April 20, 2024
BYOB
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BYOB: 235 Years Of Relative independence
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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
No more New Line … holy shit. Surprising, and yet, not.
R.I.P. buddy miles and new line cinema. Though, to be fair, NLC has probably been living on borrowed time ever since they sold out to Ted. Still, the company had an amazing run, which was a remarkable achievement and one without peer. They appeared to have been stuck in a rut recently, but it’s still going to be a little sad to watch them be molded into WB’s Screen Gems.
Goodbye, New Line. Stay strong, Dave!
Armin: Screen Gems is a Sony Pictures Entertainment beast, not WB, but you’re still absolutely 100% right. Screen Gems is a putrid, charmless charnel house that pumps out exploitative, derivative shit that manages to float like shit in the Ganges on an $8 million dollar opening weekend and subsequent drop of 70-85%.
Nice name, by the by.
That’s crazy. One less buyer.
RS, what I meant was that WB is likely going to make them into their version of Sony’s Screen Gems.
Ah, my apologies for the unnecessary correction.
And I don’t know about anyone else, but surely “The Last Mimzy” was the tipping point … right?
People in New Line were calling THE GOLDEN COMPASS ‘The Iceberg.’
That would be a fairly accurate statement.
Of course, Number 23, Shoot Em Up, Rendition and The Martian Child didn’t really help.
Screen Gems doesn’t deserve that level of bile, their worst crime is mediocrity.
so, where does this leave peter jackson in the hunt for his money?
Aww, “The House that Freddy Build” has been torn down. That’s actually sad. Although look at the success Miramax has had post-Weinsteins, so maybe there’s still hope New Line-post Shaye and Lynn.
BTW, how fucked up is that “New Line 40th Anniversary” collection? “Pink Flamingos, A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Player, The Mask, Seven, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, Boogie Nights, Wag the Dog, The Wedding Singer, Rush Hour, Blow, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Elf, The Notebook, and Wedding Crashers.” God they had some great movies in there, but where is TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES???
On another well-worn topic, I saw HD DVDs yesterday in a very popular store being sold for less than $10. Yikes.
Shaye and Lynne on Charlie Rose.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1469795405827875263&q=charlie+rose+bob+shaye&total=1&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0
No kidding Kamikaze! I never saw TMNT in theaters when I was younger. When I turned 19 (in 2000…so long ago), I was working at a movie theater, so I was able to get free rental on an auditorium and I brought in TMNT (all I had to pay for was the print itself). It was pretty rad. I invited about 50 or so people, and many more showed up. It was one of the most memorable birthdays I’ve ever had. Most people in BC celebrate getting smashed for their 19th. I had Turtles.
I know what you mean man. I grew up in BC, but I turned 19 in Ontario and a hobo ended up giving me a T-Shirt on my birthday. I would have much preferred a cult night at a U of T theatre which played Labyrinth, The Thing, and The Warriors, which happened last week, all with 35 mm prints. It was amazing.
“I know what you mean man. I grew up in BC, but I turned 19 in Ontario and a hobo ended up giving me a T-Shirt on my birthday.”
Was it pink and said ‘I Love My Boyfriend’? I see those a lot. Not so much on hobos.
I guess Semi-Pro is going to open to less than $20m.
Has anyone read EW’s solutions to the apparent OSCARS problems? If so; these motherfuckers once again have more nerve then any similar mag ever should.
1) “Nominate more hits.” Yeah; this one is freakin easy. Let us get an ACADEMY — that has a problem with accepting the popular films that audience and critics seemingly AGREE DO NOT SUCK — to nominate these films. Sure. This is going to happen.
The Academy could nominate THE DARK KNIGHT next year for best picture, and everyone would know it would not win. The Academy has nominated big films before for best picture. How many times have they won? Once. So this solution is pure and utter bollocks.
2) “Tell Hollywood to make more hits worth nominating.” Yeah. Sure. EW apparently cannot follow their first solution through to it’s conclusion, and figure out THIS WILL NOT WORK. The Academy — and critics for the most part — have turned on the people. They dislike the Summer season so much, that people like Heat will have their bags packed for Toronto some time in June. While everyone else enjoys (including most of you folks) has no idea why Heat has his bags packed.
Until the Academy and the PEOPLE WHO ARE NOT CRITICS bridge the gap between their taste. The Academy are going to continually shun the movies that most of America believe should be nominated or even love. This is a serious problem, that will have to be fixed at some point in order to keep this show “special.”
Finally 3) “Pick up the Pace.” Oh for the love of god. Let’s have an Academy Awards like the GRAMMYS. Where the Award show is going on for like three hours before we get to see it. Yeah. This makes a lot of sense.
I just hope the ACADEMY does not listen to these knuckleheads at EW — or anyone else who believes this bullshit — and realize that you can make a 3h 30 telecast fun. If you have the right people writing and producing the fucking show. The show can be entertaining and fast-paced again. Yet EW completely freakin ignores this and I left wondering why I pay good money on this magazine.
“The Academy has nominated big films before for best picture. How many times have they won? Once.”
Which winner are you thinking of, Return of the King or Titanic or Gone With the Wind or Ben-Hur or The Godfather or one of about a dozen others?
There’s a place for the big summer movies to get rewarded, it’s called the Peoples’ Choice Awards.
Well, I could see Heath Ledger getting a Best Supporting Nom for Dark Knight. You never know, Johnny Depp got one for Pirates, and he’s still alive.
Jeff; get your mind into the modern era. STAR WARS and ET — two films that are pretty much seen by a lot of people as “life changers” — lost. Titanic still represents a FLUKE. While Return of the King remains the ONE GIGANTIC MOVIE (not revolving around teenage girls coming of age by seeing Leo’s face) that won the Oscar in recent years.
Yet you pretty much state why the Oscars are going to continue lose more and more audience in coming years. Since people like you believe the PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARDS is where the movies THE PEOPLE LOVE should get awarded. Uh no. The movies people love are a lot more than Summer blockbusters, jeff. How little you know about people.
The Academy should be trying it’s best to throw one bone at a movie-going public, that they continually shit on with award season each year. The award season being the time of year, where everyone who did not love some critically acclaimed and heavily nominated, is indirectly told that they have shitty taste because they have not seen a movie that has not opened wide in their area (Yeah… limited releasing… really gets the people into AWARD PICTURES. Sure it does. Let’s just ignore the fact that you could get people a lot more hyped for an OSCAR WORTHY MOVIE. If these mostly DEPENDENT studios got these flicks into theatres in a more reasonable pattern. Bladiblah with your marketing bullshit. If these movies get out to people earlier than usual. Maybe people will have more of a reason to watch the show. Unlike this year; when a whole new generation bought into a movie. Only to watch that movie lose to another movie that has a shelf life of maybe three years at best).
The Grammys may be the worst award show on the air, but their ACADEMY realized you have to throw bones to people in order to get them to sit through your awards show. While it’s not helping the Grammys anymore because of the current state of the record industry. The Academy seemingly refuses to realize that they have an audience they shit on each year with their nominations, and act as if the audience should just deal with it. When the audience is continually baffled at some of the bullshit this academy pulls out of it’s ass.
The Academy is going to have to change this show at some point. It’s not like the Academy have to name IRON-MAN as a best picture nominee. They simply have to figure out a way to get the MOVIE-GOING PUBLIC interested in investing 3h 30m of their time each year during the last Sunday in February. A feat they have lost the ability to do more then once in this past decade.
“The Academy could nominate THE DARK KNIGHT next year for best picture, and everyone would know it would not win.”
Yes, because it would not be one of the seventy best films released this year, let alone the top five. Learn to tell the difference between ‘What I like’ and ‘What is best.’
IOI, when I look at the list of the highest-grossing movies of 2007, I honestly don’t believe that Pirates 3, Shreak 3, Transformers, Spider-Man 3, National Treasure 2, Alvin and the Chipmunks, or Wild Hogs are particularly worthy of Best Picture consideration.
The Bourne Ultimatum, Ratatouille, and even Knocked Up and Juno are. So unless you want to argue this point, you need to learn to separate out your tastes from what is truly going to stand the test of time. When I was 19 I thought Independence Day was the second-best movie of 1996, but I also was smart enough to know that it wasn’t worthy of a Best Picture nomination. Try and gain some perspective.
If people don’t want to go see the movies that the Academy nominated – a very strong crop this year – then it’s their loss. I’m glad the Academy nominate the movies they do most of the time. Ironically, Return of the King is the only of the LoTR films that I wouldn’t place in the top five of its year.
Devin, are you saying that a movie like The Dark Knight could never hope to reach the level of quality that a movie like No Country for Old Men does? It’s attitudes like that get me angrier than silly “nominate more hits”. Just because it’s made for mass consumption, a big opening weekend and features lots of CGI doesn’t mean it’s any less worthy of awards than anything Paul Thomas Anderson cranks out.
If it’s good enough to be one of your most liked movies of the year maybe there’s a reason for that. Maybe it’s because it’s well made, well acted, etc, which seems like all the prerequisites for a best picture contender.
Devin: you are a sorry ass motherfucker who works for a GEEK SITE, but no longer gets what being a GEEK IS ABOUT. There is truly no better dicotomy on the net then this affliction of yours, and how you have to deal with it to make a living. I am sure every geek loves reading about your love of ONCE, and how it touches your soul up to this very moment. Tear. Go write about something your audience cares about… you mook.
Jeff; go read what I wrote. It has nothing to do with my taste. It has nothing at all to do with my taste. If you and Devin believe it does, then you two have truly never understood the word “SUPPOSTION.”
It has nothing to do with what I LIKE or what is BEST. Again… I have seen all five nominated films and I like them all to varying to degrees. There’s not one piece of shit in that entire lot. My opinion does not change the fact that there are people out there who strongly believe that four out of the five — or five out of the five — of those movies suck ass. The studios do such a poor fucking job of selling these films to most of the US — excluding those of us who give a shit about grand cinema — that one the rare occassion they DO FREAKIN “GET OVER” an ACADEMY NOMINATED FILM. The Academy goes all contrarian, and awards another film with the Oscar. So the Academy has to work this shit out for itself. While Devin and Jeff — you two motherfuckers have to come to the understanding that this is a discussion. There are SUPPOSITIONS in discussions, and neither one of you picked up on the fact that this is not about me. Especially Jeff: who was ignorant enough to think ID4 was best picture worthy back in 1996. Jeff; I never once believed that movie to be worthy of an Oscar even with all the hoopla attached to it. Unlike you… I have always had perspective in this area. Ding-dong. Ding-dong.
Let me also throw in there, that we live in a freakin ON-DEMAND world. The ACADEMY should use to this to their advantage by putting the BEST DOCS (both categories) and BEST ANIMATED SHORT on HBO ON DEMAND or on the ACADEMY WEBSITE. They should try to get people interested in these categories.
Why the ACADEMY and the STUDIOS do not seem interested in selling this product, continues to be a myster to me. They really are continually doing a shittier and shittier job of pushing this show to the level it should be. Much like most old men in this new media age. The old men in charge of the Academy are letting the SPECIALNESS of that NIGHT slip through their fingers with bad decision after bad decision.
They are still going to nominate the same type of film each year. While KC is right with his assessment. The Academy has the same pompus lean as Devin.
So the Academy has to figure out how to be pompus, but make it interesting to the people who generally dislike their pomposity. This is a gap they have yet to bridge, and they would seem they are in no rush to bridge it. Once they figure out. If they figure out. They could get people to continue to watch this show in relatively good numbers. If they do not figure it out. The 2025 Oscars will make for a great reality show.
Let’s talk about something we can *all* watch because it’s NEW on Instant Browsing at Netflix. How great is that? And this? — people in America don’t see live births, but I saw 3 and I’m only three quarters through “The Business of Being Born.” It’s like my spare computer was born for this.
Instead of condemning the Academy for nominating quality movies, why not get on the public’s asses for ignoring them in favor of the utter crap that festers at the top of the BO chart?
Exactly, the issue shouldn’t be ‘the Academy is nominating the wrong movies that the public isn’t seeing’, it should be ‘the public isn’t seeing the good movies that the Academy is nominating’. There’s no reason why a tight thriller like No Country shouldn’t have been able to gross over $100m (except for how it ends).
Did I ever state that the Academy is nominating the wrong movies? Uh no. I am simply stating that the studios are not PUSHING these movies to the TOP OF THE CARD as they should.
If the studios were generally pushing these movies. NCFOM would have hit everywhere in the US at the same time. So there’s your reason, Jeff. The studios — in this day and age of on-demand and everything up to the second — have decided to push their Oscar films in a rather antiquainted way.
I wish there was a grandeur to marketing like there used to be. These movies aren’t marketed like events that audiences must see on the big screen. I wasn’t as keen on There Will Be Blood as many others, but that movie demands to be seen on the big screen.
The fact that NCFOM has made near 60 million or whateva is a very good hopeful sign. It’s catching up to THE BUCKET LIST.
And really, please Blame Americans. How many millons of fools watch MOMENT OF TRUTH?
I watch Moment of Truth.
…must…resist….obvious…comeback…