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
This may be rank speculation on my part, but Paramount and Uni may not be able to put out BLU-RAY disc until July. I think they may have to wait that long as a part of their agreement with Toshiba or some such. If not… maybe they are just waiting for the right FILM cough… STARK… or FRANCHISE… cough… INDY to start their BLU-RAY push? Seem logical, but the TWBB DVD rules. Wow. It’s not loaded with features. Huzzah for PTA reeling back his fucking hubris.
I might be wrong, but I’m pretty sure the PS3 is region free, at least for games…
Amen on PTA and the hubris.
IO, do you watch Battlestar?
Of course I do and Gaius Baltar is JESUS!
And Blu-Ray penetration is what, 3% of the total market? Talk about elitism.
DP, Warner do not use region coding on their Blu-Ray releases anywhere in the world (actually, amongst the major studios, only Fox are rigorously enforcing region coding without exception at this point), so you can buy Sweeney Todd from the UK and it will play just fine on your US PS3. Same for Beowulf or Almost Famous – Untitled, or many others only available in Europe at the moment. The reasons for no Blu releases from Universal yet are due more to practical rather than contractual reasons. Universal are two years behind everybody else in their development of the format, and many of their exisitng encodes are simply not up to scratch (their catalog releases on HDDVD were of notoriously poor quality in many cases). Creating an infrastructure to release their library on Blu-Ray, and remastering their titles to an appropriate quality, simply takes time. Their approach is actually the right one, unlike Warner, which threw out a number of classics on Blu-Ray at launch (Goodfellas, The Fugitive, Unforgiven) without bothering to do a proper clean-up job on them, with the results looking scarcely better than an upconverted DVD. The titles are coming – patience.
I just couldn’t wait for Blu on THERE WILL BE BLOOD. I had to have it. There’s lots of places I can trade it to once the Blu comes out.
This has nothing to do with Blu-Ray or anything remotely hi-def, but I thought that all of you Antonioni fans out there in MCN Land might be interested in knowing that YOU TOO CAN purchase an import DVD copy of “Zabriskie Point” on Amazon.com that’s compatible with any/all U.S. players.
I ordered mine yesterday, and am totally psyched. Haven’t seen “ZP” in years, and it’s always been one of my favorite Antonioni films despite, or maybe because of its ignoble rep.
…was totally bummed, however, to learn that the import “My Blueberry Nights” dvd is only good for the lucky few with all-regions-friendly players. How unfortunate, especially since this is (apparently) the extended cut that played Cannes last year.
I remember buying an import dvd of Wong Kar-wai’s “2046” eight months before it (FINALLY!) opened in the U.S., and that was all-regions-friendly. Not sure why this one isn’t. Perhaps it’s a different Asian distributer?
Most of my “holy grail” purchases in recent years (Ken Russell’s “The Devils,” Welles’ “Chimes at Midnight” and Polanski’s “What?”)
have all been imports courtesy of Amazon. Glad that I can finally add “Zabriskie Point” to the list.
Interesting, Dr Wally.
I have purchased a couple of Blu-rays from Europe that I was told would be region-free and they were not. But I may dip in again with Sweeney or Untitled to find out again.
Okay, this brings up a question. We know that Blu-Ray players are backward-compatible to R1 standard DVDs. But can they play standard DVDs from other regions as well? I’m contemplating finally shelling out for an all-region player, but since I’ll be getting a Blu-Ray eventually, I don’t wanna buy the all-region if I’ll be getting it anyway with the Blu-Ray.
I coulda sworn I saw SWEENEY TODD on the Blu-Ray shelf the other day…
Here’s a fairly comprehensive list of which blu-rays are region coded and which aren’t: http://bluray.liesinc.net/
Around 70% of all blu-ray’s so far released are region free and play anywhere in the world.
Oh, and DP…I wouldn’t bother with Almost Famous. From what I’ve read, it’s a really crappy transfer that is only very incrementally better than the DVD.
Cadavra, these guys here in Sweden: http://dvdirect.net/ are selling these cracked blu-ray players that are both region free for both blu-ray and DVD’s. Fairly expensive though for US based customers with the dollar in such bad shape.
Still, very convenient having a region free blu-ray player that doubles as a region free dvd player.
I would LOVE to see an extras laden TWBB SE. Because what we got ain’t much. I understand if PTA doesn’t do commentaries anymore, but why not a Jack Fisk (his commentary on the Criterion DAYS OF HEAVEN is VERY good stuff) and Bob Elswitt commentary? I’ve also heard ideas for a Sinclair doc and there are now lots of rumors that PTA let a film crew shoot a feature length doc that he now doesn’t want to see the light of day for some reasons. All of these would be welcome extras. I was at Best Buy when I bought my single disc edition and they wanted 9 or 10 bucks more for the 2 disc but the extras (lots of which you can see on YouTube) just don’t make me wanna spend that. Still, the movie is amazing and love having it in my hands, no matter what.
I literally had the “special edition” of TWBB in my hands and was in line to buy it. I flipped it over and looked at the not so special extras and then I put it back and left. I mean, why bother even calling it a special edition and adding a whole DVD to it? Why not just slap it all on the single DVD? Lame.
Bit rate.
…was totally bummed, however, to learn that the import “My Blueberry Nights” dvd is only good for the lucky few with all-regions-friendly players. How unfortunate, especially since this is (apparently) the extended cut that played Cannes last year.
If you’re talking about the Hong Kong/China discs (the only ones that I’m aware of so far), then no, it’s the exact same shorter cut that’s opened theatrically in the U.S. and everywhere else. I doubt you’ll ever see the Cannes version on DVD.
Oh, and the HK disc is actually region-free, even though it’s marked as Region 3.
“was totally bummed, however, to learn that the import “My Blueberry Nights” dvd is only good for the lucky few with all-regions-friendly players.”
Wait, are you serious? “Lucky few”? Are Americans just completely oblivious to the fact that region free codes are available all over the net?
Mostly.
I can tell you from my experience that some of the films that these sites claim are region-free wil not play on my US PS3.
That’s very interesting, Bob V.
But since both sellers on Amazon stress that their “Blueberry Nights” dvds are “Region 3 ONLY,” I’m a little gun shy about shelling out $30+ for a movie that might not play on any of my dvd players.
Wouldn’t they sell more copies if they shared your inside info (i.e., that the disc really is region-free and viewable on all U.S. players?)
Very frustrating, and confusing.
And one of the two Amazon sellers brags that it’s the “uncut, unrated” original version, which is why I assumed it must be the Cannes version.
Did Wong cut “Blueberry” himself before it opened in Asia and Europe last year? I pretty much assumed–considering Harvey Weinstein’s history–that the 90-minute American release print was a Weinstein-mandated, U.S.-only thing. Of course, Wong made some changes to “2046” between its rushed 2004 Cannes premiere and the eventual theatrical release.
Wouldn’t they sell more copies if they shared your inside info (i.e., that the disc really is region-free and viewable on all U.S. players?)
First, there’s absolutely no reason to shell out $30 for any Hong Kong DVD when e-tailers like YesAsia, HKFlix and DDDHouse have them at significantly lower prices. And chances are the Amazon sellers in question have never even watched the film, much less checked for region coding. The packaging states Region 3 so they’re (not unreasonably) going off that. But my copy is definitely Region 0.
And yes, Wong recut it before its commercial release — I’m not aware of a single territory where it played in the 111-minute festival version. I saw it theatrically in China and it clocked in at around an hour and a half, same as the HK DVD. Given his habit of working right up to the deadline, the Cannes versions of Wong’s films are inevitably works-in-progress (Happy Together, In the Mood for Love and 2046 were all recut after their premieres).
DP…that’s just plain weird. I have a Region A PS3 (which I bought in Japan last year) and a great many blu-ray titles I bought here in Europe after checking on their region free status. And…they all work perfectly as advertised.
Maybe something wrong with your PS3?
Guys, seriously, there are region free codes ALL OVER the internet. Only one or two brands don’t have any.
Unless we’re talking blu-ray players. That I can’t help with.
HKFlix lists the U.S. dvd release of “Blueberry Nights” as July 1st.
I guess I’ll just wait to buy my copy then and avoid any potential headaches with region compatibility, etc.
Guys, seriously, there are region free codes ALL OVER the internet. Only one or two brands don’t have any.
Luckily it’s a non-issue around here, where it’s literally impossible to find a DVD player with region coding. Come to think of it, I think North America may well be the only place where you can’t just go down to Wal-Mart or whatever and find a player that’s region-free right out of the box.
Lots of players (especially lower-end models) don’t do correct PAL-to-NTSC conversion, though, so that’s something to watch out for.