Roy Lee

With a keen eye for finding films from the world of Asian cinema that will work well when adapted for worldwide audiences, Roy Lee has produced some of the top films of the 2000s, including the horror thriller "The Ring" and the Oscar-winning "The Departed." Before even producing his first film, Lee became famous in Hollywood for creating the web bulletin board called Tracker, which allowed script trackers-those who trace what scripts are being sold and to whom-to convene online. Much to the chagrin of Hollywood agents, this let those in film development find the best scripts faster. After working at a talent management company and creating ScriptShark, which assessed rookie screenwriters' work online, he formed Vertigo Entertainment with Doug Davison in 2001. The company made a killing with films made in the Asian markets, selling the remake rights to Hollywood while taking a piece of the pie. This initially worked like gangbusters for the 2002 and 2004 horror films "The Ring" and "The Grudge," Hollywood remakes of Japan's "Ringu" and "Ju-On." Lee did this again and again, mostly with Japanese horror thrillers, until he had his biggest smash with Martin Scorcese's double-crossing cops and robbers feature, "The Departed," a remake of the Hong Kong smash "Infernal Affairs." Since then, Lee's career has skyrocketed, with producer credits on the MTV reality series "I'm from Rolling Stone" and the animated adventure "How to Train Your Dragon."