Made in Hollywood

Originally, Duke planned to rent a luxury yacht and go on vacation with his mother and others, but his mother had been flying around for more than half a year, just wanted a quiet rest period, and did not want to go out any more, so the vacation plan had to be canceled.

However, Duke was not too worried. Although Malibu is full of rich people, there are too many targets worth hitting in the United States. Even if those people have water in their heads, they will not choose Malibu.

Even though he knew that the country was about to undergo major changes, Duke continued his work and life in Burbank and Malibu as usual, but only when Ivanka Trump found a business address he liked. Turn around.

She also plans to locate her future company in the Greater Los Angeles area.

Duke has no opinion on this, and he can vaguely guess Ivanka's thoughts. After all, his past experience is too rich.

While September 11th is just around the corner, Duke has no intention of giving up on the job at hand.

Post-production on The Two Towers continues, and The Fellowship of the Ring has yet to end its North American and world theatrical journey.

From the beginning of August, the North American box office of "The Fellowship of the Ring" has declined rapidly. It only produced $16.2 million in North American theaters throughout August. Although the total North American box office reached $456.25 million, it wants to exceed $500 million. Close is almost impossible.

Overseas, the film has been dropped from some markets, but the overseas screening is far from over. Compared with "Titanic", the overseas box office proportion of "The Fellowship of the Ring" is obviously much smaller. The overseas box office is close to a 1 to 2 ratio.

Even so, "The Fellowship of the Ring" has taken more than 636 million US dollars from overseas, and the global box office will eventually exceed 1.1 billion US dollars. It is basically a foregone conclusion.

Corresponding to the box office, it is the continued popularity of peripheral products.

After the cooling of the cinema market, the surrounding market has maintained a relatively strong sales trend. In particular, the original soundtrack album, which was only released in July, has accumulated global sales of more than 4.8 million copies, and the amount of revenue that The Lord of the Rings Studio can get is as high as 35 million US dollars!

As the most important DVD, video tape and TV broadcast rights have not yet started negotiations, the peripheral sales of "The Fellowship of the Ring" has exceeded the $600 million mark!

According to estimates from Warner Bros. and Wall Street, merchandise sales for the "Lord of the Rings" franchise are set to exceed $1 billion before the release of "The Two Towers."

Although peripheral products have to be divided with manufacturers, distributors and marketers, etc. But for The Lord of the Rings, it would still be a huge sum of money.

Of course, according to the agreement signed at the beginning, 7.5% of all the proceeds belonged to Tolkien's descendants and the copyright custodian agency.

These are terms that were negotiated when the copyright was originally obtained, and the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy is not one of those obscure written works, even if it is hailed as the most difficult novel to be adapted into a movie. But if you want to get it without paying enough price, how is that possible?

After three-and-a-half months of screenings, The Fellowship of the Ring is drawing to a close, but Duke is well aware that the film is unlikely to do much in the theatrical market. If the event happened, as it once did, all industries in the United States would be greatly affected.

As for the advance notice or hint? He hasn't got a show in his head yet, and he understands what should be touched and what should not be touched.

"Hey. Honey, it's time to get up."

Duke slept soundly. Feeling the familiar smell coming from the tip of his nose, he didn't need to open his eyes to see it, and he knew that Ivanka had a finger on his nose and stretched out his hands to look forward. He took her into his arms, rolled over and pressed her down, and reached down with one hand down her bulging buttocks, only to find tight jeans, so she had to open her eyes.

"What time is it?" Duke let go of Ivanka, stretched, and looked out the window, "So early?"

"It's almost six o'clock." Ivanka dragged him by one arm, pulled Dukla up, and reminded, "Have you forgotten? At eight o'clock, you will accompany me to Venice to see an office building."

"It's today?" Duke jumped out of bed and walked towards the bathroom. "I think it was Tuesday."

"Today is Tuesday." Ivanka walked in with Duke, saw him shaving, took a toothbrush to help Duke squeeze the toothpaste, and said with a little dissatisfaction, "I reminded you last week."

"Sorry, I've been too busy lately..." Duke showed an apologetic expression.

In the past two days, in addition to his job, he also went to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department for routine inquiries. Last night, he attended a party convened by Frank Pearson and gained a lot of favors. He didn't return until early in the morning. home.

After washing, Duke returned to the bedroom, and Ivanka had prepared formal business attire for him.

"Honey, I'll be lazy if I go on like this." Duke kissed her on the forehead, suddenly remembering that today is Tuesday, which is September 11, but seeing that the pointer on the wall has just turned to 6 o'clock, it is also He didn't care too much, he vaguely remembered that the incident happened in the middle of the morning, and it should be early.

After getting dressed in a hurry, Duke looked at Ivanka who was packing his bags and reminded, "Let's go down."

Just after he finished speaking, someone suddenly knocked on the door, and the person knocked on the door with great strength, as if something major had happened.

"Duke!"

It was Scarlett Johansson's voice that sounded outside, and Ivanka couldn't help frowning. She could feel that the girl was very repulsive to her, and was always using tricks to show her importance and presence.

Of course, she was very gentle in front of Duke, but she was equally stubborn in dealing with others.

An assistant who will be recognized by Duke must have considerable ability.

"Why did you come knocking on the door so early?" Ivanka just said one sentence.

"There may be an emergency."

Duke pretended not to understand what Ivanka meant, walked over and opened the door. Scarlett Johansson looked panicked. After seeing him, he pulled him up and walked away, saying, "Quickly. Come on, Duke, something big is happening in New York, and the godmother asked me to come over and call you!"

"What's the big deal?" Ivanka followed from behind.

But after hearing the name of New York, Duke unconsciously accelerated his pace. What big things can happen in New York today?

Scarlett walked very fast, almost running, Duke frowned, he just checked the time, it was only six o'clock.

Thinking of the time, he suddenly scolded himself for being really dizzy recently, this is Western Time, New York is Eastern Time!

"The World Trade Center is on fire."

After turning to the stairs, Scarlett said while running, "The godmother said that a plane hit the Twin Towers!"

"What?" Ivanka said in disbelief, "How is that possible."

But all the impossible happened.

When they came to the living room downstairs, Duke and Ivanka did not ask what happened. Another plane flew over the TV screen and hit the South Tower of the Petronas Twin Towers. The raging flames and thick smoke immediately disappeared from the sky. The place where it was hit sprang up, and the TV screen from the host to the street people to the rescuers was all in panic.

"what on earth is it?"

It wasn't just Scarlett Johansson who raised the question, but also Ivanka Trump.

"Maybe..." Mrs. Leah remained calm enough, "Maybe it was a terrorist attack."

After she finished speaking, she picked up her mobile phone, walked to the side and started calling. Scarlett and Ivanka seemed to have been prompted, and they all found their mobile phones and started calling their friends and relatives in New York.

Duke also made a few calls, Zach Snyder was in Sydney filming the final scenes of the last two episodes of The Matrix, Sofia Coppola was in Tokyo to inspect locations, Erin Lauder was in Paris preparing for Fashion Week, Leonardo DiCaprio picks up girls in the Mediterranean...

Few of the friends he knew who never died are now in New York, let alone under the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center.

"Dad, they're all fine." Ivanka came back first and let out a sigh of relief in the face of Duke.

Then, everything that should have happened happened. The Pentagon was hit, the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center collapsed one after another, and the US airspace prohibited any civilian aircraft from taking off. Bush stood up and spoke, confirming that this was a terrorist attack...

There is no doubt that this is the hardest blow to the American mainland. The fairy tale of peace that the United States can stay out of the world has been completely shattered, and another social change is about to begin.

In the evening, Tina Fey and Nancy Josephson, who went out to sea together, rushed over together with Penny Kelly.

Things have happened. Duke, as a public figure, will definitely make some statements later, and these statements cannot be made casually.

"My advice is don't move now."

Panney Kelly is experienced in public relations. "Let's wait and see. Before the situation is clear, any public statement is stupid."

"I agree with Panney," echoed Nancy Josephson.

Duke has long thought about his position. "We will do nothing for the time being. We have only one action theme. Follow the mainstream voice and support the federal government."

No matter how many times the Washington authorities are hacked in the film, the power of the White House is undeniable, and in such an emergency, it would be a fool to go against the mainstream.

That's right, Fahrenheit 911 used to be very popular and sparked a lot of controversy, but it never became a mainstream voice. To what extent the director was finally suppressed and where he fell, maybe only God knows.

Even if Fahrenheit 911 is real, so what? The Bush family is closely related to the bin Laden family. The entire 9/11 incident was a conspiracy. What does Duke have to do with that?

Even if the whole of Manhattan was bombed, he would only mourn for the Marvel comics he invested in.

Duke is very enlightened. He is just a director and businessman. What does the truth behind 9/11 have to do with him?

Like most people in Hollywood, Duke is just waiting, waiting for the right time and place to make the right speech. (To be continued ~^~)