Chapter 103: Sci-Fi Movie

Chapter 103: Sci-Fi Movie

In short, Chen Feng had made it big.

While not quite a billionaire rival, his personal net worth breaking eight figures was something that would happen not too long from now.

Recently, the rise in housing prices had slowed down, entering a steady decline, so Chen Feng was in no hurry to buy a house.

Even if he wanted to buy, he would wait until he was richer to buy a luxury home in one go. Currently, this money was not enough.

Besides, he didn’t have much desire to spend now. Withdrawing money from the company account to his personal account meant paying taxes, so he simply left all the money with the company to cover daily expenses and prepare for the next expansion.

The company had developed so rapidly that Chen Feng, who was supposed to be a hands-off boss, had no choice but to get busy with all sorts of things.

Meng Xiaozhou needed to learn and adapt to the industry. As a professional manager, he especially needed to understand the management style of Chen Feng, the helmsman.

Only by developing good coordination could Meng Xiaozhou know which matters Chen Feng didn’t care about and didn’t require individual reports, and which matters were important and needed timely reporting.

Although Chen Feng wanted Meng Xiaozhou to handle everything, he had to give Meng Xiaozhou enough adjustment time, so he got dragged into many affairs too.

On the other hand, that guy Ou Junlang was living the most comfortable life.

Unlike ordinary artists, Fatty simply couldn’t be bothered to chase brand endorsements and had no interest in commercial performances or gigs.

In Fatty’s own words, it was brutally honest.

“I’m just starting out now, why take on these jobs? Will they make me sing better? Will they boost my fame? No, they’ll only use up my influence. These endorsement deals are too low-quality. Master, look at this thermal underwear deal, only a million a year, less than the pocket money my dad gives me. I’m not completely against endorsements, but I need to get more famous first. I want top-tier resources from the start.”

So this guy used album promotion as an excuse to fly all over the country, traveling and having fun.

He occasionally went on TV shows to brag about how awesome his Master was, and occasionally appeared on music radio stations, still bragging about how awesome his Master was. In short, he was very comfortable.

Now, on this day, Chen Feng had finally finished looking at the quarterly income and expense budget report that Meng Xiaozhou had the finance department prepare, hoping to be free, when the office door was pushed open by Meng Xiaozhou again.

“Teacher Chen, there’s a very important collaboration here.”

Chen Feng rubbed his forehead. “Manager Meng, if it’s a collaboration where people are giving us money, you can just accept it. Don’t come ask me.”

“No. The situation is like this. Hollywood director Neil Blomkamp personally called. He said he wants to use ‘Baptism of Fire’ as the theme song for his movie.”

Chen Feng was stunned. He tapped on the keyboard to look up information.

Rubbing his chin, he said, “This sci-fi film has an investment of 150 million dollars. It’s an A-list production standard.”

Meng Xiaozhou said excitedly, “Yes, this is our chance. If we can successfully cooperate, our company can break into the European and American markets. I knew this day would come eventually, but I didn’t expect it so soon.”

Chen Feng thought to himself, I didn’t expect it either, but he kept his face expressionless and only asked, “But doesn’t it say here it’s releasing next month? Then it should already be finished, right? How can the theme song not be finalized yet? That can’t be.”

“The specific situation is like this…”

After listening to Meng Xiaozhou’s explanation, Chen Feng understood.

This Neil Blomkamp was a man of temperament, very tough.

His new sci-fi blockbuster “Chaos Space” was indeed finished and about to be released.

But just yesterday, after hearing the song “Baptism of Fire”, even though he didn’t understand the language, he sensed the essence behind the song and was certain this was the theme song he had been dreaming of.

So he temporarily increased the budget, scrapped the original theme song, and instead sought collaboration with Star Peak Entertainment.

“The other party’s specific request is to rewrite the lyrics for ‘Baptism of Fire’ and adapt it into an English version. They will invite Katie Swift to sing it. The one-time licensing fee is one million US dollars. Details about subsequent royalties and other matters are in this faxed contract.”

Meng Xiaozhou handed over a contract entirely in English.

Chen Feng indicated he couldn’t understand it, couldn’t be bothered to read it, and that Meng Xiaozhou could handle it since he had read it.

Then he fell into thought.

“Baptism of Fire” had no English version, only a Chinese version.

At least in the Timeline Chen Feng had experienced so far, that was the case.

So the lyric rewriting stumped him.

But he also wasn’t too willing to leave this task to someone else. If a poor-quality English version of “Baptism of Fire” was created and interfered with the song’s original essence, it would be more loss than gain.

“Alright, I’ll ask Zhong Lei. See if she’s interested. English isn’t my native language after all, and I didn’t write the lyrics for ‘Baptism of Fire’. If I adapt it, it’s easy to miss the meaning and lack the essence.”

Zhong Lei quickly gave her answer.

She thought it was feasible. Her English was pretty good, but she needed the cooperation of the other singer.

Chen Feng immediately decided, “Good, then let’s accept it!”

Considering Chen Feng felt he wasn’t good at negotiations, especially cross-border ones with language barriers, he fully entrusted this matter to Meng Xiaozhou.

While Meng Xiaozhou represented Chen Feng in a formal teleconference with the other party, Zhong Lei hurried to Chen Feng’s office.

The two discussed the lyric translation for a long time but couldn’t reach a conclusion.

English and Chinese phonetic symbols and pronunciation methods were completely different. The control of rhythm and rhyme when creating lyrics was vastly different too, making adaptation quite difficult.

If they wanted to fully preserve the original meaning of “Baptism of Fire”‘s lyrics, it was hard to create English lyrics of the same level.

Zhong Lei said, “First, we need to consider the foreign singer’s pronunciation habits. If it’s really not possible, we sacrifice the original meaning of the lyrics and let Katie Swift lead the adaptation and lyric writing.”

Chen Feng shook his head. “Not good.”

“Why?” Zhong Lei actually wanted to say, I, the original lyricist, don’t mind. You be more generous. Trust the level of an international superstar. Sister Katie Swift is still very powerful.

Chen Feng didn’t explain. He just disagreed.

Only he knew the importance of the song “Baptism of Fire”.

The future having two versions of “Baptism of Fire” was a complicated situation.

This wasn’t one plus one equals two.

It was very possible that the two versions would cancel each other’s influence out, ultimately making one plus one less than two, causing “Baptism of Fire” to lose its magic and fail to become the military anthem.

“Forget it, let’s put this aside for now. Let’s talk about my new song.”

Unable to discuss a result, Zhong Lei changed the topic.

Chen Feng was slightly surprised. “‘Self-Combustion’ is already recorded?”

“Yes! As long as you approve, it can be released this afternoon! This is my first complete work as a singer under you!”

Chen Feng swallowed. “That’s really fast.”

“No matter how fast I am, I’m not one-tenth as fast as you. Want to listen first?”

Zhong Lei pulled Chen Feng to the newly built recording studio and had him listen once each with professional studio monitor headphones and the consumer-grade emperor-grade Sennheiser Orpheus headphones.

The Orpheus system was “borrowed” from Ou Junlang’s recording studio. There were only a few complete sets in the country, and they didn’t plan to return it.

“How is it? Any comments?” Zhong Lei looked at Chen Feng expectantly.

Chen Feng’s previous critique of “Baptism of Fire” had been so incisive, every word piercing through the surface to the essence, full of insights. There were many new music theories Zhong Lei had never heard before, but she knew they were very reasonable as soon as she heard them.

Zhong Lei was utterly amazed by Chen Feng’s music appreciation skills and admired him greatly.

Therefore, she valued Chen Feng’s opinion very much.

Chen Feng avoided her expectant gaze, racking his brains to organize his words.