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Since The Revenant was released, the cast obviously had to promote the movie. Kazir Grey and Tom Cruise understood that they would be busy in the upcoming months. They have to promote the movie while meeting Academy members, basically begging for their votes.
It might sound bad but it was true that the result of the Academy Awards would be determined by the Academy members.
So while the cast of The Revenant went to Canada and the United States back and forth, their respective PR teams started their jobs.
The PR teams were paid by Kazir and Tom, they invested a lot of money just for the nominations alone. They knew that it would be impossible to compete at the Oscars without using money.
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Martin Ariel sighed as he stretched his aching back. He was too old to move around but he couldn't just stay still all day without doing a thing. So he decided to check his mail.
He was surprised to see that someone actually sent him a letter, quite thick.
"Ah, is it that time already? It's still November."
Martin Ariel was an old veteran director who retired a decade ago. He got a nomination for the Best Director Award back in the 60s. Since then, he became a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). He was still part of the committee that was responsible for voting for nominations. He had the power to list the movies he wanted to nominate.
Once in a while, he would receive some packages from Hollywood. He knew that this kind of stuff was not allowed since it was an obvious bribery.
However, the PR Teams usually identified these as nothing but "gifts". Of course you got to accept the gifts, what are you so bitter about?
Sending gifts was a common thing and everyone had an agreement to keep quiet about it. At least they got yearly gifts to receive.
Martin returned to his house and decided to unwrap the "gifts". It was four tickets for The Revenant, expiration date would be two weeks from now.
"As expected..." Martin shook his head. Gifting money was not allowed but sending gifts was fine, especially sending gifts related to the nominated movie.
"Well, my grandchildren might like it. These tickets are for The Revenant? Hmm, Director Grey? Who's this person? Never heard of him. Perhaps I might ask my grandchildren about this movie."
Spoiler alert, Martin's grandchildren were all fans of Kazir Grey and they were happy that Martin gave them four tickets.
Martin was already old, and he was happy to see his grandchildren happy. So he decided to vote for The Revenant so that the movie could get nominated. Of course, it also depends on how the other committee members if they would vote for The Revenant.
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"This is interesting..." Kazir muttered after he sipped 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 caught some interesting news.
Apparently, News Corporation decided to buy Marvel Comics. As for the specifics, Kazir had no idea how the negotiation went.
This thing never happened in his past life and he understood that he was one of the factors why this outcome happened.
Instead of being acquired by Walt Disney, Marvel Comics was acquired by News Corporation this time.
"Is this one of the reasons why 20th Century Fox is keeping their silence?"
So far, four big studios have been trying to acquire Grey Pictures. Only Universal Pictures and 20th Century Fox were keeping their stance.
Universal Pictures had an obvious reason why, Grey Pictures never really liked the company.
But 20th Century Fox was different. Grey Pictures and 20th Century Fox were quite close. In fact, the current distributor of their movies was 20th Century Fox.
'I think Tom Rothman is going to leave Fox this year or early next year. Someone is going to take over the position of CEO of 20th Century.'
With this acquisition, Kazir realized that 20th Century Fox might start their own Cinematic Universe using Marvel Comics... Although there were some problems.
Most of the known Marvel characters were in the hands of Grey Pictures. Marvel Comics had to buy back the copyrights if they wanted to start a successful Cinematic Universe.
Or Marvel Comics could make another batch of superheroes and use them as movie characters but that method had a low chance of success.
In the first place, the reason why Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, and X-Men became successful was because they were famous.
Kazir stood up and looked out the window. The city was very foggy despite early in the morning.
"Was Washington this foggy, or perhaps this exact city was foggy one?" He asked himself.
Suddenly, his phone on the table started ringing.
At first he thought it was Angelina Jolie because his girlfriend loved calling him in the morning while they were apart. He chuckled and grabbed the phone.
His smile disappeared when he realized that it was not Angelina.
"Hello, Salvatore? Is there a problem? Huh, me? Yeah, I'm in Washington right now... Okay, I'll return to Los Angeles today."
His expression turned serious. It seemed that he was wrong this time. 20th Century Fox was still interested in Grey Pictures, they just targeted the weakest link first.
He heard from Salvatore Barlowe that Tom Rothman wanted to talk to Kazir in person. They wanted to negotiate with him regarding 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 have an exchange of shares and both sides would make a contract regarding movie distributions.
Kazir contacted Tom Cruise and the other cast and told him that he had to return to Los Angeles. Tom Cruise didn't have a problem, but Kazir had to promise that he would attend at least one party every week. They have to communicate with people, especially Academy members so that they can get nominated.