The next big step was turning a 15-minute television segment into a full-length feature film. “It’s always about finding the right writer,” admits Black. “Fortunately for us, we had just worked with Steven Conrad on The Weather Man. When we showed him the tape, he said, ‘I know how to make this into a movie. You’ve got to let me do it.’”

Despite giving his blessing to Escape Artists to develop a film inspired by his struggles, Gardner was initially wary of the license that needed to be taken to turn these events into a story for the screen, according to Blumenthal. “It was really important to us to meet him so we could reassure him that, no matter what changes we made for dramatic purposes, we would fight passionately to preserve the integrity of how he had lived, and continues to live, his life.”

After the initial meeting, the producers arranged for screenwriter Conrad and Gardner to meet in Chicago (where they both live). Gardner worked closely with the screenwriter, fielding many questions and serving as a sounding board. “Steve’s a Chicago kind of guy, which gave me a sense of comfort, since we had to spend a lot of time together. I told him my story and then he decided which elements could be used in the movie.

Steve was very clear with me that he was a dramatist, not a biographer. I told myself from the very start, ‘Chris, you’ve signed away your life rights, so you’ve got to give Steve artistic license.’” (While the movie was being made, Gardner decided to write his own version of his story in the non-fiction The Pursuit of Happyness, which was released earlier this year to strong reviews).

Among the most prominent changes were turning the character of Gardner’s son from an infant into a five-year-old boy and the elimination of the small stipend Gardner received from his internship. The script also required the creation of characters who were composites of various people Gardner had encountered during that period of his life, including the mother of his young son.

“Chris was very honest with me about that period in his life,” says Conrad. “We both thought that the most important thing for the movie was to dramatize what it feels like to be broke. He was okay with some dramatic invention as long as I got the feelings right, especially what it’s like when you have no one to depend on but yourself.”

In addition, Conrad added some color by making the lead character a whiz at the Rubik’s cube (which was a fad in the early 1980s), though the real Gardner had never picked up a Rubik’s cube in his life. In the movie, the cube serves as a cue to help the audience understand the extraordinary skills that make Will Smith’s character stand out from the other candidates in the internship program.

The producers were very pleased with Conrad’s first draft. Black, who had known Conrad since the early 1990s and had gone on to produce his first screenplay, Wrestling Ernest Hemingway, observes, “Steve’s script was magical, like nothing I’d ever read before. He took the true-life happenings and combined them with some original dramatic material — and it all worked.”

Producer Lassiter was equally enthusiastic. “When I had watched the initial ‘20/20’ tape, I found it fantastic and inspirational, but I didn’t know how you could make a movie out of it. When I read the script, I was amazed. Steve absolutely captured the essence of what the story should be — and from that point on Will and I were in.”