April 24, 2024
BYOB
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BYOB: 235 Years Of Relative independence
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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” ā 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 ā 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 ā he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” ā and I’d forgot who he was.
So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging ā I was with her at that moment ā 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 namedā” “Yeah, sure ā 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 Iām on the phone with you now, after all thatās 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 didnāt seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. Thereās not a case of that. He wasnāt using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had ā if that were what the accusation involved ā 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. Iām not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, āYou know, itās not this, itās thatā? Because ā let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. TimesĀ piece, thatās what it lacked. Thatās 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
R.I.P. Budd Schulberg. I realize that because most of the movies he wrote were made in the ’50s, LexG and Mutiny can’t relate to them. But for the rest of us… A great man, with a great legacy.
Apologies for redundancy. Just posted this on the Monday BYOB, got interesting responses from Leydon and Big Perm, reposting here as I’m really interested in everybody’s take:
Was quite surprised to see a just-posted story at Variety.com declaring that “Ice Age 3” has become the highest international grossing animated title in history (eclipsing the universally beloved “Finding Nemo”) with an astounding $550+ million foreign gross so far.
Which led me to wonder: why is it exactly that the Dreamworks and Fox animated titles do so much better foreign than domestic?
My theory: the dubbing actually HELPS these particular films, as it likely deemphasizes the gratingly schticky “big-name” vocal performances in the Fox and DWA movies and allows the foreign audiences to just focus on the animation and story. Thus, ironically, the very thing that makes the DWA and Fox titles so excruciating for the American cognoscenti who generally prefer Pixar (and, ironically, the very thing that DWA and Fox like to view as their big selling point, namely shelling out lots of money for movie and TV comics to deliver sitcom pop culture gags with broad over-the-top vocal performances) is rendered moot. Could it be that, rather than drawing American audiences, the big names and cloying schtick actually REPEL them? That somehow Katzenberg has misread the formula?
Thoughts?
I saw Budd Shulberg at a loud party a few years ago, sitting quietly on a couch, smiling. I was too intimated to talk to him.
As I responded to Dietcock elsewhere: Do you know whether the foreign distributors employ local “names” who make their own regional pop culture references?
As I responded to Dietcock elsewhere: Do you know whether the foreign distributors employ local “names” who make their own regional pop culture references?
Sorry about the double post. Sigh.
I am going to watch EDGE OF LOVE tonight.
I was going to rent a Sasha Grey flick with it but it would’ve been redundant for my purposes.
Please nobody tell me it’s all dusty and boring and not the Keira/Sienna version of Vivid Video I’m expecting.
Joe: That’s a really good question and am not sure how one would go about getting an answer without access to the foreign versions and a mastery of several languages.
Also, sorry to hear about Schulberg. Would like to think that even an embittered old-movie phobe like Lex would be hard pressed not to be impressed by the bite and prescience of something like “A Face In The Crowd.”
Disney gets big name voiceover people for foregn territories…at least for some places. Jackie Chan voices some of their movies.
Yes Joe, they definitely do. They’ll even break down the dubbing regionally. As in, every Latin American country will have a different dub employing national celebrities instead of one Spanish dub for every country.
Hey Lex…
…you ever think about pretending to be sexually interested in women you don’t think you can score instead of whackin’ it to BangBros 24/7/365?
I mean if Sasha Grey or Gianna Michaels or Claire Dames can fake enjoying six sets of sweaty, man-funked balls in their faces at one time surely you can try and bullshit your way through a date with Miss Normal.
Man, I signed in specifically to see if Lex was drunk yet. Drag. In any case, I present, “Lex G: the (future) Motion Picture”
http://abcnews.go.com/US/Story?id=8258001&page=1
Actually don’t want to derail another fun BYOB with Lex O’Clock, because I’m in a fine, nonpitying mood for once, but since it was asked:
JBM, I don’t know what BangBros is but I guess that’s a fair question.
It will be a shocker to some, but in reality I DO have some female friends (usually ex-coworkers before I started working in a sausage house), and am generally considered kind of jovial and charming (in my hapless slob way) by the opposite sex, but I’m forever stuck in the FRIEND ZONE. Contrary to any Internet bluster, I’m one of the more self-effacing, soft-spoken, and attentive dudes you’d probably wanna meet in L.A. And *extremely* respectful to, if completely intimidated by, women in the real.
And I’ve definitely had long-term relationships in my adult life in this town… and more recently than some here would believe.
But I’m going through what might be considered a bit of a… MIDLIFE CRISIS, wherein I got to a point in my mid-30s where dating the jovial office temp from Missouri or hitting up dating web sites was a far cry from the Young Hollywood Life I’d dreamed of since adolescence. I felt like life was passing me by, and even though I’m well aware I’m TOO OLD FOR IT, I can’t — CANNOT — accept that my lot in life should be a future of wearing bad shorts with tucked in shirts and attention MIDDLE AGED PEOPLE BBQs and being a Regular Schmo dating a probably perfectly lovely and respectable educated chick.
As long as Justin Timberlake is banging Jessica Biel, or the cast of Gossip Girl is carousing in NYC clubs til 5am and rappers are fucking supermodels by the busload… I REFUUUUUUUSE to settle for the life of the Everyman. I am a firm believer in WHAT ONE MAN CAN DO, ANOTHER MAN CAN DO, so if one man can fuck Paris Hilton, I REFUSE to believe I am INFERIOR to another man.
So from here on out, I am 100% committed to the idea that I will ONLY date/bang celebrities, OR women of that quality in the looks/charisma/body department.
Yes, on every level I know it’s unrealistic, it’s shallow, it’s stupid, and that I am a mediocre (at best) looking balding middle aged man who looks like Anthony LaPaglia swallowed Stephen Baldwin.
But TONY ROBBINS says to ENVISION YOUR GOALS and not sell yourself short, and live every day like you’ve already achieved them. So I don’t even ENTERTAIN the notion of regular gals (not that I meet any), because in my mind I am not selling myself short for anything but the celebrity women I DESERVE and will DEFINITELY, ABSOLUTELY, GUARANTEED 10000% PROMISE I will one day be hooking up with.
GREAT IDEOLOGY.
One hour into EDGE OF LOVE and I’m on the EDGE of something, if you know what I mean.
Keira is BEYOND HOTNESS in this. I’ll video-review it when I finish it, tomorrow hopefully.
But there’s enough smoking, haze, WWI imagery, dust, brown costumes, weird light sources, and awesome British chicks taking baths together to make this play like some long-lost 1982 combined effort by Hugh Hudson, Adrian Lyne and Alan Parker, but if Joe Wright had been beamed in from the future and introduced them to some incompetent-looking form of primitive CGI in a weak attempt to hide the 10-dollar budget.
In regards to Ice Age 3, I think it helps that Up hasn’t been released in many markets yet so it was the first kids movie to come along since Monsters vs Aliens (which we all remember failed miserably internationally, har dee har har) so it would make sense that that one has posted such good numbers. However, I can’t explain Madagascar 2 and such.
I was going to say that these films all have “big” cast names and names sell internationally, but then I realised that surely they’re dubbed so the original American casts probably wouldn’t effect them.
Not sure if this has been posted:
The Two Bens are gone!!!
http://ca.eonline.com/uberblog/marc_malkin/b137880_two_bens_no_longer_movies.html
Ben Lyons and Ben Mankiewicz’s At the Movies stint is coming to an end after one year.
A.O. (Tony) Scott of the New York Times and Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune are taking over the cohosting duties.
Yay!
I visit a few Upcoming DVD Release Date sites each week to see what’s coming out. None of them had Gommorah listed, so I was shocked to see that my tiny Blockbuster in rural Oklahoma had four copies of it Tuesday. Great movie. I had to watch it twice to try to understand the complexity. Why wasn’t there more advanced word about the release date?
don, as soon as i saw the story of the shooting and saw LA FITNESS CENTER my first thought was “sounds like something Lex would do.”
Then i saw it happened in Pittsburgh.
As I posted elsewhere: You can run, but you can’t hide, from Variety:
http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117940784.html?categoryid=31&cs=1
I see that Ridley Scott and Leonardo are to re-team, this time with a genuinely exciting project: an adaptation of Huxley’s BRAVE NEW WORLD.
This is so much more interesting than Ridley’s Alien prequel announcement.
All in one swoop, Ridley makes another sci-fi which also allows him to revisit/develop some themes from Blade Runner as well as finally realize a very, very long held ambition; securing the rights from Huxley’s estate had been arduous to say the least (let’s face it, by going back to Alien, Ridley runs the risk of ending up like Spielberg going back to Indy or Coppola going back to the mob).
Fingers crossed that the only thing standing in the way of this is their schedules.
If a Muslim immigrant from a Middle Eastern country starting stocking up on fertilizer, you know a neighbor would call Homeland Security. Sounds like a good idea to me, anyway.
So why doesn’t anyone say anything when these creepy loner-types buy buttloads of guns? Is it because the NRA and their lawyers would have a shitfit, or are there just too many of these bozos to keep track of? Is there anyone who thinks it would be some kind of horrible violation for the feds to take a peek at their laptops?
Remember the photo clerk in Cupertino who made a call after processing pics of a guy posing with all sorts of weaponry? Turns out he had a Columbine-style massacre planned, which she prevented. If this gym shooter was so creepy he couldn’t get a date in 20 years, I find it hard to believe no one noticed anything amiss.
Yeah, I know — a guy with a Ginsu could take out 10 or 20 or 30 people before anyone could hit him or wrestle him down. He could have a semi-automatic knife-shooter in his satchel.
Didn’t sleep well last night. I’m tired and pissed-off, especially after looking at Don’s link. Why does the media give these guys the attention? It just eggs on the next one.
In the future, everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes — for killing somebody else. You almost got it right, Andy.
I’m eagerly awaiting the “Big Brother” posts from the “sportsmen.” Doing my part to keep things feisty on the ol’ Hot Blog.
Funny how the GOP has no problems with all sorts of spying on citizens, and of course, THEY are the great terrorist fighters. But when it comes to possible terrorists grabbing stockpiles of weapons, NO WAY will they allow databases of gun info. They’d rather people get mowed down in churches and schools instead of steppin’ on that precious, outdated Second Amendment.
Anyway, they need the guns in their coming civil war against healthcare…
that killers blog has many striking similarities to Lex’s situation….a red flag has been raise…
The international dubbing argument again arouses my pet peeve that Miyazaki’s films are always presented here dubbed with big names who are inappropriate for the characters. (Though it’s unrealistic to think that’s why they never get anywhere at the U.S. B.O.) I have nothing but the highest respect for Lasseter, but he really needs to rethink this policy of using stars regardless of their suitability.
Kiki’s delivery Service is a perfect example of what you are talking about Cadavra. I wanted to cover my ears for the US dubbed version, painful Cacophany. Hence I don;t own that one and my Japanese is getting better.
BRAVE NEW WORLD is exciting Pope!
and hey….I don;t think Lex would walk in and shoot up a place. Not now, but after 19 years of rejection from Barbie fantasy gals maybe some unpleasant coalescence will occur.
I don’t know how or why we haven’t had a serial killer in what, over 30 years? There’s been a few people who have been tagged with that moniker like the guy who was killing hookers and feeding them to his pigs in Canada, but I mean like, a classic serial killer. Like a Gacy or Zodiac. With all the movies, books and cults dedicated to the wacko’s, that’s where I think someone would be inspired to emulate.
R.I.P. John Hughes. Can’t say I was a major fan — maybe I was already too old to fully embrace Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club when they first came out — but there’s no denying the enormous and surprisingly enduring popularity of those “Brat Pack” films. I loved Ferris Bueller, and Weird Science was a guilty pleasure.
John Hughes. Creator of all those movies that my adolescent contemporaries would constantly quote. And which I either hated or refused to see. Uck.
Man, tracing my childhood love of films can easily be done with John Hughes’ career trajectory. Must’ve watched Ferris Bueller everyday one summer and we had countless nights getting drunk and watching Uncle Buck. Not to mention all the teen rom-coms. What a bummer. I still quote Weird Science all the time. Sigh.
Wow, some bitter thoughts towards John Hughes – I grew up on his movies and no one can deny his influence. He never really did a perfect film or a true masterpiece, but Breakfast Club, Planes, and Sixteen Candles are fantastic films within their genres.
Dave, I have to think that you’re doing a blog for him, right?
There are what, always about 150 active serials in America at any given time? It’s just, the press – realizing that, yes, coverage has fueled killings – doesn’t cover them in the same way anymore. There’s that “Sleeper” guy that has started getting some attention in Los Angeles, the Green River Killer up in Seattle who seems to have finally been caught after a second cycle, that guy in Louisiana that I think they quickly tamped down on the media coverage, the “smiley face” guy who they still don’t know shit about who, if I remember right, targets frat boy-types and has moved all around the country.
There are a lot of serials right now, in fact.
Serial killers tend to kill people in low-income communities. The likely victims are prostitutes, homeless people, drug addicts, etc. Many of them are people of color.
Today’s media is only interested in serial killers if they kill white people or if their crimes are truly grisly.
@Cadvra: For “Spirited Away” and “Howl’s Moving Castle”, Disney released the original Japanese version in NYC/LA/San Fran/maybe Seattle. “Ponyo” appears to be dubbed-only based on their website.
Ponyo is not going out with any Japanese language prints.
Re: Wrecktum
There are some exceptions, but yeah. The Atlantic City and Daytona Beach killer is/was a prostitute killer, but because the hunting ground is populated by tourists, it got into the paper. The Beltway Sniper(s) were shooting random people, so that actually had the same kind of “YOU COULD BE NEXT!” quality that isn’t there when it’s someone like this L.A. Sleeper fellow.
Sad to learn of Hughes passing. Hard to pick what would’ve been his best picture though I’d be inclined to go w/Breakfast club. Not sure if it’s my favorite. I know I quote the hell out of Weird Science.
He was already past writing mags when I was old enough to appreciate them but his work in National Lampoon was pretty dang impressive. So edgy and raw. Hard to believe he’d go on to writing kid comedies.
I have a couple friends who are in FBI & missing persons etc and these days are trying times for serial killers simply because of how quickly people are noted missing and advances in nanotechnologies.
Think about it–you don;t pay your bills what happens? massive electronic panic. You don;t show up for work for a couple days? You don;t answer your cell phone or it says out of range for a couple days–freak out.
A growing target are undocumented workers both unforced and forced labor (modern slavery market) because they have no US identity and never entered the county in any traceable way with a real name or even often with relatives knowing where/what country or place they are in.
Homeless people have been a target for decades and likely still will be because clearly few people will know if they are gone.
Two of the biggest serial killers in US history not busted til the 1990s picked off over a 100 people by targeting people who hopped freight trains, hitchhikers and under-highway pass sleepers-mobile people.
Reporting on missing kids is 100x better than even 20 years ago, most people with even a single person to care about them at least there is a record they are missing.
Modern DNA and other forensics also is linking multiple deaths, where it is evident the perpetrator was the same. Whereas even as short as 5 yrs ago, linking unsolved murders was difficult. As the DNA ID databases get bigger and more and more people use routine DNA/protein tests (even in hospitals) might end up with their DNA tagged, even people with no priors of any kind can be caught now.
Times are hard for everyone.
Chucky: Yes, I did see SPIRIT and HOWL in Japanese, but not everyone has the fortune to live in NY/LA/SF. Be sad news if PONYO is dubbed only, especially when going wide.
And for the record, I released Tezuka’s METROPOLIS subtitled-only and STEAMBOY both ways, and if there were any customer complaints, they did not make it back to me.
forgot…RIP Budd Schulberg, A Face in the crowd, On the Waterfront among other things he wrote.
Hey Lex – read this. I want an honest opinion.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=8258001&page=1
He doesn’t think it’s funny, Martin. Trust me š
Don – I really wasn’t going for humor. The difference is Lex learned to speak in public and not see himself as a victim of others. Otherwise, the superficial complaints are identical and I hope it hits home. I don’t think Lex has it in him to hurt another person, but it took this whack job decades to reach his breaking point. And the final thing that enabled him to act was booze.
What’s the term? “A teachable moment”.
Reading those journals are creepy…not because he comes off so weird, but just like “my elbow was so sore the other day…boy it sure is nice havign so many days off! What a fun time. And of course the Big Day is coming up soon. Gotta get milk!”
But Martin, actually while Lex doesn’t necessarily blame others for his actions, he does seem to find people out doing things at weird major disadvantages. Like any famous actor must have gotten there because of how hot they are and not through any kind of hard work or effort, or I’m a rich kid who inherited a bunch of money so I can do what I like…I’ve made no sacrifices either. That’s kind of serial killer talk, along with the drunken rants and hatred of women and suicide threats. Maybe Lex will be famous one day.
“Funny” might have been the wrong term. He doesn’t find it “applicable.” Better?
I am pretty stunned at the venom and petty hatred being directed at Lex in this thread.
You find his rants annoying? Okay, I can accept that. But comparing him with a fucking lunatic who goes on a shooting spree!?!? The first post that made the comparison I chalked up to someone making a joke in very bad taste. Now you guys are actually having a serious conversation about this!?! Why, because when he goes on one of this rolls you have to scroll down a little longer to get to your post?
This tells me a few things:
a) you are jealous of Lex and the attention his persona has garnered (and it’s clearly a persona, as carefully crafted as the ones stand-up comics use to great effect to make a name for themselves).
b) you have no sense of humor whatsoever
c) you’re like a cabal of bitchy teenage “mean girls” in “pile-on” mode, trying to ostracize someone you don’t care for by trying to humiliate him.
Grow up and get a friggin’ life, for real.
It’s nothing that nefarious, dietcock. I was merely reading that guys blog and noted some similarities to Lex’s life issues. I assume Martin did the same, but I don’t know for sure.
I’m completely and totally apathetic towards Lex and could care less what he posts about half the time and barely care the other half.
I do find it funny that his jokes about killing himself is funny and “in good taste” but comparing the simple fact that that murderer hadn’t been laid in years, etc is “bad taste?” Wow….lookin’ for you on the Style network, pal. Did you even read the murderers blog?? I don’t think you even know what you’re bitching about.
Yes dietcock, of course we are jealous of Lex. That’s the absolute only explanation.
Don – I wasn’t trying to squabble over words. I know you didn’t mean humor as in funny.
Perm – you and Lex go back-n-forth, so you’re take is going to be harder than mine. I don’t think he hates women and green eyes is part of the industry resume.
Diet – “”He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you”
Dietcock, I think we have to assume you’ve been skipping over Lex’s posts and haven’t actually been paying attention to their content re: the constant suicide threats, the pathological issues regarding sexual obsession and women, etc. etc. And his ‘persona’ isn’t actually a persona. You think it’s all a stunt, I disagree.
The only thing that bothers me is when you have Lex’s core enablers pop up with “stop being mean to poor Lex!” after he’s called out on one of his hateful Leykis rants against All Things Women.
it would be nice for Lex to disengage his movie writing from his less appetizing capitalized self-hate & fantasy boners.
His discussion of movies aint bad, despite the lack of acceptance of great B&W pictures as being way cool.