In late May, Duke returned to New Zealand. After two long years of preparation, the preliminary work of the Lord of the Rings trilogy was completely concluded and the filming was about to begin.

Taking advantage of the time before the filming started, Duke had a detailed discussion with several important cast members. He still found Howard Shaw in terms of the soundtrack. The other party had just completed the soundtrack of Peter Jackson's "King Kong" and wanted to take a break, but in the face of enough salary, the soundtrack work of the trilogy was not a problem at all.

Afterwards, Duke met Andy Serkins, who came to New Zealand for a special trip, who also ended his work in "King Kong", but he seemed particularly interested in motion capture. He almost didn't take much effort, so the crew signed him with Guru's actor contract.

However, both of them needed to take a vacation and left New Zealand after getting the relevant script.

This will be a trilogy with a total production cost of US$350 million. Accompanied by huge investment, there will inevitably be corresponding publicity.

Before the filming of the Lord of the Rings trilogy was about to begin, Duke canceled the crew's news silence. Warner Bros. and even Time Warner Group also invited a large number of media to New Zealand to prepare to witness the start of the trilogy with overwhelming reports.

What is not very harmonious is that on the day of the press conference of the opening ceremony, a large number of "The Lord of the Rings" fans from Britain and the United States gathered outside the set of Wellington, who strongly protested the adaptation of the series into a movie.

Although there are some negative effects, it also adds topicality to the film.

In fact, movies are the same as celebrities. What is worse than being discussed is that no one is talking about them.

These protesters were fine, just ignore it. It took a lot of attention to dealing with the brigade of reporters. After a whole morning of press conference, Duke felt that his head was almost becoming two big. If it weren't for a considerable number of problems, it would be really hard for the reporter's madness to be resisted.

The situation on the scene is not difficult to understand. No film project will invest such terrifying funds nowadays, and it is recognized as the most difficult adaptation of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

According to Hollywood's conventional practice, even if you plan a series of movies, you will only shoot one first to try the waters. Otherwise, when encountering a situation like "Cutting the Throat Island", the first one will make the second-tier film company bankrupt, and the trilogy will be filmed at the same time. If something goes wrong, even Warner Bros. will not be able to bear it.

Regardless of the protests of book fans or the criticism that the media will inevitably have, the trilogy has been prepared for now, and filming is imperative.

After the press conference ended, he only symbolically filmed a pure prop scene. Today's work came to an end. The crew would have a dedicated person to the subsequent reception and public relations. There was no need for director Duke, who personally took action. He went back to the office on the set.

“There is a list of interim assistants on set.”

Seeing Duke walk into the office, Tinafe handed a list to him, "You'd better take a look."

These things are something that Tinafei can make decisions, and Duke couldn't help but wonder, "Is there something special?"

After taking the list, Duke frowned slightly, "Isn't it a duplicate name?"

"I've seen the temporary work contract," Tinafe said with certainty, "is Erin's sister, Jane Lauder, and Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump."

"What do they want to do?" Duke asked again, putting down the list, "two people are in Wellington now?"

"Do I need to call them?"

Tinafe looked here, and after Duke nodded, he picked up the phone on his desk and started calling.

About ten minutes later, two girls in blue work clothes in the crew knocked on the door and walked into Duke's director's office. Ivanka Trump was a little restrained, while Jane Lauder greeted him openly.

“Hi, Duke.”

"Sit, Jane Evie, sit casually."

The two girls sat on the bench opposite, and Tinafe poured them a glass of water for each. Duke thought for a while and asked, "Why are you here in New Zealand?"

"We're on vacation." Jane Lander thanked Tinafe, and showed a bright smile to the side, "I want to find a place to work and increase my work experience..."

She looked at Duke, and saw that Duke's expression had not changed, she gently poked Ivanka Trump with her arm. Seeing that she had no intention of speaking, she had to continue, "A temporary job that can train yourself and get a good salary is not easy to find at all. We just happened to know that your crew is hiring temporary workers, so we plan to come and try our luck."

Duke nodded. After all, these two girls were not ordinary people. He reminded him, "If you encounter a problem, you can call Tina. And..."

"Don't worry," Jane Lauder said first, "We will definitely work hard and will definitely not be a trouble for the crew."

"Tina, leave your phone number to them."

After Tinafei handed the business card to the two girls, Duke waved his hand at them, "You guys keep going to work."

"Uh..." Jane Lander was stunned.

Duke looked at her and asked, "Is there any problem?"

"No more." Ivanka Trump pulled Jane Lauder and said, "We won't disturb you anymore, Duke, treat you to dinner someday."

Not long after Jane Lauder and Ivanka Trump left, Duke hung up two calls to New York each, and then said to Tinafe, "Change them to your assistant group."

Needless to say, Jane Lauder is all Erin's sister, and Donald Trump is working with his mother's Santa Fia, and Duke also knows how to do it.

The crew of "The Lord of the Rings" is extremely large. Duke controls the entire crew through members of his team. The Hollywood crew is extremely complicated. If these two girls encounter inexplicable harassment later, he will definitely not find it strange.

But Duke didn't expect that in just half an hour, Erin Lander called back, and then Jane Lander came over to say goodbye to him, took the evening flight, and obediently returned to Los Angeles.

In contrast, Donald Trump seemed to be very relieved about his daughter here, so he called him in the evening and asked Duke to help him take care of Ivanka Trump.

There are always close ties between the rich people in New York, and even for the sake of Santa Fia's partners, Duke will not refuse.

As the morning sunlight fell, a large number of journalists gathered at the door of Wellington's set, but the treatment they enjoyed was completely different from yesterday and they were completely blocked at the door.

These guys who were born after the news rushed forward rushed up as soon as they saw Duke's car coming. If the driver hadn't slowed down in time, they might have had entertainment headlines tomorrow.

Regardless of the reporters outside the car, they didn't go to see the book fans who were holding banners to protest. Duke sat in the back seat and whispered to Tinafei about work. He didn't get off the car and walked towards the studio until the car squeezed into the set from the reporters.

The "Lord of the Rings" trilogy officially starts filming today!

The first scene Duke prepared was Gandalf vs. Saruman.

Walking into a small studio, it was mainly arranged as the interior of Aisinger and Yuema Hotel. Duke convened the heads of multiple departments such as deputy director, photography director, art knowledge, lighting guidance, etc. to hold a brief meeting. Everyone led their subordinates to begin to make intense arrangements in the venue according to the plan formulated in advance.

"Your coffee."

As the assistant came over to deliver the coffee, Duke turned his head and glanced. It was Ivanka Trump who was adjusted to the assistant group by Tinafei. He nodded to her and said, "Thank you."

He took the coffee and took a sip, frowned slightly, put it on the director's desk, and walked towards the place where the four actors gathered without saying anything.

Although there are only two characters in this scene, Gandalf and Saruman, the crew prepared four actors.

Ian McLean and Christopher Lee are both 150 years old together. The action scenes that they are on stage in person would cost two people their lives.

Needless to say, a stand-in is a must-have choice.

In fact, it is not difficult to use the two of them. Saruman and Gandalf both have long hair, and the long hair that they sway when they fight will naturally cover their faces. As long as the stunt stand-in is a little careful, the shooting will not be difficult.

This scene was once the most criticized by movie fans on the other side. It was too irritating to think that wizards actually fought like warriors.

But they all overlooked the important point, this is not an original movie, and the wizard must follow the original settings.

In Tolkien's original work, wizards are not professions, but races, and they have strong melee capabilities. Gandalf, Saruman and even Sauron are all Maiya, and they are not the so-called wizards in those online games.

Therefore, every time an enemy attacks, Gandalf's preferred combat method is to draw a sword. Melee combat is one of the most powerful combat abilities of a wizard.

Moreover, the wizards in the Lord of the Rings need spells. Faced with enemies with equally strong melee ability, will two powerful wizards be so stupid that they recite spells?

This is a movie, not an online game! Shooting movies in the form of games is called seeking death.

Why did Peter Jackson make such a scene? Is it really too poor to do magic special effects? Is that possible? He just follows the basic settings of the original and the movie.

Those ideas that always add gorgeous magical effects to the battle between Gandalf and Saruman can only be said to be beautiful wishful thinking...

The first thing this film is to target the entire Western audience. Duke is very clear about the audience group that will pay for the film. Therefore, "The Lord of the Rings" must first conform to the Western viewpoint. As for the viewpoint of what wizards do not use magic and why they do not hire kung fu guidance, they are all not within his consideration.

The crew has prepared for this for two years, and Gandalf and Saruman's styling has been discussed and implemented countless times. All Ian McClain and Christopher Lee need to do is to show off their wizard faces in front of the camera, and the fight is completed by stunt stand-in.
Chapter completed!