"Are the executives at Sony Pictures idiots? Letting this bastard do whatever he wants?" Leon asked.
"Director Marc Forster's previous work, Quantum of Solace, didn't perform well at the box office." Robbie sighed. "The higher-ups at Sony Columbia feel that maybe it's time for this classic film franchise, which spans 50 years, to make some changes."
"I think this leftist prick is just having an art-house outbreak." Leon snorted coldly.
For half a century, 007 had been viewed as an exhilarating spy thriller.
Just like Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible series or superhero movies.
It didn't need to bring people deep philosophical thoughts.
The way such movies provided emotional value was by releasing suppressed emotions in the theater through shocking audio-visual experiences.
Or sitting on the sofa at home, watching while drinking a few cans of cold beer.
Since Sam Mendes debuted, "pretentious art-house" had been his label.
Whether in drama films, war films, or pure commercial blockbusters like 007, he always liked to export his own values to the audience.
The war film Jarhead was forcibly directed by him into a pure anti-war film, filled with clumsy imitations of Full Metal Jacket.
Leon had always held a "prejudice": The American people are not anti-war; they are against wars they can't win.
Robbie comforted him, "Maybe this movie will be a huge hit. The new Batman series is an unconventional superhero movie."
"Huge hit?" Leon shook his head.
In terms of ability, Sam Mendes wasn't comparable to Christopher Nolan.
Excellent directors don't need to export their thoughts to the audience through lengthy and obscure dialogue; every shot speaks.
Leon continued, "Thinking about it... I wouldn't be surprised even if it sells a billion. This country has been hijacked by those white leftists... but that has nothing to do with me..."
"What I want is for you to become an overnight sensation with this movie! Not hide behind a damn old woman as a vase!"
Hearing this, Robbie's heart warmed.
She leaned into his arms. "You're so considerate, Honey~"
Frankly speaking, Leon didn't care that much about Robbie's acting career; he cared about his own interests.
Although the recording of We Don't Talk Anymore was suspended, it would be released sooner or later.
Max Martin rated this work very highly, asserting with years of industry experience that this song would definitely be a huge hit.
If Robbie could become an overnight sensation in the film and television circle through the role of "Bond Girl," just like Angelina Jolie became famous globally with Lara Croft: Tomb Raider...
The help for subsequent record sales would be better than spending any amount of money on promotion.
Leon ground his back molars. "Damn limey..."
Sam Mendes had never had amazing box office performance. To gain such trust from Sony Pictures executives, sparing no expense to change the tone of the 007 series for half a century...
Leon could only think of one reason—nepotism.
The 007 series was adapted from a novel written by a Brit, and its dependence on British actors reached a heinous level.
Due to the British identity of Sony Corporation of America (SCA) CEO Howard Stringer, the protagonists of this series were almost exclusively actors from the British Isles.
They even made a decision that went against their ancestors, changing the deeply rooted image of dark-haired Bond to the blonde-haired, blue-eyed British actor Daniel Craig.
Sam Mendes was British and had some friendship with Stringer.
Relying on the strength of the British gang in Sony Columbia Pictures, he did whatever he wanted.
Robbie lowered her head silently. All Australians considered themselves no different from the British.
In Hollywood, there was actually no distinction between the Australian gang and the British gang; they could collectively be called the "Commonwealth Gang."
"Maybe I need to have a chat with Sony's executives..." Leon muttered to himself.
Catching this sentence, Robbie immediately perked up. "Honey! You know the executives of Sony Pictures, right? I should have thought of it earlier..."
In her heart, Leon seemed omnipotent.
Even if he was good friends with Howard Stringer, the top boss of Sony, she wouldn't be surprised at all.
"Don't know them..." Leon shook his head. "But Sony has been seeking opportunities to contact me."
Warner Music wasn't the only giant coveting Leon and Apocalypse Music.
Sony Music Group was also seeking opportunities to sign him after Leon's contract with Roc Nation expired.
For this reason, Clive Davis, the Chief Creative Officer of Sony Music, also from Brooklyn, had maintained close contact with Phil.
Sony was a giant multinational conglomerate, and the transfer of executives among its subsidiaries was interconnected.
Especially the three sectors of gaming, film/television entertainment, and music.
If Leon wanted to contact the executives of Sony Pictures, it would be very easy, and now was the best time.
He could totally use himself as bait to trick the other party into achieving his goal.
Robbie stared at Leon, her beautiful eyes rippling.
She couldn't help but rub her fair feet back and forth on him.
Causing Leon's liver to tremble. "We just finished..."
"It's okay, I know you can do it, Honey." Robbie's eyes were practically dripping water.
"Ahem... let's talk about serious business. You must fight for this role!"
"I definitely will!"
---
For the next three days, Leon stayed in Los Angeles.
Besides having a performance in Los Angeles himself, the main reason was waiting for news from Robinson.
And incidentally finding out the real bottom line of Sony Pictures executives regarding Skyfall.
Sony Pictures' North American headquarters was located in Culver City, Los Angeles.
Since the 1920s, film and television studios had gathered here.
The headquarters of MGM and Sony Pictures Entertainment were also located here.
It is worth mentioning that the headquarters of Hughes Aircraft Company, the largest enterprise founded by American legendary industrial tycoon Howard Hughes—known as the real-life Iron Man—was also located here.
Leonardo DiCaprio played Hughes in the 2005 movie The Aviator.
The reason Hughes chose to set up the company headquarters in Culver City was simply to make it more convenient to sleep with female stars.
Leon had already handed over the task of contacting Sony to Phil over the phone.
Inside a casino in Los Angeles.
Leon was sitting at a standard table playing Texas Hold'em.
California's gambling laws were very strange. Poker games were usually legal, often even cloaked in charity.
But sports betting and any form of machines were strictly controlled, legal only in hotels opened by Native American tribes.
Now, Los Angeles had long surpassed Atlantic City to become the poker sanctuary second only to Las Vegas.
Leon didn't have an obsession with gambling like Michael Jordan or Bruno Mars.
Texas Hold'em was one of the few games that balanced game theory and luck; he treated it as a good pastime.
Five cards had been dealt on the table. Combining Leon's hole cards and the community cards, he only had an Ace high.
The pot was $100,000. The opponent bet half the pot, $50,000.
Without thinking, Leon shoved all-in directly in the opponent's face.
Pressure on the opponent.
"WTF..." The opponent panicked instantly.
After the dealer counted, Leon pushed out $150,000 in chips.
The opponent threw out a string of time bank cards, sweat beading on his forehead as he stared dead at the table, daring not to make a decision.
"Hurry up, bastard! Your time is up!" Jorge stood behind Leon and scolded angrily.
The female dealer looked back and glared, but immediately shrank her head in fear of this Mexican tough guy.
Finally, the opponent folded.
Leon swept the mountain-like chips in front of him into his embrace and showed his hole cards to the opponent.
An Ace high.
The opponent was instantly so angry his facial features twisted together, and he immediately got up and left the table.
"Fxxk..." Jorge, who received a tip from Leon, was in a great mood, praising repeatedly, "That hand was brilliant. How did you call three rounds with just an Ace? And even dared to go all-in at the end!"
"Why not dare?" Leon said, "I have no financial pressure, but the opponent does. You could tell from that bastard's expression just now. He's already deeply in debt. Maybe the first thing he does after walking out of the hotel is find a high place to jump off."
Now his mentality had undergone a fundamental change. Record sales alone brought him millions of dollars every month.
In comparison, floating profits and losses of hundreds of thousands were nothing.
Texas Hold'em was like this. In the case of unequal capital, any strategy and practice seemed ridiculous.
Speaking of this, another opponent at the table also joked, "That guy Jack already owes over a million dollars. He might really think of jumping off a building or something..."
To this, Leon responded, "Then I would advise that bastard to find a higher place to jump. I'm afraid he won't die from the fall."
"Hahaha..."
Everyone at the table burst into laughter.
Beep beep beep—
At this time, Bonnie called, and Leon answered immediately.
"Boss, when are you coming back to New York?" Bonnie's tone was somewhat urgent.
"Maybe it will take a while," Leon said. "What's wrong? Did something happen?"
"Diddy spoke out on a podcast recently. Out of the two-hour program content, one hour was talking about you!" Bonnie said. "The listening rate of this program exploded. Entertainment media and internet communities are discussing the content of the program."
"Very good." Leon glanced at his two hole cards, the corners of his mouth rising.
Since the release of Billy, Diddy had been quiet for a while.
Originally, he thought Diddy would continue to remain silent, letting this Beef pass quietly.
Now it seemed not. The rap godfather who had dominated the East Coast for more than ten years obviously couldn't compromise on this Beef.
But Leon wasn't nervous about this; this was exactly what he wanted to see happen.
As long as Diddy continued to provoke and make petty moves...
The stronger the smell of gunpowder between the two sides, the longer the heat could last!
In this situation, any casual tweet from Leon could cause heated interpretations from many parties, invisibly saving a huge amount of promotion fees.
"Very good? Diddy almost pulled a gun directly on the show. I'll send you the full program link later," Bonnie said. "He even wants to sue you in court!"
"Sue in court? On what grounds?"
Bonnie explained for ten minutes before clarifying the matter.
The main reason Diddy stood up angrily this time wasn't the song Billy.
But Leon's repeated loose mouth on podcasts and social media.
Besides digging up the 1997 Tupac murder, he also exposed a lot of black material about Diddy's parties.
Although Leon had really attended once, most of the content was casually made up by him.
Whatever story would get traffic, he would tell it.
Such behavior undoubtedly touched Diddy's bottom line.
His parties, which he had painstakingly managed for many years, hid the most evil and obscene truths in the entire entertainment industry.
Under the media's seizing on the subject, many celebrities who had attended the parties couldn't withstand the pressure and asked Diddy to stand up and "refute the rumors."
This led to various statements issued by Diddy recently.
In fact, if not for JAY-Z's tough protection, Leon would have been shot at least three times.
Under Leon's various behaviors that broke the bottom line, the hatred between the two had surpassed the confrontation between Bad Boy Records and Death Row Records in the 90s.
"Relax, he won't do that, as long as he's not a fool." Leon smiled and said, "Going to court will only make things look darker."
"But what about the death threats he issued against you? Now many young nggas from underground rap groups threaten to take you out," Bonnie said. "Everyone is worried about your safety."
"Ignore him!" Leon turned and left the poker table, raising his volume to shout:
"Just some broke nggas looking for presence by talking tough! Increase the intensity, let Marcus's radio station expose more explosive material about Diddy!"
After hanging up the phone, Leon picked up all the chips in front of him and put them in a box.
"Excuse me, you losers."
Jorge drove Leon to the set in Compton.
Straight Outta Compton still had the last few scenes left.
It was also the heavy drama in the script that triggered conflict and reflection.
The first half of the movie was a feel-good story about bottom-level Black people getting rich through rap music, and the second half was about the betrayal of friendship.
Leon was very dissatisfied with the final plot in the original script given by the inspiration refresh. It was completely content to whitewash Dre.
Dre was portrayed as a "white lotus" who valued friendship and loyalty and passively withdrew from N.W.A.
Both Leon and director James Wan felt this part was seriously distorted.
If Dre were really as written in the script, it would be impossible for him to reach his current status in the music industry.
After some discussion, Leon decided to delete and change the ending content extensively, adding some scenes about P. Diddy.
In the film, he would do his utmost to make this opponent lose face completely.
If the movie could wrap up in April, the release could still leech off the traffic of this Beef war.
Smearing the opponent while earning box office—Leon felt this was truly a genius idea.
"Will there be problems changing it like this? Will Diddy trouble us?" James Wan asked cautiously.
"You're overthinking it." Leon patted the other party's shoulder. "That ngga isn't as tough as you think."
Since the investor daddy said so, James Wan, as a senior employee, could only helplessly agree.
An hour later, Robinson came to the set. As another investor, and with the movie shooting location on his turf...
He came to inspect the set almost every day.
When he heard that Leon wanted to change the script to insult Diddy, the expression on his face was amused and exasperated.
"Fxxk, looks like one really shouldn't mess with you bastard. You'll think of every way to torture your opponent."
Leon spread his hands and responded, "Torturing Diddy is just incidental. I just chose the script with the most traffic."
"Haha~ you guy~" Robinson paused and continued, "There are results on the matter you asked me to investigate. I have to say that old guy's taste is a bit perverted..."
"Very good, tell me in detail."
"Jones only contacts one pimp in all of Los Angeles. That guy Tom McKenney is very famous," Robinson said. "His activities in Los Angeles are not frequent; his clients are mainly concentrated in New York."
"New York?" Leon searched carefully in his mind, confirming he hadn't heard McKenney's name.
Robinson explained, "McKenney is a high-end pimp, mainly serving investors and financiers in New York. His biggest client is a New York financial tycoon."
"Jeffrey Epstein."