Chapter 581: Countermeasures

Leaning back in his high-backed chair, Duke breathed a sigh of relief. The situation was nowhere near as dire as he had imagined.

The projector was already off, though the others in the room were still debating countermeasures. Propping his chin on his left hand, Duke searched his memory—past, present, and future—for every film leak and related news report he could recall.

Perhaps too much time had passed, making it difficult to awaken those distant memories. But after several minutes of hard thought, his eyes lit up.

Much like the concerns that had driven him to draft strict security protocols when he first transitioned fully to digital technology, three specific films flashed into his mind: Wolverine, The Expendables 3, and The Interview.

Though to varying degrees, all three had suffered early leaks. Aside from The Expendables 3, which had bombed at the box office, Wolverine and The Interview had both been relative successes.

The Expendables 3 could be tossed aside immediately, and the success of The Interview offered no real reference either. No matter what Duke did, there was no way to link Iron Man to Kim Jong-un—or currently, Kim Jong-il.

His thoughts shifted to Wolverine.

Slowly, a flood of related memories surfaced.

Produced by Twentieth Century Fox, the prequel had been plagued by negative press from the very beginning of its shoot, leading to poor word-of-mouth during test screenings. Then, right before its wide release, the online leak broke. It had been an incredibly bumpy ride.

However, if Duke remembered correctly, the film's opening weekend box office in North America still exceeded 85 million dollars. By any metric, it was a success.

Gradually, Duke recalled more details. He had seen the leaked version of Wolverine himself. It had also been an incomplete workprint missing visual effects, but it differed from Iron Man. The Wolverine leak hadn't contained watermarks or timecodes to disrupt the viewing experience, and it had only been missing a portion of the CGI, mainly for the final battle.

It wasn't like Iron Man, which was essentially just a rough cut stitched together by Duke and Mike Dawson.

"We need to issue a joint statement urging fans to boycott online piracy..."

The speaker was Kevin Feige, CEO of Marvel Pictures. "...and then contact people to scrub the posts from the internet."

"We also need to call the police," someone else added. "And request support from the MPAA."

"Everyone!"

Duke clapped his hands lightly. After drawing everyone's attention, he said, "Having watched the leaked version just now, I don't think the situation is as bad as we anticipated. In fact, if we handle it well, this might actually benefit the film."

"Benefit the film?"

Doug Walter and the others had clearly been influenced by the historical precedent that an early leak equaled a box office failure.

Duke knew perfectly well that even if he said nothing, it wouldn't take long for these people to figure it out themselves. But time was of the essence; the sooner they acted, the better.

"I want to remind everyone of something. What is the main draw of a superhero movie, or more specifically, of Iron Man?"

Before anyone could answer, Duke provided the answer himself. "First, the visual effects. Second, the charisma of Tony Stark."

At this, Doug Walter had a sudden realization. "In the leaked version... you haven't added any CGI effects yet."

"Exactly." Duke brought up his other point. "And how does the film showcase Tony Stark's personality? It relies heavily on Robert Downey Jr.'s performance and dialogue..."

Kevin Feige naturally picked up where Duke left off. "I remember you telling me. Nearly seventy percent of Tony Stark's lines require ADR from Robert Downey Jr. during post-production."

With those few words, the heavy atmosphere in the conference room instantly lightened.

But figuring out how to turn this disadvantage into an advantage was the real point of Duke's argument.

"The leaked version is missing the most critical parts of the film," he continued. "I don't believe it will impact the box office. As long as we handle this well, it could even draw more people into theaters."

Doug Walter, Kevin Feige, Penny Kalis, Jamie Jensen—the eyes of everyone in the conference room focused on Duke.

Duke didn't look at them. Instead, he turned toward a young assistant in the corner, whose job was to refill coffee and handle chores. "You saw the leaked version online just now too," Duke said. "What were your thoughts after watching it? It's fine, just say whatever comes to mind."

Perhaps Duke's final remark gave him enough encouragement. The assistant thought for a moment and said, "I work at Warner Brothers, but I've never seen a film actually being shot or produced. After watching it, I realized that this is how movies are made. I was really curious about how the actors wearing those tight gray and red suits transform into Iron Man, and what it will look like when they actually fight as Iron Man..."

From the assistant's words, it wasn't hard for the people at the table to hear that his curiosity had been piqued.

A brief silence fell over the conference room before Jamie Jensen, head of the Warner Distribution Department, broke the quiet. "I understand what Duke means. A significant portion of the people who watch the leaked version out of curiosity will also become Iron Man's theatrical audience out of that exact same curiosity."

"But the vast majority of the people watching the leak," Kevin Feige countered, "were likely already planning to see Iron Man in theaters anyway."

Doug Walter chuckled. "As long as we don't lose a massive swath of our potential audience, we can entirely accept that."

"It's more than just that." Duke tapped his fingers lightly against the armrest of his chair. "A massive production like Iron Man leaking early is absolute headline news. Even people who have zero interest in superhero movies will pay attention to this. That is what we can exploit."

"Furthermore, the more something is restricted, the more interested the public becomes."

With that, Duke looked toward his PR manager. Penny Kalis had worked with him for years, and with this hint, she instantly understood. "Since the leaked version itself doesn't hurt us, we can absolutely mobilize the media and hype this incident into a focal point of public attention."

"Entirely feasible," Jamie Jensen agreed.

"Also, we need to draft a strongly worded public statement," Doug Walter added.

Duke nodded slightly. "We report this to the Los Angeles County Police Department and the FBI. Every website that has re-hosted or shared the leak needs to be investigated. We leverage our connections to ensure the FBI conducts their investigation as loudly and publicly as possible, and we have our media outlets shadow the actions of the FBI and local police to report on them in real-time."

The matter certainly wouldn't be quite that simple, which Duke knew perfectly well, but those websites would just have to consider themselves unlucky.

Regardless of who the mastermind behind the scenes was, if they wanted the FBI to coordinate with the news coverage to some degree, the case would inevitably have to be cracked by them in the end.

Duke knew there was no way this would implicate certain people, but given the current situation, uncovering the true culprit was temporarily unimportant. The priority was hyping it into a societal hotspot, turning Iron Man into the center of public discourse.

Next, the two sides began to hammer out the finer details. Duke only needed to steer the general direction; the specific execution would naturally be handled by professionals.

The meeting ran until nearly midnight. As he walked out of the Warner Building, Duke suddenly thought of a possibility.

Wolverine had been drowning in negative press during production and suffered terrible word-of-mouth during test screenings. Yet, after the leak incident, its theatrical release achieved relatively good results. No matter how you looked at it, it didn't seem like a coincidence. Instead, it looked exactly like a meticulously planned marketing strategy.

But this was merely Duke's conjecture. Now, with Iron Man blazing the trail, Wolverine inevitably wouldn't get to enjoy those same perks in the future.

The night passed. Early the next morning, Warner Brothers and Marvel Pictures convened a joint press conference and issued a public statement across various media outlets under the names of Duke, Warner, and Marvel.

"Yesterday, a stolen, incomplete, early version of Iron Man was illegally posted on certain websites."

"Many visual effects shots, voiceovers, and the musical score are not present in this version, and certain scenes have yet to be edited. We immediately contacted our copyright legal department and had these websites remove the content. The film was watermarked, so we can trace the source of the leak and the individuals providing the download."

"Whether it is the person who initially leaked it or those who subsequently distributed it, we will pursue legal action against them in accordance with the law; the courts have ruled on similar cases in the past. Furthermore, the FBI and the MPAA have already intervened in the investigation. Many fan websites have expressed their support for us and have widely condemned this criminal act. We are deeply encouraged by this. This behavior not only harms the production crew who put immense effort into the film, but it also harms the fans."

At the same time, the media outlets closely affiliated with Warner began to aggressively hype the incident.

"An incomplete, pre-effects version of renowned Hollywood director Duke Rosenberg's new film, Iron Man, has suffered an online leak, marking what could be called the most severe early leak of a Hollywood blockbuster in history! It is safe to say that this leak is highly significant and has widespread implications. Warner Brothers has officially filed a report with the FBI and stated that the company will pursue legal action over the broadcasting of the leaked version. Truthfully, the ultimate consequences of this incident are impossible to predict."

Obviously, these media outlets wanted to fan the flames and turn this into a major talking point.

Furthermore, Time Warner's CNN dispatched a dedicated team to shadow the FBI agents handling the case.

Warner's famous gossip site, TMZ, also mobilized an army of paparazzi to dig deeply into every possible angle of the incident.

Due to the impact of the leak, Warner Brothers conferred with Duke and immediately canceled the test screening scheduled for late April. Given the current circumstances, a test screening was no longer necessary.

Over the following days, only those who typically followed entertainment news paid attention to the matter at first. However, as the media continuously tracked the story, more and more people began discussing its developments.

Especially after a few operations conducted by the FBI, the Iron Man leak incident became the focus of attention across the United States.