"You haven't read the script of The Dark Knight?"
Hearing Tina Fey's question, Scarlett Johansson shook her head and said, "I've been busy preparing for Captain America lately, so I haven't read it yet."
"I just read it a few days ago," Tina Fey's eyes turned toward Duke again. "It's really thought-provoking. This should be Duke's deepest script since Saving Private Ryan."
Before Scarlett could say anything, she continued explaining, "Unlike past superhero movies, even Batman Begins, this one is more like a cop-and-criminal drama based on reality."
Scarlett showed a curious expression.
Tina Fey went on, "Let's put it this way—if the real world truly had a superhero like Bruce Wayne, someone with abilities beyond ordinary people, what kind of force could restrain them?"
"Themselves?" Scarlett asked tentatively.
"That's not wrong," Tina Fey nodded. "To put it another way, the only thing that can restrain them is their own moral code. If someone is only constrained by morality and acts according to their own rules, it's actually a very dangerous thing."
Scarlett immediately understood. "If he breaks his own rules, the harm he causes might be greater than the crimes he tries to fight?"
"Exactly." Tina Fey crossed her arms and looked at Nicolas Cage, who had just finished makeup on the other side. "Harvey Dent turning into Two-Face has extremely serious consequences."
Scarlett also looked over there but mumbled something unrelated, "Since when was Duke interested in such complex films?"
In her impression, the films Duke made, including the Lord of the Rings trilogy, had always been fairly straightforward. The only film she thought tried to explore deeper issues was Critical Emergency. But even then, it only briefly touched on those things, which led to the critics accusing it of being a "film that glorifies the LAPD."
There's no doubt that The Dark Knight has deep real-world significance. It was once interpreted by fans to contain countless meanings, and even each line of dialogue had different understandings. Though Duke wouldn't remember that many details, the lines he wrote did touch on chaos, law, and moral codes.
Smart directors don't easily define things—they leave it to the audience to judge. Compared to previous superhero movies, The Dark Knight's theme and plot are undoubtedly much more complex. But Duke wouldn't let it get too complex. The reason is simple—ninety percent of people in this world don't believe that a film they don't understand can be a good film.
Just like he once reminded Zack Snyder while working on Watchmen. The Dark Knight is, first and foremost, a commercial blockbuster, and only then everything else.
This film would be very dark, but not entirely dark. A completely dark film wouldn't be accepted by audiences, and it would attract fierce criticism from mainstream media.
Christopher Nolan used to be quite independent and unconventional, but even he had to compromise in this regard. The best example is the scene with the two ships and their passengers' moral choices. According to the tone of the film, it seems like one of the ships should have exploded.
However, in the end, neither ship exploded. This undoubtedly delivered a message of hope to the audience…
Just imagine, if a ship really had exploded, how would those media outlets that see themselves as guardians of society's morals react to the film?
After all, this isn't some niche arthouse movie with limited release—this is a Batman movie with countless fans.
And then there's the part where a Black man throws away the detonator…
Let's be real Christopher Nolan, at heart, is still a mainstream director, and Duke would naturally make the same choice. The person throwing away the detonator had to be, and must be, a Black man.
Not only that, but there's also the scenes involving children.
In the dark studio, Nicolas Cage, playing Harvey Dent, flips his coin for the last time before death, preparing to "judge" Gordon's son.
Just as Cage tosses the coin into the air and waits for the result, Batman—portrayed by a stunt double in costume—rushes in and tackles him. The two of them tumble toward the edge of a set designed to look like an explosion site, and then fall off.
Of course, both landed safely on the padding below.
After Duke called "cut," the crew moved on to the next scene. The stuntman held Gordon's son in his left arm while gripping a wooden plank with his right hand, hanging in mid-air. With all his strength, he handed the child to Gordon above, then fell onto the green cushion below.
The ending scenes of the film were finished in just one afternoon, but Duke didn't announce the shoot was over he also filmed another ending.
This alternative ending was somewhat too sensitive, and Duke wasn't sure if he would ever release it in a future DVD version.
The ending definitely needed to be changed, and it was equally dark. Harvey Dent shoots Batman, rendering him unable to fight back, and then completes his "judgment" of Gordon's son. The coin shows the clean side…
Then he judges Gordon as well. Gordon also passes the judgment, and Two-Face walks away but before leaving, he says he'll be back. He won't let go of those responsible for Rachel's death.
Yes, in this version, Two-Face survives, and the Joker completely wins the battle for Gotham's soul.
However, after filming, Duke temporarily sealed up this part. Such an ending had a 99% chance of not being well received.
In the ending that was used, Harvey Dent still completes his "judgment" of Gordon's son. Duke specifically asked John Schwartzman to give Batman's hand a close-up as he caught the coin—the clean, shiny side was facing up.
Included in the film, this moment aligns more with audience expectations, and for those who like to think, it also offers more food for thought. Because Batman didn't dare bet on the coin's outcome—he believed that relying on a coin flip was completely unreasonable.
If deciding life or death by a coin toss truly had some kind of fate behind it, then an innocent child indeed deserved to get heads. In that case, Batman saving the child would be "unnecessary," and this unnecessary action would instead result in the death of Dent, who wouldn't have killed the child because the coin landed on heads.
Of course, all of this is hypothetical. Duke didn't shoot related footage—this is just his own reflection. If Batman hadn't tackled Dent this time, the child might still have been safe. But who would dare gamble that it would be heads?
Perhaps getting heads this time also suggests that Harvey Dent "should not" be taken down at this moment because if it's heads, he wouldn't kill the child.
As for the next "judgment" on Gordon, from the way the story progresses, it's easy to predict that Gordon will definitely get tails. So if Batman intervenes on the thirteenth coin toss to save Gordon, that would clearly be more necessary.
But neither Duke nor the earlier Christopher Nolan filmed it this way mainly because a standard American-themed film like Batman could never leave the child unsaved.
Moreover, Gordon was also judged by the coin toss, which ruins the room left for thought by the film for those who enjoy deeper thinking. Gordon is the pragmatic representative of Gotham—he knows there's no such thing as perfection, that humans can't be purely good, and that sometimes good and evil are hard to distinguish. He's willing to use evil means to deal with evil, as long as it solves the problem.
So then, is pragmatism—or accepting reality—good or bad? That's not for a director like Duke to decide. It's far more interesting for the audience to ponder that than having the decision left to a coin flip, don't you think?
Most of the shooting in the Los Angeles area alternated between Warner Bros. Studios and Hughes Aircraft Hangar. The larger scenes, such as the final sequence and the final showdown between Joker and Batman, were all filmed inside Hughes Aircraft's hangars.
The crew's work progressed fairly smoothly. Even Nicolas Cage, who tended to be inconsistent in his state, took only a few days to bounce back after hitting a low point.
As Christmas approached, Duke took a trip to London to check in on the filming of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. With Robin Grande and the original author Joanne Rowling overseeing things over there, it gave everyone peace of mind.
After Alfonso Cuarón's transitional role, the Harry Potter studio ultimately followed Joanne Rowling's recommendation and chose British director David Yates to helm Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
By the end of 2006, the once-young actors had grown up. Quite a few were heading down the same path as many Hollywood child stars—toward looking awkward as they aged.
Even the few who didn't "age badly" hadn't improved much in terms of acting skills. Emma Watson, for example, was showing signs of becoming even worse in terms of performance.
Still, their acting ability didn't really matter much. In the hearts of the audience, no matter how Emma Watson performed, she was Hermione Granger.
The same was true for the other main cast members.
As a result, the parents and agents of these child stars repeatedly made outrageous demands to the production team. Every time a new movie in the series began filming, Robin Grande had to spend a great deal of energy settling the salary issues of the young actors.
From the perspective of the child actors, it was only natural to fight for fair compensation. But from the standpoint of investors like Duke, this was undoubtedly a cut into their own slice of the pie.
Fortunately, Robin Grande firmly remembered Duke's earlier instructions. Although the Gryffindor Golden Trio's salaries had risen into the tens of millions, the production never relented on the issue of profit sharing.
However, such a situation couldn't be maintained forever. The young actors' agents had already begun to join forces, planning to demand a massive profit share when it came time for the final film in the series.
As the finale, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows would be produced and released in two parts, but shot all at once.
Without a doubt, as the final installment, it was bound to ignite fans' enthusiasm, and the agents knew exactly how to extract the most benefit from that.
But Duke was ready for this.
Returning to Los Angeles from London, Duke received some good news: the crew had found an old hospital in Vermont that was set to be demolished and could be used for filming explosion scenes on location.