Hearing the lyric "See anybody could be bad to you, you need a good girl to blow your mind, yeah," Leon revealed a mysterious smile.
"I do need a good girl right now, but one might not be enough~"
The inspiration refresh mechanism had failed to produce the male solo track he wanted several times in a row, but this time he wasn't annoyed at all.
This female vocal collaboration, Bang Bang, was exactly what he needed right now.
With highly sexually charged lyrics combined with the hot dancing in the MV, this song was practically tailor-made for Beyoncé.
If this record were released under Apocalypse Music, Leon would serve as its producer.
Aside from ceding a portion of the sales revenue to Sony Columbia Records, he would have no worries about copyright.
Roc Nation wouldn't get a single cent from him.
That night, Leon's dreams were filled with images of three babes shaking their bodies in the MV.
---
The next day, inside the Apocalypse Music office.
Leon was on the phone with Beyoncé.
Ever since the near-mishap in her Tribeca apartment a few days ago, Beyoncé had been calling every day to urge him for the song.
It was like an alternative kind of debt collection.
"Understood, I totally understand what you mean~" Leon kicked his feet up, a cigarette dangling from his mouth, looking extra leisurely. "My inspiration exploded recently, and I just happened to write a song."
"Oh my God~ Is it written specifically for me?" The diva's voice couldn't hide her delight.
"Of course! Everything about this song is custom-made for you!" Leon wasn't talking nonsense on this point. The opening part of Bang Bang had high demands for pitch and vocal runs.
But for Beyoncé, the number one vocalist among the new generation of Divas, it would be effortless.
"I can't wait to hear the instrumental right now!"
"Don't rush. This work is still just on paper for now. I plan to hand over the beat production to Max Martin."
"I've worked with Max; he's a genius!" Beyoncé said. "We can start recording anytime. Roc Nation or Sony Music... wherever you want to record is fine~"
The diva's enthusiasm was high.
Leon really wanted to tell her that he wasn't the singer collaborating with her.
But the words reached his lips and he swallowed them back.
"Let's talk about recording after the initial beat is out..." Leon hurriedly hung up the phone.
The original version featured three female singers, including a lengthy rap verse.
The rap part wasn't hard to solve; he could just let Cardi B take it.
Her debut EP had already passed its golden sales cycle, and she urgently needed a new work.
Being able to successfully leech off the diva's traffic would be hugely beneficial for Apocalypse Music.
The only problem lay in who to choose for the other female singer.
Robbie's vocal skills couldn't support such a technical showpiece, not to mention she already had a new work ready to launch.
"Aguilera... Lady Gaga..."
Leon silently recited the names of these female singers; they had all expressed interest in commissioning songs from him.
He even thought of Rihanna, who was ridiculously hot right now.
But in his heart, these star-studded names couldn't compare to Taylor Swift!
Sales explained everything; awards meant nothing to Leon.
Even if Taylor didn't have those glittering trophies, considering sales alone, she was the best candidate in Leon's mind.
Choosing Taylor meant choosing the play with the biggest traffic. Leon found it hard not to be tempted.
"Award Reaper" Beyoncé + "Sales Queen" Taylor Swift—this song would win the moment it was released.
The two hottest female singers in the music industry today had never collaborated, especially after Kanye snatched the mic at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, making collaboration even less likely.
If this could happen, it would be commercially invincible from the start.
A while later, Phil came to the office. Leon immediately shared his idea of having Cardi B join the new song Bang Bang.
"Do you think this is appropriate?" Leon asked.
"I think you are the greatest genius in fxxking music history!" Phil shouted excitedly with his smoky voice.
Cardi B was an artist under his agency; their interests were highly correlated.
The old geezer couldn't help but be excited.
Leon continued to ask, "So... for the third female singer, I want to choose Taylor Swift. What do you think?"
"Fxxk, I think you're crazy." Phil's face fell rapidly. "You know she can't collaborate with Beyoncé."
"This shouldn't be that complicated." Leon curled his lips.
According to his vision, handling Beyoncé wasn't hard. After all, she was neither the direct perpetrator nor the victim in the mic-snatching incident.
Taylor, however, was a bit difficult.
Not only was she the victim, but she also contributed to a historical awkward moment in the entertainment industry.
"That woman Taylor is famously hard to deal with. her scandal list is as long as a stockbroker's phone book," Phil said. "Besides, she has excellent songwriting ability herself. Good quality and very prolific—more prolific than you."
In short, he didn't think an arrogant woman like Taylor, who lacked neither fame nor talent, would lower herself for a song.
"It does seem a bit tricky..." Leon patted his head.
Counting on Robbie to assist as a bestie was out of the question.
This woman was petty to begin with. If she knew her boyfriend wrote a new song but she had no part in it, she would definitely find it hard to accept.
Let alone persuading her bestie to pluck the peach.
That sounded the same as persuading another woman to sleep with her boyfriend.
"How about Katy Perry? 2010 was perfect for her; her album Teenage Dream had two songs topping Billboard," Phil said. "Even kids can sing Firework. This woman made a fortune just on royalties."
"Katy?" Leon shook his head.
A former reject of Columbia Records who had just been hot for two years; there was still a certain gap compared to Taylor.
Phil continued to induce, "Are you really not interested in that girl? Think about her boobs like giant hamburgers. She was just named 'The Ultimate Male Fantasy' by GQ magazine!"
Although he didn't know why the other party kept pushing Katy, Leon laughed out loud when he heard the stupid title "The Ultimate Male Fantasy."
"A bxxch who hypes topics by relying on feminism and woke organizations, can she be related to the word 'fantasy'?" Leon showed a contemptuous expression. "Let's talk about Sony Pictures Entertainment."
Robbie, following Leon's instruction, didn't give an inch regarding her screen time in Skyfall.
Some executives at Sony Pictures stated they could only try to communicate with director Sam Mendes.
But no results were achieved.
According to the script, the "Bond Girl" played by Robbie was a villainous role, which already made her very aggrieved.
Sam even threatened that if the stalemate continued, he would compress her screen time to only five minutes.
"I've entrusted my friend at Sony Music to act as a lobbyist for this matter," Phil said with a smile. "I think this shouldn't be difficult. The entire focus of Sony Pictures right now isn't on the 007 series."
This statement made Leon curious. There was only one reason the 007 series could flourish for half a century.
This IP could make money!
The cruel film industry didn't care much about a work's reputation; box office was the only truth.
If the box office performance was poor or even lost money, even works like Harry Potter wouldn't escape being shelved.
Seeing Leon's surprised expression, Phil explained, "The production cost of the previous 007 work, Quantum of Solace, was as high as 230 million dollars, but the North American box office was only 169 million dollars."
"Fortunately, this movie performed strongly in overseas markets, eventually achieving a global box office of 590 million."
"It is no exaggeration to say that the overseas markets in East Asia and Europe saved this series. Otherwise, there wouldn't be another 007 sequel in the short term."
As half a movie insider, Leon was very clear about the relationship between box office and production costs.
Theaters and producers usually adopted a tiered profit-sharing model.
Starting from the first week of release, theaters took 30% of the total box office revenue.
Starting from the third week, to maintain more screenings, distributors had to cede more box office share to theaters.
Plus expensive movie promotion fees and taxes, usually, a movie could only break even if the North American box office reached 2.5 times the production cost.
Overseas box office needed to be three times to have a possibility of breaking even.
"Are the executives at Sony Pictures a bunch of idiots? Such an IP can lose money?" Leon was puzzled.
Big IPs were the most profitable category in the film industry nowadays; just shooting them with eyes closed should work.
It was no exaggeration to say that finding a dog to direct an IP like 007 would make it hard to lose money.
"The film industry is collectively shifting right now. Studios are busy laying out superhero movies and have no time for anything else," Phil said.
"Sony has superhero IPs too?" This was Leon's first reaction.
Since Disney acquired Marvel, only a small amount of copyrights like Iron Man and Captain America were still entangled with Paramount Pictures.
DC Comics' IPs were in the hands of Warner Bros.;
Marvel was in the hands of Disney.
It was foreseeable that future superhero movies would be dominated by these two companies.
Whoever controlled the IP controlled the future of the film market.
Phil smiled and explained, "The copyright of Spider-Man was sold to Sony by Marvel long ago... they didn't expect superhero movies to be as explosive as they are today."
When Marvel sold the Spider-Man IP, they thought they were smart by adding an additional clause—if no sequel was shot within five years, the IP would be reclaimed.
Such a clause was basically not a restriction for the wealthy Sony.
What made Marvel even more helpless was that the Spider-Man series made money with every movie.
The more Leon listened, the more jealous he felt. Filming superhero movies was equivalent to robbing money.
But quite helplessly, even if the inspiration refreshed a high-quality superhero movie, it would be useless.
Without copyright, nothing could be done.
"Listen, let me know anytime if there's any news from Sony Columbia," Leon said.
"No problem~ You left Leonard hanging, wanted to break publicly with Roc Nation, and now you want to play Sony Music. I really want to see how you decide to wrap this up in the end!" Phil grinned.
"Alright, nothing for you here."
Leon sent Phil away like shooing a dog, lying in his swivel chair lost in thought.
"Shxt... trouble never ends..."
Just as he wanted to close his eyes and rest for a while, Bonnie pushed the door open and walked in.
"Sit down and talk. Pour me a cup of coffee, thanks," Leon said. "I hope you can bring me some good news."
Hearing this, Bonnie's expression became quite depressed. After handing the coffee to Leon, she didn't speak for a long time.
"Speak, it's okay." Leon sipped his coffee.
Bonnie sighed and said, "I followed your instructions and emailed Miss Kidada, but they rejected our 6 million dollar offer. In her reply, she also said..."
"What did she say? Just tell me directly, it's fine." Leon narrowed his eyes and listened intently.
Bonnie spread her hands and replied helplessly, "Time Warner has raised their offer to 6.5 million dollars. Just like you said before, they are completely playing us!"
"Great!" Leon patted the table excitedly.
"Is this considered good news?" Bonnie looked totally confused.
"Of course it's good news; we're going to save big money!"
"Save money?" Bonnie scratched her head, puzzled.
Obviously, the nutrition that should have supplied her brain during growth was all absorbed by her butt.
Leon excitedly slid the mouse, opening an encrypted folder.
As early as three days before the inspiration refresh in April, Robinson had sent him a mysterious gift.
A wicked secret about Quincy Jones.
A "young" girl who ran away from Chicago to Los Angeles to make a living completed everything alone.
In the video, the girl followed Jones's instructions and put on a nun's outfit.
Old Jones wasn't satisfied with this and asked the girl to change into a Lolita-style floral dress.
His smile gradually became perverted as he extended his withered, rough fingers. "Come to Daddy, let me give you a good hug~"
When Leon watched it for the first time, his stomach churned. The whole scene was as eerie as a horror movie.
But the girl in the video had no expression on her face, like a corpse.
Clearly, she was used to all this.
Next came the indescribable R-18 segment.
The entire video was less than ten minutes long, and because it was shot with a micro-camera similar to a recording pen, the image quality was extremely rough.
But it was enough to sentence Old Jones's painstakingly built philanthropist image to death.
Even putting aside whether it broke the law.
Once the video was exposed, the loss of reputation alone was something Old Jones couldn't accept no matter what.
For an old man with one foot in the grave, nothing was more terrifying than bearing infamy after death.
When he betrayed MJ, perhaps he never thought that one day judgment would befall him.
"WTF..." Bonnie turned her head away after watching only three minutes, unwilling to look again.
The alternative play of high society was unimaginable even for a stripper from the slums.
"Copy this video and send it to Jones's home address anonymously." Leon patted her shoulder.
Saying that, Leon took out an A4 paper from the drawer.
On it was a printed "Crucifixion of Jesus."
"Seeing this, I think that old bastard will understand everything..."
---
That night, after careful consideration, Leon made the final decision regarding Bang Bang.
To maximize profits, he wanted both Taylor and Beyoncé.
Lying in bed, he sent a message to Taylor: [Asleep yet, Miss Taylor?]
Soon he received Taylor's cold response: [No.]
[Are you still in Los Angeles? Are you free recently? I want to meet you.]
[Vacationing in Miami. I broke up with Jake, need to get out and walk around.]
[Broke up again?]
Leon laughed as he typed. This was already Taylor's third breakup in a year.
This time her romance with actor Jake Gyllenhaal only lasted less than four months.
[What does "again" mean? Watch your wording. I just met a scumbag who makes me lose my appetite.]
Leon found it hard to comment on this. It seemed like Taylor encountered all the scumbags in the world.
Unsurprisingly, after she returned from vacation, she would write a bunch of works commemorating this relationship.
[I wrote a new song. Are you interested in collaborating?]
Taylor's attitude wasn't as enthusiastic as Leon imagined. She replied lukewarmly: [Let's talk after my vacation ends.]