[Shout out to Robert W., Bonobo, Revan4Life, MMMCMXCIX, or 3,999, Johannes, Ivik hans kristian K., Saud B., Eduardo, Christian P., despot, Edward T., Wenxie, and Cherif D.!]
Hollywood What If Chapter 99
The car was on fire, and the pyrotechnics professionals immediately stepped in and stopped the car from exploding.
A few minutes later, an ambulance arrived and took the injured man away.
The crew became silent and didn't know what to do.
"... Let's end the work for today. I want everyone to be quiet about this accident!"
Kazir shouted at the people. Then he looked at Fremont and Harold. Since they were in high positions, they had to make sure that the film crew was intact.
"Kazir..." Scarlett Johansson was startled by what she witnessed.
She was not close with the injured driver but they had a conversation although she was the one who was talking(grumbling).
"Let's talk later Scarlett, I have a job to do. You should go back to the hotel."
"Y- Yes. Take care."
Kazir Grey rubbed his forehead. He turned to Harold to talk about the possible consequences of this accident.
Harold promised that the driver would be compensated by Grey Pictures... Of course, the driver would have to keep quiet about the incident. A contract had to be written.
They didn't want to jeopardize the project because of an accident. The future of Grey Pictures lies in this film.
The accident that night made the atmosphere depressing.
Fortunately, they rented the construction site for three days, and they still have two days to go.
Kazir couldn't sleep that night because of what had happened. He contacted Roman Polanski, hoping that he could prevent the incident from spreading. No one from the cast was injured, but Kazir felt like something was not right.
"We just have to shoot the car chase."
It seemed that Fremont didn't have a peaceful night either. His eyes were bloodshot after he had calmed everyone down. He informed everyone and made sure that news won't spread.
"That's right. These are the remaining scenes we need to shoot at this location. Tell everyone to be careful and stay safe. I don't want anything bad to happen again."
The next night's filming was much slower, but they completed the scenes. They left the site after completing all the scenes and went to their next location.
Unfortunately, the incident still spread, but not in France. The news that there was an accident on the set of Taken was picked up by the film companies in Hollywood.
As a result, reporters and paparazzi showed up and disrupted their filming.
"Hayst..."
Kazir sighed as he looked at the reporters watching the set from a distance.
"France didn't care about the accident because the driver is American, but it's different in Hollywood. They are interested in your movie because of your past performance. If you're unlucky, the Big Six might block your way."
Harold muttered next to him. Just like Kazir, Harold had the worst expression on his face. He was tired these days... He didn't like being a producer at all.
'Just as I expected, something is wrong. Accidents are common in the set and people shouldn't not be shocked that much. Reporters will definitely not cover this story... Unless someone is trying to cause trouble to us. Trying to sabotage our project.'
"We still don't know if the news came from outside or if one of our crew betrayed us. I'm sorry..."
"It's hard to keep this kind of information. I already know that this could happen. You should not blame yourself. What I didn't expect, is the involvement of media. For fuck sake, the driver didn't even die, yet these reporters are demonizing us!"
The driver was safe and suffered only minor injuries. However, the media wanted to make a big deal out of this, so they started using the word "allegedly" to make it worse.
Allegedly, Director Grey didn't care about the safety of the drivers.
Allegedly, the crew used cheap cars and made a mistake.
Allegedly, the production of Taken might be postponed because the driver filed a lawsuit.
So many rumors and so much trouble. But the truth was, the reporters were doing bullshit. They didn't care about the truth, they just wanted to find something interesting than would caught the attention of the people.
The only good thing about it was that they were in France and Americans could not cause trouble here. At least not that much.
However, it was obvious that their filming schedule would be affected by this incident.
"I heard that the paparazzi were harassing our crew at the hotel last night."
"I've already spoken to security. They will try their best to protect the hotel from paparazzi. The problem is today..."
"Indeed."
Kazir Grey looked around. Their filming location was in open place and the paparazzi and reporters could spy on them.
"We need to change our schedule. Let's shoot the indoor scenes first. I'm sure these people will stop bothering us once this incident dies down."
They didn't have any choice but to adapt. These people would try their best to get a good news scoop.
Especially paparazzi, they didn't care about a person's privacy. They would follow you all the way just to get interesting news.
"I'll call Fremont and the others." Harold understood the situation and agreed.
"Hm? What's going on?"
Kazir narrowed his eyes. He realized that a bunch of paparazzi and reporters were surrounding one person.
"Is that Scarlett?"
Kazir frowned and clicked his tongue. Judging by the situation, the paparazzi and reporters were disturbing the little girl.
"I can't believe they would do this to a child! I swear, these people."
Even Harold was disgusted.
The two ran toward the commotion.
"Miss, are you a member of this crew?"
"I-I..." Scarlett didn't know what to say. She was overwhelmed by the situation.
"Is it true that Director Grey intentionally made the driver suffer?"
The reporter uttered such non-sense, truly a normal day for a reporter, spouting bullshit questions.
"N- No..." Scarlett stuttered.
She was nervous. In front of these crazy people who wanted to tear her apart, Scarlett felt weak.
Tears began to flow as she hiccupped.
"What are you doing to a child? If you have any questions, ask me instead! I can sue your news stations and your publisher for harming a child!"
Scarlett turned to find Kazir Grey standing behind her. The man had a stern expression on his face.
"Director Grey, what do you think will happen when the driver gets out of the hospital? Will he file a lawsuit?"
"There are rumors that you don't care about your crew and only feed them cheap food, is it true, Director Grey?"
The paparazzi and reporters surrounded Kazir like flies.
Kazir motioned to Harold to take Scarlett away from the commotion.
'Where the hell is the Children's Association? This is the moment they are needed! They just let Scarlett face these demons.'
Kazir gritted his teeth.