Chapter 129: Preparation for Lionheart Network

After spending the entire day being affectionate with Nicole, the two of them spent the day like a real couple.

Eric was a little addicted to the other person's gentleness. If he was really a 20-year-old young man, he would probably not be able to feel this feeling of home and would not cherish it.

After all, young people are active and their temperaments have not yet been polished. It is their instinct and nature to pursue excitement and happiness.

But inside Eric's young body is actually a soul in his 30s, a soul that has been struggling in the entertainment industry for more than a decade.

In the extremely realistic world of the entertainment industry, he has seen too much of the fickleness of human nature and the cruelty of the world.

The more you see and experience, the stronger your desire for a warm home becomes. After wearing a mask for so long, you naturally need a haven to rest.

Whether in terms of personality, ability, or other aspects, Neeko is a good candidate.

Unfortunately, when Eric saw the clothes he was wearing, the idea of ​​stopping was unconsciously extinguished, because the clothes were bought specifically for him by Gadot.

Wearing clothes bought for you by a woman, and then dating another woman, while at the same time, unknown to both of them, there are third, fourth, fifth, sixth or even countless women hiding.

Among them are twins, who will develop into triplets in the future, and may even evolve into triplets and an aunt.

What’s even more outrageous is that there may be a mother, daughter and a cousin.

Sometimes Eric feels like he is a jerk and an evil person, a complete scumbag.

But what can we do? Being too good is also a kind of trouble.

Eric even imagined a scenario where he would gather all the women in a room, tell them the truth, and let them choose whether to stay or go.

I think most people will choose to stay.

Even if it hadn't come to that, Eric felt that they were not stupid and they all knew that their men must have someone else outside.

However, if you are not caught in bed, you can choose to ignore it.

Even if it is confirmed, people may continue to selectively ignore it. There are too many such things in the entertainment industry, such as Xiao S, Jin Qiaoqiao, Xu Fan, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, etc.

So in order to make it up to them, all Eric could do was work harder on the ship and help them with their careers.

Last night, he worked for several hours until he was exhausted, and then the two of them called it a day.

In the office, Eric called Billy over.

"Billy, do you remember what I told you at the last party?"

Billy thought back: "You mean the Michael Dobbs thing?"

"Yes, I plan to send you to England again to discuss the adaptation of House of Cards with him. Of course, this is just an excuse. The real purpose is to seek his help."

"Boss, what's going on? I'm completely confused by what you're saying."

Eric pointed to the couch and Billy sat down.

"Do you know about Michael Jackson's child molestation case?"

Billy nodded. "I know a little bit, but not in detail. Are you talking about the incident in 1993 or this year?"

"This year, the incident was caused by a BBC reporter named Martin Bashir. It was because of the documentary he shot that led to this incident."

"But I don't believe this is just his personal behavior. According to what I have learned, Sony Records is likely involved behind the scenes."

"Sony Records? Isn't it Michael Jackson's signing company? Why?" Billy asked puzzled.

In order to facilitate his work, Eric simply told the story of the feud between Michael and Sony Records.

After talking about the inside story, Billy also sighed: "So that's how it is. If it was really done by Sony, these guys deserve to die."

"Do you feel that two atomic bombs are too cheap for them?"

"That's right. We should bomb the country of Japan into oblivion and make them lie dormant in the Pacific Ocean forever."

Eric laughed out loud, he was happy from the bottom of his heart when he heard people scolding RB.

"Billy, you have to get this done no matter what. Even if you have to spend money on it, you have to get results for me."

"Don't worry. Even if Michael Dobbs is a wall, I can still make a hole in it. His wife Evelyn is not a politician. She is much easier to deal with."

"I don't care what method you use, just give me a result as soon as possible."

"I promise to complete the task, but the adaptation of House of Cards you just mentioned, are you really going to start filming this novel?"

Eric nodded: "Yes, it will start in one or two months. You can use this excuse to get closer to her."

After Billy left, Eric wrote down a few numbers on a piece of paper.

It is now the end of the second quarter, and a new copyright fee will be credited soon. In addition, the performance of "The Walking Dead" is very good. Under the lobbying of the father, HBO has rarely agreed to pay in advance. The total of the two revenues can be about 350 million US dollars.

After deducting the follow-up investment in projects that have already started, as well as the interest and principal repayments to the bank, the current liquidity on hand is sufficient to start several new projects.

There is no need to consider big productions like "Transformers". What Eric has in front of him are low-budget movies, TV series and variety shows.

For the upcoming Lionheart Network, Eric must provide more and better works. The long-term audience of TV series and variety shows is obviously better than that of movies.

So it would be a good idea to start by filming House of Cards, Hannibal, Supernatural, American Horror Story, and Breaking Bad.

Among these series, the one with the highest production cost is "House of Cards", but it should be able to be made with around 2 million US dollars per episode, provided that the bulk of the money is used to hire actors.

The original House of Cards is said to cost an average of $4.5 million per episode.

That's because most of his money was used to hire actors, directors and screenwriters.

These three important positions account for more than 50% of the cost of a film, which is somewhat similar to Chinese film and television dramas in the era of traffic.

The difference is that he really has the acting skills and talent, so this time Eric still wants to invite Kevin Spacey to play the role.

Two years ago, he won the Oscar for Best Actor for his role in American Beauty.

For Kevin Spacey, his acting skills have reached their peak. There is not much difference between 10 years ago and 10 years later. He has no pressure in playing Francis Underwood, the leading actor in "House of Cards". He doesn't even need to change his makeup. He can just change the age of the character in the script.

Kevin Spacey is 44 years old now. In reality, there are countless congressmen who are 40 years old. Obama became president at the age of 47. The political rules here have no age limit.

If Eric were to personally direct "House of Cards", as the writer and director, it would not only be more efficient but also greatly reduce costs.

As for "Hannibal," "Supernatural," "American Horror Story" and "Breaking Bad," in Hollywood in 2003, the average cost of producing an episode of a TV series was $550,000.

"Hannibal" and "American Horror Story" can allocate a little more money, while "Supernatural" and "Breaking Bad" can be allocated $550,000, or even more.

Eric plans to make these five dramas the driving force for Lionheart Network from the second half of this year to the first half of next year.

"The Walking Dead" was first put online to attract a group of new users who had not watched it and old users who wanted to revisit it, and then "House of Cards" was the real first shot.

"Supernatural" does not need to be too sophisticated and the shooting progress is relatively fast, so it can be used as a successor, but it can only serve as a transition and we cannot expect it to attract too many viewers.

The reason why "Supernatural" has been long-lived and has been filmed for 15 seasons is that CW has no good works to show off, and the renewal of it was a helpless move.

What makes this drama very unique is that it successfully draws the audience's attention from the plot to the actors, which is a bit similar to fan economy.

The two brothers often held meet-and-greet sessions in private, and the peripheral products sold well. In the end, "Supernatural" successfully transformed from a youth idol thriller into a long-running drama.

Then there is "Breaking Bad". The first season of Walter White's story was not attractive. The best approach would be to merge the first two seasons together, speed up the pace and delete irrelevant parts.

After that it will be "Hannibal" or "American Horror Story," whichever comes out first.

Then, there will be some variety shows in between, such as "The Voice of China", and MJ will be invited to be a judge. It depends on the progress of Michael's lawsuit.

If it is launched next year, it would be nice to compete with Fox's "American Idol". In addition to MJ, we could invite a few big-name superstars, even if it costs a little more money.

The latest novel is published first on Liu9shuba!

Eric just didn't believe that he couldn't beat American Idol. It would be great if he could defeat this predecessor within one or two seasons, become the number one music variety show, and monopolize the market share.

In addition, there are various popular variety shows such as "Got Talent", "Wild Survivor", "Ninja Competition", "Take Me Out", etc. You can use whichever one you want, and then sell the copyright all over the world to make money.

The only problem is that the production cost of the variety show is relatively high, and Eric still wants to complete the initial contact with Marvel in the second half of the year, so the production progress is expected to be delayed a bit.

Once the box office revenues of the several films on hand have been recovered, it will be the time to start the era of large-scale variety shows.

After roughly planning MGM's development plan for the next six months in his mind, Eric called Chen Xing in.

"Is the president here?"

"exist!"

"Well, I'll go over there. Contact the person I called you last time and ask them to come over."

"Okay, boss!"

We took the elevator to my dad's office floor. Also coming up were Julio from the production department and a cute girl who looked to be in her early 20s.

Seeing Eric coming in, the two of them hurriedly made way to the sides and greeted him at the same time.

Eric nodded slightly, then looked at the unfamiliar cute girl: "New here?"

"Yes boss, my name is Jenny, Jenny White."

The girl immediately extended her hand, and Eric was too embarrassed to reject her directly. He had always had a good image and reputation within the company. The two of them simply touched their palms and left.

"What are you going to do?"

"The president wants to hear about the overall situation of the production department in the second quarter. I'm here to report."

Eric uttered an "oh" and felt a little guilty. He seemed to have become a little arrogant recently and had not discussed many new projects or plans with his father.

Although there is no dispute between father and son, at least the father should be notified. Otherwise, regardless of respect or not, as the president, it is necessary to have a comprehensive understanding of the company's operations.

"Then let's go together. I just happen to be busy too," said Eric.

"No, please go first."

"Then you might have to wait a while. This conversation isn't going to end anytime soon."

The elevator door opened and Eric walked towards Charlie Cooper's office. The wavy female secretary hurriedly opened the door for him.

Seeing the boss walk away, Julio said in a somewhat reproachful tone: "Jenny, what you did just now was too inconsiderate. You shouldn't have taken the initiative to reach out. This might embarrass Eric. Ignoring him would hurt your self-esteem, and paying attention to him might cause gossip."

"This is a company, not a party or a restaurant. You are facing our boss, not a friend or a customer. You must know how to respect and be in awe, understand?"

As a newcomer in the workplace, Jenny nodded like a chicken pecking at rice.

But what I was thinking in my heart was that he was as handsome as in the photo. I actually shook hands with Eric Cooper. I was so excited. Hahahaha. In Charlie Cooper's office, the secretary closed the door and left.

"Eric, what's up?"

No one knows a son better than his father. When an old hand like Charlie Cooper saw his son, he knew at a glance that the son must have something to ask for.

Eric nodded: "Dad, I might need to borrow your connections."

"Just tell me what's going on. Is there an actor or director you can't invite and you need me to step in?"

"That's not the case. I'm thinking that Lionheart.com will be online in a few months, so I'm going to make a movie called House of Cards to promote it. I'd like to invite Kevin Spacey to be the male lead."

"But after winning the Oscar for Best Actor, he is now at his peak. It would be great if the script can impress him. But if the salary cannot be negotiated, you may need to step in."

Dad thought for a moment and said, "As for Kevin Spacey, his current movie salary is $10 million, but the friendship price can be less. However, the salary for movies and TV series is two different tracks. How many episodes do you plan to shoot for this show?"

"No more than 15 episodes, probably around 12 or 13."

“How much do you want to pay Kevin Spacey per episode?”

"350,000 dollars, less would be better."

Hearing this, my father shook his head and said, "It's too little. Even if the script is of high quality, this price is too little. I suggest raising the price to $400,000 per episode."

"If we shoot 15 episodes, Kevin Spacey can get 6 million dollars. I can negotiate this friendship price."

"After all, the shooting time of a TV series is much shorter than that of a movie. He can just use it as a break between two movies."

"Add a good book to it, and I think he won't refuse."

"Dad, is this the lowest point yet?"

Eric still thought it was a bit expensive. He remembered that in 2013, Kevin Spacey's salary for filming "House of Cards" was only $500,000 per episode.

I did it 10 years in advance, hoping to lower the price.

"I can't help it. He's an Oscar winner. You know that the big screen has always discriminated against the small screen."

"Okay, once our streaming service is established, I will definitely get these big names in the film and television industry to rush to act in it."

(End of this chapter)