Hollywood Director 1992.

Chapter 235: More Clingy
In its third week of release, "Speed" earned $2108 million and a cumulative box office of $7106 million, ranking second in the weekly box office.

The first place is still "The Lion King", with a cumulative box office of 1.04 million US dollars in two weeks. It is also the fastest movie to break the 1 million box office in North America this year.

In third place was "Werewolf" starring Michelle Pfeiffer, which earned $3751 million in two weeks.

The box office results of other movies released during the same period were all below five million. Several movies originally released by the seven major studios to suppress "Speed" only had a box office of a few million this week, entering the loss-making sequence ahead of schedule.

"Speed" sold well in adverse circumstances. Link and Guess What Pictures successfully withstood the first wave of attacks from the Big Seven studios. Many people in the industry couldn't help but look at him with admiration.

Harvey Weinstein and Robert Shea called him one after another to flatter him, to build a relationship with him, and to remind him not to forget to help them make money when he got a good project.

The Hollywood media also made some adjustments in their publicity. Originally, it was said that under the suppression of the seven major film studios, this year's summer season would definitely fail. Guess what, the development of the film industry has suffered a setback.

Now the media is not willing to make any absolute comments on this matter, saying that Link and Guess What Pictures have a slight advantage over the Big Seven Pictures in the competition for the summer vacation season and have gained a slight lead, but they will definitely face a fierce counterattack from the Big Seven Pictures, and Link and Guess What Pictures may still fail.

The "Speed" project made money, which is a good thing, but Link also has some troubles recently.

The first thing was the Titanic project.

After Fox Film learned that he was willing to invest in this big project, Fox Film responded immediately, trying hard to retain director Cameron who was about to withdraw the project, and expressed its willingness to invest in the project and everything could be discussed.

The reason why Fox Film suddenly became active is that Link's vision has been verified by many movies. Except for "The Uncanny," all the movies he is optimistic about can sell well.

This Titanic project has a lot of potential.

Even if the investment loses money, it will not be handed over to Link, the opponent.

Director Cameron called Link to apologize and expressed hope that they could work together again in the future.

Link felt a little regretful, but he didn't mind.

This year, Universal Pictures teamed up with superstar Kevin Costner to create the water movie "Waterworld", with a cost budget of nearly $2 million. The film has now entered production.

Carlock Pictures teamed up with MGM to create the pirate film "Cutthroat Island", with a production budget of nearly $1 million.

Both films are about water. They will suffer huge losses after their release next year, which scared Fox Studios into suspending investment in the "Titanic" project. Director Cameron had to attract investment again, and there would be opportunities at that time.

The second worry was that after a deep communication with Winona Ryder, Winona began to frequently ask him out on dates, and even followed him to the set of "The Shawshank Redemption" in Ohio.

At first, Lin still had the patience to play with her, but as the times went by, Winona Ryder seemed to be obsessed with him and became more and more clingy. When they were having fun, she even proposed to be his girlfriend and even wanted to marry him and have a bunch of children.

Link was almost frightened.

He clearly told Winona that he had no plans to get married and was not considering having children at the moment. If she was willing to maintain this relationship, they could continue dating in the future. If she had other ideas, they should not meet again in the future.

Winona Ryder agreed glumly.

Seeing how well behaved she was, Link didn't want to act too bad and suggested that she focus on her work at this stage. He would help her choose some suitable scripts after returning. A talented actress like her should have more classic roles.

Winona nodded happily, her fair skin glowing in the sunlight.

After calming down the love-brained Winona, Link continued to be busy with his work on the "Shawshank" crew, striving to gain a higher level of participation.

"Link, are you so free that you even do these things?"

On the set of "The Shawshank Redemption", Tim Robbins was going to find Link to chat after finishing filming. After looking for a while, he saw Link moving props in the crew.

"I had nothing to do after editing the film, and I saw you needed help, so I came over to lend a hand. What can I do for you?"

Link clapped his hands.

Tim Robbins was speechless. It was such a waste of talent for a big director and rich man to do hard labor on the crew.

"I have something I want to ask you about the script. After I took on the role of Andy, I went to several prisons to collect materials, talked with many serious criminals, and read some related articles. A few days ago, I read a report that moved me deeply. It was about the story of Sister Helen Prejean."

Tim Robbins begins to tell the story of Sister Helen Press, who is a representative figure of the current anti-death penalty movement in the United States and has great influence in both religious and political circles.

The nun is against the death penalty because the American judicial system is in chaos. Rich people can afford big-name lawyers and can often escape the death penalty, while poor people cannot afford lawyers and are easily sentenced to death.

From this point of view, the existence of the death penalty is not fair.

She hopes to abolish the death penalty and use the power of faith to redeem every lost soul.

In Tim Robbins' story, a nun received a request for help from a death row inmate, hoping to get her help. At first, the nun also hoped that he was innocent. Later, after investigation, she found that the death row inmate and his companions had killed a young couple, causing great pain to the victim's family. The nun took the initiative to find the victim's parents and asked them to understand and forgive the death row inmate's crime with the greatest courage.

The death row inmates were also moved, admitted their guilt and sincerely repented, and faced death peacefully.

It tells a story about humanity and divinity.

Link listened to it once and felt it sounded familiar, like a movie called "A Man Walking", starring Tim Robbins' girlfriend Susan Sarandon, who also won the Oscar for Best Actress for this movie.

"How about this story? You are a professional screenwriter, please give me some suggestions."

Tim Robbins said.

"There is no problem with the overall structure of the story and the design of the main characters. They are worth adapting. As for the details, I need to read the script before I know."

"Okay, I feel relieved when you say that. I will write the script after the filming is finished, and then I will ask you for advice."

Tim Robbins laughed.

Link said yes.

While working on the set of "The Shawshank Redemption", Link also received a call from Chen Chong in China.

After Chen Chong returned to China in April, with his support, she established a film company called Dongfeng Pictures in Beijing. Its main businesses include film and television investment, artist management, records, entertainment marketing and other fields.

Currently, it has only invested in one movie, which is the literary film "Red Rose and White Rose" directed by Stanley Kwan.

Joan Chen is the female lead and the male lead is Winston Chao, who became famous last year with "The Wedding Banquet".

The production cost was 350 million yuan.

Chen Chong called to tell him that after the news of the company's establishment spread, many people came to her with scripts seeking investment, including old directors and new directors, but she couldn't make up her mind, so she asked him whether he wanted to invest.

Link told her that the company had just been established and could invest in two to three films every year. Investments below 500 million would be decided by her and the company's production department. For projects above 500 million, she would first send the script to him for review and he would make the final decision.

When Chen Chong heard that she was the one who decided on projects below 500 million, she asked him if he was worried about losing money.

Link didn't care. It was a small project worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Even if it made a loss, it wouldn't be much of a loss in a year. Instead, he was treated as a sucker, which attracted more people to seek cooperation. Reverse publicity is also an effective form of publicity.

Chen Chong said yes with a smile, and said that after filming "Red Rose and White Rose", she would come to Los Angeles with a few projects and ask him for guidance and special training.

Link thought of her big ass and her mature demeanor at the dinner table, and couldn't help getting hot and cursed her, "You slut, be serious."

Chen Chong laughed happily and asked him what gift he wanted and she could bring it to him from China.

Link said no.

Chen Chong asked with a smile, "Don't you want the beautiful girls in China?"

Link was speechless.

Before the special treatment, Chen Chong was very nervous and cautious when talking to him, fearing that she would do something wrong and anger him.

After a few special treatments, Chen Chong started to become casual and always liked to tease him when talking, so that he could not concentrate on his work.

"Link! Didn't you say you were going to move the props? Why are you slacking off here?"

Chris Bauer came over wearing a vest and bare-chested.

"Get lost! I'm here to experience life, do you really think of me as a laborer?"

Link dropped the gloves in his hands and returned to the director's area to edit the film.

This step is the rough cut. After shooting, the director will immediately cut out large sections of useless shots and keep the main parts. This is equivalent to outlining and cutting before paper cutting.

It would be much easier to do fine-tuning of each shot after the film is finished.

Link is a veteran filmmaker and is very adept at doing this kind of thing. Even director Frank Darabont couldn't stop praising him after seeing it, saying that he is definitely a genius and all-rounder in the film industry.

(End of this chapter)