Chapter 5

Duke exited the Warner Building, his spirit a mix of hope and determination. Despite facing numerous setbacks throughout the day, he remained relentless in his pursuit of opportunity.

Hollywood always pays attention to connections, qualifications, and successful experience. Duke's resume in this area is almost zero. If there was a box office of million dollar or even 100,000 dollar film under his resume, he will definitely enjoy a different kind of treatment

Unfortunately, this is the most difficult step to enter this circle. For Hollywood, opportunities is often more important than talent.

Opportunities are created and strived for. If you do not strive, opportunities will never appear.

For the next ten days, Duke was like a Spartan who never dies in fighting spirit, going in and out of the various film companies in the greater Los Angeles area, Paramount, Disney, MGM, Universal Pictures, Sony These first-tier companies in Colombia have left his footprints; second-tier companies such as New Line and Carlock, as well as the newly emerging Miramax offices in Los Angeles, have also witnessed his busyness.

In this short and long period of time, Duke sent out a copy of the script, received countless rejections, and smashed his head in Hollywood without flinching!

After he went to all the larger film companies, he temporarily stopped looking for opportunities from the film companies. The remaining micro and small film studios did not need to go. They themselves did not have the strength to invest in films of this level, nor did they raise funds. A channel of tens of millions of dollars will never produce such a relatively high investment film.

In July, when everyone was marveling at James Cameron's "Terminator 2", Duke began to find ways to walk around the well-known producers, including Jerry Bruckheimer, Catherine Kennedy and Jon. Landau, Anne Spielberg and others have been harassed by him, but the answer is still no.

Not all companies and producers are optimistic about this script. Paramount and Jerry Bruckheimer thought the script was interesting and were interested, but shook their heads at Duke's request for being the director.

Even if Duke offered to sell them the script for a symbolic dollar price in exchange for the opportunity to direct, the answer was still no.

They and Duke are neither friends nor relatives. A ten-million-dollar investment and his young qualifications pose insurmountable obstacles. Even if Duke insists it's a sure bet, they aren't willing to risk such a large sum on a director with no successful experience.

Apart from producers and production companies, Duke still has a way to seek investment from banks or foundations. Although there are not as many film investment funds in Hollywood in this era as in the future, there are several.

In Malibu, Duke finally met a film fund manager.

"I have produced two experimental films, all A grades graduated from the California Academy of Arts in Film and Video, which can't explain any problems..."

This is Duke's few qualifications that can be obtained, obviously unable to play the aug film fund.

Although the big Hollywood companies often resort to fraudulent accounts and underreporting the box office to cheat the funds of these investors that's because they have strength to do it, Duke obviously does not have the conditions to extract large sums of money from these vampires.

When nearly ten days passed in July, Duke, who was hitting a wall everywhere, had no choice but to embark on the road that was reserved as first option, and the road with a higher probability, that's to find his mother's best friend, who was famous in Hollywood and the world. The illustrious George Lucas.

Duke really wants to win opportunities with his own ability, but he is not a person who does not know how to work. It is not a shame to use all the favorable conditions to create opportunities for success.

Of course, he took this as the final filing.

The previous company or producer would not give him too much time. Even if Duke makes some preparations, there is no room for display.but Seeing George Lucas is different. Duke is not going to Lucas Film.He was directly going to Lucas' manor in the suburbs of San Francisco.

Before going, in addition to the script, Duke also planned to shoot a video.

This is a film where the main plot will appear on the car. Duke's filming is naturally related to the car.

He found his 16mm camera from the storage room and swiped his credit card to buy the film. The worker who came to his house to mow the lawn every week acted as the driver. He drove several times on the empty beach promenade in Santa Monica. , He himself took several shots in the co-pilot and outside the car, and it took half a day to basically get it done.

Just when Duke edited this video clip, added a heavy metal soundtrack after silence, and turned it into a videotape, an informal meeting about his script was quietly unfolding in the office of the CEO of Warner Bros.

"Kevin, I think the script of "speed" has a certain degree of operability."

The speaker was Jeff Robinoff, whom Duke had met. He suggested to CEO Kevin Tsujihara sitting in a large office chair, "If you can shoot the thrills embodied in the script, And the nature of life racing against time and speed..."

"Jeff..." Kevin Tsujihara raised his hand to stop Jeff Robinoff's words, and looked at his assistant next to him, "Robert, what's you're opinion

Robert Solomon, who carries significant influence, rested his arm on the chair's armrest, chin in hand, pondering for a moment before stating, "There's a situation. You can look at Duke Rosenberg, a former CAA-signed artist who was dropped by CAA this year. You know how CAA operates, if he had potential, they wouldn't have abandoned him."

"And..." He removed his hand and clicked on the script on the desk. "It's definitely not a wise thing to invest millions of dollars in a work by someone without any qualifications!"

Speaking of this, he specially emphasized, "Don't forget, he also asked for the position of director! A 21-year-old who has not made any official films, ha ha..."

As Executive Vice President, Robert Solomon's meaning is very clear, and what he said is heavier than Jeff Robinoff, and Jeff Robinoff doesn't mean to insist. After all, from a practical perspective, The risk is indeed a bit big.

"That's it."

CEO Kevin Tsujihara thought for a few minutes, "This script will temporarily be shelved and included in the script library."

Duke, who had just entered Lucas Manor, didn't know that,he just mised chance in the discussions of several senior Warner Bros leaders.

After parking the car, Duke greeted the people of Lucas Manor familiarly. Although the number of visits here has decreased in recent years, he was a frequent visitor before entering the university.

Perhaps it was because Lucas's sons and daughters who went on a trip. The manor looked very quiet. Duke walked around the fountain and walked into the spacious living room. There were no people here, only George Lucas sitting in a low chair. Waiting for him.

"Uncle George..."

Saying hello politely, Duke put his bag on the small table in front of him, and when he sat in the chair, George Lucas looked at him with interest, "Why isn't it called George."

Smiling slightly, Duke didn't answer the conversation. In the past, he could sell for a small amount, but of course he can't do that now.

"Just call me George as before."

The two families have had friendship for more than 20 years. After the servant brought the black tea, George Lucas was not polite and stretched out his hand directly, "What about the script you said on the phone?"

"Here."

Opening the bag, Duke handed over the script with less than two hundred pages. When he called yesterday, he mentioned the script, "I went to many companies in Hollywood in the past month or so."

"I heard people from CAA mentioned it,"

Turning over the script, George Lucas looked at it and said, "Duke Rosenberg's incompetent son of Leah Rosenberg of the Advertising Company, naively wants to be a director."

Duke frowned and quickly returned to normal.

After the two said few words, George Lucas stayed silent and devoted his energies to the script. Duke has met many people this month, and this is the first time anyone has read so seriously in front of him. The script, and this person is close to his family, which is a kind of irony.

At the same time, Duke, who has been wandering around the edge of this circle, has seen the extremely realistic side of Hollywood. Without qualifications, connections and achievements, it is like a weed that no one pays attention to.

Hollywood would rather invest heavily in bad films of famous people than look at newcomers.

It took nearly an hour before George Lucas put down the script. He picked up his teacup and took a sip of the cold black tea, and asked Duke, "Anything else?"

"I Have!"

Taking out the carefully crafted videotape from the handbag, Duke walked to the TV cabinet, turned on the TV and VCR, and stuffed the videotape in. After a short snowflake, there was no editing picture with too much post-processing, accompanied by a drumbeat. The soundtrack was presented on the TV screen.

This image is not complicated. It always switches between the front wheel of a car and the speedometer, but the spinning wheels and the pointers hovering above 50 are obviously edited carefully, and the length of each short shot is definitely not more than One second, frequent and smooth switching can easily trigger a sense of tension in people's hearts.

Although the picture is a bit monotonous, George Lucas took it very seriously. He naturally thought of the setting in the film that the bomb would explode below 50 miles, linking these to the image...

"Duke, come and sit down."

George Lucas motioned to Duke to turn off the TV, then pointed to the opposite chair, "Dazzling sports shots, sharp editing style, very good."

"Uncle George..."

"George." Lucas corrected.

"Well, George."

When Duke sat down, George Lucas completely changed his attitude of business affairs, "The script is not very good, at best it is a medium-to-average commercial script. In Hollywood, a good idea can be made into a bad movie. An idea can also be made into a good movie, and the role of the director is extremely important. If the script is handed over to an experienced director, there is a half chance that it will be profitable."

Hearing these words, Duke showed a helpless smile, and George Lucas's meaning was very obvious.

"I have seen your estimated production cost. Even if all the special effects of the film are given to Industrial Light & Magic, the cost cannot fall below tens of millions of dollars."

In an instant, Lucas turned from a businessman to an elder again. "When it comes to such a large amount of investment, even Lucas Film has to be cautious. Duke, you are still young. You will hve to experience for a few more years then the future.There will be a chance."

Afterwards, George Lucas stopped mentioning the movie-related content, and turned the topic to Duke's mother, talking about some things that the two had started when they were young, and did not let Duke leave until dinner.

Not long after the black Chevrolet disappeared from the entrance of the manor, the phone in the living room suddenly rang.

"George, it's me."

The voice in the receiver was obviously Leah Rosenberg, "Have you seen Duke?"

"Yes."

"I want to talk to you about Duke. Are you coming to Los Angeles, or I shall I come to San Francisco?"

"I will come."