DAN LIN NAMED TO THE 30 MOST POWERFUL FILM PRODUCERS IN HOLLYWOOD LIST

Yes, the film world’s one-time cush deals can be seen these days only in the rearview mirror. But great content is still the secret sauce for the studios and their bottom-line corporate owners as the industry’s convulsions create a new class of players who can keep everything from a mega-franchise like ‘Transformers’ to an idiosyncratic Oscar winner (hello, ‘Birdman’!) on track.

Lin, 41, learned early on how unpredictable a producer’s life can be. After eight years as a Warner Bros. exec — while still an MBA student at Harvard, he interned for Lorenzo Di Bonaventura, whom he regards as a mentor — he was preparing to move his family to Australia to produce his first film, a Justice League movie with George Miller directing, when the Writers Guild went on strike and the movie shut down. “I learned that as a producer you have to be really flexible,” says Lin. He went on to projects like Warners’ Sherlock Holmes franchise but really struck it big with last year’s The Lego Movie (which he produced with Roy Lee). His first foray into animation, the megahit grossed $469 million worldwide. While he still juggles live action (an adaptation of Stephen King’s It, directed by Cary Fukunaga, is in the works), he’s got two Lego spinoffs (one with Batman) and a sequel in the pipeline. Plus, he now oversees an office complex called Bricksburg in Hollywood whose tenants include Lego movie directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. Says Lin, “My No. 1 priority as a producer is to create an environment at Bricksburg where artists and creators are willing and able to innovate.”