I just arrived in my near-hot-sheet hotel in Houston (I have six hours to sleep, shower and be back in the airport at what is 4:30am PST). Airline screw-up kept me from an evening of work and Houston and instead, all I can do is try to grab some zzzzs.
Funny… this feels more like a traditional blog than anything else I’ve put on here in quite a while. Yick.
Chat among yourselves…
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Hcat on: Why You Should Be Afraid Of The End Of The Paramount Decree
movieman on: BYOB Fall Back, Film Forward
movieman on: I Should Be Doing Box Office
Review: Little Women (no spoilers)
Why You Should Be Afraid Of The End Of The Paramount Decree
Review: Frozen 2 (spoiler-free)
Review: Marriage Story (spoilers only in the broadest sense)
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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
Let’s talk about that renegade Basic Instinct 2 trailer on Defamer. Whoo wee!!!
To quote the first movie: “I’ve got calluses.”
after seeing the footage linked up at Joblo, all I gotta say is you gotta hand it to Sharon Stone. She’s god damned hot still. Very hot.
Crow – to quote the original again.
Douglas – “Are you a pro”
Stone – “No I’m an amateur”
this is stones last big payday. she knows she better be ready to leave it all on the screen.
Yeah, that’s… impressive.
Can we also discuss how bad Robert Towne’s “Ask The Dust” must be if it’s getting an APRIL release.
What’s wrong with an April release? Towne isn’t exactly Scorcese here.
I absolutely cannot wait to see ASK THE DUST…sounds like my kind of movie. But I also thought THE NEW WORLD was the best movie of 2005 so what do I know?
I want to see “Ask the Dust” myself. I can wait til April. It’s not a death ground for movies that time period.
Anybody looking forward to the Olympics?
I personally can’t wait. I’ll be cheering for the US Men and Women Hockey Teams, Michelle Kwan, and ice dancing.
if u like hockey u really can’t beat the olympics. as world cup as it gets.
im not too sure if i buy colin farrel as an italian in the depression era.
Well, he is an actor. He is an Irishman who does an American pretty well. He must have something on the ball since he gets every role for a 25-35 male in Hollywood.
Considering Ask The Dust was originally scheduled for a December Oscar-run it seems strangely forboding that it’s now being released in April. As much as I really wanna see it, and love the thought of Oscar films being spread evenly throughout the year, it doesn’t sound very confident from the studio if they’re releasing a period film by Robert Towne in April.
Just seems strange is all, and if you can’t see that then that’s a big strange itself.
Anytime an Oscar movie last year gets pushed to the next year I have to wonder what’s wrong with the movie. Makes me think: Stinker.
Well, that’s not always the case, but when the movie in question gets moved to notorious non Oscar time of pre-Summer then you really do have to wonder. See, Miramax did a great job with something like “Finding Neverland” – shit movie, but even though it was moved over a year, it was positioned and worked great and we all know how that worked out.
One thing that I just thought about the Oscars was that the five nominees have a total of 7 nominations in the techs. SEVEN!
Brokeback – Cinematography, Score
GN&GL – Cinematography, Art Direction
Crash – Editing
Munich – Editing, Score
Capote – none
Isn’t that extremely rare?! Thing is, other than editing I can’t see either BBM or GN&GL with any others. Same for the other films. Strange, that.
Seven nominations but they’ll surely win them though.
Brokeback will win Cine and Score. The others I’m not sure.
I don’t believe that’s Sharon Stone… it’s amazing what they can do with computers these days.
Haha, yeah, your Best Visual Effects Oscar Winner for 2007 is right there.
I’d say BBM and GN&GL could both easily win Cinematography.
Here’s something funny. One of our President’s jokes at the Alfalfa Club dinner in Washington.
…He [George W Bush] also claimed that one night, when Lynne Cheney and Laura Bush were out together, he and Dick Cheney took in “a cowboy movie.”
“Yep, finally went to see Brokeback Mountain. Let me tell you. Whooo-eee,” Bush said of the movie about a love affair between cowboys. “Dick sat through the movie, didn’t say a word. We come out, after a while. He says … , ‘Nice horses.’ I said, ‘Yep.’ Then he became real quiet again and kind of serious.”
They were quiet for a while, Bush said, and then Cheney turned to him and said, “You don’t suppose the Lone Ranger and Tonto … ?”
It’ll be tough to beat out BBM for cinematography. Pretty much chalk that up and Best Screenplay right now. Not much competition there.
Sharon Stone was gorgeous at the time of the first Basic Instinct. Not many actresses can keep up that high level of sexiness this long.
David: You should have called me. I could have let you crash on my couch for a few hours. It would have been cheaper than staying at the Tarantula Arms.
That BASIC INSTINCT 2 trailer/montage looks like a Skinemax flick. Stone does look hot though….bad boob job and all.
Oh my, that British guy is kinda hot.
whos the british guy? they couldnt get any star to do this? they must have really cheaped out with the budget.
Who cares? He’s hot. Oh no, I’m starting to have impure thoughts.
Must. think. of. Dave. Poland.
Wait, that doesn’t help. =O
So in England it’s not a big deal for Miss Stone to show her bangers AND her mash?
I think Waterbucket has a crush on David Poland. It’s cute.
Candlelight. Brokeback on the telly. A little bubbly. Heaven.
Basic Instinct 2? I’m going to say… Money grab.
It may well be a money grab but what picture isn’t? There should be enough people who remember “Basic Instinct” for it to open okay.
Fifteen years is a long time to go between original and sequel.
It’s an eternity in film especially when the main star doesn’t return. Douglas coming back might have made this something to mark down.
BI 2 has BOMB written all over it. No matter how “hot” you think the anonymous male lead is.
The Winter Olympics is great. Where else can you see all these events you would never possibly ever try? Like bobsled and the luge. Plus, the US dominates.
Just so you know: in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, the nation that won the most medals was Germany (36 to the U.S.’s 34).
We were never any good in the winter sports until recently. The breakup of the Soviet bloc countries has a lot to do with it, of course.
I agree that Stone still looks hot in Basic Instinct 2 but I do not believe the showreel trailer is a renegade.
It’s popping up all over and probably intentionally. The studio knows the reaction to this is for people to laugh and say Sharon doesn’t have it. ‘Leaking’ the promo reel out lets the public know that she does.
It does look like a cheapy erotic thriller though. Like something Shannon Tweed would have done.
Awful stock music choice.
With Shannon Tweed in it, I think it would be a better movie.
Cinemax is the best cable station around. You can always find something to watch there. Usually starring Mark Decascos, Shannon Tweed or Dolph Lungdren.
I can’t follow sports I can’t play for one. For two I can’t follow sports I’ve never actually seen played. And it’s too damn cold for me. I’m a warm weather sport guy.
I liked the first Basic Instinct.
Never really thought it should have a sequel. But now? It came out in 1992!
1992. I’m getting really old. Maybe it’s a good thing it doesn’t have Michael Douglas back after all.
My guess is that Sharon Stone needs this movie.
Big time.
I hope they’re paying her enough to forget her integrity as an artist. If she has any.
Sharon Stone is also 14 yrs older.
Which is like 40 yrs for a women in Hollywood.
I got to respect her effort.
Imagine what David Cronenberg could have done with this one. Stone banging a giant insect dressed as a typewriter?
Lucky for Cronenberg HISTORY OF VIOLENCE did so well. He doesn’t have to whore himself out and make THE FLY 3.
Cronenberg is one director very unlikely to whore himself out…but I would have rather seen his version of Basic Instinct 2 than Michael Caton-Jones’s.
“Basic Instinct 2: Risk Addiction”.
That title has to be a joke.
I did kinda dig the trailer though.