HWI 271
Hollywood What If Chapter 271
The impact of 9/11 on the country was tremendous. The incident led to a massive increase in airport security. The idea that the strongest country could suffer such a massive act of terrorism struck a chord with so many people.
Hollywood expressed its deepest condolences to the people who lost loved ones in this tragedy. The President stood at the podium and delivered a speech on 9/11 from Sarasota School.
-- Terrorism against our nation will not stand.
This statement touched the hearts of many. Many young men joined the military, not because of the tuition assistance and other benefits, but because of their heartfelt desire to protect their country.
The aftermath of 9/11 also strengthened the security of other countries. It made it more difficult to travel overseas.
In Hollywood, movies continued to be released, but September and October were very cold months for theaters. People were still in mourning.
Spider-Man was already in its last month and would end its run before November. However, the film grossed $403.70 million at the North American box office.
The overseas box office was still climbing and currently stands at over $372 million. This brings the worldwide total to $775 million. Spider-Man is currently the highest grossing film of the year.
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider finished much earlier, before September. It grossed $131.16 million at the North American box office.
Fast and The Furious only opened in 150 theaters now. It has now grossed more than $215 million.
Legally Blonde has grossed $95.23 million. It still had a month or two left in its run.
John Wick Chapter 2 was slightly affected by 9/11, as the movie's box office dropped after the tragedy, just like other movies at the time. However, the movie had already grossed $137 million by that time.
Before November, John Wick Chapter 2 earned more than $176 million after two months in theaters.
Overall, all of Kazir's films did well. Kazir recommended Lara Croft to Angelina Jolie, saying she was the right person for the role. Her career blossomed after this movie and it seemed that his decision was right.
Gossip abounded that Kazir was a god when it came to picking scripts. After Kazir recommended his friends to audition for a role, each of them got a better career.
Suddenly, a lot of new actors and actresses were trying to befriend the guy. Unfortunately for them, they would never find the guy at parties and bars.
Even the bar Kazir usually visited became famous because so many actors hoped to meet Kazir in the bar. They waited in the quiet atmosphere of jazz. Too bad Kazir didn't feel like going to the bar lately.
He was thinking about which of the two scripts to adapt. Next year, he wants to make a movie that could compete at the Oscars.
His first choice was The Revenant. He has already bought the rights to adapt this novel/autobiography. The life of American frontiersman Hugh Glass in the Missouri Territory in 1823.
His second choice was Black Hawk Down. The moment the journalist published this book, Kazir immediately bought the rights to adapt it. The book was based on real life.
Both films were based on real life. Something the Academy Awards loved to see. The members of the Academy had a strong bias against fiction and blockbusters.
Both films had a good chance of winning Best Director and Best Picture if they were done right. Kazir was confident in his filmography, so this was not much of a problem. Besides, even if he wanted to deny it, his race was another assurance that he would win Best Director. Most of the old members of the Academy were Jewish.
Kazir already had the best formula to make sure he would win Best Director.
But since Kazir was already going for the Oscars, why not fight for more?
That is one of the reasons why he invited Tom Cruise. Because he wanted his friend to win his long dream of the Best Actor award.
He helped Liam Neeson win the Best Actor Award, maybe he could do it again.
Kazir planned to include perfect emotional scenes in his movies so that Tom Cruise would have a chance to be nominated. As for winning the Golden Statue, they both have to do a lot of PR to get it.
So, yes, they might be attending a lot of parties next year and in 2003. That was the life of people in this industry, making connections.
With two scripts in his hands, Kazir decided to make the best choice. He decided to sell Black Hawk Down to Ridley Scott. Ridley Scott had tried to buy the script, but Kazir stopped him. So the result was obvious, the release of Black Hawk Down would be delayed for a year or two.
The Revenant won the Best Director and Best Actor awards in the past life. To begin with, those two awards were the only things Kazir was looking for. He might as well take the safest bet.
Having made his decision, Kazir decided to call Tom Cruise. He had been giving signals to the actor and Tom Cruise had an idea about it. So both of them were not making any decisions about their next jobs at the moment, because both of them were playing the waiting game.
Now that the cold events of September and October were over, Hollywood returned to its usual schedule.
On November 2nd, Pixar released Monster, Inc. One of Pixar's most famous franchises. The first three days of Monster, Inc. grossed $62.58 million.
The Big Six realized and understood that the animation industry was another sector that they could profit from. So far, only Pixar and DreamWorks were doing well, but 20th Century Fox and Universal Pictures were creating their own animation studios.
While all this was going on, Tom and Kazir decided to meet and discuss their intentions.
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[Author's Note]
Yeah, since it's already the middle of the month, I decided to promote my P@treon.
As of now, the latest chapter of HWI on my P@treon is chapter 441. Using calculation, you can read about 170 chapters on my P@treon... I won't lie, that's a bit overwhelming and I can only blame myself.
Also, for some readers who can't use P@treon, I have a Ko-fi account and have already posted all the advanced 170 chapters of HWI there. You can check it out, the minimum tip is $10 and you can see my posts for 30 days.
Honestly, I still recommend subscribing to P@treon instead of Ko-fi because all my advanced chapters and polls have been posted there. My P@treon also has all the advance chapters of my other novels that are currently on hiatus, such as TOFD and RDD.
P@treon Link: https://www.patreon.com/Puji_maki
Ko-fi Link: https://ko-fi.com/pujimaki