That night, Li Xiaole and Heath Ledger, who were in the rehearsal hall, were immersed in the excitement and pleasure of the performance all night, but they didn't notice that outside the drizzling window, two elderly figures had been standing, silently watching everything that happened inside.

"Well, Fred, do you still think he's not qualified?" Charlie, who was holding an umbrella, asked his old friend next to him who was a little wet on his back with a smile on his face.

"He's still far away, and he hasn't figured it out yet, so he'll be gushing about these theories that don't exist...... But what is better than I expected is that at least as a director, he still knows how to **** actors. Fred, who had a serious face, looked at Li Xiaole who was dancing inside, and coughed heavily, although he has always disliked Li Xiaole, but at this moment he has to admit that he is indeed a top director comparable to Nolan.

"Hehe, seeing these young people rehearsing together, it's really nostalgic for us before, when we were also here all night rehearsing "King Lear" Thinking of those good times when he was young, Charlie was inexplicably interested, gently stretched out his hand to Fred and made an inviting gesture, and smiled: "Come on, my dear majesty~~"

Fred, who has always been serious, seems to be infected by the enthusiasm of the young man inside, and he can't help but talk about the youthful madness, striding in the rain, and reciting with affection the dialogue that he recited countless times when he was young:

"I want a proud person to see his own face clearly~ only to use other pride to make a mirror for him~~! If you grovel to him~~! But it increased his arrogance, and he humiliated himself in vain~~"

Just as Fred, King Lear, was singing his lines mercilessly, at this time, he suddenly saw a strong light shining in the distance, and the security guard patrolling the corridor shouted: "Who is there~!?" What a roar when it's so late~!! Walking over and seeing that it was President Fred, the black security guard was also startled, took off his hat with a strange expression and asked, "Mr. Fred...... Why are you still here so late? ”

"Uh-huh...... Fred hurriedly stopped dancing with his hands in a bit of a panic, and his wrinkled face returned to seriousness and said in a deep voice:

"It's nothing, I'm just seeing that it's raining too much, so I'm going to check if there's any leakage on the roof of the rehearsal hall...... Well, it's not bad, it's worthy of being built in the Queen's ......" said and paced away with his hands behind his back, glaring at Charlie as he went, which meant "It's all your fault old fellow...... Make a fool of me. ”

Charlie desperately held back a smile, pinched his top hat to the security guard and said goodbye, and followed.

"It's raining heavily?" The black security guard looked at the drizzle in the sky in a daze, and couldn't help but touch his head in confusion......

In this way, after Heath Ledger took the initiative to give up the role of Sherlock Holmes, the crew had been completely coordinated, and soon entered the filming schedule smoothly, and in the next month and a half, the crew of "Sherlock" began to enter the high-intensity shooting, a 90-minute episode, no different from a movie, coupled with Li Xiaole's pursuit of perfection character, he raised the requirements in every detail, and tortured a group of British staff on the council.

Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman, Heath Ledger, these three handsome actors are quite enjoyable, and they have staged a big collision of Mars hitting the earth on the set many times, which is extremely exciting, and Emma Watson, a little beauty, is pestering Lei Ting every day, imitating her every move, and even her tone and eyes are beginning to become more and more similar to Lei Ting, and her expressiveness is becoming more and more mature.

While the actors' respective performances surprised everyone, another headache arose, although Heath Ledger switched to a supporting role, but Li Xiaole did not reduce his salary, and Benedict Cumberbatch turned to play the leading role, and his salary rose from 70,000 pounds per episode to 150,000 pounds per episode.

The cost of the first episode alone far exceeded the tone of 2 million pounds and reached 4.1 million pounds......

On Wednesday, at three o'clock in the afternoon, Fred was in his office, watching the first twenty minutes of the first episode of "Sherlock" that Charlie had just brought him, and Richard, who was sitting next to him, smiled and watched the wonderful performances of Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman on the LCD screen, and couldn't help nodding his head again and again:

"The effect is really unexpected~~ I didn't expect this Benedict Cumberbatch to act so well at such a young age, and Martin Freeman is unexpectedly good, it's unimaginable~ Such a good actor is right under our noses, we didn't find out~~"

"Well, these two young people have a very good chemistry, and the performance is quite passable." Fred, who has always been picky, also rarely praised.

"Fred, have you forgotten the credit of one person?" Charlie asked with a gentle smile squinting his eyes.

"You mean Li Xiaole?" Fred snorted in a thick nasal voice: "He can only be regarded as doing what he is supposed to do, and the real excellence is his screenwriting skills, I think he must know a lot of people who have lived in England, otherwise it would not be possible for every line to rhyme like this." ”

"That's right." Charlie nodded with a sigh:

"Actually, I didn't expect that his screenwriting skills would be so profound, originally I was worried that this original adaptation would be disappointing, but I really didn't expect that he would transplant the perfect story to modern times while keeping the original plot unchanged, and also made so many exquisite small changes, and his skills in character creation are much stronger than those old screenwriters in our council......"

It is amazing that a 24-year-old Chinese director can understand British culture so thoroughly, not to mention that he has such profound skills in writing scripts.

"Don't praise him." Fred looked at Richard dissatisfied, and reminded in a deep voice:

"He had already spent £4.1 million on this episode, which was well over our budget, so we had all the money to make two episodes, and even if it was released on the BBC, it would be a question of whether we would be able to recoup the cost...... You'll have to keep a better eye on your budget in the future. ”

"Well, it's true that it's a bit overspending......" Charlie also admitted the existence of this problem, at this time his mobile phone suddenly rang, it was Li Xiaole calling, after connecting the phone, listening to what Li Xiaole said on the other end, Charlie frowned again and again, and finally sighed and said: "Wait, I have to discuss this matter with President Fred before I can decide, you wait for my call." ”

Seeing Charlie's rare helpless expression after answering the phone, Fred couldn't help but ask him, "What's wrong?" ”

"It's Li Xiaole...... He wanted us to set up a press conference with the cast and crew. Charlie said in a helpless tone.

"Well, that's how it should be, after all, it's a series he funded and filmed, and we, as partners, should help him create some public opinion, and his provocative propaganda to the media before was very good." Fred nodded, the previous council had kept the cast list and crew information strictly confidential, and announced that the series would not start filming until next month, just to create a little news selling point at this time.

"But he's going to do it at the Royal State Opera...... At least £800,000......" Charlie said with a bitter look on his face.

"Another £800,000 ......?" Fred was stunned for a moment, then lost in thought.

"I think there are too many investment overruns, so let's move to a smaller venue." Charlie sighed.

"No, it's at the Royal National Opera." Fred remembered that night he saw Li Xiaole and Heath Ledger rehearsing all night, and suddenly said resolutely.

"You agree?" Charlie looked at him in amazement.

"Anyway, if the cost of this drama can't be recovered, the board of directors will be merged into the Film Association, and we must at least leave a good work." Fred said in a deep voice, as the president of the council, he didn't care about the millions of pounds, he cared if he could use the money to leave some real legacy.

The next day, the official website of the Drama Council, which has been silent about the information of "Sherlock", suddenly appeared in the news, informing that on Saturday afternoon, the Drama Council will hold a press conference for "Sherlock" at the Royal National Opera House, hoping that interested media and fans can come to attend.

At the same time, Fred, Charlie, and Li Xiaole all invited their respective celebrity friends, hoping that they would come to this media conference to cheer them on.

The media was most interested in who played Sherlock Holmes in "Sherlock", and they had made a list of middle-aged British actors of the right age, but after investigation, none of them had received an offer from Black Pearl.

In addition, although the crew was filming on the streets of London, the media focused on those quaint architectural attractions that specialized in filming the Industrial Revolution, and they didn't know that this "Sherlock" was a completely modern version, so they never found any clues.

So the media are secretly speculating that according to Li Xiaole's tradition of liking superstars, is he going to use an American star to play Sherlock Holmes this time? The Sun did a poll of more than 120,000 fans across the UK.

Among them, 53.4% of people believe that Li Xiaole will use Robert Downey Jr., who has already taken over the movie version of "Sherlock Holmes", 28.7% of people think it will be "Iron Man" Tom Cruise, and 11.9% think that it will be the new Hulk George Clooney, and the rest choose other candidates......

Who will be the new Sherlock Holmes!? The British media can't wait to find out......