April 18, 2024
BYOB
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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
So I meant to mention that I saw The Hurt Locker last week. Thought it was good but I didn
The Hurt Locker isn’t playing in my area yet, so on another note…
Anybody else here catch Peter Berg’s latest, Virtuality? You might have missed it, since it was astonishingly released w/almost no fanfare… directly to TV. It was meant as a pilot for a potential series but got horrible ratings.
Just saw it on hulu and it was intense, fascinating, and cinema-worthy scifi, at least more so than recent flicks.
Without seeing Friday Night Lights, I haven’t been particularly impressed w/Berg before now. And now? Wow.
The story’s about a spaceship crew on a 10-year mission that has something to do with saving Earth. Everything they do on the ship is recorded for a reality show, produced and edited by the ship’s psychologist. Furthermore, the ship has a virtual reality system that allows the crew a bit of escape.
The concept sounds full of cliches, I know, but… I won’t say anything else about the plot, except that I had very low expectations based on the premise before I saw the show but was blown away by the execution. I was afraid it was going to be another of the holodeck-malfunction-type stories from Star Trek, but it was quite different. The crew was interesting, the writing and acting were good, and atmosphere, suspense, and thought-provoking ideas were present throughout.
Don’t know if Berg was going to have an ongoing role in the production were the show going to series; it was apparently Ron Moore’s baby. Anyway, I’ve now gone from being disappointed Berg’s taking on Dune to being somewhat hopeful.
funny, that, Triple Option
I was just saying the other day to a marketing/advertizing guru that the pre-show commercials in early 90s often were excellent–often ones not seen on TV and Funny.
Maybe that was a special period…and it usually IS just torture.
and the volume they are played at…paid for to be like that
my personal favorite :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skWFyop_pxU
I actually went to as many screenings as I could just for that commercial, hubba hubba.
and the European beer (of course at rated R type movies) and futbol commercials were always funny as hell.
Some great acting in the current dependent releases: Pfeiffer in Cheri, Rockwell in Moon, and (I’m gonna be alone in this one) Krasinski in Away We Go.
Also, I laughed harder at Whatever Works than any Allen flick since Deconstructing Harry.
I’ve got VIRTUALITY on my DVR — haven’t watched it yet. I hadn’t realized Peter Berg directed it (my interest was because the writer/creator was Ron Moore of BSG/Trek fame).
When I go to the theater, my conversations are sensational and amazing, and I know everyone would want to hear what I’m saying which is why I talk loud.
Perm-
do you also make it a point to laugh AFTER the trailer and say something witty like “yeaaaaah” so everyone in the theater knows you liked that trailer? I love people like that.
I like to yelp “GREEEEEENNNNNNN!!!” whenever I see the first “The following preview has been approved for all audiences” placard before the trailer. It seems to center me.
Marketing folk have taken over your souls if you enjoy commercials in a theater. That used to be the side point of going to movies — to escape the incessant buzzing stupidity of today’s assaultive insulting ads. I don’t want ads in my church!
But advertising is what churches are made for, christian. They just spell it “preaching”.
(Or “proselitizing”, but even I can’t spell that…)
‘I don’t want ads in my church!’
amen
I’m in the Dallas area for a few days. And, you know, I haven’t seen either Public Enemies or Taking of Pelham 123 yet. And I was thinking, well, if I have a free evening, and I don’t mind driving 20 miles down the road…
http://galaxydriveintheatre.com/nowshowing/685-thursday
But I’m paying for what I want to hear…not ads.
finally went to see TYSON at the Beverly Center. Show started promptly at 3:00. First trailer at 3:10. That’s right: ten full minutes of commercials. and since all were 15 or 30 seconds, that adds up to over 20 ads. Worse: half of them were for video games, the other half LOOKED like they were for video games. I generally don’t mind a few spots, but this really crossed the line.
Four days I’m walking in New York City. 4 Days. All over. Been doing this, 3-4 times a year, since 1994.
No more news stands. No where. Saw one on 3rd around 51st street. That’s it. I don’t like it when things I’m used to seeing, disappear.
I used to show up on time for movies, so I wouldn’t miss a trailer. But these days I always show up 10-15 minutes late. Most trailers are online and with all these stadium seating megaplexes I rarely get a bad seat…though I did have to sit in the front row for Cinderella Man on opening weekend…not a good idea….
Might have to push it back though…It seems like every movie now has a major studio and several production studios opening animations, just stretching out the pre-game show….
That’s interesting, that so many people are getting hit with the ad barrage. I go to the movies in NYC, and I have to say, I don’t see much in the way of pure advertising starting at the appointed showtime. A few theaters, maybe, but not most.
That’s why I have mixed feelings about those pre-show advertorial thingies — they’re annoying, yes, and often turned up way too loud, but I’ve found that usually they decrease the amount of ads that start at showtime. In fact, I’d say at most NYC chains, after the annoying pre-show thing, at start-time you really only get a handful of quick ads, usually for something to do with the theater (like those in-theater events for concerts and the like), then it’s on to trailers. Maybe I have no sense of time, though, and these aren’t actually starting at showtime but rather a few minutes late.
I do think theaters were cutting back on trailers in favor of ads for awhile — like around 2001, 2002 or so. I think the trailer numbers have crept back up — I now usually see four to six at a typical mainstream movie — but for awhile the ad/trailer ratio seemed off, as if theater management wanted to say, look, we’re cutting back on pre-show crap that delays the movie’s start time! I think for a lot of the audience, unfortunately, it does amount to the same thing. I’ve heard plenty of people complain about “too many” trailers though for me there’s basically no such thing (maybe more than 10 would be too many — MAYBE).
Also, Aris, there are still a fair number of NYC newstands. There’s one on 23rd St between 5th and 6th (unless it closed very recently)… there’s another one on 3rd Ave around 11th or so… maybe not as many as there used to be, but they’re around.
I finally saw Transformers 2 tonight and was actually surprised by how much I didn’t hate it. Don’t get me wrong, it was grinding and racist, but at the same time it was just so ephemeral and pointless that it’s already fleeing from my memory.
Did anyone watch LETTERMAN tonight and see EMMA WATSON????? (Is that her name? The Harry Potter chick?)
CHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARMING.
Like a British version of K-STEW, all British and waifish and CHARMING beyond all belief. WHY DIDN’T ANYONE TELL ME ABOUT THIS? Oh, because I don’t watch Harry Potter movies and as such have probably never heard of her, but DELIGHTFUL and SAUCY and CUTE and BRITISH…
WHY isn’t she a big star? She’s in this HUGE series and is FUN AND ENGAGING but has anyone ever heard of her? C H A R M I N G.
I’ve thought of KILLING MYSELF every second of the last 48 hours.
I HATE ME more than THE WORLD WILL EVER KNOW.
Should I call a SUICIDE HOTLINE?
Sometimes I hit a low so dark I can’t explain it to ANYONE on this planet. I walk through life in SHEER MISERY and no matter what I do or what I try, I HATE myself and everything about everything.
I might go to the BUNNY RANCH this weekend then jump off a mountain in the desert after.
Even the people on here who I hate, I earnestly wish you NEVER have feelings as dark and depressed as I feel on a second-by-second basis.
peace!
GOOD IDEA ALERT:
They should make a ROMANTIC COMEDY about a sadsack who’s gonna call suicide hotline and eat a bottle of pills with his 12er of The Ribbon, but on the end of the HOTLINE is Katherine Heigl, and some CAMERON CROWE-scored soul-searching ensues, and she talks him out of it, can’t get him out of her mind, and they meet up for drinks and instead of KILLING HIMSELF like he thinks OF EVERY SECOND OF EVERY DAY EVER, he procures a REMOTE CONTROL ORGASMATRON and even though his SELF-ESTEEM is so low he can’t actually bang her, he uses the remote control to get her off all the time like CHEVY in MODERN PROBLEMS.
Then at the end he DUMPS THE HEIG for her friendlier friend MALIN AKERMAN, and K-HEIG gets mad, and the sisters get in a pillow fight with lots of sweat and midriff shirts and short shorts and bare feet hopping up and down…
but at the end, it doesn’t matter because Lex Doucherag still takes a JOHN SAVAGE/INSIDE MOVES-level header off the best skyscraper in L.A., and it says DOUCHE in big red block letters in freeze frame as I splat on the asphalt and sixteen consecutive cars run over my flattened body in a Shining-level avalanche of bloody, cue the wacky Benny Hill music and K-HEIG and MALIN pulling a threeway with Brad Cooper as I descend into Hell and Danzig DO YOU WEAR THE MARK plays on the soundtrack.
^^^ GOOD MOVIE ^^^^
But really, if I got my SAG CARD tomorrow, I’d celebrate with a BUD DWYER SENDOUT.