Joey woke up to an email from an old friend: James Cameron.
Subject line just said "joy:"
She opened it and damn near dropped her coffee.
> I couldn't sleep last night. Kept tossing and turning until I finally decided I owe you this email—and an apology.
> When you came to me about distributing Twilight, I told you I didn't see it. I wasn't willing to take the risk or spend real money on it.
> I was wrong. I completely misjudged you, and I misjudged the movie. That was a failure on my part, plain and simple.
> You're incredible. Your taste is already better than any working director or top producer in this town. You're operating on a level the rest of us haven't reached yet.
> You knew exactly what you were doing with Twilight. You didn't try to make high art; you made a cash-printing machine, and you nailed it.
> I've been in this business a long time and I rarely meet someone your age who leaves this kind of mark. Hell, you might actually rewrite the rules of Hollywood.
> Keep shining. I hope you become the first female director whose name goes down in history.
She read it four times. To anyone else it might look like a nice note. To another director? This was the cinematic equivalent of God handing you a gold medal.
It was from James-freaking-Cameron.
She fired back immediately:
> Dear James,
> Thank you. Your words mean more than you know—and they scare the hell out of me. Good luck with the movie you've been dreaming about for years—Avatar. Can't wait to see it.
Send.
Ding. Another email. Already?
Not Cameron. This one was from Mintz, the most famous box-office oracle in the business. The guy who charges studios obscene money just to glance at their projections. The guy who ghosts 99% of the industry.
He was crying in text form.
The whole email was basically one long wail of regret:
> Joey,
> WHY ARE YOU SO GOOD AT THIS
> WHY DIDN'T YOU SUCK JUST ONCE
> I had you pegged at $400M worldwide and I didn't publish it because I thought "no way a $20M vampire teen romance hits that."
> I was wrong. So wrong I want to die. That miss cost me eight figures in cred and probably a Lambo.
> Never again. Next time you breathe on a script I'm shouting the number from the rooftops.
Joey just shook her head, laughed, and typed back one line:
> Next time don't sleep on me.
Meanwhile, Twilight was still out there printing money like the U.S. Mint on steroids.
Every single day it broke another record:
- Highest-grossing opening weekend of the year
- Third biggest opening weekend in North American history
- Biggest October opening ever
- Biggest single-day opening ever
The list was so long people stopped counting.
A mid-budget teen vampire romance with no A-list stars and minimal effects had just rewritten box-office history. That literally never happens.
Henry Cavill and Emma Watson went from "recognizable" to "Beatlemania-level famous" overnight. Teenage girls were screaming in theaters. Actual screaming. Every time Henry's face appeared on screen you could hear the decibel level spike.
Critics? Still hated it. Rotten Tomatoes sat at a brutal 29%. IMDb at 4.5. Critics wrote think-pieces about how Joey had "squandered her talent on trash." One guy from Variety literally sighed in print: "Such a gifted director… why waste it on this?"
Didn't matter.
The audience score on RT was 88%. The people had spoken—with their wallets.
––––––––
Year-end MTV Movie Awards.
This is the one award show that actually reflects what American teenagers love. Not critics, not the Academy—kids.
Henry and Emma walked the carpet together and the building almost collapsed from the screaming. Ten straight minutes of nonstop teenage hysteria.
Their Edward and Bella were real and standing right there and breathing the same air.
The second they presented an award together the crowd lost oxygen.
And then Twilight mopped the damn place.
Best Movie
Best Female Performance
Best Breakthrough Male
Best Kiss
Best Fight (yes, really)
Best Villain
Hottest Screen Couple
… the list was so long the teleprompter guy gave up.
Reporters were live-tweeting in all caps:
> TWILIGHT JUST SWEPT THE MTV MOVIE AWARDS
> This is now officially the new teen-culture bible.
Emma and Henry were the most in-demand actors on the planet overnight. Emma's endorsement deals alone shot her to #1 on the highest-paid actresses under 25 list. Henry couldn't walk down the street without causing riots.
Six months earlier both of them thought this was just a paycheck.
Henry had rolled his eyes at the audition: "A sparkly vampire movie? Seriously?"
Emma had skimmed an early outline and thought it was "kinda dumb."
Then they read Joey's script and changed their minds.
Now they were global superstars.
And every interviewer asked the same question: "How does Joey do it?"
Henry laughed in one junket: "We got lucky. Joey got chosen by God."
Emma, same week: "We're riding the miracle. She's the one performing it."
Because if Henry and Emma were the miracle recipients…
Joey Grant was the miracle dealer.
And she was just getting started.
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