Chapter 48:

*Clap* *Clap* *Clap*

Edward clapped while smiling as he saw Will walking towards him. Lastly, everyone else on the set followed after him and clapped, including Peyton.

“Awesome! Awesoe!”

Edwards praised as Will rubbed the back of his head and said.

“Thank you. I’ve been practising a lot; I hope it was good enough for the role.”

“Good? It was very good. Honestly, I was surprised that you could even act, forget about this level. You’re just full of surprises. An actor, director, producer and screenwriter…. What else are you hiding behind that human skin? Haha.”

Edward said while laughing heartily. He had never imagined Will to be this good at acting.

Peyton, who was silently standing beside Edward, had a tinge of guilt in his eyes as he sincerely said.

“I’m not going to lie. I thought you were just going to make a fool of yourself and that you’re just too full of yourself. It seems I was the one who was judging a book by its cover. Your acting is brilliant, and it’s my bad this time around. Haha!”

Peyton shook hands with Will while saying “Welcome onboard” to him.

“Wow, I never knew you were such a great actor. How do you continuously come up with ways to surprise me?”

June, who had come and clung to Will’s hand, asked cheerfully.

Will just said thanks to everyone who praised him and tried to befriend everyone as humbly as possible.

The same went for the young star, Drake Redcliff, who came and shook hands with Will while congratulating him.

Although as he did that, his eyes kept darting towards June, she was too busy in praising Will to spare a glance to the ‘Lead Actor’.

After that, Edward officially announced that Will had been selected for the role of ‘Alex’, the main character Mike’s son in the movie [17 Again].

As Will asked for any apparent flaws in his performance from Edward and Peyton, the other two just said it was perfect, and nothing seemed lacking.

To begin with, Alex’s character was timid and weak, which was supposed to be due to Stan, the bully in the movie. So Will didn’t need to put in too much effort. Otherwise, it would create an adverse effect.

There were times when a character needed to foreshadow even the main leads character, but Alex’s character definitely wasn’t one of them.

“By the way, I have to commend you for recommending June as the character for Maggie. She looks kinda similar to what I had in mind, but let’s check out her acting skills first before deciding anything.”

Edward whispered towards Will.

“Then, I hope you take care of her if everything goes well.”

“I definitely will.”

Edward laughed and patted Will on the back. In his mind, he wondered what kind of stuff the young man in front of him did.

Maybe he would be another one time wonder? Or maybe a superstar.

He felt like it would be either one of those because there’s hardly any ‘middle’ for people like Will cause they just aren’t satisfied with it.

After that, they talked a little more about the rule, and Edward invited him to dinner, but Will politely rejected as he was going on an evening date with June.

But as he was leaving, Harry Williams, the Foxstar executive, came towards him.

“Will, can you give me a second?”

“Yeah. Hello, Mr Williams. What do you need from me?”

“Just want to talk about something.” Harry smiled and immediately went to the topic. “Have you decided to direct another Blair Witch movie? Foxstar is interested in coming on board as the distributor.”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t plan to direct horror movies.”

“Is that so? I guess the rumours were true after all,” Harry said with a disappointed face.

The Blair Witch franchise was one of the hottest things in the market currently, so a chance to be a part of it was a golden opportunity.

“What about the sequel rights then? They are still with you, right?”

Harry asked, hoping to get a deal, but he was bound to be disappointed.

“I’m sorry, Mr Williams. I already sold it to Wheelworks. They are already in pre-production for the sequel. I think there will be an official announcement soon.”

Will said, and Harry couldn’t help but frown. Maybe he should have contacted Will earlier.

“That’s too bad. Anyway, I have a message for you from Foxstar. We would like to have a meeting with you regarding any of your next projects. If the idea is good enough, we don’t mind investing.”

“I would contact you then.”

Will said with a smile, and Harry raised one of his eyebrows hearing that.

“It seems like you are already planning a project.”

“You can say so, but I don’t plan to reveal it until everything is finalised.”

“Take your time. Just don’t forget Foxstar. It’s really rare for us to want to work with young directors so much. I hope you will think about it.”

Will nodded his head, and they shook hands. The last part of Harry’s sentence sounded arrogant, but Will knew their levels were just too different.

But he also knew that it wouldn’t be the case for long.

***

The next few days, Will just worked on the script for [Sherlock Holmes]. It was close to ending, and it was only taking so much time because Will was busy with other stuff.

One of the things he did was to register himself in the Directors Guild of America. It was important for every director to be a part of the guild.

He also registered for the actor’s guild as he was working as one in [17 again]. All this took a few days, but it was good to get it over with.

On Monday, Wheel work finally announced the sequel for [The Blair Witch Project]. A major website covered it on their front page, and for a whole day, it was again the talk of the town.

[Breaking news! The camcorder horror movie [The Blair Witch Project] is getting a sequel. Headed by Wheel work studios, the sequel will be released next year. The most shocking fact is that the director who was the vision behind the blockbuster horror movie won’t come back to direct the sequel!!]

As soon as the news broke out, many people wondered why Will wasn’t coming back to direct. Some people pointed out how he had said he wouldn’t do horror movies anymore.

While others said that Will was just set for life and he didn’t have a reason to direct any movie or work.

That was the discussion in a famous movie forum.

-Did you all see the post by Wheel work studios? Blair witch is coming back!

-Yeah, there was a rumour about the sequel, but Will Evans won’t be directing. I wondered how they convinced him not to.

-There was no news of a fallout, so I guess it was mutual.

-I heard Wheelworks would look for an experienced director and a new cast to direct it.

-Ahh, I’m jealous of that director! He’s set for life! No need to earn and have millions to spend!

-He’s probably partying all day with hot chicks!

-I don’t think so. He looked like a smart person in the Brooks Tuffy show. I bet he would direct another movie.

-I wonder how he does it? Take 50k and turn it into 200 million dollars! What a lucky fuck!

-10 dollars bet that he’s gonna retire soon.

-I feel the same.

-True! He himself knows he’s a one time wonder.

…

‘They really underestimate me.’

Will thought as he read through the comment sections. Many people were calling him a one time wonder, especially after the sequel rights announcement.

Some even made articles about how he was gonna retire and marry a young model or something. Those were just speculative articles, obviously, and Will just laughed at them.

“What are you laughing at?”

Jeffery, who was driving the car beside him, asked as he saw Will holding his phone and laughing about something.

“Just articles on me leaving the Blair witch franchise. Many think it’s the end for me.”

“That’s indeed funny. Anyway, Frank is an old businessman, so he will try to get as much money out of you as possible. Try to hold your forte.”

Jeffery said, and Will just smiled. Currently, they were on their way to meet Frank Winston, the chairman of Krown studios. It was a mid-sized studio that Jeffery had told Will to buy.

The owner, Frank, had created it ten years ago, but aside from two or three movies, none of the others worked, and it was in serious loss for a few years now.

It was even a surprise that Frank had still not sold it and retired.

The truth was that Frank was an avid lover of movies, and he always wanted to produce an Oscar-nominated movie, and that was his dream, and he has persisted until now because of that.

But he was tired of seeing the losses now.

No matter what he did, his studio never worked, and he wasn’t even able to pay the employees. In the end, he was a failure as a businessman, and he realised it too.

So when Jeffery contacted him saying someone wanted to invest in his studio, he was ready to meet him, albeit a bit reluctantly.

“What kind of guy is he?” Will asked, looking at Jeffery.

“Stubborn. That’s the word to describe him. He has good business sense. Just he made bad movie choices. He has all the stake in the studio because he didn’t want others to interfere in his decisions, but that backfired.”

Will nodded his head, hearing that. At that moment, he suddenly got a notification on his phone.

It was a message from June.

[My audition will start soon. Do your best today! Let’s celebrate together if we both pass!]

In the end, there was a heart emoji, and Will smiled seeing it. Her audition for the role of Maggie was today, and she has been working hard for it in the past few days.

‘I hope it all goes through well.’

Will thought in his mind and looked outside the window. Even though it was January, the sky seemed incredibly clear for some reason.