Edward was on tenterhooks the whole way. From another angle, he perfectly illustrated an old saying from Hua Xia: the closer you are to home, the more afraid you are.
He had to be afraid!
He was really afraid that because of this major mistake, he would screw up the movie and his career.
In all fairness, Edward felt that the leak of the script was most likely caused by internal personnel. Whether or not they could find out in the end, it was caused by his own poor management.
He had been given a 140 million dollar investment. If he leaked the entire investment plan, who would dare to invest in his movies in the future?
If Warner Bros. were to ban him out of anger, no one in Hollywood would help him …
When the plane landed in Los Angeles, Edward really wanted to lie down on the table and cry. Anxiety, pain, panic, uneasiness … All kinds of negative emotions lingered in Edward's heart, making him feel as if a huge rock was pressing down on his chest. Even breathing was a little difficult.
After getting off the plane, he hurriedly took a taxi to the company. In the taxi, he saw today's newspaper. The entire front page had a huge headline that read "The Last Samurai's Script Leaked" and a huge picture. This picture had been photoshopped by the media. It had Tom Cruise, Watanabe Ken and other actors. It looked fierce.
This discovery made Edward even more nervous. He was afraid that Meyer would fight him to the death.
When he arrived at the company, Edward received a comforting look from all his colleagues. A public relations manager who was familiar with him told him, "Edward, boss is going to hold a press conference tomorrow. You must pull yourself together!"
Edward was going crazy.
Press conference? Was he going to be the scapegoat so soon?
He was extremely nervous as he walked all the way to Meyer's office.
The secretary outside saw him and said with a smile, "Edward, you're finally back!"
Edward couldn't help but feel annoyed. Damn, I've made a big mess. Why the hell are you smiling? Are you gloating?
Upset, Edward asked him impatiently, "Is boss here? I want to see him. "
The secretary smiled and said, "Mr. Meyer is not here, but he asked me to tell you not to worry when he left this morning. Take a good rest and he will talk to you in the evening."
Edward was stunned and asked subconsciously, "What did you say? Mr. Meyer asked me not to worry? "
"Yes." The secretary explained, "Mr. Meyer was very happy when he left. It seems that this matter didn't cause him too much trouble, so he deliberately asked me to tell you those words."
Edward, who was confused, did not dare to let his guard down immediately. He only returned to his home in Los Angeles anxiously and waited for Meyer's call.
At eight o 'clock in the evening, Meyer called. After asking with concern if Edward had arrived in Los Angeles, she immediately invited him to her house to talk about the press conference tomorrow.
Edward hurried over. The moment he saw Meyer, he was as nervous as a three-year-old.
Unexpectedly, Meyer warmly invited him to sit on the sofa in the living room. She even took the initiative to give him a cigar and said with a smile, "Edward, this is a blessing in disguise for you! Now that the leaked script has become a hot topic, even YY has reported on it. The exposure of the movie has reached its peak, and the Japanese investors are very satisfied with this! "
Edward asked in disbelief, "Mr. Meyer, why would the Japanese investors be satisfied with this?"
Meyer laughed and said, "What they care about is exposure and influence. The box office is not that important. Now that the movie has not even finished filming, it has already become so famous. Of course they are very satisfied."
As he said that, Meyer patted Edward on the shoulder and said with a smile, "You must have been on tenterhooks on the way back, right?"
Edward breathed a sigh of relief. It was as if the boulder in his heart had been lifted in an instant. He was so excited that tears almost flowed out of his eyes, but he still said with lingering fear, "Mr. Meyer, only God knows how torturous it was for me to come back! God bless me, otherwise, I don't know how to face you and the investors … "
Meyer laughed and comforted him, "You're really lucky. If things continue to develop like this, I'm afraid this movie will become the hottest topic of the year. When the movie is released in the future, it will definitely cause a huge sensation!"
Edward nodded repeatedly and promised, "Mr. Meyer, please rest assured, I will definitely do my best to make this movie a good one!"
Meyer nodded and said with a smile, "I believe in your ability!"
After saying that, Meyer said, "Let's take a good look at tomorrow's press conference. Once it's done, you can head back to continue filming."
…
The press conference held by Warner Bros. attracted almost all of the mainstream media in America.
Yesterday's push by YY made the leaked script a super hot topic that the entire North America was paying attention to. Naturally, these media outlets would not let go of the opportunity to follow up on this super hot topic and report on it.
In fact, if one paid even a little attention to the news industry, they would realize that this industry was very similar to how ordinary people made money. The poorer a person was, the slower it was for them to make money. There were no opportunities, and even if there were, it was difficult to grasp them. On the other hand, the richer one was, the faster it was for them to make money. Some opportunities would even come knocking on their door, which led to the poor becoming poorer, and the rich becoming richer.
It was exactly the same in the news industry. Some news could not be stirred up no matter how hard they tried, and all the media outlets turned a deaf ear to it. However, some news could be ignited at the slightest touch and would become more and more popular. Countless people took the initiative to add fuel to the fire.
The news about the leaked script of "The Last Samurai" was like the latter. Because of the superstar Tom Cruise, it could quickly become a hot topic in a very short period of time, and countless media outlets came in to support it.
At the press conference, Meyer and Edward were so excited that they wanted to laugh out loud in front of the countless cameras of the media. However, the two of them suppressed the excitement in their hearts and angrily admitted the authenticity of the leaked content in front of the media. At the same time, they strongly condemned the shameless behavior of the person who leaked it.
As the CEO, Meyer said in front of the media, seemingly unable to restrain her anger, "The leak of the script of 'The Last Samurai' is the most disgusting and dirty thing that has happened in Hollywood in recent years. Although we still don't know who leaked the absolutely confidential script, we can be sure that the person did this to interfere with the filming of the movie. He must want us to panic, to change the script at the last minute, or to stop filming indefinitely."
At this point, Meyer said passionately, "However, today, I want to solemnly promise all the media and the audience at this press conference: Although the script of 'The Last Samurai' has been leaked, please believe that Warner Bros. will abandon all interference and continue to support Edward and the entire crew. We will definitely finish the movie according to plan!"
After saying this, Meyer paused for a moment, stretched out her right index finger, and said, "At the same time, I want to tell the shameless person who leaked the secret: Do you think you can make Warner Bros. surrender? Dream on! Let me tell you! Warner Bros. will never change the script at the last minute, will never stop filming, and will never bow down to scum like you! At the same time, Warner Bros. will definitely investigate this case to the end, dig you out, and make you pay! "
In the eyes of the Americans, Meyer's behavior at the press conference was really "have-balls." In layman's terms, he had balls. This attitude won him a lot of goodwill.
Then, it was time for Director Edward to perform.
In front of the media, Edward first condemned the behavior of the person who leaked the information. After a series of angry denunciations, he said excitedly, "No matter how others stab me in the back, I will not give up on this great film. On behalf of the crew of 'The Last Samurai', I solemnly promise to the audience all over the world that our entire crew will put aside the interference of this accident, wholeheartedly make this great film, and give all the audience a satisfactory answer!"
After saying this, Edward paused for a moment, then said firmly, "I will see you at the end of the year for 'The Last Samurai'!"
The press conference was very successful. Meyer instructed Warner Bros.'s public relations department to secretly pay all the reporters a "transportation fee" in exchange for the direction of the media's coverage. Therefore, after the press conference ended, almost all the reporters immediately started writing their articles. Every reporter couldn't help but sigh at Warner Bros.'s crisis management. They had thought that the leak would have a huge impact on Warner Bros., but they had unexpectedly benefited the most.
While the reporters were busy writing their articles, Li Mu learned about the entire situation at the press conference through the YY English portal. After confirming that Warner Bros. and Edward had admitted to leaking the script, his real counterattack officially began!
The script that had already been written began to run. A large amount of content that Li Mu had edited in advance began to be published on some of the most popular websites in the United States.
At the gathering place of Tom Cruise's fans, someone posted a post titled "Take a look. This is the extreme samurai spirit that Tom Cruise strongly advocates." The title of the post was very attractive to Tom Cruise's fans. Many people knew that Tom Cruise was obsessed with Japanese culture. It seemed like this post was going to teach everyone about the samurai spirit of Japan.
When these fans clicked on the post with the mentality of learning, the first black-and-white photo left countless fans dumbfounded!
It was a real historical photo. In the photo, the corpse of an American military officer came into view. Most importantly, his internal organs had been dug out, and the muscles in his legs had been cut to the bone …
The first sentence under the photo was: In September 1944, the US bomber pilots were captured by the Japanese on the Tsushima Islands. Other than George Bush, who later became president, who was lucky enough to escape, the other eight pilots were beheaded by the Japanese who believed in the extreme samurai spirit. Their bodies were cooked by the Japanese …
Following that was a black-and-white photo of a US warship on fire and capsized, and a black-and-white photo of a US Navy soldier jumping from the ship into the sea, covered in flames.
There was a description below: In 1944, the exhausted Japanese army, in order to resist the attack of the US Navy, used the extreme samurai spirit to encourage the pilots to fly planes into the US warships. This was the Kamikaze Special Forces that the Japanese are still proud of!
Then, there was a photo of countless US prisoners of war being driven by the Japanese armed with samurai swords and rifles. The US prisoners of war in the photo were all skinny and looked very similar to Jewish refugees in Nazi concentration camps.
The accompanying description was: In 1942, the US and Philippine garrison on the Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines fought fiercely with the Japanese for four months. In the end, due to a lack of supplies and support, nearly 80,000 soldiers surrendered to Japan. These 80,000 people were forcibly escorted to a prisoner of war camp 160 kilometers away. On this 160 kilometer journey, the Japanese who believed in the extreme samurai spirit stabbed and shot the prisoners of war to death. During this 160 kilometer journey, 15,000 prisoners of war died!
Then, there was a photo from Japan's Tokyo Nichi Shimbun during World War II. In the photo, there were two Japanese officers holding samurai swords. In addition, there was a black-and-white photo of a Japanese soldier waving a samurai sword and chopping off the head of an ordinary person.
The following description was: In 1937, two Japanese soldiers who believed in the extreme samurai spirit engaged in an inhumane "competition" in Hua Xia. They called it the "Hundred People Execution." The so-called "Hundred People Execution" meant that whoever used a samurai sword to behead a hundred innocent people in Hua Xia first would be the winner of this "competition." The first photo was the official report of this demonic competition from Japan's Tokyo Nichi Shimbun!
Then, there were many old photos from the war. There were photos of the Japanese beheading the US prisoners of war, photos of the Japanese cutting off the heads of ordinary people and holding them in their hands, photos of the Japanese stabbing prisoners of war with bayonets, photos of the Japanese burying civilians and prisoners of war alive …
After a large number of bloody photos, the author of the post asked, "After seeing these photos, please tell me, what is the difference between the extreme samurai spirit and the inhumane Nazism? What are the intentions of those who praise the extreme samurai spirit? I don't understand, when the Nazis have been spurned by the people of the world, why are there still people who have no conscience praising another so-called spirit that is no less than the Nazis? "
Then, the author directly targeted the first male lead of The Last Samurai, Tom Cruise.
"Tom Cruise, you have been publicly stating on various occasions that you like Japanese culture and the samurai spirit. Now, you have even taken on a movie about samurai. You even told the media that you have been preparing for this movie for two whole years. If it weren't for the leak of the movie's script, we wouldn't even know that this is a brainwashing movie that glorifies the extreme samurai spirit!
I want to ask you, as an American, do you really not know anything about the history of a few decades ago?
Don't you know how many innocent Americans and how many innocent people from other countries have been slaughtered by this "spirit"?!
Don't you know how much death and suffering this "spirit" has brought to people all over the world?!
And you, in order to make money, shamelessly put on the armor of the samurai spirit, picked up the long sword of the samurai, and washed the ground for this extreme samurai spirit! You even participated in this kind of movie that spared no effort to beautify the extreme samurai spirit. It's really disappointing!
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