Hollywood What If - Chapter 296

Chapter 296

Harold Witsend scratched his head in confusion after meeting director Grey a few days ago when he visited Canada, where The Revenant was in its final stages of filming.

The Revenant was supposed to be released in November or December, depending on the schedule that 20th Century Fox could provide. Well, 20th Century Fox were currently courting Grey Pictures, so they would probably give them a better schedule.

Anyway, Harold looked at the sketches that Kazir was doing in his spare time… The sketches were amazing, but Harold felt a looming danger as he stared at these papers.

Why? Because they were all sketches of wooden ships! Ships! Pirate ships, to be precise!

Harold and Kazir were close friends, and Harold had seen some of the scripts Kazir had submitted to the Writer’s Guild.

One of them was about a pirate film… And it was a terrible idea. That kind of genre was doomed to fail in the first place.

There was a reason for that. The last pirate film was released in 1995 and it was terrible. The title of the film was Cutthroat Island. A film that cost $98 million to make, a huge investment. It was the last film that Carolco Pictures distributed before they went bankrupt.

In fact, Cutthroat Island was the reason why Carolco Pictures disappeared from Hollywood.

The film was a disaster and since then no one in Hollywood has touched a live action pirate film.

The investment in Cutthroat Island was $98 million, but the box office was a meagre $10 million! To say it was a disaster was not enough. It destroyed a once mighty Hollywood studio.

Carolco Pictures was a famous studio in the 80s and early 90s. It produced the Rambo franchise, Total Recall, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Basic Instinct, Universal Soldier, Cliffhanger and Stargate.

Eventually, Carolco Pictures’ library of films was acquired by Paramount Pictures.

So it was obvious why Harold was afraid of Kazir’s idea. He hadn’t read the script yet, but he was already against it. He thought it would be better to make films in safe genres like comedy and action. These were Kazir’s strengths. Kazir could probably make a profit if he made comedy or action.

However, Harold also felt that if there was anyone who could make a successful pirate film, it would definitely be Kazir.

As Harold was only an employee and his salary was quite high, he decided to trust his friend. He watched as Kazir slowly made a name for himself.

Besides, one mistake is not enough for Kazir to lose face in Hollywood. That mistake can also humble him.

Kazir gave him just one job: to find a company that makes wooden ships. The pirate ships had to work and float in the water/ocean.

The sketches and designs were just the basic image, but they could be changed for future reference. Harold didn’t know why Kazir insisted on starting this project.

As he thought about it, Harold felt his phone vibrate. When he opened it, he frowned and decided to reject the call. The person who kept calling him was very insistent and Harold was beginning to lose his patience.

‘I’ve already given them projects to keep them busy, what do they want now?’

A few seconds later the phone vibrated again and Harold sighed. His position in the industry was quite high and some studios wanted to hire him, but Harold stayed with Grey Pictures.

After some thought he decided to answer the call. He controlled his emotions and tried his best to be calm.

“What do you want?”

…

…

…

“I’m so happy to be working with someone as talented as you.”

“No, I’m sure it’s not that great. I also heard that you’ll be working with Steven Spielberg for the second time. I think that’s an honour. It means that director Spielberg likes your acting”.

Tom Cruise’s side made an agreement with DreamWorks that the actor would star in two of their films. The first film was Minority Report, based on a novel. The film was released on 21 June, two weeks ago. So far, Minority Report has grossed $84 million at the box office.

The second film was War of the Worlds. A film based on a science fiction novel written by H.G. Wells between 1895 and 1897. A century-old novel.

“No, Kazir, let’s not joke around. You’re a better director than Steven at the box office.”

Kazir just shrugged. That may be true, but Steven Spielberg’s storytelling and his talent for creating heartfelt films were far better than Kazir’s.

The filming of The Revenant came to an end and it was time to part ways. Of course, Tom Cruise would still visit the editing suite to do his dubbing.

“Good luck with Minority Report.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to come back to Los Angeles with me? We can drink in the private plane while we wait for it to land.”

“That’s fine, I’ll go with the crew.”

Kazir knew that Tom and his current girlfriend, Penelope Cruz, were going back to Los Angeles and he didn’t want to disturb them. He didn’t want to be the third wheel, it would be stressful.

Tom Cruise said goodbye. He admitted that working on the set was quite good. He didn’t feel any stress while working on this project. He immersed himself in the role and he could say that his mentality as an actor was good while in set.

“Um, director.”

“Oh Shia, how are you?”

“Thank you for casting me in this film. This is my card and my agent’s card, I hope I get a chance to work with you again.”

The young Shia Labeouf was awkward and shy. He left immediately after giving his contact details.

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[Speaking of Pirates Of The Caribbean, ahem… Anyway, I just want to be clear, I’ve written this chapter months ago so I don’t remember much of it. You can check out my P@treon if you’re interested.]