April 19, 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
Um.
Okay.
Noticed this resemblance today: http://mutinycompany.com/unimaginative/operationjumper.jpg
Also…
Noticed this the other day step-framing through Full Metal Jacket during the long lateral tracking shot as the troop runs over to Animal Mother…
There’s a guy crouched down in the foreground who passes through the frame very quickly. He’s camouflaged by debris. But there’s a guy there.
See: http://mutinycompany.com/unimaginative/FMJWTF.jpg
This is completely unrelated. But I don’t feel like searching for the b.o. thread. Don’t know if anybody else spotted it but…
Two weekends ago, Brendan Fraser had 2 movies in the top-5. This past weekend, Apatow had 2 movies in the top-5.
Posted by: mutinyco at August 12, 2008 05:41 PM
I noticed that today too.
Sshhh. The swimming is on!
mutiny…all I know is that ya don’t know nuthin’….and that’s fiiiiiiiine!
Has anyone checked Phelps for doping? How does he break every world record, every time? Also, how come these records are so soundly beaten — i’m not sure, but I don’t evolution works that quickly.
on NPR, one theory was that records are being beaten because the pool is extra deep, which means less turbulence.
Wondering what your reaction is to an unexpected (unexpected for me, anyway) rush of positive reviews for “Tropic Thunder.”
Kris: His response should be; “BA… HUMBUG!”
Aris: It’s the suit, it’s the pool, but it’s mostly him. This is 17 years in the making. He’s tested after every swim, but he’s been busting his ass for close to two decades to become this good. Seriously; that’s how it is.
As opposed to all the rest of those slackers.
More like 13, but the dude has given up his childhood, his teenage years, and his young adulthood to become this great champion. So this is what it takes to make the greatest Olympian.
Jeff: they all bust their asses as well, but greatness is an interesting mix. Be glib all you want, but you are bored of greatness. Possible once in a lifetime greatness, and it bores you. Really man… really.
Does anyone else think that the proposed RED DAWN remake no longer seems quite so lame?
IOI, I don’t like to root for the Yankees or Michael Jordan either. I much prefer underdogs, which is why I was a lot more excited for the bronze-medal men’s gymnastics team than anything else I’ve seen in the last few days.
not surprised at all, kris.
1. The film mocks Hollywood, however Hollywood it is.
2. I keep saying… Critics are aiming at “geting it” a lot these days.
David Ansen? Well… that review is beyond me.
Kris: like I stated before; “BA HUMBUG!”
Jeff; the Yankees have not won a World Series since 2000, and have the worst playoff series loss in MLB history. While Michael Jordan had to spend the better part of seven years of his career to get to the Finals. So not only is your statement a bit weird. It does not represent the truth of the matter. Nor does it make any sense in terms of GREATNESS. If you have a hard time rooting for GREATNESS or appreciating GREATNESS, that’s on you. Since it has nothing to do with an underdog as much as it has to do with a once and a lifetime event.
RIP Jerry Finn. Gonna have to blast And Out Come the Wolves… today.
If ever there was a more egregious oxymoron than “World Series baseball” then I have yet to come across it.
I like Phelps, but obviously don’t have the same affiliation to him as Americans would, but I’ve skipped most of his races because it’s kinda boring knowing he’ll win. It’s like whenever Federer played tennis (until Wimbledon ’08 obviously) I was guaranteed to skip it.
Just be glad that Phelps uses his Terminator body for swimming and not evil….
I read Phelps’ coach explain that it’s really a mental thing, his success. He said Phelps was ruthlessly compartmentalized and doesn’t allow things to distract him when he’s racing — he could be in a bad mood, not feeling well, whatever, doesn’t affect his performance.
IO-you have no fear of the underdog, that’s why you will not survive.
Hey! that war movie filmed in England we were talking about.
So Kubrick does 800 takes of each scene and winds up using the one with the technician in the shot?
“THAT’S” that war movie…”
Just when I thought I’d gotten the html tags to work. I don’t get these internets. Call me Old Man McCain.
IOI (or whoever), what does it mean “that’s on you”, what is it that’s on me? Some kind of burden, possibly a growth?
I have plenty of respect for Michael Phelps, mostly I just don’t like that NBC is demanding my total awe and admiration when I’m sure there are plenty of other interesting stories out there that we aren’t hearing.
You have no idea what “THAT’S ON YOU” means? Really? It means that it’s on you — that stance of yours — and there’s nothing anyone can do to change it. Which is just lame.
Not as lame as you believing there’s something more interesting out there, then the greatest Olympian who has ever lived. Seriously, that’s so fucking lame, I have no idea how you deal with enormity of that lameness. It’s irksome, it’s tiresome, and it’s triffling.
KC: If the folks in your country would stop wearing short shorts and sleeve shirts while rough-housing. Your part of the world may be part of a game that has people from all across the world playing in it. If not… well… sit on it. Get better, but sit on it.
“That’s on you” oughta be pretty obvious via context and empirical evidence, but jeff seems like the kind of 30-ish guy who’s kind of stopped paying attention to current youth culture, rap music, styles, trends, reality shows, slang, etc.
I am not bagging on him for it — in some ways I envy not having to know this trivial shit — but it’s definitely something I see a lot of at my (our) age, just reaching that point where we’re too old or busy to care about such things. You definitely see it a lot on movie message boards, where guys haven’t bought an album since 1999 and haven’t been aware of anything “urban” or youth-skewing since, like, ever.
Obviously I’m generalizing and have no idea if this is actually the case with Jeff. But everything from reality shows to Twilight to Dane Cook seems to fly under the radar for many of the commenters here, and some of you guys are younger than me.
I’ve always thought aspiring artist types need to keep up with absolutely everything pop culture, even the stuff that’s way outside their sphere. Otherwise you end up like all those Boomer directors still using Buffalo Springfield in their old, corny movies.
IOI, I know what it means in a general sense, I’m asking what _you_ mean by it, the connotations and subtleties inferred. I’m only talking about myself and my personal opinions, so does it mean the same thing as “but that’s just me” or does it mean something more negative and burdensome?
Lex, you are basically right. But I’d like to think that, aside from wearing my pants cuffed up in the mid-90s, I never paid attention to any of that stuff in the first place.
I undertand exactly what you’re talking about, Lex. I remember seeing those older guys who just kind of stopped at a certain point in time, and still dressed the way they did in 1965 or 1978 or 1992. Never changed their haircut, never listened to anything new, complained about much movies sucked these days… I was always terrified of becoming one of these guys. When I was around 30, I even left my long-time girlfriend and hooked up with one 12 years my junior when people started asking when I was gonna marry the former. (Of course, the young one got tired of me and left after a couple of years, but at least I got out of that. I just wasn’t ready.)
Most people settle down and have kids and literally don’t have time to worry about trivial stuff. But what if you don’t have that kind of life and those responsibilities? Do you have an obligation to the pursuit of all things hip?
Because the flipside, and the pitfall, is this: you become one of those old guys lurking on the edges of the scene, sniffing around the younger crowd, trying to figure out what you should be into. But your perception of time changes, and it all seems to slide by before you can get a grip on it. Eventually you’re hanging around the same places as the twentyish children of your former classmates.
You become Jackie Gleason in Skidoo, Shatner recording Lucy in the Sky, desperately trying to “get it” and getting it wrong.
Eventually, the new stuff will be so alien you’ll throw your arms up and say “I give up, I’m not even gonna try to like this shit. These kids are morons for liking this.” And even though you might miss out on something good, it’s also kind of liberating.
Because the truth is, the youngsters don’t necessarily want you around.
BUT (there’s always a but, isn’t there?) you also can’t relate to the folks with kids and mortgages. They seem genuinely old, and you don’t feel that way. They even look older, because constantly worrying about your kids wears you out. So you wind up in limbo. Maybe you get a girlfriend around your age who likes the same stuff you do, and you find a few like-minded friends. And then you hang out and talk about how much everything sucks nowadays, which is as good a thing to do as any for the next forty or fifty years as you wait around to die.
I don’t think I’d heard Skidoo mentioned so often in such a brief amount of time as I have this past week at The Hot Blog.
IO, i have no idea what you were saying to me, but thanks for the regards. My foot is healing slowly.
If you say Skidoo three times, Christian will magically appear.
Good post, frank!
SKIDOO gets namedropped in DEVIL’S REJECTS (masterpiece) in that scene where the local film critic comes in to give bored, grumpy sheriff William Forsythe a tutorial on the films of Groucho Marx. Awesome scene.
KC: a gaffled foot is not a good thing. Nevertheless; I was referring to Australian Rules Football in a silly kind of way.
Oh yeah Jeff, I explaind it. It’s about how you feel about things, and it’s on you if you have a problem with greatness. I used to hate the greatness. Until one day I realized that it’s not very often you see a Michael Jordan, Michael Schumacher, or a Michael Phelps. So you might as well embrace it while it’s going on because greatness does have a time-limit attached to it.
What I’m really looking for is a grammatical derivation, rather than just repeating the same thing over again. What is it that is metaphorically ‘on’ me? In the sense that ‘up my alley’ means that it’s near where I live, or when I ‘name my poison’ it’s the unhealthy beverage that I particularly prefer. These phrases have meanings that come from somewhere and I don’t know where this particular one stems from.
IO: The problem with greatness is, if it’s not evidenced at precisely the right time, it’s not fully appreciated. Case in point: The Rockets won two NBA championships in the ’90s. But there always will be a-holes who insist those victories should have astericks attached, because Michael Jordan wasn’t with the Bulls for those two seasons.
On the other hand: I will always respect Michael Jordan for going for his dream and trying to make it in baseball during that period. In fact, even though I am not a baseball card collector, I am the proud owner of two Jordan baseball cards from the era. I keep them around, seriously, to insire me: Never be afraid to try something new. Never be afraid to risk it all. Never be afraid, period.
Of course, there’s always Chris Gaines…
Sure, but I think when you’re that rich and successful, you almost have an obligation to try something outside of your comfort zone.
Did somebody say SKIDOO?
Mutiny: Garth Brooks appears to have done OK for himself. And he’s married to a babe who owns!
“…the pitfall, is this: you become one of those old guys lurking on the edges of the scene, sniffing around the younger crowd, trying to figure out what you should be into.”
Or you could simply not make movies for idiot teenagers and continue making them for grown-ups.
Beetlejuice never took so long to appear. Slacker!
Nice fuckin’ model!
I once read a quote from Conan O’Brien, I think, where he said (total paraphrasing) that in the entertainment industry there are people who either go for the money or who follow their passion. The former makes more money than imaginable but fills with self-loathing at the disposability of his work. The latter makes less money, but it’s still more money than imaginable, and he sleeps well at night.
The word “masterpiece” gets thrown around here like monkeys throw shit.
“Word!” says Marky Mark.