Looking back, Wendi Deng and Rupert Murdoch's marriage was never widely expected to last. Many believed it would inevitably be a short-lived union, and anyone who knew even a little about Wendi Deng could see that her life story was essentially a guide on how to use her body to climb upward through men.
Why Rupert Murdoch married Wendi Deng was widely speculated, the most common theory being for the Chinese market.
Unfortunately, at that time, Murdoch's understanding of the Chinese media market was still insufficient, and having a Chinese wife would not make China's media market treat him differently.
In contrast, Wendi Deng was ambitious. Marrying Rupert Murdoch was far more than just a means to become a billionaire's wife. However, Murdoch was cautious enough that Wendi Deng could neither enter News Corporation's decision-making circle nor gain any equity; even their two children only had trust funds.
In fact, anyone who had dealings with the couple could see that their separation was only a matter of time.
What no one expected was the dramatic turn of events: Wendi Deng not only cheated on Rupert Murdoch but did so with a former British Prime Minister.
Vanity Fair's publication of the "Wendi Deng letters" was wildly circulated by media and online platforms.
Wendi Deng wrote several "sappy love letters" in broken English in her diary: "Oh, damn, oh, damn… why do I miss Tony so much? He is so charming, dresses impeccably. He has a great physique, very long legs, a wonderful butt. Not only that, he is tall and lean, with good skin. I love his blue eyes, I love his stage presence…"
In addition, Vanity Fair published several photos.
In the photos, Blair and Wendi Deng fed each other during dinner at Murdoch's California ranch. The ranch staff revealed they personally saw Blair enter Wendi Deng's room, close the door, and spend at least three nights in her bedroom.
This news quickly spread across major websites, newspapers, and TV stations. In less than half a day, it had circulated worldwide, shocking the entire globe…
Soon, newspapers suggested that Wendi Deng and Murdoch's show of affection had been nothing more than a performance, claiming the earlier attack incident was purely a News Corporation PR stunt, deceiving the entire world.
Whereas people might once have doubted such claims, after numerous exposures of lies from News Corporation, the public no longer trusted its media at all.
Although the three parties involved strongly denied it, after several days of the "affair scandal" spreading, Tony Blair was forced to resign from all Labour Party positions. Newspapers in New York also reported the latest developments: a furious Murdoch had instructed lawyers to expedite divorce proceedings with Wendi Deng.
Surrounded by external adversaries and with fires burning in his own backyard, this was Rupert Murdoch's situation.
Some matters required no action from Duke. Warner Bros., along with Viacom, Comcast, and other media companies, had been closely watching News Corporation. Their goal was simple: use this incident to force a real breakup of News Corporation and eliminate a strong competitor.
Before leaving North America, Duke had been monitoring the progress of this matter. Rupert Murdoch was facing the most difficult situation in twenty years. Even if News Corporation was not split, it would not enjoy the same glory in the coming years as before.
While keeping an eye on News Corporation, Duke also completed a deal.
Most of Lucasfilm consisted of high-quality assets like Industrial Light & Magic and Skywalker Sound. But there were also less valuable divisions such as Lucas Animation and Lucas Games. Under Duke's guidance, Lucasfilm maintained stability while optimizing its portfolio. Lucas Animation and Lucas Games were sold in a packaged deal for $95 million to Peak Entertainment by Kathleen Kennedy.
Afterwards, Duke left Tina Fey in North America to handle various affairs and led the crew to the UK to shoot scenes at Wayne Manor.
The main scene here was a party, during which Selina Kyle intruded into Wayne Manor, drawing the retired Bruce Wayne back into conflict.
The shooting location was in Nottingham, at the old mansion of Irene Lauder's cousin. Unlike the previous shoot, Duke paid full rent and renovation costs to make the site more suitable for filming.
This was a quite aged manor, but Duke never cared much about history or heritage. With limited time in the UK, aside from the party scene, they also planned to shoot a masquerade scene in London.
Charles Rowen and Anna Prinz, who had arrived earlier, were fully prepared and had gathered enough extras. Once Duke arrived with Christian Bale, Gal Gadot, and Michael Caine, filming immediately commenced.
The focus was mainly on the confrontational scenes between Selina Kyle and Bruce Wayne.
Undoubtedly, Gal Gadot, tall and long-legged, with a model's physique, was more suitable for Catwoman. Her biggest problem was acting, but Duke's requirements were not high; this was just a commercial film, not as heavy as The Dark Knight.
In just two days, Duke completed all Wayne Manor scenes and prepared to lead the crew from Nottingham to London. At this time, James Franco, playing John Blake, approached Duke.
In the hotel suite's sitting room, Duke had Franco sit down casually and asked directly, "Coming so late, got something to discuss?"
"Remember that comedy project I mentioned before?"
Knowing Duke's style well, Franco did not beat around the bush: "Seth Rogen and I have already hired writers for the script and drafted a rough plan…"
At this point, Franco handed Duke a file folder.
Duke quickly skimmed it. As Franco said, it was a typical comedy, though somewhat sensitive in content.
Like traditional North American comedies, the story relied on crude humor. The protagonist was an American talk show host, running a highly successful celebrity gossip TV program, Tonight's Chaos Show, with his producer. Upon discovering that North Korea's supreme leader Kim Jong-un was a fan of their show, they decided to interview him and attempt to become officially authorized journalists.
When they prepared to go to North Korea, a CIA agent team recruited them, which changed the plan for their Pyongyang trip—they were now to assassinate the dictator.
By conventional thinking, this was an untouchable subject, but Duke, looking from a producer's perspective, saw it as a project likely to succeed.
For the North American market, the story's premise itself was extremely funny, because to the American public, Kim Jong-un was more of a punchline in an internet carnival than a real political figure. While this was unlikely to become a politically satirical masterpiece of the era, it was undeniably a clever, unrestrained, and laugh-out-loud film adaptation.
Indeed, even if the film was successfully produced, at most it would be a second- or third-tier movie, but it would certainly become a hot topic.
Sufficient buzz guaranteed that the film would not lack an audience.
Of course, in Duke's view, the film's success would still depend on marketing.
After a few seconds of thought, Duke returned the file folder to James Franco and said, "After you return to North America, you can go to Warner Bros. I'll call Doug Walter."
The project he recommended was certain to pass the Warner Bros. review committee.
Three days later, the crew began shooting at the Hilton Hotel in London. Unlike the preliminary shoots in the Los Angeles studio, only standard digital cameras were used here.
For action sequences and wide exterior shots, Duke used IMAX cameras. For closer, smaller-scale scenes, regular cameras were used.
However, for the panoramic masquerade ball scene, Duke also used IMAX cameras.
Shooting large-scale IMAX interior scenes was also a challenge for the lighting crew. The high resolution made it difficult to conceal the lights. Duke chose the Hilton in London because the banquet hall's ceiling had square recesses designed to hide lighting fixtures.
The lighting crew installed eight 750-watt ellipsoidal lights on the ceiling above the dance floor, using barn doors to shape the beams to match the ceiling's inset lights. Reflections off the ceiling created the effect of natural lighting.
For the scene with Christian Bale and Gal Gadot dancing together, Duke was dissatisfied with the eye close-ups. He had the lighting crew replace them with long-nose softbox LEDs for eye highlights and used 5K tungsten lights to outline soft edge lighting, making the actors' eyes appear brighter and more expressive.
Standing in the banquet hall, Duke loudly reminded the lighting crew, "If the camera passes Bale's right shoulder, position the lights on his left shoulder."
During filming, Duke requested multiple 360-degree rotating shots between Bale and Gadot. He also had the lighting crew use controllable lantern-style spherical lights mounted above and behind the actors on camera dollies to create continuous soft edge lighting.
After less than a week in London, the crew chartered a plane to India. Duke only shot there for two days before returning the crew to North America to film exterior scenes in New York, Chicago, and Pittsburgh.
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