"The important part," Alan continued, "is that he still isn't tied to anyone. No overall deal. No first-look agreement. No long-term production partnership. He owns his own company."
"Which means," said the head of Business Affairs, "everyone still has a shot."
"Exactly. And I don't intend to lose that opportunity." Alan looked toward the vice president of acquisitions. "What else do we actually know?"
The executive opened a folder. "Our people have been hearing the same thing all week. Harvey Weinstein can't keep his mouth shut."
A few restrained smiles appeared around the room. "That's hardly breaking news," someone muttered.
"It isn't," the executive admitted. "But he's talking just enough to make sure everyone knows Marvin isn't sitting still. Apparently, he's finished several screenplays over the past few months. The number we keep hearing is four to five. They've all gone through legal, been registered, and locked away."
Another executive joined in. "Same rumor we're getting."
"They've all gone through legal."
"Registered."
"Locked away."
"No one's actually seen them."
"Right.”
"Titles?" Alan asked.
"Only two have surfaced with any consistency. *Let the Right One In*... and something called *Legally Blonde*."
"The vampire picture," another executive clarified.
Alan listened without interrupting.
Hollywood was a small town pretending to be a large industry.
Secrets rarely stayed secret forever. Not because lawyers failed. Because people talked. Assistants talked. Agents talked. Producers talked.
Harvey Weinstein talked more than anyone. Nobody knew what the other scripts were.
But everyone seemed convinced Marvin is quietly building himself a library of intellectual property.
Alan wasn't interested in the gossip. He was interested in what the gossip meant.
"What do we actually know?"
The room grew more focused.
The acquisitions executive answered first. "We know he's developing the vampire picture. We know he's assembling department heads. Some preliminary casting conversations have already started."
"Nothing public yet."
"No announcements."
"But agencies have been contacted."
The acquisitions executive nodded. "From what Harvey described it to half the town. Not an action film. Not a romance. Just a bleak European story about lonely children, bullying, and a mysterious vampire girl. The budget is supposedly microscopic. Under five million."
Alan stopped pacing, his eyes narrowing in calculation. "A teen vampire movie? Written by the guy who just reinvented the psychological thriller?"
Several people exchanged puzzled looks. "It doesn't exactly scream blockbuster," someone observed.
"No," Alan agreed. "It doesn't. And *Legally Blonde*?"
The executive smiled. "Harvey apparently summed it up by calling it 'a movie about a blonde girl everyone underestimates.' On paper, it sounds like the sort of modest high-school comedy every studio passes on without thinking."
"But this is Marvin," Alan pointed out.
Nobody argued with that. A script from anyone else would have been filed away as another inexpensive teen comedy. A script from Marvin immediately became something every studio wanted to read.
Someone near the end of the table quietly whistled at the five-million-dollar budget for the vampire film. Alan didn't react.
"I don't care whether the budget is five million or ten," Alan said, his tone resolute. "I want Warner Bros. involved. Domestic distribution. And international, if they'll let us."
The head of domestic distribution immediately began making notes. "You want us to reach out?"
"This afternoon. Call his representatives. Tell them we're interested. No games. No lowball offers. If he wants a generous gross participation, we'll have the conversation." Alan looked around the table. "If Disney lands that picture, they don't just get one film. They start building a relationship. And relationships are how you end up getting the next film. The next franchise. The next generation. I'm not interested in giving them that opening."
Another executive spoke up. "Speaking of the next franchise... what about *The Lord of the Rings*?"
Alan turned toward him. "What about it?"
"Harvey has apparently reached a deal with Marvin. For the film rights."
A few eyebrows rose. "The whole thing?"
"So we're told. The understanding is that Harvey agreed to transfer Miramax's position for roughly fifteen million dollars."
Several executives looked surprised. "Only fifteen?"
The executive nodded. "Miramax had already invested money in development, but Harvey never wanted to finance three enormous fantasy films. He was pushing for something much smaller. Condense the books, reduce the scope, cut costs. From Harvey's perspective, he probably thinks he's done Marvin a favor. He recovers his investment, makes a profit, avoids hundreds of millions in production risk, and walks away."
Alan smiled faintly. "And Marvin?"
"Marvin gets exactly what he wanted. Complete creative control. He has no interest in making a smaller version. He's already opened discussions with the Tolkien Estate regarding the broader rights necessary to move forward."
"And the budget?"
"Internal projections are enormous. The figure we've heard is north of three hundred million dollars for the trilogy."
That finally drew genuine silence. Three hundred million dollars. In 1999, that wasn't simply ambitious. It bordered on insanity.
"If he actually spends that kind of money," one executive let out a slow breath, "he'll be betting his entire fortune he has made since he walked in entertainment."
Alan shook his head. "No. He'll be betting on a library that's already survived for forty years."
Another executive cleared his throat. "There's one more wrinkle. The director. Peter Jackson."
A few brows rose.
A few brows rose.
"The horror guy?" someone asked.
"The New Zealander."
"The one who became famous after the Leopard hunting?" another executive added.
"And a handful of very... unusual horror films."
The room was quiet for a moment. Alan finally spoke..
"Has anyone here actually watched *Heavenly Creatures*?"
Only two hands went up.
"I have," Alan said. "It tells me he can direct actors. It tells me he understands emotion. The rest can be learned."
One executive looked unconvinced. "You're willing to bet hundreds of millions on that?"
Alan smiled faintly. "No. I'm willing to bet on Marvin. The kid has been right often enough that I've stopped asking whether he knows something the rest of us don't."
A quiet laugh moved around the table.
"If Marvin believes Jackson is the right director, I'm inclined to find out why before I tell him he's wrong." Alan looked from face to face.
He looked toward Business Affairs. "If Miramax starts getting cold feet..."
The executive nodded before Alan finished. “We call. Immediately. I don't care whether it's co-financing, buying into the distribution, or acquiring part of the rights."
Alan's tone remained calm. "But I want Warner Bros. at that table."
"Understood."
Alan took a deep breath and spoke with a sigh. "Look at what we're discussing. Two very different projects. One costs less than most studios spend on marketing. The other may become the most expensive fantasy production ever attempted. And somehow... they're both being driven by the same kid."
The room was quiet again. Not because anyone doubted the numbers, but because they were all beginning to understand the same thing. Marvin wasn't simply collecting successful films. He was building a slate. A real studio slate. One prestige picture. One commercial comedy. One fantasy epic. Different audiences. Different budgets. Different risks.
The pattern wasn't accidental.
Alan pushed back his chair and stood. "Stay close to him." He looked toward Business Affairs. "If anyone here gets an opportunity to build a relationship with Marvin... don't sell him. Help him. He doesn't need another studio promising the moon. He needs a partner who solves problems."
Horn sitting back down at the head of the table. "I want Warner Bros. involved. Call his agent today. Offer a highly favorable gross percentage split. If Disney or Paramount gets their hands on the distribution for a low-risk, high-reward project like this, they use it to build a bridge to his bigger projects. We cannot let that happen. Block them out."
He closed the meeting folder with a quiet snap. "If Disney calls first, they gain an advantage. If we call first, we at least earn the right to sit at the table. And if we become that studio... the deals everyone else is chasing will eventually come to us on their own."
No one in the room mistook it for a small victory.
In Hollywood, the first phone call often determined who signed the final contract. By the time rival studios realized a project was worth fighting over, the battle had usually already been lost.
Pens scratched furiously across legal pads as assistants hurried to record every instruction.
Alan Horn was incredibly courageous and highly capable. It was no wonder he had survived and thrived in the brutal, shifting landscape of this industry for fifty years. His ability to see the long game was legendary. In the future, this exact kind of foresight would lead to him being poached by Disney, where he would help control and expand the film company with the highest market value in the world.
Alan leaned back in his chair, fingers interlocked, his expression unreadable. He hadn't spent decades climbing to the top of Hollywood by chasing trends. He survived because he recognized where power was moving before everyone else did.
Executives came and went. Studio heads enjoyed a string of hits, only to vanish after a disastrous slate or a corporate shake-up. Entire administrations rose and fell around him, yet Horn remained. He understood a truth many in Hollywood never did.
Stars could leave. Directors could change studios. Franchises eventually ran dry.
But a creator capable of producing hit after hit was an investment measured in decades.
Around the conference table, everyone understood the implication.
If Warner Bros. secured Marvin Meyers before the rest of Hollywood realized what they were looking at, they wouldn't simply gain another writer. They would gain leverage.
Leverage against Disney.
Leverage against Universal.
Leverage against Paramount.
Against every studio that would inevitably come calling once Marvin's scripts began circulating through agencies and executive lunches.
The timing couldn't have been better.
Behind polished conference rooms and carefully rehearsed press releases, the entire entertainment industry was already shifting beneath everyone's feet.
Officially, nothing had changed.
Unofficially, everyone knew Time Warner was deep in merger negotiations with AOL.
The rumors had spread far beyond New York boardrooms. Investment bankers had become familiar faces inside the Time Warner building. Corporate lawyers were billing impossible hours. Senior executives disappeared into meetings that never appeared on official calendars. Every few days another whisper found its way through Burbank, and each version carried the same conclusion.
Something enormous was coming.
If the merger happened, it wouldn't simply create the largest media company in the world. It would bring together two completely different cultures.
On one side stood old Hollywood—a business built on filmmakers, relationships, stars, and long-term creative investments.
On the other stood AOL, Wall Street's golden child, where explosive stock prices, internet subscribers, and quarterly growth mattered more than Oscar speeches.
No one inside Warner Bros. knew what the new corporate hierarchy would value.
That uncertainty made everyone dangerous.
Department heads quietly rushed projects into production while they still possessed greenlight authority. Multi-picture deals that might have taken months to negotiate were suddenly pushed across conference tables before new executives could question them. Producers who had spent years loyal to one studio began quietly taking lunches across town, preparing for the possibility that old alliances wouldn't survive the restructuring.
Every division wanted something tangible it could place in front of the incoming leadership.
Warner Bros. Television wanted ratings.
New Line Cinema wanted franchises.
The feature division wanted prestige pictures that won awards and commercial successes that paid for everything else.
Because when the merger was complete, the new leadership wouldn't care about promises.
They would ask a far simpler question.
What irreplaceable assets do you control?
Alan Horn intended to have an answer ready.
Not another actor.
Not another director.
Those could always be poached.
A once-in-a-generation storyteller was different.
If Marvin Meyers became synonymous with Warner Bros., the studio wouldn't merely possess a gifted young writer. It would possess something every rival studio wanted and every incoming executive would immediately recognize as invaluable.
In an era when corporate empires were being rebuilt from the top down, talent wasn't just creative capital.
It was political capital.
And Horn had no intention of letting that asset end up on someone else's balance sheet.
Horn knew that securing a prodigy like Marvin Meyers would make his division look incredibly valuable to the incoming Time Warner CEO during the upcoming transition talks. Marvin was not just talent; he was corporate armor to protect and promote his job.
---
Paramount Pictures
Sherry Lansing's Office
Morning sunlight filtered through the tall windows, washing over framed one-sheets from Titanic, Forrest Gump, Braveheart, and Saving Private Ryan.