Chapter 354: The Queen and the Tofu Dregs

Just after Christmas, Duke left the island. Upon arriving in Brisbane, he had someone escort Scarlett Johansson back to North America. Although they had spent little more than a day on the island, he had already sensed that if he didn't keep certain things under control, they could take a turn for the worst.

Perhaps influenced by her parents' divorce, Scarlett Johansson had mentioned more than once during their conversations that monogamy completely went against human nature...

Duke knew perfectly well that he wasn't a good person, much less a gentleman. He liked sexy, beautiful women and had always chased fresh, beautiful thrills. But he also had his bottom line. Since entering Hollywood, he had never laid a finger on an underage girl, and he knew that his self-control in this area was, like most men's, extremely limited.

Therefore, out of sight, out of mind was perhaps the best way to handle it. After all, Scarlett Johansson wasn't even sixteen yet.

Once that line was crossed, given his lack of self-control, he would likely find it impossible to hold onto his bottom line in the future.

What separated humans from beasts was undoubtedly the ability to control their own desires.

Tossing those matters aside for now, Duke flew straight back to New Zealand. Filming for The Lord of the Rings trilogy was only at the halfway mark, and a mountain of work still awaited him.

Three days later, the crew reconvened in Wellington. Duke first called a brief meeting with the core team members to confirm their specific progress across all fronts and prepare for the next stage of shooting.

After Zack Snyder left the crew to prep the sequel for The Matrix, the production had to shift from a three-pronged advance to a two-unit shoot led by Duke and Anna Printz. The pace was slower than before.

"I've finished shooting most of Eowyn's scenes."

After the financial officer detailed the current expenditures, Anna Printz brought up her side of the production.

"Ella Fisher's scenes are mostly done," she continued. "We only have the final few shots left of her facing off against the Witch-king of Angmar and at Minas Tirith."

Duke hadn't seen the actress Cate Blanchett had recommended since her audition; Anna Printz had directed the vast majority of her scenes.

Duke nodded and flipped through his schedule. "Anna, for the next phase, you'll shoot Faramir's scenes, along with Frodo, Sam, and Gollum," he said. "For Motion Capture, consult Andy Serkis's input as much as possible."

As Anna Printz racked up more completed scenes, Duke had gradually grown more confident in her, trusting her with increasingly important sequences.

He turned to the production manager.

"Charles, when will the extras I asked for be in place?"

"You'll see them when we get to the valley in Nelson," Charles Roven said. Having taken only two days off for Christmas, he had long since wrangled a massive crowd of extras. "The male models playing the elves have also arrived in Nelson."

Richard Taylor chimed in, "Weta Studio is completely prepared. We're just waiting for you to head over and shoot."

Next up for Duke to shoot was the Battle of Helm's Deep. This famous fortress of the Kingdom of Rohan, much like the rest of the sets in The Lord of the Rings, had no ready-made templates to draw from. It was built entirely from scratch based on the book's descriptions. The crew had outsourced the exterior effects for both Helm's Deep and the White City, Minas Tirith, to Weta Studio.

The next day, the crew split in two once again. Elijah Wood, Andy Serkis, and the other actors remained on the Wellington set to shoot with Anna Printz, while Duke led a large contingent to a mine near the small city of Nelson to prepare for the exterior shots of the Helm's Deep battle.

To the west of the mine lay a valley carved out by mining operations—the prototype for Helm's Deep. To the south of the mine sat Minas Tirith, built right against the mountain, though the model for the Holy White City was still incomplete, currently nothing more than a rough prototype.

In contrast, Weta Studio had fully finished modifying Helm's Deep. The moment one stepped into the mouth of the valley, the Hornburg and the Deeping Wall, brimming with a rustic, ancient texture, came into view on the valley floor.

Of course, neither structure looked nearly as majestic and sweeping as they were described in the books. They were shooting a movie, after all, and the crew's budget was limited. Duke couldn't be as crazy as James Cameron and actually construct a one-to-one scale model.

Although Helm's Deep hadn't been as tedious to build as Lothlorien, and the Hornburg's architectural style leaned toward simple and practical without the elves' elaborate decorations, Weta Studio had still spent over six months completing the exterior sets. Even Duke had visited more than ten times for on-site inspections and location scouting.

Weta Studio had built a total of two Hornburg models at different scales. The first was a one-to-four scale model. Built into the valley itself, it used steel and timber as a support structure. They had laid down high-density boards made of Polystyrene over the frame, carved patterns into them with hydraulic presses, sprayed the surfaces with plaster machines, and finally painted them...

This process gave the walls' texture a perfect air of ancient, weathered history.

However, aside from the specific areas meant to hold people and host the battle sequences, the rest was mostly just for show to save on costs. The surface of the Hornburg's walls wrapped around the support frames, in particular, was absolutely nowhere near as sturdy as it looked. One could literally destroy the outer walls of Helm's Deep with a fingernail.

Most of the Deeping Wall was also a one-to-four scale model. The crew had only built a single section of the wall at a one-to-one scale. Again, to save money, the wall had ample height but severely lacked thickness. The most important feature of this section was its inward-facing staircase, designed specifically so Legolas could look cool.

Then there was the other model at a one-to-thirty-five scale, primarily used for shooting distant wide shots and adding to the background.

The crew set up camp on the outskirts of the valley. Duke immediately went to check on the extras and the male models. The models, naturally, were cast as the elf troops coming to aid the humans, while the extras were almost entirely towering, burly men playing the Uruk-hai army bred by Saruman.

The actual combatants clashing on camera would all be played by specialized stuntmen; the main purpose of these extras was to serve as a backdrop.

After checking on the extras, Duke walked into Helm's Deep. Due to time constraints, they would only do prep work today instead of actual filming. John Schwartzman, Hannah Serena, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Morris—the heads of the crew's various departments—followed closely behind him.

Passing through the Hornburg's gates, Duke ascended the wall and stood on a command platform, looking down over the entire valley. Even as a one-to-four scale model, the fortress still looked sufficiently massive.

However, a staff member constantly followed beside them, reminding Duke and the others not to touch any of the standing walls, as they were standard tofu-dreg projects.

"Hannah..." Duke pointed toward the gates to their front-left. "Set the blue screens up on the left side of the passage."

Then, he turned to the other side.

"Bill, position the Bow Launchers your team built right where the Deeping Wall meets the Hornburg."

This battle featured numerous shots of massive arrow volleys. To maximize realism, the crew had specifically constructed multiple Bow Launchers capable of firing hundreds of soft, blunt-tipped arrows at once.

"John," he finally called the director of photography over, still pointing toward the gates. "I need a lot of wide profile shots of the assault on the gates. Find a suitable place to set up the cameras and shoot with wide-angle lenses."

Duke was just a director; his most important job was coordinating the various departments of the crew.

Just as he had said, a movie was never the product of individual heroism, but the result of countless outstanding talents striving together in collaboration.

The group circled the Hornburg and the Deeping Wall, discussing many filming logistics, and didn't return to the crew's camp until mid-afternoon.

Even though it was the umpteenth time they had reviewed the set, there was no relaxation to be had for Duke, John Schwartzman, or any of the others.

Especially Duke as the director. On the eve of shooting one of the most critical sequences in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, he met with Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen, Orlando Bloom, and the other leading actors to discuss their respective scenes. Afterward, he went to the props and wardrobe departments to inspect the final preparations for their gear and costumes.

The races appearing in this battle were remarkably diverse. In terms of weapons and armor alone, there were the leather armor and chainmail of the Rohan soldiers, the full plate armor of the Uruk-hai, the exquisite armor of the elves, and more. Absolutely nothing could go wrong with any of it.

The wardrobe department in particular had to be up in the wee hours of the morning to join the makeup team in getting the actors playing the Uruk-hai dressed and made up. Transforming an ordinary stuntman into a terrifying Uruk-hai on camera took a bare minimum of six hours!

By the time he finished a broad sweep of the crew, the sky had grown dark. Returning to his trailer, Duke discovered that Ivanka Trump had also arrived on set.

"Didn't you say you were spending New Year's in New York?"

Walking into the front room of the massive trailer, Duke sat across from Ivanka.

"How did you get back so fast?"

"It was a bit boring in New York, just different parties every single day," Ivanka said, looking as if the thought gave her a headache. "When you were my age, you were already working hard for your future, but my peers in New York..."

"Most of them only know how to eat, drink, and play around," she said with a helpless sigh. "If I spend too much time with them, I feel like I'll just degenerate. I'm better off coming back to work."

Tina Fey was still in Los Angeles handling matters for Duke Studio, and Duke couldn't be without a trusted assistant by his side. Ivanka Trump's return to New Zealand fit his needs perfectly.

Soon after, the production raised the curtain on the Battle of Helm's Deep. The once-quiet valley became a place of clamor. Not only were shouts and roars a constant occurrence, but the agonized wails of the dying occasionally rang out as well.

During the shoot, however, Duke noticed that the rock faces on either side of the valley weren't particularly stable. He specifically had someone purchase a batch of hard hats from Wellington so that crew members filming near the mountainside could wear them for protection.

Massive battle sequences like this had always been Duke's specialty. The shoot went incredibly smoothly, right up until the Uruk-hai charged the gates of the Hornburg, where they encountered their biggest difficulty yet.