Even though "True Lies" and "The Mask" were definitely good, this summer's box office winner was clearly going to be that guy named Forrest Gump. Since its premiere on July 6th, "Forrest Gump" had been racking up impressive box office numbers. That movie was truly excellent, earning rave reviews from both critics and fans. With his Oscar for Best Actor this year and "Forrest Gump" being a huge hit in North America, Tom Hanks quickly became a top-tier Hollywood male star. His agent, Eno Martin, was now speaking with a lot more confidence ever since Tom Hanks made it big.
Sheena Boone told Gilbert that Eno Martin was teaming up with Pat Kingsley, getting ready to kick Martin Bob out of his position. Between the two of them, they controlled Tom Hanks and Tom Cruise, making them a pretty formidable force. However, Martin Bob was still doing alright. Even though he lost a lot of ground in the Gilbert situation, he still had action superstars like Mel Gibson and Sylvester Stallone, and also the most gentlemanly and elegant old man in Hollywood, Sean Connery.
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### CAA's Woes and New Talent
On a side note, Warner Bros. released "Maverick" this year, starring Mel Gibson, and it was one of CAA's package deals. The movie did pretty well, grossing over ninety million dollars in North America by the end of July, so hitting a hundred million in North America seemed likely. However, the fact that "Real Steel" and "True Lies," two movies not handled by the packaging service, performed even better, was a bit embarrassing for CAA.
Actually, the packaging service wasn't just CAA's thing; other talent agencies were doing it too, including Sheena Boone's company, Gilbert's agent. But because CAA had so many clients, their packaging service was more successful and made the most money. This also made CAA seem like a vampire in the eyes of Hollywood movie studios. But because the packaging service really did bring in decent returns, they put up with CAA's increasingly excessive demands.
But now, first James Cameron, and then Gilbert Landrini, were slowly making the packaging service's magic seem less shiny. If this kept up, the packaging service would only be good for independent films. As the current president of CAA, Martin Bob certainly wasn't going to let the company's most important business get phased out like that.
For this, he had two big moves planned. One was Mel Gibson's new self-directed and starring film, "Braveheart," which Mel Gibson hoped would be an Oscar contender. The other was the long-faced director, Michael Bay, whom he had just found from the advertising world. Martin Bob handed CAA's new project for Sony Columbia Pictures, "Bad Boys," to this long-faced director who was breaking into Hollywood from the advertising scene.
In his office, Martin Bob met with the long-faced director. "Michael, take a look at this." Martin Bob handed a magazine to Michael Bay. Michael Bay didn't understand what this meant and looked at Martin Bob in confusion. Martin Bob pointed to the person on the cover and said to Michael Bay, "What you need to do is become the next Gilbert."
Michael Bay looked at Gilbert's ridiculously young face on the cover with arrogance: "No, I'm going to surpass him..."
"Hahaha, good!" Martin Bob clapped, cheering Michael Bay on. Whether Michael Bay could surpass him or not, at least he had the ambition and drive, which showed Michael Bay was mentally ready to break into Hollywood.
Gilbert, of course, had no idea that a long-faced director had already vowed to surpass him.
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### Disney's Internal Debate Over Gilbert
Even though "Real Steel" was still in theaters, Gilbert quickly submitted a script to Warner Bros. and Touchstone Pictures, tentatively titled "The Rock." Over at Warner Bros., Jeff Robinov quickly moved the script into high-level discussions. But over at Disney, things hit a slight snag. After the script passed the review stage, it went to the higher-ups for discussion.
In Michael Eisner's office, Michael Eisner frowned as he read the brief story summary of the script, a little dissatisfied. "Bob, have you talked to Gilbert? Have you told him about Disney's mission?" Michael Eisner asked.
Robert Iger nodded: "Of course I have, but Gilbert said he only makes the movies he wants to make and won't serve any particular mission." Turns out, Robert Iger had approached Gilbert earlier, trying to convince him to make more family-friendly films like "Real Steel," which would align more with Disney's mission. There was also a deeper reason: after seeing "Real Steel's" impressive performance, Michael Eisner planned to keep the future movie production and distribution rights for Gilbert's films with Disney's main studio. This would undoubtedly cut into Robert Iger's power, but he had no choice but to carry out the chairman's orders.
Robert Iger had also tried to persuade Michael Eisner, telling him that Gilbert wouldn't let Disney dictate his work. But Michael Eisner didn't see it that way; he thought Gilbert should understand the benefits of working with Disney. As expected, when Robert Iger went to talk to him, he got the cold shoulder. Gilbert had no intention of doing things Disney's way.
Hollywood isn't just Disney, but there's only one Gilbert. Right now, Gilbert can handle the ups and downs of Hollywood with ease. But Disney's live-action film business had just started picking up thanks to Gilbert, and losing him at this point would be a huge blow. After hearing Gilbert's thoughts from Robert Iger, Michael Eisner turned to another person and asked, "Nathanson, what do you think?"
Michael Nathanson Ovitz, after quietly stepping down from CAA last year, took some time off. Then, in July this year, he accepted his friend Michael Eisner's invitation to become Disney's CEO.
"Dean, I think we can't let Gilbert do whatever he wants. We need to let him know who helped him get to where he is today," Michael Ovitz said.
Michael Ovitz said this for two reasons. The first was personal vendetta. It was Gilbert who caused him to step down last year, so of course he wanted revenge. Of course, in Hollywood, such grudges mean nothing in the face of profit. If the profit was big enough, Michael Ovitz would even do a funny tap dance for his father's killer. Having a thick skin was never a problem for Michael Ovitz.
So, we have to talk about the second reason, which was Michael Eisner's idea. Disney's board had long been unhappy with Michael Eisner's authoritarianism. To appease the board, Michael Eisner had to resign from his position as Disney's CEO. But he wasn't comfortable handing that position to just anyone. So Michael Eisner thought of his childhood friend, Michael Ovitz, and invited him to be Disney's CEO. He figured that after what happened last year, Michael Ovitz would be content to be a puppet CEO, keeping the company under his own control. And for Michael Ovitz, becoming the CEO of a major company was far more glorious than returning to CAA. But for him to take the job, he had to please his old friend, Michael Eisner. And so, he said exactly what Michael Eisner wanted to hear.
However, as soon as Michael Ovitz finished speaking, Robert Iger immediately objected: "Chairman, I disagree. Gilbert is not some unknown director. His latest film, 'Real Steel,' has grossed 182 million dollars in North America. Global box office has reached 425 million dollars. North American video rights sold for 8 million dollars over seven years, and TV rights for 7 million dollars over five years. And merchandise continues to generate profits. A director with such high commercial value is sought after by many Hollywood film studios. To say nothing else, if we fall out with Gilbert, Warner Bros. will surely be thrilled, because then Gilbert will be completely theirs."
Robert Iger laid out the stakes, forcing Michael Eisner to seriously consider it. Michael Eisner, of course, understood the underlying message: Gilbert was no longer a fresh-faced newcomer; he was now a top-tier Hollywood commercial director. A director like that would be sought after by any studio, but Disney wanted to control him? That clearly wasn't right.
Though displeased, Michael Eisner wasn't an idiot. He knew Gilbert was no longer someone he could manipulate at will. So Michael Eisner waved his hand casually: "Alright then, the 'The Rock' project, we'll still leave it to you, Bob. Disney will continue to invest."
Robert Iger was thrilled and quickly promised to do a good job. As long as this project remained with Touchstone Pictures, his position would be as solid as a rock. It was clear that Robert Iger wasn't entirely thinking from Disney's perspective; he had his own little agenda.
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### New Projects and Old Friends
After Robert Iger left, Michael Ovitz said, "Dean, I think Bob is a bit overwhelmed handling Touchstone Pictures' other projects and also 'The Rock' project. Why don't I take over?"
Michael Eisner, of course, understood what his friend meant. If he took charge of "The Rock" project, a success would add another accomplishment to Michael Ovitz's resume as he became Disney's CEO. However, Michael Eisner wanted him as a puppet, not to share his power, so he flat-out refused: "Not appropriate, Nathanson. We'll leave this small project to Bob. You don't need to get involved."
Small? Michael Ovitz looked at the seventy million dollar production budget Gilbert had set as optimal and didn't think it was small at all.
Gilbert, of course, had no idea about the internal discussions at Disney regarding him; Robert Iger wouldn't have told him such things. After the meeting, Robert Iger just told him that they could start negotiating the director's contract.
In Hollywood, the launch of a major project is never a secret. Even more so when it's a new project from a top-tier director like Gilbert. Many industry insiders had to marvel at Gilbert's incredible creative energy. He truly was a young man; "Real Steel" was still in theaters, and he was already preparing a new movie. One movie a year was even more astounding than the prolific Spielberg. Perhaps that's just how young people are; if Gilbert were a bit older, his pace would probably slow down.
And the stars and actors, meanwhile, were wondering if they had a chance to be in Gilbert's new movie. No need to mention Bruce Willis, Ryan Gosling, and Naomi Watts. Previous familiar Hollywood faces like Keanu Reeves, Sandra Bullock, Cameron Diaz, Matt Damon, and even Gwyneth Paltrow, all rose to fame after appearing in Gilbert's films. Even Charlize Theron, who played a small role, had made significant progress in her career; her name was starting to appear in the credits. So, not only were the struggling young actors living in North Hollywood apartments eager, but even A-list stars strongly wanted to be in Gilbert's movies.
And just like that, after Gilbert's new movie project was revealed, "Interview with the Vampire," which had already moved its release date to August, sent an invitation for its premiere to Gilbert. The invitation came from Tom Cruise. Pat Kingsley, who had a decent relationship with Sheena Boone before she left CAA, learned from Sheena Boone that a role was quite suitable for Tom Cruise. So Tom Cruise no longer played coy and actively tried to get on Gilbert's good side. In Tom Cruise's mind, since the great Tom Cruise himself was being proactive, Gilbert would surely hand over the role.
However, Tom Cruise didn't know that the role he was eyeing had already been snatched up by the party-loving Nicolas Cage. After hearing the news from Sheena Boone, Gilbert roughly guessed Tom Cruise's intentions, but he still accepted the invitation to the "Interview with the Vampire" premiere. This movie had almost gone head-to-head with his "Real Steel" before. He knew the movie was famous in his past life, but he'd never seen it. Because of that, he was quite curious what the movie would be like and planned to go watch it.
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