable.

Alissa was Aaron's daughter. Kazir and Angelina decided to spend their Christmas Eve in New York with Kazir's little family.

Kazir had already met Angelina's family on Thanksgiving, so this time the couple spent time with Kazir's family.

"Are you a good kid or a bad kid this year?" Angelina asked her while holding a Barbie doll.

"I think I am, I'm gwood to my mommy and daddy. I also learned how to use the potty." The little girl said excitedly.

"Wow, you're such a nice girl!" Angelina gently pinched her cheek and Alissa giggled.

"Thank you, Sister Angel."

"I'm just curious, why do you call Angelina Sister Angel? Is it because of her name?" Kazir joined the game and asked Alissa.

"Because she lwooks like an angel."

"Aww, you're so sweet, Alissa. Let me hug you!" Angelina cuddled the little girl.

"Is she?" Kazir was confused. Angelina had never been an angel, especially in bed. She was more like an active kitten who loved attention.

"What do you mean? So I don't look like an angel?" Angelina stared at Kazir, so the man immediately took back his opinion.

"Of course not. You're better than an angel, you're a goddess."

"Huh!" She scoffed and continued to play with Alissa. Kazir smiled, he knew he had messed up tonight and he would have to make it up to her in bed so the woman wouldn't be angry.

A few minutes later, Alissa's parents announced that dinner was ready.

Aaron, Victor and Kazir started talking about their lives and business. Victor and Aaron felt that the Internet had a great future. Kazir gave them the idea of creating an advertising team to promote products on the Internet. In fact, Grey Pictures wanted to hire their company to promote Pirates of the Caribbean on the Internet.

This year was fruitful for all of them. Especially when you compare it to the tragedy they experienced last year. New York was hit by 9/11, luckily Victor's company was still going strong, maybe even stronger.

The next day Alissa received many toys. The little girl was very happy and promised to be a good kid next year.

Just like that, 2002 was over and 2003 arrived. Kazir and Angelina decided to spend the New Year together on a tropical island. They have the whole vacation to themselves.

+++++

[Author's note: For some reason I can't change the cover of this novel in Webnovel.]

 

[Pujimaki]

Hollywood What If Chapter 317


Malvides was a famous tourist place. The place had beautiful islands and tropical weather, a nice place to take a vacation.

Kazir was actually interested in building a villa on one of the islands in this country. However, after learning a lot about the costs, he decided to think about it seriously. Money doesn't grow on trees, they are green but not leaves...

Despite being a small country, it was an expensive destination. It's a remote location with limited space, high-end accommodations, limited local resources, and luxury taxes. A vacation in this country was expensive. But that didn't change the fact that it was a beautiful country.

Kazir and Angelina immediately fell in love with the landscape. The couple rented a nipa hut and sipped coconut juice while gazing at the pearly white sand and endless blue ocean.

They both wore sunglasses to protect their eyes from the sun. Angelina wore a summer hat, she was in a blue bikini and her perfect figure was on another level. She was sexy and beautiful.

"What do you think? Should we build a resort here?" Angelina asked.

It was still the early 2000s and Kazir had the opportunity to own a resort in the small country. But he decided not to.

"Let's go to Bali or Boracay next time. Maybe we can build a resort there." Kazir replied.

"Okay."

They both loved the peaceful atmosphere of the island. They lived in the noisy city of Los Angeles, and the atmosphere between the two places was very different. Every once in a while, they appreciated something as quiet as this.

While they were resting in the nipa hut, three Caucasian women approached them curiously.

"Excuse me, but are you Director Kazir Grey?" One of the women asked Kazir.

"Yes, I'm Kazir Grey." Kazir was surprised because he hadn't expected anyone to recognize him in this place.

Kazir was famous because he always had a cameo in every CCU movie, but his fame was still nothing compared to superstars. At least in terms of celebrity, Kazir was nothing compared to Tom Cruise or Julia Roberts.

Suddenly, the woman who recognized Kazir screamed happily.

"Kyaaahhh---! Oh my God, I didn't expect to see you here. Director Grey, I'm a fan. I've seen all your movies, I can name them all without a problem."

She immediately hugged Kazir and jumped on his chest, rubbing her face against his chest. Kazir flinched instinctively. He was shocked and uncomfortable.

Note that three women were wearing nothing but bikinis, so the woman's skin brushed against him and he didn't feel comfortable at all. This sudden skin interaction makes him shiver, but in a negative way.

"I'm sorry, but I think you should..."

"I love all your movies, from Haunted Potatoes to Zombie Pajama Dance Party to The Mummy Makeover..."

"All right, all right, that's enough."

Angelina separated the two by "gently" pulling the woman off Kazir's chest. Angelina kept her smile on, but Kazir knew his girlfriend was angry. Luckily, Angelina was wearing sunglasses, so her death-staring eyes were covered. Otherwise the three women might run away in fear.

"And who are you anyway?" The woman glared at Angelina.

"Me? I'm Angelina Jolie, Kazir's girlfriend."

"Oh, so you're really Angelina Jolie? Looking at you in person, you're actually not that beautiful."

"Bitch what?" Angelina was enraged and ready to pull the woman's hair.

The other two Caucasian women felt that their friend was acting crazy, so they tried to mediate.

But the woman was too hot-headed to listen. Kazir stood between them to stop her.

"I'm sorry, but Angelina and I are on vacation, I hope you will respect our privacy."

"Of course, of course I respect you, Director Grey." The woman nodded.

"But before I go, could I have your autograph, please? My friend here has a permanent marker."

"... Okay?" Kazir tilted his head, a little confused. He looked at Angelina and the woman clicked her tongue, but decided to agree, as long as the bitch left them alone.

"Can you sign your name on my chest, oh, sign on my left tit instead! Please!"

"I think I'll sign on a newspaper instead." Kazir had a newspaper and decided to write on it instead. Besides, he knew that Angelina would be angry if he signed on someone's breast or tit.

"Okay, that's fine too."

The three women left a few minutes later.

"... Do you guys always experience this?" Kazir asked Angelina.

He knew that celebrities experienced being harassed in public. Sometimes celebrities suffered from stalkers who followed them like rabid dogs.

"That's right." Angelina sighed. Angelina didn't like the woman at all, the woman had no respect for Kazir and Angelina.

"Sometimes they send a dead mouse to your mailbox."

"I think that's not a fan, but a hater." Kazir thought.

"This is the first day of the year and something bad has already happened. Tch, it's because of that bitch. I hope it will not happen again." Angelina grumbled. Her mood changed and Kazir had to spoil her again to make her happy...

Having unreasonable fans was probably one of the curses of being a celebrity.

Celebrities had experienced it many times, but Kazir hadn't expected to receive the same treatment.

'Does this mean I'm already famous?'

The two decided to return to the resort and spend the rest of the day in the room. They didn't want to be disturbed by another crazy woman.

'Now that I think about it, I never experience this kind of harassment when Erica is with me. She's so tall and looks threatening because of her scar, so that's probably one of the reasons why some people are afraid to come near me. I guess Erica is worth hiring after all.'

Erica Mendez looked like a soldier, even though she was an assistant... Well, she was one.

Surprisingly, Erica was a mother of twins. Whenever Erica had a day off, she always spent it with her family.

+++++++

[Many readers told me that Kazir really needed a vacation, so I decided to give him one. Although it seems that this vacation was not a good experience for both Kazir and Angelina].

 

[Pujimaki]

Hollywood What If Chapter 318


Unlike the Maldives with its fresh and warm breeze, Los Angeles has a slightly cold breeze right now. Not because of winter, but because of heavy rain.

Angelina and Kazir returned to Los Angeles and found that the sky was dark and rainy. This weather could last for a week.

"Did you bring an umbrella?" Kazir asked his assistant, Erica Mendez, who waited for her boss at the airport.

"It's been raining since yesterday, so I prepared two umbrellas for you." Erica nodded.

There was a space between the airport entrance and the road that had no canopy to block the rain.

"That's good to hear."

Kazir passed the umbrella to Angelina, but the actress shook her head and grinned mischievously instead.

"I want to share an umbrella with you." She grabbed his arm.

The little incident in the Maldives faded from their minds as they spent most of their time having fun on the island. No reason to be angry with strangers.

"What about the other umbrella?"

"Give it back to Erica."

Well, Erica already had her own umbrella, but she got another one. The umbrella tax...

Kazir and Angelina shared a small space under the umbrella. They were like a young high school couple. Well, as long as they were happy.

Erica followed suit and took the driver's seat. Being an assistant, she also became Kazir's driver.

Looking at the rain and the wet road, Kazir suddenly thought of something.

"Erica, do you know a bodyguard?"

"Bodyguard, sir? A professional bodyguard or someone who just knows how to fight?"

"It's better if he's a professional and has experience in protecting people."

"I'll start looking for one, sir." It seemed that Erica had someone in mind.

"It will be even better if he knows how to drive," Kazir smiled... He realized that he was being too cheap right now.

He was already a millionaire and his life was important. It wouldn't be bad to hire some bodyguards to protect him.

"Sir?"

"Congratulations, Erica. You will no longer be my driver once I find a bodyguard."

"Will I have a salary deduction?"

Erica's salary last year was over $450,000 and it was the biggest amount she ever had. She loved her job because it allowed her to provide for her twins.

If she stopped driving for Kazir, she might lose part of her salary. She would rather continue driving if she had to keep her salary.

"You don't have to worry, Erica. You're my trusted assistant and I'll make sure I never do anything bad to you. Your salary will not be affected."

In fact, Kazir was thinking of raising her salary. Erica knew many of the company's secrets, and Kazir wanted to make sure the woman would remain loyal to him and Grey Pictures. A non-disclosure agreement was an important aspect, but loyalty could make it better.

As Angelina began to nod off against Kazir's shoulder, Kazir decided to ask Erica about his schedule.

"So what's my schedule this week?"

"Sir, Sony Colombia wants to meet with you." Erica started to list important meetings that Kazir had to attend.

Kazir nodded.

"It's probably about 21 Jump Street and the acquisition."

Sony-Colombia's recent performance has been improving. They acquired a profitable franchise called Spider-Man. This franchise alone made Sony-Colombia relevant for decades to come.

'Spider-Man can be compared to Metro Goldwyn Mayer's 007. I say James Bond and Peter Parker carried their respective studios.' Kazir thought.

"Another meeting is about the pre-production of Wanted 2 and..."

"Go on," Kazir muttered. Angelina was already asleep and Kazir gently laid the woman's head on his lap. The flight had been long and the woman was jet-lagged.

"Pirates of the Caribbean..."

"Do you have anything to say, Erica?"

"Sir, a lot of people in the company are afraid that this project could be disastrous."

Kazir just shrugged. He had expected this outcome and was not surprised that some people would react badly.

What they didn't realize is that Pirates of the Caribbean is going to be a huge franchise worth billions of dollars.

In his opinion, it would be too wasteful to let Walt Disney produce this franchise. Besides, Walt Disney didn't care about the cast of Pirates of the Caribbean anyway.

The fact that Walt Disney just fired Johnny Depp without hearing his side of the story was very Disney-like.

"Erica, do you trust me?"

"Yes, sir."

"Do you think Pirates of the Caribbean will flop?"

"Sir, you are not God. Not everything will go your way."

"That's right."

Kazir admitted it. Even now he was afraid that he wouldn't be nominated for the Academy Awards. The Golden Globes were one thing, but the Oscars were on another level.

Maybe he really needed this vacation because he was free of stress for a week... Although he missed the feeling of stress, nervousness and thrill.

He wanted to make another movie and prove himself to the industry.

"What about the other CCU movie?"

Grey Pictures released two CCU movies a year. Last year, The Bourne Supremacy and Mr. And Mrs. Smith were released. The performance of both movies was above average. Both were probably in the top 10 highest-grossing films of 2002.

"Ah, about that. You know..."

Erica didn't know how to explain. This particular project was still in the process of casting.

Compared to Wanted 2 and Pirates Of The Caribbean, the last project was quite late.

Wanted 2 would be directed by Fremont Smith, while Pirates Of The Caribbean would be directed by Kazir Grey.

One of the reasons why the last project was late was that it took Grey Pictures a long time to find a director to direct the movie. Many aspiring directors inquired, but only a few could meet the criteria.

It was not easy to be a director. Many of them suffered from too much stress and began to lose their hair.

++++++

[Author's note: I actually have no idea which movie I should choose as the new part of the CCU. So I'm going to ask you for your choices instead. As long as the movies are reasonable and can be added to the CCU, then I have no problem with it. I will list them and make a poll tomorrow].

The Equalizer

The Expendables

Raid

Nobody

[Edit: The poll has already closed and the next franchise has been chosen.]

 

[Pujimaki]

Hollywood What If Chapter 319


"What do you think? It looks cool, right?"

Harold Witsend was a bit enthusiastic as he showed Kazir the pirate ship. The two of them were in a huge warehouse that Grey Pictures rented for large props like a 100-foot-long ship.

Before he was a producer, Harold was the head of the props crew. He has a strong artistic sense, so he fell in love with the pirate ship the first time he saw it.

Harold found a company that made wooden boats and wooden ships. Some of their products were for art galleries.

Harold hired them to build a real and working pirate ship and they didn't disappoint Harold. Seeing the beautiful ship, Harold realized that returning to the props team might not be bad...

Although he was mature enough to understand that his current position and salary were far more important to his current life. After all, he had a family to support. He sighed, then got surprised, then sad, then became happy after looking at the ship.

"What do you think, it's great, isn't it? We haven't used it at sea yet, but the company assures us that it works well."

Kazir touched his chin and inspected the ship. It was large, but not super large compared to modern ships. Kazir admitted that it looked amazing, but he wanted something old.

"... Make it old, I want it to look like it's been floating in the sea for hundreds of years. I want a pirate ship, no, a ghost ship might be a better term."

"What? How much more should we spend?"

Having been a producer for so many years, Harold had become sensitive about spending.

"As long as it looks good, I have no problem spending money. Oh, I told you, I need about 10 of these ships. I want them before April."

"... Fine."

The company had already built some of the ships, and their production speed could catch up before filming. Harold just felt that it was painful to turn these brand new ships into old, greasy pirate ships. But a few months later when he saw the finished products, he realized that ghost ships were not so bad. Old ships had something unique about them.

"How are the negotiations going with Johnny Depp?"

The topic changed to the cast.

"Their side is asking for quite a bit more. Although I can see that Johnny Depp is interested in the role of Jack Sparrow."

"What about Orlando Bloom? Did WMA do anything?"

"As far as I know, no."

Kazir Grey was once a client of WMA, but things happened and he was kicked out. Since then, the relationship between the two has never been good.

WMA regretted that Kazir had changed agency and they couldn't work with him anymore. Kazir was no longer just a director, he was a superstar.

CAA became the strongest agency in the industry and Kazir influenced this outcome. Now more actors/actresses want to end their contracts just to join CAA. At least CAA had someone like Kazir who could make blockbusters year after year. Perhaps that was Kazir's greatest talent. He made movies every year and they all did well at the box office.

"Orlando Bloom seems excited. We haven't reached an agreement yet, but the negotiations are already down to $4 million... Orlando Bloom? Wasn't that the actor who auditioned for Wesley Gibson? Damn, I just remembered that." Harold realized it just now.

Kazir chuckled. In fact, when Kazir saw Orlando Bloom's name when he was auditioning for Wanted, he suddenly remembered Pirates of the Caribbean. Orlando Bloom was the catalyst for Kazir's obsession with the pirate movie. He remembered that Pirates Of The Caribbean was worth billions of dollars.

"As for Keira Knightley, her team had no problem with our offer. First of all, they are happy to get an invitation from Grey Pictures."

Keira Knightley was not new to the industry. She had been acting since 1993 and was slowly gaining a foothold. The woman had steady jobs over the years, but Pirates of the Caribbean was no easy film.

Kazir intends to invest at least $100 million in the film. That alone was enough to get a lot of actors/actresses interested.

In fact, Kazir wanted Angelina to star in this movie since Pirates Of The Caribbean was not part of the CCU. However, Angelina had Lara Croft: Tomb Raider — The Cradle of Life and Beyond Borders to film. She didn't have enough time to join Kazir's project. Besides, Angelina also had to promote How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days this year.

"That's good to hear. Lower their salaries as much as possible, we both know that if this movie is a success-"

"I know, I know. You're going to turn it into a franchise with multiple sequels. So it will be better if they have lower salaries as a starting point."

"I'm glad you understand."

"Of course..."

Ring Ring--!

Suddenly Harold Witsend received a phone call. He opened the phone and his expression turned cold when he saw the caller's name.

"Harold, are you all right?"

"Ah, yes, let me take this call for a few minutes."

Harold excused himself and Kazir was left alone. He studied the pirate ship. He admitted that the design was cool, but they looked brand new. It was still a prototype and the company had plenty of time to make adjustments.

"Too bad, because some of these ships will have to be destroyed. One was eaten by an octopus, the others were destroyed in battle with the Flying Dutchman...".

Kazir admitted that they might have to waste a lot of props for this project.

A few minutes later, Harold showed up, but his expression was no better. Kazir tried to ask the man about it, but Harold said it was a private matter.

The two continued to inspect the props for the project. Although Kazir sensed that something was wrong with Harold.

 

[Pujimaki]

Hollywood What If Chapter 320


January was not much and there were few events that people remembered. Such as 50 Cent winning the MTV Video Music Award for Best Rap Video and Best New Artist in 2003 and Billboard Song of the Year in 2003.

Another major event this month was Super Bowl XXXVII, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers won against the Raiders.

As expected, there were few big movies released this month. In fact, only two movies crossed the $100 million mark at the worldwide box office. Those two movies were Just Married and The Recruit.

Just Married was a romantic comedy starring Ashton Kutcher and Brittany Murphy. Ashton Kutcher was cast in many romantic comedies in the early 2000s.

The Recruit was a thriller suspense film starring Colin Farrell and Al Pacino. Two great actors in one movie.

Except for these two movies, most of the movies released this January were mediocre. Hollywood was probably cooking up something for the summer season.

Speaking of Hollywood, an important award show will be held this month. It was none other than the 60th Golden Globe Awards.

The show was held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California. Just one month after the nominations were announced, the Golden Globes were already preparing the show for the winners and their guests.

The network that covered the show was NBC (National Broadcasting Company).

Kazir and Angelina attended the show together. Angelina wore a white gold sheath, a straight dress that fell from the hips.

As for Kazir, well, he was wearing a gray blazer, white shirt and black pants. He looked formal as always.

"I didn't expect you to wear anything gold... Does that mean something?"

Kazir whispered to Angelina as they posed in front of the cameras taking their pictures. Angelina smiled slightly and leaned closer.

"I think you will get something golden tonight." She giggled.

Kazir smiled. Well, maybe tonight he would get the Golden Globes trophy. The trophy only cost about $800, and it was made of marble and zinc and plated with 24-karat gold. But the value of the trophy was important to someone like Kazir, who was working to gain recognition in the industry.

After the hustle and bustle, the two slowly made their way to the entrance of the Golden Globes. As they found their seats, Angelina whispered to Kazir.

"By the way, I'm actually wearing a golden g-string tonight."

"..." Kazir's lips went stiff like another part of his body. He turned to Angelina, only to see the woman smiling beautifully.

The camera was pointed at the couple and Angelina immediately used her perfect smile. As for Kazir, he realized that Angelina was making fun of him, so his reaction was slow.

When he saw the camera, his smile was still stiff. As if he had heard something interesting.

'... Well, the golden G-string is not so bad. I can sniff it once in a while... Ahem, what am I thinking?'

Tonight he lost to Angelina.

A few minutes later, Tom Cruise and Penelope Cruz appeared and sat down at the table with Kazir and Angelina. This table was set up for the crew of The Revenant (the people who were nominated).

It was not easy to get an invitation to the Golden Globes because the space of the venue was limited. However, CAA and both Kazir Grey and Tom Cruise had strong connections in the industry, so they successfully got invitations for Angelina Jolie and Penelope Cruz.

The table next to them was also for the crew members of The Revenant, Harold Witsend was also at that table.

"I think we have a chance tonight," Tom told Kazir.

"Confidence is a must," Kazir replied.

Their movie was now being recognized by the media. God knew how many movie critics and shows they had to bribe to get positive reviews. Well, bribing was not the best term, it should be giving gifts.

The box office performance of The Revenant was also great. After almost three months in theaters, the movie had already grossed $429.83 million worldwide.

A few minutes later, all the guests and nominees found their seats and the ceremony officially began. Presenters like Tim Allen, Simon Baker, Halle Berry and other celebrities took the stage to announce the winners of each category.

The winners were given a few minutes to speak and express their gratitude. One by one, the celebrities accepted the trophies they had worked so hard to earn.

Finally, Jack Nicholson accepted the award for Best Actor in Motion Picture - Drama for his performance as Warren R. Schmidt.

Tom Cruise held his expression when one of the cameras was pointed at him. He knew this could happen, so he was prepared. Showing dissatisfaction on camera could affect his image. Of course, deep down, Tom Cruise was actually sad. He didn't win Best Actor in Motion Picture.

To make matters worse, his ex-wife, Nicole Kidman, actually won Best Actress in Motion Picture - Drama!

He watched as Nicole gave him a slightly smug look as she gave her speech.

He suddenly felt that his PR team had betrayed him. Because Pat Kingsley and her team also worked for Nicole Kidman. Currently, Pat Kingsley is still Nicole Kidman's agent and it seems that the female agent preferred Nicole more than Tom Cruise.

Tom thought about changing an agent for a second before he deleted the idea... At least not now. He understood that the real battle was at the Academy Awards and the Golden Globes were nothing but a practice game. Once he got the Oscar statue, nothing else would matter.

Besides, he had already won two Golden Globes, so no big deal.

Still, it was a little painful. After all, he worked hard for the movie and he felt he deserved an award.

+++++

[Hey, I just want to promote my Pat reon and Ko- fi. For $10 you can read 172 chapters of HWI and other content on my Pat reon and Ko- fi].

P@treon link: https://www.patreon.com/Puji_maki

Ko-fi link: https://ko-fi.com/pujimaki

 

[Pujimaki]

Hollywood What If Chapter 321


As for Kazir, well, he didn't do well either. He didn't win anything! All the big awards went to the others. Kazir had three nominations, but he didn't win any of them.

Best Picture in Drama went to The Hours.

Best Director was won by director Martin Scorsese - Gangs of New York.

Best adapted screenplay went to Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman - Adaptation.

Three nominations and he got nothing, such a sad life... Well, at least he got something golden tonight to make him feel better.

The show went pretty fast and nothing special happened... Except for the fact that Richard Gere used the Golden Globes as a platform to speak the truth about Tibet.

"Terrible, terrible human rights situation."

Yes, Richard Gere spoke that sentence and millions of people witnessed it. What happened in Tibet a few decades ago...

Actually, Richard Gere was brave for what he did, and many people praised him. But Hollywood was a spineless organization, cowards pretending to be virtuous.

What Hollywood did was to blacklist the actor. Since then, Richard Gere could only accept a few projects and his career slowly deteriorated. But Richard Gere didn't falter, he was still true to his intentions.

Hollywood: "How dare Richard Gere stand up for what is right! Fuck you Richard Gere!"

After that, the awards ceremony ended with neither Tom nor Kazir winning anything. They returned to their respective homes disappointed.

Luckily, Angelina was there for Kazir and made the man happy... The woman kept her promise to give Kazir something gold.

.........

......

...

Stella Willow opened her eyes after a night's rest. She had an apartment near the building where Grey Pictures did business... The company still rented the building for obvious reasons.

The company decided to think about buying the building, or building one instead, once Grey Pictures and one of the Big Six signed the contract.

So far, five of the Big Six were interested in the company. This inflated the net worth of Grey Pictures to $10 billion, although its real value was only around $4 to $5 billion.

The acquisition made Grey Pictures important. It showed that the Big Five were interested in the company.

Well, a single studio that could make revenue of more than $1 billion a year was worth their attention.

Stella Willow was active in this part. She now had a stake in the company, so she considered this deal important.

When she opened the door, she noticed that there were already three newspapers from different publishers lying on her front door. She decided to start with the Los Angeles Times.

After skimming through some of the useless gossip and information she already knew, her eyes stopped on one particular article. It was about the results of the Golden Globes last night, Stella Willow already heard from the phone that The Revenant won nothing despite having 6 nominations. It was very sad news... The fact that they invested millions in PR and yet it was pretty useless.

As expected, Miramax's PR team is the winner this time. They know how to keep the old foggies interested.

Miramax had already solidified its position in the industry in terms of making Oscar-worthy movies.

In fact, if Stella Willow hadn't known about the bad blood between Kazir and Harvey, she might have recommended that Kazir work with Miramax instead. After all, Miramax had distribution channels.

If Kazir and Harvey worked together, winning an Oscar would be a piece of cake, no problem at all.

Well, things happened and Miramax and Grey Pictures would never get a chance to work together, not in a million years.

The article said that Chicago won 5 awards, the biggest winner last night.

About Schmidt, Gangs of New York, Adaptation and The Hours also won 2 awards each.

Chicago, Gangs of New York and The Hours were all distributed and invested in by Miramax.

Obviously, Miramax was the biggest winner at the 60th Golden Globes. All they had to do was put "Award Winning Movie" on the covers of the DVDs and people would be interested in buying the DVDs.

That was the way Miramax made money. Since they could not compete with the Big Six at the box office, they used the DVD market instead.

Miramax had a chance to compete with the Big Six in the late 80's and early 90's. However, they failed to expand their business and Walt Disney slowly acquired shares until Miramax became a dog under Walt Disney.

Stella Willow dropped the newspaper and started to eat breakfast. She had something else to do today.

Kazir and the management of Grey Pictures were planning to start a TV show this year. Stella Willow was a little excited. After all, Stella Willow had been the head of production management at NBC before she joined Grey Pictures. She knew how to make TV shows and how to sell them to the masses.

Grey Pictures had never dabbled in TV shows before, so their plan needed some polishing. Luckily, Stella Willow was there to help.

Kazir gave them two projects to choose from. The director was known as a top screenwriter, so management knew Kazir would come up with something.

Now Stella and the management had to think seriously. They knew they didn't have enough budget to work with two projects, so only one could be produced this year.

The choices were:

A Song of Ice and Fire.

Breaking Bad.

Stella knew about A Song of Ice and Fire. She hadn't read it, but its popularity increased after the release of Lord Of The Rings and Harry Potter.

Fantasy novels became the most popular genre, and A Song Of Ice And Fire was the best of the genre when it came to dark fantasy.

As for Breaking Bad, Stella easily understood that this project was an original script created by Kazir Grey.

Both were promising, but both had their pros and cons.

+++++

[The poll on TV shows is closed. However, I would like to hear your opinion on which TV show you prefer. Is it Breaking Bad or Game of Thrones?]

 

[Pujimaki]

Hollywood What If Chapter 322


The advantage of A Song Of Ice And Fire was its fan base. If Grey Pictures wanted to turn the novel into a TV show, they already had an audience that would watch the first episode of the TV show, which would give the TV show a better starting point.

However, the downside of A Song Of Ice And Fire was its budget. According to Stella's calculation, each episode could cost more than 1 million. And that was just for the first season.

If the TV show became a success, then the second season would have an increased budget, which might not be good for Grey Pictures.

Still, in Stella's opinion, A Song Of Ice And Fire had a better chance of being successful than Breaking Bad. The fantasy genre alone was enough to get a stable number of viewers to watch the show.

As for Breaking Bad, its advantage was definitely its budget. Based on the script that Stella read, the TV show was based on crime and drama. Unlike A Song Of Ice And Fire, which needed special effects, Breaking Bad would have a lower budget.

However, the downside of Breaking Bad was its lack of mass appeal. It didn't have a fan base. It might not be successful. The first season was not enough to caught the interest of the audience. Furthermore, they were not sure if a TV network would be interested in airing Breaking Bad since it looked like a simple plot based on the script of season 1.

Unless Kazir wanted to add Breaking Bad to the CCU, but Stella felt that Kazir didn't want to do it. As if the director had great respect for this TV show to be added to the CCU.

Maybe Breaking Bad was a masterpiece and Kazir didn't want to sully its name.

Well, the decision would be made today.

Stella Willow entered the company with a warm cup of tea in her hand. The workers greeted her respectfully. Everyone knew that Grey Pictures would have a better status in the industry after the takeover. Stella Willow was promised to become the CEO of Grey Pictures.

From General Manager to CEO. In addition, her shares in the company and her salary would increase.

Stella's former co-workers at NBC were actually jealous of her. NBC might be a bigger company than Grey Pictures, but that didn't change the fact that they were just workers. Unlike Stella, who became the boss, there was only one person above her, and that person was too busy shooting movies to care about Stella's management.

Well, Kazir was never a fan of management. He also trusted Stella Willow.

The future of the company was looking great. The revenue from the three movies they released last year was over $1 billion... Although their profit was only about $200 million after taxes and such.

But the profit they made from the DVD market and the merchandise they sold was astronomical. It was over $100 million. Especially the golden coins of the CCU, it sold so fast that the factories they hired had to work around the clock.

The meeting was set for early in the morning. When Stella reached the meeting room, Kazir and his assistant director Palenque Simone were already there.

Stella already expected that Kazir might be earlier than her... The man was famous for staying in his office almost all the time when he didn't have a project to work on.

But Palenque Simone was a different story. The man was not so strict with his schedule.

'Maybe...'

Stella knew that this was just the initial plan and they hadn't started anything yet. She was still looking for a director for the upcoming project.

Kazir promised to shoot the first three pilot episodes. But after that, he would step back and remain only as one of the members of the writing team.

By the looks of it, Palenque might be the director who would take over the project.

'Now that I think about it, Palenque is a psychology graduate, and both A Song Of Ice And Fire and Breaking Bad are heavily focused on drama.'

"Good morning, Director." Stella greeted her boss. She was already used to calling Kazir Director.

"Hm, good morning." Kazir nodded.

"Good morning, ma'am." Palenque greeted Stella.

"Good morning." She replied.

"Let's wait for the others," Kazir said to them.

Stella was a little curious about Kazir's opinion of the Golden Globes last night. Kazir had attended the ceremony, but he hadn't won anything.

She looked at the man and noticed that he was not affected. In fact, he looked happy. As if he had received something great last night...

A few minutes later, Harold Witsend, Jane Kendall, Renner Hector and other important people in the company showed up.

Harold and Renner were nominated last night, but they didn't win either... Their expressions were not good at all. After all, the Golden Globes was a prestigious award show and they wanted to win.

It seemed that Kazir was the abnormal one because he looked great and happy.

"Let's start the meeting."

The meeting officially began. Their main topic was about the TV show that Grey Pictures wanted to produce.

Kazir was the one who proposed the project. Grey Pictures already had enough power to produce TV shows. One of the reasons why he acquired the TV adaptation of A Song Of Ice And Fire, more precisely Game Of Thrones.

After half an hour of discussion, most of the executives felt that A Song Of Ice And Fire was the best choice.

Now that they had decided which one to produce, the budget had to be calculated. It could take a week to get the budget on their desks.

Also, someone had to contact George R.R. Martin.

"By the way, I just want to make this clear. I want to name the TV show Game of Thrones after the first book in the series."

A Song Of Ice And Fire was the name of the series, but each book had its own title.

The first book, published in 1996, was called Game Of Thrones.

The second book (1998) was called A Clash Of Kings.

The third book(2000) had the title of A Storm Of Swords.

++++++

[Author's note.]

[I am surprised that most of you have a contrary opinion. Most of my patrons voted for Game of Thrones when I posted the poll. There are 36 total votes, 28 voted for Game Of Thrones while only 8 voted for Breaking Bad].

 

[Pujimaki]

Hollywood What If Chapter 323


Since Kazir knew the future, he obviously wanted to keep the name of the TV show as Game of Thrones. He would have to fight George R.R. Martin if he had to.

"Game Of Thrones, huh... I like that. Compared to A Song Of Ice And Fire, it runs smooth on my tongue."

Stella said her opinion and most of the people in the meeting room agreed with her. Besides, Kazir was the boss and they didn't want to confront him about the name of the TV show.

They trusted Kazir. They knew that Kazir would never make a mistake, he was the most talented director in the show business.

Game of Thrones or A Song of Ice and Fire? The answer was obvious, Game of Thrones was the better title. At least that title was enough for the audience to understand what they might see in the show. A bloody game to control the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros and sit on the Iron Throne.

"I volunteer to be the producer for this project."

Stella Willow announced, and the executives were a little surprised. They hadn't expected someone to take on the responsibility. Usually the producer of their movies was Harold Witsend.

"That's fine with me. Stella knows the TV show industry better than I do. Besides, I have a lot to do this year..." Harold sighed. He brushed his hair, which was getting thinner and thinner.

He imagined his future as a bald guy... He was still in his late 30s, but his hair loss was already showing. He had to manage three movies this year. He also had to face certain people every two weeks because of his promise.

"Thanks." Stella nodded. She loved her position as General Manager, but she also missed being on a production set, managing people. Since this project was based on a novel, the chances of success were higher, so Stella was confident.

"Let's end the meeting."

Kazir announced, and the people left the room, except for Palenque Simone.

"So Palenque, I think you understand the reason why you're here."

"I don't want to be arrogant, but sir, do you want me to be the director of this TV show?"

"Yes. Although I can't make a certain decision right now. I'll give you an assignment, I want you to research and read the novel. Make a short movie related to the novel and give it to me. It doesn't have to be expensive, you can use our facilities. You have three months, after that I will decide."

"Thank you, sir!" Palenque blushed with happiness and thanked Kazir sincerely. He knew this was his chance to prove himself.

Excited, he left the room. He left the company immediately after telling HR that he would be taking a week off. Kazir gave him permission to take a week off. He went to a bookstore and bought the three published novels of A Song of Ice and Fire.

He began to read them seriously, immersing himself in them. As the pages turned, Palenque knew he might fall in love with the project. The characters in the novels were deep and complex.

He imagined a woman with pale skin and white hair, the mother of dragons.

.........

......

...

Nothing much happened in January, except that Kazir attended meetings and talked to the representatives of Big Five, who wanted to acquire a part of Grey Pictures.

After many meetings, their projects for the year were Pirates Of The Caribbean, Wanted 2 and The Equalizer.

Pirates of the Caribbean would be directed by Kazir Grey.

Wanted 2 would be directed by Fremont Smith.

As for The Equalizer, Grey Pictures has hired Antoine Fuqua to direct.

Antoine Fuqua was the director of Replacement Killers, Bait, Training Day, Tears of the Sun, King Arthur, Olympus Has Fallen, Southpaw, Bullet Train, and The Equalizer. His filmography was amazing.

But as of 2003, Antoine Fuqua had only made three movies in his career. He was still a new director in the industry and Kazir successfully hired the guy for $5 million. Antoine happily accepted the salary because it was the biggest offer of his career.

The Equalizer was actually an American spy thriller television series that originally aired on CBS from 1985 to 1989.

Grey Pictures acquired the rights to the TV series long before Taken was released. Kazir planned the path of CCU from the beginning. Just as he acquired the rights to Jason Bourne.

CBS was owned by Paramount... When CBS/Paramount heard that the TV series they had sold to Grey Pictures was going to be part of the Continental Cinematic Universe, they might have had a stroke of regret. That would be another story.

Just like that, February arrived and another batch of movies hit theaters.

"Angelina! Please look into the camera and smile! Director Grey, please give Angelina a hug. Yes, that's right, hug her tighter!"

Some of the photographers were a bit demanding, but Kazir decided to go along with them. Tonight was a special day for Angelina and he didn't want to spoil it.

"Are you uncomfortable?" Angelina whispered.

"With being so close to you? Never?"

The woman giggled at Kazir's answer.

Tonight was February 6th, just before midnight. The premiere of How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days would start a few minutes later.

Of course, Angelina and Kazir were on the red carpet.

How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days was invested by Paramount Pictures and they hired some photographers to take pictures of Kazir and Angelina to promote their movies. For some reason, Kazir Grey was a famous person and a lot of people were interested in him.

How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days was a romantic comedy. It was about a woman who wanted to prove that she could make a man fall in love with her and then break up with him after ten days.

Kazir told Angelina that the script of this movie was promising and Angelina trusted him. So the result was this.

 

[Pujimaki]

Hollywood What If Chapter 324


"How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days" is a 2003 romantic comedy film starring Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey. The plot revolves around a magazine columnist who bets that she can make a man fall in love with her and then break up with him in 10 days, while the man simultaneously tries to make her fall in love with him to win a bet of his own. It's a hilarious and heartwarming story full of comedic situations and romantic moments. (Chat GPT)

This was the plot of How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days in Kazir's original timeline. The movie did very well at the box office.

So Kazir recommended the script to Angelina instead.

Kate Hudson lost the role to Angelina because Angelina had a stronger box office appeal. Of course, the production studio had to pay Angelina a higher salary than Kate Hudson, who was just starting her career in recent years.

Paramount Pictures paid Angelina $12 million for her role alone. Her team actually wanted a share of the box office, but Paramount gave them a high salary instead.

The production cost of How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days was $50 million, yet Angelina already took more than 20% of the budget.

Besides, Matthew McConaughey was also a famous actor and his salary was not that small.

The reason why production costs kept going up was because of the actors/actresses. Their agents would go to the studio and ask for huge salaries and the studio couldn't help but say no. After all, the actors and actresses were the faces of the movies. Studios couldn't hire unknown actors off the street, even if they wanted to, or else their movies wouldn't sell.

Angelina and Kazir walked into the theater together. Usually, the male and female leads would appear together to promote the movie.

But Angelina was not comfortable with this. She and Matthew were just co-workers and didn't have a relationship. Paramount had no choice but to agree. They didn't want to upset Angelina and Kazir.

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - The Cradle Of Life was still being filmed and it would be detrimental to Paramount if Angelina decided to stop cooperating.

So they decided to let the couple attend the premiere together.

"Nice to meet you, Director Grey."

"Nice to meet you, too."

Matthew McConaughey greeted them. He was more interested in Kazir than Angelina, to be honest. Rumor had it that Kazir wanted to make a pirate movie and Matthew was interested.

All of Kazir's movies since 1995 have been successful. Even though it was a pirate movie, as long as Kazir was directing it, the chances of it being successful were higher.

The Revenant was already running out of gas and had only screening in a few countries. The film grossed more than $512 million at the worldwide box office.

While that was less than his last two films, Wanted and Spider-Man, it didn't change the fact that The Revenant was a success. Making over $500 million at the box office is a success no matter how you look at it.

So obviously Matthew McConaughey was interested in Kazir's next project. It didn't have to be $1 billion. As long as Kazir's next project made more than $500 million, that would be enough for Matthew to take it seriously.

Matthew decided to hide the awkwardness as he greeted the director. Matthew and Angelina had kissing scenes in the movie, so of course it would be awkward to meet the real boyfriend.

Luckily, Kazir was a professional. He knew how to keep work and relationships separate.

"I know it sounds like I'm overstepping my bounds, but can I get a copy of the script for your pirate movie, director?"

The title of the project was still unknown, only a few people knew about it.

"I'm sorry, Matthew. I'll be honest with you, I have a role suitable for you, but someone else got the part."

"I see... Is that so?"

Matthew McConaughey excused himself. It seemed that he had been rejected. He was a little disappointed.

"Did you reject him for that reason?"

Angelina whispered after Matthew was gone.

"What do you think? I turned him down because I'm jealous?"

"I didn't even say anything." Angelina laughed.

"Well... That's one of the reasons."

He admitted. No matter how professional Kazir was, it was still uncomfortable to talk to Matthew because he knew that Matthew and Angelina had kissing scenes... And yes, he was jealous.

As for other reasons, Kazir preferred Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow. Johnny Depp and Jack Sparrow were meant to be and he didn't want to destroy that if possible.

Kazir knew that Matthew McConaughey was a great actor and he could probably do an amazing version of Jack Sparrow, but Kazir didn't need any of that.

A few minutes later, the premiere of How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days began as the lights dimmed and the screen lit up.

.........

......

...

The next day, the movie's results were tallied. On the first day, the movie grossed $7.96 million. February was not a good month to release movies, so it was amazing to see How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days earn that much.

On the second day (February 8, 2003) the movie earned another $10.05 million.

On Sunday, February 9, the film grossed $5.75 million.

Combining the first weekend box office, How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days grossed $23.77 million. A success for Paramount Pictures and Angelina Jolie.

++++

[Yeah, this chapter doesn't have much. I'm just giving a little lee way before the Oscars, because that's the main plot before the shooting of Pirates Of The Caribbean. The next chapter would be the announcement of the Oscars nominations... Will Kazir be nominated for Best Director? Nah, I'm not heartless enough to deny him that, am I?]

 

[Pujimaki]

Hollywood What If Chapter 325


"Director Grey! Director Grey, how confident are you about getting a nomination?"

A reporter asked Kazir as he entered the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, California.

"Well, if things get rough and the whole MPAA didn't support me, I'll probably lose. Also, Roman Polanski probably has a better chance getting nominated than me since the members prefer him so much..."

"But would you win?"

"Nah, I don't know."

Kazir shook his head and answered honestly. First of all, he didn't know how the members would react to him.

Kazir Grey and Tom Cruise did their best to attend a number of parties all over Los Angeles just to meet and greet the old fogies of the Academy. More than 70% of the Academy members were old, and the two appeased them, even going so far as to give them gifts.

This time Kazir attended the nomination day alone. Angelina had to travel around the country to promote her latest movie How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days.

As of February 11, 2003, the film had grossed $26.26 million at the North American box office.

After a brief interview, Kazir entered the Samuel Golden Theater. This was nothing more than a nomination announcement, so the venue was not extravagant.

However, the theater was filled with celebrities and agents waiting for the results. Just like Angelina, some actors and actresses were busy, so their agents attended the announcement instead.

Since Kazir was serious about the Oscars, he decided to attend the announcement in person. He wanted to show the Academy members that he was serious about getting the golden statue.

Unlike last time, Tom Cruise arrived before Kazir.

"Kazir, how's your day going?"

"It's okay."

The two gave each other a brotherly hug as a greeting. Kazir usually did a handshake, but he and Tom were friends, so they always hugged when they saw each other.

"I heard you're going to make a pirate movie, are you sure?"

"Yeah, don't worry. I know what to do."

"If you need investment, just give me a call."

"I fucking knew it. You just want to invest in my movie."

"Haha, of course. Your movies had a huge return on investment. How do you see $100 million multiplying into $1 billion in just one year? No one, only you can do that."

"Don't joke. We both know that Grey Pictures can only acquire 30% of that amount."

"And that's still huge! Look, The Revenant's budget is $100 million, and now its box office is over $500 million. Even if you can only get 30% of that $500 million, it's still huge. So Kazir, at least give me a chance to invest in your new project. We are friends, right?"

"Fuck off, Tom."

The two snickered at each other. They were used to making fun of each other by now.

Even if they didn't win the Oscars, they weren't going to be bitter about it. After all, The Revenant was considered a blockbuster.

They might be sad about their loss at the Oscars, but they couldn't help it.

The two looked around and recognized some of the actors and directors. Richard Gere, Martin Scorsese, Adrien Brody and many actors who were nominated at the last Golden Globes were present at this small party.

In a way, both the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards had the same list of nominees. However, the winners of the two awards were different.

Last year, the winner of the Golden Globes for Best Actor in a Motion Picture was Russell Crowe for his performance in A Beautiful Mind.

But the winner of the Academy Award for Best Actor was Denzel Washington for his performance in Training Day.

Both actors were nominated for the same two awards. Unfortunately, in terms of weight and importance, Denzel Washington had the better of the two because he won the Oscar for Best Actor.

Speaking of Denzel Washington, he asked for $10 million as his starting salary in his role for The Equalizer.

The Equalizer was still in pre-production and the crew was in the process of hiring the cast. Knowing the future, Kazir decided to recommend Denzel Washington. Grey Pictures was not a small company anymore, and they could afford to hire superstars now.

Still, it depended on what the result would be. After all, there were plenty of cheap but talented actors who could take the lead.

"Is that Pat?"

"Yes..."

Kazir looked around and found Pat Kingsley talking to some people in the corner of the theater. Pat Kingsley was Tom Cruise's agent.

"She's here because Nicole can't make it." Tom Cruise kept his smile on, but it was obvious that he didn't feel good about it.

Kazir just went quiet after that. He knew that Pat Kingsley and Tom Cruise would split in the early 2000s. He was just not sure when it would happen though.

Their conversation stopped when Frank Pearson appeared with another person. They began to announce the list of people nominated in their respective categories.

Kazir was not surprised to find that the Academy Awards and the Golden Globes had almost the same list of nominees.

But something was different. There were only two nominations for The Revenant!

The Revenant was nominated for Best Actor and Best Director!

What the hell was that?

At the Golden Globes, The Revenant got 6 nominations! But now they only have 2? The whole system was rigged and cooked... Well, a lot of people already knew that.

The Oscars, the Grammys, the Golden Globes and all kinds of award ceremonies were mostly rigged. They usually want to give their awards to their groomed/supported artists.

Both Kazir and Tom had a bad feeling about this...

Fortunately, they got the two awards they wanted. As if the Oscars knew their intentions.

Tom Cruise was nominated for Best Actor while Kazir Grey was nominated for Best Director.

+++++

[Not related, but I'll list my top 10 anime ending songs here. No particular order. Rate my ending songs.]

1.) Fire Force Ed 1

2.) Kyokai No Kanata Ed 1

3.) Tokyo Ghoul Ed 2

4.) Toradora Ed 2

5.). Anohana Ed 1

6. Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress Ed 1

7.) Psycho Pass Ed 1

8.) Magi Madoka Magica Ed 1

9.) Fullmetal Alchemist Ed 1

10.) Kekkai Sensen(Blood Blockade Battlefront) Ed 1

 

[Pujimaki]

Hollywood What If Chapter 326


The list was:

[BEST ACTOR]

Adrien Brody - The Pianist as Władysław Szpilman

Nicolas Cage - The Adjustment as Charlie Kaufman / Donald Kaufman

Tom Cruise - The Revenant as Hugh Glass

Daniel Day-Lewis - Gangs of New York as Bill "The Butcher" Cutting

Jack Nicholson - About Schmidt as Warren R. Schmidt

[BEST DIRECTOR]

Roman Polanski - The Pianist

Rob Marshall - Chicago

Martin Scorsese - Gangs of New York

Kazir Grey - The Revenant

Pedro Almodóvar - Talk to Her

.........

......

...

Aside from these two, The Revenant was not nominated for any awards.

To make matters worse for Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, who was nowhere to be found, was actually nominated in the Best Actress category.

His ex-wife had already won Best Actress at the Golden Globes, and that didn't sit well with Tom Cruise. In that award show, The Revenant didn't win any awards at the Golden Globes either, despite 6 nominations.

This time the bad feeling was even stronger. They might not win anything at the Academy Awards either.

After that, the party ended quickly. Some people were happy, some were sad. As for Tom and Kazir, they both felt sad, so they decided to drink alcohol. They started cursing the old foggeys of the Academy. They spent a lot of time talking to them, but their movie only got two nominations...

.........

......

...

Two days later, Kazir was still bitter about the results. He did his best, the whole crew did their best to make an artistic film to satisfy the members of the Academy, but it was useless.

It was good that the crew members were busy at that time and none of them attended the party. Because they would also be angry if they found out that their movie only got two nominations.

In fact, some of them were angry at the Academy when they got the news. Renner Hector and Harold Witsend were unhappy, which slightly affected their work.

As for Kazir, he decided to focus on his current project. He continued to polish the storyboard to make sure he knew what to do when shooting began.

Suddenly there was a knock on his door. It was Erica Mendez.

"Sir, Tom Rothman is here to see you."

"... Let him in."

Kazir knew why Tom Rothman was here. And to be honest, he was just waiting for their answer. He knew that Grey Pictures' current net worth was inflated, and it was time to make a decision.

The real net worth of Grey Pictures should only be around 4 to 5 billion dollars. However, because of the competition from the Big Five, the value of Grey Pictures went up to $10 billion. For a recently established production studio, this amount was already huge.

Tom Rothman entered the office and found Kazir on his desk with some sketches. He was not surprised, Kazir was indeed a director.

"I think you know why I'm here." Tom found a seat.

"Indeed."

"Kazir, News Corporation has decided to extend my term if I get you to agree to our terms."

"I see..."

'What does that have to do with me?' Kazir thought to himself.

Tom Rothman had two choices for his career. He could join News Corporation and become a top executive, perhaps even a member of the Board of Directors. But that was still nothing compared to running a company.

Being the CEO of 20th Century Fox was still better than any position at News Corporation. Well, Tom Rothman could find another job at another company, just like Terry Semel did when he jumped to Yahoo. However, it was a tough thing to let go of your past creations.

"I know what you're thinking, my problem is not your problem. But I think it's better for you if the CEO has a good relationship with you and Grey Pictures. Kazir, you and I have known each other since 1994. We trust each other."

"I'm not going to deny that. 20th Century Fox is the reason I am where I am. They chose to trust me and Napoleon Dynamite."

Kazir nodded. Still, it was not enough to tempt him. If he was that simple, this situation would never have happened.

"I also know you're going to say that. So I'm going to make you a proposal that will interest you."

Kazir decided to listen. This was business.

"I'm going to make you the head of the Marvel Studio. You will now have a strong power to make a decision on how Marvel Studio will take its path."

"..."

That was unexpected. Most of the time companies would offer him money and stock instead. But Tom Rothman used a different tactic.

Kazir was not a businessman, he was an artist.

"Not only that, we will pay you $1.1 billion to get 10% of Grey Pictures and another $2.2 billion worth of 20th Century Fox stock in exchange for 20% of Grey Pictures."

That means 30% of Grey Pictures in exchange for $3.3 billion. Kazir suddenly became serious. This approach was different from what he had expected, but he was also interested.

He was a little disappointed that Marvel Comics had been acquired by News Corporation. He wanted to make the MCU happen. He thought his dream was going to disappear.

He thought that 20th Century Fox wanted to do a Cinematic Universe without him.

But it seemed like they used that trump card to get him instead.

"Tom, sometimes I feel like you really know me."

"Kazir, I'm one of the people who first trusted you."

"Indeed... Give me some time to think about it."

"Okay."

Tom Rothman excused himself.

Kazir leaned back in his chair and exhaled.

"I guess this is it."

+++++

[Just as everyone expected, 20th Century Fox won the poll hence this outcome.]

[I have decided to end the competition to acquire Grey Pictures. Maybe some of you are disappointed in me. Maybe you are tired of Kazir being an artist instead of a businessman. The synopsis of this novel was about Kazir becoming the greatest director in Hollywood, not a businessman or a tycoon. Nevertheless, I would like to hear your honest opinion. Criticism is always good, no matter how negative it is].

 

[Pujimaki]

Hollywood What If Chapter 327


"Thank you, my friend. Haha, of course I will never forget this. You helped me a lot. Tell the others that I thank them as well. What? Your niece wants to be an actress? Hmm, let me see, haha, of course I have a role for her. By the way, how old is she? Is she beautiful?"

Harvey Weinstein laughed out loud and was in a good mood. He was talking to one of the Academy members.

"I promise you. You know me, I know you. We are friends. What, are you gonna blackmail me? Haha. My friend, I know many dirty secrets here in Hollywood. Your blackmail will not work on me. Why do you think I avoided jail last time? Well, just send your niece to the company and I might think about giving her a role." Harvey licked his lips and ended the call.

He looked at the newspaper and could not help but chuckle.

"Kazir, you are still new to this business. I've been in Hollywood for almost two decades now and your status is nothing compared to mine. You lose this time."

Miramax was the king of PR and their movies always won at the Academy Awards. It showed how strong their PR team was.

Harvey Weinstein had a lot of connections and was more famous in social circle than Kazir, who usually stayed in his office.

"All I did was tell the old farts that Kazir was obviously going for Best Director and there was no reason to waste any nominations since Kazir only wanted the Best Director award." He chuckled. Because he knew he was not lying.

Anyone with a brain knew Kazir's intention.

That was why The Revenant only got two nominations. As for their chances of winning, well, Miramax would make sure they never took a trophy home.

Box office and Oscars were two different things. Grey Pictures might win at the box office, but Miramax would dominate the Academy Awards. They did that for so many years.

"Kazir, you still need experience to face me. You're too young."

... For the record, Kazir was over 80 years old mentally. But yes, Harvey was right.

Miramax's business was already mature in terms of public relations.

.........

......

...

A week after the Oscar nominations were announced, Kazir was watching clips of actresses auditioning for the role of Elizabeth Swann, one of the main characters in Pirates of the Caribbean.

Kazir had already seen Keira Knightley's performance in person. He attended the audition to watch the actresses perform.

However, Kazir was in a dilemma because two other actresses were trying to get the role. The first was Julia Roberts, a superstar since the 90s. Even though Julia Roberts' fame was waning, it didn't change the fact that she had a wow factor.

In fact, Kazir was impressed by her performance. Julia Roberts was still 36 years old, so she met the age requirements. But her salary was expensive. If they hired her, the production studio could pay her at least $10 million.

Kazir and Julia were not friends, unlike Tom Cruise, who was willing to lower the salary. The Revenant was meant to compete at the Oscars, so Tom Cruise didn't have a problem with a low salary.

'We already spent a lot of money casting Johnny Depp.' Kazir said to himself.

As the iconic Jack Sparrow, Johnny Depp was the one who best fit the role. Kazir was ready to spend as much money as possible just to hire him... As expected, the result was terrifying.

Initially, Johnny Depp wanted a salary of $10 million + 5% of the North American box office.

Based on Kazir's last three films, Pirates of the Caribbean could make $300 million at the North American box office at the least.

If Kazir's pirate movie did well and made $300 million, Johnny Depp would get about $15 million as his share... This was too much for Kazir and Grey Pictures.

This was just the beginning of the trilogy and Grey Pictures could not afford it.

But Johnny Depp wouldn't just sign the trilogy deal if it was bad for him.

Johnny Depp was a famous actor and he could easily find another project to work on. Also, pirate movies were usually cursed, and Johnny Depp wouldn't easily risk his career if the pay wasn't worth it.

In the end, Grey Pictures signed Johnny to a $23 million contract. This was only for the first movie. They would have another negotiation when the second movie went into production.

Was it worth it?

Based on Kazir's opinion...

'Yes, it's worth it. There are no irreplaceables in Hollywood, but Johnny Depp is the only Jack Sparrow I will recognize.'

So, yes, the budget for Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl was reduced from $140 million to $117 million.

Over 15% of the budget just disappeared to pay Johnny Depp.

Fortunately, signing Orlando Bloom was much easier. The actor's team and the production had an agreement for $8 million. Orlando Bloom also signed a trilogy contract.

Now Kazir was thinking about the female lead.

Keira Knightley could be cast for $3 to $6 million. Depending on how the contract would end.

Julia Roberts was a great actress and her box-office appeal was strong, but her salary was also expensive.

In the end, Kazir decided to cross her name on the list. Pirates of the Caribbean was an expensive project and Kazir never liked to increase the budget.

Now he decided to put the last DVD disc into the DVD player. This was the last and third actress Kazir had in mind to cast.

+++++

[Since I listed my top 10 anime ending songs, I might as well post my top 10 opening songs. Enjoy.]

1.) Tokyo Ghoul Opening 1 (Unravel by TK from Ling Tosite Sigure): Do I even have to explain myself? I've been listening to this song since 2017. This song is so overplayed but come on, you do agree that it's a hit when it was released a decade ago. If you're interested in this masterpiece called Tokyo Ghoul, I recommend you to read the manga instead.

2.) Freiren Opening 1 (The Brave by YOASOBI): I love Freiren. I can say that it's definitely my top 1 anime last year. This anime's storytelling is different from what I expected.

3.) Blood+ Opening 3 (Colors of the Heart by Uverworld): I watched this anime 15 years ago and I can say that it's an underrated anime. Colors of the Heart is also a hit song.

4.) Kekkai Sensen/Blood Blockade Battlefront Opening 1 (Hello World by Bump of the Chicken): Bump of the Chicken is an amazing jrock band, check them out. Again, I'm going to ask for the 3rd Season... Please I need to watch another content from this shenanigan of an anime.

5.) Attack On Titan opening 7 (The Rumbling by SiM): If I lose it all~~ Slip and fall~~ I would never look away~~ Attack On Titan is the best, there, I said it.

6.) Neon Genesis Evangelion Opening 1 (Cruel Angel Thesis by Yoko Takahashi): An iconic opening since the 2000s era. I never touched the movies of Evangelion because the last episode of the anime made me go crazy and I'm afraid of watching this anime again.

7.) Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood Opening 1 (Again by Yui): When I first heard this song, I got goosebumps all over my body. This will always be part of my top 10 best anime openings. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is peak, you can't change my mind.

8.) Oshi No Ko Opening 1 (Idol by YOASOBI): We don't talk about the ending of the manga. Fuck you Akasaka.

9.) Code Geass Opening 1 (Colors by Flow): One of the best openings of all time, people can't stop loving this opening and I'm one of them. Code Geass might be old, but no one can deny how great it is.

10.) Soul Eater Opening 3 (Papermoon by Tommyheavenly6): This is nostalgic. I hope Soul Eater gets a reboot that follows the manga 100%.

[I actually created a playlist of these songs in my Spotify, haha.]

 

[Pujimaki]

Hollywood What If Chapter 328


It was Natalie Portman... Kazir was actually surprised to hear that the young actress was on the list of actresses auditioning for Pirates of the Caribbean. He hadn't expected Natalie to be interested in the film.

Also, Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge Of The Sith was still in production, so Kazir thought Natalie would be too busy to work on another project.

Unexpectedly, the woman actually did well in the audition. Kazir witnessed her performance. This caused Kazir and the others to give it serious consideration. The three actresses fit the role, with Julia Roberts taking the top spot because of her box office appeal. Second was Keira and third was Natalie.

In the end, the decision rested with Kazir, since he was the director of the film. Even Renner and Harold couldn't compete with him in this situation.

Kazir decided to take the audition tapes back to his house to watch them again.

"Babe, have you made a decision?" Angelina appeared and handed Kazir a bowl of sliced apples.

"No, I'm still not sure."

Julia Roberts was out of the list for financial reasons, but Kazir was still torn between Keira Knightley and Natalie Portman.

"Let's see... Didn't you see that Natalie stealing glances at you?" Angelina frowned slightly at the TV. On the screen, Natalie was glancing at a certain direction once in a while.

"No, I don't think so." Kazir shook his head.

"Sheesh, you are too dense. Anyway, Keira Knightley is the best choice. I don't like that Natalie Portman."

"You think so?"

"Yeah. Now that I think about it, why didn't you invite me for this role, Elizabeth Swann? With my age and beauty, I can easily pass the audition." She asked Kazir curiously.

"Well... This project has kissing scenes--"

"Pfft--!"

Suddenly, Angelina almost choked on her food when she heard Kazir's answer. She hadn't expected Kazir to care about that!

"Kazir, ahem, ahem. You're famous for being a heartless guy who didn't care about your girlfriend's partner in a movie. The news that you watched your ex-girlfriend Cameron Diaz kiss Matt Damon on the set of The Bourne Identity is all over Hollywood. People said you didn't mind Cameron kissing Matt! Oh, I also remember you made me walk naked on the set of Wanted! You even took a shot of my naked ass and showed it to the audience! And now you're suddenly conscious of my kissing scenes?"

Angelina went on a long tirade and Kazir had only one answer.

"Yes."

"Yes?"

"I just realized that I'm uncomfortable with you doing that... I'm sorry."

"Aww, don't be, babe." She hugged Kazir and began to kiss his cheek.

"Anyway, I don't like this Natalie, so you should hire Keira Knightley instead."

"... Alright."

Kazir finally nodded. Keira Knightley's salary was affordable and it was no problem for Kazir.

.........
......
...

Goldman Sachs, represented by Vance Goodhood, and someone from Morgan Stanley finish their negotiations.

Morgan Stanley was the firm hired by 20th Century Fox to acquire Grey Pictures.

Both Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley were famous investment firms on Wall Street, and they had their commission when this deal was done.

After thinking about it and talking to the executives at Grey Pictures, Kazir decided to work with 20th Century Fox instead.

After much tug-of-war, Grey Pictures would sell 30% of its stock for $3.5 billion in stock and cash. $1 billion in cash and $2.5 billion in stock, the equivalent of 3.5% of 20th Century Fox.

Now Kazir was the second largest individual shareholder of 20th Century Fox, after Rupert Murdoch, who owned the majority of the shares.

Most of the company's shares were spread among companies and investment firms. Only two individuals have their own piece of the percentage.

The negotiations were already finished and both sides signed the contract. Now Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley began to perfect the transactions.

Kazir and many of his acquaintances kept quiet about the acquisition. None of the Big Five knew about it... Yet.

A few hours later that day, a piece of news suddenly broke that shook Hollywood, no, the whole country.

20th Century Fox and Grey Pictures decided to work together to promise a better future in filmmaking and to create wonderful movies.

No figures were given, but it was confirmed that 20th Century Fox had acquired part of Grey Pictures.

The news made a lot of noise.

Suddenly, the stock price of 20th Century Fox, which was $21.72, went up to $25.19 in just one day. The stock market then closed. The stock went up more than 15% in just one day. And that was because of the news about Grey Pictures and 20th Century Fox.

People in Hollywood realized that the value of Grey Pictures was enough for people to invest in 20th Century Fox. They knew that the movies Grey Pictures was producing were profitable!

"What's going on?"

Chairman Michael Eisner slammed down the newspaper and nearly overturned the table in anger. His face was red with rage as he read the news of 20th Century Fox's acquisition of Grey Pictures.

He realized that his last chance for survival was vanishing into thin air. He clenched his fists.

Last year, Walt Disney basically didn't make a dime at the box office because their biggest movie was a terrible flop. Even though they released dozens of movies, the loss they suffered from John Carter was irreparable.

If not for the DVDs, toys and merchandise that Walt Disney sold, the company might have to take out a loan from the bank. They stayed afloat, but their situation was not good. John Carter was a bad investment and the board wanted to blame Michael Eisner.

He tried to regain their trust by trying to buy Grey Pictures, no matter how much they spent, but the result didn't work out for him.

Now Michael Eisner knew that his time as chairman of one of the largest media companies in the world was over.

Walt Disney, Paramount, Sony-Columbia and Warner Brothers weren't expecting this outcome. They were trying to make plans on how to increase their chips to get Kazir's interest, yet they were slapped by the news.

As for the other news, Grey Pictures' upcoming projects such as The Equalizer, Wanted 2 and Pirates Of The Caribbean would be distributed by 20th Century Fox.

The TV show Game of Thrones would also be released exclusively by Fox. This project got a lot of people excited because they knew that Grey Pictures never did boring projects.

One of the reasons why many people invested in 20th Century Fox stock.

+++++

[Sorry if I'm absent lately, stuff happens. Regarding numbers and math, just don't ask me why they are wrong or overprice... I also don't know the answer.]

 

[Pujimaki]

Hollywood What If Chapter 329


The public signing of the contract took place in front of the media. Both Kazir Grey and the representative of 20th Century Fox, Tom Rothman, signed the thin piece of paper.

For the record, this public signing was just a publicity stunt and the two companies already signed a proper contract three days ago when Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley witnessed the process.

Kazir and Tom shook hands and many reporters took pictures of the signing. Now the public learned that 20th Century Fox owned 30% of Grey Pictures, while Kazir Grey owned 3.50% of 20th Century Fox.

This deal was good news for 20th Century Fox as their stock price rose to 21% in the last three days. The price of their stock was holding steady at $27.42.

20th Century Fox promised Kazir that they would win the Best Director award this year for him. Just like Miramax, 20th Century Fox had a lot of influence with the Academy.

In fact, that was one of the reasons Kazir signed the contract with 20th Century Fox. Even though he knew it was nothing more than a promise.

After all, only the old farts at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences could decide if they wanted to support Kazir.

Well, the help of 20th Century Fox was not so bad. At least he had an insurance policy to put his mind at ease.

.........

......

...

"Kazir, what does this mean?"

Frank Price, the CEO of Sony-Colombia, called Kazir about recent events in Hollywood. Specifically, the news that Grey Pictures and 20th Century Fox had decided to work together.

"Frank, I'm sure you know what's going on."

"..."

Frank could not help but sigh. Sony and Sony-Colombia were interested in Grey Pictures, and they were not stingy with money. But in the end, Sony-Colombia lost the battle.

Sony-Colombia understood that they lacked high quality films and needed Grey Pictures' filmography.

"You don't have to worry, I will honor the contract. I will be the director of Spider-Man 2".

"That's good to hear."

That was the main reason why Frank called Kazir. If Kazir wanted to stop working with the other studios, it would be bad for Sony-Colombia.

They had already experienced the taste of a $1 billion movie, and they wanted more. Only someone like Kazir could give them that amount.

"The project will continue, I just have to prepare the production and negotiate with the cast. I'll make sure that Spider-Man 2 is released in 2004."

Kazir assured the CEO of Sony-Colombia. He knew it was the right thing to do to keep his promise. He didn't want to tarnish his reputation.

After all, Kazir still had a chance to jump to another house if the 20th Century Fox deal didn't work out.

"Okay, I will contact Jezebel about the negotiations. By the way, why don't we keep your contract the same? ... You know, $27 million + 27% worldwide box office + 7% peripheral profit share is a lot, right?"

"Frank, you should talk to Salvatore about that. Not me."

"Okay, fine..."

Judging by Frank's voice, the guy was suffering from overwork.

Kazir was not stupid enough to promise anything about his salary. Only Salvatore and Kazir's other agents could do that. These people would probably do their best to get a better amount of money for a higher commission. Kazir decided to trust them and let them do their job.

The call ended and Kazir slipped the phone into his pocket. Tonight, Grey Pictures decided to celebrate the success of The Revenant.

Since the movie had already ended its worldwide run, Grey Pictures decided to throw a party and invited a lot of people. The Revenant has grossed $532.95 million at the worldwide box office.

As the 5th highest grossing movie of 2002, The Revenant gained a good reputation.

By the way, here are the top 10 grossing movies last year:

The 1st highest grossing film last year was The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. It grossed $936.68 million.

2nd was Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Earning $878.97 million at the worldwide box office.

3rd was The Bourne Supremacy with $710.68 million.

4th was Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones. Grossing $645.25 million.

5th was The Revenant with $532.95 million.

6th was Mr. And Mrs. Smith with $487.28 million.

7th was Men in Black II with $441.81 million.

8th was Die Another Day with $431.97 million.

9th was Signs with $408.24 million.

10th was Ice Age with $383.25 million.

These were the top ten highest-grossing films of 2002.

Despite being a second-tier production studio, it didn't change the fact that Grey Pictures had three movies in the top 10.

This was proof of Grey Pictures' ability. Enough to raise 20th Century Fox's stock price.

"Congratulations, Kazir. You're now a certified billionaire!"

"Thanks, Tom."

Tom Cruise and Kazir Grey hugged and laughed. Even though their movie didn't get many Oscar nominations, they weren't bitter because the movie was amazing.

Many people knew that Kazir was probably paid at least $1 billion by 20th Century Fox. That makes him a real billionaire with liquid assets... He might have to invest that amount of money in something, because the IRS is sure to be knocking on his door.

Anyway, the party went quite well and a lot of celebrities attended the party for some reason... A lot of actresses tried to flirt with Kazir because Angelina was busy filming Lara Croft: Tom Raider and couldn't attend tonight.

"Excuse me, are you director Kazir?"

"Hm?"

Kazir turned to see a young woman calling him. The woman was poised despite her young age. She seemed to be at least 18 years old.

The woman extended her hand and asked for a handshake.

"Hi, I'm Elizabeth Holmes. I'm 19 years old. I'm here to ask for at least five minutes of your time. I just want to introduce you to my company, Theranos."

"Excuse me, what?" Kazir was shocked.

Kazir had many reasons to be shocked. He knew who Elizabeth Holmes was. This woman could be the biggest fraud of the century!

+++++

[Hey, I just want to promote my Pat reon and Ko-fi. For $10 you can read 177 chapters of HWI and other content about my Pat reon and Ko- fi].

P@treon link: https://www.patreon.com/Puji_maki

Ko-fi link: https://ko-fi.com/pujimaki