“Not bad — this proposal is highly comprehensive.
It looks like our colleague Dawson has finally landed a genuinely promising client,” Ovitz said, his praise carrying across the room.
“Moving forward, I’ll find a way to push this project along.
As for the rest of you — if your director clients need backing, have them put together proposals just as solid as this one.”
Hearing Ovitz’s words, a few of the junior executives exchanged envious, slightly bitter glances.
They envied Dawson for potentially landing a major client, resented that it hadn’t been them, and quietly wondered whether they should start scouting promising young directors at USC as well.
Of course, a few of them also secretly hoped that Dawson’s project would fail and eventually fall apart.
…
Three days later, at USC, after finalizing the copyright registration for Saw and officially joining the Directors Guild, Kevin stared at his empty wallet.
Kevin already felt a headache coming on.
The previous owner of his body had relied entirely on student loans to get through school.
Before graduation, that hadn’t been a pressing issue, but now the nearly $60,000 in tuition debt from three years of study loomed over him.
If Saw failed, the financial consequences for him would be disastrous.
This meant the upcoming negotiations had to succeed.
Failure simply wasn’t an option for him.
“Kevin, how’s the project coming along?” Mitch, his burly cinematographer roommate, asked as he walked in.
Seeing Mitch, Kevin smiled.
As one of America’s top film schools, USC’s students generally possessed genuine talent — especially the ones who ran in the same circles as his predecessor, the so-called genius director.
That was why, alongside Mitch, Kevin had also recruited a handful of other capable students, forming a fixed core team around himself.
The goal was simple: better control over the crew meant a better final product.
Shifting into a more serious tone, Kevin asked, “Did you tell them everything?”
“I told them everything.
They’re all in — everyone is willing to join your graduation film.”
Kevin’s face lit up.
Even though he had expected them to agree, actually hearing the confirmation still felt like a weight lifting off his chest.
Combined with the additional crew CAA would package into the project, having his own trusted people gave him real leverage over the production.
Otherwise, even as the creator of the project, he would have very little say over the final version of Saw in Hollywood’s notoriously producer-driven system.
He had to remember that Saw was originally directed by the talented James Wan and released in 2004.
Pulling the film all the way back to 1991 already carried a massive inherent risk.
If Kevin couldn’t secure creative control over the final cut, the very essence of what made Saw a classic could easily be butchered.
So, once investors were secured, he intended to negotiate aggressively.
He was even willing to forfeit his director’s fee entirely if it meant retaining creative control and final editing rights.
Of course, working for free wasn’t the actual plan.
The copyright to Saw was firmly in his hands, and he had no intention of personally directing any of its future sequels.
This gave him the ultimate leverage to sell those sequel rights for an astronomical sum eventually.
Everything was in place.
All that remained was the negotiation with the investors.
Beep beep beep!
The Nokia phone in his pocket rang.
Kevin quickly pulled it out and answered.
T/N: Ah, the author gave him a Nokia cell phone in 1991.
While Nokia did produce early mobile phones back then, pocket-sized cellulars weren’t truly mainstream yet.
We’ll just assume Chen Daoxuan brought his protagonist aura — and a slightly anachronistic pocket phone — with him from the future!
“Hello, this is Steve Kevin.
How can I help you?”
“It’s Dawson.
Are you free this afternoon?” Dawson’s voice sounded unusually excited.
Kevin couldn’t help but wonder if he had already found investors.
“Yes,” he replied quickly.
“Good.
We’ve got investors.
Three film companies are interested in your project right now.
Come by the office so we can go over the details and figure out which one to go with.”
“Got it.
No problem!” Kevin held back his excitement and hung up.
He looked at Mitch.
“Investors are lined up.” Shaking his head with a smile, he added, “Three companies are interested.
I’m heading over to CAA to hash out the details and pick one.”
Mitch nodded, equally excited.
Landing an opportunity like this right out of school was incredibly rare.
Even though behind-the-scenes crew members had a slightly easier path to career growth than directors, a break like this usually took years of grinding to earn.
After all, who wouldn’t want their name in the credits of a real Hollywood feature film?
That wasn’t just prestige — it could lead to real money.
A successful film on your resume opened doors wherever you went next.
Of course, failure carried consequences too.
But the biggest scapegoat for a film’s failure was almost always the director, so the rest of the crew rarely had much to worry about.
“I’ll go spread the good news.
You go handle the investors.
Don’t worry about anything on this end.”
With that, Mitch pushed open the door and hurried off toward the cafeteria.
They had originally planned to eat there together.
If Kevin hadn’t been rushing off to negotiate, he would have joined them shortly after.
…
Inside the cafeteria, five students of varying styles waved Mitch over as he jogged in.
“Where’s Kevin?”
Mitch laughed.
“He’s off negotiating with investors.
I came ahead to break the good news.”
“That’s amazing!
I knew Kevin could pull it off — the guy’s a genius.
That short film he made, Double Vision, left a real impression on the professors.”
“Exactly!
Let’s toast to our genius director!” A short, stocky guy with dark hair and a distinctly Asian appearance — though he spoke and carried himself exactly like any other American student — raised his beer.
The rest followed suit, celebrating early.
Their excitement, mixed with the general noise of the cafeteria, quickly spread across campus.
Near the campus gates, Kevin’s ex-girlfriend was walking arm-in-arm with her new boyfriend Louis when the news reached her.
Pella’s expression instantly stiffened.
She hadn’t expected that, so soon after their breakup, her ex would already have investors lining up to fund his debut feature film.
If this were true, then dumping him had gotten her absolutely nowhere.
After all, knowing Kevin’s personality, if she had still been his girlfriend, the female lead role in his film would have gone to her without question.