The Carrot

For his first screenplay, a historical drama about a fictitious truckers' union titled F.I.S.T., a project for which he did years of research (I think he said three, including extensive research in the field), Eszterhaus was paid $80,000 in a step deal and wrote the screenplay in collaboration with Norman Jewison in six months. The film tanked. Years later he wrote Basic Instinct as a spec script in three weeks and sold it for $3,000,000, the film grossing $450 million worldwide. And that's why I'm working on screenplays. Because soon this is going to happen to me!