HOLLYWOOD WHAT IF

[Pujimaki]

Hollywood What If Chapter 482


Kazir had a trauma that he wanted to overcome. In his past life, he spent his whole career making horror movies. They were all failures at the box office.

There were so many movies released in a year. His horror movies could only secure dozens of theaters to release his films, and none of them brought in profit.

Still, making horror movies was profitable. He sold his films and made a million that way. He also received residual income from those movies.

Studios loved acquiring films to expand their film libraries. This trend intensified when online streaming became mainstream.

Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and other streaming services loved to buy small-budget movies to expand their content libraries. Sometimes, these streaming platforms even invested in producing their own films.

Netflix created Bird Box, Enola Holmes, and other movies and TV series just to make sure their customers had content to watch.

So, even though Kazir's movies were not box office hits, he had a constant source of income. In fact, despite his old age, some actresses were interested in him because of his career as a director.

In his past life, after his divorce from Cassandra, Kazir had a few long-term relationships with women, but none progressed to the next stage, which was marriage. He had girlfriends in his past life. However, he understood that they were only interested in him because of his profession.

It became a bane for him. He had a hard time trusting the opposite sex after that.

Anyway, Kazir had been making horror movies his whole life, and he knew the formula.

Before his death, he had written a script that he wanted to produce. He even convinced Netflix to invest in his project, but he died before the production began.

"Shadows Beneath."

Kazir muttered while staring at the script on his table.

Kazir was scared. He wasn't scared of the script, he was scared that he would fail again now that he was trying to make an original horror movie.

He admitted that he had a trauma, and he had to face it. He was way past the point of being depressed about his decisions.

He had to do it, or else he would stay stagnant and truly never move forward.

He planned to film it in just two months. Editing was also not a problem since the movie didn't require many special effects. This was a small project.

He wanted to hire his friends for this movie, but he knew that it would be tough to do so. In the first place, this movie only had a budget of $15 million.

This film required two months of filming, and those two months were important to everyone. They couldn't waste two months of their time for such a small amount of money, their agents wouldn't agree. Even Salvatore wouldn't approve from a business standpoint.

He had free time this year, and that was the only window he had to film this movie. Because after this year, Kazir had to work on The Dark Knight.

"I should call my assistant director. We will have an audition. In the meantime, I should focus on editing the footage of Pirates of the Caribbean."

Kazir had a new assistant director after Palenque Simone left his crew.

.........

......

...

"Yes, yes? Director... I'll do what I can."

Everest Thorne put down his phone as he looked at the ceiling... He had just woken up. He had partied all night now that he had more time for himself.

Two years ago, Everest was lucky to be hired by Grey Pictures as Kazir's assistant director. It was a huge honor. He had many rivals trying to get the position, but Everest landed the job.

He thought he was the luckiest person alive.

Director Grey had two assistant directors before Everest, and those two assistants got their own projects after working with Director Grey.

It showed that Director Grey was the kind of person who trained his assistants for better careers. He took care of his people and helped them grow.

Everest was so happy at that time.

But after working with Kazir, Everest realized something important, Director Kazir Grey was a workaholic!

Every year, he had a new project to make. It was exhausting. Especially this time, when they traveled to the Caribbean to film Pirates of the Caribbean. Everest was sleep-deprived for half a year because of Pirates of the Caribbean.

Being the assistant director, he was Kazir's right-hand man in managing the production crew. It was not easy at all.

Thankfully, now that Pirates of the Caribbean had wrapped filming, Everest had more time for himself. He still had to go to Grey Pictures to help Kazir with editing the movie, but at least he didn't have to go around managing people anymore.

Last night, he went to a party to have some fun.

And today, while lying in bed, he was forcefully awakened by a call. He looked at the clock and realized it was already 1 p.m.… He was fucking late for work!

He immediately answered the call when he realized it was Kazir calling him.

Everest was nervous at first when Kazir said he didn't need to go to the editing room. He thought he was going to be fired.

But before Everest could explain himself, Kazir dropped a bombshell.

— You don't have to go to the building. Instead, form a small production crew. I want to film a horror movie. I also want you to start an audition.

"..."

Everest was speechless.

They had just finished a project, yet the director wanted to start another one! Damn, like, damn!

"At least he didn't fire me."

++++

[I'm not going to lie. The script for Shadows Beneath is written by ChatGPT. I can write a horror script, but my imagination and knowledge are incomparable to ChatGPT's. In the first place, I accepted that I'm an average writer. I feel like if Kazir is going to make a horror movie, I want it to be a real horror. Some of you guys might not like it, so I'm just saying it ahead of time. In my case, as a writer, ChatGPT is useful. But don't worry, 99% of this novel is created, imagined, and written by me, except for some movie summaries, I fucking hate movie summaries.]

 

[Pujimaki]

Hollywood What If Chapter 483


While Kazir was busy with the editing of Pirates of the Caribbean, even going to Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) to check the special effects, Everest focused on the pre-production of the new project.

Most of the crew members expected that this year would be a sort of rest for them since Kazir had no announced projects. Oh boy, they were wrong.

Some of the crew members signed up, while others decided to take a rest for the year.

Because of this, the production crew had missing positions to fill.

Everest talked to Kazir, and the director agreed to go talk to the CAA to fill in the missing positions.

Since the project was unexpected, the crew couldn't help but be disorganized. Thankfully, CAA sent them a producer who would help manage the project.

When everything was in line, the crew asked CAA to provide them with actors and actresses for the movie. At this point, Grey Pictures had hired CAA on a package deal.

In this ordeal, Grey Pictures already spent $9 million of its budget. It was more than half of the production cost.

Kazir had never experienced overspending on his movies, and this might be the first time.

Because the movie would be directed by Kazir Grey, it was impossible to keep it a secret. The news quickly spread, and other agencies also heard about it.

Some actors and actresses applied and even sent in their resumes and audition tapes.

Unfortunately, the production crew had already signed a contract with CAA for a package deal. CAA already had a cast for the movie. When the news came out, many actors and actresses within CAA talked to their agents and hoped that they would have a chance to get cast in Kazir's new project. No one believed that Kazir's movie would fail.

Working with Director Grey meant instant success. He had proven himself many times, and many actors and actresses became celebrities after working with him.

Because the budget of the movie was limited, CAA had to match the salaries accordingly. They also sent small actors and actresses for the roles.

Despite being unknown, it didn't mean that these actors and actresses weren't talented. They were simply people who had failed to find opportunities.

And this time, they received an opportunity they couldn't let slip away.

Before hiring these small actors and actresses, the production crew had to test them first through auditions.

The actors and actresses accepted this fact. It was standard practice that they had to audition before getting the roles.

However, there was a massive problem... The script was missing!

Yeah, the actors and actresses had no idea what scene to act out because they didn't have the script. They only knew that Kazir's small project was a horror movie.

Only Everest had a copy of the full script. He read it and could say that it was promising. The plot twist was pretty cliché, but Hollywood was full of cliché movies anyway. Hollywood is never truly innovative, they just keep recycling stuff and making it look new.

Kazir specifically said that no one should get the complete script, not even the actors and actresses. He also stated that the actors and actresses could only receive one-third of the script in the audition room.

As for why Kazir gave these complicated orders, Everest had no idea. He simply followed them.

Everest didn't know that the reason Kazir didn't want to share the script was because he was embarrassed. This was an original script he wrote himself, and he was afraid the cast might think it was mediocre.

Because of this complicated situation, the actors and actresses attended the audition with no clue what to expect. Before the audition, they practiced their acting. They performed frightened expressions, some actresses even practiced their screams.

When the audition ended, most of the cast passed and signed their contracts. As for those who failed, CAA sent more people to fill the remaining roles.

It was tough for Everest because the project had been announced unexpectedly. Most of the old crew members were absent, either on vacation or working on other projects. This caused a bit of a slowdown in production.

The props preparation, costume designs, and filming locations all had to be ready before Director Grey officially joined the project.

Everest realized that being an assistant director was never easy. He had a lot of responsibilities. Sometimes, he wondered how his seniors, Fremont and Palenque, had survived this kind of job.

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...

March was the third month of the year. Just like in previous months, new movies were released in March.

Movies like Deep Sea 3D (Documentary), Failure to Launch (Romantic Comedy), The Shaggy Dog (Comedy), V for Vendetta (Action), Inside Man (Thriller/Suspense), and Ice Age: The Meltdown (Adventure) were released in March. These movies surpassed $100 million at the box office and were released in March 2006.

Ice Age: The Meltdown was created by Blue Sky Studios. After the success of Kung Fu Panda last year, Blue Sky Studios received better treatment from 20th Century Fox. Everyone believed that another animation studio could rival Pixar/Disney, aside from DreamWorks.

The competition during that month was tough, despite March not being considered a prime release schedule. Out of all the movies, Ice Age: The Meltdown and V for Vendetta made the most money.

After March, April arrived, and another batch of movies was about to be released.

First on the list was none other than The Bourne Ultimatum. It was obvious that 20th Century Fox couldn't release the movie in a more popular schedule, so Grey Pictures had to settle for April, the month before summer.

Yet, despite The Bourne Ultimatum being released during a less popular window, it was amazing that movie theaters were packed with people eager to see it.

This was the effect of Taken 3 on the audience. Because of the massive success of Taken 3, grossing over $1 billion, the next movie of the CCU also became a box office hit. The excitement still hadn't died down.


[Last chapter today. Thank you for your support.]