"Sherlock" is a clever transplant of the Sherlock Holmes detective story from the 18th century Victorian style to the modern era, and all kinds of carefully prepared details are the key to success, not only Zhang Chu's works, but also the TV station invited real police staff and real-life detectives to complete the professional part.

BBC Television has always been very picky, and they make a lot of profits every year, BBC Worldwide alone can send one or two hundred million pounds of profits to the TV station every year, not to mention the rest of the companies.

Of course, the income of the TV station is not only that, but the billions of pounds of TV license fees paid by British citizens every year are also invested in BBC Television, and they also enjoy hundreds of millions of pounds of special funding from the government.

There have been news reports before that the BBC employees earn more than the prime minister!

According to the strict celebrity artist expenditure cap policy, the budget of actors, star artists, and hosts in all the budget of all BBC self-made programs cannot exceed 16%, which is why the actors in many British dramas are high-quality and inexpensive series, and it is also the reason why their post-production is good.

After all, if you spend all your money on production instead of hiring stars, the quality of the episodes will of course rise.

Not only that, but BBC also has market-oriented companies such as BBC Worldwide and BBC Ventures to expand their business globally by providing television programs, selling publications, and providing technical services.

So many netizens are curious about why this TV station shoots documentaries all day long and why it hasn't collapsed, that is, because they not only have public financial support, but also can make their own market profits!

is so good to its own staff, but it is not so friendly to actors and even authors, if it weren't for the last time HBO, Netflix, CBS and other American tyrant TV stations competed with it, I am afraid that even a million pounds would be reluctant to come up.

Now it seems that the £1 million was well spent, and it helped the TV station earn back tens of a million pounds!

Richard was not too surprised when he heard Zhang Chu's words, he thought it was a threat to negotiate, so he persuaded and said: "If we can, we hope to advance the creation time of that film a little bit, or you can script and create it together, so that after our TV series is filmed, it can well promote the sales of your book." ”

In Richard's view, this is a mutually beneficial thing, and the more popular the TV series, the greater the promotion effect.

Why has "Sherlock" been at the top of the UK book sales list in the past half a month?

It's not because it's broadcast on TV stations, and the video site is also very popular.

Zhang Chu will not be persuaded so easily, he has not explained anything substantive for so long, this is a business cooperation, and it is not an ideal goal!

"Richard, let me be honest with you. The book I'm writing now is expected to be 1.5 million words, and it's an unusually huge project. I don't have the time or energy to write Sherlock 2, but I can work with your writers on the plot of the second TV series. ”

This is a bit like "Game of Thrones" in the previous life, the original author George R-R-Martin has not finished writing for a long time, and the American drama adapted from it actually has a finale first!

As for what the ending will look like, only Uncle Martin and the screenwriters of the crew know, and HBO is worried about the death of Old Man Martin, so he specially asked him to put the outline of the creation of the follow-up content in the safe deposit box of the Swiss bank in case of accidents.

Even though the content of the later seasons has exceeded the progress of the original book, they still have to pay George Martin $15 million a year in royalties.

It is this approach that inspired Zhang Chu, his "Sherlock" is not as ruthless as "Game of Thrones" in terms of copyright fees, but it is by no means one or two million pounds that can be distributed!

Fortunately, there is no such one in this world, Zhang Chu is still secretly speculating, maybe when he is a little free, he can dig this pit out, I don't know how many people can be pitted in the world.

Richard, who was far away in London, was a little moved after hearing Zhang Chu's proposal, because this way of directly involving the author in the plot would definitely take much less time.

He agreed, "Sounds like a good solution, can you talk more about it?"

Zhang Chu doesn't want to write "Sherlock 2" now, so he explained: "I tell you my thoughts, and the specific things will be left to the screenwriter to flesh out, I just give the outline and framework to ensure that the whole plot is coherent and not scattered." ”

This method is very common in the screenwriting industry, and the screenwriters of any movie or TV series are not one or two, but one or two of them are the leaders, and the rest of the screenwriters are just unsigned subordinates to them.

Even many Hollywood blockbusters with foolish plots need a large number of screenwriters to complete it together, and they all do their jobs.

"When will it be available soon?" Richard was a little moved, "I want to release it before Christmas this year, so I'm pressed for time." ”

"Well, it's been in my head for a long time, and I'll hand it over to you as soon as the contract is signed, so I don't want to delay the release of the second season. ”

It's already February, and if you want to release it on Christmas, it's really a bit mysterious according to the BBC's turtle hair, although the leading actors are almost the same, but the script hasn't been done yet.

If it takes a month or two to polish the script, Zhang Chu will not be surprised at all, after all, he had already provided the complete script, but the BBC was stunned to revise and revise it for a month before it was approved.

This time, I won't give the full version, just something to determine the direction, and it is estimated that the screenwriters who work with the BBC will have to scratch off the few remaining hairs on their heads!

The long filming time and the post-production are good and slow, these are common problems in British dramas, even if there are only three episodes, people can make it as a movie.

So the time is really tight, usually BBC TV series don't have such a fast frequency, but who makes "Sherlock" make money.

Richard didn't care much, he smiled and said, "If we can, how about we follow the previous contract model? Even if you don't give us the details, we are still willing to pay £1 million for the rights to adapt the second part. ”

"I'm afraid this won't work, you need to communicate with my agent about the specific matters, and he will call you later." Although the way of working together is different, this time we will not agree with the £1 million statement. ”

Zhang Chu is waiting for this moment, "Sherlock" has lost a lot of opportunities to make money, and now of course the second season has to earn it back, who made him the party that occupies the initiative?