Chapter 836: Chapter 242: Claude
"Do you remember what I said at the very beginning?" After everyone else left the conference room, Claude immediately looked at Adrian with a look of righteous indignation.
"I know, but I just glanced at a short message." Adrian shrugged nonchalantly, his gaze on his phone showing no intention of looking up, "Just happened to be testing our new website."
"What short message was so important that it had to be checked during a meeting?" Claude raised an eyebrow.
"Nothing," Adrian finally looked up, not wanting to explain what "the pigeon started eating breadcrumbs" meant, "A piece of good news and a piece of bad news, which one do you want to hear first?"
"Just go ahead." Claude made a gesture inviting him to continue.
"The good news is Twitter has already sent text messages to friends’ phones, and the bad news is it still falls short of my requirements, needing a few weeks to perfect." Adrian sighed.
"These are all good news. Do you intend to capture the market with a half-finished product," Claude said, raising a hand to stop Adrian from speaking, "Don’t worry about those, Ed. Even if someone launches a similar service before us, it doesn’t matter. I believe no other media group besides us is researching in this area. Oh, having a chairman with a forward-looking vision for the internet is really great, right?"
"It’s quite rare, I must say, I like this flattery, Crow." Adrian laughed heartily, then stood up with them, and they left the meeting room together.
"Things in Europe are basically settled, what’s left is continuous investment, and Chelsea will help us expand channels, although it will take several years."
"You have quite a bit of confidence in that Portuguese person, don’t you?"
"Of course, my judgment has always been the best, and you admit it too, don’t you? Speaking of which, how did your talks with Jerry Jones go?"
"He’s already softened, after all, among the major public TV stations, ABC performs the best in sports. Such a union isn’t bad for the Dallas Cowboys. Of course, Neil Bush also helped a bit."
"Wow, they seem serious. Should we suppress ’Fahrenheit 9/11’ a bit?"
"Not for now, Michael Moore can’t stir up much trouble, we have to look at the final deal. In fact, I’m even considering whether to help a bit, keeping ’Fahrenheit 9/11’s heat going until the summer. Sometimes, this documentary can have a good counter-effect."
The conversation continued between them until they reached Claude’s office door, and then Adrian was about to leave.
"Of course, I still have to supervise the post-production of a film, prepare for the upcoming PR, and also have a movie to start shooting in March and a date." Adrian said, in response to Claude’s somewhat surprised expression.
"A date?" Claude sighed, "Yeah, your dates are endless. I’m really curious, after all these years, they don’t have a word of complaint."
"That’s a matter of personal skill," Adrian laughed heartily, then patted his buddy on the shoulder, "I know you’re jealous, Crow, don’t worry, express it boldly. Before you walk into the grave of marriage, it’s one of the few times you can vent—have you figured out how to spend the bachelor party?"
"You’re already impatient, Ed?" Claude rolled his eyes.
"Of course, I can’t wait to show up embracing left and right in front of you and Helen." Adrian laughed heartily, then dashed away under Claude’s practically murderous gaze.
Claude and Helen were inevitably engaged, although the wedding date hadn’t been set yet. Adrian believed it wouldn’t be later than this year. Whenever he brought his daughters to visit the godfather, the godfather would half-complainingly ask Claude when he would have children. Generally, such marriages don’t allow for pregnancy before marriage, so once Diane confirmed her pregnancy, she quickly married Victor. So, if they want children, they must marry first.
"Poor Claude." Adrian thought with a lack of conscience, then stepped into the post-production studio.
January had no shortage of events. For instance, ’Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’ and ’La Vie en Rose’ both held official premieres, and various award activities were about to officially commence, all of which took time to handle. However, Adrian focused his main energy on the post-production of ’Walk the Line.’
’Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,’ as an art film, didn’t perform well at the box office but maintained a good reputation. With Jim Carrey’s support, Kate’s acting received further praise. However, the acclaim for ’La Vie en Rose’ declined slightly, with the issues lying in Sophie’s performance. Those who thought she did well were impressed, while those who didn’t thought she was terrible.
Interestingly, most of the former group were critics from the United States, while most of the latter were from Europe, with 70% of them being from France. The complexity in this is evident. Weinstein actually relished this situation, as he put it, such involuntary opposition only made him more confident.
So, while Adrian was a bit worried—since it hadn’t been long since the Oscar last awarded Best Actress to a European actress—he didn’t put too much thought into it. Trust is key in employing people. Hence, he attended the premieres with Sophie, and as in previous premieres, appeared even more intimate with Sophie on the red carpet, providing plenty of public gossip.
Interestingly, because Universal’s ’The Matrix Revolutions,’ ’The Lord of the Rings 3,’ and ’Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban’ effortlessly swept December of 2003, with the aftereffects lingering until the end of January 2004, some films opted for a January 2004 release. For example, DreamWorks released ’The Last Samurai’ starring Tom Cruise, which had already secured an Oscar entry through prior sneak previews.
For this, Spielberg jokingly complained at a party: "If you do this every year, no film company would dare to schedule their releases at the end of the year."
Of course, it was a joke and he didn’t really mind. After the animation division was spun off to form a new DreamWorks Animation Studio, AC Media increased their support for DreamWorks, allowing the Three Giants to feel somewhat relieved.
However, in Adrian’s view, this was merely delaying the inevitable demise of DreamWorks by two or three years. The Three Giants weren’t adept at managing a media group. Katzenberg was more suited for animation, Geffen’s idealism outweighed practicality, and Spielberg, although a businessman when not holding a camera, generally thrived with it in hand. They also didn’t have anyone who could single-handedly support the entire group’s development. Despite the saying that if DreamWorks needed funds, just having Spielberg make a movie could resolve it, they couldn’t compare to a maniac like Adrian.
Of course, he wouldn’t say much. After all, most of the DreamWorks Animation Studio’s shares were already in hand. At least for five to seven years, no one could rival AC Media in animation films with Pixar, Blue Sky, and DreamWorks under its belt.
"Wait, here, I need the lighting a bit brighter, then link this shot with the previous one... shot number 53." Sitting in a chair, watching the editors use equipment to adjust and cut the raw footage, Adrian instructed them after stopping them.
At his current status, generally, post-production was left to the editors unless in very special circumstances where he’d personally involve himself.
"Very good, rewind and let me watch this part again... Not bad, let’s move on to the next segment." After repeatedly watching and confirming it achieved the desired effect, Adrian let them continue.
But he didn’t supervise from the sidelines; instead, he got up and went to another room. Adrian wasn’t always in the studio, so many shots were completed by the team before he came to exchange notes and then reviewed the previous ones. Of course, even if he wasn’t in the studio, he would keep track of the footage online, so reviewing them didn’t take much time.
"Very good, very good, just like that... let me think, hmm, performing all the songs personally could be a major selling point." Adrian muttered, rubbing his chin. On screen, Natalie was singing her heart out, and the pre-filming training helped her control her voice well. Combined with a ’50s and ’60s style and vibrant imagery, it gave off a pleasantly nostalgic feel.
One of the biggest highlights of "Walk the Line," or one of the most Film Academy-friendly elements, is that all songs are performed by the actors themselves, preserving the original feel—of course, some small technical tricks were used, but these tricks didn’t violate any rules. This made the actors more closely resemble those two famous country singers from history, at least in appearance. Plus, with Cash and Carter having passed not long ago, people were still mourning them. Provided the overall quality of the film was good, you could easily imagine the kind of sensations it would stir at release and how much attention it might attract.
However, even then, Adrian couldn’t afford to be complacent if he wanted to achieve his goals. If Sophie could successfully top the charts this year, he would have consecutively turned his women into Best Actress winners for six years. In such a scenario, even if the Film Academy continued to show him favor, other film companies or producers would surely be dissatisfied, and they are a considerable force, so continuing would be tremendously challenging—even with Weinstein’s help.
Still, Adrian had backup plans, and he’d been researching and preparing them for a long time. Plus, his biggest plan would be thoroughly implemented within the next two years, achieving something unprecedented and perhaps never to be repeated. He had fully considered all scenarios, and the chances of failure were very small. Connecting these two things would instead maximize the success of his plan.
"King of Hollywood..." Adrian murmured softly, then stretched and smiled. What could be more delightful than having the world turn in your hands? Oh, yes, there is something—as he glanced at Natalie on the screen again, watching his prey gradually fall into the trap was equally enjoyable, although it couldn’t surpass the pleasure of world domination.
Generally speaking, having dinner is a date, attending cocktails and parties together is a date, going to nightclubs to sing and dance is a date, going for a drive is still a date, but a date doesn’t necessarily have to be going out.
"...After you left, I counted the days since you were gone every day. Do you know how much I need you now?" Here, the guitar and singing abruptly stopped. The girl frowned, seemingly dissatisfied with the lyrics and melody.
"Do you think... this lyric sounds a bit weird?" she asked aloud, moving her leg, but the man pillowing his face with a book on her lap didn’t react at all.
"Ed!" The girl raised her voice.
"Hmm? What’s up?" Adrian immediately sprang up, somewhat panicked and asked, "Did something happen?"
"I’m writing a song for you, and you fell asleep?" The girl immediately widened her eyes and glared at him angrily.
"Hmm... well..." Adrian gestured, hemming and hawing with a sheepish look as they stared at each other for a while. It wasn’t until the girl was vexed and bit her lip that he suddenly laughed out loud.
"Oh, I wish I had a mirror in my hand right now, Vini. Look at yourself, it’s truly amusing." Adrian laughed heartily, "You really thought I was asleep? ’I counted the days since you were gone every day,’ I love that lyric, in fact, I love all the lyrics!"
Avril was first taken aback, then turned angry, glaring at him fiercely. Eventually, with a scream, she pounced on him, pinning him to the sofa without warning and opening her mouth as if preparing to bite.
"Hey, wait, wait! You’re not a puppy, Vini." Adrian laughed, fumbling to stop her.
"Unless I give you a harsh lesson, you won’t learn." Avril gritted her teeth and shouted.
They playfully wrestled on the sofa for quite a while until the girl exhausted her energy and finally stopped.
"I still think the lyrics aren’t quite right, what do you think?" Avril, lying on Adrian’s chest, brought up the initial topic again.
"Let me think... actually, the lyrics and melody are quite good..." Adrian tapped his forehead with his fingers, suddenly got up to pick up a guitar, and, after strumming a few chords, began playing and singing.
His voice was quite good, and he remembered the lyrics precisely, singing with a unique flavor. Initially, Avril made a dismissive face, but she was soon drawn in and closed her eyes, tapping her fingers on the armrest along with the beat.
"Not bad singing," she generously praised after he finished.
"Thanks, I said I really like this song," Adrian chuckled, suddenly leaning over to kiss her cheek, "I can hear what you’re trying to say."
Avril immediately became a bit shy, averting her eyes, biting her lip, with a look of displeasure as if her secret had been found out.
Adrian shrugged and didn’t continue the conversation, instead handing the guitar back to her. "You could try dropping the final notes, especially before the chorus."
The girl’s focus shifted back to the song, strumming the chords and singing again, while Adrian listened intently with his chin propped up.
"Hmm, this change is indeed better, but it’s still not enough," Avril said, grabbing the notebook and pen on the coffee table and quickly jotting down her thoughts, "but I think I’ve found a breakthrough, and next year in the recording studio, I should have a better solution."
"So where’s my reward?" Adrian eagerly leaned in.
The girl gave him a sideways glance but then cupped his face, giving him a heavy kiss on the lips. Adrian raised an eyebrow, then started savoring the little tongue she offered. As usual, Avril, who initially took the initiative, quickly became pliable under his kiss. If Adrian pursued this further, there’d be no problem stripping her and gobbling her up now.
Adrian wasn’t in a hurry, holding her patiently in his arms, until Avril’s voice, faint as a mosquito, murmured, "A.. Alright then..."
Oh, what a pleasing response, especially when she hadn’t been willing to write erotic songs before, and the photos were all mainly aesthetic. But after today...
To be continued. If you enjoyed this work, feel free to visit Qidian () to vote with recommendations and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation.)