Hollywood What If Chapter 343
"So what's on enda this year?"
Ronald Meyer began the first quarterly meeting of the year. Ronald Meyer was the CEO of Universal Pictures and his ma was amazing.
He was the one who pushed the pn to make The Mummy. Now The Mummy has bee one of their most profitable franchises.
He was also the one who vinced Spielberg to direct Jurassic Park. The movie was based on a novel, but Universal found the potential of this novel and bought the rights to adapt it.
"Sir, Maid In Manhattan has already grossed 150 million at the worldwide box office. We already rented a hotel to celebrate the success of Maid In Manhattan." The presenter announced.
The executives the good news. Profits were always good. Universal Pictures' major shareholders were GE (General Electrid Vivendi.
"That's great to hear, what else?"
"Johnny English is ing out in July." The presenter added.
"Yes, we already talked about that a month ago. Is there a reason why you say it again?"
"... We heard the hat The Equalizer, the new Grey Pictures movie, will be released in July."
The meeting room fell silent.
Ronald's expression turned slightly srey Pictures and Kazir Grey, these two names are famous in the industry right now... Universal Pictures was bitter because they had never worked with Kazir Grey! all!
Even scripts they couldn't buy at all!
It was all because of that stupid pig! Harvey Weinstein!
Back then, Harvey Weinstein and Universal Pictures joined forces to destroy Kazir's reputation. But they failed miserably. The Nutty Professor was nothing pared to The Hangover!
Because of this i, Universal Pictures lost the ce to work with Kazir Grey.
How much did they regret that? W with somebody like Kazir means easy profit these days. For a pany that lives on profits, they would have hugged Kazir's leg.
Actually, they wao join the fight to take rey Pictures, but they were ashamed to do so. They khey were wasting their time. Grey Pictures wouldn't agree to work with Universal Pictures.
Walt Disney kicked out their chairman because of the losses they had suffered st year, and Ronald was afraid of experieng the same thing.
"Have they annouhe exact date?"
"No, sir."
Johnny English was to be released on July 18. If Grey Pictures and 20th tury Fox decided to release The Equalizer on the same day, it would be a disaster for Universal Pictures.
Johnny English was an a edy while The Equalizer ure a. Johnny English might attract young audiences, but it robably not enough to pete with The Equalizer.
The tial ematiiverse had already gained a foothold and it would be hard to topple it.
Acc to their calcutions, The Equalizer could gross at least 300 million worldwide.
"Find their schedule as soon as possible, I don't want any mishaps. We are not looking for a fight or a frontation, we are here to make money. I want Johnny English two weeks before or after The Equalizer opens."
"Yes, sir." The rest of the ma agreed. This was not one person's problem. The whole pany would suffer if they made a mistake.
"What's on the agenda?"
"It's Dawn Of The Dead. We are still looking for a director to oversee the project."
"Who's on our list?"
"Zayder, Danny Boyle aer Ja."
"Peter Ja... Isn't he the director of Dead Alive?"
"Um, sir... Peter Ja is also the director of The Lord of the Rings". One of the people reminded Ronald.
"Thanks for reminding me... Let's cross Peter Ja off the list. We afford him to direct a mid-budget horror."
That left Zayder and Danny Boyle.
Danny Boyle was the director of 28 Days Later, Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours and Steve Jobs.
Although it was still 2003, so Danny had just made 28 Days Later. It was about zombies, starring Cillian Murphy.
As for Zayder, he was still a music film director and this could be his first time direg a movie... If Universal Pictures gives him the project, of course.
Funny that these directors started their careers with horror movies. Well, horror movies were the cheapest geo make, and the profit they could bring was huge.
And yes, Kazir also started his career as a horror director.
"Let's go with Zayder."
The CEO of Universal Pictures, Ronald Meyer, announced.
What they didn't know was that a certain produ studio had already tacted Zayder.
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"So our budget is in the red right now?" Kazir asked Stel and the fieam about their budget.
"That's right."
Kazir looked at the data. They had four projects this year and they were all expensive.
The budget for The Equalizer was set at 50 million, but that amount would probably increase ohey started promoting the movie.
The Wanted 2 had a budget of 80 million. The budget may increase as well.
Pirates of the Caribbean had a budget of 120 million. Even if Kazir knew how to trol the budget, the promotion would also increase the budget.
As fame of Throhe first season had 10 episodes. That was the best they could do because Game of Thrones was expehey set a budget at least of 5 million per episode.
bining the four projects, Grey Pictures had to spend 300 million! That was certainly expeheir reve year was about 600 million, but their profit was only 30% of that. They also have to pay taxes, saries, building maintenance, and film equipment. They were really not in a good situation.