There is that age old adage in the film business, “How do you know when an agent is lying? When his lips are moving”.

Just a year after Digital Domain was founded, I started to get some interesting inquiries about the company and my future. DD had entered the film industry with a bang. In our first year we were nominated for an Oscar for best visual effects (TRUE LIES); a Cannes Gold Lion Award (Jeep); an MTV Music Video of the Year Award (The Rolling Stones, LOVE IS STRONG); several Clios and we were considered by many to be the baddest VFX company around.

I had set out to make sure that we were the antithesis of corporate Sony Pictures Imageworks (SPI) and much looser and cooler than Industrial Light and Magic (ILM). We had kick ass parties, brandished tattoos and flew a pirate flag over our headquarters in Venice CA. That bad ass image and the fact that we were doing some really breakthrough and incredible work, helped build a culture of comraderie and panache. To this day, eighteen years later, there are weekly Friday evening dinner parties thrown at a local Venice restaurant where dozens of ex DD employees show up to hang out with their pals from over a decade ago.

Digital Domain is still considered to be one of the big five VFX companies in the world, but back in the day it was the Led Zep to ILM’s Beatles. We were a rag tag bunch of Pirates that just happened to win Academy Awards.

The company was sold back in 2006 and I’ve heard that things are different there now. New management from ILM has taken over and changed the culture significantly but I still get a thrill when I drive by the Venice HQ and recall one of DD’s employees saying that I built the only Rock n Roll VFX company in the world.

I had tee shirts printed in 1994 that had the DD logo and the phrase “Start Up” on the front, but on the back it said “Upstart”. And that’s what we were…

In 1995, I received a phone call from the then CAA’s Sandy Climan to inquire whether I might be interested in having an informal lunch with he and his boss, super agent and founder of Creative Artists Agency, Michael Ovitz. At the time, Mr Ovitz was arguably the most powerful person in the entertainment business. CAA is often cited as the world’s leading talent agency and its clients include George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Brad Pitt, Lebron James, Sandra Bullock, Oprah Winfrey, Julia Roberts, Steven Spielberg, Will Smith, and Reese Witherspoon.

Climan said that Ovitz was involved in a really big deal that he wanted to talk to me about. I couldn’t imagine that Ovitz knew who I was, let alone wanting to have a meeting with me. I ran a VFX company, yes we were cool, but by geek standards only, not A list Hollywood movie star standards. Climan went on, explaining that Ovitz would like to meet with the principals of DD but mostly he was interested in spending some time with me.

My head slowly started to expand.

The date was set. Cameron could make it but Winston could not. I called Climan back, left a message and explained the situation. Climan returned my call and left a message, “Cameron and you would be fine”. I called Sandy and confirmed, leaving yet another message.

Jim picked me up at DD in his Calloway, a twin turbo sledgehammer of a Corvette. In a very short period of time, we pulled up in front of CAA’s I.M. Pei designed headquarters in Beverly Hills. The valet grabbed the keys and smiled that knowing look. The one that said, “I’m taking your $250,000 American car for a joy ride”.

This, clearly, was a different scene then Venice. Men wore suits ( albeit $5000 ones with strange designs from Italy and Japan), women wore fashion and it all seemed like it was a photo shoot for Vanity Fair. I was a Venice duck out of water. I smoothed my tee shirt and entered the marble and glass palace of the king of deals.

We were immediately met by two stunningly beautiful women, suited up in the hippest fashion. We followed them into an elevator, that seemed to be only for us, and went upstairs to meet with Michael Ovitz.

The elevator doors slowly opened, revealing Sandy Climan’s smiling face and outstretched hand. In an instant the women had disappeared only to return seconds later with beverages and the ubiquitous LA greeting ” Would you like something to drink ?” I personally believe we could put a major dent in water shortages around the world if people in the entertainment business did not accept the mandatory bottled water upon the start of every meeting.

Sandy explained that Michael was running a bit late, “but please, help yourself to the Sushi” that had been prepared for us. Sandy did not give us any more info than he did on the phone several days earlier. It was as if he wanted Ovitz to deliver the news. After about fifteen minutes, Ovitz entered the room and headed directly to me. He gushed for several minutes about how he had been following my career since LucasFilm and that it was such a pleasure to meet me. At this point I was starting to blush, I glanced over at Cameron who is standing alone without any of the adulation he usually receives.

Finally, we sit down and the “meeting” begins. Ovitz says that he can’t really tell us the whole story as we are not under NDA ( Non Disclosure Agreements) but that he has been asked by the Baby Bells ( the regional bell operating companies after the ATT divestiture) to help put together a new digital distribution entity. Sort of the new version of a major motion picture studio. And, he has chosen the guy to run it… me.

“Ok, okay, ok…. get a hold of yourself, Scott”, I say to myself, “you’re some Jewish, Bayside, blue collar, ex messenger boy, drug runner, wanna be soul singer and the most powerful man in show biz just offered you a job to start and head up the new iteration of Warner Brothers”. I sat up like there was a rod up my ass and the rod was pumping pure ecstacy throughout my body.
Everything in the room took on a purple glow, I turned to Cameron with a shit eating grin on my face and said “Jim, let’s go”.

As we started to leave, Ovitz stopped us and said, “There are a few things we have to take care of first. We’ll need the signed NDA’s and one more thing… Jim, you can’t have Jeff Berg as your agent.” Jeff Berg was the head of ICM, International Creative Management, Cameron’s long time agent. Ovitz went on “… Berg is a fake, he takes everything I do and copies it, I just can’t be in business with someone that has Jeff Berg as an agent”.

We got into the Callaway, Jim flipped the valet safe switch ( the one that only allows partial turbo power, making sure that the Valet couldn’t red line it), put the keys in the ignition and said ” Funny, but I fired Jeff yesterday, it will be all over the trades tomorrow”. The engine fired and my head slammed back against the seat and we were off.

At about the same time, I received a call from Jeffrey Katzenberg’s office. Mr. Katzenberg wanted to have a meeting with me. Katzenberg’s assistant wanted to schedule a 7 o’clock meeting during the week. I asked my assistant if we might be able to move it up by say an hour or so because I wanted to get home by a reasonable hour. Both assistants worked their magic and compromised a bit. The time had been agreed upon, 6:30. Looked like I might be home by 8 PM or so, a typical night.

A few weeks passed and the Katzenberg meeting was on for the next day. At close of business that day, my assistant handed me my end of day “to do’s list” and reminded me of the meeting set with Jeffrey Katzenberg for tomorrow.

Got it.

She said ” you should probably leave your house at about 5 AM just to be sure”.

“WHAT?… 5 AM? What?”, I stammered.

“Yes, Jeffrey gets in very early and wants to meet with you first thing”, she said.

I drove to the old Amblin offices on the Universal lot. Nothing much had seemingly changed at the Amblin compound since the announcement of this new studio, Dreamworks SKG. Katzenberg had relocated from Disney and David Geffen seemed not to be there. I arrived not so bright and stupidly early. There was once again, the perfunctory, “Can I get you something to drink?” from someone. I was met by Jeffrey and escorted down the hall. We met several people on the way to the outdoor breakfast area… Mo Ostin, the legendary WB record exec was there to greet me as well.

Breakfast with Jeffrey was interesting. He spoke about the hollowness of legacy, his recent run in with a male lion and eventually we got around to why he asked me to come by. He offered me a job to run DreamWorks Interactive. Duly flattered, I turned him down. I had an employment contract and had started DD just a few years before. I was looking to build DD into a great company, a content producer and a media powerhouse.

He asked me what it was I wanted to do with my life. I told him that after my mother had passed, I realized that her “essence” lived on inside of me but that after a generation or so, her life impact would be lost. I didn’t want that to happen to my life. I told him that I needn’t be famous, that people don’t need to know my name… but, that my time here on this planet needed to make a difference for generations to come. That my life indeed contributed to our collective consciousness.

Katzenberg stopped and looked deeply into my soul… I felt him. He said, … legacy is an awful burden, look at Disney.” He went on, ” Last night, I saw an amazing film that summed it up rather well, it was when Captain Picard and Captain Kirk talked about whether they made a difference”. “You see, it’s the journey, not the destination”.

kirk picard

Heavy.

I was hoping for Camus or Sartre but i got STAR TREK : GENERATIONS.
I passed on the gig but recommended EA’s Glenn Entis, who got the job.

When, Ovitz had heard the news that Cameron had fired ICM and Berg, my phone rang. Several messages back and forth and finally a second meeting was had. In my mind I had already spent my “signing bonus”, had picked out a name for my Gulfstream and saw myself as the new CEO of this new Baby Bell venture. I was rockin’!

This Ovitz meeting was more of the same. My ego was stroked so hard, it began to chaff. Michael told us a bit more. Michael suggested that maybe we fold DD into the new venture, and that our facility could act as the content creation engine for this new digital distribution channel. Michael ended the meeting.

Then Ovitz turned to Cameron and said ” I’m glad to see you got rid of Berg”.

Jim said ” yeah, I don’t really need an agent”.

Ovitz frowned and said, “Jim… everyone needs an agent”.

Jim said, “I don’t”.

Ovitz got red in the face. “Yes you do Jim”.

Cameron started towards the door. ” No, Mike, I don’t”.

“Spielberg needs an agent, Lucas needs an agent… everyone needs an agent Jim”, Ovitz was agitated.

“Not”, said Cameron.

We walked out of his office, took the elevator to the lobby and walked out the front door.

I never heard from, nor saw Michael Ovitz again.