May 8, 2024
BYOB
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BYOB: 235 Years Of Relative independence
BYOB Weekend: Hop, An April Fool’s Gag?
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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
Am I the only red-blooded man in American NOT interested in seeing this movie?? Oh well.
I hope the interested parties have a good time. For us non-Watchmen fans, not too much for us to see really.
I’m definitely looking forward to Watchmen (though I’m pretty nervous at this stage about it being any good), but once it’s out of the way, March and April look pretty decent, I’d say: Sunshine Cleaning; I Love You, Man; Duplicity; Adventureland; Observe & Report; Crank 2; State of Play. I’m hoping at least a few of those will be decent or better.
Hell, I’m looking forward to Fast & Furious (why does it look way better than any of the other F&F movies, especially when Justin Lin made the mostly useless third installment?) and Knowing (I know it looks like another Nic Cage cheesefest to a lot of people but I love Cage and Dark City earns Alex Proyas my interest even if he hasn’t made anything nearly so great since).
I’m curious if any of the non-fans are bothered by the fact that that Rorschach’s mask is never explained. I thought it was a shame that didn’t make it into the movie.
Not a obsessed fan of the material or of ‘300’ but I went as neutral as possible considering the excessive advance chatter.
Found it soulless. Unemotional. Not engaging. Flat. Dull. Leaden dialogue. Zero charisma and chemistry. No fun. One note. Noisy. Joyless. Pompous. Poorly directed. Confused. Big aspirations flawed by execution. Ideas that worked on the page, limp by on screen.
Going to see it again tomorrow.
“Going to see it again tomorrow.”
Can a $100M weekend be too far out of reach if even JBD wants to go back for seconds after a reaction like that?
LYT, I’ve never read the book and Rorshach’s mask definitely confused me. Particularly because it’s my understanding — although this is never really made clear in the movie — that none of the Watchmen have actual “superpowers” per se except for Billy Crudup. So the logistics of the mask made no sense to me, but now I’m curious. What was the explanation in the book?
Hallick, that running time will make it very hard.
Australia’s version of Siskel and Ebert gave it a huge review. One even said it was better than The Dark Knight.
It looks like Poland is going to have a strong leg to stand on, when he inevitably rips this movie.
Not even the geeks are totally in love with it.
However, my view is that Dave always takes the contrarian POV from the masses. Valid or not, quite possibly to just play devil’s advocate. or maybe out of ego, I don’t know.
But with that in mind, if everyone (including geeks) do not like it, and Dave finds anything admirable with it, he may give it a positive review.
The last example that comes to mind is Speed Racer. A film I happen to be with Poland on, it rocks. The only problem I saw with it was that it was too long for kids. I saw it at IMax and remember seeing tons of kids in the audience squirming to use the bathroom at the 2hr. mark
There seems to be alot of ancillary content being released along with the film, maybe Rorshach’s mask is explained there?
Otherwise, I would love a clarification as well.
Sorry, I forgot to post the link in reference to the geeks not being totally in love with the film.
http://io9.com/5163900/watchmen-proves-the-cold-war-is-an-alien-world
Biscuits — in the book, Walter Kovacs (aka Rorschach) does a stint working in a factory making women’s clothing. One item that’s special ordered is a dress made using new Dr. Manhattan-inspired technology, with the ever-shifting inkblot pattern.
The woman decides she doesn’t want it because it’s ugly. The woman turns out to be Kitty Genovese, an infamous murder victim who was killed while her neighbors watched and nobody called the police. A formative event in forming Rorschach’s worldview.
He takes the dress home and cuts a mask out of it, a face he can stand to look at in the mirror.
If I’m not mistaken, Rorschach’s mask was made with some synthetic, heat-sensitive fabric created by either Veidt or Manhattan.
It’s my understanding that a lot of his background explained in the book did not make it to the film, and hopefully we’ll get some of it in the longer cut.
Quick Question blog friends….
If Alan Moore hates the idea of his graphic novels being made into movies, then why does it happen??? Does he own the rights to them? My understand is that Watchmen is his peak, and he was disappointed by the other films based on his works, then why did he sell the rights??? Or does DC own the rights and he is just SOL….
Just Curious….
Also….curious how WIDE is the IMAX release…My local IMAX which showed such crap as Speed Racer and Spiderman 3 is not showing the film…Who knows maybe they do not show “R” rated IMAX…
Alan Moore used to be into the idea of his movies being adapted. Then, during League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, some screenwriter sued the studio claiming it was his idea, and put Alan Moore through a long deposition to defend his own work as original. After that, he was done with Hollywood.
DC owns the rights to Watchmen until and unless it ever goes out of print, at which point they revert to Moore and Gibbons, who at the time never considered that the book would be so popular it would never go out of print.
You will also notice that Alan Moore’s name doesn’t appear anywhere in the credits for the movie.
his name doesn’t even show up in the press kit or production notes…..nowhere…not even backstory about why it’s not there….
MALIN AKERMAN GIVES ME A TOTAL RAGER BUT SHE ISN’T FIT TO WASH ALBA/FOX’S BOOTY SHORTS.
20 EXTRA MIL IF THIS MOVIE HAD ALBA, FOX OR SCAR-JIZZLE.
I HAVE A BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONER.
A BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONER.
VIAGRA AND JIM BEAM 4 THA WIN.
“VIAGRA AND JIM BEAM 4 THA WIN.”
The most effective combo since chemo’ and a Camel! (wasn’t that an Alan Arkin movie back in the day, too – Chemo And The Camel? Are you sure?)