Domination in America, Starting from being a Boxing Champion
Chapter 258: Visiting the Film Crew"Keep On Movin’" was released for the tenth week in the United States with sales of 78,000 copies, dropping to fourth place on the Billboard album sales chart, with its potential nearly exhausted.
The champion was Canadian pop-jazz singer Michael Buble’s fourth studio album "Crazy Love," which sold 147,000 copies in its first week.
The runner-up was Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli’s "Christmas Special" with 125,000 copies.
In third place was Madonna’s newly released greatest hits album "Celebration," selling 96,000 copies.
"Keep On Movin’" had a total sales of 2.943 million copies in the United States and was expected to break the 3 million mark in three weeks, but it was still a bit short compared to Taylor’s "fearless."
On the Billboard singles chart, "See You Again" with weekly sales of 327,000 copies maintained the top spot for five consecutive weeks. The song had sold over 18 million copies both online and offline in the United States and had a global total sales of 50 million copies, becoming the highest selling single of 2009.
Selena’s "Let It Go," released for three weeks, made it into the top ten this week under Disney Music’s strong promotion, ranking at number 7.
Lana’s "Young and Beautiful" ranked at number 31.
Canadian youngster Justin Bieber’s "One Time" ranked at number 17.
Media reports stated that Justin Bieber’s debut album "My World" was expected to be released in early November, coinciding with the releases of Selena and Lana’s first albums, setting the stage for a fierce battle.Also, Mars Bruno’s new album was also ready, with a planned release in December.
The album includes the hot rap single "Lighters" and a cover version of "I’m the one," as well as "Nothin’ On You," a collaboration with little Bobby, making it a very competitive album.
"Hey, Kenny!"
At noon, at the Los Angeles Arts Theatre, Link, dressed in a tee and sweatpants, entered the dance rehearsal hall and greeted Mr. Kenny Ortega.
Kenny Ortega, the director of MJ’s comeback concert, had to put a halt to his work when MJ passed away, resulting in the concert’s cancellation.
Link had collaborated well with him during two rehearsal sessions, and Director Ortega’s mastery of stage control, artistic aesthetics, and special effects design was all top-notch in the industry.
When preparing for the tour, he invited Ortega through his company to serve as the tour stage director, offering him and his team a 3% share of the box office from each performance.
After deliberation, Director Ortega agreed to join and became the tour stage director.
In addition to the live stage director, the tour team included an artistic director, band, choreographers, lighting director, costume director, sound director, and others, totaling 207 people—comparable to a large film crew.
Since finalizing the tour plan in September, everyone had been busy preparing for the tour.
After finishing his training every day, Link would also come to the theatre’s stage to rehearse under the guidance of the choreographer. Sometimes, he had to sing while dancing, and performing five songs in a row was as intense as a boxing match.
"Hi, Link!"
When Link arrived, Director Kenny Ortega was talking with choreographer James J. Millar Cam.
Millar Cam, of Dutch ancestry, was a famous dancer and renowned Hollywood choreographer who had worked on the choreography of films such as "High School Musical" and "Dreamgirls," as well as the dance design for MJ’s comeback concert, and was a top-tier choreographer in the industry.
Seeing the two of them frowning and looking unhappy.
"What’s happened?"
Link asked.
"Two of our dancers have been chosen by the ’Black Swan’ film crew and are preparing to leave the dance team to become actors, so we’re discussing new candidates," Director Ortega said.
Link nodded. "Black Swan" was a new film project by director Darren Aronofsky, started in September, starring the famous actress Natalie Portman as the lead female, and was one of Hollywood’s hot projects.
Being selected by this film crew was indeed a great opportunity.
He didn’t say much about it, as the dancers were Millar Cam’s people; whether they stayed or left was not his concern.
After warming up, Link and his dance partners began rehearsing on stage.
With over thirty songs in his two albums, eight were suitable for singing and dancing simultaneously, so he only needed to rehearse eight dances. For the other songs, he just needed to hold a mic, carry a guitar, or sit at the piano to perform, which was not too challenging during shows.
After rehearsing at the Arts Theatre, Link drove to Burbank’s Wood Middle School to check on the filming progress of "Scandal Plan" and play a small role in the movie.
In August, after he decided to invest in the film, Catherine, on behalf of Palm Beach Films, negotiated with Director Will Guler. After Link assured that he would not interfere with the film’s shooting and casting, Director Guler agreed to collaborate.
However, upon hearing that Link’s Palm Beach Films wanted to invest, Warner’s subsidiary Screen Treasure was not willing to back out.
They expressed willingness to co-produce the film with Palm Beach Films, casting Emma Stone as the female lead and also inviting Link to play a supporting male role—the boy whom the female lead secretly adores—for a fee of one million dollars.
The reason was that his fame was big enough to completely make up for Emma Stone’s lack of box office appeal.
After Link read through the supporting male role’s script, which only had twelve scenes similar to his part in "Valentine’s Day" and required only five days of concentrated filming, he agreed to it.
Additionally, Silver Screen Treasures is a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Pictures, with a mature production and distribution system, so working with them can also save some budget.
"Scene 47, take 2, first attempt!"
"Action!"
When he arrived on set, the crew was filming a classroom scene where the literature teacher was discussing the story from the classic novel "The Scarlet Letter," describing how a woman who lost her chastity would be branded with a scarlet ’A’ and become a woman scorned by everyone.
Emma Stone, who portrayed the heroine, became a ’loose woman’ because of a scandal. She found inspiration in it, sticking a red ’A’ on her chest and causing quite a stir at school.
It was a rather light-hearted and humorous campus comedy film.
"You’re about to start a tour, how do you have time to come here?"
Catherine asked, wearing a sun hat and walking over from under the sun, handing him a bottle of ice water.
Link smiled faintly and took the water bottle in his hand.
"Actually, I’m not that busy with the tour. I now train in boxing for four hours a day and rehearse for the concert for four hours. The rest of my time is quite free."
"Four hours of boxing and four hours of rehearsal, that’s eight hours. You call an eight-hour workday quite free?"
Catherine asked, amused.
"It’s quite free compared to before. The first half of the year was too busy; my daily routine was almost a mess. Now I get up at six in the morning and go to bed at nine at night, getting back to a regular schedule,"
Link shrugged and said.
"It’s good to have a habit of sleeping early and waking early. Since Selena got a laptop, as soon as she gets home, she lies on the couch and watches videos, plays games. If I don’t let her play, she hides in her bedroom, under the covers, and continues. I didn’t have time to manage her while I was in Los Angeles recently; she must’ve been playing even crazier."
Catherine said helplessly.
"No worries, she’s young, it’s the age to love playing. Besides, next month she’s releasing an album, probably too busy to lay around playing at home."
Link said with a smile.
Catherine smiled slightly, "Where has Taylor been lately?"
"She called the day before yesterday, said she was in Nashville."
After returning from Paris last time, Taylor said living together wasn’t inspiring, so she moved back home for a few days, then stayed in her New York apartment for a few days before driving back to her hometown in Nashville, saying she wanted to find inspiration as she walked.
Link didn’t insist on her staying at home.
Watching the performance on the set, Catherine suddenly asked, "You and Taylor have been together for almost a year, have you talked about getting married or engaged?"
"Married?"
Link shook his head and laughed, "We’re both only twenty years old, it’s too early to talk about that."
He hadn’t thought about it either. Taylor was too famous, spending all year not on tour then on the road to the next. There were record recordings, songwriting, and after finishing all this work, how much time could she allocate to a family?
And he was too busy himself, between boxing, music, movies. If they were to get married, it would be in seven or eight years, or maybe even longer, when both of their net worths accumulated to the point where they wouldn’t need to work and could still make a fortune every day. That would be a more appropriate time to start a family.
"Yes, you’re young, there’s no rush to get married, but I think if you really want to spend a long time with Taylor, you should learn how to manage a family early on, invest more time at home. Taylor should do the same,"
Catherine said.
Link nodded, feeling that Catherine made sense.
"How to manage?"
He had never married; although he’d had several girlfriends in the past, none of those relationships lasted more than six months. Taylor was the longest relationship he had been in, and he trod carefully with her. So when it came to managing relationships and family, he wasn’t adept.
Catherine meant to say it’s not hard, you just need to do this and that.
But she suddenly remembered he was her son and thought of her own failed marriage, which left Link an orphan. Saying she was good at managing a family in front of him seemed like a joke.
She also remembered her husband in New York and their three-year-old daughter. She had been too busy with work these past years, running around everywhere, and the household was mainly taken care of by the husband. If it weren’t for his good temperament and gentle nature, her second marriage would probably have ended in failure as well.
With her situation, what successful experience could she pass on to him?
"Catherine?"
Link called out to Catherine, who was suddenly lost in thought.
Catherine shook her head and patted him on the shoulder, "This question is too complicated, it can’t be explained in a few words. There are books on this in bookstores, if you want to know, go read. Treat it as a course, it will be more effective than listening to me."
"Alright!"
Link nodded, touching his shoulder.
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