After the discussion, Robert Iger quickly said his goodbyes and left. He needed to coordinate with Warner Bros. to launch a media offensive and find people to counter the animal rights organizations' protests.
Gilbert wasn't idle either. He quickly contacted his exclusive journalist, Sarah from The Los Angeles Business Journal, and invited her to the set for an interview.
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"Can I take photos?" Sarah was visiting a film set for the first time for an interview and looked around everything with curiosity. When she saw the towering robot models, she was truly amazed.
Gilbert smiled slightly and said, "Of course..."
Sarah immediately gestured to her accompanying photographer to take a few shots; this would definitely be a highlight of her report. However, Sarah also knew that Gilbert's purpose in inviting her wasn't just for a few photos, but for something else. Recalling the recent protests from animal rights organizations regarding the crew's alleged mistreatment of a bull, it wasn't hard to guess Gilbert's true intentions.
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As expected, during the subsequent interview, besides promoting Real Steel, Gilbert vehemently denounced the actions of the animal rights organizations.
"Black Lightning is a local champion bull; it's a three-time champion of the local bullfighting competition. The scars on its body are its medals, telling the story of its past championship history. Jordan, who won three consecutive championships, also suffered many injuries, which only proves that enduring hardships leads to a legendary three-peat. Are we really so heartless as to deprive a bull of its desire for a championship just to 'protect' it?"
Gilbert spoke eloquently, making his "champion theory" unassailable. He approached it from the psychological perspective of a bull, using Jordan as an example to emphasize the importance of being a champion.
Gilbert then added, "This champion's heart is something we humans can learn from. We deeply respect such a bull. I personally decided to award it $100,000, and I look forward to it winning the next bullfighting championship."
---
Giving a prize to a bull was quite unusual; it had never been heard of before. Bullfighting competitions do have prize money, of course, but that usually goes to the bull's owner. The owner would at most use it to treat the bull's injuries or get it a better stable. To maintain its fighting spirit, Black Lightning hadn't even met a cow, so it had to vent all its fury on its opponents.
It was just $100,000; Gilbert didn't care what the bull's owner planned to do with it. His main goal was to irk the animal rights organizations.
After the interview, Sarah quickly wrote her report, publishing Gilbert's exact words without omission.
---
Initially, the animal rights organizations' protests against Real Steel were causing quite a stir in public. People were watching the drama unfold, secretly chuckling at Gilbert: "You've got it coming, finally caught by the animal rights organizations!" It seemed that everyone had been tormented by animal rights groups before, so when they saw someone in a similar situation, their first reaction wasn't sympathy, but schadenfreude. This was likely the "pain transfer" method: as long as you're in pain, my pain doesn't seem so bad.
However, no one expected that in the past, Hollywood film crews were always at a disadvantage when facing various organizations. They would either publish apologies or announce donations to various groups. In essence, it was paying protection money to make these animal rights, environmental, and other organizations stop their protests. After receiving money, these organizations would generally be sensible and stop causing trouble.
As a result, as such incidents continued to occur, this practice of paying protection money became routine, and various organizations gradually became more audacious. If the money wasn't enough, they would continue to protest until they received sufficient funds. Hollywood's major companies were fed up with these organizations but had no recourse. Firstly, these organizations would criticize them from a moral high ground, and secondly, these organizations were often instigated by competitors. If you had media resources, your competitors also had media resources. If you could silence these groups, your competitors could make sure these groups spoke out in other media outlets. So, in many cases, protests from various organizations were simply unsolvable, with almost no recourse other than apologies and compensation.
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But who would have thought that someone would actually dare to stand firm?
In the interview, Gilbert refuted the animal rights organizations' scandal about the crew harming the bull with his "champion theory," and also announced a $100,000 reward for the bull. The subtext was clear: "I'd rather give money to a bull than to you."
The animal rights organizations were furious. In all their years of operation, they had never encountered such a person, so they planned to organize a larger protest to show Gilbert their power.
But would Gilbert be afraid of them? He then used Disney and Warner Bros.' media outlets to engage in a public war of words with the animal rights organizations in newspapers. Such a large-scale war of words quickly attracted the attention of the entire United States and even the Western world.
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The public, who had long suffered silently from various activist groups, was now cheering, though they dared not openly support Gilbert. After all, these various organizations had been powerful for so many years, and their influence was immense; no one dared to challenge them.
Gilbert, unafraid, directly entered the fray, personally engaging in a war of words with the animal rights organization, leaving those around him dumbfounded. Not only that, but Gilbert also had invitations sent to the animal rights organizations for a live TV debate.
Now the challenge was on the animal rights organizations: What to do? Accept or decline? If they declined, what would people think? If they accepted, and then lost the debate, wouldn't it be an even greater loss, destroying years of accumulated influence and prestige?
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Seemingly aware of the animal rights organizations' concerns, Gilbert decided to put their minds at ease, saying he would participate in the debate alone. This reassured the animal rights organizations, and they quickly assembled a seven-member expert team, all with extensive debate experience. "Gilbert, you're finished. Watch us take you down..." Little did they know, Gilbert was employing a strategy of "retreat to advance." It remained to be seen who would really take down whom!
The most unexpected development of this situation was for Michael Ovitz and Martin Bob of CAA. In the CAA president's office, the two sat in silence. After a long while, Martin Bob finally said, "Michael, could this be a scheme by Gilbert?"
Michael Ovitz shook his head and said, "It doesn't look like it to me. Most likely, Gilbert is young and impulsive, pushed to the brink."
"Then do you think we can win this debate?" Martin Bob worried.
"Hahahahaha," Michael Ovitz burst out laughing, "Martin, what are you worried about? The animal rights organization has extensive experience, and Gilbert is appearing alone. There will definitely be no problems."
"I hope so!" Martin Bob thought about Gilbert's previous war of words with the animal rights organization in the newspaper, which didn't seem like he was helpless at all. For some reason, Martin Bob had a faint sense of unease, feeling that something big was about to happen.
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Zoe and Doug were already die-hard fans of Gilbert and were furious when they heard about the animal rights organizations' protests. However, Gilbert's recent scathing criticisms of animal rights groups in the newspapers had made them feel quite satisfied. But while they felt good, Zoe and Doug were also worried that the animal rights organizations might take more extreme actions.
They heard that ABC would have a special live broadcast tonight: the debate between Gilbert and seven experts from the animal rights organization. The two, both worried and excited, turned on the TV, enduring the long commercials, and waited for the program to begin.
The animal rights organizations could never have imagined what confidence Gilbert had to dare to debate them on a television program. If Gilbert had used his power to pressure them, that would have been understandable. But Gilbert was just one person, taking on seven of their experts. With the shallow historical record of the West, they couldn't possibly imagine a comparable figure. Gilbert was truly audacious.
This war of words between the animal rights organizations and Gilbert had already captivated the entire United States. ABC, watching the skyrocketing viewership before the live broadcast, was beaming. Gilbert truly lived up to his reputation as a genius director who garnered nationwide attention; he could even create such a huge event. It seemed young people truly couldn't handle provocation, resorting to such a method to debate the animal rights organizations.
But this didn't concern ABC; they were simply truthfully broadcasting the highly anticipated debate to the entire nation. One minute before airtime, ABC counted over 15 million viewers, a number comparable to presidential debate broadcasts and NBA Finals broadcasts. Regardless of who won or lost afterward, ABC had already won, and won big.
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