A year ago, in December 2005, at the premiere of Goblet of Fire (Part 1), Harry Potter film producer David Heyman and director Chris Columbus revealed that Goblet of Fire had only been split into two films because of Isabella Haywood.
According to media reporters who attended the premiere, when the topic came up, Isabella responded jokingly. She said David and Chris were only saying that to shift responsibility because they did not want to bear the risk if the split failed. Now that they had exposed it, if Goblet of Fire (Part 1) collapsed at the box office, she would become the biggest sinner in the whole affair. So Isabella begged everyone present to keep it secret for her and only bring it up again after Goblet of Fire (Part 1) became a box-office hit. Of course, if Goblet of Fire (Part 1) performed poorly, everyone could simply pretend the conversation had never happened.
Last year, when the news came out, we did not realize what this revelation actually meant.
After all, whether a film is split into two parts is not something one or two people can decide alone.
"David Heyman and Chris Columbus said Goblet of Fire was split entirely thanks to Isabella? Maybe this revelation only appeared because Goblet of Fire (Part 1) needed publicity?"
"But—"
When we stand here today and look back, we find that David Heyman and Chris Columbus may genuinely have been thanking Isabella at the time. Whether Goblet of Fire was split was extremely important, and making that split happen was not easy.
First, its importance:
Goblet of Fire is the work in the entire Harry Potter story that connects what came before with what comes after. The relationships and positions of the characters in this story determine the core direction of the future plot. If these things are not made clear, the entire film series could even be said to have no future.
Then, the difficulty:
Although the Harry Potter films had excellent box-office results, and although any normal executive, after realizing that the Harry Potter story needed to be split, should have understood that this was the best choice, very often, the best choice is not the safest one.
Especially back then, around the time Goblet of Fire was being developed, Warner had already attempted a split-film project before: The Matrix. Reloaded performed beautifully, but Revolutions was disappointing.
Although most criticism of The Matrix Revolutions at the time revolved around the plot, special effects, and acting, quite a few people also felt that the broken continuity of the story was one reason Revolutions failed.
After Warner had already suffered a defeat with split films, asking them to take out their strongest franchise and split it too?
I think even the bravest person would have had to think it over carefully.
Therefore, back then, Warner must have had many internal disputes over whether Goblet of Fire should be split.
And since David Heyman and Chris Columbus publicly said that Isabella had contributed to this matter, her contribution must have been enormous. She was likely the person who pushed Warner to commit to the split.
And back then, Isabella did have that ability.
We now know that she owns the rights to The Voice.
And The Voice only has two operators in North America. The one in front of the curtain is Disney; the one behind it is Warner. Once Warner could gain concrete benefits from The Voice—
Isabella said Goblet of Fire should be split?
Then Warner would decisively choose to split it.
To be honest, the game between Isabella and Warner was not actually complicated. But Isabella's actions are moving, because whether Goblet of Fire was split had nothing to do with her at all. That was a matter for Warner's management, producer, and director to consider. But once she stepped forward, she had to bear all responsibility if the project failed.
Because she was the person who made the final call in the entire negotiation.
If Isabella did not genuinely love Harry Potter, she would never have needed to do something where the risk outweighed the reward.
And it is precisely because Isabella can follow her own nature, pursue what she truly likes, and stand firm on the things she wants to stand firm on that we are able to see such an excellent Goblet of Fire today.
"So—"
If J.K. Rowling is the person who created the magical world,
Then Isabella Haywood is the person who pushed that world toward something better.
"Her actions moved me deeply!"
"They even made me want to cry a little!"
Then, I also want to say this: when she is willing to give so much for the career she loves, perhaps every project she takes part in will be a masterpiece. I am now looking forward more than ever to Transformers, which will be released this year, and the Beaver Animation, which currently has no news! I am looking forward even more to Iron Man, which will be released next year! I want to know what kind of surprises Isabella will bring us with these three films!
Because all three of these films are things Isabella personally pushed forward and personally made!
As the internet gradually entered everyday life, film critics who had once only been active offline also began carving out territory online. For example, the world-famous North American film critic Roger Ebert founded his own website in 2002.
And right now, this post praising Isabella, which appeared on MSNBC, was published by a film critic from New York.
Perhaps it was because he had some fame.
Or perhaps it was because the only major hotspot in the current entertainment industry was Goblet of Fire (Part 2).
Or perhaps it was because both his writing and the concept of the article were excellent.
In short, not long after the article was published, it was pinned to the top of MSNBC's entertainment section. After that, it even appeared on the main page.
Although MSNBC's current traffic could not compare with Yahoo, Google, or even YouTube, because it was the default homepage of Internet Explorer, the article still attracted countless onlookers after it made the rankings.
When Marvel's major shareholder and chairman, Isaac Perlmutter, saw it—
The three full pages of agreement made his brows knit tightly, and he let out a heavy sigh.
"Sigh."
To be honest, Isaac Perlmutter really disliked this post.
It was not that he could not accept other people praising Isabella.
Rather, he could not accept everyone acknowledging Isabella's ability.
When "everyone" in the world believed that anything Isabella produced would be a masterpiece, and that anything she made would surely be good, a crack appeared in Isaac Perlmutter's rule over Marvel.
The whole world was chasing after Isabella and treating her as a savior of the arts, even if Isaac Perlmutter held final production rights over all Marvel merchandise, there was no way for him to truly have the final say in that field.
Yes, he could say to Isabella: if you cannot get me the benefits I want, if you cannot satisfy my appetite, then even if you shoot the film into the heavens, I will not let you make Marvel merchandise.
But!
Isabella could also ignore him and throw the matter directly to the world.
Since Isabella herself controlled media outlets, as long as she made public what Isaac Perlmutter had said to her, the game would end immediately, because Isaac Perlmutter was only Marvel's major shareholder, not Marvel's sole shareholder.
He wanted to turn Marvel into his own backyard, endlessly producing milk for himself?
He wanted to stuff the influence Marvel could gain from Isabella into his own pocket and enjoy all the delicious benefits alone?
Wouldn't that be equivalent to taking money out of the pockets of the other shareholders?
If no one exposed these things—
The other shareholders might pinch their noses and pretend to be blind, because Isaac Perlmutter's background was terrifying.
But once someone who was not afraid of him publicized his dirty business—
In a war, if someone has already taken the lead and charged forward, and the others still do not follow, then they do not deserve to play the financial game.
So!
The more the world wanted to send money to Isabella, the less stable Isaac Perlmutter's position at Marvel became!
In the past, whenever he smelled risk, he would immediately pull out a gun.
Strike first and gain the upper hand; strike later and suffer, after all.
Not to mention, in the European and American world, there is no such thing as legal restraint.
The founding father of the sacred American Empire had already stated clearly: the only thing that can restrain me is my own morality.
Europe and America simply have no laws.
What Europe and America have always believed in is "truth."
But now that he could not directly pull out that "truth"—
"I hope Transformers dies horribly."
"I hope Beaver Animation dies horribly too."
"Because only then will the public lose hope in Isabella!"
"Only then will Iron Man suffer the greatest failure—"
Isaac Perlmutter muttered to himself, performing his little ritual.
Yes.
When "truth" could not be used for the moment, Isaac Perlmutter could only hope that metaphysics would work.
As for why he hoped Iron Man would fail?
Very simple.
It was not as though Isabella was the only person in the world who could make movies.
Spider-Man did perfectly fine without Isabella, didn't it?
So, after Isabella suffered consecutive failures, wouldn't he be able to take the rights back and continue making money?
"..."
Isabella knew nothing of Isaac Perlmutter's muttering.
This was not only because she had no clairvoyance or super-hearing, but also because right now, she was happily welcoming the New Year.
"Hey! Chestnut! I've realized you really are a little bastard!"
"You only got beaten up by Eggplant yesterday, so why are you biting him again today?"
"Don't think you can bully him however you like just because he's about the same size as Bread!"
"Bread's family doesn't beat you up because they have good tempers! Not because they don't get angry!"
"Eggplant is different. If you bully him, he really will slap you with his tail!"
Saudi Arabia.
Jeddah.
In a manor beside the Red Sea coast.
Isabella, wearing a wealthy local-style headscarf, black sunglasses on her nose, and cool slippers on her feet, looked down from above as she scolded Chestnut.
Perhaps because it had some humanity.
Or perhaps because Isabella's tone was very fierce.
In short, while Isabella roared, the little thing immediately started cosplaying as a repentant child. It lay pitifully on the table, looking at Isabella with an aggrieved expression, as if begging its owner for forgiveness.
Its adorable appearance made Isabella helplessly curl her lips.
Just as she was about to rein in her emotions and spare the little thing, a burst of "gahaha—" laughter suddenly rang out.
Her gaze shifted toward the sound.
Isabella's newly raised uppercut-immune creature, unchangeable thing, land-wriggler, killer whale buffet, great white shark pork belly slice, crafty QQ sausage, polar bear garlic-sauce companion, sea lion, was sticking out its cat-like lips and laughing wildly over there.
That's right.
Over the past few months, Isabella had raised a few more animals.
The sea lion she named Eggplant was only one of them.
The second was the sea otter Catherine was holding.
Uh—
Isabella herself did not know why she liked raising animals so much.
Anyway, after becoming rich, she discovered that she had developed many strange hobbies.
So, in her previous life, she only liked music? That was probably because she had been too poor. In this life, after getting money, whenever she found something interesting, her first reaction was to buy it, and her second reaction was to buy it in pairs.
Right now, no matter how she spent money, her wealth would only increase, not decrease.
For example, the three-acre manor she was currently staying in was something she had taken a liking to on a whim when she came to Saudi Arabia for Christmas, then bought outright.
Although the total price was 53 million, the instant she finished paying, her wealth jumped by more than 100 million again.
There was nothing she could do about it.
Who told Google's stock to rise again?
When money was nothing more than paper in her hands, doing what she liked was the most important thing.
Back to the point.
The main reason Isabella was angry right now was that, while she had been swimming earlier, the little sea lion Eggplant had stayed by her side the whole time. That made the little sea otter Chestnut jealous, so Chestnut bit Eggplant.
Strictly speaking, Isabella should have been happy.
If Chestnut did not like her, why would she get jealous?
Right?
But—
There was too great a size difference between sea lions and sea otters.
When Chestnut rashly attacked Eggplant, Isabella was genuinely afraid Eggplant would lose his temper, open his big mouth, and chew her up.
So—
The scolding?
In truth, she just wanted Chestnut to be more careful.
But while she was scolding Chestnut, Eggplant suddenly started barking?
This—
Just as Isabella was looking at Eggplant in confusion, not knowing what kind of madness this idiot was having now, Chestnut, who had originally been quietly begging for forgiveness, suddenly let out a "squeak—". The next second, she pounced straight at Eggplant.
Chestnut bit Eggplant on the butt, then turned and ran.
Her escape was so fast it almost left afterimages, stunning Isabella.
It also made her anger surge.
However, just as Isabella was about to curse at Chestnut and think this furry child was truly disobedient, another ghostly cry rang out.
"Oooooh—"
Eggplant looked as if he had been shot. He collapsed straight onto the ground and began flapping his limbs at Isabella.
After forcefully waving both flippers and his tail, performing a rhythm-filled piece of music for Isabella—
Isabella felt her head starting to ache.
"Chestnut bit you for four or five seconds, and you only started rolling around now?"
"Is your reaction time really that slow?"
Since sea lions have the intelligence of a six- or seven-year-old child, and they even perform in zoos, the crafty QQ sausage, who could roughly understand what Isabella meant, immediately started nodding. Not only that, he also stuck out his butt, bent down, and patted it with his front limbs.
The "papapa—" sound made Isabella's eyelids twitch. She did not understand what he meant.
But when Eggplant barked "aow aow—" in the direction Chestnut had fled—
Isabella understood.
"You mean you want me to go beat up Chestnut?"
"Ang ang ang—" Eggplant nodded hard.
Isabella narrowed her eyes. "Because Chestnut bit you?"
"Ang ang ang—" Eggplant continued nodding.
Isabella pursed her lips and said, "Then do you also want a big meal? To soothe your wounded heart?"
"Ang ang ang ang ang—"
Eggplant stood up, wildly bobbing his head while constantly blinking his big, mascara-commercial eyes at Isabella.
"Hahahaha—"
When the sea lion started cosplaying as a seal, putting on an expression that said, I have been wronged, please judge who is loyal and who is treacherous, Catherine, who had witnessed everything with her younger sister beside Isabella, immediately burst into loud laughter.
Her bright, happy laughter also made Isabella shake her head helplessly.
She picked up the walkie-talkie with resignation. Since Eggplant was also so human-like, she might as well have the little creatures' keeper bring some food over.
She would satisfy him.
When Catherine pinched a fish by the tail and started teasing Eggplant with it, this silly fellow even danced ingratiatingly.
And at the same time—
"Squeak squeak squeak squeak—"
A string of prayer-like cries came from all directions.
After running away, Chestnut had gone to call for reinforcements.
Right now, all the otters Isabella raised had arrived.
Seeing that Eggplant had something to eat, they immediately became so anxious that they started bowing as if giving New Year greetings.
Especially Chestnut!
This little troublemaker once again put on that pitiful, repentant expression!
To be honest, the Middle East was actually quite beautiful.
Deserts, oases, blue seas, blue skies.
That kind of world, where things that clearly should not be compatible blended perfectly together, gave people the feeling of touching heaven.
Uh—
Fine. As long as you were willing to throw money around, anywhere could be heaven.
After giving Chestnut two knocks on the head and feeding her a fish, Isabella finally handed the job of watching the furry children eat over to her very interested older sister. Feeling a little tired, she went straight back inside to rest.
Then—
"Hm? Marg? Didn't you say you were going to make little cakes for me?"
As soon as Isabella entered the house, she saw Margot Robbie curled up on the sofa, playing on a computer.
Because Isabella was born gifted and naturally disliked high-oil, high-sugar foods, she still had afternoon tea like a normal person in daily life.
Just a little.
And because there were not many people around her whom she could truly trust, when she was traveling and could not be certain about mealtimes, the afternoon tea that simply added a bit of flavor to her mouth was all made by Margot. Honestly, perhaps because she had learned a few skills in her free time, her baking was truly outstanding.
Isabella's question made Margot lift her head. "Oh, the little cakes are in the oven."
"Didn't you want an Earl Grey-flavored Swiss roll? And didn't you want it to have a cotton-like texture?"
"So I chose to bake it slowly at a low temperature."
"Preheating plus baking will take more than an hour."
"Oh." Isabella understood.
She familiarly leaned in beside Margot. The scent of soap drifting toward her made her sniff lightly.
While looking at the computer screen, she asked, "What are you looking at? Still staring at Facebook?"
"Mm. The oven doesn't need someone watching it every second, but it's also not good to walk away, so I'm just browsing Facebook." Margot replied with a smile. "Besides, there are also things on here that are infringing on your rights."
As early as sometime last year, Facebook had opened registration to users who were at least 13 years old and had a valid email address.
People living in 2026 should all understand what a "valid email address" means.
If you don't, go watch Old A's videos.
In America, only those who can receive mail count as people.
Although Facebook still had a registration threshold at the moment, compared with the past, when it only allowed college students to register, it was already much better. Therefore, its user numbers were simply rising with a "whoosh whoosh whoosh—".
Margot had registered an account too.
At first, when she used Facebook, she found it quite enjoyable.
Because there was a lot of interesting content on Facebook.
She could also use Facebook to chat with her Australian friends.
But ever since the month before last, which was November 2006, after she saw more and more memes of beavers, marmots, and capybaras on Facebook, she felt that something was not quite right.
As for the reason?
The animal expressions appearing on Facebook were no different from the cartoon images Isabella had shown at the end of Prada.
And all of them seemed to have appeared overnight.
In Margot's eyes, this situation seemed like infringement.
Although the expressions that had suddenly appeared were not built-in, and Facebook's official sticker pack did not contain those expressions, files of sticker packs that could be imported into Facebook had appeared in batches.
When "fan creations" appeared in an organized way, were they still "fan creations"?
Right?
So, premeditated infringement was, in Margot's eyes, the truth of the entire matter.
As for this—
Isabella felt it did not matter.
"Aiyo— Marg— I already told you not to pay attention to boring things like this—"
"As long as no one uses them commercially, I won't pursue this kind of thing."
"No one on the market is actually selling those stickers right now, are they?"
Free things were always the most expensive. Isabella firmly believed this principle.
So, there were currently a large number of mass-produced stickers of her cartoon characters on Facebook?
From her point of view, that was free advertising.
It was the public spontaneously promoting her work for her.
Since this kind of thing benefited her, she would not care.
Seeing that Margot could not understand, Isabella simply closed the laptop in her hands and said, "All right, stop looking at this stuff. If you have time, you might as well help me think about what to wear to next week's event."
"I don't want to dress like a flashy peacock. I want something more relaxed."
"What event? Where is it being held?"
Isabella's words piqued Margot's curiosity. "Don't you have stylists?"
"I do have stylists, but their taste leans toward entertainment. That day's event leans more business."
Isabella leaned against Margot and stretched lazily. "It's an Apple launch event, held in San Francisco. Besides me, people from tech companies like Google and Yahoo will also be going."
"And Google's CEO and Yahoo's founder will both be presenters at the launch event."
"Wow, that high-end?" Margot was a little surprised. "Does Apple have some big move?"
"Of course Apple has a big move. Steve is going to release an epoch-making product."
Isabella laughed at her surprised tone. "He's going to release a product that can change all of humanity's lifestyle habits."
"So—"
"I don't want to dress like a gaudy butterfly at an event like that."