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Room 9 Entertainment LLC was formed in January 2003 by internet entrepreneur David Sacks, who helped create PayPal and led the company as Chief Operating Officer to a $1.5 billion acquisition by eBay in 2002. An online money transfer service with over 1,000 employees and over 100 million users around the world, PayPal has become one of the internet’s most enduring success stories.
Sacks, along with his PayPal partners, has contributed an equity fund that Room 9 uses to develop, produce, and finance independent features. Its mandate is to find smart, original stories based on outstanding and unique source material that, while independent in flavor, can resonate with mainstream audiences and attract top talent. “Our goal in short,” says Sacks, “is to make the best independent movie each year.”
Room 9 took a major step towards that goal with the completion of its first feature film, THANK YOU FOR SMOKING, based on Christopher Buckley’s best-selling novel, starring Aaron Eckhart, Maria Bello, Adam Brody, Sam Elliott, Katie Holmes, Rob Lowe, William H. Macy, and Robert Duvall.
On September 9, 2005, the film premiered to immediate critical and audience acclaim at the Toronto International Film Festival. Variety called it “slick, stylish and sharp-witted.” Roger Ebert recognized it on his list of the best films of the festival, and Richard Roeper called it "gloriously un-PC", "brilliant." Screen Daily said the film was “wickedly smart” – a “miraculous feat.” Fox Searchlight won the right to distribute the film, and did so in March 2006. The film grossed $25 million at the U.S. box office. Recognizing Sacks’ efforts, Variety named him one of the year’s “Top 10 Producers to Watch”. Subsequently, THANK YOU FOR SMOKING was nominated for best picture in the comedy category at the 2007 Golden Globes.
Room 9 is currently developing a TV series with NBC Universal about the continuing adventures of SMOKING’s hero, Nick Naylor, in the world of public relations. In addition, Room 9 has acquired the rights to several other feature projects it will produce, including:
- DALI & I: THE SURREAL STORY, a biopic of painter Salvador Dali to be directed by Andrew Niccol (LORD OF WAR, SIMONE, GATTACA);
- UNION SQUARE, an ensemble romantic comedy taking place in a San Francisco hotel over the course of one night;
- QUEEN LARA, a high school comedy based on Shakespeare’s "King Lear."
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