Chapter 277: Treat with Sincerity?

With the internet explosion fast approaching, Duke knew perfectly well that these past events would soon be dug up, so there was no need to avoid the subject now. He grabbed his beer and tilted his head back, taking several large gulps. By the time he set the can down, Natalie Portman had already offered him an ear of roasted corn. Her bright brown eyes were full of curiosity, making her look exactly like the gossipy teenager she was.

Duke took a bite of the roasted corn, briefly recalled the memory, and said slowly, "That was back in tenth grade. I had just transferred from a boarding school to Santa Monica Mountains High School. Since I had always played football, I easily passed the tryouts and made the school team."

"I read about that in the tabloids," Natalie said, blinking. "They said you were the starting quarterback all through high school and college."

"I joined the team and met a very beautiful girl on the cheerleading squad." Duke shrugged and gestured. "Blonde, long legs, gorgeous, and sexy. I chased after her, but like most people, she was prejudiced against transfer students. That was, until a regional game in California..."

"Don't stop," Natalie urged, hugging her knees. "Keep going."

"In the final moments of that game, Mountain High School was down by five points. We needed a touchdown." Duke stretched out his legs to sit more comfortably. "By second down, near midfield, time was running out. On third down, we either had to score a touchdown to turn the game around, or lose. And then I threw the first sixty-yard touchdown pass in Mountain High School history!"

"A comeback win!"

Duke didn't respond to Natalie's comment, simply continuing, "That night, we threw a wild party to celebrate. I went from being the despised transfer student to the most popular guy there."

"Did you tell that blonde girl how you felt?"

Duke nodded. "That's right. I took her hand at the party, and she didn't pull away."

"And then?" Natalie was full of curiosity.

Duke smiled. "That night, we slept together in the football team's locker room. It was my first time, and hers too."

"I knew it," Natalie muttered. She asked, "So why did you two break up?"

"Do you think she loved me?"

Natalie shook her head immediately. "I don't think she loved you. It was just because you became the big man on campus."

She suddenly realized something. "You can't generalize, though. Not all girls are like that!"

"And what about you, Nat?" Duke looked up, staring intently at her. "You know perfectly well that I'm interested in you, yet you keep getting closer to me. What are you after?"

"I... I..." Natalie hadn't expected the question at all. She hesitated for a long while before saying, "I'm just an ordinary girl. I'm not beautiful, or sexy, or even cute. I don't think I could ever attract you. I just felt we had a lot in common and could be good friends."

"Is that really what you think?" Duke tilted his head.

"Is it so bad for us to just be friends?"

No matter how smart and precocious she was, Natalie was still only a sixteen-year-old girl. "We're both of Jewish descent..."

Duke stood up. "Friendship requires trust."

After saying that, he fell silent, and Natalie remained quiet. Trust was easy to talk about, but how hard was it to actually build?

Throughout the entire evening, she couldn't remember how many truths she had spoken, nor could she tell how much of what Duke had said was a lie. The two of them were just like most people in this circle—it was simply impossible for them to treat each other with absolute sincerity.

"I'm heading to New Zealand tomorrow," Duke said. "Goodbye, Nat."

"Goodbye, Duke."

Sighing softly, Duke walked away, moving further from the bonfire's glow until he disappeared completely into the darkness.

Natalie Portman... He shook his head slightly. Since he had decided back in his youth to let go of everything from his past, why dwell on it now?

Just as she had said herself, she wasn't beautiful, nor was she sexy. Her figure and looks were average at best for Hollywood.

Putting Natalie Portman out of his mind for the time being, Duke went straight back to his room to prepare for his early morning departure from Fiji to New Zealand.

Compared to the massive investments he would be dealing with in the coming years, what did Natalie Portman even matter?

The crew stayed behind in Fiji to continue their wild partying, while Duke and Zack Snyder parted ways, heading to New Zealand and Los Angeles respectively. Duke, naturally, was leaving to oversee the pre-production work on The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Zack Snyder, meanwhile, was escorting the film reels back to Warner Studios, where he would regroup with Mike Dawson and Industrial Light and Magic's CG visual effects team to begin post-production.

Led by art director Hannah Serena, quite a few members of Duke's team had already been working in New Zealand with Charles Roven for over half a year. Although the various manufacturing and construction tasks for the films hadn't started yet, Duke had been flying over almost every week to consult with them, bringing the preliminary design phase to completion.

Because the films would showcase a fantasy world that had never existed on screen before, absolutely everything had to be designed and manufactured from scratch, rather than relying on studio rentals. Costumes, styling, sets, props, architecture, carriages, everyday items—everything had to be brand new and entirely unprecedented.

Middle-earth could not be constructed so easily. It would require a massive investment of time and effort from everyone involved, from the director down to the lowest crew member.

The designs completed over the past six months were merely rough drafts. Duke was in constant communication with the relevant departments, offering feedback on the various blueprints. Once their revisions were done, the updated designs were immediately sent to Los Angeles for his final review.

Fortunately, most of the crew here were long-term partners who found it relatively easy to grasp Duke's vision.

The design for Hobbiton, for example, had won Duke's full approval. Charles Roven had also found a suitable construction company; the project would be contracted out so that a Hobbiton optimized for filming could be built when the time was right.

As for the exterior sets, Duke used his brief stay to tour several new spots recommended by Charles, eventually finding another suitable filming location among them.

Then there was the prep work at Weta Studio. They had already designed multiple iterations of the Orcs and Uruk-hai. Although Duke vetoed quite a few, some earned his approval. Weta Studio had also made significant progress in refining and testing Motion Capture technology, making it perfectly viable for soundstage filming.

After a week in New Zealand, Duke caught a flight back to Los Angeles, where a massive amount of work was waiting for him.

The highest priority was Tina Fey's negotiations with Warner Brothers, which had finally yielded preliminary results. After several rounds of discussions over the course of a week, both parties had essentially reached a consensus. Warner Brothers would exchange an equivalent value of their own shares to purchase thirty percent of Duke Studio's shares, becoming its second-largest shareholder behind Duke himself.

Following multiple audits by lawyers and accountants, Duke and Warner Brothers quietly signed the share exchange agreement.

With the share exchange finalized, Duke Studio was no longer just an empty shell. By combining his previously accumulated Warner stock with the newly acquired shares, Duke became Warner Brothers' largest individual shareholder with a 7.5 percent stake, securing a seat on their board of directors.

Naturally, Duke had no time to fulfill these board duties; most of the time, he would simply send a proxy.

After completing such a large-scale equity swap, the interests of both parties were bound together much more tightly. The profits and losses of both Warner Brothers and Duke Studio would now directly impact each other's bottom lines.

Consequently, Warner Brothers was bound to participate in funding The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Although this didn't entirely align with Duke's original intentions, it would alleviate his financial pressure. After all, fronting over 300 million dollars in one go to produce an entire trilogy made even him feel the pinch, despite his handsome earnings over the past few years.

With their interests so tightly intertwined, many of their remaining collaborations fell into place naturally.

Three days later, the Harry Potter Studio was officially established at Warner Studios. Duke Studio and Warner Brothers held forty percent and sixty percent of the shares respectively, though the actual equity calculations had become much more complex following their swap.

Promotions for the Harry Potter Series were also officially put on the agenda. Duke didn't need to be too involved in this; the professionals at Warner Brothers were vastly more experienced and better suited for the task. All he needed to do was cooperate with Warner's plans and, when required, leverage his status as a superstar director to endorse the Harry Potter Series.

A major director was an asset in their own right. Otherwise, why would Warner Brothers place such high importance on Duke Studio?

Duke also understood that he and Warner Brothers were now a single entity of shared interests, so his gaze naturally turned toward some of the properties Warner Brothers held the copyrights to. However, there was no rush; after all, he still had the massive production of The Lord of the Rings trilogy waiting for him.

Of course, before The Lord of the Rings, he couldn't neglect The Matrix either. Zack Snyder, Mike Dawson, and the visual effects team from Industrial Light and Magic were already waiting for him at Duke Studio. The project was about to pivot into its critical post-production phase.

Because the film would utilize a massive amount of CG, and effects work was incredibly time-consuming, Duke had specifically set aside nearly half a year for post-production. There were simply no shortcuts to take in this regard; otherwise, failure would be the only outcome.

Only now did Duke realize that he was even busier than before.

Post-production for The Matrix had just begun, and Thanksgiving was fast approaching. On the weekend before Thanksgiving, a film that had set the record for the highest budget in cinematic history was about to hit the North American market in full force—Titanic, in which Duke held a quarter of the investment share, was about to premiere!