Chapter 257: What Should He Do?
Chapter 257: What Should He Do?
“Mr. Jaffe, since a film like The Others that uses a ghost’s perspective has succeeded, then I think a romance film with a ghost as the protagonist definitely has huge potential as well…”
The middle-aged man wearing glasses, who looked to be in his forties, had not even finished speaking before the man he called Mr. Jaffe interrupted him.
“Alright, Bruce, I know you’ve been trying to sell that script of yours, but I’m really not interested in it. I’m currently preparing another film.”
The others standing around the dining table chimed in as well.
“Bruce, just forget it. Don’t you think a romance movie with a ghost as the protagonist sounds ridiculous? And on top of that, it’s a tragedy.”
“A lot of unforgettable stories are tragedies,” Bruce retorted.
“What’s the use of being unforgettable?” a brown-haired man added. “I’ve heard about your script too. It requires quite a few special effects, so the budget won’t be less than twenty million dollars. That already counts as a medium-to-large investment. For a production company, that’s a major risk.”
“Bruce, since you’re so interested in ghosts and supernatural phenomena, you should spend more effort writing horror scripts like The Others instead of wasting time thinking about some ghost romance movie.”
As Eric approached, he happened to hear the brown-haired man’s words, and something suddenly stirred in his mind.
“A ghost romance movie.” “Bruce.”
Just those two keywords alone were enough for Eric to become seventy percent certain.
Wasn’t the screenwriter of the tearjerking Ghost from his previous life named Bruce Joel Rubin?
And judging from the timeline, if Eric had never appeared in this world, that film would probably already have entered production by now.
Although the director of The Others was Jonathan Demme, there was no doubt Eric himself was the center of attention at this party. Therefore, the moment he approached the long buffet table, the group that had been chatting immediately surrounded him enthusiastically and began introducing themselves.
Eric politely accepted the business cards they handed him one by one and distributed his own business cards in return before casually asking, “I think I just heard something about ghosts. What were you all discussing?”
The group had been wondering how to find a topic to grow closer to Eric, so hearing him take the initiative to ask, the middle-aged man Bruce had called Mr. Jaffe immediately responded, “It’s a script. About a low-level bank clerk who gets murdered and becomes a ghost in order to protect his girlfriend from evil people.”
Eric recalled the earlier self-introduction of the man named Charles Jaffe. He seemed to be a vice president at Paramount. Eric immediately thought the man had clearly been influenced by Barry Diller’s high-concept film philosophy. In a single sentence, he had perfectly summarized the plot of Ghost.
At the same time, Eric became even more certain of his guess. The bespectacled middle-aged man squeezed to the edge of the crowd had to be Bruce Joel Rubin, the screenwriter of Ghost.
Although after entering Hollywood, Eric had repeatedly sorted through and recalled the famous films of these upcoming years, trying his best to secure the rights to some of them, after investigating, he discovered that many movie rights had already been acquired by major studios, while others simply could not be located.
Ghost was one of those scripts that could not be tracked down.
Before Ghost, Bruce Joel Rubin had absolutely no fame in Hollywood. After considerable searching, Eric had not even managed to locate the man himself.
In the end, Eric could only decide to take things one step at a time. Since Ghost was released in the summer of 1990 in his previous life, based on the normal production timeline of films in this parallel world, preparations for the movie should already have started this year, and the script certainly would have appeared even earlier.
Perhaps it had already existed before Eric transmigrated.
Thus, it was impossible for him to simply plagiarize and use it directly.
Eric did not immediately show any interest in the script. After casually glancing at Bruce Joel Rubin, he shifted his attention to chatting idly with the surrounding crowd.
These studio executives and well-known producers all appeared warm and friendly toward him now, but given his current streak of box office hits, if he dared show interest in Ghost on the spot, these people would immediately turn hostile and join the scramble for the script.
After chatting for a while, Eric separated from the group. Throughout the entire process, he never exchanged a single word with Bruce Joel Rubin.
Now that the man had appeared, finding him afterward would be extremely easy.
But many things in life always turned out unexpectedly.
Just as Eric walked away, Bruce Joel Rubin quickly caught up to him in several hurried steps. “Mr. Williams…”
Behind Eric, the red-haired middle-aged man who had just mocked Bruce Joel Rubin smiled and said to Charles Jaffe, “Looks like Bruce still isn’t giving up. Now he’s gone to bother Williams.”
Charles Jaffe stared thoughtfully at the retreating figure of the middle-aged man chasing after Eric before asking, “Brian, do you think Williams might actually like that script?”
“Who knows?” the red-haired man named Brian replied. “But with Eric Williams’ eye for scripts, if he actually does take an interest in it…”
At that point, Brian abruptly stopped speaking. He exchanged a glance with Charles Jaffe, then the two calmly separated as though nothing had happened.
The two men were only casual acquaintances. Charles Jaffe was a vice president at Paramount, while Brian worked at Warner Bros. If Eric truly confirmed the script’s potential, the two would inevitably become competitors.
And after hearing the exchange between Charles and Brian, several others nearby also turned their attention toward Eric’s direction.
At this moment, Eric himself had a splitting headache.
Bruce Joel Rubin had already begun describing the plot of Ghost to him.
So what was he supposed to do now?
Pretend not to care and ignore it?
Then after the party, if he enthusiastically sent people to approach Bruce Joel Rubin afterward, the man was not stupid. That would only make things even more troublesome.
Should he harshly criticize the script instead?
Then he might lose even the chance to cooperate altogether.
Neither of the first two options would work.
But if he openly expressed interest in the script right now…
The moment that thought surfaced, Eric instinctively glanced around.
Quite a few people had already directed attentive gazes toward them, especially the group he had just chatted with.
These people were all seasoned veterans.
As long as he revealed even the slightest hint of his true thoughts, once the competition began afterward, among this pack of wolves and tigers eyeing the prey greedily, Firefly would at most count as a skinny hyena.