Roy Lee:
King
of the Asian Box Office Smash Remake
PAGE 3 OF 3
GOLDSEA | ASIAMS.NET | ASIAN AMERICAN PERSONALITIES
Roy Lee:
King of the Asian Box Office Smash Remake
His first Hollywood job was as a tracker for the production company Alphaville. Trackers read scripts and compare notes on the potential of a script with trackers from other production companies. Lee set up a website on which trackers could swap information.
“People were encouraged to post up their thoughts on unproduced sceenplays and books so that when the material comes out, people have an idea how good it is,” says Lee. “The system was structured in such a way that entrance into these small chat rooms was based upon your history of spotting good material.”
As the groups' administrator, Lee could see all the information being exchanged. When the screenplay for American Beauty was being tracked furiously, without having read the script, Lee alerted his friend Mark Sourian who was working as an assistant at DreamWorks. DreamWorks ended up buying and producing the script.
Lee left Alphaville to work at Benderspink where he worked alongside the founders as a producer in his own right. At Alphaville he had been an “analyst” tasked with finding projects for producers.
After two years at Benderspink Roy Lee had built up enough credibility and contacts to form his own production company with Doug Davison, a young producer Lee had come to know through business meetings and parties.
A scene from My Sassy Girl, a Corean romantic comedy being remade by Madonna's production company. |