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Hollywood mogul Jerry Bruckheimer is sitting in a darkened editing suite inside his expansive Los Angeles headquarters, a red brick building known simply as JBFilms.
This is where Bruckheimer oversees his film and TV empire.
A fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie starring Johnny Depp is in the works while another potential blockbuster, the action adventure film Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, is in the post production phase ahead of its cinematic release in May 2010.
In other corners of JBFilms, Bruckheimer's team is working on his high-rating stable of TV series, including CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: NY, CSI: Miami, Cold Case, Without A Trace and Amazing Race.
But on this afternoon, the images on the two large high-definition TV screens in the editing suite are a completely different genre to Bruckheimer's crime TV series and male-orientated action films that have earned more than $US13 billion ($NZ26 billion) over the years.
The screens are filled with Isla Fisher, the 33-year-old Australian redhead and star of Bruckheimer's new big screen comedy, Confessions of a Shopaholic.
It is Fisher's first lead role in a major Hollywood film.
Bruckheimer, 63, laughs as he watches a scene involving Fisher, playing bankrupt shopaholic Rebecca Bloomwood, debating with herself whether to buy an obscenely expensive scarf in a Manhattan boutique.
"I like to hit different genres," Bruckheimer told AAP.
"I like to try different things to keep it interesting and allows me to keep learning.
"But trying to make people laugh is hard. You don't know how audiences will respond."
In 2005 Bruckheimer also wore a big smile when he sat down to watch the comedy Wedding Crashers, but it was not the film's established lead actors Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson, Christopher Walken and Rachel McAdams that stunned the prolific producer.
It was a relatively unknown Fisher, who played Vaughn's unstable love interest.
"Isla has such a command of her physicality," Bruckheimer said.
"Few actors have it. You see it in Johnny Depp in Pirates.
"Isla is the same. She is hysterical. She reminds me of a young Lucille Ball."
Bruckheimer kept his eyes open for projects for Fisher and when one of his executives raised the prospect of buying the film rights to Sophie Kinsella's best-selling novel, Confessions of a Shopaholic, Bruckheimer put the Australian actress at the top of his list to play Bloomwood.
At the 2006 MTV Awards Bruckheimer ran into Fisher backstage while talking to her husband, British comedian Sasha Baron Cohen.
"Cohen was there and she came into his trailer and I said 'I have this movie I think you will be interested in'," Bruckheimer said.
One of Bruckheimer's talents is identifying future stars, whether it is a young Will Smith, Martin Lawrence or Fisher, who scored her first big acting break on Australian TV soap Home & Away.
Bruckheimer paired Smith and Lawrence in his 1995 action comedy, Bad Boys, a film that cost just $US19 million but earned $US140 million worldwide and helped elevate the two actors to the top tier of Hollywood.
"I always love it when I see someone new and fresh and you know has real possibilities," Bruckheimer said.
"When I first watched Will Smith in the Fresh Prince of Bel Air, I thought he was amazing and I put him in Bad Boys.
"I thought Martin Lawrence was really funny in his TV show (Martin).
"For me, I'm only as good as the sum of the parts. My skill is finding talented people to work with.
"I see Isla as one of the most talented actresses working today."