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Without incident, Duke walked out of the Warner Building with a hopeless and scrappy attitude, and despite the day's successive encounters, it could not stop him from seeking the slim opportunity.

It's a circle of connections, seniority and success, and Duke's resume in this area is almost all zero, and if there is a million-dollar or even $100,000-dollar film at the bottom, he will definitely be treated very differently at the studio.

Unfortunately, the hardest step in entering this circle is the first step, and for Hollywood, opportunity is often more important than talent.

Opportunities are all created and fought for, and if you don't struggle, opportunities will never appear.

For the next ten days, Duke was like a Spartan with an undying fighting spirit, going in and out of various studios in the greater Los Angeles area, and Paramount, Disney, MGM, Universal Pictures, Sony Columbia, and other first-tier major companies have left his footprints; Second-tier companies such as New Line and Carlock, as well as the up-and-coming Miramax office in Los Angeles, have also seen him busy.

In this short and long period of time, Duke sent out a copy of the script, received countless rejections, and hit his head in Hollywood, but he did not flinch!

After running through all the larger film companies, he temporarily suspended the action of looking for opportunities from the film companies, and the remaining 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 have the channels to raise tens of millions of dollars, and they would not make such a relatively high-investment film at all.

Just when everyone was marveling at James Cameron's "Terminator 2" in July, Duke began to find ways to get to the famous producers, including Jerry Bruckheimer, Catherine Kennedy, Jon Landau, Anne Spielberg and others. After bothering, the answer is still no.

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

Even if Duke offered to sell them the script for a symbolic dollar in exchange for a chance to direct, the answer would be no.

They and Duke are neither friends nor relatives, and the tens of millions of dollars of investment and too young seniority are insolvable flaws, and even if Duke says it well, these people are not willing to put such a huge amount of money on a director who has no successful directing experience.

In addition to the producers and production companies, Duke also had a way to seek investment from banks or foundations, although there were not as many film investment funds in Hollywood as there were later days.

In Malibu, Duke managed to meet a film fund manager.

"I have produced two real films, and graduated from the Film and Video major of the California Institute of the Arts with all A's, which doesn't explain anything......"

This is one of Duke's few qualifications that can be used, and it is obviously impossible to play the AUG Film Fund.

Although the big Hollywood companies often use methods such as fake accounts and box office concealment to cheat these investors out of their funds, because they have such strength, Duke obviously does not have the conditions to extract large sums of money from the mouths of these vampires.

When nearly ten days passed in July, Duke had no choice but to prepare to take the path reserved for the earliest, and the less likely one, to find his mother's best friend, George Lucas, who was famous in Hollywood and around the world.

Duke really wants to use his ability to win opportunities, but he is not a person who knows how to be flexible, and it is not a shame to use all favorable conditions to create a chance of success.

Of course, he took this as a final record.

The previous company or maker would not give him too much time, and even if Duke made some preparations, there was no room for him, but George Lucas was different, Duke was not going to Lucasfilm, but went directly to Lucas's estate in the suburbs of San Francisco.

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

This is a film where the main plot will be in the car, and Duke's shooting is naturally related to the car.

He found his 16mm camera from the storage room, bought film with his credit card, and asked the workers who came to his home to mow the lawn every week to act as drivers, and made several trips down the empty Santa Monica Ocean Promenade, shooting several times in the passenger seat and outside the car, and it took him half a day to get it right.

Just as Duke was turning the clip into a videotape, muted and added a heavy metal soundtrack, an informal meeting about his script was quietly unfolding in the Warner Bros. CEO office.

"Kevin, I think the script of "Life and Death" has a certain operability."

The person who spoke was Jeff Robinoff, whom Duke had met, and he said to CEO Kevin Tsuhara, who was sitting in a large office chair, "if we could shoot the thrill of the script and the nature of the race against time......

"Jeff......" Kevin Tsuhara raised his hand to stop Jeff Robinoff's words and looked at his assistant next to him, "Robert, what is your opinion?" ”

Robert Solomon, who has the power to speak, propped his arm on the arm of the chair, supported his chin with his palm, thought solemnly, and said slowly, "There is a situation, you can refer to it, Duke Rosenberg used to be a signed artist of CAA, and he was just given up by CAA this year, you know the style of CAA's gang, but as long as he has some potential, they will definitely not give up on him." ”

"And ......," he removed his hand and nodded to the script on his desk, "it's never wise to invest tens of millions of dollars in the work of someone who doesn't have any qualifications!" ”

Speaking of which, he deliberately emphasized, "Don't forget, he also asked for the position of director!" A twenty-one-year-old man who hasn't made any official films, hehe......"

As the executive vice president, Robert Solomon's meaning is very clear, and his words are heavier than Jeff Robinoff's, and Jeff Robinoff does not mean to insist on it, after all, from a practical point of view, the risk is indeed a bit large.

"That's right."

CEO Kevin Tsuhara thought about it for a few minutes, "This script is on hold for the time being, and it is in the script library. ”

Duke, who had just entered Lucas Manor, had no idea that an opportunity would pass him by in discussions between several senior Warner Bros. executives.

Parking the car, Duke greeted the people of Lucas Manor, who had been here less often in recent years, but was a regular before entering college.

Perhaps because Lucas's children were on a trip, the manor was unusually quiet, and Duke walked around the fountain into the spacious living room, where no one was waiting except George Lucas, who sat in a low-backed chair.

"Uncle George......

After greeting politely, Duke put his bag on the small table in front of him, and when he sat down in the chair, George Lucas looked at him with interest, "Why don't you call George?" ”

Smiling slightly, Duke didn't answer, in the past, he could sell small things, but now of course he can't do this.

"Just call me George as you used to."

The two families have been friends for more than 20 years, and after the maid 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 of less than 200 pages, and when he called yesterday, he mentioned the script, "In the last month or so, I have been to many Hollywood companies. ”

"I've heard people from CAA mention it,"

Flipping through the script, George Lucas said as he read it, "Leah Rosenberg of Santa Fea Advertising Agency is not a son who naively wants to be a director." ”

Duke's brow furrowed, and he quickly returned to normal.

After the two had spoken a few words, George Lucas remained silent and devoted his energy to the script, Duke had met many people in the past month, and it was the first time that someone had read the script so seriously in front of him, and this person was someone close to his family, which had to be said to be a kind of irony.

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

Hollywood would rather invest heavily in bad movies of well-known personalities than give newcomers a second look.

It took nearly an hour for George Lucas to put down the script, he took a sip of the cold black tea from his teacup, and asked Duke, "Is there anything else?" ”

"Yes!"

Taking out the elaborate videotape from his handbag, Duke walked to the TV stand, turned on the TV and VCR, and stuffed the videotape inside, and after a short snowflake, the edited footage without much post-processing, accompanied by a drum-like soundtrack, was presented on the TV screen.

This image is not complicated, always switching between the front wheel of a car and the speedometer, but the flying wheels and the pointer hovering above 50 are obviously carefully edited, and the length of each short shot is definitely no more than a second.

Despite the monotony of the images, George Lucas took them seriously, and he naturally thought of the film's premise that bombs would explode at less than 50 miles, and connected them to the images......

"Duke, come and sit down."

George Lucas motioned for Duke to turn off the TV and then gestured to the chair opposite, "The dazzling motion shots, the sharp editing style, are very well done." ”

"Uncle George......

"George." Lucas corrected.

"All right, George."

When Duke sat down, George Lucas completely changed to a business-like attitude, "The script is not very good, at best it is a commercial script that is above average, in Hollywood, a good idea can be made into a bad movie, and a bad idea can be made into a good movie, in which 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 can be profitable." ”

Hearing these words, Duke smiled helplessly, and George Lucas meant it very clearly.

"I've seen your estimate of the production cost, even if all the special effects of the film are handed over to ILM, the cost will not be reduced to less than 10 million US dollars."

In an instant, Lucas changed from a businessman to an elder, "When it comes to such a large amount of investment, even Lucasfilm has to be cautious." Duke, you are still young, exercise for a few more years, and there will definitely be opportunities in the future. ”

Later, George Lucas never mentioned anything related to the movie, and turned the conversation to Duke's mother, talking about some things about the two of them starting a business when they were young, and did not let Duke go until dinner.

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

"George, it's me."

The voice in the earpiece was clearly Leah Rosenberg, "Seen Duke?" ”

"Yes."

"I have something I want to talk to you about Duke, are you coming to Los Angeles, or am I going to San Francisco?"

"I'll go over."