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
Sweet, I’m a journo too so can I download anything I want in the name of research? Ha ha!
I’m just busting chops, I dig it, frankly the “piracy” story is a lot more intersting than a lot of the “box office” stories that we always hear, so keep up the good journo-theft, let’s see how far we can take this. Next stop, stealing dailies in the name of jounralistic ethics? OK, I’m kidding again, I watched too much Triumph the Insult dog at the Tony’s (he killed, as always), but there’s so much ethical gray area here it’s easy to make jokes…
Can anyone email me the new White Strips disc? The one I downloaded was only 128, I need 192!!! Booo-ya!
Hostel 2? Fantastic 42? Good for me to POOP on!
Triumph or not… something like this is not only “okay,” but it is my responsibility to know. It is also my responsibility not to spread information about how you can do the same, not to further distribute the material, and not to slide over the line between investigating something and indulging in it.
The problem I have is that people personalize my choice here, as though we are all doing the same thing. And we are not. It’s not about me being superior in my mind. It is the function of the job I do. And this is a big part of this whole web disfunction. The entitlement issues are a big, wet mess.
I think you mean “Obama,” not “Osama.”
Right?
Thanks, Luke.
Yes.
Fixing.
YouTube pulled “Sicko” on a DMCA complaint by Lionsgate. The Hollywood Reporter credits MCN and Advertising Age with breaking the story.
And I thank them for catching up… though it broke here on the blog 2 days before Ad Age ran their story.
Just heard that Sicko’s doing a national sneak this Saturday. I bet the piracy had something to do with that.
I don’t think the 10min. limit applies on YouTube, for instance, here’s a 15minute one, of Moore on Letterman.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHs9epUCqJM
Are tickets on sale yet? I’ve been looking.
Just busting your chops, Poland, for dancing on that gray line. But I dig it, gots to be done. Undercover cops got to sniff a little toot if they’re gonna know what’s happening in the streets.
Having watched the music industry self-implode after not knowing how to deal with the Napster phenomenon, it’s just a matter of time before buying bootleg movies on the streets gives way to mass illegal sharing on the internet. I just hope that the power that be that control distribution understand that they need to get ahead of the curve on this, because the movie industry is about to change in a big way, and unless there’s some real future-thought, movies are going to suffer just like music has. Scary stuff for anyone who makes their living in the biz.
I’ve bought only 4 or 5 bootleg DVDs in my day, and in that very small sample found that they were all unwatchable – maybe I just don’t go to the right bodega, but all the copies seem to have Russian subtitles, or were recorded with a video camera in a theatre, or some other such nonsense…Netflix is just cheaper and easier.
Alan — here in Orange County, CA, I’m told online tix will be available shortly via Fandango.
Interesting. On Fandango it lists the film as opening Tuesday, 6/26 in my area.
Per Variety, “Sicko” will be rush-released 6/22 in NYC at the Loews Lincoln Square (Upper West Side). Sneak previews are on 6/23 in top-30 markets and Flint.
The Variety story omits any reference to actual distrib Lionsgate or to the pirated version of “Sicko”. That tells me Variety is embarrassed at being scooped by MCN.