I'm Not A Master, I'm A Director (Creating Fate Movie In Nasuverse)

A film, especially a series with a fan base. Once there is a different attempt from the previous works, there will inevitably be supporters and opponents.

When choosing to use the script of Fate/Zero, Shinji had already anticipated that some people would be dissatisfied with the change in the storyline style.

Sure enough, after the premiere and advance screenings were over, the investigation company provided Shinji with some negative feedback.

Especially some die-hard fans who supported Arturia directly criticized Fate/Zero harshly after watching the movie.

"They completely ruined the character of Saber, making her seem like an incompetent angry little girl, rather than the majestic King of Knights from FSN! This movie is just a waste of my time and money."

"Shinji Matou ruined the Saber he created, a character full of conviction and tenderness, turning her into a confused and helpless crazy girl in the prequel. It's simply ridiculous."

...

Shinji wasn't surprised by these feedback criticisms.

When choosing the Fate/Zero script, he had anticipated this situation.

After all, even Nasu himself had explicitly stated in an interview after the release of FZ that he had written the character of Arturia very poorly.

In fact, Shinji could have chosen a different script, he believed that as long as the story wasn't too far-fetched, it would surely satisfy the majority of fans, and making money wouldn't be a problem either.

But, Shinji always felt that it wouldn't be perfect if the world's audience didn't experience a heartwarming Fate story of love.

Moreover, continuously using the same story template was not challenging and could easily lead other film companies into path dependence.

Shinji didn't want the film industry under his leadership to become like Hollywood in his previous life, churning out countless formulaic films every year, devoid of innovation.

Furthermore, although Nasu's story scripts had their flaws, they were indeed very exciting, and there was no need to waste them.

In fact, to ensure that the characters didn't feel out of place, Shinji had Arturia herself participate in the writing of her character's lines throughout the movie.

Ensuring that, without affecting the main storyline, Saber's character remained consistent with her portrayal in FSN.

From the finished product, Arturia did an excellent job, and the live-action version of Fate/Zero was several notches better than Nasu's novel version.

But the audience in this world hadn't read the novel version, so they naturally didn't know the effort Shinji had put in.

Fortunately, these protesting audience members didn't even make up 5% of the total, and the vast majority of viewers were very satisfied with Fate/Zero, with over 80% of them giving the highest ratings.

On the other hand, over 90% of the audience expressed feeling too sad after watching it, which made them uncomfortable.

Regarding this, Shinji said that after making a few more Fate series melancholic works of love, he believed the audience would get used to it.

After a night of diligent statistical work by statisticians, several key pieces of data were finally delivered to the Fate/Zero creators before 5 p.m. on Friday.

Although it was just beginning to dawn, Shinji still held a meeting in the Type-Moon office in Fuyuki City.

"First of all, let me tell everyone some good news."

At the meeting, Shinji flipped through the long report in his hand and directly turned to the page of summary data at the end.

"The advance screening box office for Fate/Zero in Japan is 45 million yen, and the North American premiere and advance screening box office is 13.46 million dollars. The statistics for other regions haven't come out yet, but the attendance rates for the premieres are not low. Everyone, we've succeeded again!"

This data wouldn't be considered top-notch for Shinji in his previous life, but it was still quite a good commercial performance, especially in this world of commercial film desolation.

Such results were enough to dazzle the eyes of most film companies worldwide.

More importantly, the audience reception of the movie was excellent.

Although there were some negative reviews quickly appearing after the premiere, positive reviews still dominated in various aspects of Fate/Zero's reviews.

This also meant that the current good performance wouldn't be short-lived but would continue to persist.

"That's great news, Master!"

"Congratulations, Master."

After Shinji announced the data, the Heroic Spirits sitting around the conference table applauded one after another.

They didn't understand exactly how good the data was, but seeing Shinji's proud smile, they could at least understand that it was a good achievement.

"Yeah, this result is indeed worth celebrating, but..."

Shinji's "but" made several people present feel uneasy.

'Is this guy planning to do something again?'

The ability of the Matou family to cause trouble in the industry is well known, especially Shinji.

If Rin Tohsaka enjoys playing some small pranks, then Shinji goes all out as long as it doesn't kill anyone.

Just when everyone thought Shinji was about to announce some especially difficult task, they heard him say,

"What about the investigation results of the girl who fainted during the interview? "

It's worth noting that the girl fainted during a live interview on TBS television, and all viewers of TBS's evening news saw it happen.

Shinji estimated that by today, TBS's various news channels might repeatedly broadcast this scene.

To prevent any intentional sabotage, Shinji immediately sent Touko and Ophelia to find out what happened as soon as he learned about it.

There's no way around it; the current stage is the most critical time for Fate/Zero's promotion, so Shinji feels it's better to be safe than sorry.

Although there are often rumors circulating online about people being scared to death while watching horror movies, and each one is elaborately fabricated, these are not the methods used by the film company but rather someone's mischief — spreading rumors.

If someone really were scared to death watching a horror movie, the film company would definitely be sued to death.

"About this matter... yawn..."

Touko lazily yawned, rubbing her eyes with her onion-white fingers.

To quickly get to the bottom of the truth, she and Ophelia had been running back and forth between Fuyuki City and Tokyo City all night yesterday, without any sleep.

Shinji also knew that Touko was very tired, so he didn't rush her but quietly waited for her report.

"The reason that girl fainted is related to magecraft."

Touko suppressed her sleepiness and stated the conclusion of her investigation.

Shinji immediately became nervous, "What? Could it be that a magus deliberately used her to frame us?"

"No, no," Touko shook her head, explaining with a somewhat embarrassed tone, "That girl was charmed by Diarmuid, or to be more blunt, that pretty boy made the girl faint from his good looks."

"Me?" Diarmuid looked bewildered, never expecting to be implicated like this.

"Huh? Are you kidding me?"

"Didn't you mention it before?" Touko pointed at Diarmuid, "The rumor that his mole might have magical effects turned out to be true."

Shinji shook his head and said, "Don't joke around. If that were true, I would have received feedback when I released the movie trailer."

"Because this kind of influence is very weak, so weak that it usually doesn't have any effect under normal circumstances," Touko explained, wiping her glasses with her shirt, "But a movie theater is a relatively special situation, and the dim environment can easily open a girl's heart."

Touko tapped the table impatiently and said, "It's not just because of the audience themselves; the huge screen and the fact that Diarmuid dominates everyone's field of vision— These factors have elevated Diarmuid's charm to its peak."

"Why was it only her then?" Shinji asked his second question.

If what Touko said was true, then surely more than just that girl would have been affected by Diarmuid's good looks.

"Under normal circumstances, this kind of influence would at most make girls think Diarmuid is handsome," Touko replied, "But that girl was special."

Taking over from Touko, Ophelia continued the explanation, "That's because the girl has the potential to be a magus, but she hasn't received any training. When she was charmed, instead of resisting, she instinctively accelerated the flow of magecraft, which ultimately led to magical overload and fainting."

"What a mess," Diarmuid sighed helplessly, covering his face, "Does my appearance only bring disaster?"

"No, this might be an opportunity."

Shinji's view was much more positive. After learning that this incident wasn't malicious sabotage by a competitor, he had the idea to turn this unexpected event into promotional material.

"Just think about it, there's actually an actor so handsome that just looking at him can make people faint. How high must his looks be in the eyes of those lonely women?"

As he spoke, Shinji's mouth couldn't help but curve up, and his gaze towards Diarmuid became more enthusiastic.

"This is definitely a treasure that only appears once every few thousand years. With your appearance, you don't need to act; just step in front of the camera."

"Something that appears once every few thousand years?! Then I'd rather not exist at all!!"

Diarmuid lamented.

As the sun rose, Alice yawned and climbed out of bed.

She pushed open the window, and the refreshing cool breeze and the bright sunlight dispelled her sleepiness, invigorating her spirits.

After taking a moment to admire the view of the street below and feeling sufficiently awake, Alice sat down at the computer in her room.

She browsed through several familiar websites while turning on the television at the other end of the room.

At this time of day, besides Tokyo Television broadcasting anime, the other TV stations were reporting entertainment news.

Of course, Alice wasn't interested in gossip; she just wanted to learn about any news related to Fate/Zero.

As the only major film in this year's global summer box office, entertainment news during this period definitely revolved around this movie.

The people in the television stations weren't fools; regardless of whether they liked the movie or not, they couldn't deny the popularity it brought.

And once this movie was mentioned, these TV stations would all inevitably bring up the girl who fainted during an interview.

The footage of the girl fainting was replayed over and over again by all the TV stations, causing a sensation comparable to the woman giving birth in a comedy routine.

While saying it might cause social death was a bit much, becoming famous was an absolute certainty.

"According to the investigation, the girl's fainting had nothing to do with the movie itself. She fainted because she was too excited, coupled with not getting enough rest two days ago."

The TV announcer used the simplest and most scientific explanation to account for the girl's strange behavior.

Of course, as a rigorous entertainment news program, the production team deliberately interviewed several movie fans at random at the theater, discussing the question of "How handsome is Diarmuid really?" in an attempt to prove that no matter how handsome someone is, they couldn't make people faint.

"He's really handsome~ Although of course, nobody would faint just from looking at him~"

"Diarmuid is super handsome, isn't he? I think he's several times more handsome than Takuya Kimura! Is this even a level of attractiveness that humans can have?"

"Although I'm a guy, I have to admit he's really handsome."

This interview was part of Shinji's prepared movie promotion.

First, deny any issues with Fate/Zero itself, and then use the incident of the girl fainting as an opportunity to interview passersby, getting them to affirm Diarmuid's attractiveness.

Shinji believed that most viewers watching the news, after seeing so many unified praises of an actor's looks, would definitely be curious about the character.

Especially those lonely housewives, they were likely to follow the example of FSN and drag their families to the movie theater to buy tickets.

Not only Japanese entertainment news, but European and American entertainment news would also have similar reports.

After all, an actor who could make people faint from his looks alone was inherently sensational.

Moreover, Diarmuid's personal image was also very good. Although he belonged to the more feminine type among male heroic spirits, compared to ordinary people, he definitely had both the physique and the temperament.

Thus, from the interviews conducted by TV reporters with so many viewers, almost no one had anything bad to say about Diarmuid the actor.

"Viewers, did you see that?"

After asking the question, the reporter at the scene said excitedly to the camera, "Through the interviews just now, we can know that the actor called Diarmuid is really handsome, but it's impossible to make people faint just from looking at him. Even if he's really handsome, making people faint is still out of reach."

Perhaps it was at the request of the leadership that this reporter deliberately emphasized the word "handsome" repeatedly.

"Nonsense."

Alice, at her computer, coldly commented.

As a magus, Alice naturally knew the ins and outs of this matter.

The girl fainted because of a magical outburst, not because of a lack of rest.

But mystery must not be exposed; using an excuse similar to "gas leak," Alice completely understood.

Speaking of which, despite various accidental factors, it was only by relying on emotions that the girl caused her own magical overload, indicating that her talent in magecraft was not mediocre.

As far as Alice knew, several magus families had already approached the girl, hoping to take her as an apprentice.

And those magus families were also leveraging their connections, trying to find more young people with magical talent like her.

As for the girl herself, upon learning that magecraft really existed in this world, she was determined to go to Fuyuki City for a pilgrimage to the holy land.

"Indeed, there's no such thing as a young magus who doesn't admire Sir Matou in this world."

Alice's smile was full of pride, as if the achievements of her idol were her own.

But she didn't know that the girl wasn't a fan of Shinji's movie; she just wanted to pursue stardom.

With such a pleasant mood, Alice clicked on a website called IMDB.

This was a newly established website last year. Unlike other websites that only list media ratings, the most attractive feature of this website was that the score for each movie was calculated based on ratings from registered users.

Alice thought that this rating mechanism was obviously more reasonable and authentic than other websites.

After all, the opinions of 100 people would definitely be more objective than those of 10 people.

Of course, the reason Alice leaned towards this website was also because it was currently the only website where the Fate series movies had relatively high scores.

But there was nothing surprising about this. Despite having the same name as the IMDB from another world, this world's IMDB website was established by the Modern Magecraft Department of the Clock Tower.

It was no wonder that Fate received high scores different from other websites.

Since it wasn't her first time visiting this website, even though Alice wasn't very good with computers, she quickly found the section for Shinji Matou.

Apart from Shinji Matou's personal information, the section wasn't very complicated; it mainly contained the movies he directed and fan comments.

Although Shinji was the behind-the-scenes leader of the website, he didn't particularly manage his section, basically leaving it for fans to express themselves freely.

Alice directly opened the comments section for the character. As a fan of Shinji, one of her great joys online was seeing how others praised her idol.

[Shinji Matou truly lives up to his name. The story of Fate/Zero is completely different from FSN. He didn't rehash old stories but used the same setting to tell a completely different story! However, this story is beautifully portrayed, with magnificent visuals, grand music, compelling plot, and majestic atmosphere. It's a truly great work!]

This overly cheesy comment made Alice roll her eyes. "Fanatic!"

Although she said that, Alice actually really liked this comment and gave it a thumbs up.

Because Alice Kuonji herself was also a fanatic, so she found such fanatics really cute.

[Fate/Zero depicts the conflicts between several characters very well, with a compact yet not messy plot, and captivating inner character descriptions. There are also many details in the movie that foreshadow FSN, making people want to watch FSN again after watching it.]

[I came to see Saber, but the character that left the deepest impression on me in the entire movie is actually King Gilgamesh. Something must be wrong here!]

[There are so many handsome men and beautiful women in it. Just looking at the actors' looks alone is worth the ticket price!!]

[I'll forever be Diarmuid's obedient little cat!!]

"These kinds of comments won't be deleted for crossing the line?"

Alice shook her head helplessly. She admitted that Diarmuid was handsome, but weren't these women exaggerating a bit too much?

"I may never be able to understand these people's thoughts."

Alice scrolled the mouse and continued reading other comments.

[I ****! Shinji Matou *******! I **** him ********!]

The next comment had a string of asterisks, indicating that too many swear words had been censored by the website.

The other party was very angry and wanted to find a place to vent.

Alice frowned slightly, patiently reading on. She wanted to know how this one and only abusive comment evaluated Sir Matou.

[Where is that perverted director called Shinji Matou? Why does he always have a problem with handsome guys! In FSN, Gilgamesh was killed, in FZ, Gilgamesh was soaked in black mud, Lancelot was forced into madness, and the handsome uncle Iskandar was awkwardly written out. The most infuriating thing is Diarmuid's ending, he actually died so miserably!!]

[I think that Director Matou must be very ugly, and his heart must be very small!! He's jealous of men who are better looking than him, so he always bullies them in every possible way!]

"What kind of comments are these?"

After reading this comment, Alice didn't know what to say. Did the other party not know that Shinji Matou had actually appeared in FSN as himself?

What's even more absurd was that among the comments below, there were actually quite a few people who agreed with this statement.

"But I guess it's understandable that they don't know..." Thinking about the strange cast list of the Fate movie, Alice rubbed her temples.

After all, the actors were playing themselves throughout the movie, and seeing "Gilgamesh played by Gilgamesh" listed throughout was just too embarrassing.

Therefore, Shinji didn't create a cast list; he simply displayed the names of the characters alongside their close-ups during the end credits.

Anyway, none of his main actors were members of the Actors' Guild, so the industry standards for cast lists didn't apply to Shinji.

"Tsk tsk."

Alice scrolled the webpage upward and noticed that there was still a blank space next to Shinji Matou's name in the profile picture.

"No wonder these people are discussing Sir Matou's appearance."

Alice closed the webpage, leaned back in her chair, and looked up at the ceiling.

She didn't know if the person who wrote that comment genuinely didn't know what Sir Matou looked like, or if they were intentionally trying to smear him.

However, their appearance prompted Alice to have an immature thought.

"The image of an idol needs to be maintained by fans." Alice murmured to herself, "Sir Matou may not care, but we fans must care!"

With that in mind, Alice immediately took out her phone and called Aoko.

"Aoko, I have something I want to trouble you with."

A beautiful curve formed at the corner of Alice's mouth, "What do you think about us establishing a fan club for Sir Matou?"

"Have you lost your mind?" Aoko, who was having breakfast, was almost choked by Alice's words.

<+>

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