Director in Hollywood

"Guess who I am?" A pair of small hands covered Gilbert's eyes from behind.

When Gilbert heard this, he immediately knew who it was. He swatted the hands away and said, "Scar, stop being playful."

"Hmph!" Scarlett Johansson, with a cute snort, circled around in front of Gilbert to express her dissatisfaction. "Gilbert, you've changed, you've become bad."

Gilbert looked innocent. "What did I do?"

"You didn't invite me to star in your movie, have you forgotten our agreement?" The little girl looked very resentful.

Gilbert was even more confused. "Hey, Scar, when did we have this agreement?"

Scarlett Johansson widened her eyes in disbelief and said, "You actually forgot our agreement..."

The little girl's eyes began to fill with mist, looking like she was about to cry.

Gilbert couldn't bear to see a woman cry, even if it was a little girl.

He rubbed his head and hurriedly comforted her. "Okay, okay, I remember now, we did have that agreement, Scar."

"But this movie really doesn't have a role suitable for you, so I can't arrange for you to act."

"What should I do?" The little girl was still teary-eyed. "I told all my friends that I would keep acting in your movies. But now, I haven't starred in one, and when I go back, they will laugh at me."

"Uh," Gilbert helplessly comforted her again. "Next time, the next movie, I'll let you star, okay?"

"Really?" Scarlett Johansson smiled through her tears. "Then I want to play the lead."

"Scar, do you want me to make a children's movie?" Gilbert asked with a laugh.

"What? Can't I?" Scar asked back.

"If you want to play the lead, you need to put in some effort. Have you been listening well lately, going to school and studying?" Gilbert started to care about the little girl's grades.

Scarlett's face stiffened as she looked around before saying, "Well, actually, I'm doing fine, even Kate praised me."

Kate was Scarlett's teacher, who had once told Mrs. Sloan about Scarlett's troublemaking at school, and Gilbert had been there at the time.

Scarlett was still quite mischievous and had even fought with boys at school, looking like a little leader. However, in front of Gilbert, she always put on a demure act.

No wonder she was one of the future Hollywood Four Divas. Compared to the four divas of the Chinese entertainment industry, Scarlett Johansson's ability was much stronger, at least her acting skills were decent.

Gilbert laughed when he heard Scarlett avoiding the topic and rubbed the little girl's head, saying, "Study well, okay? I'll check your grades when you come back. As long as your grades meet the standard, I'll give you a chance for an audition."

"Why can't you just let me be the lead?" Scarlett pouted.

But when she saw Gilbert's face turn serious, she immediately made a zipper motion with her hands, saying, "Okay, we'll say that, but you can't go back on your word."

"Don't worry, Scar, I won't forget. You also have to remember our agreement and study hard."

It was usually only Asians who would ask children to study hard, seeing academic performance as the greatest way to change their fate.

Gilbert was also tapping into the Chinese soul here, except he didn't have children, so he couldn't live out the parental wish for their children to succeed. He could only satisfy himself by keeping an eye on Scarlett and enjoying the authority of parents monitoring their child's studies.

After comforting Scar and spending the Christmas holiday, Gilbert dealt with some backlog work at Melon Studios.

Mostly it was about the profit-sharing settlements for several movies that were gradually coming in, and the global box office success of The Rock once again brought huge profits to Melon Studios.

This film had released its VHS and VCD in early December. In the first week of release, it sold 800,000 copies, breaking the record set by Jurassic Park for VHS and VCD sales.

Of course, this had nothing to do with Melon Studios, as the distribution of VHS and VCD was mainly through Warner's parent company, Time Warner, which bought out the North American rights for $7 million over five years.

After that period, The Rock could continue to sell the distribution rights and keep earning long-term revenue.

Disney didn't have similar channels or subsidiaries. Their animated films' VHS and VCD sales were mainly through Time Warner's channels.

Disney's strong point was in its merchandise, such as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck toys.

Interestingly, this year, Winnie the Pooh surpassed Mickey Mouse in sales to become Disney's best-selling merchandise.

The Rock's merchandise wasn't as successful as Real Steel's, with only a limited range of products like collaborations with Hummer cars, Ferrari, sunglasses, and clothing worn in the film.

There were also the main character's dolls and collectible figurines available in merchandise stores.

At this time, the advantage of handsome actors was evident.

Interview with the Vampire, despite its mediocre box office, was saved by Tom Cruise, who reportedly spent $5 million of his own money to boost the North American box office.

This was a common practice among many Hollywood stars, who would buy tickets to inflate box office numbers, so sometimes, empty theaters could be seen with extra screenings that were actually bought by the film's stars.

The film company and theaters naturally wouldn't stop this because, after all, it was still money.

Although buying the box office helped Interview with the Vampire barely surpass $100 million in North American earnings, its merchandise sales were solid.

Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt's outfits in the movie, as well as their dolls, created good sales.

While the film wasn't a massive success, it at least made a profit, and Tom Cruise's reputation as a box office star was preserved.

In fact, as long as Tom Cruise didn't star alongside Nicole Kidman, he had an excellent track record with box office results.

However, his bad luck was that he was too handsome and refused to ruin his image by taking on roles like those of a mentally ill, perverted, or gay character, which is why he couldn't win an Oscar.

The Academy's prejudice against good-looking actors was stronger than against blockbuster films.

Before returning to the set, Gilbert was invited to a small party hosted by Tom Cruise, and Naomi Watts attended with him.

Things had changed. When Gilbert first met Naomi Watts at a party, she was an unknown actress in Hollywood, working in restaurants and nightclubs to make ends meet.

But now Naomi Watts was a rising star in Hollywood with several projects in hand, one of them being Twister from Warner Bros., where she was the female lead.

This movie was directed by Jan de Bont and written by Michael Crichton, the author of Jurassic Park.

Naomi Watts was the lead actress, with more screen time than the male lead, Bill Paxton.

The key point was that this film had a production budget of $110 million, a bona fide A-list production.

In recent years, films with production costs over $100 million had become more common. The failure of Waterworld didn't scare movie companies; rather, they increased their investments.

Twentieth Century Fox, for example, produced two films over $100 million—Titanic and Independence Day.

Most of the investment was handled through financing, as Hollywood's continually high box office revenues had attracted the greed of Wall Street, with huge amounts of money flowing into Hollywood.

Therefore, movie companies now weren't short on money because they hardly needed to contribute much.

Of course, Wall Street's vampires would soon realize they had been duped.

Investing in movies was entirely different from investing in the financial sector. Wall Street had been duped over and over again but kept pouring money into Hollywood.

While Naomi Watts' career was flourishing, Nicole Kidman had been stuck in the same place for years, still defined by her role as Tom Cruise's wife.

It seemed that other than this identity, Nicole Kidman couldn't find another role that stood out.

Ironically, aside from the films she did with her husband Tom Cruise, all the movies Nicole Kidman starred in were box office failures.

This woman had tricks up her sleeve, and even three Naomi Watts together wouldn't match her in that regard.

She was also beautiful, popular, and in her prime, yet her films just wouldn't make money.

It proved that beauty and popularity didn't equal box office success, and there were often other unknown factors involved.

Therefore, seeing Naomi Watts again, Nicole Kidman felt a little jealous.

Watching Tom Cruise happily chatting with Gilbert, Nicole Kidman spoke enviously to Naomi Watts: "Naomi, congratulations, several of your films this year have performed well."

Naomi Watts smiled happily. "It's all thanks to Gilbert's support that I've had a breakout year."

"Yes, it really shows how important it is to follow the right person." Nicole Kidman looked at Tom Cruise, as though expressing dissatisfaction.

Tom Cruise was still animatedly discussing his movie Mission: Impossible.

"Gilbert, I was inspired by you. All the dangerous stunts and scenes in the film, I did them myself."

"We completed so many incredible stunts. There's one scene where I steal something while hanging from the ceiling. I really like that part."

"Tom, congratulations on completing the challenge." Gilbert said a rare compliment while also asking, "Has the film set a release date? We won't clash with each other's schedule, right?"

Tom Cruise shook his head and said, "I absolutely don't want to clash with you, the king of the summer box office. I've already suggested to Paramount to release the film at the end of May."

"What about your new film?"

Gilbert shook his head, indicating, "It's still unclear, the film is still in shooting. We won't announce the release date until before the Super Bowl."

In fact, Gilbert had already discussed the release date with Charles Roven, Cain Wexman, and others, and they all thought that releasing it on the anniversary of Victory in Europe Day or Memorial Day would be a good choice.

Victory in Europe Day is on May 8th, and if you include the previous weekend, the entire period would fit perfectly, making it an ideal date.

Tom Cruise clinked glasses with Gilbert: "Hope we won't meet during the summer blockbusters."

"Don't worry, Tom, I also don't want to clash with you in the summer." Gilbert smiled.

The party ended, and Gilbert and Naomi Watts walked back. Naomi Watts said, "Gilbert, I feel like Nicole is a bit upset with Tom."

"Oh? Is that so?" Gilbert responded indifferently. These two would divorce sooner or later; it was nothing strange.

Naomi Watts continued, "Nicole's career hasn't made much progress in recent years. I think she will seek new opportunities. I think you can help her. She's quite beautiful."

Gilbert tilted his head and said, "You want me to be a homewrecker?"

Naomi Watts asked in confusion, "What's a homewrecker?"

"Uh, a historical figure from China."

"Oh!"

Then there was silence. Although Naomi Watts had learned a few words of Chinese from Gilbert, understanding Chinese historical figures was still a bit too difficult for her.

Gilbert was still thinking in his heart, even if he wanted to pursue her, it would have to be after the divorce. Otherwise, with Tom's temper, wouldn't he come looking for him to fight in a cage match!

When it came to relationships, both Tom and Gilbert were the same person—both very selfish.

.....

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