In mid-February, Duke assembled his own post-production team and hired the editor McDowson, who he worked with for the third time in a row, to officially start the post-production of "Independence Day".

In fact, if there is no extremely cumbersome computer CGI special effects synthesis, Duke is confident that all the post-production work will be completed in May, but unfortunately the special effects can not save time and effort, and the special effects team of Industrial Light & Magic began to produce special effects in October last year, except for the special effects scenes in the Super Bowl commercial, other special effects pictures are the prototype.

All the air combat scenes in the film need special effects compositing, and Duke also needs to edit the actors into special effects shots, even at the time of filming, the modeling department produced 3,978 F-18 fighters, 52,278 fragments, 3,931 alien fighters, 1,549 missiles and 22,014 light spheres, and "Independence Day" still needed close to 4,000 CGI special effects shots, which is a huge project.

Because he had to cooperate with the special effects department, Duke's post-production work can only be described as turtle speed, and he always has a feeling that he has nowhere to use special effects.

Computer special effects are quite tedious and professional work, and Duke can make his own requests and dictate the scenes that are being made, but letting him go into battle himself is completely beyond his ability.

In this way, the work is completed every day, and Duke also has plenty of time to exchange soundtracks with the soundtrack, and originally according to his idea, he wanted to continue to hire Hans Zimmer as the soundtrack of "Independence Day", but after "Death Island", the German signed a contract with Walt Disney to serve as the soundtrack of "The Lion King".

Without Hans Zimmer, Duke would not have regretted it, and found Skywalker sound effects, who are good at operatic soundtracks, and handed over the soundtrack of "Independence Day" to his former collaborator.

In the post-production, Duke never forgot about safety, fire prevention was a top priority, and the benefits of working with Warner Bros. and Twentieth Century Fox at the same time were also revealed, almost no one used unconventional means to compete with the crew of "Independence Day", after all, there are very few people who are impulsive enough to provoke the two giants at the same time, especially since the project also involves hundreds of millions of dollars in investment, and if you use means that violate the bottom line, you will face the wrath of Time Warner and News Corp.

Compared with so many bad things that happened during "Brave Death Island", "Independence Day" has been relatively smooth from preparation to filming to today's post-production.

The reasons for this are complex.

The first is the cooperation between the two giants, which is enough to escort the film.

The second is that Duke has fully proved himself in the past two summer files, proving that his films have strong competitiveness in the summer files, and now the huge production cost of 100 million US dollars has come, making many competitors such as "Forrest Gump" take the initiative to back down, although the summer file basically has heavyweight films released every weekend, but it is better to touch other films than to touch a masterpiece like "Independence Day".

Last but not least, Duke's biggest competitor is in turmoil.

Since October last year, there have been rumors in Hollywood circles that Michael Ovitz, the helmsman of CAA, wants to transfer up to 28 percent of his shares in CAA, leave the brokerage industry that has worked hard for 20 years, and instead invest in a large media conglomerate, accepting the invitation of his childhood friend Michael Eisner to become the new CEO of Walt Disney.

Although Michael Ovitz has not officially stepped down, the CAA has inevitably begun to turmoil, and many people have launched open and secret battles around Ovitz's stake and position, even with Michael Ovitz's prestige, he cannot suppress the internal disputes in the company in the face of such huge interests.

Perhaps Michael Ovitz has no intention of suppressing it anymore, and is bent on becoming a platform far beyond CAA and realizing his greater ambitions.

In fact, it is not difficult to see from Michael Ovitz's choice to go to a higher place that the future of the rumored and mythical CAA, in terms of strength and influence, is far inferior to the six major Hollywood companies, otherwise Ovitz would not have made the most risky and failed transformation of his career.

When the opportunity arises, both Ron Meyer and Michael Ovitz, the founders of CAA, can't wait to jump ship to the studio, which is enough to say a lot.

However, Duke remembers very well that Ron Mayer was relatively successful at Universal Pictures, while Michael Ovitz could only be described as a failure at Walt Disney.

Perhaps Michael Ovitz is indeed a supergenius and a unique giant in terms of agents, however, ruthless facts have proved that those who can control CAA may not be able to control a film company, according to the analysis of countless people, there is only one reason for Ovitz's failure - lack of ability, or lack of ability to control a behemoth like Disney!

There are reasons why Michael Eisner is too strong, but let's not forget that entering the top of the power structure in any large company will inevitably lead to a complex personnel struggle, and the loser will have a thousand reasons, but in the end, it is a matter of ability.

In any case, the CAA is in trouble right now, and the internal giants are fighting for power, and according to Duke's analysis, they should have no time to worry about anything else in the last six months.

When Michael Ovitz went to Disney, CAA reorganized the internal relationship, and "Independence Day" was at least screened in North America for a period of time.

At that time, he will be the partner that major companies are actively striving for, and it is far from being something that CAA can suppress at will.

In fact, Universal Pictures and Walt Disney have not broken their ties with Nancy Josephson in recent months, and "Independence Day" is no hope of investment, but Duke has another script on file with the Writers Guild.

Whether it is an independent director or a commercial director, in Hollywood, after all, it depends on commercial results, if the film directed continues to bring income, investment will never be a problem, if the film directed is only popular - such as some Oscar-level directors - often years or even longer, it can win a chance to take the helm.

Despite being one of Hollywood's hottest rookie directors these days, Duke has always kept a clear head, and he knows very well that Universal Pictures and Walt Disney and Nancy are only in contact with each other, in a state of wait-and-see and waiting, waiting to see the box office results of "Independence Day", and if the film fails, these people will inevitably turn away, and the cooperation or something is just a joke.

"There's good news."

At the end of the afternoon's work, Duke had just returned to the office, and Sophia, who was flipping through the text, raised her head and said, "Your private accountant David just sent a financial statistic that the second part of your salary on Independence Day, $2 million, has arrived. ”

This is indeed good news, according to Hollywood practice, the basic remuneration of cast and crew is paid in three installments, Duke has already received $2 million of the total $5 million base remuneration when the film starts shooting, another $2 million will come in as the film is completed, and the last $1 million will wait until the film is released in North America.

"Anything else?"

Pulling a chair over, Duke sat across from Sophia's desk, "Hasn't the rest of the overseas share of "Death Island" arrived yet?" ”

"The stats are out." Sophia handed the financial statements directly to Duke, "I just called Warner and asked the money to arrive in October at the earliest." ”

"October?"

Duke sighed, Warner Bros. management is really picky, this is forcing him to put all his effort into "Independence Day".

However, this did not go beyond the scope of the contract, and Duke could not say anything, and looked at the numbers in the financial statements.

Now, "Death Island" has been removed from all overseas markets that have signed share agreements, and in addition to the box office share from the last settlement, Duke Studios can also receive $2.1 million from the overseas box office, and the other major revenue of videotape and TV rights, Duke Studios also shared a total of $500 in revenue.

The share of income from "Death Island" also came to an end, and Duke used an investment of $10 million in exchange for more than $27 million in income, even if it is placed in the whole of Hollywood, the investment-income ratio is very high.

Although only part of the $27 million belongs to him, it is still much more cost-effective than a simple salary.

"Is there any progress in the copyright negotiations?" Duke hasn't forgotten the film adaptation rights he wanted to buy.

"Nancy is still talking." Sophia shook her head, "It's not going well. ”

A lot of problems, in fact, to put it bluntly, are a matter of price, but there is still plenty of time, Duke doesn't want to pay too high a price, and according to the feedback from Nancy and the private detective he hired, there are no competitors now, so let's talk slowly.

Subsequently, Duke hung up the phone to David and his mother, who were not short of money for the time being, and planned to repay his mother's loan of $10 million first, after all, the loan was strictly overdue, and the interest would have to wait until Warner and the Duke's studio settled all the payments.

Then there's the share of Nancy Josephson, the team of accountants and lawyers, and Sofia Coppola's personal assistant salary, although Duke inherits the fine Hollywood tradition, he will never settle it with them all at once, but he also has to pay a part of it temporarily, he wants people to do the work, but he doesn't want to pay enough, and in the end he is left with only bad consequences.

"Mom, do you have a stockbroker you're familiar with?"

Finally, Duke dialed his mother's phone again, now that he is an adult, he doesn't have to be like before the age of twenty-one, but all large money transactions need to be signed by the guardian, and he also has enough power to dispose of his income, "Yes, Mom, the dollar is depreciating, I just received part of my salary and want to invest in the stock market." ”

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