Hollywood Director 1992.

Chapter 180 A weirdo in disguise
"I heard that Michael Ovitz and his group spent more than 20 million US dollars to boost the box office of "The Trap" in order to win you over. They also used a lot of connections to block your new movie. Now you are the only one in Hollywood who can force Ovitz to this point."

In the music bar, New Line Cinema President Robert Shea laughed.

Link shook his head. "They overestimated my movies. Seeing that my previous movies had high box office, they thought Final Destination would also be a big hit. They felt uneasy, so they kept pumping up the box office of Sugar Coated Trap and arranged five blockbusters with box office potential to block me. In fact, the estimated box office of Final Destination is around 1 million US dollars, and it is difficult to break 1.5 million. In fact, they don't need to do those things to raise the box office, and they can still win the bet."

Robert Shea said, "This just shows how powerful you are. Before your movie is even released, they feel uneasy and try every means to deal with you. Movies directed by other directors 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 one with higher box office wins and the one with lower box office loses. However, he did not expect so many things to happen after the bet.

Ovitz and others obviously overreacted and thought too much about his new movie.

In this respect, he is indeed very good.

“When will the Time Warner acquisition of New Line be finalized?”

Link changed the topic of conversation.

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

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

Link raised his glass and clinked it with Robert Shea.

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

The two sides hit it off.

After more than half a year of negotiations, an agreement was reached in September. Time Warner Group invested US$3.5 million to acquire 65% of New Line Cinema's shares. From then on, New Line Cinema became a subsidiary of Time Warner Group, with the same status as Warner Bros. Pictures.

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

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

If Robert Shea wants to maintain his management rights, he needs to perform well in this position and make profits every year that satisfy the board of directors of the parent company, Time Warner Group.

Otherwise, New Line Cinema is likely to be acquired by Warner Bros. Pictures, a subsidiary of Time Warner.

To this end, Robert Shea took the time to build a relationship with him and strengthen cooperation with Guess Pictures.

"Link, I heard that the Seven Major Media Group is also planning to acquire Guess the Movies. Have you ever considered joining the Seven Major Media Group and finding a big company to back you up?"

Robert Shea said.

Lin Ke said, "Not yet. We may consider raising funds in the future to improve the company's production and distribution capabilities, but we have to wait two years before we decide."

After the establishment of Guess Pictures, the five films produced by the company sold well one after another, with the investment return ratio of each film being more than 10 times, and the business conditions are extremely good.

This has also attracted the attention of many investment companies. Currently, more than a dozen investment companies have sent people to negotiate. Some want to acquire Guess the Movies, and some want to invest in it.

These investment companies valued Guess What Pictures at $1.6 million.

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 wait until the market value of Guess What Pictures reaches more than US$5 million before considering financing or even listing, making Guess What Pictures the eighth largest company in Hollywood.

"You're right to think so."

Next, the two talked about their new film project "Seven Deadly Sins".

The film was approved in July with a budget of $3300 million. Guess Films is responsible for production and New Line Cinema is responsible for distribution. Guess Films is in the leading position in this project. Originally planned to start shooting in September, due to the delay of the acquisition of New Line Cinema, the shooting time had to be delayed for a few weeks.

The casting for the film has now been completed.

The crew has begun setting up the set and the actors are preparing for their respective roles. The filming is scheduled to start in early October.

After talking about "Se7en", Robert Shea talked to him about the recent dark horse movie "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective".

The film is in its seventh week of release and has grossed $8912 million in North America, with an estimated box office of around $1.1 million.

It grossed $2214 million in three weeks in overseas releases.

Under this circumstance, the global box office of "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective" will not be less than 1.5 million US dollars.

The film's production cost was only 1200 million, and its box office revenue ratio was nearly 13 times.

Robert Shea was very envious of Guess What Pictures for being able to make such a movie. He was also optimistic about this type of movie and praised Jim Carrey's acting skills.

At the end, Robert Shea showed his true colors and took out a script from his bag. It was titled "Dumb and Dumber", which is also known as "Dumb and Dumber", one of Jim Carrey's representative works.

The movie tells the funny story of a pair of stupid brothers on their pursuit of a blonde beauty. It is as nonsensical as "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective".

Robert Shea thought Jim Carrey was perfect for the lead role in this film.

After reading the script, Link did not agree immediately. He suggested taking it back to the company for discussion and get a reply in two days.

After returning to the company, Link gave the script to the production department for discussion and asked them to give investment advice. He also modified some content that did not conform to the original film's plot and then gave it to Jim Carrey to ask for his opinion.

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

After watching it, Jim Carrey also made some changes to the protagonist's lines to make it more suitable for his style.

Jim Carrey has no objection to other aspects.

At the same time, Jim Carrey also handed him a script, which was given 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 part is a black horror story with a small amount of funny scenes, which is suitable for Jim Carrey's performance.

After reading the script, Link found Jim Carrey and Dark Horse director Chuck Russell, and spent three days revising the script to the way he remembered it.

At the same time, the new film project "Cash Monster" was also decided.

As of October, Guess the Movie Pictures has confirmed investment in six new film projects.

Steven Soderbergh's "The Uncanny"
Eat Drink Man Woman, a new film directed by Ang Lee.

A new film project with Mark Gordon Studios, Speed.

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

and Link’s personal film project Seven Deadly Sins.

The film with the highest investment was "Se3300en" with $2800 million, followed by "Speed" with $2000 million. The investments of the other films were all below $ million.

(End of this chapter)