April 20, 2024
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Review: Little Women (no spoilers)
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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
I thought that NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN is also very profitable for Paramount Vantage…. isn’t it?
Bart’s “The Myths of Comic-Con” was akin to reading an essay on somebody’s first experience with a microwave oven written in 2003.
That’s good stuff, SJR. Good stuff.
“No Country for Old Men” was split between Par and Miramax. So was “There Will Be Blood”.
NCFOM was wisely marketed by Miramax, deliberately and pointedly so, courtesy both the Coens and Scott Rudin, all of whom were very aware of Vantage’s inabilities (and yes, Poland, I know that Coligan’s husband is Rudin’s head of production – doesn’t change the fact neither Rudin nor the Coens know Vantage ain’t worth it shit when it comes to peddling product; Rudin’s got DOUBT set-up nicely at Miramax and they’ll poise it to sweep the Oscars yet again).
It is still crazy to me that TWBB lost money … it was one of the few movies Vantage didn’t go to great things to screen 100,000 times, thereby effectively reducing their ticket buying audience exponentially.
And speaking of that, looks like AMERICAN TEEN will be ARCTIC TALE all over again – an overextended, overexposed campaign of hundreds of screenings that’ll be lucky to amount to $5 million when it’s all said and done. I’m surprised Vantage hasn’t been blown away entirely.
I’ve been reading too many IOIOIOIOIO posts … forgot how to properly utilize English. Corrections below.
“I know that Coligan’s husband is Rudin’s head of production – doesn’t change the fact both Rudin and the Coens know Vantage ain’t worth it shit when it comes to peddling product …”
“It is still crazy to me that TWBB lost money … it was one of the few movies Vantage didn’t go to great lengths to screen 100,000 times, thereby effectively reducing their ticket buying audience exponentially.”
The problem with Vantage last year was five movies… without No Country. But the biggest thing was that Lesher didn’t like No Country.
There is no question. Rudin is more comfortable at Miramax. New York based. Hand in hand with 42 West.
But Vantage actually pulled every f-ing dime there was to pull out of most of the movies they didn’t dump. Do you really think there was more money in Blood, Babel, Into The Wild or even The Kite Runner or A Mighty Heart? I don’t. No one has ever gotten more out of less doc than they got out of An Inconvenient Truth.
And the issues around TWBB and how they handled the film were mostly not Vantage issues… ’nuff said.
Except to say, getting TWBB to a nomination is not an indication that “Vantage ain’t worth it shit when it comes to peddling product.” That was nothing close to a lock as a nomination. And they got there.
I have to admit, I was pleasantly shocked by how well and quickly Megan adapted to marketing. She is equally underqualified to have moved up at Paramount… but much less so than Lesher himself. And we’ll see how it all plays out. She and Guy are very smart and they know how to manage up.