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
That’d be Hank Azaria narrating.
Great stuff. My first job ot of film school was producing corporate videos and I have to say, he has nailed a certain tone. Although I could have only dreamed of this sort of budget.
I know many people are saying this was meant to trash FOX…I don’t think so. When I was doing corporate, this sort of humour which takes the piss out of the top guys was expected and enjoyed in a Friar’s Club sort of way. Most of the time they would play along in staged set pieces shown at quarterly sales meetings etc.
I never used to like Stiller but I have to say, something clicked in me a few years back when I saw Starsky and Hutch and now I love most that he does. He is one of the few Hollywood comedians who does not cow-tow to political correctness.
This is funny stuff.
This is hardly a trash. And 150k? Not likely.
I think Trey and Matt did it better first:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqMV90pnsZ4
sweet clip, christian
and just in case there is any lingering confusion whatsoever:
NICOL D WENT TO FILM SCHOOL
(either for real or in his head, and apparently run by a bunch of pinko commies, but there you have it)
again, in case anybody is not crystal clear:
NICOL D WENT TO FILM SCHOOL
there, nicol, now you never have to mention having gone to film school again!
150k?
christ i hope not. if so, it shows you why productions are getting the fuck out of L.A.
That’s some funny stuff.
It’s what it ends up costing if you are paying people who get paid well in other circumstances to do the work. Adds up quick. It certainly could be done on favors for very little. But my guess is that it is not. $150k for 4 minutes is not actually a lot for the well=paid pro version… and locations and studio space were not the expense.
Leahnz,
By the way, your bitter, snarky, facile posts remind me of people I used to encounter…when I was in film school.
oh nicol, how could i ever hope to foot it with such a devilishly clever, free-wheeling raconteur film-school-grad such as yourself? (and i must admit i’m rather disappointed in you, having left out such gems as ‘sarcastic’, ‘twisted’, ‘seething, and ‘potty-mouthed’)
never mind, i have a new tack:
every time you sneak ‘film school’ into your posts, which is most of them (and you never met anybody like me at your posh ‘film school’, sport; i never went, thank christ, having cut my teeth as a theatre-rat before moving on to the moving pictures), i’ll take a shot of mezcal, like a little ‘hot blog’ drinking game, and maybe that way you’ll seem less of a predictable, tedious bore. shit, that might actually work
Exactly right, Anghus.
Two basic sets, one I think I’ve seen in a commercial, and neither could have taken longer than an afternoon to prep and shoot. All of the VFX can be done in Adobe by one experienced person in under two weeks. If this cost over 100K, then Stiller wanted to pay that.
That’s pretty awesome that Nicol became a huge fan of Ben Stiller after enjoying one of his most mediocre films.
But he’s not politically correct so yaaaay!!!!
I hate commies!
I do love it when Stiller does his faux-motivational speaker thing. I miss his old show.
david, if you really think that cost $150k, you have forever made your fiscal analyses totally suspect. what could possibly make you think that cost that much? in what alternate universe? you know they make computers that fit on a desktop these days and can do all sorts of neat tricks. and, um, i don’t think it was a union shoot with location costs.
david, if you really think that cost $150k, you have forever made your fiscal analyses totally suspect. what could possibly make you think that cost that much? in what alternate universe? you know they make computers that fit on a desktop these days and can do all sorts of neat tricks. and, um, i don’t think it was a union shoot with location costs.
Winston… no one is saying it’s technologically expensive. I can do all those effects on my very own computer… most of them on my laptop.
Have you ever budgeted people? Do you know what is spent by studios for what should be cheap pieces? Do you know how Stiller spends on everything? Do you know how much his hair costs for a half-day?
I love you guys and I know you could all do this with your pals in your homes in 4 days for $127. I’m not being facetious. As someone said, roughly, spending on something like this is what the person making it wants it to be. Part of that is who they want making it… how quickly they want it made… etc.
I hate to pull out the trump card, but when I was a child, I budgeted shorts for a few different shows on two different networks. I’m not flying blind here. And I am not being dazzled by expensive effects and some fantasy about what they cost.
If Mr. Stiller wanted to do this on the cheap and use up favors, he surely could. And the hard cost would be $0. If he wanted to make 4 minutes of something at studio retail, $150k is NOTHING. That’s less than $4 million below the line for a full feature. And since it is a business write-off, it is a chance for him to throw some money at friends for their day rates and have fun at Fox’s expense.
Do you think Ben’s wife shot it with their home video camera and Ben stayed up all night with his Mac Book Pro?
Maybe you’re right.
But that is not my experience of how people used to big budgets do their funny little comedy bits these days. Funny or Die does it cheaper, for sure, but you would probably be surprised how much those segments cost to produce.
What you CAN do and people who have all the freedom in the world DO do are two quite different things.
Again… maybe you are dead right. Maybe it was done on the cuff. But probably not.
And now we can talk about what it costs to have 4 actors show up for a panel at Comic-Con…
“when I was a child, I budgeted shorts for a few different shows on two different networks.”
Walking uphill both ways.
J-Mc… what do you want from my life?
I was 20. I worked on SNL and Letterman doing short films. (Letterman did a celebrity shorts special for two years before giving up on it.) I worked for Fox on a daytime show in the year the network launched. Very different budgets. Very different circumstances. I also produced a season of a music video series and did celebrity interstitials for it that were cheaper than either show.
But I was 20 (and later, 21)… I’m 44 now. I was a child. And have had a few lives between then and now. Did my linguistic flourish upset you? Do you have anything to add other than to make a constant issue of me?
You know, I am just trying to make myself clear here. $150k is a LOT of money for a short in the real world. And in the land of studio promotion, especially for a deal that means a likely total investment of over a billion by the studio, it is a drop in the bucket.
I don’t know what Stiller spent on the thing. But if he did it on favors or on the cheap and didn’t send Fox a bill for it – it looks like it was made for one of their internal events – his “people” would be calling him a sucker for letting the studio get away with using him for free. That is how things roll out here.
Some in here can tell you how useful $150km would be in the preservation of some great old films that should be taken better care of… and at the same time, can probably tell you how many times they have watched studios piss away more than that on worthless goofs.
DP, I just don’t know why you waste your time on studio politics and journalistic excesses when the pressing issues of world peace, cold fusion, and global climate change seem to be better uses for your unlimited, manifold skills.
Note to readers:
Check the timestamps (just after 2am!) and it’s a safe bet that McDouche is drunk as fuck.
Not as drunk as me, but I can HANDLE my shit.
Jeff, drink tally?
My guess? You had 1/2 a highball and a sip of Bartles and Jaymes then entered an entire other dimension via your psychedelic buzz.
Well, when you’re an alchoholic you have a higher tolerance, so let’s not be too hard on ol’ Jeff.