HWI 535

Hollywood What If Chapter 535

May, 2008.

Well, let's just say that a lot of historical things around this time, particularly in the United States.

California Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage. This decision made California the second state in the U.S., after Massachusetts, to legalize same-sex marriage.

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama's battle for the Democratic Presidential Nomination. In this nomination, Obama gained a lead over Hillary Clinton. It solidified his position as the nominee for Democrats.

This third biggest event was still probably the 2008 Economic Crisis. By May, the country was already in a deep crisis as many Americans lost their jobs, and unemployment was a severe case. The housing market also collapsed. Lehman Brothers, one of the biggest investment banks in the country, filed for bankruptcy... Sometimes it was a mystery how banks filed for bankruptcy. People thought banks were the last entities to go bankrupt but it still happened.

Anyway, America, in 2008, was suffering from many problems.

However, some industries were not affected by the Economic Crisis. Since many people were depressed around this time and had few hobbies to do, most Americans decided to go to theaters to watch movies to escape reality for a few hours.

And since May was in summer, the movies released this month were thriving.

The first movie that benefited from the summer schedule was Iron Man. After ten days of screening, this movie had grossed over $177 million.

Made of Honor was also released the same day as Iron Man. It did well despite the competition against Iron Man. Perhaps its genre of Romantic Comedy helped the movie gross over $26 million after ten days of screening. For a movie with a budget of $40 million, this performance was not bad since Sony-Colombia was not expecting much regarding this Romantic Comedy.

In the second week, Speed Racer and What Happens In Vegas were released on the same day.

Speed Racer was an Action/Adventure/Sport movie. Yeah, Sports was not a movie genre, so most movie lists put Speed Racer in the Action/Adventure category. The movie grossed $30 million after ten days of screening. By the way, one of the cast of Speed Racer was Rain, a Korean actor and the original star of Ninja Assassin.

What Happens In Vegas was a Romantic Comedy starring Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher. The movie was produced by 20th Century Fox. Ashton Kutcher had a lot of Romantic Comedy movies. The movie grossed over $40 million after ten days.

In the third week of May, Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian was released. This was the franchise that Walt Disney chose to compete against Harry Potter. The first and second Narnia movies had a great reputation. The fact that Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian grossed over $90 million in ten days showed that this franchise had a strong potential.

On the fourth week of May, an iconic character showed up in theaters. It was none other than Indiana Jones. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Crystal Skull was produced by Lucasfilm and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The director of this franchise was, of course, Steven Spielberg, one of the best directors of all time. Steven Spielberg and Paramount had a close relationship so it wasn't surprising that Paramount Pictures became the distributor of the movie. By the way, this movie grossed a whopping $202 million in just ten days. It was shocking but not surprising since Indiana Jones has been a famous franchise since the 80s.

On the fifth and also the last week of May, Sex and the City was released. Produced by Warner Brothers, this comedy movie grossed $99 million in ten days.

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The dimly lit editing room had click-clack noises around as a group of people continued editing the footage of Ninja Assassin.

Multiple monitors glowed with footage of high-speed action sequences.

Kazir Grey sat in the center of the room. He leaned against his chair as his eyes focused on the central monitor. He was like a boss... Or perhaps the frontman from Squid Game that facilitated the operation, yeah, bad comparison.

Around him, the editing team worked quite efficiently, with some people sipping Red Bull or coffee, depending on their tastes. Each person focused on their assigned task. A large whiteboard in the corner listed the film’s key scenes and the status of each one... They have to light up the room to read the list.

“Alright, play that scene again,” Kazir said, he yawned while saying it.

The head editor, Rector, nodded and hit a key. The screen displayed a fight scene, Raizo(Enzo Park) slicing through enemies in an awkward motion. Kazir watched closely, his brow furrowed.

“Stop. Use a different angle,” he said, and one of the members found the footage that recorded a different angle. This time, Raizo's movement seemed breathtaking.

"Nice, we will choose this footage."

"Right."

While many things happened in May, Kazir spent most of his time in the editing room at Grey Pictures. He had never been so happy to do so.

"I want a close-up of the katana. I want to see the reflections of the enemies on the katana."

"Um, sir, that should be hard to do."

"Then edit it and make it natural. It didn't have to be long. Just a three-second scene."

Kazir said and the group started it again. They didn't have to ask ILM or other visual effects studios to do it since they could do it themselves.

Kazir was satisfied with his team... Although he was a bit guilty that he had "locked" them in this room for three days straight to edit the movie. Well, he paid them top salaries so they were not against the idea of working for days. This was different from last year, when Kazir had two projects and caused some editors to resign.