I never minded those novels. They had a lot of good ideas in them. Stuff like the thinking cap (Which needed a better name, granted) goes a long way towards explaining some of the things a VF plane can do...
Well, if he's a Producer then he has a helluva lot more stuff to do than just collect his paycheck. Producers handle a lot of the logistics, negotiation and finance for the film. Now if he is an executive producer, thats more of a paycheck thing. It usually means that they have given the profuction a heap of money...