Hollywood What If Chapter 273
Both sides were under the agency of CAA and they started their negotiation.
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 the negotiation with the thought that this project would happen. There was no in-between. Now, they just have to work to satisfy the conditions of each side.
Honestly, Pat Kingsley was against this project because Tom Cruise was nominated last year for Best Supporting Actor and they didn't win even though they did their best PR.
Another thing was because of Nicole Kidman. You see, Nicole Kidman was striving for Best Actress next year(2002) for her role in The Hours. Pat Kingsley was currently siding with Nicole Kidman regarding the split between the couple. However, she could not let go of Tom Cruise, her biggest client.
Thankfully, The Revenant would participate in the 2003 Academy Awards so Pat Kingsley didn't have to spit her attention regarding Public Relations(PR).
The agents and their clients were both quiet about their plan to compete for Oscars. However, the veterans in this industry probably knew their intentions once they heard that Kazir Grey would film an autobiography movie instead of actions or comedies that the audience liked. They were not stupid.
There was only one reason why Kazir Grey would direct a movie like this, to win the Best Director Award. So yeah, 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 with no box office share. So far, this was the highest salary that Grey Pictures gave to anyone, except for Kazir himself.
No one could assure the box office of this movie because this was different from the usual projects that Kazir did, so Tom's side fought for a bigger salary instead of getting a box office share.
As for Kazir, he decided to take a $5 million salary for this project. He could say that he wanted a 1 dollar salary just for the betterment of the budget but it would be disrespectful to the four agents who worked with him. They earn money through commissions.
Now that both sides had negotiated and agreed on the salary, the project officially started.
Kazir and Tom started talking about the project. Kazir already expected that Tom would talk to him regarding his role, wanting more screen time or lines. Tom was a superstar and he acted based on his status, arrogant. Anyway, as long as it was not outrageous, Kazir would agree.
While this was happening, Grey Pictures started looking for directors who would take over their two projects. Fremont Smith just finished John Wick Chapter 2 and he wanted to take some time to rest. It seemed that Fremont Smith was the type of director who would make movies every two years.
Well, someone like Kazir who never takes a vacation for himself was an abomination in this industry.
Kazir already had people in his mind who would direct Mr and Mrs Smith and The Bourne Supremacy.
Doug Liman was the original director of The Bourne Identity, but Kazir directed the movie 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 indeed the director of this movie in the past life.
As for The Bourne Supremacy, Kazir recommended Paul Greengrass for the position of director. Just like Doug Liman, Paul Greengrass was the real director of The Bourne Supremacy in the past life as well.
Kazir was just recruiting the original directors.
The two directors could be categorized as B-tier directors, if that is how you call it. They were professional directors and filmed a few movies but they were not prominent.
Just like what Grey Pictures did to Justin Lin, the production studio set a three-movie contract for Doug Liman and Paul Greengrass. Meaning, they were legally allowed to film three movies for Grey Pictures. Regarding salary increase, that clause could be bent but not broken.
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November.
Two weeks after the release of Monster, Inc. which grossed over $133 million at the North American box office, a new set of movies were released.
November 15, 2001. Which was Thursday close to midnight. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was released for the first time. The first installment of the fourth biggest franchise in the history of cinema.
Note that the first biggest franchise was MCU, the second was Spider-Man, and the third was Star Wars. This was based on the money the franchise generated.
Harry Potter was already famous all over the world and garnered many fans, ranging from teens to adults. A lot of people were excited to watch the movie.
Before 2001, J.K. Rowling already produced four books of the series.
The first day(Friday) of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone grossed $32.33 million. Very big amount of money, unfortunately, the first day of Spider-Man was $39 million so...
Anyway, on the second day(Saturday) the movie grossed $33.51 million.
On Sunday, the movie grossed 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 flex this achievement. Their future investment for this franchise was going to be big.
But no matter how much they brag about Harry Potter, it was true that the movie fell short against Kazir's Spider-Man because the movie grossed $114 million in its first three days.
Now Warner Bros was wondering: WHAT IF Kazir Grey directed Harry Potter, would the movie perform better?
No one knows the answer. After all, it was nothing but a What If.
[I've written six web novels so far and completed one. Out of all of them, HWI is the most summarized-type one. Usually, if I add dialogue to the chapters, the plot will slow down. But I will now try to slow down the plot since I have a lot of things to tackle 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 gonna add Jennifer Connelly to the story. I have a crush on this actress, I apologize.]
[I'll post the 2nd chapter later.]
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 of director was Kazir Grey. Just like Sony-Columbia, Warner Bros was confident that they could satisfy Kazir's contract but the man ultimately chose Spider-Man.
It was sad but Warner Bros had to move forward. The plan was already ongoing. In the first place, they promote J.K. Rowling and his books just for the upcoming movie.
Warner Bros was looking for movie franchises to milk and they felt like Harry Potter was profitable. Lord Of The Rings was a different thing because it was acquired by New Line Cinema. The profits of the two companies never mixed. Furthermore, New Line Cinema had its own distribution. Warner Bros could do nothing about it.
In the past few years, Warner Bros had two movies that they were focusing on, Matrix and Harry Potter. They put hundreds of millions on each movie.
The sequels of Matrix were already in production and it seemed promising.
If Harry Potter didn't succeed, then they would lose money. So the management at that time invited Kazir Grey who stepped out of CCU to be the director.
Well, the outcome was obvious. Kazir declined and they go 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 feat. In just three days, it grossed $90 million. That was amazing, only a few movies could achieve that.
However, it was still bitter to think that Kazir Grey, the one who declined the movie, had a better performance with his movie Spider-Man.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was an adaptation of the novel and a lot of scenes in the novel were obviously never shown in theaters, creating some disappointment to the novel fans. Perhaps if Kazir was the director, he would have done a great job regarding that.
Unfortunately, they 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 movies had promising performances in November.
When the month was over, only Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was the one that generated $202 million at the box office. The movie was screening for only 15 days and it was already making that amount of money.
Hehe, too bad but Spider-Man made over $252 million within 15 days.
Someone from Warner Bros curiously did a comparison and was disappointed by the results.
Seems like some people in Warner Bros were bitter about it. They couldn't help but compare the two.
December 7 and another batch of movies were released. Warner Bros had another movie that they were promoting 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. Yup, this was like a dream team. To achieve this task, Warner Bros invested $85 million for this project.
Ocean's Eleven was a heist film about a group of people who stole money from a casino to get revenge.
Actually, Kazir was quite interested in this movie but he failed to get the rights.
Ocean's Eleven was a remake of the same name Ocean's Eleven(1960). Some stuff was not according to his plan. Ocean's Eleven was not meant for him and Grey Pictures.
The one that acquired the movie was Warner Bros. Well, Grey Pictures would have to invest a lot of money to film this movie. Furthermore, Ocean's Eleven was meant 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 a B-tier studio at least. For them to be an A-tier studio, they should have a 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 comparable to Harry Potter or Spider-Man at all.
But again, this performance was already amazing. Only a few movies could make that amount in three days. People just couldn't help but compare it to the best. Just like how basketball fans kept comparing players to Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and Lebron James... These three were the common topics regarding who was the Greatest Of All Time (GOAT).
12 days after its release, Ocean's Eleven made $76 million. Again, an amazing feat... But not comparable to Spider-Man and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.
But that would change because on December 19, another movie was released and it 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 three movies had huge performances this 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 but it was acknowledged protagonist was Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen).
Viggo already had a status in Hollywood with his role as John Wick. But after this, 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 one would be the highest-grossing movie 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?
[Apparently it's Sorcerer's Stone, it's my mistake and I apologize. I'm gonna edit it, haha.]
[I was interested in Ocean Eleven at first but I can't find the right timing to include it in the CCU. In the end, I decided not to because Ocean's Eleven is never an action but more of a heist film. It can fit well with CCU but the timing just didn't feel right.]
[Based on Google the highest-grossing movie of 2001 was Harry Potter. Should I keep it like that or should I do another butterfly effect bullshit? Haha.]