Basis Media Companions Secures Rights To Story Of Excessive Curler Terry Watanabe – Deadline

EXCLUSIVE: Foundation Media Partners has secured unique ebook, movie and documentary rights to the life story of Terry Watanabe, the infamous playing addict who made historical past as Las Vegas’ largest ever whale, dropping over $200 million in a single yr after playing an unprecedented $825 million.

Whereas it’s as but unclear what precisely will come from the deal, Basis Media plans to adapt the cautionary story right into a characteristic movie, documentary and/or ebook, whereas collaborating with Watanabe himself. It is going to be the primary time the legendary whale speaks out on his expertise since settling a lawsuit with an undisclosed on line casino group in 2010, as no official diversifications of his story had beforehand been introduced.

Watanabe’s downfall is maybe probably the most epic and pitiful in Las Vegas playing historical past. The Omaha native with a eager eye for advertising and deciding on merchandise constructed his huge fortune after buying his father’s humble commerce enterprise, Oriental Buying and selling Co., and rising it into an empire raking in $300 million in income. He bought the corporate and retired as CEO in 2000 to concentrate on philanthropy, notably giving tens of millions to AIDs analysis and providers, based on his basis’s information.

With appreciable downtime, Watanabe began playing at Harrah’s on line casino in Iowa in 2003, starting to embark on common journeys to Vegas two years later, the place his consumption and prodigality intensified. It was there that he made a reputation for himself as a beneficiant patron and excessive stakes gambler. Many workers recount he would keep on the tables for as much as 24 hours, typically dropping as a lot as $5 million per day. His indulgences have been so extreme that one on line casino created a particular buyer tier for him referred to as “Chairman” and offered lavish perks to maintain him comfortable, together with Rolling Stones tickets and exorbitant reward retailer credit score. Watanabe was additionally rumored to have elevated that on line casino’s backside line by 6%.

The multi-millionaire enterprise mogul finally fell into immense debt. He reportedly gambled away over $200 million in 2007, resulting in extended lawsuits with on line casino companies. All through the authorized battles, Watanabe claims the casinos and their guileful hosts enabled his substance abuse and contributed additional to his psychological well being points, making a extremely exploitative setting to prey on his wealth. But it surely’s an extended and convoluted story that Basis Media Companions is raring to inform, and one which Terry Watanabe appears able to set straight.

“I’ve heard so much about Terry over time and have become form of obsessive about studying extra about him,” mentioned Basis Media Companions’ Founder and CEO, Patrick Hughes. “I’ve all the time imagined telling his story with a filmmaker that might actually seize the form of claustrophobic surreal world he was trapped in. All the cash on the planet and a coronary heart of gold, after which he acquired caught on a loopy hamster wheel of opulence and self-destruction that’s as tragic as it’s fascinating.

“Our purpose is to inform his story unfiltered and in varied codecs that may enable audiences to actually emerge into this world that actually solely ONE PERSON has ever skilled at this degree and someway got here out the opposite facet to inform the story,” Hughes added. “I’m honored and excited that Terry has agreed to work with us on this.”

Based by Hughes in 2016, Basis Media is a specialty partnership entity that goals to help excellent creatives, together with rising and established firms and people within the arts, leisure, digital media, company, music, tech, retail and style industries. With a various government workforce, its community extends throughout the complete leisure ecosystem, incorporating technique, licensing, sync/licensing, labels, distribution, advertising and branding. A few of its notable partnerships embrace Construct-A-Bear Workshop, DreamWorks Animation’s The Unhealthy Guys (based mostly on the bestselling novel by Aaron Blabey), in addition to a number of musical artists with their accomplice Blueprint Group corresponding to G Eazy, The Roots, Latto and Jill Scott.