August 12, 1978.
James sat behind his desk with a newspaper spread open in front of him. A half-finished cup of coffee.
The entertainment headlines were impossible to miss.
Grease continued its march toward history, inching closer to a box office record that had stood for over a decade from sound of music.
Jaws 2, despite taking a beating from critics, was still pulling audiences into theaters across the country.
Hollywood had found its giants for the summer.
Which suited James perfectly.
Friday the 13th had become a success, Nearly thirty million dollars in domestic gross in two months still going strong with estimated box office at the end of it's run being close to $40 million but compared to grease and jaws on course to 200 or 300 million it's a total different ball game.
James and Friday the 13th were a small fry compared to these juggernaughts.
His movie was praised by industry insiders for profit it made but it had nothing to give to media to sell papers or news aside from his age of being 18 year old director which only got hype for a week during the first week of movies release.
Nobody was camping outside his office.
No photographers waited near his apartment.
Studio executives certainly knew who he was.
The average moviegoer didn't.
For now, he preferred it that way.
The office door opened.
Linda walked in carrying her purse and immediately stopped.
A set of keys sat in the middle of her desk.
She stared at them.
Then stared at James.
Then back at the keys.
Slowly, she picked them up.
"No."
James took a sip of coffee.
"Yes."
Her eyes widened.
"You actually bought it."
"The dealership finally gave up negotiating."
Linda looked down at the keys again.
The Mustang keychain was still attached.
For a moment she simply held them in her hand.
A smile slowly spread across her face without hesitation she walked around the desk, leaned down, and kissed him.
She was already heading back toward the door.
"Where are you going?
"To drive Our car."
Outside, the Mustang sat in the parking lot
Linda stopped briefly to admire it before reaching for the door.
"Don't scratch it."
She looked offended.
"I am an excellent driver."
"You nearly hit a mailbox in Oklahoma."
"That mailbox appeared out of nowhere."
"It was stationary."
Linda ignored him.
The engine roared to life.
She lowered the window.
"Anything else while I'm out?"
"Two cheeseburgers, Large fries, Large Coke."
"Anything healthy?"
"That sounds healthy."
"It absolutely does not."
Linda shook her head.
"One day you're going to die because of your diet."
"Probably."
The sound of the Mustang faded into traffic.
James looked at the empty desk across from his, He picked up his newspaper again seeing if there was anythings else.
Twenty minutes later
The door opened.
This time it wasn't Linda.
Martha De La Torre stepped inside the office.
"Am I interrupting?"
James folded the newspaper. "No, I am bored and free. Please take a seat."
Martha smiled and took the empty chair opposite him.
She set the folder on the desk.
"Fantasy Pictures is registered in California right now."
"We need to change that from future point of view."
"To where?"
"Delaware."
That answer only confused him further.
"Why Delaware?"
"Because right now you're small."
"I'm not sure that's a compliment."
"It is in this case."
"Fantasy Pictures is four months old. You have one released film, one small rented office, and more incoming revenue than most new production companies see in several years."
When you say it like that, it sounds ridiculous."
"It is ridiculous."
James couldn't really argue.
Martha continued.
"If we move the registration now, it's paperwork. If we wait until the company doubles or triples in size, it becomes considerably more complicated."
"What exactly changes?"
"California Government and IRS will not allow of make it easy for you too move, Why would they allow and big pie in their mouth go to other state."
"That's why move while you are small."
"As for Delaware two reasons, Investors and Tax Shelters are mostly in delaware. Most of those foreign account from cayman and Shell companies made for Tax Avoidance have offices in Delaware."
"You don't plan to make movies with your own money everytime do you ? "
James leaned back in his chair.
"So this is less about today and more about five years from now."
"Exactly."
"Alright?"
"Let's move it."
"Good. It'll make next year's tax filing significantly less painful."
James groaned.
"I was hoping never to hear the words tax filing again."
Martha closed the folder.
"Unfortunately, that's not how taxes work."
"See? This is why nobody likes accountants."
As they were chatting door opened and linda came back from her drive and bring james his lunch.
Linda not expecting guest put down the lunch on her desk.
James introduced them to each other and after some small talk Martha left the office.
Linda sprawled on her chair asked,"So what did she say ?"
James explained to her the details.
"I am thinking of moving to a bigger office and hiring jerry and others as permenant production crew."
Linda Tapping her heels said, "About time."
August 18, 1978
James sat behind his desk with the latest draft of Footloose spread across the surface. Pages covered in notes, crossed-out dialogue, Script was almost finished.
The phone rang beside james desk.
James picked it up.
"Fantasy Pictures."
Howard Richman's voice came through the line.
"NBC accepted the final terms, Five years license for One-point-five million."
"Good."
"The paperwork will arrive next week."
James smiled.
"Thanks, Howard."
He hung up.
Linda sitting across the table was confused.
"What happened?"
James looked around the room.
"NBC bought the television rights."
Linda folded her arms.
"So..."
James already knew where this was going.
"No."
"What?"
"You're not getting a bonus."
Linda pouted and threw her pencil at james.
They Bantered for a while and linda asked james.
When are you going to hire jerry and others.
"Probably after getting new office and everything sorted out."
James went back to working on footloose screenplay.