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David Poland

By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com

Late Night At The Movies

At The Grove, here in L.A., four of this weekend’s new films are launching just after midnight tonight: National Treasure 2, Sweeney Todd, Walk Hard, and Charlie Wilson’s War.
The only film at over 50% capacity was Sweeney Todd… and it was at about 80% capacity in a 300+ seat theater. Not bad, but not overwhelming. And how was it for the rest? Ow.

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5 Responses to “Late Night At The Movies”

  1. movielocke says:

    yeah, but the Grove is basically in WeHo, so naturally Sweeney Todd will do better than two films whose demo are going after the average american filmgoer and a comedy that skews lower middle class (ala talladega nights).

  2. Hopscotch says:

    I’d argue that National Treasure’s and Charlie Wilson’s main audience don’t go see movies at midnight.
    Walk Hard however, that is an ouch. We’ll see how it plays out on Sundy Evening.
    It’s basically a battle for third.
    National Treasure
    I am Legend
    Walk Hard
    Charlie Wilson

  3. Joe Leydon says:

    Hopscotch: Does this mean you’re placing Sweeney Todd at No. 1, and Alvin at No. 2?

  4. doug r says:

    Walk Hard may do better than tracking. Cool they’re going for R. We’ll soon see if audience’s have any desire for Cox.

  5. I just wanted to chime in and say I saw JUNO on Tuesday afternoon at the postmodern, epileptic seizure inducing METREON in San Francisco….and it was packed to the gills. I saw the 1:40 show and I was there right on time and still was relegated to those seats way down in front in a stadium seating type room.

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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