Scarlett put down the camera that had been blocking her face and shouted toward the other side, "It’s just a photo with a tuna. Is it really that hard?" "Hey, darling." Duke turned his head away, trying to get his nose away from the tuna hanging beside him. "It really stinks!" "Just hold on for ten more seconds. Catching a tuna this big is lucky. I need to capture that luck." As she spoke, she raised her camera again. "5, 4, 3, 2, 1..." With the sound of the shutter, Scarlett recorded Duke standing at the edge of the fishing boat, hand resting on the tuna, into her camera lens. "All done!" She put down the camera, walked over to the tuna and looked at it again, then said, "I’ve contacted Air Express. They’ll freeze it and ship it to Malibu." Duke shrugged helplessly, too lazy to say anything. "If you want it, then ship it back." "This is a catch we made together!" Scarlett was still obviously excited. "I’ll have it made into a specimen." She took tissues from her backpack and wiped off the fishy smell from her hands. Duke moved away from the fish and said, "I’ll have Emma place it in your dressing room." Crumpling the tissues into a ball and tossing them into the trash can at the edge of the boat, Duke pointed toward the dock bridge. "They’re here. Let the professionals handle it." Duke pulled Scarlett aside and watched as people took the nearly three-foot-long tuna from the hanging net. In his mind, he’d already decided to gather everyone for a tuna feast back home. Finishing their overseas fishing trip, the two walked up the bridge, leaving the dock area. Though it was winter in the Southern Hemisphere, Vanuatu was hot all year round. Even after changing into very light clothes, Duke and Scarlett were still sweating quite a bit. "Let’s take a break..." Scarlett pulled Duke into a nearby store. "Let’s get something to drink." Having visited Fiji before, the two had come straight to Vanuatu after leaving Sydney. This place was famous for its volcanoes, islands, and tuna. Duke and Scarlett had been here for a while already and had even visited the famous Yasur Volcano. Sitting under the store’s sunshade, it took less than two minutes before the drinks were brought over. Scarlett ordered the most famous beverage in Vanuatu, called kava, also known as the "intoxicating pepper." Locals often said that you haven’t truly been to Vanuatu if you haven’t had kava. Kava is made from a type of pepper plant shrub grown widely in South Pacific island nations. The plant itself is called kava, and so is the beverage made by grinding its root. It’s a pure natural painkiller and sedative, highly effective for nervous tension and depression. But once made into a drink, it looks like watery mud, tastes faintly like pepper water with bitterness, and makes your tongue numb after drinking. Maybe because it doesn’t taste good, it’s meant to be drunk in one gulp. Most people feel relaxed, happy, and rejuvenated afterward. For someone as sensitive as Duke, after drinking it for the first time, he quickly became drowsy. Thinking eating might help, he ate a bit and walked around only to end up vomiting like a drunk... So, he steered clear of this local specialty and only ordered a glass of water. Scarlett, on the other hand, not only found the taste pleasant but also had no adverse reactions at all. After finishing the muddy-looking kava, Scarlett put down her glass, looked at the turquoise sea in the distance, and said, "I really want to throw all work aside and go on a world tour, to see different landscapes around the world." "There’ll be a chance someday." Duke also set down his water glass. Scarlett muttered, "Workaholics like you will never find enough time for travel." Duke shook his head, too lazy to respond to her nonsense. "We’re heading back to Los Angeles soon," Scarlett continued to mutter. "I’m kind of reluctant." Following her gaze, at the end of their view, the sun was like a fiery red ball, setting on the horizon, changing color as it sank, as if displaying its final dazzling beauty to the world. It lit the sea in shimmering gold, like piles of gold spread across the surface... It was indeed a beautiful scene. "When the yacht’s finished," Duke said slowly, "if there’s time next year, let’s go on a global voyage." "Mm." Scarlett nodded firmly. Duke checked the time and stood up. "Come on, we should head back to the hotel." From late May until the end of June, Duke had been on vacation. Even someone like him couldn’t continuously complete one movie after another without rest; breaks and adjustments were necessary. His team also needed the same after all, people aren’t machines. Film production has its rhythm. Some films simply can’t be rushed. Making a qualified movie takes both time and money. The latter is just as important. This is Hollywood a place where commercial success speaks the loudest. Duke had cemented his power and status in Hollywood with one blockbuster after another. How a director chooses their path in filmmaking is up to them, but Duke firmly believed one thing: if he hadn’t chosen a commercial route back then, he would never have achieved what he had now. He alone could even decide the future direction of both the DC and Marvel movie series. Warner Bros. took Duke’s opinions extremely seriously and had already vetoed overly serious and dark superhero scripts. This wasn’t just because of Duke’s impressive track record his films continued to achieve terrifying new milestones. Though since the release of Spider-Man 3, the box office momentum of The Dark Knight had started to slow, by early June the film had already passed the $500 million mark in North America, setting a new record as the fastest film to hit $500 million in just 29 days. Standing beside The Dark Knight and looking back, virtually all previous North American box office records had collapsed. After spending its sixth weekend in North America, The Dark Knight earned $521.45 million, surpassing The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers’ $521.32 million, making it into the top three highest-grossing films in North American history, behind only The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and Titanic. However, after crossing the $500 million milestone, The Dark Knight seemed like someone who exhaled after success, significantly slowing its pace. Especially after surpassing The Two Towers, it appeared to have used up most of the audience’s enthusiasm. On weekdays, the daily box office had already dropped to about $1.3 million. At such a rate of daily earnings, unless there’s a miraculous surge or an extremely long screening period, it will be very difficult to break through the $600 million mark. Moreover, according to Duke and Warner Bros., the film would only be shown until next year’s Oscars Nominees Luncheon at the latest. Warner Bros. was even more aware than Duke of the crucial role Heath Ledger’s passing could play in securing him an Oscar, clearly intending to ride the wave of expected overwhelmingly favorable public opinion following the Oscar nominations announcement to release The Dark Knight’s DVD and rake in another big profit. Duke had no objections to this—this was the best way to maximize The Dark Knight’s benefits. Once the DVD was released, even if Warner Bros. didn’t want to pull the film, the North American theater alliance would quickly end its theatrical run. Nᴇw novel chapters are publɪshed on 𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹⟡𝓯𝓲𝓻𝓮⟡𝙣𝙚𝙩 It could be said that Warner Bros. had already laid out a meticulous plan for The Dark Knight and was putting it into action—for instance, the upcoming submission of Heath Ledger for Best Supporting Actor was an important part of it. Not only Best Supporting Actor, but also a series of technical awards. Warner Bros. was also preparing to submit The Dark Knight for Best Picture and Best Director. Of course, both Duke and Warner knew very well that winning these two awards let alone getting the Oscars would be very difficult even to get nominated. The Academy and Oscars’ discrimination against superhero films was deeply rooted. Not to say it’s completely impossible if Duke ended up like Heath Ledger, the Academy would surely abandon its bias and most likely toss over the Best Director Oscar. However, that’s a possibility Duke absolutely didn’t want to see. And he no longer intended to deliberately pursue the Oscars, not even planning to engage in PR just for a nomination. Starting from mid-June, The Dark Knight officially entered the phase of accumulating box office slowly over time. By late June, its daily box office had gradually dropped below $1 million as a common occurrence. No film can remain wildly popular indefinitely. The Dark Knight had exhausted too much audience enthusiasm during its early screening period. Compared with The Return of the King from a few years ago, its later performance seemed slightly weaker. When time passed into June 2007, The Dark Knight’s North American box office had not surpassed the $550 million mark, stalling at $545.82 million. Meanwhile, the film had already debuted in nearly 120 countries and regions around the world. After nearly two months of screening, it had grossed a total of $512.85 million overseas. The film’s style had destined its overseas response to be weaker than in North America. But a global box office total of $1.05867 billion was still enough to overshadow all other competitors this year. The Dark Knight’s run wasn’t over yet. Both its domestic and overseas box office figures still had room to grow. However, Duke had ended his vacation, and Warner Bros. had already given him a definitive message: even if he required that the production budget for his new project not be less than $200 million, Warner’s review board had still approved it. Such a huge investment had set a new record for Duke’s highest production budget for a single film, and most of that funding would be spent on visual effects. The new movie needed realistic CG effects to create a group of giant, intelligent robots.