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
Tribeca is an odd Festival – always has been, always will be. An ego trip which never really solidified into anything other than a blah Festival.
This whole thing strikes me as odd too. It seems like Tribeca is saying “we wanna be like Sundance so we gotta hire the guy from Sundance!” And I really, really respect Geoff Gilmore but I feel like the festival kind has lost it’s focus over the last say, 6-7 years. It’s definitely been in a lull or dull groove of late.
Maybe the Tribeca hire will allow Geoff to get the old fire back but I gotta say, that Parcells analogy was pretty f-ing deft. Geoff can now be more in charge and not have to answer to Redford so I’m thinking he may show a new side.
I think Geoff has great taste and helped recreate and sustain the Sundance brand when (lets face it) those early Kevin Smith/Soderbergh/Rodriguez and Tarantino days of amazing rebellious discoveries are long, long gone.
And hey, the Dolphins went from zeroes to heroes this past season as did the Cowboys before that so…we shall see…
It’ll be interesting to see how this all shakes out. The American festival world has been shifting over the last couple of years. Look at SXSW losing Dentler at the helm last year. Now Gilmore. The real question here is do these people really matter once the brand is built? In that question I mean Gilmore may have mattered in the early days of Sundance, but now that it has its own reputation, what kind of difference does his presence make?
We’ll really begin to see as he transitions into his position at Tribeca. Will we feel suddenly, “oh my god this is a Gilmore festival” or will it just feel like Tribeca is Tribeca and Sundance is Sundance. My bet is that things won’t change at either festival that much, but there’ll certainly be a lot of noise out there about its impact.
So, wait, David. Does this mean Peter Scarlet’s out?
No, Scarlet’s still the artistic director at the Tribeca Film Festival. Gilmore’s job is with the parent company – and will likely involve other ventures, like the Doha festival.
This could be win-win. Tribeca gets a well-connected name, and Sundance – which has never been “a Gilmore festival” so much as “a Gilmore/Cooper/Groth/Frilot/Libresco/etc. festival” – gets a chance for a fresh wind to breeze through the established ranks.