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Ray Pride

By Ray Pride Pride@moviecitynews.com

Where is it? When is it? Crispin Hellion Glover tours What Is It?

The auteur tours, the PR tells us: “Veteran actor Crispin Hellion Glover, who has appeared in over 30 films, including RIVER’S EDGE, chg_235.jpgCHARLIE’S ANGELS, THE DOORS, WILLARD, DEAD MAN, BACK TO THE FUTURE, WHAT’S EATING GLIBERT [sic] GRAPE, WILD AT HEART, THE PEOPLE VS. LARRY FLYNT the upcoming BEOWULF, THE WIZARD OF GORE, and BOB BAILEY’S DISCO BALLS will tour his debut feature film as a director, WHAT IS IT? with an in-person tour… Glover’s appearances in San Francisco, Seattle, New York, Chicago and Los Angeles will include a q & a after the film screening and a presentation of his “Big Slide Show” which features illustration and commentary from eight of his books, followed by a signing of his books RAT CATCHING, OAK MOT, and What it is, and how it is done… Known for creating many memorable, incredibly quirky characters onscreen as an actor, Glover’s first effort as a director will not disappoint fans of his offbeat sensibilities and eccentric taste. Featuring a cast largely comprised of actors with Down’s Syndrome, the film is not about Down’s Syndrome. Glover describes it as “Being the adventures of a young man whose principal interests are snails, salt, a pipe and how to get home as tormented by an hubristic racist inner psyche.” In addition to writing and directing WHAT IS IT?, Glover also appears in the film as an actor in the role of “Dueling Demi-God Auteur and The young man’s inner psyche.” Fairuza Balk voices one of the snails.” Glover also notes that “WHAT IS IT? is part one of a trilogy. Parts two, IT IS FINE EVERYTHING IS FINE…! is currently in post-production. On part two, Glover collaborated with Utah writer-actor Steven C. Stewart, who also appears in WHAT IS IT? Stewart passed away from complications from cerebral palsy in 2001.” [The schedule appears below.]


October 20, 21, 22: Castro Theater, San Francisco
November 3, 4, 5: Northwest, Film Forum, Seattle
November 10, 11,12: Anthology Film Archives, New York
November 17, 18 ,19: Music Box Theater, Chicago
December 8, 9, 10: Egyptian Theatre at the American Cinematheque, Hollywood

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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