April 26, 2024
The Hot Blog
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movieman on: BYOB Fall Back, Film Forward
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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
Read the HOT BUTTON article on beauty and life. That was really something, Dave.
Getting paid for doing something that you normally would do for free = bliss.
Enjoy it and have a great time. Life is short.
I fear alas that your insightful and deep HOT BUTTON article will only get people like Waterbucket fall harder for “the poland.”
“Beauty is as simple as a speck of honey on your tongue or as complex as being the Dalai Lama. Soothe that savage breast.”
What the heck! Is Dave high? Is he also currently writing American Beauty 2?
Gorgeous. Simply gorgeous.
Except for the nude kid. You don’t want child porn charges. Erase the photo!!
Very nice. Doing what you want to be doing and sitting on a beach in mid-Feb. Perfection. Congrats.
Looks like spidey got a load of Cheney’s buckshot right where it counts…
that a kid spidey or a midget spidey?
Too bad they don’t get first run movies and early screenings down in St Martaan. Or this could be a nice home base for the Hot Button.
The Waterbucket has already fallen hard for DP. He’s head over heels.
Where are the fat Italian men on the beach? Speedos on? Hairy? That’s a staple of the beach set there.
Fess up. That’s really Tobey Maguire in that mask, isn’t it?
I’ve got 1500 miles either way between me and an ocean shore, and have only been to a tropical climate once, but I absolutely loved it, and am very jealous of DP at this moment.
Once you sit on a beach as nice as that you almost wonder why you even go back to reality.
Interesting news. Michael Bay apparently in talks to direct Friday the 13th. With a nice 165$ million budget.
Bay with that kind of money and the chance to go balls out on a horror movie could be pretty cool.
Bruce, he’s just producing the movie, not directing it, and it’s not budgeted anywhere near $165 million. That would be one of the most insane overexpeditures in film history. It’s from Platinum Dunes, his company that also did the TEXAS CHAINSAW remake, and it’s a quickie designed to be in theaters this October.
Coolest thing about it? It’s being written by Mark Wheaton, infamous in Internet circles as Smilin’ Jack Ruby. Go, Mark!
Smiling Jack Ruby is writing it? I remember reading his columns online. One of the pioneers I guess you can say of net movie writing/reporting. Good for him.
I thought 165$ mill was a tad steep for a Jason movie but then I thought it is Michael Bay. Which made me think it may be true.
They have a director yet?
i would have given anything to see what tarantino would have done with this property.
Bay really loves these old horror franchises. Sure moneymakers too.
Michael Bay gets to keep making movies and Cartman gets his own theme park; there is no God.
Who here also cannot wait to hear Willie Nelson’s “Cowboys are Frequently, Secretly Fond of Each Other”?
Everything cowboys is hot right now. Guess who I’m going as for Halloween this fall!
You can get that song now on I Tunes. I heard it on Stern. It’s got that distinct Nelson feel too. Maybe old Willie will have another hit on his hands.
So, basically, every single horror flick made before 1985 is going to be redone. Cheap to make. Big profits. Makes too much sense. Michael Bay can add to his fleet of Porsches now.
There are tons of shlocky 70s-80s horror films to choose from.
It’s Alive
Prom Night
The Howling
Silent Night, Deadly Night
Basket Case
The Fury
My Bloody Valentine
Piranha
The list goes on and on. Sleepaway Camp? Scanners? I Spit On Your Grave? Bloodsucking Freaks??? Cannibal Ferox????
If this is the trend, it’s going to be a looooog couple of years.
It’s just too bad that Bay isn’t interested in anything other than pretty cinematography. With his clout he could really be making classic remakes, but instead he just wants to vacuum up the cash.
Seems to be the trend, Wrecktum. We are going to see schlock and more schlock. Redone by average directors/video guys. As long as they keep rolling in the money.
When is Bay remaking Brokeback? Casting Josh Hartnet and Ben Affleck. Adding Cuba Gooding Jr as a man who gets between them and spurs their love on as he fights off euro terrosts. Bay will blow up the cattle ranch because of an attack against them. Explosions left and right! Chase scenes. Ben on horseback and he eludes evil ranchers. You can’t get in between there love. Summer ’07.
There is no dispute on Bay on how he works a camera. He may be a genuis with it. He can shoot as well as anyone. He just has difficulties telling a story. It doesn’t come natural for him. He’d rather blow up a building.
It looks cooler, thats for sure.
Credit should also go to Bay’s cinematographers like John Schwartzman.
I can admit it. I like most of Bay’s movies. BAD BOYS 1 & 2 and THE ROCK. I loved them. He may not be a great actors director. But I like the spectacle as they say. And yes. I cried at ARMAGEDDON.
If I was being bombarded by stupidity for over two hours, I’d start crying too.
Fades has something in common with Harry Knowles.
The only Bay movie that I don’t hate is The Island, ironically enough since it’s his biggest flop.
Agreed jeffmcm… Bay finally makes a movie of consistent tone and a blessed lack of machine gun editing and gets rewarded for it with a hig profile flop.
I think the directors way with special effects will work well with Transformers. I hate admiting it but the Pearl Harbor bombing scene WAS quite spectacular.
You’re right, it was spectacular. That’s one of the big reasons why it was so offensive, because he turned a historical tragedy into a blam-blam popcorn scene.
I’m not ashamed to say I let it flow sometimes. But I even I had to go to the bathroom and look in the mirror and go “Armageddon, dude?”. Even my girl at the time looked at me like I had two heads. Good memories.
THE ISLAND could have been a lot better. Had some great action scenes but I feel they could have made the story tighter.
Just don’t respect how Bay threw his stars under a bus after it didn’t perform well. Not what a leader does and a director is supposed to be a leader. Who is going to want to work with him again after that?
The Island was on the right track for the first 30 minutes or so. Nothing groundbreaking, but a welcome change from the Bay we’re used to. Then he just…fucked it all up.
I can’t think of a more idiotic and frustrating character in this film than Djimon Honsou’s. This guy — who with his team of mercs caused so much mayhem on the streets (including murdering cops) just to capture two (unarmed and hardly dangerous) people — suddenly has a Change of Heart when the Cardboard Evil CEO makes a speech.
Only in a Bay Movie.
The Island?
A total and complete mess from start to finish.
DP = Jeffrey Wells?
I knew Michael Bay was creatively and ayesthetically bankrupt when he ripped off his own highway action set-piece from BAD BOYS 2 and inserted it into THE ISLAND.
Problem with Hollywood and Bay vise a vise the horror remakes – THE FOG, TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, HOUSE OF WAX, WHEN A STRANGER CALLS etc – is that they all *sucked.*
BTw why is Brian Singer doing LOGAN’S RUN after the way Michael Bay defecated on the same premise in THE ISLAND?
Best for Brian Singer to move to Paramount and revitalize the STAR TREK franchise – maybe shoot an epic adventure that spans several time lines with William Shatner, Patrick Stewart and Scott Bakula. Hell even bring back Leonard Nimoy.
I like Bryan Singer as much as the next guy, but I think two major franchises should be enough for anybody without giving him Star Trek as well.
Singer is the go-to-guy for big super franchises now. If Superman Returns is a huge hit he can do whatever he pleases for the next few years. He’ll have a ton of capital stored away to make whatever he wanted. Whether it’s a new Logans Run or whatever strikes his fancy.
they haven’t turned out a good horror remake/redo yet. all those have been terrible. they haven’t even brought anything new to the genre. they make the new texas chainsaw look like an oscar winner.
Interesting take on the Oscar race. Or maybe trying to create some buzz for the event which is pretty ho-hum right now.
http://channels.netscape.com/news/story.jsp?id=2006021517530001421422&dt=20060215175300&w=APO&coview=
There is no race. If they’re trying to paint CRASH into an Oscar winner they’re barking up the wrong tree. There is no real drama in it this year. I’d use the BROKEBACK IS PRIVATE RYAN angle to if I was trying to sell it.
None of those 5 excite me anyway. It’s a blah event right now. The male acting races should have some life in them.
But I don’t see BROKEBACK losing to CRASH.
Notwithstanding your rather graphic screenname, you make a lot of sense, Yodas Nut Sac.
Brokeback will win it. And Bryan Singer is awesome. Can’t wait for Superman!
Dave has Crash in the Numero Uno slot with two weeks to go. Would be a huge upset at this point. BBM looked unbeatable a month ago.
Can’t wait for Supes either. Singer has my complete faith.
Gotta hand it to Poland for at least being consistent in his disregard of Brokeback. It would be a stunner if Crash won best picture. What does he even mean, ‘the movie of local heroes’? That the LA community will rally behind it? I don’t think so. If you think it’s a good movie, it may hit too close to home.
In other news, as I noticed a couple of weeks ago, Dave Poland is incapable of referring to Rachel Weisz without pointing out that she’s pregnant. I think he has a thing going on there.
Most of the voters in this thingy are from Los Angeles. Crash does have a shot in this. It’s small but its there. The acting community obviously respect the work of the movie. I do think it’s a little too small of a film to win the big prize in the end.
But I don’t have a vote in this. Sad to say.
Oh god, I hope they don’t remake I Spit On You Grave or Cannibal Ferox. Those are some awful movies right there.
And as we’ve had this discussion many times before, I’m a huge fan of the TCM remake (watched it again just yesterday, and strangely enough we’re talking about it here). The Amityville remake was schlock though. We’ll see with Friday The 13th – I read that they don’t think they’ll be able to get it ready in time for an October release. Plus, there’s too many horror films out then anyway. You have The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, Saw III and The Grudge 2.
But, hell, if they can come up with a trailer as brilliantly conceived as the Texas Chainsaw Massacre one of three years ago then this movie might as well start printing money right now.
Why would Michael Bay produce a Friday the 13th film for release in October when he already has a film that he’s producing scheduled for them (TCM prequel)?
Since KCamel brought up that he’s a fan of TCM’03 I feel obligated to say that it sucks.
(nothing personal)
One’s gotta believe that after the disaster that was THE ISLAND that any plans to remake LOGAN’S RUN are on hold. I mean they basically have the same plot and audiences were definitely not biting.
And Rachel Weisz is incredibly charming. I couldn’t begrudge anyone who’s met her for developing a thing for her.
You can’t begrudge anyone for being charmed by Rachel Weisz.
No movie gets talked about more here than TCM. Even BBM doesn’t compare.