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 fulfill? Or perhaps this was just a dream.
Kazir had witnessed and experienced many things. He had also reached the peak of his career. Almost everyone in Hollywood knew his name.
He also survived a failed assassination, which, in a way, 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 the upcoming year, Wanted 3 and The Equalizer 2 would be released. These two movies had already been in production for months... In fact, The Equalizer started filming around the time Kazir was in the 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 in The Kingsman: The Secret Service. Wanted 3 would be the last time he appeared in the Continental Cinematic Universe...
Unless Grey Pictures hired him again, they would have to pay him a huge salary. 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 had 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 bound by a contract, the salary still had to be raised to motivate the actors. The contract was just there as a binder. After all, the actor could still 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 had to allow some leeway for the actors to work with them again.
Honestly, if they followed the contract strictly, Ben Affleck and Viggo Mortensen would probably earn around $10–15 million in their third movies. It was an acceptable range, but the actors might not show up on set.
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.
It was tough to work with celebrities.
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 appear 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 had just recently come back after his injury healed. Kazir was so happy to see him again. Of course, his four bodyguards would receive a huge bonus for keeping him safe these past few months.
He comfortably sat in the car as they drove through the streets... It was very traffic-heavy 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 all 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 had been smooth sailing, and Kazir felt like time was moving fast. He had a meeting with Warner Brothers last week about the marketing strategy they would use for 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 after she helped Universal Pictures set a marketing strategy that made Shadows Beneath earn $1 billion at the box office. Then, the next month, she heard that one of the executives at Universal Pictures tried to kill her boss. She felt disgusted and didn't want to experience that again. It was much worse than the time she was betrayed by her coworkers.
The marketing strategy that Warner Brothers proposed was identical to what most studios do to promote their movies, 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 method to promote the movie. It was a genius tactic, but Kazir was not a fan of it, especially since he wanted to save the actor.
Funny, because a few years ago, Grey Pictures used Robert Ludlum's death to promote The Bourne Supremacy. Kazir didn't have a problem with the marketing strategy at that time.
Well, people change, 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. This is the sign that I have to end the novel, I'm running out of ideas.]