章 574: Chapter 575: Copyright Treasure Trove
[Chapter 575: Copyright Treasure Trove]
After acquiring Disney, Firefly Films already had its own music department, but compared to the other major movie studios, the music division from Disney was significantly smaller. Eric initially founded New Horizon Records just to release the single "New Divide," which was hardly worth mentioning.
At this time, Firefly Films was thriving, with company revenues and profits making the other major players envious. Apart from Eric, the time traveler who could see the future, perhaps all the other executives at Firefly would agree with Jeffrey Katzenberg, advocating for an expansion of Firefly's music division.
Hearing Katzenberg's recent remarks, Eric didn't want to discourage his enthusiasm. He said, "Jeffrey, Geffen Records isn't suitable for us right now. We should focus all our resources and energy on acquiring the television network. Trying to eat too much at once will often lead to choking."
Katzenberg understood this principle well. He nodded on the surface, though he quietly resented it, being somewhat uncertain about New York's investment firms. However, he knew very well how scattered his boss's attention truly was. Rumor had it that during the promotional process for Jurassic Park, Eric had whimsically traveled to Finland to acquire a mobile phone company.
To be honest, before hearing that, Katzenberg had no idea where Finland even was.
By this time, after regular office hours and sending David Geffen off, Eric had no intention of returning to the office. While watching Interview with the Vampire, he had thought about online music platforms and planned to immediately look up related information upon his return.
However, remembering that there was still a large group of people in the office when they left, Eric pointed towards the conference room and asked, "Jeffrey, what's going on with them?"
If it had just been Firefly's employees working late, Eric wouldn't have thought it strange, but he recalled that Neil Jordan and Cruise were also still in the conference room.
Katzenberg explained, "The company arranged a small cocktail party for them to celebrate the film's completion, just at a nearby hotel. David Geffen is sure to make an appearance later tonight."
He had no intention of attending. After bidding farewell to Katzenberg, Eric returned to Malibu.
...
When Eric wasn't in Los Angeles, Drew usually didn't stay there either. Aside from a few maintenance personnel, not many people were around the Liberty City Manor.
Carrying his suitcase into the spacious and quiet hall of the villa, Eric couldn't help but take a deep breath.
This was his realm - a one-person kingdom.
Eric enjoyed solitude immensely. Quietly placing his luggage in the bedroom, he ordered takeout for dinner.
...
After eating, Los Angeles was in complete darkness. Eric settled into his study, powered up his computer, and began organizing some ideas he had thought about earlier in the afternoon.
With Eric's relentless investment, Yahoo's portal was vastly comprehensive. He even found an online music-sharing site within its directory, which surprised him.
Due to the copyright laws, this site, named "Underground Internet Music Archive," had only over a hundred tracks available for sharing. Nevertheless, Eric found something that piqued his interest. The site utilized MP2 audio format, which was clearly a precursor to MP3.
Compiling some of the information he had gathered into a document, Eric opened his email and started writing to Steve Mitnick, the head of Hotmail.
Through recent online interactions, Eric had developed a profound understanding of the leaders from browser companies, Yahoo, and Hotmail. He had already decided to merge Yahoo and Hotmail's services before 1995, with Steve Mitnick being the selected person, whom he had yet to meet.
...
After sending the email, Eric stood up, stretched, and randomly picked a novel from the bookshelf. He brewed himself a pot of coffee, turned off the overhead light in his study, and settled under the desk lamp to read quietly.
The study had excellent soundproofing; the sound of the waves couldn't filter in. Occasionally, he looked up to see the lights reflecting on the Malibu shoreline, casting a shimmering silver glow on the water.
Time passed, and eventually, a notification sound came from the computer speakers. Eric got up, walked to his desk, and turned on the monitor, discovering that Steve Mitnick had responded.
Mitnick had a low opinion of the MP2 audio format. In his email, he threw around a barrage of technical jargon that Eric couldn't quite understand.
However, in the end, they agreed to purchase the patent for MP2 audio format to improve the technology.
At the end of the email, Eric suddenly remembered that during their previous discussion about instant messaging software, Mitnick had said he could finish it in three months. Now, it had nearly been three months.
Yet, when he asked, Mitnick had postponed it, claiming there were still some details that needed improving. Eric had experienced this during the development of Hotmail, so he wasn't surprised. With Hotmail's smooth functionality, there was no reason to rush him. There was no urgent need; he let them take their time.
...
After discussing business matters, Eric intended to read a little more before going to bed. To his surprise, he discovered Drew sitting cross-legged on the sofa behind him, engrossed in a book.
Seeing Eric standing up, she tossed the book aside and leaped toward him.
Her soft little body dove into his arms, causing Eric to fall back into the leather chair.
He wrapped his arms around the squirming girl and asked, "When did you get back? You startled me."
Drew sat on Eric's lap, nuzzling against him, and cheerfully replied, "About ten minutes ago. I saw you busy, so I didn't want to disturb you."
"Oh, my girl suddenly grew considerate. What've you been up to while I was gone from Los Angeles?"
"I wasn't getting crazy! I've been busy starting Flower Films! I rented a three-story office building at Venice Beach, really close to Firefly's Playa Vista base. What do you think?"
After the acquisition by 20th Century Fox, Drew secured $42 million from her 30% stake. According to Eric's plan, he had sold Flower Films to Drew for a symbolic price.
"That's great! You can take advantage of the studio's resources, which are much better than Firefly's headquarters. Burbank is just too far from Playa Vista."
"Hehe, guess what? I snagged someone prestigious to be the CEO of Flower Films!"
"Michael Eisner?" Eric suppressed a laugh and pretended to be shocked, gently patting her legs. "Good job! I've always disliked him. Since he ended up in your hands, you should take care of him properly."
Drew pouted, dissatisfied with Eric's joke, and playfully twisted her small waist: "I worked really hard for that. Come on, guess again!"
"Without any hints, how am I supposed to guess?"
She said, "It's a woman, and you already know her."
A woman?
Eric thought for a moment and exclaimed in surprise, "It can't be Paula Wagner, can it?"
The only manager Eric could think of that matched the power of Flower Films was Paula Wagner from Cruise/Wagner Productions. He had planned for Nicole to steal Wagner from Cruise's side, but it seemed Drew had gotten there first.
However, noticing Drew's brief pause of confusion, Eric realized he must have guessed wrong.
Drew too quickly recalled Paula Wagner's identity and disdainfully replied, "Not at all! She's not worth my effort."
It was then Eric remembered that although Paula Wagner had branched out on her own with Tom Cruise a few years prior, she hadn't produced any outstanding works like Mission: Impossible. Cruise's production company had barely made a splash for the last couple of years, with no notable successes. It seemed she really wasn't worth Drew's effort to recruit.
"Alright, no more riddles. Just tell me who it is."
"It's Amy Pascal."
This time, Eric was genuinely surprised. Although Amy Pascal was merely a vice president at Columbia Pictures, even with Peter Guber messing Columbia up, with her many years in Hollywood, switching to any other major film company for a VP's position would have been an easy feat. He hadn't expected her to be convinced to join the empty Flower Films.
However, they did have a connection; in the original timeline, the Charlie's Angels series was successfully filmed with Amy Pascal's support.
"Okay, tell me how you tricked Amy into joining your empty shell company?"
"I promised her she could be the CEO of Columbia in three years."
"Oh... uh, don't you think that's a bit too ambitious?"
She blinked innocently: "You wanted me to spin off Flower Films; didn't you want me to take over a big studio?"
"That's Columbia! I was aiming for MGM, not them!"
Even if Sony realized what a mess Peter Guber had left behind at Columbia and wanted to step back, with Hollywood's rapid growth, it wouldn't be easy for them to get a good price for Columbia compared to what they initially paid for the full acquisition.
Eric had aimed to avoid monopolies by letting Drew and Flower Films leave Firefly to focus on MGM. Compared to the massive Columbia, the struggling MGM could easily be acquired for just over a billion dollars.
"MGM is terrible! I don't want to go near that," Drew replied, shaking her head discontentedly, then changing the subject. "Eric, I still have over $40 million to spend. Which film do you think I should start shooting?"
Eric recognized Drew's intent to change the subject and let it go. After all, bringing Amy Pascal on board would only have benefits and no downsides. As for Drew's promise, Eric believed that she and Amy Pascal both had an understanding. Since she chose to leave Columbia to help Drew, she likely already had her own plans.
After so long, Eric almost forgot how many copyrights Drew had gathered. When he asked, she got up from him, ran over to the bookshelf, and returned with a folder to hand to him, saying, "Here, everything is right here."
As Eric was about to review it, she squeezed back into his side. Thankfully, the leather chair was spacious, and Drew's petite frame didn't make it feel cramped.
Eric adjusted the chair's footrest and opened the folder; together they looked at a list of copyright materials.
Initially, Eric had written down plenty, but due to leaks, some had been snatched away, and some copyrights had just vanished. The current list didn't have too many names.
Beyond the Charlie's Angels rights, which had already been transferred to DreamWorks, Eric listed several other copyrights with significant commercial potential like Mission: Impossible, The Bourne Identity, Forrest Gump, and The Lord of the Rings...
Upon seeing The Lord of the Rings, Eric was astonished to discover that Drew had acquired the rights to all of Tolkien's works, including The Silmarillion. This was definitely a good thing.
He remembered that the initial rights to The Lord of the Rings had been secured by the Weinstein brothers from Miramax in the early '90s. After a series of transfers, it finally ended up with New Line Cinema, ultimately appearing on the big screen thanks to Peter Jackson's efforts, which took a full decade.
However, due to New Line's various covert income practices and withheld revenue shares angering the rights holders of The Lord of the Rings series, after filming The Hobbit, the project stalled because the Weinsteins hadn't secured the rights to The Silmarillion initially. Although the rights holders offered many grand explanations, Eric knew deep down it was merely a failure to reach an agreement on profit distribution.
In addition to these four highly commercial rights, Eric noticed the original novel's rights for The Shawshank Redemption. While it was an absolute classic, it couldn't be counted as a box office hit and was more suited for an Oscar challenge.
Aside from those, the other copyrights were lackluster, simply ideas Eric had brainstormed at the time.
After discussing for a while, Eric realized that just relying on the potential of these copyrights wouldn't be enough to secure Columbia.
Thinking for a moment, Eric recalled Sony's eventual revival in the original timeline with Spider-Man. Currently, the film rights for Spider-Man and other famous Marvel superheroes were still held by those insignificant independent studios. If he could obtain these, it would add leverage to Flower Films and ensure they could reclaim those rights before facing a risk of escalating prices when they finally sought to acquire Marvel in the future.
*****
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