Shooting a war film with a budget of 100 million USD was unprecedented in the history of China's film industry. Even in the international arena, it was definitely the best war film.
The Lord of the Rings trilogy was nearly 10 hours long, and it cost less than 300 million US dollars in total. When the length of each film was 190 minutes, the budget was less than 100 million US dollars. The Flying Tigers that Li Mu wanted to invest in had a budget of 100 million US dollars, which showed how high the production standard was.
Most importantly, most of the scenes of the movie would be shot in Hua Xia. The overall prices, manpower, and other costs in Hua Xia were much lower than in the United States, so it was equivalent to raising the budget in disguise.
More importantly, Spielberg told Li Mu that if he gave the script to Tom Hanks and Leonardo, they would definitely not refuse the role. Also, based on his relationship with them, he believed that they would definitely give him a friendship fee.
That was not all.
Spielberg analyzed that Tom Hanks and Leonardo were very respectful of Li Mu, and Li Mu's influence was so strong that all the stars wanted to suck up to him. This movie was invested by Li Mu, so the two would definitely give Li Mu face and reduce the salary.
If everything went smoothly, the two could reduce the salary by 10 to 20 million US dollars. There was still a lot of room for improvement.
Li Mu did not care about the money, but when the movie would be released. Once it started, he would definitely immediately send the money to the crew, and then try his best to coordinate all kinds of relations in the country, doing his best to support the shooting of the movie.
Spielberg promised Li Mu that after he went to the United States, he would immediately start working on three things:
First, settle the script;
Second, contact Tom Hanks and DiCaprio, let them see the script, and then have them agree;
Third, discuss with DreamWorks whether to invest, and how much to invest.
Once these three things were settled, Spielberg would immediately start to set up a team in Hollywood, and then coordinate the visas and permits. The vanguard team would have to arrive in Hua Xia as soon as possible to start choosing the scenery and making the props.
After sending Spielberg, Anne Hathaway, and the others back to the hotel, Li Mu was filled with emotion when he talked to Liu Shixiong in the car. He said, "Liu Shixiong, do you know why I am willing to spend 100 million US dollars to make this movie after listening to Spielberg?"
Liu Shixiong nodded and said, "You want the people of the world to understand Hua Xia and understand the difficult history of Hua Xia."
Li Mu shook his head. "It's not a history of hardship, but a history of strong and unyielding resistance! I want the whole world to know the greatness, strength, and unyielding spirit of the Hua Xia people, so this movie will never be a movie that highlights the suffering of the people, nor will it be a movie that highlights individual heroism, or a movie where one person can be invincible in the world. Instead, I want to make a movie like 'Bloodbath', which can show the backbone of the Hua Xia people, and like 'Saving Private Ryan', which has a strong commercial element. Only when the official history is interpreted in a commercial way can it be recognized by the whole society! "
…
Li Mu was still excited when he lay down after taking a shower.
Today was definitely a day of great harvest for him. The e-commerce industry finally had a clear management method to prohibit fraud and fraud. Before Spielberg left, he did not forget to give himself a big gift. If the movie "Flying Tigers" could really achieve the best expectations he wanted, then this movie would definitely become a milestone in the history of Hua Xia films. More importantly, when it was seen and accepted on a global scale, it would definitely improve the people's view of Hua Xia and the Hua Xia people to a great extent.
If the investment of 100 million US dollars was really announced to the public, it would probably shock the Hua Xia film and television industry, and the people in the world film and television industry. But this was really nothing to Li Mu. In his eyes, not everything was for the sake of making money. Even if some things would lose money, he would not hesitate to do it.
That night, Li Mu had been imagining every scene of "Flying Tigers" in his mind. It was not until the middle of the night that he fell asleep.
Just as Li Mu fell asleep, his cell phone suddenly rang. The sudden ringtone and vibration quickly broke the silence in the room.
Li Mu, who had just fallen asleep, was awakened by this phone call. He suddenly wanted to curse, but when he looked at it, he found that it was Spielberg who called.
Why is this old man not sleeping so late? Why is he calling me? Is he going to talk about the movie?
Then, Li Mu picked up the phone suspiciously.
On the phone, Spielberg said anxiously, "Mr. Li, I'm really sorry to disturb you. Something urgent happened, and I may need your help …"
"What happened?" Li Mu couldn't help but frown. What kind of urgent matter would happen while sleeping in a hotel in the middle of the night?
Spielberg said, "Annie called me at night and said that she was sick. I rushed her to the hospital with a female assistant in the company, but as soon as she was sent to the hospital, the doctor took her temperature and immediately isolated her. He didn't let us see her, and he didn't tell us what happened. Now we don't know anything about Annie's situation, so we want to ask you for help. After all, according to our plan, we have to go to Hong Kong tomorrow morning and fly back to the United States tomorrow afternoon."
Li Mu asked subconsciously, "What's Annie's symptom?"
"Fever." Spielberg said, "It's a very bad fever, about 104 degrees!"
"F * ck!" Li Mu couldn't help but swear and blurted out, "104 degrees?! Are you joking with me? "
Spielberg hurriedly explained, "Sorry, sorry. 104 degrees. I'm used to it. Sorry."
As he spoke, Spielberg thought for a moment and said, "I think it said 40 degrees."
"40 degrees?!" Li Mu suddenly sat up from the bed. Annie Hathaway suddenly had a fever at this time, which made him feel very bad, but he couldn't tell what was wrong at the moment.
After a moment, a word flashed in Li Mu's mind — SARS.
He didn't know if Annie Hathaway was infected with SARS, but in his memory, it was the end of 2002. The first case of SARS should have been discovered for some time, and now it was spreading in Guangdong Province. Moreover, this place was too close to the area where the first case of SARS was discovered …
Li Mu was nervous, but he still calmly analyzed the details. First of all, he couldn't be sure if Annie Hathaway had a normal fever or if it was a fever caused by SARS. But most importantly, she was quarantined in the hospital because of a fever. This news sent a strong signal: even if the people didn't know much about SARS, the hospital should have some understanding and started to deal with it carefully. Otherwise, they wouldn't have quarantined a patient with a fever.
Could it be that the SARS that he had been waiting for had already appeared in Shenzhen?
Immediately, Li Mu asked Spielberg, "Steven, which hospital are you in? I'm coming over now! "
"That's great!" Spielberg finally breathed a sigh of relief and said, "We're in the Third People's Hospital near the hotel, the emergency department."
"Okay, wait for me!"
Li Mu turned over and got out of bed, then immediately began to put on his clothes and tidied himself up as quickly as possible. Before going out, he took a box of 3M masks from home, which he had arranged for someone to buy from Hong Kong as soon as he arrived in Shenzhen. It was a precautionary measure.
Li Mu went out in the middle of the night, and Wang Yuanlang and the other two naturally followed closely behind. Before Li Mu got into the car, they also followed him to the underground garage. Li Mu saw that the three people also followed him out, so he simply said to Wang Yuanlang, "Brother Wang, let's take a car."
Wang Yuanlang nodded and personally got into the GL8. Li Mu and the other two also quickly got into the car. As soon as they sat down, Li Mu said to Wang Yuanlang, "Brother Wang, let's go to the Third People's Hospital."
Li Mu was in a hurry to go to the hospital in the middle of the night, which inevitably surprised Wang Yuanlang, but his professionalism made him not ask any questions and immediately drove to the Third People's Hospital.
The GL8 drove all the way to the hospital's emergency department. As soon as the car stopped, Li Mu took out a few masks and handed one to each of them. As he put it on, he said to the three people around him, "Recently, I heard that there seems to be an infectious disease, and it's spreading like wildfire. Everyone, wear a mask just in case."
Wang Yuanlang nodded, took the mask and silently put it on. Zhou Zhan, who was in the passenger seat, opened the packaging of the mask and muttered, "Recently, there seems to be a rumor of an infectious disease, which has made the local people very nervous. The disinfectant and indigowoad root in Shenzhen and the surrounding area have all been sold out, saying that indigowoad root can prevent all kinds of diseases."
Li Mu asked in surprise, "Disinfectant and indigowoad root? There's such a rumor? Why haven't I heard of it? "
Wang Yuanlang said, "Li Zong, you're usually so busy, and you don't have much contact with the local people, so it's normal that you don't know about it. When we first came to Shenzhen, I gave an order to Zhou Zhan to pay attention to the surrounding environment and get familiar with the local situation and customs as soon as possible, so he paid more attention in this aspect."
Li Mu felt a burst of annoyance in his heart. He came to Shenzhen to wait for SARS, but in the end, he didn't catch the best time. It was possible that this rumor had already spread around Shenzhen ten days or half a month ago!
However, now was not the time to blame himself. Anne Hathaway still didn't know what the situation was, so he immediately said to the three people, "Why don't you wait in the car, I'll go and have a look first."
"No way!" Wang Yuanlang said without hesitation, "When we're outside, our only principle is to protect your safety, and we can't let you be in any danger!"
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