HWI 200

Hollywood What If Chapter 200

[Congratulations to myself for writing 200 chapters. It's not easy to write a story, after all. Yes, I was caught by the rain and I have a runny nose today, anyway. It's not that bad.]

November 4, 1999.

The Paramount Theatre is an Art Deco concert hall located at 2025 Broadway in downtown Oakland. When it was built in 1931, it was the largest multipurpose theater on the West Coast with 3,476 seats.

This place was used for many purposes such as Broadway shows or movie premiers.

Today, the Paramount Theatre would be used for the premiere of Taken 2.

The camera flashes all over the red carpet. People would scream once an actor arrived.

Matt Damon attended the premiere of this movie, quite interested in the movie's performance.

The Bourne Identity had already ended its screening in North America and the final box office was $162 million.

As for the overseas box office, some countries already stopped the screening while others were still ongoing. As of now, the overseas box office was around $197 million.

Combining the North American and international box office, The Bourne Identity grossed more than $359 million.

Grey Pictures already got a portion of money from the international box office and they were quite generous. Grey Pictures gave Matt Damon a bonus of $1.6 million after settling the account.

This was Matt Damon's best movie and this was his biggest bonus as well. Even Miramax was too tight to give him a million dollars in Good Will Hunting.

Matt Damon stepped on the red carpet and an ear-piercing scream welcomed him. It seemed that the effect of The Bourne Identity on many people was obvious.

He was not super famous back then, but now, he realizes that his appearance is getting recognized by many people. Although they usually call him Jason Bourne, instead of his real name. Well, that was a common occurrence in this industry.

Matt Damon was actually with Ben Affleck but the guy didn't use the red carpet to enter the theater. Ben Affleck use the other entrance to enter the theater.

Ben Affleck expressed his jealousy that Matt Damon got a huge role and his movie was successful. Since they were best friends, Matt Damon used this chance to introduce Ben Affleck to Director Kazir Grey.

He guessed that Grey Pictures would expand their projects and Ben Affleck had a chance to cooperate with Kazir Grey.

While having an interview and asked about his opinion on Taken 2, another ear-piercing scream struck Matt Damon and the reporter.

They both paused and looked at the person who stepped out of the limousine. It was none other than the award-winning actor Liam Neeson.

Liam Neeson had so many projects these years and they were successful.

Star Wars: Episode 1- The Phantom Menace. This iconic franchise produced a movie worth 1 billion dollars($1.027 billion) this year.

The Haunting was another movie that Liam Neeson participated in. The box office of The Haunting was $180 million.

Perhaps this was the effect of the Best Actor award on Liam Neeson's career.

Liam Neeson was the star tonight so Matt Damon ended the interview and entered the theater. Before he left the red carpet, people were still screaming and calling Liam Neeson's name.

Matt Damon chuckled and shook his head. For a moment, he imagined what would happen if he was the one who won the Best Actor Award. Perhaps the future might change. Well, the what-if was always there to give him imagination.

Still, he understood the present. His situation was not bad anyway. Just like Liam Neeson, Matt Damon was getting recognition and his status was better compared to last year.

One thing was sure, working with a talented director was the best move he did this past few years. Working with Steven Spielberg and Kazir Grey made him open his mind. An actor was only there to act out the character, but a great director could make great movies using a bad actor.

Using different editing, cut, and transition techniques, as long as the footage was complete, a director could make a movie.

Someone like Kazir Grey was a very rare talent. His movies were all successful.

Even Steven Spielberg and James Cameron had bad movies, but Kazir was different. Perhaps he was still in his prime.

After all, no one was perfect and Kazir Grey would reach the point when Kazir would have a bad movie. The question was when would it happen?

Matt Damon was inside the theater and found Ben Affleck talking to the people he knew.

This industry was quite small and most people knew each other.

Ben Affleck saw his friend and excused himself.

"Kazir Grey is here. Let me introduce you to him."

"Thanks, man."

Armageddon was released last year and Ben Affleck was one of the lead roles in the movie. Of course, the protagonist of the movie was Bruce Willis.

The recognition he got from Armageddon was not bad, but not good either. At least nothing compared to "Jason Bourne".

More people were into realistic action these days and The Bourne Identity had a good run in the North American box office.

Compared to A.J. Frost from Armageddon, Jason Bourne was more popular.

Ben Affleck and his agent intended to find good projects that could give Ben Affleck the leading role.

He was tired of being a supporting actor, he wanted to be the protagonist this time.

There was a rumor that Grey Pictures would produce two movies next year. The first was John Wick Chapter 2 while the second movie was still a secret.

In this secret project, Ben Affleck was interested in getting the role. If possible, he wanted to talk to Kazir Grey and hoped that he would have a chance to see the script.

Yet, Ben Affleck looked around and realized that some renounced actors were in the theater as well!

Unlike Ben Affleck, most of these actors entered the theater using the red carpet!

He saw Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Johnny Depp!

Heck, even his Bruce Willis was in the theater! The protagonist of Die Hard, The Sixth Sense, and Armageddon!

Bruce Willis saw that Ben Affleck attended the premier and nodded. Ben Affleck nodded back.

'As expected, I'm not the only one who is interested in Kazir's next project.' Ben Affleck sighed.

Kazir Grey didn't like parties and he always stayed in his office most of the time.

He was very hard to meet. This was the rare moment when Kazir Grey was in public.