Hollywood Director 1992

The film had a production cost of $8 million and recouped its investment in the first week, which was a good result.

But Quentin seemed very disappointed. Because the film's premiere was so successful, he had predicted that "Pulp Fiction" would gross over $30 million in its first week, and break $100 million in North America within three weeks. How could it only be $9.33 million?

The difference was too great.

However, the film had excellent word-of-mouth, with almost all positive reviews in the media, resulting in a media aggregate score of 92.

Many film critics lavished praise on Quentin, hailing him as the best director of the younger generation and predicting that his future achievements in film would be extremely high.

The famous film critic Sean Thorpe used Quentin to belittle Link, saying that all of Link's films combined were not as good as Quentin's "Pulp Fiction," and that the film industry needed more "Pulp Fiction" and not "The Blair Witch Project."

Seeing so many people praising "Pulp Fiction" and criticizing Link's films, Quentin's mood slowly improved. He began complaining to Link that the audience was too trashy, disliking good movies and only choosing to watch bad ones.

Link didn't argue with him. Recently, he had been busy preparing for his new film, "The Butterfly Effect." The film's casting had already been completed, and the main cast included Leonardo DiCaprio, Renée Zellweger, Mark Wahlberg, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Julianne Moore, and others.

"The Butterfly Effect" tells the story of Evan, who, after going to college, accidentally opens his past diaries and recalls a series of terrible events he experienced in his youth, which ruined his originally perfect life.

In order to make his life perfect and leave no regrets, he uses his diary to travel back to several major events he experienced in the past, trying to change everything that went wrong.

However, every time he goes back to the past and changes something, he discovers that it brings unexpected results when he returns to reality, damaging his current life even more, and loved ones are always harmed.

After repeatedly traveling back and forth several times, no matter what he does, he cannot make things perfect. Evan's mental world begins to collapse, and eventually, he decides to travel back to his embryonic stage and strangle himself with the umbilical cord.

After the casting was completed, Link gathered several leading actors to study the script and understand their roles.

After a few lessons, Link assigned the four main actors homework, asking each of them to write a character biography to clarify the story's context and each character's experiences. Only after understanding these things could they understand their roles and perform better during filming.

While Link was preparing for "The Butterfly Effect," Tim Robbins visited the company, accompanied by Frank Darabont, the director and screenwriter of "The Shawshank Redemption," and producer Liz Glotzer.

The purpose of their visit to Link was to ask if he was interested in taking over the "The Shawshank Redemption" project.

"The Shawshank Redemption" is adapted from the work of the famous writer Stephen Edwin King. Director Frank Darabont bought the adaptation rights for $5,000 and prepared to make it into a film.

After the script was completed, it was submitted to Castle Rock Entertainment and received the appreciation of producer Liz Glotzer, who persuaded the film company's executives, suggesting that they invest in the film.

However, Robert Reiner, the owner of Castle Rock Entertainment, felt it was good after reading the script and prepared to direct it himself.

Robert Reiner is a famous Hollywood director, with representative works such as "A Few Good Men" and "When Harry Met Sally." He planned to invite Tom Cruise to play the male lead and Harrison Ford to play the male supporting role.

Later, considering that the production cost was too high, he gave up and returned the project to director Frank Darabont.

Initially, Castle Rock Entertainment planned to invest $25 million to film this movie. The initial funding had been secured, the film's casting had been completed, and the actors had entered the crew waiting for filming.

However, Castle Rock Entertainment's performance last year was very poor. It produced 18 films, including "North," "City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold," "The Favor," "Little Big League," and "The Scout," but the results were generally mediocre.

In addition, last year, supernatural films were very popular, and Castle Rock Entertainment successively invested more than ten million to shoot eight low-budget horror films to follow the trend.

When the films were released, they invested more than twenty million in publicity and marketing.

As a result, the box office performance of several films was a complete mess.

To make matters worse, Richard Gere and Robert Downey Jr. had accidents last year, which directly led to the abortion of two film projects, "Mr. Jones" and "First Knight," and the early investment was wasted.

Castle Rock Entertainment's losses last year reached $125 million. Including past deficits, the company's current fiscal deficit is as high as $280 million, which is basically the same as Castle Rock Entertainment's market value.

If the company's financial situation continues to deteriorate, it may go bankrupt at any time.

For this reason, Castle Rock Entertainment had to cut some of the large-investment, seemingly unprofitable film projects, including "The Shawshank Redemption."

"The Shawshank Redemption" project lacked investment and had to be temporarily shelved.

This is also the reason why Tim Robbins brought people to Guessing Game Films.

After listening to Tim Robbins' introduction, Link sighed secretly. Isn't this a real-life example of the 'butterfly effect'?

"Link, you can take a look at this script. It talks about hope, freedom, and redemption, as well as friendship. It's really wonderful."

Tim Robbins introduced enthusiastically.

Link smiled, took the script and flipped through it. It was similar to the movie in his memory, only some of the plot was different.

If this script is filmed with the original cast, the original version should be able to be filmed.

The original film received very good word-of-mouth after its release. The scores on major film websites were all above 90 points, and it was also considered by fans to be a masterpiece in film, no less than "Forrest Gump," "Schindler's List," and "Titanic."

However, the film's box office performance was not high, and it took more than ten years to recover its costs. It encountered "Forrest Gump" at the Oscars and Golden Globes and won nothing.

Investing in this kind of film will not make much money and will also occupy the company's funds.

The only benefit is that it is relatively classic and can improve Guessing Game Films' reputation.

Link thought for a while and decided to take over the project, but with one condition: he would serve as the film's producer and editor, deeply involved in the film's production.

Hearing that his condition was this, director Frank Darabont breathed a sigh of relief.

Link is a world-class director with extremely strong film-making technology and film-editing skills. His willingness to serve as the film's producer and editor shows that he values this film project, which is also a good thing for the film.

During the conversation, Link heard that producer Liz Glotzer had a falling out with Castle Rock Entertainment because of this film and had already resigned.

He took the initiative to invite Ms. Liz to join Guessing Game Films and continue to be responsible for the film production of "The Shawshank Redemption."

Liz Glotzer has been responsible for the production of many films and has rich experience. Guessing Game Films is currently short-handed. Link will naturally not let go of such a skilled technician when he encounters one.

Ms. Liz Glotzer also gladly accepted the invitation.

Link called Daniel DeVito and introduced the three of them and the new film project "The Shawshank Redemption" to him.

"The Shawshank Redemption" officially became a film under Guessing Game Films.

In addition to "The Shawshank Redemption," Link found Daniel and Ms. Liz to discuss and asked them to review other projects abandoned by Castle Rock Entertainment to see if they were worth investing in.

Now Guessing Game Films has money. Investing in a few more films each year and earning more box office revenue will make Guessing Game Films' data look better when the media announces the report card next year.

And a beautiful report card can expand the company's copyright library, increase the company's market value, and also enhance investors' confidence in Guessing Game Films.

Ms. Liz agreed.