King of Hollywood

Chapter 51 Integrating TV Programs

It was accidental that Robert Downey Jr. appeared in "Two and a Half Men". The main reason was that Adrian was not interested in letting Charlie Sheen play the leading role in "Two and a Half Men". He still has a certain understanding. All kinds of bad things about Charlie Sheen have brought a lot of trouble to the crew. Although he played the role alive, although the producer gave him a lot of tolerance, he was eventually kicked out. (Baidu search for m, Rainbow Literature Network) M However, it was several seasons later, the character has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, although everyone thinks that the actor should be changed, but the ratings inevitably dropped a lot.

So when Adrian decided to cut that at the source, Charlie Sheen was eliminated first after making the show. However, there must be a suitable actor to play the leading role, right? So Robert Downey Jr. came into view.

Like most young actors, Robert Downey Jr. became indifferent after becoming famous, especially after being nominated for an Oscar, he became arrogant and did more and more unscrupulous things, such as taking drugs, speeding, and breaking into private houses Wait, he was arrested many times in just one year in 1996, and because he repeatedly broke the probation and bail regulations, he was finally imprisoned twice and served a total of 16 months.

Even so, he was still involved in a prisoner fight at the beginning of 1998, and then he was released from prison for treatment due to facial injuries. He was not released on parole until the end of July this year.

Although the relationship between old Robert Downey and his son has been bumpy, but as a father, he still cares about him very much, so he ran around trying to find him a chance through his contacts. Because the old Robert Downey once served as the screenwriter of the "Mission: Impossible" TV series, Adrian had some cooperation with him when making the first "Mission: Impossible" movie, so he finally found him here .

With little thought, Adrian decided to let Robert Downey Jr. play the role that originally belonged to Charlie Sheen in "Two and a Half Men". There is not much difference between Xin, and many people in the circle also avoid him, thinking that it is impossible for him to cheer up again, but don't forget, Adrian knows how to develop in the future.

As long as Downey Jr. succeeds in detoxifying drugs, and his acting skills are considered top-notch, this investment will definitely be worthwhile, and giving charcoal in the snow will always be more grateful than icing on the cake. Of course, proper beating is also necessary.

"I still remember the high-spirited look you had when you were nominated for an Oscar, Robert. At that time, I had just gained some fame. Time flies so fast. I really didn't expect that you, who was so talented back then, would end up where you are today." It's such a pity." Adrian said after inviting Downey Jr. to his beach villa in Malibu and exchanging pleasantries.

"Life is always full of all kinds of temptations. When you are not clear-headed, it is easy to make mistakes." Downey Jr. sighed. His beard was cleanly shaved and his clothes were neatly dressed, but he was a little thin. His complexion was not very good either. The prison life of more than ten months obviously made him unbearable to look back on.

But it also made him grow up a lot, so although Adrian spoke a bit old-fashioned, he always maintained this respectful look. You must know that he is two or three years older than him. Of course, even if Downey Jr. had the same personality as a few years ago, he would not dare to make a mistake. Adrian's identity is there, and just like Solomon, they are about the same age as each other, but ten years ago he was still a small director, ten years ago Afterwards, he is already a media tycoon, so how can he straighten his waist.

"It's great to hear you say that. Although we often say that young people make mistakes, God will forgive them, but the premise of that is that he must know where he is wrong and be willing to correct it." Adrian looked Looking at him with a smile, he said, "I asked someone to check the affairs of the Los Angeles County Prison. You behaved very well after you were imprisoned. You were involved in the brawl. The reason why I decided to let you play a role in this TV series , besides what your father said, I think your desire to correct is also one of the important reasons, I believe you should not let your father and me down, right?"

"No." Downey Jr. replied briefly, and when Adrian mentioned his father, a complicated look appeared on his face.

"Then you should accept some necessary arrangements, right?" Adrian asked immediately. Downey Jr. didn't speak, but frowned and showed a questioning look.

"I will let the company supervise your behavior, urge you to cooperate with the parole officer, make sure you will not take drugs again, and supervise you to participate in drug rehabilitation activities." Adrian said, spreading his hands, and then did not give Downey Jr. a chance to speak, He continued: "These will be written into the contract. As long as you do things according to the regulations, we will also endorse you. In addition, if you live in a hotel, you must make arrangements."

Little Downey, who suppressed his dissatisfaction, frowned slightly again when he heard the next sentence. He is not an idiot, and he will not fail to hear the meaning of Adrian's words, but who would target himself? Adrian couldn't answer this question either. He would make this mainly based on a piece of news he found from his memory, that is, the incident that Downey Jr. was imprisoned again for possessing drugs in 2000.

Downey Jr., who was released from prison at that time, also participated in a TV series-this is one of the reasons why Adrian considered him-but one day after checking into a hotel in Palm Springs, the police received an anonymous report call , Said that there was a large amount of cocaine and diazepam hidden in Downey Jr.'s room. After the police went there, they found a lot. Although Downey Jr. argued that he carried it under the influence of drugs, he was still prosecuted.

He was caught again with a previous conviction, and naturally lost the job he just got. After being paroled again, he was found wandering barefoot on the streets of Culver City, so he was called to the police station again on suspicion of drug abuse. Although he only stayed for a few hours this time, some crews who started to contact him also retreated one after another. After that, he made up his mind and spent two years in detoxification, and then slowly stood up again.

Leaving aside Downey Jr.’s question, this anonymous call is very interesting. If someone from the hotel made the call, the media would not fail to mention it, but from the beginning to the end, including the police, it was an anonymous call, so there is no guarantee that it was not someone Deliberately targeting him, he also offended many people in the 1990s.

So Adrian reminded him here, and urged him to quit drugs by endorsement. If Downey Jr. made mistakes on this again, the final result would definitely be more miserable than in his previous life. You know, Adrian personally invited and arranged the contract. If he still makes trouble, it means that Adrian's vision is not good, and the consequences can be imagined.

If Downey Jr. really had a strong desire to stand up, he would agree to it even if he hadn't experienced the next two unlucky incidents. Of course, he can't refuse to agree, that's his freedom, but in the future some movies will be with him. It doesn't matter anymore, Adrian is not interested in cultivating people who are not his own. In Hollywood, there is no one who cannot be replaced.

In the end, Robert Downey Jr. agreed, and "Two and a Half Men" was scheduled for the fall. Adrian, who had watched the sample film, was quite satisfied with his performance. At the same time, he also told the crew to keep a close eye on Downey Jr. It's one thing for him to mess around, but it's another thing for someone to do something deliberately. If it's the latter, Adrian will let some people know how powerful he is.

In addition, there are several TV series to be released, one of which is "Double Agent" starring Hu Kaili. Although the filming of "Charlie's Angels 2" has been completed and will be released next year, and she has a good relationship with Drew and Cameron, she still agreed to be invited to appear in the TV series.

Hu Kaili is very clear about her position in her heart. Her innate conditions have already determined that it is difficult for her to have a long-term development in movies, so she does not resist TV drama roles, let alone. As for whether using a Chinese-American heroine will affect the ratings, Adrian didn’t take it seriously. Let’s not say that Kelly Hu, like Reeves, only has a quarter of Chinese blood. It is broadcast on the channel, while the way to watch the cable channel is after subscription, no matter whether other program users of this channel like it or not, they must watch it.

At best, the time period is a little bit off, but you can adjust the date. If it doesn’t work on Tuesday, then Wednesday will be fine. The announcement is about to be cut or finished. In order to win a good time for "American Idol", Charlize argued for a long time at the high-level meeting.

Many people think that although this talent show has potential, it has not passed the test of the audience after all, and there are already enough programs with high ratings, so there is no need to make room for this show. But Charlize took out the audition data that was in full swing and debated with several executives one by one. The detailed materials and sharp words made them almost speechless.

"It's not only about the success or failure of this program, but also our enterprising spirit! Gentlemen, it is through continuous experimentation, innovation and exploration that we have been able to develop to the present, even in the face of losses, rather than Pin your hopes on a few programs with high ratings!" It is said that Charlize ended with this sentence.

Although these are slightly exaggerated, with Charlize's passionate tone and the strong female temperament that has been displayed all the time, several executives at the meeting were stunned, so they finally made a compromise, and some of the competitions can be properly Put it on Wednesday, and then consider whether to put the final on Tuesday based on the ratings.

"Your secretary assistant is an amazing woman, Ed." The current Paul Pollard said to Adrian at a reception.

"I'm just telling the truth," Charlize said.

"How did you train her?" Claude was full of curiosity.

"She's not doing a bad job." Ivanka pretended not to care.

Anyway, everyone now knows that the new female director of the planning department is a very courageous and capable woman, and the other executives couldn't get angry after being refuted by her—they knew who was standing behind her. One reason is that Charlize didn't save their face while rebutting. In addition, the vigorous and vigorous style made the planning department operate quite efficiently, so the title of "Queen of the Iceberg" began to spread slowly.

Alright, let’s go back to "Double Spy". As long as you arrange a suitable time slot, and the TV series itself is also very attractive, the ratings may not be high at the beginning, but it should gradually increase after the end. fire up.

As we all know, American TV series only have one episode per week. For many TV series, it is very necessary to set up enough attractive suspense at the end of each episode and season. And this "Double-Faced Female Spy" did a good job on this point. Adrian still remembers that someone in his previous life commented that before a certain sci-fi TV series, this TV series was the most brain-intensive, with all kinds of big and small conspiracies. Putting them together makes it difficult to know which ones are real and which ones are fake.

This is actually a very good way to make up a story. Anyway, as long as a bigger conspiracy is introduced before a conspiracy is fully exposed, as long as the speed is well grasped, once the ratings drop, it will be all right to end or cut it off. no problem. There is a saying, as long as you boldly underestimate the IQ of Americans, you will be successful.

Although there are many programs with high ratings, Adrian has distributed some good episodes to cbs, wb and other TV networks because of this. "Project Runway" will also be broadcast, so some adjustments have been made to the reality show, such as upgrading "Millionaire" to "The Wise Man Is King" and handing it over to TVB, but the programs with high ratings are still more and more popular. it is good.

With the rapid development of cable TV stations, in addition to tnt and espn of tbs, a lot of them have been separated. Needless to say, cnn news, family channels, women's channels with Hearst's shares, youth channels, etc., need a lot high-quality programs to fill them. For example, the Family Channel is targeting the Disney Channel, so it will launch "Growing Pains" soon, and the leading role will be Hilary Duff, who once played Shirley in the movie version of "Resident Evil"! Another example is that TNT is targeting, so after snatching away "Sexy City", "The Sopranos", "Six Feet Under" and "Band of Brothers", it recruited Larry David to produce "Curb Your Enthusiasm" .

Larry David is the screenwriter of "Seinfeld". After "Seinfeld" ended in 1998, he changed his career to become a film screenwriter. Although the power of film screenwriters is not as great as that of TV screenwriters, their influence is much greater than that of TV screenwriters. There are far more film writers than TV writers who are the president of the Writers Guild. Unfortunately, he is good at conceiving small stories rather than long-form scripts, so he has been hitting a wall, so Adrian, who has sorted out the more well-known TV series, was found by someone, and he was supposed to be in this TV series. "Curb Your Enthusiasm", which appeared at the time, was produced.

Similar to "Seinfeld", "Curb Your Enthusiasm" is also a comedy in the sketch mode, and Larry David plays Larry David, which shows the semi-real life of an actor. Because the investment is very small, he works part-time The screenwriter and starring also took on the burden of production. As long as he can maintain a consistent standard, he should have no problem producing eight seasons like "Seinfeld".

In last year's ratings list, the program occupied six positions in the top ten, which has greatly surpassed and became the number one of the four major TV networks. With the rapid development of cable TV stations, it will enter a melee situation in a few years at most , even with his support at that time, the TV station under his banner can still leave others far away, but it must also consider the situation of the big tree attracting the wind-now it is already considering, otherwise "The Intern" will not be handed over to cbs And hand over "The Office".

So simply push to the top at this time, firstly to let the wish increase cohesion, secondly to fully demonstrate one's own strength, and then slowly retreat, and continue to maintain a certain advantage.

That's all about the TV series. As for the movies, the later stages of "Winter's Bone" and "Never Compromise" are basically coming to an end. In particular, "Winter's Bone" only had an investment of 2 million, and the plot was relatively simple. After Natalie came over to complete the sound dubbing of some shots, basically there was only publicity work left. "Never Compromise" may take a little longer, but it's not a big deal, as long as it can be released at the end of the year, so Adrian still has the energy to do other things, such as making the remaining two parts of "The Matrix" The production time is on the agenda.

After the animation studio in Japan worked overtime, the first animation about how the robots rise was broadcast on TV ahead of schedule. Although there was only one episode, it was enough to cheer up the already depressed "Matrix" fans. . After the first part was released in 1998, countless movie fans were looking forward to the next two. Even though they already knew a lot of plots through the novel, they still had great expectations, not to mention Adrian himself said that the part of the movie version The content will be different from the novel version, especially the ending.

However, what the fans didn't expect was that in the next year, Adrian went to New Zealand and spent all his time on the filming of "The Lord of the Rings". It is conceivable how disappointed they were. Adrian also knows that this matter cannot be delayed for too long, and as Monica gets older, the pairing with Reeves will be somewhat incompatible.

However, because of the production of two films this year, although the investment is very small, "The Matrix" will be filmed together with the next two parts. He doesn't want to reminisce about the days in New Zealand, so he moved to next year. The time for next year is just right. Although another movie needs to be filmed first, some preliminary preparations can be completed this year, such as the recovery training of Reeves and others, or the layout of some props and venues - don't worry, there is plenty of time.

So when the person in charge came over and asked which highway to compare with the Transportation Bureau, Adrian waved his hand aggressively: "Find a place and spend some time to build a brand new section for shooting!"

!@#