Conquer America, Start with a Boxing Champion

"Link, do you want a massage?"

The old father-in-law took off his clothes, lay on the massage table, and breathed out comfortably.

"Oh, no, I'm not feeling well."

Link looked at the two hot masseurs and wondered whether he should go out so that his old father-in-law could do things.

"Link, don't look at my poor health now. I often ran marathons when I was young and won third place in the New York area."

The old father-in-law said breathlessly after being pressed down.

"Yes, I can see that you are in great shape."

Link leaned on the balcony with a lollipop in his mouth, looking out the window at the small lake and green putting green, the scenery was very nice.

"Link, you and Eva have been dating for more than half a year. When are you going to get married? Eva is not young anymore."

The old father-in-law suddenly changed the subject and asked.

Link smiled helplessly, not expecting that he would be urged to marry him in person. He thought for a while and said that he would seriously consider this matter after he finished his work.

The old father-in-law groaned a few times but fell silent, and squeezed the physiotherapist's big butt with both hands.

Link covered his forehead. With his old father-in-law like this, even if he successfully ran for election, he would be kicked out. For his own benefit, maybe he should find a time to persuade him to be a good person.

——

After finishing his work in New York, Link flew to Los Angeles to attend the Weinstein Films' celebration party.

The party was held in the Beverly Hills mansion owned by Weinstein. This mansion is adjacent to General Garden and covers an area as large as five football fields. According to the current housing prices in Beverly, the price of this villa is 30 million. It is worth more than US dollars and is also a famous mansion nearby.

"Hey, Link, why are you here too?"

When Link got out of the car with Jennifer Lawrence, he happened to meet Casey Affleck driving a red Porsche sports car. In the car sat his wife Summer Phoenix, who is also Joaquin Phoenix's biological sister.

"Harvey invited me here."

Link smiled softly, said hello to Summer, and said to Cassie, "I forgot to congratulate you for winning the award at the Berlin Film Festival. Now many people say that your brothers are all-powerful brothers in Hollywood."

"Haha, no matter how almighty we are, we can't compare to you. You are the world-recognized almighty superman."

Casey Affleck laughed.

At the end of last year, Cassie's debut film "You're Still Here" was completed. In January, it participated in the Berlin Film Festival Awards and won the Documentary Biographical Film Award, gaining a lot of attention in Hollywood.

His brother, Ben Affleck, is a Hollywood first-line movie star. His representative work is "Pearl Harbor". In recent years, he has turned to director. He has successively filmed "Gone Baby Gone", "Gimme Shelter", and "The City", which was released in September last year. 》.

This movie was written, directed and starred by Ben Affleck. It cost 37 million and grossed 154 million at the global box office. The supporting actor Jeremy Renner was also nominated for the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. It was a double success in both word-of-mouth and box office. .

Ben Affleck also became a relatively successful director in Hollywood and received a lot of praise. He was called "Clint Eastwood second".

Brothers like Casey and Ben Affleck, who are both actors and directors and are very successful, are rare in Hollywood. The two brothers were also named the "Twin Stars of the Film Industry" by Variety Magazine.

While the two were talking in the parking lot, two more luxury cars stopped nearby.

One was a white Fiat 8V driven by Oscar-winning actor Russell Crowe, and the other was a Porsche sports car with the famous director Robert Rodriguez, both of whom were accompanied by celebrity female companions.

Link did not cooperate with the two, but he knew them. After greeting them, he took Jennifer into Weinstein's luxurious estate.

Coming to the party scene, there were even more stars.

There are director Quentin Tarantino, an old acquaintance, director Steven Soderbergh, who became popular with "Sex, Lies and Videotape", and director Martin Scorsese, who has collaborated with Harvey many times. The King's Speech director Tom Hopper.

There are also big stars Richard Gere, Kevin Spacey, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Colin Firth, Bradley Cooper, Meryl Stewart Rip, Michelle Williams, Renée Zellweger, Nicole Kidman, Salma Hayek, Cate Blanchett, Judi Dench, Heidi Crews Mu and more than 200 film actors or film and television workers.

The whole party was star-studded, with more stars than there were at the 'Oscar Night' party.

It is currently the busiest period in Hollywood. When Harvey held a party, so many people put down their work and came to support him. When Link saw him, he had to admire his connections.

If he had broken up with Harvey directly during that phone call last year, given his connections in the industry, Palm Beach Pictures probably wouldn't be able to find the right director and actors if they wanted to make a movie.

And he himself and the actors under the Palm Bay Agency will probably be isolated by these people.

This is not alarmist. Many actors and directors on the scene are very loyal to Harvey.

Such as Matt Damon and Russell Crowe.

After Harvey's fall, there were reports that in 2004, New York Times Magazine reporter Sharon Waxman was preparing to write a report exposing Harvey's arrangement of a special manager, Fabrizio, to search for beauties in Italy. .

Matt Damon and Russell Crowe were instructed by Harvey to call reporter Sharon one after another, asking the other party not to report, and putting pressure on the other party. In the end, the report ended in vain.

There is also the old lady Judi Dench. In order to thank Harvey for helping her win the supporting actress Oscar, she got a tattoo of "Judy Loves Harvey" on her butt.

There is also Nicole Kidman, who has been collaborating with Harvey since the 1990s, including films such as "Island", "Moulin Rouge", "The Hours", "Cold Mountain" and "Nine". She is considered to be working with Harvey. The most dimensionally bound actress.

There are also directors Rodriguez, Quentin, and Soderbergh. Their success has a lot to do with Harvey.

If they compete with Harvey, even if they are worth billions of dollars, these people will probably choose to support Harvey, because Harvey can help them get the Oscar statuette, which Link cannot do yet.

"Hey Link, I didn't expect to see you here. It's a big surprise."

Director Quentin shouted to the crowd.

"Director Quentin!"

Link saw the ferocious-looking director and stepped forward to have a chat.

Quentin is a genius director and a representative of the dark and violent American genre. Almost all of his films have achieved both critical acclaim and box office. He is also a worthy partner.

But with Harvey here, Quentin will not look for other companies to cooperate for the time being.

When other people saw him appearing at the party, they turned to look at him. Some were surprised and confused, some were envious, and some had hot eyes.

Although the people present are all celebrities, few can match Link's global popularity, and their net worth is far behind, not to mention that Link is only 22 years old.

Others also came up to say hello, mostly female celebrities, including Nicole Kidman, Salma Hayek, supermodel Heidi Klum, Elizabeth Banks, etc., who came up one after another.

Jennifer Lawrence saw the women coming up and subconsciously grabbed Link's arm to prevent him from being seduced by these women.

Link squeezed her fingers and told her to relax. Although he was lustful and lustful, he had no interest in these older women.

——

Not far away, Harvey Weinstein was discussing a movie with Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.

He also saw it when Link came. However, when he called Link a few times to invite him to a private party, this guy pushed back and refused, giving him no face at all, and giving him no chance to drag Link into the water.

Harvey was angry about this.

When he saw Link arriving, he originally planned to wait for Link for a while and let him take the initiative to come over and say hello.

But as soon as Link arrived, the women gathered around him enthusiastically, eager to cling to him.

The men also talked about him quietly, with many words of praise and envy.

Link suddenly became the life of the party.

Harvey squinted his eyes, the heavy bags under his eyes trembled, laughed, and said to Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, "It's better to be young. Women all like young and handsome men."

"Harvey, you are not old. The beauties here are all here for you."

Matt Damon raised his glass and smiled.

Harvey was very pleased with what he said. He laughed with a big belly, gave the assistant a subtle wink, and walked towards Link with the wine glass in hand.

"Haha, Link, welcome to my party."

While Link was chatting with director Martin Scorsese, Harvey walked through the crowd, with a big belly, a toad-like grin, and a somewhat unpredictable smile on his face.

The big stars in the middle retreated and gave him the space in the middle.

Link reached out and shook hands with the other party, "Mr. Weinstein, your party is the coolest party I have ever seen. There are all big stars here, it is shocking."

"Haha, Link, don't forget that you are also a big star, but you are more famous than them and harder to hire."

"I don't want to be famous. It's just a lot of part-time work. You should have heard that I am a model worker."

Link joked to himself.

Harvey laughed, and the celebrities around him laughed too.

After chatting for a while, Link took the initiative to mention "Silver Linings Playbook". The filming of this movie started in February. In more than a month, the main scenes will be completed. The next step is post-production and scheduling of the film for release.

However, at the time of filming, Weinstein Pictures had only allocated the first batch of funds, and the second batch of about 6.5 million US dollars had not yet arrived. If the funds cannot be allocated on time, it will affect the post-production of the film.

Producer Broadbent speculated that Harvey wanted to control the editing and distribution rights of the film in this way.

When it was first discussed, the film would be jointly promoted and distributed by the two companies.

If the film promotion and distribution work is handed over to one company, the other party will have the opportunity to make false accounts and multiply the cost of promotion and distribution several times. It will first make up the money on promotion and distribution. After the movie is released, even if it loses money at the box office, it will be able to stand still. The place of defeat.

This is also a common practice among the six major Hollywood studios.

The six major film studios, including Universal, Disney, Warner, Fox, Sony and other parent companies, have TV stations, newspapers and magazines and other publicity and distribution agencies, which are often more convenient than independent production companies in promoting movies.

Some movies may seem like huge losses, but if they make money through publicity channels, they are still profitable for the parent company.

This is also the reason why the six major film studios can remain standing in Hollywood. The original seventh major MGM suffered from the lack of publicity channels, so it went bankrupt and was divided up by the six major film studios.

"Link, this is an oversight by the financial department. I'll call him later to ask about the situation. If he doesn't ask, just transfer the funds and don't delay the filming.

Today is a celebration party. Let’s not talk about work first. Let’s come over and chat. I’ll introduce you to some good friends. "

Harvey pulled him and said enthusiastically.

Link did not refuse, and followed Harvey to meet several famous directors and producers in the circle.

One of them was a producer named Julie Taymor, who was also a female director. Her representative work was "Frida" starring Salma Hayek in 2002, which was nominated for five Oscars, as well as "The Revenge of the Psalms", "Oedipus Rex", "Across the Sky", etc.

Last year, the art film "The Tempest" directed by her was nominated for Best Costume Design at the Oscars not long ago.

Both films were also co-produced with Harvey.

When Director Julie Taymor met Harvey, she spoke tactfully about the box office share of "The Tempest", saying that her company had not yet received the first box office share, and asked Harvey the reason.

Harvey's face suddenly turned cold, and he turned around and said to the assistant beside him: "She is no longer my guest, let her go."

"Mr. Weinstein, I'm sorry, I don't want to talk about this here, but I went to Weinstein Films to find you more than ten times, but I couldn't see you. I can only tell you here."

Director Julie Taymor said with a dejected look.

Harvey waved his hand and asked the two assistants to take Director Julie Taymor away impatiently.

Director Julie Taymor's husband, who is also a composer, came to stop them.

Said that according to the contract, after the release of "The Tempest", their company should get 22% of the North American box office share.

Now that the movie has been released for nearly half a year, the company has not received the first share.

The company is about to go bankrupt, so they have to line up to find Harvey Weinstein.

"Shut up!"

Harvey pointed at the other person's nose and cursed, "The North American box office of this movie is only 13.5 million, less than one-third of the production cost. You still want a share, not a penny. Get them out."

Harvey's face was gloomy, and the flesh on his face kept jumping. His short and thick neck and big belly kept swelling with his panting.

The assistant brought several burly bodyguards to hold Director Taymor and dragged her husband out of the magnificent and bustling villa hall.

Many people saw the scene at the scene, but no one would intervene at this time. Weinstein is a famous "tyrant" in the entertainment industry with a bad temper. If he meddled in other people's business at this time, he might get the same treatment as Director Taymor.

After Director Taymor and his wife were taken away, the party scene became lively again.

Link looked at the lively party and smiled gently.

It is rumored that Harvey is arrogant and frivolous, cruel and ruthless. He is very affectionate to those who can help him make money, and very cold to those who can't help him make money. Now it seems that the rumor is true.

"Haha, Link, don't get me wrong. The matter between me and Director Taymor is not what you see. Before the filming of this movie, we had a contract. We only get a share if the box office sells well. If the box office loses, there will be no share. I am doing things completely according to the contract."

Harvey turned back to a smile and explained.

Link nodded, and didn't say much.

He probably understood the way of cooperation between the two parties. Director Taymor's company invested in the company with the director's salary and part of the funds. After the movie was released, it got 22% of the North American box office share. This method is very common in Hollywood.

It's a pity that the North American box office of this movie was only 13.5 million, but the production cost was as high as 35 million US dollars, and the project lost tens of millions.

Harvey was unhappy about losing money. In order to reduce the losses of his own company, he swallowed all the box office of the movie and cheated and didn't give his partners the share they deserved.

Director Taymor couldn't get the money, so he had two choices.

The first is to sue with the contract, which costs money and may not win, so it is not a good choice for people with tight finances.

The second is to pay out of her own pocket to make up for the shortfall of the crew. If she can't come up with this money, she and the company behind her will have a great chance of bankruptcy.

This is Hollywood, a casino bigger than Las Vegas.

Link didn't sympathize with director Taymor's experience, but became more cautious and vigilant towards Harvey.