On Monday morning, at the Warner Bros. headquarters, distribution director Solomon received congratulations from his colleagues.
The film Batman Begins, which he had overseen and managed in full, achieved massive success during its opening weekend and the Batman IP had been revived.
After a brief celebration, Solomon met privately with Warner Bros. CEO Doug Walter.
"Gilbert has already taken the crew on a nationwide promotional tour," Doug Walter said. "After finishing this week's promotion, he'll be moving on to other projects."
Solomon sipped the Longjing tea that Gilbert had given Doug Walter. Though he personally found it far less enjoyable than coffee, Warner Bros.' most important man — Gilbert loved it.
As a result, many Warner executives had started to imitate his refined tastes; to share a "common hobby" with Gilbert, quite a few of them had begun drinking tea as well.
Anyone who received a tin of tea from Gilbert could be happy for days.
Hearing Doug Walter's words, Solomon quickly put down his cup. "The new series has just begun, Gilbert should be rushing to make the second film. What project is he so busy with now?"
Doug Walter smiled. "Gilbert said it's better to let the movie settle for two years before releasing the next one. Besides, Disney has opinions too — Gilbert doesn't belong solely to Warner."
Only then did Solomon relax. "True. If we push Gilbert to start the second film right away, Mr. Iger probably wouldn't be too happy."
"Alright, let's not talk about that," Doug Walter said. "The domestic box office performance is solid. I think we can start preparing for the overseas release soon. Your distribution department needs to stay on top of coordination."
"Don't worry," Solomon said confidently. "By next weekend, Batman Begins will be released in eighty-seven countries and regions worldwide.
Given how strong its opening weekend was in North America, I'm sure the overseas market will perform excellently."
"Of course."
Both of them held high expectations for Batman Begins's international performance. As long as the film grossed over $200 million domestically and $500 million globally, the Batman franchise could continue.
Based on its opening weekend box office, Warner's internal analysts predicted that the film's North American gross could reach around $250 million — exactly the same as the Batman & Robin's global total.
While Warner Bros. was celebrating with joy, things weren't looking as bright over at Disney.
Because Gilbert had directed a film solely for Warner this year, Disney's own releases felt somewhat lacking.
Aside from The Adventures of Jackie Chan 3, co-produced with Warner in July, and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire scheduled for November, the only other major release was The Chronicles of Narnia, distributed by Buena Vista Pictures.
On paper, all these projects were strong and profitable.
But as Robert Iger put it well — without a film personally directed by Gilbert, the entire summer movie season just felt like it had lost its flavor.
Looking at the newspaper reports about Batman Begins, Robert Iger seemed visibly displeased.
His assistant immediately understood what was bothering him. Offering him a cup of tea, he said, "President, didn't Director Gilbert talk with you before? After this week's promotion, he plans to shift his focus to Marvel Studios' first film, and he's also preparing a new project."
"I know," Robert Iger said with a sigh. "I'm just a little frustrated. I always knew the Batman series would succeed.
It's almost funny — I even entertained the fantasy that if the film failed, maybe Warner would fall out with Gilbert."
Robert Iger had once considered using Disney's influence to sabotage Batman Begins, with the goal of making the film fail thereby causing Warner Bros. to lose confidence in Gilbert.
That way, Disney could seize the opportunity to buy out Warner's shares in Melon Studios, gain full ownership, and have Gilbert completely aboard Disney's ship.
But after thinking it through, Robert Iger eventually gave up on that unrealistic idea.
The reason was simple — based on Robert Iger's understanding of Gilbert, not only would he refuse to board the ship, but he might even blow it up.
The current model was already working well enough; after all, the films produced by Melon Studios were shared equally between both companies.
Warner inviting Gilbert to direct the Batman film also served as a reminder for Disney that in the future, they could invite Gilbert to direct other projects as well, bypassing the complicated internal system of Melon Studios.
However, convincing Gilbert was another matter. As Hollywood's most recognized writer-director with extraordinary talent, Gilbert wrote most of his own scripts.
If someone recklessly handed him a script and invited him to direct it, he probably wouldn't agree.
So most of these ideas remained just that — ideas. Robert Iger never truly acted on them.
Still, faced with the rising wave of superhero films, Robert Iger couldn't help but have some new thoughts.
He asked his assistant, "What's the progress with the negotiations with Marvel Studios?"
The assistant replied, "Marvel Studios has basically agreed to let us handle both North American and overseas distribution. But, President, Marvel lacks production experience. I'm worried…"
"Worried about what?" Robert Iger waved his hand. "There's nothing to worry about. Gilbert himself is one of the producers.
I've heard that Marvel Studios made a long-term plan, and the entire framework came from Gilbert's ideas.
That proves Gilbert has confidence in Marvel Studios' films and for us, that's an opportunity."
It truly was an opportunity. With Batman Begins' box office success, DC had been revived. Other franchises, like Spider-Man and X-Men, had also achieved excellent results.
And this year, Fantastic Four was set to release, along with several other superhero projects — heralding the arrival of a brand-new era.
Disney didn't own any suitable superhero rights, so securing the distribution rights for Marvel Studios' first film was of great importance.
Over at Marvel Studios, Kevin Feige had taken on the role of first producer for Iron Man, while Cameron Diaz served as the second producer.
To prevent the inexperienced Kevin Feige from running into production difficulties, Gilbert specifically asked Cameron Diaz to act as Iron Man's secondary producer.
Together with Gilbert as the overall producer, the three formed the core leadership of the Iron Man production team.
Of course, when it came to making final decisions, only Gilbert had the authority.
Kevin Feige and Cameron Diaz gathered the crew and held a short preparatory meeting.
After the meeting ended, Kevin Feige called out to Jon Favreau and turned to Cameron Diaz. "How about we set the final audition time for mid-June?"
Cameron Diaz calculated the timeline — by then, Gilbert should be back from Europe.
"Sounds good," Cameron Diaz agreed, then turned to Jon Favreau. "You can start the preliminary auditions now. Have the casting director audition each role one by one.
For the main roles, all three of us must reach a unanimous decision before sending them to Gilbert for final review."
Jon Favreau, a newcomer to directing, quickly nodded in understanding.
...
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