Chapter 336: Flat and Stable Market Trends

"We've never seen you act, not even in a cameo," Elijah Wood said.

In the large conference room on the set, a brief preparation meeting for the next phase had just concluded, and Elijah had approached him as the cast's representative.

"All of us want to work with you," Elijah added. "Not as an actor working with a director, but actor-to-actor."

Duke tilted his head, looking at the guys sitting around the conference table. "Why the cave troll?"

"Well..." Viggo Mortensen chimed in immediately. "We're mainly just a little worried about your acting skills."

Seeing that Duke was still thinking it over, Ivanka Trump reached out and gave Tina Fey a gentle nudge. When it came to understanding Duke, no one in the room could compare to her.

Tina Fey didn't speak up right away. She glanced at Charles Roven, and only after seeing him nod did she say, "Duke, I've discussed this with Charles and with Penny back in Los Angeles. They all think it's a good idea."

Turning his head, Duke gestured for Tina to continue.

"The beginning of a film franchise is the hardest part, and it's also the most important."

Tina Fey and Charles Roven hadn't joined forces with these actors just for the fun of it.

"There are quite a few people on the outside who are pessimistic about us, and some book fans have been protesting nonstop," she continued. "We feel that having you play a substantial character would give the movie more appeal and add another promotional angle..."

"Your very first on-screen role since becoming a Hollywood director is bound to draw a huge crowd," Charles Roven chimed in seamlessly.

Resting his chin on one hand, Duke thought about it for a moment and had to admit they made a lot of sense.

Ever since he formally started directing and producing, he hadn't taken a single role—not even making a passing cameo like other directors loved to do. Given his current fame, if he played a distinctive character, it would definitely grab a massive amount of attention.

Duke knew very well that while his ability to direct actors wasn't top-tier, it was still decent enough. But when it came to his own acting skills, "terrible" was the only word to describe them...

The cave troll would be created using Motion Capture. Duke remembered that Ang Lee had personally done the motion capture for the Hulk, so perhaps he could give it a try. Paired with the right marketing campaign, it might just drop jaws everywhere.

The scenes in the Mines of Moria were scheduled to be shot on a soundstage later on. Duke took the suggestion under serious consideration and asked Charles Roven to communicate with Warner Brothers to draft a more practical and effective promotional plan.

Heading into July, New Zealand was still in the depths of winter, making it the perfect time to shoot various snow scenes. Duke gave the crew only a two-day rest in Wellington before taking the relevant personnel by helicopter to an alpine ski resort near the city.

One of Charles Roven's assistants had arrived the day before to handle the advance preparations. The moment Duke and the others stepped off the helicopter, the production crew immediately kicked into high gear.

A snow-covered ridge not far from the helipad was set to serve as the close-up filming location for Caradhras. Meanwhile, the panoramic wide shots would be handled by Zack Snyder's unit, who were still rushing all over the North and South Islands of New Zealand.

Because they were filming on a freezing, snow-capped mountain, handheld cameras supported by Steadicam rigs became an absolute necessity.

Fortunately, most of the environments here were pristine and natural, requiring almost no set dressing. Once the members of The Fellowship of the Ring finished their makeup, they could dive straight into filming.

While waiting for the actors to get ready, Duke bundled himself up as well. With a thick winter coat, goggles, and heavy gloves, he armored himself thoroughly against the cold. Perhaps because he had grown up in the dry heat of Southern California, he had a hard time adjusting to the wet, freezing weather.

Makeup for the other actors was relatively easy. Sean Davis, who played Gimli, was the most troublesome to get ready, but since there wouldn't be any frontal close-ups of him here, they were spared the time-consuming process of applying his silicone prosthetic headpiece and painting over it.

"The ski resort here is really nice," Ivanka Trump murmured, gazing into the distance as they stood on the ridge waiting for the shoot to begin. "The scenery is spectacular. It's much better than the resorts in Europe and Canada. We could come here for vacation in the summer from now on."

"Do you know how to ski?" she asked, turning to Duke.

Having already waited for nearly two hours, Duke was blankly watching the prop team mess around with the Fellowship's "pony." He pulled his gaze back and replied, "A little bit, I guess. I haven't practiced much."

"I can teach you when we have some free time," she said.

Seeming to have finally found an area where she outshone Duke, Ivanka tilted her chin up slightly. "It's very simple."

Duke cast his gaze back toward the horizon. The sky was blue and the clouds were white—an extraordinarily beautiful sight. He quickly made his way down the path on the ridge specifically cleared for the crew, heading toward John Schwartzman. Since Tina Fey hadn't come up the mountain, Ivanka Trump immediately followed him in her capacity as his assistant.

"John!" Duke called out loudly before he even got close. "Grab some shots of the sky."

"Got it!" John Schwartzman grabbed a camera from the tarp and hoisted it onto his shoulder. "I'll find a suitable spot to shoot."

With that, he took a camera assistant and hiked toward higher ground.

"Are there always sudden situations like this when shooting a movie?" Ivanka's voice chimed in from behind.

Duke turned around and watched John Schwartzman trudging heavily through the thick snow. "Sometimes an idea just jumps out at you, and you have to seize it," he said. "If you let it go, it's very hard to ever find it again."

Pausing there, he changed the subject. "Evie, have someone go down and check if the actors are almost done with their makeup."

By the time John Schwartzman returned from capturing the sky shots, nearly another half hour had passed. The Fellowship of the Ring, having finally finished their arduous makeup process, trekked up onto the ridge. After a few simple adjustments, Duke commenced the first test shoot.

Upon the snow-packed slopes of Caradhras, the Fellowship trudged with great difficulty through the deep drifts. The light-footed Legolas acted as their guide at the very front, while Aragorn trailed at the back of the group to look after Frodo.

Suddenly, Frodo tripped and tumbled across the snow, rolling right up to Aragorn. After Aragorn pulled him to his feet, Frodo realized that the Ring hanging around his neck was gone...

John Schwartzman instantly panned the camera over to Gerard Butler. His character, Boromir, picked up the Ring...

"Cut!" Duke called out.

He brought the shoot to a halt and walked straight over to Gerard Butler. "Jerry, your expression isn't right."

Gerard Butler's natural acting talent was relatively average. Duke thought for a moment, took the chain holding the Ring from his hands, and said, "Right now, when Boromir faces the Ring, he feels a sense of confusion, a stroke of luck, and a deep, underlying temptation. He truly believes the Ring can save Gondor..."

Duke patted Gerard's shoulder armor. "Boromir isn't just a tough guy defending Gondor. He has a complex psychological state."

"I'll try my best," Gerard Butler promised.

In the original novels penned by Tolkien, this character could hardly be called a hero; it was even implied that he deserved his death. But Duke had no intention of handling him that way. Every movie inevitably needed a climactic scene at the end. If that climax could be remembered by audiences, constantly mentioned, and endlessly discussed, it would easily elevate the entire film.

In this film, Boromir would redeem himself through his actions, serving as a crucial turning point for Aragorn's transition from a Ranger back to a King.

Filming resumed. This sequence mainly highlighted Boromir. Due to Gerard Butler's performance, Duke had to call cut again and again. The entire crew froze in the snow alongside them, and the shoot dragged on for nearly an hour before Duke finally called it a good take.

Gerard Butler was quite savvy when it came to interpersonal relations. When the crew retreated to the ski resort's cafe for a temporary break, not only did he voluntarily pay for everyone's drinks out of his own pocket, but he also personally delivered the coffee to every single table.

Setting aside the crew members, out of everyone in the Fellowship, Gerard Butler had the least seniority—excluding the two actors in the horse costume.

If an actor wanted to become famous, having good acting skills simply wasn't enough on its own.

Take the two actors playing the horse, for example. One of them had acting chops on par with Viggo Mortensen, yet he was still relegated to being an extra.

That was right—the Fellowship's horse on the snowy mountain was actually being played by two actors wearing a prop costume. Transporting a real horse all the way up a freezing mountain was far too much effort, so Duke had resorted to this method. The cameras were never going to give the horse a close-up anyway; it merely served as background scenery.

Heading down the mountain every evening and flying back up via helicopter every morning, Duke spent nearly a full week completing the snowy mountain scenes.

By this time, almost a month and a half had passed since production first began. Duke returned to Wellington and met up with Zack Snyder and Anna Printz, reviewing their respective workloads one by one. Zack Snyder had been working with him since The Rock, and their cinematic philosophies were quite similar. Since Zack was shooting the kind of material he already excelled at, there were basically no issues.

Anna Printz's assigned tasks were relatively simpler. Moreover, since she had the long-time collaborating sound designer David Farmer working alongside her, the various animal sound effects they recorded were more than enough to meet the production's needs.

After enduring the physically and mentally exhausting torments of shooting The Matrix and Daylight back-to-back, Duke's workaholic tendencies had somewhat subsided. He intentionally gave the reunited crew in Wellington a four-day long weekend. Furthermore, several actors, such as Ian McKellen, who had other contractual obligations, also needed to temporarily leave Wellington.

In addition, the business jet Duke had ordered had finally arrived. The plane, along with its hired flight crew, flew straight into Wellington.

It was a Gulfstream V Business Jet. Although it couldn't compare to massive commercial airliners, its nearly 100-foot length and over 6,000-mile flight range were more than enough to satisfy Duke's needs.

Once the plane was ready, Duke temporarily handed the vacationing crew over to Charles Roven. Taking his two assistants with him, he flew back to North America. After meeting up with Jamie Jensen, the head of Warner Brothers' marketing department, in Los Angeles, they flew directly to New York for a meeting with the top executives of Victoria's Secret. They planned to launch a massive, high-profile promotional campaign, aiming to achieve their early marketing goal: letting the vast majority of the Western world know that The Lord of the Rings trilogy was currently in production.