[Shout out to Adam LV, Albert A, and Scott D!]

  Hollywood What If Chapter 29

  "47 million dolrs..."

  Tom Rothman put down the neer with a bitter smile.

  It was September 29th, Friday, seven days after the release of Se7en.

  He remembered that Kazir had also sent the Se7en script to 20th tury Fox. But the produa didn't take it seriously.

  "Well, it's a little plicated. Produa would never agree to i 35 million in a movie with no good return on iment. Besides, at that time Kazir Grey was hoping to direct the film. No sane person in the produa would accept such a proposal."

  On top of that, the director who took over the project was David Fincher!

  20th tury Fox owns the cht to the Alien franchise!

  David Fincher was the director of "Alien 3" and it had a horrible result at the box office. 20th tury Fox made it clear that they would never invite David Fincher back to their pany.

  But who would have thought that Se7en, directed by David Fincher, would be successful?

  Tom Rothmahat he had allowed two talented people to escape the grasp of 20th tury Fox.

  He let Se7en go to New Line ema. Well, now, this particur movie had 47 million in its seven days.

  September was a mild schedule. It was very different from the summer and Christmas schedules where the studios were fighting for every week.

  The month of September wasn't very profitable. So Se7en making 47 million was already a good result. At least everyone in Hollywood accepted that fabsp;

  "The iment is only 35 million. Even if we add the publicity, New Line ema already recoups the cost of the film."

  From now on, the profit would be pure profit. Obviously, New Line ema was on to something.

  "Now that New Line ema has been acquired by Warner Bros, this studio will be uheir prote.

  Tom Rothman was o his position as CEO of 20th tury Fox. As much as possible, he wao see the pany thrive under his care.

  After a few minutes of thought, Tom Rothman picked up his phone.

  "Get Nancy Utley in my office." He told his secretary.

  Since he let the first fish get away, he might as well take the sed one. Maybe the sed fish was a lot bigger than the first.

  "edy..."

  Unlike Se7en, which had a thriller genre, Napoleon Dynamite ure pop edy. That piqued his i more.

  Tom Rothmahe script.

  This kind of movie has a good aking a lot of sequels.

  Napoleon Dynamite didn't have a history of sequels.

  But because of Kazir's return, the timeline was already ged. In a way, this timeline was a pletely different universe.

  The universe where Napoleon Dynamite would have sequels...

  "Sir, you called me?"

  Nancy Utley arrived a few mier. She was one of the Vice presidents of Fox Searchlight Pictures. She was in charge of produa, which had no projects at current the time. Well, Fox Searchlight Pictures was just getting started.

  "Nancy, have you heard of Kazir Grey?"

  "Sir? Ah, no sir. I have never heard of this man." Nancy uzzled and answered holy.

  Tom Rothman nodded. Kazir Grey was not so well-known after all.

  "What about Se7en then?"

  "Sir, Se7en is a thriller that was released st week. As of now, the movie has about 40 million." Nancy Utley scrutinized.

  "47 million, Se7en has made 47 million dolrs in North America."

  "That's..."

  For a movie ing out iember, that retty big.

  "Nancy, Kazir Grey is the writer of Se7en. I heard he just finished shooting his own movie and he is currently editing it. I want you to tact him and see if he's ied in w with Fox Searchlight Pictures."

  Sihe newly formed pany didn't have any projects, Tom Rothman decided to give them the projebsp;

  A 500,000 iment didn't faze him. 20th tury Fox would never look at this kind of movie.

  But there was always a "what if".

  Like what happened with Se7en. The critics said it would be a flop. But the exact opposite happened.

  Where are the movie critics who panned Se7eively? They just ged their minds and praised the movie as of now.

  Tom Rothman was worried about the "what ifs".

  "Yes sir, I will do my best to get this project." Nancy Utley noticed that this edy film was of io Rothman.

  "That's good. Rector, I think it's better to use a jump cut on this se."

  "Okay, Kazir."

  After the sexy i with Reese Witherspoon, Kazir Grey became much more active. He felt invigorated and alive.

  He spent the entire week in the editing room. He focused on Napoleon Dynamite, making sure the movie would be better than the one he remembered.

  Napoleon Dynamite was a masterpiece, but it could be a "masterpiece".

  As for his retionship with Reese, the woman just asked him out st night... Of course, Kazir happily accepted.

  The two had talked seriously about their retionship. In the end, they decided to keep it "ns attached".

  They were both ambitious and wao pursue their dreams.

  Kazir was retly divorced and didn't want to get into a serious retionship. As for Reese, she wao breakthrough into Hollywood and didn't have time for love.

  What they were doing was just a way to relieve stress together. Well, their retionship retty good.

  "About five days and we finish editing Napoleon Dynamite."

  Reuttered beside him. The movie was nearing pletion. Napoleon Dynamite already had its music score. Kazir didn't hesitate to spend money on the movie.

  "gratutions Kazir."

  "Don't gratute me yet, we haven't released the movie yet."

  "I know, but with the result of Se7en, I bet film panies are looking for yht now. Besides, your movie is funny and wholesome. Uhe usual vulgar edies that use swear words and dirty jokes as punch lines, I think this movie is much better."

  Kazir just nodded.

  [I apologize about the wrong Halloween info. In the Philippines, we usually celebrate Halloween on November 1 along with All Souls Day. So I subsciously thought that Halloween was in November].

  [As for my grammar... I'm just a guy from a 3rd world try who didn't finish college. I only learned grammar seriously at the age of 18 when I started reading manga and light novels. Other than that, I'm an idiot.]

  [I'm not a puter that sistently write sentences without grammatical errors. I spent hours proofreading this shit, but mistakes will still show up. I'm not an AI, so I apologize if reading my novel makes your eyes hurt. Hell, AI will probably mock me for thinking Halloween was November 1st].