Wanted 2 was set to be released in in summer of 2003. It was directed by Fremont Smith. The production already started in November of last year and it was currently nearing its end of filming.
Fremont Smith adapted to Kazir's style of filmography and he felt like his filming style was much faster now.
Fremont was the director of Taken 2 and John Wick 2. And now, he was also the director of Wanted 2. Everyone could see that Fremont was following Kazir's steps by filming the movies that Kazir started.
However, it didn't sit well with some people. Some said that Fremont was just riding Kazir's success by filming sequels of Kazir's successful movies. Fremont still hasn't proven himself to the industry.
Fremont heard of these rumors and he was affected. He understood that the reason why he reached his status was because of Kazir. He treated Kazir as his mentor. With that, he was grateful for what he did. Filming Taken 2 and John Wick 2 was not a problem with Fremont because he wanted to return the favor. Also, the salary was great for someone like him who only had two movies in his resume.
However, after hearing the rumors, Fremont understood that he had to step up. He wanted to prove that he was not absorbing Kazir's success. He wanted to start his own project.
So once Wanted 2 was done, he wanted to talk to Kazir and Salvatore about his next step.
He respects Kazir and he also wants to achieve what Kazir achieved... Particularly the Best Director Award.
After Kazir won the Academy's Best Director Award, Fremont realized that there was more to being a director. Making money and making a legacy.
He decided to start looking for scripts that could be turned into artistic films. But filming artistic films could wait.
For now, Fremont wanted to prove himself by starting his own project without the label of Grey Pictures and Continental Cinematic Universe.
Besides, his contract stated that he could film movies and work with other production studios. The contract stated that Fremont must film five movies for CCU in the span of 15 years. Obviously, he had a lot of time to do that.
Four months just passed and his filming of Wanted 2 was going to end. He was happy with the results and he was also with his fast yet efficient job.
However, he didn't expect that Kazir could actually surpass his work ethic. At the end of March, Kazir was already 3/4 near the end of filming. The talented director started the production of Pirates Of The Caribbean in the last week of February. Yet one month after that, the scenes they filmed were plenty.
Well, Kazir understood that Pirates Of The Caribbean was different from his usual projects.
Just like Spider-Man, Pirates Of The Caribbean needed a lot of special effects. So the faster the filming finished, the better time they had on editing the movie.
Based on Kazir's calculation, editing and adding special effects to the movie might take at least three months... It was longer than the time he spent filming the movie.
Since Grey Pictures was now working for 20th Century Fox, the production studio had now better relationship with Industrial Light & Magic.
Industrial Light & Magic was under LucasFilm and LucasFilm was the producer of Star Wars. Star Wars was distributed by 20th Century Fox. The two companies had close ties.
Kazir yawned as he woke from his short slumber. Being a director, he had to check the footage to make sure that they didn't make a mistake. There were some instances when they failed to record the scene and they had to start over again. Sometimes, the memory cards or film reels they used were defects and they had to change them midway through filming.
Kazir decided to check the newspaper that was prepared in front of his apartment door.
Kazir was not in Los Angeles. The crew was in Haiti to film the scenes with an ocean background. Using real backgrounds was better and cheaper than using CGI at this time. To make it better, Haiti was in the Caribbean so they were indeed filming the Pirates Of The Caribbean in the Caribbean. Authentic at its finest.
Kazir knew that the newspaper he was reading was published yesterday. Well, he couldn't be choosy.
March didn't have an interesting movie aside from Bringing Down the House starring Steve Martin and Queen Latifah. As of March 31, the movie already grossed $100.80 million, which was amazing since the movie was released in March. The movie was distributed by Walt Disney. It seemed that this mid-budget ($33 million) movie was profitable.
Kazir turned the page and sighed when he read the dreadful news...
[In March 2003, U.S. forces invaded Iraq vowing to destroy Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and end the dictatorial rule of Saddam Hussein.]
Kazir knew the outcome of the Iraq War... It was tragic. The United States basically destroyed the country and its beautiful culture.
Was this for 9/11?
Or was this for oil?
Kazir just shook his head. At the end of the day, he was just a normal guy who worked as a director in Hollywood.
Just like everyone living on this planet, he had to work to feed himself and his loved ones. He should focus on his life because that was his priority.
"... Am I doing Stoicism or something?"
He stood up to take a shower to start his day. After that, he was greeted by Anderson early in the morning to drive him to the filming location. The beach where three pirate ships were floating on the sea.
While on his way to the beach, Kazir received a message from Stella Willow that someone was interested in Game Of Thrones. His face slightly frowned as he read the text message.