April 26, 2024
BYOB
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BYOB: 235 Years Of Relative independence
BYOB Weekend: Hop, An April Fool’s Gag?
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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” â 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 â 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 â he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” â and I’d forgot who he was.
So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging â I was with her at that moment â 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 namedâ” “Yeah, sure â 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 Iâm on the phone with you now, after all thatâs 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 didnât seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. Thereâs not a case of that. He wasnât using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had â if that were what the accusation involved â 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. Iâm not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, âYou know, itâs not this, itâs thatâ? Because â let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, thatâs what it lacked. Thatâs 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
Question (and I’d love to hear DP’s take on this): How much of the implosion of the home video market do you think is attributable to the ill-fated HD-DVD/BluRay wars, which basically had the effect of delaying mass consumer adoption of BluRay by three years, the same three years that saw the rise of viable internet streaming and Redbox. I also never understood what Universal had to gain by being the lone holdout gumming up the works — was it part of their agreement with Matsushita to get the Japanese to finally divest their remaining interest in the studio (they held a stake until 2006, long after the subsequent sales to Seagram, Vivendi and GE)? Billions of dollars of lost revenue later, one has to ask: was spiting Sony really worth it?
Conan is moving to TBS at 11pm. Starting in November. Doesn’t have to worry about affiliates. less rules from FCC. Probably more risky material…it won’t be a four-way network fight every week for late-night viewers.
I actually love this idea. Except there’s one problem. Well, two: The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. I love you Conan, but those two will beat you out.
Holy shit, I thought you were joking. TBS???
I’ve always liked Conan, so no disrespect to his legion of fans, but just to throw it out there:
It’s only been a couple months… Does anyone really still miss him THAT much? For all the fan outrage and protests and support, Leno came back and didn’t miss a beat. I’ve barely thought of Conan for ten seconds since his last show.
I don’t remember that I HAVE TBS most nights. Never flip to it; For some reason my cable provider (Charter) strands it in some random no man’s land admist twenty Korean channels and C-Span, and for some reason it’s the one cable channel with very faulty reception. I’d probably never remember to watch Conan there.
I’ve seen an ad or two for that George Lopez talk show on there, and assumed it was kind of semi-occasional variety show or something. Had no idea it was on every night.
What an odd choice (though Fox at 11 always seemed vaguely depressing, too; Wrong NETWORK SHEEN for Conan, plus bad memories of THE CHEVY CHASE SHOW.)
I’d be curious how many of the thousands of Conan supporters even remember him now.
TEAM FALLON.
It’s such a Guardian-thing that I have to mention it. In the MCN-linked story that extracts two bits from Mamet’s new book… (seen here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2010/apr/11/david-mamet-broadway-drama-theatre) …under “related,” the second story is entitled “Does David Mamet still matter?”
Of course, it’s a story about the perceived winnowing down of Mamet’s talents in recent years (remember when the US and UK David’s – Hare and Mamet – could do no wrong?!), but it says something about the Guardian culture pages that can often be like, “HUGE, HARD WON INTERVIEW WITH SUCH-AND-SUCH WHERE WE CALL THEM A FRAUD IN THE OPENING PARAGRAPH!”
The other thing about the move to TBS is the “big fish in a small pond” vibe. Conan will become the logo essentially for that channel, which right now there slogan is “Comedy Night done right” and reruns of Seinfeld, Family Guy and The Office. And he won’t have the big network pressure for numbers. For Conan it’s a good deal.
And no. I don’t miss Conan, LexG. But that’s true for 95% of TV. Even all you Lost fans will get over it by May 19th.
Ugh….I loathe TBS mostly due to the incessant obnoxious animated promo bugs at the bottom of their screen 24/7. I rarely watch the channel because of that and now it’ll be Conan with some kind of dopey “What? Me worry?” animated promo crap. Lame.
But, at least I don’t need to tune to FOX for it!
There was a “Breaking Bad” promo bug during “The Big Red One” on AMC this past weekend at the moment where Mark Hamill’s character is just shooting bullets into the dead German soldier in the concentration camp oven. In what’s a really great moment, where Lee Marvin’s Sergeant hands him another clip so he can keep shooting and whispers something in his ear, the bug came up and you miss the whole business with the clip being passed. I know it was just programmed to do its thing, but it really did kill one of the most dramatic and subtle bits in the entire movie.
These dancing chyrons are awful and a major reason I can’t stand to watch any television.
A few weeks back there was a HUGE fallout from ABC’s fucking “V” countdown clock in the lower right hand screen of that nights “Lost” episode. I canceled my “V” DVR series recording on-demand I was so pissed. Can’t they find a better way to control those things? Such a turn off when you’re trying to watch something.
Is anyone else here a fan of Carly Schroeder? I don’t understand why she doesn’t have a better career. She’s not the most conventional beauty, but she’s far from unattractive, and she can act quite well.
And I’ll be you’ve been a big fan since you watched her on Lizzie McGuire, right? (Actually, she was very good in her soccer movie, Gracie.)
Comedy Central puts a promo bug right over Cartman crapping out of his mouth in the RED HOT CATHOLIC LOVE episode. Those assholes!
IMPORTANT POST:
I am STUDYING the SAM WORTHINGTON FILMOGRAPHY so I can MIRROR him and find ways TO BE MORE LIKE HIM.
Anyway, guess what SAM WORTHINGTON turns up in, *EIGHT YEARS AGO*?
“Hart’s War.” WHAT THE HELL? Like, how does some relatively obscure Aussie actor with two local credits get into a HUGE AMERICAN PRODUCTION starring Willis and Farell? Who is this dude’s agent, Houdini?
Maybe this is a question for our TWO NATIVE AUSTRALIANS: How do actors in some racist backwoods country somehow get cast in BIG AMERICAN MOVIES? And then show up doing a serviceable American accent in movies about things they couldn’t possibly understand?
It’d be like me in 1998 doing my background work on 90210, then some agent going, “Hey, do you want to play LORD GALLIPOLI in a new Peter Weir movie shot in the Outback?” And then flying to AUSTRALIA (seriously, HOW DO PEOPLE FLY to other countries? That’s supernatural to me, never left North America…) and acting in some IMPORTANT HISTORICAL MOVIE ABOUT SHIT I’VE NEVER HEARD OF.
Like, how did Worthington even know what WWII was, or about American history? How do all these Australian actors do these American REGIONAL ACCENTS? Like, how do FOREIGN PEOPLE know so much about America? No one here knows jack or shit about anyone else’s country, dialect, or history. IT IS MYSTIFYING.
Basically my point is, a small-town Australian dude gets cast in an AMERICAN MOVIE that’s SET IN GERMANY playing AN AMERICAN SOLDIER with a REGIONAL ACCENT after he’s had TWO CREDITS, then works with like Terrence Howard.
WORTHINGTON POWER. But at the same time, like HOW DOES A STUDIO FIND THESE RANDOM FOREIGN ACTORS and decide they should be in these supporting parts instead of just some American jerkoff? See also, BLACK HAWK DOWN, where in the roles of these American troops you’ve got like 33 then unknown British and Australian actors. Why not just cast some American dudes who actually knew what Somalia was or grew up in the States listening to Faith No More?
Australia has some degree of affiliation towards the US due to WW2 – the Japanese had submarines in Australian harbors, and were more of a threat to mainland Australia than they ever were to the US. Prior to WW2 Australia was largely British-aligned, but Britain was, somewhat understandably, distracted with a slight disturbance in Europe. A lot of the desire for Australian independence from the British Commonwealth stems from the fact that Australia was getting attacked and it was the US that effectively bailed them out rather than the Brits.
“Kick-Ass” alert: If your area has only Carmike theaters you’re gonna have to drive an hour or two to see the movie. Carmike has banned “Kick-Ass” chainwide because of the title.
Lex, having recently been to Australia, I can assure you that they are a far less “racist backwoods country” than the USofA. Your comment is proof of that.
Cadavra…
You have three options:
1) Put me in a movie.
2) Buy my mumblecore script for 15K.
3) Get the bozack.
I will give you $1 for 60% of the equity in your mumblecore script.
I HAVE WRITTEN FOUR PAGES of MUMBLECORE brilliance.
Once I get a little farther (further?) I will start posting samples or provide it via email to any POTENTIAL BIDDERS. I only need to make 15, 20K off this… 60K would be my ideal.
When I posted that first stretch of my PIRATE SCRIPT on Wells’ site, the entire peanut gallery couldn’t BELIEVE how cinematic and marketable and visual it was.
Wait til you get a load of LEXIAN MUMBLECORE. Not as marketable maybe, but VERY easy to make and shoot and TURN A PROFIT if you could secure a TOP HOT ACTRESS.
I am writing it with JENA MALONE in mind.
It’s gonna rule.
Farther = geographic distance
Further = conceptual distance
Father = emotional distance
I keed, I keed… đ
Incidentally, it’s also Script Frenzy month if you want to check out their resources.
Thanks for the link… 100 pages though? My MUMBLECORE is set to top out around 75-80, because my model was THE EXPLODING GIRL which is a mere 79 minutes, and the ONLY mumblecore movie I’ve ever seen.
I guess I could add another 20 pages or so describing the chick’s body, but they’re not giving out prizes or development deals, so maybe that’s just not for me.
Again, I also want to know how you’d get it to the agents/managers of any or all of the following: Jena Malone, Kristen Stewart, Zoe Kazan, Greta Gerwig, Dakota Fanning, Evan Rachel Wood, Leighton Meester… That is the age range and awesomeness range of the lead character, who will be SENSITIVE and BEAUTIFUL but NOT VERY BRIGHT but ETHEREAL and the kind of YOUNG WOMAN upon whom MEN PROJECT THEIR FANTASIES.
It is going to be, and I can say this modestly, THE SINGLE GREATEST SCREENPLAY EVER WRITTEN.
my mumblecore script is modeled on The Last Boy Scout, bidding starts at $2 million
Lex:
1) No.
2) Hell, no.
3) Whose? Yours? Blecch.