HWI 257

Hollywood What If Chapter 257

The room was a bit awkward. Well, strangers just entered this place to start the script reading schedule. This was their first meeting each other and the bond was still not there. Quite a problem since the whole motto of Fast and The Furious was "Family".

Yep, nothing beats "Family" 

- Dom Toreto. 

To make it worse, the director of the movie was not fluent in English. He could speak English but his accent and his speed were not that fast. 

At least people could understand him. That was enough. 

Paul Walker and Vin Diesel were the main characters in this movie. An LAPD(Brian O'Connor) and a notorious street racer(Dominic Toreto) respectively. 

The copyright of The Fast and The Furious was quite complicated. Well, Kazir Grey made it quite complicated. 

Kazir already wrote the script in 1995 and registered it in the Writers Guild. However, an article about street racing was released in 1998 and it had some resemblance to his script. Kazir already expected this to happen since the first movie of the Fast & Furious franchise was inspired by the said article. 

The name of this article was Racer X by Ken Li, published in Vibe magazine. 

To make things easier and so that no lawsuit could happen. Grey Pictures bought the said article for an amount of $50 thousand. Now, the problem was easily solved. 

Once that was done, the production of Fast and The Furious was approved by the management, although Kazir was the most important decision maker anyway. 

The investment was settled. Grey Pictures hired an insurance company to make sure that the production would be on the right track. 

The director of this movie was a Taiwanese director named Justin Lin. The man has been a director since 1997 and made one movie. When he got an invitation from Grey Pictures to direct one of their movies, the answer was only one. 

Absolutely yes. 

This was a once-in-a-lifetime chance for him to get a foothold in Hollywood. The biggest Show Business in the world. 

For a no-one like him, this was a hard thing to decline. He was shocked and afraid actually. He didn't expect this situation would arrive. He even thought that this was a scam. 

He flew to Los Angeles just to meet Stella Willow, the general manager of Grey Pictures. 

Justin Lin knew that his position in this industry was so low so he agreed to most of their conditions. He gotta do it. Or else the position might be taken by others. 

He signed a contract, getting a $1 million salary. It was actually the biggest amount of money he ever had. 

After that, he signed under CAA, having an agent to help him. Salvatore Barlowe was already in a tight spot after having two directors so it was impossible for him to get Justin Lin. CAA wouldn't let that happen. 

"Haha, L- Let's start the script reading."

Justin Lin announced in his unique accent, wiping his sweaty forehead. He was actually nervous. 

Vin Diesel and Paul Walker, still strangers, stared at each other and asked themselves. 

'Can this guy even direct this movie? He seems like he's going to pass out after sweating so much.'

All of the cast of this movie were all new in this industry. None of them had solidified their status. 

Vin Diesel had been in some projects such as Saving Private Ryan, and even starring in Pitch Black, but the guy was still not that famous. Grey Pictures could afford his salary so yeah, he was not that famous... 

The biggest reason why these actors and actresses auditioned for this movie was because of the influence of Wanted and the past Continental movies. Hollywood predicted that the movies that Grey Pictures produced had a high chance of making a profit. 

For new actors/actresses who didn't have a steady career in this industry, this was the chance that they didn't want to let go of. 

What they didn't know was that Kazir took the importance of this franchise. Because he knew how much money Fast & Furious could generate. 

As for the reason why Kazir didn't hire Rob Cohen, the first director of The Fast and The Furious movie. The first movie lacks unrealistic stunts. 

The Continental Cinematic Universe was filled with spies, hitmen, and even ninjas. The movie needed spices to make it interesting. 

Justin Lin was the director of:

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (3rd sequel)

Fast & Furious (4th sequel)

Fast Five (5th sequel)

Fast & Furious 6 (6th sequel)

F9 (10th sequel)

Many of these movies had unrealistic stunts that hyped the whole franchise. 

Cars falling from the sky with parachutes? Yes. 

Military Tanks that had the speed of a race car? Yes. 

Cars overtaking an airplane? Yes. 

Oh, here's another. Cars in outer space? Absolutely Yes. 

Kazir didn't need the mild Fast and The Furious. He needed the adrenaline-pumping scenes of Fast and The Furious. 

For that, he believed that Justin Lin was the right person. He gave the director control over the action shots of the movie as long as it sat well with the Continental Cinematic Universe. 

"Tsk, let's just go with this and finish the session."

The 17-year-old Scarlett Johansson muttered and that caught the attention of the cast. 

In this project, perhaps Scarlett had the longest time working with Grey Pictures, except for Harold who was still the producer. 

Kim Mills had a short appearance in this movie.

As for how the plot would progress, no one knew. Even the author has no idea... 

If there was a good thing, Kazir already wrote the overall plot of the first movie. It was about an undercover LAPD who infiltrated a gang of criminals that stole expensive electronic goods... 

[Yup, that was the plot of the first movie, I found it on Wikipedia.]