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David Poland

By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com

Posted Friday, May 1st, 1998 - Comments Off on More Readers Week
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More Readers Week

Well, I’m in Cabo San Lucas, and you’re at your computer, stuck with a choice between: last weekend’s best and Spike Lee‘s latest, He Got Game (with Denzel); Liam Neeson, Uma Thurman and Claire Danes (and yes, that guy from Shine, who happens to be quite good in the film) in Les Misérables; and Patrick Swayze in Black Dog. I’m not going to tell you what I think, but don’t think because I’m not here that you can escape the Hot Button Box Office Challenge. If you beat out the competition this week, you can win one of our selected few The Truman Show posters.
Need some help picking? Here’s what the roughcut staff, other than me, thinks about the Top Five for this weekend. Some are more specific than others, but what did you expect?
Jen: I’m thinking the fairly good press (Dave excluded) on The Big Hit will keep it in first place with about $10.5 million. The top debut will be Les Misérables in a close second with $9.8 million, followed by He Got Game in third with $8 million. City of Angels will finally take a plunge with $5 million into fourth, and Titanic will continue to float, closing out the Top Five with just under $5 million (let’s say $4.7).
Susan: 1. The Big Hit — $10 million
2. He Got Game — $9 million
3. City of Angels — $6 million
4. Les Misérables — $5.5 million
5. The Object of My Affection — $4 million
Andy: 1. The Big Hit
2. Black Dog
3. City of Angels
4. Titanic
5. Les Misérables
Graham: 1. He Got Game – $9 million
2. The Big Hit — $8 million
3. City of Angels — $7 million
4. The Object of My Affection — $4 million
5. Black Dog — $3.5 million
Chris: The Big Hit will remain No.1 drawing another $10 million. Les Misérables will make about $8 or $9 million in second place. He Got Game will earn enough to score No. 3. Black Dog will bomb big time, only making enough to place No. 8 or 9.
As you can see, here at rough cut, we pride ourselves on thinking alike. Feel free to follow our advice to win cool prizes, but I’m sure you’ll do significantly better if you follow your instinct. And now, some picks for The Worst Film of 1998, to date:
From Krillian: “The worst movie of 1998 so far is Fallen. I only say this because I haven’t seen Meet the Deedles, Palmetto, Odd Couple II, Hush, My Giant, Desperate Measures, Phantoms, Spice World, Major League: Back to the Minors or any of the other doozies I hear about. For the rules of Fallen to work, it means that Satan is stronger than God, and Satan always will win. If the Almighty is so unmighty, why weren’t there greater levels of mass destruction by the evil ones? What would’ve saved the movie is if a cat had walked by meowing that Rolling Stones tune.”
From Jnorris: “The worst so far is Chairman of the Board. (The worst to actually reach theaters, anyway). Also a sidenote — am I the only person on the planet that thinks Gwyneth Paltrow is the most overrated actress in Hollywood???????????”
From Geof: “The worst film of 1998 is Half Baked. I can’t believe I even walked by the theater that showed it. The only funny scene in the film was shown in the preview and edited out of the movie. It comes in second on my all-time-worst list, right behind The Jerky Boys. UGH!”
From Steve Chien-Wei, Weng: “Of course it’s Burn, Hollywood, Burn, what else?”
From Gary Salem: “US Marshals.”
From Beanpodd: “US Marshals.”
Dave Note: (Gary and The Bean are obviously from the Tommy Lee Jones School of Dialogue.)
From Randy R: “Hush. One of the very worst films of the last several years.”

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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon