April 26, 2024
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20 Weeks To Oscar: Rush To Poor Judgment?
20 Weeks Extra: Could There Be One More Turn?
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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” â 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 â 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 â he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” â and I’d forgot who he was.
So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging â I was with her at that moment â 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 namedâ” “Yeah, sure â 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 Iâm on the phone with you now, after all thatâs 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 didnât seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. Thereâs not a case of that. He wasnât using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had â if that were what the accusation involved â 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. Iâm not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, âYou know, itâs not this, itâs thatâ? Because â let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, thatâs what it lacked. Thatâs 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
I would remind you that Chaplin and Tati won zero competitive Oscars for Best Actor. The Academy overlooks comic acting and they also overlook genius. And it sounds like this will fall into both of those categories.
Could this go down as another one of Dave’s dubious Oscar picks? Magic 8 Ball says, Signs point to yes.
David, as much as it pains me to say this…you may be right about Borat. My 70+ year old mother just Emailed me to ask if I knew when it was playing down in her area… I was floored, because I couldn’t imagine this playing for older audiences… maybe I’m wrong on this.
I should correct that… right about the movie and its appeal. I won’t agree with you on the acting nomination. I just don’t see it happening. Golden Globe? Yeah, definitely…but there’s a lot more at play here, and as you say, actors vote for actors… Cohen is seen as a comic and not an actor who has paid his dues… he had a good performance in Madagascar and Talladega Nights, but it’s not like Johnny Depp, who surprised a lot of people with his Pirates nom.
Anyway, can’t wait to see him be #1 in David’s acting chart… I loved how World Trade Center dropped from 1 to 8 for Best Picture. Welcome back to reality đ
Both of my parents are looking forward to this, and they’re in their mid-50s. I had shown my mom some Ali G and Borat clips online awhile ago…It took her a few minutes to clue into the conceit of Borat, but afterwards she loved it.
My dad is a lot more conservative in his likes when it comes to that sort of comedy, and I showed him the trailer to Borat and he loved it. He went home and told my mom. Needless to say, they’re making an effort to see it when it comes out.
I find the Borat ‘phenom’ interesting. Ali G made Cohen famous yet the Ali G feature went straight to video in North America and his secondary character of Borat will push him over the top.
Much like Rowan Atkinson who came to light with Blackadder (whom many still do not know) but his secondary character of Mr. Bean is what put him over on this side of the pond.
Just interesting.
Blackadder is a gazillion times funnier than Mr. Bean.
I’m pretty sure the Ali G movie did get a theatrical release in the States. It only lasted about an hour, but nonetheless it was in theaters. They did have Ali G in a commercial with Kobe Bryant, so he can’t be totally unknown.
Blackadder is also significantly more British than Mr. Bean ever was, therefore wouldn’t travel as well.
The thing with SBC I think is, is that if people LIKE him they could very well vote for him.
There’s an Australian movie out atm called Kenny, a mockumentary about a portable toilet plumber and while the performance by Shane Jacobson as Kenny isn’t anything extremely powerful or whathaveyou, people genuinely love the character and such and so he’s a sinch for a Best Actor nod come our awards time. And I could see the same happening to Cohen.
DP didn’t mention the sound problems Moore had later. Maybe he split.
From HR: “Moore endured a faulty sound system at the Elgin Theatre on Friday night as he attempted to show clips from ‘Slacker Uprising,’ a film he did on the aftermath of the 2004 U.S. election…. After technicians solved the problem, Moore was able to show clips from ‘Sicko,’ his expose of the U.S. health insurance industry that is slated for release in June 2007…. This followed a broken projector on Thursday night canceling a 20th Century Fox screening for the Sacha Baron Cohen-starrer ‘Borat’…. ‘This is last night all over again,’ a frustrated Moore told Charles on stage as technicians struggled to fix the sound system so he could show clips from his latest projects.”
Can anybody explain why Michael Moore get to show clips of his stuff in front of completely unrelated movies that he had no involvement in?
I don’t know, but Moore q-n-a’ed Charles after the screening. That’s when the Moore preview mini film fest took place according to my reading of the HR piece I quoted from.
Jeff, that’s a legit question and it goes to show the level of journalism going on at Toronto this yr. I’ve never heard of directors getting invited to the festival to just show a few clips of movies they’re working on. If the writers were a little less lazy, they’d be balancing their stories with info on how Moore’s presentation fits into the rest of the fest.
Well I guess in the abstract a director showing clips of his film at a fest is not totally out of whack. Stone previewed WTC at Cannes with only 20 minutes and I believe other director’s have there too.
I’m sure only major directors would be alowed to do so. Then the real debate would focus on is Michael Moore a major enough director and how do you define that.
Given the overt left-wing nature of many of the films at TO this year, it would seem Moore would fit in just fine.
As for journos not asking tougher questions, I do agree. It seems more and more that many entertainment journos aren’t much different than the ‘starfuckers’ waiting to catch a glimpse of Brad Pitt coming out of the Four Seasons. Lots of kissy-kissy-aren’t-you-a-genius type questions.
I used to love watching the press conferences to the TIFF and Cannes etc, but it seems in recent years too many journos just kiss up to the talent.
As for the sound breakdown…again, the Elgin is not a real movie theatre so the breakdown there is not terribly surprising. I guess the sound system was Sicko.