"The Joker believes that everyone is evil, that no trust can exist, and that all it takes is a 'little push' for people to abandon justice and become selfish and ugly, betraying others or even personally killing their comrades."
Taking the coffee cup Scarlett handed over, Duke explained in detail, "In the script's setting, the Joker's weapon for the 'little push' is the fear in people's hearts. He believes that everyone loves only themselves and their family. As long as you threaten their lives, anyone will abandon their bottom line and become a demon."
Duke concluded, "One of the Joker's pursuits is to break through everyone's bottom line."
Scarlett seemed to understand something and curiously asked, "According to what you're saying, the Joker is actually the protagonist of The Dark Knight?"
"That's pretty much the case."
In that movie from the past, Heath Ledger's performance was indeed outstanding, but the key lay in the Joker's character design. It was precisely this role that gave Heath Ledger the opportunity for his acting to explode.
In The Dark Knight, Christian Bale's performance wasn't bad—far from it—but he ran into such a godlike role, and was completely overshadowed.
To a certain extent, the acting in this film was a bit unbalanced.
Still, this is ultimately a Batman movie. Even when wrapped in the dark and realistic style of a crime thriller, it remains a bona fide Batman film. Bruce Wayne naturally draws the audience's attention.
With the official greenlighting of The Dark Knight, a series of pre-production tasks commenced one after another.
First, the film's preliminary estimated production cost was $150 million. Since Doug Walter chose to support Duke, he would support him without reservation. Moreover, Duke was never the type of director like James Cameron with a bottomless budget. Warner Bros. would also provide additional funding as needed based on Duke's requirements.
On the day of the press conference, $50 million in start-up capital was deposited into the account of a third-party insurance company.
Although third-party guarantees bring some trouble, Duke had been making films under this system for many years and was already used to it.
Once the funds were in place, Duke first held auditions for two newly added major characters. Several well-known actors, including Nicolas Cage and Heath Ledger, auditioned for the roles of Harvey Dent and the Joker.
The audition only lasted one round before Duke decided on Nicolas Cage. Although this former Oscar winner was showing signs of falling into the "King of Trash Films" trap due to taking on too many scripts and projects in recent years, which led to declining reputation and acting performance, his Oscar-winning caliber acting was still there. As long as he could maintain a normal state, playing a role like Harvey Dent wouldn't be difficult.
Duke's only concern was Nicolas Cage's notorious inconsistency. When he's in good form, his acting can rival Tom Hanks. When he's not, he can be worse than Orlando Bloom.
And his state often fluctuates—his performance can vary drastically within the same film.
But Duke had worked with many actors over the years and had gained extensive experience. He had confidence in both himself and in Nicolas Cage, who desperately needed a career revival.
To prepare for the character of Two-Face, after passing the audition, Nicolas Cage also demonstrated his commitment by enrolling in a psychology workshop, determined to study dissociative identity disorder for the role.
Clearly, Nicolas Cage understood that this collaboration with Duke was a rare comeback opportunity.
Of course, Duke didn't deny that choosing Nicolas Cage from so many actors was partly due to his acting skills and decent image; the more important reason, however, was Sofia Coppola.
This is Hollywood, after all—connections within the rules often play an important role. That's why actors and directors from showbiz families have an easier time making it.
Even in a commercial society, no one can deny the value of a strong network.
The Joker role was also hotly contested by several well-known actors.
Robin Williams, Lachy Hulme, Paul Bettany, and Oscar winner Adrien Brody all participated in the auditions and publicly expressed their interest in playing the "Joker."
Perhaps it was due to a preconceived bias, or maybe Heath Ledger's audition was genuinely outstanding—Duke gave up on Adrien Brody, who was willing to lower his salary to $500,000, and chose Heath Ledger instead.
This big-nosed Jewish actor had decent acting chops. But even with an Oscar to his name, he was more or less the same as Heath Ledger in terms of commercial appeal—meaning little to none. Heath Ledger's asking price wasn't high either. With all else being equal, Duke simply couldn't find any reason to pick Adrien Brody.
What Duke didn't expect, however, was that right after the production team signed the formal contract with Heath Ledger, the Australian actor came to him with a special request.
"Director Rosenberg…"
Seeing Heath Ledger sitting across from the desk with a slightly shy demeanor, Duke interrupted him, "Duke, just call me Duke."
Heath Ledger was clearly an introverted person. He forced a smile and said, "Duke, can I not join the crew right away?"
"Why?" Duke couldn't help but frown.
"I believe the Joker is a very special character."
When he mentioned the character he was about to portray in front of the camera, Heath Ledger's earlier shyness vanished without a trace. "I want to find a quiet and completely undisturbed environment to spend some time studying this role."
Hearing this, Duke couldn't help but take a serious look at Heath Ledger. This was a young and handsome actor, his bright eyes partially veiled by a few strands of golden hair, yet they emitted the kind of fervor an actor has when he encounters a character he truly loves.
Since he had decided to use Heath Ledger, Duke had someone look into him. No one would have expected that such a sunshine-faced actor had already been addicted to drugs for several years.
Many people were once moved by the Joker and consoled themselves by believing Heath Ledger had fallen too deeply into the role, which led him to take medication and ultimately overdose. But the truth was far from that…
Duke shook his head inwardly but didn't say anything more and nodded in agreement to Heath Ledger's request.
In the materials he had reviewed, Heath Ledger was not only introverted but also extremely sensitive and hated having his privacy mentioned. Duke knew very well that even if he wanted to indirectly remind him of something, now was not the time.
After all, they only had a simple business relationship.
In Hollywood, the relationships between actors and directors and even between actors themselves were far more complicated than one might imagine.
Many things were never as simple as saying or doing them at will.
Only someone whose brain was waterlogged would naively believe that just because they wanted to become friends with a well-known actor, the other party would definitely reciprocate.
Yes, countless Hollywood actors wanted to work with Duke, but that didn't mean they wanted to be his friend.
Then again, with Duke's personality, even if the other party did want to get close, he would still scrutinize them several times.
Just like Nicolas Cage—if it hadn't been for Sofia Coppola speaking up, Duke absolutely wouldn't have lent him a helping hand.
After having someone escort Heath Ledger out, Duke left Duke Studios and headed to the Warner Bros. production lot.
Like Batman Begins, the filming of The Dark Knight was divided into three major parts. The first part was constructed sets inside Warner Bros. Studios, the second part involved converting hangars at the Hughes Aircraft facility into sound stages, and the third part was shooting location scenes in Chicago.
Currently, Duke had also split the crew's pre-production scouting team into three groups. Anna Prinz was responsible for the set construction at Warner Bros. and the Hughes Aircraft facility; John Schwartzman took people to Chicago to scout exterior shooting locations, while Duke and Charles Roven oversaw and reviewed all pre-production work.
The scheduled pre-production time for this film was 100 days, with a shooting schedule of three months. Just like the previous two films, Duke aimed to release it at the beginning of next year's summer season.
Set construction couldn't be completed in the short term. Many different sets could be built as shooting progressed. In comparison, the designs for Batman, Joker, and Harvey Dent's appearances needed to be finalized as soon as possible.
Since Gary Oldman, Michael Caine, Laurence Fishburne, and Anne Hathaway from the previous film would continue in their roles, their costume designs would be relatively quicker to complete.
Batman and the Joker—their eternal rivalry—were the primary focus. Especially Batman. Many of his gadgets would be updated, and the film's sponsor, Lamborghini, would also need to design a cool and flashy Bat-motorcycle based on the Batmobile.
In addition, Batman's suit would need to be redesigned and remade. Duke would limit Bruce Wayne's capabilities—he was just an ordinary person with great skills. If he wanted faster movements, the Batsuit would need to be thinner and simpler.
IMAX Corporation had also sent two gigantic IMAX cameras, and a technical team had stationed themselves with the crew. Once John Schwartzman returned from Chicago, he would assist the filming team in familiarizing themselves with the equipment.
These IMAX cameras were several times larger than regular ones. How to use these heavy monsters to shoot visually impactful scenes was also something Duke needed to consider.
As for IMAX camera technology, Duke was an out-and-out beginner.
However, he was always someone willing to learn and knew that IMAX production technology was the future trend. So in his spare time after work, he frequently consulted the engineers from IMAX.
Throughout July, Duke spent his days busy with the pre-production of The Dark Knight. But by early August, as the preparations began to take shape, the North American summer movie season had ended, and Iron Man had become the biggest winner of the 2006 summer box office in North America.
....
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