Since the release of The Revenant, the cast has obviously had to promote the movie. Kazir Grey and Tom Cruise understood that they would be busy for the next few months. They have to promote the movie while meeting with Academy members, basically begging for their votes.
It may sound bad, but it was true that the outcome of the Oscars would be determined by the members of the Academy.
So while the cast of The Revenant was traveling back and forth between Canada and the United States, their respective PR teams began their work.
The PR teams were paid by Kazir and Tom, they invested a lot of money just for the nominations. They knew it would be impossible to compete at the Oscars without spending money.
......
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...
Martin Ariel sighed as he stretched his sore back. He was too old to move, but he couldn't sit still all day without doing something. So he decided to check his mail.
He was surprised to see that someone had actually sent him a thick letter.
"Ah, is it that time already? It's still November."Martin Ariel was an old veteran director who retired a decade ago. He had been nominated for the Best Director Award in the 60s. Since then he has been a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). He was still part of the committee that voted on the nominations. He had the power to list the movies he wanted to nominate.
Every once in a while he would get some packages from Hollywood. He knew that this kind of thing was not allowed because it was an obvious bribe.
However, the PR teams usually identified these as nothing more than "gifts". Of course you had to accept the gifts, why are you so bitter?
Gifts were a common thing, and everyone had an agreement to keep quiet about it. At least they received gifts every year.
Martin returned to his house and decided to open the "gifts". It was four tickets for The Revenant, which would expire in two weeks.
"As expected..." Martin shook his head. Giving money was not allowed, but sending gifts was allowed, especially gifts related to the nominated movie.
"Well, my grandchildren might like it. These tickets are for The Revenant? Hmm, Director Grey? Who is this person? Never heard of him. Maybe I will ask my grandchildren about this movie."
Spoiler alert, Martin's grandchildren were all fans of Kazir Grey, and they were happy that Martin had given them four tickets.
Martin was old, and he was happy to see his grandchildren happy. So he decided to vote for The Revenant to get it nominated. Of course, it also depends on how the other committee members would vote for The Revenant.
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...
"This is interesting..." Kazir muttered after sipping a hot coffee in the morning.
He was in an expensive hotel room because he had a local TV interview last night.
While reading the newspaper, Kazir noticed some interesting news.
Apparently, News Corporation had decided to buy Marvel Comics. As for the details, Kazir had no idea how the negotiations went.
Such a thing had never happened in his previous life, and he understood that he was one of the factors in the outcome.
Instead of being acquired by Walt Disney, this time Marvel Comics was acquired by News Corporation.
"Is this one of the reasons why 20th Century Fox is keeping quiet?"
So far, four major studios have tried to acquire Grey Pictures. Only Universal Pictures and 20th Century Fox remained silent.
Universal Pictures had an obvious reason, Grey Pictures never really liked the company.
But 20th Century Fox was different. Grey Pictures and 20th Century Fox were very close. In fact, the current distributor of their films was 20th Century Fox.
'I think Tom Rothman is going to leave Fox this year or early next year. Someone will take over as CEO of 20th Century.'
With this acquisition, Kazir realized that 20th Century Fox could start its own Cinematic Universe with Marvel Comics... Though there were some problems.
Most of the known Marvel characters were in the hands of Grey Pictures. Marvel Comics would have to buy back the copyrights if they wanted to start a successful Cinematic Universe.
Or Marvel Comics could create another batch of superheroes and use them as movie characters, but this method had a low chance of success.
The reason Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, and the X-Men were successful in the first place was because they were famous.
Kazir stood up and looked out the window. The city was very foggy, even though it was early in the morning.
"Was Washington this foggy, or perhaps this very city was a foggy one?" He wondered.
Suddenly his cell phone on the table started ringing.
At first he thought it was Angelina Jolie, because his girlfriend liked to call him in the morning when they were apart. He laughed and grabbed the phone.
His smile faded when he realized it was not Angelina.
"Hello, Salvatore? Is there a problem? Huh, me? Yes, I'm in Washington right now... Okay, I'll be back in Los Angeles today."
His expression became serious. It seemed he was wrong this time. 20th Century Fox was still interested in Grey Pictures, they were just going after the weakest link first.
Kazir heard from Salvatore Barlowe that Tom Rothman wanted to talk to him personally. They wanted to negotiate with him about Grey Pictures. From the looks of it, News Corporation was the one that wanted to make this venture happen.
Grey Pictures and 20th Century Fox could do a stock swap and both sides would make a deal to distribute the films.
Kazir contacted Tom Cruise and the rest of the cast and told him he had to return to Los Angeles. Tom Cruise didn't have a problem, but Kazir had to promise to attend at least one party a week. You have to communicate with people, especially Academy members, to get nominated.
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[Author's Note]
[I can't remember if Martin Ariel is a real person or an original character. Anyway, I'm here again to promote my novel because my brother's exam is coming up and we have a bill to pay... I apologize if I have to beg people on the internet to help me pay our bills. I'm a shameless person and I have to do it because I have to. You may think I'm using my brother as an excuse to siphon off money, but I'm not. I'm not doing it for me, I'm doing it for the betterment of my family.]
[I won't lie, I'm actually proud of myself because I helped fix our roof and our house. Also, our house now has tiles and a shower... If you're a Filipino (poor Filipino to be precise), you'll understand how happy we are whenever we have a chance to use a shower. And now our house has shower too! I can shower every day now! I'm really happy about this little success.]
[Haha, galawang squatter. Tuwang tuwa kapag may shower!]
[All this happened because you supported me. There's even pictures of our roof in my Patreon if you want to see it, I posted it a year ago.]
[If you subscribed to my Patreon or Ko-fi, you can read up to chapter 478. If you use math-thingy, it means you can read 168 advanced chapters. Thanks guys, your support means a lot to me.]
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