"What do you think? It looks cool, right?"
Harold Witsend was a bit enthusiastic about showing the pirate ship to Kazir. The two were in a huge storage unit that Grey Pictures rented for huge props such as a 100-foot-long ship.
Before being a Producer, Harold was the leader of the Props team. He has a strong artistic sense so he fell in love after seeing the pirate ship for the first time.
Harold found a company that produced wooden boats and wooden ships. Some of their products were for art galleries.
Harold hired them to make a real and working pirate ship and they didn't fail Harold. Seeing the beautiful ship, Harold realized that returning to the Props team might not be bad...
Although he was mature enough to understand that his current position and salary were far more important to his current life. He had a family to feed at all. He sighed and then got amazed, then got sad, then became after looking at the ship.
"What do you think, it's great, right? We still haven't used it in the sea, but the company assures us that it's working fine."
Kazir touched his chin and inspected the ship. It was big but not super big compared to modern ships. Kazir admitted that it looked amazing, however, he wanted something old.
"... Make it old, I want it to look like it's been drifting in the sea for hundreds of years. I want a pirate ship, no, a ghost ship might be the better term."
"What? How much should we spend more?"
Being a Producer for so many years, Harold became sensitive regarding expenses.
"As long as it looks great, I have no problem spending money. Oh, I told you that I need around 10 of these ships. I want them before April."
"... Fine."
The company already made a few of the ships and their production speed could catch up before the filming. Harold just felt like turning this brand new ship into old greasy pirate ships was painful.. Yet when he saw the finished products, he realized that ghost ships were not that bad. There was something unique about old ships.
"How's the negotiation between Johnny Depp?"
The topic changed to the cast.
"Their side is asking for quite more. Although I can see that Johnny Depp is interested in Jack Sparrow."
"How about Orlando Bloom? Did WMA do something?"
"As far as I know, no."
Kazir Grey was once a client of WMA but things happened and he was kicked out. Since then, the relationship between the two has never been good.
WMA regretted the fact that Kazir changed an agency and now they couldn't get to work with him. Kazir was not a simple director anymore, he was a superstar.
CAA became the strongest agency in the industry and Kazir influenced this outcome. Now, more actors/actresses want to end their contracts just to join CAA. At least CAA had someone like Kazir who could make blockbusters year by year. Perhaps this was Kazir's strongest talent. He filmed movies yearly and they all had good box offices.
"Orlando Bloom seems excited. We still haven't gotten an agreement but the negotiation is already down to $4 million... Orlando Bloom? Now that I remember it, wasn't this the actor who auditioned for Wesley Gibson back then? Damn, I just remembered that right now."
Kazir chuckled. Actually, when Kazir saw Orlando Bloom's name, he suddenly remembered Pirates Of The Caribbean. Orlando Bloom was the trigger for why Kazir was adamant regarding the pirate movie. He recalled that Pirates Of The Caribbean was billions of dollars worth.
"As for Keira Knightley, her team didn't have a problem with our offer. In the first place, they are happy they get an invitation from Grey Pictures."
Keira Knightley was not a new actress in the industry. The woman had been acting since 1993 and slowly gained her foothold. The woman had steady jobs over the years, but Pirates Of The Caribbean was not a simple movie.
Kazir intends to invest at least $100 million for this movie. That alone was enough for many actors/actresses to be interested.
In fact, Kazir wanted Angelina to star in this movie since Pirates Of The Caribbean was not part of the CCU. However, Angelina had Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life and Beyond Borders to film. She didn't have enough time to join Kazir's project. Furthermore, Angelina had to promote How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days.
"That's good to hear. Lower their salaries as possible, we both know that if this movie is a success--"
"I know, I know. You're going to make it into a franchise with multiple sequels. So it will be better if they have lower salaries as a starting point."
"I'm glad you understand."
"Of course..."
Ring Ring---!
Suddenly, Harold Witsend received a call. He opened the phone and his expression turned cold when he saw the name of the caller.
"Harold, are you fine?"
"Ah, yeah, let me answer this call for a few minutes."
Harold excused himself and Kazir was left alone. Studying the pirate ship. He admitted that the design was cool but they looked brand new. This was still a prototype and the company had enough time to adjust the ships.
"Too bad because some of these ships will have to be destroyed. One was eaten by a Kraken, the others got destroyed in the battle with the Flying Dutchman..."
Kazir admitted that they might have to waste a lot of props for this project.
A few minutes later, Harold showed up but his facial expression was not better. Kazir tried to ask the man about it but Harold said it was a private matter.
The two continued inspecting the props for the project. Although Kazir felt that something was wrong with Harold.