Chapter 244: He Really Had Too Much Time
Chapter 244: He Really Had Too Much Time
Under the impact of this depression, Donald Teplang’s assets rapidly shrank. In just over two years, his net worth had fallen from its peak of 1.7 billion dollars to the current 500 million dollars.
If it were only that, it would not have mattered too much. After all, the market value of many real estate companies had also shrunk drastically.
But before the depression began, Donald Teplang had been at the peak of his career, high-spirited and ambitious. He expanded his real estate company’s operations on a massive scale and, as a result, owed several hundred million dollars in loans to major banks and financial institutions. After the depression began, continuous losses brought his real estate company’s cash flow to the verge of collapse. It could go bankrupt at any time.
Although he relied on his personal connections to convince several banks to temporarily postpone the massive interest payments that had to be paid regularly on those loans, he could no longer borrow a single cent from any institution. Without funds, his real estate company could not operate normally and could only remain half-dead.
A few days earlier, Donald had happened to see an article about Eric in a newspaper. In an admiring tone, the article described Eric’s miraculous rise in detail and predicted that Firefly Films, which Eric owned, could earn at least 400 million dollars in net profit from the several films released that year, even by the most conservative estimate.
After carefully reading the article several times, Donald Teplang immediately became interested. After all, even large conglomerates with market values in the tens of billions might not have 200 million dollars in cash. If he could obtain this funding from Firefly, even just half of it, he could successfully survive this bankruptcy crisis.
Donald Teplang possessed one trait shared by all shrewd businessmen: he was good at seizing every opportunity he could. He did not think too much about the probability of success. As long as he tried, there were only two possible outcomes: success or failure. If he did not try, then there was only one possibility.
After making up his mind, Donald Teplang immediately found a detective agency and collected a large amount of detailed information about Eric. Among it, he discovered Eric’s acquisition of Jobs’s Pixar studio.
Pixar had always been a sore point for Jobs. Ever since he bought it, it had been losing money nonstop. Yet at the beginning of the year, Eric had acquired this studio for 20 million dollars. According to the information Donald gathered, Pixar’s losses this year would reach 10 million dollars, even higher than before. Therefore, the materials he collected rated Eric’s acquisition very poorly, even using words such as “foolish.”
But this was exactly what Donald wanted to see. He felt that aside from being extremely talented in film, this young man was not very smart in business. Or rather, outside of film, he was not very smart as a whole. If that was true, it would be perfect.
Donald Teplang had originally planned to personally rush to Seattle, but he soon learned that Eric had brought the crew to New York. This was his home turf.
Since he could not possibly contact a middleman for an introduction in such a short time, and Eric was busy filming and not attending any social events, Donald could only rashly come to him in person. Before this, he had also analyzed Eric’s personality. Since Eric had become famous at a young age, Donald felt that he must have the pride and vanity that boys of that age ought to have. To cater to Eric’s mindset, Donald Teplang deliberately arrived two hours early and made sure the crew knew about it.
At this moment, looking at the young man before him, who was only nineteen, whose chin had faint stubble but whose youthful greenness had still not completely faded, Donald Teplang felt a surge of envy.
Investment institutions’ valuation of Firefly after its merger with New Line had already exceeded 1 billion dollars. Calculated by shareholding, this boy’s net worth was already twice his own. Yet the other party had achieved all this in only a single short year.
But now was not the time for emotion. Donald Teplang quickly organized the series of arguments he had prepared in his mind and was just about to speak when Eric spoke first.
“Mr. Donald, are you a fan of mine?”
Donald Teplang froze for a moment. He instinctively wanted to nod, but then decided to tell the truth.
“No, I’m not. But I really liked Running Out of Time, the film you made. When it comes out on videotape, I’ll definitely buy a copy to keep.”
“Oh, thank you,” Eric said politely with a nod. He did not speak again. Watching the waiter bring their lunch and pour wine for them, he silently calculated in his heart. Donald Teplang clearly had not come to him for no reason, but Eric could not figure out why the man had sought him out.
Could he want a bit part in one of my movies?
Thinking of Donald Teplang’s tendency in his previous life to push into the entertainment industry, Eric subconsciously felt this was quite possible. But Sleepless in Seattle definitely had no chance for him. Did the man want to guest-star in Home Alone 2?
Eric had just been about to discard this “absurd” thought when he suddenly raised his head and carefully sized up Donald Teplang sitting across from him.
What the fuck!
Eric muttered speechlessly to himself, thinking, It can’t be this much of a coincidence, can it?
Because the thought had just occurred to him, when his mind instinctively recalled the plot of Home Alone 2, he suddenly realized that Donald Teplang had indeed made a cameo in that children’s film.
It was probably around the twenty-minute mark. When Kevin accidentally arrived in New York and checked into the Plaza Hotel near Central Park, Donald Teplang played a passerby who flashed by briefly and gave the little guy directions. He even had one line and a front-facing shot.
Eric had originally known there was such a passerby role. However, he had been so busy recently that, aside from the main actors of Home Alone 2, he had not paid any attention to those small roles at all and had left them all to the casting director.
As for a minor role like the one Donald Teplang cameoed in, there was not even any need to confirm an actor in advance. Usually, during filming, they would simply find an extra on the spot or pull someone from the crew to fill in.
So Eric had never thought much about that person’s identity before. If Donald Teplang were not sitting right in front of him now, Eric probably never would have remembered it.
After thinking for a few seconds, Eric still did not feel that guest-starring in such a nameless role with only one line had any meaning. All he could say was that this New York real estate tycoon really had too much time on his hands.