For Eric Eisner, the son of former Disney C.E.O. Michael Eisner, a March dinner at Nobu in New York capped a triumphant few weeks. In late January, the 34-year-old sold his first production, Hamlet 2, at the Sundance Film Festival, for $10 million—just shy of Little Miss Sunshine’s $10.5 million festival record. On Valentine’s Day, he proposed to his girlfriend, Stacey Bendet, designer of the trendy fashion line Alice & Olivia. That evening at Nobu, the families celebrated the engagement. With a glamorous fiancée at his side and a big movie deal in his pocket, Eric had every reason to feel he was on his way to becoming “Eric Eisner the producer” rather than “Michael Eisner’s son.”

After dinner, the waitstaff presented the couple with a cake. The inscription? CONGRATULATIONS, STACEY AND MICHAEL.

When he’s asked, as he often is, what it’s like to be Michael Eisner’s son, Eric likes to say that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. It’s hard to argue the point. As a son of Eisner—one of three—Eric hitches a ride on his dad’s plane instead of flying commercial, adopts his parents’ friends (such as the writer Fran Lebowitz), and considers Barry Diller, his dad’s onetime boss, a mentor. “Barry’s my man,” Eric says.

But when even the restaurant kitchen staff knows your dad’s name, it’s tough to be your own man. Early in his career, Eric relied on his father for a job; later, when he needed seed money for a new business, he tapped Universal Studios chief Ron Meyer and former Walt Disney Studios chairman Joe Roth. But when it came time to start his own film-production company, Eric decided to go it alone. And that’s when things got interesting.

It all began innocuously enough. In 2004, Eric was in the process of selling a television show he’d co-created and was looking for a new challenge. A friend introduced him to Leonid Rozhetskin, a Russian-born American citizen who wanted to put his money into Hollywood. While Rozhetskin had no film experience, his résumé was impressive—undergrad at Columbia, Harvard Law School, and a couple of years at the law firm White & Case. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Rozhetskin had returned to Russia and made millions as a venture capitalist and investment banker. Among his clients was George Soros, who called on him for advice on Russian telecom investments.