April 23, 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
Antici… (Say it!) …pation.
Has anyone else seen Elegy? Amazing acting across the board, but Patricia Clarkson really should be in the Best Supporting Actress hunt.
“Hamlet 2: The First One Was Better”
Seeing this MCN link/headline is entirely in keeping to how cold the trailer left me. Maybe it’s Coogan who cannot seem to be able to play lovable losers, only irritating, pathetic ones (outside of HAPPY ENDINGS).
Funny, Rob… was having that whispered in my ear just yesterday… hmmmm…
I love Clarkson.
Who knows?
Just starting getting Netflix after the cock-up last week. And either Miss Pettigrew lives for a day plays better on the small screen than it did on the large or repeat viewing benefits it but the pacing didn’t seem as off and the acting not as muggy as it seemed in the theater.
Street Kings seemed like a real missed opportunity to tell a story about a guy trying to do right in a corrupt system but Keanu is just to slight for the role. Brolin would have added a lot more gravity to the film. I would love to see what Ellroy’s original script looked like because while it was still a decent film it feels nuetered next to his novels.
Roybatty, you should love his “part” in Tropic Thunder.
Sad that it looks like Paul W.S. Anderson couldn’t even churn out a fun retelling of Death Race 2000…even sadder that Fred Durst from Limpbizkit currently has a better rated movie coming out this week. Still, Death Race will at least make money…
How about that eye-popping number 10 debut ($577,000) for “The Rocker” yesterday? Ouch.
Each year, people complain that there aren’t enough good performances to fill out the five Best Actress slots, but then when the five nominations come out, people moan and groan that so-and-so should have been nominated.
I don’t see a paucity this year. Look at this line-up.
Streep for Doubt.
Winslet for Revolutionary Road. (or The Reader)
Melissa Leo for Frozen River.
Kidman for Australia.
Hawkins for Happy-Go-Lucky.
Jolie for Changeling.
Hathaway for Rachel Getting Married.
Knightley for The Duchess.
Blunt for Young Victoria. (release date?)
Spacek for Lake City.
Moore for Blindness.
K.S. Thomas for I’ve Loved You So Long.
Barrymore for Grey Gardens. (release date?)
Deneuve for A Christmas Tale.
Someone from Synecdoche, NY?
The Coffee and Cigarettes segment with Steve Coogan and Alfred Molina is so terrific, I have screened it for scriptwriting students to show them a good example of how subtly they can convey character, conflict and dramatic reversal in a 15-or-so-minute short. And Coogan’s final expression of frustration/mortification is pricelessly funny.
I caught Miss Pettigrew on the plane and enjoyed it waaaay more than I was expecting to. “A Fun Romp” as Peter Travers probably said…
Loved Frozen River, despite it being depressing as hell. The talk around Leo is legit, she gives a FEROCIOUS performance, but I don’t think this film’s going to get the campaign it deserves.
It stalled in it’s 2nd weekend, despite a doubling of it’s theatre count and might not break $1 million, lagging behind pics like Half Nelson and even Junebug which seem to be the lowest standard BO for nominating. Shame on Sony…
Frozen River is only in its third week and hasn’t been in over 15 theaters yet. SPC does extreeeemly slow roll outs so there is still a good chance of it topping a million (its per screen is still pretty decent). Leo will get a lot of year end critic love, the ones that still have jobs, as the performance they are going to want to champion to make sure she is not overlooked.
Given the neuralgic reaction of whoever wrote the blurb on MCN describing David Cox’s article as a “Stupid Amateur Screed,” I would have to say it hit someone a little too close to home.
Interesting to see Quantum of Solace pushed back a week. Will Twilight jump back out of the Potter slot it so hastily claimed?
New Quantum date puts it directly opposite Australia. Hmmmmmm.
About Miss Pettigrew, as I was watching the dvd, I didn’t understand why nothing was made of the girl sent by the agency for the job. I kept waiting for her to show up so that Miss Pettigrew would have to deal with her. It didn’t happen. But then in the deleted scenes, the whole thing was explained, and it was funny. That scene should have been left in the movie.
OK now I’m going to talk about this weekend’s box office.
Over at HE, multiple people have opined that HOUSE BUNNY is gonna take this weekend because the ad campaign’s been relentless and teen girls are sold on it and will come out in droves.
This is INSANE, right? Granted, it has that Legally Blonde vibe and a not-too-threatening (to young girls) leading lady, but… isn’t the Bunny/Playmate angle inherently going to hurt its appeal to many women, young and old? Even if it’s completely innocuous and affectionately handled, doesn’t seem like the kind of thing that’ll play… and yet the jiggle factor is almost never helpful in getting guys into the theater.
I just can’t see how it’ll beat Death Race (or a second go-’round of something else.)
“Elegy”: Oscar-Whoring across the board. Deservedly staying in the arthouse ghetto.
“Hamlet 2”: When you name-check “South Park” you’re gonna get compared to same.
“Frozen River”: Also staying in the arthouse ghetto thanks to “Bottle Shock” and Vicky Cristina.
Speaking of “Shock”, it comes to Northern New Jersey tomorrow but will be gone from Manhattan. Doesn’t the distrib not know how to handle such a flick?
“When you name-check “South Park” you’re gonna get compared to same.”
I think that’s their intention…
Chucky, have you seen any of these movies or are you, once again, jumping to a preordained judgment about their quality based on something arbitrary and meaningless?
Well it looks like Roger Ebert has finally found a movie this summer he doesn’t like. One half star for Death Race, ouch. I haven’t seen it yet, but this should have been a lay up. Paul W.S. Anderson is technically proficient but he just can’t tell a story. I have revisited a few of his movies recently, Resident Evil, Soldier, Event Horizon and Alien VS Predator (It’s been a rough summer). They all have a nice polish to them but they are instantly forgettable.
At what point does Anderson get put on probation like Jan De Bont, Renny Harlin, or Rob Cohen? The guy makes Len Wiseman look like Coppolla
I haven’t seen DEATH RACE yet either but I can GUARANTEE you I’m going to give it FIVE STARS because it looks like TOTAL OWNAGE.
STATHAM = GOD.
FUCK YEAH.
Remakes? I have one for you: “Child’s Play”.
BTW, jeffmcm, I check theater bookings every week. If you know that certain films are gonna play only in certain theaters you can assume they won’t go far.
Chucky, I’m telling you that the quality of a movie does not have a direct relationship with which New Jersey multiplex it plays in. I guarantee that Frozen River is a better movie than Death Race, but I also guarantee that Death Race will be showing on more screens.
Death Race looks stupid and not the good kind of stupid either. That trailer shows the same action shots over and over, which must mean that the repetitive action gets dull real quick. I’ll watch MOVING VIOLATIONS instead. A CHILDS PLAY remake? The cycles are speeding up. Soon they’ll be doing a part 3 of a series and part 1 will be remade before part iV hits the decks.
When HOSTEL or SAW is remade I think four dudes on horses will appear and believe me – fucking little Joe or Hoss won’t be on two of em.
Anyone else want to join me in predicting that THE SPIRIT will be Santa’s shit-wrapped gift to fans this Christmas? Apart from looking like Sin City offcuts, the film fails to appeal to any of the marketing quadrants.
I’m sure some doofus will say it OWNAGES.
JBD, if you’re referring to me, you should CHECK YOUR FACTS. I have gone on record as saying that shit looks like it should be called “SIN STATE” and that even though JOHANSSON AND MENDES ARE ON-HAND, the fucking LEADING MAN is GABRIEL MACHT.
Gabriel… fucking… Macht. In a ZORRO COSTUME, to boot.
In honor of Chucky’s Aspergian obsessions with Jersey bookings and name-checking, I am going to introduce my idiotic, arbitrary BUT COMPLETELY INFALLIBLE theory on aspect ratios:
75% of movies shot in 2.35:1 are awesome.
75% of movies shot in 1.85:1 are weak and lame.
Biography of an Unknown: The LexG Story. Shot in 1.85:1!
And how could one remake DEATH RACE and leave out the one plot point that provides its title?
Not to mention the cars in the uber-chapo DEATH RACE 2000 were visually bad-ass and these cars look like refugees from an Italian 80’s ROAD WARRIOR rip off.
I agree with you Doctor. The Spirit looks awful, the posters for it are really strange too. They are playing up the sexual angle. I don’t get it and I can’t imagine it’s doing anything for the general comic movie demographic. Christmas is looking to be a real dog show between The Spirit and the troubled Punisher reboot.
About 11 people remember DEATH RACE 2000; It’s a cool title and obviously that’s all they took from the original. Why is that such sacrilege?
There are really AICN-types who are actually gonna sit there with a fucking pie chart of moments from the Corman movie and get all dejected when a STATHAM OWNFEST deviates from its NON-source?
After a couple months of being a relatively stable, film-enthused presence here, I am glad to see Big Perm back in the role he does best: serving as my hype man. Keep dropping my name in every post, man.
Lex, you do understand that all the ‘free publicity’ you think you’re getting serves no purpose in the ‘real world’, right? I mean, that big spotlight moment when you made it to Defamer didn’t have a lot of agents knocking on your door, right?
The fact is that DEATH RACE 2000 is clearly a black satire, Corman level sure, but made with a lot of subversive wit. I recall the writer/director Paul Bartel got an Oscar nom for EATING RAOUL…
Just wondering: Will they press screen The Spirit? Or will this be the third Christmas Day in a row — after 2006 (Black Christmas and 2007 (Alien vs. Predator: Requiem) — that I’m ho-ho-hoing at the megaplex for Variety?
There might have been some hopeful talk of Oscar recognition for Eating Raoul, but it didn’t happen.
Liked Miss Pettigrew quite a bit, will probably check it out again on DVD.
For some reason, I was surprised by the announcement of a Poltergeist remake. Not sure why.
Wanted to see Elegy, but it has left the Arclight in record time. Don’t see why Oscar-whoring causes it to “deserve” such a fate, per Chucky, even if there actually were some cause and effect relationship there. Are there really people who say, “Oscar nominees? Count me out.”
Weird. Now Elegy is back at Arclight. Probably never left — just a glitch on their website the other night maybe. We were checking times for it and it was nowhere to be found.
yancykancy, ‘the announcement of a poltergeist remake’… please let that be a joke
The Poltergeist remake idea has been around for a while. Just like that horrifying Rosemary’s Baby remake idea. It’s a shame the hilarious Seed of Chucky didn’t succeed because I’d rather another Child’s Play movie in that vein rather than a remake of the original. I still say Jennifer Tilly deserved at least a Golden Globe comedy/musical nod for that movie. She was such a champ.
The only thing that confuses me about Death Race is that it has Joan Allen in it. JOAN ALLEN! One of the best actors arounds, a three-time Oscar-nominee (should be four time with that Pleasantville snub). It makes no sense.
In regards to House Bunny I so so so want this to be a hit and I think it could have a sneak attack at the box office ala Legally Blonde. I just feel so bad for Anna Faris. I reckon the movie looks hilarious though so I’ll be there whenever it opens.
CSI: Las Vegas – I use to watch the show, but then stopped when Sara Sidle left. I just read yesterday that William Petersen (Grissom) is leaving the show!! He’s being replaced with Laurence Fishburne! Anyone know why?
they wouldn’t dare remake ‘poltergeist’…would they? have ‘they’ completely taken leave of their senses?!
was joan allen oscar nom’d for ‘the upside of anger’? i really hope so, she was brilliant in that, i worship at her alter. and costner was terrific, too, i hope he got some acclaim for being the lovable pisshead port in the storm that he was.
ployp, it sounds like csi is going down the gurgler. maybe peterson is leaving to resume his movie career, hopefully not with a ‘to live and die in LA’ remake as directed by brett ratner!:-O
Oh man, how could I forget Allen in Upside of Anger. Her best perf yet! It’s the tonsillitis, I swear.
Ployp, Petersen has been saying for a couple of years now that he would leave the show once his contract expires because he disagrees with the way CBS diluted the original by creating so many spinoffs. It’s true, but it’s not like the original is any good anymore either. I watched it for about two and a bit seasons, but I couldn’t stand watching Marg Helgenberg’s face appear younger in each passing episode, or the increasing development of the show into a character drama instead of a forensic crime show.
Having said that, Malina Kanakaridis’ hair in CSI New York is the most ridiculous thing on TV. She doesn’t even tie it back at crime scenes!
Poltergeist seems to be the strangest remake yet, because so far at least a lot of the remakes have broght more production values or effects work, making it seem different than the original. But can you get more production value into Poltergeist? Does it seem outdated at all?
Poltergeist remake doesn’t suprise me, the rights are owned by MGM which is going to desperatly remake every property that might make a buck(Clash of the Titans, RoboCop, Red Dawn, Sonja).
and Hollywood insists on remaking every horror movie from the seventies and eighties but neglects the one that I would actually pay money to see. Bring on FRIGHT NIGHT.
Not that it has anything to do with production values or that it isn’t easily fixed by having the cable go out, but one thing that dates Poltergeist is that the television blurs out when the station signs off for the night. Even in the 90’s I can recall coming home after a party and catching the last half hour of Scarface or High Plains Drifter on the Late Show and then National Anthem-‘this concludes our broadcast day’. Now it is just infomercials all night long. Cable has its nice points but there are times when I miss UHF.
Joe, I’d almost bet money that they won’t show The Spirit. They can’t even get a non-shitty shot to put in the trailer, it’s pretty amazing.
Watch them use O’Rourke’s and Dunne’s death as some lame publicity mention, when the remake starts.
Also, anyone who remakes anything, henceforth, should be banned from Hollywood.
Also, does anyone listen to In The Studio, with Redbeard? Why does LOS ANGELES, one of the biggest markets in the US, not carry this radio show? Oh yeah, because we suck the corporate giants’ balls.
Thanks god it’s friday, because it’s off to a bad start.
I didn’t see the Upside of Anger but I thought Joan Allen was robbed of the Oscar for The Ice Storm.
Alright, so I have the first of my fantasy football drafts this w/e. I’m only doing two leagues this year. Anyone doing 3 or more? Is there such a thing as a sleeper pick anymore? There’s such a thirst for content that anyone who walks past the equipment mgr gets written up on Yahoo’s big board.
Fantasy Football?
Get the fuck outta here!
My 2cents: Nowhere else to place this post but looking at all the box office predictions, everyone has The Longshots as a long shot to rake in some coin. I personally think that the African American market has been underserved for the entire summer season, and Ice Cube has been a relatively consistent performer with his low budget offerings.
This feel good flick might just tap in to the family/black market and do some decent numbers. I just keep getting the sense that the prognosticators are lowballing this one the way they lowballed some of Tyler Perry’s flicks. I think this may come above The Rocker and House Bunny.
“Longshots” and “Death Race” are both being HUGELY understimated; I’m seeing 13-15 mil predictions for DR? Seriously? More like 30, what with the typical Universal push (“Wanted,” anyone?) and the strong male/male teen push… it’ll be huge in urban markets.
Not saying “Longshots” is gonna be particularly big, but “The Rocker” came in TENTH on its opening day Wednesday, so Cube should handily trump that.
Considering Statham movies generally open to, what? $12mil? I think $20mil seems quite generous. But if $30mil opening weekend means Joan Allen gets more work then so be it.
Correction to an earlier post: “Bottle Shock” is down to 1 theater in Manhattan.
As for Oscar-Whoring? Just look for the phrase that pays whenever you see a poster, trailer, newspaper advert or TV commercial. “Elegy” goes Oscar-Whoring all over the poster.
Lex I guess this proves why you’re not a box office prognosticator. Weak openings for Death Race and The Longshots.
“The only thing that confuses me about Death Race is that it has Joan Allen in it. JOAN ALLEN! One of the best actors arounds, a three-time Oscar-nominee (should be four time with that Pleasantville snub). It makes no sense.”
Maggie Smith put it best: “Once a year, I wear a pointy hat for a week and put another grandchild through college. The other 51 weeks are mine to do what I bloody well please.”
Seriously, if you’re an actor why not make some easy cash every now and then?
I would have been really surprised if Death Race opened big. Wanted had some stars and at least had cool looking visuals. Death Race never looked like anything but low-grade garbage.
“”Elegy” goes Oscar-Whoring all over the poster.”
And I’ve asked this over and over again, but:
What does the quality of the movie have to do with how the marketing department, long after the movie has been finished, decides to sell it?
“Fantasy Football?
Get the fuck outta here!”
Seconded! With mustard and relish!!!
frankbooth – and any ‘blue velvet’ fanciers out there – i know this is ‘so last week’ but a friend who’s a lynch fan extraordinaire passed this link on to me (i never would have found it on my own what with me being a bit of an interweb dumbass), i hadn’t seen these stills from scenes that didn’t make it into the movie before, and from the intro text it sounds like they haven’t been ‘dvd extra’ fodder, so they might be of interest
http://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s87velvet2.html
Leah, there’s a montage on the special edition DVD of those stills. Thanks, though!
I’ve stated before that I don’t believe in watching BV in home formats, unless you have your own screening room with a projector and access to a 35mm print. If you haven’t seen it in a decent theater, you haven’t seen it. Frank’s screaming face must be ten feet high. You need to see the texture of Dorothy’s skin as she and Jeffrey are in bed, and to hear the almost subliminal rumbling of the wind.
Perhaps more importantly, you have to be in the dark and unable to pause to go to the kitchen for a snack, and to be free of distractions from the family or the cat or whatever. Once you’re strapped-in, you must ride to the end of the tunnel.
(The only disadvantage to a rep-house screening is that sometimes you have to deal with smug hipsters who laugh too often and to loudly, to show that they “get it” and are not being affected by the film. There are some very funny moments, but Lynch is not john Waters and his films are not camp.)
The DVD is still well worth owning for the features, including the montage and the making-of doc.
Leah, need I remind you that the Italians based their advertising around one of those deleted scenes:
http://stalepopcornau.blogspot.com/2008/03/100-greatest-movie-posters-40-blue.html
And what a tasteful and understated campaign it was!
so much for lynch not allowing those scene stills onto the ‘dvd extras’…shows to go ya what those smartypants ‘dvdsavant’ guys know! (my ‘bv’ dvd has very few special features)
frank, i first saw ‘blue velvet’ on what was then the largest screen in the southern hemisphere (i think it still is if you discount IMAX) and it was a sight to behold (the person i saw it with absolutely detested it, however, which was weird, and i remember it made having a chin-wag about the movie afterwards virtually impossible). i wish i had my own kick-ass home cinema, but i’d probably never leave and mutate into a human subspecies that requires no light to survive.
kam, you are indeed the undisputed poster champ (eww, tho; the worst thing about that italian poster is that while stylish, it doesn’t convey any of the ‘blue velvet’ essence to me whatsoever)
re: the brilliance of joan allen —
i never paid more than cursory attention to live theater until, in 1988, i saw joan allen and john malkovich on broadway in ‘burn this’….. those performances literally changed my life in that i marched into my program director’s office the next day and demanded to be allowed to include theater coverage in the reports i was doing….
an interesting side bar is that when i mentioned this to joan allen last year, she said she never enjoyed doing theater (it was a means to an end) and she doubts she’ll ever do it again (unless she has to)……..kinda broke my heart…
wow, too cool, scoot (not the broken heart bit but the rest). it think it’s just as well you’re doing the joan allen interviews, if it were me i’d probably use some sort of false pretence to ensure we were both dressed to the nines for the interview, then i’d throw a blanket over joan’s head and bustle her off to some really swanky jazz joint where we would drink, laugh, and make sophisticated conversation into the wee small hours of the night (all without her running off to get a restraining order!)
back in the real world, i’ve been deeply enamoured of joan ever since first seeing ‘manhunter’ as a teen; i think it was her wonderfully tactile scene with the tiger that did and i’ve never looked back. joan rules!