HWI 286

Hollywood What If Chapter 286

Kazir and Stan talked for a few minutes before Avi returned. When the two saw Avi's expression, they thought the guy was panting red.

"Kazir, let's talk about the negotiations next time, officially," Avi announced their departure.

"Okay." Kazir nodded and said goodbye. He was curious why Avi was acting like this, but he decided to let it go.

At first he thought that Avi and Stan would spend more time at the party, but it seemed that they had important things to do. The two executives left the party immediately.

"Avi, why are you acting like this? Did something happen? Who called you?"

Stan was not stupid. He knew that the reason Avi was acting strangely was because of the phone call.

"It's News Corporation."

"Huh?"

"Someone from News Corporation wants to talk to us. They are interested in buying Marvel Comics."

The current shares of Marvel Comics were in the hands of the bank because of the company's debt. If News Corporation was really serious about this acquisition, then the bank would be happy to have another company shoulder Marvel Comics' debt.

"Are you serious?" Stan was surprised. He hadn't expected this.

"This isn't a scam, is it?"

"I don't think so. They set up a meeting at 20th Century Fox headquarters in two days. If this is real, we need to contact management."

News Corporation was a media giant and had the ability to acquire Marvel Comics. However, it was still unknown why News Corporation contacted them after so many years. Perhaps the recent success of Spider-Man was the reason. After the success of Spider-Man, Marvel Comics had a new source of profit and their future was promising... Although they were still in debt at the time.

The two got serious. Both of them had shares in Marvel Comics, and if this acquisition really happened, it would be a good thing for them. At least they could face their old rival with confidence.

'If DC is under Warner Brothers, then Marvel Comics will be under News Corporation, uh, 20th Century Fox, I guess?' Avi Arad thought. Hoping that the company's future would be prosperous.

......

...

...

Kazir was a little confused as to why the two left the party so quickly. They hadn't even had a glass of wine.

'Maybe their only reason for attending this party was to meet me.'

Knowing how big the MCU was going to be in the next decade, Kazir would never say no to Marvel Comics' terms. However, Grey Pictures would fight for better terms.

'It was a good thing that we acquired the copyrights to the MCU characters and can start at any moment. However, I'm still waiting for at least two or three years so that the CGI technology will be better and ready to take Iron-Man or The Incredible Hulk.'

Technically, the second movie in the MCU was The Incredible Hulk, but the contract with Edward Norton fell through. Luckily, Iron Man, the first movie of the MCU, was successful and kept the whole franchise alive.

Of course, Hulk was still in the Avengers, but it was very hard to connect him with the Incredible Hulk. The Incredible Hulk was connected to MCU, plot wise, but sort of not.

Since the original actor (Edward Norton) left and was replaced by Mark Ruffalo. People couldn't help but see the difference between the two.

So in this timeline, if Grey Pictures and Marvel (Studio) were serious about creating another Cinematic Universe, then Kazir would choose Mark Ruffalo from the very beginning so there wouldn't be any mishaps. Also, Mark Ruffalo was a great actor. He at least seemed more approachable than Edward Norton.

'Now that I think about it, The Incredible Hulk's box office was not bad. It made about $260 million at the box office. However, the production cost of the movie is $150 million, so I guess they didn't make a profit at all.'

Things happen and life has always been like that. Even in the 2020s, the influence of the MCU waned after the original Avengers disappeared.

'I also have to be careful about oversaturation. People will get tired of superhero movies, and the Continental Cinematic Universe can suffer the same thing.'

So far, action movies have done well, but that could change later. After all, the era of the 2010s was dominated by superheroes.

'Keeping two CCU movies a year is the best choice. That way, people will not get tired of our movies.'

Maybe another reason why the MCU was at its lowest point in the 2020s was because they were producing so many TV shows, all connected to the MCU. People just got tired of watching so many TV shows. Especially when every one of them was connected to the MCU and it would be detrimental if they didn't watch them.

If you don't watch WandaVision, then you have no idea what happened in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

After thinking about the MCU that Kazir was interested in, he decided to look for Angelina.

He saw some of the cast of Spider-Man and they invited him for a drink, but Kazir humbly declined. Drinking too much would be bad for him, especially when he had a job to do tomorrow.

After looking around for a few minutes, Kazir found Angelina talking to someone. He almost called out to her, but stopped when he realized that Angelina was talking to Kirsten Dunst.

He looked at them and saw Kirsten crying. She walked away while wiping her tears and trying to act completely fine.

The woman walked towards Kazir, who tried to find a place to hide, but failed. Finally, Kirsten saw Kazir and she was stunned. She immediately greeted him as she wiped away her tears.

"G- Good evening director."

She did her best and smiled. She excused herself and left the place, embarrassed about her action.

"..."

Kazir just nodded and let the woman leave. Then, he turned to Angelina who was smirking.

"Aww, baby did you miss me?" Angelina said and hugged Kazir. Kazir hugged her back but was not that enthusiastic about it.

"Angelina, what happened? Why did I see Kirsten crying?"

Kirsten had an important role in the Spider-Man trilogy. If this matter affected Kirsten, then the woman might leave the project and that would endanger the franchise. Kazir was a director who hated that kind of thing.

So yeah, he was disappointed by what he witnessed. Spider-Man was important to him. Angelina might cause irreparable damage to the project, something that Kazir could not accept. This was his art, something that was very important to him.