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Which Universe do you want to be created?


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HWI 256
Hollywood What If Chapter 256


Manhattan, New York.

The original setting for Spider-Man was New York. Obviously, the crew flew to New York to shoot the movie.

Particularly was the Times Square.

One of the most popular Spider-Man locations is Times Square. In the first Spider-Man trilogy, Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) saves Mary Jane from the Green Goblin at the Unity Festival, in Times Square.

It was an iconic scene, the scene where the Green Goblin glides in the sky and throws special grenades.

This project had a huge budget and Kazir didn't hesitate to hire a crane. They use it for Spider-Man's web-slinging and landing. Of course, they use it mostly when Spider-Man and Green Goblin need screen time in the sky or landing from the sky.

Although most of the web-slinging and swinging by the buildings would be created by special effects. Sony-Columbia has already hired Industrial Light & Magic to create the necessary scenes. The special effects alone cost them almost half of the budget. This was early 2000 and special effects were very expensive. Even the people who knew about VFX were few and far between.

With the crane, Tobey Maguire landed safely on the ground with the wire connected to the crane.

"Cut!"

Kazir announced through the megaphone and the crew started to fix the set.

"..."

Kazir touched his chin as he watched the landing from different angles.

He nodded.

"This is over."

The crew knew what they had to do. Since the director had announced that this scene was over, they began to clean up the set. The giant crane was moved out and the cameras were returned to the van for the next location.

Tobey took a deep breath. Finally, he had the time to take off his tight costume. It was really uncomfortable to spend most of the day in the costume.

Fortunately, they were done for today. Apparently, Director Grey wanted to meet his relatives, so he decided to end the shooting early.

Kazir packed his things, even though it was only a cup of coffee. Erica Mendez followed him, keeping her job as his assistant/bodyguard.

The chances of Kazir getting into a gunfight were slim, but this was the land of the free. People could carry guns for protection. Unfortunately, there were people who used guns for the wrong purposes.

Gun control was quite complicated...

As Kazir started to leave, he found Kirsten fidgeting and quietly following him. The woman realized that the director sensed her.

"Is something wrong, Kirsten?"

"Um, director, I baked some cookies. I hope you'll try them."

"Thank you." Kazir casually accepted the gift.

"By the way, is Jezebel still..."

"Unfortunately, yes. Although I've gotten used to her. What she says always makes sense, but she's very strict with me," Kirsten replied.

"Tell me if something happens."

"Yes, director."

Kazir and Erica got into the car. As the assistant/bodyguard/driver, Erica was responsible for driving the car.

Kazir looked at the box of cookies and decided to take a bite.

"Not bad. Maybe my niece will like it."

Kazir was not stupid. He knew what Kirsten was up to.

He was responsible for the movie and he didn't want any mishaps, so he decided to let things be. However, Kazir had no intention of flirting with the young woman. He just wanted to make sure that Kirsten was in her right mind so that the filming would go smoothly.

The actress' mental health has been very delicate lately.

Kazir wanted to do something about Jezebel, but the woman had no faults other than being strict with women. In fact, she was good at her job.

So to balance things out, Kazir decided to accept gifts from the actress, but made sure to keep the proper distance and create a boundary between them.

If Kazir flirted with Kirsten, Angelina would definitely be upset. They had a great relationship and Kazir didn't want it to crumble.

'The watch Kirsten gave me is missing. I can't find it after my night with Angelina. She probably did something with it.'

Well, Angelina made up for it by buying Kazir a Rolex, a much more expensive watch.

"I prefer G-Shock, but whatever," he looked at the Rolex he was wearing and confirmed that it was 4:45 pm.

The traffic in New York was terrible and they were still in Manhattan. Then Erica decided to take a new route and they reached Wall Street...

Not a minute later, the two heard a thud and then a loud scream.

People started screaming and some of them had pale faces.

Kazir frowned.

"What happened?"

He decided to lower his window and saw something horrible. A man in a suit, his head literally open, brain matter everywhere.

Fortunately, Kazir worked in horror movies and was used to seeing gruesome corpses (props). In fact, he saw much more disgusting than this.

Still, Kazir was affected by the fact that a person had died close to where he was.

He looked at Erica and the woman had a normal expression. The woman had served in the military and had probably seen the same things.

"The man jumped off the building!"

"Ambulance! Call the damn ambulance!"

"Fuck, this is the fifth one this month. When are they going to stop?"

"It's all because of the bubble burst!"

"Bubble burst? Dot-com bubble burst?"

The man was probably someone who worked in the financial sector, maybe dabbling in stocks. But because the dot-com bubble burst, the man lost everything. He decided it was better to kill himself than face the consequences.

"Let's go."

Kazir ordered his assistant.

"Sir, we can't. The traffic here is not so good either."

Kazir sighed and shut the window. The stock market was no paradise. Someone would win, someone would lose.

The two were silent for a while until they reached the place where Aaron and his family lived.

++++

[VERY IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: Some of you may have heard about what happened to the Patreon iOS app recently. Basically, greedy Apple wants to take a 30% cut whenever someone subscribes to Patreon using the Patreon iOS app. Please, if you want to subscribe to Patreon, don't use the iOS app. Instead, use the website or the Android app to subscribe. Because 30% is a huge cut for creators, we're going to suffer because Apple wants a cut of our revenue. And yes, fuck Apple.]

[Another Note: I've got to get to the Grey Pictures stuff first, like Fast and The Furious and John Wick Chapter 2, before I start the Spider-Man premiere].
 
Kazir Grey finishes shooting the set of the Spider-Man, which Kazir goes to see family relatives in New York city.
Unfortunately, Jezebel is causing problems for Kirsten Dunst and visa versa for Kazir Grey purposely but strictly having Kirsten infatuated with him ,despite his current relationship with Angelina Jolie ( who's shows the typical jealous towards Kristen's previous gift watch.
Unexpectedly, Kazir Grey regular day took a horrible turn with someone jumping off the Wall Street building so close him.
Meantime, Grey Pictures releases more movies before Spider-Man movie premiere at the meantime.
Continue on
Cheers!
 
HWI 257
Hollywood What If Chapter 257


The room was a little awkward. Well, strangers had just entered this place to start the script reading schedule. This was their first meeting and the bond was still not there. Quite a problem, since the whole motto of Fast and The Furious was "family".

Yep, nothing beats family.

- Dom Toreto.

To make matters worse, the director of the movie was not fluent in English. He could speak English, but his accent and his speed were not so fast.

At least you could understand him. That was enough.

Paul Walker and Vin Diesel were the main characters of this movie. An LAPD (Brian O'Connor) and a notorious street racer (Dominic Toreto) respectively.

The copyright of The Fast and The Furious was quite complicated. Well, Kazir Grey made it very complicated.

Kazir wrote the script in 1995 and registered it with the Writers Guild. However, in 1998, an article about street racing was published that had some similarities to his script. Kazir expected this because the first movie in the Fast & Furious franchise was inspired by the article.

The name of the article was Racer X by Ken Li, published in Vibe magazine.

To make things easier and to avoid a lawsuit. Grey Pictures bought the said article for an amount of 50 thousand dollars. Now the problem was easily solved.

Once that was done, the production of Fast and The Furious was approved by the management, although Kazir was the main decision maker anyway.

The investment was made. Grey Pictures hired an insurance company to make sure the production was on track.

The director of the film was a Taiwanese director named Justin Lin. The man had been a director since 1997 and had made one movie. When he received an invitation from Grey Pictures to direct one of their movies, the answer was only one.

"Absolutely."

This was a unique opportunity for him to break into Hollywood. The biggest show business in the world.

For a nobody like him it was hard to turn it down. He was actually shocked and scared. He didn't expect this situation. He even thought it was a scam.

He flew to Los Angeles just to meet Stella Willow, the General Manager of Grey Pictures.

Justin Lin knew that his position in this industry was so low, so he agreed to most of her conditions. He had to do it. Otherwise the position could be taken by others.

He signed a contract and got a salary of $1 million. It was actually the highest salary he ever had.

After that he signed with CAA and had an agent to help him. Salvatore Barlowe was already in a tight spot after having two directors, so it was impossible for him to get Justin Lin. CAA would not let that happen.

"Haha, L- Let's start the script reading."

Justin Lin announced in his unique accent, wiping his sweaty brow. He was actually nervous.

Vin Diesel and Paul Walker, still strangers, stared at each other and wondered.

'Can this guy even direct this movie? He looks like he's going to pass out from sweating so much.'

All the actors in this movie were new to the industry. None of them had established their status.

Vin Diesel had been in some projects like Saving Private Ryan and even starred in Pitch Black, but the guy was still not that famous. Grey Pictures could afford his salary, so yes, he was not that famous...

The biggest reason why these actors and actresses auditioned for this movie was because of the influence of Wanted and the previous CCU movies. Hollywood predicted that the movies produced by Grey Pictures had a high chance of making a profit.

For new actors/actresses who didn't have a steady career in the industry, this was the chance they didn't want to let go.

What they didn't know was that Kazir understood the importance of this franchise. Because he knew how much money Fast & Furious could make.

As for why Kazir didn't hire Rob Cohen, the first director of The Fast and The Furious movie. The first film lacked unrealistic stunts.

The Continental Cinematic Universe was filled with spies, assassins and even ninjas. The movie needed spice to make it interesting.

Justin Lin was the director of:

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (3rd sequel)

Fast & Furious (4th sequel)

Fast Five (5th sequel)

Fast & Furious 6 (6th sequel)

F9 (10th sequel)

Many of these movies had unrealistic stunts that hyped the whole franchise.

Cars falling from the sky with parachutes? Yes, they did.

Military tanks that had the speed of a race car? Yes.

Cars overtaking an airplane? Yes.

Oh, here's another one. Cars in space? Absolutely yes.

Kazir didn't need the mellow version Fast and The Furious. He needed the adrenaline-pumping version of Fast and The Furious.

He felt that Justin Lin was the right person for that. He gave the director control over the film's action sequences, as long as it fit the Continental Cinematic Universe.

"Tsk, let's just go with that and finish the session."

17-year-old Scarlett Johansson muttered, and that got the attention of the cast.

On this project, Scarlett had perhaps the longest association with Grey Pictures, except for Harold, who was still the producer.

Kim Mills had a brief appearance in this movie.

Nobody knew how the story would go on. Even the author has no idea...

If there was one good thing, it was that Kazir had already written the general plot of the first movie. It was about an undercover LAPD who infiltrated a gang of criminals who were stealing expensive electronic goods...

Kazir leveled up the plot. The gang stole military equipment instead, that brought them to the list of wanted criminals.

+++++

[Author's note: Yes, that was the plot of the first movie, I found it on Wikipedia. But to add in the CCU, I decided that Dom Toreto's gang stole military equipment instead.]
 
I hope we get a full summary of the changes in the movie going forward, they might be minor changes but any change to a movie would be awesome to read about. Might be a sign that Kazir is finally going to stop just copy and pasting everything from the originals. I also am curious to know how Kim Mills (Scarlett) is going to factor in.
 
There's quite a lot of high importance military electronics. For example, if you steal an AN/ASQ-239 Barracuda the entire alphabet soup gang will be looking for you
 
HWI 258
Hollywood What If Chapter 258


Kazir spends the months of December and January in New York filming Spider-Man.

While in New York, he spent some time with his family.

Most of his energy went into the movie, as it was a project he didn't want to mess up. His family was very supportive, his father told him that he was so proud of him.

He was so proud of his two sons, they are living their lives now and they have achievements.

If there was one thing he wanted for... He wanted to see his younger son start a family and maybe have a child.

In fact, Victor Grey (Kazir's father) wanted another grandchild to spoil!

You see, Aaron and his wife decided to take things slow after having a daughter. They have no intention of having another child for the time being.

Now that Victor has experienced having a granddaughter, he has realized that life is worth living. So yes, out of selfishness, he wanted Kazir to have a child or two.

It is up to Kazir if he wants to marry again. After all, his son experienced the same thing as he did. The heartbreak of divorce.

Victor met Angelina a few times and didn't have a problem with the woman. She seemed nice. If Kazir and Angelina wanted to get married and have a child, he would be happy to support them.

For an old grandfather who didn't have much in life except work, Victor felt that having grandchildren was the best thing he could have.

As for Kazir, he was still unsure of his future path. He was traumatized by the divorce and couldn't imagine getting married again. At least not now.

As for having a child. He didn't know how to be a father. He was not sure he would be a good father. He had a chance to be one, but his ex-wife aborted the baby. He didn't know it at the time and he couldn't stop it.

He and Angelina had a good relationship, but it was not enough to determine if they were sure about getting married, much less having a baby. Besides, Angelina's career was just taking off and a pregnancy could affect her blossoming career.

Looking back, Angelina and Kazir began their relationship over a year ago. They had their first night together in December, Christmas Eve to be exact. After that, they decided to become a thing.

And now the year 2000 has just passed and it was already February 2001. Time sure flies when you're that busy.

.........

......

...

"Congratulations. Not only Wanted, even the Bruce Almighty you wrote had a great performance."

"Thanks George. I have to stay motivated to stay relevant. I'm not like you, who created a culture in the United States. The influence of the Continental Cinematic Universe is nothing compared to Star Wars."

Kazir visited Industrial Light & Magic to see the progress of the special effects. The special effects project was 85% complete and just needed a few tweaks. Of course, Kazir had to put all these shots together into a complete movie before everything was done. So he probably had to spend another month or two in post-production.

"Give it a few years, your movies will get the same treatment."

Kazir shrugged at George Lucas' answer.

"Anyway, I know you turned down Star Wars Episode 2 because you were interested in Spider-Man. But what about Episode 3?"

"You really want to hire me?"

"I can't help it. You're the most profitable director right now. If you direct Star Wars, I'm sure the box office will be over $1 billion."

"I can't promise you anything."

In his opinion, the romance between Padme and Anakin was somewhat forced. He had an idea how to fix it, but wanted to keep it to himself since he was not sure if he would be working with Star Wars. The plot of the new trilogy was lacking.

The special effects for Spider-Man were going in the right direction. Most of it involved Spider-Man swinging past buildings in New York as if he were Tarzan.

'I can't believe we spent millions of dollars on that eight to ten minutes of detailed animation.'

CGI was very expensive in the early 2000s. But if you compare it to recent movies that are full of CGI, like the Marvel movies, the early 2000s movies had better CGI.

After checking with Industrial Light & Magic, the man decided to return to the studio that Sony-Columbia had given him to edit Spider-Man. He had five editors to work with, one of whom was the senior editor Kazir talked to the most.

Another thing was that someone from Marvel Comics would be in the editing room to watch the whole thing. And sometimes give his opinion.

Luckily, Kazir was given full editing privileges. This gave him the power to bring his full creativity to the project. He had already proven himself in the industry, so Sony-Columbia gave him the power.

One of the perks of being a successful director. Everyone believed your movie would make money.

Perhaps the only thing Kazir could be proud of was his strong memory of things related to movies. Being his most devoted hobby and job, Kazir rarely forgot a scene. This helped a lot in the post-production process.

"Use our third shot for this one. I think it has the right angle and the emotions are expressive."

"Yes, director."

While Kazir was busy editing Spider-Man. One of the Big Six announced its intention to buy Grey Pictures...

+++++

[Well, the time has come. Honestly, I'm still sticking to my opinion to sell at least 30% of Grey Pictures so that the company can join one of the Big Six. Because realistically, if Grey Pictures continues to make successful movies, the Big Six would band together to destroy it. DreamWorks, Lionsgate, and even I can say that Miramax and New Line Cinema have suffered because of the Big Six. Let's not forget 20th Century Fox, that company was now under Disney now. So the Big Six became the Big Five.]

[I want to get your opinion on selling some shares of Grey Pictures to one of the Big Six].

[I'll post two more chapters later, but I can't promise it...]
 
I mean, it's a story. All of these Hollywood SI tend to go "no one can beat the Big Six, so join them!"

It's realistic, but it's also overdone. I have never read a Hollywood director SI where they didn't either sell their company to one of the big six, or outright join it. It would be so much more interesting to me if they sold to Dreamworks, and joined the struggle against the Big Six. Might not be realistic, but damn would it make a good story.

But I know that won't happen as you have already written over a hundred chapters ahead and have already resolved this issue.
 
He should trade for stock from one of the big studios.

Jobs did that with puxar, and that made him the majority shareholder, like 7% of Disney.

With all the IPs he has created, he should be up there in worth, maybe more.
 
why sell shares to one of the big 6, why not team up with the others and make into a big 7, dreamswork , lion gate and others can easily combine together to form a strong enough company to fight evenly.

and selling 30 percent is just a bad idea, because it limits your freedom , he should know what happens when you sell out, like look at starwars and other ip that got sold, 30 percent is just small step to selling more as selling shares is one way to make more money
 
why sell shares to one of the big 6, why not team up with the others and make into a big 7, dreamswork , lion gate and others can easily combine together to form a strong enough company to fight evenly.

and selling 30 percent is just a bad idea, because it limits your freedom , he should know what happens when you sell out, like look at starwars and other ip that got sold, 30 percent is just small step to selling more as selling shares is one way to make more money

The big 6 have special powers, like a spot to decide on movie ratings. The also might to screw the number and where the movie theaters allocated for minor companies are.

Also there is the problem with the international distribution channels, they own them.

Dreamworks got f-cked due to that.

US movie buisiness was set, after the mpaa thing, with only the big companies in mind.
 
HWI 259
Hollywood What If Chapter 259


"Ptui--! What did you say?"

Tom Rothman coughed out the coffee he was drinking when he heard a certain rumor from his secretary. Life as the CEO of 20th Century Fox was not so easy.

In a year or two, Tom Rothman would become part of News Corporation and leave the position of CEO of 20th Century Fox. He worked hard for that company, but he knew he was just a worker. The real owner of 20th Century Fox was News Corporation, Rupert Murdoch to be exact.

Well, at least he got some stock options and the credits he accumulated were enough for him to have a good position in News Corporation.

As for the next CEO of 20th Century Fox, Tom Rothman had no idea who it would be.

He thought his job would be smooth sailing for the next two years, but he didn't expect one of their rivals to actually start a takeover!

"Some of our spies admitted that they had seen Terry Semel visit Grey Pictures."

Corporate spies were real. They were hard to find because it was easier to send information now that there was the Internet and telecommunications.

"They said that Terry Semel and Warner Brothers intended to buy stock of Grey Pictures."

'Buy shares? Kazir is already a multimillionaire and the guy is not greedy. Because if he is greedy, he would easily accept the contract that 20th Century Fox and LucasFilm offered him to direct Star Wars. That's a lot of money.' He thought.

Tom knew that Kazir was a tough guy to crack, and it would be impossible for the guy to just sell part of Grey Pictures to one of the Big Six.

'I say he trades stock for stability.'

At best, Kazir could get 2% of Warner Brothers in exchange for 30 to 40% of Grey Pictures.

The net worth of Warner Brothers was $27.97 billion, while Grey Pictures was expected to be around $1 billion to $1.5 billion. Grey Pictures was not a publicly traded company, so they had to determine the net worth through research.

Tom Rothman put down his coffee and wiped his mouth. Like him, Terry Semel was nearing the end of his term, and Yahoo had already invited the guy to be chairman and CEO.

Alan Frederick Horn would be the COO of Warner Brothers while Barry Mayer would be the Chairman now that Terry Semel planned to end his job at Warner Brothers.

'This is strange, this guy should have focused on training his successor instead of trying to acquire Grey Pictures. Was this ordered by Time Warner? Are they interested in Grey Pictures?' Tom couldn't get it.

Unlike him, who had at least a year to move a job, Terry Semel was already in his last quarter at Warner Brothers. Yet the guy contacted Grey Pictures.

Tom Rothman narrowed his eyes and thought seriously.

'Should I contact Rupert? News Corporation might also be interested in Grey Pictures.'

Unlike other production companies, Grey Pictures had a good chance of becoming a world-class studio.

'Kazir is a smart guy, he didn't try to create a distribution channel at all. Maybe he expected this outcome... Is he really confident about CCU?'

Well, Kazir proved himself right, and now Grey Pictures' net worth was over $1 billion, even though it was less than a decade old. It was already making millions in profits, sometimes over $100 million a year. Last year's revenue was over $1 billion because of Wanted, the box office of Wanted was now $1.21 billion and some countries were still showing the movie.

On top of that, Bruce Almighty ended its run with more than $484 million worldwide. The movie premiered in August last year and seven months have already passed.

Do you know a director who could write a script that had a 100% chance of making a profit at the box office? No, because being a director and a screenwriter are two different jobs.

But Kazir had the two talents, they complemented each other and made a fantastic chemical reaction.

'Most of his movies were original screenplays, except for The Bourne Identity and the upcoming Spider-Man. Well, the guy had the talent to make the movie a box office hit.'

Tom Rothman admitted as much.

The first time was nothing but a bluff. The second time was interesting. But the third, fourth and even fifth were no miracles. It was talent and consistency, and Kazir has been making successful movies for years.

But Grey Pictures is useless without Kazir.

Obviously, Warner Brothers wanted Kazir Grey more than they wanted Grey Pictures. They wanted his creative mind. If Kazir Grey owned shares of Warner Brothers, he would focus on it to make sure his shares didn't go to waste.

Also, Grey Pictures was in desperate need of distribution. Paramount Pictures and Sony-Columbia deals were coming to an end and Grey Pictures had to find another company to hang on to. Grey Pictures also had no distribution channel. They also didn't have Viacom, Time Warner and News Corporation controlling the media around the world.

Grey Pictures may be flourishing right now, but it won't be long before it reaches its limit.

The Big Six became the Big Six because they controlled the media and movie distribution.

In a way, it was a win-win situation between the two if Grey Pictures allied with one of the Big Six.

"What time is it in Australia?"

Rupert Murdoch was Australian, and he had tremendous authority in the country. One of the reasons why 20th Century Fox was able to get tax breaks from the Australian government when they filmed in the country.

"Sir, it's 1 a.m. in Sydney right now."

"..."

The time difference between Los Angeles and Sydney was 17 hours.

Anyway, if Warner Brothers was interested in Grey Pictures, 20th Century Fox had to be very careful about this acquisition. It could affect them for better or worse.

+++++

[Author's note: I can't find the net worth of Warner Brothers in the 2000s, so I decided to use the current net worth, which was $27 billion.]

[This is the second chapter for today].
 
Hollywood What If Chapter 259


"Ptui--! What did you say?"

Tom Rothman coughed out the coffee he was drinking when he heard a certain rumor from his secretary. Life as the CEO of 20th Century Fox was not so easy.

In a year or two, Tom Rothman would become part of News Corporation and leave the position of CEO of 20th Century Fox. He worked hard for that company, but he knew he was just a worker. The real owner of 20th Century Fox was News Corporation, Rupert Murdoch to be exact.

Well, at least he got some stock options and the credits he accumulated were enough for him to have a good position in News Corporation.

As for the next CEO of 20th Century Fox, Tom Rothman had no idea who it would be.

He thought his job would be smooth sailing for the next two years, but he didn't expect one of their rivals to actually start a takeover!

"Some of our spies admitted that they had seen Terry Semel visit Grey Pictures."

Corporate spies were real. They were hard to find because it was easier to send information now that there was the Internet and telecommunications.

"They said that Terry Semel and Warner Brothers intended to buy stock of Grey Pictures."

'Buy shares? Kazir is already a multimillionaire and the guy is not greedy. Because if he is greedy, he would easily accept the contract that 20th Century Fox and LucasFilm offered him to direct Star Wars. That's a lot of money.' He thought.

Tom knew that Kazir was a tough guy to crack, and it would be impossible for the guy to just sell part of Grey Pictures to one of the Big Six.

'I say he trades stock for stability.'

At best, Kazir could get 2% of Warner Brothers in exchange for 30 to 40% of Grey Pictures.

The net worth of Warner Brothers was $27.97 billion, while Grey Pictures was expected to be around $1 billion to $1.5 billion. Grey Pictures was not a publicly traded company, so they had to determine the net worth through research.

Tom Rothman put down his coffee and wiped his mouth. Like him, Terry Semel was nearing the end of his term, and Yahoo had already invited the guy to be chairman and CEO.

Alan Frederick Horn would be the COO of Warner Brothers while Barry Mayer would be the Chairman now that Terry Semel planned to end his job at Warner Brothers.

'This is strange, this guy should have focused on training his successor instead of trying to acquire Grey Pictures. Was this ordered by Time Warner? Are they interested in Grey Pictures?' Tom couldn't get it.

Unlike him, who had at least a year to move a job, Terry Semel was already in his last quarter at Warner Brothers. Yet the guy contacted Grey Pictures.

Tom Rothman narrowed his eyes and thought seriously.

'Should I contact Rupert? News Corporation might also be interested in Grey Pictures.'

Unlike other production companies, Grey Pictures had a good chance of becoming a world-class studio.

'Kazir is a smart guy, he didn't try to create a distribution channel at all. Maybe he expected this outcome... Is he really confident about CCU?'

Well, Kazir proved himself right, and now Grey Pictures' net worth was over $1 billion, even though it was less than a decade old. It was already making millions in profits, sometimes over $100 million a year. Last year's revenue was over $1 billion because of Wanted, the box office of Wanted was now $1.21 billion and some countries were still showing the movie.

On top of that, Bruce Almighty ended its run with more than $484 million worldwide. The movie premiered in August last year and seven months have already passed.

Do you know a director who could write a script that had a 100% chance of making a profit at the box office? No, because being a director and a screenwriter are two different jobs.

But Kazir had the two talents, they complemented each other and made a fantastic chemical reaction.

'Most of his movies were original screenplays, except for The Bourne Identity and the upcoming Spider-Man. Well, the guy had the talent to make the movie a box office hit.'

Tom Rothman admitted as much.

The first time was nothing but a bluff. The second time was interesting. But the third, fourth and even fifth were no miracles. It was talent and consistency, and Kazir has been making successful movies for years.

But Grey Pictures is useless without Kazir.

Obviously, Warner Brothers wanted Kazir Grey more than they wanted Grey Pictures. They wanted his creative mind. If Kazir Grey owned shares of Warner Brothers, he would focus on it to make sure his shares didn't go to waste.

Also, Grey Pictures was in desperate need of distribution. Paramount Pictures and Sony-Columbia deals were coming to an end and Grey Pictures had to find another company to hang on to. Grey Pictures also had no distribution channel. They also didn't have Viacom, Time Warner and News Corporation controlling the media around the world.

Grey Pictures may be flourishing right now, but it won't be long before it reaches its limit.

The Big Six became the Big Six because they controlled the media and movie distribution.

In a way, it was a win-win situation between the two if Grey Pictures allied with one of the Big Six.

"What time is it in Australia?"

Rupert Murdoch was Australian, and he had tremendous authority in the country. One of the reasons why 20th Century Fox was able to get tax breaks from the Australian government when they filmed in the country.

"Sir, it's 1 a.m. in Sydney right now."

"..."

The time difference between Los Angeles and Sydney was 17 hours.

Anyway, if Warner Brothers was interested in Grey Pictures, 20th Century Fox had to be very careful about this acquisition. It could affect them for better or worse.

+++++

[Author's note: I can't find the net worth of Warner Brothers in the 2000s, so I decided to use the current net worth, which was $27 billion.]

[This is the second chapter for today].

Warner's worth, at the time, was inflated due the AOL merge (at one point it was worth over 100 bi). The true worth, at the time, should be much less, like between 10 and 20.

But Kazir's studio should be worth more than just 1.5 bi, maybe 3 or 4, due to the current popular IPs he has created. Sure, it's inflated worth due to popularity.
 
hope the talks fail, but this having over 100 in patreon any complaint found now will be moot, unless the author is speed incarnate
 
HWI 260
Hollywood What If Chapter 260


"Warner Brothers is interested in my company. That is obvious. But the timing is odd. If I'm not mistaken, Time Warner and AOL are going to merge this year... Now that I think about it, I haven't heard any news about their merger. Is this another butterfly effect?"

Kazir wondered in confusion. He was surprised that Terry Semel had personally visited Grey Pictures for the first time to inquire about the possibility of acquiring Grey Pictures.

Terry Semel was no ordinary man, he was the CEO of Warner Bros. and someone like that doesn't just visit another studio.

"Should I hire a detective and do some research on Time Warner and AOL?"

AOL was a web portal and online service provider. This company was very famous in the 90's but lost its strength in the 2000's. It merged with Time Warner and people called it the worst merger in corporate history. In the end, AOL lost and failed to adapt and became a small subdivision of AOL Time Warner.

"Is this a method to hide the news of their merger?"

The merger of AOL and Time Warner was supposed to cost about $5 billion, but it turned out to be $165 billion. As for how it got so big, there were many factors.

However, the merger of Time Warner and AOL was a disaster.

"If this is really a way to benefit them, then that's good. But I have to think twice before I sell them shares. I don't want to be associated with a sinking ship. If AOL and Time Warner do merge, it will affect Warner Brothers and possibly Greg Pictures."

Kazir admitted that he was never good enough at corporate politics. He fucking hated it when he used his mind to think about that stuff. He should put his mind to something that made him happy, like movies.

But because of Warner Bros., he couldn't help but think about it.

"Warner Brothers is not so bad. They are a giant in the industry. They can do Grey Pictures."

But Kazir had no intention of selling Grey Pictures just for the tip. He wanted to see what effect Wanted would have on audiences. If the result was positive, then the net worth of Grey Pictures would increase, possibly to $2 billion or maybe $2.5 billion.

Another thing was the videotape profit from Wanted and other CCU movies.

Because of Wanted, the other movies also had an increase in sales. In total, the profit from videotapes and peripherals reached more than $180 million. This was the profit of the previous year (2000).

However, the profits of videotapes became smaller compared to DVDs. The DVD sales accounted for more than 50% of the peripheral profit last year.

In addition, Grey Pictures worked with clothing brands to promote their CCU clothing, such as T-shirts with the faces of the protagonists. Then Hasbro hoped to buy their copyrights to make action figures of the CCU characters. This business collaboration was part of the $180 million profit.

Hasbro was the toy company that made Transformers, G.I. Joe and Beyblade.

Yes, Hasbro now had the license to produce toys for the Continental Cinematic Universe. Everything from action figures to paper toys and stuff.

"Stella Willow seems to be very active lately, maybe because of the bonus and the shares I promised her, she's working harder."

Kazir had no intention of taking his company public because it would affect the company. As for selling some shares to one of the Big Six for protection, that was Kazir's intention all along. Otherwise, the company wouldn't survive that long.

Grey Pictures didn't have distribution, didn't have a media backer, and didn't have a seat in MPAA film rating.

But unlike other studios that lost money on some of their films, all the films Grey Pictures produced were profitable. That was the biggest difference between them and Grey Pictures.

Perhaps because of this and the news that Warner Bros. was interested in Grey Pictures, some of the Big Six felt that Grey Pictures was worth acquiring. More specifically, they wanted Kazir Grey, the brains behind the company.

Was creativity really so important? In Hollywood, creativity means a huge risk of loss. Hollywood was not made for art, it was made for business. So a movie with too much artistic sense would never work. All they wanted were movies that would make them more money.

And surprisingly, Kazir's creativity fit in well. Using realistic action stunts and creating a cinematic universe. It was creative, but it didn't turn them off. Instead, they wanted more.

Kazir Grey is a perfect fit for this industry. That was why the Big Six wanted him.

.........

......

...

February was not a good month for Hollywood. A lot of movies were released every week, but most of them didn't do well. Some of these movies deserved a better chance, but fate was cruel to them.

The most coveted schedule was always taken by the Big Six. These six giants would always have a battle in the summer to see who would make more money. The Big Six would leave January, February, March and April to the small studios to release their movies and let the small studios get some crumbs.

In February, only one movie made more than $100 million. It was Hannibal, produced by Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM). The film grossed $350 million. Yes, MGM became one of the small studios that had to settle for crumbs to get by. The company could not compete with the Big Six in the summer unless they used 007 Bond movies. But even the Bond films were faltering, especially when Peirce Brosnan announced that he was done with the franchise.

In March, only two films grossed over $100 million.

The first was The Mexican, which grossed $145 million. Produced by DreamWorks.

The second was Spy Kids. Spy Kids grossed $197 million. It was produced and distributed by Walt Disney. It was very sad that even these lesser known schedules were dominated by the Big Six.

Small studios didn't have the strength to compete with them. Marketing and promotion were difficult because they didn't have any connection with the media (television, radio and newspapers).

++++

[This is the last chapter today.]

[Shout out to Luizinho for reminding me about MPAA film rating. This is actually an important aspect if a movie will make money at the box office. If MPAA decides that movie deserves a R-rated or NC-17 rating, that movie will have a strong chance of flopping.]

[If you're interested in reading more, you can subscribe to my Patreon. I have more than 150 chapters. Just don't use iOS app to subscribe because Apple takes 30% of creator's profit if you use iOS app to subscribe].

 
still hoping he does not share grey pictures, but it is his plan along, maybe he should try saving a company who is about the fail that has the stuff he needs, but who knows
 
Thanks for the triple update, which had Kazir Grey always had a plan in sharing his stocks or buying out into the Big Six Companies in Hollywood industry arena.
Or maybe Kazir Grey will aquire a small business Company that what he needs as a previous commentator has mentioned before in Grey Pictures acquired more assets.
We'll see how it goes next time for our Kazir Grey and future release of Spider-Man film by Grey Pictures at the meantime.
Hollywood Reigns
Continue on
Cheers!
 
He could merge with mgm, his name alone would boost the company shares, and due the mess mgm is, he would get way more shares than in any other studio.

He should invest in a game company, making fps games would bring money.
 
HWI 261
Hollywood What If Chapter 261


The media was truly dominated by the Big Six, and they would keep that status forever. One of the reasons why small studios would never have a chance to get rich in this industry if they did not serve the Big Six.

How could they promote their movies if the Big Six wouldn't let them? How could they make money if the Big Six rated their movies poorly?

So many movies were being released every week, but none of them were making a profit at the box office, they would quickly go to the videocassette market. That is the sad truth about this industry. It would never give you a fair fight.

It was fortunate that Grey Pictures didn't suffer that fate. But Kazir knew that future was never far away. Because once the deal with Paramount and Sony-Columbia ended, Grey Pictures would have to go back to the Big Six to distribute its films internationally.

Finding a local distributor was not so easy, but international distribution was another matter. Only the Big Six + MGM could do that.

April came and went and only two movies made over $100 million. Again, these were not good months to release movies. People were usually busy in those months.

The first was Along Came A Spider from Paramount, which grossed $105 million. This was not a horror movie, it was a thriller/mystery about a kidnapping.

Second was Bridget Jones's Diary with $272 million, produced and distributed by Miramax.

As always, it was hard for small studios to profit from the box office when the Big Six controlled the media. No way to promote their movies, always eating crumbs. No chance to prove themselves.

.........

......

...

Well, the summer schedule officially started in May. So many blockbusters were released that month that people didn't know what to watch. This was the beginning of the annual battle between the Big Six.

The Mummy Returns premiered in the first week and was distributed by Universal Pictures. The Mummy franchise was a good movie, but it lost its meaning after Brendan Fraser disappeared from Hollywood. Brendan Fraser was sexually harassed and he had no choice but to keep his mouth shut. That was life in Hollywood, you had to keep your mouth shut even when crime was all around you.

Anyway, The Mummy Returns grossed $435 million. You see, the franchise was amazing.

In its second week, The Knight's Tale barely passed $100 million. It was produced by Sony-Columbia.

In the third week, the chad of the movie called Shrek was released. This was an animated film produced by DreamWorks Animation. This was proof that Disney was not the only one that could compete in 3D animation. The film grossed $491 million.

Pearl Harbor premiered in the fourth week. This was the first project Ben Affleck worked on after Wanted. His fame levelled up and more people recognized him. The film grossed $449 million.

As a result, the summer schedule was very competitive. Every week, big movies were released and tried to fight for the box office ranking.

The schedule was very tight and everyone was vying for the best week. Sometimes there were situations where two or three big movies were released in the same week, unfortunately they had to face each other.

.........

......

...

Midnight, June 1st, Friday.

The premiere of Spider-Man ended with such a bang. So many kids, teenagers and even adults were wearing Spider-Man costumes. They were so happy as they left the theaters one by one.

Every theater had satisfied customers. The Spider-Man movie would define the meaning of the superhero movie.

"I'm going to give it an A+! I don't care what anybody else thinks! This is the best movie I have ever seen! Dude, did you see that scene where Spider-Man swings from building to building? That's a shot that will never leave my mind! Trapped in my childhood memories!" proclaimed by an avid comic book reader, and many passersby agreed. Interested, they decided to answer the survey. They thought the movie deserved it.

The word-of-mouth about Spider-Man was so influential. Perhaps its influence was comparable to that of Wanted, which was released last year.

The rating averaged A and the CinemaScore felt like it was going to be A-. That was a high rating.

The midnight box office for Spider-Man was $10 million. That was just the midnight. Sony-Columbia predicted that the first day would be around $30 to $35 million.

A first day gross of $30 million was a clear success. Sony-Columbia made the right choice in choosing the right person to direct the movie.

As always, Kazir got it right. Everyone thought the $100 million budget was too small to make a superhero movie. But Kazir was so good at budgeting the project that a few million was left over.

Sony-Columbia decided to add those millions to the marketing budget. The marketing budget was $39 million and they promoted the movie all over the country. They have to win the US first before others.

The X-Men that came out last year was good, but Spider-Man was amazing.

That was the beginning of the epiphany for Marvel Comics. They realized that their characters had a place in theaters. No, they were made for theaters.

Time was changing and people preferred digital. Movies and TV shows were the answer to their problems.

Suddenly they had an epiphany... Most of their characters had been looted! They were selling them so that Marvel Comics could survive!

They realized how much they had screwed up! If they had known that their characters could make a lot of money, they would have kept them or sold them at higher prices.

So yes, management tried to contact some companies that had acquired their characters. Their target, the guy who owned most of their characters, the guy who actually directed Spider-Man. Director Kazir Grey of Grey Pictures.

Well, maybe they could work with the guy.


++++


[Author's note: Damn, this is more like a fast forward summary. I'm sorry, I have no idea what to write, so I decided to fast forward. Besides, I know you guys wanted the Spider-Man premiere to start anyway.]
 
So Kazir is going to director MCU?

Great idea 👍
 
Oh god please not the MCU. I really don't think this story can survive even more of making the exact same movie with no changes. Do DCU if you have to do superheroes, at least then there will be something new and interesting.
 
HWI 262
Hollywood What If Chapter 262


June was tough for everyone, not just Sony-Columbia, but even the Big Six. Hell, even Grey Pictures was going to have trouble this month.

And why is that? Because so many movies were coming out that month. Even if they didn't want to, those movies were going to have to fight to make money. The promotion this month was so fierce that every TV channel was promoting movies.

The first weekend in June was dominated by Spider-Man. This was the only schedule Sony-Columbia could find for the movie. Every week was packed with big movies.

In fact, next week, starting June 8, a new batch of movies will be released. This time, Walt Disney, DreamWorks and Warner Bros. would release their movies on the same night.

Walt Disney would release their animated movie titled Atlantis: The Lost Empire. A very underrated hand-drawn animated film.

DreamWorks would release Evolution, a comedy.

While Warner Bros. released Swordfish, an action movie.

These movies did well during the week. Unfortunately for them, it was hard to compete with a superhero movie that had great special effects. There was something about superhero movies that people loved so much at that time.

To make matters worse, the word of mouth about Spider-Man was nothing but positive. Almost no one had anything bad to say about it. Kids, teens, and even adults praised the movie. This led to a massive increase in ticket sales.

The fact that the director of this movie was also the director of Wanted made it even better. Wanted was so huge last year, $1 billion at the box office. Of course it would get that much attention. So Spider-Man joined the fun.

After 10 days in theaters, Spider-Man made $223.04 million! Damn, how can a movie make that much in just ten days?

Was the movie really that good? Or was director Kazir Grey just so talented that he could make any movie shine?

Spider-Man's path was smooth sailing. Tobey Maguire and the rest of the Spider-Man cast easily became superstars because of the attention Spider-Man got.

Even Willem Dafoe, who risked his career to play a villain, had a good day. Now the studios realized that the guy could play many roles, from a good assassin to the villain of a superhero movie.

Unfortunately, while Spider-Man was at his peak, Kazir Grey could not help but be sad about some things.

On June 15, Paramount Pictures joined the battle with Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, starring Angelina Jolie... A very hard time for the couple.

In fact, Kazir and Angelina had a little fight.

"This is the second time this has happened. Last time it was Gone in 60 Seconds. And now it's Lara Croft."

Angelina grumbled as she cuddled with her man. She hated that Paramount chose June as release date. They should have rescheduled it away from Spider-Man. Angelina was confident that Kazir's movie would dominate the month.

"We can't help it. We're just a worker and we can't influence management. Besides, Paramount can't find the right week to release the movie. In July, Legally Blonde, Jurassic Park 3, Planet of the Apes and Cats and Dogs will be released."

"So are you saying that I should stomach it instead?" She raised her brow.

"Of course not, you can cry on my shoulder instead."

He teased the woman by touching her nose.

"Tch, I can't hate you because you're so hot."

The woman touched the man's abs and playfully pinched them. Well, the first week of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider was pretty good. It made $47.73 million in its first weekend.

But the comparison with Spider-Man was pretty brutal. The superhero film grossed $289.88 million.

Numbers. Looking at those numbers was numbing, but the amount it represented was outrageous. You could buy 170 McLaren Elva's with that amount!

To be fair, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider was only out for three days while Spider-Man was out for 18 days. However, the first three days of Spider-Man grossed $114.84 million, so... Yes, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider was nothing compared to the glory of our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.

"Now that I think about it, are you going to be okay? Next week is Fast and The Furious. Spider-Man and Fast and The Furious might collide."

Sony-Columbia was responsible for distributing Fast and The Furious, and they decided to release the film on June 22, the same day 20th Century Fox would release Dr. Dolittle 2.

"Like I said before, I can't help it. It's already fortunate that Sony-Columbia chose the summer schedule to release two of our movies."

In fact, Kazir Grey fought for this outcome. He didn't want to jeopardize his two movies, so it was better to release them before September.

Fast and The Furious in June and John Wick Chapter 2 in August. This was the schedule Kazir fought for.

Fortunately, Sony-Columbia didn't want to sour their relationship, so they agreed. Besides, Sony-Columbia had nothing big to release this year except Spider-Man.

Kazir hoped his hard work would pay off. He remembered that in his past life, after the success of Avengers, most of the Marvel movies made good profits.

If his calculation was correct, Fast and The Furious and John Wick Chapter 2 would receive the same treatment. He really hoped so... That would be another way to increase their net worth. The more good movies, the more chips they could use.

Just like that, June 22 came and Kazir had to attend the premiere. Even though he was not active on this project because he was working on Spider-Man, he made sure to attend the post-production. He had to watch the footage so he knew what was going on.

"I won't lie, the effect of the CCU on Fast and The Furious was so serious."

+++++

[I skipped the synopsis for Spider-Man, since all of us here have already seen it. Yes, I think we have all seen Spider-Man (2002). This movie was the biggest superhero of the early 2000s and I strongly believe that all of us watched it at least once].
 
Please tell me you avoided the green screen bug that Fast and Furious 1 had.
Because I always found that to be a laughing matter XD
 
Please tell me you avoided the green screen bug that Fast and Furious 1 had.
Because I always found that to be a laughing matter XD
I watched Fast and Furious 1 more than a decade ago so I don't remember everything about it, including the green screen scene, sorry.
 
Yes We all Spider-Man in early 2000th cinema theaters no question about it.
But watching the effects of the CCU on Fast saga from definitely something that would Kazir Grey to see post production, but I wasn't aware about the early Fast saga green screen mishaps.
A tough time for Angelina Jolie Lara Croft, which was her most excellent role even though movie didn't do well at the box office ranking. Aside from becoming a Cult classic years from now.
Hollywood Reigns!
Continue on
Cheers!
 
A tough time for Angelina Jolie Lara Croft, which was her most excellent role

That might have been her best role, but it was far from her best movie. That honor goes to Mr and Mrs Smith, which just barely beats Gone in 60 Seconds only because Jolie was only a supporting character in that movie, versus being the co-Star of Smith.

Honestly kind of surprised that the author cast Jolie in Wanted instead of another actress, and then casting her in Mr and Mrs Smith and bringing that movie into the CCU. It would fit really well into the universe Kazir has built, and would give his girlfriend a bigger role then just a one-off.
 

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