Chapter 99

'This is certainly a difficult decision for me.'

Lucas muttered and scratched his beard, a habit that he often displayed when in a pressuring situation. If he agreed to Will's condition, then he felt like he would lose control over his own movie.

He didn't want Will, a young director, to control the movie from behind just because he was the producer. Giving up control was not something a lot of directors liked.

Truth be told, no director liked it.

Will, who sensed the concerns in Lucas' eyes, spoke.

'You can take your time to think. But you don't have to worry about me trying to come in between the shooting or giving you orders. I just want you to cast the leads I have chosen and aside from that, you will be the head of the movie.'

'A lot of producers have told me that. In the end, they all tried to shift the movie in the way they wanted. A guy even threatened me to edit it in a certain way. The movie worked but I am always sceptical about producers after that.'

'Was the movie [Black sky]?'

'I can't tell you that.'

Lucas laughed, then shook his head. His eyes glossed over Will's office and he couldn't help but feel envy. At such a young age, he was already a producer and acclaimed director.

In Lucas's eyes, he himself had achieved a lot but one thing he had lost was time. It had taken him a lot of years to truly master his craft.

'Tell me one thing. Why are you not directing [1917]?'

He asked this, thinking of Will's stature as a director. One of the reasons that Lucas thought was that he was too young to properly direct a war movie.

But then again, Will was also too young to direct a movie which crossed 1 billion dollars at the box office.

So, the curiosity in his eyes was pretty evident.

'I wrote it thinking of producing it. It was never my intention to direct it. I know the story is one of the best I have ever written and I even thought a lot about how one can shoot this movie. But currently, I'm not in the mood to direct.'

That was half an excuse that Will gave out. In Lucas' eyes, [1917] was probably the best story that Will had written and it would stay like that for many years. But in Will's eyes, it was just one of the great stories from his world.

Lucas also didn't doubt him. After all, Will had shot [The Blair Witch Project] and [Sherlock Holmes] simultaneously and it was obvious for him to take a break.

'So, what do you think? I really want you on the board as the director.'

Will asked, coming back to the topic.

'I have some things that I should clear first.' Lucas thought for a bit and then put out three of his fingers. 'One, if the actors you have selected aren't up to the mark, I will change them. Second, this movie will cost a lot to be made really well. The cinematography style and everything else will make it unique but still, it's going to take a lot of money. Maybe even more than your last movie. I hope you understand that.'

'I'm not stingy with my investments, Lucas. And what's the third point?'

Lucas smiled before revealing.

'I want to make this movie for the Oscars, so I want you to back the movie up.'

His last movie [Black sky] had only been nominated for the Oscars and Lucas had lost out on the prestigious award in the end. This was also partly due to the fact that the winning movie was backed by Allen Pictures.

The influence of the Big 6 studios was overwhelming in Hollywood and even The Academy wasn't left out of it.

Though, they can't use their influence a lot. Something was still better than nothing.

'That's fine with me. I want [1917] to do well at the Oscars too. But before that, you need to make a movie that holds up.'

'Leave that to me, young man.'

Lucas shook hands with Will. Though there were still reservations in his heart, he decided to trust Will and Dream Vision for now.

Moreover, he just didn't want to lose out on a movie like [1917].

***

As Lucas agreed to get on board for [1917], one of Will's projects started. Pre production began behind the doors with Lucas in charge and Jeffrey helping him out.

With this, one of his projects was finally running. As for the distribution contract, Will needed to wait till Spencer's health got better.

But as soon as he returns to work, this won't be a problem.

For [500 days of Summer], there were three directors that were available. Two of them were acclaimed ones with a wealth of experience in directing comedy and romance movies. While the third one was a newbie who had won an award in a film festival a few years back but was struggling after that.

Dream Vision had sent a proposal to all three of them and was now waiting for the response.

If everything went according to Will, he would be able to release [500 days of Summer] at the end of the year.

Aside from all these, Alexia had notified him that many publishers who she had sent a copy of Harry Potter and the Philosophers stone to had not replied back.

It was something that Will had also expected.

After all, even JK Rowling had initially struggled with it. As he had not revealed his real identity, they obviously had treated him as a nobody and his story as something which didn't have any potential.

But on 31st August, Alexia knocked on his door and said that Warden books had sent an email, requesting a meeting.

'Oh, so someone is finally interested.'

Will thought as it had been nearly a month since Alexia had sent the manuscript to various publishers.

He told her to give him all the information about Warden books and for a day, he looked through it.

Warden books was a medium sized publisher that was doing relatively well for itself. They focused on publishing fantasy and sci-fi books mostly and they have gotten quite a bit of success with it too.

After getting all the necessary information he could about the publisher, Will finally met Terry Warden in a cafe.

'Hello, nice to meet you. I'm Will Evans, the author of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone.'

When Terry, a middle aged man with a bit of a pot belly saw Will enter the cafe, he was not able to hide his surprise.

One of the novels that he had published was going to be a movie and as he knew how much potential Hollywood has for writers, he always kept a close eye on it.

So, he obviously knew Will, the rising star in Hollywood.

'You… you are the writer?'

Terry stuttered, finding it a little absurd. But thinking of the pen name written in the manuscript which was Evans W, he knew it was not a joke.

'Yes, so shall we talk business.'

Will said and sat down. Terry followed suit, still a little shaken. But he also regarded it as an opportunity.

As an old fox who had seen all sorts of bigshots and people who have potential to be a bigshot, he knew that getting a connection with even one of them was very good for his business.

So after the initial shock, he flashed a smile and started to talk.

'I am quite surprised this book is yours, Mr. Evans. I was expecting an unknown author to show up.'

'I'm an unknown author too, at least in the novel industry. And you can call me Will.'

He said and for the next few minutes, Terry told him the story of how this book was first liked by his daughter which made him read it personally.

Thinking it has immense potential, he sent an email asking to meet.

'I want Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone to be published by me. We can discuss the content of the contract right now too.'

Seeing Terry like this, Will gestured to him to stop talking. Although his excitement was nice, they needed to discuss more about the book first.

'Terry, first of all, I want you to know that Harry Potter isn't my short term project and if we are going to be doing business together, Warden books need to be a great cooperating partner.'

'What do you mean?'

Terry asked, baffled by his words.

'Harry Potter is a series that I have been plotting for years now. And I have already completed the plot for the whole series. The second book in the series Harry Potter and Chamber of Secrets is something I'm already writing.'

As Will said this, the gears in Terry's mind began to turn. He quickly asked.

'How many books are there going to be?'

'Seven books in total. It's going to be a long journey. I would also be making a prequel set way before the events in Harry Potter.'

'This seems like something you have thought about for years.'

Will nodded his head.

For the first book, it was almost the same as the original version. Will hadn't changed anything in the context of the magic or Hogwarts academy.

There was a little change in Harry's character and few other characters. But apart from that, there was not much change. Although he had thought of many changes, he took them back after thinking how they were going to take away the teen fantasy elements.

After some thinking, Will came to a conclusion that as Harry would attend Hogwarts in the 1990s, there wasn't much to change about it. Will wanted to maintain the mysteriousness of the castle as it was one of the features of the whole series.

Though, slowly at the end of the series, he was planning to add a little science into the magic. Though, it would just be an untested concept.

With this, Will was planning to build on it by creating a half original series taking place in the future with a new protagonist.

Though there was Harry Potter and Cursed child set in the future, Will hadn't liked it much and it had played a lot with time travel.

Rather than that, he wanted to make an original that takes place in the Wizarding world but was his at the same time.

...