There is a reason why the opening line of Nanaya uses the phrase "several years".
He needs to lay the groundwork for the answer he is about to give.
As the most successful commercial project in the Type-Moon series, the overall concept of FGO is quite complex.
To be more precise, the FGO project was initially just a money-making project, so the settings were very vague.
It's just a simple story about a boy and a girl saving the world.
Such stories are very common in business planning, and can even be considered mediocre in the Japanese market.
Just like in commercial films, the three-act play is the root of all commercial scripts.
In Japanese RPG games, the template of [boys and girls save the world] is almost a standardized template.
Even in 2020, such stories are still the core template of Japanese stories.
The only difference is that the [Boys and Girls] department was replaced by [Corporate Slaves], and a [Other World] prefix was added before [World].
FGO is naturally no exception, but this is a relatively early concept.
In fact, in the first few chapters of FGO1.0, the flow of the story was framed in a rather modular way.
Basically, the protagonist comes to the singularity, and returns after removing the pillars and restoring history.
Although the processes are different, the environment encountered by the protagonist is also constantly changing.
But the main storyline has not changed.
According to the information Nanaya got in his previous life, the original plan of the FGO project was to end the entire story after completing the final chapter.
Even Type-Moon himself doesn't think this money-making mobile game can achieve much.
Nanaya could even imagine the scene of Mushroom complaining.
"How could such a rubbish game that fools people make more money than our carefully crafted "Tsuki-hime"!?"
Nanaya didn't know whether Mushroom actually said such words.
Anyway, what Nanaya knew clearly was that after the fifth chapter, Mushroom began to focus on the creation of the FGO story.
Apart from anything else, the amount of documents Mushroom wrote on the FGO project alone is more than what he wrote on other related projects.
After Mushroom's intervention, the quality of FGO manuscripts has made a qualitative leap.
The story of FGO began to become complicated and grand.
The main storyline of the chapter is no longer simply about chopping down pillars and defeating the boss.
Settings such as crowns, beasts, alien gods, etc. also began to slowly fill in the story of FGO.
The plot has also become tortuous and complicated, with various betrayals and backstabbings almost becoming a regular feature.
So when everyone looks back, they will find that the FGO story has become quite complicated and it is difficult to explain it in just one or two sentences.
Nanaya didn't want to make the setting too complicated, but it was still necessary to be mysterious.
"I have been thinking about the story of FGO for many years. This story will be much more grand than everyone imagines."
Nanaya took the microphone and told the reporters: "In order to tell this story as perfectly as possible, I spent a lot of time perfecting it."
"But because of this, I don't know where to start. I have deep feelings for this story, so deep that if it is not told to you in the form of a movie, I would think it is a loss and a pity."
Nanaya paused for a second, then said, "If I really have to explain it in one sentence, I think every Holy Grail War in FGO is a war for mankind to regain the future."
"Grand?"
The New York Times reporter grasped a key point in Nana's words and asked, "So, 'Grand Order' is an epic film?"
Nanaya laughed: "In my eyes, FGO is not just a movie, but a series. So many movies connected together will undoubtedly be a legendary movie epic."
Nanaya pretended to be thoughtful, and then said: "I know that the commercial performance of epic movies has not been very good recently. But FGO is not an epic movie in the traditional sense."
This was the promotional tone that Nanaya had set within the FGO crew a long time ago.
Due to the consecutive failures of epic blockbusters in recent years, this type of movie is no longer generally favored by the audience.
As a producer, Nanaya certainly wouldn't want to promote its movie as a flop before it even hits theaters.
Isn't that just asking for death?
However, FGO's label of "Human Epic" became a huge selling point in the later stages of the series.
Therefore, the tone set by Nanaya is not to acknowledge that the single movie genre of FGO is an epic movie.
Instead, the entire film series is called a cinematic epic.
Such publicity is certainly opportunistic, but the content of FGO's prologue is certainly not epic.
Besides, how can a film series with as many as 9 films not be called a film epic?
You have to know that Marvel has just finished the first phase.
At this point in time, there has not been a film series in which all nine films have been approved before even one film has been released.
The second reporter who asked the question was Nanaya's old friend, Ms. Katsushira, a special correspondent from "Film Secret Treasure" and Washimine Entertainment.
After taking the microphone, the other party asked a question that is asked in almost every film interview.
"Director Kiryu, do you enjoy working with the actors?"
"Of course." Nanaya's words were of course full of praise. "To me, we are like a big family, and everyone works together to make this project perfect. Everyone has provided pretty perfect acting skills."
The question raised by Katsushira is a tacit understanding between both parties. As a formal press conference, there will definitely be questions about the cooperation between the director and the actors.
The question is the same, but the grammar is very different.
Many reporters like to mix their personal opinions into such routine questions, and even use some weird questioning methods to "drive a wedge" between actors and directors.
Therefore, such conventional questions are usually asked by media outlets that have a better relationship with the crew.
The time for reporters to ask questions is limited. If the previous reporter has already asked a similar question, the reporter who asks later will generally not ask it again.
Harmony in the crew is the most basic condition for a Hollywood crew.
In most cases, even if there are conflicts within the crew, they will not be revealed to outsiders.
No matter what the occasion, the crew always behaves like a family.
Occasionally, small conflicts are revealed, but they are mostly hype.
The FGO crew certainly doesn't need to create hype by creating conflicts between actors.
Not to mention that the purpose of this press conference is to quell rumors.
So after Nanaya finished speaking, the actors followed suit.
"Director Kiryu has always been an excellent director. Starting from the first FSN, he has taught me like a teacher, Lily said with pride.
Scarlett Johansson, who has recently become popular again with "Avengers", also praised Nanaya.
"Director Kiryu always comes up with some very complex and wonderful ideas, and then expresses them in front of the camera in his own unique way. I enjoy this kind of shooting fun, it can bring me a lot of happiness."
After saying that, Scarlett handed the microphone to Yumi beside her.
"In this movie, Director Kiryu adopted a very bold design." Yumi said, "Unlike those movies where you can guess the ending just from the first few minutes, the story of FGO will definitely give you a very novel experience."
At this point, Yumi emphasized, "Director Kiryu has always been the best director in my mind, and it's a pleasure to work with him."
Another reporter from the San Francisco Chronicle then asked, "Director Kiryu, you've been saying that this is a war for humanity to take back the future. Does that mean this movie will involve time travel? Wouldn't that make the whole theme seem very old-fashioned?"
"That depends on how you understand it."
Nanaya said seriously: "Although there will be plots involving time travel in FGO, this is not the focus of the entire movie."
"The core of the entire FGO series is to correct history and protect the future. We humans have a history of nearly 10,000 years of civilization development, but apart from science and education films, few movies show the evolution of this civilization."
"This is also the most attractive part of creating the FGO series story for me." Nanaya concluded, "Faced with such a vast human history, I am really honored to be a part of it."
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The atmosphere of the entire press conference was very harmonious and the effect was very good.
As the news that FGO will have the ability to travel through time and space was released, the outside world's attention on the crew began to shift from trivial matters to the movie plot itself.
Because Type-Moon has a very famous parallel world setting, plus the time-travel content that has been revealed, and the slogan of taking back the future.
Some fans have already speculated that the prologue of FGO may be that the protagonist travels to Fuyuki City, the site of the Fifth Holy Grail War, and guides the entire war along its normal course.
This guess is actually quite close to the truth.
However, since there is no actor who plays the FSN Master in the FGO cast list, this speculation has been questioned by many fans.
After all, when all the Servants are present, there is no reason why the Master would not appear.
Because of this, several groups of fans have been arguing on the Internet.
Nanaya and the FGO crew were happy with this situation. They gave these people something to do so that they wouldn't have to keep staring at some inexplicable things the crew was doing.
Some time after the interview, Nanaya and the crew began to wrap up the story that happened in Fuyuki City.
Finally, at the end of the 2010 North American summer, Nanaya finished shooting the remaining scenes in Fuyuki City.
This means that most of the filming tasks for the FGO prologue have been completed.
Because most of the actors will not participate in the plot in the Chaldea organization, even though the film has not been completely completed, Nanaya held a wrap party in the studio on the last day of filming.
Afterwards, Nanaya brought part of the crew back to New York to shoot scenes inside Chaldea.