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Which Universe do you want to be created?


  • Total voters
    720
HWI 320 New
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
 
Weird place to end the chapter... who got the award for best movie? Not sure I am reading this right, and the perspective is all over the place from director to narrator to tom cruise without any real stage directions to understand what is going on...
 
HWI 321 New
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?]
 
HWI 322 New
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].
 
The average cost of the episodes is 6m.

And i would say it will be more expensive now, with the cgi being more expensive at the time (even if season 1 did not have tons of it).
 
CHP 160 Really disappointed in how Reese relationship was finished by annoying mother. Especially after what he went through with his ex wife
 
HWI 323 New
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.
 
Don't know why Kazir is using the name of pirates of the caribbean since the name belongs to Disney as it is taken from one of their rides.

He leaves himself open to be sued.

That is bs, the ride has little to no plot, and the name is generic, as there were pirates of the caribbean in the real world.
 
That is bs, the ride has little to no plot, and the name is generic, as there were pirates of the caribbean in the real world.

Say that to Nintendo.

In any case, you're talking about the company who in the real world have sued kindergardens for putting images of Mickey mouse on their walls.

And who vetoed a grieving father from placing a spiderman etching on the grave of his 4 year old son.

Never underestimate Disney's lack of shame or ethics. For they have none.
 
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