Atlanta producer Will Packer promotes new book 'Who Better Than You?'

Will Packer is not quite a household name outside of Hollywood circles, but his films have generated more than $1 billion in box office receipts including “Stomp the Yard,” “Ride Along,” “Girls Trip” and “Straight Outta Compton.”

He jump-started the careers of actors like Kevin Hart, Tiffany Haddish and Idris Elba. He revived “Roots,” directed the Oscars the year Will Smith slapped Chris Rock and recently became a limited partner of the Atlanta Falcons.

At age 50, Packer ― who spent a bulk of his adult life in Atlanta but now lives in St. Petersburg, Florida ― isn’t ready to write a memoir but decided to go the “self help” route. In his new book “Who Better Than You? The Art of Healthy Arrogance & Dreaming Big,” (Harmony, $28), he uses a series of anecdotes about his life to illustrate tenets that helped him succeed in the wild and woolly world of entertainment.

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Credit: Lauren Mulligan / Universal Pictures

Credit: Lauren Mulligan / Universal Pictures

“I’ve been in the game 30 years,” Packer told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in a Zoom call from his home. “I’m not old, but I’m not new. I have learned so much dealing with some of the biggest personalities in Hollywood. I felt like there were some stories and some things I’ve learned and skills I’ve acquired that are transferable in any industry.”

He opens the book by illustrating “healthy arrogance” with an anecdote about a movie screening in 1994. It was his first student film at Florida A & M University with his friend and future business partner Rob Hardy. They not only required everyone show up in formalwear, but they left the front row open for invited VIPs like Oprah Winfrey and heads of various movie studios. Of course, none showed up.

“We were so audacious and such big dreamers even back then,” Packer said. “Nobody in Hollywood cared. Nobody returned our calls. But it was a big deal for us, so we wanted it to be a big deal to other people.”

Although the front row was empty, the rest of the theater was packed. “Other people have to be influenced by your dreams,” Packer said. “It wasn’t that they thought we’d be great movie producers. It wasn’t that we were crazy, but just crazy enough it might work. And they wanted to be part of that. In the end, I wasn’t making this movie for the front row. I was making it for everyone.”

To Packer, to build a brand, you need to bring along your initial base, which for him was a largely African American audience. “Build that core and the fancy VIPs will come,” he said. “That’s my experience.”

He first focused on niche movies before moving to programs with broader appeal. He became so reliable in the eyes of the bigwigs, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences asked him to direct the Oscars in 2022, a true sign of mainstream acceptance.

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Credit: Akili-Casundria Ramsess

One of the best stories in the book revolves around Hart when he had his first starring role with Ice Cube in “Ride Along,” which filmed in Atlanta in late 2012. Packer had some successful films under his belt by then, including “The Gospel,” “This Christmas” and “Think Like a Man,” but “Ride Along” was a step up for him. The stakes were high.

“That was my chance to show Hollywood I could handle a movie with a budget bigger than the teens,” Packer said, meaning $20 million or more. “Kevin Hart, bless his heart, is an incredibly talented, loyal person. But I call him the spawn of Satan, and I mean it because he works too hard and overbooks himself.”

Packer had scheduled a crucial scene to be shot on location with Hart and Ice Cube one Saturday. But Hart inexplicably scheduled the taping of a stand-up special the Friday night before at Madison Square Garden in New York.

“I dropped enough bleeps and bombs to make Samuel L. Jackson proud,” Packer wrote in the book.

Parker accompanied Hart to New York, and the comedy show went off without a hitch. But in the green room, Packer found out Hart had committed to attend a nightclub after-party. Knowing they had a plane to catch to Atlanta, he watched in horror as New York Knicks star Carmelo Anthony strolled into the VIP room and told Hart: “You gon’ die tonight. Let’s turn up!”

“In a split second, I envisioned my entire movie and career going down the drain,” Packer wrote.

Packer knew he’d be held responsible if they didn’t get back to Atlanta, not Hart. So Packer begged Anthony to let Hart go. Taking pity on Packer, Anthony did so. With an improvised police escort, they made it to the airport with three minutes to spare. Crisis (barely) averted.

“When people show who they are, you have to believe them,” Packer said. “I knew Kevin Hart was the guy who juggles multiple projects at once, but I didn’t think he’d try to do it then. He was shooting the biggest movie of his career and decided to tape his biggest comedy special ever at the same time. From that point forward, I never let another actor throw that type of curveball at me at the last minute.”

The lesson? You have to know who you’re working with, what they are likely to do and what motivates them. “You can’t predict the unpredictable,” he said, “but you can at least put yourself in a position to be better equipped to handle it.”

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Another story that demonstrates tenacity is about Parker’s quest to get Beyoncé to star in his 2009 psychological thriller “Obsessed,” a twist on the movie “Fatal Attraction.”

She initially said she liked the concept but wouldn’t do it. When execs at Sony Pictures caught wind that Beyoncé liked the idea, they insisted she star in it. The project now needed her to move forward. So Packer had to either kill the project or convince Beyoncé to join the production. He revised the script. He designed a schedule to work around her busy recording and touring calendar. He kept asking. She said no five times.

But Packer finally wore her down, and she gave him the green light. The movie was a hit.

“We sometimes get so caught up on the rejection and emotion of the no,” Packer said. “We don’t take a moment to try to find the value. If it’s an important enough person with a valuable enough perspective, you may never get a yes, but it may make your project or business plan better for future conversations or considerations.”

After college in the late ‘90s, when Packer was trying to fund his first low budget movies, he spent three years delivering and selling The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

“I bagged 300 to 400 papers every day, placed them in my Honda Civic and delivered them in Clayton County,” he said. He also knocked on doors selling newspaper subscriptions.

“I spent a lot of time extolling the virtues of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution while trying not to get shot,” he said. “I hated the idea I was a salesman. That reminded me of guys in bad suits selling copy machines. But my dad told me everything is sales. He said I was good at it, and I just had to go out and do it.

“Selling newspapers helped me sell movies,” he said. “We are always selling ourselves and our values. We are building our own brands and selling ourselves. You have to embrace it.”