Duke tapped his fountain pen against a stack of storyboards where sketches showed in creative designs of capital planet of Alderaan where the trio will be ultimately captured in the upcoming Star Wars Chapter VI.
In George Lucas's early rough drafts for the first film, A New Hope, the planet Alderaan served as the capital of the Empire and the residence of the emperor, before it was later reconfigured into a planet to be destroyed.
Later on, by the fourth draft of the first movie, the capital-city sequences were shifted onto the Death Star battle, and Alderaan was rewritten as the peaceful victim planet blown up by Moff Tarkin.
The concept pf the Empire Capital eventually evolved into Coruscant, named and popularized in a 1991 Timothy Zahn Expanded Universe novel(Legends), Heir to the Empire before it just became Lore.
His private office looked like a museum, filled with Movie Props, that he just liked keeping around. 'I've become a prop hoarder.'
A lightsaber hilt that appeared on The Empire Strikes Back sat next to his telephone.
While a real black Darth Vader helmet stood on a shelf.
A Superman cape, a Type II Phaser from Star Trek: The Motion Picture and a hawk-headed Mace from Flash Gordon layed around.
Ever since this kind of behaviour had become known on the media, a lot of people had offered to buy it from him, specially Star Wars Props.
After all, since Parmaount released Star Wars, merchandising and licensing weren't afterthoughts anymore on the industry.
They were becoming the primary revenue engines.
A soft knock. Sherry, his assistant, stepped in as she guided his morning guest in.
Barry Diller walked in, with a confident stride.
"Barry," Duke said. He remained seated, offering a nod. "Good to see you. Please, have a seat." He gestured to the chair across from his desk.
Diller sat, crossing one leg over the other and reached into his breast pocket.
He produced a envelope from it and slid it to him, "A small token of appreciation, Duke. A gesture of goodwill between old friends."
Duke picked up the envelope, slightly curious.
Inside, was a heavy card. A platinum membership to a Beach Golf club that Duke didn't recognize the name of.
"I remembered you mentioning you wanted to get some exercise in," Diller explained.
"This place is quiet. Private. Great place for thinking."
Duke turned the card over, inspecting the gold foil lettering. He personally liked tennis courts way more than Golf, but a gift is a gift.
This kind of gift was simple, it was designed to soften the ground for negotiation. Hollywood ran on a somewhat weird barter system of favors and access.
"Thoughtful gesture, Barry," Duke said. He set the membership card on top of the storyboards, not really interested.
"I appreciate the though. But I don't have anything prepared to give you in return. Unless you want a lightsaber for your new office."
Diller offered a polite chuckle. "Well, I didn't come for a gift exchange, Duke. I came to talk business."
"I'm listening." Duke's expression went neutral. Diller was now at the top of 20th Century Fox. And was personally answering to the chaotic group ownership.
Diller laid out his proposal. "So, I propose this, you make the film," Diller pitched.
His hands framed the idea in the air. "Paramount handles production. Casting, crew and all that."
"While Fox pays for half the cost. We do international releases while Paramount can take on Domestic release. A simple co-financing arrangement."
Duke listened patiently.
Co-financing between major studios was practically unheard of, until now.
There was one person who would later become known for it. Sherry Lansing, his current asistant, who he had scooped in a while ago.
In his past life, she would become the CEO of Paramount, and make it extremely profitable.
She would be known for the idea spreading the cost burdens of blockbuster films to other studios. In that way, she protected Paramount from losses if a blockbuster flopped.
Movies like Titanic, Saving Private Ryan, Braveheart were all co-financed.
Paramount also didnt want to invest a lot onto their movies. In part, cause of the Executive team being fiscally conservative, and also cause Viacom was restricting them.
In short, she was a great CEO for her tenure. But horrible, long term, with no franchises to really speak of, and with Paramount even passing on the MCU, and losing it to Disney.
Duke leaned forward, resting his forearms on the desk.
"What about the Fox distribution unit?" he asked calmly. "Outsourcing productions to a rival lot suggests your internal machinery may be suffering."
Diller paused. The directness cut deeper than expected. He adjusted his watch.
"The industry is suffering a contraction, Duke," Diller admitted. "Theatrical attendance is down. The rise of home video is changing everything. People are staying in their living rooms and we're navigating a transition."
Diller shook his head. "Marvin Davis and Marc Rich... they're shrewd traders. But they don't care about the mechanics of making movies."
"They want the money, women and power. Think they can run this town like Howard Hughes."
The culture clash at Fox was a cautionary tale.
Private money from billionaires outside entertainment always came with a learning curve since they viewed a studio as a shiny toy.
Duke offered a sympathetic shrug, but nothing more.
He built Paramount up precisely to avoid answering to erratic billionaires. "I understand the frustration, Barry. But I'm not exactly suffering for money."
Diller leaned closer. "I followed you for nearly a decade, Duke. I was your right hand man. Help me out. Take some of these guys money and spend it crazily, overcharge for everything and pocket some for yourself."
"Of course, I have family members who would be perfect as advisors for any production. When money is brought onto Hollywood its our job to take most of it."
Hollywood Accounting, the real magic of the business.
Hollywood Accounting also followed some rules, lets say your money got a 300% return. The studio will move things around to make it so that you will get a 7-8% return.
Basically, a 'good' return, and the rest stays in Hollywood. That way you want to reinvest.
Or sometimes, Hollywood just directly stea-... redirects the money. Most of the time, this happens cause of money laundering or to move it across borders.
The most famous example of this occurred with The Wolf of Wall Street, cause the production company funded the movie using hundreds of millions of dollars siphoned from 1MDB, a government-run Malaysian state development fund.
'Back when Jho Low was in power'
"Give me a bone, Duke. A partnership. Something I can take back to the board to prove my value."
The door swung open as Michael Eisner stepped in. The new CEO of Paramount Pictures wore a grey suit.
Diller heard the door, and turned to look, jos face lost its smile as his jaw tightened.
"Barry," Eisner said. His tone was pleasant. "It's been quite a while."
He walked slowly across the room, taking a position near Duke's desk.
Diller stared back. "Michael. Nice suit."
The pleasantries were thin, barely concealing a deep professional problem. Duke rolled his eyes, as they stare at each other.
Eisner pulled up a chair and sat directly beside Duke.
"Duke, I'd appreciate it if you didn't sideline me on meetings of this nature. I'm the CEO now. I should be present for these discussions."
Duke nodded slowly. Eisner was right. A strong chain of command was vital for his plans of stepping back from official duties.
"You're right, Michael," Duke conceded. "Please, join us. Barry was just outlining a co-financing proposition from Fox."
Diller tried to restart the conversation, ignoring Eisner's presence.
"Fox is aligned with the current administration," Diller announced. "We have connections in Washington and can clear regulatory hurdles others cannot."
Duke let out a laugh.
The idea that Paramount needed political assistance was absurd.
"Barry, do you really think I need help securing a meeting with Ronald Reagan or George Bush?C'mon be serious."
Duke even opened a drawer pulling out a picture of him and Patti Davis, Reagan's daughter.
Eisner seized the moment and interrupted the conversation. "So... Barry did you came crawling back to beg for support... Or did you just come back to ask for shares again?"
Diller rolled his eyes. "I went to work on my own terms, Michael. Imagine fighting your mentor to go be a Yes-man with no options."
He caught himself, before turning back to Duke. "Could we perhaps speak by ourselves again? Just the two of us?"
"No," Eisner interrupted.
Duke shrugged, "Michael stays, Barry. He's CEO and needs to understand all facets of the business. If you have a pitch, just pitch to both of us."
Diller took a slow breath. "Very well. There's one more thing. I was asked to pass along a message from the board at Quaker Oats."
"They want to become a third-party software developer for the Atari 2600 platform," Diller stated. Watching their reactions closely.
The home console market was basically printing money and massive corporations outside tech were desperate for a slice.
Duke frowned as confusion crossed his face. "Quaker Oats? The... cereal company? They want to make games?"
"They own Fisher-Price now," Diller explained. "They have a footprint in the children's toy market. And think they can leverage connections and brand loyalty to sell cartridges."
Duke shook his head firmly, shutting the idea down before it could breathe.
The video game industry already faced a quality crisis. Allowing food conglomerates to pump out cheap software would accelerate decay.
"No. Out of the question. I'm not letting a cereal company flood our games with cheap garbage."
"Look, if you want a real partnership, Barry, bring me a viable business plan. A real, structurally sound proposal that benefits Paramount."
Diller absorbed the rejection and nodded. "Understood. I'll arrange another meeting when the time is right. Let's keep the lines of discussion open."
He stood up slowly, turned and walked toward the door. Deliberately choosing not to say goodbye to Eisner.
The door clicked shut. Eisner let out a breath, and turned to Duke. "You know he's not trustworthy, right? He left us when we needed him most. He'll gladly do it again if the wind changes direction."
Duke nodded in agreement. "I know, Michael. I know who he is and how he operates. You don't need to remind me of his track record."
Eisner frowned. "Then why entertain him at all? Why let him sit in that chair and pitch us half-baked ideas from a sinking studio and a cereal manufacturer?"
"Because he's still good," Duke reasoned. "Look, Diller was able to do a lot here at Paramount, who's to say that he wont succed in Fox."
Duke waved a hand toward the door. "Go check on the daily box office receipts, Michael. I need a moment to think."
Eisner nodded and exited the office.
A few minutes later, Sherry opened the door. "Excuse me, Mr. Hauser. Mr. Jack Valenti has arrived for his morning appointment. He's waiting in the reception area."
Duke straightened up. "Send him in immediately, Sherry," Duke instructed, adjusting the cuffs of his white shirt.
Valenti entered, he was the head of the Motion Picture Association of America.
They quickly shook hands. And Valenti directly started talking, "Hauser, long time no see. Look, we need to talk about VHS..."