Hollywood Director 1992.

Chapter 189 Refusing Gambling and Drugs
"Cut!"

"This one passed!"

In the morning, on the set of "Seven" in New York, Link was filming the scene where the murderer imprisoned and tortured the drug dealer Victor, when suddenly his assistant Annie hurried over and whispered a piece of news to him.

At 1:51 am last night, famous actor River Phoenix died of drug poisoning at the Viper House Bar. Medical examination reports showed that the level of heroin and cocaine in his body was eight times the lethal dose. He was 23 years old.

"Drugs kill people."

Link secretly sighed. Although he knew that Ruifan died of drug overdose, he didn't know the exact time. Moreover, he had no friendship with Ruifan and had no reason to interfere in his private affairs.

This matter had nothing to do with him, but River's brother Joaquin Phoenix was promoting a movie outside. After this incident, the movie promotion plan might have to be changed.

He called Jon Gordon and Liu Xiaoli to suspend the promotion of the Death Band and let Joaquin return to Los Angeles to deal with his brother's affairs.

For other matters, please look at the situation first before making a decision.

Now the publicity effect of "Final Destination" has reached 92%, the degree of film-market compatibility has reached 89%, the box office subsidy has increased by 2.6 times, and the North American box office is around 2.4 million. It is not difficult to exceed 15 million within 2 weeks.

So he is not worried about losing.

When Link got the news, many American media outlets temporarily changed their headlines for the next day and replaced them with the news that popular movie star River Phoenix had passed away at a young age.

River Phoenix is a rising star in Hollywood. In the past ten years of his acting career, he has won numerous film awards and nominations, including Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival, Best Supporting Actor at the National Board of Review Awards, Best Supporting Actor nomination at the Academy Awards, Best Supporting Actor nomination at the Golden Globe Awards, etc. He is considered to be the most handsome and best acting actor of the younger generation.

In addition, River is enthusiastic about charity, has released two charity albums, and is also an environmentalist.

Now he is dead, died of drugs, died at the age of 23, and many people feel sorry for his passing.

Among the many news reports about Rui Fan's death, one piece of news caused people's indignation - when the ambulance was about to take Rui Fan away for emergency treatment, a truck crashed into the street due to a drunk driver, blocking the ambulance's way.

It was not until more than ten minutes later that the car was pushed away and the ambulance took Rui Fan to the hospital for emergency treatment.

According to the doctor, if Rui Fan arrives ten minutes earlier, the chances of him being rescued will be higher.

The truck driver was heavily criticized by Rui Fan's fans.

However, compared to this news, another piece of news derived from Rui Fan's death attracted more attention and caused great controversy.

On the second day after River's death, many entertainment tabloids claimed that River was killed by his younger brother Joaquin.

Joaquin Phoenix plays Todd in Final Destination, whose brother died in a plane crash.

He had just finished playing this role when his brother River died of drugs. It was a curse. Joaquin brought death to the world and killed his brother River Phoenix.

Because this news was rather curious and involved some mysterious things, it quickly attracted people's attention after being reported by many tabloids.

When everyone looked at it, they thought it made some sense.

Joaquin had just finished playing a role of a dead brother and was still feeling sad about his brother's death in the film. Only two or three months later, his brother in real life suddenly died in an accident.

What a coincidence.

It's as if the god of death really exists.

At the same time, some media accused Link of killing River. If he had not written such a script and asked Joaquin to play Todd, River might not have been taken away by the god of death. They asked everyone to boycott Link's new movie "Final Destination".

After these news broke, Guess What Pictures held a small press conference.

In an interview with the media, Liu Xiaoli expressed regret over River's death. She also condemned the behavior of many tabloids that made random accusations against Joaquin and "Final Destination", and demanded that they immediately stop spreading rumors, otherwise the company's legal department would hold the relevant media legally responsible.

Although Guess Pictures and Joaquin's agency have publicly refuted many rumors in newspapers.

But there are still many media outlets spreading rumors, wildly suggesting that River's death is related to Joaquin and Final Destination. At the same time, another type of news appeared in the media, claiming that the above news, including Joaquin's killing of River, was Link's publicity strategy.

Link is using River's death to promote the movie "Final Destination". Link goes against his promise not to continue promoting the movie and continues to profit from River's death. He is a person who will do anything for the box office.

The news also asked everyone not to go to the cinema to watch "Final Destination", and not to be fooled by Link, nor to let Rui Fan down.

Affected by these rumors and the suspension of the Death Band's performances, "Final Destination" earned only $11 million in its 868th week, $452 million in the first four days, and only $416 million in the last three days including the weekend, far below expectations.

"Final Destination" has been released for 11 weeks and has accumulated a box office of 1.79 million US dollars, which is still 2 million away from 2100 million. If the box office continues to decline in the next few weeks, it is very likely that it will not reach 15 million in the 2th week.

"Yeah! Yeah!"

Robert Downey Jr. excitedly pumped his fist after seeing the box office data.

This time they used an open conspiracy. No matter whether Link used Rui Fan to hype up the situation or not, he would fall into their trap and be tarnished and cursed.

I can finally make Link suffer a loss in silence. This feeling is so refreshing.

Jingle Bell!
The cell phone rang, and Robert Downey Jr. took a look and saw it was Richard Gere calling.

Richard Gere told him on the phone that although he had won a game, the situation was not optimistic. If Link increased his publicity efforts, there was a great chance that the box office of "Final Destination" would exceed 2 million US dollars in the next four weeks.

So they should press on while the odds are stacked against them, continue using public opinion to suppress the film, continue making up rumors and slandering Link and Joaquin, and try their best to drive the film's weekly box office down to below 500 million, only then can we truly win this war.

"Okay, I agree. Continue to scold Link for using River's death to hype himself up and profit from it. It would be best if the theaters remove Final Destination in advance. This movie is very unlucky."

Robert Downey Jr. said, pumping his fist.

"We are thinking the same thing, we just need money."

"Money? We need to raise funds again?!"

Robert Downey Jr. exclaimed.

"Yes, if we don't spend money on PR, the media won't write reports according to our requirements, and we won't be able to suppress Final Destination in public opinion."

"So how much will it be this time?"

"Ovitz said it would cost 1200 million, and you'll have to pay about 300 million."

"300?"

Robert Downey Jr. screamed, "I really have no money. I mortgaged all my assets and now I don't even have $100."

"Little Robert, think of a way. As long as we win this time, the funds we invested before will be recovered."

Richard Gere's voice was gentle.

"But I really have no money left, and no assets to mortgage."

"You can borrow from Mr. Downey. This money is very important. This is the last round of fundraising. If you can't raise this money, all the more than 10 million you invested before will go down the drain. Robert, are you willing to lose to Link?"

"I need to think about it again, give me some time."

"Okay, is two days enough? Tom Cruise, Dustin Hoffman, and Kiefer and I have all finished our work. Now it's just you. I hope you can hurry up. We can't afford to delay now."

"I see."

Robert Downey Jr. threw away his phone, hesitated for a moment, and then called Robert Downey Sr. to borrow money.

(End of this chapter)