Jeanne: Oh No, I've Become a Stand-In

"Alright, Mr. Hong." Shinji closed his notebook. "Go and call all the Lead Actor back. I need to talk to them about the upcoming filming schedule."

"Okay, Shinji."

Red A took two steps, then turned back and asked, "By the way, Mordred seems really down these past few days. Shinji, did you bully her?"

"No, it's just that the gift she gave Artoria didn't make her very happy."

Although he didn't witness Shinji following her like Joan of Arc did, Red A immediately guessed who Mordred's strategist was.

"Shinji, let Mordred go. Don't try to fleece her."

"No, I just suggested Mordred buy Artoria a traditional Japan -style outfit, but she bought a kimono. I told her she should buy Miko outfit!"

"Then Mordred, not wanting to satisfy your XP system, stubbornly chose a regular kimono. Shinji, you didn't tell Mordred that giving a kimono in Japan signifies a marriage proposal, right? And Saber, who reads shoujo manga all the time, would naturally know this custom when she sees a kimono."

Detective Black Tea immediately deduced the cause and effect.

Although proposing with a kimono requires the man to receive it from the woman, given the complex relationship between King Arthur and his son...

Of course, it's not uncommon for family members to give each other kimonos as gifts, but it's usually the father who gives them to his daughter...

"Shinji, have some decency."

Red A, who had tried to recreate Artoria's explosive mentality, sighed deeply.

Shinji slammed his fist on the table and argued irrationally, "I just wanted to see Artoria in her Miko outfit, what did I do wrong!"

Before leaving the house, Red A silently pushed up his square non-prescription glasses with his middle finger.

A few seconds after Red A left, there was a knock on Shinji's office door.

"Red A? Is there anything else?"

Shinji thought that Red A had forgotten something and had returned, but to his surprise, it was Chloe walked in.

"Lizzie?"

"Yes, I need to talk to you about something."

Chloe's serious tone made Shinji realize that she was looking for him on official business.

"It's like this, regarding the screening of <Super Eight> in North America..."

Shinji squinted and interrupted, "What, is the MPAA making things difficult for us?"

"It hasn't reached the review stage yet," Chloe denied Shinji's guess. "It was an opinion raised by someone within the group."

What's your opinion?

"Some have suggested reshooting the human scenes in Super Eight with Western actors in order to achieve better box office results in Europe and America."

Shinji trembled slightly upon hearing this. "Damn it, these Americans are treating reshooting the live-action parts as a tradition of Japanese tokusatsu, aren't they?!"

Chapter 204 Joan of Arc: It's over, I've become a substitute.

Japanese Tokusatsu) films and television shows, and more precisely, the North American film and television market, have always had a strange connection.

You could say it's just bad luck, but Japanese Tokusatsu films have achieved great commercial success in North America.

Although tokusatsu films have never been mainstream in North America, as the world's largest consumer market, even a small portion of that revenue is substantial.

But if we're really talking about fate, ever since the earliest version of Godzilla in 1954, almost every tokusatsu work that has been publicly screened in North America, whether it's a movie or a TV series, has been "drastically altered".

In more familiar terms, this is the [North American Special Edition].

While simply re-editing the original Godzilla is acceptable, the preferred approach in North America is to reshoot the live-action scenes and reuse the suit action sequences, combining the two into a new work.

The most famous example of this format is probably the American version of the series, Power Rangers, also known as Dinosaur Squadron.

To ensure high viewership, the American version of Team Assassins didn't release a new series every year like the Japanese version in its early stages. Instead, it continued the world-building and became an extremely long series.

If they hadn't run out of ideas later on, the American version of Super Sentai might have surpassed the number of episodes in a series like One Pirates and Conan.

Because most television stations in China, except for a few places, broadcast the American version of Super Sentai, Shinji once thought that Super Sentai was a tokusatsu series from North America.

Despite its immense popularity, Dinosaur Squadron was not the first tokusatsu series to feature North American actors in Japan suits.

The North American distributor did this as early as the first version of <King Kong vs. Godzilla> (1962).

There has long been a claim on the Chinese internet that there are two versions of the old "King Kong vs. Godzilla" movie: the Japanese version where King Kong wins and the American version where Godzilla wins.

This is a complete and utter rumor.

There is indeed a so-called American version, but it is definitely not a difference in ending as rumored.

Because Hollywood remade most of the human scenes, the differences between the American and Japanese versions are indeed very large. However, the American version completely inherited the action scenes with the suits.

So even in the American version, King Kong still wins in the end; there's no such thing as Godzilla winning.

In fact, the American version not only failed to praise Godzilla, but instead went so far as to downplay Godzilla, describing it as a brainless lizard, thus indirectly praising King Kong's intelligence.

The reason the American version did this was to create an atmosphere where the two monsters were evenly matched, thus building suspense for the final battle.

Compared to the American version, the Japanese version artificially inflates Godzilla's fighting power in the early stages, portraying Kong as the weaker party, thus setting the stage for Kong's ultimate power-up to defeat Godzilla.

It's somewhat reminiscent of the Namek Dragon Ball in Namek Saga Goku couldn't defeat Frieza and ultimately transformed into Saiyan.

In Shinji's view, although the action scenes are the same, the Japanese and American versions of "King Kong vs. Godzilla" can be considered two completely different movies.

The difference in the amount of human characters in the film makes the core themes of the two versions completely different.

The human scenes in the Japanese version of "King Kong vs. Godzilla" are extremely absurd and full of satire of the extravagance and consumerism prevalent in Japan society at the time.

The American version's human scenes are much more serious, focusing entirely on the harm that the two giant beasts will cause to human society.

The scene that best exemplifies the styles of the two film versions is the one where King Kong is prevented from entering the country.

In the Japanese version, the reason for preventing King Kong from entering the country is that it is considered smuggled goods and has not been taxed.

In the US version, the reason King Kong couldn't enter the country was changed to "King Kong is too dangerous".

These two different versions of "King Kong vs. Godzilla" can actually be seen as a microcosm of the attitudes of Japan and North America towards tokusatsu films.

North American audiences simply don't like the bizarre social commentary in Japanese Tokusatsu dramas; they just want to see costumed actors fighting.

Subsequent audience surveys of the two versions reflected this, with most Western viewers finding the American version better despite the abundance of boring and lifeless news broadcasts.

What business is it of America's to you, Japan, with your social problems?

This might be one of the reasons why Ultraman is the least popular of the three major tokusatsu series in Europe and America.

Shinji understands the differences between the Japan and North American film markets, but that's not a reason to demand that he reshoot the live-action scenes.

It's worth noting that while Shinji's version of Super Eight is full of nostalgia, the overall storyline is very conventional, not much different from most Hollywood superhero movies.

Therefore, Shinji does not believe there is any need for him to remake the storyline.

"While Western actors might feel more relatable, the core of the film 'Super Eight' is the sentimentality of the older generation of heroes. Wouldn't it be inappropriate to change the actors?"

Upon hearing Shinji's rebuttal, Chloe shrugged indifferently.

"That's a sentiment of East Asian audiences, not Western audiences. As long as the story of bad guys invading and heroes fighting back is retained, Western audiences won't care who the actors are."

Seeing Shinji's strange look, Chloe added, "This wasn't my statement; it was said by one of the group's shareholders."

Shinji clicked his tongue in displeasure.

If I hadn't intervened, "Super Eight" might have actually been ruined in the US if it wanted to be released there.

"Are those Americans just spouting nonsense without even watching the movie?"

"American?"

Chloe raised an eyebrow, looking at Shinji -smile.

Shinji's heart skipped a beat. He quickly brushed aside the problematic title and continued, "Just because Japanese Tokusatsu works in North America used to reshoot live-action scenes, does that mean 'Super Eight' should too? What's the point of just copying it like that?!"

Chloe leaned back on the sofa, a disdainful sneer on her face.

"Hollywood executives are a bunch of brainless bastards who just want to replicate past successes and coast along. You know that, don't you?"

"Anyway, I won't reshoot the live-action scenes."

Shinji said firmly.

If the distributors were to Shinji modify the live-action scenes before the release of an FSN movie, he might actually do so.

After all, Shinji was just an unknown at the time, and he would agree to any special requests from the publisher as long as they weren't too unreasonable.

But things are different now. Shinji is now at least a top commercial Director, if not the world's number one director.

The fact that Fate/stay night is currently the highest-grossing franchise worldwide gives Shinji leverage to negotiate.

No, it should be said that it's taken another step forward.

"Lizzie, go tell those old jerks in your company that I'm not reshooting."

Shinji narrowed his eyes and said coldly.

"I guessed so." Chloe sighed, rubbing her cheek. "Then at least give me a slightly plausible reason, right? You can't leave me no way out at all."

"Is that so... then let's leave it at that."

Shinji pondered for a moment, then said, "Because the Filming uses new 3D technology, reshooting the live-action parts would incur too high an additional cost."

Chloe didn't reply to Shinji directly; instead, she picked up her phone and made a call.

After a brief exchange with the other side, Chloe said to Shinji, "The old men reluctantly agreed to this reason, but they have new requirements."

As she said this, Chloe's eyes crinkled with laughter, and a smug, ambiguous smile played on her lips.

"Sony Columbia is co-producing Godzilla with Toho, and the release date is close to your Super Eight. The old folks say your box office has to be higher than that Godzilla, both in North America and worldwide."

"If you can't do that, your voice will be suppressed in the future. So, can you do it?"

Seeing the cunning glint in Chloe's crimson eyes, Shinji let out a helpless snort.

"Isn't this your real purpose, Lizzie?"

Shinji crossed his arms and complained.

"It has nothing to do with him~" Chloe replied, pointing to her lips with her finger. "I'm just planning to use my body to comfort the Director who lost the bet."

"Your dirty jokes aren't funny at all."

"So, what's your answer?"

Shinji stood up confidently and patted Chloe's hand.

"Interesting, I'll take the bet."

[Betting on a box office flop like this is a sure win!]

Shinji thought smugly.

If the information is correct, that Toho and Sony Columbia collaboration on Godzilla is almost a carbon copy of his previous Godzilla film from 1998, which was heavily criticized.

There aren't many differences in either the setting or the plot outline.

To be fair, while the 1998 Godzilla film had many flaws, its basic cinematic quality was still acceptable. If it hadn't been released a year later than Jurassic Park, its special effects, while not a huge success, would at least have been profitable.

The 1998 Godzilla film's foundational quality came from the genius disaster film Director Roland Emmerich, while the Director currently hired by Toho and Sony Shinji, is rumored to be David Fincher.

David Fincher is quite famous; he was very well-known even in Shinji's previous life, let alone in this Parallel world.

However, this guy is known for making slow-paced art films, so asking him to make a big-budget commercial film...

In his Shinji life, the only major commercial production that David Fincher directed was * Alien 3 *...

Regardless of whether the film was good or bad, David Fincher was never allowed to work on big-budget productions again after that film.

Therefore, Shinji believed he would never lose.

"Flying Dragon Ride... Ugh, ugh, you can't say such unlucky things."

Seeing Shinji's strange behavior, Joan of Arc, the heroine who was resting next to Shinji, tilted her head curiously.

"Master, you're having another seizure? Go see a doctor if you're sick, don't hide it."

"Stop being so cheeky." Shinji waved his hand dismissively. "Instead of arguing with me, you should think about how to eat in a cuter way for the next scene."

Since he didn't think he would lose, Shinji naturally wouldn't change his plans specifically for this bet.

After ensuring the smooth progress of the final post-production work for "Super Eight", Shinji continued with his filming plans for the first part of "FA".

"Joan of Arc," Shinji said to the Saintess, "I've prepared some new snacks especially for you, try them out."