Chapter 359 This is a blatant insult!
Timo was still rational and held down the furious Bradt:

"Du, are you trying to ruin the entire project by doing this?"

To be honest, they were indeed a bit at fault in terms of crew security.

As the saying goes, if you suffer on the first day of the month, don't blame others for your fifteenth day. You can't blame anyone else.

"Timo, I never set a trap or lied to you."

Du Sheng could ignore Bradt, but the director had to be appeased to some extent:

"Has the 40 yuan for the script arrived?
I never said I wouldn’t invest before, right?
I even agreed to the strict condition that if the film is not produced before the end of the authorization period, the script will be returned to you unconditionally.

All I asked for was to be the leading actor. Isn't that normal in Hollywood?
It's just that you never asked for my opinion on this film, and you didn't even care about my suggestions as an investor. You only cared about my money!"

Seeing Bradt blushing and about to speak again, he waved his hand to interrupt:

“I can say for sure that I will not default.

I will deposit three sums of money into the crew account before the authorization ends to keep the crew running normally.

By then, I will have the box office appeal you want. If you still don’t cooperate by then, the responsibility is not on me.”

Timo nodded silently, finally understanding the current situation.

Apparently, he and Bradt were both blinded by the 5500 million.
Du Sheng, who they mistakenly thought was a Hollywood rookie, was fooled around.

To be honest, they had never thought that there would be investors who would adopt such a roundabout strategy, not for the purpose of acquiring the project, but just for the purpose of playing the role.

From all aspects, Du Sheng did not breach the contract.

From a financial perspective, they didn't lose out by getting $40.

If they agree to Du Sheng's request, the crew will be able to operate normally.

But even if he could agree, I'm afraid Bradt might not agree.

"I will never work with a despicable liar like you!"

As expected, Bradt was furious:

"You think you can gain a foothold in Hollywood? You think a movie that you don't know anything about can make over 100 million dollars?

It's just a foolish dream!"

He had been preparing for this project for so long, and how could he agree to it being taken away by Du Sheng!

After saying that, he gave Du Sheng a fierce look and turned away.

Timo stood up and sighed:
"Du, you gave me a vivid lesson."

"Timo, remember to pay attention to Kill Bill 2 and House of Flying Daggers. I believe you will find them refreshing."

Du Sheng watched them leave with a smile, feeling no guilt at all.

Hollywood is a place full of scammers and intrigue.

If he doesn't have any plan and just transfers the money without asking any questions, then he is really a fool with a lot of money.

Since Hollywood is picky about Chinese actors, he will just shoot his own films and take the initiative to create a stage.

Of course, from a film perspective, the safest way is to invite well-known actors to play the leading roles.

But he planned all this not just for investment and making money.

5500 million US dollars, converted into RMB at the current exchange rate is more than 4 million.

With this money, he might as well just buy stocks like Apple and Amazon. The stable returns far exceed those from making movies. Why bother with all this?
The reason why Du Sheng was willing to spend money to get involved in the project was because the main attraction of the movie "Wanted" was not the male lead, but an opportunity for him.

If it were a Western-style film like "Harry Potter" or "The Lord of the Rings", he might not be interested even if Bradt knelt down and begged him to star in it.

This is a rare opportunity, and he wants to use it to try to break the limitations of Chinese in Hollywood and expand his popularity.

Even if the box office of "Wanted" does not reach the level of his previous life, he is not afraid of investing as long as he can break even.

As long as it is maintained, it will be a great promotion opportunity for both the Chinese community and personal brands.

Given the opportunity, Du Sheng would certainly not miss it, otherwise he would never know what the outcome would be.

Moreover, a few months later, the movie "Kill Bill 2" will be released, which will leave some impression on European and American audiences.

And "House of Flying Daggers" will earn over 100 million yuan in the Eastern market and over 100 million dollars worldwide, which is almost enough fame.

By then he will be confident that he can convince Timothy to return to direct.

Du Sheng will not replace a director like this who is passionate about super-action themes and has proven in his previous life that he can handle a series of movies until the very last minute.

As for Bradt, as long as he is willing to cooperate or not make trouble, Du Sheng can tolerate him for the time being considering his years of hard work and screenwriting.

But if the other party insists on seeking death, then we can only send him off with regret.

.........

"Tang, long time no see. Have you finished your business in England?"

That evening, Du Sheng returned to Las Vegas and finally met Don King as he wished.

"Du, I had something urgent to do the day before yesterday. I'm so sorry for taking up so much of your time."

Tang Jin stood up, shook hands with Du Sheng and said apologetically.

"It doesn't matter. I have nothing to do anyway, so I might as well go and broaden my horizons."

After a few polite words, Du Sheng got to the point and asked in surprise:

"Tang, haven't you found any opponents in this period of time?"

After the K1 finals, he decided to have his first UFC fight against a top middleweight fighter. Whether the opponent would accept the fight or not would depend on the ability of his agent Don King.

As for the fact that no one ever challenges a top-10 fighter in their first professional fight, and whether this is legal...

Du Sheng just wants to say that in the face of the huge cake of the Eastern market, any rules may be re-examined.

This is just like how Zou Shimin in his previous life skipped two warm-up matches and directly challenged the entire network championship to become the focus!
However, UFC is still an emerging fighting system and is slightly different from boxing in various aspects.

For example, the most attractive thing at the moment is the digital competition, the latest of which was UFC42 ten days ago.

The most valuable digital matches are championship challenges, title defenses, and cross-weight class super fights.

The entry ticket that Du Sheng had obtained in "Legend of Wulin" before was the qualification for the championship challenge.

He now weighs 81kg (78kg-84kg in the middleweight category). If he wants to prove the global importance of the King of Fighters, conquering the two peaks of UFC and boxing is a must.

It’s just that the selection of opponents and the arrangement of match times require coordination by UFC.

Moreover, players have the right to refuse, for example, if they feel the chances of winning are not high, or if the higher-ranked player does not want to play against the lower-ranked player.

Of course, UFC will not pair players randomly, and players cannot refuse to compete without reason.

But given Don King's reputation in the boxing world, he shouldn't have been silent for so long.

Speaking of this, Don King gave a wry smile:
"I've been working on this, but it's a long story..."

He has a very close relationship with UFC events, otherwise he would not have become the godfather of boxing.

There is no problem at all for Du Sheng to challenge the UFC Intercontinental Champion, and the UFC also welcomes this oriental boxer to join the competition.

After all, the other party has gained fame in K1 and has a huge market with a population of more than billion. This is definitely a win-win arrangement.

However, when Don King proposed to directly challenge the championship ranking match, all members of the UFC boxing organization's board of directors were shocked.

This is simply unheard of.

A newcomer who participated in UFC for the first time actually directly challenged the top ten middleweight boxers in the world?
This is clearly against the norm.

Normally, the sub-match of the championship challenge, which is the warm-up match, is played first.

After becoming famous, you can participate in the main competition of the championship challenge, which is the ranking competition.

They wondered if this oriental boxer didn't understand the situation.

Or should we use the amateur record of "Wulin" to measure the professional boxing world?

But if you think about it carefully, considering his record in K1 GP, he should have no problem fighting against a player ranked around th in the world in the middleweight division.
But challenging the top ten boxers in the world is simply a fantasy.

Because almost all of those people have won the gold belt (including those who lost it).

Du Sheng has never fought in a UFC professional match and might be knocked out in the first round.

And then you shrink back out of fear, what should you do?

UFC directors are planning to expand into the Eastern market, and the UFC organization is not willing to lose him easily.

In order to express their "sincerity", UFC took the initiative to negotiate with Don King to find a professional boxer ranked around 50th in the world for Du Sheng.
And he is a player who has no strong punching ability.

If everything goes according to plan and the oriental boy KOs his opponent in his first professional match, it will be explosive news and will greatly boost the popularity of the oriental boxing market.

Professional boxing, as a commercial competition, is different from the Olympics in that it simply pursues the spirit of contract.

It is a business game that focuses on popularity and commercial value.

As long as the benefits are sufficient, it will not be difficult for Du Sheng to become the boxing champion.

Of course, the premise of all this is that Du Sheng himself has strong strength.

Du Sheng found the UFC's proposal difficult to accept.

Isn't this clearly a sign of looking down on others?

After all, he came from the K1 GP competition, why does he need special care?
To put it bluntly, this is an insult to the king of K1 fighting!
After discussing with Tang Jin, Du Sheng directly rejected the proposal.

Faced with Du Sheng's firm stance, the UFC Board of Directors, after repeated discussions, believed that this was also an excellent publicity opportunity that would greatly enhance the influence of UFC, and finally agreed to the request.

As for the choice of opponents, it is not within the control of the UFC Board of Directors.

Don King needs to communicate with other boxing promotion companies to discuss which of the top ten middleweight boxers in the world to challenge.

However, the results were disappointing.

After all, boxers who are qualified to hold the gold belt feel that competing with pure newcomers is an insult.

Moreover, the boxing promotion company they belong to also believes that doing so will seriously damage the reputation of the company and the boxers, and may not be worth the cost.

In addition to Don King's bad reputation, he did not have any famous enough boxing champions to use as bargaining chips for future challenges.

Therefore, after a round of negotiations, no boxing promotion company was willing to accept this championship challenge.

After listening to this, Du Sheng felt a little amused.

There is no other way, I can only put it aside for now and meet Dana White first.

Because he felt that the profit sharing issue was not quite reasonable and needed to be discussed further.

Tang Jin observed Du Sheng's reaction and said:
“UFC President Dana White formally invites you to meet.

In addition to the championship challenge, I guess they want to officially sign you to the UFC."

.........

(End of this chapter)