From Flower Vase to Film Emperor in Hollywood

"Do I have that qualification?" asked Anson, "Like Bill Murray, single-handedly carrying a movie as the lead and driving box office success."

Jeff's eyes revealed a smile, "Yes, of course you do. You are now fully qualified."

Now, Jeff finally understood Anson's plan—

Rejecting large-scale projects like "Troy" to avoid being repeatedly caught in their whirlpools, truly becoming a mere pretty face; focusing on small to medium-sized projects, but not single-mindedly delving into acting, instead using these commercial projects to establish his actor image, driving box office numbers while gradually paving the way for an acting transformation.

Recently, with both "Elephant" and the album, Anson has been at the center of attention. Many opinions suggest that this overnight sensation has been blinded by the glitz and glamour of fame, losing his way completely.

But now it seems they were all wrong.

Including Jeff himself.

Involuntarily, Jeff felt a sense of appreciation for talent.

Jeff himself has been in Hollywood for many years, and he knows that most actors are commodities, products jointly created by agents and film companies. Like Barbie dolls, they have no thoughts or souls, ultimately becoming one replicated product after another on an assembly line.

This is Hollywood—

They spare no effort in searching for successful models that can be continuously replicated and repeated.

Only a very small number of actors can break free from the Barbie doll set and possess their own vitality.

In Jeff's view, current top-tier actors and superstars like Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Will Smith, as well as Julia Roberts, Meg Ryan, and others, are all like this. They still haven't found their own acting vitality.

Tom Hanks has already broken free. Leonardo DiCaprio and Johnny Depp are in the process of breaking free but haven't found the direction yet.

Rarely, Jeff saw Anson also beginning to "break free", taking the initiative to try before the Barbie doll set truly controlled him.

Although Jeff cannot yet say whether Anson will succeed, this calmness and wisdom made Jeff feel a little expectation.

Purely from a factual perspective, Anson currently doesn't have so-called box office appeal. The success of "Spider-Man" has many other reasons behind it; if Anson were to carry a project alone now, it's not certain that he could draw audiences into theaters. But at least, Anson is willing to take risks and try. Between continuing to be a pawn in large-scale projects and switching positions to become a chess player, he bravely chose the latter.

Just because of this, Jeff wanted to take on this project—

A kind of intuition.

Jeff has always believed that those who achieve great things need not only reason but also a bit of impulse and adventure. In his opinion, those who are steady and follow the rules will never be able to carve out their own path.

After a pause, his thoughts turned in his mind.

Jeff had made a decision.

"You should go to New Line Cinema; this project is more suitable for them to handle."

New Line Cinema, founded in 1967, initially focused on distributing low-budget European and domestic horror films to schools. After more than ten years of cultivation, it began to venture into the field of production, still mainly producing low-budget horror films.

In 1990, New Line Cinema purchased the rights to the Golden Harvest film "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" from Twentieth Century Fox, which they dared not release, and launched it in theaters, achieving great success and becoming one of the leading independent film companies in North America.

In 1993, it was acquired by Time Warner, becoming a film company under Time Warner; however, because the president of New Line Cinema still held a large portion of the shares, they still maintained independent operation.

New Line and Warner Bros. both belong to Time Warner, but they are independent of each other.

Of course, although they are said to be independent, the two companies also help each other.

In recent years, New Line Cinema's business has been thriving, thanks in no small part to Warner Bros.' assistance in distribution and marketing. For their latest work, the "Lord of the Rings" series, Warner Bros. is working together to launch an academy campaign, hoping that the film can win awards at the Oscars.

When Jeff was considering and planning Warner Bros.' next development plan, he did not ignore the existence of "Lord of the Rings".

Overall, Warner Bros. still focuses on the development of large-scale investment projects, while New Line Cinema is relatively smaller in scale. It's hard for many people to believe that the investment cost of "Lord of the Rings" is not high:

The first film, 90.3 million US dollars; the second film, 94 million US dollars.

Neither has broken the 100 million threshold yet.

Therefore, although Jeff can give Anson's project the green light at Warner Bros., this project may not receive much attention and resources.

Especially considering Anson's rejection of "Troy".

"Sorry, you shouldn't have rejected 'Troy'."

"Of course, if you use joining 'Troy' as a condition to exchange for this project, that's another matter."

Anson raised his hands, making a gesture of surrender, with an innocent and sad face.

Jeff chuckled.

"Or, you can choose to cooperate with New Line. I can contact them for you, but you may need to go over for another interview."

"Their budget is probably not that high, probably between 8 million and 15 million US dollars, depending on your personal charm."

"However, they are willing to give small and medium-sized science fiction projects a chance, allowing you to develop your own edges and colors. I believe you have your own ideas about this project and this role, and they will give you more space."

"A reminder, their distribution resources are not as good as Warner Bros., but they have more experience in distributing such small and medium-sized projects than we do."

There are advantages and disadvantages.

The key is how Anson positions himself and chooses.

Honestly, Anson didn't expect to get such a frank and real answer—

This is the second time Anson owes Jeff a favor.

Although Anson deliberately switched positions when they first met, saying that he was using this project to repay the favor, Anson himself knew that Jeff's introduction of himself to Steven was completely without any conflict of interest or demand for return. No matter what, he had already owed this favor.

Now it seems that one favor has not been repaid, and a second favor has been incurred.

This is different from Anson's impression of Hollywood.

Isn't it said that there is no benefit without getting up early, isn't it said that there is intrigue and secret calculations?

But obviously, Jeff is not like that.

Instead, Anson felt a little embarrassed.

However, expressing gratitude with words at this moment seems cheap. Anson secretly noted this favor, but joked, "Jeff, do your company superiors know that you are slandering them behind their backs like this?"

Jeff tilted his head, his face full of seriousness, "If they knew, I would know who leaked the news."