Far away in a deserted hangar in Nevada, the Iron Man crew was filming.
The inside of the hangar had been remodeled to look like a cave — this was where the scene of Tony Stark building the Mark I suit was being shot.
Three cameras were set up in different corners, all focused on the disheveled man with a strange glow emanating from his chest.
He held a hammer in his hand, repeatedly pounding on a block of metal. At this moment, not even terrorists or even God and Satan together could stop him from building the Mark I.
Robert Downey Jr.'s personal experiences had quite a few similarities to Tony Stark's in some ways.
And as someone who had already received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor back in the 1990s, Robert Downey Jr. played the role with complete ease.
"It looks pretty good," Jennifer Connelly said. After finishing the promotional tour for Batman Begins, she had taken a break, occasionally appearing at business events.
Taking advantage of her free time, she came to Nevada to visit the set to see Cameron Diaz's first film as a producer, made without Gilbert's direct supervision.
Cameron Diaz said, "He should understand how rare this opportunity is. The cave scenes are very exhausting, but he hasn't complained at all."
Jennifer Connelly thought that was perfectly normal. "Of course, opportunities like this don't come often. It's a $130 million blockbuster, and he's the leading man — that doesn't happen every day!"
After the morning scenes were done, Jennifer joined the crew for lunch. Both women ate very little, just some vegetable salad and fruit.
To maintain their figures, they rarely ate meat at most, some fish now and then.
As they ate, they chatted. Jennifer Connelly said, "Batman Begins has finished its North American run with $294.42 million. That's about the end of it.
Globally, it's reached $610.25 million — right in line with Warner Bros.' expectations."
"But not the media's expectations," Cameron Diaz added. "I bet The Washington Post will say that bastard's going downhill again. Ridiculous."
"'That bastard'" — Gilbert — was what the women privately called him as a term of endearment.
And indeed, part of the media was saying exactly what Cameron described — once again pushing the narrative that Gilbert was in decline.
But anyone with a functioning brain knew that Batman Begins was far from a failure. In fact, it was a massive success.
Why? Because before Gilbert took over, that franchise was completely dead in the water. He was the one who resurrected the Batman IP — otherwise, who knew how many years it would have taken for Batman to reenter public consciousness.
That $294.42 million North American box office placed it as the second-highest-grossing film of the year so far. The top spot was held by Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, which grossed $383 million and for now, no film seemed capable of challenging it.
Later in the year, The Chronicles of Narnia, King Kong, and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire were set to be released.
Narnia featured Anne Hathaway, King Kong starred Naomi Watts, and Goblet of Fire was produced by Melon Studios all highly anticipated films.
Meanwhile, in China, the joint delegation from Disney and Warner had finalized negotiations in Shanghai and signed an agreement. Starting next year, the Disney–Warner Theme Park would officially begin construction in Shanghai, with plans to open in 2010.
It would be the world's first Disney–Warner Park — a project spearheaded by none other than Gilbert.
Because of Gilbert's influence, Disney and Warner Bros. had developed a very close working relationship, and now they had extended that cooperation into the theme park project.
The Disney brand was undoubtedly world-famous, and its massive collection of intellectual properties and beloved animated characters had made its theme parks unbeatable worldwide.
By comparison, Warner might seem less impressive — but it certainly wasn't without valuable assets.
At the very least, if Disney ever wanted to create a Harry Potter Magic Town, it would need Warner's approval. Warner Bros. also owned the rights to numerous iconic characters and IPs — all of considerable value.
After long rounds of tug-of-war and negotiations, the two companies finally reached an agreement — to jointly build a Disney–Warner Park and see how it performed.
The first park would be located in Shanghai.
At first, Disney and Warner executives were skeptical about whether the park could turn a profit there. After all, theme parks were expensive to visit, and the merchandise wasn't cheap either.
"Would those stingy Chinese people really spend that much money on leisure?" they wondered.
But Gilbert dispelled their doubts. The economy was growing rapidly, and Shanghai was not far behind cities like New York or Paris in terms of prosperity.
Moreover, China's economic power was rising at an astonishing pace. Maybe other regions couldn't afford it, but Shanghai definitely had plenty of people with spending power.
Besides, the goal of a theme park was never purely profit.
The Paris Disneyland had been losing money for years, but Disney never shut it down. Instead, it kept investing more — baffling outsiders.
The truth was simple: it was all about brand influence and the promotion of related merchandise.
Granted, in China that logic might not work as well. The brand influence would still be there, but the rampant piracy meant merchandise sales couldn't be relied upon.
This round of negotiations mainly focused on that very issue — piracy. Unfortunately, it was extremely difficult to control. The Chinese side also had its own agenda, so progress was limited.
At times, their defensiveness was quite strong.
For instance, Hollywood had long been pushing for China to establish a proper film rating system, rather than relying entirely on the "big scissors" censorship approach, whose standards remained a complete mystery to outsiders.
As their market continues to expand, the voices calling for reform have grown louder, yet that side remains unmoved.
Minister Tian did reveal a bit during his conversation with Gilbert—some people believe that once a rating system is implemented, it will allow the import of unhealthy works that could negatively influence Chinese audiences.
That statement isn't entirely wrong, but from Hollywood's perspective, they naturally hope there won't be any censorship. Hollywood films, in their view, should flow freely across borders.
You could say that one's position determines one's thinking. Sometimes even Gilbert finds the Great Scissors' censorship quite frustrating.
He's worried whether The Last of Us can even be released over there, since it's a post-apocalyptic film where morality and law collapse.
According to old Tian's logic, "If it's the end of the world, doesn't that mean our country is gone too?" and that's absolutely unacceptable.
For such absurd reasons, The Last of Us may very well miss out on that market entirely. If that really happens, it would probably be the first time one of Gilbert's films fails to reach that region.
Although the box office contribution from there is limited, even mosquito legs are still meat.
Moreover, audiences need to be cultivated. Without more films being shown, fewer people will come to recognize him.
But some things are simply beyond human control or influence. The film's already been made—Gilbert can't just change the plot on the spot!
Then again, if it were made according to their standards, it wouldn't be a story about fatherly love at all. It would turn into a highly "scientific" tale about all humanity uniting to face a virus.
Ellie and Joel would tearfully part ways, accepting the experiment for the sake of the greater good. Joel, too, wouldn't go to save her; just like he lost Sarah, he would lose Ellie in the same way—all for humanity's survival.
The world is vast, but movies are small. Gilbert just wants to tell a simple story and not dwell on overly complicated issues.
.....
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