[Congratulations to SK Telecom T1 for winning the Worlds 2023! Legends never die!]
[Shout out to Average Joe Gaming!]
+++++
Hollywood What If Chapter 126
"Kazir Grey... He is not bad."
Cameron Diaz smiled seductively and let the man go.
The only reason she wanted to talk to Kazir was for revenge. She wanted to get the lead in There's Something About Mary. But for obvious reasons, she wanted a better salary, so her agent tried to negotiate.
Unfortunately, her side didn't expect that the production team had a second choice and the actress' performance was comparable to Cameron Diaz. In the last two years, Reese Witherspoon's standing has improved and Hollywood has recognized her.
Reese Witherspoon got the role and Cameron Diaz lost her chance to be a protagonist.
Out 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 made a good impression. A respectable man who didn't flinch in front of a beauty.
"Perhaps we will meet later."
She smiled as she stared at Kazir's back.
.........
......
...
Kazir Grey wanted to start the John Wick project as soon as possible. But he understood that his crew needed a break. At least a week's vacation.
Kazir was the type of guy who prefered working than taking a vacation. He was an abnormal person in that regard. In his opinion, working on the filming site was his vacation.
Taken and John Wick were both action movies, but John Wick was on a different level. It may have been the epitome of dirty hand-to-hand fight movie.
'The action choreography in John Wick is much more elaborate than in Taken.'
Kazir decided to give the crew a month off before officially starting the John Wick project. They deserved it after working so hard, especially Harold Witsend, the film's producer. The man was as exhausted as Kazir.
Kazir went down to check on two people who were busy experimenting.
'Of course, there are some people like me who love their work so much.'
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
Even though he gave his crew a month off, Enzo Park and Tae-Won Park were choreographing for John Wick.
Especially Tae-Won Park. After he learned that the choreography he created was going to be an important part of the movie, he felt he had to work hard. He learned different types of martial arts just to show deadly yet cool action sequences.
The two brothers worked together to polish the choreography.
Actually, his friends from Hong Kong asked 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 tried to block the small stunt directors.
The success of Taken made Hollywood hire stunt directors from Hong Kong and they tried to raise their price. They regret that they let Tae-Won Park go to Hollywood so easily. They should have maintained their rarity and negotiated a better deal.
Anyway, both Park brothers were enthusiastic about their work. They studied the best way to show cool action sequences in front of the camera. They recorded different "fights" and watched them afterwards.
Kazir was impressed by their hard work. He helped them every other day and watched their progress.
Kazir was the director, but he did not do all the work. It was best to hire a professional stunt director.
'I just show them some examples and they make better ones.'
Liam Neeson had no reason to visit Grey Pictures this year because Taken 2 would be released in 1999, two years later.
"Phew, this is very fun."
Tae-Won Park was eager to teach people action stunts.
"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 recharge his crew.
Then they would start the project in December. Their first mission was to find the lead, and Kazir had already invited a few people to audition.
"We already notified CAA, UTA and other agencies to prepare their clients for the audition. We have already given them the list of roles we are looking for. The first round of auditions will start in the first week of December."
They are even sending 2/3 of the scripts to some promising actors.
'If there's one thing that shocked me, it's the fact that Harrison Ford expressed interest in the movie... I just don't know if we can afford his salary. We are talking about Han Solo/Indiana Jones.'
"That is good to hear. I'm looking forward to teaching him the deadly method of the best assassin.
Tae-Won Park smiled sincerely. His job here in America was better than in Hong Kong. At least people respect him here.
.........
......
...
The North American release of Taken has ended. Cinema Alliance has already given the remaining money to Paramount.
The North American box office for Taken was $268.42 million. Cinema Alliance took 40%, or $107.36 million.
Paramount then subtracted the advertising budget and films they invested ($23 million) and the 25% box office fee. The total was $90.1 million.
The rest went to Grey Pictures. The money that went to Grey Pictures was $70.96 million. In addition, Kazir Grey, the director, would get a 10% share of the box office.
Kazir Grey got $26.84 million and it was transferred to his bank account.
In the end, Grey Pictures only got $44.12 million. They basically made $19.12 million. That was pretty much their profit in North America...
It clearly showed that the Cinema Alliance and the distributors were the only winners.
However, the international box office was still running at $224.25 million. Grey Pictures had another way to make money.
There were the videotapes as well... Grey Pictures would get most of the profits for this one.
Grey Pictures would produce the videotapes and Paramount would distribute them. Paramount would get 20% of the profit while Grey Pictures would get the 80%. The profit on the videotape was much better than the box office because a blank videotape was cheap.
A blank videotape cost one dollar, but a movie videotape could be sold for 30 dollars.