[Shout out to Eduardo T, Hamza I, Zavien K, Ahmad A, Robert M, Gintoki Sakata, Cosmicuni, Mark S!]

Hollywood What If Chapter 77

November 21st, 1996.

Kazir went to the investment firm. He wanted to increase his investment in the three companies.

This year, Nokia's stock had risen 50.27%. He decided to invest $1.6 million earlier this year, and his current investment turned into $2.4 million.

Cisco's share price increased by 70.8%. He also invested $1.6 million in Cisco. Now the money he invested became $2.7 million.

Of his three investments, Microsoft's stock price increased the most this year. It was 88.31%. Kazir split his $5 million into three parts. Apparently, he invested $1.6 million in Microsoft. His $1.6 million became $3 million.

Combining the three, Kazir's original $5 million became $8.1 million.

Of course, stock prices fluctuate every second, and those amounts could rise or fall tomorrow. That was the way the stock market worked.

Kazir received his $5 million salary after the movie was completed. Last week he also received his 10% share of the North American box office. So yes, he got another $20 million from Warner Bros.

This time, Kazir decided to invest another $10 million in the stock market. More precisely, he invested in the three companies (Microsoft, Cisco and Nokia) again. These were the companies he remembered quite well. He divided the $10 million into three parts and left it to the investment firm.

"It's nice working with you, Director Grey."

"I know you won't disappoint me, Vance Goodhood."

Kazir Grey's investment advisor was Vance Goodhood. Vance worked at a prestigious investment firm. He had good credit and a good reputation.

Kazir knew this person in a previous life. Well, they were not friends or acquaintances. But he knew that Vance never had a bad reputation in his profession. He was a famous investment advisor even in the next three decades. So Kazir trusted him.

After increasing his investment, Kazir decided to leave the firm.

It was two months ago that he met Terry Semel about pitching Taken. Since then, Salvatore Barlowe began his work. He tried to contact the film companies interested in Kazir's next project.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

'I heard that Salvatore was having some problems with CAA.'

CAA had a policy about famous clients. Typically, a client like Kazir Grey would have two or more agents working for him.

This was part of CAA's policy to make sure that the agent could not monopolize the client.

'If I'm not mistaken, Kevin Huvane is going to hire more agents to work with me. Of course, Salvatore will not like it. His salary will go down.'

Personally, Kazir was already happy with a 3% commission. He didn't want to change that. So if Kazir had another agent or two, Salvatore Barlowe would get a smaller amount of money.

"Anyway, let fate do its work. I wonder how Salvatore will fight for more benefits."

CAA policy was hard to break. The rules had been in place since the company's inception.

"I guess I'll have to help with his actors and actresses instead, to make sure his salary is steady."

That was the only way to keep Salvatore Barlowe happy, to make sure his other clients had successful careers. Except for Kazir, all of Salvatore's clients signed a 10% commission with him.

As for Taken, 20th Century Fox set up a meeting about it.

It took at least two months to get a project approved. Film companies had to study the profitability of the film to make sure they would not lose money.

So Kazir expected that Taken would take time to get approved. The film companies took the project seriously, especially when it was not a comedy genre that Kazir Grey was good at. They were hesitant.

Also, Kazir's demands were too much. He wanted a $10 million salary plus 15% of the North American box office. Then he wanted to invest at least 30% of the production budget. And he also wanted the rights to the sequels.

The salary and box office share could be negotiated, but the latter was difficult to accept. If Kazir Grey invested 30% of the budget, then of course he would get at least 30% of the profits. That wasn't something any movie company would agree to.

As for the rights to the sequels, that could be negotiated as long as the movie was successful. Besides, Kazir Grey was the screenwriter of the movie, and his participation in the creation of the sequels was a must.

"So it's all about the investment. I can't help it, I have to make sure I have strong authority over the project. I don't want to experience what happened to Zach Snyder in the middle of Justice League.

... Well, the reason Zach Snyder left Justice League was because of family problems. However, Warner Bros and the insurance company wanted to make sure that the movie would be completed on schedule, so they hired Joss Whedon to film the remaining scenes of the movie, and perhaps change the overall plot.

The result of the film was obvious. The fans loved Justice League Snyder's cut more than the other.

The investment was an assurance that Kazir was in control of Taken and many of the films associated with it. After all, he was about to create a Cinematic Universe that could make billions. It was too late to regret being pushed out of his own creation.

"If it fails, I guess I have to make another Cinematic Universe. Once Marvel Comics reaches the point of destruction, I will buy their superheroes and make movies with them. It's a lot easier because there's a blueprint to follow."

In fact, Kazir has already bought the copyrights to Iron Man and Hulk from New Line Cinema and Universal, respectively. It only cost him a few hundred thousand.

The copyrights to Spiderman are quite tricky because a lot of companies say they own the copyrights to Spiderman. Cannon Films and Sony-Columbia to be exact. In fact, James Cameron wanted to direct the movie.

Sony-Columbia officially bought the movie copyrights of Spiderman in 1999 after Marvel acquired it back.

[Author's Note: My research might be imperfect so I apologize.]