"The most urgent task now is to find a suitable actor to replace her!"
In front of the beautiful Rivendell set, the filming of the crew had just taken a break. During the downtime, Duke called over Charles Rowan and several other key crew members. "Swordsmanship is easy; we can use a stunt double throughout. The key is that the actor's temperament must match the character's description in the novel."
He turned to the production manager, "Charles, terminate the contract as soon as possible."
"I'm communicating with her agent," Charles Rowan's ability to handle matters was trustworthy.
Duke rubbed his forehead; there was no helping it. Even with a massive production like The Lord of the Rings, or even smaller independent film crews, unexpected situations were bound to arise during filming.
"Duke..."
It was Anna Prinz, who had returned from the external shooting location. The withdrawn actor was related to the scenes she was about to shoot. "I suggest we choose one of the actors who auditioned again."
"It has to be done this way," Duke nodded. "Anna, you're in charge of this."
The situation wasn't that complicated. Anna Prinz was about to shoot scenes of Princess Arwen Evenstar. The Australian actress Miranda Otto, who was supposed to play her, had already prepared to join the crew. But just a few days ago, she had a car accident in Australia and fractured several bones in her legs and hands, so she had to withdraw from the production.
People around them began to disperse, and Nancy Josephson, who had been standing with Tina Fey and Cate Blanchett, walked over.
"Duke," she whispered, "Can I recommend someone?"
"Go ahead," Duke turned his head and looked at the busy crew setting up the Rivendell meeting hall. "You signed a new actress?"
"No," Nancy shook her head. "Someone you've worked with before."
"Oh?"
Duke refocused on her. "Who?"
"Cate Beckinsale,"
From this perspective, Nancy Josephson was undoubtedly a competent agent, always striving for every possible opportunity for her clients. "I think Arwen would be a good fit for her."
"Nancy, while this role is more decorative," Duke didn't even think and directly rejected, "some scenes are very important, and I don't want to use an actor with a poker face."
Last time they worked together, Cate Beckinsale's terrible acting left Duke with a very bad impression.
Although Arwen was a decorative role, there was still a distinction between flower vase characters in Hollywood films. She was better suited for roles like expressionless vampires or other low-acting-demand, purely decorative parts.
Seeing Duke's very negative impression of Cate Beckinsale's acting, Nancy didn't say anything further. After all, Duke's words weighed more than the future of a minor actress.
This suddenly vacant role held quite a bit of weight in the film. Shortly after Nancy left, Duke was approached by Cate Blanchett.
"Do you have an actress in mind to recommend?" Duke asked when he saw her tall figure.
Blanchett smiled lightly, "Do you remember Ella Fisher, whom we met at my house, Duke?"
"Her?" Duke frowned as he thought about it, then nodded at Blanchett. "Cate, leave her contact details with Tina, and have her prepare for an audition in Wellington."
"Thank you," Blanchett leaned in to Duke's ear. "My Lord Sauron."
Duke responded with a businesslike tone, "I can only offer her an audition. I can't guarantee anything else."
At this point, he was slightly curious, "What's your relationship with her?"
In most cases, Hollywood actresses were rarely so kind and caring.
"Ella is like a cousin to me," Blanchett explained briefly.
After their brief conversation, Duke went back to his work. The representatives from the various races involved in the meeting of Elrond were mostly done with makeup and waiting in the break area. The set preparation was nearing completion.
Duke took a brief walk around the set and returned behind the monitor, looking at the pile of leaves covering the set. He called over the head of the props team.
"Bill, have your team go up on the lift and scatter the leaves."
Just as the head of the props team was about to leave, Duke tapped his arm and reminded him, "Six people!"
Although the meeting scene with Elrond was long, it was shot in many short takes. The Hobbits had to switch between actors and stunt doubles. When Ian McKellen and Elijah Wood appeared together in close-up shots, the crew had to raise Ian McKellen's position to emphasize the nine-foot and four-foot height difference.
Another task Duke reminded the team about was the scattering of leaves.
In this meeting, the falling leaves in Rivendell had to continually fall, hinting at the growing evil forces. This meant that six crew members had to be stationed on different lifts and continually throw leaves.
Though seemingly trivial, the crew began preparing for this task months earlier.
The leaves that fell were ones the crew had collected bag by bag in the autumn, but leaves that had fallen from the trees quickly turned yellow and looked nothing like fresh leaves. So, the props team re-dyed each leaf, and that's how they created the large quantities of leaves used in this scene.
Filming a movie has never been simple. It's not just having a great script or a talented director that can make everything work.
A single meeting scene took Duke two full days to shoot. Then the crew moved to another studio to continue filming scenes for the Lost Realm of Lorien. Some shots could not be filmed outdoors and had to be completed indoors in a studio with props and a blue screen.
Most of the trees in the Golden Forest were created using props and sets, and after a few short shots, these carefully made props would, like the Titanic model ship created by James Cameron, be discarded and treated as waste.
At moments like these, the props and art direction teams often felt reluctant to part with them, as so much of their hard work had gone into creating these items.
This also illustrates how, for most films, the majority of time and resources are spent in pre-production, often taking multiple times longer than the shooting process itself.
At this stage, it's not very obvious. But in a few years, a hundred million dollars will become the basic starting point for mainstream commercial films. For a film to be successful, it will rely even more on special effects, and the production time for Hollywood films will lengthen. The process will become a one-year pre-production, a year of filming and production, and a year of publicity and release—this will become the basic film production timeline.
Most directors will be tightly bound by this process. Large investments ensure that production companies won't take the production process lightly. Only the top directors can break free from this pattern.
Even top directors like James Cameron and Steven Spielberg have become standard examples of success under the Hollywood model.
In short, if Duke couldn't cheat, he wouldn't be able to produce a movie at the current pace.
This pace had almost reached his limit. Some things were tolerable for him, but the crew couldn't bear it.
Don't forget, filmmaking is a team effort, not something a director can handle alone.
Although unexpected events occasionally happen, the filming progress has always been firmly under Duke's control. The last few days were spent shooting scenes for the Lost Realm of Lorien in the studio. After finishing each day's filming, he had to review the shots Anna Prince had completed in another studio.
Zack Snyder officially left the crew to prepare for the sequels of The Matrix. Naturally, Anna Prince took over as the first assistant director and worked closely with Duke to share the heavy filming load.
There were too many shots for the trilogy. Duke had discussed with John Schwartzman about leading a separate filming team, but the increasingly overweight cinematographer had no intention of becoming a director. He just wanted to stay comfortably as Hollywood's top cinematographer.
"We've been working together for years, Duke," he told Duke. "I know how much effort and pressure you've put into getting to where you are. The director's job is too terrifying for me. The busy work and the constant pressure would crush me."
Such things couldn't be forced. Duke couldn't find another suitable person. The crew had to continue filming in the split production style.
It took just over a week to finish filming the scenes for Lorien, and the set was about to be dismantled.
Before the teardown, Bill, the head of the props team, took a moment to film a segment for the behind-the-scenes documentary.
Standing in front of the props and set pieces that would soon be reduced to rubble, he reflected, "We spent 8 months building the props and set, but the filming time was no more than 8 days. After shooting, these beautiful trees and forests will disappear, but for generations of viewers, they will live forever in the film."
This is film production.
For many big-budget movies, the production process often generates a lot of waste.
Later, Duke participated in another audition for the role of Arwen and, after taking Anna Prince's advice into consideration, selected Ella Fisher, recommended by Cate Blanchett, from the three actresses who attended the second round of auditions. He informed her to report to the crew as soon as possible.
As the scenes for Queen Galadriel wrapped up, Cate Blanchett became the first official actor to leave the crew. Duke gave her a commemorative gift, the Elven Queen's crown and white costume, as per their original agreement.
However, he had prepared two sets of the Queen's costume.