Chapter 869: Public Opinion Storm

"It's so late..."

Opening the door, Duke looked out and frowned slightly when he saw Tina Fey. If it had been the housekeeper, Emma, it would only be a household matter. But since it was Tina Fey, it had to be urgent business.

"What happened, Tina?"

Duke was still bleary-eyed from sleep, but Tina Fey had no time to wait for him to fully wake up.

Leaning against the doorframe, she said, "A serious shooting just occurred during a screening of The Dark Knight Rises at the Santa Monica Commercial Square."

"What?"

Scarlett happened to walk over, pulling on a coat.

"A shooting? How could that actually happen?"

Duke's heart sank slightly, but he maintained his composure.

"What are the casualties?" he asked in an even tone.

"More than ten people, at least..." Tina Fey shook her head. "I just got the news. The exact situation isn't completely clear yet."

"Keep checking for updates," Duke said, glancing back at Scarlett. "Get dressed."

Tina Fey left the doorway and went straight to Duke's study. Duke and Scarlett quickly washed up, changed their clothes, and joined her ten minutes later.

Walking into the study, Duke immediately asked, "Any new updates?"

"I just called the Los Angeles County Police Department," Tina Fey said, sitting at the computer and continuing to scroll through the screen. "They already held a press briefing, so there should be new updates online any second now. Captain Lee Pace said the situation is extremely serious."

Ever since filming Speed, Duke had maintained a good relationship with the Los Angeles County Police Department.

"Got it!" Tina Fey said. "There's news about it on Instant Sharing."

Hearing this, Duke and Scarlett hurried over and stood behind her to look at the screen. Not only was there news, but the description of the entire incident was incredibly detailed.

"At 12:30 AM today, the most tragic event in film history occurred inside the Santa Monica Commercial Square Cinema in Los Angeles.

"At the time, renowned Hollywood director Duke Rosenberg's superhero epic The Dark Knight Rises—'the most likely contender for the 2013 box office crown'—was screening...

"Thirty minutes into this film, which carried the high expectations of numerous American media outlets and fans, a tall, heavily armed man dressed in a purple suit and Joker makeup entered Theater 9. He first threw smoke grenades, then took advantage of the spreading smoke to open fire randomly into the audience.

"After leaving 12 dead and 59 injured (a figure that is still continually updating), the man calmly walked out of the cinema and was immediately arrested by the police. When apprehended and asked for his name, the man replied in a low voice—'I am the Joker.'

"This response allowed the police to immediately rule out terrorism, preliminarily identifying it as a copycat crime. Although this information released through unofficial Los Angeles Police channels has no further suspect testimony to corroborate it yet, eyewitnesses at the scene claim the shooter also shouted—'I am the Joker!'—while firing wildly into the theater. These details have cast a shroud of mystery over the tragedy, making this the second-largest mass shooting in the United States since the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre."

Soon, more and more updates flooded the internet. Survivors of that nightmare posted pictures from the scene via Instant Sharing. "Gruesome" didn't even begin to describe the nightmarish state of Theater 9.

Information continued to pour into Duke Manor in Malibu. Calls kept coming in, and Duke and Tina Fey rapidly dialed out one after another.

"Don't worry, darling." Opening the car door, Duke looked at Scarlett Johansson, who had walked him all the way out to the villa's entrance. "Everything will be fine," he said comfortingly.

Scarlett knew what she had to do. She forced a smile and nodded at him.

Even though it was still a while before dawn, Duke got into the car and rushed to the Warner Building in Burbank with Tina Fey.

As the sky was just beginning to lighten, Duke walked into the top-floor conference room of the Warner Building. A large group had already gathered there: Doug Walter, Jamie Jensen, Penny Kalis, Nancy Josephson, Charles Roven...

The current toll stood at 12 dead and 59 injured. The news cast a heavy gloom over the conference room; the executives even pushed The Dark Knight Rises's freshly released $36.27 million North American midnight screening box office figures to the back of their minds.

Once Warner's core executives and Duke's key team members were all present, Jamie Jensen spoke first. "Public opinion will inevitably turn against us. It will definitely affect The Dark Knight Rises's box office momentum. I just spoke with the Los Angeles County Police Department; the shooter really did dress up as the Joker during the attack, and he also called himself the Joker."

With an incident like this, it was completely impossible for the film to emerge unaffected.

Everyone present, including Duke, was well aware of this.

"Deploy our media outlets," Doug Walter said without a second thought. "Try to steer the narrative to frame this as an isolated, individual act. Also, as soon as the sun is up, Warner's publicity and PR departments must immediately draft a strategy and launch a crisis PR campaign."

"Regardless of the shooter's motives, the massacre happened in a theater showing The Dark Knight Rises," Penny Kalis pointed out. "We need to take some sort of action too, especially regarding the casualties."

Duke, who had been quietly sitting and drinking his coffee, finally broke the silence. "Nancy, you're in charge of coordinating with Christian Bale's agent and PR manager. Contact the police and the hospitals as soon as possible. Bale and I will go visit and pay our respects to the injured."

The tragedy had already occurred, and dodging the issue wasn't a solution; they could only try to defuse the fallout as much as possible. Besides, shootings weren't exactly a rare anomaly in this country—several were bound to happen every year.

The most crucial task was guiding the direction of public opinion.

The people in the conference room gradually dispersed to handle the sudden crisis, leaving only Duke, Doug Walter, and Jamie Jensen behind.

"We also need to guard against our competitors," Jamie Jensen warned. "Warner has practically become the industry leader over the past few years. There will be plenty of people who want to see us stumble."

Duke gave a slight nod. The same logic applied to him. He had faced a few setbacks, but overall, his career had been smooth sailing. Plenty of people would be waiting to watch him become a laughingstock.

"The Dark Knight Rises's North American box office will be dragged down." Doug Walter was clearly pained by this—though his heartache certainly wasn't for the dead or wounded. "It might fall short of our projections."

Compared to the problems Warner and The Dark Knight Rises were about to face, the shooting victims weren't even on their radar for discussion. To be precise, Duke and the others didn't care about the feelings of the casualties at all.

Every coin has two sides, and Duke had already seen the flip side. "North America will indeed be dragged down, but this incident will inevitably trigger worldwide attention. It will be a massive help in boosting The Dark Knight Rises's overseas profile."

Duke's name was certainly famous enough, but on a global scale, the people who actually walked into theaters to watch his movies were still a minority within a minority. Many simply didn't have the habit of going to the cinema. But such a sensational incident would inevitably pique the curiosity of the general public: exactly what kind of movie could inspire someone to imitate its villain and go on a real-life killing spree?

To a certain extent, human society's development stemmed from curiosity, and the film industry was no exception.

As long as there was curiosity, the desire to watch would follow. That desire created potential viewers and the possibility of them buying movie tickets, DVDs, or other merchandise.

Therefore, stepping outside the shooting-scarred North American market and looking globally, this wasn't necessarily a purely bad thing.

Of course, the North American market was Hollywood's foundation. Duke and Warner Brothers would never just stand by and watch The Dark Knight Rises meet its Waterloo in North America.

But there was certainly no shortage of people in Hollywood who wanted to see The Dark Knight Rises fall.

This was a fiercely competitive circle to begin with, and over the years, Duke and Warner Brothers had snatched up far too much market share.

In an office on Wilshire Street, Beverly Hills, David Ellison was in an exceptionally good mood. Both he and his assistant felt that the man named James Holmes had vented their frustrations on their behalf. Duke Rosenberg's movie would inevitably take a hit, and they were already preparing to add fuel to the fire.

"Contact our friendly media outlets," David Ellison instructed his assistant. "Have them trace the root cause of the incident directly back to the movie."

"I know what to do," the assistant nodded.

Few people knew that the plans they had previously formulated through a web of secret channels were actually closely connected to this very incident.

In a manor not far away, Sumner Redstone was drinking his morning tea. Reading the newspaper, he told his personal assistant, "Have the company's media keep a close eye on this incident."

"And what will our stance be?" his personal assistant asked tentatively.

Sumner Redstone didn't say a word; he merely looked up at him.

"I understand, Mr. Redstone," the assistant immediately replied.

Whether from Viacom's perspective or Paramount Pictures', they were competitors—even though they had recently been, and still were, jointly suppressing News Group.

It wasn't just Sumner Redstone and Viacom. At the News Group headquarters in New York, Rupert Murdoch, who had recently been overwhelmed with trouble, had just finished a meeting; his media outlets would also be heavily following this incident.

He knew he couldn't deal too massive a blow to Warner, but he hoped to force the major media conglomerates that were constantly pressuring News Group to temporarily shift their attention elsewhere.

Walt Disney and Sony Entertainment formulated the exact same strategies. They were all biding their time, waiting for an opening. If they could make The Dark Knight Rises's box office flop over this, nothing could be better.

The shooting was just the beginning of the storm; an even larger tempest of public opinion had only just raised its curtain.