Chapter 218: There Must Be a Shady Deal

The May sun beat down on the streets of Los Angeles. The very air smelled of heat, driving a steady stream of people into a heavily air-conditioned bookstore to browse the magazines.

"What a pity the king of the summer season doesn't have a movie coming out this summer," a few people murmured among themselves. "The summer season is missing a lot of its appeal."

"After taking the annual box office crown in North America and globally for two years in a row, he's gone off to produce Chicago. Looks like he's grown tired of the summer season."

Someone chimed in, "Sometimes, not having any rivals is a tragedy in itself."

The group chuckled softly.

Suddenly, one of them pointed at a magazine hanging in a prominent display. "Isn't that the king of the summer season and the Explosion Maniac you were just talking about?"

"He rarely accepts exclusive interviews, yet he actually made the cover of Vanity Fair."

The cover of the latest issue of Vanity Fair featured a close-up of Duke. The shot was clearly taken from a low angle, showing him standing firmly in front of Duke Studio, gazing down upon all of Hollywood.

A caption graced the cover alongside his photo: "Duke Rosenberg has given audiences a new possibility, provided movie lovers with a broader horizon, offered action fans a new way to showcase technique, and brought an entirely new style, logic, and even way of thinking to commercial cinema!"

This was Duke's exclusive interview with Vanity Fair. Past the cover, the magazine was filled with a massive, in-depth feature detailing the interview...

In 1991, Duke was just a twenty-one-year-old kid lugging around a video camera. Driven by a desire to shoot a movie, he drove a beat-up used car all over Hollywood looking for opportunities. He was too broke to afford a new ride!

By 1996, following the conclusion of Saving Private Ryan's global theatrical run, Duke had generated $2.3 billion in total worldwide box office revenue with just four films. Among them, his 1994 release Independence Day shattered multiple North American box office records within a week of its premiere—including the widest release, highest midnight screening gross, highest opening weekend, and fastest climb to the $100 million mark. It ultimately became the highest-grossing film of its year, as well as the second movie in history to hit $900 million globally.

Duke's films didn't just sweep the theaters; they were beloved by moviegoers. Ever since his debut feature, Speed, hit the big screen, audiences never held back their praise. There were voices of criticism, of course, arguing that he either relied too heavily on flashy techniques or wrote shallow dialogue. But looking at the overall picture over the past few years, it wasn't hard to see the immense recognition and enthusiasm audiences held for him.

In the eyes of many viewers, Duke was a guarantee of cinematic quality. "A Duke production is a masterpiece" was no mere joke; judging by the caliber of his work so far, it was practically a fact.

From an ordinary young man utterly obsessed with movies a few years ago to the Explosion Maniac today, Duke had created four films in that span. Averaging one movie a year, he easily fell into the ranks of highly prolific directors. Even more astonishingly, those four works were like a brilliantly laid-out game of chess, every move hitting its mark perfectly, without a single misstep to date.

Up to now, the success of this chessboard had been perfect. Duke was one of the top directors in Hollywood, and following the Oscars, this young, superstar director had walked right into Vanity Fair!

Vanity Fair published the exclusive interview in the most straightforward Q&A format...

Vanity Fair: Director Rosenberg, you had many options after graduating from high school. What prompted you to choose to major in film production and enter Hollywood to become a director?

Duke: We spend our entire lives learning. The California Institute of the Arts was just the beginning of my education, and working is a continuous learning process in itself. I want to be a film student forever, able to shoot different movies, experience different characters, travel to different parts of the world, and live through different stories. Because I happen to have the talent and the opportunity to make films, I want to use cinema to study life, and to study myself.

Vanity Fair: So film is incredibly important to you? What does cinema mean to you?

Duke: It's vital. Making movies isn't just a job for me; it's my life. I don't really have any hobbies, and I'm quite lazy when I'm not shooting. Making films is my lifeblood, my very way of life. Even though filming is exhausting—so grueling you wish the whole world knew how hard you were working—when the thing you've dreamed of finally materializes right before your eyes, it's not just joy and astonishment. You also thank God, and you thank everyone who fought alongside you. Even the smallest reward brings immense happiness and makes you feel that life is profoundly meaningful.

Vanity Fair: The four films you've released so far are filled with intense conflicts. Does this have anything to do with your personality and the environment you grew up in?

Duke: Actually, I'm someone who likes peace and quiet. Because I grew up in an environment where my mother was very strict, I believe a person shouldn't be superficial or overly dramatic. You have to work hard, and then work even harder; you can only achieve success when you put in enough effort. But when I'm working, I have to make a certain shift. Making a movie requires the wildness of a lion, and I need to unleash that wildness to its fullest in my films. I don't need peace in my movies. I need to push as hard as I can, take as many risks as possible, and deliver maximum thrills and excitement to the audience!

Vanity Fair: No one can deny that your movies are thrilling and exciting, but there has always been a voice saying that your films are too naive and childish, rarely offering anything thought-provoking. How do you view this?

Duke: The mainstream movies seen by audiences worldwide are actually quite naive for the most part; touching lightly on philosophy is usually enough. If it's a book, you can take your time to imagine things, spending a week or two to read it. But a movie is only about two hours long. You have to keep the audience from getting distracted; you have to keep them entirely engrossed! There was a period when I had a lot of purely artistic ideas too. I thought I could go completely artsy and shoot the most expensive arthouse film to leave my name in cinematic history. Later, I realized that if I can't satisfy the broad audience, if I don't have their recognition, my films have zero value. After all, I'm not the kind of director who just talks to himself and makes movies only for his own viewing pleasure.

Vanity Fair: Then how do you think a film can find the balance between commerce and art?

Duke: How to find the balance between commerce and art? I think it depends on how much money is invested in a film. Take me, for example. If the budget is under ten million dollars, I can shoot whatever I want, because I carry that much market value on my own. But you can't do that with Saving Private Ryan. If I were to strip out the intense war scenes and solely focus on the emotional conflicts and the psychological journey of the rescue—if they just listened to my pitch, the investors would panic, wondering how they could possibly sell such a thing. Then the film wouldn't get funded.

Vanity Fair: Many people don't understand why you chose to tackle Chicago, a project so vastly different from your established style.

Duke: Over the past few years, I've learned a lot about filmmaking, and I'm learning how to make movies using different methods and styles. After my third film, Independence Day, I became terrified of being pigeonholed as a specific type of director. So, I want to try my hand at different films. That requires earning back trust, and it even demands financial sacrifices. The world is huge, and there are so many things to do—why repeat the same thing over and over? Of course, some people dig deeper and deeper using the exact same path and methodology, but as for me, I like trying different things. I enjoy taking risks, and I love learning. Creation needs to have breadth so I can learn and progress across different genres.

Vanity Fair: You've now become one of the most outstanding directors in Hollywood. Has this brought any changes to your creative process and your personal life?

Duke: I'm a filmmaker, but I'm also a storyteller. I believe people should live with sincerity. As I grow older, I sometimes notice my thinking slowing down, making it harder than before to translate the things in my imagination onto the screen. I've always wanted to show the audience all those messy, wildly imaginative ideas in my head. Why do people love watching movies? What exactly is cinema? It's actually the most illusory thing, yet also the most real. What my films talk about are often things beyond human control, but at the same time, there's a sense of longing embedded within them. I hope to use my work to connect with everyone on a heart-to-heart level. I hope to remain sincere, and I hope people enjoy it. That's all.

Vanity Fair: What are your plans after Chicago? Can you give us any hints?

Duke: My creative journey is at a crossroads right now. Chicago is a gorgeous musical with a lot of visual artistry, which is quite fresh for me. I can find a lot of joy in it, and I hope the audience will like it too. In the future, I plan to experiment with movies that have more complex narrative structures. I'm currently wondering if I can come up with some slightly intricate, interesting structural concepts, and then produce them...

Throughout the entire interview, Duke was elegant and full of gentlemanly grace. One could feel a powerful sense of confidence radiating from him. It seemed Duke would always put moviegoers at ease, and his works would forever be worth anticipating.

Sometimes, looking at Duke was truly like looking at a highly precise machine. His creative team was equally stable. Serving as director while also doubling as screenwriter and producer, he was surrounded by a similarly brilliant group of collaborators. Sofia Coppola had worked with him on four films and was his most trusted assistant. Producer Robin Grande was a Hollywood veteran who excelled at smoothing out interpersonal relationships. Cinematographer John Schwartzman had just won the Oscar for Best Cinematography...

Combining all these factors, when it came to Duke's next project, Chicago, and even all his subsequent films, one had to admit there was almost none of the usual worry a moviegoer might feel.

Duke was simply too dependable—so reliable it was almost impersonal. But for the audience, of course, this was still a great thing.

After all, some people wanted to hear a story, some wanted to be dazzled, some wanted to subvert the known, and some wanted an adrenaline rush. And whatever we wanted, Duke had it!

The exclusive interview published by Vanity Fair once again pushed Duke to the forefront. For a short time, there were even more paparazzi than usual staking out the entrance to Warner Studios.

None of this, however, could affect Duke's total devotion to the filming of Chicago.