Pluto Walks the Earth, Chapter 44
Pluto Walks the Earth, Chapter 44
Deal of the Century
Read Pluto Walks the Earth, Chapter 43: Stood Up
Chuckie
Never in my whole career has anything like this happened. In two weeks — two weeks — I go from a phone call with Jaynne to an offer sheet from Viacom for a pilot plus 12 episodes of MTV’s Pluto Walks the Earth. I demanded $335,000 per episode, plus backend. They countered with $430,000. They negotiated me up — because, “No corner-cutting on this, Chuckie. We want this done right.” OK, Morty, you drive a hard bargain. Hahaha. If the pilot numbers are good, we have a $5.59 million deal. Homie, this never happens. But Jaynne knew right away, and I knew right away and MTV knew right away, because this is a cannot-miss proposition. The kid is pretty and flaky. The venues will be weird and charming. The opportunity for bullshit drama is off the charts. Get this: The programming VP wants to know if he can sing. Maybe they want Gene Autry in moccasins. The singing psychic. Who the fuck knows, but I’m sitting here with the deal memo in my hands.
So all I need to do is inform Pluto I have $500,000 plus backend plus global fame waiting for him for four months’ work, get his John Hancock, and we are officially in pre-production. And that’s just what I would do, if I had any idea where Pluto is. I’ve been calling him for 24 hours; straight to voicemail. Texting him; no reply. Praying to Jesus like I haven’t since Community AME Church. So now, for the second time in 14 days, I’ve made my way to Albuquerque International Sunport (Sunport?) for an episode of Chuckie Walks New Mexico.