Chapter 287: The Act Was Too Fake
Chapter 287: The Act Was Too Fake
Only after receiving the waiter’s reminder did Eric stand up, but he saw that the person who came was not Murdoch alone. Elisabeth, who held her father’s arm, had come as well. The expression she gave Eric carried a faint reproach. Clearly, Elisabeth also knew that Eric had chosen this meeting place to embarrass her father a little.
After all, she was a woman who had once been intimate with him, so Elisabeth’s lightly annoyed expression made Eric somewhat embarrassed.
After Eric survived this crisis, because of the lawsuit over Friends as well as the production matters for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and The X-Files, Murdoch had proposed meeting with Eric more than once to discuss matters. After playing hard to get for a while, Eric finally agreed. He refused the suggestion to go to the Murdoch family estate and did not invite Murdoch to his own Point Dume estate in Malibu either. Instead, he chose this restaurant on Sunset Boulevard in the downtown area as the meeting place. Not only that, Eric had specifically had someone notify the paparazzi.
As long as the news that Murdoch had taken the initiative to contact him was exposed, not only would the media think Fox was lowering its head to Eric, the other major film companies would definitely form negative opinions about Fox and regard Fox as a traitor to the alliance of the seven major companies.
But Murdoch was clearly no easy opponent. Not only did he bring along his daughter, whose relationship with Eric was somewhat ambiguous, he even put on a pitiful appearance of being old and weak and needing someone to support him. After the media added a little embellishment, Eric would probably be portrayed as a narrow-minded young man, arrogant and unreasonable, who would only let matters go after forcing an old man to personally come and plead with him.
Eric cursed helplessly in his heart. He really wanted to pick up a cup of coffee and splash it over Murdoch’s head. This act was too fake. The old man was not even sixty yet, alright? As a transmigrator, Eric distinctly remembered how energetic Murdoch had still looked in his eighties in his previous life.
Seeing Eric’s expression, Murdoch wore an unreadable smile at the corner of his mouth. He came up to Eric and took the initiative to extend his hand. “Eric, hello. We meet again.”
“Hello, Mr. Murdoch.” Eric shook Murdoch’s hand, then looked at Elisabeth beside him. The woman gave him a roll of her eyes, but had no intention of greeting him.
“Liz, don’t be so rude,” Murdoch said, outwardly putting on the appearance of a strict father, though inwardly he was very pleased to see Eric suffer a setback in front of his daughter.
Elisabeth turned her dissatisfied expression toward her father again. Although she was very unhappy that Eric insisted on choosing this meeting place, she also did not approve of her father’s actions. She snorted softly, ignored the two men whose minds had more holes than a hornet’s nest, and walked straight to the table to sit down. She picked up the menu and began flipping through it on her own.
Murdoch and Eric looked at each other awkwardly at the same time.
“Mr. Murdoch, let’s sit as well,” Eric finally spoke first.
Murdoch nodded and sat down too. The three ordered their meals separately. After a brief silence, Murdoch took the initiative to find a topic. “Liz, how is the movie you’re preparing going?”
Elisabeth, who had originally lowered her head and was folding the napkin in front of her, determined not to speak, could only answer in a muffled voice when her father directly asked her, “Everything is ready. We’ll start filming at the end of the month.”
“Oh,” Murdoch nodded. “I heard that the female lead is that… Jodie Foster. Her acting seems quite good. This film should turn out very impressive.”
Elisabeth raised her head and glanced at Eric before saying, “Yes. Someone recommended that I let Jodie Foster play the female lead. After the audition, I also thought she was good, so I agreed.”
Seeing his daughter glance toward Eric, Murdoch did not need to think to know who had recommended the female lead. He smiled at Eric. “Eric, why not let Firefly distribute this film?”
Eric raised his brows. Before he could say anything, Elisabeth glared at her father in dissatisfaction. “Dad!”
Eric followed by saying, “Mr. Murdoch, it’s not that Firefly can’t distribute it. It’s just that our overseas channels are not yet complete. I’m afraid that would restrict this film’s box office performance.”
Eric had rare, sincere, and heartfelt words, but Murdoch took them as proof that Eric was not optimistic about this film. He knew Firefly’s distribution capability was limited and thought Eric did not want to use those limited distribution resources on a film he did not think much of, which was why Eric “tactfully” refused.
In fact, Murdoch himself had also read the script of The Silence of the Lambs, the film his daughter was producing. After all, Elisabeth’s film had an investment of nearly twenty million. Aside from the six million that Julia and Drew put together, all the rest had been “borrowed” from him, her father. Although Murdoch had an extremely strong desire for control, and in the parallel timeline still refused to hand over control of News Corporation to his children even in his eighties, in other areas, such as finances, he never treated his children poorly. Elisabeth had found her life goal as a film producer, so Murdoch was naturally very willing to support her and readily provided this investment. As for whether it made money, he had not considered it at all. He treated it as training his daughter’s abilities.
Moreover, although Murdoch did not understand film very well, he also knew this script was a restricted horror film in the cult category. This type of film rarely achieved high box office returns and was also very unlikely to receive recognition from awards. That was why he had just suggested that Eric’s Firefly distribute the film. As for his purpose, it was still the same as before. He wanted to match Eric with Elisabeth. Eric had now survived his biggest crisis. As long as he developed steadily in the future, he would definitely achieve great success in the media industry. If such a man could become his daughter’s husband, it would also bring enormous benefits to News Corporation in the future. Moreover, during the period when Eric was attacked, his daughter had even quarreled with him. Because of this, Murdoch confirmed that his daughter had a favorable impression of Eric, and quite a deep one at that. Since there was such a foundation, they naturally had to interact more often before anything could blossom, right?
Thinking of this, Murdoch smiled at Eric. “Eric, it’s only a horror film. New Line originally specialized in distributing horror films, didn’t it? So I believe Firefly can handle it well. If overseas distribution is truly necessary in the future, Fox will certainly cooperate.”
Since Murdoch showed such “good intentions,” Eric naturally could not continue refusing. He turned to Elisabeth, only to see the woman lowering her head in a huff, folding and refolding the napkin in her hands before tearing it into strips.
“Liz, what do you think?” Eric asked tentatively.
The woman curled her lips. “You two decide.”
“Then it’s settled,” Murdoch said with a smile, like a parent, before Eric and Elisabeth could say anything else.
Since Murdoch said this, and Elisabeth did not express opposition, Eric nodded.
At this time, the restaurant waiters began serving the three of them. The conversation paused briefly because of this. After the waiter opened the red wine and poured it for the three of them, Murdoch picked up his goblet, took a sip, praised it a few times, then asked Eric as though nothing were unusual, “Eric, you were born in 1970, weren’t you?”
Here came the real point.
Thinking this in his heart, Eric outwardly showed a reminiscent expression. “Yes. I was born in London, but I came to America when I was eight, so I don’t have many memories of London anymore.”
“You should go back and see it when you have time,” Murdoch said emotionally. “I remember more than thirty years ago, when Liz’s grandfather died of a heart attack, I had no choice but to give up my studies and rush back to take over the family business. I wasn’t much older than you are now. At that time, Sydney’s newspaper industry was controlled by three major families. When they saw that the Sunday Mail and News I operated were thriving, they began targeting those two newspapers. After I repeatedly refused their acquisition offers, they began using all kinds of methods. Within one year, the newspaper company I ran received almost more accusations and lawsuits than it had in many years before. I even received death threats. But I did not yield. I spent a full twenty years not only developing my newspaper company into the largest media group in Sydney, but also turning around and acquiring the companies of my former enemies.”
Although Murdoch saw Eric pretending to be indifferent, he knew Eric was definitely listening, so he continued, “So, Eric, what you experienced during this period is actually very normal. Therefore, I think you should look forward and not always fuss over these things.”
Only then did Eric smile and raise his head. “Of course I’m looking forward, Mr. Murdoch. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be sitting here so peacefully today.”
“Then…” Murdoch probed, “Withdraw the lawsuit over Friends. Also, The X-Files can wait, but Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, which was originally scheduled to air in March, is already at the end of February now, and the whole team still hasn’t made any movement. Eric, I think you should hurry up. I believe starting one month of promotion now, then launching this program after the Oscars at the end of the month, would be a very good timing.”
“I think so too.” Eric swallowed the food in his mouth, wiped the corner of his lips with a napkin, then fixed his gaze on Murdoch. “However, Mr. Murdoch, you also said just now that after you became number one in the Australian newspaper industry, you turned around and acquired your former enemies… Then what about this time? Because of this storm, Firefly’s five films at the end of the year suffered combined box office losses of no less than one hundred million dollars. Firefly’s losses from this are no less than thirty million. But I still don’t know who my enemies are.”