Since Aiden had first encountered Arno, he had felt like the French filmmaker was trying to one up Zavier a lot. Although he praised him, there were also taunts mixed up in his words.
Zavier later told him about his relationship with Arno and Aiden understood what was going on. Even though he didn't like his attitude, it wasn't his place to say anything.
Until Arno had said that [The Black Saint] won't be commercially viable. It was then that Aiden had decided that enough was enough.
The idea of a bet was something that randomly came to his mind but now that Arno also looked interested in it, and it had already gained a lot of attention, Aiden wasn't going to back out.
"So, what kind of bet are we talking about here?"
Arno asked with a smirk and Aiden paused for a few seconds, thinking about a good bet before smiling.
"If [The Black Saint] didn't earn 500 dollars, I would act in a movie for you for free. Won't take any payment no matter what role or script."
"Ah, are you sure of it?"
"Yes, you should know that I have quite a good box office record myself."
Arno nodded his head. He obviously kept an eye on the industry and knew that Aiden was a great commercial star to have in your cast.
Just now, he had seen him as Kai. A great actor who could actually pull off a villain.
'Ah, I can use him as a villain in my next. Would save a lot of money too.'
Arno thought in his mind.
The other people around jhtm started whispering among themselves seeing the conversation between Arno and Aiden.
Zavier tugged at Aiden's shirt, telling him to drop it but he didn't look like he wasn't going to back off.
"Now, although I feel like it's impossible, what is the other side of the bet in case the movie actually did that much. Though, I seriously doubt it."
Arno added the last bit of the sentence with a bit of contempt. He felt like Aiden would ask something like a lead role in his next movie but he asked something unexpected.
"You said that you have a movie that's going to be released on Christmas right? Then you are going to be busy with a lot of interviews."
"Obviously."
"If I win, then you will talk about [The Black Saint] in each of the media interviews. My movie is releasing next month so it would line up perfectly by the time the promotions for your movie starts. You can't be lazy with it though. You need to talk about it for at least 10 minutes."
Arno paused hearing that.
He wasn't expecting something like that. It was akin to doing free promotions for the movie. But it was a good idea, he accepted that in his mind.
'Should I agree? Or not?'
He suddenly hesitated for a bit. Then, he looked around at all the people that were gathered here. Everyone was from the industry and this was surely going to spread.
He would look like a coward If he rejected it.
"Okay, I accept. Bring it on."
Both him and Aiden shook hands after that as people talked more about the ridiculous bet. Most of them were thinking that Arno was easily going to win and Aiden had to work for free in his movie.
After all, 500 million dollars was too big of a mark for any movie to cross.
There were even conspiracy theories about how Aiden had only made this bet so that he could be a part of Arno's next project. Some people were going with this line of thinking while others were just excited to see who was going to win in the end.
A little while later, Zavier pulled Aiden to the side and asked with a worried expression on his face.
"Aiden, have you gone crazy? What kind of bet have you made?"
"A normal bet."
"No, it's a bet that you are going to lose."
Aiden looked at him strangely hearing that.
"I thought you would be confident in your own movie."
He said, looking straight at Zavier. It would be wrong to say that he wasn't a bit disappointed.
"I'm." He replied confidently. "But 500 million dollars ain't a small number to cross. [The Black Saint] doesn't even have any VFX nor is it kid friendly. I would be with you if you said 200 million but 500 million is too much for this type of movie."
Hearing that, Aiden understood where Zavier was coming from. If he thought about it keeping the box office reality in mind, Zavier's words made much more sense.
People only want to spend a lot for an experience filled with special effects that transports them to another world while [The Black Saint] was truly opposite of it, delving into the ugly side of humans.
So, why had Aiden been so confident?
Because he felt like it was the type of movie that people needed at the moment.
'It might not be kids friendly but I feel like it will connect with the audience.'
It was a bit strange that Aiden felt that the audience would connect to Kai who was a psychopath but psychopaths were usually charismatic and Kai was the result of problems that were faced by a lot of people.
"I just believe that. I don't know why but I do." Aiden said, shrugging his shoulders. "Anyway, if it didn't work, I would just need to do a movie with Arno. But if I won, then won't it be funny?"
"Ah, it will be. Arno is very arrogant. Way more than me. So, he won't be able to take the loss but as he would be ridiculed if he doesn't keep his end of the bet, he would surely fulfil the condition."
Zavier laughed, thinking about it. Seeing his rival like that would be another kind of experience but he would only see it if [The Black Saint] surpassed every expectation.
Looking at Aiden's confidence, he really wondered if the bet was going to end up in his favour.
At the same time, he felt happiness in his heart.
'It's nice to work with an actor who has this much trust in your movie.'
He silently thought in his mind.
***
The release date of [The Black Saint] was decided to be on 3 September. The production team was going for a one and a half month marketing plan before the release of the movie.
At the same time, this was also because no big movies were released at this time of the year.
Most of the releases were trying to eye a winter release, close to Christmas, so [The Black Saint] would get little to no competition.
It was great news for Aiden who had only fought with other movies as his luck had made him clash with someone always.
He had come out on top mostly but it was still not a good thing all the time.
He was kinda relaxed because of that but the bet was still roaming in the back of his mind, making him give everything in the promotions.
And like he had expected, the movie got a R-18 rating by the censor board.
The marketing team was expecting it, so they marketed it more towards adults, calling it 'A dark movie for an entire generation.'
Thankfully, there were already a lot of fans of the first movie and even in them, there were a lot of Kai fans. So, some audience for the movie was already present.
[Football not soccer: They released another poster for [The Black Saint]. They are really going all out in the promotions.]
[Penalties are not goals: So bad the movie got a R-18 rating. My high school younger brother is a huge fan of Kai and wanted to see it. Guess, he needs to grow up first.]
[I penetrate with my sword: I really wonder how much dark they actually made it for it to gain an adult rating. The first movie was much more teen friendly. I guess, it's because it focuses fully on a villain. The teaser was intriguing and if they follow just that, the screen would have a lot of blood.]
[Fighting WW3 on Sparrow: I just want to know if Kai survived his death or not. I don't want it to be a prequel of sorts without offering us anything about what happened after the climax of the first movie.]
[Enjoying Cricket for 5 days: Going by the information released till now, it's crazy how much they seem to have changed the tone of the movie. From a crime thriller to a dark drama. I even heard some scenes would be close to horror.]
[Halfway through the novel: Whatever it is, I'm going first day first show. I need something that looks to be much more than your typical movie. I want to come out of the theatre shocked if it's really a dark movie for a generation. Otherwise, I want a refund.]
