Chapter 450: The Offer

Chapter 450: Chapter 450: The Offer

Harvey Weinstein secretly dispatched a confidant to meet with Will privately, bringing extremely tempting conditions.

Weinstein knew that The Pursuit of Happyness was an important chip for Will to impact the Best Actor award, so he offered generous terms for poaching: as long as Will chose to withdraw from this Echo Pictures movie, all economic losses caused by breach of contract would be borne entirely by Miramax.

In addition, Miramax would tailor an Oscar-contending biographical film specifically for Will, with script resources and a full suite of Oscar PR campaigns all provided in one go.

The other party claimed that the scale and character depth of the new project were far more suitable for chasing the Best Actor award than The Pursuit of Happyness; at the same time, Will’s salary for his next film would directly double, and cooperative resources would pour in endlessly.

Such tempting conditions were enough to make many actors struggling in Hollywood tempted.

However, Will Smith was able to gain a foothold in the brutally competitive Hollywood and become a globally renowned top-tier Black superstar relying on far more than just acting skills—he also possessed sharp judgment and long-term vision.

Even though he was not familiar with Harvey Weinstein, he had heard of the man’s working style. This person was good at drawing grand blueprints and promising countless benefits, but once someone took the bait, he flipped his face faster than turning a book.

Once he lost his value for utilisation, past promises could be written off at any time.

If he went to question the other party then, the other party would completely ignore him and might even take the opportunity to kick him while he was down.

However, a blunt refusal would not give the other party enough face.

The cautious Will neither refused on the spot nor agreed immediately. He steadied the other party, expressing that he needed time to consider carefully, thereby placating the lobbyist sent by Weinstein.

After the meeting ended, he dialled the phone of his agent Jay Shapiro at the first moment, completely recounting this private contact and all the conditions thrown out by the other party.

After listening, Jay Shapiro had a solemn expression. After a brief thought, he quickly gave a plan, instructing Will not to make any stance, participate in all preparatory work of the crew as usual, wait quietly for news, and leave all negotiations to him.

Harvey Weinstein and the Miramax team were full of confidence, convinced that Will Smith could hardly resist the temptation of Oscar contention and high salary.

They anticipated early on that Will would officially propose withdrawal on the last day before filming started, catching Irene off guard.

Once the core lead actor fled temporarily, the project The Pursuit of Happyness would very likely be shelved directly. Echo Pictures would not only suffer huge preparation losses but also face the situation of damaged external image, which was precisely the result Harvey wanted to see.

On the last day before filming started, Weinstein sat in the Miramax office, quietly waiting for his assistant to convey the news of Will announcing his withdrawal from the cast.

However, the news he waited for was completely opposite: all preparations for The Pursuit of Happyness went smoothly, Will Smith arrived at the filming location on time, and the film officially started filming as scheduled.

The moment the news entered the office, Harvey Weinstein’s anger erupted instantly, and the documents on the desk were fiercely swept to the ground by him.

He sternly reprimanded the assistant who came to report in front of everyone, his words full of resentment:

"You are simply brainless! To actually naively believe that a Black person would abide by a verbal agreement! We should have drawn up a written agreement back then, setting up high temptation clauses to lock him tightly. Relying solely on verbal discussions has no binding force at all!"

Everyone in the office held their breath in fear, and no one dared to speak out to persuade him. This was precisely because only now that the other party had reneged did he say there should be a written agreement; every previous plan to hook someone was promised verbally by Weinstein, never with any written record.

Obviously, this misjudgement made Weinstein very angry.

Everyone knew clearly that losing to Irene consecutively in the Oscar arena, coupled with this meticulously planned poaching plan falling through entirely, the accumulated sense of frustration completely ignited Harvey’s anger.

In this contest, he lost to Irene once again.

However, this was also normal; after all, Irene Coppola’s reputation in Hollywood was more than ten times better than Harvey Weinstein’s.

Time slowly passed, and the film started shooting smoothly for a week.

After a few days of camera integration, Will Smith completely sank into the character’s state, and his acting skills gradually improved, portraying the struggle of Chris Gardner in his middle age—impoverished yet always refusing to give up hope—more and more realistically and movingly.

Shooting wrapped up relatively early today, and the sunset at the set was soft. Will took the initiative to find Irene, who was reviewing the day’s shooting footage alone, and poured out the whole matter of Harvey sending people to contact him privately and trying to persuade him to withdraw from the crew.

Irene put down the monitor, quietly listening to the entire process, without showing too much surprise on her face.

Before Irene could speak, Will took the lead to candidly express his thoughts, his tone exceptionally earnest.

"I do not have much intersection with Harvey Weinstein, but I have heard enough rumours about him in the circle. Everyone knows clearly that he holds grudges, turns his face without mercy, and carries unhideable racial prejudice in his bones, looking down on all Black practitioners.

No one would be foolish enough to give up cooperation with you and instead choose to believe such a person, betraying an ally in exchange for a bounced cheque of verbal promises, which would only end up losing on both ends."

Hearing this, the corners of Irene’s lips raised a slight smile, and she sincerely gave her evaluation: "Your vision is clear and long-term enough."

After a brief heart-to-heart conversation, the barrier between the two completely dissipated, and they gained a heartfelt trust in each other.

For any movie crew, it is a great fortune for the director and the lead actor to appreciate and trust each other.

Communication barriers disappeared, and the execution efficiency of various shooting tasks increased significantly.

The atmosphere within the crew was harmonious, communication among the creators was smooth, and situations of repeated tug-of-war and deadlock rarely occurred.

Everyone concentrated on shooting, without redundant internal friction.

Days progressed steadily, March and April passed in a flash, and the film crew travelled to multiple locations in San Francisco, rushing to shoot day and night.

Entering May, the sea breeze in San Francisco was mild. Accompanied by the shout that the final scene successfully wrapped up, all on-location shooting work of The Pursuit of Happyness came to a successful conclusion.

A large amount of footage was transferred to the post-production studio, waiting for a series of processes such as editing, colour grading, and scoring. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ

Another key film by Echo Pictures successfully completed all tasks of the shooting stage.

After all the rough-cut footage of The Pursuit of Happyness was handed over to Irene’s most trusted editor Hill Cook, Irene temporarily set this biographical film aside and no longer invested too much energy in following up on the post-production process.

Right now, a series of intensive movie release plans and variety show shooting plans came rushing in, with a completely full schedule.

In May, Taken, invested and produced by Echo Pictures, landed in North America theatres; just a month apart, on June 16, the highly anticipated Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End was officially released.

Depending on the terrifying popularity accumulated by the previous two instalments, the third instalment directly secured the golden window period that only Hollywood top blockbuster films could have.

Within three weeks before and after, no film with an investment scale exceeding 50 million US dollars dared to confront it head-on, and major production companies unanimously chose to detour and avoid this box office blockbuster.