Duke Hauser sat as he was humming in a low voice, 'Stole my Heart' by One Direction, in a leather chair, drinking a glass of cold mineral water.
"We must make a move right now, while they are bleeding out in the press. It has already been established that Paramount will go for vertical integration, so we need to make moves. Of course we can also wait to see if Mattel goes bankrupt."
Eisner paced himself across the room as he talked to no one in specific, in preparation for the upcoming meeting.
Eisner's vision was the future of Hollywood and Duke knew it, Star Wars was the most consecuential movie in the 70s cause of how much it changed movies and their revenue past box office.
However, Duke also understood the brutal mechanics of corporate, and he knew rushing into a burning corporate structure was a great way to catch fire yourself.
Duke took a sip of his water before setting the glass down, they were on a private suite on the top floor of the Century Plaza Hotel
"I love the enthusiasm, Michael," Duke said, his voice a calm counterweight to Eisner's energy.
"You are entirely right about the endgame, Mattel is necessary for Paramount. But congressional midterm elections are coming up in November."
"We could go after Mattel completely without caring about anything else but the last thing we want is Paramount plastered across the front pages, executing a corporate raid on an iconic American toy company."
Before Eisner could launch into a rebuttal, the door of the suite clicked open.
Arthur Spear walked into the room, his suit was expensive but rumpled, with exhausted eyes. The accounting fraud orchestrated by Mattel's founders had finally caught up to them, and Spear was the man left standing.
By deliberately stuffing the retail channels with unshipped inventory to artificially inflate their revenue reports, the Handlers, who were the founders of Mattel had brought the Securities and Exchange Commission directly to their doorstep.
Duke stood up, offering a polite smile and an outstretched hand.
Spear took it, his grip firm, not saying anything.
Eisner pointed to the suite's private bar and said, "Want a drink?" but Spear shook his head, dropping his briefcase on a side chair.
He unbuttoned his suit jacket and sat into the sofa opposite Duke.
"I appreciate you taking this meeting off the lot, Duke," Spear began, "I assume you know about our situation with the SEC investigators crawling over our headquarters. The stock price is in freefall, the board of directors is panicking, and the retail distributors are threatening to cancel holiday orders."
"The Handlers cooked the books to keep their growth narrative alive, and now the company is burning down around us. We are bleeding cash to manage the legal defense, and the shareholder class-action lawsuits are already piling up on my desk."
Spear paused, taking a breath. "You told me a month ago that you were watching the toy market. I am here to find out if you are still watching."
Duke crossed his legs, his expression composed, "I am always watching the market, Arthur,"
Duke replied. "I took a private meeting with Ruth Handler a few months ago, saw the rot. I offered her a golden parachute. Paramount cash to plug the holes, I take a controlling block of the board, and she gets to stay looking like a genius..."
Spear did not look surprised. Instead, he leaned back against the cushions, his eyes narrowing as he studied the young man sitting across from him.
"She rejected your generous offer to buy your way onto the board," Spear said, "She told you no. And less than three weeks later, a detailed exposé lands on the front page of the Washington Star, laying every single one of Mattel issues. You broke the stock."
"Oh, fuck off, Arthur," Duke snapped, leaning forward. "Accusations aren't suited for a man holding a begging bowl. Those allegations are unprovable nonsense. Mattel was a house of cards held together by the Handler's bullshit."
"Whether I gave a reporter a nudge or a breeze knocked it over, who gives a shit? The reality is you're drowning in federal inquiries, and I'm the only person willing to give you a boat."," Duke said, his voice smooth.
Duke wasn't normally mad, but this guy only way of rising up was that the Handlers commited a mistake, Duke and the Handlers fight ended up benefiting him, and he was mad?
Ruth Handler had always said that someone in the company sabotage it from the inside when she had her breast cancer surgery.
Sensing the tension peaking, Eisner stepped smoothly into the conversation, trying to play the diplomat.
"Arthur, listen to us," Eisner said, pulling up a chair and leaning with sincerity. "Paramount is not here to execute a hostile takeover. We do not want to destroy Mattel, we want to partner with it. We are offering to be your White Knight in this scenario."
"We want to save the brand equity you have built, protect your manufacturing infrastructure, and keep the assembly lines running. Most importantly, we want to back you as the long-term leader of the company."
"The Handlers are the past, and they will be sidelined. You are the future. We just want to provide the capital to make sure that future actually happens."
Spear looked between the two men, his anger giving way to pragmatism.
He rubbed his tired eyes. "If you really want Mattel, we can bypass the board drama entirely," Spear offered, laying his final card on the table.
"We can arrange for Paramount to buy the distressed assets directly, right now, before the SEC freezes everything. You can take toy lines, patents, and factories, and leave the corporate shell behind. It gets you exactly what you want, and it gives the company enough liquid cash to try and settle with the federal government."
Duke rejected the proposal directly, he didn't want Paramount to fall for a trap. "Absolutely not," Duke said, shaking his head.
"I am not going to let Paramount absorb the legal liabilities that the Handlers created. If I buy your distressed assets today, I invite the SEC, Justice Department, and every shareholder into my own lobby."
"Paramount will not assume a single dollar of your regulatory fines, nor will we be named in the class-action lawsuits. That is a hard line, Arthur. You are going to have to weather the legal storm on your own."
Eisner picked up the thread, outlining the strategy they had spent weeks developing.
"Here is the actual sequence of events, Arthur," Eisner explained, ticking the points off on his fingers. "First, you let the federal lawsuits settle. You let the SEC hand down their fines, and you let the board legally force Ruth and Elliot Handler completely out of the company."
"Once the cancer is removed and the legal liabilities are capped, Paramount will step in with a equity acquisition. We will take a stake, stabilizing the stock price overnight. You will keep your role as CEO, retaining operational control of the toy lines, while the Handlers are permanently sidelined from the company."
Spear sat quietly for a long time. It was a calculated execution of the company's founders, but it was also the only viable survival plan on the table.
"It makes logical sense," Spear finally admitted, letting out a breath. "And I am willing to sign a preliminary contract detailing the acquisition strategy. But I need to give you a very clear warning, Duke."
"Even with the SEC breathing down their necks, on paper, the Handlers still hold dominant voting blocks. They are not going to surrender their life's work willingly. Breaking their grip on the board is necessary."
"I will deal with it, Arthur," Duke replied, standing up to signify the end of the meeting. "Focus on managing the public relations fallout and keeping the retail buyers calm. Let the SEC do the heavy lifting of removing the Handlers."
As Spear left the suite, Eisner turned to Duke with a grin.
____
Later that evening, the scene shifted to an independent theater premiere in Hollywood.
Paramount had thrown a targeted advertising budget behind a low-budget hicksploitation film out of Texas.
The neon marquee glowing above the street read The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, a line of eager ticket holders stretched around the block.
The studio's promotional department had worked overtime, blanketing Los Angeles with radio spots, terrifying newspaper ads, and word-of-mouth campaigns that promised an experience unlike anything ever shown on a commercial screen.
Paramount had gotten a lot of cultural capital among Horror Circles cause of the previous 2 horror movies they had released.
The Exorcist and The Last House on the Left.
The crowd gathering outside the theater was bizarre.
It was fillled with a mix of counter-culture film buffs, middle age Drive-in distributors looking for the next big hit, and polished, mainstream industry critics who had driven here just to see what all the fuss was about.
However, the frenzy surrounding the premiere was also cause over the past week, Hollywood trade papers had leaked a story that had increased people interest in this movie.
The whispers traveling around Hollywood, claimed that Connor 'Duke' Hauser, the private young mogul who currently was the Chairman of Paramount Pictures, had actually taken a secret acting role in the film.
Speculation ran rampant around the town, everyone knew Hauser was difficult to even see on a day to day basis, unless it was during the Oscars, most people had seen his interview with Johnny Carson but that was it, no interviews, no nothing.
Nobody knew exactly how large Duke's supposed role was, and the promotional posters offered no clues.
The official cast credits distributed to the press were ambiguous, listing unknown, regional actors and obscure stage names.
Inside the auditorium, far away from the lobby, Duke sat in the very back row.
He wore a simple black jacket and suit, he had slipped through a side fire exit to avoid the press, requiring no fanfare or recognition.
He wanted to observe the final result of this movie on his own. He held a small box of popcorn, resting his elbows comfortably on the armrests.
He truly did wondered if people would like him as Leatherface.
The film opens with a grim voiceover, narrated by John Larroquette detailing a horrific scene of grave robberies in rural New Sweden, Texas.
"The film you are about to see is an account of the tragedy which befell a group of five youths, particularly Sally Hardesty and her invalid brother Franklin. It is all the more tragic in that they were young. But, had they lived very, very long lives, they could not have expected nor would they have wished to see as much of the mad and macabre as they were to see that day. For them an idyllic summer afternoon drive became a nightmare. The events of that day were to lead to the discovery of one of the most bizarre crimes in the annals of American history, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre."
Cut to five young adults road-tripping through the Texas heat in a green Ford Econoline van.
Sally Hardesty and her wheelchair-bound brother, Franklin are traveling to check on their grandfather's grave following the news reports.
Jerry who is Sally's boyfriend, Kirk, and Pam. (it's ok if you dont learn the names)
After confirming the grave is untouched, they drive toward the abandoned family homestead.
Along the way, they pick up an erratic hitchhiker.
He exhibits disturbing behavior, talking about the old slaughterhouse where his family worked, cutting his own hand with a pocketknife, and even suddenly slashing Franklin's arm.
The group frantically kicks him out of the van, and he leaves a smear of blood as a sign on the side of the vehicle as they speed away.
Low on gas, they pull into a dilapidated roadside gas station and barbecue joint. The proprietor tells them that his fuel tanks are completely empty but a delivery truck is expected later.
He warns them not to go snooping around the local properties.
Ignoring the warning, the group drives onward to the rotting house to pass the time.
Kirk and Pam leave the rest of the group to find a nearby swimming hole they used to visit.
The watering hole has dried up, but they hear the distinct noise of a gas generator coming from a neighboring farmhouse.
Hoping to buy some fuel for the van, Kirk approaches the house alone.
The front door is open so Kirk steps into the house, calling out for anyone home.
Suddenly, a tall massive man wearing a grotesque mask made of human skin, Leatherface emerges from a hidden doorway and strikes Kirk in the head with a cross peen sledgehammer.
Duke smiles, noticing the suit did make him look fat.
Kirk drops instantly, convulsing as if he was a pig on a slaughterhouse who had been struck, and Leatherface violently drags his body inside, slamming a steel sliding door shut.
When Kirk doesn't return, a worried Pam approaches the house, with the movie recording directly in a position where we can see her ass alongside her aproaching the house.
She steps inside and stumbles into a room of nightmares, furniture constructed from human bones, skulls hanging from walls, and chicken feathers covering the floor.
Terrified, she tries to flee, but Leatherface intercepts her.
He carries her screaming into the kitchen and impales her through the back on a meat hook, forcing her to watch as he dissects Kirk with a chainsaw.
As evening sets in, Jerry heads out to find his missing friends. He traces their path to the neighboring house and enters.
In the kitchen, he discovers Pam, barely conscious and stuffed inside a freezer. Before Jerry can react, Leatherface appears and kills him with a single blow.
You can say a lot of things about Leatherface, but he's a man of action unlike those other killers who need 30 minutes to even kill one person.
With darkness fallen, only Sally and the wheelchair-bound Franklin remain by the van. They have only one flashlight between them.
Armed with a single light source, Sally pushes Franklin through the thick forest toward the neighboring house to search for the others.
Out of the pitch black, Leatherface lunges from the trees and violently assassinates Franklin with his chainsaw.
Duke smiled, he hated both the character and the actor who played Franklin, 'Finally, time to go'.
Sally flees into the night, pursued by a Leatherface with a chainsaw with a bad leg.
In a desperate bid for survival, she runs all the way back to the roadside gas station from earlier, screaming to the proprietor for help.
However, the rescue is a trap.
The proprietor is actually the eldest brother of the cannibalistic family.
He beats Sally unconscious, ties her up, bags her, and drives her back to the farmhouse in his truck.
When she wakes up, she finds herself bound to a chair made of human arms at a dinner table.
Surrounding her are the Proprietor, or also known as the "Cook", the crazed Hitchhiker from the road, and Leatherface now wearing a domestic apron, makeup and a woman mask.
They bring out the family patriarch.
Grandpa, a withered, near-mummified old man who was once the fastest killer in the county, they cut Sally finger and feed the blood to the Grandpa, suddenly you notice him have more energy.
Duke had always been a suscriber to the Theory that The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was a Cosmic Horror movie, cause of scenes like this, it gave the idea that the family was sacrificing or doing rituals.
In a unsettling sequence filled with close-ups of Sally's bloodshot, terror-stricken eyes, the family tries to help the feeble Grandpa crack Sally's skull open with a hammer, but he keeps dropping it.
The chaos of the dinner allows Sally to break free. She smashes through a second-story window, leaping out into the dawn light of the day after.
The Hitchhiker and Leatherface pursue her down the highway.
Just as the Hitchhiker is taking his time slashing her back on the middle of the asphalt road, a semi-truck driving down the road unexpectedly runs over the Hitchhiker, killing him instantly.
The truck driver, a fat man stops, and comes out of the truck thinking he hit someone, but a blood soaked Sally and a running Leatherface with his chainsaw make him turn back to enter his car again.
He helps Sally inside and closes the door of the truck.
A manic Leatherface attacks the truck door with his chainsaw as Sally escapes through the passenger door and the truck driver follows still not knowing what is even happening.
Leatherface pursues then but the truck driver throws a monkey wrench at him, which makes him fall and cut a part of his leg with his own chainsaw.
Leatherface gets up and still wants to pursue, the truck driver runs on his own, while Sally manages to stop a truck for long enough to throw herself on the truck bed.
As the truck speeds away into safety, a blood-soaked Sally laughs hysterically in the truck bed.
The film ends on one of the most iconic visual shots in cinema history, Leatherface, silhouetted against the Texas sun, wildly swinging his roaring chainsaw in a dance of frustration.