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David Poland

By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com

BYOB – Back to Work

Sorry… runing back to work.
We have a screening of Doubt tonight and we’re shooting a DP/30 with Viola Davis… which thrills me, as I am a get admirer of her work.
Have at it. Be kind to one another and fight the arguments and not the people, PLEASE.

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38 Responses to “BYOB – Back to Work”

  1. LexG says:

    I know that everything on the right-hand gossip side of IMDB is weird and British and to be taken with a grain of salt, but where are they getting that GRAN TORINO could do *25 MILLION* this weekend?

  2. EthanG says:

    LexG, it looks like, sadly the OWNAGE of “The Unborn” just wasn’t meant to be, but it did provide the best review quote in months, from box office mag:
    “If the films released during the traditional January dumping ground are going to be this bad, we should employ the nation

  3. LexG says:

    THE YUST is the new K-STEW. Bow. Unborn is the only game in town.
    (To answer a question from another BYOB, yes, I liked Goyer’s “The Invisible,” at least somewhat, despite its starring that Billy Joe-from-Green Day looking dork who was in everything for about five minutes a couple years ago.)
    I like the idea that that HOTNESS-AWAY/HUDSON movie is just an escalating series of vignettes in which they dye each other’s skin or hair a different color. Like by reel three Hudson’s all, “My BMW is YELLOW! It’s YELLOW!”

  4. EOTW says:

    So, I’m guessing that means Shannon will ace the Supporting Actress noms?
    I guess I should watch GRAN TORINO this weekend. I’ve had it on screener for a month now, also RR, which I guess I’ll get around to soon, too.

  5. EthanG says:

    Yustman is no K-Stew, even though that’s not saying much. Her only upcoming movie, Rogue’s Gallery, sounds like a freaking hoot though. Yustman plays a character called “Temperence,” while Ellen Barkin is “The Empress,” Maggie Q is the “High Priestess,” Ving Rhames plays “Judgement,” and Jeffrey Tambour is the Devil. You can’t make this stuff up. This actually sounds kind of awesome in a “Lesbian Vampire Killers” kind of way.
    And yes, Shannon should win best actress haha. But seriously, for such a small part, he makes much more of an impression. With Davis I just stared in horrified fascination at the snot dribbling down her lip for 3 minutes.

  6. Blackcloud says:

    Is there any material difference between the roadshow version of “Che” and the two-part version? The roadshow will be heading my way as part of its expansion, and I want to know if there’s anything more to it than being in one part.

  7. EOTW says:

    Haven’t seen DOUBT yet, but Davis has lonst some weight, hasn’t she? Loved her in SOLARIS. Woman lookin’ lean these days.
    Anyone still watching 24? It seems like forever since I watched and ep and I only watched the first 4 of season six. Never finished and probably never will. I am not sure i can even bring myself to bother with this season. Such a shame. For a time, it was must see TV.

  8. a_loco says:

    I’m surprised how much The Unborn is getting OWNED by critics. I mean, David Goyer is no P.T. Anderson, but he’s no P.W.S. Anderson either.
    Actually, the only Goyer directed film I’ve seen is Blade 3, which sucked hard (and not in a good way), but isn’t he supposed to be a good writer?
    And on Revolutionary Road. I really appreciated it, although some of the themes seemed to be muddled in the script (although I’ve never read the book) and the ending was less than satisfactory, but I’m reminded of DP’s (non?)review when he said something along the lines of “what we need is Don Draper, what we get is Pete Campbell”, but I disagree. No one ever questions Don Draper’s manhood, but Frank Wheeler’s manhood is questioned a number of times. The way I see it, Frank Wheeler is much more similar to Pete Campbell than he is to Don Draper.

  9. lazarus says:

    Blackcloud, the difference is that you’ll probably wind up paying more to see the films separately. Also, the roadshow version, because it has no onscreen credits, gives you a nice collectible program to take home that is far from the cheap folded white sheet that the Apocalypse Now credits were on when I saw it years ago. It’s heavy and is designed to open from either end, each cover looking like a LIFE Magazine cover and bearing its respective-era Che. There’s a host of cool photos inside as well.
    Cool little connecting tidbit, as I just mentioned Coppola’s film: the recently deceased Sam Bottoms (Lance the surfer) has two daughters that worked on the film, and you can find their names in the credits (one is Del Toro’s personal assistant; apparently he was a family friend). Sad that the excitement of this film’s release was clouded by their father’s death.

  10. mutinyco says:

    Sam’s wife produced Che.

  11. sloanish says:

    If you’re looking to freak out about economics and the United States, don’t miss IOUSA on CNN this weekend.

  12. T. Holly says:

    Che Bottoms?

  13. LexG says:

    I think I’m confused by Blackcloud’s question: The “roadshow” IS in two parts, with the intermission, no? Isn’t that’s what’s been playing in L.A. for a few weeks, and what played in November at AFI? Does Blackcloud mean that vs. the alleged two separate films with different titles? Has it been shown ANYWHERE in that form?
    Also, I’ve never understood how this could ever play seemlessly as one nonstop movie, given that the aspect ratio changes from one half to the next. If it ran interrupted, would the screen fold inward to 1.85 as the movie fades from one scene to the next? (No doubt elicited bewildered groans and murmuring from the aspect-ratio-clueless audience, same as happens every time I get to a movie early and the screen reshapes at the start of the trailers to suit the movie about to start- “Uh, what the FUCK?”

  14. Hallick says:

    “…and Michael Shannon is far better in his 15 minutes of screentime than Viola Davis or Debra Winger are this year.”
    I really thought he would have a lot more rallying around his performance than he does at this point. Whenever I see people talking about Revolutionary Road, sure, he’s right up there after the all-hails to Winslet. But I don’t see much about him outside of RR talk. And Christ – The BAFTAs crammed 15 fucking performances in the supporting actor long list category (Malkovich twice – Ralph Fiennes THRICE?!?) but couldn’t make room for him. What gives? The movie got nominated in every other conceivable category they had! It almost came THAT close to getting a Best Animated nod!
    At least he got a Golden Satellite Award (volleyball trophy as burn victim)…

  15. Sadly, it’s gotten to the stage where now I not only scroll right past whatever LexG is saying but anything anybody types that uses OWN in capital letters. Maybe a_loco was saying something worthwhile up there..?
    Saw Frozen River on Thursday and I think it overtakes Paranoid Park as my favourite film of 2008, although I still have plenty of titles that are currently not released here yet (Milk, Doubt, Rev Road, Synecdoche New York – which doesn’t even have a distributor yet – The Wrestler, Rachel Getting Married and The Reader all of which look very promising to me).

  16. whatever LexG is saying if it involves capitalisations, I should have said. My apologies. :/

  17. IOIOIOI says:

    EOTW: Grow a fucking pair, watch Redemption, then prepare for a NEW SEASON OF 24! Season six is not the best, most likely the worst of all 24 seasons, but seven seems to be about RECTIFYING SHIT! So get back in the groove, brah. If not; you will miss the redemption of the JACK SACK, and that would be sad.

  18. Dunderchief says:

    IO and EO: A cast member of Season 7 who appears in all 24 episodes told me that the first two hours are great. Beyond that, she would not vouch for it.
    I’ll still be watching them all, like a sucker.

  19. Blackcloud says:

    “Does Blackcloud mean that vs. the alleged two separate films with different titles?”
    Right, that’s what I meant. I should have asked, is part I the half before the intermission and part II the half after the intermission? There aren’t extra scenes, it’s not edited differently? In other words, the roadshow is the two parts shown together (w/ intermission) and the separate version is shown as two standalone films.

  20. Joe Straat says:

    I’m right on board with 24 even though the sixth season of 24 was a disappointment (All that talent and they somehow found a way to waste all of it) and Redemption was something of a waste (Someone needs to shoot the writer who not only thought of the cowardly UN guy, but made him French to boot. No, that’s not an overdone cliche at all). I hope the new season of 24 isn’t entirely the storyline they were teasing before the writer’s strike, which was essentially Die Hard 4 sifted into the 24 mold (kinda’ like how season 2 was similar to The Sum of All Fears). You think there’s any chance they sue themselves if that happens?

  21. IOIOIOI says:

    Wow! She vouches for the two hours that have screened to critics! BRILLIANT!

  22. martin says:

    I’ve watched every season of 24, but skipped Redemption and am going to wait for the DVD on season 7. Just lost some interest in that show since season 6 sucked so bad. And the comment about how the first 2 hours are great, but not sure about the rest? Yeah, that sounds like every other season of 24. They get the first couple and the last couple right, and the rest are an extremely mixed bag.
    As far as Lex comments, I also skip past them. Always the same over the top bullshit, no interest in reading that.

  23. a_loco says:

    Kamikaze, let me repeat without the Lexified language:
    I’m surprised how much The Unborn is getting _____ by critics. I mean, David Goyer is no P.T. Anderson, but he’s no P.W.S. Anderson either.
    Actually, the only Goyer directed film I’ve seen is Blade 3, which sucked hard (and not in a good way), but isn’t he supposed to be a good writer?
    And on Revolutionary Road. I really appreciated it, although some of the themes seemed to be muddled in the script (although I’ve never read the book) and the ending was less than satisfactory, but I’m reminded of DP’s (non?)review when he said something along the lines of “what we need is Don Draper, what we get is Pete Campbell”, but I disagree. No one ever questions Don Draper’s manhood, but Frank Wheeler’s manhood is questioned a number of times. The way I see it, Frank Wheeler is much more similar to Pete Campbell than he is to Don Draper.

  24. 555 says:

    “I’ve never understood how this could ever play seemlessly as one nonstop movie, given that the aspect ratio changes from one half to the next. If it ran interrupted, would the screen fold inward to 1.85 as the movie fades from one scene to the next?”
    Caught the Roadshow version in NYC a couple of weeks back. The films play with a 20-30 minute intermission, and the IFC Theater just closed the curtain during intermission and reopened when the second half started, in its noticeably smaller and more claustrophobic aspect ratio.
    What I wanna know is, when the films are released separately and nationally, will they remove the two to four minute overtures that play before each half? I thought those were awesome, and coupled with the intermission, gave off a real old school movie experience.

  25. Joe Leydon says:

    Actually, Goyer’s first directorial effort, “ZigZag,” is very much worth checking out. Strong performances by John Luguizamo and Oliver Platt, and a genuinely scary one by Wesley Snipes. And LexG would apreciate the hotness that is Natasha Lyonne here.

  26. The Big Perm says:

    Goyer is worse than Paul Anderson. Usually I just find Anderson’s movies dull, but Goyer took an awesome series and completely fucked it up.

  27. sloanish says:

    To be fair to Lex, I didn’t think Gran Torino was going to destroy at the box office… but I didn’t put it in writing.

  28. lazarus says:

    555, in response to your question, I’m pretty sure Soderbergh said the separate films are not going to have the music/maps intros, which I thought were cool as well.
    Not sure if there will be any other changes.
    I still wish the titles had remained The Argentine and Guerilla, but of course, the audience is apparently too stupid to determine which one comes first. I don’t know why Che, Part One: The Argentine and Che, Part Two: Guerilla couldn’t have worked.
    Mutiny, I think I remember reading about Sam Bottoms and Laura Bickford being married, totally slipped my mind. I guess it’s not a surprise his daughters had such nice jobs on the film when their stepmom was running the whole show.

  29. Aris P says:

    Just saw (what I’m pretty sure is) the first Watchmen tv spot, during the football game on Fox. !5 seconds of the same already released scenes, Rorschach VO, slowmo jail fight, Manhattan’s giant hand, NYC explosion.
    I’d love to have seen the average football fan’s reaction to that.
    Also, I know airtime is bought in advance, but does this perhaps imply that the “discussions” between Fox and WB this weekend are working out?

  30. jeffmcm says:

    If Lex is going to ask in all earnestness, I’ll answer:
    NO. YOU FUCKING LOSER ASSHOLE.
    You are a fucking sex addict (in addition to whatever else you are addicted to) and therefore need to be in treatment. Go away until you are not bothering the rest of us with your addictions.

  31. yancyskancy says:

    I was gonna blather on with some words of encouragement, but sober Lex knows the answers to all of his questions, and possesses the tools to have a fighting chance at achieving success in this ridiculous business.
    And FWIW, I still don’t think he should be banned for these occasional outbursts. Most of the haters seem capable of ignoring him altogether, or just scrolling past his particularly caps-heavy posts. If not, you must be getting something out of his stuff, if only that nice little jolt of self-righteous indignation.

  32. lazarus says:

    David Poland, I ask you again:
    Please ban this worthless piece of shit.
    How many times does Lex have to insult you and act like he owns this place before you put your foot down? You gave him a warning and he basically spit it right back in your face.
    As entertaining as people seem to find him in a train wreck/Britney Spears meltdown kind of way, and as many mindless 80’s film references he can make, he is diluting the quality of discussion on your blog. This can not be what you intended, for 75% of every topic to somehow steer their way to becoming ALL ABOUT LEX.
    I beg you. Don’t listen to the pacifists and casualty vampires who come here to witness the thrill of self-delusion and the agony of self-pity that Lex parades around here every day.
    END HIM.

  33. yancyskancy says:

    Oh well, I see the Lex rants are gone now. I hope that’s the extent of the reprimand.

  34. martin says:

    This troll has put his annoying graffiti on 5 or 6 of these blogs and it makes it a real headache to read. I’m done posting here until this place has some sort of moderation, and that doesn’t mean a vague warning with the same bullshit posts starting up again 2 days later.

  35. EOTW says:

    Hold on a sec! What happened with Lex? Fill me in, please!
    DP: I love the site, love your work and everyhting, but seriously, don’t ban Lex, he really is a bright spot on here and one of the best posters on this board. Seriously. Please don’t ban him.
    Hey, did everyone else here that Anne hathaway has already won the GG for Best Actress? Check it out here:
    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,479171,00.html

  36. ployp says:

    Looks like Kate Winslet finally won her first Golden Globe. Many congratulations to her!! I, no surprisingly, haven’t seen The Reader, being in Thailand and all. But she’s good in almost anything she’s in.

  37. IOIOIOI says:

    Huzzah for the Joker getting his due. Now let’s see if those Academy nutbags can do what’s right.

  38. ployp says:

    2 awards for Winslet!!! For those who know, is this a first time for an actor/actress to win two?

Quote Unquotesee all »

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