Hollywood What If

Chapter 165

"Continental Cinematic Universe..."

Matt Damon muttered as he got out of the car. His conversation with Kazir Grey had been interesting and the director had been quite open about his idea.

It would be a lie to say that Matt Damon was not interested. Kazir Grey had a plan to create dozens of movies set in one universe! Moreover, Kazir didn't hide that the protagonists/characters would meet in some of the movies.

Well, Matt Damon signed a non-disclosure agreement with Grey Pictures from the moment he received the script for The Bourne Identity.

But that didn't stop Kazir Grey from telling him a big secret about the cinematic universe. Maybe it was his sincerity.

Suddenly, Matt Damon felt bad for thinking that Kazir Grey was a bad person.

'We are all artists and we want a stage to prove our talent. The Oscars choose the artist who is worthy of the golden statue. Besides, director Grey is more talented than me in terms of writing. All his scripts are box office hits!'

Now Matt was confident about this movie. Moreover, he wanted to be a part of this development that Kazir was planning. He believed that once the Continental Cinematic Universe was a success, it would go down in the history of cinema.

Perhaps the Big Six would follow suit and try this difficult yet novel idea.

Ben Affleck greeted his friend. Standing next to him was Matt Damon's agent, Wilson Merrera.

The two of them knew that Matt Damon was going to meet Kazir Grey to discuss the Bourne Identity project. Being close to Matt, they wanted to see his reaction after talking to Kazir Grey for the first time.

After all, Wilson Merrera and Ben Affleck were affected by the loss they suffered at the Oscars. So they were interested in this director named Kazir Grey.

"He's a nice person. Respectable..."

"Eh?"

Ben Affleck and Agent Wilson didn't expect Matt Damon to change his mind about the director after just one meeting.

"Is that so? Are you interested in working with him?" Agent Wilson saw the underlying intent.

"That's right. Wilson, I want the role. Please do your best."

"Don't worry, I will never put you at a disadvantage. We will get a better deal from them."

"No," Matt Damon shook his head. "What I mean is... I want to be part of the Cinematic Universe that Director Grey is creating. Sign a contract with lots of sequels."

Well, Matt Damon is a great actor, but he is best known as Jason Bourne. In fact, some people call him Jason Bourne instead of his real name...

"What?"

Agent Wilson was stunned. Signing such a contract would be detrimental to Matt Damon! You won't have a chance to negotiate the salary if that happens.

"Of course, leave the salary negotiation for later and don't put it in the contract. It's enough that we can sign a contract with many sequels of them. No, at least a trilogy."

He believed that Kazir Grey wasn't planning to make a trilogy for Jason Bourne, but more than that. At least four movies, Kazir Grey would make at least four Jason Bourne movies.

He felt that Kazir Grey wanted to use this character a lot to create the world-building of the Continental Cinematic Universe.

He didn't know that every Jason Bourne had a good box office, so that was why Kazir Grey wanted to make a lot of movies about the character. Added to that was the profit he could make from the videotape market.

...

...

...

A week later, in the last month of November, Matt Damon signed a trilogy contract with Grey Pictures. Unfortunately for them, Harold Witsend was quite good at his job. In each sequel, Matt Damon's salary would increase by 65%. He also didn't have the power to negotiate his share of the box office.

After all, Matt Damon was not that famous yet. He was different from Liam Neeson, who was a veteran and had won a Best Actor award. His position in the industry was not strong.

Even his salary for The Bourne Identity was only 1.9 million dollars. That was within their expectations, so they didn't have a problem.

However, if the trilogy ended and Kazir Grey intended to make another sequel of Jason Bourne, of course Matt Damon and his side would fight for a better condition.

As for the cameo appearance, this side was still in negotiations.

For the first time Kazir Grey realized how eloquent Harold Witsend was. The fact that he had reduced the salary from $7 million to $1.9 million was amazing...

He didn't know that the starting salary Agent Wilson had negotiated was only $4 million. Less than he expected.

Well, more good news for Grey Pictures and the Bourne Identity project.

Now two amazing actors were part of the movie. One was Cameron Diaz and the other was Matt Damon.

While the problem with the protagonist was over, Kazir's hectic life intensified.

The success of The Hangover Part 2 affected him very much. The box office of The Hangover Part 2 was $239.89 million after 30 days. On top of that, the movie was to be released internationally. The cast of The Hangover Part 2 flew around the world to promote the movie.

Even Enzo Park was with them since his role in the movie was bigger this time.

However, that was not the problem. A news suddenly broke out and left Grey Pictures unexpectedly in the middle of the road. They were caught off guard by this.

Paramount announced that they would distribute Taken 2 instead of The Bourne Identity. Apparently, Paramount had more faith in Kazir's original film than in the novel adaptation of The Bourne Identity. So yeah, The Bourne Identity currently had no distributor.

Because of this, Kazir Grey had headaches. Migraines were killing him and he could not sleep even though he was exhausted.

++++

[I'll be honest, I never saw The Bourne Identity. I only saw The Bourne Ultimatum.]

[Edit: I've seen it and it's nice. Not that great, but not bad either].