His rotary phone buzzed against the glass tabletop at his side of the pool.
Interrupting him from his thoughts.
He just stared at the phone, ignoring the first ring.
A moment later, it buzzed again.
He sighed and picked it up. It was Sherryl, his assistant.
"Sir, Robert Evans is requesting a meeting tomorrow morning at the lot. He wants to discuss things about UA recent firings."
Duke rubbed the bridge of his nose. The industry never stopped moving.
"Tell him I'll be there." He ended the call and just stared at the pool, wondering if he should get another beer.
He got up and looked for another cold one from the kitchen. Bradley was still asleep upstairs.
He went to the living room and turned on his CTR TV, a Sony Trinitron KV-3000R.
'TV sets are... so small in this era. I should get a projector setup or something.'
His Sony Trinitron KV-3000R was a 30 inch screen, yet was worth 10.000$.
He turned it on, and started skipping channels. The channel that was on when he turned it on was Nickelodeon, their kids channel where animation was the focus.
He moved through things, stopping at CNN where some official footage of a 6.8 earthquake in Sichuan, China, was playing.
Duke felt bad for some people, at least his problems were 'small'. They were not Life or death situations.
'Would it be weird if I donated some money? I mean, at some point I have to do business in China, so its better to take a proactive nice step foward rather than waiting.'
The reporter explaining the footage, started to talk about 'Fault-zones'.
'Isn't Hollywood also built on a fault-zone or something.'
He remembered Dwayne Johnson had a movie about LA being obliterated from existence by an earthquake and then LA got invaded by Rampage, a Kaiju Gorilla that 'the Rock' beats in a fight with his Crocodile friend.
'Or was it the Gorilla beating the Crocodile with help from The Rock... was there an earthquake on that movie?'
Shrugging while taking another swing, he just changed the channel again, going on a spree of changing channels until he found MTV.
Blondie, 'The Tide Is High' was playing. Duke left it as background music while he went to look for some of his old scripts.
He brough a box filled with some dusty notes. Production notes of Gladiator were everywhere.
'I first wanted to make this back when the fcking Godfather was still being shoot in Sicily...'
Gladiator was a 'Historical' film, but it was better understood as a Sword&Sandals movie, a genre that was very popular once upon a time in the 60s in America and Italy.
After so long, he had already figured out that Gladiator would be... difficult to shoot.
Not impossible but difficult.
Technically, a movie like Gladiator should not even be close to be even considered a project.
Massive flops like Cleopatra (1963) and The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964) had nearly bankrupted studios decades earlier.
Pitching a massive epic in 1981, an era that was currently being dominated by sci-fi, slashers , and dramas would have faced studio resistance.
Of course, that didn't matter for Duke, even if the movie were to be 'expensive' to make. He had more than enough money to make it.
That meant he still needed to consider the logistical nightmare.
The 2000 film used 2,000 extras and digitally multiplied them into a crowd of 35,000.
Also, Ridley Scott style in Gladiator was very kinetic and moved the camera a lot. This was possible cause of light digital cameras available in the 2000.
In 1981, the technology kind of didn't exist. There were some other solutions of course but things would have to be done in a more 'practical' way.
For example, movies like Undisputed or The Raid would be too difficult to make in this time cause of camera movements.
Duke checked the notes for his storyboard of The Battle of Germania, which was the Opening Scene of the movie.
They would have to have crew members hold physical smoke pots and wind machines, which are difficult to control outdoors, in the middle of a forest...
Then stage the battle with the extras, being careful to not have someone hurting themselves and then suing the production.
All of that while flaming arrows and catapulted boulders would also have to be practical.
Launching real incendiary projectiles around hundreds of stuntmen and horses in a real forest was also a slight safety hazards and would at the very least require weeks of planning and grueling takes.
Surprisingly, the shot that most owuld consider to be the most difficult, the Tiger Fight.
Basically a sequence where Maximus fights Tigris of Gaul while tigers leap at him on chains was highly choreographed.
In 2000, the tigers were shot on bluescreen, and digital composting placed them inches away from Russell Crowe without any risk.
To achieve this, in 1981 it was simple, just put the lead actor and stuntmen near the tigers and shoot it practically.
There was even a Cinematic Precedent.
Demetrius and the Gladiators, a 1950s 20th Century Fox epic.
In a major scene, Emperor Caligula sentences Demetrius to fight a pack of tigers in the arena.
In the scene, the lead actor fights the tigers. How did they accomplish it?
The actor stood on the left side of the frame, while a real tiger was filmed on the right side of the frame, then they were combined in post-production using optical layering.
And for shots where the tiger physically leaps onto a human, a tiger handler would wear the actor's costume and wrestled the animal.
Also the production used a tiger with its upper canine teeth removed.
Since there was a precedent, why not follow the lead of his predecesors. 'We are all truly standing in the shoulders of giants.'
___
The next morning, Duke arrived at his office in a sharp charcoal suit. He had dropped Bradley in Kindergarden along the way.
Robert Evans was already sitting waiting for him with a steaming cup of coffee in his hand.
"Duke, my apprentice. Good to see you," Evans said, while keeping a straight face.
"Glad to see you too, Bob," Duke replied, taking his seat behind the desk. "So, what was this discussion about? I forgot what Sheryl told me."
Evans reached into his briefcase and pulled out a paper with the name 'Orion Classics' and another with 'Paramount Classics'.
"A group of employees that Kerkorian is planning to fire, are trying to jump ship." Evans explained.
"...Isnt this something we already do?" Duke raised an eyebrow as he read the page. "Isn't Ithaca Pictures for this..."
"You don't work day to day here Duke," Evans reminded him and waved a hand dismissively. "Ithaca is basically a second distributor, specially when it comes to Indie Films and B Tier Films."
"But that makes us very Domestic market focused. The Paramount Clssics theyre proposing is more of a foreign film focused acquisition unit-"
The door swung open, interrupting their creative meeting.
Robert Shaye walked in, looking tanned, after just returning from a long vacation.
Duke and Evans stood up, offering handshakes.
"Robert. Good to see you," Duke said. "How was the trip?"
"Great, Sweden is beautiful," Shaye replied taking a seat. Unbuttoning his suit jacket. "A week of snow and zero phone calls."
"That must be nice," Duke noted dryly. "We've been busy holding down the fort here in Los Angeles."
Shaye laughed softly. "I read the trades. But you guys dont need me for those VHS battles."
Duke sat back down and gestured to a seat. "Make yourself comfortable. We were just talking about preliminary details of something for the lIbrary."
Shaye opened a manila folder. "I wanted to personally thank you both for the unwavering support. Studio 13 had a phenomenal year of 1980."
He slid a printed ledger across the table.
Shaye pointed to the titles.
"Friday the 13th, The Shining, The Fog, Cannibal Holocaust, Terror Train, City of the Living Dead, Inferno, He Knows You're Alone, Prom Night."
Evans let out a low whistle, staring at the profit margins. "That's an awful lot of fake blood."
Shaye grinned. "The teenage audiences can't get enough of our fake blood on a Friday night."
Duke nodded in agreement. The industry was changing.
The Horror market was proving to be a reliable cash cow. "The profit margins on these horror films are...crazy."
"And the sequels are already in motion," Shaye added proudly. "Friday the 13th Part 2 and Halloween II. The audience is demanding more of it."
Duke listened. "What exactly is on the slate for 1981?"
Shaye flipped to the next page. "We have 5 major releases planned."
"First is An American Werewolf in London. John Landis is directing. Technically a horror-comedy, but the practical effects are amazing."
"Next is The Evil Dead," Shaye continued. "Directed by that young kid you brought, Sam Raimi."
"Then we have The Howling. Werewolves again, but darker tone."
"We round out the year with Friday the 13th Part 2. And Halloween II, bringing John Carpenter back. That one picks up the very same night the first film ended."
Evans leaned forward, frowning slightly at the schedule. "Are we releasing two different werewolf films in the exact same calendar?"
Shaye shrugged confidently. "They're different experiences. One is comedic, while he other is terrifying. Teenage audiences will happily pay to see both."
Duke leaned back in his chair, analyzing the slate.
"The horror division is a goldmine. But we must be careful not to flood our own market."
Shaye nodded.
Duke decided to continue, after all yesterday he had already made the decision. "Oh, I'm planning on making my comeback to the Directing's chair."
___
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