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
Boy, it’s not a fun day to be Lou Lumenick, huh?
Another quote from Fidel’s murderous thug.
“I feel my nostrils dilate savoring the acrid smell of gunpowder and blood of the enemy,” — Che.
14 executed by Che in the Sierra Maestra during the anti-Batista guerrilla struggle (1957-1958)
10 executed in Santa Clara at Che
I love R Scott R’s right wing ramblings. Always good for a laugh. Clearly since an Obama office had a poster of Che on their wall he loves & worships Che. He’s probably going to start ending problems with pistols fairly soon. Speaking of ending problems with pistols, that seems like something the NRA crowd would fully support.
Lumenick has got to be feeling really shitty. This is like if Palin accidently knocked over Nancy Reagan during a photo-op.
and if “Hollywood” loved Che than a bigger outfit than IFC would be distributing it. Please remember this when you come back during the release of W. Lionsgate is the only studio that would touch that film and they are not Hollywood.
“Right wing ramblings?”
Look, when I see people wearing Che t-shirts, it’s like when I see Mao decor on display (like the Mao lamps at Red Pearl Kitchen on Melrose). Uninformed folks not realizing that, well, Mao’s regime led to the deaths of 70 million people – chiefly from starvation making his appearance in a restaurant doubly ironic – and to celebrate him is like decorating a place “in Stalin” because you like revolutionary art.
While no, Mao and Che are hardly the same man – I’m not sure Mao ever believed his own bullshit brew of revolutionary dogma – they are historically complicated figures who have, in some cases, been used as examples of revolutionary purity when as much can be learned from Che’s mistakes as from his belief in the ongoing revolutions of the have-nots.
Yes, I believe a Che poster on the wall of an Obama office is somewhat in bad taste – and I say this as a Democrat definitely supporting Obama. Che is still a complicated historical figure for many people all across Latin America – equal parts revolutionary and opportunist (think a post-Revolutionary War Tom Paine) – and yeah, R Scott R is publishing facts. He did order a great number of executions and wasn’t exactly very progressive in his ideas towards homosexuals.
To suggest Che isn’t an angel, I feel, isn’t exactly right-wing ramblings. Similarly, as somebody who once worked with Democratic campaigns in Austin, I understand a volunteer putting up a Che poster as localized campaigns bring in people with all kinds of disparate opinions and reasons for joining. That said, you never want to hurt your candidate and if a newscamera is going to be around, pulling down a Che poster in order to avoid someone – and I don’t mean the press, I mean somebody who has been directly negatively affected by Che’s activities who may now think your candidate equates himself or herself with Che – I don’t think that’s too much to ask.
I wasn’t defending Che, for the record. R Scott R has a long history of “right wing ramblings” here. He acts like Obama himself loves and adores and supports Che simply because an Obama office somewhere had a poster of the man on their wall. Guilty by association in the mind of R Scott R.
Why don’t we wait until we get a chance to see the movie before we start passing judgment.
Yeah, that Che was an unmitigated monster. All that time he spent providing free medical services to the extremely poor communities of South America was absurd and evil! And don’t get me started on his volunteering at leprosy colonies! Ugh! What an animal!
Yes, he made mistakes (some much, MUCH bigger than others), but painting him solely as a know-nothing murderer is just as bad as wearing a t-shirt with his smiling mug plastered on the front.
If you really care about who Che was, then read Jon Lee Anderson’s “Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life,” and come to a better understanding of who the man was, as opposed to who the myth is.
SJRubinstein,
Excellent post. The kind I used to love to write myself if I hadn’t gotten so fed up with the Che lovers who just cannot see past anything other than a complete deification of their hero.
The fact that Stella laughs at R Scott R’s facts are exactly why I quit calling myself a liberal.
I appreciate that you are a thoughtful Democrat that can see through the Marxist mania. And to his credit, in his book, The Audacity of Hope, Barack Obama himself talks about his university days and mentions how all of the students would sit in their dorms being influenced by Marxism. I am glad he wrote that.
But there is still a far too close influence on the left in academia between Marxism/communism and the mainstream left for me to be comfortable there anymore.
It goes through left-wing philosophers, artists, legal schools etc. It has not been weeded out and is still a core part of anti-American thought. It is why Hollywood is so anti-American…their Marxist influence has not been weeded out since the 50’s.
Che even signed one of his letters Stalin II. Stalin, as I am sure you know, is responsible for more deaths than Hitler and just under Mao as the greatest genocidal maniac in history.
That the Che pic has been so trashed and had a hard time finding distribution because of poor quality…not politics…I find encouraging. There is a good film to be made about Che. A complex one. Soderbergh’s little ode to well-fed, white college campus rebellion is not it.
As for the Che poster in Barack’s office…well…why didn’t anyone ask the volunteer to take it down? Why did the volunteer feel comfortable putting it up? It points to a culture on the left where the true horrors of Marxism cannot/will not be acknowledged. Instead the villains are always America, Christianity, capitalism…all of the villains Marxists like Che dictate are ruining the world.
Where I write from, in Toronto, on Yonge St. there is a poster shop where one can buy all kinds of high end communist propaganda. Posters, pins etc. At the U of T campus it is commonplace. And they all love Obama.
After a while, sooner or later, the left is going to have to address and acknowledge how wrong they are for their fixation on Marxism and the hero worship of a common thug like Che.
Sorry, Nicol. “Che” is having trouble lining up financing and it’s all for political reasons.
Regal and AMC banned “War, Inc.” because it was all too real. Both of those chains have ties to heavy hitters in right-wing politics. At the same time Regal and AMC have had no trouble booking “Proud American”, a work of jingoism that opens today.
Speaking of the weekend, the box office numbers will be depressed. Hurricane Ike has shut down Houston and a good chunk of the Gulf coast.
‘Instead the villains are always America, Christianity, capitalism…all of the villains Marxists like Che dictate are ruining the world.’
Nicol, My villians are capitalism, christianity, american foriegn relations because they are me. They are done in my name. This is my yard to clean up.
Marxism is not a threat to me, Communism is not a threat to me, a poorly run capitalism that I am at the center of threatens the value of my home, my health, and my future.
The Christians at home affect me more than the Islamists abroad. They are the ones attempting to highjack my faith and use it to subvert my rights.
And the American Military is supposed to protect my liberty and my interests. Though I want no part and claim no responisbility for this elective war in Iraq these soldiers are dying in my name. Do you not see how that would kill me inside? Why someone would rail against such a thing, in very angry fashion sometimes. That we find people who would be willing to take an oath to die for something bigger than themselves and have them die for something useless.
Why some of us rail against America, Christianity, Capitalism without mentioning the crimes of others is because we do not feel like accomplices.
Chucky,
If Che came out of Cannes roaring like a lion with great press, you could argue that. It did not.
It was a money loser of a proposition that should have never gotten 65 million, and I say that purely for financial reasons. Exhibitors and distributors are in a business to make money. With Che and the awful reviews coming with it, they saw no such opportunity.
hcat,
If that is what you feel, that is what you feel. But that is why your poll numbers are down.
And make no mistake, when you hate and work so hard to hate the things that Marxists and radical Isalmists hate so much, you are indeed an accomplice.
You see how that works, don’t you?
The best part about this whole CHE movie is how f-ing high and mighty people get about “world affairs” all of a sudden. I mean…really. Are you out there on a soap box ranting about all the other atrocities committed by bastards in power DAILY or do you just wait for a flavor of the week to come along. Get over yourself people. You don’t really care, you’re just acting annoyed.
Don,
Not at all. Many people like to make the moral equivalence argument as you just did. Che killed, Bush killed, Hitler killed, etc. and so on down the line.
And literally speaking…that is true.
The question then becomes what philosophy is motivating them.
For Che, it was Stalinist inspired Marxism, which has killed more people in 100 years than any other religion or ideology combined in 2000 years.
That is not debatable.
Then it becomes a question of common sense. To hate America, Christians, capitalism but to embrace the ideology of a man who was crazed and bloodthirsty in the most literal sense, and was even dead wrong on an ideological level, betrays a level of ignorance in the followers of Che and Marxism that becomes hard to ignore.
Nicol, sometimes you have extremely questionable reading comprehension skills. Or you are being intentionally obtuse. I was laughing at the way R Scott R assumes that Obama loves Che simply because an Obama campaign office (one of how many?) somewhere had a picture of Che on its wall. Has Obama even been to that office? Did Obama himself put the photo up? Has Obama gone on the record lauding Che? Maybe up there in Canada you’ve read a report stating that Obama’s home is covered in photos of Che.
“Nicol, sometimes you have extremely questionable reading comprehension skills.”
As do you. Nicol didn’t assert that Obama would approve of the poster, or that Obama would laud Che. On the contrary, Nicol commended Obama for acknowledging Che’s influence on others in college. I assume that acknowledgement wasn’t framed positively. Nicol spoke in general terms of a far-left liberal culture that lionizes Che. That’s difficult to dispute.
“And make no mistake, when you hate and work so hard to hate the things that Marxists and radical Isalmists hate so much, you are indeed an accomplice.”
That’s the thing, I don’t hate America, Capitalism, or Christianity. I am a Christian Capitalist American. I have a stake in each and do not want to see them bastardized.
Re: don lewis
I think you’d be surprised how many people – yes, even Hollywood people – spend their spare time, some even involved with world affairs.
And agreed on the Jon Lee Anderson book, 555. Just a brilliant piece of work.
And I’m not meaning to compare Che to Mao in this reference, but anyone who enjoyed the Che tome, might dig on Jung Chang and Jon Halliday’s equally well-researched and in-depth work, “Mao: The Unknown Story” which came out a couple of years back. Time magazine got it right with their quote – on the cover – of “An atom bomb of a book.” Like Montefiore’s new books on Stalin, academics being able to get to resources that were inaccessible in the past have really made the first ten years of the 21st century a boondoggle of great lit on 20th century communist leaders!
“The fact that Stella laughs at R Scott R’s facts are exactly why I quit calling myself a liberal.”
That is what Nicol said in response to my post mystery. Problem is, I wasn’t laughing at his facts. I was referring to his comment about Obama loving Che. So my reading skills are just fine thank you.
Che isn’t going to lose money. Forgeign pre-sales have already covered nearly the entire shooting budget. It’ll turn a fine profit.
Hey Nicol, what office is Hcat running for? You say ‘your poll numbers are down’. Is Hcat Scott Kleeb? Mark Begich? Tom Allen?
The most infuriating thing about you, Nicol (and this is purely personal, not based in substance or issues at all) is your insistence on conflating everyone who disagrees with you into “The Left”, a monolithic, uniform force out to get you and eat your babies. For example, there’s at least one commenter on this very page who’s a left-wing idiot. He’s ‘the left’ and so am I, but we hardly agree on anything. And as has been often stated, if one of your sparring partners tried to make these blanket arguments about ‘the right’ you’d be all sanctimonious about how not everybody speaks for everybody else and there are big divisions and blah blah blah.
And you wonder why your liberal friends are ‘more aggressive’ in your presence these days. Travis Bickle-level nuts.
I wonder if anybody in El Salvador has a poster of Reagan on the wall?
Mysteryperfecta is a racist. Against Orcs.
“The question then becomes what philosophy is motivating them”
So you think that Che is a Stalinist Mass Murderer and the problem you have with that is the Stalinist part?
Stalin was one of the worst scourges in history. Which is why I oppose my government using Stalinist tactics such as warrantless wiretapping, torture, and establishing gitmo. And for opposing this I am a Marxist in your eyes.
Jeff Wells is down with Stalin. No surprise.
I just want to give thanks to those in a previous blog about my nervousness on purchasing a PS3 for the Blu-ray player.
I’m excited about finally being able to play the few Blu-ray titles I’ve stored up over the last month and a half. (My first Blu-ray that I’ll be testing the Scorsese’s Shine A Light.)
And, yes, I do have a screen taht’s over 40. It should all work out.
I am a little nervous about someone stating that I should keep it connected to the Interent because Sony is constantly (and randomly) updating the firmware.
More info would be helpful.
Jimmy,
You don’t have to keep your PS3 hooked to the Internet. The updates are pretty random, but any reputable BluRay site will alert their readers to a PS3 update immediately). When an update is offered, Sony has instructions on their web pages on how to download the file to a flash drive and install the update manually, which is what I do (it’s pretty simple). Frankly, it’s safer since you don’t have to worry about your internet connection flaming out in the middle of an upload.
Jimmy…
… don’t be nervous. The firmware updates are your friend. They don’t do it constantly or randomly, though. In the year I’ve had my player, I think there have been four or five firmware updates, and a few of them have made HUGE differences in picture quality and hardware features. It’s worth making sure your machine is constantly updated.
You should check out the DIRTY HARRY box on BluRay, or THE PROFESSIONALS, or BONNIE & CLYDE if you want to see how great classic Hollywood can look on your new system. And BLADE RUNNER is a total demo disc, pushing both sound and picture as hard as anything you’ll put in the player.
“Mysteryperfecta is a racist. Against Orcs.”
You’d say that, but I’ve got studies and graphs and x-rays to back my assertion.
I was kinda surprised that my bon mot was singled out. Must of tickled someone on the staff. I mean the Shacknews’ staff. I don’t tickle staffs.
The Kubrick films are amazing on Blu-ray.
And the PS3 will hook into wi-fi very easily. If you don’t have wi-fi at home yet, you should.
Gent: Yes, Houston is under a virtual lockdown right now. There will be no theaters open this weekend in the fourth largest US city, and I can’t help thinking this will have a measurable impact on movie grosses. Also: if we lose electrical power for any length of time, I wonder how that will impact Nielsen ratings.
Jeff, did you just break out a Scott Kleeb reference? I didn’t realize anybody cared about a Nebraska senate race. Granted, Nebraska senators’ votes mean as much as California senators’, but still…. The man’s footnote on history is going to be smaller than an atom. A Democrat who couldn’t even win the non-Omaha/Lincoln third district congress race is pretty much going to get slaughtered when faced with an established Republican in this state. And really, in my opinion, the man spends a whole lot of time talking and not really saying anything. I know some righties will want to make a “Like Obama” potshot, but the comparisons are not even close.
Even as a liberal who graduated from the college of liberal arts and sciences, I really didn’t give a damn about Che. Just a subject that didn’t fascinate me that much. As far as socialist things, I did see “I,Cuba” in my independent/classic/foreign film group. It’s very well shot and it’s an interesting, non-American look at the Cuban revolution, but it didn’t influence me on Castro, communism, or any of that one bit. But I guess watching that alone makes me a crazed liberal socialist anyway…. Oh, and for the record, I had a “Free Winona” poster in my dorm.
I may be a liberal, a lefty progressive, but worshiping Che just makes us liberals look incredibly naive and stupid. Maybe I’m trading one simplification for another, but I’ll take The Lost City, thank you much.
I wonder if Soderbergh and Andy Garcia had any interesting discussions about Cuba on the Ocean’s sets.
A lot of the “Che” T-shirts are actually just Rage Against the Machine T-shirts. I’ll bet half the kids who wear them don’t even know who he is. I didn’t when I saw my first one in college back in ’92.
Then again, I was wearing a Charles Manson shirt at that time. It read “Support family values.”
Let me just say it right here: you know who cares about Che in American colleges? Potheads. I’m sure Nicol equates potheads with “The Left” but those particular Venn diagrams are not the same.
Mr. Straat: I don’t know much about Mr. Kleeb, except that he’s going to lose, and that the DailyKos crowd loves him.
…ended my most disappointing TIFF ever yesterday morning with–what else?–another lackluster film.
After sitting through the terminal blahness of “Uncertainy,” it’s hard to remember a time when the filmmaking team of Scott McGeehee and David Siegel were being touted as the second coming of the Coen Brothers.
There’s a nice performance by the great Joseph Gordon-Levitt, but the damn thing just sits there and dies on screen.
Prediction: A small distributer will pick “Uncertainty” up at Sundance, give it a token, half-dozen-cities-type release late next summer then release it on DVD by year’s end ’09 where–like most pics these days, even the most undeserving–it’ll pick up a miniscule cult following.
Nice Friday figures for Tyler Perry (duh), “Burn,” “Righteous” and even “The Women.” That reminds me: I still need to catch up with “Bangkok Dangerous”!
I love how Finke is claiming that ‘The Women did better than expected’ when it did exactly what it should have done, the same $12 million that cultural niche films usually open with (think Soul Food, The Wood, The Brothers).
I’m glad no one is acting, shocked… SHOCKED at The Family That Preys being number one yet again. When will someone, anyone, have the 1% brainpower to put him in a costarring or supporting role for a ‘mainstream’ comedy’? Frankly, I’m surprised by the strong start for Burn Before Reading. I’d gather it made more on its first day that any Coen Brothers movie has ever made on its wide-opening weekend. At least we won’t get people wringing their hands about “oh, why can’t George Clooney open movies like he was Harry Potter or Will Smith?”.
Isn’t Tyler Perry in the new Star Trek? That’s a comedy of sorts.
I have the Scorsese/Stones movie, Top gun, and The dorrs on Blu-ray.
amazon is offering aBuy-2-get-1-free sale on 36 Blu titles. I’m thinking about Sand Pebbles, Die Hard, and RoboCop. Do these sound good?
I’ll be happy when I get my Blu-ray Godfather Restoration Collection on Monday.
Sand Pebbles reportedly looks extremely good. Die Hard 1 and 2 are good upgrades in picture quality, but it’s the third one that gets the biggest bump from the DVD.
Robocop on blu-ray on the other hand is a fairly modest quality jump from standard DVD, so unless you don’t have it at all it’s a questionable upgrade.
From the amazon sale, I’d recommend on blu-ray (as being significant upgrades from the DVD, providing you like the film to begin with):
Master & Commander
Patton
Kingdom of Heaven: Director’s Cut
Speed
Edward Scissorhands
The Longest Day
What about Point Break or Predator?
My statement above about the Coen’s opening weekend was incorrect. The Ladykillers ($12.6 million in 2004) and Intolerable Cruelty ($12.5 million in 2003) were obviously quite a bit more than Burn Before Reading’s opening day. Apologies for the gaff.
Surprised I haven’t seen Lex mention Walk All Over Me. Stars Tricia Helfer and Leelee Sobieski as Dominatrix, with Leelee surprisingly being the hotter one….
http://www.walkallovermethemovie.com/
Nice shot of Leelee here:
http://www.tribute.ca/tribute_objects/images/movies/walk_all_over_me/walkalloverme1.jpg
Hey, TROPIC THUNDER hit 100 million!
Viva la satire!
I neglected to mention earlier that once again, I am IN L.A. with my band, five a.m. This time we’re on tour at House of Blues (on Sunset) with SISTER HAZEL (Lex….c’mon….sing it man…it owns! “It’s hard to say what it is I see in you….”). If anyone wants to come down, email me at dlewis@filmthreat.com and I’ll do my darndest to get you in free. At worst, I’ll buy you some drinks if you end up paying. It’s gonna be a good show. Well, Seattle, Portland and SF were great. I know it’s late notice, but I’ve been in a van since Sunday.
“What about Point Break or Predator?”
If you have neither on DVD, sure. As replacements, both boast modest picture quality gain from SD.
I find that a lot of especially 80’s and early 90’s films are generally shot on the kind of filmstock that doesn’t really lend itself all that well to high def (or maybe it simply degrades faster, I don’t know).
However, classics in B&W – (Casablanca, Seventh Seal, Great Expecations) and Technicolor films (Searchers, Black Narcissus, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Cool Hand Luke) and brand new films can be positively spectacular in HD in many cases.
I recommend to you to check out the following sites for picture quality reviews before purchasing (I usually aim for at least 3.5-4/5 as being a sufficiently big jump in PQ to warrant consideration):
http://www.dvdbeaver.com
http://www.dvdtalk.com
http://www.highdefdigest.com
http://www.dvdfile.com
And for the latest news on what’s coming out on blu-ray (and DVD), I recommend: http://www.thedigitalbits.com
doug r, did Walk All Over Me have a recent video release? I SWEAR I’ve seen a DVD box of Leelee in the gear at my video store. Always afraid to rent anything too sexy because afraid people pleasure themselves them touch the cases without washing hands.