In order to confirm the timeline of "The Last Samurai", Li Mu asked Spielberg, "Steven, do you know when Tom Cruise's movie will be finished and when it will be released?"
Spielberg shook his head and said, "I don't know the specifics, but I remember that filming started in the second half of last year. It will definitely be completed in the first half of this year, and with the post-production, if there are no problems, it should be released at the end of the year."
Li Mu nodded and asked him again, "If we prepare as soon as possible, when can we start filming? When can it be released? "
Spielberg thought for a moment and said, "If we are fast, we should be able to start filming in early March. However, we can only shoot the scenes in the United States at the beginning of March. As we shoot, we can prepare for the parts shot in Hua Xia. If we are fast, we should be able to finish filming before the end of this year. In that case, it should be released next summer."
Next summer would be at least half a year later than "The Last Samurai" …
Li Mu didn't show it on the surface, but in his heart, he was thinking that he absolutely couldn't let "The Last Samurai" achieve such good results and influence according to the historical development. However, how to stop the other party seemed to have become an unsolvable problem.
In any case, Li Mu didn't have the ability to stop a Hollywood film from being released worldwide. Hollywood was a free market to begin with. If he directly targeted a certain Hollywood film and destroyed someone else's rice bowl, he would definitely suffer a strong backlash. Therefore, Li Mu could basically be sure of one thing. It was basically a fool's dream to disrupt "The Last Samurai".
Li Mu thought about it again. Since there was no way to catch up with it, release it earlier than it, and there was no way to directly ruin it, how could he minimize its influence?
After thinking about it, Li Mu couldn't think of a very good way.
After Spielberg and Li Mu talked about many details, he said goodbye and left. Li Mu asked Wang Yuanlang to send him off, then turned on his computer and searched for 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, so it was not difficult for him to browse the pages of these overseas websites.
Li Mu carefully looked through every piece of information about "The Last Samurai", and soon found that almost all of it was entertainment news, and they were all related to Tom Cruise. Most of them reported that Tom Cruise had taken on the movie.
There was no real news in these reports, and the entertainment news were also vague about the plot of the movie. They only said that Tom Cruise had taken on the role of a Civil War officer and Japanese samurai, and Tom Cruise had been playing the role of a retired captain.
In addition, there were some related interviews with director Edward Zwick, who had been keeping the audience guessing during the interview. He only said that he was very obsessed with Japanese culture, so he made such a movie. He also revealed that Tom Cruise was also very obsessed with Japanese culture, and that he had carefully prepared for this movie for two years.
The reporter had also asked Edward Zwick if he could reveal the plot of the movie. Edward Zwick was very cautious about this. Like Tom Cruise, he only gave a small part of the most basic story outline. He only said that it was a story between the soldiers of the American Civil War and the Japanese samurai, but he was unwilling to reveal the specifics of the story. The reporter tried to ask more, but he changed the topic, saying that the movie was a collision and combination of Western and Eastern culture, and that it would definitely amaze the audience after it was released.
Then Li Mu found some other news and collected some useful information. For example, the movie officially started shooting on October 10, 2002, and it was expected to be finished in May this year. The total investment of this movie had reached 140 million US dollars!
Li Mu was secretly shocked. 140 million US dollars was 40 million US dollars more than the budget of his Flying Tigers. With such a large investment, it was hard to guarantee that there was no secret support from a Japanese consortium behind this movie.
Li Mu suddenly felt that "The Last Samurai" was very likely to be like his own "Flying Tigers". Super-class stars, Hollywood team, big investment, big scenes, big production, everywhere was full of the atmosphere of a commercial film, but deep down, it was a kind of sophisticated cultural export.
It was very likely that behind "The Last Samurai", there was also a financial backer like him, but he wanted to export Hua Xia culture, Hua Xia spirit, and Hua Xia history, while the other party wanted to export Japanese culture and the spirit of the Samurai.
The more Li Mu thought about it, the more likely his inference was. The more he thought about it, the more determined he was to find a way to ruin this movie.
Later, Li Mu found some photos that the crew deliberately released. Among these photos, there were photos of Tom Cruise in a 19th-century American military uniform, photos of Watanabe Ken and Sanada Hiroyuki in samurai uniforms, and photos of Kato Komuki in traditional Japanese clothes.
Tom Cruise was worthy of being one of the most handsome male movie stars in Hollywood. Wearing a military uniform from two centuries ago, he still looked valiant and handsome.
However, Li Mu suddenly realized a problem. Putting aside other subjective factors, Li Mu had to admit that the visual presentation of Japan in the movie "The Last Samurai" was very exquisite. It could be said that a lot of effort had been put into it. Whether it was the characters, costumes, props, or landscape architecture, they were all extremely meticulous to create a kind of aesthetic visual effect.
Therefore, in Li Mu's impression, the image of Tom Cruise in a Japanese samurai armor was more handsome than the image of him in a military uniform. Why didn't the crew release the photos of him in that image?
As Li Mu thought about it, he suddenly figured out something!
The crew of "The Last Samurai" was very careful to hide the plot of this movie!
Generally, movies would generally release 30% or more of the plot to attract the attention of the audience. However, this movie had released less than 10% of the plot. They only released the background of the story and the starting point of the story, and did not reveal the deeper plot at all.
They did not even release the stills of Tom Cruise in a samurai uniform, which meant that they did not even want the audience to know in advance that Tom Cruise would be a samurai in this movie.
Li Mu guessed that they did this to ensure the suspense of the movie.
The structure of this movie was very interesting. How Tom Cruise was invited and decided to go to Japan to train the army, and how he would command the army to fight was actually just a prelude. The real meaning of the main plot was from the moment Tom Cruise was captured by Watanabe Ken.
Tom Cruise changed from an instructor to a captive, and was gradually brainwashed by Watanabe Ken's samurai spirit, and finally became a samurai to fight side by side with him. This was the real main plot of the story.
Therefore, with this kind of plot structure, once the photos of Tom Cruise, a retired American soldier, wearing a Japanese samurai uniform was released, the plot could basically be guessed. The crew definitely had to keep the plot confidential, which was why they were so cautious.
At this time, Li Mu suddenly realized that a dirty trick had suddenly sprouted in Li Mu's mind.
Aren't you afraid of leaking it? Alright, I've watched this movie a few times. Other than the dialogue, I might not remember it clearly, but I remember every detail of the plot. If I write down the plot in detail and post it on the Internet, then use the Internet Water Army to promote it, what will you do when you realize that almost all of your scripts have been posted on the Internet? What will you do?
Moreover, I will not only leak your plot, I will also discredit you!
That's right, although your movie is really good, from the perspective of nationalism, I will still discredit you!
In fact, Li Mu also knew in his heart that although "The Last Samurai" was good as a movie, the plot really could not stand up to serious scrutiny. Moreover, the prototype of the movie was not the so-called noble and pure embodiment of the so-called samurai spirit, but a group of samurai who fought against the government in order to protect their own privileges, and finally became a rebel army. The movie changed the story and did its best to sing praises, which might have hidden some kind of deep relationship of interests.
Moreover, this film was released at this critical time, so Li Mu felt that he had to discredit it, and he had to discredit it ruthlessly!
Li Mu had almost thought of the specific plot, such as:
"I thought it was some kind of movie, but after reading the script, I feel that everything is full of melodrama. The ostensible friend becomes the enemy, and the ostensible enemy becomes the friend. There are at least hundreds of such plots in Hollywood every year, right?"
"After reading the script, I have no interest in this movie anymore. If Tom Cruise keeps making such a bad movie that can't stand up to scrutiny, I'm afraid he will never win an Oscar in this life."
"Damn it! I really didn't expect Tom Cruise to act in such a ridiculous movie. He kills a Japanese woman's husband, and the Japanese woman falls in love with her husband's murderer. When you read the script, didn't you imagine that if someone killed you, and your wife fell in love with him? How would you feel? "
In addition to this, Li Mu also wanted to stir up the American spirit of nationalism when he started to discredit the movie, so that the American people would subconsciously reject this movie. For example:
"Director, how much money did you take from the Japanese? What are you up to by spending so much effort to flatter the extreme samurai spirit of the Japanese? Do you know how many crimes the Japanese soldiers who believed in the extreme samurai spirit committed around the world during World War II? "
"Damn stupid director, did you forget the Kamikaze Special Forces in World War II? They clamored about the samurai spirit, and the warships they sank were all American warships! Those who were killed were all our American compatriots. Maybe your elders and relatives are here. You are so shameless to whitewash this kind of extreme samurai spirit. You are so disgusting! "
“F*ck！ This stupid director, I really suggest that he learn about the battlefield in Papua New Guinea during World War II. Do you know that the Japanese soldiers who advocated the extreme Japanese samurai spirit committed the crime of eating American prisoners here?! "
"Although this is an era of peace, and we shouldn't have too much nationalism, I am really disgusted by the director. You are an American, but you are racking your brains to promote their nationalism for the Japanese. Then I would like to ask you, where is your American nationalism?" "An adult should have a correct sense of right and wrong.
"An adult should have a correct sense of right and wrong. It's a pity that this director doesn't. He doesn't know that what he's singing about is actually the spirit of the devil. He's long forgotten about history. In his eyes, there's only profit. Whoever gives him money, he'll sing praises for them. I really wonder if one day, a descendant of the Nazis will find him and give him a sum of money. Then, he'll be willing to make a movie to whitewash the Nazis. Just thinking about it makes me shudder!"
"OMG, I have decided that from today onwards, I will never watch this stupid director's movie again!"
“Shit！ Not only his movies, I don't even want to watch Tom Cruise's movies! "
“God-Damn！ I think we need to appeal to our American compatriots, as well as all the countries and people who have been hurt by this extreme samurai spirit. Everyone, boycott this movie together! "
Unknowingly, Li Mu, the drama queen, had made up a lot of different kinds of Internet Water Army comments. Moreover, he was getting more and more comfortable with it. In one breath, he had written 70 or 80 comments.
At some point, Li Mu also felt that what he was doing was a little low and a little too much.
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