"I ran into David Ellison at a party today. He didn't look very good."
Scarlett peeled an orange in her hands and fed the peeled segments to Gilbert's mouth.
Gilbert nodded slightly. The orange had a hint of sweet and sour—it tasted pretty good.
"You must have spoken too bluntly and offended him," Gilbert said with a smile.
Scarlett puffed out her cheeks. "How could that be? I was just telling the truth. Lies don't hurt people—truth is the sharp knife."
She ate a slice of orange herself, then revealed a mocking smile. "David Ellison has already botched a two-hundred-million-dollar blockbuster.
If he messes up again, I don't think Skydance will be able to afford it for much longer."
"He has a very rich father."
"Heh!" Scarlett said disdainfully. "Even if he's rich, if David Ellison keeps losing money, his wealthy dad won't support him endlessly."
That was true, but if David Ellison set aside personal pride and relied on his resources, along with the assistance of Michael Ovitz and Martin Bob, he wouldn't fail that easily.
"I heard his sister, Megan Ellison, is doing extremely well in the independent film scene and is very close with the Weinstein brothers?"
"That's right. Over the past few years they've jointly produced several independent films and achieved some results during awards season.
But…"
Gilbert shook his head. Everyone in Hollywood knew about the dirty things the Weinstein brothers had done. If Megan Ellison was mixed up with them, how good could things really be?
In his memory, the downfall of the Weinstein brothers was still some time away. Right now, they were at their peak, and every star actor with Oscar ambitions was scrambling to curry favor with them.
History had already changed quite a bit now, so it was unclear whether the Weinstein brothers would still fall as they had in the previous timeline.
"Let's not talk about that," Gilbert said as he tossed the orange peel into the trash and asked Scarlett, "How is Lucy coming along?"
"It's fantastic," Scarlett said excitedly. "Where did you dig Nolan up from? He's a director with real ideas.
Working with him has been incredibly, incredibly enjoyable. I've truly felt the joy of creative filmmaking."
Gilbert smiled. "I know his talent very well. Disney is considering working directly with Nolan and turning Melon Studios into a studio dedicated to serving me.
I'm still thinking about whether I should let him go."
"Is there even anything to think about?" Scarlett clapped her hands. "Once the acquisition is complete, Disney will be our Disney. Whether Director Nolan is at Melon Studios or Disney, what difference does it make?"
"That's true…"
Gilbert nodded slightly, then continued, "You can't slack off on your training. Next up, we'll be shooting The Avengers.
Even though we can use stunt doubles, there will still be many action scenes that require you to do them yourself."
"I know!" Scarlett glanced down at her chest. "They're too big—they affect my ability to do large-scale movements."
Gilbert rolled his eyes. If we're talking about size, Jennifer Connelly's was even bigger. Jennifer Connelly without surgery could truly dominate the field.
The work on Inception had come to a temporary end, but Gilbert didn't enter a vacation phase. Instead, he took charge at Marvel Studios and began work on The Avengers.
There were no new Marvel films released throughout the entire year, but thanks to the previous films, Marvel had already laid a solid foundation.
Marvel had also long announced that Gilbert would direct The Avengers. As a result, both Marvel fans and Gilbert's fans were extremely excited about the film.
"The Avengers will be produced in IMAX 3D. This is the current trend."
At the Marvel executive meeting, Gilbert proposed this idea, causing the theater and exhibition executives to breathe a sigh of relief.
They were worried Gilbert might be a conservative auteur director who resisted using 3D technology. Missing out on the dividends of 3D films would have been a huge loss.
Gilbert said, "With so many superheroes gathered in a single film, the storyline is bound to feel chaotic.
The script must be carefully planned, balancing each superhero's screen time. Tony Stark and Steve Rogers will be the core, while also taking care of the other heroes."
Zack Penn, who was responsible for script development, nodded to show that he understood.
Gilbert continued, "Although the film will have a large number of special-effects scenes, I don't want all of them to be shot in green-screen studios."
Everyone at Marvel Studios was very familiar with Gilbert's production style. At this point, Marvel Studios hadn't yet developed an obsessive reliance on green-screen technology.
With Gilbert overseeing things, Marvel Studios would follow a path combining practical shooting with green-screen effects in the future.
This had one major advantage: it wouldn't overwhelm audiences with excessive effects and cause fatigue. No matter how much green-screen effects were praised, the texture brought by practical shooting was something green screens could never fully replace.
Of course, with the advancement of technology, perhaps one day practical shooting would no longer be necessary.
But in the current era, for green screens to surpass practical shooting, massive investment would be required. The visual effects of Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase Four looked somewhat rough precisely because cost control led to insufficient investment.
From a certain perspective, Hollywood's future contraction in the global film market couldn't be separated from Marvel Studios.
What is Hollywood's greatest weapon for attracting overseas audiences? After storytelling became formulaic and templated, it was large-scale, high-investment visual spectacle.
This was clearly demonstrated by the global viewing frenzy triggered by Transformers 2 and Avatar.
However, because Marvel Studios mass-produced a huge number of effects-driven blockbusters, these spectacle scenes became cheapened and could no longer serve as a powerful audience draw.
For example, the Paris folding scene in Inception was breathtaking and was even selected by Time magazine as one of the Top Ten Movie Scenes of the Year.
But in Doctor Strange, scenes of cities undergoing wildly shifting transformations bombard the audience nonstop. A viewer who has watched Doctor Strange and then goes back to watch Inception again may still be drawn in by the exquisite narrative structure of Inception, but will no longer feel amazed by the Paris folding scene, because they have already seen something even more extreme.
Of course, it wouldn't be fair to pin all the blame on Marvel Studios, because even if Marvel didn't do this, other film companies would.
This is a trend that no one can stop, and Gilbert is no exception.
After the high-level meeting, Marvel Studios held a press conference. Gilbert attended the press conference and officially announced the project.
He said at the press conference, "We discussed how to bring all the superheroes into one film several years ago, and fortunately, we have an outstanding team."
"Can you tell us roughly what kind of story the film will be about?" a reporter asked.
"Earth suddenly faces an invasion from outsiders, and all the superheroes are forced to assemble to fight against the powerful invaders."
The story Gilbert described was very brief, and the plot of The Avengers could be said to be quite conventional. From a certain perspective, it is essentially a superhero version of Independence Day.
But how to make a conventional story feel fresh and exciting is something that truly tests one's skill.
Fortunately, Gilbert has a reference.
Joss Whedon may not be a top-tier director, but the Avengers he directed was still quite impressive. On that basis, as long as Gilbert makes some adjustments in the details, the work should be relatively easy.
...
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