After the ribbon-cutting ceremony, the three of them entertained the guests and then found a conference room to chat.
"Mr. Buffett wanted to buy shares," Gilbert said, "but I turned him down."
"He also wanted to invest in the medical center?" Bill Gates asked in surprise.
"That's not strange at all," Gilbert explained. "The older people get, the more they become unwilling to let go of what they have. Mr. Buffett surely hopes to live longer — ideally, to achieve immortality."
Life has always been an eternal topic. Qin Shi Huang, that great historical figure, devoted enormous effort to seeking immortality so he could rule his empire forever. Throughout Chinese history, countless wise monarchs shared the same obsession with extending life.
Even in Western society, there are legends of the Fountain of Youth and the Water of Life.
So, a question arises: ordinary people understand that life is finite — how could these elites not understand? In truth, they do understand. They just refuse to accept it.
Buffett was exactly that kind of person. Even if there was only a one-in-ten-million chance, he would pursue it at all costs. To preserve his current wealth and status for as long as possible, he would give everything he had.
"Then why didn't you agree to let him invest?" Bill Gates asked.
Gilbert explained, "The ties between Wall Street capital and the medical industry are extremely deep. I believe this is part of a conspiracy. Moreover, Wall Street financiers have long been unhappy with my stance. They suspect that some of the elite figures who died during 9/11 had something to do with me.
We represent Silicon Valley's capital we're no weaker than those who play with finance. So why should we bow to them?"
The reality now was that, because of industrial hollowing and the dominance of financial capital, finance ruled everything. Silicon Valley was one of the few places capable of resisting it, though that wasn't easy to achieve.
Gilbert continued, "I've already spoken with Master Shikong. He'll come to America for a month each year, and we'll make the most of that time to recruit people. My vision is for the medical center to become the world's top institution combining Eastern and Western medicine.
Just imagine the scene — billionaires from all over the world lining up, just to secure a single hospital bed in our medical center…"
Gilbert didn't finish his sentence, but the three of them could already picture it. It was a beautiful image.
After the ribbon-cutting ceremony, Gilbert returned to Los Angeles to continue the post-production of The Last of Us.
Meanwhile, the post-production of Iron Man also required his supervision, leaving him incredibly busy.
"I want the film's overall tone to lean toward fun, rock, and excitement," Gilbert emphasized during post-production. "The style of Iron Man should be different from Batman's serious tone. We need to stand apart, or it'll feel too similar."
The entire Marvel Studios team was new to film production, and Jon Favreau was a first-time director. Fortunately, they had Gilbert overseeing the project.
The first challenge lay in special effects production. Since Orange Studio was handling the VFX for The Last of Us and Iron Man's effects were extremely complex, multiple VFX studios collaborated on it.
Unlike The Last of Us, which relied heavily on live-action shots with fewer-than-average VFX scenes, Iron Man featured an enormous number of effects shots — far exceeding the average — which made post-production far more difficult.
To meet the 2006 summer release schedule, studios like Industrial Light & Magic, Digital Domain, and other visual effects companies joined the post-production process.
Due to the tight schedule, there were times when rushed work led to results that failed to meet Gilbert's standards.
Phil Rhoades, the visual effects supervisor, was often scolded by Gilbert for this, but Gilbert mostly encouraged the other effects engineers instead.
He motivated them to unleash their imagination and bring to life the visions in their minds throughout the special effects process.
In the special effects creation of Iron Man's Mark I and Mark II armors, a young effects engineer improved the armor's practicality and aesthetic quality in terms of visual presentation.
Additionally, when it came to the armor's flight trajectories and the flames generated during flight, the engineers revised their work several times before finalizing the results.
These seemingly insignificant yet highly specialized fields required a sufficient number of talented professionals to accomplish everything. A director alone could not complete such work.
Likewise, the end of filming did not mark the end of movie production—post-production was just as important.
Therefore, the film industry has never relied on the credit of one person; it is always the collective masterpiece and achievement of a team.
Every time Gilbert was interviewed by the media, he attributed the success to his team and never considered it his own individual accomplishment.
However, producer Charles Roven stated, "Indeed, filmmaking is the result of teamwork, but a team cannot function without a central pillar.
Gilbert is that pillar. He can unite everyone, inspire cooperation, and lead the team to successfully complete one project after another."
The person capable of holding a team together is usually its core. To become such a core, one must prove oneself through a series of successful films.
Gilbert did not need to prove anything. No matter where he was or what project he worked on, he was always the center of it all.
Working simultaneously on the post-production of two films exhausted him completely.
However, the rewards were abundant. Before the Super Bowl in February, the first trailers for both The Last of Us and Iron Man were edited and completed.
At the same time, the promotional campaigns for both films were progressing in an orderly manner.
Disney was responsible for distributing Iron Man, and most of its marketing was handled by Touchstone Pictures, a subsidiary of Disney.
Meanwhile, The Last of Us was jointly managed by Warner Bros. and Disney, just as before, with nothing particularly unusual.
Releasing movie advertisements during the Super Bowl had become a standard practice for summer blockbusters. In addition to these two films, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, which Gilbert produced, would also have a Super Bowl advertisement.
Nowadays, Super Bowl advertising fees had skyrocketed, completely different from when Gilbert first bought ad time back in 1993.
But for the deep-pocketed Hollywood studios, the Super Bowl remained the best promotional stage. With marketing budgets for summer blockbusters often reaching tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of dollars, the advertising cost was relatively insignificant.
Turning attention to Batman Begins, the film had finally finished its global theatrical run, grossing a worldwide total of 623.35 million dollars—a success by any standard.
After its theatrical run, Warner Bros. released the Batman Begins DVD, which earned 115 million dollars in just two weeks.
The film's success gave DC movies a resurgence, and Warner Bros. could no longer resist the urge to launch more superhero film projects.
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