Made in Hollywood

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Duke knew very well that neither he nor Peter Weir were the directors the academy liked. The other had made films that mocked the entire film industry, and he was a commercial director through and through.

Therefore, even if it has an advantage, Duke has never been slow to act in this regard.

Most of the people who have been involved in the Christopher Rockencourt incident have either implicitly or explicitly expressed their support for him, especially Frank Pierson, vice-chairman of the College Rotating Committee, who conveyed through Nancy that he would This year's Oscars support "The Return of the King".

In the period before Christmas, in addition to filming "Hurricane Rescue", Duke continued to take time to participate in various parties. Even if he did not need to go to the field to canvass votes in person, he still had to show an active fighting attitude.

And the large-scale party held by the Duke Studio under various names is held every week, and the people present will not return empty-handed.

Elaborately crafted luxury DVD sets are a must for the judges to appreciate the film. With DVDs, they also need playback tools. Duke Studio will lend the judges a batch of disc players specially made by Sony Electronics. The return time is unknown to everyone.

The Lord of the Rings series of porcelain custom-made by Royal Albert is just a small souvenir attached...

By Christmas, only dvds and souvenir china, Duke Studio has distributed tens of thousands of sets, taking care of every student member and every possible intersection.

Strictly speaking, this must have touched the bottom line of the academy. But in today's Oscars, almost every project in the competition is doing this, and some may even go too far. As long as it is maintained within a certain range, most of the time the academy will keep its eyes open.

Even if the academy couldn't bear it, they would drag two small fish out to start the operation to warn others that Oscar has been around for so many years, especially since the 1990s. The trend of public relations is becoming more and more obvious. Has the college ever dealt with famous people?

The Weinstein Brothers have a lot of PR tricks. Did the Academy warn them directly?

Spend Christmas with my mother in New York. Duke returned to Los Angeles, temporarily handing over PR to Penny Kelly and Nancy Josephson to lead the crew on a charter flight to Paris, the fashion capital. The final location shoot for Hurricane Rescue begins.

Although France is famous for producing literary films. But looking at the annual French film rankings, it is not difficult to find that the top ones are always commercial films, and even commercial films from Hollywood. As the most representative director of Hollywood commercial films, Duke led the crew and just appeared in Hong Kong. Soon on the Elysees, it was surrounded by swarms of journalists and movie fans, which for a time made it impossible to continue filming.

"Looks like I'm still quite famous in France."

Duke stood behind the camera while the crew's security staff maintained order. Self-deprecatingly said to Tina Fey, "But now I prefer to be unknown."

A gathering of fans and journalists. It will inevitably affect the shooting, even if many people have begun to consciously obey the order.

"You should have a clear understanding of this." Tina Fey handed Duke's water cup over and continued, "After I went to the East, I found out that your influence is really great, you are The most famous Hollywood director over there, people who know Hollywood over there, may not know Steven Spielberg, but they basically know you."

Duke laughed, very happily.

"I once went to the cultural market in the big city over there and communicated with some people."

In recent years, Tina Fey has gradually become the actual manager of the Duke's studio. She is obviously understanding the market. You can see your CDs everywhere, and it’s also one of the best-selling CDs, and many people over there got to know you and your movies through the CDs.”

"Unfortunately..." She shook her head. "The discs I saw were not authorized by us or Warner."

Tina Fey looked at Duke suspiciously, "I once proposed to sue them, Duke, why did you veto it?"

"Spending countless energy to fight a cross-ocean lawsuit?" Duke shook his head. "Do you think it's worth it, Tina?"

Let alone 2003 now, even more than ten years later, in his last period, copyright was often empty talk, and including him at the time, countless people were the beneficiaries of unfavorable copyright protection...

There are some things that are truly worlds apart from seeing and doing.

Duke never imagined that he could change the general situation of a circle or even a country by himself.

"And, Duke, how are you going to respond to their invitation?"

Tina Fey went over this time, and also met an official in charge of the film affairs opposite. The other party represented a certain department and sent an invitation to Duke again, hoping that he could choose a suitable time next year to go with the film. across the Pacific.

With the 9/11 incident and the signing of a package of agreements such as the WTO Memorandum of Understanding on Movies, more and more Hollywood production crews appeared there. "Revenge of St. Andrews" went to a city famous for its landscapes there.

And according to 20th Century Fox's plan, "Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith" will be released simultaneously in China and the United States.

The hungry wolves in Hollywood have already aimed at that huge market, waiting for the other party to mature, and then open their mouths wide.

"Return to Warner and ask Warner's international distribution department to talk to them."

In fact, after Tina Fey returned to Los Angeles and conveyed the invitation of the other party, Duke was thinking about this issue, and now he has made a decision, "If the other party agrees that "Hurricane Rescue" can be released simultaneously in China and the United States, I can Premiere in the past."

Since the other party has repeatedly invited and Sino-US relations are also easing, Duke also decided to go and see, maybe it can further increase his popularity. After the explosion of the vast market in the future, his films can also burst into staggering results.

With the passage of time, the order of the temporary set improved, the crew adjusted and quickly resumed shooting. The shots here were basically not difficult. Liam Neeson and a French actor stood on the side of the visor and made a simple conversation.

Due to the noise on the set, Duke abandoned the live recording and re-dubbed it in post-production.

Due to the large-scale onlookers of reporters and movie fans, several scenes that were originally planned to be filmed in two hours took a full day. When night fell completely, Duke led the crew back to the hotel.

Back at the hotel, Duke found that Ivanka, who was on a business trip in London, was also in Paris.

"Is the British thing done?"

Taking her back to the room, Duke asked, "Is it okay?"

He poured a glass of water, walked to the sofa, and handed it to Ivanka, who was sitting on it. Ivanka took a sip before saying, "It's okay, we have reached a promotion agreement with two companies in the UK, our website It will officially enter the UK market and the European market."

"The speed of development is really fast." Duke couldn't help but sigh.

Ivan Kara gave Duke a moment, and when he was sitting next to him, half of his body habitually leaned over and said, "If you hadn't helped me take a key step in a large-scale promotion, it would not have been possible to develop so fast."

"Don't forget, I'm also a shareholder." Duke reached out and pinched Ivanka's nose lightly, "I'm still a member of the board of directors."

"Named member." Ivanka muttered.

Duke laughed, lowered his head and kissed her on the cheek. Most of the time, the shares he was sharing instantly were handed over to David as an agent.

"Although the company is developing very fast, it has not really generated profits yet." Ivanka seemed a little worried, "I still owe a lot of debt to the bank."

The expansion of any company requires huge funds, and instant sharing is no exception. Duke has enough funds, but Ivanka does not. Except for the control of her own trust fund at the age of 21, other Funding is basically from bank loans.

It's not that Duke didn't mention that he could help her with the funds, but Ivanka refused.

In fact, it is not difficult for Duke to guess what Ivanka thinks. She can focus on Duke in life, but she still wants to maintain a certain degree of independence in business.

This is not surprising, it is the most normal situation in this business society in North America.

"I heard that Google is preparing to go public?" Ivanka asked suddenly.

Duke nodded, "Well, if nothing else, it should be the second half of next year."

"Will I witness the birth of a miracle?" Ivanka deliberately put on a curious look, "Will you become a billionaire?"

She remembers very clearly that although Google has carried out several rounds of financing and share expansion, Duke's shares have been diluted to a certain extent, but through continuous investment, he still owns 25% of the share. According to the outside world's various views on Google This kind of optimism, and Wall Street's analysis predicts that once Google goes public, the value of this part of the shares will inevitably become a huge wealth figure.

"Dear..." Duke gently embraced Ivanka's waist, "You will not be bad in the future."

With the current development speed of instant sharing, if it goes public in the future, it may not create a miracle of wealth.

Ivanka blinked and suddenly said, "What do you think about us listing the company's operations?"

"Now?" Duke frowned slightly, this is not the first time Ivanka has mentioned it.

She brought up the idea after returning from New York, when Duke was busy shooting a new movie and didn't take it to heart.

"I think the opportunity is okay, the IT industry and Nasdaq are both recovering." Although Ivanka has this idea, she is still seeking Duke's opinion, "The number of registered users of the website has also exceeded 5 million. What do you think?"

"Wait a while." Duke thought for a while and said, "We'll wait for Google to go public, and then observe the situation first."

After thinking for a while, Ivanka nodded, "Well, just wait for a while." (To be continued..)