Investment Allocation

Looking at the despondent Dawson, Kevin said bluntly:

"Then let's leave CAA together. My film company still needs a president, and you're capable of handling it."

"Kevin..."

Dawson was somewhat moved. If Kevin had insisted, at most Dawson would have been replaced. Kevin himself would not have suffered any losses at CAA.

But Kevin was willing to support him, and that made Dawson very happy.

Since that was the case, there was nothing left to hesitate over. Dawson gathered his courage and said:

"Then I'll work for you. I'll go hand in my resignation later."

Kevin smiled and patted Dawson on the shoulder.

"Sure. While you're at it, help me terminate my agency contract with CAA. Also, after you resign, help me find an assistant and a driver. Preferably a female assistant, and the driver should ideally be able to serve as a bodyguard as well. The pay can be high."

"Leave it to me, Kevin."

The two exchanged smiles.

Kevin had only signed the most basic contract with CAA. Although his status had risen afterward, the contract had never been changed.

He could basically terminate the agency contract by paying a few thousand dollars.

After returning to the villa, Kevin began writing again.

The selling point of Mission: Impossible 1 was actually very clear: the action scenes.

It had three classic set pieces: jumping onto a train, smashing through a fish tank, and infiltrating the intelligence agency to steal documents.

Thinking of that, Kevin could not help recalling Jackie Chan.

Jackie Chan seemed to have done quite a bit of train-jumping himself.

But at this time, Jackie Chan was still making his way in Hong Kong Island and had yet to enter Hollywood.

Of course, none of that was important. What mattered was that Kevin wanted to invite the legendary Yuen Ba-yeh to oversee the action scenes for Mission: Impossible.

When it came to action scenes, one Western blockbuster after another was painfully awkward.

They neither looked good enough nor felt real enough.

However, after The Matrix, Hollywood also came to understand just how advanced China's study of action scenes was. From then on, many Hollywood blockbusters featured these behind-the-scenes talents.

But the film company most familiar with Hong Kong Island seemed to be...

New Line Cinema seemed fairly familiar with it.

Thinking of how New Line Cinema would produce Jackie Chan's Rush Hour in the future, Kevin made that guess.

Since that was the case, there was nothing more to say. Once their negotiations with Paramount were settled, Kevin would contact the crew members one by one.

In the blink of an eye, half a month passed.

After extremely complicated business negotiations, Paramount finally reached a concrete cooperation agreement with MGM and Warner Bros.

First, Mission: Impossible would have a total investment of eighty million dollars, divided among four parties: Kevin, MGM, Paramount, and Warner Bros.

The specific shares were MGM at 30%, Paramount at 10%, Warner Bros. at 30%, and Kevin at 30%.

The copyright revenue from Mission: Impossible would be distributed the same way. However, all future Mission: Impossible sequels would belong entirely to Paramount and would have nothing to do with the others.

Simply put, Paramount wanted to turn Mission: Impossible into a hot IP through Kevin's team.

They only wanted to pay the smallest possible price.

In short, if Mission: Impossible failed, Paramount would not lose much.

But if it succeeded, the subsequent Mission: Impossible sequels would bring Paramount astonishing profits.

Even faced with such terms, everyone still agreed.

What mattered more about this film was proving that Kevin had the ability to direct a major investment production. As for future sequels, if Kevin had the ability, finding other IPs would not be difficult.

MGM delivered the news to Kevin.

Upon hearing it, Kevin immediately began assembling his directing team.

Without CAA's help, there were naturally some matters he had to handle personally.

His classmates from the University of Southern California, Kevin's loyal core team, once again chose to join his Dawnlight Films and abandon their contracts with CAA.

Compared with CAA, they could gain more by following a renowned director like Kevin.

With part of the team in place, Kevin still lacked an experienced assistant director. He directly mentioned this to the Directors Guild.

Anyone interested could contact him through the Directors Guild.

In the end, he selected an experienced assistant director, Bilet.

Bilet had served as assistant director on several films, though Kevin did not look too deeply into that.

An assistant director was mainly responsible for filling gaps and handling overlooked details. The film would still depend primarily on Kevin, the main director.

At the same time, he filled the other missing positions one by one through the various guilds.

Except for an action coordinator.

Kevin picked up the phone and called Dean.

On the other end, Dean had been regretting that he had not been able to invest in Kevin's new film. When he saw Kevin's call, he quickly answered.

"Hello, Kevin."

"Dean, I heard you're familiar with people from Hong Kong Island. Could you help me contact an action coordinator named Yuen Woo-ping? My new film needs some excellent action direction."

Kevin got straight to the point.

"No problem. But Kevin, why didn't you invite New Line Cinema to invest in your new film? That's not very nice!"

Dean said half-jokingly.

"It's my first time directing a major investment film. I'm doing it for your own good, helping you avoid the risk. If there's a chance to work together on the next film, I'll definitely work with you."

Kevin said politely.

With things put that way, Dean had nothing more to say. After hanging up, he immediately began contacting Yuen Woo-ping and the Yuen Clan, the action team from Hong Kong Island, on Kevin's behalf.

In 1993, films were emerging one after another in Hong Kong Island. Logically speaking, Yuen Woo-ping had no time to go to the United States.

However, while there were many excellent action coordinators in Hong Kong Island, he was irreplaceable in the United States.

Still, finding someone in Hong Kong Island to fill in for him was not much of a problem.

Therefore, after New Line Cinema promised them a share of the profits, Yuen Woo-ping and the Yuen Clan ultimately boarded a plane for Los Angeles, United States.

At this point, Kevin's production team was completely assembled. Aside from a small amount of special effects work, everything else had been settled.

Meanwhile, news of Kevin's Mission: Impossible film spread like wildfire throughout Hollywood.

An action film with an eighty-million-dollar budget made countless people envious.

Countless people tried through every possible connection to secure a role in Kevin's new film.

After leaving CAA, those roles no longer needed to go through CAA.

Kevin chose to let the film companies decide most of the supporting roles.

As for the female lead, he had already personally chosen her as both an investor and director: Angelina Jolie.