Hollywood What If-Chapter 417

A press conference was set up, and the reporters and guests who attended the conference clapped as the signing of the contract ended.

This was a massive project for the company. They invested hugely and even hired a critically acclaimed producer.

A huge poster of Lionsgate was pasted on the walls as an obvious advertisement and also an introduction.

This production company was backed by a group in Canada and then decided to penetrate the Hollywood industry.

So far, the company was just gaining a foothold and had produced movies such as American Psycho and Leprechaun.

This year, the company announced that they would release two movies. One of these movies was written by Kazir Grey, while the last one was an adaptation of a Marvel Comic!

Now You See Me was a script written by Kazir Grey and registered in the Writers Guild. The premise caught the attention of Lionsgate, and they decided to buy it from Kazir together with The Expendables, for the amount of $13 million. Unfortunately, Lionsgate could only buy one which was Now You See Me.

Now You See Me had the potential to be added to the Continental Cinematic Universe, but Kazir decided to go against it. Now You See Me didn't have that action-packed adrenaline rush.

But The Expendables was different. The franchise consisted of nothing but action, shooting, and explosions. Definitely to be added to the CCU. So Kazir only sold Now You See Me to Lionsgate for $6 million. The initial price was $7 million and went down to $6 million after negotiation with Salvatore. Overall, Kazir was satisfied.

The second film that Lionsgate planned to release was from Marvel, it was The Punisher.

Every studio saw the potential of Marvel Comics, even Lionsgate. They had already bought the movie adaptation rights to The Punisher long before the release of Spider-Man at a cheap price of 300 thousand dollars.

Lionsgate was just a start-up company, and they needed good movies to franchise. They contacted Marvel Comics to start the production of The Punisher... Unfortunately, the outcome was not that great. The movie was meant to make only $55 million despite having a $33 million production budget, a money loss.

Anyway, today was a celebration and the announcement of their projects.

Being the writer of Now You See Me, Kazir received an invitation. They hoped Kazir would attend because it would be great publicity. Despite the recent scandal, Spider-Man 2 still prospered and slapped the faces of many hateful people. Kazir's status still remained as the most in-demand director in the industry.

Having him at this conference was enough to hype the projects.

Kazir sipped his wine as he looked around. He saw people from Marvel, such as Avi Arad, who became the producer of The Punisher.

"What do you think?"

Harold stood next to Kazir. Harold was not a simple producer anymore.

"If you're talking about The Punisher, I don't know. I haven't read the script," Kazir replied. He was lying. He knew the outcome of The Punisher, it was devastating.

"That's great to hear, I guess. The Punisher doesn't have any superpowers, so he's not fit for the MCU. Lionsgate won't profit from it."

Harold was not a simple producer. Working in this position gave him the vision to understand the complicated politics in the industry.

Actually, Harold was hired by Lionsgate to be the producer of Now You See Me, and he agreed. This project was written by his friend, so he believed in it. Besides, this was also a good chance to expand his contacts. R̃Ἀ𐌽ОBƐṧ

If not for Harold Witsend, Kazir might not have attended the conference. He never liked this kind of socialization.

"Looks like you're getting famous, Harold. Lionsgate hired you. You can start your own production studio if you want."

Harold chuckled and touched his receding hairline. "And what? Lose more hair because of stress looking for investors? Never mind, I'm good with my current position."

He knew how hard it was to start a production company, it was not that easy at all. Sometimes Harold was amazed at how Kazir made Grey Pictures bloom in just a decade. He could never copy what Kazir did.

'If I have to start a production studio... I might have to resort to filming adult videos instead. The Hollywood industry is already too packed to have another small studio.'

Don't look down on the porn industry. This market raises billions every year, and Harold could see the potential. Especially now when the internet is booming. Unfortunately, Harold loved his job too much to change his career.

Life was tough for Harold lately, he had to communicate with many people just to make sure that Elizabeth wouldn't ever return to the USA.

He could blame most of the receding hairline on that woman... He had a hard time fighting the urge to have sex with her. Elizabeth was indeed a beauty, he couldn't deny it.

Thankfully, he was not stupid enough to fuck his friend's mom, even if the mother in question was a MILF...

"If I remember it right, Lionsgate is promoting a movie this upcoming October. I think the movie is called Saw or something?"

"That's right, it's called Saw." Kazir nodded.

"Have you heard of it?"

"I was given a ticket."

"I see…"

Kazir actually thought of filming Saw as his first movie instead of Napoleon Dynamite. But he decided not to because he was afraid that he was not good at horror movies.

He also thought of registering Saw with the Writers Guild but decided not to. The reason was also because of his trauma regarding filming horror movies.

So following the timeline, Saw would still be released just like the original.

As for Final Destination, because Kazir interfered with the timeline, the franchise would start late.

"Are you doing well lately, Kazir?"

"Hm, why did you ask me that? You should ask yourself instead. Your hairline doesn't look fine."

"Yeah, I know about that," Harold sighed and touched his forehead.

"If you're talking about me and Angelina, we are done. The media already caught up and knew about our separation."

"If you need someone to talk to, you can call me."

Harold felt guilty because he had an idea that Elizabeth had a part in why Angelina and Kazir broke up. He failed to stop it from happening.

"I will. It's a good thing that I'll be busy this year to think about my romantic relationship. I'm probably going to be fine." He laughed and gulped his wine.

+++++

[Fourth chapter of the day.]