May 19, 2024
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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
Overrated. Movies like this need to be R rated (B-movie schlock).
Kids these days are pussies if they can’t/won’t see R rated movies.
There weren’t really “two versions” of 28 Days Later, Fox just shipped an extra reel with an alternate ending a month or two after it opened. In any event the R rating remained intact. And this might be wrong, but I’ve heard the MPAA has a rule to the effect that you can’t have two differently-rated cuts of the same film in simultaneous release, at least not theatrically (this was allowed at one time — M*A*S*H and Saturday Night Fever had R and PG versions — but I can’t think of anything more recent than those).
Pulse is rated PG-13 and look at how it’s setting the world on fire. I know I was made vastly more interested in SoaP because of the bonus footage shot for the R.
It’s not kids these days who are pussies, Wrecktum, it’s their parents. When/if I ever have kids I’m gonna let them watch whatever they want because look how well I turned out.
I can’t wait until the day when I no longer have to read anything related to Snakes on a Plane.
That first e-mail actually pissed me off…
SoaP needed to be PG-13…plain and simple….It’s a horror movie….opening during the summer…..
As if opening during the winter would validate it getting the R?
The factor of having Sam actually being able to say “I’ve had it with these mother fucking snakes on this mother fucking plane!” attracted a good deal of viewers…
That and the tit bite, of course.
Having spent the weekend with friends who weren’t following or looking forward to SoaP, they all said it looks totally stupid and they have no desire in seeing it. My retort was that is was indeed stupid, but in a hillarious way….it’s supposed to be corny and over the top. They weren’t buying it.
I think what cost SoaP money was the fact not everybody was in on the joke.
If it was PG-13 and not R, I would not have gone to see it. I don’t think there would be any way of going into the film expecting anything more than just cheesy fun, but with a PG-13 rating that becomes nearly impossible for a movie this absurd. Tremors (since it seems to be considered the king of the horror/comedy hybrids) was still able to work with a PG-13 because neither the concept nor the actors involved demanded any graphic gore or vulgarities, both of which seem like they should be mandatory for a movie about Sam Jackson fighting a plane full of poisonous snakes. At least with the R rating I can go in and at least hope to see some decent gore and Sam Jackson cursing as only he can do.
“Kids these days are pussies if they can’t/won’t see R rated movies.”
Geez Wrecktum. you sound like my cousin Mikey who taunted me for not being able to see “R” movies til I was 14. Most of them I have no recollection what titles those even were. One of them was Saturday Night Fever which I was too far underage to see. 🙁 That must have been as popular as SoaP, hey? The music alone.
Just wondering: Speaking of ratings, it was before my time but remember one of my brothers telling me he was allowed to see Saturday Night Fever because there was a PG/dubbed version(I wasn’t allowed to see that either)–did that come on the tails of the success of the R version or much later?
bucket… the countdown has begun… won’t be long…
Lota, not as bad as one of my good friends who didn’t bother watching R until he was 21. As a kid who began at the ripe age of 8, I’ve had a wonderful time introducing him to countless titles.
Of course, I made sure to start with Reservoir Dogs, and just work from there on out.
I love Steely Dan. I thought he was a “tough guy” until someone kindly informed me in high school they were one of those old 70s groups(…like Led Zeppelin & Jethro Tull) who were not *actually* people. I regard Do it Again as my birth song, referenced in that letter.
I think I am on Steely Dan’s side, they are funnier at this point.
Led Zeppelin is a thing, not a dude, like Jethro or Dan.
Tofu, 8? you warped wretch.
I am afraid I was a sensitive child, gore-wise and “adult situations”-wise but at 14 I was allowed. I think my Pop snuck me into a couple gangster movies because I just loved them, but that was it.
I suppose I didn;t fight my Ma’s ratings rule because I had seen some “R” level TV movies on TV/cable as a youth that scarred me for life…like DOn;t be afraid of the Dark. A kid who sleeps with a bunny should ever see a picture like that. I still sleep with my bunny. I blame that movie. and Wild WIld planet. Oh if Hollywood could make things that mental & scary, Horror would be in fine shape as a genre, but it sucks.
I want a copy of DBAOTD, but I know I could never watch it again.
DAn & Tull aren’t dudes are they? Huh? Have I been misinformed since the late 80s then? Jaysus.
A few weeks ago my uncle saw Lynard Skynard in concert and said “Man, Lynard still looks pretty good at his age!” I didn’t know what to say so I just walked away.
“uncle” ? well it’s the older folks who should know unless he’s under late 30s or over 65, since those-uns missed the 70s groups really, first time round.
Rated R Saw did $18m opening and $55m total domestic. Hostel Rated R did how much? My new buddy The Winchester tells me,
Hostel rated R did $19m opening, $47m domestic. Of course, Slither was R also and only did $4 opening, $8 domestic. Ouch! That was a movie that could have benefitted from being PG-13, since it was closer to the tone of Tremors.
Campy B-movies have to be PG-13, young and immature is cooler when you’re… young. John Waters had success with both ratings, right? Did anyone else?
John Waters has had success with X, R, and PG-13. Campy B-movies should be whatever rating is best for them, and Snakes should have been R.
Steely Dan was named after the steam-powered dildo in William Burroughs’ “Naked Lunch.”
Maybe so Jeff, but New Line could have used a big cash cow. LOTR money is long gone, and the DVD biz is in the toilet.
I’m saying New Line should have ignored the internet chatter and kept it PG-13 and released what they had, when they had it, when they could have, earlier, instead of reshooting and throwing in off camera “fuck”s. I think all the intenet interest would have shown up to see it, plus millions more. Poor New Line.
Yes, poor, poor New Line. Whatever will they do?
For the record, John Waters has never had a success.
How much do arthouse revenues/DVD help folks like John Waters? It seems like his stuff is on endless arthouse circuit compared to toher movies of the last 30 yrs and I bought a Waters DVD set on sale in London that I had to fight for.
I suppose that might be where he makes any money at all.
A PG-13 Snakes wouldn’t have been a cash cow. There’s no way of knowing, but I think it would have opened to even less.
So why has John Waters been able to keep working for the last 35 years if he’s had flop after flop? (The answer: extremely low budgets = guaranteed profitability). According to IMDB, Pink Flamingos grossed $6m on a budget of $12,000. I would like to have that kind of non-success.
nothing guarantees profitability Jeffmcm, not even a decent rack.
When your production budget is that low and your product has enough unique appeal as Waters’ 70s movies did, profitability is hard to avoid. I can’t imagine New Line of old had to spend that much on p&a either. Hell, 35mm prints were probably the biggest single expenditure on some of those films.
I was a young teenager when stuff like “Pulp Fiction” and “Seven” was released. I was dying to see it all, but my mom wouldn’t let me. One day, amidst my pestering, she made an off-handed remark that I could say anything I wanted when I was six feet tall.
I was growing quickly at the time, so I told her it was a deal. We shook on it. (Of course, I snuck behind her back and saw everything anyways.)
I stopped growing at five foot eleven. And to this day, ten years later, my mom tells me I’m not allowed to see R-rated movies.
Oops. I meant “see anything,” not “say anything.” Even then she would have known my potty mouth was a lost cause.
This is coming from left field, but SOAP keeps reminding me of JACKASS.
Ironically appropriate…
Here is the very first Bob Shaye trailer… pre-New Line… for Pink Flamingos…
http://www.iklipz.com/Movies.aspx?MovieID=5b2a733a-7803-4b6f-a233-180ed02fb39a
^^^I think that should have been the Snakes campaign. It should have been about the event, and not the movie.
“plain and simple….It’s a horror movie”
Just reading that bit makes me go “so it should be R!” Horror movies that are PG-13 in America immediately makes my interest drop and then I wait to see what rating it gets in Australia. SoaP got a rating that’s here that’s the equivalant of your PG13, which is odd considering what I’ve read. It should be MA15+ not M.
Still, SoaP being PG-13 wouldn’t have mattered much I don’t think. It would’ve lost as many patrons as it gained. You can bet that some people wouldn’t wanna bother with a crowd of hyped up 12-year-olds seeing tits and bits.
New Line should throw out some tv ads advertising how much fun people are having. They had those in-cinema ads for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre showing people freaking out, surely they can have the crowd doing a few jumps and laughing their arses off, right?
“…New Line should have ignored the internet chatter and kept it PG-13 and released what they had, when they had it…”
Dude, they filmed for an extra five days. I doubt that meant they had to release it three months later to accomodate it, or however long.
And one of the stupidest things in PG-13 movies is when someone says the one allowed “FUCK!” and it’s completely random and out of the ordinary like in The Ring Two or Fun with Dick and Jane. Both bad movies, yes, but they could’ve done with a bit of an R-rated edge.
K- I’m a fem, but no matter, your argument is more misperceived than you are about my sex. Your thinking is the subject of a fight I was having yesterday, which I stupidly pasted into Snake Bit, with a dude named The Winchester about rush post. He said NL was done shooting in Sept. That means you picture edit into January, lock it with temp viz fx and temp sound and temp music edits and turn it over to sound people for editing and you let the composer finalize and then to the stage for scoring and mixing all the sound and music while the neg cutter cuts neg and the viz fx people turn temps into finals and you cut those into picture, this takes you into the spring when you master everything at the post facility (lab) and color correct and strike prints, qc them and exhibit in theatres Spring/early summer —- you can’t do this if your sitting on your hands listening to internet chatter, wondering if it would be better to shoot x number of new scenes and recraft the movie — that’s called stymied, holding off, waiting. If the orignal shoot was 5 weeks or 25 days, then 5 days represents 20% – that’s a lot. And they did those 5 days in May (according to The Winchester) so now you reset your post clock — instead of locking picture in January, you’ve now locked in May or June. I’ll fight with you too or anyone, but later, ok?
I am amazed that anyone out there is still arguing that the film should have been rushed into release… as though the internet buzz was going to make it bigger three months ago with even less of a marketing run.
This film would have opened to $9 million in May. And then what would people have said? You think they are mocking the power of the web now?
Bottom line on this movie… there still are no shortcuts… every once in a while, you hit a DaVinci, but more often you hit a wall with pre-sold ideas you don’t find new ways to sell… Sankes is a web-driven success, but it didn’t cross over very much and that is why there are now doubts. It’s not a lot different than Poseidon, except that this will make money and is a more fun movie. Th epower of that name got some interest… but not enough to make it a machine…
For the record: the MPAA will let you have two different versions of a movie in the marketplace at the same time as long as they have the same rating. For a film to be re-rated, it must be withdrawn from theatrical release for 90 days. In the 70s, a number of R-rated films were re-edited and reissued as PGs (e.g., SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER, MASH, THE OWL AND THE PUSSYCAT), and UA briefly tried an R-rated LAST TANGO, but once home video took hold, it all became moot. However, the rule is still on the books.
I checked the entire thread for MartyS The Monkey.
I wanted him to tell me how Avi Arad gained concessions from Fox over the Mutant X lawsuit which Marvel SETTLED because they were in the wrong.
I am Spam Dooley and I Hope Idiots can teach me!
DP, can you clarify, do you mean, “This film would have opened to $9 million in May” as a PG-13 movie without reshooting in response to the web?
thanks cadavra for the info
I work with kids and I’ll tell you what, SoaP is going to be HUGE on DVD. Much like the Tipper Gore induced “Parental Warning” stickers in the early 90’s on music, and “R” rating only makes kids want to see it more. Same goes for GRAND THEFT AUTO and that type of game. Parents, for the most part, do not care what their kids visually ingest and and “R” makes them just want it more.
It’s too quiet here, something’s up.
I do love this from Jami Bernard’s blog though: “horribly directed by David R. Ellis, who misses every opportunity to exploit the personalities of the passengers on the snake-bedeviled plane. The kickboxing dude? The girl who’d do anything for her dog? Come on — let’s get some action going! Kick-boxing with the cobra, perhaps? Last licks on behalf of the lapdog?”
Sorry T.H.Ung, I call everyone dude. 😛