In order to determine the timeline of "The Last Samurai", Li Mu tentatively asked Spielberg, "Steven, do you know when the Tom Cruise movie will be finished and when it will be released?"
Spielberg shook his head and said: "I don't know the specifics, but my impression seems to be that the filming started in the second half of last year. The filming will definitely be completed in the first half of this year. Plus the post-production, if there is no problem, it should be released by the end of the year. "
Li Mu nodded and asked him again: "If we prepare as soon as possible, when can we start shooting? When can it be released?"
Spielberg thought for a moment and said: "If we go quickly, we should be able to start shooting in early March. However, when we start shooting in early March, we can only shoot the part of the shot in the United States first. While shooting, we will prepare the part shot in China. If If we work quickly, we should be able to finish filming before the end of this year, so it should be released next summer."
Next summer, it will be at least half a year later than "The Last Samurai"...
Li Mu was silent on the surface, but he was thinking secretly in his heart. He must not let "The Last Samurai" achieve such good results and influence according to historical development. However, how to stop the opponent seems to have become another Unsolvable puzzle.
In any case, Li Mu has no ability to prevent a Hollywood film from being released globally. Hollywood is a free market. If he directly targets a Hollywood film and destroys other people's jobs, he will definitely encounter a strong backlash. Therefore, Li Mu basically One thing is certain, trying to ruin "The Last Samurai" is basically a fool's errand.
Li Mu then thought again, since there is no way to catch up with it, release it earlier than it is, and there is no way to directly make it pornographic, then how can it minimize its influence
After much deliberation, Li Mu couldn't think of a good solution.
After Spielberg chatted with Li Mu in many details, he said goodbye and left. Li Mu asked Wang Yuanlang to send him away, while he turned on his computer and searched for relevant information about "The Last Samurai" on Google.
After entering the English name of "The Last Samurai" into Google, Li Mu quickly saw a lot of entertainment news. Fortunately, his English was very good, and he felt no pressure to browse these overseas website pages.
Li Mu carefully looked through every piece of information about "The Last Samurai" and soon discovered that almost all of them were entertainment reports, and they were all related to Tom Cruise. Most of them reported that Tom Cruise had taken over the filming. news about this movie.
There is no real information in these reports. Regarding the plot of this movie, entertainment reports are also vague. They just say that Tom Cruise took over the filming of a legendary story about an American Civil War officer and a Japanese samurai, and Tom ·Cruise plays a captain who retired from the American Civil War.
In addition, there are some related interviews with director Edward Zwick. During the interview, he also kept talking about it. He just said that he was very obsessed with Japanese culture, so he created such a movie, and he also It was revealed that Tom Cruise himself is also particularly obsessed with Japanese culture and has been carefully preparing for this movie for two years.
Reporters also asked Edward Zwick if he could roughly reveal the plot of the movie. Edward Zwick was very cautious about this. Like Tom Cruise, he only told half of the most basic story. The synopsis just said that it was a story about what happened between American Civil War soldiers and Japanese samurai. But he was unwilling to reveal the specific story. The reporter tried to ask more, but he changed the subject and said that this The movie is a collision and combination of Western culture and Eastern culture. It will surely amaze the audience after it is released.
Then Li Mu looked for some other news and collected some useful information. For example, the filming of this movie officially started on October 10, 2002. It is expected to be completed in May this year, and the total investment of this movie has actually reached Damn $140 million!
Li Mu was secretly stunned when he saw it. Good guy, US$140 million is US$40 million higher than the budget of his "Flying Tigers". With such a large investment in this movie, there is no guarantee that there is not secret support from a Japanese consortium behind it.
Li Mu suddenly felt that "The Last Samurai" might be like his own "Flying Tigers", with super-class stars, Hollywood team, big investment, big scenes, and big production. It has the atmosphere of a commercial movie everywhere, but deep down , but it is a sophisticated cultural export.
It is very likely that behind "The Last Samurai" there is a sponsor like himself, but he wants to export Chinese culture, Chinese spirit and Chinese history, while the other party wants to export Japanese culture and bushido spirit.
The more Li Mu thought about it, the more he felt that his inference was extremely likely, and the more he thought about it, the more determined he was to find a way to mess up the movie.
Later, Li Mu searched for some final makeup photos that the crew deliberately released. Among these final makeup photos, there were photos of Tom Cruise wearing 19th-century American military uniforms, and photos of Ken Watanabe and Hiroyuki Sanada wearing samurai uniforms. , there are also photos of Kato Koyuki wearing traditional Japanese clothes.
Tom Cruise is worthy of being one of the most beautiful male movie stars in Hollywood. He can still look dashing and handsome even in a military uniform from two centuries ago.
However, Li Mu suddenly realized a problem. Putting aside other subjective factors, Li Mu had to admit that in the movie "The Last Samurai", all the visual presentation of Japan was very exquisite. It can be said that it was painstakingly done, no matter the character modeling , costumes, props, and scenery and architecture are all very carefully crafted to create a beautiful visual effect.
Therefore, in Li Mu's impression, the image of Tom Cruise wearing a Japanese samurai uniform and armor is more handsome and handsome than the image of him wearing a military uniform. Why didn't the crew send out the final makeup photos of him in that image
Li Mu thought about it and suddenly figured out something!
The crew of "The Last Samurai" was very careful about hiding the plot of this movie!
Generally speaking, 30% or more of the movie will be released to attract users' attention. However, the plot of this movie is currently less than 10%. They only released the background of the story and the starting point of the story. It is more in-depth. The plot has not been revealed at all.
They didn't even reveal a still of Tom Cruise wearing a samurai suit, which means they didn't even want the audience to know in advance that Tom Cruise would become a samurai in this movie.
Li Mu guessed that they did this to ensure the suspense of the movie.
The structure of this movie is very interesting. How Tom Cruise was invited and decided to train the army in Japan and how to command the army to fight are actually just introductions. The real entry into the main plot begins with Tom Cruise. It started from the moment he was captured by Ken Watanabe.
Tom Cruise transformed from an instructor to a prisoner, and was gradually brainwashed and transformed by Ken Watanabe's bushido spirit, and finally became a samurai to fight alongside him. This is the real main plot of the story.
Therefore, under this plot structure, once the final makeup photos of Tom Cruise, an American retired soldier, wearing a Japanese samurai uniform are released, the plot can basically be guessed, and the crew must keep the plot secret , that’s why we are so cautious.
At this time, Li Mu suddenly realized that a sinister trick suddenly sprouted in Li Mu's mind.
Aren't you hiding it for fear of being exposed? Okay, I have watched this movie several times. I may not remember it clearly except for the dialogue, but I remember every detail of the entire plot direction clearly. If I wrote down all the detailed directions of the plot and put them online Go ahead and use the navy to push it. When the time comes, you find that almost all of your scripts have been moved online. What should you do
Moreover, I am not just as simple as leaking your plot, I also have to hack you!
Yes, although your movie is indeed not bad, from the perspective of nationalism, I still want to blackmail you!
In fact, Li Mu himself knows that although "The Last Samurai" is not bad if you just watch it as a movie, the plot does not stand up to serious scrutiny, and the prototype of the movie is not at all a noble and pure embodiment of the so-called bushido spirit, but a group of samurai. In order to maintain his own privileges, he opposed the government and finally became a rebel. The movie changed the story and tried its best to praise it, which may itself hide some deep-seated interests.
Moreover, this film was released at this critical time, so Li Mu felt that he had to be black, and he had to be black!
Li Mu has almost thought of the specific routines, for example:
"I originally thought it was some kind of movie, but after reading the script, I felt that everything was full of nonsense. Ostensibly friends turned into enemies, and superficial enemies turned into friends. This kind of routine must be produced by Hollywood at least hundreds of times a year. ?”
"After reading the script, I have no interest in this movie anymore. If Tom Cruise keeps making such bad movies that cannot stand up to scrutiny, I'm afraid he won't be able to win an Oscar in his lifetime."
"Damn it! I really didn't expect Tom Cruise to act in such a ridiculous and obscene movie. He killed the husband of a Japanese woman, but the Japanese woman fell in love with the murderer. Didn't you imagine it when you read the script? How would you feel if someone killed you and your wife fell in love with him?"
In addition to these, Li Mu also wanted to stir up the nationalist spirit of Americans when he was making fun of it, so that the American people would subconsciously reject this movie, for example:
"Director, how much money did you get from the Japanese? What are your intentions in trying so hard to praise the Japanese's extreme Bushido spirit? Do you know that during World War II, Japanese soldiers who believed in the extreme Bushido spirit committed crimes around the world? How many crimes were committed?”
"Did this damn idiot director forget about the kamikaze forces during World War II? The ones they sank while shouting about the spirit of Bushido were all our American warships! The ones they killed were all our fellow Americans, what the heck? Unfortunately, there are your elders and relatives here, and you are so shameless in whitewashing this extreme samurai spirit. Your face is really disgusting!"
"F*ck! This stupid director, I really suggest him to learn about the battlefield of Papua New Guinea during World War II. Do you know that Japanese soldiers who advocated the extreme Japanese Bushido spirit once committed the crime of eating American prisoners here? offense?!"
"Although we are in a peaceful age and we should not have excessive nationalism, I am really disgusted by the director. You, an American, rack your brains to promote their nationalism to the Japanese. Then I want to ask you, Where is the American nationalism in you?”
"An adult should have a correct sense of right and wrong. It's a pity that this director does not. He doesn't know that what he is actually praising is actually the spirit of the devil. He has long forgotten history. In his eyes, there is only profit. He will sing praises for anyone who gives him money. I really doubt that one day the descendants of ** will find him and give him a sum of money, and he will be willing to make such a whitewashing movie for **. I think I shudder just thinking about it!”
"OMG, I decided from today on to never watch a movie directed by this stupid guy again!"
"Shit! Not only his movies, I don't even want to watch Tom Cruise movies!"
"God-Damn! I think we need to call on our fellow Americans, as well as all countries and people who have been harmed by this extreme samurai spirit, to boycott this movie!"
Unknowingly, Li Mu, a dramatist, had made up a lot of various troll comments, and he felt more and more comfortable with it, writing seventy or eighty in one breath.
At a certain moment, Li Mu also felt that what he did was a bit low and a bit too much.
But the next second, Li Mu felt calm in his heart, thinking to himself: It doesn't matter, I have no shame anyway...
(End of chapter)