The next morning at breakfast, Amy tidied up the day's newspapers and placed them on the dining table, reminding Linton, "Boss, you and The Handmaiden Watts are in the newspapers."
Linton picked up the top newspaper, which was the Hollywood Entertainment News, and the front-page headline read, "Popular Singer Linton Hides Beauty, Moves into Mansion with New Lover."
Sure enough, Naomi's entry into Linton Manor yesterday did not escape the paparazzi's eyes; there was even a photo of Naomi getting out of the car at the manor.
He handed the newspaper to Naomi, "You'd better discuss this with your agent to see if it's a big deal. When we go out later, there will definitely be paparazzi asking questions, so you need to think about how to answer."
Naomi was actually mentally prepared. After discussing with her agent, she told Linton, "I'm fine on my end. I'll just say I came to visit an old friend, and I won't answer anything else. If the paparazzi want to hype it up, let them. A scandal with you can even boost my popularity. It won't affect you, will it?"
"I'm even more fine. I'll call Mira later, and we'll stick to the same story as you said."
Linton himself was no longer too concerned about such gossip. It not only boosted his popularity but also fulfilled Daniel's requirement to maintain media exposure.
"Nami, my security will be in place today. When you have time, you can choose a car you like, and I'll have someone buy it. Next time you come over, if you don't want to be bothered by the paparazzi, you can have security pick you up in the new car."
Naomi left after finishing breakfast.
At 9 AM, Goodman brought four newly hired security personnel into the manor: Hayden-Koman, David-Reed, Sandy-Glick, and Guli-Ge Te, who had already completed their onboarding procedures.
Today was their official start date. Linton handed them over to Nicole to manage their assignments and scheduling. From then on, Linton could finally rest assured about the security of Linton Manor.
Immediately after, Mira arrived at the manor with two script doctors, a white man in his thirties and a black man in his forties.
After signing confidentiality agreements, Linton gave them two complete scripts. After reading them, the two script doctors said,
"Your script is already very complete," the white screenwriter said.
"Yes, and the logic is very meticulous, with good Echoing each other. It's a rare good script," the black screenwriter also nodded.
Mira's eyes lit up as she listened, and her confidence grew even more.
"I invited you here today not to discuss the overall direction of the script. Firstly, I feel that some of the dialogue and lines in the play lack a sense of real-life and humor. Secondly, it lacks some street flavor.
After all, this is a street dance movie, and I still lack life experience, so I invited you to help supplement and refine these two points."
"No problem, we'll take on this job," the two script doctors exchanged glances and nodded.
Next, Mira and the two screenwriters agreed on the specific remuneration: 3,000 US dollars per person, no credit, but the result had to satisfy Linton, and they would modify it at Linton Manor.
They also signed employment contracts with Goodman's help.
This remuneration was quite generous, and the two were highly motivated. They made a simple division of labor and immediately began working in the office.
At 2:45 PM, Nicole drove Linton to the Sunshine Cafe on Hollywood Boulevard, found a quiet corner, ordered a cup of coffee for himself, and quietly waited for Robert.
At 3 PM, a strong white man in his thirties walked over, dressed in a standard white-collar elite style, a suit and tie, well-proportioned, with a steady demeanor, very charming.
"I'm Robert Lewis, are you Mr. Anderson?"
"Just call me Linton, Mr. Lewis." Linton stood up, and they shook hands. "Coffee?"
"Coffee. You can call me Robert too. We are both students of Teacher Mike. Teacher called me last night."
After the waiter brought Robert a cup of coffee, Linton also said,
"Yesterday I went back to school to visit the teacher, and the teacher spoke highly of you."
"The teacher is flattering me. Compared to you, I'm not worth mentioning. You are the best. You've been out of school for less than a year, and you're already an idol superstar."
The two complimented each other, and the atmosphere began to warm up. They slowly chatted from school to Hollywood.
"Linton, I heard from the teacher that you want to make your own movie?"
"Yes, after all, I majored in directing in school. I recently wrote a script and really want to film it. You can take a look first."
After saying that, Linton handed the script for "step up" to Robert.
"The script is very good, but have you evaluated the market prospects?" Robert carefully read the script, then asked Linton.
"I've evaluated it. This is a youth song and dance idol film, targeting teenagers. As long as the male and female leads are handsome and beautiful, the songs are good, and the dances are moving, it will definitely attract teenagers to the cinema. My conservative estimate is 40 million box office."
"You're a bit too optimistic. Do you know that since the two films 'Breakdance' and 'Flashdance' in the 1980s, song and dance films have been continuously made, but their box office performance has been unsatisfactory, and audiences are tired of them."
"I know that pure song and dance films don't do well at the box office now, but the selling point of this film is not just youth song and dance. It's more about pursuing dreams, love, and an inspiring story, which can make the audience feel a sense of immersion and find resonance.
And to be honest, the song and dance films in Hollywood these past few years have all been old-fashioned and completely unappealing, which is why audiences don't like them. This time, I want to incorporate various modern dance elements into the song and dance in the film, which will definitely be popular with teenage audiences."
"Listening to your analysis, it seems that's the case. Hollywood's song and dance films should change. The selling point of this film is indeed unique.
And from the script, there are no big scenes or special effects. The most expensive part might be the actors' salaries. If the total investment can be controlled, the chance of losing money is relatively small." Robert was thinking about failure before success.
"Robert, from your professional perspective, how much investment would this film need to be made?"
"A simple estimate: the film has no big scenes or special effects. Except for the dance choreographer and music composer, who need to be top-tier, other lighting, cinematography, and costume/makeup/props don't need to be top-tier. Production costs can be controlled within 4.5 million US dollars.
The rest are the director's and cast/crew's fees. If you hire famous directors and actors, the costs will be hard to control.
However, there's no need to hire a famous director for this film. As for actors, with you as the male lead, the female lead can be someone who's just become famous but not yet a huge star, so the price won't be too expensive, and it can be controlled within 2.5 million US dollars.
But besides the main actors, this film will use a large number of extras and group dancers, and this part of the cost won't be small, estimated to be around 2.5 million US dollars. All together, it won't exceed 10 million us dollars."
"That's about what I estimated. I plan to invest 10 million us dollars to make this film. I will be the director, the male lead, and I will also handle the film's soundtrack.
This part of the money can be saved and added to the production costs to make the film more refined and achieve better results."
"What? It's no problem for you to be responsible for the film's soundtrack, but you said you plan to direct it yourself and also play the male lead?"
"Yes."
"You've only filmed student short films in school before, right?"
"Yes, but my short film was rated A+ in school."
"That's just a student evaluation from a school teacher. Also, have you ever served as an assistant director or director's assistant in other film crews before?"
"Does it count in music videos?"
"Those were for your own songs, right?"
"Yes."
"Linton, with your appearance, playing the male lead is no problem, and it should even attract your fans to the cinema. But as a director, you probably won't find investors. No one would be willing to invest such a large sum of money for you to take a risk."
"It's okay. If I can't find investors, I'll invest myself. I can afford to invest 10 million us dollars."
"This isn't a matter of investing your own money. It's that you've never been a director, nor have you ever worked in related professions. How can you ensure that the crew operates normally under your leadership, and how can you guarantee that you can make a high-quality film?"
"I really don't have a good reason to convince you on this point, but I have confidence in myself. I suggest you watch the 'Sugar' music video; most of the shots in it were filmed by me, and my purpose in investing is to make my own film."
"Linton, do you know there's an unwritten rule in Hollywood?"
"What rule?"
"Directors never use their own money to make a movie."
"I know, that means investing in movies is risky, and even the director himself isn't confident in mitigating the risks. But I'm different; I'm confident this movie will be a success."
Robert inwardly grumbled, 'You're not confident in success; you're just rich and don't care about losing money.' But he couldn't say it directly, so he changed his approach and continued,
"I'm just afraid that if you can't command respect on set, the scene will get out of control. Then the costume, makeup, props, cinematography, lighting, and even the actors will all just go through the motions, leading to a poor quality film, and the distributor will also be perfunctory, resulting in the film's ultimate disastrous failure and the investment going down the drain."
"It's okay, I'm confident in controlling the crew. Besides, isn't there a saying, 'On set, whoever pays the money is the boss'? If anyone doesn't agree, I can always kick them out of the crew, right? And isn't there a producer to oversee things anyway?"
Robert was still quite hesitant. Although independently managing a commercial production with an investment of over 10 million us dollars was very tempting for him, his reputation and salary as a producer were directly linked to the success rate of his previous three films.
If this film succeeded, everyone would be happy, but if it failed miserably, it would severely impact his reputation and future project salaries. From the current information, the probability of failure seemed higher.
"Alright, Robert, if you become the producer for my film, I'll give you a fee of 500,000 US dollars."
This sentence completely stunned him. He knew that his fee as an executive producer for his previous film was only 200,000 US dollars.
Not to mention the independent Minor Achievement art films before that, which were less than 150,000 US dollars.
Now he was being offered 500,000 US dollars all at once; it was simply too much. Not accepting it would be unfair to his teacher, oh, and even more unfair to himself.