New York 2006

Chapter 242 Music and Movie Rankings
Kristen's family was very reasonable and gave the two of them private space after dinner.Luo Ji and Christine came to her bedroom.

Her bedroom style is very punk, very wild.Nothing like the gentle image she had when getting along with herself.

Luo Ji observed for a while and then felt Christine hugging him from behind.

Kristen whispered: "My dear, I miss you so much during this time. We haven't seen each other for two months."

Luo Ji turned around and hugged her: "I miss you too."

Kristen immediately put her arms around his neck, stood on tiptoes and kissed him.Slowly, their breathing became heavier and they fell on the bed.

Christine's hand slowly moved to his belt, but Luo Ji endured it and stretched out his hand to stop him: "Are your parents still downstairs?"

Kristen moved her hands away, pouted and sat up, with displeasure written all over her face.

Luo Ji put his arms around her and comforted her: "Tomorrow, you will come find me tomorrow."

"Okay." Kristen continued, "It's all my fault. I originally planned to use the saved money to buy a house and move out, but instead I invested in the Madoff Fund."

"Hahahaha!" Luo Ji laughed immediately.

Kristine slapped him, and said with a cry in her voice: "You are still laughing, and I am so miserable. Now everyone around me knows it. Today, the faces of several girlfriends all have expressions of gloating, really It’s so embarrassing.”

"Who told you not to listen to me in the first place!"

"I'm like this, why don't you know how to comfort me?"

Luo Ji said, "Okay, okay, I won't hit you anymore. Haven't you already participated in the class action lawsuit organized by Jamie? You should be able to recover the money."

Christine was in pretty good condition, not as sad as Luo Ji imagined.

She sighed and said: "I really didn't expect that, who knew Madoff was such a person."

"Indeed!" Luo Ji continued, "Speaking of which, director Catherine and screenwriter Melissa also came in? Braun did not recommend either of them."

Christine said embarrassedly: "Uh... they were recommended by me."

Luo Ji was immediately surprised: "You Jews are specifically trying to trick your own people, right? Have you recommended others?"

Christine waved her hands quickly: "No, no, it's just the two of them. In fact, if you hadn't kicked Director Catherine out of your private equity fund, she wouldn't have joined Madoff's fund."

Luo Ji said casually: "It's none of my business! She asked for it."

Christine whispered: "Can you forgive her?"

"cannot!"

"Logic, she is willing to admit her mistake to you." Kristen continued: "Her story has been spread all over Hollywood. She can't find a job and is having a hard time."

Luo Ji asked doubtfully, "Is there still such a thing?"

Kristine said: "It is now said in Hollywood that she is very arrogant and likes to go against the film company!"

Luo Ji immediately distanced himself from the relationship: "I didn't let anyone spread this matter."

Luo Ji was telling the truth. He was indeed unhappy with Director Catherine's arrogance, but he was just suppressing her normally and did not let anyone ruin her reputation.

However, there are too many people who know about this. In addition to some people from Luo Ji Company, there are also people from Legendary Pictures, Summit Pictures and MTV Movies.There are too many possibilities for people spreading random gossip.

"I know you're not like that."

After Kristine finished speaking, she took his hand and shook it: "Logic, please forgive her. She was very kind to me on the set. Now I have caused her to enter Madoff's fund. I feel very guilty for her. "

"I'll think about it again." Luo Ji hesitated, thinking about Director Catherine's current miserable situation, and became a little soft-hearted. When "Twilight" was originally filmed, she devoted a lot of her creative enthusiasm to it.

Kristen said coquettishly: "Logic, for my sake, can you just forgive her?"

Luo Ji followed suit and said, "Okay, for your sake I agree!"

"My dear, you are the best." Christine kissed Luo Ji on the face.

"Private equity funds will definitely not accept her anymore, and there are no quotas now."

Luo Ji finished his lie without any burden, thought for a moment and then said: "But I can provide her with an opportunity to audition for a director, let's take the TV series "The Vampire Diaries". This can send a message of our reconciliation to Hollywood. As for Whether she can succeed or not, I can’t guarantee.”

"A TV series? She was a movie director before."

Luo Ji said nonchalantly: "The directors of other projects have been confirmed. If she wants to come, she can come. If she doesn't want to come, forget it."

"Okay, I'll inform her." Kristen said the business and rested her head on Luo Ji's shoulder: "My dear, how long will you stay in Los Angeles this time?"

Luo Ji put his arms around her and said, "I want to shoot the music video for the album, score the movie, and supervise the progress of several film and television projects. I should be in Los Angeles these few months."

Kristen smiled: "Then I will stay with you during this time."

"it is good!"

The two of them then talked about little things in life, with Christine mainly talking and Luo Ji listening.

Christine is beautiful, lovable, submissive and obsessed with him.I am willing to tell him all the big and small things in life.Luo Ji didn't feel bored listening to her ramble. Instead, he listened with great interest.

Christine complained: "My parents are too strict with me. They don't allow me to do this or that. Especially after the Madoff incident happened, they started to get involved in my financial problems. I am an adult. Now I don’t want to stay at home anymore, I want to rent a house and move out..."

Luo Ji could understand her. They were the same age, rebellious in adolescence, and both didn't want their parents to interfere in their lives.

Luo Ji suddenly thought that he had not given her any gifts since they had known each other for such a long time, so he asked: "Where is the house you planned to buy before? Why don't you rent it there? I will go with you tomorrow. have a look."

…………

The next day, Zhu Haowei was sitting in his CEO's office at Logic Pictures in Burbank. At this moment, his Chinese female secretary walked in.

This female secretary is the child of Zhu Haowei's relatives. She graduated from California State University, Northridge. After graduating from undergraduate last year, she found him through a network of connections, so he recruited her so that she could have someone he trusted by his side.

The female secretary said: "Haowei, Fiona, Logic's assistant, called just now. She said that Logic asked you to include Catherine as a candidate director for "The Vampire Diaries"."

"Which Catherine?"

"That's Catherine Hardwicke, the director of the first Twilight Saga."

Zhu Haowei said doubtfully: "Didn't she break up with the company? Logic is also very dissatisfied with her. Why is she recommended now? Did Fiona give any reason?"

"I didn't say it." The female assistant said in a questioning tone: "Do you want me to call and ask?"

Zhu Haowei decided to mention this relative: "No, you are still too young. Since Logic has taken the initiative to recommend her, it means that he is willing to accept her again. Logic is still nostalgic!"

"Okay." The female assistant nodded: "I'll go out if it's okay."

"Goodbye now, Logic said he came to the company today, where are they?"

"Fiona said he had something to do and would come over later."

Zhu Haowei complained with some emotion: "He was a little careless about the soundtrack of "The Twilight Saga 2". He only gave one song "Someone You Loved", and the other soundtracks were given to others."

The female assistant hesitated for a moment: "Maybe he was not satisfied with the sales of the first soundtrack. Last year, only 610 million copies were sold worldwide."

"This is 610 million, and they are all ranked in the top ten in the world."

"Well... maybe it didn't meet his expectations. After all, his first album sold 2007 million copies in 1430."

"Okay, it's okay. Get out!"

After the female assistant left, Zhu Haowei opened the news he had just watched on his computer and started reading it again.Last night, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry announced last year's global album rankings, and news quickly broke out on major websites today.

First, Taylor Swift’s “Fearless”, 920 million copies
Second, Lady Gaga’s “The Fame”, 730 million copies
Third, Coldplay’s “Death And All His Friends”, 670 million copies
Fourth, Logic "16", 640 million copies
Fifth, AC/DC "Black Ice", 630 million copies
Sixth, "The Twilight Saga" soundtrack, 610 million copies
Seventh, "Mamma Mia" soundtrack, 590 million copies
……

Zhu Haowei carefully read the top [-] lists and said to himself: "Logic is really a genius. Not only does his own records sell well, but the records of his singers also sell so well. If he can do the same for the second It would be nice if the soundtrack of the department paid more attention to it.”

After looking at the music album rankings, he then looked at the movie box office rankings.

This list only came out recently. The reason why it came out at the end of January is because many movies released in November and December last year have just finished their global screenings in the past few days.After watching it, Zhu Haowei said: "Compared to Logic's dominance in music, the film industry is far behind. "Twilight" last year made 1 million yuan, only ranking tenth in the global box office rankings. "

"Hehehehe, but the DVD sold out last year. Second only to "The Dark Knight", which sold 1040 million copies last year."

"Genius, genius!"

Zhu Haowei carefully looked at the top ten global movie box office rankings. After all, this is his home field.

Now Logic has given him some autonomy from the company. His salary, year-end bonus and future company options are all closely related to the projects he handles.

"The Vampire Diaries" and "Deus Ex Machina" are the projects he is leading this year.

Zhu Haowei analyzed the top ten box office rankings.

3 animated movies, "Kung Fu Panda", "Madagascar 2", and "WALL-E".Unfortunately, setting up an animation studio is too expensive and involves too much investment, so it’s impossible.

1 musical, "Mamma Mia". There is always a market for musicals in OMI. We can acquire some scripts and maybe one day we will get lucky.

2 action movies, "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "4".Alas, they are all veteran IPs and have a lot of investment in action movies. Logic has not yet given him the authority to invest large amounts of money.

1 teen vampire romance movie, "Twilight".

"With the popularity of "Twilight" and HBO's "True Blood" last year, it seems that the vampire theme is really going to take off! Hahaha, I have a really good sense. I originally picked "The Vampire Diaries" This novel.”

Zhu Haowei decisively took all the credit on him, completely ignoring the script that Luo Ji originally asked him to pay attention to in the teenage fantasy romance genre.Not to mention that Luo Ji heard that the style of the novel was similar to "The Twilight Saga" and immediately decided to buy it.

3 superhero movies, "The Dark Knight", "Hancock", and "Iron Man".

Zhu Haowei said to himself: "In the past few years, superhero movies such as Spider-Man, X-Men, Batman and Superman have all done very well at the box office. Is the era of superheroes coming? ?”

…………

At two o'clock in the afternoon, Logic Pictures, in addition to the temporarily hired crew members, the entire company has more than 30 regular employees.More than one-third of them are Chinese staff who have been in Hollywood for a long time.

Two Chinese employees in the production department had just finished the production plan for "Deus Execution" and got up to send it to Zhu Haowei for review. They saw the CEO's assistant leading an old white man in a suit to the CEO's office. .

The two stopped to discuss.

"Who is that old white man?"

"It seems to be someone from HBO."

"What does he come to our company for?"

"Isn't the company's "Westworld" project cooperating with HBO?"

"Oh."

The two of them watched the old white man walk into the CEO's office, and could only return to their seats, chatting and waiting.

"Zhu Haowei is so lucky. He met Logic early. Now he not only directed "The Twilight Saga: 2", but also became the CEO of the company. I heard that many Hollywood beauties have come to fawn over him recently."

"This is fate. Who told him to follow the right person? I remember when there was news in Hollywood that Logic was going to adapt a vampire movie, there was a lot of ridicule. Unexpectedly, our company has now become one of the top second-tier companies in Hollywood."

"Did you know that Jennifer Connelly came to our company to audition for "World War of the Dead" some time ago?"

"Of course I know. I've seen her before, and I feel like she suddenly looks a lot older."

"All white women are like this. They age very quickly once they approach 40."

"By the way, has the heroine of the movie been confirmed?"

"Naomi Watts."

"Which one?"

"The heroine of "King Kong". She is also old and has started to play the role of mother."

"I remembered who she was talking about. But she must have gone out of fashion! The most famous beauties in Hollywood now are still those born in the 80s, Anne Hathaway, Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson..."

The colleague next to him suddenly poked him with his hand: "Stop talking, the big boss is here."

Luo Ji hadn't been to the film company for several months. He was observing as he walked.The company has been renovated and looks much more beautiful than before, and there are many more employees.

Hey, there are two employees chatting about fishing!
For these two new employees, Luo Ji had previously approved their employment applications on the company's internal affairs system. They seemed to be from the production department. It seemed like he would have to focus on this department next!

"Logic, people from HBO have arrived." A Chinese woman walked up.

"Okay." Luo Ji asked casually, "You are Zhu Haowei's assistant, right?"

"Ah."

The first time Luo Ji entered the office, he shook hands with the old white man from HBO enthusiastically: "Hello, hello! I heard that someone from HBO was visiting the company, so I rushed over as soon as possible."

The old white man smiled and said: "Hahaha, it seems you like our TV station very much?"

"Of course. Your TV series are industry benchmarks." Luo Ji continued, "Are you here to discuss "Westworld"?"

Zhu Haowei explained: "He came to inform me today that our pilot episode will be broadcast on HBO's prime time in May."

The old white man from HBO nodded: "Your script for the first season is very creative. If the shooting quality is high enough, we will definitely order it all."

American television stations adopt a pilot drama system.

If a film and television production company wants to produce TV series and sell them to TV stations, it has to go through three steps.

The first step is for the TV station to review the script.The second step is to create a pilot episode.The third step is that only if the audience is satisfied, the ratings are good, and the audience response is good, the TV station will order it.Generally, one or two seasons are ordered at one time.

The market for American dramas is on the same level as the market for movies. The size of the American drama market is between 150 billion and 200 billion dollars every year, and it will be even more when you add overseas markets.

If a TV series can be successful, the next step is to make money while lying down.

First-run broadcast rights, second-run broadcast rights, local TV broadcast rights, DVD sales, online copyrights, foreign copyrights, the profit margin is sometimes very high.

Luo Ji smiled and said, "This requires help from HBO. You should know that our company lacks experience in TV series production. I hope you can recommend a reliable production team for us."

"That's no problem. After all, this work is funded by HBO." The old white man changed the subject: "By the way, how did I hear that your company is also preparing to produce a vampire TV series for the CW TV station to compete with our TV station's "True Love" Blood》Competition?”

Luo Ji said indifferently: "Aren't you two brother companies? The CW TV station has shares in Warner."

"Uh... well."

The old white man complained crazily in his heart. Even if they belong to the same group, HBO and CW TV stations are still in competition!

Luo Ji smiled and said, "My film and television company is cooperating with Warner Bros. in all aspects. Your group is involved in all projects this year."

"I know." The old white man nodded awkwardly.

This is indeed the case. In addition to "Twilight", Warner Group has invested 20% in Logic Pictures' other four projects this year.

Two American TV series, HBO and CW TV stations, also invested 20%, which adds up to 40%. Without such a large proportion, it would be difficult to enter the two top TV stations in the United States.Who told them to master the broadcast channel.

Luo Ji pretended to be casual and asked, "By the way, how is the production of your Game of Thrones TV series going? Are you lacking funds?"

The old white man immediately remembered what the former manager of Logic Pictures had said to him, and he should be careful that Logic’s nugget brought up "Game of Thrones" again.

"By the way, I have something to do here, so I'll take my leave now." After saying that, the old white man turned around and ran away.

Luo Ji quickly tried to persuade him to stay: "No, why are you in such a hurry? Sit down again."

"Wait until I finish talking. Has your TV series started filming?"

"Hey, why are you running?"

(End of this chapter)