Chapter 645: A Youthful Mindset

"The China Film Group would like to invite Director Rosenberg to bring the entire cast and crew over to our side for a premiere next summer."

Mr. Wang spoke with deep sincerity. "If possible, please consider holding the global premiere of Transformers across the Pacific Ocean."

Before deciding to invest in this project, the China Film Group had conducted targeted research domestically. The generation born in the eighties had grown up and gained some financial independence. They were deeply passionate about their childhood memories, and Transformers was one of the hottest topics. There were even various Transformers fan associations across the country. All of this pointed to massive market potential.

Then there was the director. Initially, the China Film Group had some concerns about the style of The Dark Knight, and they had hesitated when importing it. But the name Duke Rosenberg carried astonishing appeal in the domestic market. In one fell swoop, The Dark Knight shattered Titanic's nearly decade-old domestic box office record, becoming the highest-grossing film in domestic history.

The China Film Group finally understood clearly: Duke Rosenberg's films perfectly suited their audience's tastes.

Duke didn't answer right away. Instead, he looked toward Jamie Jensen. Seeing the man give a slight nod, he roughly understood what was going on.

Warner Bros. collaborated closely with the China Film Group on theater chains and various other fronts. The massive success of The Dark Knight across the ocean had also proved the boundless potential of that market. They clearly didn't want to miss this opportunity to promote both the film and Warner Brothers.

Frowning in thought for a moment, Duke said to Jamie Jensen, "Warner Bros. is the film's distributor. Handle this according to your own judgment."

If they wanted a partner in that vastly promising market across the ocean, the China Film Group was undoubtedly the best choice.

Since they were investing in the film and extending a premiere invitation, script approval and film censorship certainly wouldn't be issues. Moreover, none of Duke's films contained anything targeting or subtly belittling the other side of the ocean. Aside from some Great Americanism, there was basically no sensitive content.

Of course, all mainstream Hollywood blockbusters heavily featured Great Americanism.

If they couldn't even accept that much, the other side wouldn't be importing Hollywood films in the first place.

The specific details would naturally be negotiated and resolved between Warner Bros. and the China Film Group. After seeing off Mr. Wang and Jamie Jensen, Duke's focus returned to the Transformers.

He placed a large Optimus Prime model and a Megatron model on his desk. These were limited-edition figures from the eighties that could be disassembled and transformed. Duke acted like a child who had just received his favorite toy. For an entire afternoon, he continuously took Optimus Prime and Megatron apart, transformed them, and put them back together...

He did this for only one reason: Transformers wasn't just a popcorn flick; it was a popcorn flick for teenagers. Duke's own mindset had grown too composed and mature. Through this process, he wanted to rediscover the feeling he'd had as a teenager touching a Transformer for the first time.

To make this film, he, as the director, had to maintain a sufficiently youthful mindset.

At the same time, just as he had said before, he had to keep in mind that the Transformers were a group of intelligent alien mechanical lifeforms, not just cold, clunky robots.

He needed to figure out during the pre-production phase exactly how to blend these fictional Transformers into the relatively realistic world of the film and give them genuine humanity. Whether Decepticons or Autobots, they were just like humans—each with their own thoughts and personalities.

Reassembling the Optimus Prime model, Duke's gaze fell on the base. The phrase inscribed there was undoubtedly the starting point for all of Optimus Prime's personality and convictions—freedom is the right of all sentient beings!

According to the script outline he had designed, Optimus Prime was a gentle and kind leader, yet he also possessed a cold and ruthless side. To uphold his convictions, he could betray his own species and side with humanity to become a "machine traitor," and he would, when necessary, sacrifice members of the Autobots, or even his own life.

"Freedom is the right of all sentient beings" was also a universal value. Regardless of how various countries around the world actually behaved, they always shouted this slogan loudly enough to shake the heavens. Thus, Optimus Prime's actions were backed by a powerful stance.

Film was Duke's greatest interest, and Transformers held extraordinary significance—it was where his past dreams resided.

How many children had fantasized about transforming and rolling out alongside Optimus Prime? How many teenagers had imagined soaring through the sky with Megatron? And how many people had never forgotten the beautiful memories of their childhood...

Transformers had even influenced the entire lives of many people.

Although, to some extent, any director making a film out of a generation's childhood dreams would become the prime culprit for ruining those very memories, Duke was willing to bear this blame for the sake of his own dreams—and for the massive commercial profits.

On July 10, 2007, Warner Bros. and Hasbro officially announced the greenlighting of Transformers. Duke's press conference for the new film had just concluded, and the topic immediately became a hot point of discussion among the media and movie fans.

The Dark Knight was still in theaters when Duke launched his new project, yet neither the media nor Hollywood was surprised. After all, in recent years, he had been producing films at a pace of one per year.

However, the media was deeply shocked by the subject matter and genre Duke had chosen.

The entertainment section of the Washington Post stated that they completely failed to understand Duke's choice, arguing that he had just made a profoundly deep film and absolutely should have continued down that path.

Kenneth Turan, on the other hand, pointed out in his Los Angeles Times column that Duke was preparing to return to his old ways.

Online, however, some Transformers fans were still quite worried. They feared that Duke would plunge Optimus Prime into a dark, gritty phase where he had to rediscover himself. For Transformers, that would be far too horrifying.

Naturally, Duke had no intention of using a dark and gritty style to produce a youth-oriented film like Transformers.

To be more precise, using that extremely dark style once was enough.

Furthermore, to complete a massive project like Transformers within a year, the support of the military was absolutely essential.

Duke had already gotten in touch with the Pentagon.

"Having so much filming experience, I'm fairly familiar with some of the procedures within the military." After receiving the Pentagon's reply confirming their participation, Duke joked to Tina Fey, "But I'm still a little worried, because many units have been deployed to deal with terrorists and might not have the time to look after us. After all, 'combat' is what soldiers truly care about."

Tina Fey subtly rolled her eyes. "I'm sure the soldiers would much rather fight aliens."

The audience watching the film would, after all, be human, and the North American market carried the most weight. Therefore, in the Transformers film, American soldiers would still play a very important role.

However, plotlines where a squad of American soldiers easily took down a Decepticon would not appear.

But according to the script's setting, mechanical lifeforms were still lifeforms. While certainly incredibly powerful—including Optimus Prime and Megatron—they were not invincible or immortal. They could still be injured by humanity's heavy weaponry and could even be killed if hit consecutively in vital spots.

With Transformers officially greenlit, aside from Tina Fey taking over Charles Roven's position, the members of Duke's team returned one after another, beginning preparations for this massive commercial blockbuster whose production budget alone would reach 200 million dollars.

This was a staggering sum of money. After pre-sales and slate financing resolved the majority of the funding, commercial sponsorships became the next major focus.

When the production team announced the roster of Autobots and Decepticons at an investment conference, along with their estimated screen times and scenes, most of the Autobots became prime cuts of meat in the eyes of automobile manufacturers.

General Motors packaged Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, and Ironhide; Hummer selected Ratchet; Lamborghini claimed Jazz, and Gulfstream snatched away the Decepticon Skywarp...

Aside from cars and planes, numerous other brands such as Burger King, Coca-Cola, Blue Ribbon Beer, Nokia, and Lenovo from across the Pacific Ocean would also appear in the film.

Barring any surprises, the scale of product placement in Transformers would set a new Hollywood record.

But the main characters lived in modern society, and these brands appearing in their daily lives was a perfectly natural occurrence. Furthermore, while Duke wasn't opposed to product placement in his films, he wouldn't create placements that felt overly forced and awkward.

If one factored in the filming vehicles provided by General Motors and the promotional assistance fees from various brands, the product placements alone would save the film nearly 40 million dollars in expenses.

The support from the Pentagon would also save the production team quite a bit of money. Of course, the crew definitely had to accommodate the military; the film would showcase various advanced equipment used by the US Military, which was actually a major selling point in itself.

Duke reserved most of the Decepticons for the Pentagon. For instance, Starscream would be an F-22 Raptor, and Brawl would be a modified version of the M1A2 Main Battle Tank...

After all, the support provided by the Pentagon was truly robust. The plans they proposed even exceeded Duke's expectations.

The crew could film on location at Holloman, Kirtland, and Edwards Air Force Bases, as well as the Pentagon and the White Sands Missile Range. They would collaborate with different military branches, and during filming, they could "borrow" high-end weaponry rarely seen by the public—from the CV-22 Tiltrotor Aircraft and the F-117 Nighthawk Stealth Aircraft to the C-130 Hercules Transport Aircraft, the C-17 Globemaster Transport Aircraft, and the US Air Force's ace, the F-22 Raptor.

Moreover, as long as Duke needed it, the crew could board an active-duty aircraft carrier for filming.

Aside from promoting their weapons and their own troops, the Pentagon's biggest request was to shape the image of the US Military. With the outbreak of those several anti-terrorist wars, the military recruitment rate had dropped to an all-time low. Much like they had with The Rock and Independence Day, the military fully intended to use Transformers as a recruitment advertisement.

Just like Top Gun, movies had always been excellent recruitment videos.