April 19, 2024
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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
Because American audiences don’t want documentaries about Iraq, don’t want fictional films about Iraq, don’t want metaphors about Iraq in their films. Hell, American audiences don’t even want to pay attention to information about Iraq on the nightly news. After wasting millions of dollars, I think the distributors are starting to catch on. (Unless of course you count that Matt Damon/Amy Adams one that got greenlit somehow…)
If you’d at least seen the trailer you’d know it’s not a documentary. It got a good buzz in Toronto, so hopefully eventually it’ll get picked up.
Because America as a whole can’t face up to the fact that we lost in Iraq. Bad enough it was wrong in the first place. Even worse that we screwed it up. Liberals already know the story these movies tell us. Conservatives don’t want to face the pain of reality.
I really don’t mean this as a political statement. Just my view of why these movies are failing to find an audience.
I don’t want to see that film. I’ve read the article in the New Yorker, I’ve seen the piece on CNN, I’ve read about it in the New-York Times, it’s painfull and ugly, Horrible. I Know the war is a mistake, I know some soldiers have done attrocious things, children have been killed, women raped, lives destroyed…
Maybe I’m wrong but I just don’t want to spend some time watching a horrible story that is still unfolding in real life while I’m sitting confortably eating a pop-corn.
I don’t like torture-porn. I don’t like war-porn.
Whatever happened to Pat Dollard?
The huge VF article about his Iraq war film and his “antics,” a little love from Jeff W, and it’s like he fell off the face of the earth.
Anybody know anything?
Malone — one of the most entertaining articles I’ve ever read in my life, and I read pretty much all of them. Not sure how “sympathetic” Dollard would be in a film, ergo, nothing will ever come of it.
Also I’m thinking that “a little love from Jeff W” might not have been such a good thing, all things considered.
Pat Dollard is alive and kicking and turning his footage into a reality show under the banner of Scott Free Films.
I can tell you much more about what he’s up to beyond that.
Does this one use LET THE BODIES HIT THE FLOOR in the trailer?
Because STOP-LOSS does, and that trailer OWNS.
LET THE BODIES HIT THE FLOOR, BITCH!
I’ll again observe that NO ONE on this site is fucking METAL or HARDCORE at ALL, but BODIES by DROWNING POOL is the best song ever.
GET METAL, WEAK BITCHES.
Poland, OBVIOUSLY you wouldn’t lower yourself to answer this question, but do you ever listen to METAL?
People who don’t listen to METAL are usually douchebags.
Distorted E-string power chord thrash 4 Life.
ALL other music is for bitches.
Lex, you and Pat Dollard would get along well.
That was… Weak. B-grade delivery, on the level of The Hills Have Eyes 2. Not terrible enough to be insulting, but not executed well enough to draw you in at all.
this is an exercise in futitlity. too many people enter the debate with set, preconceived notions on both sides of the ledger.
the liberals will claim it’s denial over what really happens in iraq. the conservatives will claim it’s tired of the slated reporting coming out of iraq.
most people go to the movies for entertainment. when it comes to iraq, too many doubt the intentions of the filmmakers (rightly or wrongly) on both sides of the aisle. when there’s a fundamental lack of trust between the audience and the filmmaker, there’s no way these films can be successful financially.
Hendhogan,
Well put.
It will be at least a generation or so before we can really tell good stories about what happened in Iraq. Right now, for better or for worse, the dust has not settled and both sides do not want to even explore the opposing sides. SImilarly, Hollywood is just not moderate enough to be as comlplex and nuanced as these films really need to be.
That is why Stone’s Bush film is also useless. It takes time to get perspective in anything regardless of your politics. That is just a truism. When you are in the thick of it, either side just reeks of propaganda.
Maybe because the movies are so serious. The answer would then be….an Iraq comedy? *shrugs*
Maybe because the movies are so serious. The answer would then be….an Iraq comedy? *shrugs*
maybe we can repurpose the “operation dumbo drop” script!