HWI 498

Hollywood What If Chapter 498

"Babe, you said that you have three weeks of free time before you start the filming of The Dark Knight, right?"

"That's right."

Kazir nodded. He was still deep in thoughts regarding Shadows Beneath.

Warner Brothers already started the pre-production of The Dark Knight a year ago. The props, locations, scripts, and cast were already prepared by Warner Brothers.

Of course, Kazir also checked the project once a week while he was working on Pirates Of The Caribbean and Shadows Beneath. The only time he couldn't visit the studio was when he was far from Los Angeles. Most of the time, Kazir was updated on what was going on about The Dark Knight.

When Superman Returns flopped last year, Warner Brothers understood that their plan of starting a Cinematic Universe was scrapped for a while.

Because of this, their future projects had to be readjusted. Kazir talked to Warner Brothers and asked them to make the Batman Trilogy a stand-alone franchise without connection to their DCEU plan. Warner Brothers reluctantly agreed since DCEU was still not happening.

Because of that, Kazir convinced Warner Brothers to change the theme and essence of the trilogy. He also changed the title to The Dark Knight.

He also wanted the movie to focus on realistic and deeper themes.

When he sent the unpolished script to Warner Brothers, the studio was initially against it. They were not stupid, they just read the script once and immediately understood that the lead role of the movie was Joker and not Batman.

This was against the common practices. Perhaps this was also the reason why Kazir changed the title to The Dark Knight. Deliberately changing the theme and tone of the movie.

If they added Batman to the title of the movie, people might think it seemed childish or cartoonish. Perhaps Superman Returns also suffered the same thing.

Hence, the title was changed to The Dark Knight.

However, the script was another thing. Warner Brothers was not sure how to make do with it.

Kazir personally changed his schedule just to meet the management of Warner Brothers and DC Comics to convince them. He said that he wanted to change the tone of the franchise since it was a stand-alone franchise anyway. Furthermore, he believed that they would gather more fans if they did.

Some people said that Rachel Dawes didn't need to die, but Kazir had to make sure that scene would happen... He also talked to his girlfriend about that and Scarlett didn't have a problem. She liked it because that scene was so heavy and dramatic that it could help her in her career as an actress.

If not for Kazir's credibility as a scriptwriter and director, Warner Brothers would probably not listen to his request.

Anyway, after a year of convincing and pre-production, The Dark Knight was ready to go.

And since they have three weeks before that, Scarlett invited Kazir to go on vacation.

"We didn't go on vacation last year. Let's go and relax." She clung to his arm and kissed his cheek.

Kazir weakly smiled. Honestly, he was on his nerves lately because of Shadows Beneath. He admitted that he needed a nice vacation.

As for the results of Shadows Beneath, he believed that the movie would surpass $300 million at least. He was already happy about that. He proved to himself that he was not a failure.

Perhaps because all of his movies were highly successful, he also wanted Shadows Beneath to experience the same treatment.

"Yeah, let's go. I will move my schedule."

"Hm, I love you, babe."

"Love you too."

January was obviously not a summer season, so their best choice was a winter vacation. The two decided to go to Hokkaido, Japan, to go skiing.

Kazir and Scarlett promised that they wouldn't use phones and the internet while on vacation. They refer to their assistants to take care of business matters.

The couple had fun and Kazir had a good sleep the whole vacation. Sometimes, they saw news about mental hospitals and mental health in the news, but they just didn't think much of it.

Just like that three weeks passed. Two days from now, Kazir will officially start the filming of The Dark Knight...

But that was not the current topic.

Kazir and Scarlett were keeping their silence in the limousine.

"Where the fuck have you been? I talked to Erica, and she said that you went on vacation! You also didn't bring Anderson with you so I don't have any means of contacting you. I almost called a police search."

Stella clicked her tongue in annoyance. The more she learned about Kazir, the more she realized that he was not her type at all.

"... Did something happen?"

Kazir felt guilty even though he didn't do anything bad. He talked to Stella before he went to Japan and the CEO even said that he needed to take care of himself.

Yet now, Stella was fuming.

"You need to see this."

Shadows Beneath Weekly Box Office:

1st week: $58 million.

Kazir nodded as he remembered about it. He was already satisfied that the movie grossed over $50 million in its first week.

2nd week: $49 million.

This was the week where Kazir decided to go to Japan. Kazir read the second week's performance and didn't feel any surprise. It was within their expectations.

"Hm?"

However, he was surprised when he saw the 3rd week's performance.

3rd week: $67 million.

Kazir was surprised because the box office should have been lower. This was the common trend in ticket sales. Movies would start losing fuel around the second and third week, and only a few movies could pull off a comeback.

Kazir then read the 4th week...

"What the fuck? Are you sure this is the right document?"

Kazir glanced at Stella and the woman nodded. Scarlett curiously looked at the document and she was also surprised.

"Fourth week, $72 million," Scarlett muttered.

"While you guys are gone, our promotion started getting attention until TV networks started talking about them. Even the President wants to promote Mental Health Awareness Month in May. While you're gone, the topic of mental health, mental hospitals, and asylums became huge. This is a serious topic, the World Health Organization also expressed their thoughts."

"What?"

Kazir and Scarlett looked at each other. They were just gone for three weeks and a lot of things happened without their knowledge.

"Shadows Beneath grossed $246 million while you guys are gone. Next week, Universal Pictures will release the movie internationally while the topic of mental health is at its peak."

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[Yeah, I'll post two HWI chapters tomorrow.]