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
That title since changed to La Mome.
You sure, Kris? I believe that’s the French release title. And yes, it is odd to have the American and French releases both with different French titles.
I’m watching ABC right now.
If Rick Nicita or Paula Wagner are reading this, buy the rights to Bob Woodruff’s story, cast Tom Cruise, he wins an Oscar.
This is a little off-topic, but does anyone know the runtime to Zodiac? I plan on seeing it and black Snake Moan on Friday, and I want to strategize my plan of attack in regards to which film I see first in order to sneak into the other. I read BSM came in at 115 min. What was final runtime on Zodiac?
Zodiac is about 2 hours and 35 minutes and worth every second.
Indeed, “La Vie En Rose” has been changed to “La Mome” (Edith Piaf’s nickname) for a while now! Can someone confirm what it will be when released in the US? Just so I don’t go confusing people with mixed-up titles when I write about it! I guess “La Vie En Rose” might click more with a non-French audience (as the title of one of her most recognisable songs).
I hate title translations… in both directions!!! I kept having trouble writing “Days of Glory” instead of “Indig
The movie is playing at Rendezvous with French Cinema as La Vie en Rose (tonight as a matter of fact) though they tend to include the foreign title:
http://www.filmlinc.com/wrt/onsale/rendezvous07/lavieenrose.html
This is the real teller in that the official site still says “La Vie En Rose” with no mention of “La Mome”:
http://www.edithpiafmovie.com/
Americans won’t know who “La Mome” is, which is why it’s stuck as the French title. (It’s the same case as Avenue Montaigne)
Isn’t La Vie end Rose a Hollywood musical biopic, but in French? I don’t think I’ve read one good word about it.
Dave, what about Venice? I believe The Queen launched there didn’t it?
“Dave, what about Venice? I believe The Queen launched there didn’t it?”
I’m not Dave but yes, The Queen did launch there as did Good Night and Good Luck the year before.
The funny thing is that this year’s winner THe Departed completely avoided the festival circuit as have plenty of other winners…Braveheart, Lord of the Rings, A Beautiful Mind. It just goes to show if you’re a big studio, you have more money to spend at getting your movie seen… the funny thing is that I don’t remember seeing nearly as many Oscar push ads for Departed as the other movies, maybe because it wasn’t as big a player at the GGs
The Queen launched in Venice. And the same goes to Brokeback Mountain, Good Night and Good Luck and Lost in Translation (Coppola’s other two films launched at Cannes, but LiT was not ready in time).
BTW, this year was a very strong year for Cannes launched films with 16 nods and 5 wins between Babel, Pan’s, Marie Antoniette, Volver and Indigines (2005 had just History of violence two nods and 2004 had 4 between Motorcycle Diaries, Fahrenheit 9/11 and Shrek 2).
“The funny thing is that this year’s winner THe Departed completely avoided the festival circuit as have plenty of other winners…Braveheart, Lord of the Rings, A Beautiful Mind. It just goes to show if you’re a big studio, you have more money to spend at getting your movie seen… the funny thing is that I don’t remember seeing nearly as many Oscar push ads for Departed as the other movies, maybe because it wasn’t as big a player at the GGs”
Their non-campaign WAS their campaign. I am not sure they knew what they had. I knew what they had but when I saw the screening on the lot I ended up in an elevator with one of the WB publicists and I said, “wow, I just saw Departed – that is the best film of the year,” or something like that. And she said, “well, you should see Blood Diamond; that’s the one we’re hearing a lot about.” LOL. They had to keep quiet because of Scorsese. They knew the movie would sell itself because it was that good. But I bet they didn’t think it had that much awards potential. They really launched Blood Diamond in a much bigger way – they undersold all of their actors big time; that was their only really big mistake.
The Departed and Flags and big studio movies like that really don’t need, nor do they have any place, on the festival circuit – why would they?
Since this comes from some of the comments I made, let’s clarify…
13 award winning films from Cannes, Toronto and Venice in how many years? Since I was going back 28 years for my research, and there is at least 25 movies nominated for Oscars every years, 13 of out approximately 600 plus nominated films is indeed quite negligible to be considered any kind of factor.
I have a feeling WB were pushing Blood Diamond more because I expect they invested more money into it while movies like The Departed and Letters probably had financing from other sources as well. (As would be expected when you have Scorsese and Eastwood directing)
An odd renaming: ages ago, Diane Kurys’ “Coup de foudre” (Love at first sight) was retitled a different french title for the us: “Entre nous” (Between Us).