HWI 285

Hollywood What If Chapter 285

Was working with Grey Pictures enough? 

Avi Arad was still skeptical about this idea. Sure, he knew that Kazir was the best if the greatest director in terms of this new genre but Avi Arad was still not confident in working with the studio. 

At least he needed an assurance. Walt Disney was quite serious about acquiring their characters and they were ready to pay a lot. 

Although there was also a downside to this since Marvel wouldn't start their own Cinematic Universe if they sold their characters to Walt Disney. 

And that was also the problem with Grey Pictures. Even though the studio bought the copyrights of many of the characters, it didn't mean that Grey Pictures intended to start a Cinematic Universe about Marvel. 

Perhaps they wanted to film a stand-alone movie just like Spider-Man. That was not enough to revive Marvel Comics. 

So since acquiring back the copyrights would be troublesome, Avi Arad decided to go as far as possible. 

"I want to renegotiate the contract," Avi stated and both Kazir and Stan looked at him. 

Kazir nodded, already expecting this. Avi Arad was the CEO of Marvel Comics and he had to do his job as the CEO, for the sake of the company. 

"I want to hear your thoughts."

"Cinematic Universe. I want to make sure that Grey Pictures will promise a Marvel Cinematic Universe. With at least one Marvel movie per year."

Kazir was not surprised. 

'Well, since MCU was a massive success in my past life, I have no problem with that. CCU has steady performance and I can focus on MCU for a while. However...'

"... And what can I get?" 

Kazir didn't forget that he had the higher ground in this negotiation.

"If you don't, then we will kill every character that you acquired in the comics."

Kazir smirked. It seemed petty but surely Avi had his intentions. 

"So you want to kill The Hulk? He's one of your biggest superheroes."

"We can kill him or change his image. We can turn him into a villain, we can turn him into a killer, thief, and even rapist."

Marvel Comics had the rights to all of the characters and they do what they want with them. 

Surely Grey Pictures would never film a Hulk movie if he became a rapist in the comics, which was the canon plot. So the copyrights would just become useless. 

"Both of us will lose if you do that." 

If Marvel was serious about it, then they would just destroy themselves. 

Avi Arad knew about it. It was just a threat, but a threat that would never happen unless they were pushed to the corner. 

They love each character and they didn't want to paint them badly. 

"Avi, I know your intention and I assure you that I'm sincere."

"We will extend the copyrights up to 15 years."

"I guess you want to put some of your people for this project."

"That's right, the writers should be from Marvel Comics."

"No problem with that. That's my plan anyway."

"Marvel will also decrease the 35% profit share down to 33%."

"The numbers should be talked about by our agents and such. But I have my proposal as well."

"... Tell me about it."

Looking at the grin on Kazir's face, Avi knew that it might affect them. 

"Marvel will shoulder at least 30% of the box office."

Now this condition might be a double-edged sword. It could be good or bad for them. 

"I agree but Marvel should increase its box office share to 20%"

"No, our initial agreement is that Marvel Comics is only allowed to get 13% box office share."

"Then investing might be a problem."

"Then there's no Cinematic Universe."

"..."

Avi Arad and Kazir had a stare-down battle. 

As for Stan Lee, he was just standings there. He was a creative person and a great artist but business dealings were never his strength. 

Actually, it was impressive that Kazir could do business. He had talent in business management, or else Grey Pictures wouldn't reach its current greatness 

Too bad because Kazir disliked doing business very much. If he had a choice, he wanted to let his agent do this kind of negotiation. 

However, after the Big Six declined to invest in Taken, Kazir decided to stand on his own feet and founded a production company that would solely invest in its own films. This was a dangerous gamble but in the end, he won. 

"Just like what you said, this numbers negotiation should be given to our management and let them fight over it."

"Very well."

So in the end, there was no clear agreement except for the plan of making a Marvel Cinematic Universe. 

For obvious reasons, Marvel Comics was actually on the bad side of this negotiation. In the first place, Marvel Comics could start their own studio and make their own movies. 

However, they were not sure if their movies would become successful. On top of that, all of their famous characters were already acquired by many studios and they would have a hard time retrieving them.

So in this situation, Marvel Comics could only agree with Kazir's decision. 

'If our situation is the same as DC, then perhaps one of the Big Six already bought Marvel Comics.' 

Superman and Batman were basically the mascot of Warner Bros and they were very famous all over the world. The main reason was because of the movie adaptations. Both superheroes had successful movies. 

Actually, Avi Arad hoped that one of the Big Six would acquire them... At least that would give them an easy life. 

Suddenly, Avi Arad's thick mobile phone started ringing in his pocket. 

Avi excused himself and answered the call. 

Kazir and Stan were left alone. 

"S- So Kazir, what's your plan if you will film Iron Man?"

"I have some in my mind but I'm still not sure, I will tell you about it later, perhaps once Spider-Man 2 starts production. I'll give you a clear plan. In the meantime, I'll focus my attention on my current project."

Kazir lied. Of course he had already thought about it. Heck, he even watched it.

"Of course." Stan Lee understood. 

In fact, he was already thankful that Kazir was the director of Spider-Man. He was the biggest assurance in this project, not the cast, and not Sony-Columbia. 

Stan Lee was the creator of Spider-Man and he was very happy to see his "son" having a successful run in Hollywood.

Now, many people know about Spider-Man all over the world. This was enough for him. 

Although Stan hoped that Kazir would also film Spider-Man 3. That might be the biggest good news he would have.

+++++

[I guess we gotta go with MCU next time, huh? Guys, I've been thinking about it and I really want Kazir Grey and Jennifer Connelly to become lovers... It's one of the reasons why Jennifer was the first actress that Kazir met. I have been cooking their relationship from the beginning but I'm still not sure how it will work. So I might have to disregard the outcome of the poll.] 

[I have a lot of side-plot to tackle in this arc(2002), this year might be around 50 to 70 chapters(not sure), especially when I intend to work with 20th Century Fox permanently(I'm still shocked that Walt Disney acquired Fox and I can't accept it, even if it's the reality. Why? Because I don't like Disney). I'll try to make it faster.] 

[So I read an article earlier and it seemed that Universal Pictures defeated Walt Disney last year(2023). Super Mario, Oppenheimer, and Fast X were all in the top 5 highest-grossing movies last year making Universal have the highest revenue. Just like I said, I'm actually chill with Universal. But it's too bad that Kazir and Universal have bad blood. Well, this is just a story anyway, don't mind me.]