Chapter 491 Harvest Season
The winter of 1998 was a harvest season for Link.
First, "American Beauty" was released in early December. It was screened in 4 theaters in the first week, earning 325,000 US dollars, and the average box office per theater reached 80,000 US dollars, setting a record for North American movie preview box office.
In its second week, the film was released in 168 theaters, earning $6.82 million, and its box office performance continued to grow.
The film's reputation is also very positive, with 63 media outlets giving it a score of over 90 points. The current score on the imdb website is 9.4 points, with 32,000 people rating it.
The Los Angeles Times commented that "American Beauty is one of the best American films and the most representative American film. The film is set in the suburbs of Los Angeles and shows the tragic fate of the middle-aged generation and the middle class in the United States.
Director Link incorporates some black comedy styles into the paradigm of modern plots, and vividly displays the morbidity of American society in a unique way.
The film's connotation is also very profound. It is like a scalpel, using the sharpest tip to dissect the various problems existing in American society. These problems are like cancer that resides in the social body.'
The Chicago Tribune commented that "American Beauty" is the first of the top ten films of the year and is also the most worth watching film this year.
The film deeply discusses the existing problems in American society, and the audience can resonate greatly when watching it. Director Link's understanding of American social family is shocking. His use of film lenses and the structure and control of the entire film's plot fully demonstrate his profound skills in directing. In terms of professionalism, he has long surpassed the level of ordinary film directors and become a master director.'
The New York Times called American Beauty Link's best film, better than all of Link's commercial films combined, including Batman Forever, The Rock, and Taken. This excellence is not only reflected in the shooting techniques and the handling of the shots, but also in Link's constant pursuit of innovation and the increasingly profound themes he reveals through his films.
The newspaper expects Link to make more literary and artistic films with profound connotations such as "American Beauty", "The English Patient" and "Seven Deadly Sins".
In addition to praising the film and praising Link, the media also made positive comments on the performances of actors such as Kevin Spacey, Diane Lane, Thora Birch, and Chris Cooper in the film.
Kevin Spacey in particular was praised by the media as the best actor to play the leading actor Lester. He made this dull character colorful with his superb performance.
Due to the excellent reputation of "American Beauty", it caused a sensation in North America after its release, and audiences strongly demanded that the scale of its release be expanded.
In its third week, "American Beauty" was released in 2,947 theaters, earning $85.03 million, setting a new record for the Christmas box office.
The film also grossed $92 million in North America.
The film cost only $18 million to make.
The huge sales of "American Beauty" was one of Link's gains at the end of the year.
Other gains followed.
Starting from mid-December, more than 20 girlfriends including Diana, Jodie Foster, Brooke Shields, Jennifer Connelly, Diane Lane, Nicole Kidman, Renée Zellweger, Cindy Crawford, Gong Li, Vivian Chow, Brigitte Lin, Maggie Cheung, Chen Hong and others gave birth to babies one after another.
Among them, Diana and Vivian Chow gave birth to twins, while the other girlfriends gave birth to boys and girls.
Including the nine children born last year, the total number of children in the family has skyrocketed to 32.
Because he had a lot of work to do at the end of the year, he didn't have time to accompany his children every day, so when he went to see them every two days, he could hardly tell who was who.
Because of this, he was often teased by his girlfriends.
After Diana, Judy and others gave birth to their children, Monica and Liu Xiaoli, Sofia, Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow, Courteney Cox, Naomi Watts, Winona Ryder, Julie Delpy and other girlfriends announced the good news one after another.
Liu Xiaoli and Monica got pregnant because they like having children and want to give him more children. Monica hopes to have six or more, and Liu Xiaoli plans to have three more.
Sofia's early pregnancy was a ploy to spite Nicole Kidman.
Originally, the two of them disliked each other at home. Because Sofia had been with him longer, she was more favored by him and had more seniority.
But after Nicole Kidman became pregnant and gave birth to a child, she became the mother of Link's child, and often showed off the child in front of Sofia.
Sophia was so angry that she got pregnant too.
Director Francis Ford Coppola was furious about this.
In the past, he could have stayed out of interfering when Sophia and Link were messing around with each other, but getting pregnant before marriage was another matter. It was extremely shameful for the family and he couldn't accept it.
But Sofia insisted, and old director Coppola had no choice but to swallow his anger and accept the fact that he was about to become a grandfather.
After hearing the rumors, Quentin, Nicolas Cage, Ben Affleck and other acquaintances called to congratulate him or tease him.
Someone suggested that he apply for a world record, saying that he must be the man with the most children in the world.
Link naturally would not apply for such a boring record. Instead, he suggested that they get married and have children early to contribute to the world's population. Otherwise, they would be lonely and cold at home without marriage and children.
Quentin and Ben Affleck were a little upset when they heard his words. They accused him of monopolizing all the beauties in the circle and leaving them with no choice, and said that he was the biggest bully in the entertainment industry.
Link knew they were jealous and didn't care about what he said.
However, with more children in the family, the annual living expenses also increased significantly. Link had to find a way to earn more US dollars to improve his family's living standards.
Considering that the Internet bubble reached its peak in the next two years, almost all Internet stocks grew wildly and the Nasdaq Composite Index also grew to its highest value.
By the time the Internet bubble burst in 2000, almost all Internet companies would suffer losses.
He planned to make arrangements in advance and sell some Internet company stocks at high prices before 2000, and invest the recovered funds in companies with better operating conditions, such as Cisco, Oracle, Walmart, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Berkshire Hathaway, short-term Treasury bonds, ExxonMobil and other companies.
In addition, keep some funds to buy Nasdaq put options and short sell overvalued fiber optic and Internet companies.
After the Internet bubble crisis ended in 2002 and the prices of all Internet companies plummeted, large amounts of funds were withdrawn to buy more stocks of Microsoft, Cisco, Amazon, Apple and other companies.
If all goes well, his assets are expected to exceed US$100 billion by 2002, exceed US$500 billion by around 2010, and exceed US$1 trillion by around 2020.
With a trillion dollars as a foundation, he no longer has to worry about the money for his children's milk powder, and his girlfriends can have another hundred children.
Ding-a-ling! Ding-a-ling!
In the morning, when Link was looking through the annual report of FlashGold Capital in his office, Joseph Schmidt, head of the intelligence department of Blackwater Defense Company, called and told him that there was a new breakthrough in the investigation of the shooting.
Not long ago, they received intelligence that the middleman 'Jack' involved in the assassination was active in the Middle East, so they sent people to the Middle East to capture 'Jack'.
After interrogation, 'Jack' confessed to the case and admitted that he helped someone contact a killer organization to assassinate Link three times in total.
The first was a shooting at the entrance of the ABC TV station building in New York in 1996. The second and third were the "red carpet stabbing" and "cafe stabbing" in Los Angeles in August and September.
According to 'Jack', the person who contacted him was Harvey Weinstein, president of Miramax Films, who had records of money transfers between the two parties.
The middleman had only one request: that the case be brought to court for trial and that lynching not be abused.
"Harvey?"
Link was a little surprised, but not too surprised.
What was surprising was that he didn't expect Harvey to be so bold as to use extreme methods against him, but what was not surprising was that Harvey was also one of his suspects.
"Yes, Harvey transferred 3.5 million U.S. dollars to this account three times as payment for hiring a killer. We have obtained the transfer records from the bank."
"I understand. You continue to investigate. The more evidence you find, the better."
In homicide cases, hiring a killer is a relatively complicated case. In addition, the American judicial community advocates the trial principle of "innocent until proven guilty". It is difficult to convict Harvey of hiring a killer based solely on witness testimony and bank transfer records.
More evidence would be needed to convict Harvey.
Joseph Schmidt said he understood.
After hanging up the phone, Link called lawyer Sean Tang and briefed him on the progress of the case. He asked him to cooperate with Blackwater to find more evidence and let the "mastermind" Harvey receive the punishment he deserves as soon as possible.
(End of this chapter)
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