GTA IV star only made $100,000

[PS3-Playb3yond]

Niko Bellic wants his money.

In a New York Times article, Hollick revealed that he earned about $100,000 for 15 months of work recording dialogue for his role as GTA IV's protagonist. The game, however, has gone on to rake in over $600 million in a mere two weeks.

And Hollick won't see a dime of it.

"It's tough, when you see Grand Theft Auto IV out there as the biggest thing going right now, when they're making hundreds of millions of dollars, and we don't see any of it," Hollick told the Times. "I don't blame Rockstar. I blame our union for not having the agreements in place to protect the creative people who drive the sales of these games."

"The first GTA 4 trailer generated something like 40 million hits online, and that's my voice all over it, and I get nothing. If that were a radio spot, I would have. Same thing for the TV ads. I recorded those lines for the game, but now they're all over television."

Poor guy. I think he deserves more.

[ADRiiAN`]

He really should of known better.
Ask for a higher amount, I mean, come on, who DOESN'T know that GTA is a HUGE franchise

[Zaphod]

Hell I would take $100,000 for simple voice acting and motion capture. Sure in the big picture he got ripped off based on what Rockstar is making off of him, but heck I would have taken it.

[PS3-Playb3yond]

Originally Posted by ADRiiAN`

He really should of known better.
Ask for a higher amount, I mean, come on, who DOESN'T know that GTA is a HUGE franchise

Well, maybe he didn't know.

[Pelican170]

Yea, $100,000 to read lines for voice dialogue, sounds like a good deal to me. ill do it next time, lol

[makaveli21]

Originally Posted by Pelican170

Yea, $100,000 to read lines for voice dialogue, sounds like a good deal to me. ill do it next time, lol

To quote Tracy Jordan from 30 Rock:

Tracy: It’s not fair, Liz Lemon. Everyone wins awards except for me. Even Shaquille O’ Neil got a Kid’s Choice Award for that animated movie we did.

[movie clip]

Tracy: I spent two days making that movie for my homie, and what did I get? A million dollars, a yellow Bentley, and nothing!

[ThePhantomOak]

Originally Posted by Zaphod

Hell I would take $100,000 for simple voice acting and motion capture. Sure in the big picture he got ripped off based on what Rockstar is making off of him, but heck I would have taken it.

Funny that Rockstar is taking ALL the risk, and people think some chump who could have been ANYBODY should get a share of the reward of that risk... after the fact...


Hmmmmmm, someone outlay's money for GTA3 GTAVC GTASA and GTAIV and some voice actor thinks he got ripped off... maybe he should have written some of that risk into his contract.


Lets say GTAIV got a score of 3.2 and sold only 500,000 copies, and take-two got snatched up by EA. this fool would not be trying to give back his $100,000...

what a loser.

[BluOgre]

Originally Posted by Zaphod

Hell I would take $100,000 for simple voice acting and motion capture. Sure in the big picture he got ripped off based on what Rockstar is making off of him, but heck I would have taken it.

yeah but 15 months of work!!!!!

That doesn't sound so simple if you ask me. Depending on where he lives 100k is probably not a lot of money considering the amount of time he had to put in for the work.

[Proteus]

Originally Posted by BluOgre

yeah but 15 months of work!!!!!

That doesn't sound so simple if you ask me. Depending on where he lives 100k is probably not a lot of money considering the amount of time he had to put in for the work.

If you listen to the interviews he's done on radio station and the like, you will notice he mention that he was working 'on Broadway' during that time as well.

He was not working eight hours a day, five days a week, etc., as many would surmise. He was going in whenever R* called him and needed to do some MoCap work along with voice stuff. It was scheduled out over a 15 month period. He was involved with the R* project for closer to around 20 months even but there were some months he apparently didn't work at all with them.

He was compensated fairly. It's up to him to maximize his popularity from the title to increase his net worth from here out.

On another note, he did not complain about it at all during any of the interviews I listened to. In fact, he praised R* over and over and stated how cool it was working with them. I think the NY Times quote may have been taken out of context in some ways from one of the many interviews he did. He may have simply answered a question asked by a radio personality and not even thrown it out there a complaint at all.

We will never know. Either way, he sounded good and really gave Niko life. I give him props for that... Big time. He has talent.

Finally, I want to make it VERY clear that not just 'anyone' or 'some Russian guy' could have done what he did. In the world of voicework professionals seek a very particular sound and inflection as well as other things. Many will pay whatever it takes to get that _exact_ personality they want. In all of the advertising I've done and participated in there was never a time where we stopped and said, 'wait, let's just get one of us to read it so it's cheaper' because we all knew that it would sound like some homegrown garbage ad then. Having a girlfriend who is VERY deep in the voicework business (she's a radio personality and does tons of side work) it is very clear. You either have exactly what they want, or you don't get the job.

So, my point is... He could have negotiated. A LOT. There is no question about that. At the very least he could have worked it until he found their limits before they would consider other options. If some 'Russian guy' could have just voiced it, R* would not have paid even $100k for it because, frankly, 'Russian guy' would have come really cheap right off the boat. They went to SAG because they wanted top talent for their game to make sure it was at the production level they envisioned (and their budget clearly allowed).

It kinda bothers me that people think that just 'anyone' could do this kind of voicework because, frankly, they can not. Very few can. Don't simply hate because your jealous of the obnoxious amount of money some actors (voice or film) get paid (only about .00001% of them probably ever see decent paychecks in reality). Unless you count porn... Those girls make BANK ($2000/hr is what one of my pornzar friends in SoCal tells me). Now, that is acting.

[Mobe1969]

Originally Posted by PS3+HDDVD OWNER

This guy made $100K in 15 months recording voice clips....


If anything, Rockstar overpaid.

All of the motion capture and cut scenes - he did them. Not just voice. So you think Andy Serkis should not have been treated like an actor for LOTR or King Kong?

[WriteSimply]

Originally Posted by Proteus

He was compensated fairly. It's up to him to maximize his popularity from the title to increase his net worth from here out.

I think the point of discussion here is pay and residuals. He was paid US$100,000 but is not getting anything as residuals. SAG rules has nothing on voice and MOCAP work on video games.

Could he have asked more for his pay while still abiding by the SAG rules of no residuals? Sure. But he didn't and I think he did so because of his good relationship with Rockstar.

As far as his residuals are concerned, I don't think he's asking - I could be wrong - that SAG creates residual rules for video games sold. I think he's asking that they create rules so that actors get residuals for the TV and radio ads that use their voice work from the video games.


fuad

[krumlin]

Originally Posted by ADRiiAN`

He really should of known better.
Ask for a higher amount, I mean, come on, who DOESN'T know that GTA is a HUGE franchise

He did ask for more, but they wouldn't pay it. Either be a struggling actor, or get underpaid to be in the best selling video game.

[theprophecy247]

Originally Posted by ADRiiAN`

He really should of known better.
Ask for a higher amount, I mean, come on, who DOESN'T know that GTA is a HUGE franchise

+1 on this, its common sense the games definatly grossed millions and this guys take prolly 1/10000 of the earnings that really sucsk

[Psx0005]

Sorry, but I can't say I feel sorry for what Hollick made for his voice acting contribution. Just sounds like he's capitalizing on the popularity of GTAIV to get more than what he signed his contract for. I don't hear the voice actors from the previous GTA's griping about what they got paid, and what about one of the "bigger" voice actors that's been doing this for a while: David Hayter from Metal Gear Solid? It'd be interesting to hear his point of view

[jkwest]

What a moron...

If he had refused to accept that money before starting, they would have hired someone else...plain and simple...this guy thinks he is famous and deserves his piece of the pie, wrong! He wouldn't even be in the news if he didn't accept the job at all.

He needs to be approaching this from a different angle...he should be capitalizing off of his role and making money from that aspect.

[jw]

its like this, I go to work everyday and my company makes say 10 million dollars a year. I was a primary driving force behind that money, am I entitled to it? NO Iagreed to work for XXX amount and thats it. Cant negotiate after the bubble has burst.
I dont see anything wrong with it, Its called business. I am sure thats not all profit either .

[becomingwater]

Originally Posted by PS3-Playb3yond

Niko Bellic wants his money.

Poor guy. I think he deserves more.

I think it was fair. he will start getting offers to making movies soon, so he has nothing to worry about.

[doctorsteve]

Originally Posted by PS3-Playb3yond

Niko Bellic wants his money.

Poor guy. I think he deserves more.

$80,000/year to talk. Sounds like a good gig. It wasn't his voice that caused R* to sell so many units. I think what he got was fair. If it had some major celebrity that had had the star power to bring people to the game, that would be different (and it would have been in their contract). I would not buy an "Adult Phone Service" simulator. But if Jennifer Aniston did the voice over, I'd consider it. In that case Jennifer would deserve a cut for helping sell more units.

[sardaukar1977]

Originally Posted by PS3-Playb3yond

Niko Bellic wants his money.

Poor guy. I think he deserves more.

That really sucks!!, of course I could sure use 100k right about now