Note: I'm having trouble identifying the exact monetary amounts. Sometimes the text uses dollars, other times it seems to use yuan, so figures that should be ten million suddenly jump to one hundred million, and elsewhere it switches to amounts like 100,000.
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In the film, there is an organization known as the "Brotherhood," which is divided into the Eastern Brotherhood and the Western Brotherhood. Within the Brotherhood are elite warriors known as Paladins. The Eastern Brotherhood presents itself as a charitable organization that "fights for justice," while the Western Brotherhood is highly organized but lacks the core principles upheld by the Eastern Brotherhood. The Brotherhood also appears in the novel: the Western Brotherhood is wealthy, and every member owns a set of "powered servo armor," while the Eastern Brotherhood has very few such suits, most of which are outdated and accessible only to the elite.
Bruce Lee plays a Paladin of the Eastern Brotherhood who, after arriving in the American West, faces discrimination due to the differing ideologies of the two Brotherhoods. This serves as a subtle reference to racism.
At that time, Bruce Lee had just met Takeyuki Kimura and had moved his dojo to the back of Kimura's shop.
Suddenly, he received a phone call from New York.
The caller was none other than Catherine.
After taking the call, Bruce Lee was briefly confused, but he quickly realized what was going on.
In fact, Bruce Lee had never seen The Blair Witch Project, but that didn't stop him from having heard the name Kathleen. However, he didn't yet know "Kathleen" personally, so he had assumed the Kathleen he knew was simply someone with the same name.
Now, with this phone call, Bruce Lee finally understood: the Kathleen he had once saved was clearly the director of The Blair Witch Project!
The Blair Witch Project had grossed tens of millions of dollars—something unimaginable for a B-movie—but Kathleen had pulled it off.
And now, she had finally reached out to him!
Did she want him to act in a movie? To play a leading role?
Bruce Lee thought it over and accepted.
Perhaps this was an opportunity for his career to grow.
After all, Bruce Lee had made many films in Hong Kong, but he had never truly tried his hand in the United States.
Thus, three main characters were revealed: one white, one Asian, and one Black. Considering the target audience, only Sean Connery was truly the central protagonist.
With the characters finalized, the next step was set construction.
Katherine chose the outskirts of Mexico City as the filming location. Since the area was largely desert, shooting outdoor scenes there was very convenient.
The main sets to be built were wasteland villages and underground shelters. Construction would take several months, so Zurich decided to film the outdoor scenes first. Even so, building the outdoor sets alone would take nearly a month. Although it was a struggle, the sets were finally coming together.
When setting up the outdoor scenes, Katherine aimed to convey a futuristic style. The structures didn't necessarily need to be functional, but they had to evoke a sense of futurism.
To that end, Katherine even designed a "Microsoft 3000" computer specifically for the film.
Of course, this computer was purely for show—the current technology simply couldn't support it. Still, the massive "Microsoft" logo displayed on screen was essentially an advertisement for Catherine herself.
Catherine's personal computer was actually called the "Microsoft Computer," which was a rather peculiar joke.
Speaking of which, Mr. Bill Gates was probably still a child at the time; one had to wonder whether he would ever go on to found his own company.
Meanwhile, September gradually approached.
On August 31, the United States obtained aerial photographs taken by reconnaissance aircraft showing that Cuba had begun installing Soviet anti-aircraft missiles, and that Soviet ships carrying surface-to-surface missiles were heading toward Cuba.
On September 4, the White House issued a statement confirming press reports of Soviet military assistance to Cuba, including missile installations and approximately 3,500 Soviet personnel providing technical support on the island.
On October 14, the United States obtained evidence through U-2 reconnaissance flights that the Soviet Union was constructing six medium-range missile bases in Cuba.
As events unfolded, the American public began to panic over the proximity of nuclear weapons to their homeland.
At that point, it could be said that the entire world was standing on the brink of nuclear war…
And it was at that very moment that the novel Fallout began selling extremely well.
Or rather, its sales began to grow exponentially.
At the same time, the upcoming film Wasteland, which Katherine had previously announced, also started drawing attention.
People realized that the talented young woman who had directed The Blair Witch Project was now filming her second movie!
Amid the missile crisis, Americans were on edge, and this news immediately captured their attention.
Moreover, with the spread of television and emerging networked media, a single piece of news could circulate for a long time—an enormous advantage for Katherine.
Although Katherine's DreamWorks had been established quietly, she suddenly rose to prominence just before filming began.
Then Katherine announced major news:
she would invest ten million dollars in Wasteland.
Hollywood was stunned by Katherine's announcement.
Much of the United States was left speechless by that figure.
Ten million dollars!
A full ten million dollars!
What did that mean?
Stanley Kubrick's production cost for 2001: A Space Odyssey had been only five hundred thousand dollars.
Even Spartacus, promoted as the most expensive movie ever made, had cost only one hundred thousand dollars!
Everyone was shocked.
The electronics industry was Katherine's primary focus, while the film industry served as another source of income.
She wanted a strong presence in both.
Moreover, the two industries could complement each other—so why not?
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Katherine launched the Wasteland strategy game series, using a different technology from the Magic Chess series. Although different, she revised the original concept, adapted it to the current situation, and made several changes that worked perfectly.
Perhaps due to the fame generated by that ten-million-dollar investment, many people were now talking about Katherine's Wasteland, and expectations were running high. As a result, the release of Wasteland Strategy Game: Fallout was also well received, further boosting sales of Katherine's Fallout novels.
Although the official cost was listed as zero dollars, her actual investment was around ten million. And now, even before filming had begun, Katherine had already recouped one million dollars—an excellent start.
At that moment, a headline in The New York Times—"The Extravagant Genius"—turned Katherine into an overnight celebrity.
The article briefly described her rise to fame and included a photograph she had authorized.
The name Katherine Edson suddenly became a household name.