Chapter 691: Effort and Reward

"Sorry, Pat." Duke spread his hands in a helpless gesture. "I don't quite understand what you mean. I'm just a director."

Pat Kingsley knew Duke was playing dumb, but she explained anyway. "You're good friends with Leonardo DiCaprio. Why don't you persuade him to join Nancy's ICM?"

Duke shook his head. "You should talk to Nancy about this, not me."

Although he wasn't afraid of anyone, CAA included, he had no intention of blindly provoking people and drawing the entire industry's hatred.

With Tom Hanks gradually stepping back from acting to transition behind the scenes, Leonardo DiCaprio had become the biggest client of current CAA head Eno Martin. Everyone knew that to maintain a firm foothold in an agency operating on a partnership system, a roster of heavyweight clients was one of Eno Martin's greatest shields.

It was obvious that Pat Kingsley—who had once joined forces with Eno Martin to oust Martin Bob—was already maneuvering for the top chair at CAA.

With the departure of Michael Ovitz and Martin Bob, Duke's feud with CAA had long since ended. Although his relationship with Eno Martin was strictly average, and he still refused to accept CAA's packaging policy, that didn't mean he wanted to set himself against the agency again.

Having one less enemy was always better than having one more.

No company was a monolith. Internal struggles were perfectly normal. This was an internal CAA power struggle, and Duke had no desire to get involved.

To be precise, there was very little in it for him.

If Pat Kingsley went to Nancy Josephson to poach Leonardo, Duke wouldn't interfere. Several agencies were uniting against Michael Ovitz's Artists Management Company, but they operated much like the Big Six Hollywood Companies—cooperating while competing. Casually poaching from one another's rosters was completely normal.

Seeing that Duke had no intention of agreeing, Pat Kingsley said nothing more and quickly left.

"What were you talking about with Pat?"

Another person walked over and sat directly across from Duke. "She didn't look too happy."

"It was nothing." Duke took the wine glass Cate Blanchett handed him and took a sip with her. "Just some trivial matters."

Cate Blanchett set down her glass and suddenly said, "I have some news you might find interesting."

Duke gestured for her to continue.

"I heard people talking about it a while ago." Cate Blanchett stopped keeping him in suspense. "Pat wants to bring Mel Gibson back to Hollywood."

"Is that so?" Duke couldn't help but shake his head and smile. "Your Australian Gang is about to grow again."

He acted entirely indifferent, and in truth, he didn't care at all. Even if Mel Gibson returned to Hollywood, what could he possibly accomplish? This was a forgetful circle. He had been gone from Hollywood for almost fifteen years; even if he came back, he could only land bit parts in B-movies. Returning to the mainstream film industry was basically impossible.

Even with the past support of Sylvester Stallone and Robert Downey Jr., and a shorter absence from Hollywood at the time, Mel Gibson couldn't change his fate—let alone now.

The two of them hadn't really kept in touch since finishing The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and over the past few years, their relationship could only be described as average. Duke couldn't guess Cate Blanchett's motive for bringing this up, but he knew she hadn't come over just to make idle chat.

Like most people in Hollywood, Duke and Cate Blanchett soon began chatting about the situation with The Hobbit. As for what they were really thinking, only they themselves knew.

Indeed, The Hobbit trilogy, directed by Peter Jackson, was about to begin filming. Just like Duke, the plump New Zealander was adopting a strategy to shoot the entire trilogy back-to-back. Thanks to the success of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, which had created massive hordes of fans, Warner Brothers had given Peter Jackson a significant degree of trust and support.

In fact, Duke knew very well that as long as the trilogy's visual effects were guaranteed and the storytelling wasn't completely terrible, box office and commercial revenue wouldn't be an issue at all.

The day after the party, Duke went to Peter Jackson's office in Los Angeles to meet with him. The entire crew was about to depart for New Zealand. Just like before, the director had chosen his home country as the film's location.

Naturally, the New Zealand Government provided the crew with maximum assistance, from tax incentives to manpower.

Duke didn't stay long before returning to his own office, where Tina Fey was already waiting.

"Our competitors are starting to make their move."

Grabbing the coffee pot to pour herself a cup, Tina Fey sat down across from Duke's desk and said, "David Ellison's Sky Film Studio has been actively contacting several film funds lately. He also personally met with Michael Eisner and Relativity Company's Ryan Kavanaugh."

"So you're saying..." Duke lightly tapped his fingers against the armrest of his chair. "He has his eye on Disney's projects?"

"To be exact, four massive blockbuster projects," Tina Fey said, setting down her coffee cup. "TRON: Legacy, Robin Hood, Battleship, and Alien Battlefield."

She shrugged. "If his funds weren't limited, he'd probably have a hand in the other projects, too."

Duke nodded slightly. "The liquid capital David Ellison has on hand can't exceed 300 million dollars."

Larry Ellison certainly had tens of billions of dollars in assets, but that was a completely different matter from David Ellison, and assets were not the same as liquid capital.

Right now, what Hollywood and those film funds on Wall Street lacked wasn't assets, but liquid capital.

From this perspective, Duke—who had prepared long in advance and held plenty of cash on hand—was a trading partner they simply couldn't refuse.

At this moment, Tina Fey added, "There's also good news. We've basically reached an agreement with Relativity Company regarding four projects: Twentieth Century Fox's Avatar and X-Men: First Class, as well as DreamWorks Animation Studio's The Croods and How to Train Your Dragon. Our fund is acquiring their shares in these film projects at forty percent of Relativity Company's original investment price."

"Sign the agreement as soon as possible."

This was indeed good news. Duke gave Tina Fey a thumbs-up. "Well done, Tina."

"Thanks." Tina Fey laughed, then joked, "I'm making money for myself here too. Don't forget, I have my own share of investments in the fund."

Effort required a reward. This was the most basic rule of business. In this world, there was no such thing as someone willingly serving another without taking any compensation.

Duke understood this very well. The core members of his team were the highest earners for their respective positions in the industry. People like Tina Fey also received a portion of shares in some of his investment funds as a reward.

Expecting people to give their all for you without offering real gold and silver—was that even possible in this society?

Tina Fey had worked for him for over a decade, and the trust between them was truly extraordinary. Beyond elevating her position, Duke had never neglected her financial compensation.

"Continue negotiating the rest," Duke instructed. "Especially the projects at Disney."

Those were truly very special projects. Even now, Duke couldn't figure out what Michael Eisner was thinking to greenlight so many massive productions.

Aside from those four, there was also Alice in Wonderland and Pirates of the Caribbean 4. If it hadn't been for the support of film fund slate financing plans, Disney would absolutely never have taken the enormous risk of launching these projects alone.

Hollywood always loved having someone else foot the bill for their production costs, even if the funds came from Wall Street.

Now that Wall Street was teetering in the storm, these film funds—which weren't massive, well-established, or financially robust corporations to begin with—showed only average risk tolerance themselves.

Two days later, Duke arranged to meet with Relativity Company's Ryan Kavanaugh at a private club in Burbank.

"Let me put it this way, Mr. Kavanaugh."

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Duke got straight to the point. "How long has Relativity Company's headquarters in New York been besieged by investors? And how long has it been since you made a public appearance?"

Just like all investment funds, the capital Relativity Company used to invest in films didn't come from their own pockets or a few isolated individuals.

"Every project Relativity Company invests in is high quality!" Ryan Kavanaugh refused to back down. "If they weren't, there's no way someone with Director Rosenberg's eye would be interested in them, right?"

"Indeed, I believe these projects have the potential to turn a profit."

Shifting into a more comfortable sitting position, Duke wagged a finger at him. "Don't forget, the current economic situation is grim, and few companies are willing to invest in the film industry. Hollywood is experiencing a severe cash shortage right now. Major studios are tightening their credit lines and slashing expenses, and the Big Six Companies have already delayed and axed numerous projects this year..."

Pausing for a moment, Duke added, "The economy in North America might recover over the next two years, and Hollywood will return to its former prosperity, but can Relativity Company afford to wait until then? I'm confident it won't be long before you and your company receive court subpoenas. Those furious investors will tear you apart."

This was a business negotiation, so Duke saw no need for pleasantries. "As far as I know, quite a few of your investors are heavyweights."

Ryan Kavanaugh opened his mouth, but nothing came out.

"Relativity Company needs a massive injection of capital to break out of this current predicament." Duke tapped his chest. "Right now, I hold enough cash to bail you out!"

"Forty percent is too low!" Ryan Kavanaugh shook his head.

Duke stood up. "This is already a very fair price. If you think it over and decide to accept, you can call Miss Tina Fey directly."

Leaving Burbank, Duke took a car toward the Hollywood District. He still had an awards ceremony waiting for him tonight.