HWI 286

Hollywood What If Chapter 286

Kazir and Stan talked for a few minutes before Avi returned. When the two saw Avi's expression, they thought that the guy was quite flushing red.

"Kazir, let's talk about the negotiation next time, officially," Avi announced their leave.

"Okay." Kazir nodded and bid them goodbye. He was curious why Avi started acting like that but he decided to leave it be.

At first he thought Avi and Stan would spend more time at the party but it seemed that they have important matters to do. The two executives left the party.

"Avi, why are you acting like that? Did something happen? Who called you?"

Stan was not stupid. He knew that the reason why Avi was acting strange was because of the phone call.

"It's News Corporation."

"Huh?"

"Someone from News Corporation wants to talk to us. They are interested in buying Marvel Comics."

The current shares of Marvel Comics were in the hands of the bank because of the debts that the company had. If News Corporation was indeed serious about this acquisition, then the bank would be happy that another company would shoulder the debts of Marvel Comics.

"Are you serious?" Stan was surprised. He didn't expect it.

"... It's not a scam, right?"

"I don't think so. They set up a meeting at the 20th Fox Headquarters two days from now. If this is real, then we have to contact the management."

News Corporation was a media giant and it had the ability to acquire Marvel Comics. However, it was still unknown why News Corporation contacted them after so many years. Perhaps the recent success of Spider-Man was the reason. Marvel Comics gained a new way of profit after the success of Spider-Man and their future was promising... Although they were still currently in debt.

The two became serious. Both of them had shares in Marvel Comics and if this acquisition indeed happened, then it would be a good thing to them. At least they could face their old rival with confidence.

'If DC is under Warner Brothers, then Marvel Comics will be with News Corporation, erm, 20th Century Fox, I guess?' Avi Arad thought. Hoping that the future of the company would be prosperous.

.........

......

...

Kazir was slightly confused as to why the two left the party so fast. They didn't even drink a glass of wine.

'Perhaps their only business why they attend this party is to meet me.'

Knowing how massive the MCU was in the next decade, Kazir would never say no to Marvel Comics' condition. However, Grey Pictures would fight for better conditions.

'It was a good thing that we acquired the copyrights of MCU characters and can start it any moment. However, I'm still waiting for at least two or three years so the CGI technology will level and ready to take Iron-Man or The Incredible Hulk.'

Technically, the second movie of MCU was The Incredible Hulk but the contract with Edward Norton became rubbish. Thankfully, Iron Man, the first movie of MCU was successful and kept the whole franchise alive.

Of course, Hulk was still in the Avengers but it was very hard to connect him to the Incredible Hulk. Since the original actor(Edward Norton) left and was replaced by Mark Ruffalo. People couldn't help but see the difference between the two.

So in this timeline, if Grey Pictures and Marvel (Studio) were serious about creating another Cinematic Universe, then Kazir would choose Mark Ruffalo at the very start so that there wouldn't be any mishaps. Besides, Mark Ruffalo was also a great actor. He seemed more approachable than Edward Norton, at least.

'Now that I think it, the box office of The Incredible Hulk was not bad. Earning around $260 million at the box office. However, the production cost of the movie is $150 million so I guess they didn't make a profit at all.'

Stuff happens and life was always like that. Even in the 2020s, the influence of the MCU became weaker after the disappearance of the original Avengers.

'I have to be mindful of oversaturation as well. People will grow tired of superhero movies and CCU can suffer the same thing.'

So far, action movies have been doing well but that could change later. After all, the era of the 2010s was dominated by superheroes.

'Keeping two CCU movies per year is the best choice. In that way, people will not get tired of our movies.'

Perhaps another reason why MCU was at its lowest in the 2020s was because of the fact that they produced so many TV shows that were all connected to MCU. People just grew tired of oh-so-many TV shows to watch, especially when every one of them was connected to MCU and it would be detrimental if they didn't watch it.

If you don't watch WandaVision, then you have no idea what was going on in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

After thinking about MCU which Kazir was interested in, he decided to look for Angelina.

He saw some of the cast of Spider-Man and they invited him to have a drink but Kazir humbly passed. Drinking too much would be bad for him, especially when he had a job to do tomorrow.

After a few minutes of looking, Kazir found Angelina talking to someone. He almost called her but he paused when he realized that Angelina was talking to Kirsten Dunst.

He looked at the two and witnessed Kirsten shedding tears. She walked away as she wiped her tears, trying to act completely fine.

The woman was walking towards Kazir, he tried to look for a place to hide but he failed. In the end, Kirsten saw Kazir and she was stunned. She immediately greeted him as she wiped her tears.

"G- Good evening director."

She did her best and smiled. She excused herself and left the place, embarrassed about her action.

"..."

Kazir just nodded and let the woman leave. Then, he turned to Angelina who was smirking.

"Aww, baby did you miss me?" Angelina said and hugged Kazir. Kazir hugged her back but was not that enthusiastic about it.

"Angelina, what happened? Why did I see Kirsten crying?"

Kirsten had an important role in the Spider-Man trilogy. If this matter affected Kirsten, then the woman might leave the project and that would endanger the franchise. Kazir was a director who hated that kind of thing.

So yeah, he was disappointed by what he witnessed. Spider-Man was important to him and Angelina might cause irreparable damage to the project, something that Kazir could not accept. This was his art, something that was very important to him.

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[Two chapters today.]