Made in Hollywood

The era of the Internet explosion is coming. Duke knows very well that those things in the past will be dug up soon, and there is no need to avoid it now. He grabbed the beer can, raised his head and took a few sips. Tully Portman had already handed a roasted corn to him, her bright brown eyes full of curiosity, exactly what a gossip girl of her age should look like.

Taking a bite of the roasted corn, Duke briefly recalled and said slowly, "It was in the tenth grade, I just transferred from boarding school to Santa Monica Mountain High School, because I have been practicing football, very He successfully passed the assessment and entered the school's football team."

"I read it in the gossip papers," Natalie said, blinking. "They said you were the quarterback of the varsity football team in high school and college."

"I got into the football team and I met a very beautiful girl who was part of the cheerleading team." Duke shrugged and gestured, "Blonde, long legs, pretty, sexy, I've been chasing her , but she, like most people, was biased against transfer students until a game in the California area..."

"Don't stop." Natalie urged, hugging her knees, "Go on."

"In that game, Shanshan Middle School was five points behind at the last moment and had to make a touchdown." Duke stretched his legs to make himself more comfortable. "When the second offense approached the midfield, time was running out. The three hits are either a touchdown or a loss, and then I send the first 60-yard pass in Valley Middle School history!"

"Turn defeat into victory!"

Duke didn't take Natalie's words, and continued, "We had a crazy party that night, and I went from being a disgusted transfer student to being the most popular person at the party."

"You confessed to that blond girl?"

Duke nodded when he heard Natalie's words. "Yes, I kissed her at the party and she didn't say no."

"Anything else?" Natalie was full of curiosity.

Duke smiled, "I had sex with her in the football locker room that night, my first time and her first time."

"Sure enough," Natalie muttered. He asked again, "Then why did you break up?"

"Do you think she loves me?"

Hearing Duke's words, Natalie shook her head directly, "I don't think she loves you, it's just because you became the man of the school."

Speaking of this, she suddenly understood something, "You can't generalize. Not all girls are like this!"

"What about you, Nate?" Duke suddenly raised his head and stared at her. "You know I have thoughts about you, but you keep approaching me. What's the point?"

"I...I..." Natalie didn't expect Duke to ask such a question, and after a long hesitation, she said, "I'm just an ordinary girl. Neither pretty nor sexy. Not cute, I I don't think I can attract you, but I think we have a lot in common and can be good friends."

"Do you really think so?" Duke tilted his head.

"Can't we be friends?"

Even smart enough to be precocious. Natalie is still only a sixteen-year-old girl, "We are all Jewish..."

Duke stood up. "Friends need to be trusted."

After speaking, he shut up, Natalie was silent, trust is easy to say, how hard is it to build it?

For a whole night, she couldn't remember how many truths she said, or how many of Duke's words were false. Like most people in this circle, it was impossible. Do treat each other with sincerity.

"I'm going to New Zealand tomorrow." Duke stood up. "Goodbye, Nat."

"Goodbye, Duke."

Sighing softly, Duke walked forward slowly, getting further and further away from the place illuminated by the bonfire, and finally disappeared completely into the darkness.

Natalie Portman... He shook his head gently. Since he had decided to let go of everything he once was in his youth, why bother with it?

As she said, she's not pretty, she's not sexy, and her body looks are at best average in Hollywood.

Putting Natalie Portman aside for the time being, Duke went straight back to his room, ready to leave Fiji early tomorrow morning for New Zealand.

Compared to the huge investment in the next few years, what does Natalie Portman count?

The crew continued to revel in Fiji, while Duke and Zach Snyder went to New Zealand and Los Angeles separately. Needless to say, Duke was for the preparatory work for the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, while Zach Snyder escorted the film. Back at Warner Bros., I also joined Mike Dawson and ILM's CGI team to prepare for post-production work on the film.

Headed by the art director Hannah Serena, quite a few members of the Duke team have worked together with Charles Rowan in New Zealand for more than half a year. In the case of communication, the design is initially completed.

Since the film shows an illusory world that has never appeared before, everything must be redesigned and manufactured, rather than relying on leasing. Clothing, modeling, scenery, props, buildings, carriages, daily necessities, etc., all the Everything is brand new and has never been seen before.

Middle-earth is not so simple to build, it takes a lot of time and effort from the director to all the staff.

The design completed in the past six months is only the first draft. Duke constantly communicated with relevant personnel and provided comments on various design drawings. After they completed the revision, they would also send it to Los Angeles as soon as possible, and hand it over to him for review.

Fortunately, most of the people here are long-term partners, and it is easier to understand Duke's ideas.

For example, the design of Hobbiton was completely approved by Duke, and Charles Rowan also found a suitable outsourcing company, and then he would contract out the project and choose the right time to build a Habitat that is conducive to shooting. Bitun.

There is also the location. Using the short time staying here, Duke specially went to several places newly provided by Charles, and found a suitable location for shooting.

The other is the preparation work of Weta Studio. They have designed various versions of the half-orc and the strong orc. Although Duke rejected a lot, some of them have also been approved by him, as well as motion capture. The improvement and experimentation of technology, Weta Studio has also made a lot of progress, and it is not a problem for shooting in the studio.

After a week-long layover in New Zealand, Duke flew back to Los Angeles, where there was also plenty of work waiting for him.

The first and foremost is the preliminary results of the negotiations between Tina Fey and Warner Bros. After several consultations a week, the two sides basically reached an agreement that Warner Bros. would exchange 30% of Duke's shares for its own shares. The shares of Duke Studios became the second largest shareholder of Duke Studios outside of Duke.

After multiple reviews by lawyers and accountants, Duke and Warner Bros. signed the redemption agreement very quietly.

With the completion of the redemption, Duke Studio is no longer completely an empty shell in the hands of Duke, and Duke has become Warner Bros. with a 7.5% share by virtue of the shares he has continuously increased and the shares acquired by the redemption. is the largest individual shareholder of Warner Bros. and serves on the board of directors of Warner Bros.

Of course, Duke doesn't have time for this role, and will only appoint one representative most of the time.

After the large-scale redemption is completed, the interests of the two parties can be said to be more closely tied together, and the profits and losses of Warner Bros. and Duke Studios will be directly related to the benefits of both parties.

In this way, Warner Bros. is bound to participate in the investment of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. Although this is not very consistent with Duke's original intention, it can also reduce his financial pressure. After all, he has spent a huge amount of more than 300 million US dollars. Making a trilogy at one time, even though he has made a lot of money in recent years, he still feels tight.

The interests of the two parties are closely tied together, and many of the remaining cooperation seems to be a matter of course.

Three days later, Hobby Potter Studio was officially established at Warner Studios. Duke Studio and Warner Bros. each held 40% and 60% of the shares. However, after the exchange of shares between the two parties, the actual shares Calculations become more complex.

The promotion of the Harry Potter series has also been officially put on the agenda. In this regard, Duke does not need to be involved too much. The professionals from Warner Bros. are more experienced and capable than him. All he needs to do is cooperate. Warner's plan, when needed, would use his super-director status to stand up for the Harry Potter series.

A great director is an asset in itself, otherwise the Duke studio deserves so much attention from Warner Bros.

Duke also understands that he and Warner Bros. have become a community of interests, and his eyes naturally turn to some of the copyrighted works by Warner Bros., but these are not in a hurry. After all, there is still a long "Lord of the Rings" trilogy waiting. he.

Of course, before "The Lord of the Rings", "The Matrix" can't be ignored. Zach Snyder and Mike Dawson and the special effects staff of ILM have been waiting for him at Duke's studio. This series will soon be transferred to a more important post-production.

Since a lot of computer special effects will be used in the film, and the special effects are extremely time-consuming, Duke specially prepared nearly half a year of post-production time for the film.

Only now did Duke realize that he was busier than ever.

Post-production on The Matrix has just started, Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and the weekend before Thanksgiving, a film with the highest investment of all time is set to hit the North American market across the board—Duke accounted for a quarter of the investment. "Titanic" is coming! (To be continued ~^~)

PS:  Seeking all kinds of tickets~~Three more today~