Chapter 218: Fox's Copyrights

When Robert Shaye left, Eric said to Jeffrey, "Jeffrey, because of this deal, Firefly will have an extra $80 million expenditure this year, and the funds will be very tight. So, at the end of this year, how about you take equity instead of cash for your share as the producer?"

Jeffrey was surprised for a few seconds before he smiled and replied, "I don't have any problem with that, but Eric, are you doing this to dilute Bob's equity?"

"Of course not," Eric chuckled and said, "If I do that, Bob will likely kill me. I will transfer a part of my equity to you. I hope you don't mind if it's not a lot."

"No, I'll be fine with whatever you give me," Jeffrey quickly replied before he continued, "If not for me wanting to see Firefly reach the top, I would have retired already. In fact, some time ago, I bought a  2,000 acre farm in Maryland. It was where my wife grew up. Currently, someone else is looking after it for me. When Firefly no longer needs me, I will voluntarily retire, go to that farm to grow corn, hunt, and guard it while I enjoy my twilight years."

Hearing his words, Eric couldn't help but feel a little emotional. If it weren't for the excellent film crew trained by Jeffrey and his deceased wife, it would be hard to imagine that Firefly could grow so quickly. When Jeffrey finished speaking, Eric pretended to be annoyed and said, "Alright already Jeffrey, you are not Juliet's Romeo nor the mermaid's prince, you are just an old fat guy. Stop acting all romantic, alright?"

Jeffrey knew that Eric didn't mean any ill will. The talented young man just wasn't good at expressing his emotions.

Jeffrey chuckled and said, "Of course, I am not any one of the people you mentioned. I am Solina's Jeffrey."

"Ugh, I'm going to throw up."

Jeffrey chuckled and replied, bitterly, "But, Eric, if I really leave in the future, don't forget to visit me at the farm from time to time. You know, I don’t have many... relatives."

Eric asked, carefully, "You... and your son haven't reconciled yet?"

Jeffrey sorrowfully replied, "We still don't get along very well. Not to mention, Chris is always busy and I hardly see him, so it's not surprising that our relationship is quite strained."

Eric was a little curious and asked, "Speaking of it, I have never seen your son. You just said that his name is Chris. What does he do for a living?"

"He works on Wall Street."

'Wall Street...' Eric thought and couldn't help but ask, "Which company on Wall Street?"

"Morgan Stanley."

"Oh!" Eric couldn't help but exclaim. Although he didn't know a lot about Wall Street, he knew that Morgan Stanley was one of the four largest investment banks alongside Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup.

"I was just thinking about letting him work at Firefly if possible. But since he works at the famous Morgan Stanley, he likely won't care much for our small film company."

Hearing Eric's words, Jeffrey couldn't help but feel a little proud. Even if his relationship with his son is distant and strained, any father would be proud of his son's excellence.

"Eric, if you want to invest in the future, you can contact him. Although I am not sure about his specific job, Chris has always been brilliant. When he was at the University of Pennsylvania, he received a full scholarship, and I never had to pay a single penny for his tuition."

Hearing Jeffrey's words, many ideas popped into Eric's mind.

However, he quickly suppressed these ideas. He had never even seen Chris Hansen's face. Of course, he wouldn't make any decisions based on Jeffrey's words. Still, he decided to be on the lookout for Chris Hansen.

While Eric and Jeffrey were chatting, Barry Diller arrived.

Other than Robert Shaye and Jeffrey at Firefly, as the head of Fox TV Network, Barry Diller was the one who paid the most attention to Friends.

Barry Diller had originally wanted to wait for Murdoch to come down to ask about the result of the negotiation. However, for unknown reasons, even after Eric had been down for a while, Murdoch never reappeared, so Barry Diller had no other choice than to approach Eric.

"Hello, Mr. Hansen, Eric," Barry Diller smiled and greeted Eric and Jeffrey.

Jeffrey knew that Barry Diller wanted to speak to Eric so after nodding at him in reply, he graciously said, "Eric, I see an old friend over there. You two talk."

After Jeffrey left, Barry Diller didn't immediately ask about Friends. Instead, he softly asked, "Were you the one who bought the copyright to An Affair to Remember?"

Eric knew that it was fruitless to lie to a smart person like Barry Diller, so he simply nodded.

"I actually didn't care much when I saw the document regarding the sale of the copyright of An Affair to Remember, but then I read the script of Sleepless in Seattle," said Barry Diller before he looked at Eric and continued, clearly dissatisfied, "Eric, that was completely unnecessary. Hasn't the cooperation between us been very pleasant? If you had asked for it yourself, we might have sold you the copyright for just $1 million, not $3.5 million."

Hearing Barry Diller's words, Eric felt somewhat embarrassed just thinking about the millions of An Affair to Remember video tapes that would sell after  the release of Sleepless in Seattle......

He couldn't imagine what Barry Diller would look like at that time, but the section manager who sold him the copyright of An Affair to Remember would certainly look very miserable.

Naturally, Barry Diller didn't know what Eric was thinking. He believed that Eric was embarrassed because he felt ashamed of going behind his back. He patted Eric on the shoulder and said, "Forget it, this matter is over. Remember, if you need help next time, just ask me, okay?"

"Of course, I will," Eric nodded sincerely, and pretended to toast with Barry Diller gratefully. At the same time, Eric made a decision in his heart to remind Drew to purchase all the adaptation rights related to Fox in the copyright list he gave her before the end of the year.

After the release of Sleepless in Seattle at the year's end, Fox would likely never sell anything to him.