Chapter 252: Ancillary Revenue

The plane sped down the runway and slowly touched down in Wellington. After leaving Australia, Duke and his team had flown directly to New Zealand.

They stayed in Australia for a total of four days. Duke primarily visited Fox Studios in the Sydney suburbs and drove around the city center to scout exterior locations for The Matrix. On their final day, they met with Australian officials, who promised that if the film was shot entirely in Australia, they would provide the maximum possible tax rebate of 14.5 percent and guarantee full cooperation from the Sydney municipal government.

Of course, one of the conditions was that the production team hire Australians wherever possible and give priority to Australian companies for custom equipment and props.

The Australian government's favorable policies, combined with a cultural environment strikingly similar to North America, were key reasons why Australia had become a major overseas filming location for Hollywood.

If The Matrix were shot entirely in Australia, the tax rebates and relatively lower labor costs alone would save the production at least $5 million.

Coupled with the geographic advantage—Duke would need to travel frequently to New Zealand over the next two years—he had actually locked in Sydney as the filming location for The Matrix by the time he left the city.

After leaving the airport and taking a brief rest at the hotel, Duke and Charles Roven took a hotel car to their first destination: Weta Digital Studio.

Founded in 1993 by Richard Taylor, Jamie Selkirk, and New Zealand director Peter Jackson, this visual effects company was a far cry from the three renowned Hollywood VFX giants of the future. Currently, Weta Digital Studio had no notable works to its name. Calling it a high-end effects workshop would be more accurate than calling it a studio.

Duke sought them out specifically for Tolkien's fantasy masterpiece—the film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Originally, he had considered using Lucasfilm's Industrial Light & Magic and had even consulted them briefly. Without a doubt, at this stage, ILM easily crushed Weta Studio in everything from technology and talent to equipment. However, one detail couldn't be ignored: the exorbitant labor costs in Northern California would push the VFX budget to a terrifying figure.

The biggest advantage of using Weta Studio was that the costs would be significantly lower.

After all, he wasn't a pure director like James Cameron. In a sense, he was still a businessman. Even if the trilogy's budget exceeded its historical counterpart, he still had to consider cost control.

Furthermore, Weta Studio was located right in Wellington, making communication simple and convenient.

"Hello, Director Rosenberg."

In Weta Studio's reception room—which was even shabbier than Duke Studio's—president Richard Taylor shook Duke's hand tightly, as if grasping at the hope of the future.

"It is a great honor to meet a legendary Hollywood director like you," he said.

'Legendary?' Duke thought. 'A word like that should only be used to describe someone dead, like Tolkien.'

Keeping that thought to himself, Duke returned the firm handshake. "You're too polite. Just call me Duke."

He turned back to make the introductions. "This is Charles Roven, the producer who works with me."

After exchanging greetings and taking their seats, Duke cut straight to the point.

"Richard, Charles and I came here mainly to see Weta Studio, the soundstages in Wellington, and the locations in New Zealand. I've seen the visual effects you've done for a few films. You have a lot of potential."

"Weta Studio has a team of employees full of dreams!" Richard Taylor chimed in at just the right moment.

"And that is why," Duke said with a smile, "I intend to outsource the trilogy's visual effects to you. You are one of my top candidates."

Although he was extremely surprised that the young director sitting before him wanted to adapt the fantasy trilogy into a film, Richard Taylor maintained his composure. During their initial contact, Weta Studio had signed a non-disclosure agreement, so the news had only circulated among a few top executives and senior designers.

Richard Taylor knew perfectly well that this was Weta Studio's ticket into Hollywood. The man sitting across from him was one of the few true super-directors in the entire industry.

Afterward, Richard Taylor didn't just give Duke and Charles a tour of Weta Studio; he spent nearly a week personally escorting them around various locations across New Zealand's South Island and North Island, while also facilitating their contact with the New Zealand Government.

When the New Zealand Government heard that a film production worth over $300 million might settle in their country, they didn't need long to think about it. They immediately promised to provide the maximum tax incentives within their authority.

In truth, whether inside or outside the industry, many understood one simple principle: a movie was never just a movie.

Take the Peter Jackson of the original timeline. Why did he choose to shoot in New Zealand? True, New Zealand preserved vast stretches of pristine landscapes, but were they truly irreplaceable?

The answer was undoubtedly no. The fact that New Zealand was his homeland definitely played a significant role in his decision. And as proven after the films' release, The Lord of the Rings trilogy brought countless benefits to the country.

Mainstream cinema could never fully detach itself from the influence of real-world elements like politics, culture, and geography.

Just like Duke. He knew the immense benefits this franchise would bring to its filming location, and deep down, he had entertained the thought of shooting it in a certain other country—but was that even possible?

Therefore, he still chose New Zealand. For one, these were his favorite films in his past life; he had consumed everything from the original books to the behind-the-scenes footage and all sorts of related materials. He would have to be out of his mind not to choose the New Zealand so closely associated with them. For another, the production crew would have to stay there for a very long time. Since New Zealand was also part of the Anglosphere, it would reduce the daily living difficulties the crew might face.

One more factor was the tax rebates and full backing from the New Zealand Government, which were even more generous than those offered by Australia.

Because price negotiations in Hong Kong remained deadlocked, Duke wasn't in a hurry to leave New Zealand. Alongside Charles Roven and the team that arrived later, he combined on-site inspections with discussions to map out the initial prep work.

This was an extraordinarily complex and massive undertaking. Charles Roven's team would face a mountainous volume of preliminary prep work in the future.

For example, they had to negotiate with the New Zealand Government to turn their verbal tax rebate promises into binding contracts. After all, a politician's guarantee was worth less than a fart.

They needed to find the right location to build Hobbiton; locate a suitable valley to film the Battle of Helm's Deep; and determine which ski resort could host the snowy mountain march...

They had to track down master weaponsmiths to forge different variations of weaponry for each race. By Duke's rough estimate, they would need at least 1,000 suits of armor and 5,000 sets of weapons!

They had to contact household goods manufacturers, both to supply the crew's future living needs in New Zealand and to produce the daily utensils used by the various races on camera.

They needed to import massive quantities of human hair and yak hair to create wigs and the body hair for the Orcs.

They had to find a capable jewelry maker to craft the rings, necklaces, and other accessories worn by the characters once the designs were finalized.

They had to reach out to professional horse farms in New Zealand to train warhorses suitable for filming, which would consume a vast amount of time...

In short, the more than two years from now until mid-1999 would be dedicated entirely to the film's pre-production phase. Without meticulous preparation, trying to shoot a successful epic masterpiece was nothing but a pipe dream!

Aside from Charles Roven, a significant portion of Duke's original team—like production designer Hannah Serena—would not be participating in The Matrix and would soon transfer directly to New Zealand.

As for Duke himself, he would be flying to New Zealand every couple of weeks, or even every week. A director simply couldn't detach himself from pre-production.

During this time, news arrived regarding the Oscars. Exactly as expected, The English Patient emerged as the biggest winner of the 69th Oscar Awards Ceremony. Chicago only secured a few technical awards, and even the acting accolades for Naomi Watts and Tom Cruise predictably went to other nominees.

Duke didn't mind. This was entirely normal. After all, Duke Studio had invested a very limited amount in its PR campaign, and their target had always just been securing the Oscar nominations in the first place.

By April 1997, after spending a full fifteen days in New Zealand, Duke and Charles Roven's group finally managed to organize a coherent work plan. Furthermore, after inspecting Weta Studio several times and holding a few discussions with its other two founders, he also signed a preliminary visual effects outsourcing agreement with them.

Of course, he also met Peter Jackson, who had hurried back to New Zealand from Hollywood just for this. The fat man was a rabid Lord of the Rings fan. He even tested the waters, asking Duke if he could hand the project over to him to direct, offering to take the lowest possible director's salary.

Duke rejected him, though he did extend a tentative invitation for Jackson to join the crew. Peter Jackson rejected that in turn. The Peter Jackson of today wasn't the man from a few years ago. Not only had he built a decent reputation in Hollywood, but he was also full of ambition. Since last year, he had been negotiating with Universal Pictures to remake King Kong. Between being a director and being someone else's assistant, the choice wasn't hard to make.

Because he used to be a crazy Lord of the Rings fan himself, Duke knew that when Peter Jackson first hit a wall while preparing The Lord of the Rings, he had turned to Universal. The King Kong project was almost greenlit in the nineties. It was only because the copyright dispute over The Lord of the Rings was later resolved that King Kong got pushed back to the new century.

Meanwhile, good news arrived from North America. Duke Studio had reached an agreement with Warner Brothers' newly established Videotape and VCD distribution department. For a price of $8 million, they sold the North American Videotape and VCD rights for the next eight years to Warner Brothers, while also securing a 5 percent cut of all sales and rental revenue.

Even though the overseas revenue would only trickle in later, Chicago had already generated a massive profit for Duke and Duke Studio in North America alone.

By mid-April, Duke left New Zealand and prepared for his trip to Hong Kong.