BYOB – Travelling
I’m on the road to Park City all day, so be nice to each other and I’ll see you on the other side.
April 26, 2024
BYOB
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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
BAFTA nods. Nice to see Atonement finally get some love (even it was entirely expected) and to see Into the Wild completely snubbed (has it been released in the UK yet?) but the thing I’m happiest with are the nominations for Shane Meadows’ This is England – the best film I’ve seen from 2007 so far – and The Lives of Others.
The BAFTAs are my favourite pre-Oscar awards body. I always seem to agree with their choices much more than others. It’s a damn shame that This is England didn’t get an awards campaign. It could’ve pulled a screenplay award at least if they played their cards right with the relatively weak original screenplay category this year. Oh well…
I know it’s a long shot for Gosling to get the nomination, and I realize this isn’t the most timely of topics, but I just saw LARS AND THE REAL GIRL and LOVED it. I had friends who thought the premise sounded too creepy regardless of the reviews — though at least one of them thought the doll looked “hot” — but everyone I talked to who saw it here last weekend had the same response: sweet without being treacly, charming in all the right ways, genuinely funny based on circumstance not clever scriptwriting, and while admittedly manipulative and predictable, it ultimately earned the tears streaming down my face.
I finally saw Michael Clayton and I really don’t get the love for that film. It uses the chopped up timeline editing to hide the fact that there really isn’t much story. And Clooney certainly doesn’t do more than play Clooney in debt. It’s a perfectly fine adult drama, but I don’t think it should be one of the three gimmee nominations.
It’s interesting Kamikaze that you say you like the BAFTAs. They used to be post-Oscar but found that the public interest in award ceremonies simply drained away after the Oscars. Although they can be more artistically appreciative and daring than AMPAS, the downside is that they can be very partisan. As a consequence, a rake of noms go to British pictures (not that Atonement is undeserving of many in this instance).
But what makes the whole thing really funny is that when the Oscar noms come up, and a British film is not nominated, the media says “We have been snubbed yet again. It’s just another example of how insular Hollywood is.” And then of course, when a British talent get a number of nominations, they say “The Brits are taking over Hollywood.”
In Ireland, we’re just as bad, if not worse. We have the IFTA (people here call them the “Iffies”… as in dodgy). There are barely enough decent Irish films made in one year to fill the nominations… but every so often, we have a few. This year of course we had ONCE and another interesting small picture called GARAGE that did rather well in Cannes.
This year of course, we’re all pushing for Saoirse Ronan and Seamus McGarvey for Atonement.
(P.S., Into the Wild was released on this side of the pond sometime before Christmas. Critics liked it, audiences so-so).
I leave for Sundance tomorrow but wanted to encourage you all to check Film Threat as we’re doing some (hopefully) cool things. We have a webcam in the condo and we’re doing live reports and interviews. Plus we always cover EVERY Sundance film so keep an eye out over there. I’ll post the times I’ll be doing my live cam crap.
If anyone is going to Park City and wants to have a beer, shoot me an email: PetalumaFilms@gmail.com
I’m with convict Kamikaze (Poland, get this kid his own column now). So good to see The Poms stand behind “This Is England.” Awards are at their most noble when they draw attention to big hearted gems like this and “The Lives of Others.” I’ll bet none of the big summer studio sequels “paid for” them.
(Who can resist a director named Shane Meadows calling his main character “Shaun Fields”? Ha!)
Pope: Haven’t seen Garage, but Small Engine Repair, which I saw and reviewed at the Nashville Film Festival, was one of my favorite little movies from last year. (At the risk of sounding blasphemous, I enjoyed it a bit more than Once.)
I’ve finally seen [i]The Lives of Others[/i] and wow, it really puts all of the American films to shame. The lead performance is so subtle and great. And to think of the horror that Hollywood is already remaking the movie. I bet the lead American actor (whoever that may be) will probably scream out the lines at the beginning to be scary and sob at the end to win over our heart.
Like Boonwell, I’m a big fan of LARS and hope that Gosling gets to sneak in there!
Diablo Cody on Oprah today. Oprah.
Please make it stop.
They’re remaking The Lives of Others? How pointless. Worst idea since Van Sant fell asleep with Psycho on the tube.
A new Rambo? God help us. Remaking “The Eye?” I generally love Asian horror, but that one was bad.
Aris,
my wife was watching Oprah, so i witnessed the whole thing.
Holy shit. It was so painful.
Oprah: How long did it take you to write the script?
Diablo: 3, maybe 4 months.
Oprah (in disbelief): 3 MONTHS? That’s it?
Diablo: It’s 91 pages, i mean, how long is it supposed to take?
Then she said something about being a stripper. I don’t know if anyone prepped her for the interview, but she desperately needs someone to. She came across so cocky it was difficult to take her seriously or even like her.
I can’t imagine a more unlikable interview. After Ellen Page came across so intelligent and Jennifer Garner radiated, Diablo Cody shows up and sits there like she’s already cleared the space on her shelf for the Oscar.
Anghus; it’s freakin Oprah. Diablo Cody could give two craps about Oprah like most of America, that are not caught up in that woman’s garbage. I do not blame her for sitting there. She’s a writer having to fulfill an press obligation. On a show that she most likely dislikes. So she can sit there all the live long day because it’s not scientology we should fear. IT’S OPRAH!
Oprah…
The woman who unleashed Dr. Phil on the world and headed that black cabal that ended the Chappelle show.
Oprah is evil. Believe it.
I think Diane Lane is a beautiful and talented actress, and it is unfortunate that with Untraceable she apparently is picking up where Ashley Judd left off. In the TV spot I just saw she even looks a little like Judd.
Gotta agree with you 100% on that one, Stella. I saw this trailer before something weeks back and forget that it was maybe the worst trailer in film history, I didn’t even recognize her. Her husband’s kicking as in NO COUNTRY and this is what Lane has to do? I hope that a Paynesue filmmaker comes along and reminds us all how engaging she can be.
I read the script to Untraceable. It has scenes that put Hitman‘s incredulity to shame. And I’m not talking about the technology, either. Gregory Hoblit must have gotten up one morning and said, fuck it.
For the record, anghus, Cody said it took her maybe 2-3 months, not 3-4. Small difference, but even more cocky. She may have tried to say it in some kind of naive, jokey way, but it didn’t work. Then Oprah asks her parents how they’re going to feel about her time stripping in Minnesota when she’s going up to the stage to collect her Oscar.
GAG.
Please stop this runaway train.
Diablo Cody is under NO press obligations to promote this film. She is commandeering her own gravy train to notoriety. And she would lick Oprah’s ass to an unrepairable chafe on-camera if standards and practices would allow it.
I think Hoblit’s been saying “fuck it” since that episode of COP ROCK he directed.
I think you all will find Cody Diablo more likeable in the next issue of MovieMaker magazine.
“Diablo Cody is under NO press obligations to promote this film. She is commandeering her own gravy train to notoriety. And she would lick Oprah’s ass to an unrepairable chafe on-camera if standards and practices would allow.” Uh……………………………………..no.
“The lead performance is so subtle and great.” That’d be the late great Ulrich Muhe. Nice to see the Brits were’s sucked in with Into the Wild. Offensive self-indulgent little movie that was.
The Pope, the Brits took over last year so I guess it makes sense for AMPAS to snub them this year.
I’m actually looking forward to Untraceable on the level of a train-wreck. It looks more enjoyable than, say, Meet the Spartans or that bizarre Strange Wilderness thing.
IOIOI: Can you elaborate?
Isn’t Untracable one of those movies set “in a world where…” blah blah blah. Inside the FBI’s “elite cyber task force” or whatever. Sounds like an entertaining DVD movie.
The trailer to Untraicable didn’t look remotely as vomit-inducing as that Ryan Reynolds Stop-Loss (there’s a winning title), nor as cringe-worthy as that Anjelina Jolie Terminatrix train-wreck, the title of which thankfully escapes me at the moment.
Seems like I’m not stepping foot in any movie theatre in January. I’m predicting the same for February.
You seem to forget, jeffmcm, IO doesn’t need to explain himself. He’s NOT YOUR DANCING MONKEY!!!
spoke with one of the writers (uncredited) of “untraceable” last night. he said it was a mess when he worked on it, and premise aside, has nothing to do with original script anymore. it’s a computer thriller for anybody who’s never used the internet before.
The credited rewriter, Allison Burnett, is all over the…ugh…IMDb board for Untraceable, plugging how “sophisticated” and “smart” it is. Only if you have the IQ of a radicchio. And that’s probably an insult to the radicchio.
Aris P: “Stop-Loss” is about an Iraq vet who freaks out when he’s told to go back a 3rd time. As Paramount thinks people don’t know what “Stop-Loss” means, the trailer includes the convenient phrase “From the director of ‘Boys Don’t Cry’.”
Hint for Paramount: Stop-Loss is the way that Today’s Army keeps soldiers on active duty past their scheduled discharge date.
is io related to dz in any way?