HOLLYWOOD WHAT IF

[Knight-Night]

I ve been meaning to ask, if you are going to continue the wanted timeline are you going to introduce elements from the video game or the comics?

 

[Pujimaki]

I ve been meaning to ask, if you are going to continue the wanted timeline are you going to introduce elements from the video game or the comics?

Click to shrink...

I haven't read the comics nor played the game of Wanted.

 

[Knight-Night]

I haven't read the comics nor played the game of Wanted.

Click to shrink...

The game continues the story from the end of the movie and Wesley has to fight the Paris chapter of the Fraternity. And he is also looking for information on his mother.

 

[Pujimaki]

The game continues the story from the end of the movie and Wesley has to fight the Paris chapter of the Fraternity. And he is also looking for information on his mother.

Click to shrink...

That seems an interesting plot... I might have to add it to my notes, thank you.

 

[Lillie Jones]

Tom Cruise goes native in the wilderness on that biography Memoir of Hugh Glass won OG Leonardo Dicaprio the Oscar worthy picture nomination for the Reventant by working with Kazir Grey and company a regular movie outside the CCU Universe.
Continue on
Cheers!

 

[Pujimaki]

[I know people are getting tired of me, but I just want to say that this novel is fiction and has nothing to do with reality. Don't take it seriously].

Hollywood What If Chapter 291


Cinematic Universe. A huge franchise that made billions at the box office and its influence around the world was astronomical. Even outside the box office, the money it generated was in the billions.

Back in Kazir's past life, there were only a few cinematic universes that could be considered successful. The MCU, the DCEU and the Monsterverse.

Star Trek and Star Wars could also be considered Cinematic Universe, but they were just one franchise with many sequels, in Kazir's opinion. There was a difference.

However, after Kazir introduced the CCU, he basically messed with the timeline and changed a lot of things.

Now, the CCU was the first official Cinematic Universe in this timeline, and Kazir was the founder of it.

There was no Continental Cinematic Universe in the original timeline. Kazir basically put action movies into one universe and created a unique version.

Kazir deserved a credit for that.

The money they made on that project was huge and Grey Pictures had a lot of money to invest in their own film promotion.

"If Kazir and Grey Pictures can do it, why not us? We are one of the Big Six, the biggest studio in the world, and we can produce more quality films than a second-tier studio like Grey Pictures."

That was Michael Eisner's view. He firmly believed that Walt Disney was capable of producing its own Cinematic Universe.

However, he also admitted that creating one was dangerous and they were unsure of the consequences. To begin with, this "genre" was new and Grey Pictures was pioneering it.

Michael Eisner felt that such an ambitious goal was impossible because of the cost and the situation. Nobody knew the future and they didn't know if this venture would be successful. It would be difficult to bring many of the protagonists of each franchise into one universe. But Grey Pictures did it and made a lot of money doing it.

This was the reason why Michael Eisner wanted Disney to start its own Cinematic Universe.

Michael Eisner didn't hesitate to acquire the Barsoom series as his playground. The novel was popular and the author was famous. Even though decades had passed, it could still attract the attention of many people.

They even invested another $100 million in promoting the film, bringing their total expenditure to $350 million.

$250 million production cost + $100 million for marketing.

The executives at Walt Disney knew that the investment was huge, but they agreed because of the promising future that the Cinematic Universe could bring.

The initial net worth of Grey Pictures was only $1-2 billion at best, but the success of Continental Cinematic Universe changed everything. The company's net worth skyrocketed last year, especially when John Wick Chapter 2 and The Fast and The Furious grossed more than $1 billion at the box office combined, giving Grey Pictures a higher status.

Despite the infighting at Walt Disney, executives and chairman Eisner agreed that John Carter should be taken seriously. Everyone wanted to make money.

After months of preparation, from buying a commercial slot on the Super Bowl to plastering the film's posters everywhere, Walt Disney did everything to make sure the film would be a success.

The plot was good.

The special effects were good.

The hype seemed promising.

If there was a downside, they cast an unknown actor... They copied what Grey Pictures had done and cast an unknown but young actor as John Carter. They originally wanted to cast someone like Matt Damon, but he was busy with Bourne Supremacy, which was coming out in July.

The executives also argued over the title of the film, but decided to go with Michael Eisner's. Chairman Eisner was a tyrant, but it was true that he was the one responsible for the current success of Walt Disney. In the end, they agreed to call the film John Carter instead of its original title, Princess On Mars.

So John Carter was born.

.........

......

...

The premiere of John Carter was quite lively, Walt Disney paid a lot of attention to this film.

The audience seemed excited and watched the film... Only to be left unsatisfied.

Why was that? Because the last part of the film was left unanswered.

Basically, Walt Disney focused too much on possible sequels instead of completing the plot of the film.

Did John Carter really return to Mars or not?

A question that would be impossible to answer because, surprise, surprise, the film didn't get a sequel!

Walt Disney screwed up. There were rumours that Michael Eisner was micromanaging almost everything about the film, and the executives blamed him.

At first, their expressions were full of excitement. Their faces lit up when they heard the good news. They waited 24 hours to hear the first day's results... And they were greeted with utter bullshit.

John Carter's first day box office was a paltry $9 million.

Sounds promising, right? After all, many films could hardly do that on their first day, right?

But John Carter was different... Or rather, the amount of money they invested in this shit was fucking huge.

350 million dollars! For a single film, they invest $350 million!

The executives were not stupid. They had been in the business a long time and knew that $9 million on the first day was not enough to recoup their investment.

The management did some calculations and predicted that the first weekend of John Carter would only be around $30 million at best.

Yeah... the shit hit the fan.

"N- No! Listen to me! This is just the beginning. The box office will be better in the next few days, I believe. We're still doing our best promotion, right?"

Michael Eisner faced the shareholders and executives. He tried his best to calm things down.

With his friend Michael Ovitz gone, Eisner was beginning to lose his authority.

He prayed that John Carter would never betray him...

"Box office my ass! Have you forgotten that Star Wars will be released two weeks from now? We are losing money because of your stubborn decisions!"

On 16th May 2002, Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Clones was going to be released.

This film certainly affected the performance of John Carter after its release. Star Wars had so many fans in the United States alone.

"No, this can't be happening..."

Michael Eisner felt he would be fired after this. He was sweating profusely.

Suddenly he remembered the time he had first negotiated with Kazir. If he agreed to kick Harvey Weinstein out of Disney and Miramax, perhaps his relationship with Kazir would change for the better. The director could have worked with Walt Disney. But alas, regret was of no use in the current situation.

He could only hope that John Carter wouldn't be his downfall.

 

[LUCIFER482]

Nice man Always followed this story on WN good to read the latest chapter here

 

[Lillie Jones]

Thanks for the chapter

 

[Pujimaki]

Hollywood What If Chapter 292


Walt Disney thought that only Star Wars would be their problem and for the next two weeks they would have autonomy at the box office.

However, on the 8th of May, a mid-budget film produced by 20th Century Fox was released and John Carter's ticket sales were affected. The film was called Unfaithful. An erotic thriller film.

Erotic thriller films were quite popular in the late 90s and early 2000s. Fatal Attraction, Basic Instinct and Eyes Wide Shut were just some of the famous films of the genre. Of course, the genre continued to thrive in the decades that followed. The 50 Shades series was a successful franchise of the genre.

Perhaps because people were looking for something different, they decided to buy more tickets for Unfaithful than for John Carter, which was heavily invested.

John Carter grossed $53 million in its first ten days. As for Unfaithful, it grossed more than $7 million in its first three days.

Yes, for its genre, which was also rated R, Unfaithful was already doing well. Only a few R-rated films like John Wick, The Matrix and The Hangover have managed to make a lot of money at the box office.

But oh well, for obvious reasons, erotic thrillers and erotic films were quite popular on DVD and in video stores. You know, people like to watch this kind of stuff in their own homes, preferably alone... To appreciate the art, of course.

Another week went by and the executives' confidence in John Carter was waning. They watched, shitless, as the numbers kept dropping to dangerous levels.

They had already invested $350 million in this film... It was a huge slap in the face. The fact that they could never recoup their investment would be fatal to their future endeavours.

The 16th of May came and the most awaited sequel of Star Wars was released!

By this time, John Carter had already grossed $62 million... Based on this increase alone, the film had already reached its end... In one week, the film only made $9 million. That was so fucking sad, no lie.

Plus, John Carter had only been out for two weeks and was already running out of gas at the box office.

But Walt Disney was still in denial, or maybe Michael Eisner was in denial.

They could not accept that John Carter was a box office flop, a tragedy. They still decided to promote the film for a week.

Furthermore, Walt Disney had international distribution. Maybe they could recoup their investment internationally.

So yes, Walt Disney continued to burn their money. Historically, this is probably the biggest box office flop that Disney has had in either timeline... Apart from The Lone Ranger, of course. Note that this film was also produced by Walt Disney and their investment was large. But just like John Carter, The Lone Ranger didn't have much to show for it, but that's another story.

As many expected, when Star Wars Episode 2: Attack Of The Clones was released, the first day box office was astounding.

On May 16, the first day of Star Wars Episode 2, it made over $30 million.

It was meant to be. This was a sign that the film would do well at the box office, unlike John Carter, which only made a mediocre $9 million on the first day.

Furthermore, the production cost of Star Wars Episode 2 was only $115 million. That was small compared to John Carter's $250 million. It even did better at the box office.

One thing was clear, there was something wrong with the film. Who would want to see a film that had no clear ending?

Walt Disney focused too much on possible sequels and this was the downfall of John Carter.

When Disney felt that their promotion was useless, they decided to keep a low profile... They hope that the reaction of foreigners to John Carter was worth it, or else...

In May, only one film dominated the month, and that was Star Wars Episode 2.

By the end of the month, Star Wars Episode 2 had already earned 216 million dollars. The film made back its investment in just one month and may have even put more profit.

As for John Carter and Walt Disney... Meh.

This was just the start of the summer season and more films would be released over the next few weeks.

June arrived and Kazir had no choice but to give the crew three days off as he was returning to Los Angeles to attend a premiere.

Filming of The Revenant was going well. In fact, Kazir could say they were ahead of schedule. The crew was happy to get a break and most of them returned to Los Angeles to see their friends and families.

As for Tom Cruise, the star of the project, he decided to spend his time in Canada with his current girlfriend, Penelope Cruz.

The couple didn't hide their relationship after Tom officially divorced Nicole Kidman.

Since Penelope was part of the cast, they could use their relationship to promote the film. They didn't have a problem with that. For Penelope, it could give her a better position in the industry, while Tom was ready to do anything as long as he could earn a golden statue.

Kazir also went through a divorce and his experience was not so good.

Although Tom had it worse. After his separation with Nicole Kidman, Tom was criticised by many people. Some newspapers believed that Tom had been brainwashed by Scientology. Which led to their divorce.

To be honest, Kazir had no idea what Scientology was. He didn't give a fuck either.

As a director, he knew that the industry was never a good place anyway. In fact, he believed that Hollywood itself was a giant cult.

Anyway, Kazir put on his suit and got ready for the limousine. He tried to call Angelina, but she didn't answer.

Kazir sighed, he had expected this. He knew his heart was not ready and he was afraid of getting hurt. So before things got serious, he decided to give it some thought.

He wanted to talk to Angelina, but the woman never answered...

 

[Lillie Jones]

Thanks for the chapter