Hollywood Director 1992.

Chapter 170 A big gamble
"Richard, calm down, this is too risky."

Wife Cindy Crawford persuaded.

"Don't worry about it. We are 100% sure to win this bet."

Richard Gere waved his hands and ignored his wife's dissuasion.

Dustin Hoffman nodded. "The chances of winning are great. I'll bet $300 million. We can also find some more people to bet. If there are more people, not to mention $1000 million, we can even bet $1 million. If there are more people betting, I'm afraid Link won't admit defeat."

"We can get the bookmakers involved and give them a certain commission, and they will definitely be happy to act as arbitrators."

Richard Gere said with a smile.

"I'll follow suit, too. I'll bet 200 million."

Robert Downey Jr. said, pumping his fist.

Kiefer Sutherland thought about it and agreed to bet 200 million.

Count in the bets placed by Tom Cruise, David Duchovny and others.

The bet was worth $2100 million.

Far more than the expected 1000 million.

When he was about to contact Link to make a bet, CAA Vice President Ron Mayer called Richard Gere and said that someone in the company's senior management was also interested in the bet and was ready to put up $3000 million to bet against Link, and asked Robert Downey Jr. to come forward to discuss the bet with Link.

When Robert Downey Jr. and others heard that someone from the CAA executives also wanted to place a bet, they immediately became very excited.

In the CAA agency, there are only a few people such as Michael Ovitz and Ron Meyer who can put out tens of millions to bet.

If even these big shots think that "Trap" can surpass Link's new movie at the box office, it means that this bet has a great chance of winning.

Robert Downey Jr. made up his mind and used his property as collateral and borrowed 300 million dollars from the bank, totaling 500 million dollars to participate in this bet.

When Robert Downey Sr. heard that he had taken out a loan for the bet, he called to persuade him not to take the risk, saying that "The Trap" did not have that much box office potential. He was the screenwriter of the film and knew the true level of the movie better than anyone else.

Robert Downey Jr. ignored it and continued to get people to place bets. When the three-day deadline was about to expire, he called Link in front of Richard Gere and others.

"5500 million dollars?"

In the office, Link was surprised to receive a call from Robert Downey Jr. He had expected that Robert Downey Jr. might participate in the bet, but he didn't expect him to bet so big.

According to Robert Downey Jr.'s film pay, his total net worth would not exceed 1000 million. The fact that he dared to bet more than million this time shows that there are many people behind the scenes who are also involved in the bet.

"Fifty-five million dollars, Robert Jr., are you sure?"

"Don't talk nonsense. Just tell me whether you dare to gamble or not. If you don't dare to gamble, admit defeat as soon as possible."

Robert Downey Jr. sneered disdainfully.

Link was thinking.

Robert Downey Jr. and others proposed to bet on Tom Cruise's new movie "Trap".

He doesn't know the exact box office revenue of this movie, but compared with Tom Cruise's other movies such as "Top Gun", "Rain Man", "Interview with the Vampire", "Jerry Maguire", and the "Mission Impossible" series, this movie has much less influence and is not even Tom Cruise's representative work.

This shows that the quality of the movie "Sugar Coated Trap" is average and its box office performance will not be too high.

If there are no unexpected circumstances, this gamble has a great chance of winning.

Link did not immediately respond to Robert Downey Jr.'s words, saying that he needed to think about it before giving a reply.

He called the head of the legal department, Sean Tang, and asked whether this form of gambling was legal, how to ensure the safety of funds, how to ensure that the opponent would not go back on his word if he won, and how to minimize taxes.

Sean Tang suggested finding a bank or a gaming company as a third party. Before placing a bet, both parties would inject funds into the bank's public account and sign a betting agreement. The winning party would own all the funds in the account. This kind of betting is very common in the financial circle. Banks have also arbitrated many such agreements, so their credibility is relatively guaranteed.

You can also give it to the bookmaker, but the bookmaker will take a larger commission.

In terms of reducing taxes, you can open an account in a state with a lower tax rate or in an overseas tax haven so that you can earn more if you win the bet.

After consulting Sean Down, Link did not immediately call Robert Downey Jr. back to say he wanted to take the bet.

The reason is that he has little interest in gambling and drugs, nor does he need to make money in this way, so he is not very motivated.

Less than half an hour later, Robert Downey Jr. called again and asked him if he didn't dare to bet. If he didn't dare to bet, he would publicly admit defeat. He also told him that the bet amount would be increased to 6500 million US dollars.

"Sixty-five million is nothing to me. If you want to gamble, I will certainly accompany you. But are you sure you can come up with sixty-five million dollars?"

Link said.

"Don't talk nonsense. If you dare to bet, $6500 million will be in your account within three days."

"Okay, I'll take it."

Link hung up the phone.

In the next few days, he continued to work on his new movie.

The new movie is "Seven Deadly Sins" in collaboration with New Line Cinema. After "Final Destination", New Line President Robert Shea found him and proposed to start preparing for this film project and strive to shoot it by the end of the year.

Considering that he had nothing to do in the next period of time, Link also agreed to start preparing for "Seven Deadly Sins".

The movie "Seven" tells the story of a serial murder case in New York City. During the investigation, veteran police officer Samose and rookie police officer David Mills accidentally discovered that several victims had committed the seven deadly sins of Catholic doctrine before their deaths - "gluttony", "greed", "sloth", "envy", "pride", "lust" and "anger".

The murderer's methods were bloody and brutal, he had no bottom line, and he liked to be mysterious.

The whole case becomes more complicated, and finally even the rookie policeman David Mills is involved in the case and becomes one of the "Seven Deadly Sins".

This movie is of a relatively high standard and was nominated for an Academy Award that year. It was also quite difficult to shoot, but after accumulating a lot of directing experience, Link is confident that he can make this movie well.

When he started planning to shoot a new movie, Sean Tang led his team to negotiate with the legal team sent by CAA to discuss the specific content of the bet.

Due to the long release period of films in overseas regions, some films are still being released overseas more than ten years after their release.

CAA proposed to use only the box office results of the first 15 weeks in North America for the bet. For the two film projects, "Trap" and "Final Destination", the one with the higher North American box office performance after 15 weeks of release will win.

Sean Tang disagreed, saying that the main creative team of "The Trap" was more appealing in North America, but its box office appeal in overseas regions was average, while Link's films were very appealing in the global film market.

If we only compare the box office in North America, it will be very unfavorable for "Final Destination".

At the same time, Sean Tang also proposed that the betting account should be placed in Hong Kong Island, where the tax rate is lower.

CAA disagreed and demanded that it be placed in the Cayman Islands in the Caribbean, a tax haven.

The two parties failed to reach an agreement on these two clauses.

And "Sugar-Coated Trap" is about to be released.

To this end, both parties took a step back. Guess What Pictures agreed to only compare the box office results in the North American region in the first 15 weeks, and CAA also agreed to place the betting account in the American Citibank in Hong Kong Island.

On the eve of the release of "The Trap", lawyers representing both parties signed a bet agreement at the Citibank Building in Hong Kong Island.

The two parties used the first 15-week box office performance of "Failure" and "Final Destination" in North America as a bet, with each side contributing $7200 million.

(End of this chapter)