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
Wow. This thread is gonna do 200 comments. Easily.
Is it just me or does the Grand Jury Prize winner of the International Shorts Competition sound like a “Tropic Thunder”-esque parody of a foreign film?
I know why no one cares. Because Ben Lyons was on the jury.
http://www.filmthreat.com/index.php?section=festivals&Id=2222
Wow… I would have quite abusive to my friends at AFI had I known. I will have to make sure to be abusive soon.
You would have been? Good. FilmThreat must have an exclusive on the list — I’m serious about that.
BEN LYONS FUCKING OWNS.
Lex, grow a pair of real ones. He’s cheesy and he’s celebrity. AFI is sucking up to cheesy celebrity. Rant all you want, this computer is going to sleep.
Nah, I was at a ton of AFI shit the last two weekends, and Lyons was hanging around and seemed like a really nice guy.
Obviously he’s not Sarris or Kael but maybe he’s just a cool guy? What’s wrong with that?
Anyone I threw him a thumbs up and told him he fucking OWNED.
We all know you want something from the cheesy celebrity, unqualified, untalented film critic, Ben Lyons. Shame on AFI. They, and all festivals, are on notice to treat composition of juries like public info, post it on their website and put it in press releases.
You got me all confused with commas. The unqualified, untalented film critic Ben Lyons. That’s his official name now.
No, T Holly… list was on the press release to everyone… I just didn’t see a need to post the whole thing on here… and frankly, didn’t look. The idea that AFI has a jury is always a surprise to me.
It’s funny, because we saw QU Ben Lyons at some AFI thing and laughed, since he clearly had no business attending a film fest, much less judging one. We thought he was there for the red carpet, actually.
You kind of make the point Dave. They shouldn’t be playing hide the jury. It’s still not on the website and it’s not here:
http://blog.afi.com/afifest/index.php/2008/11/09/afi-fest-award-winners-announced/
And please, why wouldn’t it have a jury? You don’t want prizes and a festival narrative? Plus, what’s QU?
I kept thinking GQ Ben Lyons, but then it dawned on me: Quote Unquote Ben Lyons a/k/a the unqualified, untalented film critic.
LexG, you should approach him to speech write for him.
No one is trying to “hide” the jury. Traditionally, I include the jury members’ names in the final press release for a film festival (AFI FEST, AFI DALLAS, IFFLA, etc.) because it is is rare that anyone really considers it “news” until that time (when the winners are announced). And, the truth is – even then, that information is rarely (if ever) actually included in any coverage of festival awards.
And the press release will be posted on the website (as they all are) – we’re just a little behind since the festival just ended last night.
Don’t bust a gut. It’s not like you picked him, you’re just the PR guy. And I have news for you, unless they’re sequestered, the composition of juries is news the minute they’re set. Festivals have guidelines about how jury members behave and it’s easy to imagine what they are.
Hope that clears up my argument for transparency in jury composition. It’s honorable to serve and should be open to scrutiny to ensure it’s inscrutable.
I don’t know that he ever has or ever will read The Hot Blog (or reads at all), but I have a very strong sense that Ben Lyons would be a LexG fan.
Hey, I wonder if Lyons has a blog!!! If so, I should OWN UP over there.
I’m certain that if you made crib notes for him he’d sound smarter.
What’s that site that does Critic Watch and disses Lyons every week?
They missed one of his finer moments, when he reviewed that Stuart Townsend/Charlize Theron movie about the WTO protests in ’99 (Battle in Seattle, I think?). Lyons’ review was pretty glowing, which is fine, but he amusingly kept talking about the movie as being educational, and the event itself as being this obscure, important, epic, long-ago passage in our nation’s history, like it was about the Battle of 1812 or something, instead of like, oh, eight-nine years ago.
You really could ghost write better for him than he can do speak for himself. It’s too bad he’s not more handsome, because then he could drop the whole criticism thing and just do appearances and hostess jobs.
Past my do bed time.