The filming of The Last of Us had reached its later stages, and the schedule was no longer as intense.
Gilbert handed the filming tasks over to the assistant director Annie Burton and returned to Los Angeles with Ivanka.
The premiere of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was on November seventeenth. As a producer, Gilbert naturally had to attend and support the film.
From the moment Gilbert got involved with J.K. Rowling, this project had been in development for nearly ten years.
Over that decade, three Harry Potter films had generated 3.262 billion dollars at the box office, averaging over a billion dollars per film.
Even more significant were the related products. To date, including licensing, the total sales of merchandise had exceeded nine billion dollars, indirectly driving as much as fifty billion dollars in related industry value.
The wizarding tourism lines organized by the British government attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors every year. The spending on food, accommodation, and transportation was substantial, and when they bought souvenirs, the numbers grew even more.
This is why international media such as the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, and The Times called Harry Potter the most valuable film series, praising its outstanding commercial development.
Warner Bros. and Disney profited handsomely from this project, leaving other companies envious.
But there was no choice—after all, they did not have someone like Gilbert!
Returning to Los Angeles on November fifteenth, Gilbert also found time to visit the set of Iron Man and happened to watch the scenes with Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow.
Unlike the original Iron Man, in this version Scarlett had two main scenes: one where she went undercover as an ordinary employee at Stark Industries, and another, today's scene, where Agent Coulson, guided by Pepper Potts, tried to capture Obadiah Stane but was ambushed by Iron Monger.
Iron Man arrived just in time, and several people were surrounded by mercenaries.
At that moment, Natasha Romanoff intervened, using various combat techniques to defeat the mercenaries and rescue Agent Coulson and Pepper Potts.
"This is a bit uncomfortable."
Scarlett shifted and twisted in front of Gilbert, scratching here and there. She even partially removed her tight suit, revealing herself inside, showing no concern as Gilbert enjoyed the view.
"Do I really have to wear this suit? Can't I change?" Scarlett looked at Gilbert with pleading eyes.
Gilbert refused without hesitation. "No, you must wear it. Look at the male actor, he wears it too, without complaint."
Gilbert was referring to a stunt double who, aside from the chest area being less pronounced than Scarlett's, had a body very similar to hers.
This male actor was a jiu-jitsu expert and would perform some of the high-difficulty stunts for Scarlett.
One could imagine the scene: countless audience members drooling over Agent Romanoff's toned buttocks and figure, only to realize the front belonged to a man, which could be shocking.
Of course, some might actually like that!
Scarlett herself said her stunt double's rear was even firmer than hers. Perhaps practicing jiu-jitsu also trains the gluteal muscles?
Getting ready, Scarlett glanced at Kate Beckinsale applying makeup and whispered to Gilbert, "Did you know? Kate actually has a four-year-old child. I've seen them."
Gilbert gave Scarlett a sidelong glance. "It's impolite to discuss someone else's private matters in private, Scarlett."
"Oh, I know!" Scarlett pouted and hugged Gilbert's arm. "I was just curious who the father of her child is."
Gilbert shrugged. "Anyone is possible. If she doesn't say, should I go ask?"
"You have no sense of gossip at all," Scarlett pouted. "So boring."
After a while, Scarlett started comparing their roles again. "I play Black Widow. I should be more popular than Pepper, right? After all, I'm wearing this outfit. So sexy!"
"Really?" Gilbert disagreed. "In that Underworld film with Kate, Selene was also very sexy and cold."
"Selene is over a thousand years old, basically an old witch," Scarlett criticized.
"You're over a hundred yourself, aren't you?"
"Well, at least I'm nine hundred years younger than Selene."
Age is an eternal taboo for women. Just as most men always prefer eighteen-year-old girls, most women also wish to stay eighteen forever.
Youth, in a woman's world, is an advantage, so Scarlett felt she had the upper hand over Kate Beckinsale.
To be honest, despite the consecutive flops of Pearl Harbor and Van Helsing, Kate Beckinsale's foundation as an English rose was actually quite solid.
Even now, with the modest success of Underworld, Kate Beckinsale had regained a good amount of attention.
If the Iron Man series succeeded, Kate Beckinsale would at least be back in the mainstream film industry.
Scarlett then talked about the action scenes, saying that the training was unusually hard and the filming was very demanding.
The purpose of saying this was more to get Gilbert to pay her a bit more attention.
Gilbert replied, "From Lara Croft in Tomb Raider to Selene in Underworld, one thing is clear: audiences still love action scenes featuring sexy and stunning women."
"Exactly!" Scarlett seemed to imagine her character driving countless male fans crazy when the movie released.
Go ahead and get excited, she often thought internally. I am a woman you will never have.
"I heard Warner Bros. is considering making a Wonder Woman movie, starting the DC Universe?" Scarlett asked.
Gilbert replied, "I rejected that proposal."
"Why?" Scarlett asked, puzzled. "The character can be very sexy too!"
"Because Diana carries too much feminist ideology. Bringing her to the screen would require major changes," Gilbert explained.
"But changing her would lose the essence of the comics and provoke protests from feminists," he added.
"You're afraid of that? I remember you once fought animal protection groups fiercely."
"Of course I'm concerned. Versions keep evolving, and when feminists dominate a version in the future, the film can be produced," Gilbert said.
Of course, there was also the main reason Gilbert didn't mention: audience demographics.
Anyone familiar with the film market knows that female viewers are rising. For some specific romance films, women can make up over sixty percent of the audience.
Titanic, for example, relied heavily on female viewers to become the global box office champion.
But Titanic is an exception and cannot be used as a standard model.
In reality, a large-budget A-list commercial film cannot succeed by appealing only to male or female audiences.
A project like Wonder Woman, with a huge investment, cannot rely solely on female audiences to sustain the market.
No matter how loudly feminism is proclaimed, it is undeniable that Hollywood and North America are still fundamentally patriarchal societies.
Gilbert believed there might be changes in the future, but the underlying logic of society remains unchanged.
Because true power holders do not go around proclaiming their rights or pursuing slogans like fairness, freedom, and equality.
To some extent, minority groups are also things many power holders grow tired of hearing from activists. This led to the creation of the completely new Version T0.
During the process of resisting the activists, those in power realized this tool helped divide the lower classes and consolidate wealth, thus it became Version T0.
The success of Wonder Woman cannot be separated from the rise of feminism. Therefore, at this moment, it was not suitable to produce the film.
...
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