Chapter 796: Terrifying Sequel Salaries

The man was a typical African American, and he looked like a professional football player. He was familiar to Duke, who couldn't quite place his name or remember where he had seen him before.

"That's Michael Oher."

Compared to a hands-off owner like Duke, Leonardo seemed much more familiar with the team's day-to-day operations. "He's one of the team's acquisition targets this year."

"Michael Oher?"

Repeating the name, Duke gradually remembered who he was.

At last year's Oscar Awards Ceremony, Sandra Bullock won the Oscar Best Actress award for her portrayal of Leigh Anne Tuohy in The Blind Side, a film based on true events. The young Black man Leigh Anne Tuohy helped in the movie was none other than Michael Oher.

Thanks to the film, Michael Oher had become a household name across America, his fame far eclipsing his actual ability on the professional football field.

"I think I've heard people mention him..."

Looking at the tall, burly figure built like a tower of black iron, Duke said to Leonardo, "He hasn't lived up to outside expectations since entering the league."

Leonardo nodded. "It's more like his performance has been well below expectations. The team only wants to bring him in as a backup left tackle."

Hearing that, Duke looked away, and their conversation drifted to other topics. For the most part, Duke didn't overly interfere in the team's normal operations, and a backup left tackle wasn't worth too much of his attention.

Before long, however, one of the team's managers brought Michael Oher over specifically to introduce him to Duke and Leonardo. They were accompanied by Michael Oher's adoptive parents.

"Hello, Director Rosenberg."

Leigh Anne Tuohy reached out to shake Duke's hand. "Michael might be joining your team. We're all thrilled for him."

"Hello, Mr. Tuohy. Hello, Mrs. Tuohy."

Duke greeted the couple and offered a polite reply, "I'm also glad a fine player like Michael could join the team."

As he spoke, he subtly sized up Leigh Anne Tuohy. After all, she was the real-life inspiration behind an Oscar Best Actress role.

The two sides only exchanged a few brief pleasantries. It was obvious that Leonardo didn't care for the Tuohys at all.

"The National Collegiate Athletic Association suspected the Tuohys only adopted Michael Oher so he could play football for their favorite school, and there are still lingering questions about that."

Clearly put off by the couple, Leonardo didn't hide his distaste once they walked away. "Anyone with eyes can see there was a problem with their adoption," he said to Duke. "Just a dozen days after Oher got his acceptance letter, his high school coach landed a job as an assistant athletic director at the University of Mississippi. To say there's no problem..."

He let out a cold laugh and shook his head.

Duke clapped him on the shoulder. "Does it matter to us whether there's a problem or not?"

Leonardo paused, then raised a hand to scratch his head. "It really is none of our business. I'm just venting."

Nothing would ever really come of this sort of matter. As far as Duke was concerned, whatever the Tuohys' motives had been, it was an indisputable fact that they had helped Michael Oher.

It was just like the stars in Hollywood. Angelina Jolie, for instance, adopted impoverished children from the Third World one after another, while Sandra Bullock and Charlize Theron both adopted Black sons. Their initial motives might have been to win good press and shape their public images, yet it was an indisputable fact that those children—otherwise destined for hardship—had their fates changed as a result.

Speaking of Charlize Theron's Black son, Duke had actually seen the boy before; after all, his relationship with Charlize was out of the ordinary. The South African diamond had even wanted him to be the little guy's godfather, an offer Duke rejected without hesitation.

Frankly, he didn't understand why Charlize Theron would want to adopt a Black child, but it was her private affair. Since they were just ordinary friends, it wasn't his place to say anything.

After the Raiders' reception dinner, Duke resumed his vacation. The consecutive releases of Inception and Gravity the previous year had brought him a lot of pressure, and although his next project was already planned, Duke had no intention of launching it immediately. He planned to let his entire crew get a good rest.

He could handle that kind of intense pressure and workload, but not everyone on his team necessarily could. If he wanted to guarantee both quality and quantity for the crucial major project ahead, he needed his mature, tightly knit crew.

Without the support of an entire team behind him, even he would have to spend far more time and energy on many of his projects.

Though he was on vacation, Duke hadn't left Los Angeles, nor had he set aside his work entirely. He was simply holding off on film production for the time being. During the first half of March, he visited both Marvel Pictures and Warner Brothers, calling key personnel from the two companies together for brief meetings to prepare for the next phase of projects.

Since its founding, Marvel Pictures had produced a total of five superhero films: Iron Man, Captain America, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, and Thor. The first four had already been released to good results, and Thor was slated for this year's summer season. As the final installment before the six superheroes assembled, the film would also serve as the lead-in to The Avengers.

Duke paid special attention to Loki, played by Tom Hiddleston. As the villainous boss of The Avengers, he was arguably a pivotal character.

It had become an outside consensus that villains in Marvel movies were flat and comical, making Loki arguably the most charismatic villain of Marvel's first phase.

At the same time, Duke instructed Marvel Pictures to begin reaching out to the actors' agents so they could reach a consensus on new film contracts as quickly as possible.

It was undoubtedly an acknowledged fact across Hollywood that today's stars weren't as "valuable" as they had been in the nineties, but that didn't mean some actors were making any less money than before.

There was another consensus in Hollywood: if you wanted to secure a massive salary, you went and starred in the sequel to a commercial hit.

Although Marvel's films were standalone titles in name, many of them could be categorized as sequels. In fact, earlier Marvel superhero sequels had already been deeply troubled by cast salaries.

The most typical example was X-Men 3: The Last Stand. Its production budget had soared to $210 million, with the lion's share going toward the salaries of its ensemble cast. Those paychecks alone had nearly crushed the film's budget.

Then there was Iron Man. When Duke shot the first film, Robert Downey Jr.'s salary was only $500,000. By the time Jon Favreau took over for Iron Man 2, Robert Downey Jr.'s fee had already jumped to $10 million.

The same went for Scarlett Johansson. When filming Iron Man, her salary was a mere $400,000. After appearing in both Captain America and Iron Man 2, Nancy Josephson was already quoting Marvel Pictures a base salary of $15 million for her!

Duke had no doubt that for the upcoming The Avengers, Robert Downey Jr.'s agent would definitely demand a sky-high salary of $20 million.

That much was practically guaranteed.

Perhaps many people felt that because Duke had salvaged Robert Downey Jr.'s acting career, the man ought to weep with gratitude and voluntarily lower his salary for Duke, a major shareholder of Marvel Comics...

But such thinking was destined to be naive. In this circle, business was business, and nobody handed out steep discounts for inexplicable reasons. Duke didn't harbor any such naive illusions either. Setting aside the fact that he and Robert Downey Jr. weren't friends, even if their relationship was as good as his with Leonardo DiCaprio, the business side of things wouldn't suffer much interference.

Never mind Robert Downey Jr.'s personal thoughts—every Hollywood star was surrounded by publicists, agents, managers, and all sorts of professionals taking a commission. Robert Downey Jr.'s personal income was directly related to their interests; how could those people possibly sit back and watch their own profits suffer?

Duke never harbored such naive thoughts. A business partnership was a business partnership. If you didn't put real money on the table, why would the other party willingly work for you?

Therefore, when it came to packing this whole roster of actors into a single movie, salaries were a factor Duke had to consider.

Moreover, Hollywood's top stars also cared deeply about their returns in commercial films.

For example, Robert Downey Jr. had once told him that back when his income was very low, he felt his potential might be limitless—that he could accomplish many things and would have multiple different paths of development. Yet as his income gradually increased and he eventually became a superstar, he felt he was gradually approaching his maximum capability, and his room for growth was shrinking.

If he took a wrong path at this stage, simply put, a few years would pass in a muddle; more seriously, he would sink into obscurity and never recover.

Because of that, he would seize every opportunity to squeeze out the maximum possible return.

Just as Duke could command a hefty share of a film's profits, in their minds, this kind of return was also a matter of course.

Of all the actors, Marvel Pictures' biggest headache was undoubtedly Robert Downey Jr. Downey had rooted the endearing and wisecracking character of "Iron Man" deeply in people's hearts. With most fans approving of his performance, it could be said that he and the role had practically merged into one.

If they let Robert Downey Jr. leave over a salary issue, it would definitely do more harm than good for Duke and Marvel right now. As for the future, they would have to see the price Robert Downey Jr.'s camp asked for before making an assessment.

Fortunately, there was still plenty of time, so Marvel Pictures could take things slowly in negotiations with Robert Downey Jr.