After s short rest, all cheered up, waiting for the second film. In contrast with the star-studded cast of Steel Magnolias (4 of the 6 heroines had already won an Oscar), the players of The Others were not worth mentioning. However, enough attention was attracted when Eric's name was shown in the column of scriptwriters. Before Home Alone became a box office hit, the film's cast had drawn little attention.
After the opening, Grace was telling a story with the backdrop of caricatures. Slowly, the voice was disappearing and appearing in scratchy drawings were horrifying scenes like a frightened girl with her eyes wide open, a black shadow approaching the child and a marionette whose neck was broken.
In the bedroom, Grace suddenly opened her eyes full of tears and then breathed desperately like a fish out of water, her body trembling violently with fear.
All knew that the heroine was having a nightmare. Some viewers would come to realize that the caricatures at the beginning were exactly what the heroine dreamt of.
In this version, Virginia did not shout herself hoarse like Nicole Kidman who played in the original version. The fear showed by the big eyes full of tears was as visible, though. The fear and desperation showed by silence could, together with the mottled setting in a dark room, more easily make the spectators' hair stand on end.
This was the first change Eric made to the script. In the previous life, he felt nothing except being startled by the cry of Nicole Kidman.
The scene was shot with great difficulty. Virginia was truly frightened and the fear in her eyes was by no means pretended. By the camera were a cluster of horrifying creatures like cockroaches. The "props" were of great help and Virginia's performance was a lot more expressive than Nicole's in Eric's eyes. In Hollywood, no one was irreplaceable and opportunities were what most players lacked.
Somehow, all in the video hall were focusing their attention on the strange behaviors of Grace, 2 children and 3 servants. Except Eric and some other insiders, all were trying to guess what happened in this house and why there were haunting shadows and strange sound.
If this had been a ghost story, the ghosts would have appeared far earlier. Why did Grace's husband come back and then leave all of a sudden?
Although the mystery remained unsolved, no one lost patience and the suspenseful plot attracted even the representatives from the 7 major film companies. Even Michael Eisner could not restrict himself from asking Eric about the plot development. However, Eric just smiled and refused to disclose any spoiler alert.
More than 80 minutes later, Grace's son and daughter found the graves. Not until then were the 3 servants revealed to be "ghosts".
However, no one became clear about what happened and all began to doubt why the 3 "ghost servants" appeared. What was their purpose? Their words had shown that they meant no harm to Grace and her children.
Then the whole film reached its climax. When Grace opened the door of the living room upstairs to reveal a family and a psychic old lady, the puzzle was finally solved for the audience.
"The film keeps everyone in suspense and all the plots are intricately woven together. Fantastic!" Michael Eisner could not help but exclaim. He rarely thought so highly of a film. The president of Paramount Nade Tarn secretly clenched his fist, determined to acquire the distribution right of the film. Other senior managers felt sorry since they didn't plan to or were not able to secure the right. The calmest representatives from Warner Bros were not as calm as before at this moment.
The symbolic fog cleared as the truth was revealed.
The room brightened. The applause lasted for minutes long and it was louder than what was heard after Steel Magnolias was shown.
Jonathan Demme was sitting in the back row. He saw this and his lips twitched with excitement. Eventually, he could not help laughing, showing the white teeth. Jonathan knew that he had made it.
Michael Madsen patted on her sister's hand to show his congratulations.
The applause ended and then all followed the server into the banquet hall downstairs. Eric was walking in front and by his side were Michael Eisner and Nade Tarn. The representatives of Warner Bros were not so reserved as before and they approached and greeted Eric cordially.
Following behind were representatives of Fox, MGM and other film companies that were destined to lose the distribution right.
Elizabeth Murdoch moved closer to Carta and whispered:"Why don't you compete for the distribution right?"
Carta shook his head and explained gently to Elizabeth:"That will not work. The two films of Eric belong to Fix already. They will not give us the distribution right."
Elizabeth thought for a moment before saying:"Why not? What we prioritize is Eric's sequel to Home Alone at the end of this year. We can then exchange the distribution right of another film for that of The Others. I feel that this horror film is unique and has the potential to become a box office hit like Home Alone."
Carta Hunter could not help but glance at the girl by his side several times. He was quite surprised by her words. He had thought that Elizabeth was only an arrogant and self-willed girl born into a rich family. After all, it was she that insisted on participating in the show today together with him. It was a willful decision.
Elizabeth Murdoch was the second daughter of Rubert Murdoch and Carta Hunter had no choice but to agree to her request after thinking for long. Fortunately, Eric did not close the door upon the girl since he was familiar with Carta and knew who Elizabeth was.
Unexpectedly, very soon after the show, Elizabeth could think of quite a feasible plan.
Elizabeth came to Fox in the name of interning on vacation, but she rarely fulfilled her duty as an intern. So she could know nothing about the cooperation between Fox and the Firefly Film Company. In this case, she could surprisingly think of a pretty feasible plan in such a short time. This caused Carta to treat Elizabeth with great respect. He himself had the idea of securing the distribution right when The Others was played in the video hall but he just could not think of any good solutions.
"Fine, Ms. Murdoch, I will, in the form of written paper, present the plan to Barry Diller. However, I must say that Fox has not seen the script of Eric's another film at the end of this year yet and I doubt whether it can make a decision before other companies secure The Others. After all, Fox's own people will object to your proposal. The films directed by Eric himself have earned a good reputation and huge box-office takings many times. This play was written by Eric himself and is as outstanding as his other films, but I don't think many will dare to take a risk in trying to secure the distribution right."
"How inefficient! If I controlled Fox, I would secure the film directly," Elizabeth curled her lips and began to show her self-will as a spoiled girl.
This time, Carta did not treat the girl with disdain. Instead, he explained the whole thing patiently:"Ms. Murdoch, this has a lot to do with the interests of all parties and the success of the exchange is not determined by us only. Even if we would like to make the change, will Eric Williams agree? Will other film companies agree? You can see that Michael Eisner and Nade Tarn are here today. This shows that they pay great attention to Eric Williams. So we don't have a great advantage in competition."