It struck me as I watched the trailer for The Runaways on MTV…
Did the box office failure of Drew Barrymore’s well-received grrl power film ($13m), which had Juno‘s Oscar-nominated Ellen Page, Barrymore, Kristin Wiig, and hipness herself, Alli Shawkat, leave Bill Pohlad self-distributing his K-Stew grrrl power film via Apparition?
What do you think?
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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
I’m actually more intrigued to see Dakota Fanning – when did she become a young woman???
It saddens me to consider that Hollywood thinking is that reductive, but I also can’t help thinking David is right.
That was interesting. I saw the original lineup play the Roundhouse in Chalk Farm, North London in about 1976 when I was about 16. I don’t remember Joan Jett, but I do remember Cherie Currie in that white basque. Jesus, who wouldn’t?
It’s about time somebody remade Lou Adler’s “Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains.”
No way. Leave the Stains alone! They’ll never beat 15 year old half nude jailbait Diane Lane. Or have a better mock band than Cook, Jones and Simonon. Or a skinny Joe Strummer-wannabe Ray Winstone.
Plus, the original had social context — the post-punk transition into co-opted new wave MTV.
Leave it alone!
If I were the people looking to do Max Steel with Taylor Lautner, I’d seriously look at how Twilight doesn’t seem to help its cast members in anything other than Twilight.
Haha, I was just kidding Mutiny. I was making a bad joke about how The Runaways trailer LOOKS like a remake of the Fabulous Stains. And Ray Winstone is a badass in that movie. I especially love that Laura Dern looks about two years older during the epilogue.
The music video was shot 2-3 years after the rest of the movie. Dern was 12 when they first shot.
Well, I guess that explains that. I knew something was fishy there. I watched it for the first time a few months back. I think they actually showed it on TCM. I feel like the social context in the film, which you mentioned earlier, is still applicable and relevant today.
Lane and Dern do a good commentary on the DVD. Adler does one too but I didn’t listen to that.
Apparently this type of film is made for me and like two other people. Balls. Here’s hoping it can make some scheckles.
I caught Whip It before it left theaters, but then about a month ago the New Beverly showed the 70s Claudia Jennings roller derby movie Unholy Rollers, which was AMAZING in comparison. Fast, rowdy, action-packed. And the damn thing isn’t available on DVD.
Jeff, I thought of that film the other day as well for some reason. Which may be the only time two people have thought of that movie on the same day in close to 30 years. Nevertheless, I love Whip It because it’s a story that’s never told enough. The story involving a mother and a daughter butting heads about life, and I dig that sort of thing. It also gave Kristen Wiig something to do. Which is cool.
IOI, there’s a whole network where half the the programmming is about mothers and daughters butting heads about life, it’s called Lifetime.
I’m sure Whip It was far superior to any Lifetime movie.
I think the audience base is a little wider, just due to the subject matter. A lot of people remember the runaways as a whole and Jett and Ford seperetly more fondly than they remember Roller Derby. Match that with it being pretty young girls playing music as opposed to clotheslining each other, better title and release date, and I think you have a movie that is quite a bit more accesible to the average audience. Not sure if Apparition can raise a decent marketing budget but I wouldn’t bet against the guy who got $20 million out of Whale Rider.
Slap “Academy Award Winner/Nominee” on a movie like this, you’re better off sending it direct to DVD.
Actually, Joan first started confirming a spring release to the press way back in late August, before Whip It (or Jennifer’s Body) had even come out yet. I doubt she would’ve been talking about a release date without a distributor already on board, so I believe the deal with Apparition was already closed at that point. I think Pohlad never intended to let any other distributor get their mitts on this one.
But to actually answer the question, yes I think Whip It’s soft gross, combined with poor numbers across the board for the dependents (searchlight didn’t break 50 this year, outside of animation Focus is a graveyard, off the top of my head I can’t think of a Miramax title that topped 20), made anyone picking this up difficult.
I think this will be a decent size hit, 20-30 at a minimum. Market it to women with ‘Hey next time your HSM listening 16 year old rolls their eyes at you for being uncool, take them to see the Runaways and show them, this is how Mommy rolled.’
re: Trailer – OK, which one was Miley Cyrus?
Based off this trailer I’d say it’s gonna suffer the same fate as Whip It and for the same reason, too high gloss. I can’t believe they’re selling it like they’re selling it. “In 1975 rock was a guy’s world…” which, yes it was and still is but then you’ve got the sound bites of the great potential et al and then you look at everything, it’s so clean and pretty and there are full crowds going crazy…and to me it all looks like Flashdance or Coyote Ugly or dare I say Josie and the Pussycats. (Which I only saw part of on cable and damn if they couldn’t even get THAT right!)
If I’m thinking 1975, woman who changed the face of rock, I better see Linda Ronstadt and it better look like Altman’s Nashville. OK, that’s a little too unrealistic for tweens, I get that but seriously does it have to look like “From Justin to Kelly”?
I’ll take a slightly more studio version of La Vie en Rose or The Bad News Bears, the original, not the crappy remake that totally missed the point. Even though the Runaways had already broken up before I was old enough to hear about them, I know that they never intended to be a pop band and this is exactly what I would expect from this movie having just seen the trailer.
Maybe the movie’s not that. And I’m not saying it has to be super dark, I just want them to keep it real. Yes, I realize I’m not the target audience for this film but I think they can aim at a different sector all together and still capture all of the market they’re going for. If I were making and releasing this film, I’d put it squarely in the middle of Sex and the City and Twilight. Make it look adult. Make it play adult. Just make sure it comes in PG-13. They will STILL capture all the tween girls because of the magical concept of “aspire.” This will seem grown up to them and they’ll be clamoring after it the same way people flocked to Nirvana after too much Poison and Warrant sugar coating.
It wasn’t just that the Runaways were playing rock but even if they were guys they weren’t gonna get played on the large, popular AM stations at that time. Keep it real. Take us into a world we haven’t seen, don’t just re-make an episode of Brady Bunch where the girls have to sign a recording contract to save the day.
K-STEW + Fanning = 200 mil.
This will be the best movie of all time.
Personally, I did not see any promotion for either of these movies before they came out
Thanks for the blog though;
Here is a whip it luv story to the remixed tune of Let Me Blow Ya Mind by Eve and Gwen Stefani:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voDH4JAAXLg
or you can go to google or youtube and type in “whip it luv story” and the first video is probably Let Me Blow Ya Mind Remix