Chapter 237: Another Collision

Back in the upscale executive suite where they were staying, Allen didn't turn in right away like Kunitz. Instead, he booted up the computer provided in the room, logged onto the Explosion Maniac board on that movie website, and entered the chat room.

What had started as a small chat room of a few dozen people had already grown to several hundred.

"By now, the New York premiere should be over."

Right after logging in, Allen saw Duke of Destruction posting, "Did anyone go see Chicago?"

"I went," Allen posted.

"Was the movie good?"

"Was it really dull?"

"Musicals are the absolute worst!"

"Yeah, I can't figure out why Duke would go shoot a movie like that."

In barely a dozen seconds, a flood of complaints scrolled down the screen. Allen thought back to the film he had just watched; it was nothing at all like the stereotypical image of a musical.

His hands flew across the keyboard: "Actually, we've all been blinded by our own preconceptions. This isn't some musical from the sixties or seventies. Aside from not having fights and explosions, the film is packed with the elements we love and that Duke does best—gorgeous visuals, fast-paced quick cuts, first-person shots that put the audience right on the scene, and beautiful women. Tons of gorgeous, sexy women dancing the most seductive routines... Especially the prison tango number. When you see Catherine Zeta-Jones kicking her legs, it'll definitely get your blood pumping."

Right after Allen's message went through, Rose Mountain suddenly popped up: "I can vouch for that—I just came from the premiere! Not only is it full of beautiful women, the movie is an absolute blast. The song-and-dance numbers are wild and uninhibited, full of sexy women in the skimpiest stage outfits, and Zeta-Jones, handpicked by Duke himself, is drop-dead gorgeous."

Nothing woke up the beasts of the internet faster than beautiful women.

"Sounds like I really should go check it out..."

"Hmm... Now I'm thinking about changing my mind."

Taking advantage of the moment, Allen posted another line: "The musical numbers are sexy and brilliant, and the film is full of dark humor. I laughed more than a dozen times from start to finish. It's a lot of fun."

Another account called Velma jumped in: "I went to the Premiere too, and I'm madly in love with Velma! Zeta-Jones is stunning, and her singing and dancing are amazing. This is no artsy musical!"

"When you put it that way, I actually want to go see it," Duke of Destruction replied, clearly tempted. "Let me ask if there are still tickets left for the midnight screening."

Rose Mountain quickly reminded him, "There's no midnight screening for this film. It doesn't officially open until tomorrow during the day."

"I just called around to ask." Saving Private Ryan, who had clearly been lurking, finally surfaced. "None of the three theaters in my small town are showing Chicago. It's pissing me off!"

"Same where I live..."

A user with the ID Jack said, "After reading what Rose Mountain said, I hurried and booked a ticket over the phone. I'm in Chicago, and from the way the theater sounded, tickets seem pretty tight."

"No way it's that hot already, right?"

"That's a movie by Duke and Tom Cruise for you!"

Seeing more and more people in the chat room eager to buy tickets as soon as possible, Penny Kalis's two assistants, who had been running the Velma and Rose Mountain accounts, logged out. Penny Kalis stood in front of the computer deep in thought; clearly, what had just played out had struck a chord with her.

"It feels like... like we barely did anything," she said, turning to look at Duke, who was chatting with Tina Fey, "and yet we've stirred up a lot of people who might go buy tickets."

"Penny, you must have heard about it before—this is the internet, which is already widely used among young people." Duke turned to look at his publicist. Since he wasn't an expert himself, he could only offer some standard observations. "Information can be exchanged freely online with an immediacy traditional media simply can't match, and internet users tend to follow the crowd much more easily."

Penny Kalis was a media PR specialist, after all, and immediately seized on a few key points. "Meaning if we work the internet, we can influence a massive number of online users, and they'll become potential customers for the film?"

She gave Duke a curious look. "So that's why you asked me to find someone to build a... personal website for you?"

"I just want a channel outside traditional media where I can speak with my own voice."

Hearing what Duke said, Penny Kalis nodded and continued, "According to the survey results you commissioned, internet users in North America are mostly young people and students. Those groups don't really count as the true potential audience for Chicago..."

"Which is why I only had you go into that movie board dedicated to me." As Tina Fey handed glasses of water to him and Kalis, Duke took his, had a sip, and added, "And post some related news on the website with the highest traffic online."

"We've already reached an agreement with them," Penny Kalis said, checking the time. "By now, it should be up on their homepage."

She walked over to the computer and murmured a few words to her assistant, who immediately logged onto a website. Duke and Tina Fey walked over as well, though the moment Duke saw the name of the site the assistant had pulled up, he had the sudden urge to slap himself to death.

The website displaying ads and news for Chicago in a fairly prominent spot on its homepage was called "Yahoo"!

'More than twenty years, and I've really forgotten almost everything that has nothing to do with movies!'

After that brief inner lament, Duke quickly composed himself. Back in his past life, outside of his busy work schedule, he had been nothing more than an ordinary internet user. Who would bother looking up the exact details of Yahoo for no reason? It would have been bizarre if it had left that deep an impression on him.

"Write down the name of this website," Duke said quietly, turning to Tina Fey. "Look up its basic profile later."

'Was the founder's last name Yang or Yuan?' Duke shook his head. Later, he would check whether they had gone public yet and how the stock was performing; maybe he could add another stock to his investment list.

Putting those thoughts aside for the moment, Duke stood before the computer and looked over a review article on Chicago newly posted to Yahoo's homepage, well aware that the era when everyone was a film critic was about to dawn.

Still, unlike the completely shameless online promotions of his past life, this review piece carried the distinct hallmarks of traditional media.

"The film adaptation of the renowned Broadway musical Chicago hits theaters in New York this year, with every character in the film coming vividly to life..."

The article listed several major highlights of the film—adapted songs, ingeniously crafted music, dazzling choreography, exquisite stage design, and so on.

After reading it, Duke found it thoroughly unremarkable. In this era, even the websites themselves hadn't yet grasped the point of online advertising.

Though he was an outsider to the field himself, he had seen plenty of it in his previous life. Promotional reviews like this needed to zero in on how gorgeous the women in the movie were, and how sexy those smooth, kicking legs looked in the ensemble dance numbers...

Even so, this online campaign was both a last-minute move before the release and an experiment. The main audience for Chicago wasn't the crowd that currently made up the internet user base anyway.

Today's internet had yet to catch Hollywood's attention, and even among traditional media conglomerates, very few took computer networks seriously.

Since Chicago had no midnight screening, Duke exchanged a few more words with Penny Kalis about building a personal website before heading back to his home on the Upper East Side to get some rest.

Thursday night gradually faded away, and Friday's sun once again lit up the sky over the Big Apple. Richard Thomas, now retired, returned from a stroll in a Long Island park and walked up to his detached house. Taking today's New York Times from the mailbox, he crossed the neatly trimmed lawn and went inside, where he brewed himself a pot of hot coffee before sitting down by a sunlit window to read the paper.

A longtime Broadway enthusiast, he had heard that the film version of Chicago was opening today and turned straight to the entertainment section to read the reviews. Yet when he flipped to his familiar columns, they were filled entirely with criticisms of Star Trek: First Contact and praise for The English Patient. Had Chicago, which had held its Premiere just last night, been overlooked yet again?

Richard Thomas shook his head and looked over the rest of the entertainment section. He couldn't understand what these film critics were being so pretentious about. Could they really shut that young director out? Right there on the front page of the New York Times, there was still coverage of the film.

"Chicago, a Triumph for Hollywood Genre Film!"

Spotting the byline beneath the headline piqued Richard Thomas's interest; it was a review by the renowned theater critic Linda Whitley.

"While the film's story is largely similar to the stage musical, director Duke Rosenberg has repackaged it using modern cinematic techniques. Although its core themes of fame, fortune, and desire have been peddled over and over again by Hollywood movies, Chicago is a musical that defies the typical mold of the genre. Through an unconventional visual style, it embodies the fusion, evolution, and innovation of different film genres across the shifting currents of history!"

"The musical crafted by Duke Rosenberg has clearly undergone his own reinvention, deeply steeped in the traits of film noir. His blending and reworking of these two major genres—the musical and film noir—imbues Chicago's sensuality with layers of dark allure. The seamless marriage of grand musical numbers and a muted, brooding noir style brings out the film's multifaceted nature."

"Through Chicago, what audiences come away with is not profound philosophical reflection, but an exquisite, diverse, and complex viewing experience. It reflects Duke Rosenberg's consistently fine qualities and traditions—meticulous production values, timely relevance, and constant innovation!"

"It is no exaggeration to say that Chicago represents a gorgeous metamorphosis for the musical genre. The transitions, integration, and interplay between the musical numbers and the realistic scenes are even stronger than in the stage version, breaking completely free from the stiff, traditional approach of simply slotting song-and-dance routines into the narrative."

"Duke Rosenberg makes superb use of the heightened theatricality and performative nature of the musical, putting them entirely in service of his central theme: satirizing and exposing a decadent world of debauchery where right and wrong are turned upside down. At the same time, elements of film noir are infused almost flawlessly into every scene of the movie."

"Furthermore, the film's carefully conceived lighting and color palette allow it to exude a gloomy, blood-tinged atmosphere alongside all its wildness and sensuality!"

Having read this far, Richard Thomas folded the newspaper, his existing plan to see the movie now firmly set. Right after lunch, he would head straight to the theater to buy a ticket and watch it.