Hollywood Director 1992.

Chapter 177 Box Office Dark Horse
"Link, how about this script?"

In the cafe, Renée Zellweger and Sandra Bullock looked at him nervously.

Link leaned back on the sofa and spent half an hour reading the script "Speed" in his hand.

The script was handed to him by Sandra Bullock through Renée Zellweger, who wanted to ask him if he was interested in it.

Originally, the script belonged to Paramount Pictures, but later encountered a change of circumstances and the script was abandoned by Paramount Pictures and returned to The Mark Gordon Company.

The studio plans to raise funds to shoot the film.

After reading the script, Sandra Bullock was interested in playing the leading female role, Anne, but the film lacked investment and she had no chance to become the leading actress.

In addition, if the film was invested by other film companies, she would not be able to play the leading role smoothly. Later, she thought of Link, and asked through Renée Zellweger whether Guess Pictures had any ideas of investing in other films. After getting a positive answer, she handed the script to Link through Renée and asked Link to help take a look.

After watching Speed, Link confirmed that it was the action movie that made Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock famous, and it had good box office performance, grossing several hundred million dollars.

But the script in my hand is very different from the plot of the movie I have seen.

This script is obviously following the trend of "Die Hard" and forcibly integrates many comedy elements, as well as some funny and thriller plots. The male protagonist Jack is pretentious and is not a positive character. He does not seem very likable.

The "Speed" he had watched was a very serious action movie. The male protagonist Jack was also quite serious. He was a very responsible and intelligent policeman. When encountering a crisis, he would try his best to protect all the people.

The heroine Annie is not a naive person either, she is a good helper to the hero in the movie.

If he had not seen the original film and only read this script, he would not have invested in such a script. Although this script may make money, it will not make much and is not worth investing in.

After knowing how to modify the script, if Mark Gordon is willing to let him modify the script and participate in the film production, he can agree to invest.

“The script is terrible.”

"what?"

Sandra Bullock was a little disappointed. She thought Link would like this kind of thriller movie, but Link's evaluation was very direct, saying that the script was terrible.

"But it's not hopelessly bad. If some of the content is modified, it can still be a movie worth investing in."

Link said.

Sandra Bullock's eyes lit up when she heard this, "Is this script salvageable? Will you invest in it after it's revised?"

"Can you make the decision on revising the script?"

Link said.

"Sure! Director Jane Bonte and his team are trying to attract investment everywhere. As long as they can get investment, they don't mind changing the script."

Sandra Bullock explains the experience of Jane Bunt, the screenwriter and director of the script.

Jane Bunt has worked as a photographer in films such as "The Hunt for Red October", "Die Hard" and "Die Hard", and has also worked as a screenwriter and actor. He was about to switch careers to become a director and was later selected by Mark Gordon Studio.

Now the studio and Jane Bont are using the script to attract investment. As long as investment can be obtained, modifications to the script are acceptable.

"Sandra, please tell Mark Gordon Studio that Guess Pictures is willing to invest in this project, on the condition that the film must be produced by Guess Pictures, the studio participates in the production, and director Jane Bunt can continue to serve as director. If they accept, the two parties can jointly produce the film."

"Okay, I'll call them now and tell them the good news."

Sandra immediately jumped up and ran to the phone booth outside to make a call.

Link smiled but didn't stop him.

Previously, when filming "Final Destination", Sandra Bullock played a flight attendant in the film, so she is considered a familiar face.

Sandra has good looks, good acting skills, and is hardworking, but it is the lack of opportunities that has led to her not having made a name for herself in Hollywood at the age of nearly 30.

This movie seems to be her chance, it just depends on whether she can seize it.

"Link, is this script really worth investing in?"

Renée Zellweger asked.

"No, it's there after I modified it." "You're amazing."

Renée Zellweger looked at him with adoration.

"How are the films you've been working on?"

"After filming two movies, there are still three to go. I will probably be busy until the end of the year. But I like my busy life now. There are movies to shoot every day. I always feel that life is full of hope."

Renée Zellweger looked at him gratefully, "I know all this is given to me by you."

"You're welcome. You earned it yourself."

Link laughed.

After joining UTA agency, Renée Zellweger got a lot of resources under Link's care, including the supporting role in Quentin's new movie "Pulp Fiction", the leading role in New Line Cinema's art film "8 Seconds", and the supporting role in "The Killing".

Although these resources cannot make her become popular, the pay is not low, and she can also get training during the filming process, which is of great benefit to her development in the circle.

During the chat, Sandra Bullock hurried in and said that Mark Gordon's studio had agreed and the project could be handed over to Guess Pictures, with Guess Pictures as the main producer and the studio as a co-producer.

Studio head Mark Gordon and director Jane Bunt are on their way and will be here within half an hour.

Link smiled and said, "It's too late today. Let them go to Guess Pictures tomorrow to discuss cooperation. I will try to revise the script tonight, and we can talk about it then."

"Okay, I'll go tell them now."

"Wait! Use this."

Link stopped Sandra Bullock who was about to stand up again and handed her the mobile phone.

The next day, Link received Mark Gordon, director Jane Bunt and his team at the Guess What Films office and finalized the new film project "Speed".

The investment in this movie is not high, with a budget of about 20 to 30 million.

Mark Gordon Studio invested $800 million.

The rest will be left to Guess Film Investment.

After finalizing the newly revised script, Link handed the film project over to Daniel DeVito.

He suggested Keanu Reeves as the male lead, and no one objected. Link directly handed the script to Keanu and asked him to take a look.

After reading the script, Keanu liked the character of the male lead Jack very much and agreed to participate.

The basic framework of the project was quickly finalized.

While Link is busy with his new movie plans, the fifth week box office results for "The Wedding Banquet" were released. This week's box office was 136 million US dollars, a significant drop, and the cumulative box office was 2086 million US dollars.

The reason for the big drop is that this week Guess the Movies did not continue to invest in promoting "The Wedding Banquet", and the film's screening rate also dropped significantly.

The film was also released overseas, mainly in Asia and Europe where there are large Chinese populations.

The film has currently grossed approximately $18 million in box office revenue in 562 countries and regions.

The film's total box office is estimated to be around $4000 million.

The box office revenue ratio reached 50 times, which can be called a box office dark horse.

This week, "The Trap" grossed $1013 million, a drop of less than 15%, far below normal levels.

Many media outlets accused Paramount Pictures of still falsifying box office figures, and of not stopping even after being exposed by the media. This is the arrogance of a big movie company, reaching an unbridled level.

However, Paramount Pictures countered that the reason for the low box office decline of "The Trap" was that the audience liked to watch it, and there was absolutely no inflated box office.

At the same time, there were many reviews praising the film in the media, praising "The Trap" to the sky, calling it the No. 1 blockbuster of the year, the most worth-watching movie of the year, etc.

(End of this chapter)