Kevin smiled and shook his head.
“Let’s talk about it after Saw finishes its theatrical run.
By then, it’ll be much easier for me to launch my next project.”
Jeff Robinov nodded, choosing not to press the issue.
Given his close relationship with CAA President Ovitz, as long as Warner Bros.
offered the right number, there was no reason for Kevin to choose another studio.
Furthermore, considering Warner Bros.’ towering status in Hollywood, very few forces could even compare to them.
In a fair bidding war, they feared absolutely no one.
“Enjoy the rest of your evening, Kevin.
Ovitz and I have some business to attend to, so we’ll leave you to it.”
Robinov cast a knowing glance between Kevin and Jolie before he and Ovitz departed.
“Kevin, you were amazing!” Jolie exclaimed excitedly the moment the two men walked away.
Watching Kevin hold his own against such powerful figures made Jolie’s heart race.
As she looked up at him, her eyes held more than just admiration; they brimmed with genuine affection.
Meeting that heated gaze, Kevin couldn’t hold back either.
He and Jolie left the party early, heading straight back to his hotel room.
(Omitted)
T/N: For all the cultured gentlemen reading this, use your imagination.
Let’s say Hollywood script-reading sessions tend to get very physically demanding behind closed doors.
…
The next morning, the warm October sun streamed through the windows, waking Kevin and Jolie from a deep, satisfied sleep.
“Darling, draw the curtains,” Kevin murmured, his voice thick with sleep.
Jolie obediently slipped out of bed, her bare skin catching the morning light as she walked to the window and pulled the heavy drapes shut.
With a lazy smirk and a gentle pull, Kevin drew her right back into the warmth of his arms.
Kevin was just about to engage in a little “morning exercise” with Jolie when the shrill ring of the hotel phone suddenly shattered the mood.
He grabbed the receiver, hearing the voice of his agent, Dawson, on the other end of the line.
“Kevin.
Shay, the president of New Line Cinema, wants to talk to you about the Saw rights.”
Hearing this, Kevin’s mood instantly soared; the big fish had finally taken the bait.
The Saw IP was where he was going to make his first true fortune.
Compared to this, his box office cut was just pocket change.
I’ll meet you there.
Also, please hire a top-tier legal consultant for me.”
“Consider it done.
Don’t worry, CAA has plenty of partner attorneys on retainer.
I’ll make sure we get a good one.”
“Great.
I’ll see you at New Line Cinema at 2:30 PM.”
Kevin hung up the phone, a triumphant grin spreading across his face.
“Kevin, what is it?” Jolie asked, noticing his sudden excitement.
This wasn’t a secret, and Kevin had no intention of hiding it from anyone.
“I own the sequel and franchise rights of Saw,” he told her directly.
“And New Line Cinema wants to buy them out.”
“I estimate I’ll walk away with at least twenty million dollars.”
Twenty million was Kevin’s absolute bottom line.
Without question, the future franchise rights to Saw were easily worth one to two hundred million dollars.
However, to actually extract that kind of money from the market, one needed deep-rooted Hollywood connections capable of handling distribution and production on a massive scale.
There were only about a dozen film companies in town with that kind of muscle, and they all operated by a strict set of unspoken internal rules.
They would never pay an astronomical upfront price for an IP.
Twenty to thirty million dollars was their absolute ceiling, and the only studio motivated enough to offer the maximum price was New Line Cinema.
In truth, Kevin had no intention of selling the rights to anyone else anyway.
Twenty million dollars?
Jolie was absolutely stunned.
The average monthly income in the United States was around $3,000, and given the American habit of living on credit, most people probably couldn’t even scrape together a thousand dollars in emergency cash.
That was certainly the case for her as a mid-tier model.
Twenty million dollars was a sum she couldn’t earn in ten lifetimes—no, a hundred lifetimes.
At that moment, a sudden, fierce ambition to become Kevin’s wife took root in Jolie’s mind.
Thanks to U.S.
marital laws, once two people tied the knot, all of Kevin’s future earnings would become their joint assets.
Just like that, she would instantly become the wife of a multimillionaire.
The idea was simply too intoxicating to resist.
Putting her ambition into immediate action, she eagerly threw herself onto him.”
(Omitted)
Later that afternoon, Kevin sat in a high-end Chinese restaurant, leisurely ordering a few dishes.
After arranging for the staff to deliver a lavish takeout spread back to Jolie at the hotel, he finally settled in to eat, taking his time with the meal.
In America, authentic Chinese cuisine was rarely cheap.
Unlike in China, the mass industrialization of American agriculture—and the rampant use of growth hormones—meant that meat was actually significantly cheaper than fresh vegetables in the States.
Because traditional Chinese cooking requires a wide variety of fresh produce to balance the meat, a high-quality Chinese meal was inherently expensive.
Priced at over two hundred dollars, a single lunch like this was completely out of reach for the average working-class family.
But for Kevin, it was now nothing more than pocket change.
After finishing his meal, Kevin hailed a taxi to New Line Cinema.
….
Inside the President’s Office at New Line Cinema, Shay was absolutely furious.
“How could you just hand over the sequel rights to Kevin?
Is this how you manage acquisitions for this company?!”
“Idiot!
Absolute fool…”
He unleashed a relentless barrage of insults.
It was a classic corporate blame-shifting tactic.
Before Kevin’s breakout success, the franchise rights to Saw hadn’t even been worth mentioning.
Considering Kevin’s firm stance during their initial negotiations—and the fact that he took a backend percentage instead of a large upfront fee—conceding the sequel rights was actually a perfectly standard business decision on Dean’s part.
If Saw hadn’t become such an explosive, unexpected hit, Dean’s handling of the contract would have been considered flawless.
But because Saw had morphed into a monstrous success, giving up those rights now looked like a catastrophic blunder, completely overshadowing Dean’s actual contributions to the project.
Shay’s vicious scolding was simply a calculated move to strip Dean of any leverage he had gained within the company.
Dean naturally felt incredibly wronged.
Still, reaching the rank of high-level executive at a major studio in his early thirties was no easy feat; he certainly wasn’t going to resign over a brutal chewing-out.
So, he swallowed his pride and silently endured the verbal abuse.
After finally venting his rage, Shay shifted gears.
“Later, when we sit down with Kevin for the rights, you lead the charge.
Once the talks hit a wall, I’ll step in.”
“Understood!”
….
When Kevin stepped into New Line Cinema this time, his reception was entirely different.