For a team that had been busy with such a huge project like The Lord of the Rings, the upcoming small-budget film that Gilbert was about to shoot was nothing at all.
Therefore, there was no need to assemble so many people or waste manpower.
So Gilbert divided his long-term team into three parts: one portion was assigned to Christopher Nolan to help prepare Jakie Chans Adventures.
Another portion started the early preparations for Pirates of the Caribbean, gradually doing some work.
The remaining people followed Gilbert to shoot the movie Flipped.
Without a doubt, the team members who had worked with Gilbert over the years were undoubtedly top talents in Hollywood, all experts in the industry.
However, people coming and going like the wind was normal; departures and arrivals were common, as long as the core team members stayed as much as possible.
That said, Gilbert gave them the best treatment in the industry and had a track record of successful projects.
Hollywood had no better or more suitable job than working here. Everyone understood this well, so very few people were poached by other companies or directors.
One morning back in Los Angeles, Gilbert was eating breakfast and reading the newspaper, with Naomi Watts accompanying him.
"Naomi, when does Ocean's Eleven release?"
Naomi Watts ate very little, just a couple of bites, then rested her chin on her hand watching Gilbert eat.
"December 7th. Why? Are you going to come cheer me on?"
"Well, I'm a Warner shareholder and board member, of course I have to show up," Gilbert said matter-of-factly.
This Ocean's Eleven was more commonly known in China as The Eleven Rogues, a star-studded heist film.
In a previous life, Gilbert had heard that Hollywood actors' paychecks never exceed 30% of total costs.
That was actually a misconception because in Ocean's Eleven the actors' pay already took over 50% of the production budget.
Although lead George Clooney had some flops these past two years due to the Batman series, Naomi Watts, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, and others didn't come cheap.
Especially Naomi Watts, a solid member of the $20 million paycheck club; Warner Bros. either had to give up some profits or pay the full fee.
Naomi Watts took this role simply to earn some money.
Although her husband was already a globally renowned billionaire, a woman still preferred to have her own career and a small private fund.
Originally, the role was supposed to be Julia Roberts's, but Warner producers persuaded director Steven Soderbergh to cast Naomi Watts instead.
Gilbert's attendance to support was naturally welcome. Naomi said happily, "Great, then we'll go together."
"Alright, no problem, invite Scar to make it more lively," Gilbert said.
"Oh, by the way," Gilbert suddenly remembered something, "Didn't Sally go to shoot Monster?"
"That one? I heard it's postponed for a while because the real-life person hasn't been sentenced yet, so they have to wait," Naomi answered.
She felt a bit lucky; she heard that Charlize Theron, playing the role, had to make herself ugly.
For beauty-obsessed Hollywood actresses, that was nearly unbearable.
But to win an Oscar, you had to take these unusual paths.
The Oscars seemed fond of seeing ugly roles that pull Hollywood's handsome men and beautiful women down from their pedestals.
Naomi Watts didn't have to do that; when she starred in Chicago, she was very glamorous and even listed by Time magazine as one of the ten most glamorous roles.
Not losing her beauty while still winning an Oscar was a kind of luck for Naomi Watts.
Preparing Flipped was very easy for Gilbert's team; first was the script writing, which Andrew from Melon Studio did excellently.
Why shoot Flipped? Besides mixing some small productions among big projects, Gilbert simply couldn't stay idle.
The Lord of the Rings project was too special, and the team had been busy for four to five years.
But every project must end eventually; in the downtime, you either take vacations or get involved in new work.
Gilbert was a restless person, so he was happy to dive into new tasks.
The story of Flipped actually came from Andrew's recommendation; while helping his son finish a parent-child reading assignment, he came across the novel.
Andrew was touched by this novel, thinking it sensitively captured how teenagers feel when they first fall in love. It reminded him of his own seemingly familiar first love experience.
"When I was twelve, I liked a girl named Cathy. I thought she was cute, kind of like Haley Mills in The Parent Trap.
I tried to kiss her, and she hit me with a comb. It was at that moment I understood what love was..."
Gilbert was speechless: "Dude, you understood love way too early. When I was twelve, I only played ball and teased classmates."
Andrew sheepishly touched his bald head: "Maybe I was just more mature!"
Looking at Andrew's thinning hair, Gilbert nodded: "Definitely more mature…"
In fact, before recommending the novel to Gilbert, Andrew had used the few months of free time to finish the script writing.
Andrew's first major decision was to set the story's time background to the era of his first love that is, the late 1950s to early 1960s.
Andrew believed that moving the story to that period would help the scriptwriting. It could avoid dealing with kids using game consoles, texting, or social media, and focus on children interacting face-to-face.
Andrew's second decision was to make selective choices about elements from the book discarding some that really didn't fit film production while keeping most of the book's elements.
As a result, the film and the novel had basically the same characters and story, with the biggest difference being the story's time setting.
After the novel and script were recommended to Gilbert, he was still a bit confused turns out the script had been finished so early but was shelved for so long.
But now the script had smoothly reached Gilbert, who was very interested in the story, so there was no longer any long wait.
The second task was casting. Undoubtedly, after Gilbert confirmed Scarlett Johansson as the female lead, the only remaining issue was choosing the male lead.
This male lead needed careful consideration he had to be a young, handsome white guy.
Nowadays, it wasn't the era of political correctness. In future similar roles, either the female lead would be an unattractive Black woman, or the male lead would be an unattractive Black man. One of them had to be Black.
Moreover, this Black actor had to be a member of the TBGLQIAPKDXUCS community; otherwise, it wouldn't be "correct."
Fortunately, there was no such worry now. Those groups existed but were largely ignored by mainstream media, so it wasn't something to concern themselves with.
Casting wasn't difficult. Gilbert immediately spotted a young British actor named Robert Pattinson, who had come to audition from London.
He was another lucky star like Orlando Bloom, as Naomi Watts later commented after attending the audition with him.
Indeed, Orlando Bloom came to North America penniless, but was lucky enough to be discovered by Gilbert, and now had become a global idol.
Naomi Watts was a bit jealous of their luck; she had struggled in Hollywood for a long time, often not knowing where her next meal would come from.
Coincidentally, she also met Gilbert, which changed her acting career.
Without Gilbert, she might have returned to Australia or Britain.
Such a straightforward project didn't require much brainwork. Casting wrapped up quickly and the process was much calmer than the auditions held in China.
Gilbert's father again made a cameo, playing the male lead's grandfather, Chet Duncan, while Aidan Quinn played the father of the female lead, Julie.
The male lead Bryce's mean old dad, Steven Rosky, was played by J.K. Simmons, who had just finished filming Spider-Man, where he portrayed a strict boss.
As for the childhood versions of Julie and Bryce, they were played by the daughter of Solomon, the head of Warner's distribution department, and by the son of Gilbert's assistant Anna.
Yes, Anna was married and had a child about four or five years old. Very cute. Gilbert even held the child once and got peed on.
Although working with a big director at such a young age was good for the kid, Anna wanted her child to avoid Hollywood and become a lawyer or doctor instead.
Another noteworthy casting was Megan Fox, who landed the role of the school beauty.
When Gilbert saw her name, he was momentarily stunned and then realized it was the same sexy goddess from Transformers.
However, the goddess hadn't become sexy yet, but her looks were already good.
Gilbert wasn't a fan of collecting beautiful celebrities anyway. Besides, Megan Fox was only fifteen. Gilbert certainly wouldn't act like those perverts on the island.
After confirming all the actors, Gilbert moved the entire crew to a small town near Ann Arbor, Michigan, to start filming.
It was November. On October 13, a movie adapted from a game, Tomb Raider, had been released.
The film starred Angelina Jolie, and although it stole some of the spotlight, Miss Jolie clearly continued her path from the past.
At the same time, another movie, America's Sweetheart, starring Julia Roberts and Catherine Zeta-Jones, was released.
Since Catherine Zeta-Jones starred in Chicago, she had established herself in Hollywood with steady offers. A little regretful was that she hadn't yet reached her ultimate goal.
Gilbert was surrounded by too many people, so there was no chance for her.
But Catherine Zeta-Jones was using her charm on older men, recently cozying up to Oscar-winning actor Anthony Hopkins.
Poor British old sir, still hoping to win Catherine back, even flew to North America, only to return heartbroken.
Both films were in competition, mostly female-led, and although their themes differed, they did not hesitate to go all out against each other.
The whole thing was stirred up by Angelina Jolie through media hype.
....
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