Louis, who was standing nearby and holding his girlfriend’s hand, clearly felt her arm go stiff.
“Darling, what’s wrong?”
“No, nothing.”
Pella couldn’t say what she was really thinking, so she just smiled quickly and told herself that Kevin had nothing on Louis anyway.
It was almost impossible for a rookie director’s first film to become a massive hit.
If Kevin failed even once, he would likely never get another shot in Hollywood — so there was no reason for her to worry about him at all.
…
Meanwhile, back at the CAA building, Kevin’s mindset had completely shifted.
Three film companies were interested in his project at the same time, which meant they all saw real value in his script.
It also confirmed that the Saw he had brought over from 2004 held just as much commercial appeal here in 1991.
That realization put him completely at ease.
The next step was simple: pick the right backer from the three studios.
He called Dawson, who hurried down from his office to meet him.
As they walked in together, Dawson filled him in on the situation.
“Through CAA’s network, your proposal went out to about a dozen mid-to-large studios,” Dawson explained.
“In the end, these three came directly to CAA to meet with you.
New Line Cinema, Grand Jazz Pictures, and Great American Films.”
“…”
Listening to Dawson, Kevin quickly ran through what he remembered about these companies.
From what he recalled, Grand Jazz and Great American basically didn’t exist in the future.
They had likely gone bankrupt and faded away long ago.
Even Hollywood’s biggest studios had gone through bankruptcy scares and buyouts over the years, so two smaller independents disappearing wouldn’t be surprising.
New Line Cinema, though, Kevin remembered clearly.
He knew that after 1993, New Line would be acquired by Warner Bros.
and folded into the Time Warner empire — a company that controlled Warner Bros.
Studio, Warner Bros.
Television, Warner Bros.
Animation, Warner Home Video, Warner Bros.
Games, DC Comics, and The CW.
That alone said everything about how powerful a backer it could be.
On top of that, New Line always loved investing in low-budget horror, so it made sense they were interested in Saw.
Their reputation had also jumped the year before, in 1990, after they successfully distributed the Hong Kong Golden Harvest film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles — a project Fox had been too nervous to touch.
In short, they currently had plenty of cash to spend.
Given all that, unless something unexpected happened today, New Line Cinema would almost certainly end up being his final choice.
Kevin nodded to Dawson, signaling he understood the background on the three companies, then pushed open the door to the meeting room.
Inside, two large sofas faced a central glass table.
The three executives, lounging comfortably on either side, looked completely at ease.
It wasn’t time for serious negotiations yet.
Right now, these three studio heads just wanted to judge whether Kevin actually had the ability to direct a feature film.
Once they settled on the main investor, the real contract talks would begin.
Seeing Kevin walk in, all three men stood and shook his hand one by one.
Whatever the outcome ended up being, at least for now, they all treated him with real professional respect.
That actually surprised Kevin a little.
He remembered reading plenty of Hollywood-themed web novels in his past life, where industry bigwigs would act dismissive or full of themselves at the smallest opportunity.
He hadn’t expected real executives to treat a rookie who hadn’t even made a real film with this much politeness.
But after a moment, Kevin realized this was simply how the real world worked.
With no real conflict of interest yet, and facing a young director who clearly had potential, these executives had no reason to show their true colors in front of him.
At least, not until he failed again and again.
If his films kept flopping, he’d probably see their true colors soon enough.
Of course, he had no plans to let that happen.
After the handshakes, Kevin took a seat across from them.
Dean, an executive from New Line Cinema and the one most eager to produce Saw, spoke up first.
“I’ve seen your script — it’s good, but I want to ask: why do you specifically want the female lead in Saw to be a hot-girl type?”
Dean already had a few theories, and those theories were exactly why New Line believed the project could do well.
But he wanted to hear it confirmed directly from the director.
Kevin smiled calmly.
He immediately understood the real question hidden behind Dean’s words.
Plenty of young directors were obsessed with “pure art,” and that type usually had a very hard time getting studio funding.
In the eyes of these production companies, directors were split into two camps: commercial directors and arthouse directors.
Art films were mostly funded by overseas investors or independent grants, and very few of them ever turned a profit.
Commercial directors, on the other hand, had a much easier time getting their projects approved — as long as they didn’t rack up a string of flops.
Dean was testing him, trying to figure out exactly which type of director Kevin wanted to be.
And Kevin’s answer was designed to mark himself clearly as a commercial director.
“Because young audiences like hot girls.”
Hearing this, the room burst out laughing, but the message underneath was obvious.
He wasn’t some full-of-himself director chasing awards while ignoring the people actually paying for tickets.
With that settled, the rest of the conversation went much more smoothly.
The initial terms from all three studios were nearly identical: a total production budget of 1.3 million dollars, covering all production costs plus Kevin’s own director’s fee of 50,000 dollars.
By Hollywood standards, that was an extremely tight budget.
His personal fee wasn’t much either, but Kevin didn’t care.
As long as Saw hit even a third of the success it had in his past life, he’d never have to worry about scraping by again.
More importantly, he had already safely secured the copyright of Saw — and that alone would eventually bring him a fortune.
As for negotiating a cut of the box office profits?
As much as he wanted to, this wasn’t a fantasy novel.
He was still an unproven rookie in Hollywood.
There was no realistic way to demand profit-sharing at this stage in his career.
However…
Holding on to a faint hope that he could still squeeze out a bit more leverage, Kevin spoke up.
“Gentlemen, I’m extremely confident in this film.
In fact, I have an idea.”
“What idea?” the executives asked calmly.
Since the three studios already had existing ties and shared interests with one another, there was little chance of an actual bidding war breaking out between them.