April 18, 2024
Box Office
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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
Wow, those are some pretty huge projections for the Fantastic 42, the first movie was almost as bad as The Hulk, it’s hard to believe anybody is going to see, much less that many people. But I guess you can never underestimate fanboys’ appetite for comic book adaptations…
The Fantastic 42 — bigger and better than ever by a 10.5 x member increase.
It’s not just fanboys – since the rating is PG, it’ll do well with kids dragging their parents to it.
50-60 million, wow. Considering the lockstep reaction to the first one, I’m surprised no one thinks there’s a chance for FF2 to be one of those Shoulda-Quit-While-They-Were-Ahead Tomb Raider kind of sequels.
Having not yet seen F4 2, I can’t comment on its quality, but I hope it (relatively speaking) does better than Tomb Raider 2 since it’s allegedly a better film than part 1. Tomb Raider 2 was, ironically, a much better film than the original, yet it flopped because, no one actually liked the original. Makers of Superman Returns and Incredible Hulk beware… even if you learn from your mistakes, audiences might still stay away (this also was the case with Addams Family Values, where the FAR superior sequel bombed due to poor word of mouth on the middling but hugely successful original).
Scott Mendelson
Does anyone know how well Die Hard or Transformers is tracking?
I saw FF4 2 and while it’s not a good movie, it does what it has set out to do. It was fun and it was short (barely 90 mins). It doesn’t take itself seriously and it knows that audiences won’t. I liked it because I was only expecting to be entertained. Weird as it sounds, the film turned out to be the first this summer that has not disappointed me because it never promised anything.
Here’s the thing. The first Fantastic Four film is not universally hated. It’s only hated by the grubby little geeks that enjoy the darker parts of film and life. So this film will not be hated either by those who have a sense of whimsy and levity about their character.
Variety out with a very strong review for Ratatouille. I hope they are right. It would be nice for one of the pre-ordained blockbusters to be a really good film.
Who knew that grubby little geeks made up a majority of the population?
Or that expecting quality meant you had no whimsy?
Those are the best responses that you two can come up with at this time? Demanding quality? Uh…subjective. I would respond to jeff, but he’s seems about as real as Wil E Coyote. Due in large part to his wonderful TORTURE PORN comments.
Fantastic 42, the musical sequel to Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy!
Anyone? Okay, I’ll go to bed now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYW2ltW5SPo
There Will Be Blood. This trailer is guaranteed to be more entertaining than anything opening this weekend. 😉
22 Million for Friday
It’s a hit.
LOL. So much for the “Everybody hated the first one” theory.
joe
lunatic fringe. everyone didn’t hate the first one. a vocal minority of raging fanboys did.
small groups yelling really, really loudly don’t constitute ‘everybody’
seriously, when are the studios going to figure this out?
Actually, I sometimes think David would do well to somehow program this site so that the word “everybody” and the phrases “all of my friends” and “everyone I know” would be automatically edited from every posting.
But Joe, surely there’s no need for that. We all know you have no friends and the only people you know are us.
LOL. Actually, Ian, all I have to do is show up at a film festival, and I suddenly — nay, miraculously — have many, many friends.
The only downside: There is a tragic lack of film critic groupies.
Spiderman 2 is still making so much money.
“This trailer is guaranteed to be more entertaining than anything opening this weekend. ;-)”
Especially if you close your eyes and picture Sean Connery playing Jeopardy on Saturday Night Live. About halfway through the trailer I couldn’t place that voice until the words “Suck it, Trebek!” flashed out of nowhere.
Maybe – just maybe – people felt like going to see a superhero movie that wasn’t all dark and gloomy and featuring leads that aren’t seriously depressed.
Coming next summer: Babel – Even Superheroes Have Bad Shit Happen To Them, the much highly-anticipated sequel to Babel – Bad Shit Happens To Nice People.
The only BABEL sequel that would possibly do business is BABEL: EVEN MORE NAKED ASIAN CHICKS.
Well, my 3 year-old liked FF1 when we saw it in the theater. I thought it was not very good (I’m trying to be charitable here), and my brother couldn’t even finish the DVD ’cause he thought it was so horrible. He said CATWOMAN was better.
I haven’t seen FF2 yet, but the enumerated problems we had with the first are probably still present: Reed, the late-middle age graying scientist, is far too young, Sue, the WASP princess, is far too Hispanic, and Johnny–well, as my brother put it, “There’s a difference between smart-ass and asshole.” The Johnny in the comic falls into the former category, and the jerkoff in the movie definitely falls into the latter.
…and how could I possibly forget: Doctor Doom doesn’t have any powers! He’s friggin Batman in a battlesuit, tho he did dabble with the mystic arts as a lad, and yet that got him nothing but a scarred face.
As one of the biggest FF comic book fans during the 70s and 80s, take it from me… I couldn’t stand the first movie, yet was very surprised at how much better the second is. Not great, not pretentious like most other modern superhero movies, and I still think Spidey 2 is the all-time best superhero movie… but FF2 was more fun for me than Superman Returns, any Batman, X-Men, Daredevil, etc.
I actually thought the plot for FF2 sounded great…and then I read that Doctor Doom was going to be in it. WTF does Doctor Doom have to do with Galactus? It’s just another sad case of villain insecurity, which even the great Christopher Nolan couldn’t shake–one villain just ain’t enough to keep the audience in their seats for 2+ hours, so let’s see how many we can throw on the screen to keep things lively…even tho it doesn’t really make much sense.