New York, Douglaston Town.
Once again, in Mr. Eisen's study, the two sat across from each other.
"If there really is a succubus out there, it has to look just like you," Mr. Eisen teased with a grin. "You basically took a veiled shot at Korean culture, and yet their media's still unanimously singing your praises."
"Luck. It's all luck," Luke replied.
"Quit chalking everything up to luck. So how do you explain Samsung flipping their stance the second you hit Seoul?
Deals this massive don't run on favors or good fortune," Mr. Eisen pressed.
"What if it really was all about connections and a lucky break?" Luke shot back.
He wasn't kidding—Lee Fu-jin's all-in bet on him was mostly down to trust and timing.
"Lee Fu-jin must be a knockout, huh? How'd she hold up against your charm?" Mr. Eisen suddenly flashed that knowing guy-to-guy smirk.
"She's gorgeous, sure, but she's way older than me. And married," Luke said, reading his mind.
"For guys like us, doesn't a married woman make it even more thrilling? You telling me you didn't feel even a spark? This could've been your shot at riches and romance!"
Once they got chummy, Mr. Eisen had ditched the stuffy old-school gentleman act for good.
"I've got principles. Cheating drags in innocent people and wrecks marriages—not my thing," Luke said.
"Then I don't get why Samsung's terms are this sweet." Mr. Eisen slid a contract across the desk.
The handshake deal had gone down between Luke and Lee Fu-jin at the Shilla Hotel, but the nitty-gritty paperwork was all on Mr. Eisen.
Luke skimmed a few pages and got the gist. It boiled down to two big points:
The $2 billion fund investment? Samsung, as a major shareholder, was on board.
Plus, outside the fund, for the follow-up $8 billion fundraising round, Samsung was ponying up another $2 billion.
Talk about knocking out most of the funding hurdles in one go.
No wonder Mr. Eisen was marveling at how smoothly it all fell into place.
The hardest part's always getting started. Once the initial cash crunch was sorted, momentum would carry the rest—like snowballing downhill. That's the power of building leverage.
Luke couldn't spill the beans on his private chat with Lee Fu-jin, so he pivoted. "With the early funding locked in, I'm counting on you for the rollout on the follow-ups."
"You can't just play hands-off CEO forever. Sure, I lined up pro managers for you, but you gotta mingle with them, build rapport.
And pick a solid right-hand guy to keep an eye on things for you," Mr. Eisen advised.
For the Oriental Media Platform project, Mr. Eisen had recruited two top-tier execs—one for the Fanyu film city, the other for the CBD builds.
Loyalty was key here; skills were secondary.
Luke had mapped out the roadmap. They just needed to execute step by step.
Loyalty comes from buy-in and oversight—skip either, and you're toast.
Luke needed to win over these managers while keeping tabs on them. Do both, and he'd have the company on lockdown.
"Man, time's my biggest enemy!" Luke sighed. "I've got a ton of movies piling up to shoot."
"Two flicks haven't even started, and you're adding a third? No idea how you'll juggle it all," Mr. Eisen said.
The new one was custom-made for Yuffie, set to film back home after the two Hollywood joints.
"We'll make it work. You know my track record—I'm a machine on set," Luke said confidently.
Mr. Eisen nodded. The real killers in action movies are those epic fight scenes—they eat time like crazy.
But for Luke, those headaches might as well not exist.
Other crews might grind a week on a sequence and still hate it. Luke? One or two takes, boom—perfection.
That shaved tons of time off schedules, and since time is money, it slashed budgets too, all thanks to him.
"Let's table the domestic one for now. How's prep coming on the other two?" Luke asked.
"Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest needs Disney's green light on a few things, so filming's pushed back a bit—late this year," Mr. Eisen said.
"Again with the damn winter shoots? Jumping into freezing ocean water sucks," Luke griped.
He flashed back to last winter, filming in icy waves during a cold snap.
Even with his ironclad build, it was brutal. Depp and Anne? They suffered big time.
But Pirates 2's underwater stuff mostly fell on Luke—Depp and Anne had lighter loads.
Guess he'd be the one eating it solo this round.
"King of Espionage?" Luke followed up.
The spy thriller Luke wanted to direct and star in was tentatively titled King of Espionage.
It was a heavy rewrite of the script from Tom Cruise's future blockbuster Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.
The biggest tweak? Luke's character.
In the original, the lead's a CIA agent—not a fit for Luke.
He had zero interest playing for Uncle Sam's intel machine.
"Espionage" nailed his new role: a rogue info broker.
A private intel dealer trading secrets for a living.
One deal goes south, and he's dragged into a deadly mess.
He's framed for stealing top-secret forbidden intel.
Governments worldwide hunt him down while the real culprit hides in the shadows, using him as bait.
Luke's gotta clear his name by hunting the puppet master.
Along the way, he uncovers a massive conspiracy.
Spoiler: The U.S. intel brass? They're the real villains.
Like First Blood, making corrupt officials the bad guys was a classic trope—and American audiences ate it up every time.
Script was locked, so Luke wanted timelines.
"That's what I was gonna bring up. Director and key casting? That's on you to lock in," Mr. Eisen said.
"Me? Decide?" Luke blinked, caught off guard.