Chapter 24

“There’s also something else I need doing. Make sure that your passport is up to date. I have the house near Valencia. I would like you to go there, in October, and open it up for me. Colin, Ruth, Larry, and Brendon will be spending a few months in it, and we will close this one down for winter. Talk to Michael and get a credit card linked to my account for all your living expenses.”

“Thank you, Julia. I’ll be careful.”

‘I’m not asking you to be careful, Jacquie, just thorough. Before that, though, I want us to fly to Palma. I bought an apartment there, unfurnished, and I want to look around the furniture stores and see what looks good. I’ll be aiming at seaside comfort. I’ll give you the keys before I come back. There will be just Jeff and me in the apartment, for some months, while I look through whatever screenplays you’ve given me, as well as trying to write a semi-sequel to ‘Women’. One thing I will need will be a good desk, with a view of the sea, a laptop and printer that is big enough to print screenplays. Tell Michael that I want you in the house, you can bring your partner, so that you’re close by. There is a service between Valencia and Palma, so you can be with me inside a couple of hours. The apartment has a spare bedroom, so set it up so you can stay overnight. Put some of your things in the wardrobe, or, better still, get yourself new stuff suitable for a working holiday.”

“That’s very generous of you.”

“Jacquie. You’re a bright girl and have worked well while in the office. What I want, now, if you’re happy with it, is for you to be at my side, while in touch with Michael. You saw ‘Women’ last night. If that doesn’t get at least nine nominations I’m in the wrong game. We are going to need to be on top of our game when that’s released. We’ll be going to the premiere, wherever they have it. There’ll be interviews to organise. So far, I’ve just gone along with whatever others have told me. From now, I want them to ask you, nicely, and for you to make sure we can do the business. You’ll be working for both me and Jeff, so you’ll have to compartmentalise our different lives. Do you think you can do it?”

Her answer was to give me a hug, while saying “Thank you” several times. I was certain that she would be good in the job, even as it ramped up into total bedlam. She would be racing around ‘like a blue-arsed fly’ and would have to keep her cool while doing it.

“Do you have a significant other, Jacquie?”

“My husband, Bronte. He’s a freelance graphic artist.”

“If you want to relocate here, he could set up in the gym room. I had thought that we could do rehearsals, but it hasn’t been used for that. Both annexes are in use, but you could stay in the room you slept in and store any furniture. As you’ve seen, you’re joining the ‘family’, we all pitch in to do things we have to. There’s a cleaning and gardening service so all we have to do is keep tidy.”

“That would be wonderful. When I go into the office, I’ll set it up with Michael, and talk to Bronte about moving. Can I bring him down to have a look?”

“Of course. When we go home, I’ll give you a set of keys and a gate controller. There’s room in my office to add a desk and another computer. We can share the printer. We’ll need to get a set of filing cabinets, as well. I never thought that I’d generate enough paperwork to need one. There’s a pile of papers on the floor, at the moment. It’s time for us to become the business that we need to be, going forward.”

She looked on as we did some minor scenes, and then I took her around the studio, meeting all the guys, and they were all guys, that called the shots. We saw David, in his office, and discussed the new timetable of the ‘Gale’ release, getting an idea of the premiere date. He asked us if we could organise a garden party, with the screening set-up, and he would pay for the food and drinks. He thought that it would be good as a private screening for the cast and crew. I agreed to that idea, and he said that he would have the music recorded by the end of June, so a date in the middle of July was noted in Jacquie’s diary. He told me, that if I was dropping in to see Tony, that he would be welcome. He also dropped the bombshell that ‘Turbulence’ had surged past four hundred million dollars at the box office.

As we walked towards Tony’s office, I was quiet, which Jacquie picked up on.

“It’s the numbers, Jaquie. I’m on two percent of the gross in that film, so I’ve earned eight million from it, even though I was only on salary while we were filming. I’ve also been given two percent of ‘Women’ for my directing input, after being paid twelve million for two films, of which the second won’t be released until I write it. With ‘Gale’, I put in five million as a shareholder, with a three percent return on gross. That didn’t cost a lot to make, seeing that the cast was small and the location so accessible. Jeff got a million, up front, with no percentage. I may break even, but the visibility will keep me in people’s minds.”

Tony was very happy at being invited to the first screening of ‘Gale’, I was starting to see some kind of friendship developing between him and David – the old and new guard, together, would be a force to be reckoned with.

Back at home, Jacquie had a good look at the house, and we measured the office to see how much more we could get in. The gym was a bit of a mess, but the gym equipment was neatly laid out. I decided that we didn’t need my old furniture any longer, and, with it gone, there was a lot of space for a drawing desk and a large printer, needed for posters. I was already thinking that if Bronte was any good, he would get a contract to supply posters and advertising originals.

The next day, Jacquie went back into the city, while I got Larry and Brendon cleaning out the old stuff, putting it by the bins for later pick-up. The only thing I kept was the Scandinavian easy chair, which I put in the office, picking up the paperwork and putting it on the seat for safe keeping. That would be a job to sort out, later, when we had filing cabinets. I told the others that we may be joined by a new couple and gave them the reasons why.

The private screening of ‘Women’, for the cast and reviewers, was a simultaneous event in London and New York. Kym and Kurt attended New York, with some of the minor cast, while Jeff, me, Tony, Eric, and Cynthia attended the one in London. That was followed, in the last week of July, by the world premiere, in New York, seeing that the main backers were all American. That was an evening showing, with the film opening on several thousand screens at the matinee opening. The reviews had all been positive, and we had just been able to have it rated for teen viewers, as they saw worse violence on their computers, these days.

We all flew to New York for the event, being picked up by limos to be taken to our hotel. My group was now eight, with Jacquie and Bronte along for the first time. I think that this may have brought it home to Jacquie just what sort of circus she had joined. She was able to be the go-to person when I was being asked for interviews, and made my life, as well as Jeff’s, so much easier.

We stayed in New York for a week. I gave each of my extended ‘family’ a credit card to use on themselves, and we had a ball shopping. Bronte wanted to see the art galleries and shops, which gave me, with his knowledge, a much wider appreciation of that genre. When they had moved in, I had seen that Jacquie was his model, but he had started drawing portraits of the rest of us, as various anime characters. By the time we flew home, ‘Women’ had passed the hundred and forty million mark and climbing steadily.

August was a quieter month, with the main highlight being the wedding of Jim and Belle, now pregnant. It wasn’t a big affair, just a civil ceremony and a reception for about a hundred. So, Belle became number four, or was it five. What I had found out was that none of the other wives left with bad feelings.

The party to screen ‘Gale’ to the cast, crew and other invitees was a roaring success. We had all the crew and cast, with Jim and Belle back from a week in Italy. While we had been filming it, I had wondered if it was still too simplistic, but the screening showed that this was its main feature. It was a morality tale, where the winners had as few morals as the losers.

Tony gave David and all the others he knew a hug. He told me that it was one of those films where you walked out of the cinema thinking that you had understood it, only to need to go back to see it again to see if you’d missed anything. We had another party, with the fan club and parents, the weekend afterwards, making sure nobody filmed it on their phone.

Through September I sat in the office reading the few screenplays that Jacquie had thought were worth looking at. The ‘spaghetti western’ had turned up and was quite a good story. I told her to get back to the producer to see what he was prepared to pay, and to get the timeline. I also asked her to tell them that Wanda was filming in Australia and Belle was unavailable until the middle of next year, at the earliest. The only thing that made me grin was the working title of ‘A Handful of Dolly’ with my character being the Dolly. There was another murder mystery which looked all right, until you got to the ending, which had one of the old ‘Perry Mason’ endings where a total stranger turns out to be the murderer. I shelved that one.

In October, I took Jacquie and Bronte over to Valencia, staying in the hotel while we hired a car to take us to the villa. I showed them through the house and pointed out the stores where we had bought our food. The plan was for the ‘family’ to go there in early November for a total relaxation, in order to be at the top of their game next year.

We then flew to Palma, where we booked into another hotel, hired another car, and went to the apartment. We didn’t stay long, just long enough for Jacquie to take some pictures and for Bronte to take measurements. Back in Palma, we looked in the furnishing stores and gave Jacquie the basic idea of what I wanted it to look like. Leaving them in Palma to get the apartment furnished, I flew from there back to home. I knew that it would be good for the two of them to have some responsibility, as a couple.

When they were happy with what they’d done, they flew to Valencia and opened up the villa. Colin, Ruth, Larry, and Brendon closed up the house for winter and flew to Valencia, where Bronte would pick them up in the Mercedes. Jeff and I flew to Palma, to settle in and read the screenplays, and for me to write one. First, though, I had to think of a story which could, loosely, be considered a sequel.

We spent days, walking along the beach, and talking about the various things we had been reading, and wondering about how we got to be here, both film stars. I would sit at the desk that overlooked the sea with a laptop open for me to get a spark of creativity. It was beautifully quiet. Jacquie was the only person with the number of the locally purchased mobile, with our others diverted to her to deal with.

Eventually, I did come up with a story, but totally opposite from the concept that Kym had written. I had just four of the witches demonically transported to England, with the others going to other places. By not having the full coven, they couldn’t cast spells, but retained their evil ways. I put them in the Kent village of Pluckley, living in a country manor. Now, Pluckley is Britain’s most haunted village, with around fifteen documented ghosts.

My village had a row of shops - a butcher, Post Office shop, chemist, hairdressers, unisex clothing shop and a mini market. The four witches would be me, Samantha, Cynthia, and Moyra, and we kept busy planning robberies, collecting blackmail evidence, a side-line in ‘protection’ extortion with the local shops, and generally creating havoc by stirring up the existing apparitions. In effect, we were a female version of a typical skinhead gang, only with less empathy.

The story harked back to the ‘Women’ film in that we had the same names and looked similar. We did like to dress well, even when we were beating someone to a pulp for not paying up. I did add a scene, in the manor house, where Samantha yearns for the ‘good old days’ when she could enjoy sex, with Cynthia temporarily becoming a demon and breathing fire at her.

The shopkeepers got fed up with paying and formed a resistance movement. They clubbed together to get a couple of silver letter openers, purely as a token of their commitment. I had written in a number of side-stories involving the shop keepers and the villagers to fill it out. We had a few love interests between the female salon and clothing store owners and the butcher and chemist owners. I did write in one love affair, between the supermarket owner and the barmaid in the Blacksmiths Arms.

The butcher was always the first shop in the shake-down, and they set it up so that when they were visited, one of them was behind Samantha and stabbed her in the heart. The intention was to cut her up and feed her to the pigs.

What they didn’t expect was the screaming demon that came out of her body, disappearing through an open window, with the body turning to dust, leaving a pile of clothes. Undaunted, they followed through with the plan, finding her car keys and putting the clothes in the car, then one of them took the car, with a following car, to a secluded place and torching it.

When Moyra comes to find out what had happened to Samantha, who hadn’t returned with the takings, she was also stabbed with the silver knives, with the same effect as the first. Her clothes, and her car, went the way of the first. This set up a confrontation between me, Cynthia, and the shopkeepers, who had, by now recruited most of the village to rid themselves of the ones taking their money. They had filmed the second killing on a phone and showed it to others.

The final scene is in the Screaming Woods, at night, with the two witches sure that they had the upper hand but find themselves boxed in by villagers forming a fence of wooden crosses. The village group includes the vicar and the local policeman, ready to murder. The vicar approaches the witches with his silver cross held in his hand. The butcher and the policeman are wielding silver knives. As they get withing striking distance, the remaining witches cackle loudly and their demons leave their bodies, with their clothes pooling where they stood. As the villagers take in what’s happened, the manor where the witches lived burns down.

I think that it did follow the premise of the sequel, as well as leaving it with another that could follow. Who knows, perhaps others would take the reins and we could see different takes on the un-killable demon witches. That made me write a note to Horatio to copyright the concept, with Kym and me with equal ownership.

I wrote it first as a story, and then rewrote it as a screenplay, using google maps to plot the locations. We could do a lot of the filming in the studio, just needing to dress the village locations for some exterior shots. Some exterior shots against the known haunted places would add further atmosphere. There were two pubs, a churchyard, and other places where visions had been seen.

I had pencilled in Jeff, Eric, Jack, and Kurt as shopkeepers. There were plenty of good actors from the TV world to fill the other places; I expect that Eric could recruit some from the stable of faces that featured in his show so often. When I read it through, one evening, I realised that it just needed the spooky opening music, and it could be an extended special of Eric’s TV show. As far as I was concerned, it would take about as long to film as ‘Gale’. I called it ‘Wind of Change.’

I let Jeff read it when I had finished. After he finished laughing at the audacity of the plot, we worked through a few tweaks. Then we organised Christmas gifts for our ‘family’ near Valencia and had a very quiet and loving Christmas of our own, with nobody to bother us. We went into Palma for New Year and spent the night in a hotel after watching the fireworks.

In the first days of January, Jacquie called us on the mobile. ‘Thirteen Women’ had been nominated for several awards in the Golden Globes and the BAFTA’s, where we were up for Best Picture, Editing, Director, Cinematography, Original Screenplay, and Casting. Eric was up for Best Actor, Kym for Best Actress, and me and Jeff in the supporting roles.

We also had a bunch of nominations for the Oscars. We were in for Best Picture, Original Screenplay, Editing, Cinematography, Score, Director, and Visual Effects (for the demons and the car crash). Both Kurt and Eric were nominated for Best Actor; Kym was up for Best Actress, Jeff was in the list for Best Supporting Actor, with me also listed for Best Supporting Actress. That made a massive total of twelve nominations. Jacquie assured us that the residents of the villa were very happy and itching to get back to England and back to work.

Jeff and I flew directly to Los Angeles for the Globes. Tony got the Directing and Kym got the Screenplay awards, while Eric picked up a Globe as Best Actor in a Movie (Drama). He was over the moon. Those from the villa went home first to open the house and then Colin picked up Jeff and I from the airport when we got back from America. I turned on my devices and called both David and Tony to let them know that I would be popping in with the screenplay. I then made a round of calls to congratulate all of the others from the film. Kym told me that she had heard from the academy, and that they would have a cover band on stage doing a few of the songs from the film. As well as the title song, we had ‘See you Later, Alligator’ as the backing to the fifth murder scene, set in the local zoo.

At home, I went in to personally congratulate Tony and to give him a copy of ‘Wind’, then went to see David and gave him his. He told me to expect a reviewers screening after the Oscars, with a premiere of ‘Gale’ in the beginning of March. He wished me luck with my nominations, and it made me realise that I was up for both the Supporting Actress, and by association, Best Director.

We settled back into life at home for a couple of weeks. I gave Bronte the screenplay of ‘Wind’ and some stills of the demons and the four witches from ‘Women’ and asked him if he could produce a set of pictures, no more than twenty, that I could present to prospective producers and backers.

We had a big contingent at the BAFTA awards. It was tough competition, but we took home some masks. Tony and I went up to collect the mask for Direction. He also took out the Editing one. Kym was there to collect hers for the Original Screenplay, as well as the Best Actress. I took home the Supporting Actress. Eric achieved his goal of getting a mask as Best Actor, with Jeff taking the Supporting Actor. We partied into the early hours after that. As another pointer for the Oscars, it was a very good result.

With the BAFTA results and the Oscar nominations announced, there were plenty of calls on our time for interviews, both magazine and TV, for Jeff and me. Jacquie was kept busy juggling our time and fitting two or three interviews in a single day, with us going into London with Colin to fulfil our obligations. We entertained Agnes at the house, with Tony joining us, for an in-depth interview about the film, and Tony told her that the sequel would be a humdinger, the first peer review I had received for the screenplay.

All too soon we were packing for our flight to America. Our own group was big, with the eight of us, plus Jim, Belle, Michael, Cynthia, and Moyra. Then there was Tony, Eric, Jack, and their wives. We did include Sherona and Sharina, with their parents allowing them to come unattended. We didn’t get a charter supplied by our airline, so we had chartered our own. Tony invited David and Irene to join us. I was beginning to see a development of a friendship between them. Kym and Kurt would be flying from France, with Wanda going from Sydney. Most of the rest of the cast, and crew, lived in America, as did our two comediennes, who had played their part as workers in the hamburger joint.

During the flight, David came to me and asked me if we could go to the back of the plane, as he wanted a quiet word. We were joined by Tony.

“Julia, I know you were hedging your bets when you gave both of us the screenplay. I can understand Tony getting the chance at the sequel. The thing is that we both love it. Do you think that you would be happy co-directing it with me, and Tony would recreate the visual effects and his editing skills that he ably demonstrated with ‘Women’?”

“That would be wonderful. Do you think we’ll get backing?”

“How much do we need, Julia? You’ll get a big return after the Oscars, Tony and I have agreed to put some in. If we can sign on all of the major players with a percentage deal, we will be able to start filming this year. The village exists, the story is centred around real places, and we could do it with two camera crews. There’s no expensive set-ups as much of the effects are in the post-production. When we get back, we can set up a meeting with all of the people involved. I know Cecil will jump at the chance, along with his cameramen and assistants. We can fund it and get all the returns. If it bombs, we take the tax break and just carry on, but if it’s a hit, we swim with the tide. What do you say?”

“I would rather be swimming, I agree. I wonder if Jim would be in it, say, as the producer. It could be the first ‘Younger Films’ production.”

“I wasn’t going to say it, but you really do have a devious mind. I know Eric will want to be in it, perhaps as the butcher, with a final middle finger to his TV producers.”

“All right. We’ll keep this between us for now. If either of you want to hint to the others that you have a sequel to ‘Women’ in mind, it’s all good. When this lot quietens down, I’ll organise a party at my place, with just the ones we nominate. Tony, you can invite your own crews; David, you can invite Cecil and his crews. I’ll invite the main stars and we can work from there. We can take our time with the filming, I wouldn’t want to release it this year, because of ‘Gale’, but we could get it in the can and release it the year after.”

When I got back to my seat, Jeff took my hand.

“That was an intense looking meeting, back there. Can I know what’s going on?”

“It was about a screenplay that you’ve read. That’s all I’m saying, for the moment.”

“It’s going to get made?”

“Eventually, my love, eventually.”

Marianne Gregory © 2024