Chapter 188: Vigilance
Chapter 188: Vigilance
“Liz, do we really have to do this? Maybe… maybe I could return the clothes to him,” Julia asked with flickering eyes as she looked at the iron barrel in the small yard outside her house, the one used for burning trash.
Elisabeth forcefully pulled the shirt little by little out of Julia’s clenched hands and stuffed it into the barrel. She struck a match and tossed it in as well. The flames flared briefly, and the pure cotton fabric quickly turned to ashes. In the end, only a few plastic buttons remained, flickering with tiny unwilling flames.
Dusting off her hands, Elisabeth patted Julia’s shoulder. Julia was staring blankly at the small flames inside the barrel.
“Alright, Julia. If you really want to completely drive that guy out of your life, this is a process you have to go through. Hurry and pack your luggage. I’ve already contacted a private plane. We’ll go to New York first. And if you haven’t had enough fun yet, we can fly to London or Paris afterward.”
“I think… I should communicate with my agent first. I remember I still have appearances scheduled over the next few days…”
“Hey, you’re already one of Hollywood’s top actresses now, Julia. You’re not some bottom-tier little actress still being tightly controlled by her agent without any freedom.”
“But…”
Elisabeth cut her off. “No buts! Where’s your passport? If you don’t want to pack luggage, just bring your passport and credit cards. Let’s have a spontaneous trip.”
More than an hour later, a Boeing private jet rose into the sky from Los Angeles International Airport.
Taking off at the same time was The Others director Jonathan Demme. After Michael Eisner’s reminder and a discussion with Eric, Jonathan Demme flew to Venice, Italy, early the next morning to prepare public opinion campaigns framing The Others around anti-war themes. Although there were still more than two weeks before the Venice Film Festival began, Jonathan Demme had no real connections in Italy, so he would have to explore everything on his own. Naturally, the earlier preparations started, the better.
Several days later, Eric only learned from Kapoor’s complaints during a casual conversation that Julia had been whisked away by the Murdoch family’s tomboy daughter. Aside from once again imagining lesbian scenarios in his head, Eric never connected the matter to himself in the slightest. He actually thought it was good for Julia to go out and relax for a while. The woman’s drunken behavior that night had indeed left quite an impression on him.
By mid-August, the first two episodes of Friends under Eric’s supervision had also been completed successfully.
And after his personal guidance, the six main cast members of Friends had fully entered their character states, greatly reducing the workload for the series director Kevin Bright, who would take over filming afterward.
Within a week after the screening event, Disney, Paramount, Warner, and the other film companies successively submitted their bids. Michael Eisner truly intended to win. Disney directly submitted its offer the day after the screening: both The Others and Steel Magnolias would receive 35% of North American box office revenue and 10% of overseas box office revenue. The moment Eric saw those numbers, he immediately felt a strong sense of déjà vu.
Jeffrey directly pointed out that Disney had essentially offered the exact same revenue-sharing terms Fox had given Eric for the films he personally directed. Moreover, those terms were based entirely on the assumption of North American box office earnings exceeding one hundred million dollars. Otherwise, Disney would hardly make any profit at all.
If calculated carefully, Disney’s conditions were actually far more generous than Fox’s. Back then, Fox had also secured the videotape distribution rights and merchandise rights to Eric’s films, earning huge profits from those areas as well. But this time, Firefly had clearly stated in advance that it would not transfer the videotape or merchandise rights for The Others and the other films—only the North American and overseas distribution rights.
After Disney, Paramount—who urgently wanted the distribution rights—offered the second-best terms. Warner and the others followed behind, while Columbia did not even submit a bid.
What surprised Eric the most was Fox.
The day after the screening event, Fox had already sent someone to retrieve the outline for Sleepless in Seattle. Several days later, Fox’s Carta Hunt personally came to Eric and brought a proposal: Fox hoped to swap Sleepless in Seattle for The Others. As for Steel Magnolias, they did not mention it at all.
Clearly, Elisabeth’s spur-of-the-moment idea had caught Barry Diller’s attention. And after evaluating Sleepless in Seattle, Fox had evidently become more optimistic about The Others, which led to this proposal.
Eric did not know what had happened behind the scenes, but he rejected Fox’s suggestion outright. Modifying the contract would inevitably require another round of negotiations, and there was no telling what complications might arise during the process. Since Disney had already offered the same terms, Eric naturally had no desire to create unnecessary trouble for himself.
Once the competition was settled, Firefly and Disney quickly signed the distribution contracts for the two films.
“Eric, I heard you acquired Pixar?” Michael Eisner asked during the reception after the contract signing.
Eric calmly swirled the red wine in his glass. “Yeah. I’m interested in animated films, so I bought it to play around with.”
“You really are… young,” Michael Eisner said while shaking his head, apparently thinking of something. “Then it was also your decision to cut off Pixar’s cooperation with Disney regarding 2D animation rendering, right?”
“Disney is such a giant company. Surely it won’t care about a tiny little Pixar. As long as Disney gives the word, who knows how many animation studios would be willing to cooperate with you.”
Michael Eisner smiled helplessly. Although Disney had started from animation, after Michael Eisner took over, he indeed placed less emphasis on animation than previous company leaders. This had even caused opposition from some members of the board. However, as Disney continued to flourish, those opposing voices gradually weakened.
But valuing animation less was only relative. Compared to his predecessors, Michael Eisner simply placed greater focus on live-action films. That did not mean he disregarded Disney animation’s status in Hollywood.
Therefore, as Eric gradually rose to prominence, his acquisition of Pixar half a year earlier had also drawn Michael Eisner’s attention. More importantly, Michael Eisner had heard that Pixar was developing a completely new form of 3D animation, something that naturally put him on alert.