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David Poland

By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com

Taking On False Prophets In The Hot Button

No one has looked over this Hot Button column, so I am afraid there will be some typos that I missed, but I am here on the island and felt it was worth pushing this out… not only so you could have something to discuss, but because this scam needs some calling out…
The Hot Button, Oct 18

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18 Responses to “Taking On False Prophets In The Hot Button”

  1. “It could be argued that the only movie I was really capital-W Wrong on was Monster House.”
    All I’m gonna say is The Devil Wears Prada.
    But that whole system thing is ridiculous. Just… huh?

  2. David Poland says:

    Well, Kami… as you must have noticed, it wasn’t about all of my summer picks. But yes, again, I turned out to be wrong on Prada. Happy?

  3. jeffmcm says:

    Don’t pester Dave when he’s riled.

  4. EDouglas says:

    How Sony decided to open Monster House in summer and Open Season in September is one for the ages. I personally think that if any of those failed summer animated movies were released in the last two or three weeks, they would clean up. I think we’re going to see a pretty high per-theatre average for Nightmare Before Christmas this weekened, because of the lack of kids’ films and the subject matter. (Likewise, they should have held Corpse Bride for mid-to-late October.)

  5. Stella's Boy says:

    EDouglas, what about Flicka?

  6. I was just pointing it out because I wasn’t sure if you remembered or whatever. Geez. How was I to know that Prada wasn’t part of your random 30 movies picked? Considering you only listed the 9.

  7. Krazy Eyes says:

    Were’nt these the guys who posted their “predictions” on their web site on the Saturday morning after a film’s Friday premiere? All I remember was a lot of boasts and no hard data to back anything up. Go rip ’em a new one DP.

  8. frankbooth says:

    I don’t know about you, but I typically don’t eat by flare-light. Metaphors, like drinks, are best unmixed.
    As for the system, sounds plausible. Ask them what I’m having for lunch three weeks from tomorrow.
    I’d also like to know what they said about Cindarella Man. Does their computer factor in hurled phones?

  9. frankbooth says:

    I don’t know about you, but I typically don’t eat by flare-light. Metaphors, like drinks, are best unmixed.
    As for the system, sounds plausible. Ask them what I’m having for lunch three weeks from tomorrow.
    I’d also like to know what they said about Cindarella Man. Does their computer factor in hurled phones?

  10. frankbooth says:

    I’m gonna go get a paper, get a paper.

  11. The line was actually “I’m gonna go get the papers, get the papers.”

  12. Cadavra says:

    You guys sure aren’t ancillary-oriented. MONSTER HOUSE opened in the summer so the DVD (where the real dough is) could be released in time for Halloween.
    I am Cadavra and I still have Beta!

  13. Surely the DVD won’t be out by Halloween. Wouldn’t that be 2 months?

  14. jeffmcm says:

    Cadavra is correct, the DVD comes out next Tuesday Oct. 24th, which is a 3 month window.

  15. Jesus Christ.
    Why did people even bother seeing it at the cinema, really?

  16. Joe Leydon says:

    Hey, “All the King’s Men” will hit homevid on Dec. 19. And that date, btw, was anounced before it hit theaters.

  17. Cadavra says:

    Camel: Why did people even bother seeing it at the cinema, really?
    Me: Well, you could say that about a whole lotta films! MH at least had the novelty of 3-D on many screens.

  18. frankbooth says:

    I’ve been outgeeked. You can probably tell me the name of the actor, too, without looking it up. Sauve, MAN you’re suave.
    Here’s to your fuck, your fuck.
    I worry about you people sometimes. Watching the same movies over and over, sitting at computers, commenting on blogs…very unhealthy bunch you are.
    I am frankbooth, and MOMMY!

Quote Unquotesee all »

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