Hollywood What If Chapter 507
The room was a bit lively as more people visited. Kazir was not in a grave situation, so he was allowed to have more guests. Besides, he was in one of the most expensive private rooms in the hospital, where he could host up to 50 people if he wanted to.
Honestly, Kazir preferred this lively situation compared to being alone. If he were alone, there was a strong chance he would recall the traumatizing incident.
Most of the people who visited him were from business dealings, such as the people from Warner Brothers and 20th Century Fox. These two studios didn't show any hostility despite having a chance to demean Kazir.
Well, Warner Brothers needed Kazir to continue directing the Batman Trilogy. They could also afford a week or two of vacation for Kazir. Kazir was thankful for that.
As for 20th Century Fox, they were considered partners since Grey Pictures and 20th Century Fox exchanged shares. Even though 20th Century Fox was just the distributor of Grey Pictures' movies, Fox was still making a lot of profit. Furthermore, they needed Kazir to continue writing scripts for Final Destination and the upcoming Paranormal Activity.
Kazir's family also showed up. Victor and Arron were so happy to see that Kazir was not badly injured.
A day after the incident, so many people showed up to check on Kazir that the hospital had to implement a strict policy.
Scarlett realized that there were people who cared about Kazir, and she was happy about it. She wiped her tears, but this time, they were tears of joy.
When Kazir started feeling tired, the people bid farewell. Only Scarlett and the Grey family members were left in the room.
Kazir had been through so much, and this incident was probably one of the toughest obstacles in his life.
Kazir weakly smiled as he returned to sleep. He decided to place importance on his life... Once he was done with The Dark Knight, Kazir would go somewhere nice and peaceful.
The next day, Kazir heard that Anderson's operation was successful. His left foot was saved, but he needed three months of recovery, which Kazir gladly gave his bodyguard. Kazir also promised that he would cover all of the expenses... He even thought of buying Anderson a house and a car, he could afford to buy them anyway. No amount of money was comparable to his life.
But since Anderson needed time to recover, Kazir needed to hire another bodyguard. In fact, Kazir believed he needed at least two bodyguards. Salvatore and Erica were looking for the best people, they had to make sure their moneymaker was safe and sound...
Yeah, it was true that Kazir was the reason why Salvatore and Erica earned so much money every year. Kazir was their friend, so they also didn't want him to get hurt.
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The horrifying attempted murder of Kazir was so huge that police had to intervene and take it seriously.
When the incident happened, the giant studios just thought it was simple revenge. They heard from one of the ex-employees (he got fired and paid fines because he broke the NDA) from Kazir's production team that Aquino exacted revenge on Kazir because he was kicked out of the project. That was clear, and everyone thought it was mostly the truth. As for the reason why Aquino was hired, no one cared about it... The media didn't explain it at all for obvious reasons.
Because of that, the Big Four took this chance to try and destroy Kazir's career. So many people believed them, but many also sympathized with Kazir. Just because he fired someone, it didn't mean he deserved to die.
Kazir had experienced so many scandals in his career, yet he survived all of them. People believed he was innocent since he was still not blacklisted in Hollywood.
But everything came to a halt when the police found something interesting on Aquino's computer and phone.
At first, the police were curious how Aquino got an AK-47, since that kind of firearm was illegal in Los Angeles as of 2007.
They confirmed that the AK-47 came from Aquino's "friend," an executive from Universal Pictures. The AK-47 was meant to be used as a prop and should have been destroyed after being used in a movie, but the executive left dozens of AK-47s as "collectibles"... They were not registered, by the way.
Sometimes, production teams needed to use real guns as props, although they used blank bullets. Furthermore, it was cheaper to use real guns that making fake ones.
This executive gave one to Aquino as a gift.
Everyone thought the incident would end there.
But no, there was more to it. The police found an interesting conversation between Aquino and the executive.
— He humiliated you.
— Kazir thinks he is above everyone, that's why he didn't include your scene. You deserve better.
— Don't ask me why your asshole is itchy, we're done since last year.
— No one would blame you if you were going to teach Kazir a lesson. That arrogant director needs a proper lesson.
— I know we're not friends anymore, but if you need money to do it, you can ask.
It was mild and hidden, but the executive was indirectly pushing Aquino to kill Kazir by blaming Kazir for Aquino's failure. The executive said that Kazir intentionally didn't add Aquino's scene because he offended the director.
Aquino was a cocaine addict and didn't realize he was being manipulated. The executive told him their conversation should be deleted, but Aquino was too high to do that.
Another thing, the executive gave Aquino a car and even told him Kazir's usual locations.
Yes, this was an assassination! The public thought this was just a simple tragedy, not a planned assassination! Even the Big Four didn't expect this outcome.
To make it worse, the executive was a close friend of Harvey Weinstein!
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[Note: I don't hate Universal Pictures. They are amazing studio and I like their movies, they are far better than Walt Disney at any angle. Unfortunately, the plot went this way so I might as well stick to it.]