Hollywood What If

Chapter 36

"Brother..."

"Shut up!"

Kazir took a punch to the face and stumbled to the ground. His nose was bleeding as he hit the ground. 

He was stunned for a moment. But another punch hit him in the face. 

"H- Hey! Stop! Aaron! You have to stop! You're hurting your brother!"

"I don't have a brother."

The people at the funeral stopped Aaron from hurting Kazir. Otherwise Aaron might kill him. 

Kazir sat up groggily and stared at his older brother. All he could see was the rage in his eyes. 

"Dad left you half the inheritance, I don't care if you take the money or not. Just don't ever show your face again. I don't have a brother."

Aaron had a cold face as he said these sentences. Aaron didn't care about the money, he was rich on his own. But the fact that Kazir showed up after their father's death annoyed him so much. 

Aaron walked away in disgust. 

"..."

Kazir weakly wiped his bleeding nose and looked at his father's grave. There was no grass around the grave since the coffin had just been buried. 

He didn't know what to say. His heart felt heavy. As if he could not breathe. 

He was afraid to meet his father and brother because he knew he had failed them. No matter how many times he tried to make movies, none of them were successful. 

He was afraid that his father would be disappointed in him. By the time Kazir got a call from the hospital, it was too late. In the end, he didn't know if he should attend the funeral. 

As he expected, Aaron was angry with him. 

In his opinion, he deserved every beating he got. If not more. 

He took a deep breath and got up. He didn't know how many hours had passed. There were no people in the cemetery and the sun was slowly disappearing. 

Kazir walked ahead, his face swollen from beatings. There was even dried blood under his nose. He had lost his mind. 

For some unknown reason, Kazir found himself in front of the movie theater. As if he was trying to find solace. 

The cashier was confused by his appearance, but decided to give him a ticket. Kazir randomly chose a movie to watch. He didn't care what kind of movie it was. He just wanted to disappear. 

He realized he had chosen Napoleon Dynamite. 

He didn't get the jokes in the movie. In his opinion, it was boring and the delivery of the jokes was awkward. In fact, he didn't like the movie at all. It was a horrible disastrous movie...

However, his eyes didn't leave the screen. 

Minutes passed and he reached the last sequence of the movie. Napoleon started to dance, his eyes were shining. 

"..."

Kazir noticed that tears began to roll down his cheeks. He sobbed as the ending credits rolled. He cried out loud. Fortunately, there were few people in the theater and no one was bothered. 

He almost killed himself. He wanted to kill himself. 

But for some unknown reason, Napoleon Dynamite gave him hope. Since then, Kazir bought the DVD of Napoleon Dynamite. He watched it whenever he was depressed. It was his comfort movie.

......

...

...

October 14th, 1995

It had been two days since Napoleon Dynamite had been released. Kazir had promised Reese that he would see the movie with her. 

Reese Witherspoon and Kazir Grey had a good relationship these days. But neither of them wanted a serious relationship. Reese wanted to focus on her dream while Kazir was afraid of love. 

The two had never seen Napoleon Dynamite because they were both busy these last two days. 

Kazir settled his contract with his brother. He talked to his lawyer about his newly formed studio company. On the second day, he attended the Se7en celebration party. 

As for Reese, she was taking acting lessons and working part-time in the catering business. She only received a small amount of $8 thousand for her role in Napoleon Dynamite. 

Well, she was not complaining. 

"You promised me I would get a bonus when Napoleon Dynamite was released."

Reese leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. 

"Reese, I promise everyone in the crew that they will get a bonus if Napoleon Dynamite is successful."

He replied, inviting her to his car. Everyone needs money, especially poor people who have trouble feeding themselves. 

"So what kind of success? If it made over 50 million?"

"$100 million at the North American box office." He replied. 

"You're crazy. Are you saying that Napoleon Dynamite, the movie in which I have my first major role, will make $100 million at the North American box office? Are you that confident? Or are you just arrogant?"

"I don't know." He shrugged. 

"What about Se7en? I'm sure New Line Cinema will never be stingy and give you a bonus."

"A hundred thousand dollars."

"So why are you still using this car?"

"I'm still having trouble deciding between Honda and Toyota."

"Hm, I hope Napoleon Dynamite is successful."

She hoped more people would see the movie and remember her. 

"Don't worry Reese, you will be famous."

"You keep saying that like you know the future." 

Well, she didn't hate it. Kazir's reassurance gave her strength. Reese was still young, and she knew that her dream of being an actress might be just a dream. 

"Let's go see our movie." 

The two went to the theaters and bought two tickets for Napoleon Dynamite. 

As they entered one of the theaters, they saw some people inside. Just like them, they were interested in seeing Napoleon Dynamite. 

The movie had been in theaters for two days and was slowly gaining a reputation. By Saturday, Napoleon Dynamite had grossed $70,000 from 12 theaters. That's right, the first week of Napoleon Dynamite only had a tiny 12 theaters.  /Puji_maki