After the meeting ended, Taylor held Christmas and rushed to a gathering with her besties.
Since Emma Watson came to New York, she had been hanging out with this group of British stars almost every day, which once made Leon very dissatisfied.
Especially since there was a male singer named Ed Sheeran in the bestie group, who was Taylor's best "male bestie."
Just hearing the term "male bestie" made Leon nauseous, but presumably, no one dared to speak ill of Street Jesus in front of Taylor.
At 7 PM, Leon put on his coat and was about to go out for dinner when he received a call from Jeff the moment he opened the door.
"Man, please do me a favor..."
"Fk, I've never seen you so submissive." Intuition told Leon it wouldn't be a good errand. The arrogant Jeff never spoke to him in this manner.
"You are very popular right now. Many people in Hollywood admire your creative talent..." Jeff stammered, making a long preamble before expressing his request.
"Can't you just say it straight, man? We are family."
"You're right." Jeff laughed and said, "Warner Bros. will have many big moves this year. The final chapter of the new Batman series will be released in the summer, and the first part of The Hobbit is expected to hit theaters at the end of the year..."
"Congratulations, Warner Bros. will dominate this era under your leadership..." Leon flattered while wondering how these top masterpieces could possibly relate to him.
The next second, Jeff gave the answer. "We hope you can create an original soundtrack for The Hobbit. This is a piece of cake for you. Everyone knows you are an unparalleled creative genius; you can write a masterpiece like Take Me to Church even while going to the toilet..."
Leon became interested instantly.
There has never been a lack of cooperation between the film and music industries, and the most direct way is through movie soundtracks.
It is an indispensable element in movies, not only adding color to the film but also largely affecting the audience's viewing experience.
A hit movie can bring considerable commercial benefits to the song. Many musical works become classics through this win-win cooperation method.
My Heart Will Go On for Titanic;
The Sound of Silence for The Graduate;
I Will Always Love You for The Bodyguard.
There are countless successful cases. If a movie explodes in popularity, the soundtrack will also be sublimated into a classic along with the film roll.
This is a promotional effect that cannot be achieved no matter how much money is spent.
Although tempted, Leon's difficulty lay in the extreme instability of his inspiration refreshing.
Jeff put forward high requirements for the The Hobbit soundtrack: epic feeling, tension, and bleakness were all indispensable.
Currently, none of Leon's works touched upon these three criteria.
After weighing repeatedly, he could only politely refuse the invitation. "Man, I'm glad you thought of me, but I've been busy with the new album recently. There is a lot of promotional work before and after the release."
"Are you sure?" Jeff suppressed his voice and seduced, "That's The Hobbit, an epic work with a budget of over $200 million. Peter Jackson specifically named you to write a song..."
Mentioning the director's name, Leon was even more moved.
Peter Jackson was not only the director of the Lord of the Rings series but also the founder of the top special effects company Weta Digital. This was the only top movie special effects company that could currently wrestle with Industrial Light & Magic.
SLW Apocalypse was currently filming Ready Player One, and there might be more special effects movies released in the future. In the long run, getting closer to Peter was crucial.
With CGI special effects fees easily reaching tens of millions of dollars, even saving a little bit would not be a small amount.
After a battle between his left and right brain hemispheres, Leon decided to agree first.
There were still 10 months until the movie release. Even if he couldn't refresh a suitable work, spending some money to hire Max as a ghostwriter to write a random song to muddle through was also a way out.
"Alright, man, but I advise you not to expect too much. I'm not good at that style of music."
After achieving his goal, Jeff laughed non-stop. Even through the phone, one could imagine his smug look. "Let's find a time for me to ask Peter out. He appreciates your musical talent very much..."
---
February 11th.
For the annual music event Grammy Awards tomorrow night, Leon and Taylor arrived in Los Angeles in advance to prepare.
"Honey, does this dress look good?"
Taylor held a gold sequined tight dress, gesturing in front of the fitting mirror.
The design of the dress was ingenious, with a large open neckline, the V-neck plunging down to the navel. Only a thin layer of white gauze covered the skin on the chest, offering no protection against wardrobe malfunctions at all.
However, Taylor didn't have much to show on her chest anyway, so there was no need to worry about the risk of accidental exposure.
"It's beautiful... Maybe you should ask for the stylist's opinion." Leon was troubled by these boring questions almost every day.
From clothing matching, lipstick shades, jewelry selection... even the color of nail polish on toes.
Taylor repeated these questions before going out every day. "No! If I can't catch your eyes, then no matter how beautiful the dress is, it's meaningless!" Taylor pouted and acted coyly.
"Alright~ You are perfect even if you wear nothing." Leon shrugged, his attention completely devoted to the TV.
Showtime was broadcasting the second season of Shameless. This drama that subverted worldviews achieved great success last year. Whenever the audience thought the characters in the play would no longer break through the moral bottom line, they could always smash worldviews to pieces with more shameless behavior.
Life at the bottom never considers morality; that stuff doesn't fill the stomach.
Just as Leon was laughing at the female lead Karen's sex addiction in the drama, his attention was suddenly distracted by the movement beside him.
"Oh my God..."
Taylor stared at the phone screen with a look of shock, not caring at all that the favorite gold long dress fell to the ground.
"What's wrong?" Leon tilted his head. "Another terrorist attack somewhere? Fk, Bin Laden has already been shot..."
Taylor stroked her chest to adjust her breathing, attempting to calm herself down, tears glistening in her eyes.
"What exactly happened..." Taking advantage of the end of the TV episode, Leon casually switched channels.
CBS was urgently interrupting with a news report. The anchorwoman held back her grief and broadcast news that shocked the entertainment industry.
"Just now we received news from the Los Angeles police that Ms. Whitney Houston has left us forever... She drowned in the bathtub of the Beverly Hilton Hotel..."
"6-time Grammy winner Whitney was one of the greatest pop musicians in the history of the world. Many of the works she left behind have been widely circulated in the past 30 years."
"Today, a beam of light in our music industry will dim from now on."
The anchor's emotional speech happened to be heard clearly by Taylor beside him. She could no longer suppress her emotions and covered her face to cry.
Seeing this, Leon quickly got up and put his arm around her shoulder, comforting her: "What sad news..."
"God, I can't believe this is true." Taylor's exquisite eye makeup was smudged by tears. "Ms. Whitney has always been my role model. When I won the Grammy for the first time, she was sitting in the audience and said many encouraging words to me..."
People always feel sad about the death of people around them, even if that person has no kinship with themselves. An inexplicable sense of fear will envelop people—it turns out the distance between oneself and death is so close.
But Leon was an exception.
The moment he learned of Whitney's death, he was indeed shocked, but thinking of the copyrights he held in his hand, the corners of his mouth couldn't help curving upward.
I Have Nothing would be covered repeatedly in tribute in the coming months, and the cost would be recovered before long!
For a celebrity of Whitney's level, her fame could no longer be enhanced by traditional means; only death could sublimate her.
Ten minutes later, the news spread rapidly.
Whitney's obituary made the front pages of major US media, from AP to CNN, from Time magazine's official website to The New York Times.
The New York Times wrote in the obituary: "Whitney Houston was the golden girl of the music industry. She influenced generations of pop divas such as Christina Aguilera and Mariah Carey, who were called Little Whitney from the moment they debuted."
"It is an indisputable fact that girls harboring singing dreams today have all been influenced by Whitney!"
Whitney in the news had two glaring identities—a pure "soul singer" and a notorious drug addict.
She won 22 American Music Awards and had sales records of more than 180 million albums worldwide, hailed by the American media as "The Voice."
She ran back and forth between the two poles of beauty and evil all her life.
Opening Twitter (Bluebird), almost every singer tweeted to commemorate this music superstar, even Jay-Z, who was troubled by the divorce lawsuit, was no exception.
Mariah Carey posted several long texts, mourning the legendary life of this role model. "Heartbroken and in tears over the shocking death of my friend, the incomparable Ms. Whitney Houston..."
"Even though she is no longer in this world, she is still the greatest female singer in history."
For a moment, Leon became the only one laughing at the funeral.
But he couldn't show all this. He opened Twitter and posted his own condolences—"R.I.P."
The sudden passing of a generation's diva cast a shadow over tomorrow night's Grammy Awards.
All singers had to temporarily change their acceptance speeches. Out of respect for the deceased, they couldn't appear too excited when holding the trophy.
Taylor remained depressed, curling up on the sofa hugging her legs, talking on the phone with friends from time to time, pouring out the sadness of the moment to each other.
"Don't be too sad, honey." Leon stroked her back gently. Going on like this would definitely affect her state tomorrow.
"I just can't accept it for a moment..." Taylor held her forehead and sighed. "Strange, why do you look not sad at all? Whitney was a role model for all of us..."
Role model?
How can a woman who drank and did drugs hopelessly be called a role model?
He could only hide his true thoughts in his heart, turning to Taylor and saying, "Fate is the result of every choice interwoven."
"When the result of fate befalls, no matter who it is, one can only accept it inevitably."