Poker, Prop Bets, and 7 Days to Vegas with Vince Van Patten

In the writing process, obviously, you have to consider the resources you’re going to have available to you. How did that impact how the story finally played out?
I didn’t even think about it. I don’t like to think about, “Oh, let’s just keep it in this location or this and that.” I let it roll. And if you find out later on, budget-wise, whether it’s all going to work, you can always change that later to make it work.

Let’s talk about the story. What were some of the themes you were hitting upon, especially with your character of Duke?
I like to describe 7 Days to Vegas as The Hangover meets The Sting. You’re talking about guys that make crazy, outlandish bets. You’re also talking about very colorful people, and they are not the nicest people in the world, but they are fun people—always looking for an edge and always looking to take your money for bragging rights, “Hey, I won this bet, and I won that bet.” That’s the kind of people I was hanging around with, but you know what? They’re kind of good guys. It’s a lot of fun, a lot of laughs when you’re in that kind of world. You don’t want to be anywhere else. It’s total escapism. I wanted to write about those people I knew. The characters are really a combination of many people I’ve known and played with. Don’t want specific, but my character Duke is it an honest guy and likes to do things by the rules…more or less. He’s surrounded by these great grifters and con artists, and he has, he has to pull that out of himself as well.

“They might bet crazy money, stuff that can’t afford, but there’s a certain joy in it…”

When you think about a poker movie, you have Rounders, where the focus is on the game itself. In a way, Molly’s Game is about the seedy underside of gambling. In 7 Days to Vegas, you take on the relational aspect, especially in the area the proposition bet.
Yeah. That’s what I did. I didn’t want to show a series of poker hands. It’s irrelevant. I wanted to show the characters what they’re doing, what they’re betting, how crazy they are. You know, there’s a lot of joy in this world, and people always see other films about the genre of gamblers. It’s always dark and depressing. The mobsters of coming in and they don’t want his money. They’re going to break his legs. I’m tired of those kinds of movies. I know a totally different side of that, where people turn out okay. They might bet crazy money, stuff that can’t afford, but there’s a certain joy in it. I wanted it to be funny and uplifting.

Getting back to the prop bet, we associate poker and gambling with money and vast amounts of money, but it seems like the money is almost irrelevant to these propositions.
Yeah. It’s bragging rights. It’s to be able to tell the story of legends down the line — stories where you showed dominance over someone who presents themselves the Alpha over something.

One thing that comes clearly across in your film is it seemed like it was a lot of fun to make and you surrounded yourself with a cast, that’s most of your friends and family.
Well, it’s an ensemble cast, and they are very talented: Don Stark, Danny Pardo, James Kyson and Chad Lowe. I didn’t know these people. We just hired them. Here’s a little challenge. It was these guys, and we jammed them all and that RV and get them all talking. It was a lot of laughter.