The night was deep, and the lights were on in an apartment in North Hollywood. Ryan sat in front of his laptop, his fingers tapping steadily at the keyboard.
"In 2029, America is prosperous. Its people live in peace and contentment, the crime rate continues to fall, and freedom and democracy have reached unprecedented heights."
"But all of this is just a beautiful soap bubble."
Ryan typed out the background setting for the script.
"To maintain this beautiful state, the US government has launched a plan called 'The Purge,' designed to give people a way to release their negative emotions."
"The plan works as follows: from 7 PM on March 21st, 2029, to 7 AM on March 22nd, all crimes — including murder — are legal for those twelve hours. During this period, emergency services such as police, ambulances, and fire departments are also shut down. For those twelve hours, everyone is on their own."
By Hollywood standards, a film that doesn't take at least some shots at the US government isn't much of a film at all.
That kind of surface-level prosperity hiding something rotten underneath was also a pretty honest portrait of the so-called beacon of democracy.
More importantly, it would appeal to people who didn't have a very high opinion of the US.
Arabs, for instance.
Some Arab countries were close allies of the US, but on the whole, Arabs tended to dislike America. The US was, after all, the main backer of their sworn enemy.
To put it plainly, picking this particular horror concept was driven by financing needs.
For the sake of money, Ryan had absolutely no trouble criticizing the US government. He'd just keep the tone calibrated so it didn't go too far.
The US government had always been one of Hollywood's favorite villains anyway. Ryan had read enough industry analysis to know that American audiences actually enjoyed watching films take shots at their own government. That mentality wasn't unique to Americans either. Audiences everywhere tended to enjoy seeing their country's films criticize the people in charge.
The setting and main plot of the script he was working on followed the same basic shape as The Purge from his previous life. But to make it work for Arab financing, there would need to be a significant Arab character somewhere in the story.
A family of four as the leads? Ryan paused. That wasn't going to work.
Even if the main purpose of this project was to raise money, he also wanted to actually produce it eventually. If all four leads were Arab, no distribution company would touch it, let alone theaters. This wasn't twenty years later, when having the right identity markers could carry a project a long way in the industry.
Besides, four Arab protagonists would look fake immediately. Anyone who knew even a little about how Hollywood worked would see through it the moment they read the first page.
Even if the primary goal here was financing, the whole thing had to look as legitimate as possible from the start.
Ryan quickly came up with a better approach. What if an Arab character appeared as the one who saves the day?
The family's neighbors are Arab. The male lead isn't particularly warm toward them. When the family is about to be wiped out on Purge Night, the Arab neighbor is the one who saves them.
Arabs saving Americans.
Ryan confirmed the basic shape of the Arab character. The specifics could be worked out during the actual writing.
In his previous life he'd been a producer on smaller projects, so scriptwriting wasn't unfamiliar territory. Anderson's natural ability in this area was strong, even if his experience was limited. Between the two of them, Ryan had something to work with.
He started slowly, but once he had the outline and the framework in place, filling in the template went much faster. The film had a small cast and limited locations, which made it a relatively straightforward script to write.
Even so, with only six hours of sleep a night, it still took him a week to finish the first draft at eighty pages.
It was rough in places. Ryan did a quick pass over it but didn't plan to do anything more detailed. Time wasn't on his side.
The most recent bank loan was close to its deadline, and missing the payment would cause serious problems. Judith from the bank called every week, which was becoming genuinely irritating. There was even a chance the bank might call the loan early, which would be worse.
New Line Cinema, the distributor of Desperate Survival, hadn't pushed for its share of the copyright transfer fee yet, but that couldn't be stretched out much longer either.
And the Nasdaq was still climbing.
He needed to get moving.
As the new week started, Ryan signed the copyright transfer agreement with Blockbuster and received the $150,000. He then called another all-staff meeting in the office.
"First, some good news."
He wanted to put everyone at ease before anything else. "As you probably know, the $150,000 transfer fee for Desperate Survival came through this morning. Salaries won't be a problem before the bank loan comes due."
George Clint immediately sat up straighter. "We'll get through this together. I know we will."
Mary and Robert Lee didn't say anything, but both of them visibly relaxed.
At their age, a steady salary meant everything. Loan repayments, family, all of it. Motivational speeches didn't do much for people who had real bills to pay. The money was what mattered.
Ryan moved on to the actual agenda. "George, have you been in touch with your contacts in the media?"
"I have," George said, his lined face more animated than usual. "I met with more than a dozen people this week. Three of them are entertainment reporters at Variety, the Los Angeles Times, and The Hollywood Reporter. As long as we can cover the placement fees, most of them are willing to run something for us, but the placement..."
"The placement doesn't matter. Third page, fourth page, that's fine." What Ryan needed was coverage for the new project, not a front page.
The Los Angeles Times was one of the top three papers in the country, and Variety and The Hollywood Reporter were the two main trade publications. For a small film project, getting any coverage at all was hard even when you were willing to pay.
Ryan thought for a moment, then said, "Stay in touch with all of them, especially those three. I'm going to hold a press conference for the new project very soon."
George started to ask about the project, but Ryan raised a hand. "We'll get to that in a moment."
He looked at Robert Lee. "Have you made contact with the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority?"
Robert placed a folder on Ryan's desk. "My friend reached out to a director at their LA office. He's mainly responsible for assessing investment opportunities in the cultural and entertainment space." Robert paused, choosing his words. "He has a very low opinion of Hollywood. Almost hostile. He told my friend that Hollywood is complicit with Jewish interests in portraying the Arab world in a negative light."
"He's focused on the cultural and entertainment sector?" Ryan picked up on the key detail.
"Yes, including films," Robert said. "But his work there has been difficult going. You know how it is. People in the industry aren't exactly welcoming to Arabs."
Ryan nodded. That wasn't surprising. Calling Hollywood Jewish-controlled was an overstatement, but Jewish influence on the industry was real and significant, and the way Arab characters had been written in American films over the decades made that influence easy to see.
James Cameron's True Lies had caused protests across the Arab world, and almost no Arab country had agreed to import it. Hollywood and the American press had barely registered the backlash and kept right on going.
Though to be fair, Arabs had given them plenty of material to work with over the years too.
Ryan flipped through the background material on Abu Dhabi that Robert had gathered. Compared to Saudi Arabia, the UAE was considerably more open. Saudi Arabia had banned public film screenings entirely, and Saudis who wanted to see a movie in a theater had to fly to the UAE to do it. That meant Emiratis had at least some exposure to the film-going experience.
But exposure to films and understanding of how Hollywood actually operated were two very different things. In the nineties, how the industry worked was genuinely opaque to most of the world, not just the Gulf states.
Ryan set the folder down. "Robert, can your friend arrange a meeting with this director?"
Robert thought for a moment. "He mentioned the man will be attending a 20th Century Fox appreciation event this weekend."
"Is it easy to get an invitation?"
"Leave it to me," Robert said.
Ryan pulled three copies of the script from his desk drawer, slid them forward, and said, "This is the script for the new project. Take a look."
As the three of them picked up their copies, he ran a hand through his messy hair. "Our next move is to build some momentum around this project. I'll register it with the Producers Guild through the official process. Mary..."
He looked at her directly. "We're holding a press conference next week. Book a room at the Beverly Hilton. George, you handle the media invitations. I'll give you a budget for fees and gifts. Small publications, large publications, tabloid photographers if you have to — I want at least fifty reporters in that room."
With money and gifts behind the ask, things moved easier. George nodded right away. "Not a problem."
Ryan turned to Robert. "On behalf of Starlight Entertainment, send invitations to Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio. Then quietly pass that information to the tabloids. We piggyback on the Titanic coverage."
George looked up from the script. "It might also help to invite stars with a history in horror films. Easier to get media attention that way."
Ryan agreed. "Send invitations to Jamie Lee Curtis, Drew Barrymore, Johnny Depp, and George Clooney."
Robert Lee, who had been in the industry long enough to know how these things went, shook his head. "Their agents won't even bother responding. They'll just ignore it."
Ryan pinched his chin. "Even better. Robert, make sure the invitations go out as formal, public notices."
"Understood." Robert closed the script. "One question though. Is this script the right fit? The concept is interesting, but the Arab element..."
Mary and George both glanced up at the same time.
The script wasn't being praised as a stroke of genius, but Ryan didn't mind. "Don't forget, we're raising money from Arab investors. Once we have the investment locked in..."
Robert nodded immediately. "We decide how the script develops from there."
"Move quickly," Ryan said, and turned to Mary. "Hire a small creative team to develop posters and storyboard drafts based on the script. Make them look as polished as possible."
Mary nodded. "I'll get on it right away."
Ryan pointed at his own reflection in the darkened window, specifically at the state of his hair. "Also, find me a stylist."
Being twenty years old wasn't exactly a confidence-inspiring look for a film producer, and Anderson had let himself go badly over the past year. He needed to look the part of someone successful and put-together, not someone who'd been sleeping in a bar.