Hollywood Director 1992

"I heard that Michael Ovitz and his group spent more than twenty million US dollars to boost the box office of 'The Firm' in order to beat you, and also used a lot of connections to besiege your new movie. Now you are the only one in Hollywood who can force Ovitz to this point," New Line Cinema president Robert Shaye said with a smile in the music bar.

Link shook his head, "It's because they overestimated my movie. Seeing that the box office of my previous movies was relatively high, they thought 'Final Destination' would also be a big hit. They were uneasy, so they kept injecting money into 'The Firm's' box office and arranged five potential blockbusters to besiege me. In fact, the estimated box office of 'Final Destination' is around 100 million US dollars, and it is difficult to break through 150 million. In fact, they don't need to do those things to boost the box office to win the bet."

Robert Shaye said, "This also just shows how great you are. Your movie hasn't been released yet, but it makes them feel uneasy and try their best to deal with you. Other directors' movies don't have such power."

Link smiled. In fact, when he made the bet with Robert Downey Jr. and others, he only regarded it as a simple bet. The side with the higher box office wins, and the side with the lower box office loses. He didn't expect so many things to happen after the bet.

Ovitz and others obviously overreacted and thought of his new movie as too powerful.

From this point of view, he is indeed very powerful.

"When will the acquisition of New Line by Time Warner be finalized?"

Link changed the subject.

"The final contract has been finalized and will be signed next week."

"Congratulations to New Line for joining the Time Warner Group family."

Link raised his glass and clinked it with Robert Shaye.

Last year, Time Warner Media Group, the parent company of Warner Bros. Pictures, sent an acquisition invitation to New Line Cinema. New Line Cinema also had the idea of joining the seven major media groups.

The two sides hit it off immediately.

After more than half a year of negotiations, an agreement was reached in September. Time Warner Group invested 350 million US dollars to acquire 65% of the shares of New Line Cinema. New Line Cinema has since become a subsidiary of Time Warner Group, with the same status as Warner Bros. Pictures.

However, after New Line Cinema was acquired, Robert Shaye still owns 13.5% of New Line's shares, making him the largest individual shareholder outside of Time Warner Group.

He was also able to continue to serve as the president of New Line Cinema and have the right to operate the company.

In order to maintain his operating rights, Robert Shaye needs to make achievements in this position and earn profits every year to satisfy the board of directors of the parent company Time Warner Group.

Otherwise, New Line Cinema is likely to be annexed by Warner Bros. Pictures under Time Warner.

For this reason, Robert Shaye seized the time to build a relationship with him and strengthen cooperation with Guess Pictures.

"Link, I heard that the seven major media groups also intend to acquire Guess Pictures. Have you ever considered joining the seven major groups and finding a large company to rely on?"

Robert Shaye said.

Link said, "Not for the time being. I may consider financing in the future to improve the company's production and distribution capabilities, but I have to wait two years."

After Guess Pictures was established, the five films produced by the company were all big hits, and the investment return ratio of each film was more than 10 times, and the operating condition was extremely good.

This has also attracted the attention of many investment companies. More than a dozen investment companies have sent people to negotiate. Some want to acquire Guess Pictures, and some want to invest.

The valuation of these investment companies for Guess Pictures is 160 million US dollars.

It's just that the company is not short of funds, and Link has no plans to accept investment for the time being.

He plans to consider financing or even listing after the market value of Guess Pictures reaches more than 500 million US dollars, so that Guess Pictures will become the eighth largest in Hollywood.

"It's good for you to think this way."

Next, the two talked about the new movie project "Seven".

This movie was established in July, with a cost budget of 33 million US dollars. Guess Pictures is responsible for production, New Line Cinema is responsible for distribution, and Guess Pictures is in a leading position in this project.

It was originally planned to start filming in September, but the acquisition of New Line Cinema was delayed for a while, and the filming time had to be delayed by a few weeks.

Currently, the movie casting has ended.

The crew began to set up the studio, and the actors were also preparing for their respective roles, and planned to start filming in early October.

After talking about "Seven", Robert Shaye talked to him about the recent dark horse movie "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective".

In the seventh week of its release, the North American box office was 89.12 million US dollars, and the estimated box office was around 110 million US dollars.

In the three weeks of its release in overseas regions, it earned 22.14 million US dollars.

According to this situation, the global box office of "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective" will not be less than 150 million US dollars.

And the production cost of this film is only 12 million, nearly 13 times the box office return ratio.

Robert Shaye is very envious of Guess Pictures' ability to make such a movie, and is also optimistic about this type of movie, and also appreciates Jim Carrey's acting skills.

In the end, Robert Shaye revealed his true intentions and took out a script from his bag, which read "Dumb and Dumber", which is also one of Jim Carrey's representative works.

The movie tells the funny story of a pair of two stupid brothers pursuing a blonde beauty, which is as nonsensical as "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective".

There is no wrong one, one first, one hair, one inside, one appearance, one in one look!

Robert Shaye believes that Jim Carrey is very suitable to be the star of this play.

After Link read the script, he did not immediately agree, and proposed to take it back to the company for discussion and reply to him in two days.

After returning to the company, Link handed the script to the production department for discussion, asking them to give investment opinions, and by the way, revised some content that did not conform to the original plot, and then handed it to Jim Carrey to ask for his opinion.

Jim Carrey is an actor and also a screenwriter. He knows more about nonsensical movies, and his opinion is also very important.

After Jim Carrey read it, he also made some modifications to the protagonist's lines, making them more suitable for his style.

Jim Carrey had no other opinions.

At the same time, Jim Carrey also took out a script and handed it to him. It was a script handed to him by a director from a company called Dark Horse Entertainment.

The script is called "The Mask", which can be translated as "The Mask" or "The Mask".

The script is adapted from the comic book of the same name. The main body is a black horror story, with a small amount of funny scenes, which is suitable for Jim Carrey's performance.

After Link read the script, he found Jim Carrey and Chuck Russell, the director of Dark Horse Company, and spent three days revising the script into the appearance in his memory.

At the same time, the new movie project "The Mask" was also set.

As of October, Guess Pictures has determined 6 new movie projects to invest in.

Steven Soderbergh's "The Underneath";

Ang Lee's new movie "Eat Drink Man Woman".

A new movie project "Speed" in cooperation with Mark Gordon Productions.

Jim Carrey's two comedy movies "Dumb and Dumber" and "The Mask".

And Link's personal movie project "Seven".