Zane was actually surprised he got the rights to 300 so fast.
Why? Because the author was Frank Miller, a famous comic book master!
Frank Miller was a legend. He had created famous comics for DC (like Batman: The Dark Knight Returns) and Marvel (like Daredevil). He also created Sin City.
But... he was also famous for being really difficult to work with!
"Frank Miller is a master," Zane thought, "but he has a terrible reputation with the movie studios!"
Zane remembered what happened with the Sin City movie. The studio had to argue with Frank for a whole year! And in the end, they had to give him 15% of the ticket sales.
Not the profit. The sales! That meant Frank got paid first, even if the movie lost money. He made nearly $50 million from that movie.
That was way more than the rights for Spider-Man, which only cost $10 million!
"Frank is ruthless!" Zane thought.
And after Sin City was a hit, Frank got even more demanding. "I want to be the producer!"
"I want to direct it myself!"
"I want 20% of the money!"
He gave the Hollywood studios a huge headache. He was a comic book artist, not a movie maker!
But this time, Zane was lucky. Frank hadn't become a "vampire" yet.
Before 1997, Frank was famous for RoboCop, but his other comics were still pretty unknown. And 300? No one really knew about it yet.
So, Zane only had to pay $1.2 million for the rights.
Of course, he also had to give Frank 2% of the profits. Zane didn't want to give that up, but Frank was rich and stubborn. He said, "No profit share, no deal."
When Zane first heard that, he wanted to slap the old man! The audacity!
But in the end, it was a blessing. If Zane hadn't bought it now, Frank might have become impossible to deal with later. In Zane's old life, Frank delayed the 300 movie for two years because he was so stubborn.
...
After a long talk, Zack Snyder left Wald Pictures, looking happy.
He couldn't start 300 yet, but he didn't leave empty-handed. Zane gave him another script: "The Purge" (originally called The Human Removal Project).
Zane was a smart boss. He wasn't going to let a talented director sit around for 10 months doing nothing!
The Purge was a low-budget movie. It cost less than $10 million to make, but in Zane's old life, it made almost $100 million. That was a huge profit!
Zane had thought about making Saw, too. But he had never actually watched it, so he didn't know the story well enough. Knowledge is power!
...
Late January 1997.
Zane drove to Silicon Valley early in the morning. Today was a big day for ICQ.
It was their "Series A" financing round. That meant they were selling pieces of the company to big investors to get more money.
The guests were huge: IBM, Microsoft, Cisco, Goldman Sachs, and Citigroup.
Actually, Zane disagreed with this. He voted "No!"
He thought it was too early. ICQ had 4 million users, but it could grow much bigger. If they sold shares now, they wouldn't get the best price.
But the other founders, Weisger and Vardi, insisted. They said, "We need money to grow!"
Zane offered to help. "I can give you the money! I'll lend you $10 to $20 million for free! No interest!"
But they said no.
The truth was, they were scared of Zane. He owned 45% of the company. That was almost half! They wanted to bring in new partners to make Zane's share smaller and less powerful. They were willing to hurt the company just to hurt him.
Zane knew this. And he knew he couldn't fight against giants like Microsoft and Goldman Sachs.
He was going to lose some of his power in ICQ. It was inevitable.
Zane realized that he and his old friends, Weisger and Vardi, weren't really friends anymore. They were on opposite sides now.
It was sad, but it was normal in business. When a company gets big, people fight for control.
"Well," Zane thought to himself, "it seems it's time for my next move."
"My secret plan... LinkedIn... is finally ready to see the light of day."
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