Hollywood What If

Chapter 53

The next day, producer Enrico Pusi and agent John Harris began the negotiations. 

They spent two hours wasting their spit just to get an agreement. 

In the end, Ed Helms' salary was $1.7 million. It was a large amount, to be honest. A person who can make more than $1 million a year is considered part of the 10%. 

That's right. 

According to a YouGov survey from January 2022, America believe that ten percent of households in their country have an annual income of more than $1 million. That's the privileged class. 

Ed Helms breathed a sigh of relief when his agent told him he got the part. Plus, his salary was a whopping $1.7 million. 

But he would only get half of that first. This was usually written into the contract to ensure that the actor would finish the filming. 

If the contract was broken, the actor had to pay damages. In the case of Ed Helms, he promised to finish the filming without any problems. 

As for the WMA's intention to make Kazir's job difficult, they didn't have too much influence on the project. 

As long as Ed Helms wanted to join the crew, the WMA didn't have the power to stop him. Even John Harris wanted Ed Helms to get the role. Well, at least they agreed on a good salary. It was worth the risk. 

"What do you think?"

Salvatore asked Kazir as they watched Hae-Won Park's stunt routine. The half-Korean actor knew how to do action stunts. 

Most of the crew was hired by Salvatore Barlowe. CAA also hires other crew members such as makeup artists and cinematographers. 

So most of the crew came from CAA. 

Kazir was impressed. Within a month, his small crew of fifteen became forty. The process was very fast. 

Salvatore found the right people to fill the positions. Especially Hae-Won Park, this guy actually knows Kung Fu. 

"So Hae-Won Park really knows Kung Fu?"

"Ah, no. To be precise, Hae-Won Park is a fifth dan black belt Taekwondo practitioner."

"Impressive."

Kazir didn't know what fifth dan meant. But he knew that Black Belt in Taekwondo was a high level.

Judging by Hae-Won Park's movement, the man clearly knew what he was doing. 

"Salvatore, have you ever talked to Hae-Won Park about changing his screen name?"

"We're actually thinking about it, but we're still having trouble coming up with a name."

"How about Enzo?"

To be honest, he wanted to suggest the name Bruce because Hae-Won Park reminded him of that certain legendary person. 

"Enzo? I'll talk about him later regarding your suggestion."

The reason they watched Hae-Won Park do stunts was because there was a scene in The Hangover where a naked Asian man got out of the trunk of a car and beat up the three protagonists. 

That's right, the Asian gang boss was Hae-Won Park. That's his role in the movie. 

That role was actually meant to be a gag, but he changed the script because Salvatore asked him to invite Hae-Won Park in his movie. 

So now the role of the Asian gang boss became badass. Especially when Hae-Won Park has beautiful features of Asian people.

Since the script said that the gang boss would beat the three protagonists, Hae-Won Park wanted to show Kazir that he knew a lot about action stunts. Hae-Won Park's older brother was a stunt director in Hong Kong. 

"Tell him to stop, I've seen enough."

"Okay."

Salvatore Barlowe walked up to Hae-Won Park. The Korean actor walked over to Kazir and greeted him. 

"Director Grey."

"I'm entrusting you with the action scene. Keep your body healthy, I don't want anything bad to happen."

"I understand."

Being Korean, Park Hae-Won knew his disadvantage in Hollywood. He could not get a good role because of his nationality.

And although people might shrug it off, Asians were actually discriminated against in this place. 

One time, when Hae-Won tried to audition for a role as an extra, the producer yelled at him and kicked him out of the crew. The producer kept saying that the Japanese were not allowed after what they did in World War II.

Park Hae-Won tried to explain his nationality, but the producer wouldn't listen. 

So he wanted to make sure that his role in this movie would bring him prosperity. As long as the audience appreciated him, he would have achieved his goal. 

His salary was very small, 25 thousand dollars, but he felt that it was worth it. 

"See you tomorrow at the script reading."

"Yes, director."

Hae-Won Park said goodbye and left after showing his stunts. 

"So who's the person you want to recommend as my assistant?"

"Kazir, you already know him."

"Hm?" 

Kazir raised his eyebrows. He had no idea. 

Since this project was bigger than Napoleon Dynamite, Kazir needed an assistant director to help him. 

The role of an assistant director on a movie includes tracking daily progress of the production schedule, organizing logistics, preparing daily call sheets, checking in with cast and crew, and maintaining order on the set.

... It might be the same as the producer, but the assistant director had to take this job deeper. The producer would only oversee, while an assistant director would have to participate in the work. 

Obviously, Kazir needed someone to help him with these tasks. After all, he is only one person. He doesn't have the strength to do all these things. 

"I hired a recent graduate of the UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television.

"... Are you talking about..."

"That's right. One of your interns from the last movie signed a contract with me. I recommend him to be your assistant director. He wants to be a director, but he needs experience, so I hope you will help him."

"You're quite greedy to sign another director."

"The more the merrier."

"I need to see him first, because I still don't know who you're talking about." /Puji_maki