Hollywood Director 1992.

Chapter 491 Harvest Season

The winter of 1998 was a fruitful season for Link.

First, American Beauty was released in early December. In its first week, it was screened in four theaters and grossed $325,000, with an average box office of $80,000 per theater, setting a new record for the highest-grossing preview screenings of a film in North America.

In its second week, the film was shown in 168 theaters, grossing $682 million, with box office revenue continuing to grow.

The film has received very positive reviews, with 63 media outlets giving it a score of over 90. Currently, it has a score of 9.4 on IMDb with 3.2 ratings.

The Los Angeles Times commented that "American Beauty" is one of the best and most representative American films, set in the suburbs of Los Angeles and depicting the tragic fate of America's middle-aged generation, who are also the middle class.

Director Link blends elements of dark comedy into a modern narrative, using a unique approach to vividly portray the ills of American society.

The film's message is also very profound, like a scalpel, using its sharpest tip to dissect the various problems existing in American society, problems that reside in the social body like cancer.

The Chicago Tribune commented that "American Beauty" is the top film of the year and the most worthwhile film to watch this year.

The film profoundly discusses the problems existing in American society, and the audience can also resonate with it greatly. Director Link's deep understanding of American society and families is shocking. His use of cinematography, as well as his structure and control of the entire film's plot, fully demonstrate his profound skills as a director. 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 his commercial films combined, including Batman Forever, The Rock, and Arrest. This excellence is not only reflected in his filming techniques and handling of the camera, but also in Link's relentless pursuit of innovation and the increasingly profound themes he reveals through his films.

The newspaper expects Link to make more profound art films such as "American Beauty," "The English Patient," and "Seven."

In addition to praising the film and Link, the media also gave positive reviews to the performances of actors such as Kevin Spacey, Diane Lane, Thora Birch, and Chris Cooper.

Kevin Spacey, in particular, was praised by the media as the best actor to portray the male lead, Lester, bringing vibrancy to this dull character with his superb performance.

Because of its excellent reviews, "American Beauty" caused a sensation in North America after its release, and audiences strongly demanded that the screening scale be expanded.

In its third week, "American Beauty" opened in 2947 theaters and grossed $8503 million, setting a new Christmas box office record.

The film also grossed $9200 million at the North American box office.

The film's production cost was only $1800 million.

The huge success of "American Beauty" was one of Link's year-end achievements.

Other gains followed one after another.

Starting in mid-December, more than twenty of Diana's 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, and Chen Hong, gave birth to babies one after another.

Diana and Vivian Chow had twins, while the other girlfriends had either boys or girls.

Including the nine children born last year, the total number of children in the family has surged to 32.

Because he had a lot of work at the end of the year, he didn't have time to spend with his children every day, so much so that when he went to see them again after two days, he couldn't tell them apart.

Because of this, he is often teased by his girlfriends.

After Diana, Judy, and others gave birth, Monica followed suit with a string of girlfriends including Liu Xiaoli, Sofia, Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow, Courteney Cox, Naomi Watts, Winona Ryder, and Julie Delpy.

Liu Xiaoli and Monica got pregnant because they love having children and want to have more for him. Monica hopes to have more than six children, and Liu Xiaoli plans to have three more.

Sofia got pregnant early out of spite of Nicole Kidman.

Originally, the two didn't get along at home. Sofia was more favored by him because she spent more time with him and had more seniority.

But after Nicole Kidman became pregnant and gave birth to the child, she became Link's child's mother and often showed off her child to Sofia.

Sofia was furious, so she got pregnant too.

Director Francis Ford Coppola was furious about this.

He could overlook Sofia's past indiscretions with Link, but premarital pregnancy was a different matter; it was extremely disgraceful to the family, and he couldn't accept it. But Sofia insisted, and the elderly director Coppola could only swallow his anger and grumble as he accepted the fact that he was about to become a grandfather.

After hearing the rumors, Quentin Tarantino, Nicolas Cage, Ben Affleck, and other acquaintances called to congratulate him or tease him.

Some people suggested he apply for a world record, saying he would definitely be the man with the most children in the world.

Link naturally wouldn't apply for such a pointless record. Instead, he suggested that the group get married and have children early to contribute to the world's population. Otherwise, without marriage and children, they would be lonely and isolated at home.

Quentin and Ben Affleck were somewhat taken aback by his words, accusing him of monopolizing all the beautiful women in the industry, leaving them with no choice, and calling him the biggest bully in the entertainment circle.

Link knew they were just jealous, but he didn't care about what he said.

However, with more children in the family, the annual living expenses have increased significantly, so Link has to find ways to earn more US dollars to improve his family's living standards.

Given that the dot-com bubble will reach its peak in the next two years, almost all internet stocks will experience explosive growth, and the Nasdaq Composite Index will also reach its highest value.

When the dot-com bubble burst in 2000, almost all internet companies suffered losses.

He planned to make advance arrangements by gradually selling some of his internet company stocks at high prices before 2000, and then investing the proceeds in companies with good operating conditions, such as Cisco, Oracle, Walmart, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Berkshire Hathaway, short-term Treasury bonds, and ExxonMobil.

The remaining funds will be used to buy Nasdaq put options and short sell overvalued fiber optic and internet companies.

After the dot-com bubble burst in 2002 and all internet company prices plummeted, a large amount of capital was withdrawn to buy more shares of companies such as Microsoft, Cisco, Amazon, and Apple.

如果一切顺利，他名下资产到02年有望超过1000亿美元，到2010年前后有望超过5000亿，到2020年前后超过1万亿。

With a trillion dollars at his disposal, he no longer needs to worry about the cost of his children's milk powder, and his girlfriends can have a hundred more children.

Jingle Bell!Jingle Bell!
In the morning, while Link was reviewing FlashGold Capital's annual report in his office, he received a call from Joseph Schmitz, head of intelligence at Blackwater Defense, who told him that there had been a new breakthrough in the investigation of the shooting.

Not long ago, they received intelligence that the middleman involved in the assassination, 'Jack,' was active in the Middle East, and they sent people to the Middle East to capture 'Jack.'

After interrogation, 'Jack' confessed to the case, admitting that he helped contact an assassin organization to assassinate Link three times.

The first was the shooting in front of the ABC television building in New York in 1996. The second and third were the "red carpet assassination" and the "coffee shop assassination" that occurred in Los Angeles in August and September.

According to 'Jack', the person who contacted him was Harvey Weinstein, president of Miramax Films, who has records of the money transfers between the two parties.

The middleman had only one request: that the case be handed over to the courts and that vigilante justice not be abused.

"Harvey?"

Link was a little surprised, but not entirely.

What was surprising was that he hadn't expected Harvey to be so bold as to use such extreme methods against him, but what wasn't surprising was that Harvey was also one of the people he suspected.

"Yes, Harvey transferred $350 million to that account on three separate occasions as payment for hiring the hitman. We have obtained the transfer records from the bank."

"I understand. Continue the investigation and find as much evidence as possible."

In homicide cases, hiring a hitman is a relatively complex case. In addition, the US judicial system advocates the principle of "presumption of innocence," and it is difficult to convict Harvey of hiring a hitman based solely on witness testimony and bank transfer records.

More evidence is needed to convict Harvey.

Joseph Schmitz indicated that he understood.

After hanging up the phone, Link called his lawyer, Sean Don, and briefed him on the case's progress, instructing him to cooperate with Blackwater to find more evidence and bring Harvey, the 'mastermind,' to justice as soon as possible.

(End of this chapter)