"How about this—let's include Keanu Reeves in the audition pool and send an invitation to his agent." Robin Grant picked up the topic. "For the next two weeks, our main task is to finalize the leads and several key supporting roles."

Chapter 8: The Male and Female Leads

Night deepened, thick fog shrouded the seaside residential area, and the salty dampness crept in through the cracks of the window, slipping into the nose of the busy figure beneath it.

"Achoo~"

After sneezing, Duke turned off the air conditioner, his eyes returning to the drawing board in front of him. Stretching lazily, he placed his hands back on the desk, picked up a pencil, and began sketching simple lines—a large and a small oval plus four straight lines, forming a diagram representing the male lead.

In just a few minutes, the image in his mind had turned into a storyboard sketch.

This was a style of storyboarding favored by many young directors in another world—concise and direct, enough to convey the scene represented by the sketch. In this era, it could be considered a futuristic approach.

Still, the effect was quite good. Duke often used these sketches to communicate with various departments in the crew, and most people found them clear and straightforward.

After finishing another sketch, Duke put them all into a file folder. His storyboards were temporarily complete, but if he had new ideas later, he could always make changes.

After tidying up his desk a bit, Duke left his bedroom and walked to his mother's study, gently knocking on the door. As expected, a voice from inside called him in.

"Mom..." Duke pushed the door open and entered.

"Is something wrong?" Mrs. Leah, sitting at the desk, took off her glasses and looked over.

"It's getting late," he pointed at the clock on the wall, "You should get some rest."

"Mm, I will soon."

Seeing his mother nod, Duke finally said, "Good night."

"Good night."

Back in his room, Duke lay down but couldn't fall asleep. His mind was filled with the preparations for "Speed." Even though the pre-production had gone smoothly and there had been no visible slip-ups in the crew, and even though he was confident in the abilities he had accumulated over the years, the pressure of this first time still weighed heavily on him.

When opportunities haven't appeared, you long for them; when they do, you're afraid you won't seize them and will end up failing.

This is a common problem for most people, and Duke was no exception. Even after living a second life, he was still a normal person.

This was a rare opportunity, and also one he couldn't afford to fail. Duke understood this very well—if he messed up, he wouldn't get a second chance for a very long time.

Turning pressure into motivation—it's easy to say, but much harder to do.

Grumbling inwardly about the motivational quotes from those so-called inspirational gurus, Duke finally drifted into a deep sleep.

Perhaps a good night's sleep is the best way to relieve stress. After getting up in the morning, Duke's posture was still upright, his rugged face full of determination and confidence, as if nothing in the world could defeat him.

He went for a run along the coastal boulevard, came home to eat the breakfast his mother made, changed into formal attire in his room, and then drove his Chevrolet toward West Hollywood.

Today, the crew was holding a second audition for the female lead, and Duke had a certain say in the matter.

For the first round of auditions for the leads, neither Duke nor Robin Grant had attended. As for whether Keanu Reeves, who had accepted the audition invitation, would be eliminated, he didn't really care. In Hollywood, no actor is irreplaceable, not even Meryl Streep.

As far as "Speed" was concerned, did it really matter who played the male lead, Jack? For a role like this, as long as you found a handsome young white man with a bit of a tough vibe and decent basic acting skills, it didn't make much difference.

Duke suggested Keanu Reeves simply because Keanu had some popularity at the moment and his fee was cheap enough. This wasn't the Keanu of a few years later—he could definitely be hired for under half a million dollars!

Since most of the budget would go into stunts, special effects, and filming, the total budget for actors' salaries was only two million dollars. In fact, Duke and Robin Grant had even agreed to try to keep this expense under 1.5 million.

Even so, a third of all cast and crew salaries would only be paid after the film finished its North American run.

As for whether the film could be released in North America, none of them—including Duke—were worried. Lucasfilm was definitely a top ten production company in the industry, and finding a distributor was just routine. They had already been in contact with 20th Century Fox, who had been pushing George Lucas to reboot the Star Wars series, so signing a distribution deal was basically not a problem.

Of course, the specific distribution terms would only be finalized after 20th Century Fox had seen the sample reel.

When he arrived at the "Speed" studio, Duke found that many of the actors auditioning had arrived even earlier than he had. That was no surprise—actors faced the fiercest competition in Hollywood. In this era, even well-known directors only had one foot in the spotlight, while actors were the real shining stars of Hollywood.