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
To be fair to what ILM did on the Star Wars prequels, the story really wasn’t in any of those environments long enough to really immerse the viewer in those locations. Plus, Avatar was ABOUT getting in touch with nature, so there was a necessary incentive to achieve such texture.
If I’m not mistaken, the artists at ILM did just as much research in terms of geography, flora, fauna, etc. to make sure those worlds seemed believable, unique, and alive and I think they did a great job (and really should have been more awarded for it). To dismiss it as simple architecture is a bit unfair.
Interesting. One of the things I kept looking for, but felt was slight, was skin texture. Which makes me assume, since digital is usually sharper and cleaner than celluloid, that the image for 3D is ridiculously compressed. I particularly was aware of how soft the live action elements looked, especially in close-up — and how much clearer the pure CGI images were by comparison.
I’m sticking with RealD, if only so I can use those nifty glasses they sent out. š
Yeah, just to note, I saw the RealD…
I saw it at the Cinerama Dome with XpanD glasses. Is there really a big difference between the different 3-D formats? (apologies if this subject has already been worked over around these parts)
Fair enough, Laz.
I don’t mean to write it off and when it happened, I felt it was written of by Jar Jar hating press way too lightly. It was remarkable and historic.
But as I wrote, this is another step. ILM made virtual architecture 95% real. To make nature seem 95% real (or more), just seems like a bigger step to me.
Interestingly, Spielberg has chosen to making Tintin less real while using much the same tech as Avatar.
And Mut… yeah… I think a lot of that was a function of the 3D build. As you know, they were dialing up and down, shot by shot. In 3D, the near-to-the-end Neytiri, in a room (no spoiler), was striking, I thought, because it seemed more defined than any previous shots of her. And indeed, the 2D looks more like that more often… at least to my eye.
It looks like AVATAR did better yesterday than Tuesday with $18.4M. Dave’s pal Nikki is saying that Fox is (conservatively) estimating $50M for the weekend. I am thinking Friday and Saturday will be HUGE and I would not be surprised to see them top that with those two days alone.
Another $18M yesterday. How is this thing not a serious threat to DARK KNIGHT’s record as someone suggested yesterday?
Let’s suppose that NYE dents the numbers for tonight and it drops to $12M, that’s still $280M. Let’s say it drops to just $60M for the weekend and next week’s grosses drop down to $10M a day. That puts it $380M by next Thursday. Let’s say that the first non-holiday, the-kids-are-back-in-school weekend/week sees a 50% drop, even at that much of a fall off puts it at $430M.
So, after Jan 14th, those last 3 weekends in January cannot deliver the last $100M? Right now, the IMAX screens alone are delivering over $10M each weekend and that’s not likely to drop that sharply as many turned away from all the sell outs will make their 2nd time an IMAX screening. So, I’m to believe that $60-70M is unrealistic from the remaining theaters as it winds down?
Those IMAX screenings are all in 3D, btw. Just so I’m not totally hijacking the thread š
Does anybody know what resolution Avatar was mastered at yet? We discussed this without resolve once before. I assumed it was 2k, if for no other reason than image complexity, but I could be wrong.
But since you said it seemed sharper in 2D, I’m assuming information rates that in a standard 2D image would go into sharpness and clarity are disbursed in 3D to deal with the more complex image layering, thereby degrading the overall image quality.
Top Story on Google News right now? Obama & Family saw Avatar in 3D.
…
… Cameron is going to sink the Titanic. Again.
I’m fairly sure AVATAR was mastered in 2k.
btw, Deathtongue, I don’t think it’ll have $10m+ weekdays next week. It’ll do $60-odd million for the weekend, but with the holidays officially over it’s going to end up with weekdays closer to around $5-6 million. (Look at how the box office drops sharply after New Years, even for huge films like ROTK and TITANIC).
Even with the holidays over, though, I still think it’ll challenge TDK.
I saw it on Real-D 3D on a normal screen and IMAX. Real-D 3D on a normal screen was clearer, but IMAX was more immersive. It’s too bad I can’t get both: the fully immersive experience of IMAX with the crystal clear picture of a normal screen. But overall, I have to say I prefer the IMAX experience.