[Chapter 133: Anger]
"What should we do? Should we retaliate?" Robert Downey Jr. asked with a frown.
"How do we retaliate? The Los Angeles Times conducted over 2,000 surveys and came to this conclusion. It's hard to refute, especially since we've seen The Blair Witch Project, and honestly, it wasn't great. This shows that our views align with the more educated audience, while those with less education seem to prefer such films," Kiefer Sutherland replied.
"I'm not talking about the paper; I'm talking about Link."
"What does Link have to do with this?" David Duchovny asked.
"Of course, it has everything to do with him. I pointed out earlier that The Blair Witch Project copied the production and marketing model of Paranormal Activity from start to finish. Now that The Blair Witch Project is making money, Link isn't getting any copyright fees, and he's bound to be furious.
If he's upset, he'll find a way to undermine the film. Plus, seeing us publicly supporting The Blair Witch Project will just irritate him more. So he uses the Los Angeles Times to publish this survey, both to undermine The Blair Witch Project and to make us look bad. Just look at the content of the article; he really did it," Robert Downey Jr. said, his brow furrowing as he spoke gravely.
"Was it really like that?"
"Talk about killing two birds with one stone. Link is really cunning," Kiefer Sutherland and David Duchovny exclaimed, banging their thighs in frustration.
"What are we going to do?"
"Yeah, Downey, you're the smartest one here. Think of a way to hit back at Link and make him embarrassed," Kiefer urged.
Robert Downey Jr. rubbed his chin, deep in thought, but couldn't come up with a solid plan. He politely told the two that he needed to think it over a bit longer and would get back to them tomorrow.
...
Once they left, Robert immediately called his agent, Jimmy Rich, asking him to come up with a good plan to tackle the current public relations crisis. He absolutely couldn't let fans think of him as less cultured.
Reluctantly, Jimmy agreed and advised Downey to focus more on his new film instead of fixating on Link. He assured him that he and the company would handle the situation.
Robert Downey Jr. impatiently replied, "Yeah, yeah, I know."
...
However, before they could start the PR efforts to salvage Robert's reputation, The Hollywood Reporter broke a bombshell -- according to reliable sources, the distributor of The Blair Witch Project, Trimark Pictures, had been acquired by Guess Pictures back in February.
This meant that The Blair Witch Project was officially a project under Guess Pictures. So it appeared highly likely that Link was the director, as well as the person responsible for marketing and distribution.
"No way! This can't be true!" Richard Gere exclaimed, his fists clenching in anger.
He wished this were just a false rumor. But the acquisition of Trimark Pictures by Guess Pictures was confirmed by former shareholders and employees of Trimark. They indicated that Guess Pictures had begun discussions with Trimark late last year, and after multiple rounds of negotiations, they reached an agreement at the beginning of the year. Trimark then became Guess Pictures' distribution company and took on the responsibilities for The Blair Witch Project.
However, Guess Pictures had intentionally concealed the information, and it had not been made public yet.
Former employees of Trimark asserted the truth of the acquisition, which seemed hard to dismiss.
Adding to Richard Gere's embarrassment, The Hollywood Reporter detailed Link's whereabouts from the previous year, revealing that Link had been absent from the public eye for eight days in early November -- ample time to have filmed The Blair Witch Project.
The article even cited a local report from Illinois, indicating that Link had been present there in November, along with Sofia Coppola. Moreover, in September and October of last year, Link and Sofia had been frequently seen together, with Sofia appearing multiple times at Guess Pictures.
All this evidence suggested that the film was likely a collaboration between Link and Sofia Coppola.
"Damn it! You all deserve to die." Richard shouted, smashing an ashtray onto the floor in fury.
The thought of how he had once praised Link's films made him feel like crawling into a hole.
"Richard, you're scaring me!" Cindy Crawford complained, clutching her chest in shock.
"Hmph!" Richard shot her a scowling glance before storming out of the villa.
...
"Is this really true?!"
"Damn you, Link! We fell for it again," Robert Downey Jr., Kiefer Sutherland, and Dustin Hoffman looked at the investigative article with expressions twisted in anger.
Originally, they had wanted to use The Blair Witch Project to undermine Link, thinking they could keep him from taking all the credit. To their shock, they discovered that Link was the one behind The Blair Witch Project, which was a Guess Pictures film.
Instead of hurting Link, they had inadvertently promoted the movie, helping him cash in.
"This is outrageous!" Robert Downey Jr. raged, punching the wall so hard he broke his hand in his frustration.
Kiefer Sutherland chimed in darkly, "There are reports that Ed Merrick joined Guess Pictures at the end of last year as an assistant in the production department. He could very well be Link's scapegoat, which means that Link is likely the director of this film. We've been duped."
"So that's it -- Link is a celebrity. If he had signed on as the director, everyone would have caught on and not gone to see The Blair Witch Project. But with Ed Merrick, that wasn't an issue. That guy is clever," David Duchovny noted.
"That bastard Link! He tricked us and cheated the audience out of over a 100 million bucks!" Robert yelled, raising his fists to the sky.
"Can we sue him for fraud?" Kiefer asked.
"Yeah, we could sue him for fraud," Robert replied, bounding to the phone to call his lawyer, asking if they could pursue legal action against Link for damages and ideally get him sent to jail.
The lawyer informed him that wasn't possible. Firstly, without concrete evidence, they couldn't prove Link was involved with the film or that Ed Merrick had no ties to it. Secondly, Ed Merrick was an employee of Guess Pictures, which meant that as long as he participated in shooting The Blair Witch Project, even by simply touching the camera, he had a connection to the film.
Moreover, the Constitution guaranteed citizens' creative freedoms; even if Link had made the film and didn't want to claim it, he was within his rights to remain anonymous or use a pseudonym. That wasn't against the law.
"Damn! Damn it!" Robert Downey Jr. angrily hung up the phone.
Kiefer Sutherland and David Duchovny were equally furious that they couldn't sue Link for fraud, hurling insults at him for being deceitful and shameless.
"Ha ha, this is hilarious," Julia Roberts chuckled as she watched their faces twist in anger.
Before reading the newspaper, they had planned to reach out to Trimark Pictures and Ed Merrick to discuss a joint promotion for The Blair Witch Project and negotiate a portion of the profits afterward. They had never anticipated that Trimark Pictures had already been acquired by Guess Pictures, and that The Blair Witch Project was Link's film. They had been treating Link like a rival while inadvertently endorsing his movie and helping him get rich.
The whole situation was amusing when one thought about it.
"Shut up!" Robert Downey Jr. and Kiefer Sutherland shouted in unison at Julia Roberts.
"Link's new film is a massive hit, and he's getting all the glory, while you guys get nothing but frustration. It's just too funny!" Julia laughed, grabbing her bag and leaving the villa without a backward glance.
*****
https://www.patreon.com/Sayonara816.