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
BOOGIE NIGHTS = LEX’S 2ND FAVORITE MOVIE OF ALL TIME. (After THE SHINING.)
R.I.P. LINE.
i remember attending the ny junket for ‘married to it’ back in the very early ’90s amidst rumors that orion was about to fold (and they did less than a week later)…..last weeks junket for ‘harold & kumar 2’ had much the same vibe…. very sad, this…(and kind of a shame they had to go out on ‘h&k2’)……
ORION 4 LIFE.
I miss their gloomy gray sheen with the eggnog flesh tones. To this day, you can retroactively tell an ORION MOVIE by their STUDIO SHEEN.
CADILLAC MAN, ORION.
LOST ANGELS, ORION.
COLORS, ORION.
BULL DURHAM, ORION.
MARRIED TO THE MOB, totally fucking ORION.
YEP YEP BLUE SKY AND THE FAVOR ORION SWAN SONG KNOW IT.
Too bad, and looking at DP’s ‘death list’ up there it’s really a lot more depressing, to me at least, than I think he’s giving it credit for. I know David is usually all ‘whatever’ (sorry, I mean ‘what else is there to say’) about companies folding and businesses not working out and people losing their jobs while the powers that be retire in comfort, but…yeah.
If Warner Bros doesn’t see potential in the Sex and the City movie, they need to give up the movie game… seriously… I strongly believe that movie will be this year’s “Devil Wears Prada”/”Hairspray”
You know, J-Mc… f*** off on that.
I actually deal with all of these people who are losing their jobs and dealing with their futures week after week, year after year. I have made a concious decision NOT to be in the business of reporting who is about to die because it has been too damned ugly. You stand on death watch at Paramount for years and then you tell me how blase’ you are.
And the list, pal, is a lot longer than the one I offered, but many of them are still walking dead and me running their company on that list would do nothing but cause aggravation inside of their offices… for no reason other than for me to be clever and show how much I know. If it doesn’t move the story forward, I’m not running that kind of stuff… I don’t need to have “toldja” anything.
Why this situation is “what else is there to say” in this case because I already reported all of this and this is just the other foot dropping. You want to know who is leaving what week and who is getting what job at WB? Believe me, you won’t give two shits about those individuals next week and again, writing about it publicly makes the transition harder.
Finally, the “comfortable” here are not only the two retirees… because there are only two. And only one of them is likely to take a seriously retired position in future.
You have something to say about everything, J-Mc. But you really need to consider whether you know what you are tlaking about – as opposed to simply having an opposing view – before you start throwing around your ideas of what others think.
I appreciate that you try to add to this blog, but you badly overreach way too often.
I’m sorry, DP, but you misunderstand me. And that’s partially my fault for not being clearer, and it’s partially not.
All I am saying, J-Mc, is be more careful when you decide to state what you believe to be what others believe as fact.
You do it often and sometimes, it is simply offensive.
Talk about what YOU think, not what you think I (or others) think.
And before you start yapping about me doing the same, remember that the mechanics behind what I write are not driven primarily by my opinion, but by a lot of reporting, the strings of which I consider it my job not to show you.
I think I should elaborate: I sympathize if you’re actually dealing with these people and issues 24/7, and making conscious decisions to not write about stories like a vulture, (I really don’t care about the ‘person x is about to be fired stories’ those are indeed the definition of ghoulish).
But the result of that (apparently, to me) becomes this weird disconnect where the only things you actually _do_ write about them are pieces like the above, where, again to my eyes, you sound incredibly blase and indifferent. Maybe that’s just how you come off on the blog and there are other pieces elsewhere that I’m not reading, maybe that’s the omnipresent failure of online talk to express tone, maybe I’m overly sensitive because I actually have a good friend at New Line, but that’s my perception. Apologies if it’s an incomplete one… but again I don’t think I can be blamed for not being able to read your mind.
Only for thinking you can.
If you say so. I’m just going by the words on the page. The ones that say “tears already shed”.
So David, does this explain what the crappy one sheet (based on an ad in the current issue of The Advocate)for “Sex In the City?” Just highlights SJP and not at her best either.
At least the other girls get above-the-title billing.