Made in Hollywood

Monster movies have always had a certain market in North America, and King Kong has been remade countless times. After Naomi Watts became popular through "Chicago", Universal Pictures must have paid a high price to choose such a movie. It's not easy to invite a popular movie star to play in a movie with monsters as a partner, and first-line actresses rarely play such roles.

Duke could vaguely guess that there must be a reason behind Nancy Josephson's persuasion and promotion. She invested a lot in Naomi Watts, and of course she wanted to make more money when she became popular. Hollywood actress's The preservation period is relatively short. After the age of forty or even thirty-five, even if they are reluctant, most actresses will go downhill.

While no one will say it outright, chasing young and beautiful women, not just in Hollywood, is a very common mentality in this patriarchal society.

Later, so many older actresses went crazy for injections, not hesitate to turn themselves into zombie faces, but also maintain their youthful and beautiful appearance, which can be said to be the best portrayal of the actress's own development.

However, Duke did not say it, and Naomi Watts must understand this. Few actresses will pretend to be elegant and refuse commercial films. They do not have enough box office appeal. Even if they win more awards, they will be Meili at best. El Streep's awkward position.

At this point, who doesn't want to be one of the top actresses?

If you want to become a top actress in the circle, you can be like Tom Cruise and now Julia Roberts, without the recognition of academic awards, but must have excellent box office appeal as support.

After leaving the lounge, Duke took Naomi Watts around the studio. In fact, there was a busy construction scene here, and there was nothing to see. The two walked around casually and went to the special effects studio where the props team and ILM's team were located.

"Is this a squid?"

Standing in front of the prepared batch of special effects props, Naomi Watts asked curiously, "Futuristic sci-fi creatures?"

Across a layer of glass windows, the squid exudes a metallic luster all over its body, and several long legs hang down like springs. There are also the presence of thorns, saws and other cold lights, and the dense red eyes on the ferocious metal face make it look even more hideous.

"This is a mechanical squid." Duke beckoned to Collins and walked behind Naomi Watts. "Some of the villain's minions in the movie."

Naomi Watts pointed to the mechanical squid's face, "It looks so ugly."

"Honey, I'm not shooting Beauty and the Beast." Duke shrugged. "The villain has to look like the villain, or is it still a Hollywood commercial?"

After more than ten years of development in the U.S. film industry, not only Hollywood has formed a streamlined commercial production model, but even mainstream audiences in North America and the entire Western world have also formed inherent movie concepts. Most of the time, it’s not that directors don’t want to innovate. Instead, innovation often faces huge risks, and risks represent failure most of the time.

The success of commercial films is often the result of the accumulation of multiple elements, and failure, only one aspect is enough to make the audience dislike it.

Except for the mechanical squid model. The special effects team also made models of hovercraft and some wheat fields, especially the densely packed wheat field models erected on the chassis. And the 'huge machine' that stands in it, even if it is reduced in scale, it looks extraordinarily realistic.

"What are these for?" Naomi Watts asked curiously, looking at the wheat field.

"It's for planting things." Duke pointed to some mechanical models that were more than a foot high. "When the planted things are mature. They are responsible for picking."

"What exactly are you planting?"

"Human babies." Duke shrugged. "The people in the film are no longer embryonic, but are grown by something like this. To be exact, mass-produced."

"Sounds like a great idea." Naomi Watts rolled her eyes. "I regret it."

Duke turned to look at her, she smiled and said, "I regret not continuing to work with you."

Although she said so, Naomi Watts knew very well that she absolutely could not accept the low salary offered by the crew for the heroine.

After walking out of the special effects studio, the two of them left the studio, Duke looked at the time, "It's noon soon, if you don't mind the humble restaurant on Fox's set, I'll invite you to lunch."

"Okay." She took Duke's arm. "We haven't had lunch together in a long time."

Sydney at the end of July is the lowest temperature of the year. The weather today is not very good. The sun is completely hidden behind the dark clouds. Fortunately, although it is winter here, there is no need to worry about snowflakes. Duke is tight. Subcoat, and Naomi Watts picked up the pace a little, and quickly walked into a restaurant that is only open to the inside of the Fox Studios.

Like most Hollywood studios, the Fox studio in Sydney is also divided into two parts: Fox Studios and a production area. The former is entirely a tourist facility and the latter is a soundstage.

Under normal circumstances, the latter will not be open to the outside world at all, otherwise the crew will not say normal shooting, I am afraid that even meals will become a problem.

"Hi, Duke."

As soon as he walked into the restaurant, someone greeted him, and when Duke passed by, he also greeted the other party, "It's early today, Liam."

"My scene ended quickly." Liam Neeson said with a smile, "I came out a little earlier."

Duke looked at the restaurant. "Where's George? Are you still busy?"

Liam Neeson knew he was talking about Lucas. "The heroine came over from New York, and George seems to be talking to her."

After introducing him and Naomi Watts again, Duke went to wash his hands, took the dinner plate, and chose a few suitable meals with Naomi Watts, and found a round table by the window, Sit back and prepare a meal in peace.

Like Sofia Coppola said, George Lucas' "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace" was filmed at Fox Studios, and they were stationed in a larger studio than "The Matrix." It's still early, and now it's in the shooting phase.

"When does The Matrix start filming?" Naomi Watts asked.

Swallowing the food in his mouth and taking another gulp of juice, Duke said, "It's not until September at the earliest, maybe later."

Naomi seemed to sigh with emotion, "You are so cautious every time, just like when I first met you, confident but never arrogant."

"Only adequate preparation can avoid failure as much as possible." Duke seemed to take it for granted, "Pre-preparation will not become easy just because I have a few successful films. Any negligence may lead to the failure of the film."

Just as in the beginning, Duke never thought that he would succeed easily. Even if he was cheating, without the accumulation of decades of past and present learning, the so-called reference to success is just a delusion.

Success in this world is never easy. It requires constant effort and struggle to accumulate. Failure is just the opposite. When you relax and think that you should succeed in everything you do, you are infinitely close to failure.

The two chatted while eating, and occasionally talked about interesting things they had together in the past. Naomi Watts was a woman who grew up in a Western-style atmosphere. Duke was also nurtured by Western culture for more than 20 years. They will take the past events to heart, and now the status of the two of them is different from the past, so some thoughts will naturally fade.

Duke is neither stupid enough to seduce A-list actresses with scripts and characters, nor stupid enough to delusionally control a woman's life, and Naomi Watts after experiencing "Independence Day" and "Chicago" and many other blockbuster movies , firmly seated in the position of the first-line actress, although facing the top directors are naturally in a weak position, but they do not need to deliberately please anyone.

To be precise, more than ever, they have a basis for equal dialogue.

"You know, Duke." Naomi Watts said after putting down her knife and fork, "After the fire on the set, especially your comfort and concern for me in the hotel, I used to go crazy. I was infatuated with you, and even wanted to be your girlfriend at all costs."

What happened in the past was talked about after the filming of "Chicago", Duke didn't care, just asked curiously, "What happened later?"

"Later I found out that you don't put your mind on any woman." Naomi Watts shook her head with a chuckle, "At least not in the short term, no one will maintain a relationship that pays and gets no return. ."

"Looks like my mom said the same thing."

Duke muttered, and when he raised his head, he found that George Lucas was walking towards him with a dinner plate, followed by a petite girl.

"Do you mind if I sit here?" George Lucas asked, then sat on the side of the round table near Duke.

Duke laughed. "Just sit down."

Then he greeted another, "Sit whatever you want, Miss Portman."

The girl looked taller than the last time we met, but she was still thin and thin, she put down the dinner plate, said thank you first, then pulled up the chair and said, "Nice to see you again, Luo Schenberger director."

"Just call me Duke."

"Then... nice to meet you, Duke."

She reached out a hand and Duke gave it a light shake. "Nice to meet you, Natalie."

"I can call me Nat." Natalie Portman looked very polite. "My friends call me that."

Duke nodded, looked at George Lucas, who was eating by himself, and said to Natalie, "Is your Broadway show over?"

"Yes, it's over," she replied.

"I'm sorry I couldn't go to your show."

Hearing Duke's words, Natalie smiled lightly, "It doesn't matter, you must be very busy with work. And I met Mrs. Leah at the party after the show." (To be continued ~^~)

PS: This is an automatic update~~~