HWI 574

Hollywood What If Chapter 574

Zack Snyder’s success with 300 had already placed him on Hollywood’s radar. At first, no one knew this director despite already directing a horror movie about zombies titled Dawn Of The Dead.

Kazir was the first who contacted him but failed to have a collaboration. But after the small success of Dawn Of The Dead, Zack Snyder was invited by 20th Century Fox to direct 300. The person who recommended him to direct it was Kazir.

Zack was actually embarrassed when he heard that first because he knew that he chose Universal Pictures instead of Grey Pictures a few years ago.

Anyway, he had to be shameless so he worked with 300. That decision was the best thing he did.

The uniqueness of 300, which was mostly filmed on the green screen was a success. The action-heavy film grossed over $450 million worldwide on a $65 million budget.

It earned Zack Snyder $10 million, including salary and bonus. He was extremely satisfied with what he earned.

Then, Warner Brothers also contacted him. Rumors spread that Kazir was interested in Zack Snyder's talent as a director. Warner Brothers wanted to know if that was true. Besides, with Zack's past success, Warner Brothers had legitimate reasons to hire him.

With Watchmen, despite being a less popular genre (noir) and darker themes, Zack Snyder still negotiated a strong deal through his agent of course.

Although Watchmen had a lower box office performance at $339 million compared to 300's $450 million, Zack earned approximately $6–8 million, salary and bonus included.

While 300 proved more commercially successful, Watchmen cemented Snyder’s reputation in turning comic books into movies and his adaptation was highly regarded.

"Zack Snyder's filmography has ups and downs."

Since Kazir was the one who first contacted Zack, it also meant that he knew Zack's capabilities.

Overall, Zack's filmography was not perfect. He had some movies that were terrible at the box office.

In fact, his next project, which was already in production, won't perform well at the box office. It was an animated movie, also distributed by Warner Brothers. Yeah, Warner Brothers was trying to understand Zack's talent. They were investing in his future.

Anyway, the animated movie that Zack was currently working on was Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole. It was about owls fighting in the sky... The movie only grossed $140 million worldwide despite having a $80 million production budget. It wasn't a loss, but also not a win. It wasn't even an average.

"Let's see... If Legend of the Guardians fails next year, there's a chance that Warner Brothers might lose interest in Zack. Once that happens, maybe we can sign a three-picture contract with Zack just to keep him away from the DCEU."

Kazir didn't forget the reason why he wanted to hire Zack Snyder. He wanted Zack Snyder to never participate in DCEU. Although DCEU was incomparable against the MCU in terms of profits and movie performance, it was still a strong rival. Now that CCU was in a great place and the MCU was starting, Kazir didn't want to saturate the market.

In his opinion, the Cinematic Universe should only be dominated by the Continental Cinematic Universe and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Anything except those two are considered enemies.

"Zack is also a talented director so singing a three-picture deal with him is not that bad. As long as we can keep him busy."

A three-picture deal and a trilogy deal were different. Trilogy meant that a director had to direct three movies of a franchise, usually the introduction movie then two sequels. The best example was Kazir's Batman trilogy where he had to film Batman Begins, then The Dark Knight, then The Dark Knight Rises.

As for the three-picture deal, it didn't have to be a trilogy. Sometimes, a director could film three movies that had no connection to each other.

Hiring Zack Snyder for a three-picture deal was worth it. That was Kazir's opinion.

If Warner Brothers was interested in starting DCEU without Zack Snyder then Kazir couldn't interfere with that. He just hoped it wouldn't perform well, for the sake of his benefits.

Was it bad that he hoped for the downfall of a rival even though he admitted that he was also a fan of DCEU in his past life?

Well, it depends.

Showbiz was often cruel, ruthless, and heartless. Some businesses outweighed personal preferences. Some actors hated their role but they didn't have a choice but to go along with it because of money.

Robert Pattinson hated his role in Twilight, but he made a great amount of money, so he had to swallow his disgust.

Halle Berry also hated her role in Catwoman for obvious reasons.

Megan Fox also hated her role in Transformers. Although to be fair, she probably hated Michael Bay more than her role because she felt objectified.

Still, they chose the money.

Kazir also did the same. Nothing wrong with that. He loved DC comics but his love won't feed him and his family. His admiration won't pay the bills.

The entertainment industry was thriving and Cinematic Universe franchises were swimming in gold. Kazir wanted to maintain the exclusivity of the Cinematic Universe and its market control.

If the DCEU gained too much fame, it could downgrade the audience's excitement for superhero films, affecting the MCU and perhaps the CCU.

So, Kazir’s plan was simple. Keep Zack occupied, offer creative freedom, and ensure that Warner Brothers never had the chance to weaponize his talent against Grey Pictures and Marvel Studio.

++++

[I have no idea what to write, so I have to look at the perspective of other characters.]