Chapter 368: Walking and Stopping

Departing from the port of Los Angeles and passing through Hawaii, they experienced the local customs of island volcanoes in Hawaii.

On this round-the-world journey, Gilbert brought along Naomi Watts, Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Connelly, Scarlett Johansson, and others.

Sophie Marceau was waiting in Hong Kong at the time, waiting for the yacht to arrive so she could meet up with Gilbert and the group.

The yacht was large enough unlike a small yacht that could be sailed alone so it still required a captain and crew to operate.

This issue was easily resolved. When Steve Jobs heard that Gilbert was going on a round-the-world trip, he introduced a reliable crew.

The captain and crew stayed on the lower deck of the yacht and wouldn't come up to the upper deck. There was also a trustworthy security team, so there wasn't much of a problem.

Additionally, Noriko Sakai, Shizuka Kudo, and Norika Fujiwara brought along several Japanese beauties, including Kyoko Fukada and Satomi Ishihara.

However, when Gilbert saw the sixteen-year-old Satomi Ishihara, he was dumbfounded and questioned Noriko Sakai: "Are you treating me like a pervert? Where did she come from?"

Noriko Sakai was very bold. She clung to Gilbert's arm and said with a grin, "She's one of your loyal fans and really loves your movies The Sixth Sense and Chicago."

"Oh really!" Gilbert was a bit surprised. "Such a young age and she's already watching such profound films?"

Satomi Ishihara was a little shy but still gathered her courage and said, "But they're really so good!"

"Well, alright then." Gilbert shrugged. Maybe sixteen-year-olds really could appreciate the artistic expression in films.

Indeed, compared to Gilbert's other movies, The Sixth Sense and Chicago, while still commercial films at their core, were undeniably closer to the style of art films.

That's why Gilbert won his first Oscar for Best Director thanks to Chicago.

Although Noriko Sakai was enthusiastic about introducing Japanese beauties to Gilbert, he didn't respond to her intentions the way she had hoped he didn't do anything with those new girls.

As a human being, Gilbert had the most basic of human desires including the pursuit of power, money, and beauty all of which were perfectly normal.

Coincidentally, the Western society he lived in was one of the most open about desires, with the least need for repression.

Especially for someone like him, who belonged to high society he could almost live beyond the reach of the law.

But truthfully, Gilbert didn't want to become like those hypocritical beasts. Maybe that was the one thing in which he was better than people even more successful than he was.

Besides, even if his initial motive for keeping Naomi Watts and the others around was their beauty, after more than ten years, feelings had developed, and they were like family now.

Perhaps, as Gilbert looked at the group of women enjoying sweet fruit, he thought to himself: maybe it was time to have a few kids?

Tom Cruise had been urging him he wanted to be a godfather and kept asking when Gilbert planned to have children. Life had entered a whole new phase, so there was no need to avoid the topic anymore.

Seeing that Gilbert wasn't very interested in the Japanese beauties she brought, Noriko Sakai speculated, "Should I get a new batch? How about Korean beauties next time?"

But Norika Fujiwara understood Gilbert better. "I think maybe he's moved past that phase."

"Really? You mean he's not into women? Could it be he's into men?" Noriko Sakai shivered.

If Gilbert really was into that, there were plenty of handsome idol boys in Japan she could introduce.

Norika Fujiwara shook her head. "No, I think for him now, what matters more is a resonance of the soul."

Noriko Sakai pouted. "Oh wow, the great director is so pretentious."

Those powerful figures in Japan's political and business circles never cared about such things. Soul resonance? They only wanted physical resonance.

This round-the-world trip was still quite enjoyable. The second stop of the journey brought them to the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu in the Southern Hemisphere.

Vanuatu is famous for its volcanoes, islands, and tuna, as well as several world-class diving resorts.

It was said that lobsters often appeared in the diving areas, and one could even catch lobsters.

Gilbert and his group visited the famous Mount Yasur volcano and also went to the diving resort areas for some fun, but they didn't manage to catch any lobsters.

They did catch a few tuna, but none were as big as the one they got in Hawaii.

According to locals, the tuna here had tender flesh with beautiful marbling. The fish was rich in oil and had a hint of sweetness making it an excellent choice for sashimi.

Aside from the bluefin tuna from the North Atlantic, the tuna here was the most beloved by the Japanese.

As such, many Japanese fishing fleets could be seen here. Locals said that the Japanese would even hunt whales that appeared in the nearby waters.

Though Vanuatu and several nearby Pacific island nations had protested many times, the Japanese still did as they pleased.

Vanuatu also had a special drink called "kava," also known as intoxicating pepper. Locals often said that if you came to Vanuatu and didn't drink kava, it was like you hadn't truly visited.

It had a sense of "you're not a true hero until you've climbed the Great Wall." But this drink had a very unique taste those who liked it really liked it, while those who didn't couldn't take even one sip.

Scarlett loved this drink. She could usually chug down several cups in one go, and afterward, she always felt totally refreshed and energized.

But for Gilbert, after drinking it, he immediately felt dizzy and ended up vomiting and having diarrhea. From then on, he stayed far away from the drink.

It was winter in the Southern Hemisphere now, but since Vanuatu is near the equator, it remained hot year-round, so the women could still show off their figures.

Naomi Watts had recently learned a new trend it was similar to how future social media starlets would share their street-style photos on Weibo.

Only, it wasn't that convenient back then. You had to take the photos, import them to a laptop, then open a social networking site to share them.

All the women were doing it, posting plenty of vacation photos.

But aside from the fans showering compliments, there were more and more film lovers throwing shade at Gilbert.

"Why are you still on vacation?"

"Thinking about retirement at your age?"

"Hurry up and shoot another movie. I want to see The Lord of the Rings 4."

"Damn it, so many beauties can these women move aside and let Gilbert get back to making movies?"

"Man, I thought you were jealous of how many beautiful women Gilbert had around. Turns out you're just mad they're distracting him from making movies."

"What? Is that not allowed?"

"Of course it is. In fact, I feel the same way."

In response to these comments, Gilbert replied with just one sentence: "Please stay tuned for other films from Melon Studio."

As June rolled in, Spider-Man continued its fiery momentum, topping the box office for a second week with $72.516 million.

Second place was still Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, which brought in $22.569 million this week. Third place was The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, earning $19.933 million.

This marked the sixth week since The Return of the King premiered, and its earnings curve was still looking solid, seemingly unaffected by competition.

By now, its North American box office had accumulated $526 million, with a global total of $1.439 billion.

With all three films in the trilogy surpassing one billion dollars worldwide in three consecutive years, Gilbert had fully cemented his status as the king of commercial cinema at the box office.

Of course, that wasn't the end of the road for the film. Although the moviegoing frenzy had faded, it had entered the phase of slowly building up its numbers over time.

Internal projections from Disney and Warner Bros. estimated that The Return of the King would reach $620 million in North America, and a global box office of $1.7 to $1.8 billion or more.

Whether it could surpass Titanic would depend on luck.

Gilbert had even spoken on the phone with James Cameron, saying that his new movie was about to break the records Cameron had set.

James Cameron himself didn't care much about that he was busy tinkering with 3D technology and had already come up with the early concept of Avatar.

In their most recent call, James Cameron asked Gilbert for support, and of course Gilbert agreed.

After all, this was Avatar a film that would revolutionize filmmaking technology worldwide.

Just like Titanic, this was not a movie Gilbert could casually touch. It really had to be made by James Cameron.

The reason was simple. While the Lord of the Rings series was regarded as a benchmark of Hollywood film production, it still relied on a mature technological system.

Avatar was different. It used a ton of new and cutting-edge technologies many of which were unheard of.

These technologies didn't just appear out of nowhere, nor were they handed down by aliens from the Trisolaran fleet they came through years of practice and research, achieved step by step.

So Gilbert's job was actually quite simple: fund those who were developing these technologies. Once they succeeded, he'd also enjoy some of the returns.

For example, Gilbert had been keeping a close eye on IMAX Corporation's development of their IMAX cameras. After several iterations, the IMAX camera was finally ready to be used in actual filmmaking.

Gilbert planned to use the IMAX camera to shoot a movie when the time was right.

He had always loved the IMAX format the viewing experience in an IMAX theater was simply unparalleled. Maybe one day cinemas would become obsolete and the way we consume films would change.

But Gilbert believed there was still nothing that could show off the magic of movies better than an IMAX theater.

After spending a few days in Vanuatu, the yacht continued south, heading to Australia.

Tom Cruise and his wife were already waiting there. Tom Cruise loved hunting and had invited Gilbert to the Kidman family's farm and estate to enjoy a bit of hunting fun together.

Gilbert had done plenty of fishing, but hunting was something new to him. The first time he held a hunting rifle, he actually felt a bit nervous.

Even though he'd filmed plenty of action movies with guns and explosions, when it came to real gun-handling, Gilbert was far less experienced than Tom Cruise.

Tom Cruise was very professional and acted as a temporary instructor, teaching Gilbert how to use a gun.

....

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