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     Chris Lee is the founder of Chris Lee Productions Inc. He has formed Supermega Entertainment with partner Joseph Kahn, a media content and management company involved in the production of motion pictures, television programming, internet content, animation, computer gaming, comic books, and writing, director and acting clients.

     Lee was previously the President of Motion Picture Production for Columbia Pictures as well as TriStar Pictures. He is responsible for a number of Oscar winning films, including "As Good As It Gets," "Jerry Maguire," and "Philadelphia."

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Mario Machado:  What's at the drawing board at the moment?

Chris:  We've got all kinds of things. We've got motion pictures, television, internet, comic books, music videos, and I'm really proud to say that most of the people that I work with are all young Asian Americans who are very excited and creative.

Mario Machado:  Under whose banner? What's the name of the company?

Chris:  Chris Lee Productions. And we are based at Columbia Pictures, we were a first look deal there at Sony, then we also have projects with Warner Brothers, New Line, Fine Line, Disney, Artisan - basically all over town.

Mario Machado:  You sat with great interest listening to these speakers earlier on. For a person who isn't involved in the high stakes business [like] you are, can they learn something from this, or is it just a dream or fantasy?

Chris:  I think there will always be a fantasy to make the kind of money that Jerry Yang has. But no, I think the lesson here is that you can build new businesses, and you can work outside of traditional businesses that perhaps were not always willing to let us become involved and to run them. And that's what I'm doing, I'm building my own company basically and I'm doing it within the structure of Hollywood.

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Mario Machado:  You're working with all kinds of talents in terms of ethnic backgrounds.

Chris:  I've put together a production team where I've got a Korean American director, a Chinese American design director, I've got a whole comic book company with an age group of anywhere from 17 to 24 - they're actually up in Canada, they are all Chinese Canadians. But what we do is we create popular culture for every audience, we're not just saying we're just trying to niche ourselves into a specific audience.

Mario Machado:  When will we see the first product coming forth from the company?

Chris:  Well, you've seen our first music videos like in the Backstreet Boys, and Sysqo, Destiny's Child, Elton John, LeAnn Rimes, Faith Hill - most of the pop acts. But in terms of feature films, our first movie will be out in 2001. It's a big blockbuster for Columbia Pictures called "Final Fantasy." It's based on the best selling Playstation game of all time, and it introduces revolutionary computer technology to the motion picture field.

Mario Machado:  Starring?

Chris:  Actually, it's computer animated, but the voices are Ming-Na Wen, who is the heroine in the story, Alec Baldwin, Steve Buscemi, James Woods, Donald Sutherland, and Ving Rhames. So it's like a very Hollywood cast.

Mario Machado:  How does one find you on the Internet? Do you ever watch that?

Chris:  Actually we have a website, it's called SupermegaMedia.com.

Mario Machado:  SupermegaMedia.com.

Chris:  Yeah. That's the video company. So, basically all our projects are up there.

Mario Machado:  What did you glean from the last session, the Jerry Yang session?

Chris:  Lots of opportunity, lots of question marks, even from the people who are supposed to know what they are doing. And as I said before, I think it's just a time when new businesses can be built outside of what you might call the old paradigm, and I would say the old trite quite frankly - where there might be some difficulties of breaking in.  We're just sort of building our own way.

Mario Machado:  So the opportunities abound, it's the matter of identifying them and then pursuing them.

Chris:  Absolutely, absolutely.

Mario Machado:  Good luck to you and continued success in all your ventures, and I hope the blockbuster film is a blockbuster.

Chris:   It's always good to see you. Thank you Mario.

Mario Machado:  Thank you.

- End of Transcript -

More about Chris Lee:
Christopher Lee - Hollywood Powerhouse

   In addition to being the first person to break the color line and run a Hollywood studio, Christopher Lee is a member of the Committee of 100, a founder of the Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment (CAPE), and a board member of the National Asian Pacific Legal Consortium.

     He has received the Justice In Action Award by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the Visionary Award from the East West Players, the Legacy Award from the Museum of Chinese in the Americas, and was named the Asian Business League of Southern California's Business Person of the Year.

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