HWI 126

Hollywood What If Chapter 126

"Kazir Grey... He is not bad."

Cameron Diaz smiled seductively and let the man escape. 

The only reason why she wanted to talk to Kazir was because of revenge. She wanted to get the leading role of There's Something About Mary. But because of obvious reasons, she wanted a better salary so her agent tried to negotiate. 

Unfortunately, their side didn't expect that the production crew had a second choice and her performance was comparable to Cameron Diaz. These last two years, Reese Witherspoon's standing was getting better and Hollywood acknowledged her. 

Reese Witherspoon got the role and Cameron Diaz lost her chance to be a protagonist. 

Because of anger, she decided to attend this party to seduce Kazir Grey. 

'The party is boring but meeting Kazir is quite interesting.' She admitted. 

She just wanted to get revenge but she decided to change her plan. Kazir Grey had a good impression. A respectable man who didn't flinch in front of a goddess. 

"Maybe we will meet later."

She smiled while staring at Kazir's back. 

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Kazir Grey wanted to start the John Wick project as soon as possible. However, he understood that his crew need a break. At least a week's vacation. 

Taken and John Wick were both action movies but John Wick was on another level. It might have been the epitome of hand-to-hand dirty combat movies. 

'The action choreography of John Wick is much more troublesome than Taken.'

Kazir decided to give the crew a month's vacation before officially starting the John Wick project. They deserve that vacation after doing tiring jobs, especially Harold Witsend, the producer of the movie. That guy was exhausted just like Kazir. 

Kazir went down to check on two people who were busy experimenting. 

'Of course there are some people like me who love their jobs so much.'

Even though he gave his crew a month's vacation, Enzo Park and Tae-Won Park were creating choreography for John Wick. 

Especially Tae-Won Park. After learning that the choreography that he created became a vital part of the movie, he felt like he had to work hard. He learned different kinds of martial arts just to present deadly yet cool action sequences. 

The two brothers were working together to polish the choreography. 

Actually, his friends from Hong Kong were asking for a favor to help them find a job in Hollywood. Tae-Won wanted to invite them to Grey Pictures but he learned that the movie industry in Hong Kong was trying to block the small-time stunt directors. 

The success of Taken caused Hollywood to hire stunt directors from Hong Kong and they were trying to increase their price. They regret the fact that they let Tae-Won Park go to Hollywood easily. They should have maintained their scarcity and negotiated a better condition. 

Anyway, both Park brothers were enthusiastic about their jobs. They studied the best way to show cool action sequences on the camera. They recorded different 'battles' and watch them after. 

Kazir was impressed with their hard work. He helped them every other day and watch how they progress. 

Kazir was the director but not all the work was on him. Hiring a professional stunt director was the best thing to do. 

'I just show them some examples and they are already making better ones.'

Liam Neeson didn't have any reason to visit Grey Pictures this year because Taken 2 would be released in 1999 which was the next next year. 

Tae-Won Park was eager to teach action stunts to people. 

"Kazir, I know it's too much but when will we meet the protagonist of John Wick?"

"About that. Maybe you will meet him at the end of the year at best."

The month of November was a vacation month to energize his crew. 

Then, they would start the project in December. Their first mission was to find the protagonist and Kazir already invited some people for the audition. 

"We already notified CAA, UTA, and other agencies to prepare their clients for the audition. We already gave them the list of roles we are looking for. The first round of auditions will start the first week of December."

They even send 2/3 of the scripts to some promising actors. 

'If there's one thing that made me shocked, it's the fact that Harrison Ford expressed his interest in the movie... I just don't know if we can afford his salary. We are talking about Han Solo/Indiana Jones here.'

"That's good to hear. I'm excited to teach him the deadly method of the best assassin."

Tae-Won Park smiled genuinely. His job here in America was better than in Hong Kong. At least the people here respect him. 

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The screening of Taken in North America ended. Cinema Alliance already gave the remaining money to Paramount. 

The North American box office of Taken was $268.42 million. Cinema Alliance took 40% which was $107.36 million.

Paramount then subtracted the promotional budget and film copies they invested($23 million) and the 25% box office fee. The total amount was $90.1 million.

The remaining went to Grey Pictures. The money that went to Grey Pictures was $70.96 million. Furthermore, Kazir Grey, the director, would get a 10% box office share. 

Kazir Grey got $26.84 million and it was sent to his bank account. 

In the end, Grey Pictures only got $44.12 million. They basically earned $19.12 million. That was pretty much their profit in North America... 

It clearly showed that the Cinema Alliance and movie distributors were the only winners. 

However, the international box office was still ongoing at $224.25 million. Grey Pictures had another method to earn money.

On top of that were the videotapes... Grey Pictures would get most of the profit for this one. 

Grey Pictures would produce the videotapes and Paramount would distribution them. Paramount would get 20% of the profit while Grey Pictures would get the 80%. The profit for videotape was much better than the box office because a blank videotape was cheap. 

A blank videotape cost a dollar but a movie videotape could be sold for 30 dollars.