Chapter 732: An Epoch-Making Film

"Bring a packaging deal to Duke?"

Turning his head, Leonardo looked at Eno Martin with absolute seriousness. "Are you sure I could pull that off?"

"Given your relationship," Eno Martin said naturally, "it shouldn't be too hard, right?"

A decade ago, Leonardo might have said or done some stupid things, but not anymore. At his current position, countless people wanted to use him. He never completely trusted anyone—especially not agents.

"Eno," Leonardo DiCaprio said, turning back to watch Bar Refaeli in the ocean. "Do you think I'm still the same simple-minded idiot I was ten years ago?"

"Leo..."

Eno Martin tried to say more, but Leonardo waved him off.

"I turned down Nancy Josephson's invitation and stayed with CAA because you've done a good job these past few years. Now, it seems I was being naive."

"I didn't mean anything by it," Eno Martin defended himself.

"If I did as you asked and Duke agreed, of course you wouldn't. Forcing a packaging deal onto Duke Rosenberg's crew would be groundbreaking business for both you and CAA."

Although he had no immediate intention of jumping ship, Leonardo needed to give his agent a little warning. He had the leverage to do it; at his level, CAA was merely a service provider.

"And if it fails?" Leonardo asked coldly. "Did you consider how it would affect my relationship with Duke?"

Eno Martin fell silent. Leonardo DiCaprio had clearly seen through his intentions.

"Duke hates packaging deals, and he hates random garbage interfering with his sets," Leonardo said directly, completely ignoring his agent's expression. "That's exactly why he refused to return to CAA."

He looked away and rubbed his fingers together.

"If I pitch CAA's packaging deal to Duke," he continued, "it will just disgust him and ruin our relationship. Then the chances of ICM's Nancy Josephson poaching me become practically zero, and I'd inevitably have to rely more on you and CAA, right?"

Leonardo scoffed.

"I told you, I have no intention of leaving CAA right now!" he said sternly to Eno Martin. "But if you keep pulling this kind of stunt, it'll be hard for me not to reconsider."

"I'm sorry!"

This was CAA's ace client, one of the most valuable assets in all of Hollywood and the world.

Eno Martin could only lower his head slightly. "I'm very sorry, Leo."

"This is the last time!"

Having delivered the warning, Leonardo added, "I'm taking Duke's project. Make sure you notify him."

With that, he lay back on his beach chair, not giving Eno Martin another glance.

'I clearly underestimated Leonardo...'

With an inward sigh, Eno Martin didn't linger. He turned and walked off the beach.

When Bar Refaeli returned from the water, Leonardo left the shade of the umbrella and walked back to their rented seaside villa with her. They had just finished showering when he received a call from Tina Fey.

"Hi, Tina," Leonardo said into the phone. "This role is definitely mine; nobody is taking it from me. Also, isn't Duke on vacation? Tell him I'm waiting for him in Spain. What? He left North America for New Zealand? Alright, when he gets back from New Zealand, I'll go find him in Malibu and we can take a boat out."

Just as Leonardo DiCaprio had heard, Duke only stayed in New York for a few days before flying to Wellington with Scarlett. Their destination was the Weta Studio soundstages, because Twentieth Century Fox had sent word that James Cameron's masterpiece had completed its preliminary cut.

Inside a small screening room at Weta Studio, Duke, James Cameron, Peter Jackson, Richard Taylor, and representatives from investors like Warner Brothers and Twentieth Century Fox sat quietly. Each wearing a pair of 3D Glasses, they took in James Cameron's monumental work.

Duke had seen the film more than once in his past life. The version he was watching now had a fair number of differences, but overall it was still the same Pandora Star, and the visual effects were still dazzling enough to blind a person!

Even though the film was still unfinished and had certain flaws, the viewing experience it delivered was absolutely mind-blowing.

"Originally, I thought your Transformers had already achieved the very best in terms of visual effects..."

The screening ended, and they took off their 3D Glasses.

Even though she was extremely biased toward Duke, Scarlett Johansson still spoke to him in a low voice. "...but after seeing Avatar, I realize that the technology in Transformers is far too outdated."

That was not an exaggeration at all. In Duke's own opinion, this Avatar was absolutely unparalleled in terms of technology and visual effects.

James Cameron completely deserved the title of film technology pioneer.

"Now this is an epoch-making film!" Duke sighed in admiration.

What Avatar would bring wasn't just huge box office returns and commercial revenue, but a revolution across the entire film industry.

No matter how much certain people criticized the film for being all style and no substance, there was no denying that, much like Titanic, it had changed the entire landscape of the global film industry.

Afterward, Jamie Jensen from Warner Brothers and an executive vice president from Twentieth Century Fox gathered the main investors—including Duke—into a conference room to discuss the film's marketing and distribution.

Duke didn't say much from start to finish, however. The people from Warner Brothers and Twentieth Century Fox were far more professional in this area than he was. Furthermore, Avatar had an ample marketing budget. Even though James Cameron had only spent $230 million on production, the project had carved out a total of $300 million for marketing and distribution, entirely based on Duke's recommendation.

Moreover, to grab public attention during the promotional campaign, they were bound to market it as a massive $500 million blockbuster!

Just like when Duke had made wild claims while promoting Fury Road, half the things said during a film's promotional campaign couldn't be taken seriously.

The visual impact of the film gave Warner Brothers and Twentieth Century Fox plenty of confidence. The two companies would integrate their resources to the maximum to promote Avatar on a global scale.

As one of the film's largest investors, Duke would naturally support this with everything he had.

Having attended this small-scale screening of Avatar, Duke was finally at ease regarding the film. He and Scarlett didn't linger in Wellington, rushing straight to Queenstown, where Peter Jackson was currently shooting with The Hobbit crew.

Because they had opted to shoot all three films back-to-back, filming had already been ongoing for nearly a year.

As a tech-oriented director, Peter Jackson was also utilizing quite a few new technologies. He had been shooting The Hobbit at 48 frames per second—standard films were 24 frames per second. Increasing the frame rate was perhaps a way to achieve smoother, more fluid 3D visual effects. It wasn't just Peter Jackson; James Cameron was also promoting the technology.

"The footage looks absolutely razor-sharp; everything feels much more immersive. It makes the 3D effects smoother and clearer."

Hearing Peter Jackson say this, Duke watched the playback of the edited footage.

He offered some of his own thoughts as well. "It looks like a made-for-TV movie. There's an issue with the contrast; the contents of the frame look either too bright or too dark."

The advancement of film technology was always exciting, even if it was fraught with controversy along the way.

Duke didn't interfere too much with Peter Jackson. After all, the 48-frame prints of the film would only have a limited release; mainstream theaters would still just screen the traditional 24-frame version.

Leaving Queenstown, he and Scarlett flew back to North America, but they didn't head to New York or Los Angeles. Instead, they once again arrived in the deserts of New Mexico. Duke hadn't forgotten that he was still a major shareholder of Marvel Comics and the producer of the Marvel Series films; Thor was currently filming here.

Compared to Iron Man Tony Stark and Captain America Steve Rogers, Thor's reputation was much smaller. At best, he was considered a second-tier hero in Marvel Comics. However, the successive successes of Iron Man and Captain America had already built up enough confidence for Marvel Pictures, and the Marvel film brand was growing louder by the day.

Moreover, for the sake of Duke's planned The Avengers, shooting this kind of film was a necessity.

After all, the film rights to Spider-Man and the X-Men from The Avengers weren't in Marvel Comics' hands, and trying to get them back was far too difficult. They could only choose heroes with the right popularity and abilities from among their other characters.

When Duke arrived, the crew had just entered the filming stage. Although Thor was a second-tier hero, thanks to Marvel's marketing, the film still attracted quite a few media outlets and reporters.

When it came to casting Thor, Marvel Pictures had generated a whole series of news stories. Before filming even began, all sorts of rumors regarding who would play the role flew everywhere. Brad Pitt, Channing Tatum, Daniel Craig, Charlie Hunnam, Tom Hiddleston, Alexander Skarsgard, Liam Hemsworth, and Joel Kinnaman had all been candidates at some point.

However, based on Duke's advice, the crew ultimately selected an inconspicuous minor actor: Liam Hemsworth's brother, Chris Hemsworth, landed the highly anticipated role.

Chris Hemsworth had a unique advantage when it came to playing Thor, because he had previously worked as a construction worker in Australia and had plenty of experience swinging a hammer. And the God of Thunder's weapon just so happened to be a Warhammer.

Of course, the female lead of the film would no longer be Natalie Portman.

The female roles in these types of films didn't require great acting skills at all; what they needed was a sufficiently beautiful and sexy appearance. An Australian actress whom Duke had absolutely no impression of ended up snagging the role of Jane Foster.