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
Hoping for some good commercials and an Eagles win.
I was damn impressed by the trailers for War of the Worlds and Batman Begins. Is it me or were the marketing Dakota Fanning a lot more than Tom Cruise in the latter? Hell, she’s probably been in more recent hits than he has. But it certainly had an eerie look and could be intense.
Batman Begins delivered everything you would want from such a spot, with most of the key players glanced, action that did not look CGI AT ALL, and a nice last line hook.
The spots for The Pacifier and The Longest Yard probably did the job they needed to, but I still don’t have much desire in seeing either.
I was rather suprised that Sony did not use this as an opportunity to launch their ad campaign for this summer’s Stealth in a big way. Sony can usually be relied upon to spend some money during the Super Bowl and we are now at the peak of Jamie Foxx-mania, right now, that I figured they would capitalize.
Clever touch in the “Batman Begins” ad: Michael Caine (as Alfred) saying, “It’s been a while, sir.” Playing on the fact that, yes, it’s been a while since the last “Batman” movie. Much like the ad for “XXX: State of the Union,” in which they acknowledge, twice, that a new dude is doing the derring-do.
Hey, and how ’bout Burt Reynolds in the FedEx ad? Now THAT was funny!
burt needs another comeback. only he could waste all the goodwill from a role like boogie nights. but we still want him back
I thought the Batman ad was kind of lame, it didnt look that exciting and was it just me, or was the line about the car really gay? like batman and robin gay? Didnt strike me as a hit ad, but who knows. I thought Longest Yard trailer looked like a hit.
thought batman looked real good. and longest yard was even better.
I found the movie clips to be pretty uninspiring overall. Longest Yard looks lame. Pacifier looks like the worst movie ever made. Batman was OK but didn’t really grab me or make me saw wow.
Id have to say there certainly wasnt a matrix or even a hulk this year, dont really hear anyone talking about the movie ads as much as the regular ones (brad pitt one, etc.) Saw an ad for Hitch in there, that movies gonna make a ton.
What’d people think of the War of the Worlds spot? Anyone excited by it?
As I stated earlier, I found the War of the Worlds spot to be pretty damn effective. Especially the way it was lit. Pretty eerie stuff. He almost did it with Minority Report, but I hope Spielberg truly pulls off the tense, dark thriller that we know he has in him.
Hard not to get excited by Cruise and Spielberg in War of the Worlds.
Also hard not to get excited by the woman in the tabasco ad.
Shocker of all shockers! Fox blinked and moved Fantastic Four off the July 4th weekend to avoid conflict with War of the Worlds. Is there any one who didn’t see this coming six months ago?
That teaser for War of the Worlds during the Super Bowl seemed to do the trick.
In other release date news, Sony seems to have done the wise thing and moved Jim Carrey’s Dick and Jane away from June 24 to avoid the looming Jessica Simpson/Lindsay Lohan catfight. Any thoughts on who will win it? Herbie or Dukes of Hazzard? Man, can you imagine either of those films being any good?
Since Lohan is now hooking up with Johnny Knoxville, that date could get even more interesting.