Chapter 341: Chapter 336: Close the door and release Old Gen
If there was anyone present who was most looking forward to this meeting and at the same time most dissatisfied with its content, that person would undoubtedly be Gen Urobuchi.
As a Japanese galgame screenwriter, it is undoubtedly an honor to be able to participate in a movie with an investment of hundreds of millions of dollars and to be one of the main creators of the story.
Apart from anything else, how many Japanese screenwriters can write scripts for Hollywood companies?
And he is not just playing the role of a tool, but is really treated like one who will have his name included in the subtitles of a film's screenwriter.
But Gen Urobuchi was still unwilling to give up, because although he provided the story outline and was able to become a member of the script team, his actual authority was still very limited.
Although Urobuchi knows that as a newcomer (in terms of film scriptwriting), he cannot have much autonomy, but as a creator, he still does not want his story to be changed beyond recognition.
"The Shining" is one of the greatest horror films in the world, but its plot deviated from the original novel, which made the original author Stephen King dissatisfied.
So Genki looked at Nanaya with expectant eyes, hoping to get the other party's support.
"Well, the works created by Gen Urobuchi are indeed fascinating."
Nanaya first said something fair.
But as a director of commercial films, Nanaya also has his persistence. After all, he is responsible for an investment of hundreds of millions of dollars.
"But we must realize that this movie is more of a story for European and American audiences. Although I really like your tragic description of each character in the story, I still hope that there will be some room for optimism when the story is dark as a whole."
Nanaya's words made Old Gen's heart sink. He seemed to have a premonition that this movie might present a result that he did not want to see.
Shiki Matsuno also expressed his opinion: "Yes, I also think that although the darkness and despair are very good in novels, as a commercial film, I think it is better to be more popular."
Although Shiki does not make commercial films, as a director how could he not understand the tricks involved.
Although Shiki Matsuno looks a bit simple-minded and strong-limbed, the art films he makes will never make investors lose money, which shows that he is not completely ignorant of the film business.
Shiki emphasized: "Mr. Gen Urobuchi wrote a great script. When people join a realistic war for an idealistic purpose, they are destined to have a tragic ending. This idea is very good."
Nanaya nodded slowly on the side: "Old Kyon, I can guarantee that the plot outline will not change, but the character settings will definitely need to be changed."
Then Nanaya emphasized it once again: "You can't let Artoria, who is regarded as a heroic knight king by the whole world, become a little girl who can only daydream in the previous game. Not to mention that the character settings in your work have been erratic."
[But if that's the case, the character won't be fun at all...]
Old Gen opened his mouth, but in the end said nothing.
The games he made at Nitro+ are completely in line with his own creative conception. They are typical Japanese tragic works that are deeply loved by fans of dark and tragic movies.
In fact, it's not just Urobuchi. There is always some tragic color in Japanese works to a greater or lesser extent.
This style is called tear-jerking by fans - or, to put it bluntly, stomach-churning - and is a unique feature of Japanese cultural works.
Therefore, even if audiences from other countries can be moved and understand it, it is difficult for them to incorporate it into their own country's works.
Even if you force yourself to learn it, you will just be a weird one.
Seeing that Urobuchi seemed to want to say something, the screenwriters from Hollywood who had been silent all this time spoke up.
One of them said: "What we need is to tell the story in a Hollywood way. Your story provides us with creative inspiration, but it does not mean that we need to follow your rhythm."
Another screenwriter was even more rude. He looked down at Old Urobuchi and said in a slow voice, "No matter how well you write your story, it will never work in Hollywood. You are too obsessed with the darkness of human nature. We in Hollywood need to show the bright side of human nature! This is the most beautiful and strongest part of human nature."
Everyone present could hear that the words of these two screenwriters were full of Hollywood arrogance and jealousy.
In their opinion, working for Japanese directors is already frustrating enough.
But he is a well-known director after all, so I have to accept it even if I have to hold my nose.
But how come this guy named Gen Urobuchi who appeared out of nowhere is climbing over his head? !
As tool screenwriters, they cannot have their names appear in a separate screen in the movie. They can only hang a very small name in the screenwriter group in the final ending screen.
This imbalance in mentality made them feel very dissatisfied with Gen Urobuchi, and even resistant to him.
"Okay, this is a discussion meeting, not a criticism meeting. Although Old Gen's story is a little unpopular, his story ideas are still very good."
Nanaya quickly raised his hand to stop the two guys and told them not to continue talking, because he knew that these two people would definitely be in a miserable state in the future.
Sure enough, Nanaya discovered that Urobuchi's eyes became very kind when he looked at the two screenwriters.
Nanaya was very clear about this look. Urobuchi was about to preach to these two screenwriters.
Old Gen has a habit of preaching his works to people who disagree with him.
In his own words, it is to let the other party deeply into his work and let them feel the warmth of love in the work.
Then he also gave a very profound explanation of the content, including his creative ideas and thoughts.
Nanaya had been treated like this by Gen Urobuchi before, and even though he had developed strong antibodies against the [Gen Urobuchi Virus] in his previous life, he was still depressed for three whole days.
[I hope these two can handle it, right? Otherwise, it would be terrible if they were infected with the same disease as Urobuchi: "I can't write a happy ending." ]
If it was a Japanese screenwriter, it would be fine, after all, tragedy has a large audience in Japan, but in Hollywood...
In a story-writing style that focuses on family fun, it is quite frustrating not to be able to write a happy ending.
During the whole process, Master Li didn't say much.
His position in the crew is action director, and he basically has no say in the script.
But that doesn't mean he won't leave his own stamp on the film.
When it comes to discussing the action content of the movie, it is Li Tongchen's home turf.
"Old man, you are the action director of this movie, and the fighting part is what you are best at." Nanaya said at this time: "So I want to hear your plan."
"I need to know the concept you want to express in the action scenes so that I can design the action scenes better."
Although Master Li is the most senior person among all those present, he does not have the arrogance that comes from his age.
Perhaps it was because of his failure in his youth that he had a clear understanding, or perhaps it was because he had been away from the set for too long that he realized that there was a certain generation gap between himself and the current era.
In short, Li Tongchen was as kind as an ordinary neighbor Uncle Wang when he spoke.
"Kiryu-kun, the theme of your film will have a great impact on the presentation of violence. Whether the view of violence is positive or negative will have completely different effects on the specific shots."
Nanaya nodded: "Well... I will ask them to add the corresponding concepts into the script."
"There is one more thing." Li Tongchen said: "Alexander the Great's King's Army is easy to deal with, but in the early battle against the sea monster army, do we need to open up some joints?"
It has been said before that Gen Urobuchi's story structure has a strong Japanese style, which has advantages and disadvantages.
In terms of the shortcomings of the story scenes, the most obvious shortcoming of Urobuchi's stories is the petty-mindedness that is typical of Japanese creators.
In his previous life, after working on various creations, Gen had reduced this shortcoming to the lowest level.
But FZ, as one of his early works, still has this problem.
Not to mention this life, the creation time of FZ and HF is even earlier than that of Urobuchi in his previous life.
So naturally, when it comes to the battle scenes, Nanaya made drastic changes to the original scenes.
The battles are as intense as possible, and the scene destruction is as excessive as possible.
In short, the goal is to give the audience a sense of pleasure that makes the trip worthwhile.
Among them, the battle against the sea demon is a relatively important one in the middle of the war, and its status is comparable to the campus melee in the Nanaya version of FSN.
So the original scene where the Self-Defense Forces only sent out two fighter jets was changed by Nanaya with a wave of his hand into a parade of various US military combat weapons from the 1990s.
Airplanes, tanks and missiles, Nanaya plans to test all of these things.
Moreover, based on the setting that the Sea Demon is a counter-type monster that can reduce the san value, Nanaya also arranged scenes of internal strife among the human army and firefights with positive servants such as Saber.
Dear, do you want to see King Arthur chop down an M1 tank with a sword?
We have it in this movie.
"We have already been in contact with the military. They are very interested in our request and will send personnel and equipment to cooperate with us when the time comes."
The military has long been keen to feature its equipment in big-budget movies.
As for the reasons, everyone knows them, so I won't go into details here.
In fact, the military representatives hoped that Nanaya's movie would show a new generation of equipment, but Nanaya's setting for FZ was in the 1990s, so they directly rejected the military's proposal.
This has dampened the enthusiasm of the military to a certain extent, but considering that they can make some extra money, they will definitely not refuse.
"Oh, right. I almost forgot."
Nanaya slapped his forehead and reminded Li Tongchen: "The battle part of this movie will be produced in 3D. Old man, you have to take this into consideration when designing the action."