America Tycoon: The Wolf of Showbiz

The endorsement deal was off the table; the people from Nokia had quickly taken their leave.

"The slot for smartphone endorsements is now open, and I've prepared several new candidates," Thomas had long known that Martin would only endorse Nokia for two years. He took out a few documents and handed them to Martin, "Would you like to take a look first?"

Martin took them and saw that commercial endorsements now accounted for more than a third of his annual Hollywood income.

In the past year alone, Martin held five major commercial endorsements.

The Coca-Cola endorsement had risen to 15 million US dollars a year, with Cadillac, Cartier men's watches, and Nokia phones each at 12 million US dollars, and Brioni at 6 million US dollars.

Not counting the dividend earnings from the Cola Cult commemorative Coke, his annual pre-tax income from endorsements alone reached a whopping 57 million US dollars.

Now the phone deal was up for grabs.

Martin quickly flipped through the documents, which were for BlackBerry, Samsung, and Lenovo - three smartphone brands.

Thomas specified, "Both Blackberry and Samsung had contacted the company last year to inquire about phone brand endorsements. At that time, you had a contract with Nokia, so we didn't give them an answer."

He was worried Martin wasn't aware of the last brand: "Lenovo is Asia's largest PC manufacturer and retailer, aiming to fully penetrate the global market. A few years ago, they had the soccer star Ronal Dinho endorse their personal computers.

Michael Bay is a client of Ali's, and he got confirmed news that Lenovo also spent a lot of money last year to sponsor DreamWorks' mega-blockbuster 'Transformers 3'."

Martin remembered this last point. Although "Trans3" also had obvious product placement, it was much better than the too conspicuous "Trans4".

After some thought, Martin said, "Let's not consider BlackBerry and Lenovo."

The former would soon be overwhelmed by the tides of time, turning into a niche celebration, while the latter once dominated the smartphone market across the Pacific but fell from grace alarmingly quickly.

Most importantly, endorsing them would neither be well-received in the US market nor across the Pacific.

This was no longer merely about money.

Thomas added, "Lenovo is willing to offer 15 million dollars..."

Martin waved his hand dismissively.

Thomas stopped and then said, "Samsung has made an offer of 13 million US dollars per year, for a total three-year contract."

His expression suddenly turned peculiar, his voice lowering, "The Samsung executive that approached me even said something off the record: if you take a fancy to any South Korean actresses, just say the word. It's all no problem; they can package them up and send them to Los Angeles. And once it's done, you wouldn't even need to bother sending them back; they'll take care of it."

Martin thought, what do these South Koreans mean by this? Insidious as hell, daring to use sugar-coated bullets!

After pondering, he said, "We can discuss with Samsung, but not for less than 15 million dollars."

Thomas suggested, "Let's not outright reject BlackBerry and Lenovo for now. It's better to negotiate when there's competition to leverage."

Martin gestured dismissively, "You handle the specifics of the negotiations. What about Apple? The market share for the iPhone is on the rise."

Thomas said, "Apple's actual endorser has been Steve Jobs, but his health has been far from optimistic since last year."

Remembering that Martin held valuable Apple stock, he cautioned, "Jobs' severe illness might affect Apple's stock price if he were to pass away."

Martin nodded, "I am aware. Keep an eye on the iPhone situation, and start negotiating with Samsung."

He had just recalled that Samsung phone batteries exploding into bombs was an issue that wouldn't arise for another five or six years.

Thomas brought up another matter, "'Vanity Fair' magazine has notified the company that in the next issue's Hollywood celebrity annual income ranking, you've entered the top three. This accounts only for movie and television salaries, profit shares, and peripheral income, excluding business investments and endorsements."

Since 2008, Martin had been listed on various magazines' celebrity income rankings, climbing steadily each year. He commented, "Only the top three, huh? I thought I could be number one."

Thomas reminded him, "The top two are all captains."

Martin recalled, "Johnny Depp and James Cameron?" then changed the subject, "But my income is all theoretical. Aside from my salary, the backend shares for 'Inception' and 'Gone Girl', along with other films, have not hit my account yet."

Thomas said, "It won't be until the end of next month. Warner might drag it out until the last day."

Martin replied, "If Warner fails to pay by the due date, demand breach of contract damages plus interest."

After discussing work, Martin left the meeting room and received a call from Nolan. They met at a cafe in Century City immediately afterwards.

Nolan cut to the chase, "I heard you also have a space-themed sci-fi film project in hand?"

"The Martian. The novel will be published and on the market soon," Martin gave a brief overview of the content, adding, "Ridley Scott has already started preparations with his team; we're expecting to start filming around April or May."

Nolan handed over a script, offering it to Martin, "The space epic I mentioned to you a while back – Jonathan has finished the first draft of the script. Have a look."

He added a reminder, "There's a plan attached at the back."

Martin took the script and after flipping through a few pages confirmed it was "Interstellar," asking, "Is the shooting schedule set yet?"

Nolan outlined, "We plan to shoot in 2013 and release in 2014, but I haven't decided which company to partner with yet."

On this matter, Martin wouldn't offer unsolicited advice, simply noting, "My schedule should work out fine."

Nolan smiled, "If you take the lead role, I can rest easy about half of the project." He then inquired, "Have your shares from the previous projects with Warner been paid yet?"

"No," Martin shook his head, following up Nolan's comment, "It used to arrive at the start of the year; now it's been delayed several months. The interest alone could buy me a few luxury cars."

Nolan's face was unperturbed, but his words carried weight, "My studio invested in 'Inception' and has lost even more on interest."

Martin took a sip of his tea.

Nolan said, "Warner Bros. has changed."

Martin said, "Indeed, it has."

After a moment of silence, Nolan said, "I hesitated for a while, wondering whether to continue working with Warner Bros. on this space epic or not."

"I can't give you advice on that," Martin set down his teacup, appropriately adding, "I gave up on Warner Bros. The terms my old friend Ellen Horn offered were quite good."

Nolan didn't go into further detail.

In this year that had just begun, he might face many changes, such as his three-year contract with CAA expiring soon, and he was not planning to renew it.
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The reason was that the management and executives at CAA were all Jewish, and during the Morocco kidnapping incident, they not only failed to support him but also put him under tremendous pressure.

This made Nolan's perception of CAA extremely negative.

He felt he had done his duty by fulfilling this three-year contract.

Later, the two talked at length about "Interstellar," including the project's complex copyright and investment situation.

Leaving the café and on his way home, Martin closely reviewed Nolan's script. The theme of the story was very cliché, a Hollywood routine—love and family.

Of course, this was all within Martin's expectations.

Although the investment in Hollywood movies had been increasing, the overall development direction had become more conservative.

Moreover, the real initiator of this project was Steven Spielberg, not the Nolan brothers.

Before the Nolan brothers joined, Spielberg had already been working on this project for four years and had even considered directing it himself at one point.

According to what Nolan said earlier, the first half of the script mainly used the settings of Spielberg and his screenwriters; the second half was the Nolan brothers' own ideas.

The real copyright of the script was in the hands of DreamWorks, which, after its collapse, had given up independent distribution and had now signed a contract with Paramount Pictures, similar to being a subsidiary of Paramount.

Paramount Pictures had also signed a cooperation agreement with Warner Bros. for this project.

So, the current situation was that Nolan was extremely dissatisfied with Warner Bros., but if he wanted to direct this project, he still had to work with Warner Bros.

Martin was very clear that although he and Nolan were inclined to collaborate again, there were variables with this project.

Fortunately, there was still plenty of time, so Martin didn't need to consider these matters just yet.

......

In January, the main theme in Hollywood was the Oscars and the awards season.

In recent years, the viewership of the Oscar ceremony had been declining, and its conservative style was widely criticized. Many young people had already abandoned the Oscars.

The movies they liked often didn't even secure nominations, let alone win major awards at the Oscars, so why bother watching the ceremony?

Were video games not fun anymore, or was flirting on social media uninteresting?

This year, the organizers strove for change, no longer inviting comedians or talk show stars to host, but instead opting for the duo of Anne Hathaway and James Franco.

With more than a month to go until the ceremony, the preparations were already underway.

Annie arrived early in Los Angeles to prepare, making her way to the Kodak Theater punctually every day.

Her partner James Franco was equally committed to the job.

In the morning, after running through a piece of dialogue, the two sat in the front row to rest,

James Franco picked up a "Vanity Fair" magazine to browse, to clear his mind.

Annie sent a few text messages to her friend Emily Blunt, then turned and saw the magazine in Franco's hands, catching sight of the three people on the cover.

They were James Cameron in the center, Johnny Depp to the right, and Martin Davis to the left!

Noticing Annie's gaze, Franco asked, "What's wrong?"

Annie asked, "May I take a look at the magazine?"

Franco passed the magazine to her.

"Thank you," Annie took it and immediately flipped to the cover story, her attention drawn to the title of the article.

"2010 Hollywood Celebrity Earnings Ranking."

At the top was the great director James Cameron, with an astonishing $257 million.

Nearly $240 million of that came from the movie "Avatar," with the rest from royalties of older films.

Following him was Johnny Depp, with earnings of $115 million.

"Alice in Wonderland" and "Pirates of the Caribbean 4" brought almost $100 million to Captain Sparrow.

Then Annie saw Martin's name.