Chapter 333: The Film Isn't Dull

In late May, Duke returned to New Zealand. After two long years of preparation, pre-production for The Lord of the Rings trilogy had completely wrapped up, and filming was about to begin.

Duke used the final days before the shoot to have detailed talks with a few key cast and crew members. For the score, he once again brought in Howard Shore. The composer had just finished Peter Jackson's King Kong and wanted some time off, but with a large enough paycheck, scoring the trilogy wasn't an issue at all.

Afterward, Duke met with Andy Serkis, who had made a special trip to New Zealand. The actor had also recently finished work on King Kong, but his strong interest in Motion Capture meant it took almost no effort to sign him to play Gollum.

Both men still needed their vacations, however, so after picking up their scripts, they left New Zealand again.

This trilogy had an estimated total production budget of $350 million. An investment that massive naturally required an equally massive promotional campaign.

Right before The Lord of the Rings trilogy began filming, Duke lifted the crew's press embargo. Warner Brothers and the Time Warner Group invited a massive press corps to New Zealand, preparing to flood the world with coverage of the trilogy's launch ceremony.

The only discordant note came on the day of the launch ceremony's press conference, when a large group of British and American The Lord of the Rings fans gathered outside the Wellington Studio to fiercely protest the series being adapted into a film.

It brought some negative press, but it also generated plenty of buzz.

Films were exactly like celebrities: the only thing worse than being talked about was not being talked about at all.

The protesters were easy enough to handle—he could simply ignore them—but dealing with the horde of reporters was draining. After spending the entire morning at the press conference, Duke felt his head throbbing. If they hadn't prepared for a good portion of the questions in advance, the reporters' sheer frenzy would have been impossible to fend off.

The atmosphere made sense. No film project in the current era commanded such a terrifying budget, let alone one adapting The Lord of the Rings trilogy, widely considered impossible to bring to the screen.

Hollywood's standard practice dictated that even for a planned series, a studio would shoot a single film first to test the waters. Otherwise, they risked a disaster like Cutthroat Island, where a single film could bankrupt a mid-tier studio. Shooting a trilogy simultaneously meant that if anything went wrong, even Warner Brothers wouldn't be able to bear the losses.

Regardless of the fans' protests or the media's inevitable criticism, the trilogy's preparations were complete. Filming had to go forward.

The press conference ended, and after symbolically shooting a scene consisting purely of props, the day's work wrapped up. The crew had dedicated staff to handle the subsequent receptions and PR, sparing Duke the need to step in personally. He headed straight back to his office on the lot.

"There's a list of temporary set assistants."

Seeing Duke walk into the office, Tina Fey handed him a list. "You'd better look at this yourself."

Tina Fey usually made these decisions on her own, so Duke felt a little confused. "Is there something special about it?"

He took the list and glanced at it, his brow furrowing slightly. "These aren't just people with the same names?"

"I checked the temporary employment contracts," Tina Fey said with certainty. "It's Aerin's sister Jane Lauder and Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump."

"What are they trying to do?" Duke set the list down and asked, "Are they both in Wellington right now?"

"Should I call them?"

Tina Fey looked at him. After Duke nodded, she picked up the phone on the desk and dialed.

About ten minutes later, two girls in the crew's blue work uniforms knocked and walked into Duke's director's office. Ivanka Trump was a bit reserved, but Jane Lauder greeted him openly.

"Hi, Duke."

"Have a seat, Jane. Evie, grab a seat anywhere."

The two girls sat on the bench across from him, and Tina Fey poured them each a glass of water. Duke thought for a moment before asking, "What brought you two to New Zealand?"

"We're on break." Jane Lauder thanked Tina Fey and shot him a bright smile. "We wanted to find a part-time job to get some work experience..."

She glanced at Duke. Seeing no change in his expression, she gently nudged Ivanka Trump with her elbow. When Ivanka showed no sign of speaking up, Jane had no choice but to continue. "It's not easy to find a temp job that actually builds experience and pays reasonably well. We knew your crew was hiring, so we figured we'd come try our luck."

Duke nodded. These two weren't ordinary girls, after all. He offered a quick warning, "If you run into any trouble, you can call Tina. Also..."

"Don't worry," Jane Lauder cut in. "We'll definitely work hard. We absolutely won't be a nuisance to the crew."

"Tina, leave your number for them."

Once Tina Fey handed her business cards to the girls, Duke waved them off. "Go on back to work."

"Uh..." Jane Lauder froze for a second.

Duke looked at her and asked, "Are there any other issues?"

"No." Ivanka Trump pulled Jane Lauder to her feet and said, "We won't bother you anymore, Duke. We'll treat you to dinner some other day."

Not long after Jane Lauder and Ivanka Trump left, Duke made two separate calls to New York, then turned to Tina Fey and said, "Transfer them to your assistant group."

Jane Lauder went without saying—she was Aerin's sister, after all—and Donald Trump was currently cooperating with his mother's Santa Fe. Duke knew exactly how to handle this.

The Lord of the Rings crew was massive, and Duke managed the whole operation through his core team members. Hollywood sets were notoriously mixed bags; if these two girls ended up dealing with inexplicable harassment, he wouldn't be surprised in the slightest.

What Duke didn't expect was that just half an hour later, Aerin Lauder called back. Soon after, Jane Lauder came to say her goodbyes before obediently catching an evening flight back to Los Angeles.

In contrast, Donald Trump seemed perfectly at ease with his daughter being there. He even called that night to specifically ask Duke to look after Ivanka Trump a little.

New York's wealthiest circles were always tied together by countless interwoven connections. Even if just for the sake of Santa Fe's business partner, Duke wouldn't refuse.

As soon as the morning sun cast its light, a huge crowd of reporters gathered at the entrance to the Wellington Studio. But the treatment they received was entirely different from the day before—they were completely blocked at the gate.

These guys, who lived to chase the news, immediately surged forward the second they saw Duke's car approaching. If the driver hadn't braked in time, they might have created tomorrow's entertainment headlines right then and there.

Ignoring the reporters outside the car and refusing to look at the protesting fans holding banners, Duke sat in the backseat and quietly discussed work matters with Tina Fey. Only when the car finally squeezed through the press and into the lot did he get out and head toward the soundstage.

The Lord of the Rings trilogy officially began filming today!

The first scene Duke had prepared was Gandalf's duel with Saruman.

He walked into a small soundstage primarily set up as the interiors for Isengard and the Prancing Pony Hotel. Duke gathered the assistant directors, the director of photography, the art director, the lighting director, and the heads of several other departments for a brief meeting. Afterward, everyone followed the pre-established plan, leading their subordinates to begin intensely setting up the venue.

"Your coffee."

An assistant walked over and handed him a coffee. Duke turned his head and saw it was Ivanka Trump, whom Tina Fey had transferred to the assistant group. He nodded at her and said, "Thank you."

He took the coffee, took a sip, and frowned slightly. Setting it down on the director's table without a word, he walked over to where the four actors had gathered.

Although this scene only featured two characters—Gandalf and Saruman—the crew had prepared four actors.

Ian McKellen and Christopher Lee were a combined one hundred and fifty years old. Making them do their own action scenes would basically be asking for their lives.

Needless to say, stunt doubles were a necessary choice.

In truth, using doubles for the two of them wasn't difficult. Saruman and Gandalf both had long hair; when they fought, their thrashing hair would naturally cover their faces. As long as the stunt doubles paid a little attention, filming wouldn't be too hard.

This scene was one of the most criticized points by overseas fans, who thought it was utterly ridiculous for wizards to brawl like warriors.

But they had all overlooked an important point: this wasn't an original film. The wizards had to follow the source material's lore.

In Tolkien's original work, "wizard" wasn't a profession; it was a race that inherently possessed immense close-combat abilities. Gandalf, Saruman, and even Sauron were Maiar—they simply weren't the so-called mages of online games.

Therefore, whenever enemies attacked, Gandalf's first choice was always to draw his sword. Melee combat was inherently one of a wizard's most formidable fighting skills.

Furthermore, wizards in The Lord of the Rings needed incantations. When facing enemies with equally powerful close-combat skills, would two mighty wizards really be stupid enough to stand there chanting spells?

This was a movie, not an online game! Shooting a film according to video game logic was pure suicide.

Why had Peter Jackson created such a scene? Was he really so poor he couldn't afford magic effects? Was that even possible? He had simply followed the basic rules of the original books and the film.

As for the idea of adding dazzling magical effects to Gandalf and Saruman's battle at the drop of a hat, one could only say that such wishful thinking was nice...

This film was primarily targeted at the entire Western audience, and Duke was well aware of the demographics of the viewers who would pay for the movie. Therefore, The Lord of the Rings first had to align with Western perspectives. As for complaints about wizards not using magic or why a kung fu choreographer wasn't hired, those were completely out of his scope of consideration.

The crew had prepared for this for two years. Gandalf and Saruman's looks had been discussed and tested countless times. All Ian McKellen and Christopher Lee needed to do was show off their weathered wizard faces in front of the camera; the fighting would all be done by stunt doubles.

In a sudden skirmish between wizards, there was no time to chant incantations. It still had to center on fierce close-quarters combat.