Chapter 192: I Have a Big Plan
Chapter 192: I Have a Big Plan
Hearing Eric say that, the girl immediately gave him a resentful look. “You stayed out all night, and your mobile phone was turned off. Who knew if you’d gotten lost? I was worried about you.”
Eric pretended not to see Drew’s face-changing skill. He walked over, picked the girl up, and tossed her aside before sitting down in the executive chair himself. “Alright, say it.”
Drew did not mind being tossed aside. She calmly circled around to the opposite side of the desk and pulled out a chair to sit down. Only then did Eric notice that the girl had actually changed into a relatively conservative pale purple long-sleeved blouse. She seemed to be wearing white casual pants too, with a pair of little leather shoes on her feet instead of the small sandals she usually wore that showed off her black-painted toenails. This proper, well-behaved young-lady outfit looked extremely abnormal.
Could it be… she was turning over a new leaf?
While Eric was imagining strange images of the girl doing embroidery, Drew suddenly said in a rare serious tone, “Eric, I have a big plan…”
The girl’s unusual solemnity made Eric feel rather uncomfortable instead, and he could not help joking, “You found some wild man and plan to conspire with him to seize my fortune?”
“You’re horrible. I’m talking about something serious.”
The girl instantly exploded, casually grabbed some document, and hurled it at him.
Eric caught the folder in a flurry and placed it aside. “Alright, alright. Tell me about your ‘big plan.’”
Drew glared at Eric. After confirming he would not keep messing around, she pulled over the small backpack that had been sitting on the corner of Eric’s desk and took out two printed copies of something. She handed one to Eric and placed the other in front of herself.
“Didn’t you write a copyright acquisition list a while ago, Eric? I plan to form a team and take all of these down one by one. This is the proposal I wrote. What do you think?”
Copyright acquisition list?
Eric froze for a moment before remembering. The day Drew acquired the rights to An Affair to Remember, she had pestered him for something else to do. Out of boredom, he had casually written down the original novels or television series adaptation rights behind many famous Hollywood films from his previous life. The list included the original rights for many classic or blockbuster films such as Forrest Gump, The Shawshank Redemption, Charlie’s Angels, The Bourne Identity, and Mission: Impossible. He had even written down the original rights to The Lord of the Rings series, which could not technologically begin production until ten years later. Altogether, there were more than twenty items. He had originally thought the girl would simply pick one to work on, but he did not expect her ambition to be this big. She wanted to swallow everything.
Eric raised his brows and lowered his head to open the girl’s thin so-called “proposal” and began reading.
“Drew, you misspelled ‘redemption.’ You’re missing an ‘e.’ Here, I’ll teach you…”
“Eric, if you keep acting like this, I’m going to be hurt.”
The girl looked as though she was about to cry. Eric quickly stopped joking and closed the document. “So, what exactly are you thinking?”
“I… I just want to do something. And I’m really interested in this.” After the girl finished speaking, she gave him a pleading look. “Eric, say yes, okay?”
Eric rubbed the paper and mentally calculated for a moment. “If each copyright averages two million dollars, acquiring all of them will cost at least around fifty million dollars…”
Drew thought Eric was about to refuse and anxiously said, “It’s not like you can’t afford that. I calculated it. You’ll receive several hundred million in revenue shares this year. And I’m not asking for fifty million all at once.”
“Don’t interrupt me,” Eric gestured for the girl to calm down. “Of course I can take out fifty million dollars. But have you thought about this? If you go out making such big moves to buy adaptation rights, you’re definitely going to alarm the other Hollywood film companies. When people see you, they’ll naturally connect you to me. You know the state of every film I make right now. So if it’s something I’ve taken a fancy to, they’ll definitely rush in and fight over it. Even if no one competes, once sellers know I’m the one buying, they’ll definitely take the opportunity to raise the price. So the final price will inevitably be inflated, and we won’t even know how much unnecessary money we’ll have to spend.”
After hearing Eric’s analysis, the girl lowered her head in disappointment and began picking at her fingers.
Seeing her disappointed expression, Eric soon thought of a more balanced solution. “Alright, Drew, don’t be sad. How about this? It definitely won’t work to form a team and operate on a large scale, but you can hire two or three people and place their positions under Flower Films. Then you can slowly make private acquisitions one by one. That way, there won’t be much movement, and you won’t alert anyone. This will also be enough to keep you busy until you’re sixteen. After you reach adulthood, you can do more of the things you want to do.”
Hearing Eric’s suggestion, Drew regained some hope. “But will three people be enough?”
Eric raised his fingers and explained to the girl. “One assistant to help you handle daily affairs, one lawyer familiar with this area of law, and one negotiator responsible for contacting rights holders. Three people are exactly enough. Any more would be unnecessary.”
“I guess that’s the only way,” Drew said, still somewhat dispirited.
Eric continued, “For the lawyer, I’ll have Edward recommend someone. The assistant is easy too. The key is the person in charge of rights negotiations. That kind of person is hard to find.”
“I’ll find that person myself,” Drew immediately raised her head and said.
Eric looked at the girl and remembered how she had found Lawrence Bender last time, so he did not object. “Alright. You decide on that person yourself. Also, don’t go around making promises in my name.”
Drew pouted in dissatisfaction. “Am I that stupid?”
“Smart people are even scarier when they do stupid things,” Eric said with a smile.
The girl let out an unconvinced little hum, stood up, and packed up her bag. “Then I’ll go first?”
Eric was about to nod when he suddenly remembered something. “Right, one more thing. Since you want to acquire all the rights on that list, I’ll make some notes on the adaptation rights we need to obtain. When the time comes, you’ll need to negotiate according to those requirements.”
“What notes?” Drew sat back down.
“For example, some novels require adaptation rights for at least twenty years, some require permanent rights, some television series need to be bought together with broadcast rights, while others only need one-time adaptation rights.” Eric explained briefly, then opened the proposal the girl had just given him. The last page happened to be the list he had written. “I’ll finish the notes and give them to you tonight.”
“You’re willing to come home tonight?” The girl immediately curled her lips, though it was only a habitual complaint. She quickly stood up again. “Nothing else this time, right? Then I’ll head back first.”
“Be careful on the road,” Eric said to the girl’s departing back.
“I know, I know, old man!”