The news that Su Yan had created new scripts couldn't be hidden inside the company.
Although Su Yan was the one steering the ship, the real chief steward was Shinozaki Ikumi.
Su Yan determined the direction forward.
But how they moved forward—whether by car, on foot, by ship, or by digging a tunnel—that was up to Shinozaki Ikumi.
The current Dimensional Pictures has become an extremely unique presence in the Xia Nation film and television industry.
Its achievements in the television industry went without saying.
And in the film industry, three movies with a combined box office exceeding 3 billion had also attracted nationwide attention.
When Shinozaki Ikumi contacted major entertainment companies across Xia Nation, asking them to recommend actors according to her requirements, the news quickly spread across the market.
Once someone became famous, nothing could stay hidden.
["Did you hear? Dimensional Pictures is making moves again?"]
["Of course! It's ridiculous. November hasn't even arrived yet. 'Fate/Zero' only airs in January next year, and 'Rurouni Kenshin: Movie' releases in February. Logically, those two projects should've just finished filming… and now Dimensional Pictures already has new projects lined up."]
["What kind of brain does Su Yan even have? Is he secretly an alien? I'm also a screenwriter—I take a month to write a thousand words. But I feel like he could write ten scripts in a month!"]
["What's a legend? High productivity? High quality? Su Yan gave us the answer—top-tier script quality while producing works like a mother pig giving birth. That's a legend. That's genius!"]
["Damn it… I can't learn that. That money and fame belong to Su Yan. I don't have that ability, and there isn't a second person in the Xia Nation film industry who does."]
["Every time Su Yan releases a project, a bunch of copycat dramas flood the market. But before those copycats even finish airing, Su Yan has already released a new genre again. How are people supposed to imitate that? Or surpass it?"]
["Sigh… I wonder how many new actors Dimensional Pictures will make famous this time. That Zhuang Yuxin hasn't even had a drama air yet, and she's already one of the hottest actresses in Xia Nation. Her popularity is almost at a second-tier level. Who knows what will happen once 'Fate/Zero' actually airs?"]
For the past few days, Su Yan's peers had been discussing the matter nonstop.
Inside Dimensional Pictures, meanwhile, things were already moving.
Filming for 'Rurouni Kenshin: Movie' still had a few remaining scenes—mainly some difficult action sequences that Su Yan wasn't satisfied with and wanted to reshoot.
As for 'Fate/Zero', filming was basically complete.
A large number of company employees were immediately reassigned to other departments.
For the movie 'Your Name.', the male lead was still under negotiation.
But Shinozaki Ikumi had already decided on the female lead—Shen Liqian.
After all, she wanted to develop her career toward films, and her performance in 'We Made a Beautiful Bouquet' had been excellent, leaving a strong impression on Xia Nation movie fans. Moreover, once 'Rurouni Kenshin: Movie' is released during the Spring Festival season, her popularity would likely surge again.
By the time 'Your Name.' premiered, as the female lead, she would carry the film's popularity.
Meanwhile, Gu Qingyuan—Su Yan's second most popular artist—was assigned to 'Kimi ni Todoke' as the female lead Kurokuma Sawako.
She had gone nearly half a year without being given any major roles by Su Yan.
It wasn't that she didn't want to work—it was simply that none of Su Yan's recent projects had roles that suited her.
Quiet, cold-tempered characters didn't appear all the time.
However, Kurokuma Sawako was actually quite similar to her.
When she wasn't dating or familiar with people, she naturally gave off a cold, gloomy vibe.
Combined with her acting skills—
Su Yan honestly didn't know how such a beautiful girl could portray a gloomy, eerie feeling.
But at that point, they'd have to rely on the lighting crew, makeup artists, and special effects team.
In the original story, Kurokuma Sawako was actually a great beauty—she was just disliked because her aura resembled Sadako.
So Su Yan obviously couldn't cast someone with low looks to play her.
That's just how film and television worked.
You could cast a handsome actor to play an "ordinary-looking man" and give him that character setting.
But you could never cast a truly ordinary-looking actor to play a character described as ordinary.
Every drama fan claimed they weren't obsessed with appearance—but if an actor didn't match their aesthetic standards, they'd just turn off the TV and go to sleep.
In Su Yan's previous life, the character Guo Jing—who was supposed to look simple and plain—had never once been played by someone who wasn't extremely handsome.
As for 'Kimi ni Todoke', the male lead, Kazehaya Shota, was directly assigned by Shinozaki Ikumi to Su Yan.
A handsome, warm male lead—
How could they possibly look elsewhere?
Across the entire Xia Nation television market, there simply wasn't a male star with higher popularity than Su Yan.
Once the leads were confirmed, the supporting roles became targets of competition among various companies in the Xia Nation film industry.
If Dimensional Pictures wanted widespread support from different parties in the market, the only way was to let those "parties" become members of the same profit warship.
So as long as the actors recommended by those companies had real ability, good acting skills, and suitable appearances, Su Yan didn't mind cooperating with partners who wanted to cultivate their own newcomers.
October passed, and November arrived.
While Dimensional Pictures was prepared to assemble the production teams for the two new works—
The promotional campaign for 'Fate/Zero' had already begun.
Su Yan's collaboration with Sakura TV was resuming after more than three years.
And Sakura TV was giving 200% support.
Starting from early November, brief teaser announcements for 'Fate/Zero' had already begun airing during prime-time slots.
By mid-November—
On Sakura TV's official website.
On SakuraNet.
On the Dimensional Pictures website.
And across multiple video platforms—
The first promotional trailer for 'Fate/Zero' was released simultaneously.
Within less than an hour, massive numbers of drama fans rushed in.
They clicked on the trailer video.
—
"I ask you… Are you my Master?"
A massive sword was stabbed into the ground.
A girl wearing a blue dress, with shining armor covering her hands and feet, appeared in the shot.
Her voice was solemn.
Heroic.
The camera didn't show her face—but beneath the moonlight, her silhouette alone was mesmerizing.
The scene switched again.
A man clad in golden armor, radiating brilliance.
A graceful, silver-haired foreign woman.
A seemingly frail young boy standing before a towering man in a red cloak.
A handsome man holding a long spear.
In 'Fate/Zero', the shots of the seven Masters and seven Heroic Spirits switched one after another.
The trailer barely revealed their full faces.
But that only made viewers more curious.
Finally—
The scene froze.
In the middle of a lake, a gigantic monster emerged.
The characters introduced earlier surrounded it, each unleashing their abilities.
And then—
With a shout that many viewers unfamiliar with foreign languages misheard as:
"EX… CALIBUR!"
A world-destroying beam of sword energy tore through everything.
At that moment, countless viewers began replaying that scene again and again.
["So cool!"]
This level of special-effects spectacle—
In the Xia Nation television industry—
It was absolutely ceiling-tier.
The trailer didn't reveal much about the setting.
But a trailer could show the visual quality.
The real locations used during filming had already cost enormous amounts of money to rent.
Add the post-production VFX—
Even though viewers didn't yet know why these characters were fighting—
One thing was certain.
It looked incredibly cool.
Every frame smelled like money.
The visual quality had passed the test.
So the next question was—
What about the story?
With so many characters, and according to the official website, this was a multi-protagonist ensemble drama.
Could a single season really develop all of them properly?
On the day the trailer was released, Su Yan—who had been quiet for two months in the Xia Nation entertainment industry—
Once again shot to No.1 on the trending index for film and television celebrities.