hollywood melon man

Chapter 56 Three good friends

After the audition, Gilbert Jr. and the two producers had a small meeting behind closed doors.

Charles Roven still made it clear that he was opposed to Keanu Reeves playing the male protagonist Jack. His reason is that Keanu Reeves cannot always guarantee that he is in good condition.

"I heard that he has a history of drug addiction, and he is good friends with River Phoenix and Johnny Depp. These two are well known in Hollywood!" said Charles Rowan.

River Phoenix is ​​known as a talented actor and is equally well known for his unabashedly chaotic personal life.

Johnny Depp has gradually stepped into a front-line position since "Edward Scissorhands", but his weird clothes and personality are also unbearable.

No matter how dirty Hollywood is, full of all kinds of gray and black transactions, insider information and other things.

But a basic consensus is that everyone still has to work together to maintain the glamorous surface of Hollywood, and still have to pretend to be a good person in front of the public.

But River Phoenix and Johnny Depp are the kind of people who don't even pretend, showing the dirty side of Hollywood to the public.

Today's North American society is not what it will be a few decades ago. Although influenced by hippie culture, the entire North American society still tends to be conservative on the surface.

Now you tell the public that the movie star they like is actually a bad-tempered, drug addict, weird about XP, and loves sex. How can you make the public accept it?

Fortunately, the media are now controlled by large media capital. As long as they are valuable, the media will not report scandals about Hollywood stars.

Once you lose your value or offend a certain media group, just wait.

Various tabloids continue to expose dirty information about you, and mainstream media continue to criticize you until your reputation is ruined.

Even if you have eighteen mouths, you can't say a word to defend yourself. Even if you don't do it, you will do it.

Michael Jackson and Tom Cruise in their previous lives are examples of being manipulated by the media.

As someone who has experienced the Internet self-media era, little Gilbert has a clear understanding of the nature of media.

In this era, it is important to control the power to speak.

Who controls the right to speak? Disney and Time Warner behind Warner are both large media groups that control the power of speech.

You either become one of them or do it yourself.

However, it was more difficult to come this way on his own, so little Gilbert decided to become one of them first, and then do it on his own.

After all, the situation is changing very quickly. He doesn't want to say good things to a black mermaid or be on a list of some island in a few decades. That will make him sick...

It is also very simple to solve the Keanu Reeves matter. Little Gilbert said: "In this way, when signing an actor's contract, it is directly stipulated that no drinking, no smoking of marijuana, and no messing around.

If the actor agrees, just say it, if not, change it. "

Little Gilbert has said this, and Charles Rowan can no longer object.

Two days later, the crew officially came to discuss actor contracts with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock.

Sandra Bullock is easier to say, after all, there is nothing wrong with her. Although he is famous, the salary is not high, and he can easily get a salary of 200,000 US dollars.

On the other hand, Keanu Reeves is in more trouble. The requirements in the actor's contract are a bit unacceptable to him.

"This..." Keanu Reeves pointed to several clauses in the contract and asked, "Can it be changed?"

The producer Kane Waxman, who was in charge of negotiating the contract, shook his head and said: "I'm afraid this won't work. This is what Director Gilbert Jr. requested."

Charles Rowan on the side smiled a bit like the villain in the movie: "If you don't agree, you don't have to sign, so we can change the candidate early."

When he heard that the actor was about to be replaced, Keanu Reeves signed his name on the actor's contract without hesitation.

The second half of Charles Rowan's sentence was still stuck in his throat, and Keanu Reeves finished signing.

He asked in surprise: "Can you meet all the requirements above?"

Keanu Reeves nodded affirmatively: "Of course, I can do it." Charles Rowan looked disappointed. His Tom Cruise was gone. Why was Keanu Reeves so happy?

In fact, this had something to do with little Gilbert. After the meeting, he asked his assistant Anna to break the news.

Said that Keanu Reeves's audition performance satisfied him, but his personal life and drug addiction history made him a little worried.

If Keanu Reeves can't change, then he plans to recast the role.

This word reached the ears of Keanu Reeves' agent, River Phoenix, and Johnny Depp.

Keanu Reeves is fine, but people around him are worried.

The agent tried his best to persuade Keanu Reeves to give up drinking, drugs and marijuana, and then win the role first.

As for River Phoenix and Johnny Depp, they did even better.

In order for good friends to get roles, when the three of them went to a bar to drink together, River Phoenix and Johnny Depp actually ordered lemonade.

The usual wine, cigarettes and marijuana were all gone, which made Keanu Reeves feel uncomfortable all over.

The two friends were also uncomfortable, but River Phoenix said: "Keanu, go and film seriously. We will stay with you until the filming lasts."

"Yes," Johnny Depp also said: "When you finish filming, we will have a big party together, full of beautiful women."

The good brothers have worked so hard, and Keanu Reeves was also moved. For the sake of the good brothers, Keanu Reeves was determined to win the role.

So when it came to negotiating the actor's contract, he just struggled for a while and saw that there was no hope of changing it, so he signed it directly.

Keanu Reeves is ready, how could he give up the opportunity to others? Wouldn't that let down two good brothers?

The actors were successfully cast, but it was far from the time for filming to start.

Because this play requires a lot of physical strength, and some action scenes require Keanu Reeves to perform in person, so he still needs training.

To this end, Gilbert Jr. also specially invited experts from the Los Angeles Police Department to serve as consultants to the crew.

Including tactical actions, special police terminology, etc., all are trained by experts from the police department.

The Los Angeles Police Department believed that this was a good publicity for the image of the local police, so they sent their most capable people to assist the crew in filming.

Not only that, he also lent his newly built police headquarters to the crew for filming and provided various police equipment, including police helicopters, for free except for fuel.

Of course, little Gilbert would not refuse such a good thing. He took several cordial and friendly photos with the Los Angeles Police Chief and invited them to attend the premiere of the film.

This is also a favorable publicity point when promoting the film.

Another job is advertising bidding. It is not uncommon to insert advertisements into movies.

Hamilton sponsored $200,000, and Jack, the hero of the film, will wear Hamilton's latest mechanical watch.

The costumes for all characters in the film were provided free of charge by a local costume agency in Los Angeles.

In order to have his clothing agent's name appear in the film, he sponsored another $100,000.

The Los Angeles Bus Operating Company provided several buses that were about to be scrapped for filming and sponsored an additional US$50,000.

Other advertising revenue, such as shoes, sunglasses, etc., also added up to US$250,000.

Before filming even started, the film had already generated $600,000 in advertising revenue, enough to pay the crew for Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock.

And this is not the end, if the film performs well at the box office, these sponsors will also award an additional sum of money.

Will the film be successful? Others did not have this confidence, but little Gilbert was full of confidence.

(End of this chapter)