Well then.
Isabella got a little ahead of herself.
The reason Steven Spielberg and George Lucas showed up in the UK had nothing to do with her. It was because the post-production for the third Star Wars prequel, Revenge of the Sith, had finally been completed. So the two of them came to London to review the finished cut.
If everything was fine, Lucasfilm could hand the movie over to Fox for distribution.
Fox would then take it for rating and release it across the entire world.
What's that?
Someone asked why the post-production of Revenge of the Sith was done in the UK?
The answer is extremely simple.
Because ILM's branch is in the UK.
As mentioned earlier, Lucas hated the rigid rules and guild bureaucracy in Hollywood. So, in the late 70s and early 80s, after clashing with various unions, he gave the future "Uncle Tax-Exempt" a demonstration and simply quit all the associations.
This decision enraged all the major Hollywood guilds. They wanted to "discipline" this disobedient lad, so they all publicly declared that members of their guilds were not allowed to participate in Lucas's projects, or else they would face severe punishment.
This was "soft banning."
Since the guilds only said their members were "not allowed to join" Lucas's projects, they didn't explicitly say "forbidden."
Their real goal was to force Lucas to bow his head and apologize.
After all, by then he had already made A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back.
He was a monumental figure in American filmmaking.
But Lucas couldn't care less about them.
After learning he was being "soft banned," he immediately opened the Hollywood rulebook.
He found an old regulation from decades ago, back when the film industry was just being formed. The MPAA had created a rule to protect American films from foreign competition: if the amount of American work in a film drops below a certain threshold, that film cannot enjoy full-scale simultaneous release in North America.
Once Lucas discovered this, he decisively pushed his movie production across the globe.
He moved his studio teams outside North America, then threw globally-made Return of the Jedi at the North American theater alliance, and asked them whether the film could still have a major simultaneous release in North America.
They barely thought about it and said yes.
That instantly made the Hollywood guilds look like clowns.
They failed to ban Lucas, and Lucas even turned the tables on them.
They had gone after him hard.
When Return of the Jedi was first being planned, Spielberg was the one who wanted to direct it the most.
But the guilds refused to let him, threatening him by blocking his own film from North American theaters.
Spielberg was furious.
To save his movie, he had to give up Return of the Jedi.
That movie held hostage by the guilds happened to be E.T.
Yep.
They ended up blocking the last movie they should've tried to block.
Once E.T. exploded and became the highest-grossing movie ever, and Return of the Jedi earned more money than the guilds had probably seen in their entire existence…
well, those two guys basically became grandfathers of all the guilds.
What they said, the guilds did.
Not happy with it?
Then we'll just form our own guild.
The whole world knows working with us means getting fed.
Even though they won that battle, they didn't stop pursuing global filmmaking. They just kept going further along that road.
Because the Earth's beauty isn't exclusive to North America.
And Lucas's studios and VFX bases outside North America obviously wouldn't be abandoned just because of one dispute.
Also, since the US and UK are practically parent and child, when that battle happened, Lucas simply made international London his secondary base, moving lots of heavy assets there. So…
Here's the truth: the ILM in London is actually Lucasfilm's real production hub now. The San Francisco headquarters is basically just a research center.
And they don't even have an office in Los Angeles.
They think Hollywood is filthy and full of toxic smog.
"Chris, you still owe me a gift~"
Half an hour later.
Inside a café in Leavesden.
After some casual small talk and learning the real reason they were in the UK, Isabella's gaze instantly shifted to Chris Columbus.
Columbus understood and could only shake his head with a wry smile.
The two old men had no clue what inside joke these two were playing at, so they asked curiously.
Then Isabella explained:
"Every year, Chris and I exchange New Year's gifts."
"This year, I sent him one. He didn't send me one."
"At first, people in the crew said he was saving it for a surprise."
"I thought so too."
"When you two showed up, I even thought I was right about it."
"Because… I love Jurassic Park and Star Wars…"
"So if Chris invited you two to the UK just so I could meet you, wow, that really would've been a surprise~"
"But you're actually here because of Revenge of the Sith? Visiting our set is just a side trip?"
"Well then, personally, I don't think this counts as a 'surprise'."
"Since 'by the way' and 'on purpose' clearly aren't the same level of effort."
The girl wagged her head as she described this "dispute" between her and Columbus.
Their bizarre little "conflict" had the two men laughing out loud.
"Chris, did you seriously treat our visit to the set as a New Year's gift for Isabella?"
Lucas shook his head: "If that's the case, then I'll need to charge you an appearance fee!"
"Chris, you're seriously frugal to the bone huh?"
Spielberg pushed up his glasses: "Is the cost of living in the UK this bad? Bad enough to make you save money like this? Or is your wife that strict with you?"
The teasing made Columbus spread his hands helplessly.
"Steven, George."
"Don't you guys already know what Isabella's New Year's gift is?"
"Don't sabotage my reputation by acting innocent!"
As he spoke, he tapped the table with his finger.
The rhythmic tapping had the two laughing uncontrollably.
And it made Isabella scratch her own head.
Truthfully, Isabella didn't actually care whether Columbus gave her a gift. She kept bringing it up just to create some fun in the repetitive filming life.
If she were genuinely mad or felt singled out, she would've exploded long ago.
But judging by the situation…
"What are you talking about?" she squinted and asked.
Columbus calmly sipped his coffee.
Then he said, "Isabella, remember that project you heard from me the year before last?"
"Last year, I told you DreamWorks was too busy, so we couldn't start it."
"But this year, DreamWorks is free. So…"
He glanced at her. When he saw surprise covering her face, he immediately looked to Spielberg: "You brought the proposal, right? Contract too? Steven, this is not the moment to tell me 'No'—"
"Chris, how could I ever tell you 'No' about this?"
Spielberg gave Columbus a look, then snapped his fingers at his assistant.
The assistant quickly handed over the briefcase.
Next second, Spielberg unzipped it and placed a finger-thick stack of documents in front of Isabella.
"Isabella, I heard you like this project? Take a look?"
The cover was simple, just an A4 sheet with some text.
But at the top it said:
The Transformers.
Transformers.
"Oooohh~ this is the New Year's gift?" Isabella was delighted.
She looked at Columbus with a smile.
Columbus curled his lips in disgust.
"If you don't like it, just hit me with an Avada Kedavra already."
"I'm the useless minister who failed to guess what Her Royal Highness wanted, OK?"
"Hahahahaha—" His mock whining made everyone laugh.
Besides them four, Isabella's mom Vivian and Michael Barnathan were also present.
Vivian gave Columbus a theatrical glare, but before she could lecture him, Isabella broke character and happily told Spielberg, "Then I won't hold back," and flipped the proposal open.
Inside was this:
The Transformers production team already had its outline.
Producers: Don Murphy and Steven Spielberg.
Don Murphy is a veteran of Hollywood. In 1994, he produced Natural Born Killers by Oliver Stone, and in 2001, he produced From Hell starring Johnny Depp.
He was actually the first producer for Transformers.
Or rather, he was the one who went to Hasbro to stir the fire and suggest turning the toy IP into a movie. Hasbro liked the idea and jumped on it. But once Spielberg joined, he became the real authority on the IP.
As for the script, the story framework already existed.
Just like Isabella wanted, Transformers had become a "girl and her car" type of story.
Rough outline of the plot:
Cybertron has been devastated by a long war between the two factions of Transformers. At this time, the Autobots want to find the life-giving AllSpark to end the millennia-long war, while the Decepticons want to seize it to conquer the universe.
Megatron found the AllSpark on Earth, but an accident made him crash into the Arctic.
Just like Captain America, he was frozen.
Who knows how many years passed, but eventually the U.S. government discovered Megatron.
So the government tried to study this alien lifeform to advance human technology.
But then another accident happened: while studying Megatron, U.S. technicians activated his coordinate system. That alerted the Decepticons, and stars like Starscream came down to Earth to rescue their leader and retrieve the AllSpark.
The Decepticon movements drew the Autobots' attention. Bumblebee followed and came to Earth as well.
Once Bumblebee learned that Megatron was in a U.S. military base, he tried to sneak in and gather information.
But the U.S. military base was heavily guarded, airtight, which left Bumblebee with no chance.
At the same time, inside the base, the daughter of a lead researcher had just become an adult. The school wanted all parents to attend their children's coming-of-age ceremony, to commemorate this once-in-a-lifetime moment.
Although the lead researcher was very busy with his work, he still requested leave, left the base, and went to the school to attend his daughter's ceremony.
And on the way home, he even specifically ordered her a sports car, intending to give it to her as her coming-of-age present. Because when he was young, what he wanted most was a sports car.
This unexpected situation gave Bumblebee an opportunity.
However, just as he transformed into a supercar, hoping to use this chance to ask the researcher how to sneak into the base… after becoming a part of the researcher's family, Bumblebee discovered that the father and daughter had all sorts of conflicts.
First, the researcher was always busy with work and rarely spent time with his daughter.
This caused his daughter to be bullied at school for a long time. Everyone felt she was just a little weed with no dad.
Second, the researcher was a stereotypical engineering guy who didn't care about his appearance.
When he showed up at his daughter's coming-of-age ceremony in a plaid shirt and jeans, she instantly became the laughingstock of her classmates, and he became the source of all her embarrassment.
Lastly, the communication between father and daughter was lacking. He didn't understand her at all.
During past chances to spend time together, the daughter had tried several times to tell him personal things, but he always said "I'm tired, I want to rest," and pulled away from her hugs. So he never learned what she actually liked.
And so, at the ceremony, the daughter completely exploded. She didn't even like sports cars, but…
Mhm~
╮(╯▽╰)╭
After the conflict between father and daughter grew sharp, Bumblebee became the emotional mediator within their household.
Or rather, he became the busiest Cybertronian in the whole movie.
On one side he had to contact the Autobots, calling his comrades to Earth to destroy the Decepticons' scheme.
On the other side he had to play nanny, comfort the female lead, and persuade her to reconcile with her dad.
The ending is that the daughter understands her father's hardship, the father understands his daughter's loneliness, and in the end they join forces to defeat the cosmic mob boss Megatron and bring peace back to Earth.
If one had to describe it, the current script of Transformers is actually Spielberg's comfort zone, because the old man excels at using the camera to portray the conflict between child and father, between family and career, between growing up and truly maturing.
Uh…
It's basically his own life story.
His dad was busy doing research.
Busy enough to ignore him, busy enough to divorce his mom.
Although Isabella no longer remembers the original Transformers plot from her previous life…
When she discovered that in this lifetime, the core of the script she touched was exactly the kind of thing Spielberg has filmed a thousand times, the corners of her mouth couldn't help rising.
That was happiness—
Because Spielberg has never failed in his area of expertise.
That was surprise—
"So… Steven, uh… can I call you that?"
"Certainly."
"Okay, what I want to know is… are you directing this movie?"
Isabella patted the project book in her hand and smiled. "This script looks like you wrote it yourself."
"Hahaha~"
Spielberg laughed and raised his eyebrows. "If you play the daughter, okay, I can direct."
"I probably won't have time." Isabella shrugged with regret.
"Oh~ me neither~" Spielberg spread his hands. "So I want Michael Bay to direct."
"You know him, right? Bad Boys, The Rock? Both great."
Of course Isabella knew Bay. In her past life, that guy was the director of Transformers.
What she didn't know was…
"Isha, Michael is a great kid—no wait… he's way older than you…"
"Never mind, doesn't matter."
Before Spielberg's words even settled, Lucas jumped in: "When he was 15 he was already my assistant, when we were making Indiana Jones. Even back then, he left a strong impression. He was excellent."
"What?"
The sudden information made Isabella frown. "Sorry, George, I think I misunderstood.
You said when he was fifteen, he was already working with you on Indiana Jones?"
"Wasn't that… child labor?"
"Oh—not at all—Isha—you got it wrong—"
Isabella's question nearly choked everyone in the room.
Columbus explained: "Michael isn't a normal person."
"His cousin is Susan Bay, one of the six founding members of the Directors Guild of America's Women's Rights Committee."
"Their family was already inside the industry, so Michael grew up holding a camera."
"When he had free time, he'd wander through film sets and… he loved Star Wars."
"Oh—" Isabella understood.
Still one of their own.
She admitted she really didn't know about Michael Bay's link to George Lucas.
But that didn't matter.
Same old truth: when one person rises to the top, the whole flock flies up with him.
I succeed, but people around me fail?
That would make me look like an idiot.
"Okay, so how do we discuss this?"
Isabella looked around.
"Do you have any opinions on the director?" Spielberg asked with a grin.
"I believe professionals should do professional work."
"Haha~~" Spielberg nodded. "Then let's talk about the cast. Your Margot Robbie will play the female lead, and for the father role, we want to invite… do you have someone in mind?"
"Me? I'd like to invite Tom Cruise. Is that allowed?"
"..."
Once Transformers turned into a story about family, career, and growth, there were basically only two main characters. The daughter and the father. Everyone else was support.
With the daughter already confirmed, then the father…
Well… Isabella didn't care much.
Whoever Spielberg picked, she had no objection.
But if they could invite Tom Cruise, that would be ideal.
Because that meant Transformers was 99 percent sure to succeed.
In her past life, Cruise was the world's only actor never to appear in a Marvel movie yet still rank in the global top ten total box office. That face was a global IP.
And it was actually easy for Spielberg to invite him.
First, they'd already worked together multiple times.
Minority Report, War of the Worlds… those were their collaborations.
Second, Cruise belonged to Paramount.
Currently, DreamWorks was also embracing Paramount.
Since Isabella didn't like meddling in others' business, after throwing out her dream casting and saying a few words, she shifted topics again and continued discussing Margot Robbie's contract and interests with the old men. And that…
After a brief exchange, Spielberg officially invited little Robbie to act in Transformers.
The payment was a fixed salary plus bonuses.
Fixed salary: 3 million.
Bonuses were tier-based:
if the box office reached 200 million, she'd receive 1 million bonus;
if it reached 500 million, the bonus would rise to 3 million;
if the global box office reached 700 million, she would get 1 percent of the global box office;
bonuses wouldn't stack;
as for the pay for part 2 and 3?
Discuss later.
Yes, they signed all three at once.
And just like before, Isabella gained the title of executive producer by providing actors from her own company. She didn't have to manage anything, but she would take 1 percent of total revenue as a producer fee.
Uh…
Don't ask if that follows business rules. If being "one of us" doesn't mean pooling money and grabbing power together, then what's the point of being "one of us"?
Right?
To put it bluntly, if Transformers succeeds, the profit goes to DreamWorks.
If it fails, the loss is all Hasbro's.
Spielberg won't be losing his own money.
So…
Since he could walk into the Harry Potter set, there was no way he'd ignore Isabella's slice of cake.
Because now he could prove to the world that the rumor of J.K. Rowling kicking him out was nonsense.
The old man cared about his image.
Spielberg and Lucas arrived at Leavesden at 1 PM. Even though there were still some daytime shots to film, once they arrived, filming halted.
Their chat with everyone lasted until dinner time. After eating in the Leavesden cafeteria, they finally got in the car to leave, and when they were leaving, Spielberg told Isabella another thing:
"Isa, I know about the Disney situation."
"Robert Iger told me. He needs Pixar. That side can't go wrong."
"So if you need help, just call me."
"Give me one night and I can assemble a full team for you."
"As for equipment…"
"Industrial Light & Magic has a full set. Just move whatever you need from their London headquarters."
"I'm on very good terms with Chris. I already know about the earlier matter, so don't be polite with me."
Isabella smiled.
"Oh~ Steven~ then thank you in advance~"
To Isabella, Spielberg's visit this time really was a gift.
Or rather, the New Year's gift Columbus brought her truly pleased her.
Because right now, what she needed most wasn't confirmation of the Transformers project, but proper animation technology support.
Animation isn't easy. Modeling, rendering, those all require people and equipment.
But once Spielberg opened the backdoor of Industrial Light & Magic for her…
To put it bluntly, the tech gap between Beaver Productions and Pixar was gone.
Pixar and ILM had always traded patents.
Columbus's New Year gift delighted Isabella.
The sudden Transformers news had Margot Robbie thrilled beyond belief.
"Oh—Isa—this—this—is this real?"
That night.
When she saw the contract Isabella handed her, Robbie's eyes instantly widened.
That buling-buling shine looked just like Puss in Boots.
"Of course it's real. Didn't Spielberg and Lucas come today?"
Isabella yawned. "So…"
"Oh~ Isa~ please drink water~"
"I'm not thirsty."
"Oh~ Isa~ please eat some fruit~"
"I just had dinner."
"Oh~ Isa~ then… do you want a fragrant bath before bed? I'll run the water and add French lavender oil. Then light incense from Papua New Guinea. Finally… would you like an Australian spa?"
"..."
Isabella was satisfied, happily wagging her tail.