America's Top Player

Chapter 179 It’s all a routine
After the filming, Richie tried to please her in various ways.

But Li Ang did not stay in Montana any longer and flew back to New York overnight.

Even so, Richie remained enthusiastic and tried his best to invite Leon and Sam Houser to meet and talk about their ideas about "Red Dead Redemption 2".

Li Ang agreed readily and hoped that the other party could give an exact time.

This is not out of passion for video games, but entirely for the needs of the "Ready Player One" movie.

According to information leaked by multiple gaming media outlets, Rockstar's latest masterpiece, "Three Men and a Dog," has reached 2013 percent production progress and is very likely to be released in .

The official has neither denied nor refuted this, so it is highly credible.

The media that leaked the information claimed that this game would be an epoch-making epic 3A game.

Rockstar's scale is far behind giants such as Electronic Arts and Activision Blizzard, but it holds the trump card of the GTA series.

A series of games that has driven young people all over the world crazy.

This is also Li Ang's motivation for wanting to contact them.

The next day, Li Ang came to the Lion's Nest Media headquarters, where the quarreling had not stopped since early morning.

Phil, Sean, Marco, and others argued over King Von and Lil Duke's script on "The Rap of America."

The two men involved in the argument rarely slept until the afternoon, after all, the topic of the argument concerned their own future.

"Listen, Leon said before that the championship must maximize profits from these two brats." Phil pointed at Sean's nose and said, "You damn pervert, inbred freak, are you hiding a PY deal with some agency from us?"

Marco also joined in attacking Sean. As the agent of Lil Duke and King Von, their interests were highly related.

"Everything I did was for the sake of this show, without any selfish motives." Sean quickly explained, looking at Li Ang helplessly.

"Shut up right now," Phil sneered. "You're already the head director of this show, and you're still not satisfied. You greedy bastard!"

The focus of the dispute between the two sides was that Phil and Marco insisted on deciding on a script with King Von as the protagonist.

Various conflicts and halos were set up for him in the program to create the image of a child of destiny and ensure his entry into the finals.

In the end, he won the championship with a tiny difference in votes during the live broadcast of the finals.

Sean has a different opinion on this. He believes that the auditions have just begun and the formal recording has not yet started. It is inappropriate to finalize the script now.

This will cause the show to lose its energy and drama in subsequent recordings.

Maybe some very interesting contestants will emerge in the show, and it won’t be too late to decide the direction of the script then.

Li Ang saw that no one said a word, and his mind was obviously not on the quarrel.

Both sides have some truth in what they say.

Although Phil's side was considering its own interests, it would be equally profitable for Leon if King Feng won the championship.

Sean insisted on maximizing the profits of Lion's Nest Media for the sake of program effects.

It seems that it doesn't matter who Li Ang supports.

The parties involved, Lier Duke and King Von, had no idea what was going on.

A contract? A reality show script?

They have no idea how to spell these words.

Apart from their expertise in drugs and women, they are not much different from people with Down syndrome.

Their minds were completely distracted from the quarrel over their own interests, and they kept trying to interrupt. "Boss, GS6 will also be participating in the Chicago auditions tomorrow. How about I just beat them right there?"

GS6 is a gang in the South Side of Chicago that has long been in conflict with O-block, where King Von and his gang are located.

The conflict between the two sides mainly lies in trivial matters such as who urinated on whose territory, who slept with whose girl, etc.

"Of course, you can do whatever you want as long as you don't use weapons."

Li Ang didn't care about it at all. He just thought it was part of the show effect. As long as no one died, they could do whatever they wanted.

His mind is now full of financial problems.

Location fees, film crew team fees, costume and makeup costs, and pre-production publicity costs.
The most problematic issue is the tutor's salary. The $600 million on Lion's Nest Media's books is far from enough.

50 Cent agreed to join the show at a floor price of $20 per episode.

According to the current situation, excluding the live broadcast of the finals, a total of 12 episodes need to be recorded, totaling 240 million US dollars.

Cardi B is an employee of the company, and her salary is reduced to $8 per episode.

Kanye West is undoubtedly the biggest star in the mentor lineup, with a salary of $50 per episode.

This was the price he reached after a fierce dispute with his brokerage team.

When his agent Braun heard that he was going to participate in Leon's show, he asked for a huge price, initially asking for $100 million.

Kardashian's salary is $30 per episode, which is neither good nor bad.

Of course, this is not a problem she can control. The fate of the women in the Kardashian family is firmly controlled by "Queen Mother" Kris Jenner.

This means that the salaries of the mentors and hosts alone will cost nearly 1300 million dollars.

According to the design, the program will also invite at least six flight instructors to participate in the recording.

Taking all the expenses into account, the production cost will be very expensive.

If Clause B is executed because the number of views does not meet the requirements, it remains to be seen whether the US$3000 million can be recovered.

Li Ang hates the word "risk" very much. In order to avoid risks, he turned to product placement.

At the beginning, not many brands were interested in a hip-hop talent show, let alone a non-mainstream online variety show.

However, with the launch of the publicity campaign, online discussions about the bizarre auditions have intensified, and cooperation invitations from brands have come in like snowflakes.

With Bonnie's help, Li Ang selected several of the most valuable brands.

"Stop first."

Li Ang put his hand down and the argument quickly stopped.

He went on to say: "I think Sean's advice is more sensible, and there will be a lot of interesting X factors during the recording process."

"Fxxk, you're just going to let this bastard take money from other agencies?!" Everyone else chose to remain silent, only Phil was still arguing.

"The show has just begun. I'll come up with a plan that satisfies everyone," Li Ang said. "Right now, the most important thing is the production team's funding. Hasn't anyone thought about this damn problem?"

Having said this, Phil finally shut up and hung his head.

He only cares about whether his artists can succeed in this show, and other things have nothing to do with his own interests.

For this purpose, he even suggested renting a small island in the Caribbean as a recording location, since it wouldn't cost him any money.

Sean pinched his throat and said, "I've already found ways to save money in every way. We don't need a professional studio like CBS. We'll also try to keep the number of camera and sound crews to a minimum. As long as we can complete the mission, that's all."

Li Ang waved his hand to interrupt the other party.

Saving money in these areas will not only not save much money but will also greatly reduce the quality of the program.

As soon as he proposed the idea of product placement, everyone's expressions brightened.

But Sean's expression quickly darkened, and he reminded: "Netflix may not want to see us do this."

Li Ang had already thought of everything he could think of.

The contract signed between Lion's Nest Media and Netflix is a one-time deal.

The latter is only responsible for paying the money. Apart from providing assistance in publicity, everything else must be done by Lion's Nest Media itself.

Of course, any income generated after the program is broadcast other than copyright has nothing to do with Lion's Nest Media.

Netflix's revenue is certainly within its purview, though the most lucrative advertising business falls under the purview of the company. However, the boundaries of one issue are blurry: revenue from embedded advertising during recordings.

Li Ang consulted Luca in advance about this.

The other party stated that as long as the contract did not make detailed provisions, the profits generated from the embedded advertisements during the production process would belong to the producer.

"Don't worry about this. I have already discussed it with Scooper." Leon said.

Scooper said nothing more about the matter.

The news released by Netflix is that "The Rap of America" is a web variety show produced by Netflix.

But this is not the case.

In this case, it is impossible for the distributor Netflix to have 100% control over the program.

The only requirement Scooper put forward was that the product placement should not affect the viewing experience of the program, so the sponsor must be approved by Netflix before it can be placed.

Li Ang listed a long list of sponsors, "Durex, Adidas, Monster Energy Drink. I think the image of these companies is very consistent with our program."

Durex was the first endorsement invitation that Li Ang received, and he maintains a good relationship with the management of Reckitt Benckiser Group.

Reckitt Benckiser's marketers believe that the audience for "The Rap of America" is black.

They are divided into only two categories: one category can consume more than a dozen family planning products every day, and the other category will never know how to use an umbrella in their entire life.

The former are VIP users and the latter are potential users.

Because of this, Reckitt Benckiser Group offered a sponsorship contract worth $100 million without much thought, and is also actively seeking an exclusive naming contract.

Needless to say, Adidas's collaboration with Li Ang has attracted a lot of attention in the trendy shoe market.

With the great success of the first batch of chestnut shoes, they immediately made plans to sell the second batch of shoes.

Two hundred thousand pairs of chestnut shoes are being produced at full capacity.

Adidas is willing to offer a sponsorship fee of $80 and will not miss any opportunity to work with Li Ang.

The name of Monster Energy Drink Company is not prominent among the many brands seeking cooperation.

If Li Ang had not been blinded by the astonishing offer of $150 million, he would have excluded this company without hesitation.

After getting to know him, I realized that this company is not a simple small workshop.

In the North American functional beverage market, its market share has exceeded 20 percent and is still growing rapidly.

The company is clamoring to drive Red Bull, the big brother of energy drinks, out of the American market.

Sponsorship seats are limited to two, exclusive title sponsorship and super sponsorship.

The value of exclusive sponsorship is higher than super sponsorship, and Monster is currently ahead in the competition with Durex.

Li Ang is more inclined to believe that Monster Energy will win, otherwise after the show airs, Kardashian will have to say every time she announces the show: "Welcome to Durex's 'The Rap of America.'"

It will sound weird.

As for Adidas, it is almost a gift. They only require all mentors participating in the program recording to wear chestnut shoes.

"Sean, do you have any ideas for sponsors?" Leon said, "Dr. Pepper and Gatorade are still increasing their investment. We have many options."

"No, I will follow your instructions completely in this regard." Sean thought for about ten seconds.

Whether in terms of brand image, temperament or quotation, Durex and Monster are a perfect fit for this show.

After the meeting, Li Ang returned to Apocalypse Music.

I had just returned to the office and hadn't even sat down when my phone rang.

The caller was Jeff, the president of Warner Bros. Pictures.

When he answered the phone, the first words the other party said startled him: "Mr. Li Ang, I heard you are very interested in the copyright of Ready Player One?"

How did he know?
Many possibilities flashed through Leon's mind at once, and he finally determined that Scooper was the most likely to have leaked the information.

Scooper once said that he would talk to the senior executives of Warner Bros. and was extremely confident about obtaining the copyright of "Ready Player One".

"I am indeed a fan of this novel." Li Ang played hard to get and refused to reveal his intentions easily.

"Hey, I'm asking if you want the copyright to this novel? We can talk about it."

Jeff's bluntness was surprising.

Warner Bros. is not short of money at all and rarely sells copyrights it has already acquired.

Actively selling the copyright in your hands to others is an event with a low probability among low probability events.

What medicine is this guy selling in his gourd?

After thinking for a moment, Li Ang said, "If the price is right, I think I will consider it."

"Of course!" Jeff said excitedly, "We're friends, you'll get a friendly price! It's just..."

"Just what?"

"I still need to discuss this with Spielberg. You're not the only one interested in the Ready Player One project."

"Okay, I look forward to hearing from you."

After hanging up the phone, Li Ang not only did not feel any joy, but instead had a depressed expression on his face.

Bonnie, who witnessed the whole thing in the office, asked, "Didn't Warner want to sell you the rights to that novel? Why do you look so unhappy?"

Lying on a swivel chair, Li Ang rested his head on his hands and stared at the ceiling: "I don't think Warner wants to sell it at all."

"Why?" Bonnie was even more confused. "Didn't Mr. Jeff just say that?"

"Just because Jeff said it, I felt something was wrong."

If it was Scooper who contacted Warner, why didn't Warner sell the copyright to the wealthy Netflix?
From the very beginning, Netflix showed greater interest in the "Ready Player One" project than "The Rap of America". It could have bought the copyright and then invited Apocalypse Pictures to produce it.

You can even completely kick Li Ang out and produce and distribute the film independently.

Acting as a middleman to let Warner contact Li Ang is neither necessary nor in line with business logic.

The only possibility he could think of was that the two sides failed to reach an agreement and Warner had no intention of selling the copyright at all.

"So, what on earth was Jeff thinking?"

“Spielberg?”

"Damn."

After silently repeating Spielberg's name several times, Leon's mind finally connected to the Internet.

Although this internationally renowned super director has no time to take care of the "Ready Player One" project now, it does not mean that he is willing to give it up.

He is currently not only directing "Lincoln" and "War Horse", but also serving as a producer on projects such as "Men in Black 3" and "Transformers 4".

Even as a producer, his workload is no less than that of the director, and he has a firm control over everything on the set.

Megan lost the role of the heroine in Transformers forever just because of her quick words.

As the most successful commercial film director in history, no film company would refuse Spielberg.

Whether it is Universal, Sony Columbia, 20th Century Fox, Warner, Paramount
The film contracts of these film giants are already scheduled until 2020, and it will not be Warner's turn in the short term.

Warner Bros. wanted to use Li Ang's name to put pressure on Spielberg: If you don't shoot it, I will sell it to someone else!
"These cunning bastards" realized that he might be used as a gun, and Li Ang gritted his teeth.

Hollywood is full of routines.

(End of this chapter)