HWI 521

Hollywood What If Chapter 521

The meeting room was silent for a while. Some people glanced at each other, while some were keeping their heads low, not joining the conversation.

Avi Arad bitterly smiled as he sat straight and fixed his posture. He decided to change the topic.

"Captain America is still in the approval process so let's not make a certain decision for now."

Avi Arad sensed that some people had their own motives regarding the cast... Well, everyone had their own motives. But they shouldn't prioritize their motives over the success of the movie.

He suddenly recalled one of the higher-ups who promoted Terrence Howard to be part of the movie. Sure, Terrence Howard had a box office appeal, but his salary was kinda tough to take. Especially when Marvel Studio intended for a Trilogy out of Iron Man.

Avi's left eye slightly twitched as he remembered the conversation. The higher-up said that as long as Kazir was working on the MCU, the projects would always succeed no matter what.

Let's remember that Kazir was the person who pushed through casting Don Cheadle because he believed that the franchise would be safer with Don as the War Machine... But those arrogant old farts believed that the movie would be a success even if they changed the cast.

Here's the deal: casting an actor for a certain role could determine if the movie would be successful.

Casting Heath Ledger to be The Joker in The Dark Knight was a perfect choice.

Casting Joaquin Phoenix to be the Joker was also a great choice... (Note: We don't talk about the Joker 2 because that movie doesn't exist. People erased the memories that they watched that Musical.)

Casting Jared Leto to be the Joker in Suicide Squad was a bad move. His portrayal didn't sit well with the audience.

See the difference? Casting was an important part of a successful movie. If the audience felt unimpressed with the actor and his performance, that could lead to failure.

In Terrence Howard's case, he performed his role greatly but the salary was the biggest problem.

"Yeah, I just remembered, I'm interested in casting Viggo Mortensen to be Thor. You are close with Viggo, right Kazir? Why don't you talk to him and convince him?"

Kazir, who was keeping his silence most of the time, frowned when he heard that.

He looked at Leo Roy, the Studio President.

In huge media conglomerates like 20th Century Fox, Walt Disney, and other production studios, there were multiple Studio Presidents who managed a division.

20th Century Fox currently has three Studio Presidents that handle departments, Live Action, Animation, and TV Networks.

The person Kazir was looking at was Leo Roy, the Studio President of 20th Century Fox' Live Action movies. For a movie to be approved, his signature must be acquired as long as he was in the position.

Kazir's relationship with this guy was nonexistent. But lately, Leo has been showing disapproval of his opinions. He also heard that Leo was one of the people who hired Terrence Howard.

Kazir sighed. He could see the picture where Viggo was holding Mjolnir. It didn't look bad. Viggo could act on the role.

However, the problem was not whether Viggo could act or not. It was all about money.

"Even if Viggo agreed, we will have to pay him at least $10 million. Furthermore, it's very hard to convince him to sign a Trilogy contract. I'm sure none of us here want to give a box office share to the actors."

Box Office shares mean less money. They didn't want that.

Leo kept his smile and nodded.

"Thor is still not on approval so let's talk about that later," Kazir added.

However, Kazir felt like he had to work on the MCU more, or else this Cinematic Universe might not happen. He would promote Chris Hemsworth and Chris Evans to take the roles.

Thankfully, Kazir had worked with Chris Hemsworth in Shadows Beneath so he could easily contact the actor. He had to make sure that both Chris would get the role, this was the safest method to make sure that the Marvel Cinematic Universe would happen.

.........

......

...

Months passed and now it is December again. This year was probably the most death-defying that Kazir experienced, quite literally.

What happened in May was something that Kazir and his relatives would never forget. Probably most Americans would also remember that incident. The news regarding the assassination spread all over the world, making Kazir famous again... In a sad way.

Still, he admitted that he felt blessed that he survived another year.

Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End has already ended its screening in North America, and the worldwide box office was now over $1 billion... Funny that this franchise almost killed Kazir.

As for John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum. After four months of screening, the movie already grossed $700 million worldwide. Unfortunately, this was probably the best that this action movie could reach. Well, $700 million was still huge so definitely not bad for Grey Pictures and 20th Century Fox.

Kazir also finished the post-production of The Dark Knight. He met Heath Ledger many times and saw that the actor was getting better.

It seemed that the psychology of The Joker was vanishing in Heath's mind which was a good thing. Kazir and Heath became friends enough that Kazir recommended him to stop using pills... Heath accepted his concern but he still kept using them.