April 27, 2024
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Review: Little Women (no spoilers)
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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
Though I rarely ever post a comment, I do read this blog almost once or twice a week, sometimes more, and I did not even know the name Nikki Finke until I saw it here. I’ve visited her site maybe once.
How many others find these Finke rants revelatory? She’s a loathsome person, a gossip columnist who does far more harm than good. I get it. I mean, I got it.
I completely agree. Awards drive the boxoffice, so in the awards season, it’s just another way of advertising. I guess the only difference with the premiere for “Benjamin Button” and “Milk” was—you had to put on a tux? What an outrage of expenditures! No wonder she was fired…
…didn’t know it existed?
As far as I know, it was always a quality paperback only. From what I can tell on Amazon, this new printing, in hardback, is a first.
No?
Years and years ago Los Angeles Magazine (I think) did an article called something like “For Sale, Oscars! Not so cheap” and it covered the money studios shell out every year to try to take the prize. That story went back as far as Mildred Pierce, from what I remember. So, yeah, Nikki? It’s not “news”. And she is far from a journalist.
If you don’t want the Dark Knight book or the Watchmen hardcover, I’ll take them.
And yes, the Watchmen hardcover is a brand new printing. I glanced at it just a week ago in a bookstore.
Saw a paperback version of Watchmen at Costco a couple of months back. I bought one, of course.
I’ve run every endgame scenario between Nikki and Heat on my TRS-80, and it all ends up with them fucking or killing each other.
She’s a pox. We know. Your anger only fuels her rhetoric.
The funny thing about Nikki is that she gets embarrassed easily. If she gets something hopelessly incorrect – usually in her box office memo as she doesn’t seem to always know what movies are what – if you post something to that effect in her talkbacks or somewhere else (when she said that “House Bunny” had pissed off the “Girls Next Door,” when actually they were in the movie and supported it, when she announced that “Hot Fuzz” would tank as it would be perceived as the British version of “Reno 911” as she’d never heard of “Shaun of the Dead,” etc.), she will go in and change the article. No, she won’t post the talkback quote because that would acknowledge that she had made a mistake, but she does quietly alter her stories from time to time when caught patently wrong.
And isn’t that Finki’s or for that matter, anyone’s main problem: make a mistake, own up. How difficult is that? I think for the most part, people maintain their respect for you if you admit it. “Thanks for pointing that out… I”m sorry.” Little words which suggest humility… but then again, Hollywood doesn’t allow for the “H” word.
And as soon as I post that, I see my spelling mistake. Finke, not Finki. Sorry!
Pope, I’m not a big fan of her site, but on a few occasions I have made a note to her about a box office mistake and she replied just like that “sorry, you’re right, I’ll fix it” and she does. I think that the problem is that sometimes she reports on stuff she doesn’t know a whole lot about, her attitude is less of an issue.
I thought “Finki” was deliberate–it’s quite appropriate!