Chapter 416: The Hot Commodity

Chapter 416: Chapter 416: The Hot Commodity

With Will Smith’s side confirming that agent Jay Shapiro would handle all cooperation matters, the core tug-of-war regarding the male lead’s salary and cooperation terms for The Pursuit of Happyness officially moved to the internal conference room of the top Hollywood agency, CAA.

The transparent floor-to-ceiling glass windows shut out the hustle and bustle of the office outside.

The atmosphere inside the solemn and minimalist conference room was quiet, yet it faintly exuded a sense of underlying tension and maneuvering.

Before the meeting officially began, current CAA CEO Ella Walker proactively stood up and smiled as she greeted Shelly, who was pushing open the door.

Her demeanor was gentle and carried a touch of deliberate familiarity, completely different from her attitude toward ordinary agents.

"Shelly, you must be very busy lately. If Irene needs any help, make sure to let me know in advance; do not be a stranger." Ella raised her hand to shake his lightly, her tone carrying undisguised envy.

"Who in the whole company does not envy you for holding such a top trump card as Irene Coppola? Everyone in the industry knows that the scarcest and most ’star-making’ resource in Hollywood today is monopolized by you from start to finish.

I have always wanted to fight for the right to manage Irene’s cooperation projects, even if it is just to share a portion of the coordination work, but unfortunately, this genius director’s bottom line is extremely firm. She never gives in and only recognizes you as her agent."

These words were half pleasantries and half sincere, and they were entirely the truth.

Since taking the helm at CAA, Ella’s biggest regret was not being able to manage Irene’s agency rights.

Irene held both Oscar honors and the annual box office champion IP.

She could sit steadily in the awards seats for arthouse films while also sweeping the commercial film market.

She was the only director in Hollywood today who possessed both artistic heights and commercial dominance.

Whoever could secure the management rights for her was equivalent to holding a continuous stream of top-tier resources and networking dividends; she was absolutely the hot commodity in every agent’s heart.

Most importantly, Irene herself did not resist CAA’s package model, which was very rare among the group of directors in Hollywood.

After all, most directors were somewhat dictatorial, whereas Irene, aside from the actors she specified, was willing to let CAA recommend everyone else.

This was very rare among top directors.

Furthermore, he received news that Irene Coppola was preparing to get involved in the television industry.

In fact, CAA’s package services could better demonstrate their value in television because the production cycles for television series were longer, requiring more actors and related industry personnel.

He could almost already see the enormous hidden value in Irene Coppola, so how could he not be tempted and want to become one of her agents?

However, Irene was cautious by nature and disliked complex coordination.

From beginning to end, she only trusted Shelly.

No matter how the CAA executives tried to curry favor or fight for it, she never gave in to sharing power.

Upon hearing this, Shelly just smiled faintly and responded calmly.

"It is just that I have worked with Irene for long enough, and we have enough mutual trust and rapport. Let us focus on the project negotiations today so as not to let down the company’s good intentions in mediating."

Jay Shapiro, who was seated to the side, took in this scene, understanding it in his heart, and became increasingly clear about Shelly’s special status at CAA.

Although both were veteran star agents at CAA, their relationship had always been lukewarm, with no personal friendship.

The core reason was that their client circles were completely separated, with no overlap whatsoever.

Jay Shapiro’s core clients covered almost half of Hollywood’s top Black talent, deeply cultivating the minority artist track; whereas all the A-list directors and actor resources handled by Shelly were exclusively white creators.

In his many years in the industry, he had never signed a single Black artist, so their business tracks were completely staggered.

Even though CAA had explicit rules for sharing top-tier resources, there had always been an implicit, exclusive barrier within the industry regarding the two core trump cards, Irene and Will Smith: all of Irene Coppola’s project resources, cooperation invitations, and business coordination were exclusively held by Shelly, never diverted internally; and all of Will Smith’s acting contracts, film and television resources, and commercial endorsements were always fully controlled by Jay, with no one else having the right to intervene.

This unique, exclusive binding was a tacit arrangement that both Irene and Will Smith had defaulted to and had not changed for many years.

This tripartite meeting was led personally by Ella Walker, with a very clear purpose: to rely on CAA’s top-tier internal resource integration advantages to mediate the demands of both sides, balance artist compensation with project budgets, and ultimately achieve a win-win situation for Echo Pictures, Will Smith, and CAA.

It was to protect the industry valuation and reasonable interests of their own top-tier artist, while also firmly retaining Irene, that top-tier cash cow who continuously produced blockbusters, to avoid the internal negotiations breaking down and causing high-quality Oscar-contending projects to flow out and fall into the hands of other agencies.

Once the three of them were seated and the documents were ready, Ella set aside the pleasantries and spoke first to set the tone.

"Today is an internal discussion, not an external game. We only seek fairness and a win-win. Jay, you speak first about the demands of Will’s team, and Shelly, be frank and lay your cards on the table. We will negotiate a compromise and try to finalize the cooperation plan in one go."

As her voice trailed off, Jay Shapiro opened the negotiations.

His aura was intense, and he went straight to the point.

Right from the start, he adopted a posture of probing and applying pressure, which was entirely the game style of a top artist agent.

"My demands are very clear." Jay sat upright, his tone firm and unyielding. "Will Smith just secured $200 million in box office revenue in North America with I, Robot, and his global popularity is still climbing. This stage is the peak of his commercial value. The market performance of this science fiction commercial film is enough to prove that he is the Black actor with the most stable mainstream appeal and the strongest box office draw in the entire United States, bar none. Since Irene specifically customized the script for him and locked in the exclusive role, the corresponding salary and compensation must match his current top-tier status."

He looked up and stared directly at Shelly, throwing out the high-price conditions he had already prepared.

"Our bottom line is a $20 million fixed base salary, plus 10% of the global box office. This is not an outrageous demand; it is Will’s industry-standard valuation at this stage, and it is our basic requirement for this exclusive cooperation."

Jay had a good plan in mind.

He knew the rumors that Irene would use no one but Will, so he wanted to use this "uniqueness" to aggressively raise the price, test Echo Pictures’ bottom line, and force the other party to pay a premium for the exclusively matched actor, maximizing commercial profit.

Facing the pressure of the other party’s lion’s share demand, Shelly remained calm, not panicking in the slightest.

His tone was cool but carried an irrefutable firmness as he directly countered.

"Jay, you are confusing the pricing logic of commercial blockbusters with that of arthouse biographical films. I, Robot is a high-investment, high-return sci-fi commercial film. Its scale, marketing, and profit model are completely different tracks from The Pursuit of Happyness, and they cannot be lumped together."

He leaned forward slightly and laid his cards on the table with clear logic.

"I will tell you frankly, Will Smith is indeed Irene’s first and only initial choice. We have not contacted any alternative actors throughout the process; our sincerity is sufficient. But being the first choice does not equal compromising without a bottom line. This film is positioned as an Oscar-contending arthouse film. Its production budget, box office ceiling, and profit margins simply cannot support a commercial film salary package of $20 million in base salary plus a high percentage of the box office."