"Mr. Guo, James finished Paranormal Activity."
Buddy Morris knocked, stepped into Bruce's office, and got straight to the point.
Bruce had just flown back to Los Angeles from San Francisco. Lately, he had been shuttling between the two cities nonstop. In between, he had also made a trip to Seattle to sit down with Gabe Newell, now running the newly renamed Valve Game Studio, to discuss Left 4 Dead, along with the marketing strategy for Half-Life 2 and Counter-Strike.
At the same time, he still had to keep an eye on Google and LinkedIn. Phoenix Capital, run by Michael Moritz, did not require day-to-day supervision from him, and neither did HanHua Capital under Zhang Lei, but they were still his companies, and that meant he needed to stay involved. On top of that, Thornbird Publishing was in the middle of expansion and acquisition talks, Phoenix Asset Management was still being built out, and he was still writing new books.
More and more of his time was being eaten alive.
He was starting to look less like an entrepreneur and more like a man who lived in airports.
Oddly enough, the pace did not exhaust him. If anything, it made him feel more alive. Now and then, he would tease Molly Bevan online all the way from England, which had quietly become one of the most reliable pleasures in his routine.
The only thing that left a trace of regret was Nicole Kidman.
He had not seen her once since that night. The only update he ever got came from the news, which said she and Tom Cruise had divorced. As for the Romani family, by the time Bruce went back to look for them, they were already gone.
After doing the math in his head, Bruce nodded.
"Right on schedule."
Then he looked up.
"Has it been cut yet?"
"It's waiting in the screening room," Buddy said.
Bruce stood. "Let's go take a look."
He left the office with Buddy and headed down the hall.
The moment he stepped into the screening room, everyone already waiting inside rose to their feet.
"Mr. Guo."
James Wan was there, along with several others. Beside him stood Kevin , Matrix Pictures' head of marketing, a middle-aged executive from Cuba
Bruce gave them both a brief nod, then took the center seat without ceremony.
"Let's start."
At his command, the projectionist hit play.
The Matrix Pictures logo came up first, a rotating cube modeled after a Rubik's Cube, then the film began.
Compared with the original handmade, workshop-style version of Paranormal Activity, James Wan's version, built with an actual production pipeline behind it, looked far more polished. Even though James was still early in his career, the instincts were already there. He had preserved everything that mattered in the original concept while improving the details, tightening the rhythm, and refining the execution.
When the ninety-minute screening ended and the lights came back up, Bruce turned slightly in his seat.
"What do you think?"
Kevin Yang answered first.
"It's a terrific horror film. I think it has the potential to do thirty million at the box office."
Bruce gave a neutral nod, then looked at Buddy.
"And you?"
Buddy did not hesitate.
"It's very strong. Much better than the horror films this company used to make. James is the real deal. You spotted the talent early, Mr. Guo."
Bruce smiled, then turned back to the room.
"All right. Let's give James a hand. He just delivered a very good film."
Applause broke out immediately.
Under the sound of it, and with everyone looking at him approvingly, James actually looked a little embarrassed.
"The novel was the real foundation," he said. "Mr. Guo wrote a great story. I just turned it into images."
Bruce laughed and clapped him once on the shoulder.
"That's enough. Don't undersell yourself. And I'm not the kind of man who gets jealous of capable people."
Then he turned to Kevin.
"Has the marketing campaign started?"
Kevin nodded.
"Exactly the way you wanted. We've already seeded tens of thousands of posts across different forums. Between that and the novel's existing readership, we've successfully built online discussion around whether ghosts are real, and around broader occult topics. When the movie opens, I think that conversation will give us a real boost."
Online marketing before theatrical release was normal in the future. In 2000, it was anything but normal. The internet was still primitive, and very few people in the film business even had the instinct for it, let alone a real system. Bruce was ahead of the curve, though the era still limited what he could do. Connection speeds were too slow, distribution channels too thin, and most of the tools he would have used years later did not exist yet. For now, forum promotion and keyword optimization were about as far as he could push it.
Kevin hesitated, then added, "Mr. Guo, for distribution, do we still need to bring in an outside distributor?"
"No."
Bruce shook his head.
If Paranormal Activity had been a hundred-million-dollar tentpole, he would have partnered with one of the major studios without hesitation. Wide release at that level required their infrastructure. But this was not that kind of film.
Even after post-production, prints, marketing, and labor, the total cost still would not cross ten million dollars. It was a low-budget picture, and Bruce already knew, from memory and instinct both, that it was going to make money. A lot of money.
If that was the case, there was no reason to hand a meaningful share of the profit to someone else.
More important, Matrix Pictures needed to start building its own distribution relationships and marketing muscle. This film was the perfect test case.
"We'll distribute it ourselves," Bruce said. "And I want at least one thousand screens."
Kevin looked uncomfortable almost immediately.
"That may be difficult."
Bruce knew it would be difficult.
Before he bought Morris's company, the films they had produced had never gotten more than two hundred screens, even at their best.
"I know," Bruce said. "Go anyway. Take the print, take the materials, and push as hard as you can. I'm giving you two weeks. At the end of those two weeks, tell me how many screens you've locked, no matter the number."
"Understood."
Bruce gave Kevin a light pat on the arm, then walked out of the screening room.
"Mr. Guo."
James hurried after him.
Bruce stopped and turned.
"What is it?"
James held out the notebook he had been carrying the whole time.
"Ray wrote a script," he said. "He asked me to pass it along and see if you'd take a look."
Bruce smiled.
"Ray Whannell wrote it? Then why didn't he bring it to me himself?"
James looked slightly awkward.
"He felt a little self-conscious about it. In his mind, your standards are... pretty intimidating."
Bruce gave him a look, but said nothing.
He took the notebook, opened it casually, and glanced at the title.
His pupils tightened at once.
Then he flipped to the first page and started reading seriously.
James immediately noticed the change in Bruce's expression and wisely stayed quiet.
Ten minutes passed.
Then fifteen.
Finally, Bruce let out a long breath and closed the notebook.
"Get Ray to my office," he said. "You come too."
James blinked, then nodded quickly.
"I'll get him now."
Back in his office, Bruce sat behind his desk and looked down at the notebook, smiling to himself.
"Well, that's one hell of a surprise."
At the beginning, the only reason he had brought Ray Whannell into the company at all was because Ray came attached to James. That was it. James had been the real target.
Now things looked very different.
Knock, knock.
"Come in."
The door opened, and just as expected, James stepped in with Ray behind him.
Ray looked tense.
Bruce pointed toward the sofa across from his desk.
"Sit down."
They exchanged a quick glance, then sat.
Bruce leaned back and studied Ray for a moment, then tapped the notebook on the desk.
"This script, Saw, you really wrote it yourself?"
Ray nodded immediately.
"Yeah. I got the idea while watching James shoot Paranormal Activity. I only finished writing it a few days ago."
Bruce nodded slowly.
"So the rights are still yours?"
"Yes."
"Good."
He paused, then asked the question directly.
"Do you want to make it into a movie?"
Ray answered without even thinking.
"Absolutely."
Bruce smiled.
"In that case, let's talk business."
Ray straightened without meaning to.
"The company will buy the script. You'll get fifty thousand dollars for it. And if the film performs especially well at the box office, you'll get a 0.3 percent backend participation."
Ray stared at him.
"Really?"
"Really."
For a new screenwriter, fifty thousand dollars was already an extraordinary price. Backend participation was even rarer. But Bruce knew exactly what Saw was. It was the beginning of a franchise that would run eight films deep, and every single one of them would make money. If he wanted loyalty and long-term cooperation, then this was not the moment to get cheap.
When it was time to use money to win people over, stinginess was bad business.
Ray found his voice again.
"Thank you, Mr. Guo."
Bruce nodded, then shifted his attention to James, who was clearly thrilled for his friend.
"James, since you're the one who brought this to me, you're directing it."
James froze for half a beat.
Then Bruce added, "But first, you're going to work with marketing on the Paranormal Activity campaign."
James came back to life at once and nodded hard. His second feature had arrived far sooner than he ever expected.
Bruce picked up the phone on his desk.
"Buddy, come to my office."
A moment later, Buddy Morris hurried in.
"Mr. Guo?"
Bruce handed him the script.
"Ray just finished this. It's called Saw. I want James directing it. Have production start preparing, and tell legal to get the contracts ready."
Buddy took the script, then looked at James and Ray, both of whom were trying and failing to hide their anticipation.
After a brief pause, he said carefully, "Mr. Guo, we already have five films on the schedule this year. If we add this one too, aren't we pushing it?"
Bruce shook his head.
"It's fine. Like Paranormal Activity, this isn't going to be an expensive picture. And we can carry it."
Buddy understood the decision had already been made.
He did not argue further.
Under Bruce's instruction, legal prepared the agreements, and once Ray Whannell and James Wan both signed, Matrix Pictures officially greenlit its fourth film after Legally Blonde, Paranormal Activity, and The Fast and the Furious.
The budget was set at $1.5 million.
The title was Saw.
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