Chapter 192: I Have a Big Plan
Hearing what Eric said, the girl immediately gave him a resentful look: "Where have you been last night? I've called you, but your phone has been switched off. I am so worried about you."
Pretending not to notice her changing face, Eric went toward her, picking her up and putting her on the other side, and then he sat on the chair: "All light. Tell me."
Not caring about that, Deru went to the opposite of the desk and sat on another office chair. It was not until then that Eric noticed she had worn a light purple long sleeve shirt of a conservative style. She seemed to be wearing casual pants and a pair of shoes instead of a pair of open toe scandals that she had been accustomed to wearing before. It was abnormal for her to dress up like a decent and elegant girl.
Was she converted to an elegant girl?
When Eric was thinking about her quirky behavior of embroidering a flower, she suddenly said: "Eric, I have a big plan."
Eric felt a little discomfort on the little girl's rare decency and he could not help but make a joke: "Have you found a boyfriend to conspire to have my property?"
"You are so hateful. I am being serious."
The little girl became angry, grabbing some documents and throwing them away to Eric.
Eric caught those documents hurriedly, putting them aside and said: "Now tell me your big plan."
Deru glared at him. Having ascertained that Eric won't make any jokes, she pulled the bag toward her and then pulled out two sets of hardcopies, one for Eric and one for herself. She told Eric:" You have written a purchasing order for copyright. I decide to establish a team to get all of them one by one. Here is the plan. How do you like it?"
A purchasing order for copyright?
Eric was caught off guard before realizing that Deru had asked him to give her other works to do after she acquired the copyright of An Affair to Remember. Out of boredom, he wrote down the names of the original novels made into well-known Hollywood movies and those adapted from TV series that he remembered in his previous life, including the copyright of such classic or blockbuster films as the Forrest Gump, The Shawshank Redemption, Charlie's Angels, The Bourne Identity, Mission: Impossible, etc. He had even penned down the original series of The Lord of the Rings. He thought the little girl would still select one from those 20-some names. But her ambition was so big that she wanted to get them all.
Eric frowned, flipping the thin proposal to read.
"Deru, redemption is spelled wrongly. You've missed 'e'. Let me teach you…"
"Eric, I will be sad if you continue do to so."
Seeing her almost bursting into tears, Eric stopping joking her, closing the document and said: "Why do you want to do it?"
"I just want to do something and I am interested in doing it." Deru said with a begging expression: "Eric, can you give me a promise?"
Counting in his head, Eric said: "It will take at least 50 million US dollars to acquire the copyright of all those films if the average cost stands at 2 million US dollars."
Deru thought that Eric would refuse her and she hurriedly replied: "I've calculated that you can get hundreds of millions of revenue-sharing this year. Since I am not asking you to give me 50 million at once, I don't think it's hard for you to provide me that amount of money."
"Don't interrupt me," Eric made a gesture towards her to let her calm down. "I can certainly give you 50 million US dollars. But have you ever thought that such a big move of acquiring the copyright will attract the attention of many film companies. They will certainly associate your action with me. All of these film companies will compete for the copyright of the movie that catches my fancy. Even if they don't compete with me, sellers will take advantage of this opportunity to increase price of the copyright if they know I am going to purchase it. Therefore, the final price will be brought up and we have to spend more money than expected."
After Eric's analysis, Deru drooped his head while rubbing her fingers.
A compromised approach occurred to Eric when he see the girl feeling disappointed. "Deru, come one. Instead of finding a team to acquire the copyright in a large scale, you can hire two or three people in the name of Flower Studios. Then you can slowly start purchasing the copyright one by one, which won't keep them on the alert. It will keep you busy until you are 16. You can do more things after you are a grow-up."
Hearing what Eric said, Deru had a glimmer of hope: "Is three people enough?"
Eric stretched out his fingers: "It's enough. An assistant to help you deal with daily affairs, one lawyer familiar with the law in this field and one negotiator responsible for contacting the publisher."
"That is the only way." Deru said with disappointment.
Eric continued: "I will inform Edward to recommend a lawyer for you. It's also easy to hire an assistant. The only person that is difficult to find is a negotiator for copyright."
"I can find this person by myself." Deru immediately raised her head and replied.
Looking at her, Eric didn't object her when remembering that she had found Lawrence Band by herself. "All right, You can just play it by ear. But don't make promises in my name."
Deru felt unpleasant with a duck face: "Do I look stupid?"
"It's even more horrible when a smart person does dumb things." Eric replied with a smile.
Snorting gently, the little girl stood up with her bag packed up: "Shall I leave?"
Eric thought about something when he was about to nod his head: "There is one more thing. I will make some comments on the adaptation right for those films that you are going to acquire. You need to negotiate with them according to those requirements."
"What kind of comments?" Deru sat down and asked.
"For some novels, we need to get twenty years of adaptation right, for others, we need to acquire the permanent adaptation right and still only one time right of adaptation of others need to be purchased. There are some TV series who copyright needs to be bought together with the broadcasting right." Eric explained to her, flipping to the end of the proposal that contained the film names he listed. "I will give it to you after making comments."
"You will come back home tonight?" The girl immediately curled her lips, indicative of her habitual complaints. But soon she stood up and said: "If it is fine now, I will go home."
"Be careful." Eric told her from behind.
'Ok, old man!"