"This isn't a good choice, Barry."
"You're right, it's not a good choice," said the reporter named Barry, "but since the director is Gilbert, there's nothing impossible for him."
His colleague nodded. Yes—because it was Gilbert.
If it were any other director, the doubts would have been even louder. But as long as it was Gilbert behind the camera, people always had this blind confidence that he would succeed.
Recently, Hollywood had produced many successful superhero movies, but almost all of them came from Marvel.
As for DC, its last truly successful superhero film could be traced all the way back to Tim Burton's 1989 version of Batman.
That film was still widely regarded as the best Batman movie ever made.
Could Gilbert surpass it? That was a big question mark.
As Gilbert's preferred media outlet, The Los Angeles Business Times was the first to be called on.
"Director Gilbert," the reporter asked, "what made you decide to take on the Batman project? After all, since 1997, this series has been considered a complete failure."
Gilbert explained, "I don't believe Batman has completely failed. Perhaps the poor performance of past films caused him to temporarily disappear from the audience's view.
But now, together with David and Jonathan, we've come up with several excellent story ideas. I believe this story will be powerful enough to move people's hearts and rekindle their love for Batman."
The second reporter called upon was Barry.
"Director Gilbert," he asked, "could you tell us how the new Batman story was created?"
Gilbert replied, "Before we began writing, we watched every previous Batman film—Joel Schumacher's 1997 version, Tim Burton's 1989 version, and even Adam West's 1966 version.
Some of those versions were good, others not so much, but they all had one thing in common: they were too much like comic books.
So during our creative process, we worked hard to avoid that.
The birth of Batman should not be detached from a realistic context, so we decided to tell an origin story—the origin story of Batman."
Here, Gilbert didn't use "I" to take all the credit for the project's creation.
Although the story outline was his idea, the completed screenplay was written by David S. Goyer and Jonathan Nolan.
The third reporter, from The Hollywood Reporter, asked,"Director Gilbert, could you tell us how you plan to tell Batman's story this time?"
"We all know Batman is Bruce Wayne," Gilbert said,"but we rarely see Bruce Wayne as himself.
So from the very beginning, I told David and Jonathan—Batman in the comics looks almost like a god.
But we know he isn't a god.
So we decided to give him more of his human side.
As a person, he feels fear, confusion, and doubt.
It's precisely these emotions that push Bruce Wayne onto the path of transforming into a superhero.
When I started working on the script, I told David and Jonathan that I wanted to make the kind of superhero movie I would have wanted to see when I was twelve years old.
During the writing process, we drew inspiration from Batman: Year One, Batman: The Long Halloween, and Batman: The Man Who Falls.
These three comic books formed the foundation of the screenplay."
The final question came from a New York Post reporter:
"Director Gilbert, Gotham is a fictional city. How do you plan to depict it on screen?"
"A magnified version of New York," Gilbert replied,"a suffocating, oppressive international metropolis. To capture the essence of the city, we'll use as much live-action filming as possible."
The filming locations had already been decided.
New York would only appear in a small portion of the film—the main shooting location would actually be Chicago.
At the same time, they would blend in styles from other great cities like Hong Kong, Paris, and London.
Gilbert hoped that movie fans around the world would be able to see reflections of their own nation's representative cities in Gotham.
Of course, as a director obsessed with practical shooting, Gilbert hadn't given up using miniature models and CGI entirely.
For example, the elevated train sequences would have to be created with CGI.
Shortly after the press conference ended, major news outlets and websites updated their coverage.
Media outlets friendly to Gilbert expressed anticipation, but most chose to remain cautious.
The Hollywood Reporter wrote:
"Although we know Director Gilbert has never missed, Batman might turn out to be the unexpected exception in his career."
The New York Post commented:
"Compared to DC, which hasn't released a movie in seven years, perhaps Gilbert should have taken on a Marvel film instead—one with a greater chance of success."
The Washington Post went even further:
"There's no such thing as eternal success. After so many years of triumph, Gilbert's inevitable failure has finally arrived."
The film hadn't even begun pre-production, yet it was already shrouded in an air of distrust—as if the mere fact that Gilbert was directing guaranteed that Batman would fail.
In contrast, Gilbert's fans were brimming with confidence.
On social media, after Gilbert posted several design sketches, fans quickly began leaving comments.
Zhao Jack wrote: "If anyone can save Batman, it has to be Gilbert—no one else."
Zoe also commented: "I'm really looking forward to Gilbert's version of Batman. I can't wait!"
Alex, a New York street kid who had come to Los Angeles chasing his dream and had almost been scammed into the adult film industry in nearby San Fernando Valley—wrote: "The new Batman movie is definitely going to feel epic."
However, after the press conference, the new Batman project fell into silence, as if that press event had never even happened.
Gilbert returned to Stardew Valley Farm in Topeka, Kansas, to continue his leisurely vacation.
While there, he gathered his team—not just for a small reunion, but also to talk about their thoughts on the project.
"Annie, how are your two boys doing?"
Taking a bite of the grilled lamb ribs handed to him by Charlize Theron, Gilbert chatted with his assistant director.
Annie Burton sighed, clearly troubled.
"They've been disobedient lately. Mischievous at school. Paul said they even got into a fight with some friends the other day."
Gilbert chuckled. "Kids at that age are impossible—honestly, even the dogs don't like them. But they'll grow out of it. I'm sure the two boys will mature over time."
Art director Selena came over with two glasses of wine and joked,
"Annie, I'm jealous of you—you've got two kids. That's wonderful."
Annie Burton rolled her eyes at her and said,
"If you want kids that badly, why don't you just have one yourself?"
"No, no, no, no, no," Selena waved her hands in refusal. "I'm still enjoying the wonderful single life. What's wrong with handsome men?"
Selena lifestyle was quite indulgent. She often spent her nights with two or more handsome men and thoroughly enjoyed it.
As one of Gilbert's core team members, getting handsome men was never difficult for her. All she had to do was offer them a small acting role, and they would come running.
Gilbert never interfered in the private lives of his team members. In North America, that was considered an invasion of personal freedom — practically taboo.
Still, most of the crew, such as action director Luca Farias, limited themselves to the occasional affair. None were as wildly promiscuous as Selena.
"Selena," Gilbert said with a smile, "your upcoming work is going to be a bit tougher. I need the set design team to get in touch with the Chicago city government — see what kind of incentives they can offer.
"At the same time, take a trip to Iceland and scout for suitable shooting locations."
Selena had already seen the project outline. Curious, she asked, "Wasn't the script set in the Himalayas? Why not film there?"
Given Gilbert's strong ties with the Eastern nations, obtaining a filming permit there wouldn't be difficult.
But Gilbert shook his head. "That's not realistic. The altitude there is too high — over four thousand meters on average, even more extreme than the Denver Plateau.
"Iceland's a good alternative, and they're offering tax breaks too."
In recent years, Hollywood productions had increasingly moved their shoots overseas, rarely confining themselves to the Los Angeles area anymore. This shift reflected the globalization of Hollywood — after all, the monotony of Los Angeles couldn't represent the entire world.
And for economic reasons, major cities across North America were extending olive branches to Hollywood crews, offering attractive incentives to draw them in.
The same was true worldwide. The United Kingdom, for instance, had given its most generous incentives ever to lure the Harry Potter team back to film on home soil — even the Prime Minister's spokesperson had publicly invited the crew to return.
The logic was simple. Just look at the impact The Lord of the Rings had — it became a massive promotional series, sparking a tourism boom in China.
The resulting tourism revenue generated huge foreign income and boosted the country's global reputation and image.
After all, before that, many Westerners didn't even know where China was, or what kind of place it might be.
That's the power of a hit movie — it can drive local economic growth beyond measure.
So Gilbert believed that with his name and the Batman franchise, no location would dare turn him down.
Later, in the kitchen, Gilbert was chatting with production designer Nathan Crowley when the topic of the Batmobile came up.
"When the Warner Bros. execs asked me whether Batman could have a wilder car than before, do you know what I wrote in the script?"
"What?" Nathan asked curiously.
"I wrote, 'Does it come in black?'" Gilbert grinned. Then he tore off a small piece of dough from the batch fermenting on the counter and molded it into a crude shape.
Nathan looked at the oddly abstract lump of dough, puzzled. "What's that supposed to be?"
"This," Gilbert explained, "is roughly what I imagine the Batmobile to look like — combining the agility of a sports car with the power of a tank.
"For that, I need you to collaborate with Lamborghini. I want a real, drivable Batmobile — something we can actually use for filming."
Nathan pursed his lips, clearly feeling the challenge. The dough sculpture didn't help much — it was far too abstract. But he accepted the daunting task anyway, planning to contact Lamborghini right after.
In fact, Gilbert had already approached Lamborghini earlier, asking them to design a car that blended the traits of a Hummer and a sports car.
They had sent over several design drafts, but none of them satisfied Gilbert, forcing multiple revisions.
The Batmobile from his previous life's version had been spectacular — but Gilbert was curious to see what kind of new beast Nathan and Lamborghini could create this time.
.....
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