Chapter 95: Television Series
Chapter 95: Television Series
After only a few puffs, Barry Diller irritably crushed the cigarette into the ashtray.
“So, there’s no way you’re going to change your mind?”
“Mr. Diller, I could have completely skipped discussing this with Fox and simply thrown together some random movie to fulfill the contract. If quality didn’t matter, I could even produce a film within ten days.”
Barry Diller understood that the boy before him had already made up his mind completely.
For a moment, he did entertain the thought of teaching this ignorant little brat a lesson. But he quickly dismissed the idea.
If he did that, the two sides would probably end up like Eric and Columbia had after their previous cooperation—parting ways completely after a single project.
A few days ago, he had also heard the news that Columbia president Brandon Tartikoff Cohen had suddenly been removed from his position. At the time, Barry had found it strange. Since The Coca-Cola Company was already planning to sell Columbia, why go through such unnecessary trouble?
Only now did he understand.
It was all done to clear obstacles and rebuild cooperation with the young man sitting before him.
If he made any moves now and completely fell out with Eric, then after fulfilling the contract, the boy would likely cut ties with Fox just as thoroughly. That would only end in mutual losses.
Since the matter could no longer be reversed, Barry Diller quickly turned his thoughts toward obtaining some additional benefits to compensate for the loss.
“Eric, you should understand that by doing this, you’re effectively forcing Fox out of the summer box office competition. Although what you’re doing doesn’t violate the contract, it will still damage the relationship between both parties. To appease Fox’s shareholders, perhaps the original contract should be revised a little?”
The moment Eric heard Barry Diller’s words, he immediately refused.
“Mr. Diller, the contract definitely won’t be revised. I won’t make any concessions on profit sharing. I already said earlier that I owe Fox nothing. The reason I’m sitting here discussing this with you is simply because I don’t want the relationship between us to sour. We can only discuss a mutually beneficial compensation plan, not something that harms either side’s interests. That’s the only way our cooperation can last long-term.”
“Alright then. I assume you already have a proposal?”
Eric nodded.
“Yes. My Firefly company recently finalized plans for three additional films. Fox can choose one of them to distribute.”
Barry Diller almost laughed.
What kind of compensation was that?
If Fox wanted films to distribute, all it needed to do was call out once, and independent studios would come crying and begging to work with them.
Then Barry Diller suddenly thought of the Fox Television manager he had just thrown out of the office earlier and came up with another idea.
“Eric, are you interested in television series?”
The moment Eric heard the words “television series,” the image of that stubborn little woman insisting on staying in New York to film a flop workplace sitcom immediately appeared in his mind.
Friends had generated a staggering four billion dollars in profit for Warner Bros. over ten years.
Eric had never intended to let that television series slip away.
Although he had not watched all ten seasons in his previous life, he had happened to watch the first two seasons. With the cheat-like advantage brought by reincarnation, every detail remained clearly imprinted in his memory.
As long as the first season successfully became popular, would he really have to worry about finding screenwriters to continue writing later stories?
“Mr. Diller, to be honest, I’ve already had some ideas for television series for quite a while. But perhaps I didn’t explain clearly earlier. Among the three films Firefly is producing, although I won’t personally direct them, I personally wrote the scripts for two of them. I’ll also serve as producer and retain final cut rights. That’s essentially no different from me directing them myself. As for the third film, I plan to have Julia Roberts star as the female lead. No one doubts Julia’s current box office appeal, right?”
After hearing Eric’s explanation, Barry Diller answered without hesitation:
“No problem, Eric. Fox will take all three Firefly films. The television series can also be produced simultaneously. You only need to handle the scriptwriting.”
Although Barry Diller appeared generous, Eric still detected a faint trace of excitement in his tone.
Clearly, Barry Diller had also judged the value of those three films.
Originally, Eric had never intended to distribute those three movies himself. He had specifically selected projects with blockbuster potential. They were not the “cannon fodder” films he planned to use to gradually expand distribution channels.
But at the same time, he had never intended to hand all three films to a single studio for distribution, much less give them all to Fox.
He deeply understood the saying: a liter of kindness earns gratitude, but a bushel breeds resentment.
If you give too much to one person alone, eventually they begin to treat it as something they naturally deserve. The moment you stop giving one day, resentment immediately appears.
In fact, Barry Diller had already shown signs of that just now.
Eric’s actions did not violate the contract, yet Barry Diller still felt Fox had suffered a major loss.
Shaking his head, Eric raised one finger.
“Mr. Diller, either one television series or one movie. Only one can serve as compensation. I have great confidence in the box office potential of those three films. Their potential is no less than movies I direct myself. If Fox takes too many, I’m worried your distribution capabilities won’t be able to keep up.”
Barry Diller quickly calculated another proposal.
“Eric, then one television series plus one movie.”
“One television series, or one movie.”
“Eric…”
“...”
The two argued inside the office for quite a while.
In the end, because of his ambitions for the television network, Barry Diller still chose the television series.
If not for developing the network, Barry Diller would never have left Paramount Pictures in the first place. So Eric was not surprised by the choice.
However, Barry Diller still did not let Eric off easily. He forced Eric to agree to personally direct the first two episodes of the series.
Eric had not expected Barry Diller to come up with such a forward-thinking idea.
More than ten years later, inviting famous Hollywood directors to direct the first few episodes of television series would become a popular trend in American TV dramas. And as prestige television rose to dominance, Hollywood directors would gradually abandon their pride and pick up television directing jobs one after another.
In truth, Barry Diller was nowhere near as visionary as Eric imagined.
Even Barry himself considered the idea of having a famous Hollywood director make television dramas rather “absurd.”
In this era, film directors working on television series was considered degrading.
Usually, television directors slowly transitioned into filmmaking. Rarely was it seen happening the other way around.
The only reason Barry Diller proposed that Eric direct the first two episodes was because he had failed to secure the film distribution rights and wanted to play a small prank on him out of spite.
Originally, Barry Diller thought Eric would rather die than agree.
Unexpectedly, after only brief consideration, Eric nodded in agreement.
Given Hollywood directors’ lofty status in this era, once news spread that Eric was directing a television series, he would undoubtedly be criticized by self-important conservatives for “degrading himself.”
Barry Diller never imagined that his careless and rather rude request would later create such an enormous sensation, even prematurely ushering in the trend of major directors helming the first few episodes of prestige television dramas.
After reaching an understanding with Fox, Eric finally let go of his remaining concerns.
The cooperation agreement with Columbia was quickly finalized.
Since they were being so generous, Eric directly raised the production budget to forty million dollars. If another twenty million were added later for marketing and distribution costs, then based on Columbia’s twenty-five percent revenue share, the North American box office would need to reach 240 million dollars before Columbia could recover its costs.
Of course, if overseas box office revenue were included, perhaps only 200 million dollars would be necessary.
Eric estimated Columbia had no intention of recovering costs at all.
As long as the movie became a major box office hit and gave investors the illusion of limitless prospects, the stock price would immediately rise.
For every one-dollar increase in stock price, Columbia’s market value would increase by 180 million dollars.
Wasn’t Sony Group Corporation rich beyond reason?
Then pay up!
Even under these circumstances, Eric still stingily refused to hand over full rights to Running Out of Time to Columbia. Instead, the rights would be jointly owned by Columbia and Firefly.
After all, since Columbia was spending so much money, refusing to give them anything at all would have been too ruthless.
Although one male lead died at the end of the film, as long as it succeeded, they could always follow the route from Eric’s previous life—replace the male lead and shoot a sequel.
That would become another enormous source of profit.