One Year Left to Play

Chapter 619: Chapter 191: Excellence in Both Sports and Entertainment

In the past 20 years, Japan has been in a period of fervent cultural export. With lots of money, a piece of land in Tokyo could buy all of the United States.

Among the cultural exports from Japan, tokusatsu films, as one of the signature genres, have a niche audience in the United States, even though they’re not as popular as in the Asia-Pacific region, the most famous one being Ultraman.

If an American actor played Ultraman, it might make the news at most. If an Asian actor shot Ultraman in the United States, it probably wouldn’t even make the news.

But if an NBA All-Star, voted the most popular, were to star in a tokusatsu film where the main character shared the All-Star’s English name, that would be a different story.

Even though the immediate media reaction labeled it as "dereliction of duty," this news blew up!

Zhang Hao successfully broke the dimensional wall, and even though his playoff performance wasn’t great and he got eliminated in the second round, making it impossible to dominate sports headlines, he took a different route to seize the headlines of the sports news section via entertainment news...

Success in both sports and literature!

Logo Man, who was busy figuring out how to guide media opinion after Barkley’s trade, was stunned when he saw this news...

Previously, Zhang Hao had mentioned that he was going to shoot a TV series in the summer.

Logo Man originally thought he would play a supporting role or make a cameo. Who knew he would be the lead?

Moreover, Tsuburaya Productions announced Zhang Hao’s participation fee for the sake of publicity: 5 million US Dollars... this was more than Zhang Hao’s rookie contract salary over three years combined!

Additionally, after doing some research, Logo Man discovered that Zhang Hao was shooting the series through a partnership with a newly established entertainment studio in China and Tsuburaya Productions, where 95% of the scenes were shot in the United States. Yet, the U.S. was only used as a "location"; the actual filming was done in China and Japan. They even found a way to avoid taxes...

"He’s perfect for Los Angeles!"

Logo Man felt as if he had received a gift from God to create a great team!

In Logo Man’s mind, the Los Angeles Lakers were not only meant to win games and championships but also needed to be talked about and constantly in the spotlight.

And Zhang Hao was just this kind of Laker!

...

"Paul, spend some more time with Auntie here, aren’t there still plenty of places to visit? You don’t have much vacation time in a year..."

"Oh... Aix, I am curious about something."

"Go ahead."

"Why do I feel you’re more enthusiastic about filming than recruiting Barkley?"

"Am I?"

"Yes."

"That’s your misconception!"

"Really?"

"Absolutely!"

Watching Zhang Hao, who had received a call last night, packing his things in a hurry to leave for Los Angeles, Pierce thought only a fool would believe what his friend said!

Pierce’s mom had many more sights and activities to capture in photos to show off to her friends, so she decided not to return to Los Angeles just yet and would go back when she was ready.

They initially went on a trip to help Zhang Hao unwind. Now that the Lakers had brought in Barkley, Zhang Hao would no longer be sulking, so Pierce’s mom could joyfully enjoy her vacation.

All she needed was for her son to stay by her side as a photographer.

As for Pierce wanting to go to Hollywood to watch Zhang Hao film and possibly snag a cameo, it wasn’t going to happen; a mother loves her son and wants him by her side.

On the way back to Los Angeles aboard Little Lolita’s dad’s private jet, Britney couldn’t stop chattering, "Brother, when we get to Los Angeles, I need to go home first to get clothes! Also, how many scenes do I have? Do I have any lines?"

"Yes, your role seems to be a part-time worker at a beverage shop that often gets trampled down. Your lines... ’Help...’, ’The monster is here...’, ’Ultraman X! It’s Ultraman X...’ Something like that."

"Do I have a close-up?"

"Yes..."

Seeing Britney’s excitement, Aprile Clark felt a sense of pride rising in her heart. She was the female lead!

Even though the female lead’s lines weren’t much different...

At least she had much more screen time! Besides, she already had the script, memorized it well! Not like this last-minute Xiaotiantian who was just playing a part-time worker at a street stall!

"Brother, where’s Le Lin! What’s Le Lin’s role? Your daughter?"

"Do I look like I could have a daughter your age?"

"Well, Le Lin just turned 7, and both you and Aprile are 19. If you had been naughty as kids, it’s possible."

"..." Zhang Hao was speechless for a while and then replied, "You’re just an extra! A little girl running across the street! You even need to take a fall!"

As they chatted, the three girls started discussing the upcoming filming.

All of them were quite excited, even though none of them had ambitions to be actors in TV dramas and movies. Aprile Clark wanted to be a stage actor, Britney dreamed of becoming a singer, and Little Lolita’s dream was to taste all the delicious food in the world... But playing around once in a while, especially guest starring in Zhang Hao’s show, was naturally a pleasure.

With three women, it was quite a scene, and soon, Zhang Hao was being ignored.

Feeling melancholic, Zhang Hao retreated to a quieter corner and reclined his seat.

Upon receiving the confirmation call from Tsuburaya Productions that the pre-filming preparations were complete, the system notification popped up...

"There’s never a divide between sports and literature. Specially contracted player Zhang Hao successfully enters the film and television circle. Congratulations to the host on obtaining the special contracted player Zhang Hao’s exclusive medal: the Performer."