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
Thank Jackman. He tried to get Singer back for Wolverine. I thought he was going to do Young Magneto, but Rothman is in total re-boot mode. Half to keep the properties, and all that.
Akiva Goldsman FF. God help us all.
Should be “Have to keep…” my eyes are shot today.
Re: other projects. Wasn’t Singer simply trying to bumrush something on the crest of Valkyrie? An Excalibur remake by well, almost anyone, is an impending disaster.
Are they really going for a reboot? Have they ever hired a director to reboot a franchise he started? (I guess Hideo Nakata sort of counts, having been hired to direct the sequel to an American remake of his Japanese film.)
But anyway. Doesn’t there need to be some time between clusterfuck and reboot?
And what do they call it? “The X-Men?” 😉
What they really need to do is make a proper X-Men 3, and just pretend that The Last Stand never happened. I think the world would go along with that.
So will Wolverine even be involved, if this is a prequel or are they starting from scratch, in which case they will have all different actors (perhaps they can get cyclops right this time).
Eric, Martin refers to above that if any of these studios let the property sit around for any amount of time the rights revert back to Marvel so Fox will have to constantly be in the mutant business or lose it.
On an unrelated note regarding the Morgans this weekend. What was the last decent movie that had a question mark at the end of its title. Isn’t that an obvious warning sign to stay away.
Why would anyone think this is a reboot? For one, they’ve still got Wolverine 2 in the pipeline – can’t imagine them rebooting a franchise AND keeping it existing continuity running concurrently. And Singer says in the Variety article that it’s about the early relationship between Xavier and Magneto, and the formation of the school.
It sounds more like a combination of two separate prequels they were developing – the teen centric “First Class” script by the OC guy (Schwartz, was it?) and the Magneto prequel Dave Goyer was working on, which was supposed to focus on the Magneto/Xavier relationship.
I’m sick of prequels, personally, but this hybrid approach sounds more interesting than either of the individual First Class/Magneto concepts.
hcat, I’d heard that about the properties before– isn’t that why they rushed The Last Stand rather than wait for Singer?– but I don’t think that’s necessarily a reason to reboot rather than do a proper sequel, as Martin suggested was in the works.
All of these prequel ideas sounds horribly boring, too. I suppose a reboot would be better if I had any faith that they wouldn’t screw up the franchise yet again.
But it’s not a reboot….
X3 COULD have been a magnificent trilogy capper if he hadn’t jumped ship, and i presume given the difficulties on Superman and Valkyrie that he regrets his decision. He never should have walked away. My feeling is that if you start and continue a major franchise, then you have a proprietary creative responsibility to maintain the integrity of it. That was the lesson of Jaws (ask a hundred random people who directed Jaws 2-4, and the only answer you’ll receive is ‘Steven Spielberg’).
Just responding to what Martin tossed out there. Apparently he meant it hypothetically. But it’s hard to tell if or how they’ll fit this “First Class” approach into the existing films’ continuity. Lots of retconning necessary if they’re going to try.
What would need to be retconned? I don’t see why that’d be necessary at all.
You sure it was crow he was eating?
Do all four?
I’m sure it doesn’t hurt anymore by now.
Expect a marketing guy to be “classy”.
I haven’t read the First Class comic but based on the image in the article the team consists of Cyclops, Jean, Iceman, Angel, and Beast (as in the original Lee/Kirby comics).
If memory serves, Iceman is considerably younger than Cyclops and Jean in the first movies (i.e. not in the same “class”) and Angel and Beast didn’t even show up until the third movie. If you want to get those specific characters together for a prequel you’ve got some ‘splainin to do.
Well, I think it’s wrong to assume that the film will be a direct adaptation of the First Class comic I’d say it’s more of a handy title.
Teen versions of Cyclops and Jean are probably a given, but depending on what age they make Xavier/Magneto, that will work fine with what was in 3 (and to a lesser extent, Wolverine). Beast wasn’t introduced till 3, but it was also made very clear that he had been a part of the school from the timeframe prior to the first film, so no problem there either.
Sure, Iceman and Angel would be out, but there are plenty of other characters that could be substituted in with no problem.
he had to eat a lot of something, but it wasn’t crow.
Apparently Angus was in a hurry to make an obvious joke, and didn’t notice someone already had.
Eric, they rushed the last stand because that would have left a gaping hole in the summer if it hadn’t opened. Fox had attempted to create some sort of franchise wheel with Star Wars, X-Men, and Apes. Giant summer franchise film guarenteed each summer, Apes was a non-starter (like the revamped Superman Franchise was for WB), but Fox still wanted to keep the X movies on schedule.
I don’t think that’s entirely accurate. Fox was dragging their feet on Singer’s proposed X3. It wasn’t until he bailed that it got fast-tracked, with it’s semi-notorious 7 day script.
storymark: Fair enough about Beast, I didn’t remember that detail from The Last Stand. (I couldn’t bear to watch it more than once.)
I’ll concede that you’re right– they can probably make an adaptation of an “early years” comic work so long as they discard half of the source material. 😉 And nothing about the series up to this point suggests they’d be shy about doing so.
hcat: Interesting stuff.
Well, that’s the point – they’re making a prequel to the movie, not adapting any specific storyline (which they’ve flirted with, but never done outright).
I thought X2 was a specific storyline. “God Loves, Man Kills” or something like that.
Loosely based on, as X3 was loosely (verrrry loosely) based on the Dark Phoenix story, as well as Joss Whedon’s run on the comic (dealing with the cure).
yeah, that first sentence was a lob.
i never pass up an opportunity to make a cocksucking reference.
Story – did you even bother to read this?
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118012931.html?categoryid=13&cs=1
“This is the formative years of Xavier and Magneto, and the formation of the school and where there relationship took a wrong turn,” Singer said. “There is a romantic element, and some of the mutants from ‘X-Men’ will figure into the plot, though I don’t want to say which ones. There will be a lot of new mutants and a great villain.”
So how do you cast two 60+ year-old men to play their 20’s for an entire film? Answer: you re-cast. Hence, it’s a reboot. Only Jackman survives. It’s not a secret at Fox or Marvel. They’re doing the same thing with FF and have toyed around with Daredevil but haven’t brought anyone on board.
As for X3, Singer had no intention of shooting the film and knee-capped the project intentionally. The wait at Fox was because Singer was committing to other projects like Logan’s Run at WB and and couldn’t physically shoot both films. IIRC, he also took a meeting for Trek or was trying. When that didn’t pan out, he jumped on Superman. X3 was not on his radar.
When I read “Bryan Singer to direct another X-Men Movie” I can’t help but see “Hubie Brown to coach the Nets.”
I’m not so sure I understand why Fox does this. Energize the base? I’m not saying X-3 wasn’t Wonder Bread but they made more money w/out him. Are we sure the geeks want him back? You can’t dance around singing “Can’t Touch This” on Good Morning America and then drop your name and put on a black beanie and expect people to still call you street. People, excuse me, fans care no more about Cyclops and Jean than they would Captain freckin’ Crunch.
Honest question: would Singer really have a problem getting a $50M movie made? If so, would it be because no studio believes he could bring a project in for that amount? I just pulled that number out of the air. Is the concern cost or performance?
What is Fox really after? Isn’t the point of having some summer franchise title that you can churn out a new installment every two-three summers on auto pilot while keeping costs in line, no single player w/a bigger name on the back of the jersey than the front, title survives no matter what elements are in place, yadda x3?? Fox may have an excuse for X-Men 3 being standard faire action film but certainly not for Wolverine. What they need is a Bryan Singer of ten years ago to come direct it if they really want something fresh & new but at this point, I think you can get a car commercial director in there, lock the budget at $100M and you make back your money internationally w/out even trying.
Apart from being flip about the ease of making a movie, I don’t see why they don’t invest in hatching a new franchise instead of trying to breathe life into one that while maybe plateau’d still isn’t on life supports? Fox reminds me of team over spending on free agents past their prime. Die Hard, pfft. The Omen, musta been cheap but that franchise is still deader than the decapitated priest. Planet of the Ape Sh#t – nowhere. I don’t know, maybe that 2nd X-Files movie was cheap but I have no idea why they’d make that movie if they thought it’d be a terminal degree. These films sure as heck aren’t standing up on their own creative expression.
Maybe Singer will deliver an original, stimulating film. I wouldn’t go so far as to say he’s incapable of that. I just wonder if it’s only because they would trust Singer to do something unique and not anybody else? Wasn’t dude who directed Babylon AD bitching about the process and weren’t there others who agreed w/him and claimed similar experiences? I just wonder if the director is really the story here.
That’s interesting, Trip. I like the Hubie Brown reference.
Re: Singer and 50Mil. He changed around X2. He wanted to move into the northern rarefied airs of 200mil and up. If he went back to his roots, the money is there and he knows it, but that’s not where his interests lie.
As for Fox, yeah, it’s all financial. They know the return on investment. Wolverine showed you can plunk more into an X film than they initially thought and get it back as long as its PG13 and WOM is good. Wolverine was gutted by WOM. So, if you can advertise “the director of X and X2” as reviving the franchise…think of it as a cinematic mulligan.
As for new franchises, too much of a gamble. Not to me, but to them. The whole point of owning intellectual properties is to get some value. Why own Apes if you can’t exploit it? Same with Aliens and Predator. It used to be that amassing an IP library was the endgame, but no one is sure what the future model is going to be so you can’t predict shit.
I really don’t get all the X3 hate. It killed off characters that were getting tedious, showed some human innovation, had a great showdown and a wonderful mid-movie set piece.
Sometimes it’s best to know what to cut and leave’em wanting more.
“So how do you cast two 60+ year-old men to play their 20’s for an entire film? Answer: you re-cast. Hence, it’s a reboot. Only Jackman survives. It’s not a secret at Fox or Marvel. They’re doing the same thing with FF and have toyed around with Daredevil but haven’t brought anyone on board.”
Yeah you recast – it’s called a Prequel.
I’m sure you are familiar with the term? No one has said anything about Jackman being in it, and everything they’ve said sounds consistent with the idea of it being a prequel. They may be rebooting FF and Daredevil but they don’t have a spin-off franchise operating off either, as they do with Wolverine.
Here’s another tell from Variety –
In the film, Xavier and Magneto will be twentysomething, and the film sounds similar in construct to the J.J. Abrams-directed “Star Trek.”
Translation – McKellan and Stewart play the Spock Prime role in passing-baton scenes. The school is the Enterprise. Young Magneto and Young Xavier are Quinto and Pine. It will end with Xavier/Kirk and his “First Class” – new, much younger talent as Cyclops, Jean, Beast, for sure, maybe Angel, Iceman or Storm. They could get funky, throw in Havok or some derivatives. If the Trek analogy is more parallel than I’m thinking, then we’re looking at some Days of Future Past reworking.
As for spin-off franchises, you’re wrong. Wolverine is a separate rights issue from the X-Men. Fox could let production lapse on X-Men, putting it back in Marvel’s hands, but still keep Wolverine. Continuity doesn’t mean squat.