Hollywood Director 1992.

Chapter 401 The Matrix and Beautiful Women

"Boss, are you busy?"

At noon, Link was writing the script for "Saving Private Ryan" in his office when Daniel DeVito walked in, his belly protruding, carrying several folders.

What kind of work is available?

Link asked his assistant to pour Daniel a glass of iced tea.

“Harvey contacted me again yesterday, saying he wanted to co-invest in a movie.”

"I remember you two didn't reach an agreement last time."

"Yes, he didn't like the film projects I presented last time, but I don't know why he changed his mind this time. He's very eager to cooperate."

Daniel DeVito shrugged.

Which project did Harvey choose?

“As you said, I presented Harvey with some art-house film projects to choose from, and he selected ‘Evita’ from the three projects.”

By the end of the year, Guess What Films had started shooting the film projects that were initiated at the beginning of the year. The remaining film projects were initiated in June and July, including "Strategic Master", "Nothing to Lose" and "Evita" starring Madonna.

The production cost of "Evita" was $5500 million, with Madonna investing $1500 million herself and Guess what? Studios invested $4000 million. If Miramax wanted to participate, they could transfer half of their investment.

"The script for Evita is good. If it's well-made, it has the potential to be a dark horse film. Harvey's choice of this project shows his foresight."

Link took a sip of coffee and said.

"Harvey is indeed a good producer, but he's far inferior to you in choosing films."

Daniel DeVito chuckled and added, "There's another thing. A while ago, I received an interesting script called 'The Matrix.' The screenwriters are the Wachowski brothers, the directors of 'The Last Assassin.' They said that some parts of the plot were inspired by 'The Internet,' so they sent the script to our company for review. After reading it, I found it to be good and worth investing in."

"The Matrix?"

Link raised his handsome eyebrows.

"Yes! Here's the script, take a look."

Daniel DeVito rummaged through the folder, pulled out a script with a blue cover, and pushed it in front of him.

Link flipped through it and saw that it was similar to the Matrix he remembered.

The story revolves around Neo, a cyber hacker who discovers that his world is controlled by the Matrix, an artificial intelligence system that has caused people to lose their freedom and thoughts. To resolve this situation, he teams up with the mysterious woman Trinity and Morpheus, the leader of a hacker organization, to fight against the Matrix and battle against computer data beings.

While reading the script, Link couldn't help but recall scenes of Keanu Reeves and Carrie Ann Moss running around in black leather jackets, and Keanu Reeves dodging bullets.

The premise of this movie is indeed very cool and quite unconventional.

Given the current level of internet literacy, many people may not even understand the script. However, we are now at the beginning of the internet age, and this kind of subject matter is very fresh and can arouse the curiosity of the audience. This is also the reason why The Matrix series of movies was a big hit.

"Boss, how's it going?"

Daniel asked, holding his teacup.

"The story is very interesting and has great innovation based on the premise of 'Cyber ​​Terror,' making it worth investing in."

The script was similar to the movie he remembered, with only minor plot differences. He had no intention of making any changes himself and believed that the Wachowski brothers would correct them during filming.

"Boss, the Wachowski brothers said they would direct this movie themselves when they submitted the script. However, their film 'The Last Assassin' did very poorly at the box office last year. The production cost was $50 million, but it only grossed more than $30 million, causing Warner Bros. to lose a lot of money."

This shows that the Wachowski brothers' skill level is not very high. This film is a science fiction film that requires a lot of special effects and the production cost is estimated to be very high. It is too risky to entrust such a big project to them to direct.

"Should we take the script and have you direct this movie? Your film 'The Internet' was excellent; I believe this movie will also be very good."

Daniel DeVito adjusted his glasses and said.

Link thought about it and then refused.

The Matrix is ​​a film series, and making three movies would be very troublesome. Moreover, the Wachowski brothers are quite capable and ambitious, and they may not be willing to give up the opportunity to direct.

Instead of going through all that trouble, why not just let the Wachowski brothers direct it, and the company can just make money off the film?

"Let the Wachowski brothers direct. My schedule is full next year, and I don't have time to direct other films. Besides, they are young directors who are still growing, so we should have some patience and confidence in them."

"Okay, why don't you be the producer? With you overseeing it, this project will be more secure."

"Okay!"

Link agreed.

Daniel then talked to him about other film projects.

This year, the company has independently produced and co-produced a total of 22 films, 10 of which have already finished filming. These include Wayne Wang's "Smoke," Link's "The Rock" and "Primal Fear," Jim Carrey and Tom Shadyak's comedy "Liar Liar," Sofia's "Girl, Interrupted," Thomas Anderson's new film "Boogie Nights," and "Paranormal Activity 3."

And "12 Monkeys" (a collaboration with Columbia Pictures), "Fight Club" (a collaboration with Miramax Films), and "The Spy Who Loved Me" (a collaboration with New Line Cinema).

The remaining dozen or so films are either currently in production or in pre-production.

This year, Guess the Movies Pictures produced only a few big-budget films exclusively. Only five films, including "The Rock" and "Liar Liar," had a budget exceeding $5000 million, while the others had relatively low budgets.

By August, the production department had about $8500 million left in its accounts, enough to invest in "The Matrix" and one or two low-budget films.

Link didn't have time to read scripts and choose projects, so he left those things to the production department.

After Daniel left, Link took out his notebook and added the title "The Matrix".

Ahead of these are films like *Saving Private Ryan*, *Flirting*, *Dumbass*, and *Shakespeare in Love*, among others. These are the film projects that Guess What Film Studio plans to shoot at the end of this year and next year.

Closing his notebook, Link continued writing the script for the movie "Saving Private Ryan," which has already been greenlit with a budget of $7000 million. The cast is tentatively set to include Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, Giovanni Ribisi, Vin Diesel, and others, almost the same original lineup.

The film sets were mainly located near several battlefields in Europe during World War II, including Coolakloo Beach in Ireland, Tham Park in England, and Normandy in France.

The set designers from the production team have already arrived at the set to make arrangements.

The lead actors underwent military training in Texas.

Filming is expected to begin in October.

Jingle Bell!
The cell phone on the table rang a few times; it was a call from Chen Chong in China.

Chen Chong spent most of this year in China handling company affairs. Under her management, Dongfeng Pictures' films released this year performed well at the box office and did not lose money.

Chen Chong told him that filming for "Zheng Chenggong" had wrapped up and asked if he had time to return to China. She said there were still some shots that he needed to edit and review, and if he didn't have time, she would bring the film reels to the United States.

Link looked at his schedule for the next few weeks. He was going to Italy next week to attend the Venice Film Festival and wouldn't have time to fly to China. However, it would be troublesome and unsafe to have Chen Chong take the film to the United States.

He plans to take some time in September to travel to China to wrap up the film "Zheng Chenggong".

Chen Chong smiled and agreed, adding that the company had signed several promising newcomers, including three pretty girls, and asked him to help train them.

Link told her to stop being provocative, focus on her work, and not cause trouble at the company. He warned her that if her misbehavior caused the company to lose money, she would be severely punished.

Chen Chong laughed nonstop when she heard this, saying that she really wanted to be severely punished by him. Now she belonged to him from head to toe, inside and out, and he could punish her however he wanted.

This slut spoke in a melodious and seductive voice, so alluring it was almost sickening, and she became increasingly wanton as she spoke, which infuriated him.

dong dong!

There was a knock on the office door. Link ended his flirtatious chat with Chen Chong and called out, "Come in."

"Honey, are you busy?"

Before the woman outside even entered, a seductive giggle drifted in.

The person who arrived was the fair-skinned beauty Nicole Kidman.

The beautiful woman walked in, carrying a small handbag and swaying her alluring figure. She was dressed in a women's suit and straight skirt, paired with black stockings and high heels. Her rose-red lips contrasted with her snow-white skin, and a golden ponytail swayed back and forth behind her, dressed entirely to his liking.

"You're not busy, how come you have time to come over?"

“I came here with some friends to shop, and since you were still at work, I came up to bother you.”

Nicole Kidman laughed and sat on his lap, hooking her long arms around his neck and leaning affectionately against him, saying with a smile, "Don't you think I'm too annoying?"

"No! I like to balance work and rest."

Link smiled slightly, sliding his hand down to check the quality of the stockings and their temperature.

"Really? How about I come over and bother you every day from now on?"

"No problem, you can come whenever I'm in the office."

"Haha, never mind. Monica and Lina like to keep an eye on this place, watching who's cheating on you at the company. If they catch me, they'll criticize me in the meeting tonight, and maybe they'll even tie me up and punish me like last time."

Nicole Kidman squirmed in his arms, trying to increase the skin-to-skin contact area.

Link smiled and, upon inspecting her attire, noticed she was wearing sexy lingerie underneath, clearly indicating she was there to deliver food.

After being teased by Chen Chong for a while, Lin Ke was in a bit of an appetite. Without saying a word, he picked up the woman, placed her on the desk, unwrapped the food, and began to enjoy it.

(End of this chapter)