HOLLYWOOD WHAT IF

[Pujimaki]

The agencies simply needed to be tipped off and share info. Kazir could've done something, as a film director he could've done a short film like his first successful movie on the lack of cooperation among the alphabet agencies and the realities of terror attacks to bring awareness to said vulnerability. Or even as a plotline in the Wanted-verse. He's already plagiarizing, why not do a positive one on the real world.

Click to shrink...

... Cause I didn't think of it. To be honest, I'm actually against the idea of adding 9/11 in the story but it's a huge incident that it's impossible to disregard. It also affected Hollywood heavily. I never really put much plot into 9/11 because I know it's a sensitive topic.

 

[Lillie Jones]

Thanks for the chapter

 

[Pujimaki]

Hollywood What If Chapter 271


The impact of 9/11 on the country was tremendous. The incident led to a massive increase in airport security. The idea that the strongest country could suffer such a massive act of terrorism struck a chord with so many people.

Hollywood expressed its deepest condolences to the people who lost loved ones in this tragedy. The President stood at the podium and delivered a speech on 9/11 from Sarasota School.

-- Terrorism against our nation will not stand.

This statement touched the hearts of many. Many young men joined the military, not because of the tuition assistance and other benefits, but because of their heartfelt desire to protect their country.

The aftermath of 9/11 also strengthened the security of other countries. It made it more difficult to travel overseas.

In Hollywood, movies continued to be released, but September and October were very cold months for theaters. People were still in mourning.

Spider-Man was already in its last month and would end its run before November. However, the film grossed $403.70 million at the North American box office.

The overseas box office was still climbing and currently stands at over $372 million. This brings the worldwide total to $775 million. Spider-Man is currently the highest grossing film of the year.

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider finished much earlier, before September. It grossed $131.16 million at the North American box office.

Fast and The Furious only opened in 150 theaters now. It has now grossed more than $215 million.

Legally Blonde has grossed $95.23 million. It still had a month or two left in its run.

John Wick Chapter 2 was slightly affected by 9/11, as the movie's box office dropped after the tragedy, just like other movies at the time. However, the movie had already grossed $137 million by that time.

Before November, John Wick Chapter 2 earned more than $176 million after two months in theaters.

Overall, all of Kazir's films did well. Kazir recommended Lara Croft to Angelina Jolie, saying she was the right person for the role. Her career blossomed after this movie and it seemed that his decision was right.

Gossip abounded that Kazir was a god when it came to picking scripts. After Kazir recommended his friends to audition for a role, each of them got a better career.

Suddenly, a lot of new actors and actresses were trying to befriend the guy. Unfortunately for them, they would never find the guy at parties and bars.

Even the bar Kazir usually visited became famous because so many actors hoped to meet Kazir in the bar. They waited in the quiet atmosphere of jazz. Too bad Kazir didn't feel like going to the bar lately.

He was thinking about which of the two scripts to adapt. Next year, he wants to make a movie that could compete at the Oscars.

His first choice was The Revenant. He has already bought the rights to adapt this novel/autobiography. The life of American frontiersman Hugh Glass in the Missouri Territory in 1823.

His second choice was Black Hawk Down. The moment the journalist published this book, Kazir immediately bought the rights to adapt it. The book was based on real life.

Both films were based on real life. Something the Academy Awards loved to see. The members of the Academy had a strong bias against fiction and blockbusters.

Both films had a good chance of winning Best Director and Best Picture if they were done right. Kazir was confident in his filmography, so this was not much of a problem. Besides, even if he wanted to deny it, his race was another assurance that he would win Best Director. Most of the old members of the Academy were Jewish.

Kazir already had the best formula to make sure he would win Best Director.

But since Kazir was already going for the Oscars, why not fight for more?

That is one of the reasons why he invited Tom Cruise. Because he wanted his friend to win his long dream of the Best Actor award.

He helped Liam Neeson win the Best Actor Award, maybe he could do it again.

Kazir planned to include perfect emotional scenes in his movies so that Tom Cruise would have a chance to be nominated. As for winning the Golden Statue, they both have to do a lot of PR to get it.

So, yes, they might be attending a lot of parties next year and in 2003. That was the life of people in this industry, making connections.

With two scripts in his hands, Kazir decided to make the best choice. He decided to sell Black Hawk Down to Ridley Scott. Ridley Scott had tried to buy the script, but Kazir stopped him. So the result was obvious, the release of Black Hawk Down would be delayed for a year or two.

The Revenant won the Best Director and Best Actor awards in the past life. To begin with, those two awards were the only things Kazir was looking for. He might as well take the safest bet.

Having made his decision, Kazir decided to call Tom Cruise. He had been giving signals to the actor and Tom Cruise had an idea about it. So both of them were not making any decisions about their next jobs at the moment, because both of them were playing the waiting game.

Now that the cold events of September and October were over, Hollywood returned to its usual schedule.

On November 2nd, Pixar released Monster, Inc. One of Pixar's most famous franchises. The first three days of Monster, Inc. grossed $62.58 million.

The Big Six realized and understood that the animation industry was another sector that they could profit from. So far, only Pixar and DreamWorks were doing well, but 20th Century Fox and Universal Pictures were creating their own animation studios.

While all this was going on, Tom and Kazir decided to meet and discuss their intentions.

+++++

[Author's Note]

Yeah, since it's already the middle of the month, I decided to promote my P@treon.

As of now, the latest chapter of HWI on my P@treon is chapter 441. Using calculation, you can read about 170 chapters on my P@treon... I won't lie, that's a bit overwhelming and I can only blame myself.

Also, for some readers who can't use P@treon, I have a Ko-fi account and have already posted all the advanced 170 chapters of HWI there. You can check it out, the minimum tip is $10 and you can see my posts for 30 days.

Honestly, I still recommend subscribing to P@treon instead of Ko-fi because all my advanced chapters and polls have been posted there. My P@treon also has all the advance chapters of my other novels that are currently on hiatus, such as TOFD and RDD.

P@treon Link: https://www.patreon.com/Puji_maki

Ko-fi Link: https://ko-fi.com/pujimaki

 

[Lillie Jones]

thanks for the chapter

 

[Pujimaki]

Hollywood What If Chapter 272


Two famous people sat across from each other and had a light conversation at first.

"The atmosphere in our country is very interesting. At first, we were at our lowest point after what happened in September, but now the government has started to spread propaganda. I saw on TV a lot of young men joining the military. Even Paramount Pictures got a message from one of the generals to make a sequel to Top Gun to encourage young men."

"What is their intention?" Kazir was quite curious because he knew there would be a sequel, but it would be at least 20 years before it happened. Unless Kazir caused another change in the timeline.

"No, Paramount Pictures is not interested. Besides, they need to hear my opinion on the matter. Unless they want to get rid of the whole cast and start a new franchise called 'Top Gun'. The government is just doing its best, even the economy is failing because of the bubble dot com burst".

"We will overcome this tragedy," Kazir muttered. At least for the next few decades, the United States would still stand and be recognized as the strongest country in the world.

"I hope so." Tom Cruise nodded.

A few seconds later, a maid approached the table and asked if Tom and Kazir wanted tea or coffee. Kazir went to Tom's house to talk to him about his plan.

Not surprisingly, Kazir did not see Nicole Kidman. He decided to keep his thoughts to himself and wait for Tom to tell the story. It was not his place to pry into his private life.

Tom sensed Kazir's curiosity and decided to admit it.

"If you're looking for Nicole, we're through. We divorced this year. Our agent is just waiting for the right time to announce it. You know, publicity and stuff."

In fact, Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman divorced in 2001. There were a lot of factors to this divorce such as their relationship turning cold, social status, and even religion. Tom Cruise was a member of Scientology, after all.

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"It's okay. Life is hard, but we have to move on and become a better person. Anyway, what's the reason why you want to come to my house all of a sudden? This is your second time here."

"Yes, my first time was when you invited me in 1995."

"That was a long time ago, six years."

The maid arrived and gave them their coffee and bread.

"We talked last time about the Academy Awards and our dreams of winning gold statues."

"Of course I remember. You want the Best Director Award, while I want the Best Actor Award."

"We both have our own desires, but our mission is basically the same, to get into the Oscars. So how about we work together this year?"

"Kazir, you know I was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the Academy Awards last year, I don't think the Academy is interested in nominating me this time."

"But there's nothing wrong with trying. What do you think, are you in?"

"I want to see the script first."

Tom Cruise was confident in Kazir's decision regarding script selection and filming, but he had to be sure first. Frankly, Tom Cruise was thrilled when he realized that Kazir wanted to work with him.

God knows how long he waited for Kazir to invite him to star in his movie. They had been friends for a long time, but Kazir never invited him to be in any of his movies, not even for a cameo. Well, his salary was too high for Grey Pictures to afford, so that was another factor.

"Here."

Kazir handed the script to Tom Cruise, and the actor seriously turned every page.

"I have two scripts I'm considering adapting and I've decided to go with this one. The other one is a group play and there's no particular protagonist, so I know you won't like it."

Black Hawk Down was about a group of U.S. Special Forces stranded in the middle of heavy firefights after two of their helicopters were shot down, trying to find their way out.

It was an amazing movie and was nominated for so many awards, but Tom Cruise is not going to have his one-man show in that kind of movie.

"I guess I should be grateful, huh?"

"You're my friend, let's just say I want to see a future where you win an Oscar and change the future I've been thinking about."

"I have no idea what you're talking about, but I'm interested," Tom chuckled.

In his opinion, Kazir was one of the biggest factors in Liam Neeson winning the Best Actor award a few years ago. Taken had very few emotional scenes, yet Liam Neeson won the award because of the impact it had on society - showing the truth about human trafficking. Hell, Brianna Evans had a more compelling scene than Liam Neeson in that movie.

But who cares, if Kazir did it last time, he could do it again.

"I know you have a plan. Tell me about it." Tom grinned, knowing that the script Kazir gave him could give him the one-man show he needed.

"Okay, it's nice to hear you're interested."

"Minority Report wraps up next month and I can focus all my attention on this project."

The two shook hands.

As for salary and contract, that was up to their agents and the producer. It was enough that they were both interested in working on this project. They both have their reasons and are inclined to work together.

Although there were some problems that Kazir had to deal with. This project currently has no producer because Harold Witsend will have two projects to take care of next year. Kazir may have to find someone else to fill the position.

For next year, Grey Pictures plans to release three films.

1.) Mr. and Mrs. Smith

2.) Bourne Supremacy

3.) The Revenant.

Two movies were part of the Continental Cinematic Universe, while the last one was not.

Another problem was the distributor for his three movies.

Well, Tom has a close relationship with Paramount Pictures, so The Revenant could be distributed by Paramount.

+++++

[Author's note: I have promised that Mr. and Mrs. Smith will be part of the CCU. However, the female lead will no longer be Angelina Jolie for obvious reasons. I prefer Naomi Watts or Jennifer Connelly because I like them. I can't promise that I'll focus as much on Mr. and Mrs. Smith, since Kazir's interest is currently on The Revenant. I may write two or three about Mr. and Mrs. Smith].

[Yeah, so who do you like better? Naomi Watts or Jennifer Connelly?]

 

[Moran]

[Yeah, so who do you like better? Naomi Watts or Jennifer Connelly?]

Click to shrink...

Jennifer Connelly.

 

[Pujimaki]

Jennifer Connelly.

Click to shrink...

Nice choice

 

[Lillie Jones]

+1 Jennifer Connelly
Thanks for the chapter

 

[Pujimaki]

Hollywood What If Chapter 273


Both sides were represented by CAA and they started their negotiations.

The good thing was that both Kazir and Tom knew the intentions of this project and they already explained their thoughts to their respective agents.

Pat Kingsley and Salvatore Barlowe decided to start negotiations with the thought that this project would happen. There was no in-between. Now they just have to work to meet each side's terms.

Honestly, Pat Kingsley was against this project because Tom Cruise was nominated for Best Supporting Actor last year and they didn't win, even though they did their best PR.

Another thing was Nicole Kidman. You see, Nicole Kidman was striving for Best Actress in 2003 for her role in The Hours. Pat Kingsley was currently on Nicole Kidman's side regarding the split between the couple. However, she could not let go of Tom Cruise, her biggest client.

Unfortunately, The Revenant would also participating in the 2003 Academy Awards, so Pat Kingsley has a lot of things to do.

Both the agents and their clients were quiet about their plans to compete for Oscars. However, the veterans of the industry probably knew their intentions when they heard that Kazir Grey was going to make an autobiographical film instead of action or comedy films that the audience liked. They were not stupid.

There was only one reason why Kazir Grey would make such a movie: to win the Best Director Award. So yes, they were quiet about it...

With Salvatore Barlowe representing Grey Pictures, the terms and conditions slowly became whole. The result was that Tom Cruise's salary was $15 million without box office participation. This was the highest salary Grey Pictures had ever given to anyone except Kazir himself.

No one could guarantee the box office of this movie because it was different from the usual projects that Kazir did, so Tom's side fought for a bigger salary instead of getting a share of the box office.

As for Kazir, he decided to take a $5 million salary for this project. He could say he wanted a $1 salary just to improve the budget, but that would be disrespectful to the four agents who worked with him. They make money on commission.

Now that both sides had negotiated and agreed on the salary, the project officially began.

Kazir and Tom began to talk about the project. Kazir already expected that Tom would talk to him about his role, if he wanted more screen time or lines. Tom was a superstar and he acted based on his status, arrogant. However, as long as it was not outrageous, Kazir would agree.

While this was going on, Grey Pictures was looking for directors to take over their two projects. Fremont Smith had just finished John Wick Chapter 2 and wanted to take some time off. It seemed that Fremont Smith was the kind of director who made movies every two years.

Well, someone like Kazir who never took a vacation was an abomination in this industry.

Kazir already had people in mind to direct Mr. and Mrs. Smith and The Bourne Supremacy.

Doug Liman was the original director of The Bourne Identity, but Kazir directed the movie for three years, so it affected Doug Liman's filmography. To make up for it, Stella Willow invited Doug Liman to direct Mr. and Mrs. Smith this time. After all, Doug Liman was also the director of this movie in a past life.

As for The Bourne Supremacy, Kazir recommended Paul Greengrass to direct. Like Doug Liman, Paul Greengrass was also the director of The Bourne Franchise in Kazir's past life.

Kazir just recruited the original directors.

The two directors could be categorized as B-tier directors, if you want to call them that. They were professional directors and had made a few films, but they were not prominent.

Just like what Grey Pictures did with Justin Lin, the production studio gave Doug Liman and Paul Greengrass a three-picture deal. That means they were legally allowed to make three movies for Grey Pictures. As for the raise, that clause could be bent but not broken.

.........

......

...

November.

Two weeks after the release of Monster, Inc., which grossed over $133 million at the North American box office, a new series of films were released.

November 15, 2001. That was Thursday just before midnight. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was released for the first time. The first installment of the fourth largest franchise in the history of cinema.

Note that the first biggest franchise was the MCU, the second was Spider-Man, and the third was Star Wars. This is based on the money the franchise generated.

Harry Potter(novels) was already famous all over the world and had many fans, from teenagers to adults. Many people were excited to see the movie.

Before 2001, J.K. Rowling had already produced four books of the series.

The first day (Friday) of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone made 32.33 million dollars. Very big amount of money, unfortunately the first day of Spider-Man was $39 million, so...

Anyway, on the second day (Saturday) the movie made $33.51 million.

On Sunday, the movie made another $24.44 million.

Combined, the first three days of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone grossed $90.29 million. An impressive performance.

Warner Bros. was happy and wanted to capitalize on this success. Their future investment in the franchise would be great.

But no matter how much they bragged about Harry Potter, it was true that the movie had lost out to Kazir's Spider-Man, which grossed $114 million in its first three days.

Now Warner Bros. wondered: WHAT IF Kazir Grey directed Harry Potter, would the movie do better?

Nobody knows the answer. After all, it was just a what if.

++++

[I've written six web novels and finished one. Of all of them, HWI is the most summarized. Usually when I add dialog to the chapters, the plot slows down. But I will try to slow it down now, since I have a lot of things to do for 2002: Mr. and Mrs. Smith, The Bourne Supremacy, The Hangover Part 3, Star Wars Episode 2, the failure of John Carter, and probably Jennifer Connelly... Yeah, I guess I'll add Jennifer Connelly to the poll. I have a crush on the actress, sorry].

 

[Lillie Jones]

thanks for the chapter

 

[Pujimaki]

Hollywood What If Chapter 274


Warner Bros. could not help but compare Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone to Spider-Man. After all, their first choice for director was Kazir Grey. Just like Sony-Columbia, Warner Bros was confident they could fulfill Kazir's contract, but the man ultimately chose Spider-Man.

It was sad, but Warner Bros. had to move on. The plan was already in motion. First of all, they are promoting J.K. Rowling and her books just for the upcoming movie.

Warner Bros. was looking for movie franchises to milk and they felt that Harry Potter was profitable. Lord of the Rings was different because it was acquired by New Line Cinema. The profits of the two companies never merged. Also, New Line Cinema had its own distribution. There was nothing Warner Bros could do about it.

In the last few years, Warner Bros. had two movies that they focused on, The Matrix and Harry Potter. They spent hundreds of millions on each movie.

The Matrix sequels were already in production and seemed promising.

If Harry Potter didn't do well, they would lose money. So the management at the time invited Kazir Grey, who had come out of CCU, to be the director.

Well, the result was obvious. Kazir turned it down and they went with Chris Columbus, the director of Home Alone.

Now, comparing the two movies hurt the management of Warner Bros. for many reasons.

To be fair, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was an amazing movie. And it was an amazing success. It made $90 million in just three days. That was amazing, very few movies could do that.

But it was still bitter to think that Kazir Grey, who turned it down, did better with his Spider-Man movie.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was an adaptation of the novel, and many scenes in the novel were obviously never shown in theaters, which caused some disappointment to fans of the novel. Perhaps if Kazir had been the director, he would have done a great job in this regard.

Unfortunately, they could never bring back the past. Regretting their decision was useless, especially when Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was doing well.

After the release of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, no movie had a promising performance in November.

By the end of the month, only Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone had earned $202 million at the box office. The movie was only in theaters for 15 days and it already made that amount of money.

Hehe, too bad, but Spider-Man made over $252 million in 15 days.

Someone from Warner Bros. curiously did a comparison and was disappointed with the results.

It seems that some people at Warner Bros. were bitter about it. They couldn't help but compare the two.

December 7th and another batch of movies were released. Warner Bros. had another movie to promote and it was Ocean's Eleven.

For this movie, Warner Bros. invited so many big personalities. They invited George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Matt Damon and Brad Pitt. Yes, it was like a dream team. To accomplish this task, Warner Bros. invested $85 million in this project.

Ocean's Eleven was a heist movie about a group of people who stole money from a casino to get revenge.

Actually, Kazir was very interested in this movie, but he could not get the rights.

Ocean's Eleven was a remake of Ocean's Eleven (1960). Some things did not go according to his plan. Ocean's Eleven was not meant for him and Grey Pictures.

The one who bought the movie copyright was Warner Bros. Well, Grey Pictures would have to invest a lot of money to make this movie. Also, Ocean's Eleven was supposed to be a trilogy and Grey Pictures might have trouble casting famous actors. After all, they were not one of the Big Six.

Grey Pictures was at least a B-tier studio. For them to be an A-tier studio, they should have distribution. But from the looks of it, Kazir Grey, the owner of the company, has a different future for the company.

The first weekend of Ocean's Eleven was good, but not the best. It managed to make $38 million... Not at all comparable to Harry Potter or even Spider-Man.

But again, this performance was already amazing. Very few movies could do that in three days. People just couldn't help but compare it to the best. Just like basketball fans always compared players to Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and Lebron James... These three were the common topics of who was the Greatest Of All Time (GOAT).

12 days after its release, Ocean's Eleven grossed $76 million. Again, an amazing feat... But nothing compared to Spider-Man and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

But that was about to change because on December 19, another movie was released that could rival Spider-Man and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

2001 was a terrible year for the United States, but it was true that these three movies had huge performances that year.

The third movie was none other than The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings.

The Lord Of The Rings had so many cast members but it was acknowledged that the protagonist was Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen).

Viggo already had a status in Hollywood with his role as John Wick. But after that, Viggo Mortensen would have another role to be proud of being written in his filmography.

Now the trio of 2001 was released and it would determine which would be the highest grossing movie of this year (2001).

Last year, the highest grossing movie was Wanted with $1.21 billion... Would Kazir Grey make a miracle and have a back-to-back championship?

+++++

[I was interested in Ocean Eleven at first, but I can't find the right time to include it in the CCU. In the end, I decided against it because Ocean's Eleven is never an action movie, but more of a heist movie. It can fit in well with CCU, but the timing just didn't feel right.]

[I have no idea what I'm doing writing this chapter.]

[Anyway, thank you for all of your support.]

 

[Lillie Jones]

thanks for the chapter