In mid-January, Leon rushed back to Los Angeles for the filming preparations of Straight Outta Compton.
Between the company's expansion and Ariana throwing tantrums lately, he was completely burnt out.
He treated this trip to Los Angeles as a vacation—a perfect chance to vent some stress on Robbie.
However, the "stress relief" work was already being handled by someone else.
In the first-class cabin of Delta Airlines, his little assistant, Bonnie, had her head buried low, taking care of her boss.
She glanced up at the flight attendant every now and then. Even with her background in nightclubs, this was her first time doing this kind of job at 30,000 feet.
Her face was flushed, her heart racing—she was nervous as hell.
Leon used a laptop as a simple cover, enjoying the service while listening to a podcast.
The Lion's Den Podcast
This podcast was the handiwork of Lion's Den Radio's DJ Marcus.
To grab attention, Marcus had followed Leon's instructions to produce a show with sharp tongue-in-cheek commentary and explosive content.
In the first episode, he roasted the new generation of rappers dominating the current hip-hop market, led by J. Cole and Drake.
He claimed their auto-tuned rap was heresy and their personas were just "playing gangster house."
Marcus had over twenty years of experience as a Battle MC. Although he wasn't a top-tier improv master like MC Jin, his vocabulary for cursing people was endlessly creative.
> According to non-authoritative media statistics, since Lincoln freed the slaves, the number of slang curse words popular in America has increased five-fold...
The podcast finally met Leon's expectations; the current play count had already exceeded 100,000.
As long as they maintained this level of quality, making back the investment through ad sponsors and artist interviews was only a matter of time.
After more than ten minutes of "hard labor," Bonnie lifted her head and wiped the corner of her mouth.
Seeing Leon still immersed in the podcast, she said helplessly, "Leon, you're not focused at all... I don't understand what's so interesting about a ngga rambling into a microphone."
"It's normal that you don't get it. Have you ever watched Joe Rogan's podcast?"
"I saw him at a YouTuber gathering a few days ago, but I have absolutely no interest in that greasy middle-aged man. Listening to him for even a second is torture." Bonnie shrugged. "I don't understand how he has so many fans on YouTube..."
Leon was momentarily stunned. He hadn't realized Bonnie's side hustle as an influencer was going so well.
Thanks to her provocative lingerie try-on hauls, Bonnie's YouTube subscribers had already surpassed 90,000—breaking the 100k mark was just a matter of time.
Leon explained, "Joe Rogan's charm lies in making men all over the world listen to him chat. in an era where entertainment is becoming more and more like fast food, a three-hour show of pure conversation becoming number one in the world is simply a miracle."
Bonnie curled her lips helplessly, indicating she couldn't understand it at all.
---
Lionsgate Headquarters
After getting off the plane, they took a business van arranged in advance by Lionsgate Films and went straight to their headquarters in Santa Monica.
This meeting would announce the preliminary budget for the movie and finalize the casting for key roles.
Director, cinematography team, main cast, etc.
As the investor and producer of this movie, Leon had the final say on these key positions.
Once these details were perfectly decided, the movie could officially announce the start of filming as soon as the investment money hit the account.
"Leon! My bro~" As soon as they met, Kendrick threw up a gang sign.
As the actor playing the lead role of Eazy-E, and acting as the proxy for the investor "Saint" Robinson, he was also invited to this meeting.
"I gotta congratulate you. Heard your album Section.80 has sold over 200,000 copies," Leon said, patting him on the shoulder.
"Fxxk Bro, don't make fun of me. Everyone knows this album flopped!"
"Dre is very dissatisfied with this. The sales aren't even half of what that bastard Drake did with his debut in the same timeframe..."
"I've bet my entire future on your movie!"
Then, Kendrick started chattering endlessly about his recent beef with Drake.
The content was nothing more than mockery, backstabbing, stealing women, and the like—these beefs between Black rappers were nothing new.
Kendrick and the phenomenal newcomer Drake used to be tight homies; both were once supported by the new label boss Lil Wayne.
But now, it seemed the two had completely turned against each other, which counted as a decent-sized beef in the rap circle recently.
They were led by staff into a conference room where another core figure, James Wan, had been waiting for a long time.
The three drank coffee and chatted. Leon glanced down at his watch, and his brow furrowed.
"That bastard Miles is already five minutes late..."
This was extremely disrespectful behavior, and it was enough to show that Lionsgate didn't take Straight Outta Compton seriously enough.
Just as he finished speaking, Miles rushed into the conference room accompanied by an assistant. "Sorry to keep you waiting, gentlemen... The company had another important matter today."
"Important matter... so that gives you the right to be late in front of the investor?" Leon snorted coldly, taking the opportunity to knock him down a peg.
Miles smiled and didn't rush to answer. He let his assistant make him a cup of coffee, then pulled out a chair and sat down unhurriedly.
He said with a smug look, "The company has a big project about to launch, budget of 55 million dollars... Drive Angry starring Oscar winner Nicolas Cage!"
"We were just auditioning for the female lead, and so many girls came that it delayed things a bit."
James Wan's face instantly darkened. The implication in the other guy's words was that he didn't take their movie seriously.
Leon, however, laughed out loud after thinking about it carefully.
Drive Angry? With a generic, flop-sounding name like that, plus the blessing of the famous "Box Office Poison" Nicolas Cage?
This action star who became famous in the 80s was now not only entangled in debt crises and divorce lawsuits but had recently been exposed in a tax evasion scandal.
Just from the tax debt alone, you could tell he was truly at the end of his rope—after all, even drug dealers don't dare to owe money to the IRS.
This proved the heads of Lionsgate executives were truly broken. The flop rate of this movie was easily 90%.
---
The Budget Meeting
After the small interlude, the meeting officially began.
Miles signaled his assistant to hand over the budget list.
Leon took a look and his expression changed instantly. "WTF! Are you guys kidding me? 12 million dollars? How did you get this number?"
"Look closely at the content... this is already the minimum budget."
The content in this list was indeed very detailed.
Costumes, props, photography team, film score, post-production, and publicity costs were all considered thoroughly.
Each item didn't look like much, but added together, it was a ridiculously high figure.
The biggest chunk was actor salaries.
James Wan's director fee was $1 million plus 5% of the box office share.
Kendrick, playing Eazy-E, had a salary of $1 million.
Other main actors took salaries ranging from $100,000 to $1 million.
The Black actor playing Dr. Dre, Chadwick Boseman, actually asked for $1 million.
Leon almost cursed out loud. He knocked on the table and questioned, "Is one million dollars a joke? Does anyone know this ngga named Boseman?"
"Kendrick is a hot singer and his fee is only one million."
"In Compton, you give a Black guy a thousand bucks and he'll do anything for you..."
He almost blurted out: One million dollars? Adjusted for inflation, back in the 18th century, that was enough to buy over a hundred slaves.
Although Boseman debuted early and participated in some TV shows and movies, he was still on the fringe of Hollywood.
Black actors in Hollywood were scarce to begin with, and even with the same status, their pay was usually a notch below white actors.
An actor with a sky-high salary like Will Smith only comes around once in a century.
Miles quickly explained, "Relax, friend... Acting isn't as simple as you think. These actors were selected by us through round after round of auditions, just to make this movie present its best state."
"In fact, your friend is very satisfied with Boseman joining..."
"Friend? Who?" Leon's gaze swept around and quickly landed on Kendrick.
Kendrick sighed helplessly. "No choice, Bro... Boss Dre demanded that the actor playing him must have an outstanding image. He's very satisfied with Boseman."
Leon was so angry he almost cursed: To satisfy your boss, I have to shell out an extra million?
To be fair, Boseman did have a handsome face by Black standards.
Kendrick quickly explained that as long as the final effect of the movie satisfied Dre, he could give up that 2% authorization share.
After weighing the pros and cons, Leon finally gritted his teeth and agreed.
If the final box office was excellent, then compared to a 2% box office share, this one million might be worth spending.
To save costs as much as possible, he directly removed the actor originally set to play Ice Cube and replaced him with his own bodyguard, Davis.
Apocalypse Music didn't have any rap recordings recently, so this ngga was idle anyway.
Might as well throw him on the set as unpaid labor.
To get a chance to appear on the big screen, and playing the gangsta rap legend Ice Cube no less—Davis would probably be willing to pay out of his own pocket for this.
Final Casting Decisions:
Kendrick Lamar plays the soul figure "Eazy-E."
Chadwick Boseman plays Dr. Dre.
Davis plays Ice Cube.
The budget list was passed to James Wan. He stared at it for a long time but couldn't find any major faults.
Miles took a sip of coffee and smiled. "Mr. Leon probably doesn't understand the movie production process very well. The current budget doesn't equal the final spending, but it is the minimum budget sufficient to support the completion of filming."
"You mean, 12 million might not cover it, and I'll have to keep throwing money in?"
"You can understand it that way."
"Fxxk..." Leon shook his head helplessly. Making movies burned even more money than he imagined.
Except for horror movies, almost all genre films require heavy investment, and biopics are notoriously hard to make profitable.
The weird smile on Miles' face since he walked in made sense now.
He completely treated Leon as a rich outsider idiot.
James Wan encouraged him from the side, "I think we won't exceed this budget. Maybe we won't even use 10 million."
"You guys might have forgotten that I am a master of cost control."
Hearing this, Miles spread his hands. He really couldn't refute that point.
Both parties drafted the filming contract on the spot.
Within a week, the investor had to implement the $5 million start-up fund, and the movie would officially start filming in Compton.
After exchanging a few simple words, Leon left the conference room.
---
The Encounter
As soon as he stepped out, he heard a commotion in the hallway.
More than twenty young, beautiful girls poured out of the office next door. Their dejected expressions already explained the result.
Any one of them had a body and appearance that would be top-tier on the street.
It was certain that this was the group of actors auditioning for Drive Angry that Miles mentioned.
"Bro, this bunch is too bland. You gotta try a Black girl if you have the chance. God cast a spell when he created Black women!" Kendrick walked up behind Leon and patted his shoulder. "These women don't even have asses, it's hard to get excited..."
Halfway through his boasting, Kendrick suddenly froze.
A tall blonde woman appeared in the hallway.
Long blonde hair, big eyes, high nose bridge, skin so white it glowed.
The most striking feature was those green eyes; they looked very special.
Like an Elf walking out of a Lord of the Rings novel.
Leon was also captivated, unable to look away, muttering to himself, "She must be the female lead Lionsgate decided on..."
"Bro, I think this white chick looks familiar." Kendrick scratched his head, seeming to try hard to recall something.
"Where have you seen her?"
"Have you watched Criminal Minds? That's my mom's favorite TV show."
"No." Leon shook his head. "You mean she's the lead in that show?"
"No... she played a vase (eye candy) with only three seconds of screen time."
Hollywood never lacks beautiful "eye candy" actresses, but few can eventually make it to the top.
But if beauty reaches a certain height, fame is just a matter of time.
Stared at by two men, the woman in the hallway finally reacted.
She showed a look of disgust and whispered something.
Although he couldn't hear clearly from a distance, Leon was 100% sure it was a curse word.
However, three seconds later, the woman's expression changed instantly.
"Street Jesus... Leon?"
The woman walked straight over, excitement almost spilling out of her eyes.
"You are?"
"I'm Heard... Amber Heard!" The woman flipped her blonde hair, her voice trembling a little. "Oh my god, I'm your super fan! I own all your records!"
"You're definitely going to kill it at the Grammys next month!"
"Can you give me an autograph?!"
Faced with a beauty's request, Leon had no option to refuse. He took out the marker he carried with him.
But he quickly found an awkward point. "Sorry Miss, do you have paper?"
"This..." Amber hesitated for a moment. "Seems I don't."
"Then please wait two minutes, I'll go to the conference room to get some paper."
"No need for the trouble, just sign directly on my clothes!" Amber pointed to her T-shirt and puffed out her chest.
Leon carefully pinched the T-shirt and, with a serious face, signed his name on her chest.
Amber's T-shirt was very tight, so friction with the "big guns" was inevitable while signing.
"I'm very sorry..."
"It doesn't matter! I'm just too happy! It's even better that you signed directly on me! I absolutely won't shower for a week!"
"This..."
At this moment, Leon could see it clearly. Although this girl was beautiful, her head seemed a bit abnormal.
The words "Crazy" and "Beauty" always seemed to be bound together.