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Chapter 182: The Invitation from the Sacred Valley
🕑 Added 2025-01-04 17:29:47 +0000 UTCAs the award season approached, Gilbert began to get busier.
In addition to preparing for The Sixth Sense, he also frequently attended parties hosted by the Director's Guild and the Producer's Alliance. The main goal was to campaign and get more votes for himself.
For awards related to films, the production company would need to pay for campaigning expenses. This time, Teststone Films and Warner Bros. jointly spent $5 million and formed a team of PR experts for the campaign.
Of course, if the film had been managed by Miramax Films with the Weinstein brothers handling the campaign, the effect would have been much better. Unfortunately, Gilbert and Harvey Weinstein couldn't come to an agreement beforehand, and this year, Miramax had a significant project with The English Patient.
Before the Oscars, Gilbert won the Director's Guild Award for Best Director, with Guild President Steven Spielberg personally presenting the award to him. This was Gilbert's first Director's Guild Award, symbolizing recognition from the industry.
That wasn't all. Tom Hanks also won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actor, while Leonardo DiCaprio received a nomination for his role as Ryan.
Afterward, the Golden Globe nominations were announced, with Saving Private Ryan receiving five nominations: Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Original Score, and Best Actor in a Drama.
The Golden Globe Awards are often seen as an Oscar barometer—though not always accurate—if a film earns five nominations at the Golden Globes, it is likely to perform well at the Oscars.
However, the Golden Globes would not take place until January of the following year, so the wait wasn't long.
The Sixth Sense was not a particularly difficult or complex film to make, yet its budget was as high as $55 million. The main reason for this was Gilbert's and Bruce Willis' high salaries.
In fact, Gilbert could have asked for a lower salary for a project of this nature, but there was no need to.
The original film's investment was around $40 million, but it performed very well globally. Due to trust in Gilbert, Warner Bros. and Teststone Films didn't hesitate to invest that much money, especially with additional funding from Melon Studio.
Typically, a new director would not have been able to get such an opportunity without enduring a long struggle.
The preparation wasn't complicated either. The film would be shot in Philadelphia, known for its historical buildings, which perfectly fit the atmosphere Gilbert wanted.
Once everything was ready, the crew headed to Philadelphia to begin filming.
In the past, Hollywood was a place name because many film companies set up shooting locations there, making it synonymous with North American cinema. Similarly, San Fernando Valley is a major center for North American entertainment, though more restricted in its focus.
However, in recent years, more and more film crews have been choosing to shoot outside of Hollywood or the surrounding Los Angeles area. This shift was due to two main reasons: first, California's high taxes, which increased production costs, and second, the introduction of policies by major North American cities to attract Hollywood productions.
Philadelphia was one of those cities. To entice Gilbert's crew to shoot there, the local government promised to provide free rentals for all shooting locations and even allowed access to historical buildings for interior shots.
With such favorable conditions, Gilbert naturally felt tempted and decided to skip Los Angeles in favor of heading to the East Coast.
Philadelphia's enthusiasm was not without reason. A blockbuster film could provide immense promotional value to the city. Beyond that, tourism, dining, and other industries driven by the film could offer substantial economic benefits and help resolve employment issues.
This was the positive influence a film could have on a city, though of course, it depended on the film's portrayal. If a film depicted a city negatively, showing it as dirty, chaotic, or plagued by violence, the local government likely wouldn't be as enthusiastic.
In San Fernando Valley, most crews also didn't shoot in the valley itself. Many productions took place elsewhere.
These films, though sometimes expensive, would even alter Hollywood films. Gilbert's two films, Speed and The Rock, were examples.
The Rock was adapted into a story where a British female secret agent led a team of female commandos onto the island to face off with a general's forces.
Don't ask Gilbert how he knew about this; Naomi Watts had bought the film, and they watched it together. As they watched, their excitement led them to reenact a battle scene from the movie.
In theory, such adaptations could be considered copyright infringement, and the copyright holders could have sued.
Gilbert had discussed this with Robert Iger, who told him these types of lawsuits were usually troublesome and time-consuming. Moreover, suing would only bring more attention to the infringing films.
As long as it didn't impact the original film's revenue, film companies generally didn't bother with these kinds of "mashups."
Gilbert agreed, as he, being a top Hollywood director, didn't think it was worth getting into conflicts with those actors from the adult film industry. However, Gilbert's thoughts were soon put to the test.
Upon arriving in Philadelphia to film, Gilbert learned that a crew from San Fernando Valley was also shooting in the same city. The other crew needed a male lead, and upon hearing that Gilbert was in Philadelphia, they immediately approached him with an invitation.
Not knowing what their intentions were, Gilbert agreed to meet with them, assuming they might be seeking investment. To his surprise, the invitation came with quite a shock.
"Director Gilbert, we sincerely invite you to star in our film. We can offer you $50,000."
Gilbert looked confused. "You want me to star in your film? What kind of film is this?"
The visitor mysteriously responded, "The female lead is played by the famous actress Rebecca Ellison. Her skills are outstanding, and she has long wanted to work with you."
Upon hearing this, Gilbert immediately understood and said to Anna, "Anna, show them out."
The visitor didn't give up. "If you're not satisfied, I can bring more people in. We could even change the script for a pool party scene with multiple people. We can include the types of scenes you like."
Gilbert waved his hand in disgust. "What do you mean by 'the types I like'? Get out."
Though Gilbert wasn't opposed to private, intimate activities, filming such a scene and distributing it as a video was unacceptable. He was a top director in Hollywood—filming such material would be humiliating.
After Anna escorted the visitor out, she looked at him with a strange expression and said, "Boss, several adult film stars have confessed to you before. I guess this was their real intention."
Gilbert, feeling frustrated, replied, "Don't talk about it anymore. It would be embarrassing if this gets out."
"But I fear they might use this to stir up controversy and boost their film sales," Anna said.
Gilbert assured her, "It's fine. Let Marco handle it. They should understand my position. Trying to use my name for publicity would be disastrous for them."
Anna nodded and went to contact Marco Wald.
As expected, the adult film production company tried to use the situation for publicity. However, after Marco Wald, along with a lawyer, warned them, they realized that Gilbert was not just a Hollywood director—he was a billionaire with over $7 billion in assets and a member of the Hollywood Jewish Club.
Rumor had it that Gilbert had once put Mel Gibson in jail for merely looking at his woman, Naomi Watts. Anyone who crossed Gilbert would have a very difficult time.
The adult film company quickly decided to move their production out of Philadelphia, avoiding further conflict with Gilbert's crew.
At this level, many problems could be resolved without Gilbert having to lift a finger. His influence was enough that his partners, like Disney and Warner Bros., would take care of things for him.
After all, Gilbert's films were box office hits year after year, and both Disney and Warner Bros. had come to view him as one of their most valuable partners. They would not let his reputation be harmed.
If another incident like the Mel Gibson one occurred, it would likely result in all-out action against Gibson. At that point, Gibson would be in even worse trouble.
When other friends heard about the San Fernando Valley incident, they mostly joked about it.
Nicolas Cage called Gilbert: "I heard you were invited by those guys from the Valley to star in a film?"
Gilbert was surprised. "You heard about this?"
Nicolas Cage casually responded, "I've been invited too."
"Did you go?"
"No," Cage shook his head. "But I did have a few parties with those adult film stars. I have to admit, it was pretty enjoyable."
Cage then suggested, "If you're interested, I could set up a pool party with them. We could invite those stars from the Valley."
Gilbert paused for a moment before responding, "Get lost, fuck, I'm not interested."
Nicolas Cage laughed heartily, clearly amused.
Of course, it was all in jest. He knew Gilbert's temperament well. Gilbert had always distanced himself from such parties.
As Gilbert put it, if he ever threw such a party, he wouldn't want any other men to be there.
This incident was a minor blip, but it was quite amusing. It didn't affect Gilbert's work, and after the initial adjustments, The Sixth Sense was on track to be filmed at full speed.
