Chapter 65

'Are you joking with me, kid?'

Ewan asked as his eyes shook after hearing what Will had to say. For the first time today, his focus was not on the wine.

He knew that Will was a screenwriter along with being a director. Everyone associated with Foxstar in some way knew that Edward Friedman's next movie screenwriter was Will.

But from writing horror and romance movies to working with one of the most acclaimed directors? This wasn't something Ewan was able to take in without some doubts.

Will smirked seeing Ewan react like that. Now that he had finally obtained the attention, he could start the main topic.

'Why will I joke about it? The initial title of the movie is [Birdman]. I just had a meeting with Simon yesterday, and he has already had a few actors in mind regarding the main character.'

[Birdman] was an Oscar-winning movie in Will's world and was a movie he had liked a lot. Micheal Keaton's performance had earned him lots of awards, while the movie's screenplay was one of the best.

It had cost him a lot of FP to buy this script, but he felt it was worth it.

It was not like Will didn't want to direct this movie by himself, but some sacrifices always needed to be made, and [Birdman] truly suited Simon Vercetti's style.

That's why he liked it so much.

To prove that he was not lying, Will took out his phone and showed him the phone number of Simon Vercetti. Every single doubt dissipated from Ewan's mind after checking that.

The young man in front of him wasn't lying at all, and his words were clearly implying something.

'What's the story about?' Ewan asked, and Will shook his head.

'Why should I tell you?'

At Will's refusal, Ewan wasn't able to say anything. He was treating Will as a kid just because there was no reason for him to associate with him.

But now that there was a major reason to get on good terms with him.

'What do you want? You wouldn't approach me like this without wanting me to do something, right?'

Ewan asked directly, opting not to go in a roundabout manner. His drunkenness was gone, and he looked pretty serious.

'I have a role for you.'

'For [Birdman]?'

Ewan's eyes were hopeful for a moment, but Will's next words quickly brought it down.

'Not yet.' Will laughed. 'It's for a movie I'm directing, [Sherlock Holmes], it's one of the major roles, and I'm pretty sure you would be great for it.'

'I don't want to work with someone other than Simon.'

'I know you want to have a shot at winning an Oscar by working with Simon, but you have not done any movies in nearly 2 years. Aren't you a little sluggish from not being on screen for so long? Who knows if you do well, it might impress Simon.'

Ewan didn't say anything for a while after hearing that. Will was basically telling him that he would recommend him to Simon Vercetti if he worked on his movie.

As the screenwriter, Will indeed had some voice, which could surely help Ewan a lot.

But he was not someone who picked up just any role. Unlike many other A-listers, he didn't want to play the main character every time. He wanted to play a wide variety of characters, and he didn't mind even if he was a supporting character if it was interesting.

'I can't just promise that I will work with you.'

Ewan slowly said, carefully thinking of his words.

'I am not asking you to promise. Just let's have a meeting about it. Tomorrow, 11 AM in the Dream Vision office.' Will said. When he saw that Ewan wasn't giving any reaction, he added, 'Trust me, you won't be disappointed by this role.'

'Okay, I can at least do that.'

Just like that, Will got the villain for his movie.

For record, in the future, Jared would punch Perry out of frustration after he saw the public reaction and box office numbers of [Sherlock Holmes].

***

In the next two days, Will went through seven meetings with both Ewan and his agent. After the second meeting, he knew Ewan wouldn't say no to the role.

After all, the role was well made, and Lord Blackwood had his own personality and was not a villain who simply got overpowered by Holmes.

Ewan was sure that he could bring out the reserved insanity of the character, and Will was happy with him.

In the end, he signed Ewan Rees for 7 million dollars. Levi Richards had also agreed to play the role of Watson, and they had negotiated an amount of 5 million dollars for his role.

Just like this, Will had most of the major characters cast. The only issue was about the lead role of Holmes, and for that, Will wasn't going for a major actor but Micheal Robert Elrod, an unknown guy.

After hearing that Will had an unknown guy in mind as the lead, Foxstar tried to object to it, but Will fought back, saying there wouldn't be a better lead than Robert.

They fought for a while about it, and even James tried to change Will's mind, but it was for nothing. After negotiations failed, Will proposed to at least let Robert audition for the role, and if he wasn't good enough, they could reject him.

Just like that, many of the Foxstar's executives, including James Dankworth, reached the theater that was booked for a day just for Robert's audition. Even Spencer Miller, Foxstar's chairman was here, and it was the first time Will was meeting him.

As Spencer was outside America for a while for some business meetings, Will wasn't able to meet him before.

When Will met him for the first time, he shook Spencer's hands with a confident smile.

'It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Miller.'

Spencer Miller was an old man who was almost reaching his 70s, but his body was still fit without any problem. It was because he had regularly exercised since a young age and his intense drive towards his work every day had kept him still working as the chairman of Foxstar.

He looked at Will and smiled at him.

'Likewise. I have been hearing about you a lot these days, but meeting you is making me realize again that you are still a young man.'

'Are you the type to judge a person by age, Mr. Miller?'

'Not really. Just age is a good indicator. In your case, it works for you. After all, an old man can never get the title of a young genius.'

Will nodded his head at those words, and Spencer smirked before asking.

'Why do you think I came here for this audition?'

Will raised his eyebrow at this question. He had thought that Spencer had come here just to make sure that Will didn't choose someone without any skill for the role of Holmes. But now, he felt like there was some other reason for it.

'I don't think it's just for the audition.'

'I'm a busy man. There are a thousand things I need to do, and I can easily skip an audition like this. The reason I came here is because of you.'

'Because of me?'

He asked, wondering what the old man in front of him was hinting at. Spencer took a breath and explained.

'One of the major reasons I was able to become the chairman of one of the Big 6 film studios without any backing is because I invest in people. Film studios shouldn't invest in movies, but the people making them, and I follow that.'

Will finally understood what Spencer was saying and fully agreed with it.

'So, you are here to see if you can invest in me?'

'Yes, there's no lack of talent in Hollywood. Every year film schools have a lot of graduates, but how many of them go on to direct a movie? But despite being a dropout, you made 200 million out of almost nothing.' Spencer said like he was impressed. 'I have not seen somebody like that in my 40 years in Hollywood.'

He turned his head to look into Will's eyes before continuing.

'That's why, when you agreed to cooperate with Foxstar, I was interested to know where you will go. You even decided to direct [Sherlock Holmes], a franchise with a bad past but with the potential to be something big. All this made me pretty interested in you. Even now, I'm curious to know if this actor you have selected will be any good.'

'He will prove it.'

Will said with confidence in Robert's abilities. He had been talking to Robert a lot in the past few weeks and he knew how hard he had worked to get the role right.

'Let's see about that. If I think he is perfect for the role, I can assure you that there won't be any objections due to him being unknown.'

Will made a surprised expression. He was prepared to still get some objections, but Spencer's words ceased all his worries.

'You are being too nice to me.' He said, hoping to know the reason.

'I'm always nice until I'm getting the desired results. If you think getting an unknown actor to play Holmes will make the movie a hit, do it. I don't really care. Just make sure….' His words trailed off for a bit as Spencer smiled. 'That you don't disappoint me.'

Before Will could reply to those words, Robert appeared with Amanda beside him. He was already wearing one of the costumes that was prepared for [Sherlock Holmes].

As people's eyes fell on him, they couldn't help but get more curious about the audition.

...