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

  Hollywood What If Chapter 77

  November 21st, 1996.

  Kazir went to the iment firm. He wao increase his iment ihree panies.

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

  Cisco's share pricreased by 70.8%. He also ied 1.6 million in Cisow the money he ied became 2.7 million.

  Of his three iments, Microsoft's stock pricreased the most this year. It was 88.31%. Kazir split his 5 million into three parts. Apparently, he ied 1.6 million in Microsoft. His 1.6 million became 3 million.

  bining the three, Kazir's inal 5 million became 8.1 million.

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

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

  This time, Kazir decided to i another 10 million iock market. More precisely, he ied ihree panies (Microsoft, Cisd Nokia) again. These were the panies he remembered quite well. He divided the 10 million into three parts a it to the iment firm.

  "It's nice w with you, Directrey."

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

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

  Kazir khis person in a previous life. Well, they were not friends or acquaintances. But he khat Vanever had a bad reputation in his profession. He was a famous iment advisor even in the hree decades. So Kazir trusted him.

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

  It was two months ago that he met Terry Semel about pitg Taken. Sihen, Salvatore Barlowe began his work. He tried to tact the film panies ied in Kazir's projebsp;

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

  CAA had a policy about famous ts. Typically, a t like Kazir Grey would have two or ments w for him.

  This art of CAA's poliake sure that the agent could not monopolize the t.

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

  Personally, Kazir was already happy with a 3% ission. He didn't want to ge that. So if Kazir had anent 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 bes."

  CAA policy was hard to break. The rules had been in pce sihe pany's iion.

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

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

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

  It took at least two months to get a project approved. Film panies 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 paook the project seriously, especially when it was not a edy gehat Kazir Grey was good at. They were hesitant.

  Also, Kazir's demands were too much. He wanted a 10 million sary plus 15% of the North Ameri box office. Then he wao i at least 30% of the produ budget. And he also wahe rights to the sequels.

  The sary and box office share could be iated, but the tter was difficult to accept. If Kazir Grey ied 30% of the budget, then of course he would get at least 30% of the profits. That wasn't something any movie pany would agree to.

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

  "So it's all about the iment. I 't help it, I have to make sure I have strong authority over the project. I don't want to experience what happeo Zayder in the middle of Justice League.

  ... Well, the reason Zayder left Justice League was because of family problems. However, Warner Bros and the insuranpany wao make sure that the movie would be pleted on schedule, so they hired Joss Whedon to film the remaining ses of the movie, and perhaps ge the overall plot.

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

  The iment was an assurahat Kazir was in trol of Taken and many of the films associated with it. After all, he was about to create a ematiiverse that could make billions. It was too te tret being pushed out of his owion.

  "If it fails, I guess I have to make another ematiiverse. Once Marvel ics reaches the point of destru, 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 chts to Iron Man and Hulk from New Line ema and Universal, respectively. It only cost him a few huhousand.

  The chts to Spiderman are quite tricky because a lot of panies say they own the chts to Spiderman. on Films and Sony-bia to be exact. In fact, James Cameron wao direct the movie.

  Sony-bia officially bought the movie chts of Spiderman in 1999 after Marvel acquired it babsp;

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