My singer girlfriend is super fierce

In the hotel conference room, Machi suppressed his shock and continued to read.

In fact, HBO started screening scripts as early as three months ago and has contacted many well-known screenwriters in the industry. It currently has one or two potential candidates for consideration, but it is not 3% satisfied with any of them.

Coincidentally, the two recent films "Kung Fu Panda" and "The Foreigner" have performed quite well, and their screenwriter Ye Zhiqiu has come into HBO's sight.

Obviously, "Kung Fu Panda" is a series IP, which ensures its continued operation and revenue generation, while "The Foreigner" demonstrates the screenwriter's insight into human nature and control over the struggle and conflict-type plots, both of which are abilities that HBO values ​​highly.

Even so, HBO only took a "give it a try" attitude. After all, Ye Zhiqiu is more famous as a singer than a screenwriter.

Moreover, he is Chinese. It is still a question whether he can truly create a story that suits the tastes of European and American audiences under a different cultural background.

However, after seeing the script of "Game of Thrones" for the first time, March and his team's doubts were dispelled.

In terms of setting alone, Game of Thrones is the most ambitious, complete, and imaginative of the few works they have seen.

After the grand setting, the story officially begins. The first chapter is titled "Winter Is Coming".

The story begins with a Night's Watch patrol being attacked by White Walkers north of the Wall, a mysterious and powerful supernatural creature. The Night's Watch is almost wiped out, with only one member escaping back to Winterfell, where he is executed by Lord Ned Stark.

Later, Ned found a litter of direwolf pups at the execution site and took them back to Winterfell to feed the children. At the same time, his wife Catelyn brought shocking news: Ned's mentor and friend, current Prime Minister Jon Arryn, died mysteriously in the capital.

King Robert Baratheon and his queen Cersei Lannister came to Eastfort, hoping that Ned would succeed the late Jon Arryn as Prime Minister.

Bran, the second son of Lord Ned, likes to climb the city walls. During this period, he accidentally witnessed the incestuous behavior of Cersei Lannister and her twin brother Jaime Lannister. In order to keep the secret, Jaime pushed Bran off the tower, causing Bran to be seriously injured and fall into a coma.

Despite Bran's injury, Lord Ned decided to go to King's Landing to serve as Prime Minister. He took his daughter with him, leaving his wife Catelyn and son Robb in Winterfell to take care of Bran.

In Pentos, across the Narrow Sea, the exiled Targaryen prince Viserys is planning to form an alliance with an important leader of the Dothraki nomads and use the power of the Dothraki to take back the Iron Throne that belongs to him. The lifelong happiness of his sister Daenerys has become the most important bargaining chip in his hand.

At the wedding, Daenerys received three dragon eggs as a gift.

The conference room was silent. The plot of the first chapter slowly unfolded from Lindong City. The mysterious creatures, the undercurrents behind the power struggle, the dirty dark side behind honor and human nature... every scene made March and others stare at it.

Soon we come to Chapter 2, titled "The Kingsroad".

Even though his second son Bran's life was in danger, Ned Stark still led his family to King's Landing for the sake of the overall situation.

Her illegitimate son Jon Snow went to the Wall to join the Night's Watch. The queen's other brother Tyrion Lannister, a dwarf, decided to go with him out of curiosity.

In Winterfell, the lady of the castle, Catelyn Stark, who stayed behind to take care of the unconscious Bran, was nearly assassinated by a mysterious assassin. In the emergency moment, the assassin was bitten to death by the direwolf guarding Bran.

Catelyn realizes that Bran's fall was not an accident and there may be a conspiracy behind it, which makes her more determined to find out the truth.

Across the strait, Viserys is eager to return to the throne, while his sister Daenerys is focusing her energy on pleasing her husband Drogo...

In the second chapter, the complex political situation and conflicts between the various forces deepened further, and foreshadowings were laid one after another, which made the reader March's heart itchy and he couldn't wait to turn the page.

Then, he was surprised to find that he had reached the last page.

Gone?

Ma Qi was stunned, and looked around as if he didn't believe it, and almost blurted out: "What?"

"What about the rest? How's the plot going?"

Ye Zhiqiu said calmly: "Time is limited, I only wrote two chapters last night."

"However, I believe it is enough for Mr. March to make a judgment."

I believe you!

Ma Qi was complaining wildly in his heart. He was a little skeptical at first, but now after reading it, he would never believe that this was just a script written by Ye Zhiqiu in one night.

With such a grand and complex setting, extremely sophisticated writing style and considerable content, could this have been conceived and completed in just one night?

It's impossible! This script must have been written by Ye Zhiqiu in advance, and he just happened to take it out today.

But Ye Zhiqiu's words also allowed Machi to suppress his violently beating heart.

That's it! That's the script! Even though he was screaming in his heart, March forced himself to calm down quickly and put on a calm expression on his face.

He knew that in a business negotiation, the more eager you appear to be to make a deal, the more you lose the initiative.

Even every part of this script deeply scratched his itch and made him unable to stop.

"Of course." Ma Qi took a deep breath, quickly put on a programmed smile on his face, and said, "Mr. Ye, you are really very talented."

"We are very optimistic about this work. I think we can talk about cooperation next."

"So soon?" Ye Zhiqiu was slightly stunned. "Don't we still have to participate in the selection?"

"That's true in principle." March smiled, "But I am the main person in charge of this project, and our team has the final say."

"We are very optimistic about the work of Game of Thrones. If you are willing, we can talk about the treatment of this script today."

In this case, Ye Zhiqiu didn't waste any words and directly put forward his conditions.

"First, as a writer, I charge $50 per episode for a single script."

When he heard the first point, March's brows frowned slightly.

$50 per episode is the highest level of TV drama screenwriters in the industry. It is rare to find a higher number than this.

Of course, this was within their budget, so he didn't say anything.

“Second, the dividend ratio in the later period, including dividends from prime-time revenue, dividends from pay TV, dividends from new media distribution, etc., will be the highest ratio in the industry.”

At this time, Machi's brows were deeply furrowed.

Compared to the first point, this one is more difficult to accept.

No matter how high the remuneration for a single episode script is, it is a fixed amount, but the profit sharing is not certain. If a drama IP is well managed, it can be like a cash cow, and the remuneration for the script can be said to be a drop in the bucket compared to the profit sharing amount.

This point must be discussed in detail, March thought.

"Third, HBO needs to provide a professional team to assist me in the creation, and I will serve as the co-executive producer of the TV series."

March was somewhat relieved by this. This was very common among top screenwriters and was not difficult to achieve.

The executive producer has the power to participate in decisions such as casting and filming location selection, and the screenwriter is the person who knows the story best, so it is common for him or her to hold this position concurrently.

However, he was still too happy too early.