Adrian (TV series)
Adrian (formerly known as Adrian - La serie evento and briefly as Adriano) is a 2019 Italian animated series created and written by singer Adriano Celentano. Vincenzo Cerami oversaw the screenplay, comic artist Milo Manara developed the character design and Nicola Piovani wrote the original soundtrack. Along with Celentano, students of Holden School of Alessandro Baricco took part to the series. It has been produced by Claudia Mori for Clan Celentano and its production lasted more than 10 years: announced in 2009 and initially destined for Sky, "Adrian" had been delayed several times due to contrasts between Clan  Celentano and the production companies chosen for the realization of the cartoon, forcing Sky to reject the contract with Clan in 2012 because of the continuous delays. The project was then taken by Mediaset in 2015. The budget was about €28 million, and the cartoon was completed for "Canale 5" in January 2019. Animations were made by thousands of animators in three continents (Asia, Africa and Europe) and they included more than 10,000 scenes. 26 episodes lasting about 22 minutes had been produced but then they had been edited in 9 episodes lasting about 55–70 minutes each, to be  broadcast on prime time. Each episode had to be preceded by "Aspettando Adrian", a live show from Teatro Camploy in Verona, with the presence of Celentano himself along with some famous Italian comedians. The broadcast of the first 4 episodes with that format occurred between 21 January and 4 February 2019; the series was then paused, officially because a sickness of Celentano but some critics argued also that the interruption was provoked by a severe audience flop, and it has continued since 7 November 2019 with a different live show. Plot. Set in a futuristic and dystopian Milan of 2068 , the story tells the adventures of Adrian, a clockmaker of Gluck Street who has a love story with Gilda and fights for the freedom against the homologation imposed by an authoritarian regime. The future Italy is nominally governed by a democracy, but it is actually ruled by a few corrupted politicians and mainly by the mafia member Dranghestein. With the help of some disciples and under various fake identities, Adrian would lead a revolt against the regime. Production. Development. Celentano had had an idea of an animated series since 2005, when an animated movie dedicated to him was announced for  Christmas 2006. Initially, the project had involved also Vincenzo Cerami and Paolo Conte, but the production did not begin. The "Adrian" project officially began in 2009, when Clan Celentano and Sky Italia signed an agreement for the airing of the series in 2011, with a cycle of 26 episodes animated with CGI. As advance payment, Clan Celentano made €7 million from the pay TV for half work, while the rest would be paid later for a total budget of €13 million. Famous comic artist Milo Manara was hired for the character design, Nicola Piovani for the original soundtrack  and Vincenzo Cerami for the screenplay supervision: the project was also co-produced with Cometa Film of Enzo D'Alò. In 2010, Clan Celentano entered into a lawsuit with Cometa Film and stopped the collaboration with D'Alò: a dead-line prorogation (from 2011 to 2012) was requested to Sky, justified "for the complexity and innovation of the project", and Sky accepted. Mondo TV was hired as new producer, and animation was entrusted to the North Korean SEK Studio, but in 2011 a communique declared that the company «has been forced, unfortunately, to declare the resolution of the contract for the executive  production of the animated TV series signed with Clan Celentano». Another lawsuit occurred in February 2012 and Mondo TV requested to Clan a compensation of €2 million. The offshoring in North Korea did not also lead to immediate results. In 2012, after continuous claims by Sky, Clan asked a further delay (from 2012 to 2014), or a division of the series with the first 13 episodes to be aired in 2013 and the other 13 at the beginning of 2014, but the pay TV reacted removing "Adrian" from the schedules and asking the resolution of the contract because Clan  did not fulfil its duties although it received much of the agreed capital. Sky declared: Then, Clan replied: However, in 2012 Mediaset, after organizing the two prime time shows of "Rock Economy", was interested to produce the animated series. Only in summer 2015, after two years of rumours and legal problems, the network CEO Pier Silvio Berlusconi announced the airing of "Adrian" on Canale 5 in spring 2016. The news of a new unpublished album of Celentano with Mina delayed the broadcast of the project to February 2017 for 13 prime times, but the show was not broadcast the same . Only after two years, the definitive broadcast of Adrian was announced in July 2018 for January 2019 on Canale 5. Artistic crew. The series is created, written and directed by Adriano Celentano, who directed also the show preceding the cartoon and the editing. Milo Manara created the character design, Nicola Piovani wrote the original soundtrack with the supervision of Celentano; students of Holden School of Alessandro Baricco took part to the screenwriting, while Vincenzo Cerami oversaw the scripts until his death in 2013. Budget. According to Italian press, the budget used by Mediaset and Clan Celentano was €20-28  millions. Pre-show. From the first to the fourth episode, the brief pre-show "Aspettando Adrian" (Waiting Adrian) was aired live from Teatro Camploy in Verona, starring Nino Frassica, Francesco Scali, Natalino Balasso and Giovanni Storti; Celentano was also present but only with his voice and fast appearances. From the fifth episode, aired on 7 November 2019, the show was renamed in "Adrian Live - Questa è la storia..." (Adrian Live - This is the story...) and partially rewritten, presented directly by Celentano along with various guests. Soundtrack. On 25 January 2019, the soundtrack was published on CD and Vinyl with a  total of 23 tracks. Broadcast. After the fourth episode, aired on 4 February 2019, the other two had to be aired on 12, 19 and 25 February and the last two on the next 4 and 5 March. On 6 February, Mediaset and Clan Celentano announced that both "Aspettando Adrian" and the series would be interrupted for at least two weeks due to a "seasonal illness" of Adriano Celentano. However, after the planned two weeks, the show was not broadcast and it was delayed to autumn of the same year formally due to "health needs" of the singer but, according  to some critics, also for the severe flop of audience. It was then announced that the cartoon would be aired together with an actual show of Celentano, more organized than the original "Aspettando Adrian", in order to rise the audience. During the presentation of the Mediaset schedules for the 2019–2020 season, CEO Pier Silvio Berlusconi confirmed the airing of the last episodes of "Adrian" in autumn, inside a live show with a greater participation of Celentano, and the cartoon was temporarily renamed as "Adriano". The beginning of the broadcast was then planned for the 7 November 2019 on Canale 5  with the original name, but the pre-show was renamed as "Adrian Live - Questa è la storia...". Reception. The first episode of "Aspettando Adrian" had almost 6 millions of viewers and the 21,9% of share, while the cartoon had about 4,5 millions of viewers and the 19,1% of share, however destined to decrease in the following episodes. The series was criticized for various aspects, in particular for the poor pace of the show: Giorgio Simonelli on "Il Fatto Quotidiano" wrote: On "la Repubblica", Alessandra Vitali wrote: TV critic Aldo Grasso wrote on "Corriere della Sera": Milo Manara himself, on a  Facebook post, took distances from the cartoon, specifying that: After first episodes, critics became more harsh: journalist Maurizio Costanzo firmly attacked the idea of Celentano stating that: After the new broadcast of the programme in November 2019, critics has continued despite the struggles of Mediaset to rise the audience. On the Italian edition of Huffington Post, Luigi Crespi wrote: On the pages of "Oggi", Don Backy was heavier in his affirmations: Controversies. During its broadcast, the series had been object of several controversies about some themes and the production in general: