By December 1989, Stone began approaching studios to back his film. While in pre-production on "The Doors", he met with three executives at Warner Bros. who wanted him to make a film about Howard Hughes. However, Warren Beatty owned the rights and so Stone pitched "JFK". Studio president and Chief Operating Officer Terry Semel liked the idea. He had a reputation for making political and controversial films, including "All the President's Men", "The Parallax View" and "The Killing Fields". Stone made a handshake deal with Warner Bros. whereby the studio would get all the rights to the film and put up $20 million for the budget. The director did this so that the screenplay would not be widely read and bid on, and he also knew that the material was potentially dangerous and wanted only one studio to finance it. Finally, Stone liked Semel's track record of producing political films.