As Xiao Hua expected, the next day, newspapers in the United States, and even many sports newspapers around the world, published that Richard had sent a truckload of steel hammers to pay the fine......

You don't have to think about it to know that Stern must be angry at smashing things in his office because of this incident.

Since Richard entered the league, Stern has smashed a lot of things in the office anyway, and the TV alone has changed several times......

……

Just when everyone thought that the alliance management committee would be furious and impose further sanctions on Richard, the management committee was unusually calm.

They didn't hold any press conferences on this matter, as if they didn't care about it at all......

On the contrary, there is bad news from the wage negotiations, the two sides have now collapsed, and the players' union is preparing to hold a strike.

Although it is the offseason now, it is not that the players do not have any work, such as some charity activities done by the team, which still need to be attended by the players......

At the moment, it is obvious that these activities cannot be done, and the players' union is going to strike, which is for the benefit of the players, and which player will risk the world's condemnation and stand on the opposite side of the players' union at this juncture......

With the news of the collapse of the labor and salary negotiations, no one paid attention to Richard's fine, and everyone was more concerned about whether the new season of the NBA would be affected because the negotiations collapsed.

……

Whether it has an impact or not, no one knows, anyway, it has no effect on Richard.

The training camp must continue, but it is inconvenient for Richard and the assistant coaches of the Trailblazers to continue to stay in West Lafayette, anyway, the training has entered the right track, and whether Richard stays there or not does not have much impact.

……

As soon as he returned to Portland with Stevens, Richard immediately received good news.

Paramount Pictures is preparing to bring "Violent Black" to the big screen, and for this reason, it has come to talk to Richard about acquiring film and television rights.

In 94, Paramount was involved in basketball movies, inviting Shark O'Neal and Penny Hardaway to start filming the basketball movie "Hot Coach".

At the time, they invested about $20 million in the film, and then they made $30 million at the global box office.

didn't make much money, but with the popularity of "Slam Dunk" starring Jordan in '96 and "Heads-up" starring Ray Allen easily won $70 million at the box office, Paramount Pictures has set its sights on basketball movies.

The air slam dunk invested a full 80 million US dollars, and the global box office received 230 million US dollars, which is obviously crazy......

And single-handedly picking up this movie, just two months after its release, the director actually wanted to find Kobe Bryant to shoot it, but Kobe Bryant rejected it, and finally had no choice but to find Ray Allen, who was in the same class as Kobe and looked relatively immature, and finally they won 70 million US dollars at the global box office!

It seems to be a lot less than the air slam dunk, but the heads-up is only an investment of 20 million US dollars, and in terms of income ratio, it is even higher than the slam dunk......

With the big sales of these two movies, Paramount couldn't sit still and took aim at Richard's "Violent Black".

They are thinking about filming high school papers first, after all, if you shoot high school papers, you don't need to invest too much, at least you can save a lot of money in terms of actors' salaries.

On top of that, Violent Black itself has a fairly high fan base, and once the movie is released, those fans of the original book alone can bring in quite good box office revenue.

As long as it is not shoddy, it is basically a profitable business.

The only thing that will affect the box office is that there may be no stars in the movie, which will cause many fans to lack interest in going to the cinema.

……

"Mr. Richard, five million dollars is already the limit we can give, you have to know that the total investment of this film is only 15 million dollars......" said Ron Shelton, a producer at Paramount Pictures, very sincerely.

Richard held up a finger......

This finger is not cheap, and according to Sheldon's words, this finger represents at least $10 million.

"$10 million is also my bottom line, and even selling $10 million to you is cheap!" Richard didn't budge in the slightest.

"Sir, that's $10 million, it's not a small amount!" Sheldon looked bitter, he thought that he would be able to send Richard away with two or three million dollars.

But obviously Richard is not so easy to dismiss, biting to death will cost 10 million, not a dime less.

"I know it's not a small amount, but you have to know what this 10 million can bring you, in addition to a steady number of moviegoers, I can also make my players friendly to appear in your movies, all-star level players!"

"In addition to Kobe Bryant and Jermaine and others, there are also some high-ranking rookies who will star, and the average playing time of each person is not less than three minutes, how about it?" Richard banged on the table and said with a smile.

When Sheldon heard this, he was stunned......

"Are you sure?! Mr. Richard, this is no joke! ”

"Naturally, I'm sure, but if I advise you to shoot, hurry up and shoot, just in time for them to train in West Lafayette, miss this point in time, you won't have such a good opportunity!" Richard said with a smile.

Sheldon was dumbfounded, he knew that the $10 million would never be spent, and there were more than 30 players training in West Lafayette at the moment, including NBA All-Star starter-level players and NCAA talents......

If it is really as Richard said, this 10 million dollars is simply worth it!

"Happy working together! Mr. Richard! ”

"We'll start casting as soon as possible and then aim to start shooting in mid-August!" Sheldon stood up with excitement on his face.

Since there is already a violent Black plot on the spot, they only need to change the drama to be enough, and the process can be completed in less than a week.

After all, it's just an hour and a half movie, and it's not a tome TV series.

As for casting, this one may take a little longer, but a month is enough......

"Good! Happy working together! ”

"I wish you a great box office hit in advance!" Richard also smiled and stood up and shook Sheldon's hand.

……

Speaking of which, Richard actually thought about investing in making movies by himself, but after thinking about it, it was better not to humiliate himself as a layman, and not to make a "Dream Showbiz" when the time comes, smashing his own signboard......

Now that Paramount is willing to take over, and is full of sincerity, Richard naturally has no reason not to agree.

As for the box office of the movie when it is released, according to Richard's estimate, it will definitely not be bad......

But if you want to be a box office hit, it is estimated that it is unlikely, after all, this is just the plot of a high school volume, and it will be quite good to have a box office income of 40 or 50 million at that time.

Maybe when it comes to the college papers, the box office will be better......

But when Paramount wants to shoot a college paper, the price is naturally another matter, and Richard's disciples are estimated to be able to put together an all-star team, and the gang Ramon will play in friendship, which is not enough for 10 million dollars.