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
Sounds like the type of crap movies that used to be on USA network up all night
This is the kind of thing that makes me think that, yeah, maybe a good solid recession isn’t the worst thing in the world. There’s some stuff that just does not need to be purchased.
Best deals I have found on Blu-Ray discs this year are at JR.com. About $15 for a lot of decent ones.
That cube is pretty horrible. $300 value in bizarro world.
That’s the kind of crap that will stop people from upgrading.
good grief
If I were allowed to brain any one of those lead actors in the head WITH the cube as a condition of the sale, it would only just be worth that ticket price.
Gotta love how Artie Lange has the second biggest name (if not the biggest) on the front of the cube.
That’s like a dream lineup for MST3000.
If my dad had Blu-Ray man, he would be allll over that box. Dude has the WORST taste in movies ever. I think his bad taste forced me into a career of trying to find non-sucky films.
The only ones I’ve heard of are 10.5, Category 7 and The Poseidon Adventure. I wonder how much they could be separately?
And I just noticed it has a user rating of 1/5. Hah!
BDs usually go down in price about three weeks after release. So people can get BDs for a discounted used price at Amazon. If they have patience. They would also have to be a bunch of grandiose assholes to buy the BLU CUBE!
They’re transferring crappy movies into Blu-ray and leaving out ones like The Lady Eve, Out of Sight…?? This is indeed a crazy world.
USA Movies and MST3K mentioned in the same thread? This can only lead me to think of one thing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HryXuHtM_c
It’s not even the Supernova with Angela Bassett in 1080p. Buying a TV movie?
I saw these at Fry’s this weekend, selling individually for $6.99 (which would be a $60 savings over this Cube-thing) and my eyes almost jumped out of my head at that price. Then, of course, I saw what a load of dreck they actually were. Bad enough that this crap is available on DVD – while better films still go without release – but BluRay for Chrissakes? Yeesh.
I think they’re ALL TV-movies!
I think you’re right, Cadavra. That is a pretty amazing lineup of shit. To get any worse they need to add some Ted Mikels movies (although maybe Cadavra would disagree with me on that one).
THE BIG WHITE with Robin Williams?
Ted V. Mikels would only inspire me to get the damn cube. THE CORPSE GRINDERS!
SEE! The Corpse Grinders!!! In HIGH DEF!!!
WITNESS! The horror of grainy, horribly lit MOVIES!!!
THEN! Buy THE GIANT CLAW!
The Giant Claw scared me as a kid.
“Do you know what this is? It’s a CORPSE GRINDING MACHINE!”
That’s how you start a trailer, Hollywood!
And in Ted Mikel’s defense, his films have fun pop-art Bava-esque lighting.
The Giant Claw is the one with the giant muppet bird, right?
If you can’t make it good, make it weird. Any Mikels film is better than the tedious, flat gunk in that cube, I’m guessing.
The Giant Claw:
http://www.badmovies.org/movies/giantclaw/giantclaw6.jpg
Maybe people aren’t buying enough Blu-Rays of any kind?
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20081216/D953TJ900.html
Maybe people are waking up to the fact that Best Buy tends to have higher prices than you can get online and weak service to boot. Circuit City was even worse.
Anyone who buys Blu-rays at Best Buy is throwing away at least few bucks per, often as much as $10 per…
True enough, perhaps. But even now, I wonder how many millions of folks never shop on line because they’re scared of identity theft, hackers, etc.? Sure, lots of other folks have no problem with buying even big-ticket items on line. (I know someone who, no kidding, bought a Jaguar convertible on eBay.) At the other extreme, however, some people don’t even want to leave comments on Amazon.com because that requires giving “personal information” on registration.
David: Could many non-online shoppers be scared off from Blu-Ray because of the very high prices you’re talking about?