May 17, 2024
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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
Bring your own bored.
With all the Kool Kidz (TM Wells) going to Sundance this week, howsabout the rest of us have a huge party and break everything while they’re gone?
Where the fuck is Jeff McDOUCHE? I sort of miss him. SAD.
WELCOME TO THE RILEYS POWER. K-STEW IS GOD. I LOVE HER. LOVE HER. She is the ultimate in HUMANITY.
Anyone else stoked about this AWESOME dude who just won in Massachusetts (or however you spell it; Christ people, get an easier-to-spell state name.) HIS DAUGHTER WAS AYLA BROWN FROM AMERICAN IDOL, who is one SCHMOOOOOKING HOT piece of ace.
Anyone watching IDOL? Always love the early rounds, but this season is so far bigger on delusional fat guys and catty gay guys than HOT CHICKS. Where’s the PIE?
And before Christian and whoever chimes in with “reality shows are the debbil!” or whatnot, I can GUARANTEE YOU, I would PUT MONEY DOWN ON IT, that Poland is GLUED to THE BEST SHOW ON TV every single night, too, especially now that he’s probably home on family duty a lot.
IDOL POWER. Also: KARA DE GUAWHATEVER = BONER.
I cannot wait for DEAR JOHN to come out. I get CHOKED UP at the trailer every time. I took a couple of my gal pals from ACTING CLASS out for something of a movie date the other day to see LEAP YEAR (GOOD MOVIE), and when Amanda and Channing start getting serious in that DEAR JOHN trailer, me being the consumate romantic, I started bawling like a little girl. FROM THE TRAILER. Cannot come soon enough.
Also I HAVE A FANTASY I would like to share. You know what would be a HOT MAKEOUT SONG, like, say, if I had a girlfriend who was 19, smart, awesome, kind of didn’t suffer fools, a little awkward, nonthreatening, and liked to crinkle her brow when she’s a little confused like all HOT CHICKS do, and for the sake of argument was named Kristen? It would be EYE by SMASHING PUMPKINS. THAT WOULD BE HOT. When I hear it I think of having a HOT 19’er on the lap. Or maybe SIX UNDERGROUND by SNEAKER PIMPS.
It would also be fun if I had a chick like that and we went to the arthouse to see something like ANTICHRIST or the BEINFHOFF-MEINDENDORFF COMPLEX (or whatever the fuck) and she put her CHUCK TAYLORS up on the seat in front of us and OUR HEADS TOUCHED CHASTELY.
YEP YEP. YEP YEP.
This is the greatest night of my life.
I am an actor.
Lex you know I love you, superstar, but you just posted that bit about the Chucks and the hands touching a couple of days ago. Maybe it was on Wells’ blog though.
Now okay, I’m firmly in the pro-LexG camp — but is it weird I can never figure out how many levels of meta he’s operating on? Like he can’t possibly think Leap Year was a good movie, right? But because of the schtick he’s developed, even though he hated it he has to pretend to love it because this fake persona would at least like it, and so really he’s thumbing his nose at all the losers who actually think Leap Year is a good movie. Right? Which means he isn’t actually looking forward to Dear John because he is in fact the polar opposite of a consummate romantic. That being an ironic cynic. I think.
Do I have it about right, Lex?
No, Leap Year was DELIGHTFUL. I like Goode and Amy Adams. And if you think I’m not looking forward to an AMANDA SEYFRIED movie, try again. Probably sounds like I’m running some lame shtick, but inexplicably I like a lot of ridiculously pat chick flicks, because they’re not trying to be anything but what they are, they deliver what they promise, they’re perfectly pleasant, and usually star some hot pie. I’m already planning my weekend around that Kristen Bell movie, as well as planning how to buy a copy of the one-sheet for my study.
See, but every time I almost buy into what you’re saying on the surface level you’re saying it, I suddenly remember that no one in the world really truly wants to put the poster of When In Rome in their “study”.
I’m wondering if anyone has seen Management? It got the barest of releases last year, but I finally caught up with it on DVD and while the film itself isn’t anything remarkable I actually thought Jennifer Aniston was excellent. It figures that her best performance is the one that nobody knows about, although I think I saw one or two people mention it back in 2009 when it got that tiny release.
Kami: You’re right about Management — not remarkable, but surprisingly likable. I reviewed it at the 2008 Toronto Film Festival and thought Aniston gave a very fine performance. Steve Zahn also was very well cast, and Woody Harrelson was almost as funny here as he was in Zombietown. Trouble is… Well, like I wrote in my review: “It may be difficult for an indie so unassumingly low-key to gain traction in the ever-more-brutally competitive theatrical marketplace.” There are times in life when you regret being right.
The best part about “Management” was Woody Harrelson enlightening someone who didn’t know the late, great Joe Strummer: “Well, Al, Joe Strummer probably made love to your mother some time back in the 1970s.” (Or something like that.)
Scott Brown is Sarah Palin for homo-erotocized Republicans, it’s true.
THE LAST WORD on the Late Night mishegas from Taiwan…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJ9m1an-pQ8&feature=player_embedded#
maybe the dead kennedys persuaded jeff to have a holiday in cambodia
Christian is right, Scott Brown seems like Sarah Palin with a jawline. So strange how the right doesn’t think a person needs to have any qualifications or experience to be president.
But he posed in Cosmo and his daughter was on AMERICAN IDOL so it seems kind of perfect for the GOP, who sure don’t like celebrity politicians…
That’s nothin’ compared to what the Democrats had in their gang of crooks and cronies. Martha Coakley had a 30-point lead and lost — on merit.
“So strange how the right doesn’t think a person needs to have any qualifications or experience to be president.”
You’re being ironic, right?
It’s on cable again and wow, is there a more re-watchable film from the past couple of years than The Bank Job? I just love this movie – give Roger Donaldson whatever project he’s interested in…..the next Bourne, Bond, whatever, he can pull it off.
And I’m sure LexG can contribute to this one – what were the hottest appearances by actresses in a movie in 2009? Here are my picks:
Zoe Saldana, Star Trek
Vera Farminga, Up in the Air (Come on, that scene with the tie)
Emma Stone, Zombieland
Rachel Nichols, GI Joe
Melanie Laurent, Inglorious Basterds
And an Honorable Mention to Katie Featherstone in Paranormal Activity, though I would have like to have seen more of her.
Any one else’s picks?
I’m trying to decide if there’s a graceful way to quote oneself.
Geoff: GOOD QUESTION.
I now present the 2009 LEXIE AWARD NOMINATIONS.
Trust me, you do not want to know what the prize is. Nominees:
Kristen Stewart, Adventureland, New Moon, Cake Eaters
Megan Fox, Jennifer’s Body, TF2
Amanda Seyfried, Jennifer’s Body
Jessica Biel, Powder Blue
Evan Rachel WOOD, Whatever Works
Sasha Grey, The Girlfriend Experience
Melanie Laurent, Inglourious Basterds
Rachel McAdams, Sherlock Holmes
Emma Roberts, Wild Child
Sienna Miller, GI Joe
Marion Cotillard, Public Enemies
Olivia Wilde, Year One
Mila Kunis, Extract
Milla Jovovich, Perfect Getaway
Carey Mulligan, The Education
Scarlett Johansson, He’s Just Not That Into You
Emma Stone, Zombieland
Amber Heard, The Informants, The Stepfather, Zombieland
If I had to break that into an Academy Five, it’s K-Stew (for Adventureland), Megan (for JB), Laurent, Sasha and either Evan Rachel or Amanda Seyfried.
I don’t want to say the fix is in, but let’s just say Kristen might want to SAVE THE DATE.
And between WELCOME TO THE RILEYS, where she plays a STRIPPER, and THE RUNAWAYS, where she makes out with Dakota Fanning, I might as well call it for K-STEW 2010 as well.
Most enchanting woman EVER. Just seeing her is like being HYPNOTIZED.
Geoff: Good choices, but Kendrick over Farmiga. By a MILE.
Sorry, no way about Kendrick – she was cute and all, but in that movie, she looked like a girl and Vera looked like a WOMAN.
And being in Woody Allen movie paired up or lusted after by Woody or one of his ridiculous surrogates automatically disqualifies any woman from my list, so no go on Evan Rachel Wood.
“Sorry, no way about Kendrick – she was cute and all, but in that movie, she looked like a girl and Vera looked like a WOMAN.”
How do you say? THAT’S A BINGO!
Thanks for making the case for Kendrick.
I also forgot to include Zooey, though I didn’t entirely like how she was all mean and cold and standoffish in 500 DAYS. Everyone loves a challenge, but I prefer nice, demure, earnest, coltish, nonthreatening chicks, OR blatantly sexualized vixens. NO in-between. Blame it on a (long lapsed) Catholic upbringing.
LexG, you’re disappointing me – Zooey, Zooey???
She was pretty damn unappealing in that movie –
SPOILER ALERT
I actually liked the woman who played Autumn in the end, much more.
Vera Farminga in the tie scene was impressive. I certainly wouldn’t have guessed she had that underneath.
Thandie Newton looked cute in 2012. A bit understated. Not sure if she mainly stood out compared to the rest of the blah movie.
There were some impressive shots of Meagan Fox in Jen’s Body.
Didn’t see a lot of films. Plus none are really coming to mind. Kept wondering if “K-Stew” was a minor when she was shooting those prelude-to-sex scenes in Adventurland.
Ok-bin Kim in Thirst had some nice sex appeal going on.
Autumn (Minka Kelly from FNL) is being JETER-IZED currently, as is apparently It Girl tradition. So proceed with caution from here out.
I also realized I forgot to say EMILY BLUNT, but once again this year I kept up my PERFECT tradition of never having seen Emily Blunt in anything, despite absolutely loving her in interviews and her fitting my type to a “T.”
Don’t call it for 2010 till you’ve seen CHLOE. Trust me.
geoff, i suggested a while back in that bond thread that the old kiwi donaldson should have a go at the next bond (largely based on his ‘bank job’ sensibilities), so i’m on that bandwagon with you, so to speak. i guess it’s a fairly lonely bandwagon tho
Would it be unseemly to give a nod to Paula Patton in Precious for the hot chicks picks?
I don’t know what it is exactly about Emma Stone, but she is God. Just seems like the coolest girl. I love her comic timing and delivery, especially in Superbad and The House Bunny.
On a more “womanly” note, Amber Valetta is often surprisingly good in movies, and she still looks great. Not that I’d sit through Gamer again.
Amber Valetta was on Ferguson last week and was super cool. Like her a lot; And, yeah, Paula Patton is hot, losing points only for the whole Robin Thicke angle.
Roger Donaldson is underrated. My guess is he’s too “old school” (in that John Badham-era way) or nuts-and-bolts for what they’re going for at Bond now, but Bank Job, No Way Out, The Bounty, 13 Days, Species, etc. would suggest a director infinitely more qualified for handsomely mounted espionage and action than Sam Mendes or Marc Forster. He’s kind of Noyce-esque, both in terms of the years they’ve worked, and their early Aussie/NZ dramas leading to slick Hollywood gigs, with the occasional return to human-scaled stuff.
MUCH MORE IMPORTANT: Joss Stone was just on Conan looking HOT and performing barefoot (cuuute!). VERY sexy. Give me a B…
B
Body double for Vera Farmiga in that scene:
http://www.nypost.com/p/pagesix/virtual_vera_3mOFhjrHWKrDLO5eyQAYfL
One short sidebar: “The touchstone for the new movie will not be the 1960s comics, which were the inspiration behind the movies by Raimi, who grew on up on them, but rather this past decade’s “Ultimate Spider-Man” comics by Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley where the villain-fighting took a back seat to the high school angst.” From Movieweb.com.
This is going to fucking suck balls.
Bendis’ run was pretty decent until he took over every other goddamn Marvel series and started phoning it in
The most annoying thing about 500 Days of Summer was Zooey was supposedly a legendarily hot chick, who every guy fell in love with on sight. I didn’t buy that for a second.
Oh, and seconded: Rachel Nichols. Never even saw that movie, but LORD.
LexG: Just wait until you see Amber Heard in “The Joneses”…although, now that I think about it, they’ll probably cut out the nudity and leave behind just a not-too-bad movie.
Josh- she wasn’t supposed to be the hottest chick ever, she just had a certain something that drove boys crazy. A fragility if you will. If you wanna see a smoking hot chick who guys fall in love with on sight, check out Amber Heardf in “All the Boys Love Mandy Lane.” Yowza!
I really, really love “Ultimate Spider-Man” all the way up through issue 80 or so (when the arcs started reaching to, say, Moon Knight and Silver Sable, I checked out). It really is a different approach to the character. The lower budget kind of feels like they want to go in the direction of “Kick-Ass” more than compete with “Iron Man 2.”
“The lower budget kind of feels like they want to go in the direction of “Kick-Ass” more than compete with “Iron Man 2.”
This quote makes no sense to me,
It’s Spiderman. Creatively, why would you want to go with a lower budget feel?
Why wouldn’t they want to compete with Iron Man 2 in terms of scope.
This… is… a… comic… book… movie.
Yes, good movies are about characters, not FX. But why can’t we have both? Why is it one way or another.
There are directors capable of pulling off both.
First of all, Spider-Man comics have always put the emphasis on Peter’s personal struggles (be it high-school or otherwise) over the super-villain smackdowns. Besides, Raimi’s films also were more about Peter Parker’s personal struggles and his relationships than they were about the super-heroics (I’d argue that’s why they connected as a whole). Second of all, Bendis’s fantastic Ultimate Spider-Man certainly was capable of doing a wide-screen action spectacular when the story called for it. This stuff is akin to the lie that everything good about Batman is thanks to Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, negating that Batman comics was dark, brooding, and violent for sixteen-years prior.
FYI – SJR, you really ought to at least read Ultimate Spider-Man up to 111, the last issue inked by Mark Bagley (it’s a stunningly moving quasi-finale). Heck, the series as we know it pretty much ended around 130-something anyway (it got, irony-alert, kinda-sort rebooted after that with a new #1) so you might as well finish the journey.
In a sense The Dark Knight wasn’t huge in terms of scope. Mostly it was guys talking to each other in close ups in small rooms. Nolan hardly even used wide shots.
Yeah, I kept reading up to around #105. I’ll grab that last trade at some point!
And the “Kick-Ass”-thing is the only thing that makes sense to me. The under-$100 million budget, when you have a tentpole title that has – with three previous films – pre-sold itself as “COME FOR THE EYE CANDY!” represents some major sea change, whether it’s attempting to emulate “Kick-Ass” or “District 9,” it’s certainly something.
I don’t think I would have been more shocked if they suddenly announced “Pirates of the Caribbean 4” was going to shoot at $80 million, but hey, that’s why I don’t run a studio.
Well, of the MANY reasons I don’t run a studio (hopelessly unqualified, willing to offer $120 million to Lodge Kerrigan to make a “Transmetropolitan” movie, greenlighting a “Death to Smoochy” TV series, etc.)
I’d like to see an 80 million Pirates, just because then maybe they’d do more old school swashbuckling and less talking to CG octopi and shit.
Yeah, I haven’t seen the Ultimate Spider-Man comics, but I’d be surprised if they were much more focused on Peter’s high-school angst and personal life than the 60s stuff. As Scott said, that angle was the appeal of that comic from the beginning, and even in the daily strip. It’s what set Spider-Man apart from the run-of-the-mill superhero. The reboot sounds like a dumb idea. As horrible as Spider-Man 3 was, I still wish Raimi had been given a chance to redeem himself for it and maybe go out on a high note.
You sir (and/or ma’am) have obviously not seen Mallrats where Stan Lee goes on a 5min soliloquy about how all his characters were insights into their inner angst and personal life.
Of course, considering it starts out with Jason Lee asking if The Thing’s boner is… also Thingy, it may not be an accurate representation of reality.
Bendis…what does the Templar Knight say?
I don’t see Kick-Ass, I see the obvious reference making the rounds, Twilight. What I’m worried about is that this was the same formula that crappy MTV Spidey ‘toon followed. Feraci’s right in calling it a Smallville glom. That show has had more influence over the superhero boom than people realize.
Wait, KICK-ASS is a KIDS’ MOVIE? FUCK THAT.
All these months, I’ve been hearing from the Geek Brigade about some bad-ass new Matthew Vaughn movie that rules, and I’ve been assuming it’s some hardcore London gangster movie or Nicolas Cage revenge flick.
I just saw this trailer, and it looks like fucking SPY KIDS. Or ZOOM, that thing with Tim Allen. Or the Kurt Russell movie (Sky High?)
Who wants to see something this dorky? And why do geeks like COMEDY in their action and horror? I didn’t know this was a movie about little kids, I thought it was Nicolas Cage in LAYER CAKE 2.
It looks like something for two-year-olds.
Spidey 1&2 captured the teen angst and trauma, and had great villains too. Moreso 2 than 1. 3 was weighted down with all that teen shit and didn’t balance it well with the villainy. That’s why it sucked ass big time.
Plus Spiderman launched comic movies into a whole new box office stratosphere, akin to the original Batman back in the day. They shouldn’t have to play second fiddle to anybody, they are looked up to. Now it seems I’m getting New fucking Moon in red and blue pj’s. I like character development as much as the average blogger here, but these characters have already been developed, why the fuck do you want to take me back to that shit, and so soon after it was done so well in Spidey1.
I’m sure no matter what it will still make some coin, but they better be careful they don’t turn the Spiderman franchise into the Hulk franchise. Bond, Batman, Harry Potter, Xmen, Star Wars, all survived different directors, but they all advanced the story. Bond waited decades before giving us an origin story again. Another origin Spiderman is too soon. It was released in 2002 for christsakes.
That’s my rant.
You need to watch this short film and BOW.
It is called CUTLASS and is DIRECTED BY KATE HUDSON, and stars, yes, KRISTEN STEWART OMG LOOK AT HER IN IT, as well as Kurt Russell (awesome), CHEVY CHASE, Dakota Fanning, Ethan Suplee, Virginia Madsen, and Sarah Roemer (HOT).
It is about GOD buying her first car, and proves that women can be good directors too, especially when they are HOT like Kate Hudson:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyluTTt9avA
It is 16m but K-Stew shows up around 2:30 and from wears many cool outfits and does her eyebrow crinkle thing that will have you CHARMED and BEWITCHED.
If you want ‘high-school Spider-Man’ done right, check out the DVD set of season one of The Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon series. It’s intelligently written, well-acted, with surprisingly shaded characterization and rock-solid action beats. It’s not as slavishly faithful to the comics as the 90s Fox cartoon (which makes for some nice surprises), and it’s nowhere near as dark and violent as the MTV cartoon, but it’s a pretty terrific show from the creator of Gargoyles.
Lex — Kick Ass may have a glossy sheen to it, but it’s a really hard R, actually. Lots of blood, lots of really brutal violence — heads explodes, people get gutted, etc etc. The kids talk like real teenagers in the sense that every third word is a cuss word. The main character fucks a future Lexie Award nominee in an alleyway in broad daylight. It’s a lot of fun, yeah — but by no means is it a movie for two year olds. Or twelve year olds for that matter.
Like clockwork, the fundamentalist family groups are up in arms about Kick-Ass and demanding it get re-rated here in Ausralia from MA15+ (akin to your R) to R18+ (like you’re NC17, but without the stigma).
Naturally, none of them have even seen it (how could they?) and they’re just putting their noses in decisions that they shouldn’t have any say in. If they’re worried their kids are gonna go see it then that’s their problem.
Your new Conan…
http://www.latinoreview.com/news/conan-has-been-cast-exclusive-extra-conan-s-father-could-be-a-wrestler-9032
…you think indies would have learned the failure from Terminator Slavation.
This guy bares even less resemblance to Conan than Ahnuld did. Amazing. I don’t care what kind of program this dude gets on, he will not be able to put on the size for the part because his body is literally not trained for it. Ovah before a frame is shot.
I don’t see how someone can be a fan of Michael Bay and complain about comedy in their action movies. If Bay cut the extended and unfunny comedy from most of his movies, they wouldn’t be two and a half hours, they’d be more like an acceptable 100 minutes.