"Warner's suggestion is to release it between late June and early July," said Charles Roven.
The two were discussing the release window for Batman Begins. Warner Bros.' stance was clear—since this was a reboot of the Batman series, they wanted to play it safe.
Gilbert said, "I think releasing it in May would be better."
Although the 1997 version of Batman had failed miserably, leaving audiences skeptical and distrustful of the series, seven years had already passed, and that negative impression had largely faded away.
Moreover, Gilbert wasn't the same as Nolan from the previous timeline—his personal influence was extremely strong.
Therefore, Gilbert believed there was no problem releasing the film in May.
Charles Roven said, "Early May is your usual release window, but this time it's not ideal. Fox just announced that George Lucas's Star Wars: Episode III will be released then."
Earlier, George Lucas had said in an interview that this would be his final Star Wars movie. Undoubtedly, when the time came, many Star Wars fans would flock to theaters to bid farewell to the saga.
If Batman Begins went head-to-head with Star Wars: Episode III, Gilbert versus George Lucas—the advantage clearly lay with Star Wars.
However, George Lucas had already spoken with Gilbert about it. Knowing that early May was typically Gilbert's release period, he called to discuss it personally.
Lucas even said that if Gilbert were willing to take over the Star Wars series, he could finally retire in peace.
Gilbert replied that he would think about it. Though he wasn't particularly interested in Star Wars, he did covet Lucasfilm and Industrial Light & Magic—both top-tier assets.
Later, in a media interview, George Lucas revealed that he had repeatedly invited Gilbert to direct the Star Wars series.
A reporter asked him, "So did Director Gilbert agree?"
"No, he didn't. Gilbert has his own plans," Lucas said regretfully. "If he agreed to direct the Star Wars series, I could retire with peace of mind."
From that interview, it was clear that George Lucas indeed had plans to retire.
Meanwhile, Twentieth Century Fox was quietly delighted—they still held the Star Wars rights.
If Gilbert could take over the franchise, it might open the door for further collaboration between him and Fox on other films.
As a result, Fox executives immediately began planning to persuade Gilbert to direct Star Wars, offering a generous deal.
Unfortunately, to this day, there had been no response from Gilbert's side.
Returning to the release schedule discussion, Charles Roven continued, "In mid-May, Spielberg and Tom Hanks will be releasing War of the Worlds. It's adapted from a famous sci-fi novel and the 1953 classic film and with those two names involved, it's not an opponent we want to face directly."
Gilbert nodded in understanding. "Steven's films are always summer blockbusters. He's also my mentor, so it wouldn't be wise to compete head-on with him."
Just this July, DreamWorks Animation had been spun off as an independent studio. Because of disputes over several animated films produced by DreamWorks, there had been internal conflicts between the companies.
The separation of the animation division was the result of deliberate pressure from Hollywood's major studios. The giants had united to encircle DreamWorks, and its ultimate fate was bound to be dismemberment and acquisition.
Of course, Spielberg wasn't ready to accept defeat. He still wanted to fight back—after all, he had worked hard for so many years.
Once filled with ambition to become a new Hollywood powerhouse, he now faced a reluctant and anticlimactic exit.
Thus, War of the Worlds became Spielberg's latest attempt to save DreamWorks.
After his collaboration with Tom Cruise on Minority Report, Spielberg initially wanted to invite Cruise again—but Cruise declined.
So Spielberg turned to his old friend Tom Hanks, and the two teamed up once more for this project.
Gilbert maintained communication with Spielberg, but he certainly wouldn't place Batman Begins in the same release window.
Saving DreamWorks was someone else's battle. After all, Batman Begins itself was a redemption project—the outside world still doubted its prospects.
So Gilbert said, "Then let's go with the end of May."
"Kingdom of Heaven? That's Ridley Scott's epic. Isn't that a bit risky?" Charles Roven hesitated.
Gilbert explained, "Most of the time, Ridley Scott is indeed a formidable competitor—but this film is different."
"Reason? I need a reason, Gilbert. Warner can't afford to take risks," Roven said cautiously.
"Of course," Gilbert immediately gave a well-founded answer. "Haven't you noticed? In recent years, the market has been flooded with so-called epic films, and audiences are starting to experience aesthetic fatigue."
"That's true," Charles Roven agreed. "Ever since The Lord of the Rings trilogy and Gladiator achieved back-to-back success, there's been a wave of imitators flooding the market."
Hollywood is a place where following trends is extremely prevalent. In fact, the film industry anywhere tends to follow trends heavily. Once the market becomes saturated, aesthetic fatigue quickly sets in.
"Warner's Troy this year didn't meet expectations, did it?"
"Yes. Although it made profits through merchandise and home video sales, its performance was indeed below expectations," Charles Roven said.
"That's exactly right," Gilbert said, clapping his hands, setting down his teacup, and gesturing for Charles Roven to follow.
The two walked toward the prop workshop, chatting along the way.
"King Arthur, which released this July, has already failed, barely earning over twenty million at the box office. Then there's Alexander the Great, coming out this December. I bet that film won't perform well either."
Charles Roven trusted Gilbert's judgment—past examples had repeatedly proven Gilbert's insight to be reliable.
"Warner followed your advice and didn't release that film. Looks like Universal will take a loss," Charles Roven said with a smile.
"Every genre in Hollywood, once it reaches its peak, inevitably causes market fatigue. Even if I were to direct Kingdom of Heaven, the result would be the same," Gilbert asserted.
After thinking carefully, Charles Roven said to Gilbert, "I'll discuss your recommendation thoroughly with Warner."
Once Charles Roven left, Gilbert called to Ivanka, "Bring me the summer release schedule for next year that Charles left behind. I want to take a look."
Ivanka handed it over, and Gilbert carefully examined the May release window. Indeed, the slot reserved for Kingdom of Heaven looked promising.
Ridley Scott with Orlando Bloom sounded intimidating, but in reality, it was a soft target.
In the previous timeline, many blamed Kingdom of Heaven's failure on Ridley Scott not having final cut rights. Indeed, the director's cut was of higher quality.
However, in this time period, whether it was the director's cut or if Gilbert himself directed it, the probability of failure still exceeded eighty percent.
This was dictated by objective market factors. Directors could control what happened within the film, but they could not control what happened outside it.
No matter the genre, clustering releases always leads to aesthetic fatigue—even superhero films are no exception.
A few days later, Warner Bros. sent news.
They had accepted Gilbert's suggestion and decided to release Batman: Begins on May 27 next year, coinciding with Kingdom of Heaven's release.
After finalizing the release date, Warner quickly made it public.
Upon hearing the news, Ridley Scott hurriedly consulted with Twentieth Century Fox about whether to adjust his release date.
However, the CEO of Fox believed that the Batman film, after so many years, no longer posed a competitive threat, so they decided not to change the schedule.
....
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