HWI 522

Hollywood What If Chapter 522

Sometimes, Kazir felt like there was a reason why he time-traveled back to 1994. He felt like he had a purpose.

However, after living more than a decade after the regression, Kazir still couldn't find it. Was there a higher being that gave him a mission to do? Or perhaps this was just a dream.

Kazir witnessed and experienced many things. He also reached the peak of his career. Almost everyone in Hollywood knew his name.

He also experienced a failed assassination, which was a good thing. He contemplated his life, but he still couldn't find the answer. All he wanted was to keep making movies, this job gave him happiness.

December 24, 2007.

Despite the Holiday atmosphere in the office, Kazir and the management were talking about their next plans for 2008. For next year, Wanted 3 and The Equalizer 2 will be released. These two movies were already in production for months... In fact, The Equalizer started filming around the time when Kazir was in Hospital.

Wanted 3 would be the last part of the Wanted franchise since Ben Affleck's contract would end after that. Wesley Gibson(the protagonist of Wanted) already found a conclusion to his story since The Kingsman: The Secret Service. Wanted 3 would be the last time he would appear in the Continental Cinematic Universe...

Unless Grey Pictures hired him again, they have to pay him a huge salary for that. For Wanted 3, Ben Affleck's salary was $21 million... Yeah, it was obvious why Grey Pictures couldn't afford the actor anymore.

Furthermore, the studio also has to give a bonus to the actor if the movie performed well at the box office, this was sort of a standard procedure done by many studios to encourage actors to work with them again.

Despite being held by the contract, the salary could help but be raised to motivate the actors. The contract was just there as a binder. After all, the actor could say no and not sign for a sequel, and Grey Pictures would have no way to remedy that, even with a contract. They could go to court but that would be a lose-lose situation for both sides. So Grey Pictures have to accept some leeway for the actors to work with them again.

Honestly, if they followed the contract, Ben Affleck and Viggo Mortensen would probably earn around $10-15 million. It was an acceptable range, but the actors might not show up in the filming scene.

Remember, the face of the franchise was the leading actor. If the leading actor didn't cooperate, the movie was basically incomplete. The studio could use some CGI, but that could lead to a lawsuit if the actor didn't give approval.

Yeah, it was tough to work with celebrities.

Anyway, Ben Affleck was done with the CCU, and the only way to make him come back was by offering top dollar. His character(Wesley Gibson) was not dead, but would not show in CCU movies anymore.

As for The Equalizer, Denzel Washington had a great work ethic and was nice to work with. The salary of $18.5 million was worth it.

Grey Pictures revenue this year was $2.8 billion and their profit was around 30% of that amount, which was around $840 million... The people in the meeting clapped their hands while staring at that number.

The employees would definitely get a bonus this year.

After this meeting, Kazir talked to the management for a while before ending it. He left the building as four tough-looking bodyguards followed him.

Anderson just recently came back after his injury healed. Kazir was so happy to see him again. Of course, his four bodyguards would receive a huge sum of bonus for keeping his safety these past few months.

He comfortably sat in the car as they drove to the street... It was very traffic and the road was congested. Kazir wondered if he would reach Christmas Eve with his family.

Thankfully, they reached Beverly Hills at night. His house had Christmas lights flickering around. He found his family waiting for him. Even his niece happily hugged him as he entered the house. Scarlett and the others were talking. The woman smiled and kissed him before they reached the dinner table, where a bunch of dishes were prepared.

This month was smooth sailing and Kazir felt like the time was moving fast. He had a meeting with Warner Brothers last week about the marketing strategy that they have to go with The Dark Knight. Warner Brothers actually wanted to hire Stella Willow to hear her marketing plans but the woman was busy with her own projects. The woman had an allergy to working with other studios after what happened to Kazir.

Stella felt betrayed that she helped Universal Pictures set a marketing strategy that made Shadows Beneath earn $1 billion at the box; then, the next month, she heard that one of the management of Universal Pictures tried to kill her boss. She felt disgusted and she didn't want to experience it again. This was much worse than the time when she was betrayed by her coworkers.

The marketing strategy that Warner Brothers was identical to what most studios do to promote their movies was by using the media.

Actually, Kazir had an idea but he didn't share it... He remembered how Warner Brothers used Heath Ledger's death as a form to promote the movie. It was a genius method, Kazir was not a fan of it, especially when he wanted to save the actor.

Funny because a few years ago, Grey Pictures used Robert Ludlum's death to promote the Borne Supremacy. Kazir didn't have a problem with the marketing strategy at that time.

Well, people changed, and Kazir was also changing. Now, he was not a fan of it.

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[This chapter is kinda jumbled. I paused quite a lot while writing it because I was wrecking my mind on what to write.]